The Bugle - Call the COP26 (4209)
Episode Date: October 20, 2021Nato Green and Aditi Mittal join host Andy Zaltzman to emit carbon-laden rebukes to the world leaders heading to the climate catastrophe party COP29. Aditi delivers an impassioned appraisal of Sh...ah Rukh Khan's body of work as his son gets in a spot of bother with the authorities, while Nato provides exclusive top-level Striketober picket line tips for any protesting Buglers in wait.Come see us live at Leicester Square Odeon, in London, on 13th November.We are funded entirely by you, the listener. Listeners who sign up via OUR NEW WEBSITE thebuglepodcast.com have long enjoyed the opportunity to get: mentions on the show (in the form of lies), merchandise and general sense of wellbeing for supporting this fine work of art. As of this week you can also support the show directly via Apple Podcasts. Our new channel ‘Team Bugle’ also includes The Gargle and Tiny Revolutions, shows which currently carry ads - but they will be completely ad free on this channel. So if you love The Bugle, and it’s siblings, then please support The Bugle via our website or Apple Podcasts where you can subscribe today.Buy a loved one Bugle Merch - COLD AND WET WEAVER T SHIRTS ON SALE NOW). Listen to The Gargle here: https://pod.link/GargleFollow us on YouTube or Insta and see parts of this episode with actual video.The Bugle is hosted this week by:Andy ZaltzmanAditi MittalNato greenAnd produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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The Bugle, audio newspaper for a visual world. Hello, Bughlers, and welcome to a shoe 4209 of the Universe's foremost and only audio newspaper for a visual world with me and his ozman recording today
as always on the 18th of October 2021. I am in London and in a tricontinental bugle
I am joined by the official representative of all the Americas past, present, and future from San Francisco. It's NATO green!
Hello Andy, hello bugleers! It's gonna be back.
Welcome back to the show, um, house, house things in California right now.
Been better, you know, like a lot of people have come through the pandemic, feeling some level of depression and anxiety, because, uh, obviously,
and I thought it would be good to
seek out therapy but this is America and you can't. Our health insurance system will sound exotic
to you as a British person. You pay for health insurance and the insurance companies make money
based on not providing the service that you paid for. You'd be like if I bought a plane ticket for
vacation in London and got on the plane and they said, sorry mother f***er you're going to Sacramento.
So my health plan is called Kaiser which is named for the pre-World War I German Emperor.
And like its namesake, my health care bears an uncanny resemblance to the 1930 film all
quiet on the western front in that both involve not getting the health care you need, being
at the mercy of decisions made by people rich people far away
And a deep sense of utility. So when I call Kaiser to ask if I can see a therapist they ask questions. Are you on drugs?
No, are you considering suicide? No, are you hallucinating? No, are you a danger to yourself and others?
No, are you unable to work as a cog in the capitalist machine? No, then why are you bothering us?
as a cog in the capitalist machine. No. Then why are you bothering us? Well, I start crying uncontrollably when I hear Portiaquese's photo music for 90 seconds of any Nick Cave Song.
They say, really, any Nick Cave Song? Anyone, even the carny? Yes, the carny.
And they say, look, you just have non-specific mid-40s man sadness. That's what you're diagnosed as soon.
So they said, well, you could talk to someone once a month for half an hour.
That's why I get you on the bugle.
Yeah.
I get better mental health services on the bugle.
And they'll spend the first 10 minutes trying to remember who you are and what your
f***ing problem is.
And the second 10 minutes asking if you've considered not being such an asshole.
And then 10 minutes until you beg to be seen again.
And so what I'm paying for is that they have a office
filled with accountants and actuaries
who have run the numbers,
and it figured out exactly how miserable you have to be
before it ends up costing them more money in the long run.
There's a, there's a, like, we don't care
if you're miserable as long
as you're high functioning,
we will not help you not hit bottom.
Call us back when you're in a freeway medium.
Screaming at passing cars about the periodic table
of elements.
So that's how it is in California right now.
Right. Okay.
I'm glad, glad I asked.
Joining NATO and me on the vehicle this week,
chosen as a spokesperson for all 4.5 billion people in Asia plus
That famous confidence fantastic election of wildlife and mountains to speak for them all. It's a DT Middle
Welcome back a DT. Well, I'm slightly reluctant to say any question phrase like how are you?
But welcome welcome back to the show. Thank you for having me. I am a live Andy.
Thank you for asking.
In fact, Andy, if you remember correctly,
I have always had the personality of someone
who is quite nervous, slightly nervous, mostly depressive,
and what I read in previous comments on the Google homepage
was a failed Alice Frazier wannabe.
Let me clarify.
Let me clarify, I am not failed.
I am not failed.
But as I am approaching my 36th birthday,
and I have officially shared any semblance
of youthful idealism that once kept me alive,
and I am currently trying to cultivate a sort of like
QC nihilism.
So it'd be like Q Andy.
Like you NATO. But like I guess like the North Atlantic Treaty organization, not you NATO because Q is one of a second meeting decorum thing for me.
And as it is in the scriptures of the bugle, Q Chris.
Well Chris is not on hand to take that tribute.
Ben shall take the mantle.
Ped is standing in for the first time in...
What we think is about a decade, Ped, since you've lost it,
obviously, been part of the bugle extended family
with Alice, you're sort of a welcome, welcome back to the bugle.
It's good to be back.
F*** you all.
F*** you, Chris. Welcome, welcome back to the Bugle. It's good to be back. You're all new this.
It's good to be back.
You're all new this.
It's good to be back.
You're all new this.
It is the 18th of October 2021.
It is the 18th of October 2021.
It is the 18th of October 2021.
It is the 18th of October 2021.
It is the 18th of October 2021.
It is the 18th of October 2021.
It is the 18th of October 2021.
It is the 18th of October 2021.
It is the 18th of October 2021.
It is the 18th of October 2021.
It is the 18th of October 2021.
It is the 18th of October 2021.
It is the 18th of October 2021. It is the 18th of October 2021. It is the 18th of October 2021. It is the 18th I think 3-1 was the final score the newspaper reports. A little bit sketchy, the Dane's under King Canute, also known
as Willy Wetzock star of the experimental jazz funk band King Canute and the King Canute.
Famous, of course, for saying, I just think if we spell it C-A-N-U-T-E instead of C-N-U-T,
we might have less trouble. The Dane's defeated England under their
King Edmund Ironside, who died six weeks later, reportedly, according to some reports reporting of the reported event, he was stabbed to death
while taking a shit. And in his post mortem press conference, the former King said,
obviously it's disappointing to end that way. And lamented leaving an unfinished crossword as well
as a conquered kingdom, he also acknowledged the need to, quote, lock the door in future and pledge
to get Britain out of Denmark at the earliest opportunity. So some things in this country don't really
change. On this day in 1648 NATO, Boston shoemakers and barrel makers formed the first American
Labour organisation, according to my sources, which are well wiki-pedia, I'll be honest.
This clearly paved the way for, what is it now?
373 years of unbroken fairness for all American workers, didn't it?
We did it. Mr. Coppola's to everybody.
As always, a section of the bugle is going straight in the bin.
This week, a walking sticks section,
and what we've hastily had to rush this one out after the current and
eternally future queen of the most united of all possible kingdoms, Queen Elizabeth,
ii as she's known the second, was allegedly seen using a walking stick for the first time since
she was recovering from having booted a giant sea monster in the face in 1994, one of many occasions
in which she saved this nation from peril. After the Queen was photographed with her walking stick it's become the must have fashion accessory not just in Britain
But also in greater Britain also known as the rest of the world
Everyone now wants a piece of what Lizzie's having of course and cells of walking sticks of skyrocketed by
78,000 percent every day since her magiasties were seen channeling her in a tripod
celebs and world leaders have been seen totalling along with Walking Stick
brewing once again the E2R brings to UK PLC an incredible must
unquantifiable amount in her role as chief national influencer.
Russian astronaut Arkady Mision was even did a spacewalk on the ISS this week
with a space walking stick. Whilst the International Olympic Committee have pledged to allow poll
voters to replace their 5-meter fiberglass poles with the same model of
walking stick as used by the Queen should they want to.
As part of this news, we also give you a view of guides to walking sticks.
How when, where, and on whom to use them.
A walking stick etiquette should you apologize after landing your walking stick on someone else's foot on a crowded train or merely say you're just doing the
Queen's work. At what point when fleeing from, for example, a crocodile or a swooping enemy
jet plane is it socially acceptable and not unpatriotic to abandon your walking stick?
We also give you a guide to the different sticks now available since the Queen made the
walking stick the biggest select item in the world, including the Pogo walking stick,
which binds the user's arm upwards for a more spectacular walk.
The moon walking stick specially designed for shuffling backwards without your feet leaving
the ground.
And the squawking stick, which wards off predators and nerdy wells alike by making an intimidating
and loud squawk like a teradactyl cross with a dragon, cross with a mating fox.
The walking stick section sadly.
In the bin, also in the bin this week, a special feature section
on the National Comedy Awards after the bugle was nominated in the Best Comedy Podcast
category, along with it seems like about 800 other podcasts. It now goes to a public vote
which you, Bugleers, can join in at thenationalcomedyawards.com and which you can vote for the various different categories,
and you can vote for the Bugle if you love democracy and want to be blessed by, or might
ease you, so all the other Olympian gods with an eternally happy life.
Go to the National Comedy Awards.com and find wherever it is,
far down the list of important categories.
You fired the Bugogles nomination.
Top story this week. Environment news. We are now in the run- up to COP26 in Glasgow, the global environment summit of the year,
from the 31st of October to the 12th of November, what an occasion for the UK this will be.
It's like the London 2012 Olympics of a veerting environmental armageddon in that it's going
to be a lot of fun whilst it's on, but it's very unlikely to leave any concrete observable
legacy.
Well, at least it's been big and me half like the Olympics
and it's probably not going to be a lot of fun while it's on. This is, you know, it's
been presented to the world as, you know, a hugely important moment if we do want to save
the planet, which admittedly is a pretty big if in terms of the economics of it, because
you know, we are a lost making planet and it might be time to just let go. The world
is well used to being in last chance alone.
And of course, it's default reaction is to say,
let's have a fucking lock in, drinks are on me.
And by drinks are on me, I mean, drinks are on
all future generations.
Are either of you at all hopeful
that this summit may actually result
in any form of actual progress?
Yeah, I'm hopeful that a number of key world leaders are looking at not attending.
China may not attend.
Bolsonaro from Brazil may not attend.
Russia may not attend.
So their strategy for reducing carbon emissions is to do all of the carbon emissions as quickly
as possible just to get it behind us.
Do all the carbon emissions and then we can move on.
You know what I mean?
It's like when there are cookies in the house
and my kids are like, I walk into the room
and they're eating cookies when they're not supposed
to be eating cookies.
And then instead of stopping eating cookies,
they put all of the cookies in their mouth at the same time.
And then they're like, I thought they were gonna go stale.
So I think that's the approach to climate change right now.
You know, even India has said that the,
I mean, India is not confirmed and we're only two weeks away.
And first of all, I have to admit that I did not know
about COP before this, which is,
the full form is apparently conference of parties,
which kind of sounds like an EDM festival.
Like, I would to go just to check
out who's playing but also there's been 26 of these before. This is number 26. Oh 25 of these.
What's been going on there? Like what have the, has it just been world leaders hanging out to
measure dick sizes? Like this one's really important to all of us, I mean of course because the planet is burning but
Didn't they like space it out? You think well, yeah I mean the first 25 certainly didn't get the the amount of coverage this one's getting in in Britain at least because
We are the host and therefore I think if the environment is saved then Britain owns the planet again
I think that's how it works
was in 1600 or something and we did pretty well with that one as well.
A DT, they spent that like easily the first 14 of the cop meetings just playing the name game
and doing icebreakers. So it took a while before they got into the work of talking about climate change.
There was a real sense of urgency around just like building a sense of community among the diplomats.
Like number 20 was all trust falls, right? It was just trust falls.
Well that's basically how we're approaching the environment, I think, just one
giant trust fall in which we're just letting ourselves fall backwards and we're assuming
that scientists of the future will catch him before we smash to the ground.
President Jesus said unlikely to attend, he might, according to reports, send a terracotta
environment minister instead, a classical technique.
No doubt, he will come up with a decent excuse, perhaps that he's got a piano lesson, or that
he's too busy repressing dissent, or that he can't be asked, given that he'll do what
he wants anyway, or maybe he's just trying to cut down his own personal carbon footprint.
It would of course be hypocritical of him
to have spent so long reducing the carbon footprint
of the Wiga Muslims by interning them in prison camps,
only to then swan off the Glasgow on a gas-guzzling airplane.
So I'll give him some credit for that.
Other team news for Cop26, the Pope has been ruled out
after recent tum tum surgery,
but it has promised to add an extra prayer
for the environment every night
as part of his bedtime catch-up with his boss, who is it's fair to say, but it was hands-off an extra prayer for the environment every night as part of his bedside catch up with his boss
Who is it's fair to say?
But it was hands-off type CEO right now
Abraham Lincoln will not be attending off the sadly being assassinated in 1865
And well luckily Scott Morris, no Australia is going much of the delight of all of his many fans on both sides
Of the equator there was a you study about Australia, that Australia of all 194 UN member states, Australia
is dead last in carbon emissions.
You have to work at last.
You don't just slide into last.
Being last, last, last of 193 countries is like, it means that Australia's
below petro states like Saudi Arabia and whatnot, it means that Scott Morrison is personally
walking around Sydney putting every car in neutral and just idling.
Well, it appeals to his core voter base clearly.
And I'll let you weigh that you thought I was lost of 194.
And then you said there was 193 candidates suggest that one
of those countries has since sunk under water.
So, jeez, jeez.
I can't keep track of the number of countries.
I'm an American.
It was, it was 193.
I misspoke. I just fact checked it, there
are a hundred and ninety three UN member countries.
How can we trust anything in the American?
I know, but some of us still believe that Antora is a put on.
Contents just does seem to be building, but the time for saying that something must be
done is slowly and regrettably coming to an end.
And the time for saying what must be done is upon us, which should last another few decades
before the time when we actually have to do that stuff finally comes round.
And it's come at a bad time.
It's for Boris Johnson, the host leader of the summit, as opposed to the ghost leader of
the nation, the rest of the time, is standing roll in times of crisis these days. Because the fact that the time for just saying stuff is
is now and then that moves him out of his his comfort zone. He's saying
something without showing his working or responding to basic questions about
feasibility, cost logistics, detail or viability comfort zone. It could be a
very difficult couple of weeks for Johnson and for Joe Biden, NATO, who's made quite a big
play of his climate agenda, it appears that things aren't going too well because the
modern world has yet to find a crisis so severe that it can prompt an even temporary outbreak
of maturity in the US political system. I mean, it appears that his agenda is going to
be the latest policy to repeatedly crack its skull open on the immovable granite rock face of American political twattery.
What exactly has been the problem for Biden and his plans to phase out coal and gas?
Problem is, Joe Biden may not be able to pass a bold climate agenda and phase out coal
and gas because of Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
And I have to tell you, as an American leftist who Joe Manchin is trying to, you know,
is blocking it and has demanding all manner of concessions.
And Joe Manchin at this point is so upsetting to American leftists that you actually need
a trigger warning to talk about him.
People like their eyes roll back into their heads.
And he's a senator from West Virginia and people act like, well, of course, West Virginia
because they have coal there. Like West Virginia is all coal just edge-to-edge coal there.
All West Virginia is toothless hillbilly singing bluegrass and eating coal and then shitting
out coal. That's all that happens there. But as it happens coal only makes up about 5% of the
economy and West Virginia is the second poorest state in the United States.
So has that f**king working out for you Joe Manchin?
So even the coal miners union supports not doing coal anymore.
And why is that? Surprise, surprise.
The coal miners union was like, what's that you say?
If we switch to renewable energy, we can stop dying of the black one and under mine caveans.
That seems like a losing proposition. What's the hold up, Bob?
On the subject of coal, Aditi, India is having its own coal problems. It's running out. What exactly is happening? What are the implications?
That's right. We are being shafted of our coal supplies.
We apparently have only two weeks of coal left right now.
And that is primarily because demand rose in Europe over the past summer because it was quite cold.
And so the demand for coal went up and now the demand for coal is really high in India.
And we are officially, I mean, this is not as they say a minor problem.
We are officially two days or two weeks into the supply of coal and here's the thing though.
We only realized that we had a shortage of coal.
After the new said, we had a shortage of coal because the announcement of power cuts and electricity
supply like stopping was not really news.
We are so used to it, we didn't even know it was happening because of coal shortage.
Turns out by the way that India and China are the largest producers and importers and users
of coal in the world.
And there is none for us right now.
And so, you know what, G, if you're planning to attend that COP,
just bring us a large lump of coal.
Bring us a large lump of coal.
We could do with it right now.
That goes out to all bugles.
In fact, if any of our listeners do have any spare coal,
please do send your lumps of coal directly to a deity, or indeed to Anavab pal or Norendra Modi
Well whichever is your favorite of those three human beings. I thought you were gonna say that one of the premium level subscribers to the beauty
Jeez Jim King
I assume so I should be listens they all listen to that
Why would they not?
Generally on carbon emissions, good news actually,
if you are fans of carbon emissions,
they have rebounded strongly after a really terrible year
for pumping carbon into the atmosphere in 2020.
There was a 6% drop in carbon emissions
last year's COVID cruelly stole away
so many fun reasons for using fuel.
But the world's richest nations leading the fight back
due to be back up 4% this year, carbon emissions are not quite back to the outstanding carbon
emitting form of 2019, but still enough to show the environment who's still f**king
boss, despite everything.
Like, everyone was like, when will things go back to the way they were?
When will things go back to the way they were?
It's back.
We're back on track to just dying on time.
And I, you know, a special f*** you to all Americans from my personal behalf because it's a part of
my cuteness. I mean, the fact that you all have let this guy run wild, this whatever man
child or whatever, you all have let him run wild. I mean, this guy is, this tiny man is making a decision
because let's face it also, America needs to lead the way
in clean energy because it also led the way
in dirtying the energy in the first place, right?
And no other country is gonna want to sort of be like,
oh yeah, we'll take the initiative on this.
You can't tell me to switch off the fan in my bedroom
when your toilet is centrally heated, okay?
So at this point, America needs to take this stand
and they need to be really bold
and I cannot believe it is this one guy, you know,
Joe Manchin, the third or whatever, Manchin,
which is also what I call my jawline after 35.
But it is absolutely incredible that it hinges on this one man's greed.
I mean, whatever, he's in bed with gold, I guess, which is another euphemism for my sex life.
If you squeeze it hard enough, you can make time and succeed.
Family show. Family show. But it is absolutely staggering that the fate of our planet depends on a guy who comes
on like a generation of so unimaginatively men. Like Joe, Joe the first, Joe the second,
Joe the third. What about Brad, man? Brad and Jason. Come on.
So this is the root of the problem is the unimaginative naming of American boy children in the 1950s.
Moving on to other India news now and while Bollywood has been rocked at ET by the arrest of the son of one of his biggest superstar,
Shah Rukh Khan son Aryan has been arrested and spent time in jail in a drugs case.
I mean, this, this quite, just explain the story to us.
And also, you know, the status Shah Rukh Khan has in India,
which I think is slightly above the status that the
Pope has in the Vatican for men.
Yes, I am so glad, I am so glad, Andy, you know, props to you for knowing this, because
you know, if you're listening to this and you don't know who Shah Rukh Khan is, I need
you to pause this and then take a moment to be ashamed that you don't know who Shah Rukh
Khan is, then open your browser window and type in Shahrukh Khan into the Google search bar.
And the top result will just be the audio of the morning sounds of 500 million women having an
orgasm. So this guy, this guy, Shahrukh Khan started his career in the 90s at a time.
So you want us to open Pornhub? Yeah, immediately, immediately.
But for those of you who are still listening,
which, just, just, just, just, just, just, just, just,
you know, Shahrukh Khan was an actor who started
his Bollywood career in the 90s.
At a time when Bollywood was very inundated
with these sort of like angry young men and action heroes,
and here came along this guy, which is this one dimple on his face.
And he became symbolic of a different kind
of masculinity in Indian cinema.
He didn't throw punches.
Instead, he teased, he caged, and he listened,
and he made himself vulnerable,
which again is a very low bar for Indian men.
But in Bollywood, today,
Shahrukh Khan is not an actor.
He's a genre, okay? Shahrukh Khan is not an actor, he's a genre, okay?
Shahrukh Khan is also symbolic of the economically liberal India of the 1990s.
The India that was on the verge of becoming a superpower on Power with China.
He's basically Tom Cruise without the crazy, Tom Hanks with good looks,
Tom Hiddleston because he's so, so sophisticated and Tom Holland,
because I would love to be trapped in that web.
And his brand value is more than all of them combined.
Like he's honestly the reason they had to coin the word superstar because star is just not enough.
He's a one man BTS, much before BTS. Like if you add BTS and then multiply by 5 you get half of Shahrukh Khan, okay.
And I would like to quote him on himself. He says in its immense generosity, India decided that it is
I, the Muslim son of a broke freedom fighter who accidentally ventured into the business of selling
dreams, should become its king of romance, the badge of Bollywood, the greatest lover this country has ever seen
with this face. I mean like honestly that charm, that humility, okay, and those dimples. Like honestly, like he is the king of romance in India
which kind of I believe explains our population. It's Shah Rukh Khan.
So what year was his film debut, roughly?
So he debuted.
His first film that came out was in 1991.
And this was just one year before, or 1994,
which was two years after economic liberalization.
And in fact, side story, I didn't drive this down
because I hate showing off.
But he used to live in the aving of my building,
like off the building complex, he used to live in the other building. And my grandmother used to
send him lunch because he had... It's true dude, I'm not even making this up. I mean, everyone has a
shara construct. Okay, I mean like this man, like, and the truth is how this fits into the larger
scheme is that as India takes a turn into the hard right, where a largely Hindu population wants India to become a Hindu country.
And Shah Rukh Khan is a Muslim man.
His sons' arrest has become one of the gauzy curtain that this government is pulling over
our eyes.
So, we don't realize that we are number 101 out of 117 of the hungriest countries in the
world.
There are daily lynchings of minorities. There is the gross mismanagement of the second wave of the hungriest countries in the world. There are daily lynchings of minorities.
There is the gross mismanagement of the second wave of the corona virus. The unpreparation
for the third wave of the corona virus. The world's largest protest over the corporatization
of agriculture in a largely agrarian economy is going on. And right now, petrol prices
are increasing day by day. That it only makes headlines now when petrol prices stay the
same for two
days in a row.
Now, here's what happened.
On October 3rd, Shah Rukh Khan's son, the oddly named Aryan Khan, was standing in line
to enter a party on a cruise liner with a narcotics control bureau, arrested him with
a friend and a random lady.
This random lady wasn't even with them, they found three grams of weed on her
and have basically denied him bail since October 3rd where he is currently in jail on yet unproven
charges. Apparently one of the incriminating messages that is being legitimately spoken about
in court that was retrieved from his phone where he texted his friend where he said,
that was retrieved from his phone, where he texted his friend, where he said, we are going to have a blast.
They say that that is an indication of him possibly being a part of an international drug syndicate.
I mean, thank God they didn't have any messages of him saying, this is lit or like sleigh.
Because that would have taken him on very different charges.
At this point, it makes you wonder
if the narcotics control bureau
smokes all the drugs that it confiscates.
In order to cook up these charges, right?
And look, if you wanted to pull the curtains
over our eyes, good job,
because that is one good looking kid.
For generations of women who have grown up loving his father and of whom his son is a
spitting image, it has turned us all into cooing, vociferous mothers with how he's being
treated, right?
And the larger relevance of this news item, Andy, I'm getting to a point, I swear.
Is that today? The biggest superstar in the country,
Shah Rukh Khan's son has very essentially been kidnapped by a national security
in full view of the world's largest democracy. If he's not immune to the hatred against Muslims in
India, who is? This is not a canary in a coal mine situation because the entire coal mine is on fire.
mind situation because the entire goal mine is on fire.
Well, thanks. That was about as comprehensive a report on that that's just we can we can hope for I'm passionate I apologize.
I fell off the bus when we started talking about 500 million indeed
women coming at the same time.
I'll rejoin you shortly.
Well, I mean, I mean, just just put that those figures in the the context, you say it is film debut is in the early 90s.
And over the course of Shah Rukh Khan's film career, India's population has risen from about
what, 600, 650 million to 1.3 billion. So unquestionably, he has done the job for India. It's fine.
In the other Indian news, Tamil Nadu, the Southern state has become the second Indian state to enshrine the right to sit in law for workers, retail workers who often have to work 12 hour shifts and in the past been forced to stand for the duration of those shifts. Look, I know what long shifts are like. I'm a professional satirist. Satire never sleeps.
I am on call 25-8366 and a quarter. And although physically I'm allowed to sit down or,
indeed, lie down and have a snooze on the sofa or watch the sport while I wait for the
news to break the news satirizing or go to bed or take a couple of weeks off
to go on holiday.
I metaphorically always on my toes.
So I relate to what these workers have had to go through.
There's a lot of states in India,
but only two of them now have the right to sit.
Is this going to cap off there
or is the rest of India going to follow suit?
You know, Andy, I have to admit that I am very, very privileged.
I am incredibly privileged. And so whenever I need to read one. You know, Andy, I have to admit that I am very, very privileged. I am incredibly privileged.
And so whenever I need to read one of these stories, I can't cross like legal victories for
worker rights.
I'm always like, wait, what?
We had to demand the right to sit.
Holy shit.
How bad has it been going so far?
But I mean, this is a legal victory for women's asses all over the country.
I'm clearly not referring to their husbands.
But it is always a delight when we win the musical chairs of our humanity
and we actually find a seat.
You know, this is one of the things where they did a protest where they held the chairs up to their heads
and were like, give us seats.
And the next protest is going to be the right to use,
to like, enough toilet breaks.
And I really do not want to know how that protest is going to go.
American news now, and, well, Nito, you can give us an update on the,
well, the recall votes on California Governor Gavin Newsom.
How did it go? What does it mean? The last time I was on the bugle was in the run-up to the recall votes on California Governor Gavin Newsom,
how did it go?
And what does it mean?
Last time I was on the bugle was in the run up to the recall
and I did probably, I think I said 17 hours
of high quality, invective and vitriol about the recall
and the risk cut it down to about two and a half minutes.
So there's like some lost tapes, if you Googlers want to find it,
there's like lost tapes floating around the internet somewhere
of all of the fire that I unspooled.
But now Newsom handily defeated the recall.
The recall was voted down and I can return to my true passion
of publicly hating him.
All of the people who started hating Gavin Newsom before the recall, like who didn't
start hating him until he was governor, as far as I've concerned, they're like bandwagon
Newsom haters, like I have been hating Newsom for 20 years.
I go back, I've been hating Newsom, I have the mixed tape of hating Newsom.
You know what I mean?
I hated Newsom with the original bass player.
So now I'm back to it.
So prior to the recall, there were 836 bills sitting on his desk from the legislature
awaiting the signature of the governor, and he didn't do anything until after the recall
because he's a coward and thought making decisions would not project the image of
equivocating spineless non-leadership leadership that his focus groups told him
suburban independent voters crave.
Um, so.
Well, that works on this side of the Atlantic as well,
that kind of leadership.
We should just point out for Eddie Littles
that the Cure is banging in the background.
Well, Lito is speaking, is some kind of construction work
rather than gabbling new some hammering on your door
to introduce his earthly vengeance on you? I'm sorry, this could be out of construction work rather than gabbling new some hammering on your door and taking his earthly vengeance on you.
I'm sorry, this could be out of construction nearby.
So to give you a sense of new sums ideological orientation,
we have an eviction issue here in California.
There's rent relief and officially an eviction moratorium,
but landlords are ignoring it.
So new sum in his infinite wisdom,
vetoed legislation that would provide legal aid
to people facing eviction because the symbolic policy was more important than actually accomplishing the
thing. He also vetoed a bill called contingency management, which is the only treatment
that is supported by medical evidence to get people off of meth. And contingency management
it turns out that the way to get people to stop doing meth is to pay them. Literally
throw money at the problem and it works.
So, he vetoed those two bills, but he did sign a bill
to make permanent one of the most popular developments
of the pandemic.
No, that's not masturbating on Zoom.
It's cocktails to go.
And I knew that once we had the option of cocktails to go,
there'd be no going back.
And so now people will still get evicted, but they
can start to go fund me to have people send them artisanal small batch cocktails by DoorDash to
their tent encampment. A pumpkin old-fashioned pairs well with meth in the winter I'm told. And that's In other American news, NATO, you are official, quite literally, hands-on, bugle American industrial
disputes, correspondents.
Striketober is in full swing.
I was reading that the President of the Association of Flight Attendants, Sarah Nelson, said,
Striketober is terrifying the bosses and that
does sound like a film that's some people definitely don't want to see what
exactly is strike tober but how's it going that's right Andy so a did the I don't
know if you know this I'm the country's only hybrid comedian union organizer
and uh strike tober in America Andy, uh, the American leftist calendar,
the months are anti-Fogest, Marricade Ember, Striketober, throwpies at politicians, Vember,
and December the chains of oppression.
Uh, those are the months that we celebrate.
As many as 100,000 workers in the United States are either on strike currently or voting to strike across the United States.
Strikes in the United States have flat-lined in recent years as the percentage of workers and unions have declined.
But currently, the strike wave is hitting factories, school bus drivers, hospital workers, film and TV crews, many other industries.
After 18 months of essential workers being told that they are essential,
they are surprisingly acting like they are essential. It turns out that when you kill
750,000 Americans from a disease through mismanagement and neglect, you cause a labor shortage,
which gives workers bargaining power. And then because of the pandemic, there was early
retirements and workers were exhausted. Meanwhile meanwhile in a completely unrelated story, billionaires got 55% richer during the pandemic,
or $4 trillion richer, the world's billionaires almost have enough money.
Almost, almost.
Always almost. It's not the horizon, you never quite reach it.
So historians sometimes argue that the bubonic plague
caused the Renaissance and the end of feudalism so get ready for the Mona Lisa of Piggitline's mother f**kers
What I love about strikes is that they unleash some amount of chaos and like you can sort of can't quite plan and predict What's gonna happen like often bosses will try to replace to hire replacement workers
Which we call scabs to cross the picket line and work during the strikes
So for example, 1400 workers at serial factories by the company Kellogg are on strike the last time Kellogg went on strike a
Scab peed in the cornflakes. We all contribute in our own ways
Over the last hundred years. There's been a demonstrable correlation between the frequency of strikes and economic inequality
And the mechanism by which strikes reduce inequality is scabs peeing in the cornflakes.
So they don't teach that in your economic classes at university do they?
John Deere is a company that makes farm machinery, heavy machinery, and they have factories
all over the Midwest. 10,000 workers walked out. The membership voted to strike not just in
defiance of their employer, but their own union leadership. And John
dear responded by sending Salary Office staff to keep production going. And
they didn't manage to make it to 8 a.m. on the first day of the strike before
they had to call an ambulance because somebody crashed a tractor inside the
factory. It's where you're not supposed to crash the tractor. You're supposed
to crash the tractor on the fury road driving to get water during the apocalypse while you're chasing
Mad Max. So the John Deer walk out, this could lead to a shortage of tractors. Not that
you think, either being crashed or not, I'm excited about this because I've invested a
lot of money in shares in auction companies
and it was a long term bet, but I think it's about to come good.
Good luck.
So here's my advice.
I have some handy how-to tips for how bugle listeners can prepare for strike-tover.
If you were in a union and you can strike, definitely strike.
Some people think that you should strike only if you have to.
I disagree. I think if you should strike only if you have to.
I disagree.
I think if you can, just do it, make up a reason.
It doesn't matter what the reason is, just do it.
If you are a dinner union, but support the strike,
and here are some things you can do to support the strike,
when you drive by the strike, honk.
Workers love it when you honk and support.
The John Deere strike is running 24 hours a day,
so the neighbors of the John Deere factories
will love a lot of late night honking.
If you walk by a strike, just yell honk, honk, honk
at the striker.
We'll do the trick.
Bring food.
Striking workers love it, but you gotta mix it up.
Usually people send like a lot of pizzas and donuts
to the picket line, but striking workers
who have been without pay walking picket lines day
and night outside for weeks, they really will enjoy receiving like an also buco and polenta
or like a chickpea tegin on the picket line. So send that. Also, you can go to the strikes and scream
at the scams. I've had these like running and these sports term scrimmage fights with like these like hired like a raki veteran
Security companies as they're trying to sneak in the scabs across the picket line and so
Screaming at scabs. It's great therapy. It's the only therapy. We have in the United States
See the earlier rant just let it out. It's a great way to channel your aggression
It doesn't even need to be about the issues like I I've gone to strikes and been like, you're out fit sucks. So whatever your hair
is done. I really didn't like the second Matrix movie. Like whatever it is that works for
you. Give money to this. There's usually a some sort of strike mutual aid or support
fund. Also, don't fight. Keep it non-violent. If there are 10,000 people wanting to have
a peaceful strike, don't be that asshole.
Try to keep it calm and then make sure you got to protect the workers who are on strike,
make sure that if someone is going to get punched or arrested, it's you and let the workers
go about their day.
There's this legendary strike story about the Melbourne dock workers that they were on strike
and there was a platoon of dock worker drag queens who created a buffer between the striking
workers and the police
who were doing a choreographed line dance,
singing, stop in the name of love before you break my head.
They could over.
There's just a lot of opportunities for creativity.
Do bring your synchronized dances,
bring your graffiti and your chart,
awk.
Also, demand your local politicians
walk the picket line, call your city council
and your mayor and say,
this is not the time for your usual craved both sides garbage.
What are you, Joe Manchin? Get out there and laugh.
The right to strike is holy, like the right to vote in that it's central to democracy,
always in danger, and Republicans hate it when black people do it.
No.
One employee, being to a local radio station, apparently, said,
we aren't asking to be millionaires. We are asking for fair wages, a pension and post-retirement health care, but is this where striking workers are going wrong?
They should be asking to be millionaires because people listen to millionaires and that might be the step that they need to make.
I mean, I think striking workers could take a page from Donald Trump and just tell people that they're millionaires so that people will listen and assume that people will believe them and not do any fact-jector.
That brings us towards the end of this week's bugle. We were going to have a full UK news section
but we have almost run out of time. The news here is sadly dominated by the second murder of a
member of parliament within the
last five and a half years.
David Amos, the MP for South End, killed whilst meeting his constituents.
There's been much discussion of the need for a kinder, gentler politics and for a less
abusive and polarized society in the UK.
Things which sadly did not emerge after the killing of MP, Joe Cox in 2016.
We will discuss the implications of this harrowing event
and the prospects for change and progress
in public discourse next week with Nish Kumar.
I was also gonna tell you about how badly
the British government in everyday parlance
f**ked up its COVID response.
According to its own report,
sadly, however, we've run out of time,
but I think you can probably imagine the general thrust
both of the report itself and the bugle's reaction to that report.
Just one thing to pick up from it.
The Chief Medical Officer for England, Professor Sally Davy, suggested the early complacent
response was fostered in parts by quotes, a form of British exceptionalism.
And that exceptionalism has continued to guide us through this crisis.
Any normal government would have resigned, or at least apologized. I'll even a bit of an embarrassed blush would be something,
but luckily ours is truly exceptional, and none of that has happened.
That brings us to the end of this week's Bugal. Thank you very much for listening. Don't forget,
aside from voting as often as legally possible for the
Bucal in Best Comedy Podcast at thenationalcomedywards.com, but there is also a Bucal live show on the 13th
of November at the Odin in Leicester Square as part of the Poddicon festival, Nish Kumar,
will be one of the guests. Tickets are available on the internet I've heard heard, or probably if you go to the ODN in Leicester Square,
or just ask anyone nicely in the street,
they might write you out one on a bit of paper.
Any shows or other things to tell our listeners about,
Aditi?
I've got two specials on Netflix.
One of them is called,
things they wouldn't let me say.
The second one is called,
Girl Meets Mike,
it's a part of the comedians of the World Series.
I also have another one called, Mother of Invention,
which is on Amazon Prime, UK, US, and Australia.
And if there's anyone listening from India, actually,
I am doing a series called The The Life
where I'm releasing one new stand-up video every month
on Amazon Mini TV, which is only currently available
on Android.
I don't know, this is getting really niche right now.
Hahaha.
Night time.
As usual, my albums are available online and the best way to financially support me as
a comedian is to buy them on Bandcamp.
The Whiteness album is the last one.
And also a live show coming up Saturday, November 6th.
I'm doing a show with Liz Winstead, the co-creator of the Daily Show at the Verde Club in San
Francisco, tickets available at talentmote.com.
We will now play you out with some lies about our premium level voluntary subscribers to
join them to make a one-off or a current contribution to keep the bugle free, independent and devoid
of advertisements going to the buglepodcast.com and click the donate button.
Having been reminded early in this issue of the bugle about the story of King Canute,
Grant Alpaw, or Alpv, or to be honest, I'm
not sure how you pronounce that surname, wonders what was really going on inside the head
of the former monarch when he supposedly tried to prove his humility to his forning
accolades by commanding the sea, not to get his tutsis wet.
Shor says Grant, he'd have known that the sea would likely be at best non-compliant and
at worst actively disobedient, but there must nonetheless have been a moment of
slight disappointment when the sea did, as predicted, splosh over his trotters. Of course he wouldn't have
shown it being a king, but at that moment he would have known his dreams of space travel were truly over.
Justine Hux wonders whether Canutz's wet toes stunt would work in today's skeptical world.
Our acne could have had his feet fully submerged and been saying, look everyone, as I said, even I, a great king,
can't tell this big wet bastard what to do, give it up for today's worthy winner, the
sea, and his online fans would still have claimed that Canute had owned the ocean, and
that his feet were actually as dry as an overcooked sand sandwich, meanwhile continues just
in, his online haters would claim he'd add both legs bitten off by a nearby shark and drown to death at least
three times. Jason Justock doubts whether in today's political
climate, canoe would even be allowed to go near the sea with so much as half a trouser leg
rolled up. Maybe if there was a potential advertising deal for waterproof footwear it might be a
gawa, but politically it's hard to see what a leader like Canute could gain from it.
Showing humility, humanity or vulnerability is absolute electoral kryptonite these days,
so I reckon Canute's advisors would just get him to put on a high-vis tab-out on a safety
helmet and be shown around some big coastal engineering project that might or might not
happen before making a statement about investing in flood defenses that he clearly doesn't
mean. Meanwhile, Jeff McGilver pitties the lot of 11th century news fans from King
Canute's time. Even a hold amongst quills from illuminating the front page story like Canute
failing to hold back the ways would struggle for public traction. In the 24-decade news cycle
they had back then, notes Jeff. If you were a news junkie, you'd have to wait for some chronicler or other to finally get around to giving a half-ass partial version
of events, sometimes hundreds of years later, and even then it would inevitably leave out
a load of stuff and make a lot of stuff up as well. I mean if you were lucky, concludes
Jeff there might be a tapestry or eventually a stained glass window, but you would in all
likelihood be dead by the time they came out.
John Bartholomew adds that if Canute were to try his C-stopping stunt today,
it would be most red news on the BBC website for about four seconds before some story about a
guy in America swallowing a motorcycle tie knocked it off, or adds John before you clicked on a
story about someone famous wearing something whilst going somewhere or got distracted by an
online quiz about whether the words cucumberance, hageographicalrafica list, impomperhensable and zincishly,
a real words or not. Besides, ads John, even if Canute did stop the C today, all people would
say afterwards was that it proves that global warming is a hoax and the sea levels are fine.
And finally, Andrew Wilmot traces a significant decline in the quality of prominent figures publicity stunts with large bodies of water.
I mean, says Andrew, just follow the graph from Moses, parting an entire sea in what was
it now about 1300 BC, dropping down to Jesus, totalling along on top of a lake in, let's
say, 30 odd AD, 2 canoe, just having a bit of a paddle a thousand years later.
And what do we have today?
Another millennium on?
Nigel Farage,
standing on a beach shouting at people in dinghies
to go home.
It shows how far we've sunk as a species.
Oh, well, such is progress.
Here endeth, this week's lies.
Goodbye.
You can listen to other programs from the Bugle,
including the Bugle, the Last Post, Tiny Revolutions,
and the Gargle, wherever you find your podcasts.
Last post, tiny revolutions and the gargle, wherever you find your podcasts.