Open mike 26/11/2024

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, November 26th, 2024 - 32 comments
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32 comments on “Open mike 26/11/2024 ”

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  1. Jenny 1
    26 November 2024 at 7:13 am

    If we can't stop war, how can we stop climate change.

    Joining the dots.

    Ukrainians (almost) get it.

    Mention Russian Imperialism, (Almost mention American Imperialism)

    Mention air pollution, (Almost mention climate change).

    Kyiv Independent

    While Russia wields imperial dreams and nuclear threats, the world suffocates — both under the weight of war and the smog of neglect.

    Slavoj Žižek Slavoj Žižek Philosopher

    Kyiv Independent, November 25, 2024 2:51 PM5 min read

    ……Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic congresswoman from New York, publicly appealed to those who had voted for both her and Trump. She wanted to know what motivated such an apparently inconsistent choice, and the predominant answer she heard was that she and Trump seemed more sincere, whereas Vice President Kamala Harris came off as too calculating.

    It was a fruitful exercise, and we can ask the same of leftists who support both the Palestinians and Russia. After all, the latter has been bombing bombing Ukrainian cities until they resemble Gaza, and just as the right-wing parties in Israel’s government want to create a Greater Israel, the Kremlin hopes to create a Greater Russia…..

    ……Russia’s systematic destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure has been normalized — much like Israel’s razing of northern Gaza.

    The situation is as obscene as it is absurd. Russia, having launched a war of conquest against its peaceful neighbor, now wants to keep its own territory out of the war, and it accuses Ukraine, the victim, of “expanding” the conflict.

    [the same could (almost) be said of Israel, which killed 300 Palestinians in the months preceding October 7]

    ……on the same day that President Vladimir Putin announced the new Russian nuclear doctrine, the BBC reported that, “air pollution in India’s capital Delhi has soared to extremely severe levels, choking residents and engulfing the city in thick smog,” disrupting air transport, forcing schools to close, and halting construction. “And experts warn that the situation could get worse in Delhi in the coming days.”

    While Russia indulges in imperial aggression and rattles its nuclear saber, hundreds of millions of people are finding it harder to breathe. Our media trumpet the use of Western weapons against Russia as front-page “breaking news,” and our blinkered leftists regard Ukraine’s “excessive” defense as a dangerous escalation. A threat to our very survival, however, barely merits mention…..

    https://kyivindependent.com/opinion-nuclear-escalation-fears-cant-override-ukraines-right-to-defend-itself/

    Imperialism is the common enemy of humanity, from colonising Ukraine, to colonising Palestine, to colonising the air we breath, to colonising the climate that sustains us.

    New Zealand has a role to play, (and an outsize one at that), chart a truly independent foreign policy, cut all our military ties with all imperialist powers.
    If we can pull it off, this could set an example for the world. And finally maybe humanity will be free of the centuries old cycle of imperialist violence and plunder. Of both Nature and Humanity.

    Saying no to AUKUS

    Saying no to military exercises with IDF could be a small start.

  2. Dennis Frank 2
    26 November 2024 at 8:40 am

    It's a victory for democracy! The control system must retain hegemony, so believers in natural justice get sidelined as per routine: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/534825/special-counsel-jack-smith-drops-election-subversion-and-classified-documents-cases-against-donald-trump

    US special counsel Jack Smith is dropping the federal election subversion and the mishandling of classified documents cases against President-elect Donald Trump, seeking the cases' dismissal in court filings Monday.

    "The (Justice) Department's position is that the Constitution requires that this case be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated," Smith wrote in a six-page filing with the US District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, DC, regarding the election subversion case. "This outcome is not based on the merits or strength of the case against the defendant."

    Doesn't matter that Trump broke the law in storing all those boxes of official documents in his palace. Nor does it matter that he is on the record inciting the insurrection. Those dimensions of reality get discounted by the system, which the constitution specifies must prevail – putting Trump above the law.

    This outcome will thrill the left & right since both agree the state must remain paramount above any petty delusions such as holding wrong-doers accountable. The justice system will be revealed as a sham – but only to those capable of integrating reality (a minority).

    • Jenny 2.1
      26 November 2024 at 11:06 am

      This is what democracy looks like:

      This is not what democracy looks like;

      Scoop: Esper says Trump wanted to shoot protesters

      Mike Allen

      https://www.axios.com/2022/05/02/mark-esper-book-trump-protesters

      The first thing autocrats always do on taking absolute power to themselves is to ban the right to protest.

      Democracy Now

      Russ Vought @1:18 minutes

      …..We’re trying to build a shadow Office of Legal Counsel, so that when a future president says, “What legal authorities do I need to shut down the riots?” we want to be able to shut down the riots and not have the legal community or the defense community to come in and say that’s an inappropriate use of what you’re trying to do…..

      https://www.democracynow.org/2024/11/25/russ_vought_omb_project2025_trump_admin

      • Dennis Frank 2.1.1
        26 November 2024 at 11:44 am

        Yeah, but you're actually referring to the spirit of democracy. Totally different from political reality of the thing – which is what I was reporting on. On the left, such distraction from the state of reality has long been a favoured political tactic. It puzzles me still that leftists continue to fail to realise the psychological handicap it imposes on their political agency.

        Or, to make the point blunter: how it keeps making them weaker players in the game. To be a competent player, one must ground political activity in commons context. Common cause has long been seen as the best way forward.

    • SPC 2.2
      26 November 2024 at 2:51 pm

      A federal judge has dismissed a major case against Donald Trump that alleged he illegally sought to overturn the 2020 election.

      Jack Smith, the special prosecutor who brought the criminal case against Trump, had asked to have the charges dropped, citing a Justice Department policy that bans the prosecution of a sitting president.

      Judge Tanya Chutkan dismissed the case "without prejudice", meaning the charges could be refiled after Trump finishes his second term.

      Smith has also asked to have his case charging Trump with improperly storing classified documents dismissed. Trump had pleaded not guilty in both cases.

      cool

      “It has long been the position of the Department of Justice that the United States Constitution forbids the federal indictment and subsequent criminal prosecution of a sitting President,” Smith wrote in a filing in the election case.

      “This outcome is not based on the merits or strength of the case against the defendant,” Smith added in the six-page filing.

      crying

      Trump had pledged to get rid of Smith as soon as he took office. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith in 2022 to take over the two federal investigations into Trump’s conduct. Smith has reportedly said he plans to step down next year.

      The request to dismiss Trump’s election subversion case marks an end to a lengthy legal saga.

      mail

      Smith had to refile the election-subversion charges against the former president based on the Supreme Court ruling that Trump was immune from some prosecution.

      enlightened

      The special counsel had argued in a revised indictment that Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results were related to his campaign and therefore not official acts.

      https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gvd7kxxj5o

    • Ad 2.3
      26 November 2024 at 3:51 pm

      It's the Supreme Court ruling on Oresidential immunity in office. Nothing Dems could do about it.

      • SPC 2.3.1
        26 November 2024 at 4:05 pm

        Jack Smith, the special prosecutor who brought the criminal case against Trump, had asked to have the charges dropped, citing a Justice Department policy that bans the prosecution of a sitting president.

        Judge Tanya Chutkan dismissed the case "without prejudice", meaning the charges could be refiled after Trump finishes his second term.

        “It has long been the position of the Department of Justice that the United States Constitution forbids the federal indictment and subsequent criminal prosecution of a sitting President,” Smith wrote in a filing in the election case.

  3. Dennis Frank 3
    26 November 2024 at 9:03 am

    He confidently predicted that Kamala Harris would defeat Donald Trump. An idealist, he was once an Eagle Scout, with mixed Irish/Scots/English/Quaker ancestry.

    At the age of 18, he was elected to the Davison school board. At the time he was the youngest person elected to office in the U.S., as the minimum age to hold public office had just been lowered to 18. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Moore

    Progressive filmmaker and activist Michael Moore accused President Biden of ruining his legacy and leading America "right into World War III" in a scathing open letter to the president… The filmmaker ended his screed by begging Biden to once again use the "power of the pen" and make "real and powerful change," starting with passing the Equal Rights Amendment, or "ERA," which would create a constitutional right to abortion.

    Moore argued that the ERA would "finally" recognize women as "equal citizens and human beings" and should be the "law of the land." "You have the power to do this, Joe. You have the power to make this your legacy," he pleaded. https://www.foxnews.com/media/michael-moore-lashes-out-biden-says-hes-leading-america-world-war-iii-this-your-legacy

    Biden may not prefer a legacy based on moral authority though. He may be a real leftist – one to whom realism means supporting the establishment rather than co-creating a better world. Ending as a warmonger is realistic if you value solidarity with the right more than providing a positive alternative.

    • aj 3.1
      26 November 2024 at 9:59 am

      Moore is often right, and this is a very incomplete list. From your link…

      "If you stop and think about it, we’ve come up with a lot of doozies in our history," he wrote in a post on MichaelMoore.com. "Like the genocide of 20 million Native Americans. Or the enslavement of 12 million kidnapped Africans. Or us invading Vietnam and killing 4 million Asian people for no reason at all. We are not a good people."

  4. James Simpson 4
    26 November 2024 at 10:11 am

    Very sad new about Nikki Kaye. One of those unique MPs that was liked and respected by all. She could have been a Minister in a Labour government.

    • Barfly 4.1
      26 November 2024 at 11:33 am

      She was certainly a cut above the dreck currently misgoverning the country.

    • Jilly Bee 4.2
      26 November 2024 at 5:51 pm

      Two of the most heartfelt tributes today for Nikki Kaye have come from ex MP Kiri Allan and Green MP Marama Davidson. These two women have 'battled' cancer and Marama is still doing so. I don't use the term 'battled' lightly – it does tend to get bandied around somewhat, but those three women have indeed had their battles with the dreaded 'C' and sadly Nikki has succumbed to it. My partner and I have both had cancer – him with prostate, nearly 15 years ago and I had a cancerous tumour removed from my kidney (along with said kidney as well) earlier this year. We're lucky as we're both clear at the moment, but very aware that it can come back at any time. Vale Nikky and Rest in Peace.

    • Mike the Lefty 4.3
      26 November 2024 at 6:56 pm

      I vaguely recall that she voted against her party on a bill some years ago and was public in her condemnation of her party's position.

      Perhaps someone can fill in the gaps for me.

      In any case her talents were wasted in National.

  6. Dennis Frank 6
    26 November 2024 at 11:59 am

    Turns out guns are good for something after all – but they must be long enough to stop metal & concrete containers from getting up & running at you:

    The Indian Point nuclear power plant was an energy juggernaut for 50 years, generating a quarter of the electricity that powered New York City’s iconic, glowing skyline. It is well into its decommissioning process after shutting down in 2021: The remaining waste of the radioactive fuel that once generated all of that power has been sealed inside more than 120 hulking metal and concrete canisters. The massive containers are welded shut and stand in rows behind barbed-wire fences, watched 24/7 by security guards carrying long guns. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/11/25/climate/nuclear-energy-waste/index.html

    People “imagine it’s like the green drums of goo that Homer Simpson has,” said Paul Murray, the US Energy Department’s deputy assistant secretary focused on nuclear waste.

    Obviously everyone doing this imaginal thing gets off on the mystique. Yet it gets even better: the prospect of robots on The Simpsons:

    Nuclear start-ups – including one run by Bill Gates – are pouring billions of dollars into new-wave reactor technology. Two massive reactors recently came online in Georgia, and a burst of activity in AI has tech giants scrambling to bring plants like Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania – the site of America’s infamous nuclear meltdown – back to life.

    Zombie robots even! Yet nimbyism prevails:

    On the threshold of America’s nuclear energy renaissance, federal officials are pleading with communities to say yes to storing spent fuel. No state has yet raised its hand to store the country’s nuclear energy waste, despite the lucrative deals it could foment. Not even temporarily.

    Holtec, for example, the company that now owns the decommissioned Indian Point, is eyeing a site in New Mexico to store its spent fuel. Officials in New Mexico – where the Manhattan Project tested the first nuclear bombs without telling any of the communities around it what was happening – are flat-out rejecting the idea. “Just because we have the right geology, a low population, large land mass, does not mean that we agree to be a further sacrifice zone for the nation’s defense industry or even the power industry,” said James Kenney, secretary for New Mexico’s Environment Department.

    You need an autocrat ruling the USA, obviously, to defeat the nimbies. Fortunately, they have such a creature incoming, who can just point to likely places via executive order. Any state with the temerity to refuse will then get hammered by the Supreme Court, constituted by a suitable bunch of yespersons.

  7. joe90 7
    26 November 2024 at 12:44 pm

    Raw milk numpty wallowing in their stupidity by encouraging people to boil milk to avoid drinking pasteurised milk.

    //

    @giveu2tictacs

    You have to wonder what we did before pasteurized milk. It started in the late 1890 in the US. This process started to be more common in the 1920s and wasn't into law until 1947. So wonder how my grandmother survived? Oh yeah they would heat the milk to a certain temperature and let it cool. You all have to remember we have survivors of unpasteurized milk.

    9:46 AM · Nov 17, 2024

    ·

    https://xcancel.com/giveu2tictacs/status/1857888110555848841

  8. tWig 8
    26 November 2024 at 1:12 pm

    But, but, but heating milk IS pasteurisation. I assume you mean us to assume that.

  9. Barfly 9
    26 November 2024 at 1:17 pm

    A bit of advice wanted

    I have been made aware of serious allegations on an organisations public facebook pages If I send links to these pages to officials of a different organisation am I commiting an offense?

    • Dennis Frank 9.1
      26 November 2024 at 1:25 pm

      Whilst legal advice requires payment, common sense suggests linking any org to a facebook page that is clearly in the public arena is non-problematic. Fb would probably congratulate you for helping its partners in advertising, and leftists would celebrate you as a part-time whistle-blower, so win-win all around is the likely outcome.

  10. joe90 10
    26 November 2024 at 1:19 pm

    Surely the courts and plods have to answer for their failure to nip this in the bud.

    Fuck.

    .

    Since 21-year-old AUT student Farzana Yaqubi was murdered by a man she rejected in December 2022, I have followed the story, and associated commentary, closely. Like anyone reading the details of her case, I felt devastated for Yaqubi and her whānau, and outraged by the litany of police failings.

    But I also felt a sickening jolt of recognition.

    For almost nine years now, I have been stalked and sadistically harassed by a man I rejected when I was 17, who is eight years older than me. Apart from the fact that he has been terrorising me since January 2016, I do not know the perpetrator, Greg, at all.

    The story of my harassment is not for the faint of heart. It recounts in detail the brutal online abuse I have experienced since I was a teen, violent and sexual in nature, which escalated last year to include harassment of my parents at their home address. It details the various failures I encountered in the legal system after I reported the behaviour to the police, and the emotional, social and physical impact on my life.

    Until last year, I kept the entire ordeal a secret. But reading Farzana’s story shifted my perspective: if relaying my experience can trigger in someone else the same reaction hers did in me – the flash of recognition; the realisation I was downplaying a serious and dangerous situation – I figure it’s worth telling my story in full.

    So here it is.

    https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/25-11-2024/i-need-to-make-you-suffer-my-near-decade-of-violent-harassment-by-a-man-i-barely-know?

  11. Dennis Frank 11
    26 November 2024 at 1:20 pm

    Green nationalist thinker surges to the fore in the old Roman hinterland:

    Calin Georgescu is a 62-year-old expert on sustainable development and agriculture, with no party of his own, but a background in the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) nationalist movement. His programme calls for a radical transformation of Romania, to one based on small-scale organic agriculture, Christian values, and national sovereignty.

    His programme has similarities to that of Robert F Kennedy Jr in the US – Donald Trump’s pick for health secretary – who has pledged to "make America healthy again". Some of his videos on TikTok show him bathing in icy water. Georgescu bases his own expertise on his past work in the Romanian Foreign Ministry, and in a number of think tanks and NGOs linked to the United Nations. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqlrw4np55zo

    Political success via polarising against elites again:

    One key to his sudden popularity is his promise to "restore Romania’s dignity" and end subservience to the international organisations it belongs to, including Nato and the EU… A key factor in his victory on Sunday was his adept use of social media, especially TikTok, where he has more than 330,000 followers – up from 30,000 a fortnight ago – and more than 4m likes. That translated into over two million votes in this election.

    As ever, centrists will determine the outcome of the next vote, since the two front-runners are both rightists:

    Independent hard-right politician Calin Georgescu, 62, won 22.94% of votes in Sunday's voting, the electoral authority said. Centre-right contender Elena Lasconi, leader of the opposition Save Romania Union, lay second with 19.18%… The outcome was a shock as pre-election opinion polls had made leftist Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu the frontrunner. Ciolacu said he would resign as party leader following the result but would remain in the role of prime minister until a parliamentary election scheduled on Dec. 1.

    The candidate of the centre-right Liberals, Ciolacu's coalition partners, also failed to secure a place in the election run-off, which will be held on Dec. 8.

    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/election-shock-romanian-far-right-nato-critic-set-contest-presidential-run-off-2024-11-25/

    See what's happened? Leftist complacency was a presciption for strategic failure. Yet the reality underlying the outcome seems more complex. The leftist SDP's outgoing PM also got 19%, the right-wing populist leader of the AUR got 13%, a liberal got 9% & an independent got 6%. With the left at less than 20% of the whole, common sense suggests the winner need only seem to exemplify centrism with authority.

    • Obtrectator 11.1
      26 November 2024 at 7:15 pm

      "His programme calls for a radical transformation of Romania, to one based on small-scale organic agriculture, Christian values, and national sovereignty."

      In other words, a European hermit kingdom, but based in Old Testament Christianity rather than Marxism. No prizes for guessing which 50% of the population doesn't benefit (not, I suspect, that they do now so very much).

      • Dennis Frank 11.1.1
        26 November 2024 at 7:55 pm

        Yes, peculiar on the face of it, and I share your scepticism – but it does seem to provide the potential of a sustainable economy. Voters who see that potential will have to weigh up the realism quotient against whatever is offered as alternative in the next vote process.

    • joe90 11.2
      26 November 2024 at 8:30 pm

      Christian values, and national sovereignty

      Ion Antonescu and Corneliu Zelea Codreanu throw the Jew down the well values?

      Returning to 2020, Calin Georgescu published a Facebook video in which he says that Ion Antonescu and Corneliu Zelea Codreanu are heroes through whom “lived the national history, through them he speaks and spoke the national history and not through the service latch of the globalist powers that today lead Romania temporarily”.

      google translate

      https://www.digi24.ro/stiri/actualitate/politica/cine-este-calin-georgescu-propunerea-aur-pentru-functia-de-premier-1417286

      • Dennis Frank 11.2.1
        26 November 2024 at 9:59 pm

        Hmmm. Christian fascism was extremely competitive back then there! Interesting about one of them opposing the final solution, preferring selective eliminations.

        Reminds us that one's operational context is primary driver of outcomes. Holism as practical politics principle. An agent warps in response, then values shift, so priorities, goals, strategy & tactics all follow along behind…

  12. Nigel Haworth 12
    26 November 2024 at 2:26 pm

    A note to say that Nikki Kaye was an excellent constituency MP, who did not fit well in the emerging National tradition, especially on social, gender and environmental matters. Today's news is sad.

    This coming weekend's Labour conference is, I suggest, more important than most. The tax policy debate is paramount, for its outcome will determine Labour's foreseeable economic trajectory far beyond narrow revenue matters. It also highlights the groundswell in the membership for new tax policy beyond the catch-up of a CGT. When Antonia Watson, ANZ CEO, and myriad tax specialists, call powerfully for a CGT, the thought might be to beware a business elite bearing gifts.

    • Tiger Mountain 12.1
      26 November 2024 at 3:16 pm

      Well, the news is not good for Fraser House and senior Labour traditionalists…NZ Labour need to move left over from the centre line to have a good chance of linking with Greens and TPM in a Govt. after 2026.

      Tax is one thing–and David Parker has pointed that out well–but really a Corbynesque approach (for the many not the few) is needed to ring the emotional bell that seems to entice voters these days.

      Many know the list, from free dental and fare free public transport to no Charter Schools–integrated schools were bought in by Norm Kirk for chrissakes–Act charters are about penetration of public education by private capital. I digress…

      Anyway…cut to the chase…
      • renationalise power generation and supply, huge solar installations
      • wind back the 40 year old neo liberal state–SOEs, Crown Enterprises, Reserve Bank Act, State Sector Act…no but, buts
      • Withdraw from 5 Eyes and establish mutually beneficial bilateral relations with other countries regardless of Imperialist power plays

      • Heather Grimwood 12.1.1
        26 November 2024 at 5:14 pm

        To Tiger Mountain at 12.1

        Wholeheartedly agree with your three bullet points. All vitally important , but in present climate I think withdrawing from 5 Eyes the most urgent.

      • Tony Veitch 12.1.2
        26 November 2024 at 5:34 pm

        Labour has to promote the idea of getting big money out of politics! Fully fund the elections for all political parties based on their support in the past, say three or four elections, and make ALL contributions from the public have both a $5000 limit (x1) and be declarable!

        Otherwise, agree – move further to the left and yes, Corbyn would be a great role model!

  13. Dennis Frank 13
    26 November 2024 at 4:04 pm

    Leftist media bastion ripe for rightist capture:

    On X, formerly known as Twitter, Donald Trump Jr. mentioned Musk in a post claiming that MSNBC was for sale, writing, “I have the funniest idea ever!!!” Musk responded, asking how much it costs.

    Podcaster Joe Rogan also joined the conversation, saying to Musk, “If you buy MSNBC I would like Rachael Maddow’s job. I will wear the same outfit and glasses, and I will tell the same lies.”

    Musk also replied to a headline from a satirical news site that read, “Musk Announces Plan To Buy MSNBC And Turn It Into A News Network.”

    “Crazy idea, but it just might work!” he responded on X. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/elon-musk-ponders-buying-msnbc_n_67439d11e4b03c8ec6f8d84b

    After becoming president-elect, Trump announced that Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy would head the “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE, an unofficial federal agency, during his upcoming second term.

    Creating unofficial govt departments is a cool idea – how come nobody on the left thought of it first?? A ministry of propaganda is an obvious contender – you'd call it something innocuous like Public Relations Institute or Spindoctors Anonymous, maybe make it an SOE, with official govt depts as clients.