We need to talk about Islam
A post in which Ad responds to TRP’s recent post suggesting that all religion should be banned by suggesting that religious tolerance is a necessary feature of a liberal democracy.
International
Drumpf LIVE!
Establishment candidate and billionaire Donald J Trump is delivering his acceptance speech at the RNC. It’s chockfulla cliches, but hey …
YOOO ESSS AYYYY, YOOO ESSS AYYYY!
NZ wins nuclear war
Nothing like a good clickbait headline eh!
Why do they hate us?
658 deaths due to terrorism in Europe and the Americas. 28,031 terrorism deaths in the Middle East and rest of the world.
Has Hillary Clinton hired Bernie Sanders’ social media team?
Overnight Hillary Clinton’s campaign team has released a video that not only elegantly mimics and repeats the 1964 classic campaign ad “Confessions of a Republican” but involves the same actor who for exactly the same reasons has decided he cannot support the Republican candidate for the presidency.
Who said it better?
Michelle Obama or Melania Trump? The Republication convention descends further in to farce.
Refining an existing capacity to make the rubble bounce and bounce
UK Labour continues to embarrass progressives throughout the world after a majority of MPs voted to support renewal of the Trident program.
Anti-Corbyn media bias
“When a democracy cannot rely on its press to provide its citizens with information about political parties that meets the basic standards of fairness, then we can expect a political process that is equally unbalanced.”
London School of Economics study.
National denies/admits Chinese trade reprisals threatened
Yesterday this was the story: Speaking shortly after his arrival in Indonesia for a three-day trade trip, Key sought to pour cold water […]
Republican circus
The Republican convention circus is under way, a four day parade of ignorance and prejudice.
How to collapse liberal society
Liberal society is in reverse in many parts of the world. What do we do to arrest this?
China trade realpolitik
We can’t afford to be using sub-standard steel. We shouldn’t have to buckle to pressure to do so, but we have no leverage at all.
Shinbone Star: Bloody Hell
Reprinted with permission from John Palethorpe’s blog Shinbone Star where he analyses the current situation of the British Labour Party and analyses what happens if Jeremy Corbyn wins, and what happens if he loses.
BREXIT Sitrep
BREXIT has brought into sharp relief the cleavages in British politics. The ordinary members of the UK Labour Party are consolidating their take back of Labour from entitlement minded Blairite Third Way careerists.
God Botherer
God’s been a bit of a let down recently. Is it time for Him to retire?
Military coup underway in Turkey: Erdo-gone?
The attempted military coup appears to have been quickly and effectively put down by pro-Erdogan forces.
National’s Rodeo.
The fiction that National is doing a competent job of managing the economy is entirely due, now that the boom from Dairy and Christchurch rebuilding is ending, to immigration and rising house prices.
They are now riding a bolting horse that they cannot dismount, caused by their own inaction.
Nice attack
As is being widely reported, a truck has been used as a weapon to kill around 60 people in Nice, as crowds celebrated Bastille Day. Many shots were fired and the driver is dead. Motives are not yet known, and (at time of writing) no group has claimed responsibility.
Democracy vs efficiency
Events in England really highlight the different processes of the two main parties. The Conservatives have completed their leadership transition, Labour’s contest has barely begun. Which model is best?
Vote for Helen!
Yesterday 10 of the candidates for the UN’s top job faced off in debate. For the first time this was a public event, hosted and broadcast by Al Jazeera.
Corbyn is in
With a rush of sanity to the head, the UK Labour Party has ruled that Jeremy Corbyn is automatically on the leadership ballot, as a straightforward reading of the rules suggests.
Farewell Cameron – doo, doo, doo, doo!
Of some politicians it can be said that nothing in his career became him like the leaving it. We won’t even manage that for David Cameron.
America
Eagle vs Window Pane
So Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership has been openly challenged.
Dallas
5 law enforcement officers shot dead in Dallas. The city’s worst day in 5 decades.
Helen Clark on Iraq
Thirteen years ago Helen Clark said despite intense pressure that the threshold for the use of force against Iraq had not been met. How right she was.
Jeremy Corbyn apologises for Blair and Bush’s Iraq War
Jeremy Corbyn’s full response to the Chilcot response. Corbyn says that the Iraq war “was an act of military aggression launched on a false pretext” and that he apologises for it on behalf of Labour, who was in Government at the time.
The Chilcot report
The Chilcot report is out and it’s more damning of the decision to invade Iraq than expected.
Clinton off the hook
The FBI is not recommending that prosecutors seek charges against Clinton. Her pre-ordained path to the Whitehouse just got a lot smoother.
Chilcot report – Blair’s bad week
Even before its release the Chilcot report is drawing attention to the hubristic warmongering that will forever stain Blair’s time in office.
Farexit
UKIP leader Nigel Farage has announced that he is standing down as leader. Although he will continue to be a Member of Parliament of the very institution he campaigned for the UK to leave.
The Chrematistic Camel
So this post is about a suite of frameworks not to adopt if the goal is to avoid 2 degrees of global warming.
Aussie – governed by a lame duck
I suspect we are looking at a lame duck government in our biggest trading partner. While we wait for their next early election, we’re likely to see either not much happening at all, or a series of quixotic gestures aimed at bolstering uncertainty and reinforcing the need for “stable government”. (updated)
Aussie Aussie Aussie, oi oi oi …
Updating post to cover the Australian election results.
Morning update: the Electoral Commission has Labor leading in 72, 67 ahead for the Libs, with 7-9 seats still in play. The Greens and others may have up to 5 seats. Pauline Hanson and Derryn Hinch have hoovered up the redneck vote and will both be elected to the senate. Counting has stopped for the time being.
UK Labour now what?
What will happen to the UK Labour Party? The chances of a split into a pro Corbyn activist based and Union based Labour Party and a MP dominated careerist party appear to be very high.
C’mon Aussie C’mon!
The Ocker Election is coming down to the wire. The polls are neck and neck and the senate looks set to be a mess. Labor need 19 seats and the Liberal party needs a miracle in the upper house. C’mon, Aussie, C’mon!
Update: Early results have the coalition down, but not down enough. Currently 57-56 to the coalition. 76 needed.
Update 2: Labor doing unexpectedly well in Queensland, Nick Xenephon wins in SA.
Update 3: Lib deputy Julie Bishop is reduced to calling Labor “liars” over Medicare. The fear is showing.
Update 4: Coalition 62. Labor 60. West Australia about to start reporting.
Update 5: Coalition 69, Labor 62, Greens 1, Others 4.