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Trumpian Health Leadership
Monday, 31 March 2025, 10:54 am | Ian Powell
Ian Powell discusses the implications of the decision of Health New Zealand to restrict the relative independence of medical officers of health and the wider ramifications for health professionals. More >>
Disruption: Historians Challenge Russophobic Propaganda
Saturday, 29 March 2025, 6:07 pm | Eugene Doyle
The courage to oppose a dominant discourse comes at a price. Powerful forces are pressing in on academics and others who dare to express alternative views. Staying silent or parroting the party line is the safer option. More >>
War, Doublethink, And The Struggle For Survival: Geopolitics Of The Gaza Genocide
Saturday, 29 March 2025, 4:51 pm | Ramzy Baroud
The Arab world must escalate beyond mere statements, or the Middle East may endure further war, all to prolong Netanyahu’s coalition of extremists a little longer. More >>
Authoritarian Politics: Netanyahu’s War On Israeli Institutions
Friday, 28 March 2025, 1:08 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The convulsions in Israeli politics have been evident from various efforts to stall, if not abandon the legislation altogether. The law changing the judicial appointments committee had received 71,023 filed objections. While it passed 67-1, it only did ... More >>
Hope Is The Prison Of Time
Friday, 28 March 2025, 8:39 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
But that’s only true if hope is the last true thing to perish in a person before they quit on life. The end of hope is then synonymous with hopelessness, and identical with despair. However, ending hope is a completely different thing than hopelessness. More >>
Learning The Correct Lessons From World War Two In Europe
Thursday, 27 March 2025, 5:56 pm | Keith Rankin
While World War Two (WW2) always was a set of intersecting conflicts – with Japan fighting a war of imperialism in East Asia and the Western Pacific – the war in Europe has been cast as the ultimate battle of 'Good' versus 'Evil'. Hence the narrative ... More >>
Arab Failures: The Unspoken Complicity In Israel's Genocide
Thursday, 27 March 2025, 2:14 pm | Ramzy Baroud
The idea that Israel is brutalizing Palestinians simply because the Arabs are too weak to challenge the Benjamin Netanyahu government—or any government—implies that, in theory, Arab regimes could unite around Palestine. However, this view oversimplifies ... More >>
Dunne's Weekly: The "War On Woke" Is Really Just A "War Of Words"
Thursday, 27 March 2025, 9:13 am | Peter Dunne
By claiming the “anti-woke” ground as his own, Peters has stolen an early march on his rivals and thereby probably ensured New Zealand First’s re-election. Peters has always understood better than most that politics is about the acquisition and ... More >>
On The Americanising Of NZ’s Public Health System
Wednesday, 26 March 2025, 1:48 pm | Gordon Campbell
One of the odd aspects of the government's plan to Americanise the public health system – i.e by making healthcare access more reliant on user pay charges and private health insurance – is that it is happening in plain sight. More >>
An Inconvenient Truth Revisited
Wednesday, 26 March 2025, 1:42 pm | Howard Davis
We'll become increasingly plasticised, with no further need for FitBits, laptops, or cell phones, as we’ll all have neurochips implanted in our brains that literarily ‘hook’ us up to the virtual reality of the Metaverse of AI, thanks to the ‘genius’ ... More >>
Trump’s Star Wars Revival: The Golden Dome Antimissile Fantasy
Wednesday, 26 March 2025, 1:29 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The original SDI was heavy on the intended development and use of energy weapons, lasers being foremost among them. But even after four decades, US technological prowess remains unable to deploy such weapons of sufficient power and accuracy to eliminate ... More >>
Technology And Human Nature
Tuesday, 25 March 2025, 10:20 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
It’s self-evident that social media couldn’t maximize and manipulate “the worst passions” unless they were already present within us. Which is to say, unless they were a core aspect of human nature. More >>
Reclaiming The Narrative: Why Palestinians Must Own The Means Of Content Production
Monday, 24 March 2025, 7:05 pm | Ramzy Baroud
People’s history is an urgent necessity, especially in contexts like Palestine, where it is vital to communicate the empowered voices of the people to the rest of the world. More >>
On Israel’s Murderous Relapse, And Peters’ Sad Decline
Monday, 24 March 2025, 1:26 pm | Gordon Campbell
Israel has reverted to slaughtering civilians, starving children and welshing on the terms of the peace deal negotiated earlier this year. The IDF’s current offensive seems to be intended to render Gaza unlivable, preparatory (perhaps) to re-occupation ... More >>
Kirsty Coventry, Rebranding And The IOC
Monday, 24 March 2025, 12:05 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Little was given away on the more environmental or ecological aspect of the Games, which persist in altering local landscapes, redirecting and using valuable resources, and causing social disruption and hardships to local populations. More >>
Trump Evil Good & Look In The Mirror
Monday, 24 March 2025, 8:04 am | Adrian Maidment
Adrian Maidment cartoon More >>
A Devastating Critique; But There’s Always A But!
Saturday, 22 March 2025, 3:00 pm | Ian Powell
Ian Powell discusses an economist’s critique of Health Minister Simeon Brown’s recent major health announcement. More >>
Careless People, Meta And Restricting The Digital Town Square
Saturday, 22 March 2025, 2:52 pm | Binoy Kampmark
While Meta has suppressed and will prevent discussion of the book on its platforms, it is cheering to authentic defenders of the town square that discussion about such companies takes place. Their mighty, unprincipled dominance necessitates that. More >>
Shifting Allegiances: The Role Of Palestine In US Domestic And Foreign Policy
Friday, 21 March 2025, 2:28 pm | Ramzy Baroud
Americans are increasingly viewing the situation in Palestine as a human rights issue, and one that is deeply relevant to domestic politics. Unlike Biden, whose support for Israel has been consistent, Trump’s stance has been confusing and contradictory. More >>
Back To Tried Failures: The New Offensive On Gaza
Friday, 21 March 2025, 1:10 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Israel and the United States have justified the resumption of hostilities on Hamas’ reluctance to release more hostages prior to commencing negotiations on ending the war. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has always been lukewarm to any notion of a durable ... More >>
Donald Trump's Views On The World Trading-system
Friday, 21 March 2025, 11:28 am | Keith Rankin
There is a name for Donald Trump's understanding of international trade: 'mercantilism'. While he is an unreconstructed mercantilist, in some ways the deeper 'reconstructed' mercantilism of miserly politicians like Angela Merkel and Olaf Scholz – and of ... More >>
On Winston Peters’ Bad Trip, And The Return Of The PPPs Zombie
Thursday, 20 March 2025, 11:15 am | Gordon Campbell
The epic importance of Winston Peters’ talks in Washington this week doesn’t seem to have culminated in anything more than us expressing our “concern” to the Americans about a series of issues that are already done and dusted. Tariffs? More >>
Dunne's Weekly: ACC Rules On Volunteers Need To Change
Thursday, 20 March 2025, 8:27 am | Peter Dunne
The only ACC Minister to show any real interest in and understanding of the issue was Matt Doocey, who was, unfortunately, reshuffled out of the portfolio earlier this year. His successors are yet to show their interest. More >>
The Trauma Will Be Instagrammed: Wombat Handlings Down Under
Wednesday, 19 March 2025, 1:34 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The response to Jones in Australia proved heated. A petition seeking deportation was launched, receiving over 40,000 signatures. The Wombat Protection Society expressed shock at the “mishandling of a wombat joey in an apparent snatch for ‘social ... More >>
Geopolitical Fractures, And Untidy Yet Workable Solutions
Tuesday, 18 March 2025, 4:01 pm | Keith Rankin
At present, it would seem, the United States of America, which sees itself as the world's preeminent geopolitical player, is impatient for conflicts in Ukraine and Palestine to end, so that it can get on with its 'game of choice', namely the 'new ... More >>
On Luxon’s Survival Chances, And The India FTA
Tuesday, 18 March 2025, 11:12 am | Gordon Campbell
Whenever Christopher Luxon drops a classically fatuous clanger or whenever the government has a bad poll – i.e. every week – the talk resumes that he is about to be rolled. This is unlikely for several reasons. For starters, there is no successor. More >>
Road Cone Final Exam & Donald, I Warned You!
Monday, 17 March 2025, 7:10 pm | Adrian Maidment
Adrian Maidment Cartoons More >>
The Script Of Anxiety: Poland’s Nuclear Weapons Fascination
Monday, 17 March 2025, 1:15 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Poland would receive collective military aid in any case should it be attacked. But, as Jon Wolfsthal of the Federation of American Scientists reasons, an innate concern of being abandoned in the face of aggression continues to cause jitters. More >>
Regarding Randomness And Significance
Monday, 17 March 2025, 11:07 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
The Earth, if one sets aside one’s knowledge and experience and looks afresh at nature every day, is endlessly wondrous. Out of the approximately 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, nearly all with planets circling them, how many life-bearing planets ... More >>
Beyond Western Hegemony: A Call For Middle Eastern Media Autonomy
Monday, 17 March 2025, 9:53 am | Ramzy Baroud
The problem is often compounded by the near complete absence of voices from the Global South, as if Middle Eastern media are simply duplicating the western media marginalization of all voices that operate outside their political hegemony. More >>
When Apartheid Met Zionism
Saturday, 15 March 2025, 6:42 pm | Ian Powell
Ian Powell discusses, in a New Zealand context, what happens when apartheid meets Zionism. More >>
Sporting Contradictions: Athletes, The Olympics And Climate Change
Saturday, 15 March 2025, 5:06 pm | Binoy Kampmark
If care of the planet is what these athletes sincerely want, a swift abolition of the Olympics, along with a virtuous cancellation of the IOC, would achieve their goals. Why wait for extreme weather to either modify or even do away with the games ... More >>
Militarising Europe: The EU Defence Spending Bug
Friday, 14 March 2025, 1:34 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The March 6 meeting of the Special European Council was a chance for 27 leaders of the European Union to make that point. It was time to cash in on the Russia threat and promote a strategic vision that spoke of elevated dangers. More >>
Brown’s Surgery Puts Health System At Increased Risk
Friday, 14 March 2025, 8:39 am | Ian Powell
Ian Powell delves upon Health Minister’s major announcement last week with a particular emphasis on the risks and realities of outsourcing non-acute surgery. More >>
The Monkey’s Tail: How Netanyahu’s Ambitions Expose Israel’s Vulnerabilities
Friday, 14 March 2025, 8:22 am | Ramzy Baroud
By targeting Egypt, Israel aims to project an image of prowess, and that it is unafraid to confront the most populous Arab nation. Yet, in doing so, it inadvertently exposes its own weaknesses. This behavior is wholly consistent with Netanyahu's legacy of ... More >>
Invoking Munich, 'Appeasement', And The 'Lessons Of History'
Thursday, 13 March 2025, 6:32 pm | Keith Rankin
The Munich narrative is central to the 'Good War' morality trope, through which democracies (especially the United States) justified wars of aggression; what used to be called 'gunboat-diplomacy' in the British days of empire. More >>
Dunne's Weekly: School Lunches Fiasco Shows What Happens When Social Policy Loses Focus
Thursday, 13 March 2025, 11:19 am | Peter Dunne
When the current government took office in 2023 and sought to pare back government spending, the school lunch programme was an early target. The government produced a plan to centralise and standardise the school lunches operation which would save More >>
On Winston Peters’ Battle Against The Phantom Legions Of The Woke
Thursday, 13 March 2025, 10:33 am | Gordon Campbell
In a month’s time, the Right Honourable Winston Peters will be celebrating his 80th birthday. Good for him. On the evidence though, his current war on “wokeness” looks like an old man’s cranky complaint that the ancient virtues of grit and know-how ... More >>
Aggrieved Speculation: The Trump Illness Hypothesis
Wednesday, 12 March 2025, 2:35 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Cyril Connolly remarked, are bound to have their critical faculties blunted by the poor quality of books available for review, Trump as both subject and method has cut through the undergrowth of sensible discourse. The illness hypothesis is yet ... More >>
Dodgy Democracy, The Fiscal Double Standard, And The Application Of The Domino Theory To Ukraine
Tuesday, 11 March 2025, 12:12 pm | Keith Rankin
The Russia-Ukraine War is a mucky border conflict between two countries with a long and intertwined shared history, and with more than enough 'stirring of the pot' from outside to convert a regional security dispute into an existential global security ... More >>
On The Government’s Stubborn Refusal To Invest For Growth
Tuesday, 11 March 2025, 11:38 am | Gordon Campbell
As Simplicity economist Shamubeel Eaqub pointed out recently, the coalition government is trying to attract foreign investment here to generate economic growth, while – simultaneously – cutting back drastically on its own investment in our economy. More >>
From Gaza To Syria: The Unyielding Reality Of Israeli Settler Colonialism
Monday, 10 March 2025, 11:57 am | Ramzy Baroud
The discourse of the erasure of the Palestinian people has been the shared foundation among all Israeli officials and governments, though it has been expressed in different ways. Israeli colonialism is in no way linked to Palestinian resistance, action or ... More >>
The Polycrisis, Knowledge, And AI
Monday, 10 March 2025, 11:10 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
The real and present danger of AI is that it will destroy the brain’s potential for insight if we continue to give primacy to the intellect and knowledge, much less merge with these thought machines we’ve created in our own image. More >>
Getting Out Of The Current Health System Mess
Saturday, 8 March 2025, 4:45 pm | Ian Powell
Ian Powell discusses how New Zealand’s health system got into its current mess and how to get out of it. More >>
More Guns, Less Butter: Starmer’s Defence Spending Splash
Saturday, 8 March 2025, 2:48 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The aid budgets of wealthy states should never be seen as benevolent projects. Behind the charitable endeavour is a calculation that speaks more to power (euphemised as “soft”) than kindness. Aid keeps the natives of other countries clothed, fed ... More >>
Macron’s Offer: France And The Delusions Of Nuclear Deterrence
Friday, 7 March 2025, 1:41 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The trouble with deterrence chatter is that it remains hostage to delusion. Strategists talk in extravagant terms about the genuine prospect that nuclear weapons can make any one state safer, leading to some calculus of tolerable use. More >>
A Diagnosis And Prescription For The Polycrisis
Friday, 7 March 2025, 11:34 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
The action of spontaneous, undirected attention quiets and cleanses the brain of its useless, accumulated content, allowing the mind to fall silent and participate in the consciousness of the cosmos. More >>
International Law At A Crossroads: Can Gaza Spark A Global Reckoning?
Friday, 7 March 2025, 10:09 am | Ramzy Baroud
Unfortunately, international law, which was in theory supposed to reflect global consensus, was hardly dedicated to peace or genuinely invested in the decolonisation of the South. More >>
Dunne's Weekly: Five Top Resignations Just Coincidence?
Friday, 7 March 2025, 8:51 am | Peter Dunne
Sudden resignations and abrupt departures seem to be the fashion at present. First there was the chief executive of Health New Zealand who announced her resignation four months before her contract was due to expire, and left her role almost immediately. ... More >>
Germany's Election 2025: Far Establishment-Right Versus Far Non-Establishment-Right?
Thursday, 6 March 2025, 1:19 pm | Keith Rankin
The result in Germany proved to be very much like that of the United Kingdom in 2024: a slide in support for the two major parties ('the establishment centre'), a consolidation of power to the self-same establishment centre, and a shift of that establishment ... More >>
On Why GP Practices Are In Crisis
Thursday, 6 March 2025, 12:00 pm | Gordon Campbell
Can we please have some context for the government’s hand-on-heart claims of caring about the health and well-being of ordinary “Kiwis”? In the real world, the rising cost of going to the doctor means that many of those “Kiwis” cannot afford to ... More >>
Righteous, Confused And Unwilling: Europe’s Ukrainian Predicament
Tuesday, 4 March 2025, 7:55 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Given their lack of punch and prowess, one arising from years fed by the devitalising US teat, European states are simply playing with toy soldiers. Eventually, they will have to play along if peace in Ukraine, however much detested in its form, is to ... More >>
On Why Having Elections Less Often Is A Bad Idea
Tuesday, 4 March 2025, 12:20 pm | Gordon Campbell
Are we feeling the country is in such capable hands, that we can afford to take a longer break between elections? Outside the parliamentary bubble and a few corporate boardrooms, surely there are not many people who think that voters have too much More >>
Zelensky: Victim Of Colosseum Politics
Monday, 3 March 2025, 3:53 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It was a salient reminder that support for Ukraine has iced over, that it is no longer the blue-eyed boy of US politics, Western civilisation’s consecrated prop against Russian savagery. More >>
California Psychologically Secedes From The Union
Monday, 3 March 2025, 9:08 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Without a genuinely global response, the fragmentation of the Earth and Humanity will continue and quicken. But paradoxically, in their race to the bottom, Trump, Putin and their ilk are making a true global response more necessary and possible every day. More >>
The Lost 'Arab': Gaza And The Evolving Language Of The Palestinian Struggle
Monday, 3 March 2025, 9:00 am | Ramzy Baroud
Aside from the obvious problem that military occupations should not be described as 'conflicts' – a neutral term that creates a moral equivalence – the removal of 'Arabs' from the 'conflict' has greatly worsened matters, not only for Palestinians, ... More >>
Private Versus Public Health Systems
Sunday, 2 March 2025, 6:28 pm | Ian Powell
Ian Powell discusses the changing nature of the relationship between public and private (hospitals and insurance) and how the latter has become an increasing threat to the former. More >>
Ukraine Deal. Beware Of Americans Bearing Gifts
Saturday, 1 March 2025, 7:01 pm | Eugene Doyle
Shortly after the on-camera shouting match, Trump said the deal was off and posted: “He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace.” More >>
Ho Hum At Sea: Anti-China Hysteria Down Under
Saturday, 1 March 2025, 6:28 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Such is the standard of political debate that something as unremarkable as this latest sea incident has become a throbbing issue that supposedly shows the Albanese government as insufficiently belligerent. More >>
