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notices and features - Date published:
6:00 am, December 15th, 2025 - 50 comments
Categories: open mike -
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Open mike is your post.
For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.
The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).
Step up to the mike …
The government is promoting a transition from smoking to vaping.
Funding to those that do not agree is being cut.
https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360914942/stop-smoke-service-losing-funding-over-vape-refusal-says-clause-wasnt-original-contract
Those promoting the change say that the meat industry can be trusted to do the right thing.
Such as farmers favouring the lower emissions (methane) standards for their advantage here (unconcerned about reputational risk – being associated with non Paris Accord compliance).
https://www.thepost.co.nz/business/360915010/leaked-bdo-report-says-privatising-meat-inspections-will-drive-costs
Aroha nui me te rangimārie ki ngā whānau me ngā hunga katoa i pāngia e te parekura i Bondi.
I feel sick seeing the scenes coming out of Sydney this morning. Wishing for peace everywhere and for everyone.
This is about ordinary people going about their social lives in an ordinary way. They happen to be Jewish but are responsible for nothing that has happened… including in Gaza.
I put a huge amount of blame for these vile attacks on the misinformation and disinformation so prevalent throughout social media. It is turning gullible people into monsters.
MSM isn't any better echoing Netanyahu's comments over this which IMO are rather inflammatory.
Throwing albo's gov't under the bus for provoking it by recognising palestine no less.
I am very saddened by the deaths and injuries – in Bondi. I've been there many times.
Yes, those statements as reported in the media are inflammatory. However, the buck stops with Netanyahu and his US & UK govt enablers.
Netanyahu is a warmongering arsehole. But I think it's reasonable to ask the Australians if they have been doing the work to prevent the rise of anti-semitic sentiment and attacks. Like NZ had to around anti-muslim sentiment with the Chch attacks. We dropped the ball then, and it looks to me like anti-semitism is on the rise.
How do you propose that should have been done in Aussie prior to the Bondi attack, given the wider, incendiary, international context, largely from the actions of US & Israeli govts, and the accusations of anti-semitism towards anyone who supports Palestine and protests against the genocide in Gaza, especially on international social media?
In NZ the significant support for the Islamic communities in NZ came AFTER the Christchurch Mosque attack. And that is now happening in support of Jewish communities in NZ and Aussie, including from the main Muslim organisations eg FIANZ (Federation of Islamic Associations in NZ.), and from the similar Australia organisation.
More significantly, in both the attacks (Christchurch and Bondi), it looks like the security services dropped the ball (ie not being significantly investigating white supremacist organisations in NZ) and Aussie ASIO having one of the Bondi gunmen on their radar, but not seeing him, and his father who legally owns 6 firearms, as a threat.
From Aussie ABC:
It was bad enough that NZ security services dropped the ball, despite the Muslim communities in NZ trying to tell the government there was an issue in the years before the Chch shootings. If Australia has done the same with Jewish communities this far into FR populism then that's even more fucked up.
I'd like to see the Greens, and Swarbrick in particular, adopt peacemaking roles. It is actually possible to support Palestine, oppose the Israeli government position on Gaza, and support Jewish people and work against anti-semitism.
When I started talking about the problems with Swarbrick's partisan approach and how it would feed into anti-semitism in NZ, some people here assumed that I didn't support Palestine or that I was pro-Israeli government or something. That's how bad the polarisation is. People can't actually think.
My own position is that if we don't mend bridges, we are all heading towards the fate of Gaza. Too many people can't see how to do that, or even that peacemaking is desirable. I despair at times.
Google's AI claims that palestinian arabs are semitic, but you never see or hear the media pointing that out. Wikipedia is trying to tell everyone that the epithet is merely linguistic nowadays, but who are they kidding?
So Noah's reproductive triad is a global influence in our era, and his wife deserves even more credit for that!
next time, please provide the links that google's AI references.
The "Who's actually semitic?" thing is a red herring. The term "anti-Semitism" was invented by a German radical who felt that bluntly describing the hatred of Jews was too off-putting for ordinary Germans, so wanted something that sounded more respectable. There were few or no Arabs in Germany at the time. We should just go back to calling antisemites Jew-haters, which is what they are.
The problem goes deeper than being solved by peacemaking between local religious groups. I don't see any evidence that bringing Muslims and Jewish people closer together in dialogue in Aussie would have prevented the attack in Bondi.
Ultimately, the cause is US militaristic imperialism, interacting with the right wing Israeli govt and the UK govt in particular.
The younger Bondi shooter had affiliations with an Islamic State cell in Aussie. IS has been denounced as terrorists by most Muslim organisations globally.
I'm not sure how IS had a cell in Aussie, because it largely figures in Iraq, Syria, etc, and doesn't seem to have been very active in recent years.
It's very hard to end political polarisation on something like Gaza, when countries are just not doing enough to hold the US and Israel to account for war crimes, genocide, etc.
And social media does not help. I'm sure there's nefarious actors in there stirring up the polarisation.
We do need wider understanding that the situation in Palestine & the rest of the Middle East, is about a fight over resources, land, strategic positioning re-global power, etc, and not so much about religion or even ethnicity (eg Jewish ethnicity vs Arabs).
The US-Israel unstopped war crimes is the fuel that's creating an incendiary context within which some people (largely men) can be radicalised into armed attacks on people who have little power to change the international context.
And it is becoming increasingly clear that the world needs a strong, impartial UN and rules-based international order. The current UN, and it's feeble Security Council are just not up to the job.
I didn't say anything about peacemaking between local religious groups. I was talking about wider society, including at government level. I think the left has some work to do in this area. When I was politically active in my teens in the 80s, the peace movement in NZ was very strong, and the left was a major part of that.
Peacemaking isn't going to stop nut jobs intent on shooting people in the short term. It's a long term project. It's the only way there will be justice for Palestine. It's not a namby pamby thing either, peace activists can be hard core.
Well we could start with our own house. Like I said, it's not that hard to work on issues addressing anti-semitism while supporting Palestine. Swarbrick remains the exemplar of what not to do.
The peace movement was very strong in the UK in the 1980s when I was there – largely with a focus on nuclear disarmament.
I went to day protests several times at Greenham Common where there was a feminist peace camp. One of the women I worked with used to go to some overnighters at Greenham with her women's church group. I walked around the 11 miles of the perimeter of the US base there with some of my female work colleagues.
These groups are still active but they have done little to stop the continuing imperialistic violence of the US or that of Israel or Putin's Russia.
And currently the US is getting totally out of control, (see Venezuela, attempts to dismantle the EU) . It's a very worrying time.
I do think ending all this militaristic, imperialistic violence and the reactive guerilla armed violence is a feminist issue as it's largely driven by patriarchal regimes.
It's very worrying times. I think all kinds of non-violent protests are important, on the streets, from MPs, etc. It has been very important to stand up and say how totally barbaric the slaughtering, and demolition of resources, and communities is.
However, the solution requires more than that as it involves structural inequalities and power and resource grabs. There needs to be a structural solution nationally and internationally.
And, development of, support and of a rules-based order is essential.
Completely agree this is a feminist issue. And it is a worrying time.
Cool Greenham story. We watched from afar, so inspirational.
Are you sure? It's possible that without peace activists things would be much worse.
Agree again. Which is why I want the GP to change their position. It's not enough to protest for Palestine, we need solutions. I can't see anyway of it being resolved that doesn't centre on peace making. We know what should happen but I want to hear about the how.
No US official is in mosques every Friday telling Muslims that Jews are the offspring of dogs and apes and any Muslim who dies in the process of killing such enemies of Islam is guaranteed a place in Heaven.
Citation, please.
There's a lot to choose from.
Here's one:
https://x.com/ncole_r/status/2000175627316371528?s=20
Molly @ 8.29pm, that has nothing to do with the officials apes & dogs PM mentioned. Just a couple of religious enthusiasts.
And PM's reference has nothing to do with the brutal genocide in Gaza.
I'm not religious – don't follow any religion.
I've seen tweets by claiming that Jews are god's chosen people.
Some Christians come knocking at our doors trying to convert us. But such religious zealots from diverse religions are not promoting violence, genocide, land grabs, etc.
Oh, mea culpa, it was "offspring of pigs and apes." All you need to do is Google 'imam jews apes pigs' to get all the citations you want, but here's one: https://www.timesofisrael.com/swedish-imam-fined-for-calling-jews-the-offspring-of-apes-and-pigs/. Do the same search in YouTube to find plenty of videos.
The point being that virulent Muslim hatred of the kufar in general and Jews in particular, and practical violent application of that hatred, goes back to the beginning of Islam and is inherent in it. The US, Israel and the UK are recent arrivals in historical terms.
in what ways is this different and the same as Christian cultures?
I mean, if I was a woman in the US, I’d be seeing women’s rights as a veneer that could quite easily be lost in my lifetime.
"in what ways is this different and the same as Christian cultures?"
The same:
The different:
Some overcome the negative aspects of religion 🙂 – others cannot 🙁
Sure, some choose to ignore the bits of their religion they don't like. That's irrelevant to what the religion teaches, and many believers will follow what it teaches.
That must have been what was going through al-Ahmed's mind as he tackled and disarmed the shooter.
"Many believers"? Maybe, although I reckon only the tiniest minority of Kiwi Muslims (humans all) would have any interest in acting on the religious teachings that give you cause for concern.
Stoking division and hatred is one way to go – many often believe what they want to believe, and ignore that which doesn't suit their beliefs.
PM @6.54am
Thank you.
Times of Israel? Hmm. And about an iman from Sweden related to a protest following the closure of the Al-Aqsa Mosque after 2 Israeli police officers were killed by Palestinians.
A major radicaliser of Middle Eastern origin people in recent times is the US interfering in ME governance, plus bombings, killings and hurting local people, plus the US-UK backed, and armed Israeli govt that have treated many local Muslims brutally and illegally according to international law, taking more and more of their land.
If a powerful govt had done that to my friends, neighbours, colleagues, relatives, homeland,etc, I'd call them much stronger names than apes & dogs.
Yes, of course Muslim people have stated hatred of the oppression carried out by the more powerful & well armed oppressor govts.
See also, LPrent's recent post on the history of oppression of Palestinians since WWII.
Note the PM linked article does not say that the iman called Jewish people dogs & apes, that's how the ToI & Israeli court portrayed it. The actual quote form the iman is:
The history of relationships between Jewish and Muslim people is complex, and a quick search online shows there's differences of opinion, with some academics saying the relationship between these people fluctuated between conflict and peaceful coexistence.
But, certainly in recent years, has been strongly influenced by the US interference and attempts to establish power and control of resources in the area. And the current US govt is continuing that globally, and on steroids. I find it very scary.
Trump has targetted immigrants and visitors to the US from what he calls "Muslim infected countries" and referred to Somalis as "garbage".
With statements like that from the White House it doesn't need officials in churches to denounce Muslims. And I see plenty of Islamophobia expressed freely on X.
"Ultimately, the cause is US militaristic imperialism, interacting with the right wing Israeli govt and the UK govt in particular." I vehemently disagree and think the cause is radical islam, and religions in general.
OMG. Where to start wth that. i was just about to log off for the night.
History is not on your side.
The reverse is true. History shows that Muslim pogroms of the 19th and earlier centuries, the Hebron massacre of 1929, the war to try and prevent a Jewish state and the first couple of wars to try and destroy it took place with no involvement of the US. When it comes to violence against westerners, that's been common since the 7th Century, a thousand years before north America was settled by Europeans.
MJR fully with that. As a country New Zealand knows that pain. Peace upon them all and upon us all.
A good journalism review here: https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/12/15/media-performance-of-the-year-a-surprise-audience-sensation/
Govt no wanna fight global media corporate dudesters. Statism is on the skids. State power has been equalised by shareholders, but market forces are also oft confounded.
The guts is that copying and using media reports is human nature, so any attempt to privatise them is fraught by a determined array of opponents. Supreme courts are likely to follow the people ultimately, despite rightists preferring corporate control.
Does anyone know the state of affairs at The Daily Blog? It was 'off the air' Sunday and halfway through this Monday 15/12 is still non compis mentis? to my computer.
Off-line. The Russkies probably hit him with a cyberworm for being insufficiently respectful.
Okay. This may be complete bullshit, and I have not yet been given a link to prove it, but over on our No Minister blog a commentator has claimed that Martyn died on Sunday.
I would expect those of you on the Left to know whether or not this is true. It smells like BS to me (complete with a "Swedish" IP address), but I thought I should ask given that The Daily Blog has been offline since Sunday, which is very unusual.
Even if this were true (and there is no supporting evidence whatsoever) – the death of the site owner would not automatically shut down the website…..
Pfftt you talk like a legal talking book., I think this is the sort of response we will be getting from AI too soon. I am worrying about the person and the people and their important mission.
Whereas the baseless speculation over the health of a site owner, when the obvious answer is technical issues – is exactly the kind of idiot echo-chamber 'research' so prevalent on social media.
In the last 24 hours someone has been tweeting from Bradbury's X account.
https://x.com/CitizenBomber
Plus The Daily Blog account is now back online.
Their FB post (yesterday) says that they have temporary technical issues on the website.
https://www.facebook.com/TheDailyBlogNZ
His show is online tonight
You can ask that question in the live show comments section.
Well DF your putative? reply interesting and informative and attempts an answer to my esoterical questions. I came across a problem when confronting the idea in philosophy that everything is a fiction. But that seems just an attempt to simplify things I'm confused after reading about Kant – I thought that Noumea is a Pacific Island.
What does Kant say about reality?
According to Kant, it is vital always to distinguish between the distinct realms of phenomena and noumena. Phenomena are the appearances, which constitute the our experience; noumena are the (presumed) things themselves, which constitute reality.
Immanuel Kant, Experience, and Reality – Philosophy-A Short History3 CUNY Pressbooks Network https://pressbooks.cuny.edu › chapter › immanuel-kant-
I think we need to have better learnings so we can think about things I think. (Is that a palindrome?) By the way does anyone listen/watch Prof. Steven Keen – VG on economists – apparently lost in the mists of prediction and false reality.
Phenomena? What is a Phenomena?
A Horse – That is no phenomena.
A Bee – That is no phenomena.
A Thistle – That is no phenomena.
But a horse, sitting on a bee, sitting on a thistle! That is a phenomena.
Phenomenal Macro.
And the players around the Beehive and Education were thinking to drop Shakespeare. Because he understood it all and them in the 16th century, showed them up! That's a very lowering thought – 500 years on or about.
Here is something from Scoop that is good reading for thinking. Martin LeFevre a USA commenter, is doing some meditating looking through the Iron Net!
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2512/S00029/why-a-united-states-of-europe-has-been-a-non-starter.htm
As an American who predicted Trump would win in 2016 and 2024, I feel for Europeans now squeezed by authoritarian America on one side, and authoritarian Russia and China on the other. But from my perspective, for the EU to survive and thrive as the last democratic bloc in the world, it’s going to have to stop clinging to NATO, and eschew the growing militarism of its member states.
The transatlantic partnership that provided an economic and nuclear umbrella for Europe after World War II has been sundered. But do the loosely stitched Brussels-based confederation of 27 ‘sovereign’ nations realise, in Benjamin Franklin’s famous dictum to the separate colonial states during the American Revolution, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately?”
think of it as a blessing at grey re bradbury
Oh h, at this stage in the piece, peace, peasoup? the forays into the political poo is only carried out by the bluff warriors as a constant examination and confrontation. Each good heart to their own line -so while we can laugh at each other even criticise, if we want some country Left of the type we had expected then we embrace all thinking with positive goals and encouragement, to be tryers even when trying. So I don't go in for many amusing jibes at those with good hearts and practical ideas to take us to the future; just occasionally.
@ Karolyn and weka above
Wouldn't the rise in imperialistic violence be more helpfully and accurately attributed to capitalism rather than patriarchy
^^
Bradbury posted an hour ago.
.
LIVE 8PM TONIGHT – The End of Year Bradbury Group Christmas Special with John Tamihere, Chris Penk, Gerry Brownlee, Matthew Hooton, Chris Hipkins + TDB 3 wise men and special surprise guest – Santa Claus!
It's been one hell of an opening season for The Bradbury Group and we are ending the year with one hell of a bang.
Tonight we have:
Māori Party President John Tamihere
National Party Minister Chris Penk
Speaker of the House Gerry Brownlee
Political Commentator Matthew Hooton
Leader of the Labour Party Chris Hipkins
The Daily Blog 3 wise men panel:
Māori Blogger – Tim Selwyn
Military Blogger – Ben Morgan
Media Blogger – Professor Wayne Hope
PLUS SPECIAL GUEST: Santa Claus!
We will be covering the political highlights, lowlights and make predictions for 2026!
It's politics like you have never seen it before!
https://www.facebook.com/martyn.bradbury
Thanks joe90. I could believe that Martyn needs a break, has slept in to actual 9 am or such, even had a heart attack, so good to know a bit of hopeful info.
I made a decision to try and eschew the net ie Facebook etc, partly because everyone else and government seems to be monopolised by it, but I'm left chewing my cud at times like this. (As I think that the internet once it has taken us over, will be available to us only on a random or grace-and-favour basis, I think get used to being without it before life support is withdrawn!)