There is a quotation ascribed to Stalin – “I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this — who will count the votes, and how.”
Despite what some are suggesting, there is little direct equivalency between the inadvertent Iranian shoot-down of Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752 earlier this week, and the American shoot-down of Iranian Air Flight 655 in 1983.
So over the past few weeks, the Royal Family has ‘lost’ two princes. I mean, they’re still there, nobody’s been exiled nor beheaded (potential migration to Canada notwithstanding), but nevertheless two Princes (and one Duchess) have taken a step back from being “Senior Royals”.
As the missiles began to fall yesterday afternoon NZ time, I was struck by a few observances. Both of how much some things had changed – and, within those, how much yet disappointingly remained the same.
So, in response to Donald J. Trump’s .. desperate tweet from earlier this week, in which he threatened Iran with “CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. [sic]”; Major General Qassem Soleimani [a figure I have occasionally written about before, with some deserved degree of admiration] made a most interesting speech – the gist of which can probably be summed up in the following quote: “We are ready for you”.
It has been said, with some justification, that you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.
What if the New Zealand First sudden out-of-the-blue announcement of support for journalism and ‘traditional media’ in general, as well as two significant media companies that’re looking to merge in particular …
In many ways, this should have been UK Labour’s election to lose. Or, at least, do a helluvalot better on with the Cons on the back, flat, bear-trapped-and-mangled foot.
Backbench Opposition MPs are occasionally curious creatures, as are social media advert-targeting algorithms. Due, no doubt, to an ongoing quirk of the latter, I found myself presented with a sponsored post from National’s List MP based on Mt Roskill, Parmjeet Parmar, calling for the enshrinement of a Gandhi statue here in Auckland to coincide with the latter figure’s 150th birthday and asking me to sign a petition in support of same.
I am pretty appalled at the outcome of the recent defamation suit launched against Elon Musk in retaliation to his statements that the plaintiff, Vernon Unsworth, was a “pedo”.