Open mike 14/03/2024
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- Treasury warns deeper recession worsening Budget deficit
The gift that keeps giving: David Seymour has now opened a split in the coalition over the future of National’s promise to build a new medical school. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / TheKakaKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and ...5 hours ago - Weekly Roundup 22-November-2024
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The speech yesterday by Treasury’s Chief Economic Advisor warning that the books are in worse shape than forecasted looks like it’s part of a softening-up process for either more cuts or a longer wait to get back into surplus. The speech was a highly unusual public preview of Treasury’s Half-Yearly ...9 hours ago - Skeptical Science New Research for Week #47 2024
Open access notables Projected increase in the frequency of extremely active Atlantic hurricane seasons, Lopez et al., Science Advances: Future changes to the year-to-year swings between active and inactive North Atlantic tropical cyclone (TC) seasons have received little attention, yet may have great societal implications in areas prone to hurricane ...18 hours ago - Chicken Kiev
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The Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti arrived at Parliament on Tuesday – the size is being debated but estimates range from 42,000 to 100,000. The Prime Minister is defending not attending due to some of the organisers being affiliated with Te Pāti Māori. The national gang patch ban came into force ...1 day ago - ‘These budget cuts are counter-productive and make no sense’
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The opposition parties stand united for an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti, rather than seeking to rewrite it. Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are working together against the Government’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
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So the US is proposing to build a massive floating dock to get aid to Gaza.
https://thehill.com/homenews/ap/ap-politics/ap-how-the-us-military-is-scrambling-to-build-a-floating-dock-for-urgently-needed-aid-to-gaza/
This is far bigger than the Berlin Airlift. It's intended to bring in over 2 million meals a day.
Let's see what coalition is willing to assist the US in this effort.
The UN? The Saudis – or will they just keep their focus on buying global sport? Any of those slave-owning Gulf States? Turkey? China? Which EU states if any? Gaza’s Hamas supporters across the western world?
Time to put your money where your mouth is.
Sure won't get any help from Israel. It is going to piss them off massively.
Gaza has zero strategic importance for the US. Zero. It produces nothing. Exports nothing. Is a massive aid suck-hole. Is not the responsibility of the US in any form. Has far closer allies who happen to be some of the richest and emptiest countries in the world.
No one expects the US will get any credit for it anywhere. They will either have done too much or too little.
But it is boots on the ground and thousands of distribution trucks from the Army and Navy and Marines, from the US, in Gaza.
Think about what that means.
Millions around the world know exactly what it means–a massive, gruesome contradiction–The yankee devils are both a substantial enabler of the Gaza Genocide and hold the solution to ending it.
There are Israeli ports where humanitarian aid could be landed. The US could tell Israel to let it through – and if they do not, then threaten the withdrawal of military aid and the sort of sanctions (rightfully) imposed on Putin's Russia.
My suspicion is that this proposal will be backed by Israel as a way of washing their hands of Gaza. Create a big Israeli-occupied buffer zone in the north of Gaza and make the miserable remains of it in the south into a problem for the US and EU to deal with. Almost inevitably, a large-scale exodus of Palestinians from Gaza is the result – ethnic cleansing can take many forms.
+100 AB…that is the Israeli objective……talk about cynical.
Gazans aren't really wanted in the Arab world. They're more useful where they are.
The US won't be doing this without Israel's permission. How will they distribute the aid while keeping it out of hammass hands?
D-Day's Mulberry harbours.
Biden has the power to ring Netanyahu and tell him to stop or have U.S. aid cut. We don't need to debate the probability that that will never happen.
Whilst this brings aid to Gaza and is going to be a significant U.S material contribution, you cannot put a dollar or other currency figure on what it would mean to the U.S. reputation in the region and in the global south if Biden did as I've suggested and made good on that promise. Sure half of political Washington will fall of their rockers, but compared with the lasting damage that is being done to whatever credibility America has left on the political stage, is that a bad price to pay?
Me thinks not.
As is clear from the comments, thus far, the US will get zero credit for this action from the international left community.
Perhaps 'terrifying' is a tad hyperbolic – how about these? Welcome ro austerity – for some.
LESS? Unacceptable! – – – UNPALATABLE – – – – – – – UNTENABLE
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/16-08-2022/the-side-eyes-two-new-zealands-the-table
thank goodness we cancelled affordable water upgrades and stopped the Mowrees from stealing everything 🙄