The purpose of a nuclear deterrent is to convince the other guys you'll use them if required. If China thinks the United States could use nuclear weapons to protect Taiwan and that keeps the peace and keeps Taiwan free, then that is deterrence working.
There is an element of truth in what Seymour has said though (and now I am going to have to take a shower and scrub myself clean with a steelo pad). The traditional media is behaving like its the end of times for news and current affairs, but really it's ...
This indicates how awful this coalition government is for our reputation for good governance. When Labour bungled the light rail process major private sector players became very reluctant to spend the huge sums required to make a credible bid for any light...
Old Luxon is something else, isn't he? He has managed to combine complete political obscurity, ineffective messaging and an utter inability to control his coalition partners to the point you'd be forgiven for thinking David Seymour was the PM with an ...
I am a bit miffed at the criticism of Advantage's prose!
Https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/03/02/john-campbell-when-will-hipkins-stop-drifting-and-start-leading/ Our Advantage gets mentioned by John Campbell (and dissed on X by David Seymour!) Just goes to show who reads this site.
One of the problems with commentary in the media on the collapse of Newshub is the people doing the commentary are far to close to the story. The pale complexions of journalists thinking "but for the grace of God..." is clear in the commentary as abstract ...
It is always sad when people lose their jobs. But some of the exceptionalist wallowing in self-pity coming from our shocked middle class media commentariat at the demise of TV3 is a bit much. You know, on December 21st, just four days before Xmas, 1000 - ...
Who thinks the reason Nikki Haley is still in the GOP primaries is because she plans to run as an independent against Trump and Biden with a view on winning in 2028?
The Chinese plan to tank the western automotive industry with a flood of cheap electric vehicles, The Germans are crapping themselves, having complacently done not very much about electric vehicles (everyone wants a 3 litre BMW for the Autobahn!) and the ...
I was thinking about this in relation to my post about the upset residents of Devonport not getting their Lake road upgrades. In all the conversations on RNZ, the head of the local business association was not once asked a simple question - "The North ...
Upper class turkeys vote for Xmas, unhappy when it arrives. Devonport key road upgrades at risk by loss of regional fuel tax https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/509811/devonport-key-road-upgrades-at-risk-by-loss-of-regional-fuel-tax Let's look at the old ...
Fun fact: The audience for the Daily Show is up over 110% since Jon Stewart returned.
A mighty Totara has fallen.
Kieran McAnulty's anti-politician, aww-shucks straight talking style is almost the perfect antidote for Luxon's corporate goobledegook.
Had their summer think about things by the look of it... https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/chris-hipkins-signals-reshuffle-this-week-wont-say-whether-grant-robertson-will-quit-this-week/YKDMX4VC25BBPNI3JHM5XVTO5I/
Tova O'Brian wrote an exorciating piece on Labour's post defeat lasitude the other day. I hope it is all just symptomatic of post-government burn-out on the part of senior members of the NZ PLP. They've had their needed summer break, now is the time to see...
Hang out local government to dry by defunding any state support, blame unspecified "prolifigate spending" for massive rates rise, preset privatization as TINA to save voters money. It would explain why National is speaking out of both sides of its mouth on...
By all accounts the GOP House decision to torpedo the senate border deal on the orders of Trump has backfired on them spectacularly. It was just too transparently partisan and cynical, and Trump has managed to turn a huge issue with American voters that ...
BUT PINK RICE IS PEOPLE!
Looks like the fiasco of Auckland's transport is about to be inflicted on the Cook Strait ferry service. National ideology is to do nothing, gut the state and create an opaque provider/funder split. Listening to Willis on RNZ just now the obvious plan for ...
One thing no one considers is it suited US interests post-USSR to keep Europe dependent on US power for it's security. The United States hardly insisted on the NATO 2% target, and anyway collective European spending on defense is about 50% of the US ...
Poland is spending 4% of it's GDP on defense and creating a huge army in anticipation of your Russian "friendliness".
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/02/11/cost-cuts-loom-at-the-guardian-amid-widening-losses/ RNZ take note - never shit on your base.
It is difficult on the one hand for the Democrat establishment to paint Trump as an urgent existential threat to democracy and on the other nominate a visibly doddery 81 year old man with a 38% approval rating that 75% of Americans think is too old without...
During the cold war US nuclear submarines spent a lot of time in the shallow territorial waters of the USSR and were basically never detected. The idea that nuclear attack submarines are easy to detect is nonsense.
So does the fact that the entire British news media donned black when it was announced king Charles has cancer mean it worse than they are publicly letting on or that the entire UK MSM is a bunch of obsequious establishment toadies?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/heather-du-plessis-allan-wellington-city-council-is-the-most-poorly-run-council-in-new-zealand/LAIOEH4IXBF5TEXRZXXPGENWCI/ Apropos to our authoritarian minded junta and it's corporate media enablers. Pretty obvious the ...
I wouldn't get to pleased about drone swarms though. We are seeing a pace of technology development not seen since the first/second world war. Both sides are using AI drone technology to overcome EW interference of FPV signals. The Ukrainians for instance ...
Kremlin trolls like to push the narrative that Ukraine can't win, that Russia through the impacable will of it's blood drenched dictator will continue to feed manpower straw into the battlefield furnance until victory has been achieved. However, war isn't ...
Most Black Sea and Azov Sea commercial shipping has collapsed I would dispute this one, at least for Ukraine. Ukraine has scored a significant strategic victory in the Black Sea naval war, and has pretty much defeated Russia for now in terms of Russia's ...
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