On the eve of the commencement of Phase Two of the Covid Inquiry, Phase One Commissioners Blakely and Whitehead handed their report to the Government.
ACT Minister Brooke van Velden announced in August that she would not release this report until as late as 2026, a message repeated right up to yesterday morning. Unexpectedly, this decision was reversed by 2 pm, with the report made available to the public, all 713 pages of it!
A glass half-empty Online sentiment emerged thick and fast, with people claiming the report to be a whitewash, a waste of money, a complete joke, missing chunks, a nothing-burger, etc.
While we understand where people are coming from with their frustration, disappointment, and dismissiveness, and we probably agree about the report, we choose to look at the situation differently.
Taking advantage of a situation: we’ve been outspoken in our opinion that the Phase One inquiry was unlikely to yield any beneficial results with respect to investigating our community’s concerns.
So, with your help, we lobbied for a fresh inquiry with a broader and deeper scope, which was granted with the Phase Two announcement earlier this year and the adoption of many of The People’s Terms (at least in theory — we shall see what happens!).
However, just because Phase One was not satisfactorily powered to investigate the critical topics, it didn’t mean we should look a gift horse in the mouth when it came to being involved!(You know I want to say something about horses here, but I shall refrain!)
Being invited to meet with the commissioners presented an opportunity, and we weren’t about to squander it.
Why we’re chalking up a win
We’ve never been fans of white knights. There are no saviours in this situation. Not politicians, not commissioners, not celebrities. If we want change, we must roll up our sleeves and make it happen ourselves.
Taking responsibility is a liberating and empowering action. It requires anger and resentment to be set aside to sharpen one’s focus. When it comes to accountability for the Covid years, we are playing a long game — one where our opponents don’t play by the rules and have paid off the Referee. There’s no point crying about that; we just have to take a deep breath and get on with the job.
Our aim is not to force the authorities to bend to our will by endlessly complaining, but to think smart, shift public opinion strategically, and use that public pressure to drive change. That plan is working, bit by bit, by bit.
It’s highly likely the report is 713 pages of waffle. It doesn’t matter; very few will read it.
We’ve helped to seed an idea in the public space, and the more we all talk and share, the faster those seeds will sprout and grow!
Commissioner Blakely conceded in an RNZ interview after our meetings that societal divisions run deep in the wake of Covid and that “many people have felt and actually beenwronged”.
This was a big one. A person in a position of authority publicly admitted that the harms many of us have suffered are real. While we don’t need his acknowledgement, it helps signal to the public, media and government that our concerns are valid.
In yesterday’s Stuff interview, Blakely also admitted publicly that his discussions with VFF moved his thinking, particularly on the vaccine mandates.
Never underestimate the power of a story — your stories had observable impact and shifted the commissioners’ thinking!
When reporter Lloyd Burr resorted to the lazy and tired “conspiracy theory” label for VFF, Blakely respectfully corrected him, stating that he found his engagements with us “incredibly illuminating” and that he “got a lot out of it”. He also argued we had a “very valid perspective scientifically and socially”.
When the public hears remarks like this, acceptance of our position and other talking points increases. When the legacy media hears remarks like this, the realisation dawns that they have lost control of the narrative. And when your sister, uncle or father hears remarks like this, your arguments from the past five years are validated.
We aren’t going to get from A to O (for orange jumpsuit) in one leap; instead, we must move nimbly and deliberately, working towards the wins, celebrating our successes along the way and relentlessly setting our sights on the next goal. With this report, we can tick another one off. Next in our sights? Nailing Phase Two!
If you hit us, we’ll hit you back harder, Russia tells NATO. “Bring it on,” say psychopaths Blinken, Starmer and Macron. But the people don’t want any more of it.
by Andrew Korybko
The populist conservative-nationalist frontrunner might refuse to allow NATO troops to transit through Romania as part of a conventional intervention in Ukraine if he wins the second round next month.
The surprise victory of populist conservative-nationalist Calin Georgescu in the first round of Romania’s presidential election gives this heterodox outsider the chance to enter into office next month. The Mainstream Media is apoplectic since he criticized Romania’s hosting of the US’ missile defense infrastructure and is against perpetuating NATO’s proxy war on Russia through Ukraine. He’s also a devout Orthodox Christian and praised some of his country’s most controversial World War II-era figures.
Interestingly, he was also the diaspora’s favorite, with the added twist being that more in Western Europe voted for him than those in Eastern Europe. This suggests that his appeal is also due to the hope that he’ll bring long-overdue accountability to his infamously corrupt country and finally help its people improve their living standards through more effective economic, financial, and developmental policies. Foreign policy is important, but local issues and economics far outweigh the former for average voters.
If Georgescu becomes President of Romania, he’s therefore much more likely to try to change his country’s internal workings than he is to radically transform its foreign policy, but it also can’t be ruled out that his potential victory could adversely affect NATO’s proxy war on Russia through Ukraine. Those who voted for him dislike how Ukrainian grain flooded their domestic market to local farmers’ detriment and also aren’t pleased with the government financially supporting Ukrainian refugees.
Additionally, the latest military-strategic developments in this conflict raised worries among many about the spectre of World War III, in which case Romania would be directly involved due to its hosting of the previously mentioned US missile defense infrastructure. Their country also plays an important logistical role in arming Ukraine and its newly built “Moldova Highway” could facilitate the deployment of NATO troops there if the bloc or a “coalition of the willing” therein decides to conventionally intervene.
Even if Romania doesn’t dispatch troops, the transit role that it could play in others’ intervention there could put a Russian target on its back, especially if this leads to direct NATO-Russian hostilities. For this reason and keeping in mind his criticism of NATO’s proxy war on Russia through Ukraine, he as Supreme Commander might not approve of these plans. After all, he’s a populist conservative-nationalist who prioritizes what he sincerely believes to be national interests, which this scenario is contradictory to.
If he wins, then he’ll assume office on 21 December, which could therefore make it impossible for the US to rely on Romania in the abovementioned respect from there on out. That would be significant, provided that Georgescu has the political will to implement such a policy, since it means that the outgoing Biden Administration might thus only have less than a month to do this if it wants to. After all, even if Trump decides to “escalate to de-escalate” through such means, he too might not be able to.
There’s always the possibility that Poland might serve as the only route through which conventional NATO troops could enter Ukraine, even if it doesn’t dispatch its own, but neither the outgoing conservative-nationalist president nor his liberal-globalist rivals in the ruling coalition might allow this. The reason is that both want to appeal to Ukro-skeptical voters ahead of next year’s presidential election, the first in order to keep the second in check while the second wants to finally be unrestrained.
That’s why each have been trying to outdo the other in populist rhetoric, with the ruling coalition even going as far as to trump the former conservative-nationalist government of which the outgoing president is a part by taking an even harder line towards Ukraine. To that end, they demanded that it exhume and properly bury the Volhynia Genocide victims’ remains like it earlier did for 100,000 Wehrmacht troops, and it’s now only offering more military aid in exchange for a loan and no longer for free.
In fact, one of the Deputy Prime Ministers went as far as accusing Zelensky of wanting to provoke a Polish-Russian War in Ukraine, which powerfully signals that the ruling liberal-globalist coalition isn’t really interested in facilitating a conventional NATO intervene there and thus can’t be relied on for this. If Romania is ruled out in this respect too should Georgescu win, assume office next month, and promulgate the proposed policy, then the US might therefore be more willing to cut a deal with Russia.
Therein lies the most globally significant consequence if this populist conservative-nationalist becomes President of Romania since it could greatly limit the ways in which the US – whether under the outgoing Biden Administration or the incoming Trump one – could “escalate to de-escalate” on more of its terms. By removing the likelihood of a conventional NATO intervention, the odds might then greatly increase for Russia ending this conflict on more of its own terms instead, which could lead to a more lasting solution.
Lessons that NZ’s Leftist Legacy Media should heed, but won’t.
from DailyMail.com
MSNBC has suffered a major slump in ratings after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election as conservative Fox News continues to gain viewers.
The pro-Democrat news network saw its audience numbers sink 47 percent in November, as CNN saw a 33 percent drop.
Competitor Fox News Channel was the only cable news network to see growth after Trump’s win, holding 62 percent of total day audiences, according to the network, which cited Nielsen Media Research numbers.
MSNBC only pulled in 644,000 primetime viewers, compared to its counterpart, which pulled in 3.2million.
In the key age demographic of those aged 25 to 54, Fox saw a 147 percent increase, with 467,000 viewers between 8pm and 11pm.
Fox boasted that ‘more Independents and Democrats continue to tune in’ its network, while the rivals continue to struggle.
Since the election, Fox beat ABC, CBS, NBC, and MSNBC with more than 4million viewers, according to Nielsen.
MSNBC is down 52 percent year-to-date in primetime audiences. CNN is also down 39 percent, while Fox saw a 73 percent boost.
The Wall Street Journal reported Comcast will release a swathe of its NBCUniversal cable TV networks, including MSNBC.
Comcast executives said that they will not spin off all channels, with Bravo, the Peacock streaming service and the NBC broadcast network remaining under the parent company.
By shedding its expensive networks, Comcast is hedging its bets that it can expand its movie studio and theme park industries without being dragged down by the struggles of traditional television news.
According to the WSJ’s reporting, which broke the story, the new cable venture will have an ‘ownership structure that mirrors Comcast’s’, but ‘would likely need greater scale to thrive.’
Fox boasted that ‘more Independents and Democrats continue to tune in’ its network, while the others continue to struggle ahead of Trump’s second term
In another blow to the network, Anchor Rachel Maddow was mocked for her hysterical monologue after Trump’s win. Maddow is finalizing a five-year deal to stay on for $US 25 million per year, which is less than her $30 million previous contract, according to Puck News. Maddow only works once a week, and despite rating drops, is considered valuable to the network.
The network’s motivation to keep on their expensive anchor might be to encourage advertisers to invest in the spinoff company, according to Puck News.
Meanwhile, Fox’s biggest moneymaker The Five is pulling in 4.4million viewers, Jesse Watters Primetime has 3.9million, and The Ingraham Angle has 3.3million.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s administration is urging Ukraine to quickly increase the size of its military by drafting more troops and revamping its mobilization laws to allow for the conscription of those as young as 18.
A senior Biden administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private consultations, said Wednesday that the outgoing Democratic administration wants Ukraine to lower the mobilization age to 18 from the current age of 25 to expand the pool of fighting-age men available to help a badly outnumbered Ukraine in its nearly three-year-old war with Russia.
The official said “the pure math” of Ukraine’s situation now is that it needs more troops in the fight.
“Pure math” also says that following the advice order from Washington will guarantee that there will be no future Ukrainians left to fight for:
I have pointed out six month ago that there are hardly a significant number of 18 to 25 year old left in Ukraine. If that cohort gets further diminished by senseless dying Ukraine’s future will be even more bleak than it is now. Even the British nuts who earlier proposed to draft 18 year old Ukrainians have learned to shut up about it.
The graphic below, taken from Wikipedia’s Demographics of Ukraine, presumes that Ukraine has a population of some 40 million:
But the real population number in the areas under control of the Ukrainian government is by now only about 20 million, half of which are people of retirement age. Drafting the few men of age 18 to 25 will not help to win the war but will, over time, further depopulate Ukraine.
The last Thursday in November is Thanksgiving in America, while Friday (today our time) is Black Friday, which everybody here knows.
Left to right: RFK Jr, Kash Patel, Pete Hegseth, JD. Vance, President Trump, Melania Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy, Tulsi Gabbard, Pam Bondi, Elon Musk and Matt Gaetz in the window…
Our country has a great deal to be thankful for. President Trump will once again take his rightful place in the oval office—but this time is different. President Trump now knows who his friends are and who his enemies are. He has not appointed any swamp members to his cabinet this time. This time President Trump has picked a team that will stand with him against the Deep State Government Blob. Many have faced the wrath of the Swamp and they have endured outrageous insults and legal threats. Like Trump, they fought against the Deep State and now Trump is rewarding them by putting them in top positions so they can actually drain the Deep State Swamp……..
When WW published my submission on the Treaty Principles Bill, one comment asked: “is it possible to turn this into a submission that can have other names added at the bottom?” I raised that with the Bill’s officials; their reply was:
“Signatures cannot be added to an individual submission. Those people could put in submissions with similar content, or express agreement with your comments, but cannot co-sign a submission already provided.”
The simple way is to send in your own submission, to include a quote (as much as you wish) from the submission that you support, and identify that submission by who sent it.
Submissions close on 7 January, so there is no rush at this point, but put that date on the calendar! —Eds
This is being held at 3 pm on 1 December in the Waikanae Community Centre in Utauta Street — a neighbouring building to the Memorial Hall, and where the WCB meetings are usually held.
The committee of 12, which includes Geoffrey, has been looking at the full range of council-related issues since the inaugural meeting in September and is ready to present to the public for discussion what to do in the election year ahead. Getting council Rates reduced to affordable levels is top of the priority list.
