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notices and features - Date published:
5:30 pm, January 25th, 2022 - 44 comments
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The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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Shameful propaganda about the Russia/Ukraine news by TVNZ ‘News’ today.
No context.
Just anti-Russian propaganda.
We have not learnt from the lies we were told in 2003.
Ukraine simply another tool for Russia….Putin is attacking the western economies and I may add is playing it very smart….he may win but even if he dosnt he is unlikely to lose.
A tool for almost everyone.
Head of the German navy recently
got firedresigned for saying all putey wants is respect and Crimea won't go back to the Ukraine anyways. Bit of a career whoopsie there, dipping a toe into geopolitical diplomacy on camera.NATO has its sphere, but it's main player has been out of service for 4 years and needs to rebuild credibility. Russia wants to expand its sphere but kinda can't because its GDP goes to billionaires rather than infrastructure and R&D – its top line products aren't vaporware like the Iranian jobs, but they can't afford to make them in any number, while their soviet-era equipment becomes obsolete or outright fails. Germany is a player in the Nord stream 2 pipeline, but also likes Ukraine as a sovereign nation, so is conflicted. France is, well, French. Bojo would quite like a new Crimean War because he likes the poetry from the old one, but nobody around him wants it because it will hit profits and they're sick of his shit anyway. China's happy for it to turn to shit – even a proxy-peer war will weaken the US and distract it from the SCS.
Meanwhile, all the spooks think it's just like old times – cold war brinkmanship and dick measuring.
Geopolitics. Fun for all the sociopaths.
Putin dosnt need to push too hard or even have much luck….the western economies are teetering anyway….he will happily tip them over the edge.
Pay back is a bitch
Well, a quick win over Ukraine will be good for his national popularity.
If NATO throws decent weaponry to the Ukraine, even without direct intervention, then the Ukrainians either kick the Russians back or run to the hills for a drawn out resistance. Either way, it becomes a popularity suck for Putin and he'll have to have more journalists murdered for reporting the casualties.
So still a risk for Putin. But that's the game.
He dosnt need to invade….have a look at whats happening with oil prices and the share markets….much credited to the troop build up on the Ukraine border…add that to European energy prices thanks to restricted gas supply.
It is no surprise he isnt interested in a political solution….keep the pressure on the markets and wait for the misstep and/or crash.
As said payback is a bitch….it wasnt so long ago that the west did exactly the same to the Russian empire…and Putin was part of that empire.
Yep – Putin is smart. just listen to him speak English (not his first language) and listen to him outclass Biden, Boris J, Sco Mo.. only Jacinda can sound anywhere near up to standard, which really annoys the Righties.
Ukraine is not the easiest territory to defend – it's not as mountainous as Afghanistan. Russia has learned some hard lessons in Chechnya too – it tends to go long on artillery and rocket bombardments these days, before it sends in ground forces. NATO and the US haven't sent in heavy counter battery stuff yet, so the early phase of a campaign will not be fun for Ukraine.
Realizing Russia is serious about invading however, you can bet that the Pentagon would quite like to see them lose a bunch of manpower and materiale, in a redo of the Afghan Trap. A less turbulent Russia is in most of the West's interests.
Yeah, Germans stopped on shipment of artillery from NATO, but are putting resources towards a field hospital.
Russians also learned some stuff in Syria.
But Ukraine is pretty big, and the west has some favourable terrain.
Nothing much in yr link mcflock that implicates putin in the murders but i suppose you knew that .Reading the details of the particular case i get the impression of a very big sea full of very dangerous sharks be hard to get inside the head of any of them .Some other interesting info from the article though .
It's funny. There's a long list of Russian dissidents and journalists who have been murdered while supporting democracy or otherwise making life difficult for the regime, which you can google if you want. Some of them murdered with shit that needs state resources to produce and deliver.
She's the one who really stuck in my mind at the time, though. Funny how that works.
I love your turn of phrase McFlock @ 1.1.1 and suspect the content is 100% correct.
Ed. What else can one expect from any Western News Organisation, all are controlled by a biased Capitalist policy. They lied about the American war on Korea in the 50s followed by the American war on Vietnam etc etc, if Sadam Hussein had hidden with his WMDs he would still be alive, the Western Media outlets are obliged to follow the insanity of Uncle Sam and his Military Regime, a regime dependent on military weapon sales to survive, it needs an enemy and proxy states to spread fear amongst their people.
Future history will look back on the American power era in disgust and a blot on humanity that held the world from peaceful progression.
On what comes next.
https://twitter.com/ashishkjha/status/1485829908668559360
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1485829908668559360.html
Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson focuses his beam of critical conservative thought on the culture war surrounding corporate mascots, and then possibly reveals too much:
https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1484723825606479872
Oof.
If it wasn't for the accent I could have mistaken that crap for another Hosking rant.
[image resized]
Hmm.
Can you please describe what it's about and why it's worth watching?
lol – sure. Reportedly there’s a 70km long convoy of Canadian truckers and supporters, including cops, trucking across Canada because “against mandates”.
(trigger warning) Not recommended viewing for Covidian Cultists. 😉
They should probably use some Meatloaf lyrics rather than Neil Young ones. Neil isn't too keen on anti vax misinformation.
The old you're not the boss of me shtick certainly pays well.
https://twitter.com/RyanSarai1/status/1484862020717465601
https://twitter.com/tlu306/status/1485005031724052486
Just as well all the world's rip-off merchants have taken up with peeps against mandates, aye?
Seems many of these misinformation merchants are motivated by the benjamins.
Those flat earth videos on YouTube attract huge numbers of views. When one can't come up with anything worthwhile they seem to gravitate to the ridiculous to make some coin.
Seems many of these misinformation merchants
Where is the misinformation in stating opposition to mandates?
The people who give speeches at some of those rallies, and many of the YouTube anti this & that videos are full of misinformation.
I struggle to understand what anti-mandate people are complaining about.
The low single digit percentage of the workforce who might have to reconsider their public facing jobs?
That you can't enter a restaurant running My Vaccine Pass? Go get takeaways.
That Brian Tamaki can't tithe the income of 500 poor parishioners, rather just 25?
What is it exactly that worries anti vax/mandate people that doesn't worry 95% of the New Zealand population?
It is hard to comprehend when viewed from a safety point of view. Why people wouldn't want to keep themselves and others safe from a dangerous virus is hard to fathom.
Some just don't believe it can be deadly. Others don't like being told what to do. Some equate it with a political party they dislike. Some I think are more willing to believe strangers on the internet than public health officials due to mistrust of government agencies. Others think they're so fit and healthy they should be exempt. Apparently some older men have issues with being told what to do by a woman. There would be a multitude of reasons but from my point of view common sense should kick in and over-ride any of that.
Not sure Meatloaf would've been too keen on antivaxxers using his stuff either – he died of Covid.
Yes I know, do you think he had an epiphany as he tried to draw in his final breath?
I've a feeling he was still raging against The Man, as well as the dying of the light.
It was pointed out to me recently though, that the earth is flat. 70% of it is water, and it isn't fizzy anymore. So maybe the flat earthers have a better case than the antivax crowd.
Neil isn't too keen on anti vax misinformation.
Anti mandate is not anti vax. Nice smear though. 😉
Sorry wasn't trying to smear, just clumsy use of language.
I wonder if those truckers keep up with any of the other safety requirements of their industry.
What do you mean "other" safety requirements? Does that concern extend to the supportive cop at the beginning who's a part of (and spokesperson for) 'Police on Guard'?
The cop wouldn't have to worry about her patrol car WOF etc. But the truckers would have standards of safety requirements on their shoulders.
Yeah, it kind of is though, isn't it? Auckland DHB, where I am, is 98% fully vaccinated. That’s 98-2 for eligible people which is 12 years of age, up.
That is a slam dunk, earthquake sized landslide in terms of endorsement for the vaccination program, and particularly why the vaccination program exists.
If it were an election, a two horse race, first past the post, the vaxxers have literally annihilated the antivaxxers in a demolition never seen before.
My feeling is that you are on the wrong side of history in a really, really big way, but good luck.
the vaxxers have literally annihilated the antivaxxers
Yet again. Anti-mandate is not anti-vax. There are many, many people who have been injected who are opposed to mandates.
Sure. There's no getting through.
Might give you another 5% conflicted crazies, but that’s still 93-7…
…professionals vs amateurs.
Are you being deliberately obtuse Muttonbird? Or it just one of those days.
You get there is a difference between good public health measures and this shitfuckery we are being spoon feed.
No.
I think, and the very, very strong majority of people in this country think, the public health measures are not "spoon-fed shitfuckery".
The mandate is what people have voted for. The vaccination program is a massive, massive landslide against Covid denying, vaccine sceptics.
This is an unbelievably strong mandate where nearly everyone agrees that the vaccination program is the way to go and that public health measure are required.
Kiwis are amazingly good at mask wearing and distancing, far better than other similar countries.
We, or at least most of us, are doing the right thing. Don’t try to undo it.
NZ mortality rates over the past couple of years beg to differ.
Mutton bird differentiates between professionals and amateurs. You talk about shitfuckery.
So, the decision for people like me is whom to believe.
The scientists and those who've spent their lives studying things? Or those that tell me vaccines have microchips in them, I'll get covid walking past a 5G tower and vaccines will make me magnetic?
You want shitfuckery? The lunatics at some of the protests around the country are the gold standard.
Yeah right Bill you mean Brian Tamaki, you have continually tried to push the antivax buttons,from early treatment with ivermectin etc etc.
Get over yourself check out Robert Kennedy Jr latest rant.
Time to re-cancel sort-of-racist Troy Bowker and cut off one of ACT's funding streams. Paywalled.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/controversial-businessman-troy-bowker-makes-35000-act-donation/UWOA5743C2CXEEAMQC2JH6XZ2Y/