Media Sprays and Leaves.
Fed up of being fed bullshit just so your opinions can be nurtured for harvesting? I am.
Media
Propaganda
Then and Now.
Claims that “Russian bots” helped Labour during the 2017 UK General Election…
The Schnews.
Apologies to the Schnews that was actually a pretty good wee publication that came out of Brighton, England.
Grotesque.
People from Douma have been to The Hague and spoken of their experiences on the night of a supposed chemical attack by Syrian forces.
North Korea
When enemies are all around…
The right to free speech
This week has seen a number of examples where right wing and religious men have said stupid things and then had their statements defended on the basis that free speech should be protected.
Bullshit upon Bullshit.
Doctors being intimidated.
Photoshop Wars?
The Independent’s Robert Fisk reports from Douma, where he interviewed one of the clinic doctors who said that the images that outraged Trump, May and Macron were real, but the cause was oxygen starvation from dust, not poisonous gas. Could it be that misleading images started a bombing war? What might this say about Western values?
Compassion?
May claimed she couldn’t wait until Monday before unleashing compassion on Syria on Friday night. Which brought a line from this to mind….
The Humanity.
Apparently “this lot” really do care about people.
What’s the Game?
What the hell are Macron, May and Trump playing at?
Is New Zealand really as ‘racist as fuck’?
I am inclined to believe that there are at least some New Zealanders who are as “racist as fuck”.
Labour speaks up.
Partial transcript of a speech as reported in “The Independent”
Gaza
Is it the new by-word for silence?
The Largesse
April the first and second mark the days when those receiving entitlements receive a yearly increase in line with the CPI and the governments increase to Accommodation Supplement also comes into effect. So what does it all mean for those receiving entitlements?
Evidence-based foreign policy
In the second stage of a false flag attack, facts go out the window and the sole issue becomes “are you for us or against us.” Our media and National Party politicians are well into this stage in the Skripal affair. But as questions mount and skeptics proliferate from all sides, Jacinda Ardern and Winston Peters may well be wiser than media advisers by not following blindly the western herd. 26 countries is not the whole world. Update: Porton Down unable to establish Novichok of Russian origin.
The manufacturing of a narrative
The past week has seen the Herald focus on issues concerning Clare Curran to the almost exclusion of anything else, including the perilous state of our Health system and Kim Dotcom’s successful appeal against the last Government’s breach of his rights of privacy.
Love war, fear and hate.
Political power doesn’t respond well when those who are meant to be invisible decide to be visible.
Democracy, Faux Democracy and Terror.
Facebook, Putin, poisoning and Ghouta have all given fairly extensive media coverage of late. Nothing much on Afrin. Afrin has just fallen to terrorists backed by Turkey.
Update: the photo used for this post is of the The Queer Insurrection and Liberation Army (TQILA), who are part of the International Revolutionary People’s Guerrilla Forces fighting in Syria.
Sanctions. Weapons of War.
When elite’s tussle, shouldn’t we look after us and ours?
Russian to Judgment
The possible poisoning of Sergei Skripal and the consequent hysteria have all the signs of another false flag operation, as we saw before the second American invasion of Iraq. The chain of circumstantial evidence has more holes in it than a swiss cheese, and while attempted murder (if that is what it is) is a criminal act Winston Peters and Jeremy Corbyn are sane voices calling for evidence before any attribution still less action.
Facebook Bullshit
A very cursory glance at Facebook, Palantir Technologies, Cambridge Analytica, AggregateIQ, click bait, targeted ads…and what the hell is the FBI playing at?
Hatchets and Knives.
A little on the (predictable) fallout from Emily Thornberry’s BBC Radio 4 interview.
UK Intelligence
From the Opposition Labour Party, a rare instance of common sense and intelligence on display with regards foreign relations.
Let’s stop kidding ourselves.
The “Adapting to Climate Change in NZ” report.
Ardern’s Manus Island offer
The Australian Government has this week been attempting to undermine Jacinda Ardern’s humanitarian request that the refugees on Nauru Island should be treated humanely.
TPP, Corporate Coup or “Free trade”?
However. TPP ( The trans Pacific partnership) is NOT a “Free trade” agreement. It is an attempt to cement in corporate power, to override inconvenient local Democracy, and collect rents from local communities in perpetuity.
Since when was giving large companies extra rights in law, and rights to extract even more economic rents, “Free trade”?
Turns out voters were pretty chill about it
This coming digital war
This is the first Labour Government of the digital age. How progressives respond to social media attacks may be crucial to its success.
“Reporters”.
“Once upon a time, in a world far away” we had these people called “reporters”.
An honourable profession, who considered it their job to keep the public accurately and completely informed.
Vote for compassion and competence
National has created the perception that it is a better manager of Government than Labour and is suggesting that it is more compassionate. Neither claim is true.
The Bullshit
National up, NZ Labour down, Greens dead? Really!?
To REALLY help drug addicts
This government will know that 50,000 people already want help with drug addiction but cannot get it. They have had 9 years to give a shit. This “bash the beneficiary drug addict” is a ridiculous response to a real, and growing, health problem.
WINZ and Super Scandals
Here’s the scandal.
Metiria for PM
Yes. Quite seriously.
US Leaves Kansas.
I guess it’s kind of hard to anchor something that’s all up in the air…