The Battler

Albanese handed down his budget on Tuesday night, Then, Albanese hadned down his election date on Friday. In between, a creature from the deep bubbled its antiphony. Pat and Tim walk through the powerful mildness of the budget, the standings of the various parties and the independents, the stakes of a short election campaign and the possible advantages of Labor’s small-target approach. Tim didn’t...

No guest this week, as Pat and Tim talk about a big few days in global bastardry. The brutishness of Israeli foreign policy is laying waste again to Gaza. In response, our Defence Minister has announced the production of new precision missiles in Australia to eventually send to Israel, and the leader of the opposition has announced a free trade deal with Israel. The CFMEU is under attack from Chan...

This week we speak to Peter Korotaev, from the substack Events in Ukraine . If you know nothing about the war, this is a fantastic background. If you know a little bit, this is an excellent update. If you are currently fighting in the region, write in for a chance to win a Nissan Pulsar– Australia’s safest family car. Pat and Tim also talk about AUKUS, Tariffs, and all the things that we’ve been r...

In this episode we chat with Alex McKinnon (https://everythingisfine.beehiiv.com/c/about), a freelance journalist who has been covering the restriction and censorship of pro-Palestine speech in the Australian media. We talk through some of the particulars of rightwing strategy; the culture of preemptive capitulation and the march of McCarthyism through the university sector. Before that, Pat and T...

In this episode, Tim and Pat talk to Rachel Withers , Crikey Journalist and host of “Well Hung” (successor to “Forget the Frontbench”) as well as RRR’s “Spin Cycle.” Rachel tells us about where the polls stand and why Albo is looking at a flogging. She also clues us in to what a hung parliament might look like. Before the interview, we chat Tony “Burqa”s mass Qassam Brigades recruitment (citizensh...

A bad week to be Australian. A good week to start a podcast. Pat and Tim take a look at the appearance of Ita Buttrose in court over the Antoinette Lattouf unfair dismissal case; the appearance of daily telegraph journalists at a small café in Sydney confecting fake narratives of antisemitism; the two nurses shamed across media and politics for comments made on an Israeli vlog; and the quick, spin...