While the extreme Right and the extreme Left write posts in support of Assad;s genocide and incite murder against the First Responders known as the White Helmets.
On Saturday in Auckland a protest rally by Syrian refugees and their supporters, protesting the ongoing genocide being conducted by the regime, and in Solidarity with the besieged citizens of Aleppo, were confronted by a small group of counter-protesters draped in Russian flags and wearing “Make America Great Again” baseball caps.
The White Helmets are not the charitable organisation they appear to be.
Again a wee bit of research would uncover this, Jenny.
Do you know who founded this group? Easy to find out.
Yet you persist in disseminating propaganda.
Googling is a form of augmented automated literature search.
It sure is. My current favourite is that a search for ‘did the Holocaust happen’ puts Stormfront’s top reasons the Holocaust didn’t happen at the top of the list. As a tool for confirming your prejudices, Google has no superior.
I notice Paul, that you didn’t post to any of the links to some of the notorious pro-regime posts, that incite violence and murder against the Syrian First Responders known as the “White Helmets”.
Maybe it is because, the main reason that supporters of the regime like yourself, give for rationalising these attacks, is that the White Helmets accept money from the US.
Maybe you could extend the same rational to the bombing of hospitals, that because hospitals also take charity from Western countries they also deserved to be bombed.
Syrian Solidarity NZ is also fund raising to send money to the White Helmets, maybe you could also use this as an excuse for inciting murder against the White Helmets.
@aob I agree with you. Neither Jenny, yourself or I are the the arbiter of truth on this issue. There is a fog of propaganda operating in both directions ( as in all wars) to persuade people of the rights of their cause.
Jenny says ‘Don’t support fascism.’
I shall allow readers to decide whether groups like Al Nusra, Al Qaeda and ISIS are anti-Fascist and therefore what is the ‘truth’.
Well, they’re anti these particular fascists, while being adherents of a murderous totalitarian ideology themselves. Armed uprisings tend to be like that, especially if the regime they’re trying to overthrow is highly successful at exterminating its less-militaristic opponents.
The White Helmets are not the charitable organisation they appear to be.
However, they are the first-response emergency service they appear to be, which is a good thing because the people you’re posting propaganda for have been giving them a great deal to do.
SCD was started by James Le Mesurier, a former British Army officer and private security consultant, in early 2013,while working as Director of the Syria Civil Defence support programme at the UAE consultancy Analysis, Research and Knowledge (ARK). SCD claims to be a neutral and impartial humanitarian NGO, with no official affiliation to any political or military actor and a commitment to render services to any in need regardless of sect or political affiliation. Like all NGOs operating in opposition-controlled areas, SCD negotiates humanitarian access with organizations such as local councils, provincial councils, and armed groups, with relationships varying widely from governorate to governorate.
Watching the White Helmets mannequin challenge video should ring alarm bells.
Why? All those newsreels from all sides in WW2 showing “our brave lads” attacking enemy positions were staged for propaganda purposes – so far, no historian’s suggested this proves that the armies involved were fake and no fighting actually occurred.
The people spreading regime propaganda about the White Helmets being a fake emergency service have a big logical hurdle to get over: Aleppo actually is having the shit bombed out of it by the regime and its patrons, civilians are thereby being killed, injured and/or trapped in the rubble, and somebody is digging them out and getting them to the city’s hospitals. What’s the compelling case for people other than the White Helmets being the ones doing it?
Across the mainstream Western media, the “White Helmets” are hailed as heroic first responders rescuing injured civilians in rebel-controlled parts of Syria. The U.K. Guardian and The Independent urged the Nobel Committee to award this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to the “White Helmets.” As it turned out, they didn’t get that one, but they did receive the prestigious 2016 “Right Livelihood Award.”
On the U.S. side of the Atlantic, the “White Helmets” are treated with similar uncritical acclaim. They were the subject of the Oct. 17 TIME magazine cover story. Netflix has released a special “documentary” movie about them. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has gushed over them for years, helping the group’s one-sided depiction of events inside Syria shape the pro-rebel narrative that is pretty much all the American and European publics hear about Syria.
The “White Helmets” symbol, expropriating the name of “Syria Civil Defense.”
The “White Helmets” symbol, expropriating the name of “Syria Civil Defense.”
And, this love-fest is not just confined to establishment media. DemocracyNow! ran a puff piece interview with the White Helmet infomercial directors. The Intercept published an uncritical promotion of the “White Helmets” and the group’s controversial leader. Codepink recommended the Netflix movie (though after receiving criticism about the endorsement, the anti-war group removed it).
Yet, despite the favorable “group think” regarding the “White Helmets” – and more broadly about the rebel cause in Syria – there is another side to the story, including the fact that the “White Helmets” are not just some well-meaning Syrians who emerged to help all civilians suffering from the five years of war.
Not only do they only operate in rebel-controlled areas but they are a source of propaganda about the war, indeed their very existence is an element in the larger propaganda campaign to rally international support for a “regime change” war in Syria. The “White Helmets” brand was conceived and directed by a New York-based marketing company named “The Syria Campaign,” which itself was “incubated” by a larger politically oriented marketing company called Purpose.
Along with managing the online and social media promotion of the White Helmets, the Syria Campaign has parallel efforts in support of “regime change” in Syria. One of these efforts has been to criticize United Nations and humanitarian relief organizations that supply aid to displaced persons living in areas protected by the Syrian government.
“The allegations made by the Syria Campaign and others were written by people who know nothing about the UN and how it must work,” according to an NGO worker operating in Damascus.
In October, the Chicago Tribune ran a story covering #StandWithAleppo, a popular twitter handle and hashtag created by “two Chicago moms” looking to document the plight of children in besieged E. Aleppo. But as some observant social media users have since discovered, one of the women turned out to be a journalist, the other the head of a SuperPAC.
In the run-up to eastern Aleppo’s liberation by the Syrian army last week, #StandWithAleppo was turned into an extremely popular Twitter hashtag, users joining the Western mainstream media in condemning the Syrian government and accusing it of committing war crimes in the city. In spite of numerous stories, photos and video materials by alternative media showing that the city’s residents were actually mostly relieved by their liberation, the hashtag has effectively become a rallying cry for the anti-Assad, anti-Russian narrative pushed by the mainstream media and Western governments. But as one very observant Twitter user searching for the origin story behind the viral #StandWithAleppo campaign has since discovered, Becky Carroll and Wendy Widom, the “two ordinary moms” who launched the campaign, are anything but ordinary. 2. Described by Chicago Tribune as a “Chicago mom,” Carroll is in fact CEO of “public affairs & strategic communications firm ” C-Strategies — Club des Cordeliers (@cordeliers). The Chicago Tribune, which interviewed the two women in October, described Carroll as a strategic affairs consultant who “decided it was time to do something” to help the suffering people of the city.
Do you have some substantive rebuttal, or is posting links to irrelevant verbiage the limit of your ability?
As a reminder, here’s my argument: do you have something that actually addresses it?
The people spreading regime propaganda about the White Helmets being a fake emergency service have a big logical hurdle to get over: Aleppo actually is having the shit bombed out of it by the regime and its patrons, civilians are thereby being killed, injured and/or trapped in the rubble, and somebody is digging them out and getting them to the city’s hospitals. What’s the compelling case for people other than the White Helmets being the ones doing it?
Of course you don’t have any argument you could make yourself – I shouldn’t be surprised, by now.
The turgid screed you linked to contains the ludicrous argument that, I kid you not, the White Helmets aren’t carrying out rescue operations in east Aleppo because Syria already has the Syrian Civil Defence and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.
The argument is ludicrous because both those organisations are run by the regime and therefore aren’t operating in east Aleppo (or other rebel-held areas) – which is exactly the reason the White Helmets were set up in the first place.
Here’s the thing: it doesn’t matter how many pieces you find about how some people in east Aleppo are bad people who did this bad stuff, it doesn’t alter the fact that the Assad regime and its Iranian and Russian patrons have just spent over a year conducting indiscriminate aerial warfare against a civilian population and its emergency services and hospitals. Post hundreds of these stories, thousands even, it doesn’t alter that fact.
Civilians from recently liberated East Aleppo gather at the registration centre in Jibreen 13/12/2016. People were steadily streaming in during the two hours we spent in this area, interviewing and filming.
Not once did we see any indication that the SAA, Hezbollah or any other allied soldiers were causing any distress for these civilians. On the contrary it was clear that everyone we spoke to was grateful to the Army for their freedom and respite from four years of incarceration under a Nusra Front led terrorist regime in their own homes in the districts of East Aleppo.
The lies that are being spun in the corporate media in the west are nothing short of grotesque.
More like “Assad-regime propaganda cranked up as the battle for Aleppo comes to an end.”
You post that steaming turd of a piece and then try to claim you’re not promoting regime propaganda? Seriously?
Consider this: the groups the USA and its cronies were fighting in Iraq 13 years ago included many very evil people responsible for some terrible crimes. For some people in the West, that was the most significant information that needed to be provided about the conflict. They were wrong, just as you are wrong now.
Sorry PM we seem to be forgetting that the Americans are squeaky clean and that we should all pay heed to Hillary’s American Exceptualism.
Oh, right – it’s all the Americans fault. Something bad’s happening, so it must be their fault one way or another, if we just dig deep enough and go back far enough. After all, it’s just beyond comprehension that this could be about the Assad regime, Russia and Iran destroying east Aleppo with its people still inside it – those are the good guys, so it must be someone else’s fault.
So, if I understand this correctly, you think stuff the US has done in other countries is somehow relevant to what the Assad regime, Iran and Russia are doing in Syria? Or do you just like to post links at random?
I was being kind. If these links aren’t contributed at random, we’ve reached the level of tin-hattery in which people post links about “the GREAT Muammar Gadaffi” and America’s secret plan to invade seven countries, thinking they’re contributing something relevant.
General Wesley Clark seems a fairly reliable witness.
From wikipeida.
Wesley Kanne Clark, Sr. (born December 23, 1944) is a retired General of the United States Army. He graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1966 at West Point and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford, where he obtained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He later graduated from the Command and General Staff College with a master’s degree in military science. He spent 34 years in the U.S. Army, receiving many military decorations, several honorary knighthoods, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Clark commanded Operation Allied Force in the Kosovo War during his term as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO from 1997 to 2000.
Clark joined the 2004 race for the Democratic Party presidential nomination as a candidate in 2003, but withdrew from the primary race in 2004, after winning the Oklahoma state primary, endorsing and campaigning for the eventual Democratic nominee, John Kerry. Clark leads a political action committee, “WesPAC”, which he formed after the 2004 primaries and used to support Democratic Party candidates in the 2006 midterm elections. Clark was considered a potential candidate for the Democratic nomination in 2008, but, on September 15, 2007, endorsed Senator Hillary Clinton. After Clinton dropped out of the presidential race, Clark endorsed the then-presumptive Democratic nominee, Barack Obama.
First, my standard attempt to educate you: argument from authority is a logical fallacy and you should stop doing it.
Yes, Clark seems a fairly reliable witness. No doubt there was talk in the Pentagon of invading Iraq as far back as 2001, and no doubt the loons advising Bush Jr came up with a range of contingency plans that included wholesale invasions of Middle East countries they weren’t happy with. However, only the Iraq disaster went into production and none of the loons Clark is talking about have been in positions of influence for a decade, so at issue here is why you feel this interview is somehow relevant to the thread it appears on.
No You’ve misunderstood me Psycho Milt ….. My point is war butchers children in the cruelest and most evil of ways and to a large extent it is hidden from us ….
If Anzac day showed posters of innocent children with their jaws blown off and severed limbs dangling by skin as in the video I posted up the glory would soon go out of it…. it is the ultimate crime
Being lead by liars cheats and psychopaths has been a large part of the problem for humanity …..
Two wars based on lies and manipulation have been unmitigated disasters for the children and people of both Iraq and Libya …. Yemen is also a country of death and starvation for them.
I’d like to see less wholesale slaughter anywhere with more justice everywhere …. harder faster, even with smart bombs, will make things worse in the middle east …..
Rather than more war for freedom and democracy …..an easier answer without the broken bodies of children would be for the west to be less corrupt ……
Wage war on the bankers and accountants who launder the stolen and plundered funds of corrupt dictators and regimes which enables them to buy weapons, fund militias and stay in power.
Bankers and the financial system are more of a threat than any Russians … They also help fuel russian corruption with 50% of it’s wealth hidden/ stashed “offshore” ….
Prosecute multinationals more severely if their business activities result in killings or displacement by corrupt states or officials
On the plus side, the loonier fringes of the right and left are starting to look remarkably similar so the SIS and GCSB might well end up investigating the right-wing loonies by accident.
Watching the video in the link, I began to wonder about the two “counter-demonstrators” – the two yelling at 1:59 – ACT on campus? Young Nats? Comedians? Can anyone tell the difference?
‘ .. as one very observant Twitter user searching for the origin story behind the viral #StandWithAleppo campaign has since discovered, Becky Carroll and Wendy Widom, the “two ordinary moms” who launched the campaign, are anything but ordinary.’
If you really want to know the truth Jenny, you could watch Vanessa Beeley’s video. And then you could read and watch everything else she’s published since reporting from Syria.
“[Had he ever heard or seen the #WhiteHelmets]
No! Never I never saw them.”
Hanano, East #Aleppo. Interview with civilian queuing for food in the recently liberated area of East Aleppo. This area had been liberated two days before we visited by the Syrian Arab Army and their allies.
This is one more of dozens of testimonies describing the joy at being liberated and re-united with families in West Aleppo and freedom from being starved, beaten and tortured by the NATO and Gulf State terrorists.
Transcript [paraphrased in parts]
“Life under occupation was not the same for everyone, for those close to the terrorists life was good. Sometimes the terrorists wanted to gain support so they would give money and food just so people would go with them. They would give them aid and food destined for the Syrian people, but they took over it and distributed it.
The terrorist group controlling everything was Nusra Front [Al Qaeda in Syria] The rest of the factions were working under Nusra Front control.
[Talking about the SAA liberation] Is there anything sweeter than coming back home? This is the most beautiful feeling anyone can ever have. I prefer to have my house back and to put a tent on the ruins of my home rather than living away from my home.
[points to children in the queue] I have children like these
[Had he ever heard or seen the #WhiteHelmets] No! Never I never saw them.
[Were there any paramedics available] We the people of Aleppo we are brought up to help each other so if we saw our brothers and our relatives being injured we would help them nobody else.
The terrorists had their own civil defence. Sometimes they would help civilians but most of the time they were working with the terrorists.
They were wearing clothes that said “Civil Defence”
Vanessa Beeley is a British investigative journalist focused on the Middle East. On her return from Syria in September 2016, she reported how 600,000 people moved from East to West Aleppo to take refuge when the NATO-backed rebels attacked the city in 2012.
Vanessa Beeley is clear that Syria’s White Helmets, lauded in the West as a group of volunteer first-responders, funded by the US, Britain and others to the tune of $100 million and nominated for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize, are nothing but terrorists. She accuses the White Helmets of stealing ambulances and fire engines, and even killing Syria’s real Civil Defence officials
If you really want to know the truth Jenny, you could watch Vanessa Beeley’s video. And then you could read and watch everything else she’s published since reporting from Syria.
She and Eva Bartlett were there on behalf of the Assad regime. “Independent” journalists don’t get Syrian government assistance to report from Aleppo. Assad’s shills do, though, and both of these shills peddle his propaganda to gullible suckers on the right and left. It would be nice if people would stop promoting it on this blog.
So how come the White Helmets got special access in East Aleppo when all other independent journalists and aid workers got their throats cut?
The White Helmets were there on behalf of some shady organisations, supported by the US and others wanting regime change.
So how come the White Helmets got special access in East Aleppo when all other independent journalists and aid workers got their throats cut?
Uh, duh-uh – because the White Helmets are working for the rebel groups in east Aleppo, just like the Syrian Civil Defence gets “special access” to the government-held areas because it’s working for the Assad regime. And most of them don’t need “special access” because they live there.
More “Well, duh.” First and foremost, because the Assad regime took them to Aleppo. It doesn’t do that for journalists who might file reports that reflect badly on the regime. This is the meaning of the term “embedded” that Paul keeps flinging about when describing journalists who aren’t supporting the regime.
But there’s also the report itself. The whole thing reads like “official” war reporting by an embedded reporter, because it is. I find it bizarre that this kind of reporting finds so many eager suckers.
Going up against a skilled propagandist is a tough gig, especially for an amateur. He can point out that she was in Aleppo at the service of the regime, spoke to people the regime would allow her to speak to, has access to a wide range of facts the regime wants made public, and is using all that to issue propaganda on the regime’s behalf, but much good it does him when it’s RT running the interview.
Syrian Government Gives Evidence of ‘Rebels’ Using Mustard Gas Against Civilians
‘Just when you thought things could not get any worse for the US State Dept’s dynamic trio of John Kerry, Samantha Power and John Kirby, and President Obama too – another damning piece of evidence surfaces which implicates Western and Gulf state-backed “moderate rebels” in Syria.
Documents containing evidence of chemical weapons use by ‘rebel’ terrorists have been handed over to the Technical Secretariat of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) international mission in Damascus.
The attack in question is said to have involved the use of Mustard Gas and took place near the village of Maarat Umm Hawsh village in Aleppo province back in September.
Numerous other incidents of ‘rebel’ militants using chemical weapons have been documented in Syria, even by the OPCW, but unfortunately, the only reports the US and its allies seem to interested in are those which implicate the “Assad Regime.”’
“Moderate rebels” torch buses in Aleppo evacuating civilians
‘Demonstrating again their relentless sectarian agenda Al-Qaeda led Jihadis attack and burn buses tasked with evacuating Shiite fighters and civilians from besieged Shiite villages despite this putting the withdrawal of Jihadi fighters and civilians in Aleppo in jeopardy.
This incident reveals a number of important truths about the Syrian conflict.
The first is that the Western media is actually reporting it. The probable reason for that is that with the end of the fighting in Aleppo Western journalists are at last able to go there and to report on the spot. Though most of them doubtless remain intensely hostile to the Syrian government, the mere fact that they are now engaged in some actual on the spot reporting means that the coverage has suddenly become fractionally more balanced and nuanced.
More importantly, this episode shows who is really responsible for the suffering of civilians in Aleppo, and who is intent on pursuing a murderous and fanatical sectarian agenda in Syria.
Though the Western media failed to report the fact, the Russians and the Syrian government have offered since the summer to allow the Al-Qaeda led Jihadis and the civilians in eastern Aleppo who want to leave to withdraw peacefully from eastern Aleppo. The negotiations between the Russians and the US which were underway from June to early December were focused on that goal. In early September the Kerry-Lavrov agreement appeared to provide for it.’
It shows that the Iranians’ hijacking of the ceasefire deal had some unintended consequences. (The Iranians were unhappy that Turkey and Russian negotiated an evacuation deal for the rebels instead of letting Iranian militias carry out the liquidations they were hoping to – that’s why the militias blocked the first convoy of buses out until Iran got its own deal, including for the evacuation of these two villages. Of course, the guys besieging the village aren’t part of the same crew as the fighters in Aleppo, so perhaps don’t feel obliged to accept the Iranians’ terms).
It also shows that Paul reads some incredibly dodgy propaganda sites and posts links to them.
Jenny, if you are prepared to believe the narrative surrounding the White Helmets being ‘good guys’ all you claim to stand up for is clocked in slime
There are numerous angles surrounding the situation in Syria which are not as they are being told, but the lies about the White Helmets, who funds them and what they actually are…is hard to ignore
Are you aware there is a Syrian Civil Defense force who are internationally recognised for more than 50 years?
The position you take on this, is terribly misguided
Can the CIA’s public statements be trusted? Sometimes.
Our Reference tab includes: maps of the major world regions, as well as Flags of the World, a Physical Map of the World, a Political Map of the World, a World Oceans map, and a Standard Time Zones of the World map.
As for the Grand Wizard, if he’s Putin’s puppet, it’s neither hype nor hysteria, and he hasn’t de-escalated a damn thing: he’s opened up two new fronts, one agin China and the other against science.
Edit: this was in response to a comment which was deleted (?) in the meantime, to the effect that the Democrats/Wall St./Military want perpetual war and Trump will “interrupt” it.
Luckily the trial wasn’t in Florida, otherwise Dylan Roof might be out on the streets again. If that HAD happened, there’d be one “liberal” New Zealand commentator in full support of the acquittal….
“The eminent American political scientists Chris Achen and Larry Bartels estimate that about 3% of voters in western democracies cast their votes based on policy and ideology, and that these are all members of ‘the political class’: party members, activists, intellectuals etc. Everyone else – ie, for electoral purposes, everyone – is interested in and motivated by other factors. The economy, famously, is one; the personality of the party leader and the ability of voters to trust and identify with that leader is another.”
Ianmac – that spinoff article explaining Key is the best I have ever read. What a tosser the man was and he will probably always win at everything he does and like the article says, leave some poor sucker to pick up the pieces of his work he never did after he has buggered off. We are better off without him – Duncan Garner said the other day he is old news – he is absolutely correct. Easily forgotten.
McLaughlan is amazingly perceptive and a huge asset to the Greens. I liked his insight into the counterintuitive nature of money and how the banker class go about investing and divesting. Making money is just an intellectual game to these guys.
I have just read a fascinating article by Paul Craig Roberts. He’s not someone you’d expect to be criticising the US, as he was once in Reagan’s administration. Therefore his point of view on the events in America at the moment is very inetresting.
Here is his most recent article.
The Striking Audacity of the Coup-in-Process
Unsubstantiated stories have been planted throughout the presstitute media by anonymous CIA officials that Donald Trump’s electoral victory was the result of Russian intervention. This absurd claim has now been elevated to the even more absurd claim that Putin himself oversaw and even conducted the manipulation of the US presidential election.
No evidence has been provided for these amazing claims. The presstitutes are reporting unsubstantiated wild accusations that portend both a constitutional crisis in the US and a crisis with Russia. We know that the presstitutes lie. The presstitutes lied when they reported contrary to the weapons inspectors in Iraq that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. They lied about fake evidence of yellowcake and alumninum tubes. They lied about Saddam Hussein’s al-Qaeda connections. They lied about Iranian nukes despite the unanimous report of all US intelligence agencies that Iran had abandoned interest in nuclear weapons years ago. The presstitutes lied about Assad using chemical weapons against the Syrian people. They lied about Gadaffi. They lied about Russian invasion of Ukraine. They lied about the cause of the Russian/Georgian conflict. They lied about the Sochi Olympics. Now the presstitutes are claiming that Russian interference determined the outcome of the US presidential election and the Brexit vote.
As a result of the prestitutes’ lies, millions of peoples have been killed and dislocated. This blood is all on the heads of the American media. So we know for a proven fact that the US media has no integrity and no conscience.
Now the presstitutes have surpassed their previous level of criminality. They are part and parcel of fomenting a coup against the president-elect and throwing the country into a crisis of unknown proportion.
Tomorrow the Electoral College meets to cast the ballots for president. There is a well organized effort to disrupt this normally routine procedure. Based on CIA lies spread over the country by the presstitutes, 62 electors have requested a CIA briefing prior to the vote on Russian interference in the election. As there is no formal CIA report and no evidence in support of the allegations, the briefing would consist of the allegations.
Paul Craig Roberts is an American economist, journalist, blogger and former civil servant.
He reached the height of his government career when he became the United States Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy under President Reagan in 1981.In office he and his staff successfully combated the stagflation (price-inflation and stagnation) then plaguing the American Economy. Tighter monetary policy was used to restrain inflation, in addition lower marginal tax rates were used to increase the rewards to work and investment. In recognition, he was awarded the US Treasury’s Meritorious Service Award for “outstanding contributions to the formulation of United States economic policy”.
A strong critic of the Bush (and later Obama) administrations’ handling of the War on Terror, he has taken positions strongly at odds with mainstream politicians: harshly criticising the ineffectiveness, severity and high rates of incarceration associated with the War on Drugs, excessive police violence and use of SWAT teams against civilians. He has criticised the law and order politics and congressional approval of increased government surveillance associated with the War on Terror age, which he views as fundamental threats to the civil liberties and Right to Privacy enshrined in the US constitution, opening the way for an oligarchic police state to be imposed upon the US population.A vocal critic of neoliberalism, US oligarchy and the financialization of the economy.
, his articles have addressed and criticized outsourcing, economic deregulation, privatisation of social services, Wall Street finance fraud and lax enforcement of environmental protection laws. He has also been a vocal opponent of taxing social-security payments, holding that this amounts to a “tax on a tax” or privatising social-security believing this would create and opportunity for speculators to play with and lose the hard-earned savings of retirees.
You left out some of his …more interesting opinions.
From the wikipedia article your excerpt above apparently came from:
“2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School attack[edit]
In March, 2016, Roberts published an article claiming that many pictures associated with the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting were “doctored.” He further claimed that he was unable to determine if the shootings had actually taken place or not.[65]
2015 Charlie Hebdo attack[edit]
In a column for the Ron Paul Institute, Roberts said that the U.S. government executed the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris to punish France for its independent foreign policy. He cited its vote to recognize Palestine as a state at the United Nations and French President Hollande’s call to ease sanctions on Russia.[57][66][66]
2016 Orlando attack[edit]
Roberts has questioned the official account of the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, stating that “the visual evidence does not match the verbal reports”.[67]
He has said that a lack of body bags, security footage, and general primary sources, should warrant suspicion in regards to the authenticity of the official account for the attack.[68]
He has suggested that this attack might be a false flag operation, conducted for increased public approval for- and eventually, the implementation of gun control.[69][70]”
Scientists at institutions in the United States and Australia on Friday published a set of unprecedented ocean observations near the largest glacier of the largest ice sheet in the world: Totten glacier, East Antarctica. And the result was a troubling confirmation of what scientists already feared — Totten is melting from below.
The measurements, sampling ocean temperatures in seas over a kilometer (0.62 miles) deep in some places right at the edge of Totten glacier’s floating ice shelf, affirmed that warm ocean water is flowing in towards the glacier at the rate of 220,000 cubic meters per second.
These waters, the paper asserts, are causing the ice shelf to lose between 63 and 80 billion tons of its mass to the ocean per year, and to lose about 10 meters (32 feet) of thickness annually, a reduction that has been previously noted based on satellite measurements.
This matters because more of East Antarctica flows out towards the sea through the Totten glacier region than for any other glacier in the entirety of the East Antarctic ice sheet. Its entire “catchment,” or the region of ice that slowly flows outward through Totten glacier and its ice shelf, is larger than California. If all of this ice were to end up in the ocean somehow, seas would raise by about 11.5 feet.
Last week over at Kaiteriteri there were MILLION’s of jellyfish eggs all over the beach and in the water, was like wading in wall paper paste, super creepy. Never seen anything like it, not there, would have been very strange for any first time visitors and I imagine rather gross.
Was like beads of soft silicone, kids were collecting buckets full of it, they don’t sting, they are just ewwww’s slimy.
Apparently it is a result of the sea temperature rising, an el nino, but we are not in an el nino. Climate change is real and visible.
Hey, Cinny
I’ve had that very same experience at a beach not far from Kaiteriteri, only that was 40 years ago 🙂 I thought though, that they were fish eggs. Either way, it was an experience as weird as you are describing. The whole bay was filled with them, at least from 1 meter out to 4 metres, right around the curve.
Ever noticed how, whenever the Israeli government decides to lay waste to Gaza City again, blogs soon fill up with comments from amateur Israel enthusiasts who want us all to know that the media is very biased against Israel and we shouldn’t fall for its biased propaganda; and how these links prove that Hamas is a terrorist organisation that’s carried out the following terrible crimes against the people of Gaza City; and how these other links show that those photos of victims of the Israeli attack were totally faked; and how these independent, respected authorities have all written about how terrible Hamas is, and who are you to question them. The idea that maybe it isn’t right for Israel to be laying waste to Gaza city somehow doesn’t get dealt with among the bombardment of bullshit.
I’ve been thinking about that lately because something, ooh, let’s just say, things appearing in comments threads on this blog, remind me very much of those amateur Israel enthusiasts and their attempts to excuse the inexcusable. I think it’s important to write back pointing out what they’re doing, same as I do for the Israel enthusiasts, because it’s effectively the same obnoxious propaganda. So, my apologies to those sick of seeing me taking up a significant proportion of the recent comments list. It’s likely to go on for a while yet.
If it’s worth anything to you, I appreciate your efforts, and I know how much time and effort it takes to counter one-sided misrepresentations or outright bullshit.
Since I have zero useful knowledge or insight into Syria, and only the minimal insight into Islam that comes from a few months travelling in Islamic countries, I’ve kept my yap shut. But the mind-set that comes through in many of the comments you’re pushing against is that “America does a lot of evil around the world (no argument from me), therefore all evil happening must be from American meddling (WTF??!?) and anyone anti-American must be a good guy (Oh really?)”
For someone who has ‘zero useful knowledge or insight into Syria’, you can pretty quickly notice ‘one-sided misrepresentations or outright bullshit.’
I suggest you read Patrick Cockburn, Robert Fisk and Peter Obrone – actual independent experts. It is clear you haven’t read a word they have written.
Alternatively, you could believe everything pm says.
Paul, some kinds of bullshit are easy to detect. To just point out the nearest example of something that raises a flag, PCR continually referring to “presstitutes” is a hint that the piece is not serious fact-checking journalism but is intended to appeal to gullible people holding a particular world-view. Further checking on the author shows he’s in the habit of making completely unsubstantiated outrageous claims that also appeal to that particular worldview.
Then there’s your personal credibility. On several topics that I know a bit about, you’ve gullibly posted widely debunked bullshit, which again tells me your checking of sources is spotty at best. But I’ve yet to see Psycho Milt doing that. PM and Jenny also seem to have personal experience of the area and cultures (or very nearby, at least).
While it’s not a matter of “believing everything PM (or Jenny) says”, comments they’ve made line up with my limited personal experience of the area and cultures involved. So I find their opinions of interest, with the proviso that those opinions are coloured by their worldview. I read Fisk, and respect him enormously. But his work is also coloured by his worldview and where he’s coming from. To be honest, Syria doesn’t mean that much to me, so I’m not going to go to the effort of trying to work out what’s “really going on”.
I prefer to spend the time I have reading up on topics of more interest to me than trying to tease out an accurate picture of what’s going on in Syria. The total picture there is way too complicated and shifting so quickly. So no, I don’t read much of Oborne or Cockburn.
Just the first two topics that spring to mind that you keep posting bullshit about are allegations of coverups and nefarious government doings around the structural collapse of WTC towers, and McPherson’s “only 10 years left”. I really can’t be bothered searching up more. but there’s been enough that now I mostly just scroll on past your offerings.
I regularly post about climate change and present for readers’ enlightenment a variety of opinions on the issue. As I believe this is the most pressing issue facing us all, it is a regular topic for me. I think the Standard is guilty of not covering the topic sufficiently.
I also have posted occasionally about 9/11 – aspects of which have never been ‘debunked’.
People who believe the official narrative on weapons of mass destruction also tend to fall for stories about Aleppo and for stories of steel framed buildings that collapse at freefall speed in their own footprint.
You are free to scroll past.
Just today you appear to have engaged.
On a subject you know nothing about.
Re-read my comment carefully. You will see that I expressed no opinion on Syria. If you still have comprehension difficulties, I let Psycho Milt know I appreciated his efforts, and sympathised with the amount of work necessary to clean up after bullshitters.
You knew nothing about the topic under discussion, yet you chose to weigh in on the side of a malicious troll. You knew nothing, yet you still commented.
Andre, Morrissey’s comments are like a case study in the Dunning-Kruger effect. From his perspective, you clearly lack the intellectual horsepower and breadth of knowledge and understanding he brings to the subject, this being evidenced by the fact that you’ve disagreed with him, and he immediately lets you know it – for all the world as though his intellectual superiority were self-evident, rather than something that needs demonstrating. I’d find it sad if I didn’t find it so funny, but then in many respects I’m not a nice person.
PM and Andre thanks for bringing some balance and sanity to the threads getting spammed by endless RT regurgitation. I might actually stop scrolling past now
The Syrian government is battling an Islamist insurrection funded and diplomatically backed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United States, Britain and France.
There is no serious comparison to be made with Israel.
You are fallaciously equating the Israeli and Syrian regimes. Your argument, based on that false premiss, is absurd.
The Syrian government is battling an Islamist insurrection funded and diplomatically backed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United States, Britain and France.
That’s one view of it. My view is that a guy who inherited a country from his dad is fighting to hold onto his “property” so he can pass it on to his own children, no matter how many people he has to imprison, torture and kill to achieve it, and in the process has put himself under two masters (Iran and Russia), who are now going to kill a lot more people because a man can’t serve two masters. All views of a foreign conflict are deluded or mistaken to some extent, but I think mine reflects reality a lot more closely than yours.
There is no serious comparison to be made with Israel.
No indeed. However, the comparison was with the bullshit propaganda techniques that are common to enthusiasts of either government, and it’s a very apt comparison.
It’s not “one view” of it, it’s an irrefutable fact, which even the U.S. government admits to.
Your point about Assad’s criminality is a fair one. I don’t support him or his methods, but he’s Albert Schweitzer compared to the United States, Saudi Arabia, the U.K. and Turkey.
A very good point, Paul. Last night I was just about to post a conciliatory comment, actually praising Psycho Milt for his rather admirable maintaining of an even temper, even though I had hurled all sorts of nasty epithets at him.
Then he goes and uses the nasty—and desperate— “tin-foil hat” insult against me.
Maybe, just maybe, such an insult would be justified if I had posted something outlandish or bizarre. But what he was attempting to ridicule me for was my list of the regimes that have been supporting this bloody ISIS insurrection: “United States, Saudi Arabia, the U.K. and Turkey.”
Psycho Milt opined, in apparent high seriousness, that it was okay to list Saudi Arabia and Turkey—“they’re definitely players”—but to even mention the involvement of the United States and its vassal the United Kingdom “seems to be a tinfoil-hat job.”
Psycho Milt’s post was, of course, of no value whatsoever in terms of contributing to a serious discussion, but it was nonetheless valuable: it demonstrates how much credibility he has as any sort of a commentator.
The “tinfoil-hat” comment was aimed at your contention that the Syrian civil war didn’t arise from an uprising by Syrian citizens against the Assad regime, but was actually a project of foreign countries including the UK and USA. Not only does the evidence point the other way, the conspiracy theory is pretty conclusively refuted by the complete failure of the UK and US governments to actively assist the uprising. To continue to present as plausible an implausible conspiracy theory is tinfoil-hat territory, so it seemed fair comment.
The fact that police and others were killed by armed protesters in the days before any crackdown (reported in the NYT) supports the contention that the uprising wasn’t a simple spontaneous and non-violent ‘happening’.
The history of armed uprisings by ‘The Muslim Brotherhood’ (1980s) that led to the imposition of martial law that was never really lifted, also points to violence as being a first port of call for some interested in ridding Syria of its secularism.
But hey…
edit. The fact that the first sanctions (illegal) imposed on Syria by the US hark back to the 80s and have only increased in severity with the passing of time is indicative of ‘support enough’ for those seeking regime change. But again – hey…
Well, they’re showing the “truth” in the same sense that Pravda did, at least. I guess it depends on whether you hear 9/11 “truth” and subconsciously put quotation marks around it or not.
It’s curious that you think there’s a side that “actively destabilised Syria in the first place.” You’re thinking that there’s no way a hereditary ruler running one of the most brutal dictatorships remaining in the Middle East could have had people rise up against him just because they were sick of living in a giant Baathist concentration camp? Because that would be a bold claim.
You’re thinking that there’s no way a hereditary ruler running one of the most brutal dictatorships remaining in the Middle East could have had people rise up against him just because they were sick of living in a giant Baathist concentration camp?
No. I’m saying that the US actively encouraged a rebellion against the Assad Regime. Same as they did with Chile and other countries where they’ve worked to overthrow the regime that was there that they didn’t like because it was stopping their corporations from stealing from that nation.
And then they actively denied that involvement same as they did all the other times as well.
No. I’m saying that the US actively encouraged a rebellion against the Assad Regime.
Oh noes, evil USA actively encourages people to overthrow a despotic hereditary ruler! Of course they fucking did. Big whoop, they’ve been encouraging it for decades, to no discernible effect – it was the locals who decided to do it, and any attempt to give the US credit for it is laughable.
Bill English has announced National won’t stand a candidate in the Mt Albert by-election. Which makes sense given the large majority of over 10,000 in 2014. It also allows them to shrug off an attempt by Labour to use the by-election to set the political agenda next year.
It still gives Labour the opportunity to test out their campaigning system and continue rebuilding connections with Aucklanders, though. But winning’s not much fun when your opponent has taken the ball home.
@Colonial Viper. How’s things. Marry Christmas. Had a nice rest, and released stress?
Is there any chance of seeing CV back here. There are enough Psycho Milt Wellfed Wetas etc etc and we need some balance from feisty lefties to raddled righties.
Yes please, cv.
Would welcome some support dealing with the rabid neo-con agenda of some on this site who would have WW3 over, Syria. the Ukraine, the South China Sea………..
Hey Maureen, looks like you’ll be heading for another loss in West Coast /Tasman… you’ve neglected our region the Tasman area since you entered the house via the list.
Where do you stand on Pike? Nowhere… you don’t care do you? The only time your name comes up is on your FB and Twitter as well as the Patsy questions you ask. Never see anything of you in either the Nelson Mail or Greymouth Star.
‘The West Coast-Tasman electorate is the second largest in the country, and includes some of our most remote communities, so it’s crucial we have a strong, local voice in Government.’
yes it is Maureen and how many meet the candidates meetings did you avoid last time? Heaps huh? That sure made the papers, you absence and failure to front up. And we have a strong local voice for our remote communities and it sure aint you Maureen. Remember what happened last time, even the National voters voted for Damo, because he cares, makes himself available, is wide awake and gets things done.
See you at the meet the candidates again, this time better make sure you know your material, cause just like last time I will call you out if you attempt to lie, mhmmm you know I’m bold enough to do it, can’t stand liars.
Are you brave enough to have an electorate office in Motueka again? Still waiting… waiting… and waiting.. gutless career politician that one.
“I think there’s a real opportunity for us to save the country millions of dollars in pharmaceuticals by treating the whole person and the environment they live in, which is all about healthy eating and healthy living.”
She’s right, but what is the National Party doing about it ? Their Minister of “Health” is missing on duty, and as for the environment people live in – polluted water, substandard housing, fruit and vegetables at inflated supermarket prices, massive traffic congestion in our major city.
‘Saving the country money by treating the whole person. ‘ She sounds like the sort of pollie I want who will support our right to a ‘managed demise’ which means that we make arrangements about our dying, and then choose when we want to go.
Think of how much pain and suffering and private and public money that would save if only we could find some way of monetising the idea to catch the pollies’ eye or ear, and brain if possible.
As the graph [see original] shows, that’s a dramatic turnaround from the situation just three years ago when migration increased Auckland’s population by just 7000 and accounted for just under a third (32%) of its population growth. The biggest surge in migration occurred from 2013/14 onwards as the Government encouraged immigration on a number of fronts to try and spur economic growth.
That included creating what became known as a “pathway to residency” for overseas students studying here, which resulted in a huge influx of overseas students applying for residency at the end of their studies, a scheme that has since run into numerous problems.
The Government’s response to the unfolding housing crisis in Auckland was two pronged. Firstly it would stridently avoid admitting there was a crisis, it was merely a “challenge,” we were told. Then when the size of the problem became so big it could no longer be denied, blame was shifted elsewhere, and Auckland Council became the whipping boy for the housing shortage.
How could any council have foreseen the huge influx of migrants that was about to arrive in the city, and even if it did, capacity restraints within the construction industry meant the supply of new homes wouldn’t have kept up anyway.
It is also worth remembering that if the Government had kept migration at around the same level it was in 2013, then more than enough new homes would be being built now to cope with the region’s housing needs.
These problems should all have been foreseen when the Government left the immigration taps open three years ago. If it didn’t, that suggests incompetence. And if they did see the problems and proceeded anyway, it reeks of recklessness.
I’m going for “reckless”, the Nats knew exactly what they were doing with immigration and student visas but just didn’t give a fuck, as long as they could keep up the pretense of economic growth. Pretty much sums up their entire bullshit administration of the last 8.5 years.
We even made it on Aljazeera this morning listing Auckland as the fourth most expensive city in the world, more expensive than London – one way to make headlines for little ol’ NZ.
Scandal in Belfast to bring down First Minister Arlene Foster (DUP) today.
Cash for Ash: The Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme
Arlene Foster set up a scheme when she was a minister which subsidised heat generation at 5.9pence per Kw when the cost to generate a kw from wood pellets is 4.4pence.
The more you burn the more you make. And unlike similar a scheme in England there is no cap. When a whistle blower, civil servants and the auditor raised concerns the DUP SPADs surrounding Foster pressed for the scheme to continue.
Shortly after Foster became the First Minister the new minister, Jonathan Bell, announced the scheme would be suspended. Between then and the suspension hundreds of farmers and businesses got their applications in. Some are very close to the DUP leadership and SPADs. This will cost the Northern Ireland taxpayer $400 million over the next number of years.
There is talk of bullying, intimidation, featherbedding and more. No mention of sex. Yet. There is plenty of religious humbug of course. Hopefully sex will rear its head: sex and religious pomposity are fun.
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
The allure of sport transcends age, culture, and geographical boundaries. It captivates hearts, ignites passions, and provides unparalleled entertainment. Behind the spectacle, however, lies a fascinating world of financial investment and expenditure. Among the vast array of competitive pursuits, one question looms large: which sport carries the hefty title of ...
Introduction Pickleball, a rapidly growing paddle sport, has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions around the world. Its blend of tennis, badminton, and table tennis elements has made it a favorite among players of all ages and skill levels. As the sport’s popularity continues to surge, the question on ...
Abstract: Soccer, the global phenomenon captivating millions worldwide, has a rich history that spans centuries. Its origins trace back to ancient civilizations, but the modern version we know and love emerged through a complex interplay of cultural influences and innovations. This article delves into the fascinating journey of soccer’s evolution, ...
Tinting car windows offers numerous benefits, including enhanced privacy, reduced glare, UV protection, and a more stylish look for your vehicle. However, the cost of window tinting can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article provides a comprehensive guide to help you understand how much you can expect to ...
The pungent smell of gasoline in your car can be an alarming and potentially dangerous problem. Not only is the odor unpleasant, but it can also indicate a serious issue with your vehicle’s fuel system. In this article, we will explore the various reasons why your car may smell like ...
Tree sap can be a sticky, unsightly mess on your car’s exterior. It can be difficult to remove, but with the right techniques and products, you can restore your car to its former glory. Understanding Tree Sap Tree sap is a thick, viscous liquid produced by trees to seal wounds ...
The amount of paint needed to paint a car depends on a number of factors, including the size of the car, the number of coats you plan to apply, and the type of paint you are using. In general, you will need between 1 and 2 gallons of paint for ...
Jump-starting a car is a common task that can be performed even in adverse weather conditions like rain. However, safety precautions and proper techniques are crucial to avoid potential hazards. This comprehensive guide will provide detailed instructions on how to safely jump a car in the rain, ensuring both your ...
Graham Adams writes about the $55m media fund — When Patrick Gower was asked by Mike Hosking last week what he would say to the many Newstalk ZB callers who allege the Labour government bribed media with $55 million of taxpayers’ money via the Public Interest Journalism Fund — and ...
Note: this blog post has been put together over the course of the week I followed the happenings at the conference virtually. Should recordings of the Great Debates and possibly Union Symposia mentioned below, be released sometime after the conference ends, I'll include links to the ones I participated in. ...
The following was my submission made on the “Fast Track Approvals Bill”. This potential law will give three Ministers unchecked powers, un-paralled since the days of Robert Muldoon’s “Think Big” projects.The submission is written a bit tongue-in-cheek. But it’s irreverent because the FTAB is in itself not worthy of respect. ...
One Could Reduce Child Poverty At No Fiscal CostFollowing the Richardson/Shipley 1990 ‘redesign of the welfare state’ – which eliminated the universal Family Benefit and doubled the rate of child poverty – various income supplements for families have been added, the best known being ‘Working for Families’, introduced in 2005. ...
Buzz from the Beehive A few days ago, Point of Order suggested the media must be musing “on why Melissa is mute”. Our article reported that people working in the beleaguered media industry have cause to yearn for a minister as busy as Melissa Lee’s ministerial colleagues and we drew ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
How will the recent wave of job cuts impact ethnic diversity in the media? In November last year, I was working a very busy day in the newsroom of a large online news site, interviewing whānau about their concerns over the imminent closure of one of the few puna reo ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruth Knight, Researcher, Queensland University of Technology Have you ever felt sick at work? Perhaps you had food poisoning or the flu. Your belly hurt, or you felt tired, making it hard to concentrate and be productive. How likely would you be ...
Despite heavy criticism and an ongoing select committee process, the Police Minister says the Government will forge ahead with a ban on gang patches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Whiting, Lecturer – Creative Industries, University of South Australia Shutterstock Everyone has a favourite band, or a favourite composer, or a favourite song. There is some music which speaks to you, deeply; and other music which might be the current ...
A new survey says ‘outlook not great’ for those charged with building infrastructure, while RMA changes delight farmers and depress environmentalists, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. First RMA changes announced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olli Hellmann, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Waikato Getty Images When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also ...
A leaked document shows the Canterbury/Waitaha arm of health agency Te Whatu Ora is scurrying to save $13.3 million by July. The “financial sustainability target”, which was “allocated” to Waitaha, is consistent with what’s happening in other districts, says Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists. ...
A look at the state of the previous government’s affordable housing scheme, and what could come next.Remind me: What’s KiwiBuild again?First announced in 2012, KiwiBuild was a flagship policy of the Labour Party heading into both its 2014 and 2017 election campaigns. With Jacinda Ardern as prime minister, ...
Labour in opposition will be shocked to learn which party had six years in power but squandered any chance to make real change. Grant Robertson’s valedictory speech was a predictably entertaining trip down memory lane. The acid-tongued incoming Otago University chancellor administered a sick burn to the coalition government. He ...
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry is seen some as its ‘silicon shield’ against invasion – but how will overseas expansion affect that protection? The post The state of Taiwan’s silicon shield appeared first on Newsroom. ...
There’s relief for building owners bending under the weight of earthquake strengthening rules – and costs – that came into force seven years ago. Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk has announced a scheduled 2027 review of the earthquake-prone building regulations will now start this year. Owners will also get ...
Opinion: It has been announced that nine percent of roles at Oranga Tamariki will be disestablished, presumably to help fund the tax cuts promised by the coalition Government. I am reminded of the graphics used to illustrate pandemic events, where five thousand people are standing in a field and then ...
After more than two sleepless days, running through savage terrain, Greig Hamilton didn’t know if he was going to finish one of the most gruelling psychological assaults in sport. He was metres away from the finish line, a yellow gate made famous in a Netflix documentary; a race he’d dreamed ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Wednesday 24 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
The following interview with former Green Party MP Sue Kedgley came about because she features in the new memoir Hine Toa by activist Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku; the two knew each other at the University of Auckland in the early 70s, when they were both took on leadership roles in the ...
COMMENTARY:By Murray Horton New Zealand needs to get tough with Israel. It’s not as if we haven’t done so before. When NZ authorities busted a Mossad operation in Auckland 20 years ago, the government didn’t say: “Oh well, Israel has the right to defend itself.” No, it arrested, prosecuted, ...
NEWSMAKERS:By Vijay Narayan, news director of FijiVillage Blessed to be part of the University of Fiji (UniFiji) faculty to continue to teach and mentor those who want to join our noble profession, and to stand for truth and justice for the people of the country. I was privileged to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Three weeks from now, some of us will be presented with a mountain of budget papers, and just about all of us will get to hear about them on radio, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Lowry, Ice Sheet & Climate Modeller, GNS Science Hugh Chittock/Antarctica New Zealand, CC BY-SA As the climate warms and Antarctica’s glaciers and ice sheets melt, the resulting rise in sea level has the potential to displace hundreds of millions of ...
The government's plan to reintroduce a three strikes regime is being strongly opposed by lawyers, who argue there is no evidence it reduces crime or helps people rehabilitate. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Jerker B. Svantesson, Professor specialising in Internet law, Bond University Do Australian courts have the right to decide what foreign citizens, located overseas, view online on a foreign-owned platform? Anyone inclined to answer “yes” to this question should perhaps also ask ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giovanni E Ferreira, NHMRC Emerging Leader Research Fellow, Institute of Musculoskeletal Health, University of Sydney Last week in a post on X, owner of the platform Elon Musk recommended people look into disc replacement if they’re experiencing severe neck or back pain. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Hayward, Emeritus Professor of Public Policy, RMIT University anek.soowannaphoom/Shutterstock NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey caught the headlines yesterday, courtesy of a blistering speech condemning the latest GST carve-up. New South Wales, he claimed, would be A$11.9 billion worse off over the ...
While police are "broadly in favour", the government's proposed anti-gang laws are facing pushback from lawyers, rights groups and former gang members. ...
While police are "broadly in favour", the government's proposed anti-gang laws are facing pushback from lawyers, rights groups and former gang members. ...
By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has arrived at Kokoda Station, Northern province, at the start of his state visit to Papua New Guinea. Both Albanese and Prime Minister James Marape will meet with the locals and the Northern Provincial government before they begin their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Wallace, Professor, School of Politics Economics & Society, Faculty of Business Government & Law, University of Canberra Shutterstock An important principle was invoked by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last week in defence of the government’s Future Made in Australia industry ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk Security forces reinforcements were sent from France ahead of two rival marches in the capital Nouméa today, at the same time and only two streets away one from the other. One march, called by Union Calédonienne party (a component of the ...
A poll last August found that just 16% of New Zealanders oppose bringing back the ‘Three Strikes’ law. The nationwide poll of 1,000 New Zealanders was commissioned by Family First NZ and carried out by Curia Market Research. ...
The solo show from Ana Scotney is both sprawling and intimate, and a must-see, writes Mad Chapman. In the opening moments of Scattergun: After the Death of Rūaumoko, writer and performer Ana Scotney lays out the groundwork, literally. Silently moving around the square stage, Scotney is not so much dancing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Burridge, Professor of Linguistics, Monash University Who makes the words? Why are trees called trees and why are shoes called shoes and who makes the names? – Elliot, age 5, Eltham, Victoria Good question Elliot! Let’s start with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne at amRawpixel.com/Shutterstock Roles of health professionals are still unfortunately often stuck in the past. That is, before the ...
COMMENTARY:By Malcolm Evans Last week’s leaked New York Times staff directive, as to what words can and cannot be used to describe the carnage Israel is raining on Palestinians, is proof positive, since those reports are published verbatim here in New Zealand, that our understanding of the conflict is ...
In the case of New Zealand, the results confirm that there is no popular support for the vicious austerity program being imposed by the National Party-led government, which is backed in all fundamental respects by the opposition Labour Party. ...
The ‘Vampire’ singer has never visited our part of the world, but that might all be about to change. We assess the evidence.Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour is pulling in massive crowds as it whips around the US and Europe, even helping to catapult regular supporting act Chappell Roan ...
Testing of drinking water in rural Canterbury over the weekend by Greenpeace revealed that several public town supplies were reaching levels of nitrate above 5 mg/L - the threshold which a growing body of scientific evidence has linked to increased ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rohan Fisher, Information Technology for Development Researcher, Charles Darwin University It may come as a surprise to hear 2023 was Australia’s biggest bushfire season in more than a decade. Fires burned across an area eight times as big as the 2019–20 Black ...
Responding to the Government’s announcement of changes to resource management laws, Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, said: “These changes are a step in the right direction in terms of removing ideological and unworkable ...
More than two years after the Human Rights Council called for the establishment of a national human rights commission, such a body has yet to be formed. ...
Comment:An emergency management system with wide variations in performance, significant capability gaps, funding shortfalls and above all a setup that is not meeting the needs of New Zealanders at times of crisis. The Government’s inquiry into the response to Cyclone Gabrielle and other severe weather events in the North ...
Welcome to the whirring wonders of one brain trying to align its actions with its beliefs within a system it thinks is evil. My brain has been spiralling in a woke conundrum ever since I found out a bookshop I’ve never been to was shutting down. Good Books, a bookshop ...
We repeat our call for criminal justice policy to be based on evidence, something the three strikes regime neglects to recognise – with no evidence that it either reduces crime or assists with rehabilitation. ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor in Honiara With only four more seats in the 50-member Parliament yet to be officially declared, there is no outright winner in the Solomon Islands elections. As of Monday, the two largest blocs in the winner’s circle, independents and the incumbent Prime Minister Manasseh ...
Two/fiftyseven is a multi-purpose space hidden in the heart of Wellington that is paving a way for sustainable building and responsible landlording in Aotearoa and beyond.By 2060 the world is predicted to double its entire building stock, which equates to building an entire New York City every 34 days, ...
Popstars wasn’t just a reality television revolution, it was also a huge moment for Y2K fashion.It’s 25 years since girl group TrueBliss was formed on New Zealand national television, breaking new ground for both the reality television industry and the shiny clothing industry. With the first episode on NZ ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Pepping, Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology, Griffith University Marvin / Shutterstock Are all single people insecure? When we think about people who have been single for a long time, we may assume it’s because single people have insecurities that make ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By William Geary, Lecturer in Quantitative Ecology & Biodiversity Conservation, The University of Melbourne Trismegist san, Shutterstock Landscapes that have escaped fire for decades or centuries tend to harbour vital structures for wildlife, such as tree hollows and large logs. But these ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Gladstone-Gallagher, Lecturer in Marine Science, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Shutterstock/S Curtis Why are we crossing ecological boundaries that affect Earth’s fundamental life-supporting capacity? Is it because we don’t have enough information about how ecosystems respond to change? Or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Crocker, PhD Student in Economics, Deakin University Here’s something for the board of the Reserve Bank of Australia to ponder as it meets next month to set interest rates. It has pushed up rates on 13 occasions since it began its ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a charity director outlines how she’s saving for retirement and buying secondhand. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Female Age: 45 Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: Charity director, mum of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sophie Yates, Research Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Many Australians with disability feel on the edge of a precipice right now. Recommendations from the disability royal commission and the NDIS review were released late last year. Now a ...
It’s been called a failed experiment and a judicial straightjacket but the government says the revised three strikes law will be a more workable regime, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Three ...
New Zealand’s Palestinian community and Palestinian Youth Aotearoa are voicing alarm and disappointment with the lack of factual rigour present during the Israeli Ambassador’s appearance as a guest on TVNZ’s Q+A With Jack Tame Sunday (21/04). ...
Both ACT leader David Seymour, who played a key role in drawing up the assisted dying law, and hospice leaders say it's time the legislation was changed. ...
Public submissions on proposed gang control laws are being heard today. Rising gang membership has been cited as rationale for a crackdown – but what do we actually know about how many people belong to gangs in New Zealand?What’s all this then?A rise in the number of gang ...
Climate activists are setting their sights on an unpopular target, and hoping to bring lots of the public with them. It’s hard to miss the Majestic Princess: the enormous cruise ship, docked at Auckland’s Prince’s Wharf, looms over the nearby buildings. The ship, which can fit nearly 6,000 people, ...
In the 16 years since it was bought by the government for $690 million, KiwiRail has had several overhauls and turnaround plans worth billions of dollars. Its ambitions as a successful, profitable operator of tourism, freight and ferries have often been derailed by disasters from earthquakes to cyclones, mine explosions ...
Black Ferns trailblazer Kendra Cocksedge was on the verge of tears when her young protégé, Hannah King, unassumingly broke the news. Three-time Rugby World Cup winner Cocksedge and Lincoln agriculture student King meet every few weeks over a hot chocolate, in an enduring mentorship that’s spanned years. “Before we even ...
The Trump, Putin, Assad, axis.
Don’t support fascism.
While the extreme Right and the extreme Left write posts in support of Assad;s genocide and incite murder against the First Responders known as the White Helmets.
On Saturday in Auckland a protest rally by Syrian refugees and their supporters, protesting the ongoing genocide being conducted by the regime, and in Solidarity with the besieged citizens of Aleppo, were confronted by a small group of counter-protesters draped in Russian flags and wearing “Make America Great Again” baseball caps.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11769042
The White Helmets are not the charitable organisation they appear to be.
Again a wee bit of research would uncover this, Jenny.
Do you know who founded this group? Easy to find out.
Yet you persist in disseminating propaganda.
Googling is not “research”. You are not the arbiter of truth.
Googling is a form of augmented automated literature search. It sure helps ..
As for ‘truth’, the philosophers are still struggling with that one. Entire dissertations have been written on the topic, some of them in Syria.
http://deeperweb.com/results.php?cx=%21004415538554621685521%3Avgwa9iznfuo&cof=FORID%3A11%3BNB%3A1&ie=UTF-8&q=seymour+Hersh+Ghouta&as_qdr=&siteurl=http%3A%2F%2Fdeeperweb.com%2F
My favourite is
“Why every government should keep an empty seat for a philosopher-king.”
Ask John Key.
Googling is a form of augmented automated literature search.
It sure is. My current favourite is that a search for ‘did the Holocaust happen’ puts Stormfront’s top reasons the Holocaust didn’t happen at the top of the list. As a tool for confirming your prejudices, Google has no superior.
“Google ‘is unhappy’ with Holocaust denial beating the truth in its search results – but it probably makes more money that way”..ha!
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/17/holocaust-deniers-google-search-top-spot
I hope you are aware of the funding of the Google algorithm …
https://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=100660
https://hbr.org/2013/03/taxpayers-helped-apple-but-app
http://www.economist.com/…/21584307-new-book-points-out-big-role- governments-play-creating-innovative-businesses
infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html
https://www.quora.com/What-variables-go-into-the-Google-Ventures- entrepreneur-algorithm-to-determine-fund-investments
and in the interests of balance
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2016/11/noose-obama-wanted-hand-president-hillary-hang-u-s-democracy.html
https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/how-the-cia-made-google-e836451a959e#.v490a592m
https://www.amazon.com/War-Freedom-America-Attacked-September/dp/0930852400?tag=viglink20513-20
https://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/01/summarizing-the-missing-28-pages-who-was-behind-911/
http://rinf.com/alt-news/editorials/hillary-win-will-googles-win-everything/
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/12/11/fake-news-who-really-making-war-truth.html
http://www.strategic-culture.org/…/seymour-hersh-hillary-approved-sending-libya- sarin-syrian-rebels.html
https://restlesslyrooted.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/img_1564.png
Apologies. I tried to post a more concise list but the browser crashed so I let this one suffice.
Plus 100
“Googling is not “research”. You are not the arbiter of truth.”
Paul is just gibbering
I notice Paul, that you didn’t post to any of the links to some of the notorious pro-regime posts, that incite violence and murder against the Syrian First Responders known as the “White Helmets”.
Maybe it is because, the main reason that supporters of the regime like yourself, give for rationalising these attacks, is that the White Helmets accept money from the US.
Maybe you could extend the same rational to the bombing of hospitals, that because hospitals also take charity from Western countries they also deserved to be bombed.
Syrian Solidarity NZ is also fund raising to send money to the White Helmets, maybe you could also use this as an excuse for inciting murder against the White Helmets.
@aob I agree with you. Neither Jenny, yourself or I are the the arbiter of truth on this issue. There is a fog of propaganda operating in both directions ( as in all wars) to persuade people of the rights of their cause.
Jenny says ‘Don’t support fascism.’
I shall allow readers to decide whether groups like Al Nusra, Al Qaeda and ISIS are anti-Fascist and therefore what is the ‘truth’.
Well, they’re anti these particular fascists, while being adherents of a murderous totalitarian ideology themselves. Armed uprisings tend to be like that, especially if the regime they’re trying to overthrow is highly successful at exterminating its less-militaristic opponents.
You speak for Jenny do you?
I shall allow readers to decide …
I’m a reader.
Liar.
The White Helmets are not the charitable organisation they appear to be.
However, they are the first-response emergency service they appear to be, which is a good thing because the people you’re posting propaganda for have been giving them a great deal to do.
Watching the White Helmets mannequin challenge video should ring alarm bells.
SCD was started by James Le Mesurier, a former British Army officer and private security consultant, in early 2013,while working as Director of the Syria Civil Defence support programme at the UAE consultancy Analysis, Research and Knowledge (ARK). SCD claims to be a neutral and impartial humanitarian NGO, with no official affiliation to any political or military actor and a commitment to render services to any in need regardless of sect or political affiliation. Like all NGOs operating in opposition-controlled areas, SCD negotiates humanitarian access with organizations such as local councils, provincial councils, and armed groups, with relationships varying widely from governorate to governorate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgl271A6LgQ
Watching the White Helmets mannequin challenge video should ring alarm bells.
Why? All those newsreels from all sides in WW2 showing “our brave lads” attacking enemy positions were staged for propaganda purposes – so far, no historian’s suggested this proves that the armies involved were fake and no fighting actually occurred.
The people spreading regime propaganda about the White Helmets being a fake emergency service have a big logical hurdle to get over: Aleppo actually is having the shit bombed out of it by the regime and its patrons, civilians are thereby being killed, injured and/or trapped in the rubble, and somebody is digging them out and getting them to the city’s hospitals. What’s the compelling case for people other than the White Helmets being the ones doing it?
The ‘White Helmets’ Controversy
For more, read here….
The ‘White Helmets’ Controversy
In October, the Chicago Tribune ran a story covering #StandWithAleppo, a popular twitter handle and hashtag created by “two Chicago moms” looking to document the plight of children in besieged E. Aleppo. But as some observant social media users have since discovered, one of the women turned out to be a journalist, the other the head of a SuperPAC.
In the run-up to eastern Aleppo’s liberation by the Syrian army last week, #StandWithAleppo was turned into an extremely popular Twitter hashtag, users joining the Western mainstream media in condemning the Syrian government and accusing it of committing war crimes in the city. In spite of numerous stories, photos and video materials by alternative media showing that the city’s residents were actually mostly relieved by their liberation, the hashtag has effectively become a rallying cry for the anti-Assad, anti-Russian narrative pushed by the mainstream media and Western governments. But as one very observant Twitter user searching for the origin story behind the viral #StandWithAleppo campaign has since discovered, Becky Carroll and Wendy Widom, the “two ordinary moms” who launched the campaign, are anything but ordinary. 2. Described by Chicago Tribune as a “Chicago mom,” Carroll is in fact CEO of “public affairs & strategic communications firm ” C-Strategies — Club des Cordeliers (@cordeliers). The Chicago Tribune, which interviewed the two women in October, described Carroll as a strategic affairs consultant who “decided it was time to do something” to help the suffering people of the city.
Read more: https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201612181048717861-standwithaleppo-origins-analysis/
So, this shows the White Helmets aren’t a first-response emergency service how, exactly?
A false front. Does that ring any bells ?
I’m not referring to auditory hallucinations in a psychiatric ward ..
I think the phrase you’re looking for is non sequitur, not “false front.”
Do you have some substantive rebuttal, or is posting links to irrelevant verbiage the limit of your ability?
As a reminder, here’s my argument: do you have something that actually addresses it?
The people spreading regime propaganda about the White Helmets being a fake emergency service have a big logical hurdle to get over: Aleppo actually is having the shit bombed out of it by the regime and its patrons, civilians are thereby being killed, injured and/or trapped in the rubble, and somebody is digging them out and getting them to the city’s hospitals. What’s the compelling case for people other than the White Helmets being the ones doing it?
Did you read The ‘White Helmets’ Controversy?
It expresses those concerns quite well, I believe.
Of course you don’t have any argument you could make yourself – I shouldn’t be surprised, by now.
The turgid screed you linked to contains the ludicrous argument that, I kid you not, the White Helmets aren’t carrying out rescue operations in east Aleppo because Syria already has the Syrian Civil Defence and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.
The argument is ludicrous because both those organisations are run by the regime and therefore aren’t operating in east Aleppo (or other rebel-held areas) – which is exactly the reason the White Helmets were set up in the first place.
http://www.apa.org/Images/2014-09-depth_tcm7-175259.jpg
http://www.unhcr.org/…/ceasefire-allows-first-aid-aleppo-neighbourhood-nearly- year.html
sarc.sy/advanced-first-aid-course-sarc-aleppo-sub-branches-points/
http://www.redcross.org.uk/…/Syria-crucial-aid-reaches-people-suffering-in- Aleppo
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…/red-cross-syria-ceasefire_us_ 57e10dbee4b0071a6e094d9e
https://www.rt.com/in…/370442-russia-aleppo-humanitarian-aid
http://www.newyorker.com/…/i-have-outlived-my-own-life-living-under-siege-in- aleppo
http://www.balkaninsight.com/…/serbia-sending-humanitarian-help-to-aleppo-10- 18-2016
https://leilashami.wordpress.com/…/breaking-the-siege-of-aleppo/
https://news.am/eng/news/353076.htmheavy.com/…/russian-russia-drone-video-aid-convoy-bombed-airstrike- syrian-ceasefire-broken/en.alalam.ir/news/1838503
.. if you want more you can scroll further at
http://deeperweb.com/results.php?cx=%21004415538554621685521%3Avgwa9iznfuo&cof=FOR
Several of these are broken links
+1
Apologies, but I think there is enough there to make my point, and for those interested enough to reconstruct the links.
Does the Red Cross or the Red Crescent propagandise as well as assist the injured?
If they did, would that mean they’re fake organisations that don’t actually help anyone?
PM, you weren’t ,by chance, born in Dallas were you?
Clearly not for PM.
Do you call Robert Fisk and Patrick Cockburn propaganda?
Really…..
Paul, he hasn’t read enough to answer your question.
So here is some further information to assist their understanding…..
The man behind the viral ‘boy in the ambulance’ image has brutal skeletons in his own closet
http://www.thecanary.co/2016/08/19/the-man-behind-the-viral-boy-in-the-ambulance-image-has-brutal-skeletons-in-his-own-closet-images/
Channel 4 News promoted known war criminals in Syria, and is now hiding its own report
http://www.thecanary.co/2016/10/14/channel-4-news-promoted-known-war-criminals-syria-now-hiding-report-video/
Here’s the thing: it doesn’t matter how many pieces you find about how some people in east Aleppo are bad people who did this bad stuff, it doesn’t alter the fact that the Assad regime and its Iranian and Russian patrons have just spent over a year conducting indiscriminate aerial warfare against a civilian population and its emergency services and hospitals. Post hundreds of these stories, thousands even, it doesn’t alter that fact.
How is *your* regime going, friend ?
Oh look another of Moz’s sockpuppets.
re. “indiscriminate aerial warfare” .. prove it. What “fact” ? Have you read Seymour Hersh’s demolition of the Ghouta Sarin meme ?
http://deeperweb.com/results.php?cx=%21004415538554621685521%3Avgwa9iznfuo&cof=FORID%3A11%3BNB%3A1&ie=UTF-8&q=seymour+Hersh+Ghouta&as_qdr=&siteurl=http%3A%2F%2Fdeeperweb.com%2F
“Fact” ?
Some facts.
Civilians from recently liberated East Aleppo gather at the registration centre in Jibreen 13/12/2016. People were steadily streaming in during the two hours we spent in this area, interviewing and filming.
Not once did we see any indication that the SAA, Hezbollah or any other allied soldiers were causing any distress for these civilians. On the contrary it was clear that everyone we spoke to was grateful to the Army for their freedom and respite from four years of incarceration under a Nusra Front led terrorist regime in their own homes in the districts of East Aleppo.
The lies that are being spun in the corporate media in the west are nothing short of grotesque.
https://www.facebook.com/vanessa.beeley/videos/10155907100713868/
Will Jenny read your facts?
Jenny’s busy. She’s out shopping for shoes, or perhaps she’s washing her hair.
The lies that are being spun in the corporate media in the west are nothing short of grotesque.
The irony of you writing that while posting propaganda for the Assad regime would be funny if it weren’t for the subject matter.
+1
I think the classic today has been jenny’s connection of ISIS and al Qaeda to worldwide anti fascist movements!
Media bias is laid bare as the battle for Aleppo comes to an end
http://www.thecanary.co/2016/12/14/media-bias-is-laid-bare-as-the-battle-for-aleppo-comes-to-an-end/
More like “Assad-regime propaganda cranked up as the battle for Aleppo comes to an end.”
You post that steaming turd of a piece and then try to claim you’re not promoting regime propaganda? Seriously?
Consider this: the groups the USA and its cronies were fighting in Iraq 13 years ago included many very evil people responsible for some terrible crimes. For some people in the West, that was the most significant information that needed to be provided about the conflict. They were wrong, just as you are wrong now.
What is your standard operational definiton of ‘evil’ ? Uruguay 1964-1970 ?
Oh look, and yet another of Moz’s sockpuppets.
Is that an argument, mr mullet?
I am also unsure whether your championing of Jenny’s argument is the support she needs.
Sorry PM we seem to be forgetting that the Americans are squeaky clean and that we should all pay heed to Hillary’s American Exceptualism.
And they never ever lie to us…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7xyd_IRgGs
Sorry PM we seem to be forgetting that the Americans are squeaky clean and that we should all pay heed to Hillary’s American Exceptualism.
Oh, right – it’s all the Americans fault. Something bad’s happening, so it must be their fault one way or another, if we just dig deep enough and go back far enough. After all, it’s just beyond comprehension that this could be about the Assad regime, Russia and Iran destroying east Aleppo with its people still inside it – those are the good guys, so it must be someone else’s fault.
“Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”
Many were fooled by the WMD lie.
Most learnt from it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJiKfzMCTOU
I enjoy and appreciate Pauls links and postings ….
Here’s one back for him …..
Trigger warning for butchered and bombed children …
Shows the truth of war ……
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHgGKl2FVUc
… and an older doco showing different children ,,,, but the same country killing, burning and maiming them/ http://johnpilger.com/videos/do-you-remember-vietnam-
So, if I understand this correctly, you think stuff the US has done in other countries is somehow relevant to what the Assad regime, Iran and Russia are doing in Syria? Or do you just like to post links at random?
Of course the events in Syria are connected to what happened in Iraq and Libya. If only you read more widely.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC1Mepk_Sw
So, just links at random then.
You struggle with viewing as well as reading?
I was being kind. If these links aren’t contributed at random, we’ve reached the level of tin-hattery in which people post links about “the GREAT Muammar Gadaffi” and America’s secret plan to invade seven countries, thinking they’re contributing something relevant.
General Wesley Clark seems a fairly reliable witness.
From wikipeida.
Wesley Kanne Clark, Sr. (born December 23, 1944) is a retired General of the United States Army. He graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1966 at West Point and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford, where he obtained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He later graduated from the Command and General Staff College with a master’s degree in military science. He spent 34 years in the U.S. Army, receiving many military decorations, several honorary knighthoods, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Clark commanded Operation Allied Force in the Kosovo War during his term as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO from 1997 to 2000.
Clark joined the 2004 race for the Democratic Party presidential nomination as a candidate in 2003, but withdrew from the primary race in 2004, after winning the Oklahoma state primary, endorsing and campaigning for the eventual Democratic nominee, John Kerry. Clark leads a political action committee, “WesPAC”, which he formed after the 2004 primaries and used to support Democratic Party candidates in the 2006 midterm elections. Clark was considered a potential candidate for the Democratic nomination in 2008, but, on September 15, 2007, endorsed Senator Hillary Clinton. After Clinton dropped out of the presidential race, Clark endorsed the then-presumptive Democratic nominee, Barack Obama.
First, my standard attempt to educate you: argument from authority is a logical fallacy and you should stop doing it.
Yes, Clark seems a fairly reliable witness. No doubt there was talk in the Pentagon of invading Iraq as far back as 2001, and no doubt the loons advising Bush Jr came up with a range of contingency plans that included wholesale invasions of Middle East countries they weren’t happy with. However, only the Iraq disaster went into production and none of the loons Clark is talking about have been in positions of influence for a decade, so at issue here is why you feel this interview is somehow relevant to the thread it appears on.
I give up.
Psycho Milt knows more than everyone else who is an expert.
No You’ve misunderstood me Psycho Milt ….. My point is war butchers children in the cruelest and most evil of ways and to a large extent it is hidden from us ….
If Anzac day showed posters of innocent children with their jaws blown off and severed limbs dangling by skin as in the video I posted up the glory would soon go out of it…. it is the ultimate crime
Being lead by liars cheats and psychopaths has been a large part of the problem for humanity …..
Two wars based on lies and manipulation have been unmitigated disasters for the children and people of both Iraq and Libya …. Yemen is also a country of death and starvation for them.
I’d like to see less wholesale slaughter anywhere with more justice everywhere …. harder faster, even with smart bombs, will make things worse in the middle east …..
Rather than more war for freedom and democracy …..an easier answer without the broken bodies of children would be for the west to be less corrupt ……
Wage war on the bankers and accountants who launder the stolen and plundered funds of corrupt dictators and regimes which enables them to buy weapons, fund militias and stay in power.
Bankers and the financial system are more of a threat than any Russians … They also help fuel russian corruption with 50% of it’s wealth hidden/ stashed “offshore” ….
Prosecute multinationals more severely if their business activities result in killings or displacement by corrupt states or officials
Less tolerance of brutal killers anywhere……. and war crime prosecutions instead of trade deals with tax haven help on the side which is how things are presently done …… https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/07/28/indonesia-indicted-general-unfit-cabinet-post
http://www.converge.org.nz/pirm/timor.htm
A interesting doco involving Lockerbie and Libya … they tried to kill Gaddafi back then ….. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B5hv6scbBo
Vietnam…when journalists did their job.
As the Grand Wizard emboldens his followers, they’ll pose an increasing threat to society, and will not hesitate to use violence when it suits them.
The SIS and GCSB will be looking the wrong way. The media will not refer to them as terrorists.
On the plus side, the loonier fringes of the right and left are starting to look remarkably similar so the SIS and GCSB might well end up investigating the right-wing loonies by accident.
Watching the video in the link, I began to wonder about the two “counter-demonstrators” – the two yelling at 1:59 – ACT on campus? Young Nats? Comedians? Can anyone tell the difference?
By accident ? That is what they are *paid* to do.
‘ .. as one very observant Twitter user searching for the origin story behind the viral #StandWithAleppo campaign has since discovered, Becky Carroll and Wendy Widom, the “two ordinary moms” who launched the campaign, are anything but ordinary.’
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201612181048717861-standwithaleppo-origins-analysis/
If ISIS and Assad are the enemy, then why is this happening?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/joanna-palani-danish-kurdish-woman-ypg-peshmerga-iraq-syria-fighting-isis-faces-jail-passport-police-a7471266.html
P.S. The government has done the same here, so no thinking of going to help the Kurd’s folks – that would put you in jail if you return.
P.P.S. she also has a bounty on her head from ISIS.
http://www.iraqinews.com/arab-world-news/isis-us1-million-reward-danish-girl-kurds/
If you really want to know the truth Jenny, you could watch Vanessa Beeley’s video. And then you could read and watch everything else she’s published since reporting from Syria.
“[Had he ever heard or seen the #WhiteHelmets]
No! Never I never saw them.”
https://www.facebook.com/vanessa.beeley/videos/10155906961623868/NUSRA FRONT HAD THEIR OWN CIVIL DEFENCE. #WhiteHelmets
Hanano, East #Aleppo. Interview with civilian queuing for food in the recently liberated area of East Aleppo. This area had been liberated two days before we visited by the Syrian Arab Army and their allies.
This is one more of dozens of testimonies describing the joy at being liberated and re-united with families in West Aleppo and freedom from being starved, beaten and tortured by the NATO and Gulf State terrorists.
Transcript [paraphrased in parts]
“Life under occupation was not the same for everyone, for those close to the terrorists life was good. Sometimes the terrorists wanted to gain support so they would give money and food just so people would go with them. They would give them aid and food destined for the Syrian people, but they took over it and distributed it.
The terrorist group controlling everything was Nusra Front [Al Qaeda in Syria] The rest of the factions were working under Nusra Front control.
[Talking about the SAA liberation] Is there anything sweeter than coming back home? This is the most beautiful feeling anyone can ever have. I prefer to have my house back and to put a tent on the ruins of my home rather than living away from my home.
[points to children in the queue] I have children like these
[Had he ever heard or seen the #WhiteHelmets] No! Never I never saw them.
[Were there any paramedics available] We the people of Aleppo we are brought up to help each other so if we saw our brothers and our relatives being injured we would help them nobody else.
The terrorists had their own civil defence. Sometimes they would help civilians but most of the time they were working with the terrorists.
They were wearing clothes that said “Civil Defence”
Vanessa Beeley is a British investigative journalist focused on the Middle East. On her return from Syria in September 2016, she reported how 600,000 people moved from East to West Aleppo to take refuge when the NATO-backed rebels attacked the city in 2012.
Vanessa Beeley is clear that Syria’s White Helmets, lauded in the West as a group of volunteer first-responders, funded by the US, Britain and others to the tune of $100 million and nominated for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize, are nothing but terrorists. She accuses the White Helmets of stealing ambulances and fire engines, and even killing Syria’s real Civil Defence officials
Another link to Vanessa Beeley’s video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMXn6MJDShA
Journey To Aleppo: Exposing The Truth Buried Under NATO Propaganda
http://www.globalresearch.ca/journey-to-aleppo-exposing-the-truth-buried-under-nato-propaganda/5547333
Very white helmets. Y’know, just an observation in relation to any builders wearing hard hats who I see as I pass any building site….
If you really want to know the truth Jenny, you could watch Vanessa Beeley’s video. And then you could read and watch everything else she’s published since reporting from Syria.
She and Eva Bartlett were there on behalf of the Assad regime. “Independent” journalists don’t get Syrian government assistance to report from Aleppo. Assad’s shills do, though, and both of these shills peddle his propaganda to gullible suckers on the right and left. It would be nice if people would stop promoting it on this blog.
So how come the White Helmets got special access in East Aleppo when all other independent journalists and aid workers got their throats cut?
The White Helmets were there on behalf of some shady organisations, supported by the US and others wanting regime change.
So how come the White Helmets got special access in East Aleppo when all other independent journalists and aid workers got their throats cut?
Uh, duh-uh – because the White Helmets are working for the rebel groups in east Aleppo, just like the Syrian Civil Defence gets “special access” to the government-held areas because it’s working for the Assad regime. And most of them don’t need “special access” because they live there.
But al Nusra, al Qaeda and ISIS don’t see fit to kidnap them like all others.
Wonder why?
Is there some part of “because they’re working for them” that you don’t understand?
Is Patrick Cockburn an Assad shill?
Is Robert Fisk an Assad shill?
Is Peter Oborne and Assad shill?
“She and Eva Bartlett were there on behalf of the Assad regime”
Really?
And you know that…. how?
Psycho Milt aka Jenny.
More “Well, duh.” First and foremost, because the Assad regime took them to Aleppo. It doesn’t do that for journalists who might file reports that reflect badly on the regime. This is the meaning of the term “embedded” that Paul keeps flinging about when describing journalists who aren’t supporting the regime.
But there’s also the report itself. The whole thing reads like “official” war reporting by an embedded reporter, because it is. I find it bizarre that this kind of reporting finds so many eager suckers.
Watch Eva Bartlett annihilate Dilly Hussein on RT
https://twitter.com/Navsteva/status/809875451804000256?t=1&cn=ZmxleGlibGVfcmVjc18y&refsrc=email&iid=c91fb8877a6d4a6584ad810814854a11&uid=1179929389&nid=244+272699392
Going up against a skilled propagandist is a tough gig, especially for an amateur. He can point out that she was in Aleppo at the service of the regime, spoke to people the regime would allow her to speak to, has access to a wide range of facts the regime wants made public, and is using all that to issue propaganda on the regime’s behalf, but much good it does him when it’s RT running the interview.
Sounds like Morrissey dealing with PM
.. so what exactly is your involvement in Syria ?
Syrian Government Gives Evidence of ‘Rebels’ Using Mustard Gas Against Civilians
‘Just when you thought things could not get any worse for the US State Dept’s dynamic trio of John Kerry, Samantha Power and John Kirby, and President Obama too – another damning piece of evidence surfaces which implicates Western and Gulf state-backed “moderate rebels” in Syria.
Documents containing evidence of chemical weapons use by ‘rebel’ terrorists have been handed over to the Technical Secretariat of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) international mission in Damascus.
The attack in question is said to have involved the use of Mustard Gas and took place near the village of Maarat Umm Hawsh village in Aleppo province back in September.
Numerous other incidents of ‘rebel’ militants using chemical weapons have been documented in Syria, even by the OPCW, but unfortunately, the only reports the US and its allies seem to interested in are those which implicate the “Assad Regime.”’
http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/12/18/breaking-syrian-government-gives-evidence-of-rebels-using-mustard-gas-against-civilians/
“Moderate rebels” torch buses in Aleppo evacuating civilians
‘Demonstrating again their relentless sectarian agenda Al-Qaeda led Jihadis attack and burn buses tasked with evacuating Shiite fighters and civilians from besieged Shiite villages despite this putting the withdrawal of Jihadi fighters and civilians in Aleppo in jeopardy.
This incident reveals a number of important truths about the Syrian conflict.
The first is that the Western media is actually reporting it. The probable reason for that is that with the end of the fighting in Aleppo Western journalists are at last able to go there and to report on the spot. Though most of them doubtless remain intensely hostile to the Syrian government, the mere fact that they are now engaged in some actual on the spot reporting means that the coverage has suddenly become fractionally more balanced and nuanced.
More importantly, this episode shows who is really responsible for the suffering of civilians in Aleppo, and who is intent on pursuing a murderous and fanatical sectarian agenda in Syria.
Though the Western media failed to report the fact, the Russians and the Syrian government have offered since the summer to allow the Al-Qaeda led Jihadis and the civilians in eastern Aleppo who want to leave to withdraw peacefully from eastern Aleppo. The negotiations between the Russians and the US which were underway from June to early December were focused on that goal. In early September the Kerry-Lavrov agreement appeared to provide for it.’
http://theduran.com/moderate-rebels-torch-buses-in-aleppo-evacuating-civilians/
It does show a few things.
It shows that the Iranians’ hijacking of the ceasefire deal had some unintended consequences. (The Iranians were unhappy that Turkey and Russian negotiated an evacuation deal for the rebels instead of letting Iranian militias carry out the liquidations they were hoping to – that’s why the militias blocked the first convoy of buses out until Iran got its own deal, including for the evacuation of these two villages. Of course, the guys besieging the village aren’t part of the same crew as the fighters in Aleppo, so perhaps don’t feel obliged to accept the Iranians’ terms).
It also shows that Paul reads some incredibly dodgy propaganda sites and posts links to them.
Jenny, if you are prepared to believe the narrative surrounding the White Helmets being ‘good guys’ all you claim to stand up for is clocked in slime
There are numerous angles surrounding the situation in Syria which are not as they are being told, but the lies about the White Helmets, who funds them and what they actually are…is hard to ignore
Are you aware there is a Syrian Civil Defense force who are internationally recognised for more than 50 years?
The position you take on this, is terribly misguided
Sun Tzu concludes that to neglect the use of spies is nothing less than a crime against humanity.
Can the CIA’s public statements be trusted? Sometimes.
As for the Grand Wizard, if he’s Putin’s puppet, it’s neither hype nor hysteria, and he hasn’t de-escalated a damn thing: he’s opened up two new fronts, one agin China and the other against science.
Edit: this was in response to a comment which was deleted (?) in the meantime, to the effect that the Democrats/Wall St./Military want perpetual war and Trump will “interrupt” it.
Apologies AOB. I deleted my thoughts on the issue because of lack of evidence…. the very thing I am opposed to!
George Zimmerman and virtually every murdering cop gets away with it,
but mass murderer Dylan Roof has been found guilty on every single count.
http://time.com/4603863/dylann-roof-verdict-guilty/
Luckily the trial wasn’t in Florida, otherwise Dylan Roof might be out on the streets again. If that HAD happened, there’d be one “liberal” New Zealand commentator in full support of the acquittal….
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-19072013/#comment-664870
This makes great sense to me:
I have always wondered how people decide who to vote for.
Here is Danyl Mclauchlan well considered article on Spinoff
http://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/16-12-2016/the-four-john-keys-you-meet-when-he-governs-your-country/
“The eminent American political scientists Chris Achen and Larry Bartels estimate that about 3% of voters in western democracies cast their votes based on policy and ideology, and that these are all members of ‘the political class’: party members, activists, intellectuals etc. Everyone else – ie, for electoral purposes, everyone – is interested in and motivated by other factors. The economy, famously, is one; the personality of the party leader and the ability of voters to trust and identify with that leader is another.”
I always wondered.
Ianmac – that spinoff article explaining Key is the best I have ever read. What a tosser the man was and he will probably always win at everything he does and like the article says, leave some poor sucker to pick up the pieces of his work he never did after he has buggered off. We are better off without him – Duncan Garner said the other day he is old news – he is absolutely correct. Easily forgotten.
McLaughlan is amazingly perceptive and a huge asset to the Greens. I liked his insight into the counterintuitive nature of money and how the banker class go about investing and divesting. Making money is just an intellectual game to these guys.
China and the United States on the Brink of Nuclear War?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W40IfjuhvCo
I have just read a fascinating article by Paul Craig Roberts. He’s not someone you’d expect to be criticising the US, as he was once in Reagan’s administration. Therefore his point of view on the events in America at the moment is very inetresting.
Here is his most recent article.
The Striking Audacity of the Coup-in-Process
The Striking Audacity of the Coup-in-Process
Here is a brief bio on him.
Paul Craig Roberts is an American economist, journalist, blogger and former civil servant.
He reached the height of his government career when he became the United States Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy under President Reagan in 1981.In office he and his staff successfully combated the stagflation (price-inflation and stagnation) then plaguing the American Economy. Tighter monetary policy was used to restrain inflation, in addition lower marginal tax rates were used to increase the rewards to work and investment. In recognition, he was awarded the US Treasury’s Meritorious Service Award for “outstanding contributions to the formulation of United States economic policy”.
A strong critic of the Bush (and later Obama) administrations’ handling of the War on Terror, he has taken positions strongly at odds with mainstream politicians: harshly criticising the ineffectiveness, severity and high rates of incarceration associated with the War on Drugs, excessive police violence and use of SWAT teams against civilians. He has criticised the law and order politics and congressional approval of increased government surveillance associated with the War on Terror age, which he views as fundamental threats to the civil liberties and Right to Privacy enshrined in the US constitution, opening the way for an oligarchic police state to be imposed upon the US population.A vocal critic of neoliberalism, US oligarchy and the financialization of the economy.
, his articles have addressed and criticized outsourcing, economic deregulation, privatisation of social services, Wall Street finance fraud and lax enforcement of environmental protection laws. He has also been a vocal opponent of taxing social-security payments, holding that this amounts to a “tax on a tax” or privatising social-security believing this would create and opportunity for speculators to play with and lose the hard-earned savings of retirees.
You left out some of his …more interesting opinions.
From the wikipedia article your excerpt above apparently came from:
“2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School attack[edit]
In March, 2016, Roberts published an article claiming that many pictures associated with the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting were “doctored.” He further claimed that he was unable to determine if the shootings had actually taken place or not.[65]
2015 Charlie Hebdo attack[edit]
In a column for the Ron Paul Institute, Roberts said that the U.S. government executed the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris to punish France for its independent foreign policy. He cited its vote to recognize Palestine as a state at the United Nations and French President Hollande’s call to ease sanctions on Russia.[57][66][66]
2016 Orlando attack[edit]
Roberts has questioned the official account of the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, stating that “the visual evidence does not match the verbal reports”.[67]
He has said that a lack of body bags, security footage, and general primary sources, should warrant suspicion in regards to the authenticity of the official account for the attack.[68]
He has suggested that this attack might be a false flag operation, conducted for increased public approval for- and eventually, the implementation of gun control.[69][70]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Craig_Roberts
Well done Paul. You have come up with the evidence I was lacking when I deleted an earlier comment I made today.
Which bit?
Paul…. “fomenting a coup”.
Scientists confirm that warm ocean water is melting the biggest glacier in East Antarctica
Last week over at Kaiteriteri there were MILLION’s of jellyfish eggs all over the beach and in the water, was like wading in wall paper paste, super creepy. Never seen anything like it, not there, would have been very strange for any first time visitors and I imagine rather gross.
Was like beads of soft silicone, kids were collecting buckets full of it, they don’t sting, they are just ewwww’s slimy.
Apparently it is a result of the sea temperature rising, an el nino, but we are not in an el nino. Climate change is real and visible.
Hey, Cinny
I’ve had that very same experience at a beach not far from Kaiteriteri, only that was 40 years ago 🙂 I thought though, that they were fish eggs. Either way, it was an experience as weird as you are describing. The whole bay was filled with them, at least from 1 meter out to 4 metres, right around the curve.
yup that’s how it was, freaky stuff indeed, nothing in the papers here, don’t tell the tourists
Ever noticed how, whenever the Israeli government decides to lay waste to Gaza City again, blogs soon fill up with comments from amateur Israel enthusiasts who want us all to know that the media is very biased against Israel and we shouldn’t fall for its biased propaganda; and how these links prove that Hamas is a terrorist organisation that’s carried out the following terrible crimes against the people of Gaza City; and how these other links show that those photos of victims of the Israeli attack were totally faked; and how these independent, respected authorities have all written about how terrible Hamas is, and who are you to question them. The idea that maybe it isn’t right for Israel to be laying waste to Gaza city somehow doesn’t get dealt with among the bombardment of bullshit.
I’ve been thinking about that lately because something, ooh, let’s just say, things appearing in comments threads on this blog, remind me very much of those amateur Israel enthusiasts and their attempts to excuse the inexcusable. I think it’s important to write back pointing out what they’re doing, same as I do for the Israel enthusiasts, because it’s effectively the same obnoxious propaganda. So, my apologies to those sick of seeing me taking up a significant proportion of the recent comments list. It’s likely to go on for a while yet.
If it’s worth anything to you, I appreciate your efforts, and I know how much time and effort it takes to counter one-sided misrepresentations or outright bullshit.
Since I have zero useful knowledge or insight into Syria, and only the minimal insight into Islam that comes from a few months travelling in Islamic countries, I’ve kept my yap shut. But the mind-set that comes through in many of the comments you’re pushing against is that “America does a lot of evil around the world (no argument from me), therefore all evil happening must be from American meddling (WTF??!?) and anyone anti-American must be a good guy (Oh really?)”
For someone who has ‘zero useful knowledge or insight into Syria’, you can pretty quickly notice ‘one-sided misrepresentations or outright bullshit.’
I suggest you read Patrick Cockburn, Robert Fisk and Peter Obrone – actual independent experts. It is clear you haven’t read a word they have written.
Alternatively, you could believe everything pm says.
…and how these independent, respected authorities have all written about how terrible Hamas is, and who are you to question them.
Still ticking those boxes…
Paul, some kinds of bullshit are easy to detect. To just point out the nearest example of something that raises a flag, PCR continually referring to “presstitutes” is a hint that the piece is not serious fact-checking journalism but is intended to appeal to gullible people holding a particular world-view. Further checking on the author shows he’s in the habit of making completely unsubstantiated outrageous claims that also appeal to that particular worldview.
Then there’s your personal credibility. On several topics that I know a bit about, you’ve gullibly posted widely debunked bullshit, which again tells me your checking of sources is spotty at best. But I’ve yet to see Psycho Milt doing that. PM and Jenny also seem to have personal experience of the area and cultures (or very nearby, at least).
While it’s not a matter of “believing everything PM (or Jenny) says”, comments they’ve made line up with my limited personal experience of the area and cultures involved. So I find their opinions of interest, with the proviso that those opinions are coloured by their worldview. I read Fisk, and respect him enormously. But his work is also coloured by his worldview and where he’s coming from. To be honest, Syria doesn’t mean that much to me, so I’m not going to go to the effort of trying to work out what’s “really going on”.
Have you read Patrick Cockburn and Peter Oborne?
Which topics that you know about have I ‘posted widely debunked bullshit”?
Nice edit on your first go at a reply.
I prefer to spend the time I have reading up on topics of more interest to me than trying to tease out an accurate picture of what’s going on in Syria. The total picture there is way too complicated and shifting so quickly. So no, I don’t read much of Oborne or Cockburn.
Just the first two topics that spring to mind that you keep posting bullshit about are allegations of coverups and nefarious government doings around the structural collapse of WTC towers, and McPherson’s “only 10 years left”. I really can’t be bothered searching up more. but there’s been enough that now I mostly just scroll on past your offerings.
I regularly post about climate change and present for readers’ enlightenment a variety of opinions on the issue. As I believe this is the most pressing issue facing us all, it is a regular topic for me. I think the Standard is guilty of not covering the topic sufficiently.
I also have posted occasionally about 9/11 – aspects of which have never been ‘debunked’.
People who believe the official narrative on weapons of mass destruction also tend to fall for stories about Aleppo and for stories of steel framed buildings that collapse at freefall speed in their own footprint.
You are free to scroll past.
Just today you appear to have engaged.
On a subject you know nothing about.
Since I have zero useful knowledge or insight into Syria…
But you’ll still add your 0.5 cents worth. Why bother? Why not just ring Leighton Smith, where your input would be at least par for the course?
Here, we expect a little better than what you have offered.
Re-read my comment carefully. You will see that I expressed no opinion on Syria. If you still have comprehension difficulties, I let Psycho Milt know I appreciated his efforts, and sympathised with the amount of work necessary to clean up after bullshitters.
You knew nothing about the topic under discussion, yet you chose to weigh in on the side of a malicious troll. You knew nothing, yet you still commented.
That’s wasting our time as well as your own.
Andre is becoming tiresome……
Apparently he is an expert on climate change and on 9/11.
Andre, Morrissey’s comments are like a case study in the Dunning-Kruger effect. From his perspective, you clearly lack the intellectual horsepower and breadth of knowledge and understanding he brings to the subject, this being evidenced by the fact that you’ve disagreed with him, and he immediately lets you know it – for all the world as though his intellectual superiority were self-evident, rather than something that needs demonstrating. I’d find it sad if I didn’t find it so funny, but then in many respects I’m not a nice person.
Yeah, I find it funny too. What I find sad is people like that become a very powerful Exhibit A whenever anyone wants to talk about the loony left.
PM and Andre thanks for bringing some balance and sanity to the threads getting spammed by endless RT regurgitation. I might actually stop scrolling past now
Credit where it’s due: Jenny and PM have been doing the heavy lifting, not me.
..just imagine if CV wasn’t currently in absentia…
What we really need is a post on vaccination to calm everyone down and gain a lovely consensus.
The Syrian government is battling an Islamist insurrection funded and diplomatically backed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United States, Britain and France.
There is no serious comparison to be made with Israel.
You are fallaciously equating the Israeli and Syrian regimes. Your argument, based on that false premiss, is absurd.
The Syrian government is battling an Islamist insurrection funded and diplomatically backed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United States, Britain and France.
That’s one view of it. My view is that a guy who inherited a country from his dad is fighting to hold onto his “property” so he can pass it on to his own children, no matter how many people he has to imprison, torture and kill to achieve it, and in the process has put himself under two masters (Iran and Russia), who are now going to kill a lot more people because a man can’t serve two masters. All views of a foreign conflict are deluded or mistaken to some extent, but I think mine reflects reality a lot more closely than yours.
There is no serious comparison to be made with Israel.
No indeed. However, the comparison was with the bullshit propaganda techniques that are common to enthusiasts of either government, and it’s a very apt comparison.
It’s not “one view” of it, it’s an irrefutable fact, which even the U.S. government admits to.
Your point about Assad’s criminality is a fair one. I don’t support him or his methods, but he’s Albert Schweitzer compared to the United States, Saudi Arabia, the U.K. and Turkey.
Lancet surveys of Iraq War casualties
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_surveys_of_Iraq_War_casualties
It’s not “one view” of it, it’s an irrefutable fact…
My view of it? Sure. But yours seems to be a tinfoil-hat job, except for the bit about Saudi Arabia and Qatar (they’re definitely players).
Try to debate without recourse to insults. (e.g.tin foil hat.)
A very good point, Paul. Last night I was just about to post a conciliatory comment, actually praising Psycho Milt for his rather admirable maintaining of an even temper, even though I had hurled all sorts of nasty epithets at him.
Then he goes and uses the nasty—and desperate— “tin-foil hat” insult against me.
Maybe, just maybe, such an insult would be justified if I had posted something outlandish or bizarre. But what he was attempting to ridicule me for was my list of the regimes that have been supporting this bloody ISIS insurrection: “United States, Saudi Arabia, the U.K. and Turkey.”
Psycho Milt opined, in apparent high seriousness, that it was okay to list Saudi Arabia and Turkey—“they’re definitely players”—but to even mention the involvement of the United States and its vassal the United Kingdom “seems to be a tinfoil-hat job.”
Psycho Milt’s post was, of course, of no value whatsoever in terms of contributing to a serious discussion, but it was nonetheless valuable: it demonstrates how much credibility he has as any sort of a commentator.
The “tinfoil-hat” comment was aimed at your contention that the Syrian civil war didn’t arise from an uprising by Syrian citizens against the Assad regime, but was actually a project of foreign countries including the UK and USA. Not only does the evidence point the other way, the conspiracy theory is pretty conclusively refuted by the complete failure of the UK and US governments to actively assist the uprising. To continue to present as plausible an implausible conspiracy theory is tinfoil-hat territory, so it seemed fair comment.
The fact that police and others were killed by armed protesters in the days before any crackdown (reported in the NYT) supports the contention that the uprising wasn’t a simple spontaneous and non-violent ‘happening’.
The history of armed uprisings by ‘The Muslim Brotherhood’ (1980s) that led to the imposition of martial law that was never really lifted, also points to violence as being a first port of call for some interested in ridding Syria of its secularism.
But hey…
edit. The fact that the first sanctions (illegal) imposed on Syria by the US hark back to the 80s and have only increased in severity with the passing of time is indicative of ‘support enough’ for those seeking regime change. But again – hey…
The problem seems to be that the people you’re railing against are actually the ones showing the truth.
Yes, there’s a lot of propaganda but it’s mostly coming from the side that actively destabilised Syria in the first place.
Well, they’re showing the “truth” in the same sense that Pravda did, at least. I guess it depends on whether you hear 9/11 “truth” and subconsciously put quotation marks around it or not.
It’s curious that you think there’s a side that “actively destabilised Syria in the first place.” You’re thinking that there’s no way a hereditary ruler running one of the most brutal dictatorships remaining in the Middle East could have had people rise up against him just because they were sick of living in a giant Baathist concentration camp? Because that would be a bold claim.
No. I’m saying that the US actively encouraged a rebellion against the Assad Regime. Same as they did with Chile and other countries where they’ve worked to overthrow the regime that was there that they didn’t like because it was stopping their corporations from stealing from that nation.
And then they actively denied that involvement same as they did all the other times as well.
No. I’m saying that the US actively encouraged a rebellion against the Assad Regime.
Oh noes, evil USA actively encourages people to overthrow a despotic hereditary ruler! Of course they fucking did. Big whoop, they’ve been encouraging it for decades, to no discernible effect – it was the locals who decided to do it, and any attempt to give the US credit for it is laughable.
Bill English has announced National won’t stand a candidate in the Mt Albert by-election. Which makes sense given the large majority of over 10,000 in 2014. It also allows them to shrug off an attempt by Labour to use the by-election to set the political agenda next year.
It still gives Labour the opportunity to test out their campaigning system and continue rebuilding connections with Aucklanders, though. But winning’s not much fun when your opponent has taken the ball home.
@Colonial Viper. How’s things. Marry Christmas. Had a nice rest, and released stress?
Is there any chance of seeing CV back here. There are enough Psycho Milt Wellfed Wetas etc etc and we need some balance from feisty lefties to raddled righties.
Yes please, cv.
Would welcome some support dealing with the rabid neo-con agenda of some on this site who would have WW3 over, Syria. the Ukraine, the South China Sea………..
Yes who doesn’t miss his fine commentary on the twin tower inside job, the perils of immunisation and how to cure cancer via chiropratice.
Have you anything useful to say about Syria?
Too busy trolling you at present.
CV is suspended until sometime after Xmas. You could try following his tweets https://twitter.com/Tat_Loo
I’d prefer to hear from CV than from you Ropata.
Alas, you wound me sir
The Herald proves that Gareth Morgan is correct. Their latest story about a young couple who made $10.5 million by investing in property shows that the NZ economy is fucked. Working is for mugs, the real game is tax free capital gains and houses that earn 80k per year.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11769478
Hey Maureen, looks like you’ll be heading for another loss in West Coast /Tasman… you’ve neglected our region the Tasman area since you entered the house via the list.
Where do you stand on Pike? Nowhere… you don’t care do you? The only time your name comes up is on your FB and Twitter as well as the Patsy questions you ask. Never see anything of you in either the Nelson Mail or Greymouth Star.
‘The West Coast-Tasman electorate is the second largest in the country, and includes some of our most remote communities, so it’s crucial we have a strong, local voice in Government.’
yes it is Maureen and how many meet the candidates meetings did you avoid last time? Heaps huh? That sure made the papers, you absence and failure to front up. And we have a strong local voice for our remote communities and it sure aint you Maureen. Remember what happened last time, even the National voters voted for Damo, because he cares, makes himself available, is wide awake and gets things done.
See you at the meet the candidates again, this time better make sure you know your material, cause just like last time I will call you out if you attempt to lie, mhmmm you know I’m bold enough to do it, can’t stand liars.
Are you brave enough to have an electorate office in Motueka again? Still waiting… waiting… and waiting.. gutless career politician that one.
Maureen Pugh time for you to go, you do nothing for our region, many locals don’t even know whom you are, well the ones in Hokitika do, you sure screwed them over as Mayor.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11769742
Her only claim to fame, it would appear.
National MP Maureen Pugh doesn’t believe in pharmaceutical drugs
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/80884541/national-mp-maureen-pugh-doesnt-believe-in-pharmaceutical-drugs
Is she CV in drag ?
LMFAO !!!! Oh dang that was funny, cheeky but really funny
She is reported as saying –
“I think there’s a real opportunity for us to save the country millions of dollars in pharmaceuticals by treating the whole person and the environment they live in, which is all about healthy eating and healthy living.”
She’s right, but what is the National Party doing about it ? Their Minister of “Health” is missing on duty, and as for the environment people live in – polluted water, substandard housing, fruit and vegetables at inflated supermarket prices, massive traffic congestion in our major city.
The do nothing National Party does nothing.
‘Saving the country money by treating the whole person. ‘ She sounds like the sort of pollie I want who will support our right to a ‘managed demise’ which means that we make arrangements about our dying, and then choose when we want to go.
Think of how much pain and suffering and private and public money that would save if only we could find some way of monetising the idea to catch the pollies’ eye or ear, and brain if possible.
indeed and the comments on that link, by crikey not much support there at all.
Tell us about the cycle way overspend Maureen Pugh… after all you were mayor of westland.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/west-coast/83412015/westland-district-council-could-end-up-15-million-over-budget-for-cycle-trail
How about how you treated the rate payers when you were mayor?
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/132373/westland-mayor-denies-council-debt-problem
How about your editing of the council newsletter to save face? Still up to your old tricks?
http://www.greystar.co.nz/content/councillors-wild-mayor%E2%80%99s-edit
How many meet the candidates events did you miss Maureen was it 4 or 5? Damo made it to all of them, maybe there was one meeting Kev couldn’t make it to but at least he sent a representative.
http://www.gbweekly.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/gbw_2014august22.pdf
So seeing you joined the Nat’s are you for or against 1080?
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/west-coast/trapper-hails-councils-stance-against-1080
“The council has also promised to make the use of 1080 a prohibited activity under its district plan. ”
Did you really? did you Maureen? Does that include Haast? I’m confused
http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/83210402/Massive-1080-pest-control-operation-to-begin-on-West-Coast
Govt’s handling of migration & housing, reckless or incompetent? Take your pick
Migration now accounts for two thirds of Auckland’s population growth and is the main reason for the region’s housing shortage
Statistics NZ estimates that Auckland’s population increased by 44,300 people in the year to June, with 69.5% of the increase (30,800 people) coming from migration and just 30.5% (13,500 people) due to the natural increase in population (the excess of births over deaths).
As the graph [see original] shows, that’s a dramatic turnaround from the situation just three years ago when migration increased Auckland’s population by just 7000 and accounted for just under a third (32%) of its population growth. The biggest surge in migration occurred from 2013/14 onwards as the Government encouraged immigration on a number of fronts to try and spur economic growth.
That included creating what became known as a “pathway to residency” for overseas students studying here, which resulted in a huge influx of overseas students applying for residency at the end of their studies, a scheme that has since run into numerous problems.
The Government’s response to the unfolding housing crisis in Auckland was two pronged. Firstly it would stridently avoid admitting there was a crisis, it was merely a “challenge,” we were told. Then when the size of the problem became so big it could no longer be denied, blame was shifted elsewhere, and Auckland Council became the whipping boy for the housing shortage.
How could any council have foreseen the huge influx of migrants that was about to arrive in the city, and even if it did, capacity restraints within the construction industry meant the supply of new homes wouldn’t have kept up anyway.
It is also worth remembering that if the Government had kept migration at around the same level it was in 2013, then more than enough new homes would be being built now to cope with the region’s housing needs.
These problems should all have been foreseen when the Government left the immigration taps open three years ago. If it didn’t, that suggests incompetence. And if they did see the problems and proceeded anyway, it reeks of recklessness.
So take your pick. Reckless or incompetent?
Ideological.
I’m going for “reckless”, the Nats knew exactly what they were doing with immigration and student visas but just didn’t give a fuck, as long as they could keep up the pretense of economic growth. Pretty much sums up their entire bullshit administration of the last 8.5 years.
We even made it on Aljazeera this morning listing Auckland as the fourth most expensive city in the world, more expensive than London – one way to make headlines for little ol’ NZ.
Scandal in Belfast to bring down First Minister Arlene Foster (DUP) today.
Cash for Ash: The Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme
Arlene Foster set up a scheme when she was a minister which subsidised heat generation at 5.9pence per Kw when the cost to generate a kw from wood pellets is 4.4pence.
The more you burn the more you make. And unlike similar a scheme in England there is no cap. When a whistle blower, civil servants and the auditor raised concerns the DUP SPADs surrounding Foster pressed for the scheme to continue.
Shortly after Foster became the First Minister the new minister, Jonathan Bell, announced the scheme would be suspended. Between then and the suspension hundreds of farmers and businesses got their applications in. Some are very close to the DUP leadership and SPADs. This will cost the Northern Ireland taxpayer $400 million over the next number of years.
There is talk of bullying, intimidation, featherbedding and more. No mention of sex. Yet. There is plenty of religious humbug of course. Hopefully sex will rear its head: sex and religious pomposity are fun.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/sinn-fein-to-bring-a-proposal-to-stormont-calling-for-arlene-foster-to-step-aside-as-first-minister-35303344.html
http://www.irishnews.com/opinion/columnists/2016/12/19/news/tom-kelly-dup-has-managed-to-make-themselves-look-like-the-borgias-841103/
http://sluggerotoole.com/