International

Categories under International

Unrelentingly negative

Written By: - Date published: 11:19 am, September 26th, 2019 - 29 comments

National has chosen to attack Jacinda Ardern on her trip to New York for doing too much and not enough at the same time.  It seems to be a pattern.

BoJo cornered

Written By: - Date published: 1:03 am, September 25th, 2019 - 75 comments

Lady Hale and the UK Supreme Court have torpedoed Boris Johnson’s cunning plan to prorogue Parliament. His request to the Queen was “unlawful, void, and of no effect.” Her Maj will not be pleased. Johnson is now boxed in – ask for an extension to Brexit, or resign.

 

Fairy tales of eternal economic growth

Written By: - Date published: 8:13 am, September 24th, 2019 - 67 comments

Greta Thunberg has spoken at the UN Climate Change summit and has warned the world that it is stealing the dreams and hopes of young people through its failure to address climate change.

Lying : the preferred denier behavior

Written By: - Date published: 3:45 pm, September 22nd, 2019 - 26 comments

In a striking example of the typical climate change denier, the “Australian Young Coal Coalition” released a photo bemoaning the mess left by friday’s climate change strike rally in Hyde Park. Pity that it was a lying fake. Being put out by climate change deniers, of course it was just a lie. That is all […]

Macron speech – The end of Western hegemony

Written By: - Date published: 2:09 am, September 19th, 2019 - 21 comments

France President Macron’s remarkable and wide-ranging speech to French ambassadors after France hosted the recent G7 conference in Biarritz is well worth a read. He lays it all out – so much better than Trump’s tweets or BoJo’s bluster.

China, Climate Conference, and New Zealand

Written By: - Date published: 7:44 am, September 18th, 2019 - 4 comments

At the United Nations Climate Action Summit next weekend the question may be asked what would happen if China stopped buying Australian coal?

The Race to be the Democratic Party’s Presidential nominee

Written By: - Date published: 7:35 am, September 17th, 2019 - 38 comments

Breaking it down.

Legitimate target, daft war

Written By: - Date published: 10:04 am, September 16th, 2019 - 30 comments

The war that Saudi Arabia and its allies has been waging against the Houthi side in the civil war in Yemen took a interesting turn yesterday. Houthi claimed an attack on Saudi oil processing facilities using drone strikes. It is likely to significantly reduce the output of the Saudi exports for a while as the […]

BoJo plot foiled – for the time being

Written By: - Date published: 1:47 am, September 12th, 2019 - 57 comments

Phil Syrpis, Professor of EU Law at Bristol University, tweeted in July  Johnson’s plan to force a general election as the defender of the people’s decision against the UK Parliament’s indecision and Brussels bureaucratic intransigence and be in power for the next five years. It was rumbled and it failed.

Trump sacks Bolton – oil price nosedives!

Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, September 11th, 2019 - 26 comments

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 biggest loser

Written By: - Date published: 2:15 pm, September 10th, 2019 - 21 comments

Boris Johnson has lost a sixth Parliamentary vote in six days as Britain lurches into a constitutional crisis.

The Far Right’s Winning Narrative Superiority

Written By: - Date published: 10:43 am, September 7th, 2019 - 132 comments

Why is the right winning so many elections?

NRA: a international terrorist organisation

Written By: - Date published: 9:13 am, September 6th, 2019 - 22 comments

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.

Forget Brexit

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, September 5th, 2019 - 39 comments

As Brexit fades our British parent country into a globally forgettable social embarrassment, we should remind ourselves that the only international politics of any impact on us is within Asia. There, as elsewhere, structured relationships are starting to crumble and impact upon us.  This is because Asia in the past decade has undergone remarkable transformation […]

Brexit?

Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, September 4th, 2019 - 20 comments

“The bill will attempt to extend the date of Brexit to January 31, 2020 in the event of no deal being agreed or passed through Parliament. If the bill passes Boris Johnson is expected to call a general election.”
Updated: Bill passed second reading. 21 Conservative MPs effectively expelled from parliamentary party. Boris wants a new election. Corbyn reluctant.. Blond clusterfuck.
Updated:  And Boris Johnson just lost vote for a general election.

Boris’s big gamble

Written By: - Date published: 12:14 pm, September 3rd, 2019 - 57 comments

Boris Johnson has threatened a general election if Parliament opposes his self imposed hard deadlines on Brexit.

Missile test shows US bad faith on INF Treaty

Written By: - Date published: 4:43 pm, August 27th, 2019 - 9 comments

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.”

Ross leaks again

Written By: - Date published: 9:33 am, August 27th, 2019 - 46 comments

Jami Lee Ross has released details showing National avoided restrictions against overseas donations by a New Zealand incorporated company being used to make the donation.

China Becomes Fascist

Written By: - Date published: 12:52 pm, August 26th, 2019 - 42 comments

Those who see fascism emerging under Trump can observe the full modern version in action now in Hong Kong’s contest of protesters with the Chinese government.

The thoughts of Matt King on climate change

Written By: - Date published: 7:58 am, August 26th, 2019 - 85 comments

National MP Matt King has been caught posting climate change denial material on his facebook page.

RIP David Koch

Written By: - Date published: 7:54 am, August 24th, 2019 - 54 comments

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.

Cmon Aussie …

Written By: - Date published: 10:48 am, August 18th, 2019 - 54 comments

In the last week Australia has insulted Pacific nations by refusing to commit to a 1.5 degree maximum increase in global temperatures and by claiming that Pacific Islands will be fine because they can pick Australia’s fruit. And Alan Jones has almost lost his job through misogynist attacks on Jacinda Ardern.

Slowing economy?

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, August 14th, 2019 - 39 comments

In May this year the New Zealand Treasury was projecting growth accelerating from 2.4% to 3% in 2019-20 while the Reserve Bank has pessimistically cut interest rates to 1%. Both can’t be right.

The sociopathology of sanctions

Written By: - Date published: 9:08 am, August 11th, 2019 - 206 comments

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

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, August 10th, 2019 - 103 comments

We are frogs in the pot.

What is up with NZ First?

Written By: - Date published: 8:37 am, August 9th, 2019 - 105 comments

New Zealand First’s late decision to promote a referendum concerning abortion has caught everyone including its spokesperson Tracy Martin by surprise and is the latest example of last minute changes of position.

Nuclear chickens coming home?

Written By: - Date published: 8:23 am, August 8th, 2019 - 30 comments

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

Written By: - Date published: 12:19 pm, August 5th, 2019 - 52 comments

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.

Arnhem Land and Ihumātao

Written By: - Date published: 8:28 am, August 5th, 2019 - 44 comments

A Recent High Court decision in Australia suggests that protection of indigenous land rights may be better than we think.

Can the Greens rise like the liberal democrats?

Written By: - Date published: 9:56 am, August 4th, 2019 - 71 comments

Only 6 months ago the UK Liberal Democrat party was at a real low, with their leader resigning and the polls about 7%: same as the last five years.  Fast forward five months from that and they are ready to become a major opposition party of opposition.  Can the Greens do the same?

Boris Johnson’s majority is disappearing

Written By: - Date published: 8:57 am, August 3rd, 2019 - 30 comments

in England the Conservatives have lost a safe seat in a by election to the SDP. And from Ireland comes  a cunning plan that would obliterate Johnson’s majority.