Open mike 18/03/2025

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, March 18th, 2025 - 60 comments
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Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Step up to the mike …

60 comments on “Open mike 18/03/2025 ”

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  1. thinker 1
    18 March 2025 at 7:27 am

    Watched with interest and a little humour as Luxon stepped off the plane in India and immediately announced the trip a success.

    Then I realized what he must have meant – the plane didn't break down on the way there…

  2. PsyclingLeft.Always 2
    18 March 2025 at 8:52 am

    Luxon cuddles up (literally) to far right leader.

    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has won significant facetime with global heavyweight Narendra Modi on a frenetic full day in India where both pledged closer cooperation.

    The two leaders – both known for their tactile approach – hugged when Luxon arrived at New Delhi's opulent Hyderabad House, and again after delivering prepared remarks to media.

    Should we be worried about this? IMO..hell yes.

    "We like each other," Luxon said. "We actually have a similar approach to how you run government and how you set targets and you drive towards delivery and outcomes."

    And on to lunch.

    After sharing lunch, both Modi and Luxon left for the opening of India's Raisina Dialogue, a prestigious geopolitics and security conference at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in New Delhi.

    Oh…really ? Modi has eliminated some….things.

    As chief guest, Luxon delivered the opening speech and laid the praise on thick, commending Modi for "eliminating extreme poverty" in India.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/545116/indian-pm-narendra-modi-alleges-anti-india-activity-in-new-zealand

    Modi . Far right.

    and of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a far-right Hindu nationalist paramilitary volunteer organisation.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narendra_Modi

    • Res Publica 2.1
      18 March 2025 at 12:09 pm

      In the real world, protocol often requires delivering flowery praise to right-wing strongmen with abhorrent politics. It's just the way foreign policy works sometimes.

      But Luxon could at least manage it with a shred of dignity.

      Instead, he looks like a schoolboy awkwardly receiving an award from the principal rather than a leader engaging in serious diplomacy. And you have to ask serious questions about a man who can't even get smiling and waving right.

      • PsyclingLeft.Always 2.1.1
        19 March 2025 at 8:38 am

        In the real world protocol often requires delivering flowery praise to right-wing strongmen with abhorrent politics. It's just the way foreign policy works sometimes.

        Ahuh. Is that some patronisation perchance? I merely linked to Modi and his membership of a far right (some describe as fascist) group. His repression of dissent, minority groups, et al needed some light. However Luxon blurts…

        "We like each other," Luxon said. "We actually have a similar approach to how you run government and how you set targets and you drive towards delivery and outcomes."

        Would you be so pragmatic if he hypothetically flew to say…Moscow and met with Putin?

        • Res Publica 2.1.1.1
          19 March 2025 at 10:12 am

          Ahuh. Is that some patronization perchance? I merely linked to Modi and his membership in a far-right (some describe as fascist) group.

          I'm not saying the RSS isn't fascist. Or that the BJP isn’t a morally bankrupt, authoritarian party that has consolidated power by exploiting historical caste and religious divisions and outright condoning anti-Muslim violence. Or even that Modi isn’t an authoritarian strongman dragging Indian democracy into the mud.

          What I am saying is that in diplomacy, smaller states like New Zealand don’t have much choice in how they push back against larger powers they desperately need something from—like, say, a free trade agreement.

          So I get why the PM has to make the right noises in a press conference to secure what we need behind closed doors.

          What irks me is that he managed to do it while looking like a grinning, fawning, vacuous buffoon. It was almost like an empty plane landed in India, and Christopher Luxon got out.

          Would you be so pragmatic if he hypothetically flew to, say… Moscow and met with Putin?

          Diplomacy isn’t a moral purity contest. If New Zealand needed something badly enough, a PM should absolutely engage with Putin—just like other Western leaders have, even while denouncing him.

          The issue isn’t that Luxon met Modi. It’s that he did so like a clueless sycophant, seemingly prepared to whitewash outright ethnic cleansing in pursuit of a deal that delivers nothing of substance.

          • PsyclingLeft.Always 2.1.1.1.1
            19 March 2025 at 11:34 am

            Diplomacy isn’t a moral purity contest. If New Zealand needed something badly enough, a PM should absolutely engage with Putin—just like other Western leaders have, even while denouncing him.

            Thanks for reply and being honest enough to say your thoughts on.

            I would definitely agree that Luxon is falling over everything (his own feet, Modi's repressions, et al) with a kind of manic desperation to save (IMO) his own ass…..

    • thinker 2.2
      18 March 2025 at 3:30 pm

      Reply to psyching

      This trip, I tried something new and checked out some of the local India media, to see what India thinks about the delegation.

      Generally those papers don't talk about much other than Luxon coming to India and Modi giving up some time to him and they both talked about cricket.

      It didn't sound like the game-changer that's posted locally.

      I wondered if the trip is an attempt to woo the South-Asian vote, come 2026.

  3. Stephen D 3
    18 March 2025 at 10:28 am

    From the Conversation.

    https://theconversation.com/trump-is-surveying-australian-academics-about-gender-diversity-and-china-what-does-this-mean-for-unis-and-their-research-252282?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20March%2018%202025%20-%203300633704&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20March%2018%202025%20-%203300633704+CID_aa633c0971b91b38b29bf381bdf3ef85&utm_source=campaign_monitor&utm_term=Trump%20is%20surveying%20Australian%20academics%20about%20gender%20diversity%20and%20China%20%20what%20does%20this%20mean%20for%20unis%20and%20their%20research

    Some of the questions to the research universities.

    ”Some of the specific questions include:

    Can you confirm that your organisation has not received ANY funding from PRC People’s Republic of China, Russia, Cuba or Iran?

    Can you confirm that this is no DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] project or DEI elements of the project? [sic]

    Does this project take appropriate measures to protect women and to defend against gender ideology as defined in the below Executive Order?

    Can you confirm this is not a climate or “environmental justice” project or include such elements?”

    Have any of our research institutions had the same requests?

    • tWig 4.1
      18 March 2025 at 11:00 am

      She may well be the public face of a competing cartel who did a better job of buying off local police and ICE officials.

  5. Hunter Thompson II 5
    18 March 2025 at 10:44 am

    Just occasionally our media representatives fulfill their proper function of shining a light into a dark corner so the public know what has been going on.

    An example is the Stuff coverage of the awarding of a $2 million contract by Health NZ to a UK company of which an ACC manager was formerly a director. At the time the contract was awarded, the manager was advising Health NZ on system performance and accountability.

    No tender was called for the work, apparently because the UK company was the only outfit capable of doing the job (reducing patient waiting lists). This point has been disputed by NZ businesses.

    Maybe everything is above board, but it is vital the 4th estate gets onto these issues and, even more importantly, the bureaucrats know they are being watched and will be held to account.

  6. tWig 6
    18 March 2025 at 10:56 am

    The logical end-point of anti-trans propaganda:

    New [W. Virgina] Republican bills seek to ban trans people from public spaces, and refer to them as ‘obscene’

    The bills 'classes being trans as a “sexual deviation”. '

    'Senate Bill 195 classes trans people as “obscene” and aims to ban “transgender exposure, performances, or display” to minors, essentially criminalising public presence of trans people.'

    No going within 1000 yards of a school, etc, in case kids catch the trans.

    This is tabled legislation yet to pass. A recent W. Virginia bill defining 'male' and 'female' included a clause that would have allowed medical personnel, eg school nurses, to inspect children's genitals without parental consent. But that clause was removed before becoming law, because that was seen as contravening parental rights, not in any sense of protecting the kids.

    • Visubversa 6.1
      18 March 2025 at 4:56 pm

      There are "trans" kids like there are vegan cats. Someone else is making the decision. The usual answer is a homophobic parent who is terrified of having a "gay" child because that child does not immediately conform to rigid sex stereotypes.

      • Phillip ure 6.1.1
        18 March 2025 at 7:16 pm

        Aahh..!… that's a contentious subject…for some…

        Vegan cats and vegan dogs.,

        ..not for me… I've been doing the vegan dog/cat thing for a quarter of a century..

        ..ask me anything…

    • weka 6.2
      18 March 2025 at 6:33 pm

      yep.

      and the logical end-point of anti-feminist TRA propaganda: girls are forced to undress in front of a male student. Despite there being gender neutral options for the male student. Staff, including senior, made the girls go to the locker room and change.

      https://x.com/ReduxxMag/status/1900991195020513297

      Maybe it's time the left got its shit together and started listening to each other.

    • weka 6.3
      18 March 2025 at 6:37 pm

      This is tabled legislation yet to pass. A recent W. Virginia bill defining 'male' and 'female' included a clause that would have allowed medical personnel, eg school nurses, to inspect children's genitals without parental consent. But that clause was removed before becoming law, because that was seen as contravening parental rights, not in any sense of protecting the kids.

      I'm not sure you are right about that. I haven't read the legislation, but the clause is about parental consent not parental rights.

    • SPC 6.4
      19 March 2025 at 11:49 am

      Kentucky GOP lawmakers vote to protect conversion therapy

      Kentucky’s Republican lawmakers have passed a measure to protect conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ youths as part of a bill that also would outlaw the use of Medicaid funds to pay for gender-affirming health care for transgender Kentucky residents.

      https://apnews.com/article/conversion-therapy-kentucky-cf61c100f6aad954a43e45f25dbd316c?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=share

    • Karolyn_IS 6.5
      19 March 2025 at 11:55 am

      I do think Team Trump and other right wing gender conservatives (eg Brian Tamaki) are patriarchal and anti-trans and are putting trans & gender non-conformists in danger, physically, socially and politically.

      However, those like me who oppose discrimination and abuse of trans IDed people, and who also acknowledge the reality of 2 immutable human sexes, male and female, while seeing gender self ID is subjective, fluid &unstable, also get labelled anti-trans by a lot of those on the political left.

      The patriarchal and identitarian right in the US are leading a strong backlash against the extreme, authoritarian, neoliberal, trans rights activism embraced by the many in the political left in the west.

      Jane Clare Jones, a radical materialist feminist, has been looking into what is happening, especially with Trumpist USA, and in this post analyses some of the pendulum swings. "Against Identitarianism: Or, In Defence of Nuance."

      "What I’m interested in here is thinking through the how and why of this pendulum swing, and what it tells us about the mechanisms, and reality distortions, of the culture war."

      "What has happened here is that the political convictions of right wing identitarianism were inverted into left wing identitarianism which have now been inverted back into right wing identitarianism with added backlash rocket fuel."

      I find JCJ's posts on this topic to be very useful. She cites a lot of sources that I wasn't previously familiar with. On the gender issues I agree with JCJ that the left need to get beyond the 'us' and 'them', look more at the realities and nuances, and find a way forward against the frightening upsurge in deceptive, plutocratic, authoritarian right wing politics.

      • SPC 6.5.1
        19 March 2025 at 12:09 pm

        against the extreme, authoritarian, neoliberal, trans rights activism embraced by the many in the political left in the west.

        I would not call trans right activism, neo-liberal or authoritarian – if anything it is part of radical libertarianism, thus untempered – extremist. ACT never contended with it.

        Neo-liberals on the political and economic right supported it to make society with greater inequality seem more inclusive and modern. Thus National said nothing (like ACT also supporting self ID).

        Social progressives, centrist and centre left and left were on board, rather then side with social conservatives.

        Some feminists opposed it, but many did not.

        • Karolyn_IS 6.5.1.1
          19 March 2025 at 2:08 pm

          The current trans rights theory originated in the US, and was first openly embraced politically by President Obama with an EO, in 2014. The US Democrat Party hierarchy is pretty neoliberal. Some big pharma corporations had jumped on board at some point seeing the possibility for a lucrative niche market. The number of gender clinics exploded in the US between 2007 and 2022.

          The Tories were the first UK party to introduce policy for it in 2018.It got stalled when other political priorities overshadowed it like Brexit. Other parties followed. The first opposition to it in the UK was from some Labour and Green party members and voters, some of whom were trade unionists. The UK (I think left wing parties) also introduced the #no debate mantra, and the censoring of opposing views to it.

          The approach has long been to censor, no-platform, and demonise any opponents. This includes going after people's jobs, trying to criminalise them. UK policing has been focused on criminalising, arresting etc, opponents to the TRA theory and demands.

          From early on, sex self ID, "trans women are women" etc was a top down authoritarian movement, and backed by big corporations. In NZ the GP introduced sex self ID before anyone really knew anything much about it. It followed the UK #no-debate and censoring MO. NZ corporations embraced it early by adopting the Rainbow Tick, which by 2019 was pretty much dominated by Transgender theory & demands. eg Fonterra.

          Many local and international corporations embraced this theory from early on. Look at all the corporations that have adopted the NZ Rainbow Tick. The result is they and many public sector organisations adopted transgenderism well before most of the population knew what was involved. It has been a top-down,authoritarian movement.

          The first person to pick up on what was happening in NZ was Renee Gerlich in about 2014. She was viciously smeared and censored. She opposed sex self ID, and drew other women's attention to it. Out of that came Speak Up for Women, largely consisting of left wing women. Here is the text of a talk Renee gave in 2019, in which she explains why the TRA movement was neoliberal.

          "This is neoliberalism: the commodification of nature, and the removal and defunding of social services, ramped up for the age of multinational corporations."

          Renee refers to the Shock Doctrine and then says:

          "These are the disaster conditions that transgender ideology exploits, and that enable whole populations to buy into the idea that not only can women be bought and sold like products, but womanhood itself is a commodity to which men should be entitled. Transgenderism is a neoliberal ideology that treats the natural fact of biological sex itself as something to be ploughed over and substituted with the cash crop of gender identity. It is empowering for the individual to reject biological sex and substitute it for a customised gender that expresses one’s own essential tastes, like your clothes and shoes are meant to do, and even your car, your cellphone screen protector and your toothbrush."

          • Karolyn_IS 6.5.1.1.1
            19 March 2025 at 2:13 pm

            Jane Clare Jones on the authoritarianism of the transgender movement in the UK.

            Also, it's hard to gauge how many left wing women are opposed to the current TRA theory and sex self ID. This is because many women are afraid to speak out because of the silencing, censoring and demonisation that happens. I know many who don't speak out because they are afraid it will impact negatively on their jobs. I know one or two who have had TRAs go after their jobs

          • SPC 6.5.1.1.2
            19 March 2025 at 2:24 pm

            We'll not agree on this.

            Greens?

            Gender was used in place of sex for ID purposes by 1999.

            https://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/1999/0100/latest/DLM281326.html

            https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/12060/georgina-beyer

            The later change was from managed recognition process to self ID.

            All parties supported self ID and not one MP voted against it.

            All policy is top down as and when adopted by government.

            • Karolyn_IS 6.5.1.1.2.1
              19 March 2025 at 3:13 pm

              But not self ID. There was slippage to using 'gender' to mean sex in the 1990s I think, tho it maybe began earlier.

              I have read it was Ruth Bader Ginsburg that first enshrined the slippage in US law, maybe because many in the US didn't like using the word 'sex' because of the links with meaning sexual activity. It gained traction internationally after that.

              But it took longer for the notion of 'gender identity', and then sex/gender self identity, to be incorporated in the current trans theory. It's the problem of the meaning of 'gender' that confuses many people. It's an unstable and slippery concept.

              That mention of Beyer being transgender is revisionism. Beyer was always known as "transsexual". In 2007 it was reported:

              "The world's first transsexual MP Georgina Beyer came into Parliament making a joke about her sexuality and left yesterday on the same note.

              In her maiden speech Ms Beyer joked that she was the stallion that became a gelding, then a mayor (of Carterton) and then she became a member."

              In 2018 Beyer said:

              "“Don’t insult me by telling the likes of me that I can’t be anything I want to be – I’m transsexual.”"

              • SPC …
                20 March 2025 at 9:16 am

                RBG was simply running with the feminist advocacy for "gender equality" speaking to equal participation in society, which was part of the 1960's.

                The concept of gender distinct from birth sex, rather than as an interchangeable terminology (as the 1960's feminists were using it) was a separate matter.

                But it was a known before 1980, as this was all was part of the DSM 3 in 1980.

                GB was of the era when there was transvestite and transsexual, and she chose to be the latter.

                Note this quote, as to being the same as those who call themselves transgender

                We are transsexual or transgender

                And this

                Well, they certainly want me to cover my experiences in the political arena as a transgender person

                The nuance.

                We are transsexual or transgender, and I’m a transsexual woman. I’m not a biological female. I was born a biological male. That changed. That’s the biology of the thing, and that changed for me as I realised that that didn’t fit right. But I’m a transsexual woman. I don’t claim to be a female.’

                And this

                I had a Member’s Bill in the Parliament when I was there to include gender identity in Section 21 of the Human Rights Act – grounds upon which you cannot be discriminated against.

                A separate reference to sex and gender in the HRA would be useful.
                There transgender could be a category, as could gender expression.

                https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1807/S00244/qa-georgina-beyer-interviewed-by-corin-dann.htm

            • Drowsy M. Kram 6.5.1.1.2.2
              19 March 2025 at 5:59 pm

              Most people self-ID about something. I’ve come to believe that who/what adults identify as is none of my business, if they're behaving within the law.

              People who object to certain types of self-ID, for example gender self-ID (legal in Aotearoa NZ), are free to lobby for law changes. And, if there is strong evidence (cf. belief) that ostensibly progressive laws are actually doing more harm than good, then that lobbying might stand a fair chance of success.

              • SPC …
                20 March 2025 at 8:48 am

                As your link notes self-ID on DL and passports since 2012.

                Thus from sex ID to gender ID, then onto self ID.

                Otherwise there was managed transition to realise formal gender ID change at least until parliamentary legislation – Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Bill (first introduced in 2017 and passed in 2023)

              • tWig …
                20 March 2025 at 10:56 am

                Ireland, a country of 5 mi, similar in many cultural ways to NZ, has had self-id for trans people since 2015. They publish the stats: equal numbers of trans men and women seek self-id, and the numbers are quite low.

                Guess what. If there were any stats whatsoever about increased exual assaults in Irish toilets by male sexual predators who used self-id as women, the numbers would have been published ad nauseum in the UK anti-trans press. But nothing. Not a sausage.

                A sexual predator doesn’t need self-id to harass people in public spaces.

    • SPC 6.6
      19 March 2025 at 11:57 am

      Classifying being trans a sexual deviancy and calling being within a km of a school indecent exposure.

      Identifying being trans as a sexual deviation is based on two concepts

      1not dressing like one of their birth sex.

      2.proscribing their sexuality.

      Then this

      1.a focus on those born males identifying as of the female gender. This is not the
      the patriarchy being misogynist. It's just anger at those not part of their broliarchy …

      2.a step towards punishing those born female who do not dress like Christian women puritans. Either because of their resistance to gender conformity or a lack of modesty.

      This all leads to pejorative views of homosexuality, non procreative sex acts & non marital sexual relationships, in a roll back of progressive liberalism.

      Christian dominionism.

  7. dv 7
    18 March 2025 at 11:09 am

    GEEZ

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360605837/stuff-politics-live-blog

    David Seymour reckons Jesus may well have supported the ACT Party

    A reporter then asked if Jesus would have supported ACT, to which Seymour had a fulsome answer:
    "I believe that Jesus very well might support ACT from what I know about him. He believed that each person had inherent dignity, was made in the image of God, imago dei, and deserved to be treated with universal human rights. In many respects the underlying teaching of Jesus and the ACT Party overlap," he said through laughter.

    • Patricia Bremner 7.1
      18 March 2025 at 11:25 am

      He definitely displays narcissist characteristics. dv
      Plus his deflecting responsibility is concerning. In his Jack Tame interview about the lunch problems, he intoned those complaining were "conspiracy theorists". Right, so if anyone complains they will now be called that, and that deflects from the the main idea. Now he is marshalling the power of religion to give the Act Party credence. Whatever next? Bishop David Seymour of the Act Party?
      He wishes to bring his brand of Religion to Councils. “God help us!!”

    • Drowsy M. Kram 7.2
      18 March 2025 at 1:42 pm

      GEEZ smiley

      Well, Seymour did bemoan Labour's "war on landlords", who are treated "like al-Qaeda", and claimed that "If Nelson Mandela was alive today he would be campaigning for ACT.", so his delusional claim that Jesus would have supported ACT is hardly unsurprising – this is our deputy PM in waiting, FFS.

      Nelson Mandela would not have supported the ACT party, grandson says
      Asked for his response, Seymour said: "Far be it from me to question the great man's grandson, but Nelson Mandela did say 'all people are born equal, with each entitled in equal measure to life [and] liberty'.

      So what's Seymour's plan to close our 7-year ethnicity gap in average life expectancy?

      At the time Mandela made his famous remark, he said people were also entitled in equal measure to "prosperity, human rights and good governance".

      And what might Seymour and ACT party donors make of the idea that all Kiwis are entitled to an equal measure of prosperity, I wonder.

      Nicky Hager: Beware the smooth talker with a forked tongue
      David Seymour and Act know exactly what they’re doing.
      …
      Act billboards say End Division by Race, but it is
      actually more like Defend Division by Wealth.

    • tc 7.3
      18 March 2025 at 1:57 pm

      Do journos fear him ? Patsy question when school lunches and his ministry of waste go unchallenged.

      The amount of dribble that comes from Atlas jnr reported ad nauseum from the media must make the hollowmen smile.

      • Barfly 7.3.1
        18 March 2025 at 2:29 pm

        Are journos mainly employed by RW media owned by RW and paid to espouse RW talking points ?

        MSM is not the ordinary person's friend.

    • Macro 7.4
      18 March 2025 at 2:32 pm

      David Seymour reckons Jesus may well have supported the ACT Party

      🙄

      To which one might quote Matthew 6 verse 24.

      24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

      • Macro 7.4.1
        18 March 2025 at 2:42 pm

        ACT – Association of Consumers and Taxpayers.

        Then again Matthew 22: 15 – 22

        15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words.16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax[a] to Caesar or not?”

        18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.”They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

        21 “Caesar’s,” they replied.

        Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

        22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.

    • Obtrectator 7.5
      18 March 2025 at 5:55 pm

      Oh crikey, now he's spouting Latin tags, like a certain former UK PM. Will that immaculate 'do soon be getting mussed up in further homage?

  8. Incognito 8
    18 March 2025 at 2:15 pm

    If Labour wants to have a shot at it in 2026, it needs to control the narrative and to do so means to get your story straight.

    https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/03/17/labours-changed-public-private-partnerships-message/

    FFS, sharpen up, Labour!

    • gsays 8.1
      18 March 2025 at 9:36 pm

      Once again, they show themselves to be lacking in abiding principles.

      They give the appearance of being aware of the worse excesses of the 'market' but bereft of any idea of an alternative.

      • Phillip ure 8.1.1
        19 March 2025 at 8:47 am

        They are facing the same problems as the democrats in america…

        However flawed his vision is… trump had a vision for change…that he sold to enough voters..

        Whereas the democrats have no competing vision…

        .. and in response to trump…are showing themselves as both rudderless and useless…

        Which brings us back to labour…

        (..and my abiding fear they are planning on just some more of the incrementalism they have relied on..in place of any vision/pathway to fixing what ails us..for decades..)

        Could someone from labour please tell me that I am wrong…and that labour are working like Energizer bunnies on a version of the grand plan…

  9. Barfly 9
    18 March 2025 at 2:33 pm

    Idiots

    That is the playbook of the RW attack trying to be launched by the CoCs (Hard c's)

  10. Joe90 10
    18 March 2025 at 2:37 pm

    .

    The last surviving Battle of Britain pilot, John "Paddy" Hemingway, has died at the age of 105.

    Mr Hemingway, who was originally from Dublin, joined the Royal Air Force [RAF] as a teenager before World War Two.

    At 21, he was a fighter pilot in the Battle of Britain, a three-month period when air force personnel defended the skies against a large-scale assault by the German air force, the Luftwaffe.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg1z42pkj8o

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hemingway_(RAF_officer)

  11. David 11
    18 March 2025 at 5:51 pm

    Well that's certainly an end of an era, I do have vague memories of my father and older brothers taking me to see the movie decades ago.

    BTW, a New Zealander, Sir Keith Park, was the General Officer in Command of the day to day air battle, during the Battle of Britain, he also went on to command the RAF's air defence during the siege of Malta.

    Talking of World War two, David Seymour, our "Minister of Catering" and new boyfriend of Jesus, would do well to remember the sacrifices of the men and women who fought and died during the second world war. The fruits of victory for for all of us, not just the lucky and wealthy. I'm hoping with the baby Jesus now a follower of ACT, the minister of Catering will be reminded of a few things, like "the loaves and fishes", "those who have much, much is expected", "it's easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle, than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God", along with the commandment about taking the Lord's name in vain…

  12. Patricia Bremner 12
    18 March 2025 at 6:48 pm

    Yes!! Drowsy M. Kram. 100%