An Early Christmas.
Christian tradition dictates Christmas falls on the 25th of December. This year though, if we simply view Christmas through a lens of ‘good things happening’, then Christmas is coming early.
International
us politics
Whither Warren?
Is it too early to call negative odds on Elizabeth Warren’s candidacy?
Never Trump
There is tremendous momentum within the Democratic Party right now with recent gains in Kentucky and Louisiana and Virginia. But in the battle to get rid of Trump they can still blow it.
Just another typical week in US politics
The last week in US politics has seen the Trump Impeachment Hearing go public, Trump confidant Roger Stone convicted of lying to Congress, Alex Jones ask for the Presidential pardon to be used to free him, and details revealed of multiple meetings between Trump and Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas who are charged with campaign rule violations. Trump says he does not know them. Just another week in the Trump Presidency …
Maybe Nancy was right
There is a very good chance that the upcoming impeachment trial of
President Donald Trump will turn into one massive campaign launch –
one which significantly increases his chances of winning a second
term.
Twitter announces end to paid political advertising
Jacinda Ardern’s campaign against harmful social media has had an effect with Twitter deciding to ban political advertising on the grounds that internet advertising brings significant risks to politics.
Unapologetic populism?
A Wall Street broker has accused Democratic nominee Elizabeth Warren of unapologetic populism in her desire to help workers, the environment, those with lower incomes, and women and minorities as if these are bad things.
British Justice tortures Assange
Craig Murray reports on the horror of Julian Assange’s treatment by British so-called “justice.” Read it and don’t weep. You can see why Murray resigned from the UK foreign service; their diplomacy is just as bad.
Burning down the house
Why is it that conservative politicians throughout the world engage in rhetorical attacks on laws that in many situations actually serve important purposes?
Elizabeth Warren on Facebook and the US presidential election
“They’re allowing Trump to spend over $1 million a week right now for ads on their platform—including ones that air the same lies that TV stations won’t.”
China independence day
October 1st is the National Day of the People’s Republic of China. They like to make it a big day, bigger than the […]
The Race to be the Democratic Party’s Presidential nominee
Breaking it down.
Legitimate target, daft war
The war that Saudi Arabia and its allies has been waging against the Houthi side in the civil war in Yemen took a […]
Trump sacks Bolton – oil price nosedives!
This has been rumoured for some time now. It’s good news – peace now has a chance, as Trump has woken up to the fact that a shooting war would not be good for his re-election. Also Bolton’s hard-line strategy was failing everywhere.
The Far Right’s Winning Narrative Superiority
Why is the right winning so many elections?
NRA: a international terrorist organisation
I was joyful to see that the San Francisco board of supervisors has declared what I have long thought; that the National Rifle Association in America has for many years been acting as a terrorist organisation. We should add them to our register of terrorist organisations as well.
Missile test shows US bad faith on INF Treaty
US’s recent test of an intermediate range missile shows that the reasons given for its withdrawal from the INF treaty were spurious. It also shows up the gullibility of our MFAT, who voted against a Russian proposal for dialogue late last year in the UN on the grounds that it was a “sidestep.”
The thoughts of Matt King on climate change
National MP Matt King has been caught posting climate change denial material on his facebook page.
RIP David Koch
David Koch, the man possibly most responsible for the growth of climate change denialism, has died at the age of 79 as the Arctic melts and the Amazon burns.
The sociopathology of sanctions
Autonomous sanctions imposed on Iran and Venezuela by the US are expressly designed to drive whole populations into poverty to bring about regime change. They are sociopathic. Based on its values, The National Party wants to make such sanctions New Zealand’s policy. Extraodinary!
Don’t mention the fascism
We are frogs in the pot.
Nuclear chickens coming home?
The Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty between the United State and Russia signed by Reagan and Gorbachev in 1987 formally ended on August 2nd. On Sunday the new US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper dined privately with Winston Peters. Before and during his trip to the Pacific, Mark Esper called for placement of intermediate-range US missiles in Asia.
Dear America Antifa is not the problem
America has suffered two mass shootings of civilians in the past couple of days with at least one being committed by a white supremacist. But the Republican Party is fixated on Antifa, a loose organisation that has been implicated in no mass shootigns.
Peters, Pence, Pompeo and the Rapture
Hamish Rutherfurd writes that Winston Peters’ trip to the US to secure a trade deal is far-fetched and a waste of time. I agree. But if Peters has his agenda, so will Mike Pompeo, Mike Pence, John Bolton and Dan Coats have theirs. He was scheduled to meet them all. No wonder the 9th floor are worried.
The strait of Hormuz
With the seizing of an oil tanker by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz today as a presumably tit-for-tat escalation for British seizing an Iranian ship, and the U.S. Navy harassing their coastline, we are in for a senseless and dangerous political escalation.
Is POTUS up to the job?
A senior Psychologist thinks that POTUS Donald Trump is not up to doing the job. And the UK Ambassador to the US says that the Trump White House is uniquely dysfunctional and inept.
5G flip flop
Six weeks after banning China’s leading tech firm Huawei from contracts with U.S. businesses, U.S. President Donald Trump appears to have reversed it after meeting China’s Premier Xi Jinping.
The strange case of the missing Oregon Republican State senators
Republican State Senators in the state of Oregon have headed for the hills and are being protected by a local nut job militia in an effort to thwart the democratically elected majority from doing passing a law to address climate change.
FiveEyes on our elections
Andrew Little’s letter to the Select Committee on election interference puzzled me – it seemed to be out of the blue and not particularly relevant to our system. Then I read about a meeting on the Gold Coast last year and it became clear as to why – FiveEyes pressure.
Three disturbingly different views on climate change
In the same week that Donald Trump said that the American climate was the cleanest climate, Ian Dunlop, former chairman of the Australian Coal Association, has warned of massive social consequences ranging from increased religious fervour to outright chaos. And UK Chancellor Philip Hammond is questioning if remedial action is affordable.
Government under FiveEyes
Australian Federal Police chief Neil Gaughan told media after raiding the ABC that “if police did not investigate the leaking of classified information, Australia would no longer be entrusted by FiveEyes partners with intelligence that saves lives.” FiveEyes didn’t save Muslim lives in Christchurch.
Despatches from Surrealistan
London feels surreal. Joined the demo against Trump, in town to see the Queen, see off the Prime Minister, and plunder the NHS in the name of ‘free trade.’ Saw the play “The Last Temptation of Boris Johnson,” which might be prescient.
The Coming Global Economic Slowdown and New Zealand
With the United States – China trade war well underway, the sick chaos of Brexit is shrinking the U.K. economy and slowing much of Europe’s economy, and smaller economies such as that of Mexico in the crosshairs through further politically manufactured trade disputes, the second half of this year looks for New Zealand nowhere near as rosy as the first half.
Billionaire pledges to pay off class of 2019’s student loans
Billionaire investor Robert F. Smith was invited to give the graduation speech at Morehouse College, his old school, and stunned everyone when he deviated from prepared speech notes.
Auf Wiedersehen Iraq
The Germans and the Dutch have suspended training Iraqi soldiers citing increased tensions in the area. What do they know that Ron Mark doesn’t? Cabinet is due to make a decision shortly on our long-planned decision to withdraw, and he seems to want us to stay. Labour’s policy at the election was to withdraw, it should prevail.
Huawei go again
Mike Pompeo has just been in Britain trying to bully the UK government out of using Huawei for its 5G network. He and other officials have been heavying countries around the world. Its not working, but one thing is clear. It makes GCSB’s head Andrew Hampton’s assertion that its decision to reject Huawei was independent is simply not believable.