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notices and features - Date published:
7:00 am, January 6th, 2020 - 49 comments
Categories: open mike -
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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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Life imitates art.
What did you do to the snow. Shit on it?
Just one more horror': Iconic South Island glaciers stained by Aussie bushfires
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/118563496/just-one-more-horror-iconic-south-island-glaciers-stained-by-aussie-bushfires
If God came back.
On Chump's mob money connections. Click on the tweet below to see the rest of the brief thread.
https://twitter.com/blakesmustache/status/1213486665139937282
Time for our troops to come home from Iraq right now instead of waiting for June
https://www.dw.com/en/iraqi-parliament-votes-to-expel-us-troops-awaits-government-approval/a-51892888
And Afghanistan
Indeed and here is the fig leaf that makes legal state sanctioned murder.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/01/lies-the-bethlehem-doctrine-and-the-illegal-murder-of-soleimani/
Shouldn't we wait for the Iraqis to state they want us to go before we pull out prematurely?
Maybe we should take the hint…
NZ is not the US or have you not noticed?
Your intelligence is impressive, you are aware two nations are separate. Well done!
Here's a slightly more difficult one: Have you noticed that is NZ part of the "US-led military coalition in Iraq"?
Actually the Iraqi government invited us to help with the training of their military. We were not invited by the US.
And?
How does that affect our involvement in the US-led coalition?
Did you forget that Brigadier Hugh McAslan was Deputy Commanding General of the Coalition Joint Force Land Component Command Iraq , and quite prominent in the battle of Mosul – Gossy?
Dunno if you're too lazy to bother with your own research, or if it's just a delaying tactic to bog down discussions.
and:
Yeah was just going to link to that – it is a call for all foreign troops to go.
Gossy, as usual, too lazy to do his own research.
We aren't there fighting Islamic State. We are there to train the Iraqi military.
…to fight Islamic State.
No. Our remit is to help train the Iraqi military. Who they fight is up to them.
Got evidence of that there big guy?
lol
True, there's no basis for the guessing the identity of the opponents faced by the Iraqi forces trained by the NZDF contribution to the "Defeat–ISIS Coalition in Iraq". /sarc
Do you genuinely try to be that dense, or is it just a causal factor of you being a tory?
No we shouldn't Gosman!
A very interesting article. Though to my knowledge the UK uses drone strikes in much more restrictive circumstances than the writer says. I would note that in the war against ISIS normal rules of war apply. You can target enemy fighters even if they are not literally planning an imminent attack, provided they are generally involved in the war
The trick is to define the conflict as a 'war', even if it against a noun like terrorism.
Justification for war is always in the eye of the beholder and the US is the epitome of that.
Can't have anyone defusing the tension, either.
https://twitter.com/janearraf/status/1213823941321592834
'normal rules of war apply. '
The reality is that in war ,no rules apply…that are adhered to ..at least.
"My assessment is that values in Canterbury are now down around 20 percent from the peak, or perhaps a little more, but still trending down from there.
In Southland, there have been minimal recent sales although I do know of one sale of a large high-quality farm. It has been sold to an existing farming group who have brought in additional external equity capital.
In Westland, at least half the farmers would get out if they could. My assessment is that values are now down by at least 50 percent from the 2014/15 peak but farms are still not selling."
"Below the radar, there is still some foreign investment money coming in, but limited to overseas investors purchasing a 24.9% equity stake in existing farming groups, with this not needing approval from the Overseas Investment Office. Hence, there is no public notification of the restructure, or the underlying land price. I know of multiple situations where this is occurring, and there will be many others that I am not aware of."
https://www.interest.co.nz/rural-news/103163/ten-years-banks-incentivised-staff-help-farmers-grow-their-business-led-over
A rural downturn that may impact NZ First support …..Winston will have everything crossed
NZ First have this bill working through the house at present
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/bills-and-laws/bills-proposed-laws/document/BILL_78205/farm-debt-mediation-bill
I think NZ First can see this shit storm coming and are trying to do something for the farmers who have been sold up the creek by banks and other sharks.
Can see NZ first doing quite well out of it, at the expense of those that facilitated the sharks.
Yes I had seen that but general opinion appears to be it will have little impact….and suspect 'the government' (including NZ First) will wear the backlash irrespective of fault
Mark Patterson may be making a bit of progress in Clutha Southland, and forcing Compost (Haymush Walker) off into Labour / populist territory. Latest off piste is coming out in support of Dunedin City being forced to re-capitalise Aurora Energy (local lines company in Central) after asset striping to pay for Dunedin Stadium.
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/dcc/walker-joins-call-dcc-invest-network
The day before it was toilets at Ben Lomond Saddle (in the mountains about 600m above Queenstown).
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/queenstown/calls-toilet-ben-lomond-saddle
That both issues were the result of previous National government's policies seems to have escaped the lad.
and so it begins – tit for tat until we are all dead.
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/01/terrorist-attack-on-military-base-in-kenya-kills-3-americans/
Not sure Al-Shabaab are supported by / connected to the Iranians?
But who knows, politics in ME/North Africa makes for strange bedfellows sometimes.
It would be like the UDF and IRA having a joint operation
Yeah, but then the yanks were fighting ISIL with the Iranians were doing the same, while helping bomb the Houthis who the Iranians were supporting.
as strange befellows as NZ having forces in Iraq for not other reason then ……..something something something.
And yet, here we are with Troops in all the theaters of wars started by the US under false pretenses and outright lies.
Bit stranger than NZ's lego army clipping on to someone else's effort, as Poisson alluded to.
It does not matter in the end, fact is they – the Kiwis are – are where they should not be, supporting a roque nation that illegally invaded a nation, bombed it to smithereens, killed several hundred thousands of its population, destroyed any and all infrastructure, did nothing when the looting of hte museums went on, and covered the whole country in depleted uranium dust, never mind Abu Grhaib and all of that unpleasant jazz.
Lie with dogs get up with fleas. NZ best get all its troops out of any of these fucked up adventures and bring them home.
Surely they can be put to good use here or be honorably discharged and join civilian live.
Also your enemy is my enemy so lets work together and kill our common enemy and when that is done we can go back to fighting each other. But then there is no one in the US that would ever think that far. They just think, enemy, bomb, . ………..rinse repeat.
‘
Old white southerner says black/brown people are racists for opposing the murder of brown people.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) blasted NFL player Colin Kaepernick and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) after they criticized President Donald Trump’s handling of the assassination of Iran military leader Qasem Soleimani.
In a tweet on Saturday, Kaepernick suggested that the attack on Soleimani was part of a history of “American terrorist attacks against Black and Brown people.”
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/01/look-in-the-mirror-lindsey-graham-calls-colin-kaepernick-a-racist-for-opposing-murder-of-brown-people/
I guess this is why they're scuttling out of Iraq.
https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1213834724889767936
The military adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader has stated that Iran will retaliate directly against US military sites.
"He told CNN that reprisals would come from Iran itself, not its allied militia in the region".
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/05/middleeast/iran-soleimani-khamenei-adviser-intl/index.html
Gott mit uns
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1213660137673486337
Mark Twain, the war prayer.
*shakes head*
What he's saying: "We've spent a lot of money in Iraq," Trump told reporters, according to a pool report.
https://www.axios.com/trump-threatens-iraq-iran-sanctions-sites-06abb035-1eaf-42ec-8135-b9f82269529c.html
he said that well before the election, in 2016 'we should have gotten the oil' 'we should get paid'. Never mind that it is our society, the western society that has fucked up the middle east for the longest of time. But hey her fucking emails Joe90, her fucking emails.
Scomo's social media strategy during the bush fires is coming under huge criticism.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/118599660/scott-morrison-mocked-for-video-message-showcasing-wildfire-aid
Could it be that Topham Guerin's silly videos will bring down the man they built up?
so trumpian of him, right.
Haven't heard from the Prime Minister for a long while.I trust she is finding the long holidays relaxing and therapeutic.
It's a little over two weeks since she delivered her Xmas wishes from the PM's office in the Beehive. I expect she'll be back there in about a week's time. That'll be 3 weeks to recuperate from a hectic 2019.
A darn sight less than John Key used to take. He disappeared off to Hawaii several times a year and a month over Dec/January.
What a mean-spirited little polluter you are.
To deny the Prime Minister a couple of weeks to spend with her brand new family, like most other Kiwis, is truely evil.
A National voter for sure.
Don't worry, when the therapeutics have worked their magic on her she'll be back to administer the same to those who miss her so. Sorry I can't tell you where the needy will have to queue.
Behind this guy.