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A weekly podcast about the forces shaping politics, power and technology, and how they affect you.
Elliot Costello (00:00)
if we're half right about some of the opinion and assumptions here, this episode might not be seen by a lot of people. because we'll be flagged for making accusation on people that own the platforms that this needs to be promoted on.
Matt Kendall (00:17)
Hello and welcome to Worth Knowing, a weekly podcast about the forces shaping politics, power, and technology and how they affect you. I'm Matt Kendall.
Elliot Costello (00:26)
And Elliot Costello.
Matt Kendall (00:27)
So, Elliot, this week I've requested that we talk about the the midterm elections over in America, they're due in a couple of weeks. I think for a a podcast on politics, power and technology, it's got the lot. in particular, the the influence that I think a lot of the tech tycoons are having on this one. I suppose that that's one reason. Another reason is
I I really do feel that this these elections, you might ask why two guys from Australia are wanting to speak about midterm elections in America. sure you could say that we're political junkies, which we are, but it it's not that. I really do think this is a bit of a fork in the road. I think there's this is potentially our last best chance to put a handbrake on the Trump administration and the chaos and destruction they are
inflicting upon the the globe in terms of markets, general well being, the stability of geopolitics.
Elliot Costello (01:25)
Climate.
Matt Kendall (01:26)
and I climate. Absolutely. and the th I suppose the third is with my pattern recognition and my spidey senses are are kind of going off the charts. I'm seeing lots of disparate things happening which are really starting to worry me in terms of
the influence that in particular these tech tycoons have on this election. and yeah, I was just interested to hear if you have similar thoughts or or getting similar vibes off the back of this.
Elliot Costello (01:58)
I can only say that I'm looking forward to these midterms being over. I feel the every US election cycle has such a long build-up. and they're always a two-year race. I think that's the the one benefit of living in a political system like Australia.
We generally get to ignore large parts of politics until we get to an election cycle and then we have a five week sprint and then all enjoy our democracy sausage on election day. US is a different beast. politics anchors so much and the day that you're elected, you start fundraising the next day. having lived in DC and worked on the fringes of US politics and inside a US
presidential election campaign, I was informed that most Congresspeople spend up to 90% of their time fundraising. So put
Matt Kendall (03:00)
Crazy.
Elliot Costello (03:00)
that in perspective, 10% of their time, they're doing their job of policy reform, implementation, regulatory reviews, sitting on Senate committees, inquiries, etc., representing their electorate, 90% of the time is spent off site. You can't
technically fundraise at Congress or in Congress. they go off site and there's polling booths that they sit at and just call and call and call. so money matters. US, as the saying goes, is the best democracy you can buy. so talking about the the midterms where a few weeks away, Trump's polling is low. some polls have it in the high twenties, others in the low thirties. So call it an even sort of thirty percent approval rating.
he has a mountain to climb. We know why. he promised a lot in twenty twenty four and has not delivered on those core promises. I didn't agree with much of his promises, but his base did. And the majority of Americans that voted for him majority I should put it a question mark because he didn't win the popular vote, even though he'd like people to be re be reminded of that. so actually he did in twenty twenty four. It was twenty twenty, he didn't win the popular votes. he did beat Kamala in the popular vote, but
and he wanted to p prove his point in twenty sixteen and twenty twenty that he did win the popular vote too and that was rigged. But putting that aside, the the majority of Americans who did vote are unhappy with his handling specifically of the economy. Gas prices are high, food costs are high, inflation's high. So the only way to counter that is money. Okay. The populace is not happy. So what do you do? You raise more money, you spend more money and you win
eyeballs at the the time that people have to think about voting. so no better place to start than Elon Oddmusk. we were looking at some of the research that talked about Elon spending already 366 million US dollars on the midterms. so that's 500 million Australian dollars. you just grabbed a headline from Bloomberg
I think Matt before we sit press record that it's actually 445 million US dollars he's spent to date on this midterm race. 445 million on the 2026 election. Yeah to put in perspective the highest amount in recorded history was him in 2024 that spent 190 million through his America PAC So that's where we're at today. You you throw
money to the side and you think about power, the other thing we care about and that connection between power and technology, what we've seen in the past few weeks is meta suspending the No Kings Coalition Instagram account that was calling people to come out and vote those early votes. we will we've also seen TikTok do some unusual behavior where it's threatened the advertising of Alex Gib Gibney's documentary on on Musk. and we're seeing both sort of
Meta and TikTok come up with these excuses of, it was an error. Sorry, we'll reinstate the account. So technology, power, money all coming together right now because we have an election cycle in the next couple of weeks.
Matt Kendall (06:24)
yeah, when you when you look at all of these things separately, you know, they're concerning. But when you I think when you start to look at them together, they do start to paint a bit of a picture. it's just interesting that a lot of these platforms encountering these errors. weirdly, all these errors just happen to be on accounts that are
related to the must documentary or to left leaning politicians or left leaning organizations. we on the one hand almost just kind of have to take, you know, the these platforms word for for what happened. You know, they say that, you know, overzealous bot detection systems took them down it's been corrected. But you know, they basically
probably just trying it on. I mean, these things, it doesn't work like that. it's otherwise we'd be seeing, you know, right right wing accounts being affected as well. And the the interesting thing is is that there's there's n there's been no reduction in bot activity. So if they they're talking about these are bot detection systems, believe me, I am seeing just as much bot activity as as as ever. So I I don't buy it. and even even if I did, there's just this
unaccountability. Even let's take them at their word. There is just this accountability. There's there's no transparency. There should be some accountability. If something like that happens, particularly around an election, you know, the the No Kings was about a an effort to get people out there to vote early. the it was down during a crucial few hours during that campaign. That's really significant. That does have an impact. And so there should be like a forensic
analysis where people are allowed in to see what actually happened. But obviously that's that's not the case anymore. And I think that's one of the issues that really concerns me about this. It's this concentrated power of these platforms, the unaccountability of that power. and just the fact that you know we go back to I think it might have been our second episode where we talk about how
Big tech has has lined up behind Trump. There's that famous photo where they're actually they're standing in front of a some a a lot of elected representatives. And it was such an incredible symbol for where at now. You know, you've got all of these CEOs, you know, that supposedly have fuck you money, turning around and calling the Gulf of of Mexico the Gulf of America, calling Lake Ontario Lake America. And, you know, because he's named artificial intelligence super intelligence, calling it super intelligence.
These are all signals
Elliot Costello (09:09)
Mm-hmm.
Matt Kendall (09:10)
that they are behind Trump on this. And what what concerns me about this is you know, that now that they've run out of h hyper growth opportunities, I think they are looking at the government. essentially as Gil Gil Darren said, that they're looking at Trump as almost like a virus, you know, like you know, just that you would you would run a a brute force kind of
attack on on something that that Trump is that on behalf of them against democracy in America. And there's a lot of signals around that. We haven't got any hard evidence on it yet. But like I said, there's just with all of these things together, you know, you had Facebook in also in the the Brazil election, with Lula Lula's campaign experiencing all sorts of issues, claims of
posts from that campaign not having share buttons on it, you know, it and and and having this that that's a sort of a s an algorithmic suppression to that campaign. Once again, you know, supposedly it was a mistake and there were errors, but interesting that it didn't affect the Bolsonaro campaign one jot. So when you put all of these things together, on top of, you know, what happened with
with the Gibney's Musk d documentary campaign on social. It was primarily on TikTok where the the the actual account was was banned. But none of these platforms are willing to run ad campaigns on the on the trailer. They don't want to tr run the trailer anywhere. So they're they're sort of running a bit of a a protection racket for each other because they're they're sensing that there is a a grassroots rebellion.
and an increasing awareness of the power that these billionaires have over us, over our democratic systems, over our media. And when you've got these algorithms that can be used as psyops against the population in terms of affecting behavior.
In terms of attaching certain information or messages or misinformation, disinformation to certain identities and in-groups and outgroups. The temptation is there. It's that Chekhov's gun thing. You know, if they're worried about an uprising against their their their power. a classic example is is Elon Musk in when Politico reported that there was a
campaign building to say once they win the the the lower house and and and potentially the upper house that they're going to start to do all these inquiries into into musk's business he's openly threatened them the this is once again you know he he's here is an unelected very powerful member of of the Trump administration I would call him a member of the Trump administration
openly threatening elected officials because they're saying that they want to investigate him. And I think that four hundred and forty five million to me is a signal of a guy that is freaking out about what's going to happen if if if the Democrats win the election. And I would even go back to last week's episode where Trump ha Trump and and Musk have obviously slowed down Starlink's or restricted the Starlink speeds for Ukraine.
If you you trace that back, Trump is freaking out against the that that Zelensky is bombing diesel refineries in Russia because it's affecting the few the diesel prices in America, which is affecting his chances in the election. He told Zelensky to stop doing it. Zelensky said, fuck you, bombed the the the refineries, and then when Zelensky did that, that was when Musk said, Zelensky's gone too far.
Why would Musk care otherwise? It's obviously because it affects Trump's chances, the the GOP's chances in the elections, which then affects his future and him being investigated. We covered in another episode how he went in when he went into Doge and cut everything through there. A lot of that had to do with regulatory bodies that were investigating Musk. He's very keen on not being investigated.
And I think that's probably why you're seeing this at that's half a billion dollars breaking records as a single donor in an election and you have to ask why.
Elliot Costello (13:44)
I don't know if Zelensky said fuck you, but I w I would
Matt Kendall (13:48)
yeah.
Elliot Costello (13:48)
love to check the transcript because if he did
Matt Kendall (13:50)
No, no, no, no, I'm not I'm not say I'm not saying that. I'm saying he did with his actions.
Elliot Costello (13:54)
he would be a brave man, but also applauded the world over. maybe not thirty percent of Americans, let them hold on to that worship mantra mantra, sorry, mantra figure.
of of Donald, the world over would applaud him, but I dare say geopolitically and wouldn't take that risk. the o the reasons are why I just it's always worth just tracing part of the history because the history does matter. We haven't always been in this position of, you know, big tech being captured by partisan politics. and I think it's worth tracing where we were 10 years ago, which
may feel like a lifetime ago. but go back being, you know, twenty twenty six, go back ten years to twenty sixteen and the role that Cambridge Analytica played in the twenty sixteen election leading up to Trump's victory over Hillary Clinton and how they hijacked the Facebook algorithm and were able to really manipulate accounts and boost up the popularity of Trump's support.
what became the the Facebook election. y y you can call that carelessness if if you like. you know, I've referenced her a few times talking of carelessness. Sarah Wynne Williams's book Careless People, as the former global head of policy at at Meta. she does speak about the flights from
California down to Lima for a heads of state meetings where Zuckerberg was given the chance to present to heads of state in early 2017. and Zuckerberg legitimately not realizing the role that Facebook played in that election and almost playing dumb to the fact that Facebook swung the election in Trump's favor. and at that stage Silicon Valley
was sensitive to partisan politics, was probably considered progressive left, certainly big tech. And so it's quite interesting, when that realization set in for Zuckerberg that no, and it was a a senior member of Zucker Meta's staff, Zuckerberg's staff, whose name's also Elliot, along with Sarah and others that sat down on the plane and said, No, no, not just did the Cambridge Analytica team
use and weaponize our algorithm, we planted people. Like they paid for Facebook people to be working with them in
Matt Kendall (16:36)
Mm-hmm.
Elliot Costello (16:36)
the Trump campaign to try and use our algorithm for political purpose and political game. So that's the transition from footsteps and I I legitimately do believe Mark was unaware in twenty sixteen of the influence and the role that Facebook played in the election to today of the outright spending and algorithm
faults that seem to, as you say, bug people on the on the left of politics. So that 10 years is a remarkable shift and change. and we need to we need to own that. fittingly, as we sit here today in October 2026, Meta has just been taken through court in New Mexico and been fined $25 billion for the role that Cambridge Analytica
Had on their platform. $25 billion. I believe, and haven't checked this, that's the largest fine ever against big tech.
and of course there'll be appeals.
Matt Kendall (17:38)
Still just a parking ticket.
Elliot Costello (17:41)
$25 billion, is it? I don't know about that, Matt.
Matt Kendall (17:44)
Yeah.
Elliot Costello (17:45)
I don't think that is a parking ticket. I
Matt Kendall (17:47)
It's the cost of doing business.
Elliot Costello (17:50)
I doubt that. I I'd say you $25 billion.
So you're now into fractional amounts of their global revenue. they might be, you know, three to four trillion. So that does have an impact. it it's more
Matt Kendall (18:04)
I still don't think it's a deterrent
though. I until they end up one of them ends up in handcuffs. I just don't think that you I think they'll just keep pushing and pushing out. No. Yeah.
Elliot Costello (18:11)
But we know that's not gonna happen.
Matt Kendall (18:18)
But I mean, I think it's yeah, I think you what you you've la you've landed on a really important distinction about back then and now. Back then there is that sort of plausible deniability and or or beyond plausible deniability, I would say it was just carelessness. It was that move fast and break things.
It's an amorality. It's like, no, that's second, third order, third, third, fourth, nth order effects have got nothing to do with me. I'm just I'm here to make shareholder return and make bank. I think there's been a shift there now. they know Trump and what he's doing. They're still behind him. Like I said, they're giving him all all sorts of signals that they're behind him. They're they're they're paying for his ballroom. and I think that
There and and now there's there's actual set of partisanship, you know. yeah, we we talk about we're talking spoken about Zu Zuckerberg and and Musk, but you know, there's Larry Ellison as well. and you know, basically was gifted, him and his mates were gifted TikTok by Trump.
Elliot Costello (19:20)
Mm-hmm.
Matt Kendall (19:21)
and, you know, he's on on top of that, there's just recently he's obviously been in the news with the the Paramount and Warner acquisition.
Which is also has which has given him CNN on top of C B S. He allayed some
Elliot Costello (19:35)
I don't I don't know if he
was given that. TikTok, yes. he bought it. you know, and question marks around, you know, com whether there was a fair process of competition. But
Matt Kendall (19:44)
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. It was it was on a it was on a platter. yeah, and he put he put them he put the money on the platter. Yeah.
Elliot Costello (19:49)
f funded and financed funded and financed through Musks too, let's be honest.
Matt Kendall (19:54)
Yeah. but then you know what I think what what's really concerning as well, it's just this is once again it's that concentration. So obviously, you know, you've got the the concentration of power on the the social platforms. but then, you know, with Ellison having TikTok, but then also CBS and now CNN.
I'm really concerned about about that. I mean, people it's a it's a dying business model, but people still do get a lot of their information from cable. And so you're gonna basically have Fox, CNN, and CBS now, on that side of politics. he's allayed some fears putting a editorial or board in in between him and and CNN. But I think that's just all
virtue signaling, it's symbolic. if you want to have a look, once again, just look at their actions. You want to see what he's done with CBS. CBS was a storied media organization, 60 minutes, home of 60 minutes, and some of the world's best journalism and and foreign and war correspondence. And it's just been a litany of of leaks and terrible editorial decisions being made.
recently at the helm of Barry Weiss. And if if you really want to have a look at the intentions behind Larry Ellison, essentially you put Barry Weiss in there. A little bit of a background on her, you know, a job being heading up CBS is the kind of job that a a veteran news desk journalist and editor would take on. It's a very stressful, full on job holding truth to power.
Barry Weiss is not that. She was a columnist at the New York Times. from what I read, she did as as much as she could to try and get, you know, symbolically sacked so she could launch her her anti-woke media career. That didn't happen, so she ended up resigning and writing a big open letter, which ended up getting a lot of attention. She started the free press, which positioned itself as radically centrist, but it was really just radically anti-woke.
radically pro i Israel, very, very you know, very partisan toward towards Trump. so she's essentially a glorified opinion opinion columnist put in in charge of of CBS and since then there's been all sorts of editorial leaks around favorable you know basically sort of killing stories or delaying stories
against Trump in order to curry favor with the Trump admin. there's been a quashing of stories about Netanyahu. A lot of these have been kind of newsroom beefs and there's been a lot of leaks from from very capable journalists around this. But it really just and the and therefore the ratings have tanked. So you would think that you know ratings are everything but it's not.
It basically obviously what Larry Ellison wants is CBS to be looking out for his mate, particularly in the next few years over the the midterms and and the president the presidential election in 2028. So this is this is this kind of w once you start to sort of put it all together, it really is quite concerning. and I guess that there's an underestimation of
I I think for from from the Democrats they seem to be quite confident. there's still seems to be a s a swagger within the Trump admin, which also concerns me, you know. I just feel like something is afoot. Like I said, my sp I I haven't got any hard evidence. I've got a lot of circumstantial evidence that I'm kind of stitching together to try and make a case for it. I guess we'll we'll find out afterwards. But yeah, it it really is.
regardless of what the outcome is, it it really is starting to point in a very worrying direction.
Elliot Costello (23:57)
Hm. It it you know, we're a new podcast piecing together our thoughts, opinions, views on that intersection that we find fascinating politics, power and technology. I do wanna point to another podcaster, independent content creator, where I've learnt a lot about this issue. never met her. hope to one day, but
She's based out of California called Dre, runs a podcast called Dre Dossiar. She has done a lot of research over the past couple of years piecing together the actions and behaviors of some of these tech oligarchs and their connection into the Trump administration from decisions being made about assets to buy and how money is moving between individuals.
and also connections around regulatory decisions, tariffs, data centers, you know, state infrastructure, super fascinating, super bleeding edge. I I I presume she's being paid because the research she pulls together is very compelling and interesting and it forms early stage thinking and allows narrative arcs. and I was watching yesterday how
About three months ago, she predicted or suggested that Musk would be financing part of Ellison's acquisition of Paramount and might have been criticized for that three or four months ago. And and long and behold, you know, we found out this week where that funding's coming from.
Matt Kendall (25:39)
Yeah, I agree. And I think this is why I think we're having this podcast now. I think it's it's better to air these concerns before the fact rather than after the fact. You know, you were talking about just then the the the power that these tech tech oligarchs have within the administration. I'm reading an excellent the excellent book by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor, End Times Fascism at the moment. and in that they talk about that
history doesn't repeat, it rhymes. Fascism looks very different now to w the way it did in the twentieth century. there's obviously a a very much a a tech flavor to it now. And it also it's a it's a spiral that goes down and it gets worse and worse and we're we're not in the the depths of it yet, but there are there are certainly some very worrying signs. And one of the the key points that she brings out in this is that back fascism back in the 20th century had generals basically
You know, because back then the technology was really industri the industrialized war machine. and these days the generals are these tech oligarchs. bic and the the weapons are, you know, big tech algorithms, social platforms, AI. we're seeing now we we've seen with Palmer Lucky and and and Elon Musk.
being put on that inquiry about how to essentially automate the American war machine. Like it's it's all the signals are there. You know, it's just the all the all the alarms are going off on on the on the on the control panel. and I I I I guess we all we all really do need to be cognizant of that.
A another thing that we've spoken about is that here in Australia, our politicians just don't seem to have caught to it. They still seem to be thinking, you know, everything's gonna be fine. and clearly it's not. there is some really worrying momentum over in America towards fascism. And I think we've really got to hope that
This midterm is kind of like a bit these midterm, the results of these midterm elections are a circuit breaker. I'm really worried they won't be. Even if they do, because it's kind of like, let's say the Democrats even do win, you know, what what happens there? You know, we've seen that that does not believe in the peaceful transfer of power. You know, what will happen off the back of that? And then look, to be frank, mate, I've also got another concern about the Democrats. I just think the Democrat leadership.
you know, with a few exceptions, have been left seriously wanting. I mean, what's happening with Illa Omar getting arrested and just hearing nothing from the Democratic leadership on on that kind of targeting is very concerning. I I get the sense that the democratic leadership and establishment in many cases are more scared of a Bernie AOC Mamdani candidate getting control of the Democrat power than Trump having control of America.
So it's it's not like Democrats win the midterms and our happy days we can all relax now. But we I am hoping for some kind of circuit breaker.
Elliot Costello (28:58)
Yeah, we we don't you don't flick a switch and and you know, a a midterm victory for the Democrats does not change the executive branch. That's what we need to be really clear about for those that want a very r redactive sort of version of US politics and and and and power. they're very proud about their
balance of power. So the three bal the three sort of pillars
being the legislatives. Well they were proud. Yeah, well constitutionally, hi historically. so your legislative,
Matt Kendall (29:27)
Well they were proud. Congress certainly hasn't been acting like they've yeah. That that was the theory.
Elliot Costello (29:36)
the your Congress independently elected, so you know, your your lower house being the House of Representatives and your upper house being the Senate, and that Senate represents the state interests and lower house represents congressional electorates.
your judiciary, obviously your courts, very independent from your political structures to review and used to be. Yeah. We won't go into how how Supreme Courts
Matt Kendall (29:57)
Us once again used to be. Now that Trump has stacked the the the Supreme Court.
Elliot Costello (30:04)
are elected. That's a that's a significant partisan problem. and then the executive, very different to the Westminster system. The executive, so Trump and his elected administration do sit
outside of the leg legislative branch. So in Australia, to be a member of the cabinet, the executive, you have to be in parliament. You have to be a member of parliament to be select selected to be in the cabinet or the shadow cabinet. And then obviously to run to become the prime minister, you need to be a part of the majority party. So Trump slash US system means the executive is independent of those that are elected into the legislative branch.
so the midterms are a process to decide who are the lower house and and upper house Congress people and senators. not all are up for election. I won't get into the politics of election cycles and everything else, but what we'll likely see based on polling is a change of balance of power within the lower house and upper house. So that won't change the President Trump.
is in office for another two years till the end of twenty twenty eight. handover of power would be the month first month of twenty twenty nine. The election will be November twenty twenty eight. So we have two more years as Trump the president, but it will change his ability to pass down and put forward through, you know, obviously Republican congressmen and senators legislation.
So Democrats will have more control over what gets legislated and what goes into reform what gets reformed and what becomes law. so that will open up a can of worms for Trump because they'll start investigating and and and threatening to you know, look for subpoenas and find insider trading and the allegations around favoritism. I'm I'm sure they'll be sniffing around to indict
members, it it will get ugly. Trump will move to executive orders. you know, he'll start to bypass Congress. The system isn't great when there's such adversarial behavior between two major parties. We are seeing the very small green shoots of new leaders rising, new independents that are talking about systematic reform, that are talking about a new politic, that are talking about local representation.
and there are some really good people, even on both sides. and I'm not, you know, just saying this is part of the DSA movement. There are Republicans who are talking about a new form of politic, away from the MAGA movement, that needs to represent community and local interests. But for today, to calm everyone's horses, it the outcome may likely be a Democratic control of the House, potentially the Senate too, but it will not change Trump's
position as head
Matt Kendall (33:08)
Mm-hmm.
Elliot Costello (33:08)
of the administration of the executive branch of the United States of America.
Matt Kendall (33:13)
Yeah, it's interesting how that that that design of the judiciary, the executive, and the legislative branch was meant to be this kind of tensegrity where the where they kind of like cancel each other out but then hold some kind of form of integrity. And the assumption that the founders had was that even re so Republican members of Congress would want to protect their power, that they wouldn't ha acquiesce to the executive branch, which
There's obviously a an assumption which has been proven incorrect. And I think all all that a a Democrat Congress and and potentially Senate would get us to is some kind of a bit more balance into into that. But then obviously there's there has been a lot of movement across various administrations about giving the executive branch more and more power. particularly with these executive orders, it means that Trump can just do shit.
it means it doesn't last. So if if they you
Elliot Costello (34:09)
So yeah.
Matt Kendall (34:11)
they have to you have to use the le you have to get the legislative l branch on board in order to change laws to make them basically, you know, stick around. But in the meantime, it just means Trump can just get away with things. And I think that's what's that's what's at stake here. I think like I said, I like I said, I'm worried there's all sorts there's all sorts of other worrying signs that it may not be a free and fair election.
The Washington Post reported that former and national security officials have been briefing you know, a lots of politicians and and officials around what happens if Trump is, you know, having ice near voting stations, you know, affecting you know, the the counting of votes. So that's a worry. the the what is it, O O S C E observers?
Who normally
Elliot Costello (35:05)
Hmm.
Matt Kendall (35:05)
have have been since the inception of of of been observing American elections since I think the early 2000s. they've not been invited this time, and instead Trump is gonna have his own observers, which is once again worrying. and then of course, like what this
Elliot Costello (35:23)
Mm-hmm.
Matt Kendall (35:24)
is what did Musk get up to with Doge and his little child hackers that got into the those government departments.
you know, they've been trying to get their hands on voter rolls. This is all this is all very murky. Once again, no concrete accusations here, but certainly some worrying behavior that just has me really, really concerned about what this outcome is going to be. But I think look, even if we do have a free and fair election and the Democrats do get in.
Then the fight really has just begun. I think the Dems are going, I want to see some some fresh leadership in there that's just willing to take the fight and roll their sleeves up and be a bit pugilistic and really take the fight up to the Trump administration and and and up to and up up to the up to the GOP. because there's also been word that Susie Wiles is is might be getting dumped as chief of staff and then we're gonna end up with Stephen Miller.
And that guy is an out and out you know, Goebels in in the White House put pulling its strings. He's, you know, this is the this is this is a fork in the road. It really is a fork in the road. It'll be interesting to see where we end up.
Elliot Costello (36:46)
You've made a a few big accusations and comments, Matt. I Miller, comparing Miller and Goebbels ads to the the recipe, I I think if if we're half right about some of the opinion and assumptions here, this episode might not be seen by a lot of people. because we'll be we'll be flagged for making accusation on people that own the platforms that this needs to be promoted on.
and the impact that has on on their friends. So
Matt Kendall (37:19)
There was a there's a very good article on
Mother Jones saying, what is it the platforms will not will not broadcast your dissent. I'll
Elliot Costello (37:26)
Yeah.
Matt Kendall (37:27)
share it in the show notes. so for the for the handful of people that probably will end up watching this, I recommend checking that out.
Elliot Costello (37:34)
I know we have to wrap up. I just we've gone a long way from, you know, midterms back to twenty sixteen, and through to architecture and information about the US political system. I do wanna trace ourselves back right to the founding constitution of the US where initially in the late eighteenth century, if you were the runner up to the president, it wasn't a a two horse race, but it there was, you know, multiple candidates
Unlike the partisan politics we've got in presidential electoral system election systems today because of money. Those only two parties can really afford to compete on national scale. But if you historically, if you were the runner up and your opponent won, you became the vice president. So again, going back to how the executive acted in a different way to the the legislative branch, you were working with your opponent on
the your legislative agenda and your political agenda. So don't know if that will ever be the case again. It would be fantastic. I I can't imagine how Kamala would go in the Trump administration right now. But one to ponder that it wasn't that long ago that you know and I I I I do want to end on this note too because I Australia's had a horrible week in in terms of politics with the the the tragic incident with Helen Haynes, our independent member
for Indai in in northern Victoria, and a lot of attention has been put on the state of Australian politics and there's mental health problems at the centre of it but there is also the way we speak about politicians. I was listening to Claire O'Neill, minister in the Albanese government on Talk Back Radio yesterday who did mention that part of the
blame here is the way that we communicate about politics. 80% of things that go through the Australian Parliament are bipartisan. So 80% of legislation that is tabled is bipartisan and goes through. It's the 20% that's contentious and debated and there's a lot of vested interest that we focus on. And US would be similar stats or or maybe, you know, with a variance of five or ten percent. So I I think it is a note to
you know, that emergent sort of ideas with next generation of leaders that are trying to find common ground. and we do have a lot more in common than treating our neighbors, our political opponents, and those in our community as someone that we cannot agree with. so I think we should also end on a degree of concern about the state of the US midterm election cycle and the money and the tech
oligarchic power involved, but also a a a hope that we do find a new politic that arrives from this moment.
Matt Kendall (40:33)
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. and you know, some of the the strong concerns I have about some of these people, it those concerns are directed up to those people with power who are abusing it. I certainly don't have that that that sort of same sentiments to to people who who vote for them. Sometimes the you know, all sorts of psyops have been running on being run on all of us on these platforms to essentially vote against our interests.
And obviously, yeah, my my heart goes out to Helen Haynes and her friends and family. That's absolutely awful. but yeah, on on on a slightly down note, I will we do need to wrap it up. it's another topic worth knowing. I I'm never a fan of the like and subscribe calls to action at the end. But as Elliot said, we're a fledgling podcast. we've been getting some really great figures. so thanks everybody for watching our last episode.
seem to get choked astonishingly. and I think possibly because I use some really strong language against Musk and Trump that possibly could be the reason. in which case go and check it out. But then also help us battle the algos by giving us a subscribe or just checking out. Just come in, just check out the channel wherever you find your listen to your podcast or on YouTube. these are released every Tuesday morning.
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