Kashmir Convoy Attack – Who Else Is Responsible

So this is a curious thing. The recent attack in Kashmir was carried out by Jaish-e-Mohammed, headed by a figure by the name of Masood Azhar. Understandably, India sought UN assistance in curtailing this ongoing threat; a move which the People’s Republic of China has (once again) blocked. Just as it has consistently done for more than ten years now.
Read More →The Increasing Absurdity Of “White Supremacy” Allegation-By-Association Attacks In US Politics

So earlier this week I happened across a headline: DAVID DUKE ENDORSES ILHAN OMAR, or words to that effect.
Now, for those unaware, David Duke is a rather well-known figure due to his previous infamy in association with the KKK.
Read More →On “Facing Up” To The “Whole History” Of NZ Pre-1840

I see Don Brash was quoted in yesterday’s Herald calling for broader education about New Zealand history, and in particular history here prior to 1840. This .. was somewhat unexpected, but the next few lines gradually made clear what he was on about:
Read More →On Venezuela And Judith Collins’ Sudden Inexplicable Enthusiasm for Democracy

There are a few things to be said about this attack-line from the National Party’s Judith Collins. One of which, is that Collins either doesn’t know, or more likely simply doesn’t care about the facts of the situation. Juan Guaido did not contest the 2018 Venezuelan Presidential Election. It is therefore impossible to truthfully call him the “rightful winner” of said Election.
Read More →Any Word That Threatens Power Is Literally Russian Propaganda

Now here is quite a thing. What is being suggested, is that the primary users of any of these terms are supposedly Russian bots, or other vectors for material that can be ‘safely dismissed’ out of hand as “propaganda”.
Read More →On The Curiously Contradictory Complaints Against Tulsi Gabbard

Politics, much like the ethically-challenged tawdry celebrity gossip-rags it occasionally so closely resembles, is a field in which “Truth” (or even, simply, ‘internal cohesiveness’ of an argument or a position) is often only a tertiary consideration. With some measure of “effectiveness” (especially of a slur) as a secondary, and “the venting of highly emotive vitriol” an unabashed and unquestioned prime.
Read More →Why Republicans Don’t Want YOU To Go Hard For Gabbard

I’ve seen a few strange things this morning; but one of the more peculiar has to be the Republican Party attacking Tulsi Gabbard’s just-announced Presidential candidacy, on grounds that “Progressives have blasted her”.
Read More →On Human Rights – Declared, Upheld, And Otherwise

The 10th of December marks the 70th Anniversary of the adoption of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. It’s a pretty interesting document – not least because, if you peruse its contents, it contains an array of “rights” that have largely fallen by the wayside here in modern, neoliberal society.
Read More →On The Opportunistic, Would-Be Hijacking Of The Yellow-Jackets By Neoliberals

A thought that’s been gestating in my head these past few days about the Yellow Jackets “political moment”, is how … I guess you could say that “populism” looks like *very* different things to different people.
Read More →When It Comes To Huawei, Corporate Media Think “National Interest” Is The Dividend China Gets For Owning Us

It’s pretty interesting watching the reactions in the media to the GCSB disallowing Spark from using Huawei tech in the 5G network upgrade.
Read More →On ‘smashing Brahminical Patriarchy’

Another day, another case of an American man whipping up ignorance and divisive idiocy via the Twitter medium they’re immanently associated with. Except in this case, it’s Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. And rather than speaking on a matter that is relevant to America, he’s chosen to wade into India’s ongoing post-colonial internal conflicts over “caste”.
Read More →Why The Democrats Actually Lost The Midterms

Controversial Opinion: The Democrats actually kinda *lost* yesterday’s US Midterms.
Read More →Trump Is Many Things – An Anti-Semite, He Is Not

During my .. brief awokenness this afternoon, I happened to peruse the newspaper. And what did I see? Pieces commenting on the recent attack at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. This is, of course, to be expected. But what was *not*, like *at all* to be expected, was the escalating level of accusations in relation to the attack that Donald Trump… is apparently an anti-semite.
Read More →On National’s Yet-Unsinking Poll Numbers

Thinking about the National Party’s recent woes – there’s a funny sort of … I guess you’d say “symmetry” to a lot of happenings politics; and not simply in the sense that they occur “the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce”.
Read More →On TVNZ Thinking It Was “Diwali” Last Weekend

So you get somebody at TVNZ endeavouring to engage in a nice gesture (which, again, I *do* think is a pretty cool intent here – and should be lauded, up to a point), on grounds that they’ve heard that Auckland City Council is holding a “Diwali” event, and therefore without doing the proper research, they just kinda assume … and ‘get onboard’ by wishing us all a “Happy Diwali” two weeks early across multiple channels.
Read More →On Jamie-Lee Ross’ Present Trajectory

There are several things that need to be said on the most recent development with everybody’s favourite Botanical bete-noir.
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