Written By: Guest post - Date published: 5:51 am, August 27th, 2023 - 25 comments
Belief in capricious gods would explain the perplexing habit of governments with intelligent and informed people to embrace policies which are manifestly an example of self-destructive stupidity. Clever people doing stupid things.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 10:49 am, July 22nd, 2023 - 26 comments
There will be no respite for any of us this year and National has no cure for it.
Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 10:50 pm, July 9th, 2023 - 52 comments
The prime minister stated in his speech last week our objective in the war in Ukraine was to aid Ukraine “to defeat Russia.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing – that’s a declaration of nuclear World War III! Even the US neocons think its time to back off.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 8:01 am, May 9th, 2023 - 16 comments
In case we just missed it, New Zealand really has picked a side. Prime Minister Hipkins will head to the NATO summit in Lithuania together with Australia, Japan and South Korean leaders. Also Vladimir Zelinskyy is intending to go as well.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:50 pm, April 20th, 2023 - 10 comments
We didn’t need the Russian invasion of Ukraine to tell us that great power competition is back, since China and the United States and Russia had been going at it well before even COVID temporarily messed up the multilateral trade system upon which we had built our little country. But it’s made it worse, and so we’re picking a side, and that side is NATO.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 8:08 am, February 27th, 2023 - 86 comments
China has proposed a 12 point peace plan to start discussions towards ending the war by Russia against Ukraine. And Ukraine’s leader wants to meet Xi Jinping to hear more.
Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 6:28 pm, February 26th, 2023 - 76 comments
Historian Malcolm McKinnon in Thursday’s DominionPost states that “caution is needed when crafting victory over Russia as the primary war aim in Ukraine.” Truer words were never spoken, as western hysteria rejects calls for peace and escalates to wider war.
Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 3:27 pm, December 13th, 2022 - 311 comments
Vladimir Zelensky’s message to the New Zealand Parliament will be delivered in the last week before Christmas, in the bury-it time-slot. That seems appropriate, for much has changed since the heady days when our Parliament went straight for sanctions on Russia without discussion.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:00 am, November 13th, 2022 - 19 comments
If 2020 was the worst year in my lifetime how does 2022 compare?
Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 3:32 pm, November 3rd, 2022 - 39 comments
82-year old polymath Michael Hudson is my favourite economist. He currently lectures in China to million-strong audiences. His latest book is The Destiny of Civilisation: Finance Capitalism, Industrial Capitalism or Socialism. His latest article is well worth a read.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 8:04 pm, September 27th, 2022 - 16 comments
Interesting to see how the Russian protest plays out over conscription. Odd things happen in gatherings with tyrants. Jan 6 was one. But Romania 1989 was one Putin will know well.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 8:49 pm, September 25th, 2022 - 8 comments
The Russian invasion of the Ukraine has cost tens of thousands of people their lives, millions of people their homes, seriously disrupted billions of people, and increased the threat of nuclear war but there are positive developments coming from it.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:53 am, September 23rd, 2022 - 277 comments
Vladimir Putin has effectively conceded that the Ukraine war is not going well for Russia by seeking to conscript 300,000 new soldiers, planning for referenda in Russian held areas and threatening the use of Nuclear weapons if Russia’s modified territorial integrity is threatened.
Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 7:40 pm, September 4th, 2022 - 99 comments
We’re sending 120 troops to Britain to ‘train’ raw recruits for the Ukraine killing grounds. For the Defence Generals, it’s an overseas trip to aid retention. For the Ukrainian conscripts, it’s a prelude to early death. It is cynical and criminal: we should be arguing for the war to stop, not keep it going ”to the death of the last Ukrainian.”
Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 3:23 pm, June 21st, 2022 - 62 comments
Not content to stay in the North Atlantic, NATO is shortly about to reveal in Madrid its next ten-year plan to contain China. Jacinda Ardern will be there, who knows why. Are we nailing our colours to a flag at half-mast?
Written By: advantage - Date published: 4:56 pm, June 19th, 2022 - 44 comments
Every part of our energy-dense life from plastic to tarmac to food to clothes to building materials is about to get smashed like we ain’t seen.
Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 6:41 pm, June 18th, 2022 - 45 comments
RNZ’s “The Detail” asked are New Zealand’s sanctions against Russia working? They aren’t, but one detail we learnt that MFAT has 100 staff members assigned to sorting out their complications!! What a waste.
Written By: Guest post - Date published: 10:10 am, June 12th, 2022 - 121 comments
Guest with a life of anti-fascist and anti-war activism in their rear-view mirror, alarmingly finds at fifty that they are staring at the green shoots of fascism in their headlights.This is not where any progressive expected to be. But for the left, there is also no discounting fascist action by offering up the reasoning of the aggressor.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 8:33 am, May 27th, 2022 - 23 comments
The new version of Top Gun out now is sure to give rise to little think-pieces about how comparable the situation in the Ukraine is or is not to Desert Storm in Iraq or any other US-military led war. Or isn’t.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 2:05 pm, May 26th, 2022 - 90 comments
Even after just four months it is time count what Russia has lost and will continue to lose.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 11:39 am, May 9th, 2022 - 57 comments
The commercial parts of Russia’s state will do very well with plenty of customers remaining for its oil and gas. It’s $3-$4 a litre 91 everyone. Everything else in Russia is ruined.
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 8:44 pm, May 3rd, 2022 - 140 comments
The invasion that began just over two months ago will have a profound impact on global politics for many years. The conflict is unlikely to end quickly and will take a toll on everyone involved.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 10:21 am, May 1st, 2022 - 10 comments
Why is India such a world player right now?
Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:00 am, March 29th, 2022 - 60 comments
New Zealand does not have to settle for being small, quiet, and weak.
Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 7:21 pm, March 25th, 2022 - 65 comments
Morning Report today interviewed ex MI6 chemical weapons false flag specialist Hamish de Bretton-Gordon saying because Russia has lost in Ukraine it will likely resort using to chemical weapons. FiveEyes hawks want NATO to intervene, so we get World War 3, Hurrah!
Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 4:32 pm, March 20th, 2022 - 194 comments
New Zealand’s sanctions on Russia have not stopped the war in Ukraine. They may have made our parliamentarians feel better, and Tony Blinken was quick to congratulate us on falling into line with the US “high-impact sanctions.” The language is combative, but the evidence shows sanctions do not work. They can have significant blow-back effects, particularly if not combined with effective diplomacy.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:00 am, March 17th, 2022 - 351 comments
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelinsky has made a direct appeal broadcast to the United States Congress. That will sort out the Putin supporters from the rest. And with climate change beckoning it is time to pick a side.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 8:59 am, March 15th, 2022 - 117 comments
In six months time the world could be in a very precarious position.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:30 am, March 7th, 2022 - 107 comments
However much infighting there was on the Spanish Republican side between leftists, Communists, anarchists and others, you could be confident that the Nazis were on the other side. In the Ukraine it is not so simple.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 11:20 am, March 4th, 2022 - 65 comments
New Zealand’s time as high end ingredients producer to the world has arrived. But it has big costs.
Written By: lprent - Date published: 11:35 am, March 2nd, 2022 - 230 comments
The Russian armed forces obviously didn’t expect much resistance. I get the distinct impression that they had believed their own ridiculous propaganda (always a characteristic of dumb-arse dictatorships) and expected the Ukrainians to fall weeping in gratitude at their liberation. That clearly didn’t happen. What next…
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