The Democratic Party doesn’t ‘really care about the Ukrainian people’

Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard reacts to progressive Democrats withdrawing a letter urging President Biden to seek diplomacy in Russia-Ukraine war Wednesday on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

Tulsi Gabbard: Tucker, these so-called progressives did a very simple thing that apparently can appear to be brave in Washington these days. In that letter to President Biden, they just told the truth about how this ongoing proxy war with Russia is increasing in cost and consequences, both on the Ukrainian people, but also the American people here at home, and how it’s negatively impacting gas prices, increasing inflation and so on. You know, these progressives in the letter, they didn’t say, “Stop sending aid to Ukraine.” 

Far-Left Dems urge Biden to push peace deal in Ukraine, throw Party into uproar

No, all they said was, “Hey, President Biden, engage in diplomacy.” And the response they got, of course, from the warmongers who controlled the Democrat Party in Washington was to immediately be smashed to pieces, so much so that these Democrat members of Congress cowered in the corner with fear and now have gone so far out of their way, apologizing profusely for having the audacity to call for diplomacy in this war that’s putting us all at risk. 

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From Chris Hedges at consortiumnews.com:

The longer the proxy war in Ukraine continues, the closer the U.S. comes to a direct confrontation with Russia. Once that happens, the Dr. Strangeloves running the show will reach for the nukes.

Bombs Away – by Mr. Fish.

I have covered enough wars to know that once you open that Pandora’s box, the many evils that pour out are beyond anyone’s control. War accelerates the whirlwind of industrial killing. The longer any war continues, the closer and closer each side comes to self-annihilation.  Unless it is stopped, the proxy war between Russia and the U.S. in Ukraine all but guarantees direct confrontation with Russia and, with it, the very real possibility of nuclear war.

U.S. President Joe Biden, who doesn’t always seem to be quite sure where he is or what he is supposed to be saying, is being propped up in the I-am-a-bigger-man-than-you contest with Russian President Vladimir Putin by a coterie of rabid warmongers who have orchestrated over 20 years of military fiascos. They are salivating at the prospect of taking on Russia, and then, if there is any habitation left on the globe, China.

Trapped in the polarizing mindset of the Cold War — where any effort to de-escalate conflicts through diplomacy is considered appeasement, a perfidious Munich moment — they smugly push the human species closer and closer toward obliteration. Unfortunately for us, one of these true believers is Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“Putin is saying he is not bluffing. Well, he cannot afford bluffing, and it has to be clear that the people supporting Ukraine and the European Union and the Member States, and the United States and NATO are not bluffing neither,” E.U. foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned. “Any nuclear attack against Ukraine will create an answer, not a nuclear answer but such a powerful answer from the military side that the Russian Army will be annihilated.”

Annihilated. Are these people insane?

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by Lushington D. Brady on the BFD

Over the last five years, the difference between a “conspiracy theory” and “news” has become a mere matter of time. Even more notably, the difference between “dangerous misinformation” and “The Science™” has narrowed to just a few months.

Just a few months ago, it was “The Science™” that Covid vaccines stopped people spreading the virus. Our Sole Sources of Truth told us so. Any claim to the contrary was “dangerous misinformation”.

Yet, now it’s just the news that the vaccines never did any such thing — and their makers knew it.

When I first started reporting for The BFD, in the early months of the pandemic, that lockdowns were ineffective and even counter-productive, I was frequently denounced as a conspiracy theorist, “Covidiot”, and “misinformation” spreader. Now?

Now, it’s mainstream news.

Were lockdowns and other non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) effective tools in reducing the fatality rate of covid? Second, did the consequences of those interventions usurp any alleged benefits?

You could have found the answers to those questions (“no”, and “no”) from The BFD as early as April, 2020. But, hey, it was just “disinformation” back then.

Not anymore.

With regards to the first question, thankfully, because different countries and states took different approaches to NPIs, we are able to compare different fatality rates from different regions.

For lockdowns to have been genuinely effective, regions that refused to take such measures would need to have experienced far higher excess deaths and covid-related deaths. Perhaps counterintuitively, in many cases, the opposite occurred — with some regions that locked down instead experiencing more excess deaths. The most obvious (but certainly not only) example was oft-criticised Sweden […]

Sweden suffered fewer excess deaths than many other countries that undertook lengthy lockdowns, including Peru, Italy, the US, Spain, Chile, Britain, the Netherlands, Germany and France. Sweden even recorded fewer relative excess deaths than Hong Kong, which still, almost three years into the pandemic, requires returning residents to quarantine for three days.

Sweden is far from the only example. Thanks to its federal system, the US provided a perfect laboratory for analysing the (in-)effectiveness of lockdowns. Within just a few months scholars like Wilfred Reilly were crunching the data and discovering the plain facts that the politicians and mainstream media condemned as “dangerous misinformation”.

South Dakota in the US provides another useful case study, having refused to impose any genuine interventions. It ended up down in 22nd spot out of 50 US states for relative covid deaths (read the data here, when filtered by deaths per million). North Dakota, which also refused to lockdown residents, was in 33rd spot. Even Florida, which undertook limited restrictions after May 2020, ended up with a lower relative death rate than New Jersey.

It gets worse, though. Lockdowns didn’t just not work, they made things worse. Much worse: Victoria, Australia, one of the most locked-down places on Earth, at the same time had more Covid deaths than all the other Australian states combined.

The Fault Lines report provided an interesting study, showing an often negative correlation between the stringency of covid measures and excess covid deaths: Greece, Chile and Italy, all of which imposed stringent measures, had far higher excess deaths than the far less strict Sweden and Iceland.

Border closures, so beloved of New Zealand’s Dear Leader, were just as useless in the long term.

Border closures coupled with strict movement restrictions appeared to work well in the short term for island states like New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and Japan. But covid rates would dramatically increase when the virus mutated into a form that even border closures couldn’t prevent.

The damning cost of lockdown fanaticism is mostly borne by the young.

Recent US NEAP test scores revealed that “the average reading score fell by five points, the largest drop since 1990. In math, scores dropped seven points, the first decline of any kind in the 50-year history of the test. Based on these results, the pandemic wiped out 20 years of student gains in both subjects” […]

A high-profile (and apolitical) recent article by The Lancet noted “[…] this generation of children could potentially lose an estimated $10 trillion globally in their life earnings.”

Why were politicians and bureaucrats so fanatically dedicated to lockdowns? Part of it is due simply to herd mentality, but another vital clue is here:

Extraordinarily, 90% of police activity during lockdowns in NSW related to enforcing pandemic rules […]

As The Lancet noted, “the epidemic response of many governments has been led by political considerations and hospital-system administrators rather than by public health considerations and specialists”.Crikey

Lockdowns were copied wholesale from communist China, for the same reasons the CCP instituted them: control.

That’s the real reason politicians were so determined to control the narrative and attack anyone telling the truth. “Your sole source of truth” lied through its teeth and tore your country apart, and damned your children to an impoverished future.

Never, ever, forget.

Original article

It’s now very evident that not only do the shonky substances that Big Pharma concocted to make billions of dollars from not stop people catching a covid infection, but by damaging people’s immune systems, they actually make it much more likely. —Eds

EDUCATION. Last week in Parliament I asked the Prime Minister the following question during Question Time:

What does the Prime Minister say to the people of New Zealand, and specifically to the people of Hamilton West where the failed Te Pūkenga tertiary institute is located, regarding which the Tertiary Education Commission’s (TEC) latest report says “it’s governance, it’s operating model and business case are high risk and low confidence?”

Prime Minister’s answer: I refute the premise of this question.

CONTEXT

Labour led government has decided to merge 16 polytechnics in the country (like WINTEC, Unitec, MIT, Ara Institute etc) to form Te Pūkenga – New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology at the cost of $200 million.

While the merger is already underway, by January 2023 all the 16 polytechs will lose their individual identity and branding and will be fully incorporated into the new Te Pukenga brand.

MULTIPLE ISSUES WITH THE MERGER

A solution looking for a problem.

To date the Education Minister has not been able to explain the need for this merger. His only reply is that there has been unnecessary competition within polytechs until now. How is it a bad thing that our tertiary institutes have had to compete for students? Doesn’t that create better courses, better educational experiences and a diverse range of specialisations at different polytechs?

$200 million is a lot of money to rearrange the deck chairs.

That amount of money invested directly into the current polytechs could have led to better education and training outcomes.

In March 2022 independent reviewers expressed concerns about the future of Te Pūkenga in a report which highlighted tensions between the vocational education provider and the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) over what Te Pūkenga would be providing when it takes over responsibility of the polytechs on 1 January 2023.

The report also expressed concerns that the polytechs were not well prepared for the transition and lacked direction from Te Pūkenga on how to prepare for the transition. In addition, the report stated that Te Pūkenga had been slow to develop its information technology and financial back-office functions in anticipation for the transition. The report warned that the vocational provider might not be financially viable and that the consolidation process could take longer than planned and fail to meet its goals.

Report shows doubts about national polytechnic, Te Pūkenga

https://www.rnz.co.nz/…/report-shows-doubts-about…

Centralising a system like this creates a behemoth that will be hard to manage, which is why the merger and centralisation need to be very clearly justified.

On 23 June 2022, Tertiary Education Union described efforts to consolidate the education curricula of the various polytechnics into a new streamlined curriculum as “rushed and disrespectful.” They claimed that consolidation process would do little to address the national shortage of nurses and social workers.

There has also been criticism of creation of 180 head office jobs in the light of 600 projected redundancies resulting from the merger process.

Curriculum Change Process Rushed And Disrespectful

https://www.scoop.co.nz/…/curriculum-change-process…

Earlier this year Te Pūkenga advised that it had a $110 million deficit!!

Former Otago Polytechnic chief executive Phil Ker has described the Education Minister Chris Hipkins’s efforts to merge the polytechnics into a single entity as a “national disgrace,” citing Te Pūkenga’s beleaguered financial situation and merger transition delays. He said that the reform will fail to address the polytechnic sector’s inadequate funding and stated that the merger transition process would lead to extensive staff redundancies across the entire sector.

Former Otago Polytechnic CEO seeks apology from Chris Hipkins”. The New Zealand Herald

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/…/TYVWAD2GGZW6MMSWFZKNLQE4DM/

Labour’s polytechnic shambles

https://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/editorial/labour’s-polytechnic-shambles

A Tertiary Education Commission report dated 9 June 2022 had proposed reducing staff numbers at Te Pūkenga’s subsidiary polytechnics in order to avert a forecast deficit of NZ$110 million. The report described Te Pūkenga’s efforts to combat the deficit such as requiring frequent financial reports from polytecnics and restricting the recruitment of new staff as insufficient.

Damning report reveals financial meltdown at new mega polytech Te Pūkenga

https://i.stuff.co.nz/…/damning-report-reveals…

Fresh blow to mega polytech Te Pūkenga as finance boss resigns months into the job

https://i.stuff.co.nz/…/fresh-blow-to-mega-polytech-te…

As with all things government, there has been no consultation with the staff and students impacted by these changes.

On 3 August 2022, Chairperson of Te Pūkenga had to apologise to staff members for not listening to their concerns, appreciating their expertise, and for delays in transitioning into a single institution.

In early September 2022, Newsroom reported that the delayed public consultation on Te Pūkenga’s organisational structure had failed to allay staff concerns about job security. Newsroom also reported unusually high turnover rates across the subsidiary polytechnics. Tertiary Education Union reported that many staff were anxious about the uncertainty and lack of information about their job specifications within the organisation’s operating structure.

Staff in the dark as polytech mega-merger consultation closes

https://www.newsroom.co.nz/staff-in-the-dark-as-te…

On 8 September, the Otago Polytechnic Branch of the Tertiary Education Union reported that the merger process had caused low morale and increased workload among staff members at Otago Polytechnic. The Union also expressed concerns about scant information about Te Pūkenga’s direction, staff’s place in the new organisation, and insufficient funding, and the loss of operational knowledge caused by job redundancies.

Te Pukenga merger: Otago Polytechnic staff ‘being set up to fail’

https://www.odt.co.nz/…/te-pukenga-merger-otago…

On 21 October, Te Pūkenga stated they would consider staff redundancies as a means of reducing the organisation’s deficit by NZ$35 million. This amount includes NZ$10m across work-based learning, NZ$25m across former polytechnics and the national office. Polytechnic staff have expressed concerns about the impact of the proposed redundancies on teaching and staff morale. As part of the cost-cutting exercise, Te Pūkenga’s subsidiary Otago Polytechnic confirmed that it would undergo a NZ$2.7 million cost cut, which raised concerns about job security among staff.

Half of NZ’s 16 polytech CEOs have quit as mega-merger ‘takes its toll’

https://i.stuff.co.nz/…/half-of-nzs-16-polytech-ceos…

Mega-polytech deputy chief executive resigns from ‘dream job’ after eight months

https://i.stuff.co.nz/…/megapolytech-deputy-chief…

SUMMARY

The merger of 16 polytechs to create a new bureaucracy was never needed. Not only will this lead to worse student learning experience, the botched roll out and redundancies of staff will not help the already underfunded education sector.

The next in the Waikanae Music Society schedule

“The players captured perfectly this tumultuousness through exquisitely balanced intonation in the opening introduction and ferociously rhythmic playing through the unison passages” – (Chalium Poppy – Tauranga 2021)

Dimitry Anatassov (Violin) Katherine Austin (piano), James Tennant (cello), Lara Hall (violin)

 Programme

Mozart:             Piano Quartet No 2 in Eb Major, K493
Helen Bowater:  Fekete Folyó (Black River)
Schumann:         Piano Quartet in Eb Major, Op 47

A visit to Waikanae from the New Zealand Chamber Soloists is well overdue – they last played for us in 2010. Formed in 2006, the core group of the ensemble is a piano trio who all teach at Waikato University Conservatorium of Music as well as performing regularly throughout New Zealand and overseas. Pianist Katherine Austin and cellist James Tennant were frequent visitors to Waikanae in earlier days with various
ensembles.

For their rescheduled concert on October 30 they will be joined by violinist Dimitri Atanassov to form a piano quartet, with an entirely new programme.  Dimitri is a familiar name to New Zealand audiences: the Bulgarian-born violinist is a former Auckland Philharmonia concertmaster and, as a member of the Ogen Piano Trio, played in Waikanae some years ago with Katherine Austin and James Tennant.  After leaving the APO, Dimitri based himself in Cremona as a violin maker and restorer, but is back again performing with the New Zealand Chamber Soloists.

The new programme should be very popular: the piano quartets of Mozart and particularly the Schumann are among the best-loved in the repertoire.  Fekete Folyó by Helen Bowater is a piano trio, one of a planned set of seven compositions by New Zealand women composers being commissioned by New Zealand Chamber Soloists.

The concert, which is held in partnership with Chamber Music New Zealand, will be in the Waikanae Memorial Hall, starting at 2.30pm.  Door sales will be available or tickets can be purchased at Waikanae New World and Moby Dickens Books in Paraparaumu Beach.  For ticket enquiries call 021 2517030 or visit www.waikanaemusic.org.nz

from Peter Williams of the Taxpayers’ Union

It’s official – our democracy under threat

This morning, the Government’s ‘Future of Local Government Review Panel’ – a group of handpicked ‘experts’ appointed by Nanaia Mahuta – released proposals that would fundamentally shift local councils from democratic institutions into unaccountable ‘co-governed’ fiefdoms.

I’m not going to mince my words here. Late last night, we were leaked a confidential copy of the report’s proposals – called ‘He mata whāriki he matawhānui’ – they include:

Transferring a laundry list of powers that currently fall before elected council directly to hapū/iwi and other Māori organisations;

Appointing unelected positions by mana whenua to be given equal status as elected members (including voting rights). But unlike the councillors, the mana whenua representatives cannot be removed at the ballot box;

Requiring council staff to conform with ‘te ao Māori values’ by law;

Funding of ‘Tiriti-based partnership in local governance’ (no matter the cost to ratepayers, apparently); 

Removing the requirement for local referenda before changing the voting system (for the remaining councillors to be elected) by imposing STV across the country;

and Lowering the local voting age to 16.

You couldn’t make this up: the future of democracy is at stake.

In what is either an Orwellian misstep, or an attempt to gaslight you, Mahuta’s Panel literally claim that these recommendations are to “strengthen democracy”. Imposing co-governance does not increase democracy.

There is now no denying where Ardern, Mahuta and the government want to take New Zealand.

At our Three Waters Roadshow events across New Zealand, we were asked time and time again whether “Three Waters” was only the first step of a radical plan to impose co-governance over all of New Zealand. Today, the Report confirms that those fears were 100% justified.

With so much of the Mainstream Media now bought off, only the Taxpayers’ Union can fight this.

As a former broadcaster, I have seen the impact of the Taxpayers’ Union campaigns and I know you have too. The Stop Three Waters effort exposed what Nanaia Mahuta is trying to do. The Road Show tour. The 100,000+ petition. The hundreds of road signs. The TV ads. The record-breaking submission numbers. The recent election campaign effort that saw hundreds of councillors committed to Stopping Three Waters elected.

Jordan has assured me, and the whole Board, that contingent on your support, the team can do it again.

The Stop Three Waters campaign gave opposition MPs and people such as the new Auckland Mayor the confidence to come out swinging against this Government’s radical agenda. To stop these new proposals, we need to do that once again and make these proposals as unpopular as Three Waters. But we can only do this with your support.

12 months ago, no one knew much about Three Waters. But now it’s a thorn in the side of Jacinda Ardern. That wasn’t by chance. Our ability to expose and hold the Government to account – and ensure Kiwis know what is going on in Wellington – depends on the support from our supporters like you.

We have to stop this now; it will be very difficult for National to undo the damage.

We mustn’t forget the National Party are responsible for putting us on this path. It was John Key who allowed a river to become a person, and for huge swathes of the conservation estate to become ‘co-governed’.

In a democracy, we all need to be able hold decision makers to account through fair, free and frequent elections with equal suffrage. And when those spending our tax dollars get it wrong, we – the voters – must have the power to remove them. It’s really that simple.

By allowing unelected individuals or groups to make decisions in the council chamber, those in power are accountable to no one but themselves. 

In order to protect our democracy, these plans must be stopped in their tracks. ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ 

For non-regular readers, this is a pretty good summary of Mahuta’s 3 waters plans:

These days the definition of Socialism, Jacindaland variant, needs an up-date: You have two cows: the government decides that both cows cause Global warming and requires you to give them money to pay to Global oligarchs which will stop the Global warming.

Reflex in the sky, warn you you’re gonna die

Storm coming, you’d better hide from the atomic tide

Flashes in the sky, turns houses into sties

Turns people into clay, radiation minds decay

Robot minds of robot slaves, lead them to atomic rage

Plastic flowers, melting sun, fading moon falls upon dying world of radiation, victims of mad frustration

Burning globe of oxy’n fire, like electric funeral pyre

Buildings crashing down to a cracking ground

Rivers turn to wood, ice melting to flood

Earth lies in death bed, clouds cry water dead

Tearing life away, here’s the burning pay

Electric Funeral

And so in the sky shines the electric eye supernatural king takes earth under his wing

Heaven’s golden chorus sings,

Hell’s angels flap their wings

Evil souls fall to Hell, ever trapped in burning cells!