Skip to main content

Joe Biden is a One Term President #ThatFellaDownUnder, Aukus, and Nuclear Powered Submarines for Australia

That Fella Down Under Floor Pillow by TET. Available on T-shirts and more...
That Fella Down Under Floor Pillow by TET.
Click Here for T-shirts and more...

Overwhelmed by the historic nature of announcing a trilateral security partnership with Britain and Australia, called Aukus, in which the US is going to share nuclear technology that will help Australia create a multibillion-dollar fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, President Joe Biden clearly forgot our Prime Minister's name.

Fortunately he improvised with "that fella down under" and nobody noticed his momentary brain fart. Or so he probably thought.

Far from being offended, I'm sure many Australians remember fondly a time when Scott Morrison's name was synonymous with the statement "I think he's the Treasurer?" Nobody could actually be sure as the revolving door on who was leading the country at that time was still moving at quite a pace.

"That fellow down under," Scott Morrison
"That fellow down under,"
Scott Morrison

To be fair, I'd struggle to remember the name of a man who's biggest achievement is being a doorstop on changing leadership in a party that lacked the vision to elect long running deputy leader, Julie Bishop, as their leader (only 11 votes out of 85 yeeeshh... I would've voted Liberal for sure at the next election, and I've only ever voted Liberal once in my entire life because the local candidate put in the legwork in my community).

But I digress, before Biden won the election he was quietly saying he was probably a one term president. As time has gone on the rhetoric has changed to him planning to run a second term. I tend to agree with other observers that he's only saying this so that people don't perceive his effectiveness as President to be limited by a four year deadline.

I have no doubt that, if he gets to 2024 feeling confident about his track record and energy moving forward, he'll run again. I just don't think he'll make it through a second term. I'm not entirely sure he'll make it to 2024?

I'm not saying anything as ominous as he'll be attending his own funeral before 2024, I just get the sense he's already slowing down, and was kind of hoping to be in retirement by 2024 - when he will be 81 years old. Then again Clint Eastwood is 91 and still making movies so maybe Joe Biden could manage a second term and still have a few good years of retirement? Regardless I'm calling it. He's a one term President... until he isn't.

In the meantime the Aukus partnership will see my home town of Adelaide building at least 11 or 12 nuclear powered submarines to help maintain 'peace' within the region (and in no way participating in an arms race whatsoever with China - just in case we say something the CCP can blow out of all proportion and be offended at).

So I guess now, Adelaide becomes a military target for however long it takes to build this fleet of submarines that, and Morrison, Biden, and Johnson can't stress this enough, are nuclear powered NOT nuclear armed.

Not that I think China is likely to attack anyone anytime soon despite the CCP being experts at being personally offended by words. Economically they're doing too well internationally. War of any kind would be more of a set back than a step forward.


Comments

Buy Gifts and Apparel featuring art by TET.

Popular posts from this blog

Checking in on Tesla's Optimus Robot - Managing Expectations

Last year Elon Musk announced at the first Tesla AI day the Tesla Bot, which has since been renamed the Tesla Optimus, that is basically a general purpose humanoid robot assistant with human like appearance and proportions. Elon expected they would have a working prototype by the end of 2022. While very little has been released about the project since, in June Elon took to Twitter to announce that they would delay this year's Tesla AI day until September 30 in anticipation of having a working prototype of the robot by that time. Elon Musk announces the Tesla Bot at the 2021 Tesla AI day. When I initially wrote about the Tesla Bot I noted that both Boston Dynamics and Disney Imagineering are developing robot technologies that demonstrate a streamlined, humanoid robot like Optimus is certainly possible. However with precious few details, and the occasional appearance of static, concept manikins of Tesla Optimus bots at places like the Cyber Rodeo Gigafactory Austin, Texas  (see vi...

Is AI Art 'Art'? The Say NO to AI Art Movement, and Why Human Artists Will Adapt

AI Art No T-Shirt by TET Also available on other items . Right now there is a big debate over not just whether AI art is 'art' but whether AI's are actually ripping off the work of actual human artists, without their consent, to create their images - particularly images 'in the style of' specific artists. From my own observations this debate started to get more traction when artist's signatures began appearing in the output of AI Art  image generators. Is It Art? Cool Froyd the Cat Sketch by TET. My style is very much influenced by classic Disney and WB character styles. To get some clarity on how real human artists work (of which I am one)... we, that is all of us... take influences from the art that has come before. i.e. whatever artists we like, have studied, seen etc. we are influenced by. It shows up in our work, intentionally or not. If you really study my own cartoony art style you'll see I'm heavily influenced by early Disney and Warner Bros cart...

James Gunn's Social Media Monkeys Joke Was a Highlight of His Superman Movie For Me

B efore James Gunn's Superman Movie was released there was a whole rumor going around that the movie would feature monkeys on computers trolling Superman's social media, sparking much outrage. #supersh*t. I didn't know this was even a thing until just prior to writing this article. I did a search to see if anyone had posted a clip of the monkeys scene from the movie and got pages of discourse featuring videos and articles prior to the film. Most of it from Gunn detractors (let's say) seeing it as some kind of childish swipe at them... well not them specifically but, you know, those other people who have every right to hate on anything sight unseen. Anyway, I'm not going to give even one such example a link or air because it's kind of sad watching someone devote so much commentary to a throw away gag that is absolutely a nod to James Gunn's Superman trolls.  The whole reason this post exists, is to say I loved the joke, because fourteen years ago, and I...

Boom Crash Opera Born Classic But Not Again

Boom Crash Opera are an Australian Band that reached the peak of their popularity in the mid to late nineteen eighties. They are a band that I knew about at that time but was never really excited by until they released their ill fated double album Born and Born Again in 1995 (Album cover pictured). At the time of its release I was very much into emerging Australian musical acts and was also looking out for new sounds that were different and had kind of a futuristic/electronic sound. Artists that I was buying at the time included; Swoop , Nine Inch Nails and Pop Will Eat Its Self . As well as a really interesting release by David Bowie, the concept album, Outside . Born was a fairly radical departure for Boom Crash Opera (BCO). The first single, Gimme , was often compared to the sounds of Gary Glitter, particularly his single, Rock n Roll part 2 , because of the pounding drum loops. Watch the video below. My favorite single from the album is dissemble which probably went now...

Bruce, South Australia - A Forgotten Aussie Town with Spectacular Landscape Views and Potential

The Bruce Railway Station. Now a private residence. V isiting the almost forgotten town of Bruce reminds me of visiting Silverton back in 2007, except Silverton has been revived into a kind of arts town with a very famous pub. Bruce, on the other hand seems a little too spread out, and a bit too out of the way to make a similar 'arts' kind of revival. Bruce's Pub appears to be an art studio with signs of restoration work in progress. The main part of town appears to be the Bruce railway station (now a private residence) and a pub, also privately owned and possibly was, or still is, and artist studio. Other buildings and homesteads are set fairly wide apart, and are mostly privately owned homes. You don't get much sense of being in a town as such. I'm told there are approximately 14 local residents/families? Once earmarked to be a commercial centre, Bruce fell by the wayside after successive floods and drought in its early years. Obviously the railway line is no lo...

Movie Review: Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) *No Spoilers*

I 've previously written about why I didn't see Fantastic Four in cinemas , essentially the movie being released too close to Superman  (2025), to which I gave priority. Since I have a Disney+ subscription for this exact reason (to watch Marvel movies), I've finally seen Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025). I'm not disappointed I chose Superman to see in cinemas. Set during the 1960s, Fantastic Four is a cliff notes origin story for Marvel's first family before they are thrust into solving world ending events at the hands of a god-like alien, Galactus (Ralph Ineson), who is heralded in by his assistant (I guess?), the Silver Surfer a.k.a. Shalla-Bal (Julia Garner).  While this movie is definitely a step up from previous Marvel films of late (though I'll maintain Thunderbolts  (2025) is a better film than this on a character level), it's kind of a return to the Marvel Phase One Superhero formula too. That is, set up who the heroes are, bring in the threat, ha...

Are Ion Thrusters the Future of Flying Cars? Spoiler - Probably Not But... Hover Boards... Maybe?

Undefined Technologies Ion Propulsion Drone prototype 3D concept image. You may have heard of Ion engines or, more likely, Ion thrusters. NASA uses them on their spacecraft to help maintain a craft's position or to propel them through space.  Upon hearing that you might think they're big, powerful engines, but actually they are not. They work well in the vacuum of space but, once any kind of atmosphere and gravity is involved they'd be hard pressed to launch you off the ground if you strapped four of them to your lawn chair and yelled "up, up, and away!" I am no expert on Ion thrusters - they're basically magic that science has an explanation for. If you want to know the details, The Space Techie website has a layman's explanation .  Build Your Own Ion Thruster Earth based Ion Thrusters work a bit different to their  space based cousins by Ionizing the same air that we breathe to create thrust (an effect known as Ionic-wind ).  While they sound highly soph...