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6:00 am, September 7th, 2024 - 48 comments
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Open mike is your post.
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Step up to the mike …
‘
Meet the genocide denier streamers
Lower than the liberal genocide denier streamers, are the liberal genocide ignorer bloggers.
"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends"
Martin Luther King Jr.
Yet the same deniers/ignorers of the genocide in Gaza strongly condem the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. Choosing to support or condemn based on skewed Racial/Religious/Polititical bias is madness. But not new.
Indeed they did, and with bells on.
The Hipkins administration intervened in the court case brought by Ukraine agains Russia paying over $1million NZ, to fly a high powered team of top New Zealand lawyers to the Netherlands, to prepare and deliver oral sufbmissions, in person, before the International Court of Justice in the ICJ courtroom in the Hague, in support of the case, brought by Ukraine against Russia, under the genocide convention.
The Hipkins administration took a number of other measures:
https://www.mfat.govt.nz/en/countries-and-regions/europe/ukraine/russian-invasion-of-ukraine
The Luxon administration has renewed the Hipkins administrations intervention at the ICJ in the case Ukraine vs Russia by committing to the merits stage of the hearing.
The luxon administration has not taken similar action in the Interantional Court of Justice case South Africa vs. Israel.
South Africa vs Israel: 13 other countries intend to join the ICJ case
New Zealand is not one of them.
The Chris Hipkins opposition Labour Party in parliament, including Chris Hipkins himself, have not taken the Luxon administration to task over this double standard.
The Luxon administration has even sent the New Zealand arned forces to train beside the Israeli armed forces engaged in committing genocide in Gaza.
https://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2024/07/nzdf-does-no-check-legality-of-training-with-israel/#:~:text=250%20soldiers%20and%20sailors%20of,one%20of%20the%20participating%20countries.
Liberal ignoring of the ongoing genocide in Gaza does not give me confidence to think that a liberal Hipkins led administration would have acted similarly to the genocide in Gaza exactly as the Luxon administration has.
The case against both Israel and Russia is one of war crimes, rather than genocide.
There is no "war" in Gaza.
Palestine hs no Army. Navy or Air force.
Israel is backed by the most powerful military on Planet earth.
Same in this country. There was no "War" between Maori and Pakeha.
Because by 1855 Pakeha out numbered Maori by 250,000 to 40,000.
The Pakeha had the British Empire to call upon to replace losses and supply.
Maori had no one to relace losses and no possibility of re supply.
Since the Gaza Israeli “invasion” began Israelis have killed more than 50,000 Palestine,injured 100,000 and displaced 2 million and levelled Cities into rubble.
Since the Israeli “invasion” began Israel has been virtually untouched.
The Russian/Ukraine comflict is a “war” because both sides are evenly matched. If the West supported the Palestinians against the Israelis like they are supporting the Ukranians only then could it be called a war
To call the unopposed Israeli invasion of Gaza a war is pure madness.
Gaza is a war zone.
Heard of the War of Independence? The American Civil War?
The English Civil War.
The Thirty Years War in Germany.
The Maori Land wars
https://teara.govt.nz/en/new-zealand-wars
So
1.you never believed the boasts of Hamas about their resistance to the IDF invasion.
2.know little about the north of Israel and Hezbollah rocket attacks.
3.have not heard about Iran arms supplies to Hamas and Hezbollah, nor of the Houthi.
It’s an interesting argument that if a weaker opponent (with an underground network) provokes a fight by firing rockets or invading and capturing hostages, than what follows is not an action of war – involving removing a regime that began the aggression policing of via military.but just policing – to arrest perps.
Gaza is an occupied territory undergoing a genocide. People under occupation have the right to resist.
It is not a war, or a civil war. It is a genocide.
It is pretty simple.
No area of Gaza was occupied on October 7 2023.
Germany and Japan were occupied after a war. It is common for nations starting a war to have their regime removed.
Genocide is occurring in Sudan now, but not on your radar obviously.
Britain stole the lands we now know as Palestine as a trophy of war in 1919. The Jews started this conflict when they invaded these lands backed by Britain in 1948. Since 1950 the USA has provisded the Jews with the weapons to dominate 400 million Muslims. In 2003 the USA invaded Iraq looking for weapons of mass destruction and did not find any. At the very same time the USA was actually supplying the Jews with weapons of mass destruction. Israel illegally invaded Palestine and remains illegally occupying Palestine. The United Nations has declared that Palestine has the legal right to claim her lands back if need be by military force. Unfortunately Palestine has no Army no Navy and no Airforce. Just a few sky rockets and bows and arrows. The terrorists are and always have been the illegal Jewish invaders and their American backers. If you support Ukraines fight against the Russian invasion you must also support the Palestine fight agains the Jewish Invasion.
Is there any fact in any of that (apart from the USA lies about WMD)?
1.The League of Nations awarded the British a mandate in Palestine – after Ottoman empire lost their Arab "lands".
2.The UN settled the mandate issue with their 1947 decision – two territorial states. Arab nations opposed the UN decision. And said they would war on Israel if it founded.
3.5 Arab armies attacked Israel after May 1948. In the war Israel won extra territory (ending the Gaza – West Bank connection).
4.Egypt and Jordan occupied Gaza and West Bank 1948-1967 but did not form a Palestinian state.
5.Israel took this land in 1967 and agreed to allow a PA to form in Palestine (Oslo Accords 1993) and negotiate a two state peace.*
Citation?
*BN does not want a two state peace.
The League of Nations was in practice just Britain and France. After the end of WW1 Britain and France carved up Europe, imposed huge punishment to Germany and stole German territories as trophies of war. NZ stole or received the "mandate" for Samoa. Britain stole Palestine simple as that there was no "mandate". Britain and France had spent the previous 300 years going around the world invading (mandating") continental North and South America, all of Africa, Asia, Australia Oceania and Europe iteslf even Russia. In the process stealing millions of acres of land enslaving hundeds of millions and raping countries of their resources. This is what the White European Empire powers had been doing for generations let alone stealing 10 million Africans and shipping them to the Americas as slaves. So stealing Palestine was just what the White Europeans had been doing for 300 years.
It would help the people of Gaza greatly if Israel can rid them of genocidal Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamah al-ʾIslāmiyyah once and for all. They might even get to have another election.
By 1855 there were an estimated 59,500 Māori and 37,192 non-Māori.
https://web.archive.org/web/20080305185447/http://www.stats.govt.nz/NR/rdonlyres/064BFF54-5B31-4470-975D-7913BEC5EB1C/0/A_1_1Total_Population.xls
No. The ICC cases are always about war crimes. The ICJ case against Israel is specificly in regard to sufficient evidence supplied by South Africa that allegations of genocide against Israel in Gaza are plausible, and therefore must be answered.
Further, it is incumbent on all nations to actively take measures against supporting Israeli war crimes that otherwise make nations complicit in the genocide that is plausibly occurring.
Obviously, you prefer word games and manipulation to support Israel to control the media narrative but the people here that you are trying to tie in knots have watched enough of the horrific atrocities committed by Israel,to know in their gut that though the case may not yet come to a hearing for a number of years, genocide is the appropriate word.
You can explain away your craven support but we all have eyes to see and ears to hear and understand the sanctity of human life and will not support bullet holes through head and hearts of prepubescent children described by doctors in hopitals, while they existed, as a daily occurrence.
It may bring you joy to defend these barbaric snipers of the IDF, along similar lines as the Two Nice Jewish Boys podcast but its not hard for most of us to be devastated that such acts can occur, driven by the anger and hatred of the old testament god. From the beginning Netanyahu was referencing Amalek where this self same god exhorted Israel to kill the woman and children and all the old people of their enemies. This is the god that the kahanist Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich follow. They live and breathe anhilation of Palestinians and have photos of the terrorist that massacred Palestinian boys in a mosque during morning prayers, displyed in the lounge of their house
Yes, the ICC cases are about war crimes. And the ICJ case is about accusations of genocide.
The case for war crimes against both Israel and Russia is fairly obvious.
The claims of genocide not so. Incitement and hampering aid were the ones the Israeli justice noted had to be addressed – because if not then war crimes can go to the next level.
The rest is just a nasty and dishonest personal attack – you make as a projection and transference against any who do not conform to your singular narrative.
We should take your reckons on what is obvious. I think not.
You do not think the case for war crimes against both Israel and Russia is obvious?
Why do you identify yourself as spokesperson for the “we” people …
The most obvious case is the genocide being perpetrated by Israel. I understand that because of how obvious this is to any person with a functioning empathetic system, you need to sidetrack and obfuscate with wordplay in an attempt to redirect attention elsewhere.
However this is not possible and the west as a centre of human rights is now dead. It cannot be recovered unless immediate action to name the genocide as such is taken and the subsequent obligations by all states to end it and support Palestinians is made.
Many people wonder how it was possible that the holocaust was allowed to unfold. Well, we have even less reason to refuse support to the victims. We can see the genocide progressing in real time. Yet we allow people like yourself to obfuscate and misdirect. We are far more to blame and have nowhere to hide.
Ah empathy – do they know its Christmas …
It's happening again in Sudan, the Tigray war before that, famine in Yemen in the Trump era. We all know the loss of life in Syria and where Islamic State conquered.
I was visited by Wellington police (in essence) for opposition to the Iraq regime change …. (politely asking if I knew Dick Medhurst)
No, I do not. But sure those who merely want amplification rather than discussion would see it that way.
I posted this – hardly obscufication.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-04-09-2024/#comment-2010097
You were dismissive that anything would be done.
Good luck, using your approach.
Wrong on both counts.
But, when have facts ever bothered appologists for genocide.
South Africa's case against Israel is most definitly one alleging Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
https://apnews.com/article/world-court-israel-genocide-gaza-south-africa-774ab3c3d57fd7bcc627602eaf47fd98
Ukraine's case against Russia, is a little more complicated, but is also not about war crimes. (Even though Russia has definitely committed them)
Ukraine took Russia to the International Court of Justice, not for committing war crimes, but for abusing the genocide convention by making false accusations of genocide.
President Putin of the Russian Federation had falsely claimed that the people of Ukraine had been committing genocide against Russian speakers. and ethnic Russians. And used this as his excuse for ordering the invasion of Ukraine.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/9/smells-of-genocide-how-putin-justifies-russias-war-in-ukraine
Lawyers for Ukraine, and 32 other countries, including New Zealand, argued befor the court that Russia must present their evidence for this alleged genocide against Russian speakers and ethnic Russians, to the court. or be found guilty of breaching the genocide convention for making false claims.
Lawyers for the Russian Federation argued up hill and down dale across two days in the International Court of Justice, that Russia should not have to present their evidence of this alleged genocide.
Weird, right?
If Russia had evidence of genocide committed by Ukraine you would think that they would want to present it to the world. Apparently not.
Unlike Russia, which has refused to present their evidence alleging genocide commited by Ukraine to the ICJ, South Africa has presented the ICJ with 84 pages of documentary evidence of genocide committed by Israel
I have said said that there is a reasonable case for claiming that Israel and Russia have committed war crimes.
But not so on the matter of genocide.
The ICJ ruling did not determine this. It did not even make the claim that the war crimes that had occurred could become (over time) genocide. Which I would see as a risk.
Specifically
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3g9g63jl17o
Can you back up this claim with any evidence?
Or will you play the Russian card.
And what of Trump and others of the GOP that support Israel whatever (with military funding) and yet blocked this to Ukraine …
Good question,
Ukraine is not at the centre of US foreign policy concerns, the Middle East is.
It only natural that the venal centre-right and the fanatic far-right in the US would want to abandon Ukraine to better help support America's unsinkable battle ship in the oil rich Middle East.
After all it was the previous Trump administration that began the process of cementing US domination of the Middle East, with the Abraham Accords.
And achieved this despite moving the US embassy to occupied Jerusalem, defacto recognised Israel's illegal by internation law annexation of the occupied territories.
A previous bottom line for Moslem and Arab countries throughout the region.
America's wet dream of uniting the pro-US Islamo-fascist dictatorships, with the proto-fascist apartheid state of Israel, was well on track, before October 7 happened.
A Trump administration will dump Ukraine in a flash. To pour all that money and military aid into crushing the rebellion in Gaza and the West Bank, and possibly will be needed for war with Iran as well, for which Trump will need all the money and arms the US can muster. According to Trump, Russia's invasion of Ukraine can be left up to Europe to sort out.
The PNAC view of the world was to continue to remove left wing regimes after the end of the Cold War – Iraq, Libya and Syria were secular and socialist. Also the oil sector sanctions on Venezuela.
The conservative right in the USA see the EU as a liberal secular regime.
We cannot overlook the Trump administration recognising the Israeli (ring wing nationalist) annexation of the Golan Heights (not walked back by Biden) after Russia annexed Crimea.
This quid pro quo followed after the earlier ones, Abkhazia and South Ossetia off Georgia quid pro quo for changes in Yugoslavia/Serbia).
So we can see the way of Trump operates (abandoning the women of Afghanistan), he operates in a world of strongman conservative nationalism.
In such a world, nations become more dependent on their arms supply – South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Oz and NATO. The MIC as a profit centre.
NACT1 Infighting…(unsurprising given the loons in it), but with a divergence on NZ's Grocery Duopoly.
ACT Primo Dave opines…
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/focusonpolitics/527289/act-pledges-pushback-on-supermarket-crackdown
Riiight. So how has that worked with NZ's Electricity market ? Does he seriously expect us to believe that the Grocery Duopolists will give any of their $Billions freely?
This has been going on for so long, I would find it hard to believe its going to change. Reduced products quite often dont scan as such, and others arent updated…
In reality we would be better served by Consumer NZ having much more involvement !
Nothing will happen with the regulation of Supermarkets, the problem has been around 30-40 years and it has not and never will be addressed.
Little dave is to blinded by ideology to see that you need regulation to create a competitive playing feild!
Yep. As we know NZ's Electricity competition shows that. Thankfully we have Consumer NZ battling for us : )
Seymour singing for his supper by parroting meaningless lines.
You cant have proper competition without these behemoths giving up the real estate they hold in key locations to a competitor.
This only gets sorted with a level of bipartisan political buy in that exists in dreams.
David wants no regulations plunder of the people, the ACT way.
And Sue Chetwin, Grocery Action Group nails it..
Also there was this. Facial Recognition by Big
Brother..Grocer.Yea, no chance of misuse there. And also, what about your Store staffing levels ? And pay rates are pretty low for same Staff !
Anyway, the Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster
Foodstuffs legal eagle reckons…
Fuck off. I recall a kinda similar line from sir John Key ?
Seymour is basically a prostitute.
NYT publisher A.G. Sulzberger on attacks on press freedom globally and the new model of press suppression in Brazil and India. Wonder why it's in the WaPo?
These new would-be strongmen have developed a style more subtle than their counterparts in totalitarian states such as Russia, China and Saudi Arabia, who systematically censor, jail or kill journalists. For those trying to undercut independent journalism in democracies, the attacks typically exploit banal — and often nominally legal — weaknesses in a nation’s systems of governance. This playbook generally has five parts.
https://archive.li/ijdLf (wapo)
Just be careful in putting Brasil in the same category as the others. There, it is the corporatised judiciary who are <a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/under-attack-so-many-quarters-press-freedom-brazil-now-threatened-some-judges-too" rel="nofollow ugc">shutting down journalists who report on their legal rulings</a>, not the government.
Could do better.
https://rsf.org/en/country/brazil
https://rsf.org/en/index
I'd forgotten just how good the Alex Jones' rants as an indie folk song is.
I'm angry
I've had enough of these people
They're a bunch of Christian-murdering scum that run giant death factories
Keeping babies alive and selling their body parts
What more do you need to know about these people?
I go out and face these scum
They literally crawl out from under rocks
They have green-looking skin
And they run around screaming "We love Satan, we want to eat babies."
I have them on video
https://genius.com/Nick-lutsko-alex-jones-as-an-indie-folk-song-lyrics
With the Harris vote now stagnating, feels like the delay of Trump's sentencing to after the election is the loss of her last chance.
Prepare people, for Trump 2.
There are a lot of marginal states.
Harris holds the national lead demonstrating a likely win, as per Clinton, then Biden.
Trump won marginals in 2016, Biden in 2020.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/2024/national/
https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/president/general/2024/trump-vs-harris
She's in a much weaker position than Biden was.
Trump only needs Georgia. Harris needs all the industrial states and Pennsylvania for her shot.
I say Doom! Doom!
Biden never had North Carolina in play.
Harris has Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia in a line up.
Once in a blue moon, Seven Society (Jefferson and Madison) of the rotunda, Chapel Hill well and castle and the Greek Village are in accord.
Governor Kemp is asking the state AG whether he can remove the state election board (taken over by Trump loyalists).
The ending to this election is going to be far worse than Trump's 2020 loss because it will be so close: whichever side loses is going to tie up the courts for months contesting legitimacy.
My favourite though is still LBJ's 1948 Senate nomination contest by LBJ against Coke Stevenson. By one vote. If you ever get hands on a copy, check out Rise to Power by Anthony Caro. Total nasty political thriller.
As a very casual observer of US politics, and since I've seen Kamala Harris speak a few times, I can't see the election going any other way than towards Trump.
As a commenter here said (sorry, I forget who) in Harris: Democrats, rather than getting a female Barack Obama they are getting a black Hilary Clinton.
Just a step too far for the electorate.
arseholes
//
@TaxpayersUnion
Metlink spends more than $1.3 million on seven toilets The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can report through an Official Information Act that Metlink has paid $1,300,245 dollars (inc. GST) for a project to install seven toilets in Wellington, exclusively for the use of bus drivers. The locations of the toilets include Houghton Bay, Darlington Road, Wilton, Mairangi, Lyall Bay, Highbury and Karori.
“This latest waste story is another example of government failing to deliver on the basics. Spending a penny is one thing, but spending 130 million pennies for just seven toilets takes the biscuit.
“At an average cost of over $185,000 per toilet, it makes you wonder – are the seats made of gold? While looking after bus drivers is important, that money could have surely gone further if spent better.
“Through only a quick Google search, Metlink could have bought seven high end portable toilets that would have cost below $2,000 each. Not only that, with the money left over, they could have hired another twenty full-time drivers. Surely that would have helped with the constant bus delays more than installing seven loos?
“Metlink needs to start thinking about where they get their money from. Ratepayers are paying their rates with the expectation that they are paying for busses that will be on time, not on frankly ludicrous toilet spending. To waste a million dollars of ratepayers’ hard-earned money in a time when Kiwis are facing a cost-of-living crisis shows how out of touch they are with the people they are supposed to serve.”
https://xcancel.com/TaxpayersUnion/status/1831868403327627583
Yup, they probably consider even a plastic bottle to urinate in as too much money spent.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/katherinehamilton/2023/05/24/delivery-drivers-sue-amazon-for-being-forced-to-pee-in-bottles/
Closer to home.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/126151544/bus-driver-sacked-for-covering-cameras-so-he-could-urinate-wins-his-job-back-plus-damages
Wonderful thread from Scott Hamilton.
@SikotiHamiltonR
1/4 Tuheitia has taken his place on Taupiri, the maunga that seems to float on the Waikato like a great ship of the dead. Taupiri is a sacred place for Tainui, & also for some Pakeha. In October 1933 a leader died here & an alliance was born.
https://xcancel.com/SikotiHamiltonR/status/1831604834698711115
In 1863 the White Pakeha armies illegally invaded the Waikato just like the murdering Jews illegally invaded Palestine in 1948
I hope your NZ history is more reliable than your Middle Eastern.
In 1948, the surrounding Arab armies invaded the newly declared (by UN mandate) state of Israel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Palestine_war