Let's All Hereby Give a Due - and Wholly Overdue - Salute to Sean Wallace, aka 'the Dark Destroyer' (of 'The Chase' Fame)...But PLEASE, Oh PLEASE - Pretty Please (Even) - Spare Us All Some Very *Silly Virtue-Signalling by Some Very *Silly Virtue-Signallers Whose Unctuous Semantic Self-Righteousness Has Really, Quite Literally, Gone Off the Deep End...and Into the Abject Abyss...Where, In All Likelihood, Such Self-(Con)Gratulatory Do-Gooders Will Ultimately End Up...With Others Flaunting Their Superior 'Good Intentions'...Alongside the Blatantly Evil and Wicked, Including his (**or rather Its) Infernal Majesty - and **his/Its Myriads of Cohorts - **himself (Itself)...

Hey, if Sean himself is happy enough with (Chase host) Bradley (Walsh's) endearing, tongue-in-cheek monicker, who're all these condescending, patronizing busy-bodies and word police - well (un)worthy of a - prominent and permanent - place in 'the Ministry of Thought' (or the likes) in George Orwell ('nee': Eric Blair)'s epochal 1984, no less - to tell him otherwise...

*Due apologies to the likes of John Cleese (Basil Fawlty) and Co, whose own 'Ministry of Silly Walks' is simply not fit to be mentioned alongside such present-day 'ga-barge' (i.e. garbage), as well-known American radio preacher Chuck Swindoll has well enunciated it...

**As the brilliant H Scott Peck once expressed matters (in his inimitable People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil). He simply couldn't bring himself to assign any gender to the devil or Satan, finding 'him' (or rather 'It') from very real personal encounter/s to be in a category all his (or Its) own, one which Smeagol-Gollum (of J R R Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, or more likely Sir Peter Jackson Et Al's cinematic interpretation thereof) might well say was

"Not [a] decent place[-]." No indeed!

While Winston Likewise Makes the (Only Possible) Right Call...As Regards (Unilaterally) Revoking Our (i.e. Aotearoa-New Zealand)'s Extradition Treaty (For Repatriating Chinese Nationals) With Mainland China...

That is, the specific treaty pertaining to (extradition of) Hong Kong(ers), though I immediately assumed it was the *particular law that the John Key Government had enacted vis-a-vis extraditing Chinese nationals 'at trouble at home' (i.e. in and with the Chinese Governmental authorities)...back to Mainland China to face what would doubtless be 'rough justice' (to put it mildly) in their original homeland...

Yes, Deputy P M Winston Peters deserves nothing but commendation - and received the same from a plethora of people, including former National leader Simon Bridges among others, whose sole criticism - of it being a little late (if certainly the right and proper move to make) - cannot really be faulted, though Peters' (needed) 'machinations' thereabouts with coalition partners obviously necessitated much manoeuvring and finely-niched consultations - to avoid upsetting the apple cart, so to speak (due to needing to get the likes of the normally outspoken Greens to agree thereto, though perhaps in this case it was more a matter of placating cooler, more pragmatic (or, rather, wishy-washy and politically expedient ) heads within Labour)...

Yes, Winston most definitely 'made the right call', while - some/certain - nit-picking commentators, experts, political pundits and other policy wonks busied themselves splitting hairs and attempted - wholly unsuccessfully, I have to add - to besmirch him by damning his move with **faintest praise. As per usual.

But what conceivable alternative option could 'New Zealand Inc' pursue but to follow the United Kingdom and Australian governments' lead in effectively ripping up our own erstwhile version of said extradition treaty with the Central Chinese Communist Government, thus no longer enabling or facilitating the extradition/repatriation of Hong Kong residents here - and other NZ-based Chinese nationals - 'bequeathing' these (perhaps generally perfectly innocent) folk at the request of supposedly justice-seeking authorities in Mainland China...

...knowing full well the likelihood that compliance therewith - as with the five booksellers in Hong Kong a few years ago - would doubtless result in unfair trial and conviction, imprisonment and even death...

*...a law that at the time it was enacted I felt to be insulting, humiliating and obsequious - not to mention obscene and disgusting (and all the rest)...

...one of the particularly low moments of that Government, alongside the disgraceful lowering of the national flag to half-mast upon the death of the then Saudi crown prince (I believe)...

...alongside the equally disgraceful 'pulling up' of the [immigration] drawbridge upon refugees from war-torn lands such as Iraq and Iran (etcetera), nay from places that had undergone ethnic cleansing/genocide no less, (around 2010-2012 or so), despite Prime Minister Key's own grandmother (I believe) herself escaping thus to a safe harbour/haven in God's Own as a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust...

**However, listening in to RNZ National this very morning, I personally don't buy Peters' suggestion or rather explanation that our Government is ***not obligated, as per the UK for instance, in going even further and providing safe haven here for Hong Kongers (in HK itself) as per the UK and Oz are doing...

***I should correct that in this way: no, we're most certainly not legally obliged to do so - Peters' is eminently correct in that assertion, it's fairly incontrovertible...but many folk would suggest there's a much deeper obligation, and that's one called doing the decent thing, and that by any folk anywhere suffering unjust persecution and oppression...

...though in the current rather febrile and fevered atmosphere surrounding the ongoing, never-ending (anytime soon) covid crisis one can hardly see him receiving almost any let alone undue flack thereabouts...

Morality Trumps Mammon -Every Time: At Least for Those Who Still Happen to Believe that the Rights of Human Beings Supersede - By an Infinite Distance - Mere, Sordid, Pecuniary Gain (Vis-a-vis Independent M.P. Jami-Lee Ross's Call to Jettison 'Filthy [Chinese Governmental] Lucre' in Any Real Trade-Off Between Rolling Over or Standing Up to the Chinese (Communist Party) Dragon...Over its Ongoing, Egregious Offences Against People 'Domestically', Regionally and, Let's Not Forget, Globally)

Such 'egregious offences' including/comprising - but by no means limited to -

*The treatment of its ethnic (Muslim) Uighurs

* "        "            "  " newfound territorial 'appendage', the once proud little city-state of Hong Kong

*Its all too evident imperialist designs upon Pacific Island nations c/o oodles of foreign aid

*Spying on Overseas Critics in/Meddling in the Internal Affairs of New Zealand and Australia (in particular)

*Dismissing - and Glossing over the Investigation of - the Origin of Covid-19, Quite Easily the World's Worst Pandemic Since the Spanish Flu of the Post-WW1 Era

*A Brutal yet Under the Radar Crackdown Upon Human Rights in Mainland China, Not Least Amidst its Burgeoning, Even Exploding Ranks of (Underground, Home Churched) Christian Believers

And to round out the list (for a seventh 'offence' one never ever hears a mention of  - as NZ Deputy PM Winston Peters might put it, "Not a murmur, not  whisper" - from ye mainstream media), how about the following tidbit of info gleaned from an impromptu discussion with a stranger - ?Kevin? -  outside The Warehouse Central (soon to close) in Dunedin a couple weeks ago (now)...

*Citing a couple of the **various '-Stans' - as in Ex-Soviet Union/USSR Republic variety - in particular the 'K' ones, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan (but notably not ***Kurdistan), he informed me how - totally unbeknownst to me, and doubtless pretty well one and all - forces from/of the Chinese Mainland Government are apparently stationed in different parts thereof (as in an occupying force, akin probably to the Russkies in Crimea etc), militarily controlling the same

Though one expects some mainstream commentators - i.e. the ones ever and always enamoured with 'economic growth' and the like - to be ever strident critics of folk like Jami-Lee Ross and Winston Peters who to their immense credit do not happen to believe that filthy lucre (from China or anywhere else for that matter) is the be-all-and end-all of all that matters in life, what one might not expect is the reaction - or should I say 'non-reaction' -  of others in the political space, who're equally loquacious about their views upon this, that and the next thing...

Yes, how very interesting - but moreover utterly inconsistent - that some of the very ones - including standard-bearers upon the Western political Left, especially media-based...themselves one-time 'champions' (for want of a more apt term) of pretty well the first noted (presidential) advocate in the U S of A of such 'morality in foreign policy', i.e. President Jimmy Carter...-as against the likes of his (immediate) successor, Ronald Reagan-

now are quite literally nowhere to be found...

Double standards? Hypocrisy? You be the judge...but, quite frankly, it's proving increasingly difficult to arrive at any other 'logical' conclusion...

For my money - scarce as it ever is - I welcome Ross' (and Peters') 'interventions', small as they are (in the overall scheme of things) as a welcome breath of fresh air in global 'realpolitik'...and would remain 100% behind them even were they ultimately to result in a revocation (by China) of its 2008 free trade deal with our nation - evidently one of, if not the world's first - recognizing - for my part - that some things matter (a whole lot more) than a nation's financial balance sheet...

Being able to look at oneself (including as an independent, self-respecting nation) each and every morning with a clear conscience surely matters as much....

Do you not agree?

**Curiously enough an inexplicable source of (at times, i.e. over recent years) 10-20 or so 'hits'/results (as in page views by) upon both this (in particular) and my initial (Nuff Said) blogsite...

***Of course this is not - presently - an independent nation as such, but many (like myself) believe - long since - blimmin' oughta be...

And Though I, For One - While Perhaps Being Increasingly the Only One - Don't, As Yet, Consider Him the Devil Incarnate, At the Same Time You Have to Give It to (President) Donald J Trump (for This Much, Anyhow): He Sure as Heck Is No Rank Amateur at Making it Up as He Goes Along...

He's not only made a veritable art-form of the practice, he's pretty well ready to hand out PhDs in the same, with 'Summa Cum Laude' thrown in for added measure to those who're imitating his every move...

"Morally Bankrupt"? I'll Show You Morally Bankrupt, and It's Initials Aren't Invariably DJT, I Can Readily Assure You. No, They Have All Manner of Other Permutations, Well Known In Fact Upon the Global Scene...

To Be Continued...

Meanwhile Another Equally Potent and Problematic Dragon Arises In the East, Portending No Good Whatsoever to the Inhabitants of Planet Earth - At Least Not While its Current Leadership Maintains its Unholy Sway

To Be Continued...

Could the Present Occupant of the Oval Office/White House Actually Be the Fabled (as in Notorious) Villain of the Holy Bible - i.e. the Biblical Antichrist? Though Already Abundantly Acquainted With, Yea, Even Thoroughly Traversed in the Topic - and Moreover Utterly Invested in One Mightily, Even Completely Convincing (and Compelling) View of the Matter, as in (Biblical) Interpretation Thereof - I Nevertheless Highly Recommend My Readership - Such as it Still Remains - Look Up 'Benjamin L Corey' Vis-a-vis 'The Antichrist' Sometime Soon: His Own (Scripturally-Based) 'Argument'/Proposition is Not One Easily Sniffed At Much Less Dismissed Out of Hand, I Can Assure You!

Through 'Popular Demand' - (Probably) NOT - But At Least Due to My Evident Lack of Clear Explanation in My Last Blogpost (as Finally Sussed Out by Me, Having At Long Last Reread It) Vis-a-Vis THAT I'd Decided to Finish/Wind Up THIS Blogsite, Let Alone Explain Precisely WHY I'd Decided To...I'm - At Long Last - Resuming Writing Thereupon...As Of This Very Day (Quite Clearly)...

But, hey, it'd be wonderful to see some of my 'regulars' delving into my *six newer blogsites (as detailed in my previous post)...

...they certainly have much to say about some of the very serious 'stuff' inundating our species 'homo sapiens' ever since covid-19/the coronavirus broke loose upon a weary world mere months ago and began wreaking such unmitigated distress and devastation upon us all...

*Four (as cited thereupon), having added two other ones since...-but since hardly anyone seems to have bothered with those other (four), I'm starting to feel why bother...