This was actually written and recorded in 1972, but it seems so apt now for the belliocose Herr Merz and his fellow warmongers.

Ich hab’ geträumt, der Winter wär’ vorbei
Du warst hier und wir waren frei
Und die Morgensonne schien
Es gab keine Angst und nichts zu verlieren
Es war Friede bei den Menschen und unter den Tieren
Das war das Paradies

Der Traum ist aus
Aber ich werde alles geben, dass er Wirklichkeit wird

Ich hab’ geträumt, der Krieg wär vorbei
Du warst hier und wir waren frei
Und die Morgensonne schien
Alle Türen waren offen, die Gefängnisse leer
Es gab keine Waffen und keine Kriege mehr
Das war das Paradies

Gibt es ein Land auf der Erde, wo der Traum Wirklichkeit ist?
Ich weiß es wirklich nicht
Ich weiß nur eins, und da bin ich sicher
Dieses Land ist es nicht

Der Traum ist ‘n Traum, zu dieser Zeit
Doch nicht mehr lange, mach’ dich bereit
Für den Kampf ums Paradies
Wir haben nichts zu verlieren, außer uns’rer Angst
Es ist uns’re Zukunft, unser Land
Gib mir deine Liebe, gib mir deine Hand

Der Traum ist aus
Aber ich werde alles geben, dass er Wirklichkeit wird

translatation–

I have dreamed the winter was over
You were here and we were free
And the morning sun shone
There was no fear and nothing to lose
There was peace among people and among animals
That was paradise

The dream is over
But I will give everything to make it a reality

I dreamt the war was over
You were here and we were free
And the morning sun shone
All the doors were open, the prisons empty
There were no weapons and no more wars
That was paradise

Is there a country on earth where the dream is reality?

I really don’t know.

I only know one thing, and I’m sure of it.

This land isn’t it.

The dream is just a dream for now.

But not for much longer, get ready.

For the fight for paradise.

We have nothing to lose but our fear.

It’s our future, our land.

Give me your love, give me your hand.

The dream is over.

But I’ll give everything to make it a reality.

The pic is from 2017 before the roses were pinched and the Jupiter john (loo) replaced the trees.

According to the Fishhead (Te Upoko o te Ika) —

An ambulance was called to Waikanae Beach on Tuesday afternoon to what is thought to have been a man with a wound to his stomach caused by a stingray.

Waikanae Boating Club commodore Graham Oliver said he wasn’t at the club at the time, but received a call about the incident from someone who was there. As he understood it, the injured man had been bleeding from a wound to the stomach area, Oliver said. He had gone to the beach after hearing of the incident, but the matter had been dealt with by the time he got there.

A boating club staff member, who didn’t want his name published, said people had come up to the club asking for first aid supplies about 4pm.

Stuff received an e-mail from someone who said a man, who appeared to be aged about 40, had a stingray barb through his abdomen at the beach.

Wellington Free Ambulance said it had attended an incident at Waikanae Beach at 4pm on Tuesday. One person was taken to hospital in a moderate condition. The service would not provide any more information about the incident.

The report is likely true: Karl Webber says, “yup, lotsa stingrays and likely eagle rays around at this time.” —Eds

Fauci was idolised by NZ’s Bloomfield — hopefully the same will happen to him.

Dr Fauci's pardon has been REMOVED!

It's time Fauci faces justice!

THE FAUCI FILES: How Dr Fauci stole MILLIONS of our tax dollars and used it to create, weaponize and release the bioweapon known as Covid-19 in collusion with China to destroy President Trump's first-term… pic.twitter.com/pcuqfoLzYN

— Bridgett Fertig (@LightOnLiberty) December 30, 2025

The top 10 were all local ones; the below list is in order. Generally our most viewed category isn’t politics, but real estate. Posts about art are the least viewed, and pretty pictures of the Waikanae area don’t fare much better, despite our reposting them on Pinterest. Oh well.

Real creeper plants would take a while to cover it, however.

By John Robertson

An argument for historical proportion, global context, and intellectual honesty.

By 2025, New Zealand’s public discourse hardened into something resembling a ritual: colonisation is invoked, rehearsed, and recycled with near-religious regularity, as if repeating the word itself constitutes historical insight. What began decades ago as a necessary reckoning has metastasized into a narrow, obsessive framework that treats colonisation not as a universal human process, but as a uniquely modern moral crime—conveniently stripped of global context, scale, and historical precedent. This is not serious history. It is ideological repetition dressed up as moral sophistication.

Here is the inconvenient, immovable fact that refuses to go away: every society on Earth has been colonised, conquered, absorbed, displaced, or overwritten. Europe was carved up repeatedly—Roman expansion erased entire cultures; later invasions by Goths, Huns, Vikings, and Ottomans dismantled and rebuilt the continent by force. Asia’s borders were forged through dynastic conquest, mass migrations, and brutal imperial expansion; Mongol campaigns alone killed millions and reordered half the known world. Africa’s pre-colonial kingdoms expanded violently at one another’s expense, absorbing land, people, and resources long before European arrival. The Americas were dominated by empires that conquered and subjugated neighboring peoples centuries before Europeans entered the picture. New Zealand is no exception: Māori settlement involved displacement, warfare, and territorial consolidation well before British administration layered another system of power on top. None of this is controversial—it is basic historical literacy.

Yet modern New Zealand politics, media, and institutional culture behave as though history conveniently begins in the 1800s and ends with perpetual grievance. Parliamentary debates return to colonisation like a stuck record. Public broadcasters frame contemporary issues through the same moral lens, regardless of relevance. Local councils, policy documents, and educational materials repeat the same narrow narrative until it calcifies into orthodoxy. The result is a historical monoculture—one story endlessly retold, while the rest of human history is quietly ignored because it complicates the moral theatre. This isn’t education; it’s narrative enforcement.

The deeper problem is not that colonisation is discussed, but that it is discussed selectively, emotionally, and without proportion. Colonisation is treated as a singular stain rather than a structural force that shaped every civilization on Earth. This selective fixation produces a warped worldview in which history is flattened into villains and victims, present politics are moralised beyond recognition, and complexity is treated as betrayal. It also breeds exhaustion—because societies cannot function indefinitely on recycled outrage and truncated history.

Acknowledging colonisation as universal does not excuse injustice; it destroys the fantasy that history can be morally simplified. Civilisations are built on conquest, collapse, adaptation, and inheritance. Borders are scars. Nations are palimpsests. Every society lives atop layers of prior displacement, whether it admits it or not. New Zealand does itself no favors by pretending otherwise. A mature country confronts the full, brutal sweep of history—not just the chapters that flatter its current political mood. Until that happens, the conversation will remain loud, repetitive, and fundamentally dishonest.

The Trump administration makes clear it has had enough generally of European countries on a death wish.

by Rachel Blevins

Trump, Zelensky talks All Theatre as Kiev launches 91 Kamikaze Drones at Putin’s residence | Chay Bowes interview

Russia is vowing that it will respond, and its response will NOT be diplomatic, after Kiev targeted Putin’s state residence in the Novgorod Region with 91 long-range kamikaze drones. The attempted attack came hours after Trump and Zelensky met for in-person talks in Miami.

Irish Journalist Chay Bowes noted that while Trump claimed to be 95% of the way to a deal to end the war in Ukraine, the remaining 5% is filled with provisions Russia won’t accept.

Not only is Russia not slowing down on the battlefield, but the pressure is on for Moscow to achieve all of its goals because: “Once bitten, twice shy, and NO deal is better than a BAD deal, when it comes to Ukraine.”

Follow Chay Bowes on X, and check out his channel on YouTube

SOURCE LINKS:

29 Dec. 2025 – Ukraine launched 91 kamikaze drones at Putin’s state residence – Lavrov

29 Dec. 2025 – Trump ‘shocked’ by Ukrainian attack on Putin’s residence – Kremlin

28 Dec. 2025 – Trump says Ukraine and Russia are ‘closer than ever’ to peace after talks with Zelensky

29 Dec. 2025 – Zelensky: 15-year US security guarantee part of peace proposal

29 Dec. 2025 – Kremlin says Ukraine should withdraw troops from Donbas, and a Putin-Trump call expected soon

29 Dec. 2025 – Response to Kiev’s attack on Putin’s residence will not be diplomatic – Moscow