Open Mike 20/10/2016

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, October 20th, 2016 - 89 comments
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89 comments on “Open Mike 20/10/2016 ”

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  1. weka 1
    18 October 2016 at 8:13 pm

    [Please note, we are trialling something new for Open Mike and Daily Review.

    In order to keep OM and DR free for other conversations, all comments, link postings etc about the US election now need to go in the dedicated US election discussion here.

    If you are unsure, post in that thread rather than here. It’s not possible for moderators to shift comments from OM to there, so any comments here may get deleted.

    Have fun folks – weka]

  2. b waghorn 2
    20 October 2016 at 7:05 am

    If you want to see the rowarth woman earning here daily bread watch henry on delay in about 5o mins. The most stunning display of a set up interview i’ve seen , and that’s coming from someone who watch’s henry and thinks the ETS is a farce. I believe it was set up to counter this
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/85509709/warning-to-farmers-better-to-move-on-emissions-now-than-face-major-shock-later

    • Robert Guyton 2.1
      20 October 2016 at 8:43 am

      See that rowarth woman? No thanks, b waghorn, but the article you link to and the issue it covers is high up on my “to do” list. I’m putting it to my regional councillors at the next meeting – what is the council’s response to the Parliamentary Commisioner’s report on farming and climate change. You’ll have recoiled from the spin from Rolleston in the article, I’m guessing – he and rowath are tag-teaming it.

  3. Sanctuary 3
    20 October 2016 at 7:57 am

    The junior doctors strike was the subject of two cracking interviews on NatRad this morning which go to show how “real” news need not be boring. And really, the junior doctors strike is a text book example of how the modern, trivia driven corporate media act as an anaesthesia on the general public. The tawdry NZ Herald has led with a Sydney murder suicide, the Trump-Clinton clown show and Julian Saveas recall for a rugby match. Oh and something called “sponsored content” (pay to publish) for a hair loss product for women.The state of our health system and civil society really does deserve better than the dross and dumbed down bullshit that our current commercial MSM serve up.

  4. Agora 4
    20 October 2016 at 8:49 am

    Video interview with Asma Al-Assad

    http://www.youtube.com/embed/ahMxGAPQHiQ

  5. adam 5
    20 October 2016 at 9:21 am

    I think we should re-look at what Muttonbird said last night.

    “Funny how whenever there’s ‘shock resignations’ of National government ministers it’s about rejuvenation and forward thinking, yet when Labour party press secretaries do the same there’s a poisonous culture in Andrew Little’s office.”

    Great analysis by Muttonbird. I think our media has lost the plot, and nothing we can do will bring them to heel. For the next election, people have to be offered alternative views, as our media are getting worse. Dirty politics it seems, was just the tip of a very large iceberg.

    • Puckish Rogue 5.1
      20 October 2016 at 9:39 am

      The issue is the amount of resignations that’s happening, http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/83908414/Labour-leaders-staffing-exodus-continues-with-four-key-roles-now-vacant

      that’s three key resignations that’s happened recently, four if you count McCarten and that seems to be quite a high turn over

      • Robert Guyton 5.1.1
        20 October 2016 at 9:42 am

        Number. Number of resignations. Apparently there are a number of resignations expected from the National Government over the next few months. Quite a number. That’s the issue.

        • Puckish Rogue 5.1.1.1
          20 October 2016 at 9:50 am

          I agree, prune some of the deadwood from the benches, promote some newer faces and present a fresher (or as fresh as you can considering how long they’ve been in power) look for the up coming election

          However that has nothing to do with the number of resignations in key back room positions for Andrew Little

          Why are they resigning?

          • Robert Guyton 5.1.1.1.1
            20 October 2016 at 10:03 am

            You are describing Hekia Parata as “deadwood”, Pucky.
            Why do you characterize her that way?
            Why, do you think, is she resigning?

            • Puckish Rogue 5.1.1.1.1.1
              20 October 2016 at 10:18 am

              I’m not calling her deadwood but Key (probably but not definitely) thinks of her that way and Key (probably) told her to go or be fired (again probably)

              Key probably wants to present a fresh look to the voters and also wants to stop any controversies before they start up, although It’d be hard to find someone in the National the teachers don’t have a problem with

              I personally wouldn’t have got rid of her but then I also haven’t won three general elections either

              So why do you think the working life of a Little back room staffer is approximately a month?

              • Robert Guyton …
                20 October 2016 at 10:27 am

                Probably for valid reasons, probably. There’s no reason to think otherwise. No more at least, than to believe that Parata’s exit is oddly rapid and premature. !0 years in politics is a remarkably short time though. Do you know how long Bill English has been in politics (just for comparisons sake)? Parata’s departure seems unseemly somehow, don’t you think? Perhaps she’s offended at Key calling her “deadwood” (probably).

                • Puckish Rogue …
                  20 October 2016 at 10:35 am

                  “Probably for valid reasons, probably. There’s no reason to think otherwise.”

                  You really believe that someone would take on a position like that for approximately a month and then go “oh well its not for me”, that someone would give up the chance of real power and you think theres a valid reason for the three/four people leaving, one maybe but 3/4 in quick succession?

                  I’ll bet if the same amount of people left John Keys office there’d be any number of people saying it must be a horrible place to work

                  “Parata’s departure seems unseemly somehow, don’t you think? Perhaps she’s offended at Key calling her “deadwood” (probably).”

                  Quite possibly, as I say I wouldn’t have got rid of her

              • Wayne Mapp …
                20 October 2016 at 11:54 am

                Puckish Rogue,

                Your view as to what the PM will have suggested is almost certainly completely wrong. In my view he would have preferred that Hekia should stay. She has got on top of the portfolio, and has made some real gains. She has become a solid performer within the Cabinet.

                She also adds deep links into iwi leadership and relationships.

                • Robert Guyton …
                  20 October 2016 at 12:04 pm

                  Ouch!
                  Wayne’s an insider who thinks you’re “almost certainly completely wrong”.
                  I suspect an insider from Andrew Little’s team would say the same thing.
                  “almost certainly completely wrong”
                  Ouch!

                • Puckish Rogue …
                  20 October 2016 at 12:04 pm

                  All good

                • DoublePlusGood …
                  20 October 2016 at 12:08 pm

                  “Made some real gains”
                  – by which you presumably mean that she has pushed ahead on a few things of importance to National that are against best international practice in education, and continued to ignore the entire teaching profession telling her that she was entirely wrong. Not really ‘gains’ then…

                • Stuart Munro …
                  20 October 2016 at 12:44 pm

                  Certainly with a crowning achievement like Novapay Hekia was a standout. The logical successor must be Sam Lotu Liga – bringing SERCO into everywhere the government doesn’t know wtf it is doing.

            • Chuck 5.1.1.1.1.2
              20 October 2016 at 10:48 am

              “Why, do you think, is she resigning?”

              I guess only Hekia can give you (us) that answer Robert,

              She has been an MP for about 10 years, high profile…maybe she was told her time was up? or maybe she wanted to spend more time with her family? or different job pathway? etc…

          • Gabby 5.1.1.1.2
            20 October 2016 at 1:13 pm

            They’re all desperate to work for Wee Toddy Baccy.

      • adam 5.1.2
        20 October 2016 at 9:47 am

        No proof in the piece, not one word of evidence to support a poisonous culture.

        Who needs truth, when a snippy headline, a snide attack, and stacks of innuendo will do. All hidden under opinion.

        That is the point Puckish, but I’m sure you get that, and would not want to try and misdirect a conversation…No wait you did in your response to Robert Guyton

        • Puckish Rogue 5.1.2.1
          20 October 2016 at 10:13 am

          I didn’t read what muttonbird said last night but three/four resignations in quick succession is a problem that needs resolving

          • Robert Guyton 5.1.2.1.1
            20 October 2016 at 10:30 am

            It’s “a problem that needs resolving”, declares Puckish Rogue. Quick-smart people, look lively, pull ya socks up! Pucky’s declaring again!

            • Puckish Rogue 5.1.2.1.1.1
              20 October 2016 at 10:38 am

              If you have that many people leaving that quickly in any sort of industry then yes it is a problem

              Is it that hard to admit that working with Andrew Little might be difficult?

          • adam 5.1.2.1.2
            20 October 2016 at 11:17 am

            Oh do pull the other one Puckish, your evidence an opinion piece for starters.

            Parata was, and continues to be just one of a collection of bad and incompetent ministers this national government has produced. Jumped before she was pushed, now we getting a sick husband smoke screen. MMMM, somthing rotten in the national house.

            • Puckish Rogue 5.1.2.1.2.1
              20 October 2016 at 11:36 am

              “Oh do pull the other one Puckish, your evidence an opinion piece for starters.”

              Are you saying they haven’t resigned?

              “Parata was, and continues to be just one of a collection of bad and incompetent ministers this national government has produced. Jumped before she was pushed, now we getting a sick husband smoke screen. MMMM, somthing rotten in the national house.”

              I personally don’t think so was a bad or incompetent education minister, can you name a National education minister that the teachers unions considered good, you’re always on a hiding to nothing.

              You’re probably right when about the jumped before she was pushed, along with the soon to be announced cushy number for her

              John Key isn’t known as the smiling assassin for nothing but, and its a pretty big but, its ministers in National getting the axe but its back room staff in Labour quitting

              • adam …
                20 October 2016 at 11:40 am

                “Are you saying they haven’t resigned?”

                No you are just buying into the beat up by the press, in effect proving my point.

                • Puckish Rogue …
                  20 October 2016 at 11:51 am

                  Where I work there has been a position that has had three changes in a little over a year (its currently vacant) and I think that’s a problem

                  You’ve got three/four resignations over a shorter time and the positions would indicate you get a lot of power once Labour wins power yet you don’t think that’s a problem?

                  • adam …
                    20 October 2016 at 12:22 pm

                    The issue before you do you usual and try to take it side ways – is the representation by the press. No one know why they resigned, so I’m not going to speculate on peoples personal decisions, the speculation of which by the way, is quite vulgar.

                    So apart from your snide opinion piece, all I’m seeing is a boorish attempt at spin.

                    So if questions are it, then you think it is fine the press are not holding this appalling collection of ministers to account? Nick I can mess it up Smith, and Murray I gave away the farm McCully – just two examples.

                    • Puckish Rogue …
                      20 October 2016 at 12:34 pm

                      All I’m seeing from you is the usual head in the sand, nothing to see here, its all the medias fault deliberate ignorance

                    • adam …
                      20 October 2016 at 1:43 pm

                      Worst response, ever.

                    • Puckish Rogue …
                      20 October 2016 at 1:49 pm

                      Yeah people don’t normally like it when you point out their foibles to them

                    • adam …
                      20 October 2016 at 1:59 pm

                      You are the one sticking with your vulgar arguments and missing the point.

                      I’ve seen you post entertain links here so I guess I should not be surprised you would be into gutter politics, of the amoral speculative kind.

                      No personal grievances, no golden hand shakes, at least one person actually got a promotion, with the bonus of coming back home. So sorry Puckish you argument is vugar, boorish and childish.

                      Lets not forget its light weight, and a diversion. You were wrong about Hekia, and you are wrong about this.

                    • Puckish Rogue …
                      20 October 2016 at 2:04 pm

                      “Lets not forget its light weight, and a diversion. You were wrong about Hekia, and you are wrong about this”

                      I think you’ll find its not yet proven correct

                    • Robert Guyton …
                      20 October 2016 at 2:50 pm

                      Hey, Puckish-of-the-Crystal-Ball, what do you reckon’s going to happen with Chester?

                      http://robinwestenra.blogspot.co.nz/2016/10/govt-mp-runs-into-tppa-protesters.html

                    • Puckish Rogue …
                      20 October 2016 at 2:59 pm

                      If what they say is true then hopefully the protestors will get charged for damaging government property but if the judicial system has been taken over by dirty, stinking, pinko lefties then he’ll probably be let off with a warning

                  • Paul …
                    21 October 2016 at 5:12 pm

                    You really are a miserable troll.

            • Chuck 5.1.2.1.2.2
              20 October 2016 at 12:12 pm

              “Parata was, and continues to be just one of a collection of bad and incompetent ministers this national government has produced. Jumped before she was pushed, now we getting a sick husband smoke screen. MMMM, somthing rotten in the national house.”

              adam I feel the need to point out your double standards here…

              “Oh do pull the other one Puckish, your evidence an opinion piece for starters”

              And what have you just written above adam? oh that’s right its your own opinion piece!!

              Now there is nothing wrong with anyone having an opinion, but when you call up someone for having an opinion, then respond back with your own opinion…its hmm??

                • adam …
                  20 October 2016 at 12:24 pm

                  It’s the Trump effect Robert Guyton, were any old bullshit is now the truth for rightwing conspiracy theorist nuts.

                  • Robert Guyton …
                    20 October 2016 at 12:38 pm

                    Adam – Puckish Rogue’s aim is to dishearten readers here who are supportive of the Left. His wide-eyed “questions” are his method for keeping us feeling insecure. He insists that his topic of the day is THE issue and tries always to drag discussion back to his choice of topic, which, curiously enough, always has Labour/Little/the Left cast in a negative light. He’s always done it and will continue to do it until the election. We’d be best to ignore completely, his “angles”. Sadly, I find quibbling with him fun but will try now to ignore his bait. Almost always, his topics of interest are lightweight and inconsequential. Oh, how I wish Pucky would introduce a topic that had some weight, some gravitas, some oomph!

                    • Robert Guyton …
                      20 October 2016 at 12:39 pm

                      Oh, and Chuck’s just Chuck.

                    • Puckish Rogue …
                      20 October 2016 at 12:47 pm

                      You do know it was adam that started this topic:

                      “Funny how whenever there’s ‘shock resignations’ of National government ministers it’s about rejuvenation and forward thinking, yet when Labour party press secretaries do the same there’s a poisonous culture in Andrew Little’s office.”

                      I mean its not quite the same thing is it, comparing the resignations of ministers to press secretaries.

                      For starters Hekia has been in parliament for 10 years whereas the average Labour press secretary seems to be lasting around a month so we’re probably overdue for another resignation

                      However I am not, for one instance, laying the blame for this at Andrew Littles feet, just because its his office and they’re working under him is no reason to think hes a bad boss

                      Not at all

                    • Robert Guyton …
                      20 October 2016 at 1:03 pm

                      *Splutters, “But, but, but… Adam started it”

                      Of course he did, Pucky.
                      Everything began with Adam.

                      🙂

                    • Puckish Rogue …
                      20 October 2016 at 1:26 pm

                      Incorrect, we’re all in the matrix and everything you know has been loaded into your mind

                    • Paul …
                      21 October 2016 at 5:17 pm

                      Trolls are beneath contempt .
                      Shilling for the 1%.
                      Words that describe what they stand for and who they work for would get me banned.

    • tc 5.2
      20 October 2016 at 10:17 am

      They are on message following the plot laid out by the DP driven agenda setters this govt relies on to keep the sheeple ill informed.

      Working as designed folks

    • Chuck 5.3
      20 October 2016 at 11:02 am

      “Funny how whenever there’s ‘shock resignations’ of National government ministers it’s about rejuvenation and forward thinking, yet when Labour party press secretaries do the same there’s a poisonous culture in Andrew Little’s office.”

      “Great analysis by Muttonbird”

      adam I think you need to understand the difference between a MP and a member of staff (in this case employed by Labour).

  6. Paaparakauta 6
    20 October 2016 at 9:27 am

    Clinton campaign & DNC on violence at Trump rallies
    https://youtu.be/5IuJGHuIkzY

    Vote Fraud HOWTO
    https://youtu.be/hDc8PVCvfKs

  7. adam 7
    20 October 2016 at 9:49 am

    Interesting, seems they found it by accident a new method to convert carbon dioxide to ethanol. No all we need to know is can it be recreated in another lab.

    http://time.com/4536708/carbon-dioxide-ethanol/

    He link to the research itself.

    https://www.ornl.gov/news/nano-spike-catalysts-convert-carbon-dioxide-directly-ethanol

    • Incognito 7.1
      20 October 2016 at 10:03 am

      Interesting; accepted in 7 days! Put the still on 😉

      http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/slct.201601169/full

    • Bill 7.2
      20 October 2016 at 11:07 am

      10 billion tonnes (ie, between a quarter and a third of current annual emissions) of CO2 being captured in some nano-tech dependent ethanol process every year, year on year; decade after decade? Sure.

      There is nothing in any industrial process we currently have that even comes close to kind of volume/scale.

      As far as I can see, this idea is proposing a ‘get around’ on the fact we don’t have the geological capacity to store the required volumes of CO2 that we can’t yet capture by…incorporating it into batteries!!!!?

      Fuck.

      • adam 7.2.1
        20 October 2016 at 11:11 am

        And it was an accident. Which means it has not be replicated yet. If you noticed a small little video connected with that – about the capture of CO2, and how it’s not working how they expected either.

        No not a story of hope, more a glimpse at the desperation to get a good news story out there by the press.

        • Colonial Viper 7.2.1.1
          20 October 2016 at 11:31 am

          To turn CO2 into ethanol would require a massive input of energy…unless we start believing in free energy: cold fusion/zero point energy style…

          • Bill 7.2.1.1.1
            20 October 2016 at 12:32 pm

            Didn’t you read yesterdays Guardian CV? The world is saved!

            “MIT nuclear fusion record marks latest step towards unlimited clean energy”

            Now MIT scientists have increased the record plasma pressure to more than two atmospheres, a 16% increase on the previous record set in 2005, at a temperature of 35 million C and lasting for two seconds. The breakthrough …

            https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/17/mit-nuclear-fusion-record-marks-latest-step-towards-unlimited-clean-energy

            Two seconds! Not quite gazillions of $$$. I tells ye. No. fcuking. stopping. us.

            • Pasupial 7.2.1.1.1.1
              20 October 2016 at 1:03 pm

              Two seconds is quite a long time in the field of Nuclear Fusion. Even the Guardian’s clickbaity editors admit in the title that this is one of many steps needed to achieve a practical fusion generator (other than the sun of course). This is the bit that depressed me:

              However, the world record was achieved on the last day of the MIT tokamak’s operation, because funding from the US Department of Energy has now ended. The US, along with the EU, China, India, South Korea, Russia and Japan, are now ploughing their fusion funding into a huge fusion reactor called ITER… should be completed in 15-20 years and aims to deliver 500MW of power, about the same as today’s large fission reactors. But the project has been hampered by delays.

              chief executive of Tokamak Energy [a spin-off from the UK’s national fusion lab], said the important aspect of the MIT world record was that it showed extreme conditions can be created in small tokamaks: the volume of the MIT device is just one cubic metre. “The conventional view is that tokamaks have to be huge [like ITER] to be powerful,” he said. “The MIT people disagree with that view, as do we.” Kingham’s target is for his company’s compact reactors to produce their first electricity by 2025.

              ITER seems like putting a lot of eggs into the one basket, especially if takes so much longer to build and prove. I’m not sure that having private companies piggy-backing on public research to patent Fusion Reactor tech is such a great idea either though.

          • Chuck 7.2.1.1.2
            20 October 2016 at 2:28 pm

            LanzaTech technology is gas fermentation using waste carbon.

            http://www.lanzatech.com/innovation/technical-overview/

            Its a novel way to capture emissions from flue stacks.

            Ultimately a win-win situation would be to use bio char for carbon sequestration. This would pull CO2 out of our atmosphere while also allowing our soils to replenish their carbon stocks, as its estimated the worlds cultivated soils have lost 50 – 70% of their original carbon stock.

  8. Draco T Bastard 8
    20 October 2016 at 10:35 am

    If you want to know what global warming means watch this:

  9. Robert Glennie 9
    20 October 2016 at 11:40 am

    Despite not being a Government or Ministry, given the Government’s past negative reaction to being criticized, the Salvation Army comments about immigrants and jobs is quite a brave thing to have done.

    https://willnewzealandberight.com/2016/10/20/salvation-army-immigration-commentary-disturbing/

  10. Tony Veitch (not the partner-bashing 3rd rate broadcaster 10
    20 October 2016 at 12:23 pm

    Heard on RNZ 6am and 7am news, but not on subsequent bulletins:

    Two Pro-democracy members of the Hong Kong parliament were denied a scheduled meeting with NZ finance minister, and meetings with anyone in the NZ government.

    Their explanation – the Chinese government has a long reach.

    But, if true, since when has the Chinese government been determining who our elected representatives can meet?

    • Draco T Bastard 10.1
      20 October 2016 at 12:35 pm

      But, if true, since when has the Chinese government been determining who our elected representatives can meet?

      From what I can make out, ever since we signed the FTA with them. Ever since then we’ve been too scared to upset them.

      Another fine example of trade overwriting principles.

  11. Bill 11
    20 October 2016 at 1:00 pm

    Privatisation.
    Infrastructure.
    Climate change.

    Them’s the dots. Join them up. Good piece from newshub.

    http://www.newshub.co.nz/tvshows/story/ex-manager-blows-lid-on-dangerous-toppling-power-poles-2016101919

  12. save nz 12
    20 October 2016 at 2:00 pm

    I hate Trump and Farage. But on free trade they have a point
    Aditya Chakrabortty

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/19/free-trade-broken-idea-elites-deals-ceta-ttip-economic

    extract..

    “I heartily agree that Nigel Farage and Trump are grotesques. But the free-traders peddle their own untruths. They have insistedthat black is white, even as the voters beg to differ. In their seminar rooms, their TV studios and their Geneva offices, they have perpetrated the ideological sleight of hand that equates internationalism with free trade, and globalisation with untrammelled corporate power. The result has been misery for workers from Bolton to Baltimore to Bangladesh. But it has also left the six-figure technocrats who supervise our economic system pushing a zombie idea. Because that is what free trade has become: an idea leached of life and meaning but stumbling on for want of any replacement. We have a globalisation for bankers, but not for children fleeing the bombs of Syria. Security for investors but not for workers.

    To see how debased the notion of free trade has become, look at the deal between Canada and the EU that is currently being voted through Europe’s parliaments. It’s called the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (Ceta), and the fact that you can see it at all is largely down to leaks of the documents, which forced the European commission to publish,. That is after the negotiations were conducted for five years in secret, with even the directives kept hidden from the hundreds of millions of citizens affected.

    This is no minor technical work. Provided it is passed in time, Ceta will apply to Britain too – and parts of it will affect Britons’ lives even after we’ve “taken back control”. It has been billed as “a backdoor for TTIP”, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which collapsed this summer amid public opposition both in Europe and the US. Like TTIP, Ceta includes the investor-state dispute settlement system – which hands big business the power to sue governments, including for profits they haven’t made yet. A US multinational with an office in Canada (nearly all of them) will be able to sue Britons for bringing in laws that lose them money. This was the mechanism tobacco giant Philip Morris used to sue Australia’s government for bringing in plain packaging. On that occasion, Big Tobacco was unsuccessful – but it took four years of expensive legal battle.”

  14. Ian Anderson 14
    20 October 2016 at 2:03 pm

    Syria Solidarity: National day of action 29th October

    Civilians in Aleppo and across Syria are being intensively bombed by Russia with bunker bombs, phosphorous bombs, napalm, thermobaric and cluster bombs; and by the Syrian regime with chlorine containing barrel bombs; targetting homes, schools, hospitals, rescue teams, and underground shelters .

    Like many Syrian cities, Aleppo has been under a starvation siege. The regime and Russian have even bombed the city’s water supply.
    Despite these atrocious crimes against humanity, Aleppo’s people show tremendous solidarity and caring for each other, as they work to find the wounded under the rubble, and rush them to undergound clinics for treatment. Hundreds of democratically run community councils have been formed across Syria in the liberated areas. They have produced a tremendous amount of art, literature, music, and electronic media documenting the revolution and counter revolution in Syria.

    The “peace” talks have broken down. It is clear that Russia and the Assad regime are looking for a military solution to enable the genocidal Assad regime to continue in power.

    Most of the fighters killing Syrian civilians are not Syrians. They include soliders from Afghanistan, Lebanon, Iran and Iraq, many of them conscripted or desperately poor with no other options for a living.
    The Assad regime and Russia have killed half a million Syrian people. The genocide has to stop! The regime regularly uses rape and torture as weapons.

    The war started because people across Syria went onto the streets to demand democracy, and instead were shot, rounded up, tortured, raped and killed. So the people took up arms to defend themselves. The Assad regime has vowed to continue to obliterate the population until it accepts his rule.

    Both the United States and Russia have re-defined the people’s struggle for democracy as a “war on terror” and are both responsible for killing civilians.

    Isis grew in Syria with the encouragement of the Assad regime. Assad deliberately released extremists from his jails, who went on to join Isis in Syria. The regime leaves Isis alone, and Isis is continually attacking the democratic opposition groups. The democratic opposition has been forced to fight on two fronts, against the attacks from the regime and from Isis. Despite the evils perpetrated by Isis, it has killed a fraction of the number of people, that the Assad regime has. The Assad regime with its Russian and Iranian allies are the greater evil.

    Stop the bombing! Troops out!
    No more genocide! Solidarity with the Syrian Revolution!
    Victory for Syrian people now!

    Wellington action:
    2-3pm 29th October, Russian Embassy, 57 Messines Road, Karori

    Auckland action:
    2-3pm 29th October, Aotea Square

    https://www.facebook.com/events/104432090029183/

    [have added a link – weka]

    • Bill 14.1
      20 October 2016 at 6:09 pm

      Utterly delusional bollocks there Ian. That’s the ‘bending over backwards to be nice’ take by the way. Because the only other take is that your post and those organising the protest are deliberately peddling simplistic and disgusting lies. The Boris Johnson’s of the world would, no doubt, approve of your stance.

      Unfortunately many well meaning people who know no better may well pedal on down. 🙁

  15. weka 15
    20 October 2016 at 11:30 pm

    [In order to keep OM and DR free for other conversations, all comments, link postings etc about the US election now need to go in the dedicated US election discussion here.

    If you are unsure, post in that thread rather than here. It’s not possible for moderators to shift comments from OM to there, so any comments here may get deleted – weka]