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6:00 am, July 24th, 2026 - 53 comments
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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 …
Hegemon readiness situation: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/where-are-americas-aircraft-carriers-now-ps010126
So a pentad or hexad is working for them as their geopolitical force field. Reagan's Star Wars remains aspirational dream – since Clinton cancelled SDI in '93 rightist warriors have been pretending it never happened. I asked Google "Which US aircraft carriers are currently vulnerable to drone attack?" It replied that all are vulnerable
To direct a swarm of drones requires design, planning, engineering, and operating capacity and systems. Count the essentials to get the level of integration requisite for success. Like the legendary kid in the car asks, "Are we there yet?"
What a load of nonsense. A mid-range strike drone provides a warship with an air defense targeting solution roughly equivalent in performance to a 1930s biplane flying in a straight line.
Google speaks with forked tongue due to white-man programmers? Could be, since it also makes this claim:
I presume it would respond that there's a difference between a state of being vulnerable and a track record of success in downing attack drones…
https://spectrum.ieee.org/autonomous-drone-warfare
This article from Mar 2026 covers the rapid scale-up of drone system development pushed by the Ukraine war. It's clear drone warfare represents a paradigm shift in warfare. Swarms of drones released from stealth submarines are not that far off.
As in population pacification and terrorisation without using troops in Gaza. Where facial recognition from Palantir and Oracle tech plus piloted drones carry out pinpoint assasination of medical staff, journalists and a nation's planners and doers, and of babies and children.
As in the Ukraine war, where semi-autonomous drones slip past defenses to wreck all sorts a havoc deep into enemy territory, at thousandths of the cost of a single missile.
For many of us, we’re only just getting it. There is no Smith’s Dream bush resistance in such a world.
A thought goes through my soft tissues at top and it wonders if large scale drone attack leashed with faulty settings might veer off to hit non-combatants in the area – and they would be accepted collateral results.
If Palestine being decimated so cruelly, can be countenanced we see the possibilities of modern amorality sending the evolution of our society soaring high measured on an inverted bell curve. This will be a quite exciting experience for those who at present get their thrills throwing themselves off high mountains with some fairy wings behind to break and direct their fall. They can indulge their derring-do with this experimentally on others bodies and lives, and live safe themselves.
In fact, scroll back through OSINT Radar over the past few weeks and you will see damage videos with very little veering off in Ukraine's drone attacks. Ukraine is after Russia's war infrastructure. In Crimea they have targetted trucks, but not deliberately to attack civilians. The aim is not civilian terror, but paralysis of supplies and fuel. That’s demoralising enough for the Russian population.
Russia, on the other hand, is clearly after terror by carrying out civilian attacks, recently in Kyiv and other cities. It has in the past attacked cultural sites, and it retains troops around Chernobyl and controls the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
I'm zero a war junkie, but been dipping into OSINT Radar. To give an idea of the scale at which drone attacks can be run, the image below shows today's drone attack by Ukraine on inside-Russia targets. (Unsure if endpoints of attack are shown). Now think of warships as launch-pads.
Ukraine has been running such attacks in a 40-day offensive, and has reached far into Russian territory.
Vids at their targets show drones can arrive within a minute of each other, suggesting rapid serial launches.
Ukraine has hit infrastructure in occupied Donbas and Crimea: the second is without much power, water or cell services. It's hit the majority of Russia's oil processing plants. Wheat ready to harvest is falling to the ground because there is no fuel. Ukraine is now is attacking the superwarehouses of Russia's equivalent of Amazon, which also are logistics centres for war materiel.
https://bsky.app/profile/osintradar.bsky.social
Gives streaming a whole new meaning.
Along with overt war we get covert:
You can see potential to scale this up, to un-plug a state from the global system. Sovereignty comes into question then. A state may need to design for redundancy, to secure several ways of access to global networks…
Welcome to assymetric and hybrid warfare!
Ebb tide on capitalism:
Only a fool would be unable to read a public antipathy toward the establishment in all this, but the mood swing is likely to manifest in diverse ways. Where lies the truth?
We get some kind of clue here:
So the truth is still out there somewhere, despite being somewhat chimerical…
Instead of settling for rw commentary on Mamdani's messaging, why not the horse's mouth? He had a few words in a recent interview with Jon Stewart.
Mamdani defined democratic socialism in the mayoralty as "…making the choice every day to fight for working people. It means you believe that everyone in your city deserves to live a dignified life, no matter how much money is in their pocket."
And "If you and I were to introduce the idea of a building that lends out books for free, we would be slandered in the same way that so many new ideas are slandered today, and yet that's the library. The same thing with the fire department, the same thing with public schools."
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nffK_ji57X0
When asses run the shop.
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https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/519654/half-of-hospitals-critical-it-hardware-out-of-date-government-warned
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/536188/health-nz-s-plan-to-stop-or-defer-136-it-projects
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/health/776311/hospital-it-problems-the-result-of-years-of-under-investment-experts-say
My wife works at North Shore Hospital in admin.
The sacked most of the IT staff. Then a week later rolled out a software upgrade!
Any issues take days to get resolved, not exactly helpful for productivity.
No worries, just go back to clipboards, pencils and paper.
To discern geopolitical metapatterns, you count key elements:
So that command & control troika forms a system with a set of minions (soldiers) collectively constituting a 4th element in military operations. Any control system is likely to exhibit a similar pattern of hierarchy. Don't tell anyone in the education system because ignorance is bliss. Jolting them into reality would be unkind!
Who's going to tell Dennis?
In relation to this "Zelenskyy set new priorities for the military leadership: strengthen offensive operations, plan new operations behind enemy lines, develop the army, and increase the capabilities of Ukraine’s Armed Forces."
https://bsky.app/profile/osintradar.bsky.social/post/3mragolfjas2s
Zelenskyy does not strike me as an authoritarian leader. This personnel change is due to a change in war priorities. I guess that Ukraine, after this huge push to destroy Russia's war infrastructure, and after busy times with governments providing arms support, including Poland supplying fighter jets, which it has been lacking, now wants to reclaim Crimea and Dombas. Therefore, Zelenskyy is rotating his top war staff to suit.
If you want to get the measure of the man, I recommend The Rest is Politics interview with Zelenskyy 3 months ago.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-uCjUbVu5aY
The Coalition has never been able to rest on its laurels because there aren’t any. Thus, they resort to distraction, deflection, diversion, and damnation of ghosts of the past. Hopefully soon, they’ll rest on the ashes of their destruction in despair.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/07/24/after-970-days-in-power-the-ghost-of-labour-still-consumes-the-govt/
Some commenters here have habits that’re similar, grasping for anything from Douglas, to John Key, to Helen Clark, to Ardern, to then run into their latest roadblock without warning cones that’s so small they’ll easily overshoot off the cliff’s edge into the abyss of nothingness.
That is a good article. To counter this Labour must relentlessly attack the CoC government on its atrocious record on issues such as:
child poverty
static or falling real wages
unemployment
cost of living
ending state house building
climate charge/numerous measures taken to worsen NZ’s position on this
borrowing more than Labour did for tax giveaways to the rich
racism (the Treaty and endless other snide attacks on Maori)
the ferries debacle
fast track being used to benefit their rich mates while stuffing up landscape and communities
and so on and on and on and on
..I forgot the damage to the public health service and its privatisation under the CoC
BG, also cancelling equity of pay for women.
Cancelling the ferries.
Egregious failures and ideological cruelty towards the disabled.
The group who have done well under this Government are the top 5% who have increased their wealth by 30% + while the bottom (feeders?) half have been made poorer or unemployed or part of the business failures .
oops yes pay equity should have been on the list high up….sorry. (I had the ferries listed)
Top of the list from where I sit for a few reasons.
It was passed under urgency, illustrating the lack of respect for the law making process.
Tied to that is that it was introduced by van Velden, from a party that talks a great game about making good legislation, enabled it's passing without a Regulatory Impact Statement.
It shrank the economy. The billions put into the hands of wahine Maori, Pasifika, carers and other underpaid workers, would have been spent. This is a blight on Nicky No Boats.
It was “a flagrant and significant abuse of power” according to the People's Select Committee.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/587709/pay-equity-law-changes-flagrant-and-significant-abuse-of-power-former-mps-say
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/560257/pay-equity-amendment-bill-passes-under-urgency
Reading about the NZer stuck in a Thai jail, I wondered if it was a shakedown by the police or customs and he has been put in jail becos he refused to pay a bribe.
Unfortunately countries like Thailand take a rather dim view of theft.
He decided to take something that wasn't his instead of just leaving it where it was or giving it to airport authorities. Sadly for him the consequences for petty theft in Thailand are severe (even more so in an airport).
For those who would enjoy understanding more of Asian culture through their reading, I recommend author Colin Cotterill (with aged Dr Siri Paiboun and wife, crime fighters) who brings Laos and Thailand to the fore in his stories, lives in the area, knows the ambience of the society. His books have intriguing titles ie Curse of the Pogo Stick, Grandad, There's a Head on the Beach, Killed at the Whim of a Hat. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Cotterill
We have a lot to learn about Asian countries, now we are in an uneasy position of trying to be real between Asia and the UK/USA/Australian nexus.(This link parallels what we need to do – find a way to join cultures so we can move between them more easily. After all we are clever monkeys!)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/zero-roadkill-as-amazon-canopy-bridges-secure-15000-crossings/
Do you watch the Border Security type programs?
The ones that appeal to our stereotypes about 'others' and reinforce them.
Sir Ian explains why NZF posturing on India is wrong:
His vision of "a pathway through India to the world" seems valid to me. China prefers to use a belt & a road, yet same thing if you hone in on the underlying principle. All 3 are metaphors for medial function, which usually takes the form of transmission from here to there – typically info/energy flows. Often in the form of products & services.
Sir Ian ignores a lot of the resistance to the FTA and talks up the aspiration (akin to Paul Henry's vibe). Aspiration that lacks a plan, which is chronically lacking, is just a wish, as is pointed out in the comments.
The further negative impact on workers doesn't get a mention.
Spare a thought for this poor chap, spent $40,000 to get a job in a… pizza parlour. Someone here recently commented that very few worker expolitation cases get reported let alone prosecuted.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/361010472/pizza-business-charged-worker-40000-secure-job-and-visa
NZ is Back on Track, growing the poverty trap – U Can't Touch This.
Luxon, certain Nash is a good'un.
“I'm sure he’s learned his lesson,” Luxon said in September. “I personally worked with him in the past, in my former life, and found him good to work with.”
What went wrong, Luxy?
You were so sure!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/361010260/stuart-nashs-presented-christopher-luxons-great-chance-look-charge
It just shows that Luxon’s mythical manager skills never materialised or that his alleged skills simply aren’t transferable to governance and politics.
Or even follicular management.
But doesn’t that give him an aura of aerodynamic efficiency and cool productivity?
When I see a field where nothing grows, I know it's because the subsoil is lacking in essential nutrients and, well, life!
Sounds like astroturf.
Our msm news media gets framed as an influence tetrad here:
Seems vital to get personality up front:
Well, that was the Cronkite model, so they invoke recycling (accidentally). Yet there's more where that came from:
Thinking big is a '70s model, finding a way is evolutionary psych, learn by doing applies mimesis, god loves a trier, and Trumpian ethos (failure is good) is a potent pentad. I wonder who taught them to summarise the essentials in a sentence so niftily.
Thinking big, poof, if RNZ only had to keep to a task of being reliable, understandable, providers of news and culture and bugger when the other pseudos turning news-to-porn gathered in the vacuous!
If no-one or lowering numbers showed that Radionz wasn't getting to a majority of adult and teenage ears and minds that would be an indicator that they needed to up their approach, but damn this competition! We have no competition to the overruling hegemoney, running for hedge funds, to the point where many of us are sleeping under hedges!
How's that for bright, scintillating prose? How can we get through to the ossified and the vacuous?
But WH Auden was driven to trash his lovely words such as these, as he no doubt became sere and chastened by society's dastardly choices. https://www.outstandingpoems.com/wha-sept.htm
W.H. Auden * 1907-1973 * "September 1, 1939"
There is no such thing as the State
Ah, the ole hippie dream. So that's where it came from! Statists vs poets would be an interesting new dimension of the culture wars. Words as operating constraints or word-play as infotainment with spell-binding as link-thread betwixt & between…
DF don't jump to such a firm opinion. To me he was saying that the State is a manmade artifact, starting with no solidity just made of words, opinions, ideas, decisions. Compare it to a tree which exists outside any of those 'woids'. The state of our State shows it to be an insubstantial thing. The USA has over 50 states in different forms and stages dependent upon their reception of the current brew of elixir being circulated.
Well okay, I hear you, but I dunno if it's realistic to discount the influence of mental artifacts, schemes & schema, plans, formulae, designs, procedures, recipes, etc. If a state weren't more substantial than a concept, democracy would be irrelevant, huh? No point voting…
This article describes the cause of New Zealands Malaise extremely well.
The Productivity Gap is a National Fantasy
That is a longish read but hang in there because it's a substitute for the actual Productivity Commission which used to be our thinking voice on improving our lot. But National killed off.
Together with killing off The Callaghan Institute, public service innovation, public research, universities, Fonterra's 100 years-old-dairy brands, and so much more …
… in favour of more cheap immigration, and overseas multimillionaires buying our houses.
Book yourself 25 minutes of reading and thinking this one is worth it as a reasonable rant.
@ Dennis Frank ^^
And you read Jack.
https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/dismissal-ukraines-defence-minister
https://www.rusi.org/people/jack-watling
Okay, I get it. In-crowd squabble. Good source, eh? https://www.rusi.org/about/our-heritage/rusi-history
Abstemious buggers then. Incorruptibles. Staunch. Martinets. Holding a flame for the Empire, long after it evaporated.
Bit late to invade Europe, but worth a try. Audacity is a good stance to use, so their lunge for the heart of the beast will play well in the hinterland…
I didn't know Britain had had a civil war in the early 20th century, so that's a bit of an eye-opener. The cover-up was obviously so successful that it worked properly…
You can close that eye again or read Jack Watlin’s PhD Thesis.
https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/40372/1/Watling,%20J.,%20Attitudes%20Towards%20Civil%20War%20Among%20British%20Officials,%201900-1924.pdf
Cool, and I particularly like this bit:
Any lens which elaborates your insight is helpful, particularly to an agent with an agenda. The effect can be kaleidoscopic!
Synchronic crises signalling intrinsic interrelations via that 3-level contextual matrix also seems worth contemplating, insofar as their influences on decisions motivate players in the game.
007
To paraphrase you DF (I think?). We're all going to hell in a handbasket. The different ways that Ireland and Russia are going to hell are paved with good intentions.
I think that NZAO would be better advised to follow Netherlands (Holland) thinking than the countries we presently are meshed with. This I like:
https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/2026-07-22/ty-article/.premium/netherlands-to-ban-import-of-goods-from-israeli-settlements-in-west-bank/0000019f-8633-d076-a39f-9f3fe9330000
If one thing the CoC has done in the last nearly 3yrs that shows it's colour's really clearly, it's the massive landlord tax breaks while child poverty and homeless numbers soar.
I really love the symbolic and governance positioning of Prime Minister Burnham opening a "Number 10 North" so soon into his rule.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live/2026/jul/24/andy-burnham-labour-no-10-north-uk-politics-latest-news-updates
Even after the Auckland amalgamation, central govenrment in New Zealand never gave the 34% or 1.8 million people of Auckland the respect they deserved by holding so much as one full Cabinet meeting there.
Every government should.