"For When Thy Judgments Are In The Earth, the Inhabitants of the World Will Learn Righteousness"

Overnight a powerful earthquake, with potential tsunami implications - centred in the Aegean Sea - rocks Turkey. Does anyone in their right mind consider this a mere coincidence, just another arbitrary 'freak of nature'? Surely that's not how your average Middle Easterner, anyhow, would, in their heart of hearts, so regard it.

It hardly occurred in a void, rather it follows some highly inflammatory, bordering on genocidal language, in not just Turkey but now apparently throughout the Muslim world - seen especially in the huge protest marches in Pakistan and Bangladesh - against France and its leadership, who have gone out on a courageous limb and denounced in no uncertain terms the Islamist Fascists now vying for supremacy in the Gallic nation.

Which country has now forthrightly declared it is no longer prepared to bear with a long-time 'softly, softly' approach to the existence of terrorists in its midst, wreaking 'merry havoc' with *the innocent on every side, a nation no longer resiling from its longstanding commitment to freedom of speech and expression, but, in the wake of the anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo massacre and republishing of those 'inflammatory' cartoons, laying down the gauntlet to those who have used the liberties which are every Frenchman and woman's very birthright to challenge these very values under the disguise of supposed religious intolerance and persecution.

Yet what we are seeing not only in South Asia and Turkey in particular but in France itself are sympathizers with such intolerant - Islamist, note, not Muslim - fascists: yes, let's, like France's President Macron, who's at long last recovered his mojo, as folk might put it here down under, call it for what it actually is - under the protection of France's long-established and deeply-cherished **liberties, seeking to subvert and overturn those selfsame liberties by disingenuously conflating them with the very intolerance that is their own especial trademark! 

I'm afraid that sticking your finger up and in the face of Western Europe's proud (post-Protestant Reformation) heritage of civil and religious liberty is one that - ultimately, eventually - even the Almighty will one day soon(er than many think or realize) call time on, declaring verily

Enough is Enough! It's all over, folks, and I'm returning to claim My own...

*/********But sadly, it is the innocent who tend to suffer, not the despotic leaders such as Turkey's Erdogan. Yet does that mean that God actually approves such innocents suffering unjustly? Hardly; He has ***denounced as an abomination that very thing throughout His (Older Testament) word, including especially in the 'Torah' (****first five books of Moses) and in the Book of Proverbs in particular.

Rather, as the American university-based 'defender of the faith' (once delivered unto the saints) - whose name I've somehow forgotten - well put it - ******by sheer coincidence this very day, after I'd long since begun, and even almost completed, this very blogpost - in the oft-noted and (*******quite understandably) denounced Older Testamental genocides wherein entire peoples, including every last man, woman and child, were declared due for complete and utter extermination (by God to His people), these peoples' children did indeed perish through no special fault of their own, as a result of (unavoidably) sharing in the consequences accruing to their parents, who had by such time (often long since) surpassed the moral boundaries God has set for human beings, indulging in child sacrifice among other abominations...

**One of its revolutionary triad of 'liberty, equality, fraternity'.

***In scriptures such as Exodus 23:7 and Proverbs 6:17 in particular.

****For those like myself who cannot believe it wasn't Israel's *****great deliverer (Moses) who penned the timeless classic of the well-known Book of Job (about which I've long been preparing 'a layman's guide', if it ever gets written).

*****But of course it was Yahweh/the LORD Almighty Who through Moses - and angelic agencies - really, truly delivered the Israelites from their Egyptian captors/oppressors/slavemasters, an event of historical moment ever after known as 'the Exodus'. 

******But to 'true believers' nothing, no, nothing is sheer, mere 'coincidence'; sovereign divine Providence overrules all. Which of course doesn't mean that accidents don't happen, or - even more importantly - that it is ever somehow God's rather perverse will for the innocent to suffer and/or die.

Entire volumes/tomes have been written on this very subject, but suffice to say the general consensus of Christian authors upon the same seem in unanimity in agreeing that what God is oftentimes (throughout sacred scripture) declared as causing...is rather, just as often, something He happens to allow...and, again, suffice to say that here is a world, nay, a universe, of difference between the two...

*******From an initial, if ultimately superficial, secular human perspective. 

********Which is why I heartily concur with (New Zealand's) Family First spokesperson Bob McCoskrey's summation of his own opposition (anyhow) to the recent (almost exactly) 2:1 approval of euthanasia ('assisted dying') in our general election-concurrent referendum. The problem with euthanasia is the same as that with capital punishment, you simply cannot ensure that even one innocent person will not suffer as a consequence. And for myself as for Bob, one mistake is too many.

Je Suis France - One of the Remaining Bastions of Western Liberty and Values: The Wreckers and Haters Might Well Severely Test Your Nerve, Resolve and Even Mettle, But In the End and One Day Soon, the Truth and All Those Aligned With It Will Triumph Gloriously...and All Evildoers and Purveyors of Hatred and Discord, of Bloodthirsty Bestiality and Brutality, Will be Put Down For Good/El Permanente/Finito!

Affliction will not rise up the second time...

No indeed, but mercifully for them (and everyone else) they'll be put out of existence altogether. 

Anti-Semitic IS As Anti-Semitic DOES: Though This Deadly Scourge Is Growing Unabated and Virtually Unchallenged Throughout the Length and Breadth of Our Present-Day World, Good On British Labo(u)r for Finally calling "Time Out!'" Upon This Insidious Scourge of Our Day and Age...and thus and so, though I once liked and even championed the man, former Labo(u) Leader Jeremy Corbyn Simply Had to Not Only Go (from Party Leadership, as he indeed did following Labo(u)r's Crushing Election Loss)...But Go Into the Back-blocks, the Sin-Bin Itself...

But Donald Trump Simply Cannot Help Himself...Moving from Narcissistic Self-Obsession and Envy of Covid-19 Stealing His Limelight/'Glory' the One Moment - as Former President Obama So Aptly Put Matters the Other Day...to Messin' Around in North Africa's Business and Veritably Stirring Up a Potential Hornet's Nest in/by His Typically Thoughtless and Ill-Advised Intervention Vis-a-vis the Proposed Massive Ethiopian Dam (as it Necessarily Affects the Respective Water Rights of Three Great, Populous Nations in the Region: Egypt, Sudan and Of Course Ethiopia)...Yes, One Cannot Deny that 'The Donald' Has Form, But Verily 'Fools [Still] Rush In Where Angels Fear to Tread'...

Yes, better to remain silent and be thought a fool, as the wise man Solomon once put it, than to open your mouth and remove all (shade of) doubt... 

but hey, if all else fails on the domestic front, why not take things globally and open up another major regional war, and as an in/direct consequence  contribute therewith to the big W111 to boot?

[In Breaking News] History in the Making, Moving Doomsday Clock Inexorably Nearer to Deepest, Darkest Midnight: With Amy Coney Barrett Just Being Confirmed As New U S Supreme Court Appointee...

Jesuit He May Well Be, But Hats Off (for Once) to France's Emmanuel Macron...for, Alongside his Prime Minister, 'Showing his Quality' in Standing Up UNEQUIVOCALLY, AND IN NO UNCERTAIN, HALFHEARTED, NAMBY-PAMBY, WISHY-WASHY MANNER WHATSOEVER...to the Islamist Fascists Currently Running Amuck and Amok in France (and Throughout 'Western' Europe of Recent Times)...Terrorizing the (Global) Population with their Gruesome and Barbaric Beheading of a Schoolteacher with the 'Gall', the Guts and the Gumption - Not to Mention the Gonads - To ACTUALLY Discuss the Republishing of the 'Notorious' Cartoon that Incited the Horrible Charlie Hebdo Massacre...Affirming and Attesting That the Noble and Civilized Gallic Nation Will Indeed Stand Tall and Proud in Defence of the Judaeo-(Protestant) Christian Values of Free Speech (That Have Made the Likes of France, the United Kingdom Et Al Truly Great, and for Which Multitudes of Westerners Have Self-Sacrificially Given their Very Lives Over the Past Century Especially)...

Speaking of 'Clear and Obvious', In Your Face Bias, It's Hard to Go Beyond RNZ National's 'Max' On Their Weekday 'World Watch' Just the Other Day...

And apologies, for a start, as I scribbled the following thoughts a little while prior to the last American presidential debate three days ago, but time rapidly ran out, and naturally I didn't want to miss a moment - though admittedly I did end up missing the first two-three minutes (thankfully, only of introductories and preliminaries, evidently, as the moderator was still speaking and giving debate guidelines when I tuned in).

So in what specifically does my said 'beef' with selfsame 'Max' consist?

Well, immediately following - if memory serves me aright, not always a 'done deal', I'll readily admit! - a report upon the very latest permutations of the approval/confirmation process around President Trump's latest Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, 'Max' expounded upon how the final presidential debate (shortly thereafter to be held/aired live around the globe) would consist of *six essential 'talking points'...

Well, after 'Max' duly cited what was then the overnight (NZtime) breaking news from the U S of A of the (seemingly unstoppable) confirmation of said Supreme Court nominee Barrett the following Monday (presumably U S time, i.e. tomorrow 'kiwi' time) - said development indeed constituting, I have little doubt (nor apparently do many/most commentators thereabouts), one of the most momentous (religio-political-cultural) and defining moments in modern American history, especially vis-a-vis their seemingly endless 'culture wars'...

Max mentioned what was indeed a much-discussed 'talking point' in itself over the expected confirmation, i.e whether - as Joe Biden's Vice-Presidential candidate Camilla Harris had herself been pointedly asked by the moderator of the Pence vs Harris 'Veep' debate a couple weeks earlier, and had conspicuously declined to say - Biden (and Harris) would themselves (if elected), subsequent to and as a (politically partisan) response to the now seemingly inevitable confirmation of Barrett upon the US Supreme Court, stack the deck, i.e. appoint a whole lot more justices to counterbalance the now (putative) 6:3 conservative: liberal ratio/majority upon the Nation's Highest Bench...

Then Max mentioned that Democratic Party nominee Biden is also now facing new allegations of his own, regarding an "unproven/unsubstantiated" email allegedly proving he acted corruptly in regards to his son Hunter (which might well ring a bell or several for those folk familiar with a major news item from a couple years ago, relating to Hunter's involvement in the Ukraine during Biden's Vice-Presidency under Barack Obama)...

Max then made the rather unbelievable remark: "But this doesn't yet seem to be adversely affecting Biden's presidential bid/gambit, as his (reasonably substantial) poll lead over Trump hasn't yet taken a tumble and is holding up"...

But how could it possibly do so (i.e. negatively affect JB's and DJT's respective poll numbers/ratings) when patently anti-Trump and anti-Republican social media giants Facebook and Twitter have thus far banned the aforementioned seriously damaging Biden allegations from even seeing 'webtime'?

But then Max put his personal biases readily on display for one and all to see (and be duly appalled) when he then attempted to move seamlessly from an account of a **new greatly restrictive abortion law in Poland to the totally unrelated matter of the (apparent) conviction/imprisonment of members of Italy's formerly 'insurgent' Golden Dawn Movement. 

And in what contentious way did he do so?

By simply inserting this rather pejorative 'filler'/linking paraphrase: "And now for some better/brighter news." 

Not a big deal or a 'biggie', I hear you intone... -except that journalism was never (meant to be) about one's own subjective interpretation of news events, but simply a proper reportage thereof...

...for readers and viewers to make up their own minds (and hearts)... 

*If recollection serves me correctly, (four/five of these being) Covid-19, racism/civil unrest, climate change, the economy/unemployment, issues/questions of (personal) character -if not in that particular order...

**Which is seemingly pretty much the very conservative approach once so adhered to in many jurisdictions, including America and New Zealand, that abortion should remain illegal except in cases of rape, incest or threat to the life of the woman.

***A perfectly justifiable and appropriate phrase, mind you, for insertion/inclusion in my seventh blogsite, 

'Always Look On the Bright Side of Life...We Don't Know How Lucky We Are'

accessible c/o http://goodygoodydaggdrops.com/ 

(in memory of the comedic greats, The Goodies' Timothy Brooke-Taylor and Fred Dagg/John Clarke).

So 'the Right' are Peddlers of So-Called (and indeed it often so proves!) 'Fake News' ? So are you telling me (and one and all) that the Supposed 'Left' Are All that Much Better, Aren't in Fact 'Just' a Bunch of Goody-Goody Two-Shoes? Hey, You Must Be Kiddin'!

Before the Debate:

Some thoughts prior to the *second ('proper') presidential debate...

(Vis-a-vis Decisive Events Even Now Taking Place in the United States of America.) 

But this much let me put 'on the record' for now...

Joe Biden is certainly not 'out of the woods' as yet, he still has some serious answering to do about the 'alleged' corruption (as per supposedly 'questionable' emails recently discovered vis-a-vis his own dealings with his son Hunter Biden and Ukrainian officials etcetera)...

And the 'fact' that these have thus far failed to dent his huge opinion poll lead over Presidential Trump are neither here nor there, really...

How the heck could they have done so, the anti-Trump social media brigade have it in for 'im (i.e. Trump), and have demonstrably failed to report these newfound and incredibly damaging allegations to the American people!

*Third if one counts/includes the twin town hall meetings simultaneously hosted last week in which each of the two major party candidates appeared in separate(d) venues. 

After the Debate:

Hard to say precisely who won the debate, but certainly the two candidates again determined its course - by refusing to exercise proper self-discipline and, for instance, giving Covid-19 the lion's share of their discussion/s; utilizing the extra minutes (or parts thereof) allotted each one for certain specified purposes only to relitigate earlier controversies and insert irrelevant but salacious details requiring further repartee and rejoinder by the other in the time remaining; and by thus effectively refusing to follow the letter of the law laid down by the moderator, though argument could well be made that they - oftentimes - followed the spirit thereof.

However, I feel Joe Biden, despite less than adequate responses in some of the more important areas - his healthcare plans (in relation to ongoing attempts to roll back Obamacare); the employment prospects of oil industry workers across the USA, not to mention those laid off through the coronavirus; and especially his own track record vis-a-vis the 'lock 'em up' mentality towards petty drug crime and the like which characterized the 1980s and 1990s in America, and the resultant incarceration of multitudes of consequently 'criminal' black Americans...

...rectified this 'shortfall' (so to speak) by his consistently statesmanlike reaction to Trump per se: effectively treating him with the obvious disdain and contempt his childish approach to interpersonal relations ever warrants by regally dismissing it with a giggle and a smirk, whilst pursuing the moral high ground of a dignified direct tete-a-tete with the 'average voter', appealing to her/his native intelligence and innate decency, ultimately judging the two candidates upon their clear and obvious track record and character/ moral rectitude...

simply trusting Americans to thereby know which one of the two was indeed truly worthy of their trust. A rhetorical plea to them - and implicit faith in their good sense and decency - to come to the only sensible conclusion possible: i.e. that the rascal and buffoon must go, and go asap, and the true gentleman and leader be installed... 

A real pity, then, that Joe Biden himself doesn't pass the 'smell test', which even a cursory glance at his track record will readily show...

In Christlike Act, the Queen of England Exercises the Royal Prerogative of Mercy...THAT'S What True Leadership Is Really All About, Yet 'Hardly Ever Heard'...

"The[This] Message is for the Greens as well: 'RULE FROM THE CROSS-BENCHES' " So declared on-again, off-again politician cum political pundit/commentator Tau Henare immediately following the weekend's Labour landslide...

Henare thus succinctly stated a view I have long held, as much vis-a-vis any 'minor' political party as the Green Party as such, simply because once they're drawn into the ambit of the 'major' parties via a coalition and/or other special governing arrangement they're the very first to suffer any subsequent fallout from disillusioned voters once the Government of the Day loses its status of flavour of the month...

...voters for some reason or other seemingly reserving their harshest criticism and retribution for those parties (and individuals) seen as propping up a particular government...

Which for the Greens obviously works in the interests of their major partner, Labour, since they ever serve as a convenient 'fall guy' for unpopular Government decisions, the 'good guy:bad guy' sort of arrangement so easy for sports-obsessed kiwis to be taken in by, an effective poisoned chalice.

So yes, such an arrangement is most definitely in the interests of the Labour Party, and hence they might *under normal circumstances promote such, as the insightful and ever so reasonable Newstalk ZB host Miles Davis asked (of such a political scenario) the other night: "Is Labour [just] using the Greens as extra currency [for future contingencies], to blame if things go pear-shaped?"

And hence the sound wisdom behind those such as (former Green MPs) Sue Bradford and Catherine Delahunty, both of whom have been interviewed in this regards in the days and weeks immediately following the election, in their cautioning and advising the Greens (and Green Party members) in resisting the natural urge to eagerly grasp for what that denizen of MMP politics, the Right Honourable Winston Peters, deemed the (alluring but deceptive) 'baubles of office'...

...baubles he himself, it cannot be denied and ought not be forgotten, has in practice not been all that 'un-enamoured' of!

And of course the major parties themselves are not exactly uneducated in the practice of using such minor players in the Machiavellian art of thus deflecting criticism of themselves before the voters by attempting to pin any blame accruing to their particular administrations onto these small stumbling stones in the successful prosecution of their political designs...

...as if to say, 'There [we might well have come] but for the [obstruction] of these [minor irritants]...

Some such as the ever-opinionated and outspoken, never shy to declare the emperor (or Empress) of kiwiville has no kit, Mike Hoskings, have argued both ways...suggesting that the very and indeed one and only reason any party like the Greens is - or at least ought to be - in politics in the first instance is that of actually achieving tangible, concrete, legislative results...

...so that everything is measured in terms of their actually being 'in the tent' throwing their weight around (like NZ First is no stranger to) or advancing their agenda (somehow-or-other), in actual 'rungs on the board' as it were...

...though some might rightly suggest the Green Party's ever softly-softly, tread carefully and create no (or few) ripples approach to governance has hardly served its own interests well, and that for a very long time...indeed, i've always felt they've been taken for a ride by the likes of Helen Clark & Co over the years, such politicoes well knowing the Greens simply had nowhere else to go...

...or, to use less flattering words, 'played for suckers' by their supposed political bedfellows...

And so, though I've never been a Green Party voter, or even supporter - except over the Clark Government's approach to Corngate and ending the moratorium on genetically-modified/engineered organisms - I've ever felt some degree of sympathy on their behalf for ever having their self-respect undermined on an ongoing and regular basis...

...yet others would - and do - rightly claim they are the authors of their own misfortune by refusing point blank to ever go into coalition (discussions/conversations even) with the National Party...

...otherwise they could have ever upended Winston and NZ First on a regular basis over many election cycles, making themselves the coalition makers or breakers...

Yes, they've been honourable and noble - to a veritable fault - yet gained nothing thereby; ever acted the idealist and the dreamer (of better things), but with their heads held firmly in the clouds have signally failed to achieve practical results 'on the ground', for which their own supporters would surely argue New Zealanders themselves have been the losers...

Yet there is an answer to such dilemmas, and that is, to adopt Tau Henare's catchy phrase, worthy of the language of the Good Book itself (about the Messianic Age to Come wherein the Christ will indeed one day soon 

rule/reign in the midst of His enemies)

for the Greens to rule from the cross-benches, thus achieving 'the best of both worlds': i.e. being able to effectively and authentically distance themselves from the ongoing faults, failings and other foibles - not to mention outright outrageous disasters and devastations small and great wrought - of the major party they're naturally aligned to, and so protect their voter base, but moreover even extend this base by managing to successfully 'prosecute' the particular principles and policies/measures they heartily believe in, effectively putting these up for general cross-parliamentary debate by and voting on of all other parties in the chamber (of Parliament)...

...and occasionally, if only occasionally - but progressively, by-and-by - getting some of these accepted by and embraced/supported by others in Parliament, thus getting increasing community 'buy-in' for their agenda...which, in the longer run if not in the shorter term, might well help increase voter buy-in also... 

So no, Mr Hosking et al, for the Green Party to achieve power at all costs, to sell their soul for the baubles of office, thus gaining and exercising tangible political power whilst in the process selling out their essential agenda and principles, and likewise merely achieving a few minor rungs on the ladder of real legislative change, is most definitely not in the Greens' interests, long-term or otherwise...

...that is, if being in the political game is really about tangible change and progression of a positive agenda, and not just about the cynical manipulation of the levers of power by small self-interested cliques and elites, something it would seem other political 'players' know all too much about...

*However this election (result and background) is far from normal, and since it is now apparent that a sizable number of National Party voters crossed over to prevent the Green Party exercising any let alone a major role in Labour's governance, Labour itself is only too well aware of this situation, and hence realizes such cross-over voters would readily feel betrayed if too many concessions let alone levers of power were given the Greens, and so feels unable to offer such this time around...

...though even the small favours which look set to be dished out may ultimately prove too high a price for the Green Party to pay for their formal support of a Labour Government...

But anyhow Labour now can govern on its lonesome, and so has no absolute need of such political cannon fodder, which otherwise could prove only too useful for getting out of any (periodic) jam...

Post-Election Reflections and Ruminations: Afterthoughts Upon Aotearoa-New Zealand's First (& Hopefully Last) 'Covid' Election

This will take the form of a number of bullet-points, to get my ideas 'on the rung' before they become hopelessly outdated...

*Quite apart from my (conservatively assessed) electorate seat (number) predictions upon the election's eve, which were so close to most opinion poll results as to be rather lame and to my mind tiresomely predictable, what I did in particular get way off/out - probably like most other observers, however, truth be told - was my very strong sense/conviction that however (1)incredibly well the Labour Party in particular did in the bigger cities (and somewhat lesser so in the larger provincial towns and small cities), they'd be absolutely wiped out in the rural districts, to the extent that National and Act would garner 60 and 15/20 % respectively and Labour and the Greens but 20% between them, Labour's share but 15% ...

But as we all now well know, my predictions - like those of the commentariat generally - were way off the mark, even 'missing' the extent of Labour's landslide victory altogether, though truth be told many earlier assessments held strongly to this very possibility (if not likelihood)...

*As to thy other 'raw data' aspects of the result, I'll leave that for the time being, except to note 'how [verily] the mighty have fallen', from 'the Right Honourable' (2)Winston Peters through to (one-time Earthquake Recovery Minister) Gerry Brownlee through to longstanding Nelson M.P. (and ofttimes Conservation/Environment Minister) Nick Smith...

*The graciousness of (some) such longstanding MPs going personally to their winning opponents' victory parties, whilst 

*In the minutes preceding the Prime Minister's 'Acceptance Speech' we also witnessed the extremely ungracious speech of Labour's (3)deputy leader Kelvin Davis...

...itself exceeded, were that possible, in overbearingness (and sheer insufferability) anyhow, by Tova O'Brien's all too typical determination to make the messenger become the message, the journo with bad attitude in spades, and only too willing to display the same, however hilariously ridiculous...

...whilst her Newshub Nation colleague Paddy Gower gave us side-splitting hysterics as per usual with his ape-like physical antics and prowess as the countdown went quite literally down-to-the-very-wire in the Maori electorate of Waiariki, and ultimately (naturally, pending specials) was won by the Maori Party.

*But due kudos - with knobs on - to the outstandingly and relentlessly positive Chloe Swarbruck, who wrested the highly contested and contestable seat of Auckland Central with the sort of door-to-door campaigning that would've made Yours Truly proud back during his own run in 2008...

(1) Yet - and admittedly I've hardly had the time or leisure to thus far dissect the myriad details of electoral results at large - why, when Labour was handily winning rural electorates of such a blue hue as Rangitata, they only gained 48-49% of votes overall, is utterly beyond me...as it seemed to me, prior to the election admittedly, that were they to be thrashed in ruraldom, garnering only 15-20% of the votes there (as outlined above), yet with their 40 percent-some in provincial New Zealand, and their 60%-some in the larger cities, they'd easily gain 50% plus...

...so, when on election night they bested National so convincingly in rural NZ, it seemed to me they ought to be obtaining 55-60% of votes overall, so something's awry somewhere surely...

(2) No sooner was the ouster of Peters and his (longstanding phoenix-from-the-ashes) party officially confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt than the vultures immediately started circling, sensing blood aplenty in his particular vicinity, and thus and so we had the unholy and unedifying scenario not even a day on of shadowy journalistic paparazzi stalking him and his partner as they tried in vain to elude their erstwhile pursuers; generous recompense no doubt for someone who - love 'im or loathe 'im - has unquestionably given more personal service (at least quantitatively-speaking), baubles of office notwithstanding, to NZ Inc over a lifetime political career than any other politician over the past half-century...

(3) Someone whose removal (for this and other reasons) was vigorously and vociferously opposed on Sunday's Newshub Nation by former (NZ First/Mauri/National) M.P. and now professional political  commentator Tau Henare, Henare urging Labour's Maori caucus to rebel if Davis' removal was actioned.    

Postscript:

It seems to me anyway, someone incidentally 'for the record' who's twice voted their way (and twice been strongly tempted to), that New Zealand First made two fundamental errors going into this election: failing to highlight the unpopular policies they effectively blocked; and likewise failing to highlight their many and various successful 'runs on the board'...

...instead as it so transpired flailing about in last-minute, last-ditch efforts to distance themselves from and severely criticize the Government that they more than any other party played such a significant role in shaping, whether ultimately for good or ill...

... a thing that was simply too far a stretch for your average voter to fall for and not see through...

They'd have stood a far greater chance of at least crossing the MMP threshold and returning to Parliament, where, like the Green Party, - if not an actual part (and parcel) of the new Labour Government - they could at least and indeed have 'rule[d] from the cross-benches' (since their centrist philosophy has ever been far more appealing to the average kiwi than that of the Greens)...

Yes, they could and should have highlighted the 'stuff' Labour promoted/wished to achieve, which they prevented, such as

*Repealing the Three Strikes and You're Out' law;

*the Capital Gains Tax

etcetera (I simply can't remember any others at present, but I know there are aplenty)...whilst 

highlighting all the policy successes they helped bring about, 

whatever those were (and indeed there were a number, but I'm afraid my memory has failed again, and I must go and attend to the rest of my life, and ipso pronto!)

To Be Continued (somewhere awhile down the line)...

But Irrespective of Whether Our Prime Minister (Jacinda Ardern) Is Gifted the Nobel Peace Prize for Her Handling of the Christchurch Mosque Shootings and Her Adept Handling of Covid-19...She Ought to Receive the Nobel Peace Prize In/For Diplomacy...For, In Responding to a Really Tricky Question from Si and Phil (on the Newstalk ZB Afternoon Show), Saying (As to One Quality Which She Would Use to Describe Morning Show Host - and National Party Cheerleader Extraordinaire - Mike Hosking): ASSERTIVENESS!!! Nuff Said, Folks, Milady's Forbearance Evidently Knows No Bounds...

'Thank God' the Wellington-Based New Zealand National Library Has At Last Seen Sense...and Abandoned its Philistinian Plan to Cull 60/70,000-Odd Books of Historical Moment From Its Archives

 Apparently, only for the moment, i.e. until after our general election is done and dusted, over and out...

So here's hoping...-and congratulations Christopher Finlayson and Helen Clark, for your written/verbal representations thereabouts, whatever our differing political/ideological perspectives on all manner of issues, at last we see eye-to-eye upon this one wee matter...

and our Western cultural/literary heritage is actually really no itsy-bitsy thing, no indeed...

The Obsession With ANYTHING & EVERYTHING Which Happens to 'Go Viral' and/or Otherwise Incur Much Web Traffic...Reveals More than Perhaps Anything Else Not Only How Shallow and Superficial But Just How Very Sick Western Society Has Now Become...Showing How Mere Numbers (as in Quantity) Now Ever Trumps Quality...By Which Measure Adolf Hitler Was Of Course a Runaway Success as He Most Certainly Had Pretty Well the Entire German Populace of His Day Eating Off His Lap and Lapping Up Almost Everything He Spouted Off...and, By Clear and Obvious Contrast, Jesus Christ Ended His Earthly Life To All Appearances an Abject Loser On Almost All Conceivable Fronts...

Yet I know which of these two I'd like to be backing, or rather have backing me, on Judgment Day... 

Returning to the Nobel Peace Prize, As I Attempted to Post Last Friday Eve/First Thing Saturday Morning (The Sabbath Notwithstanding), In Cognizance of 'The Importance of Being Earnest' (As Some Literary Wag Expressed Things), A Joint Prize To Both Aotearoa-New Zealand's Own Jacinda Ardern and Sweden's Greta Thunberg Seems Most Likely (And Perhaps the Delay in Announcing This Has Been Because They Now Well Realize That Inserting the Same in the Midst of Our General Election Countdown Might Not Happen to Go Down All That Well With Everyone Concerned)

& Speaking of 'Screwing the Scrum'...What A Complete and Utter, But El Typical, Bureaucratic Shemozzle: Vis-a-Vis the (NZ General Election) Voting Paper Stuff-Ups

(Three) Necessary Disclaimers:

Firstly, yes I well realize Aotearoa-New Zealand is certainly not alone in this, that verily there are much bigger fish in the global ocean presently undergoing some very deep frying, sizzling and charcoaling...

Secondly, I've personally ever loathed and detested New Zealand's traditional religion, its longstanding household god rugby...

Thirdly, I've ever disliked and found quite cringeworthy and almost vulgar the associated verb (and all its like) so commonly employed in describing the procreative act...

Yet, all those caveats notwithstanding...

What a typical bureaucratic shemozzle...i.e. the inexplicable, unaccountable - unless for innate, underlying (anti-certain off-the-wall (in particular) parties) political biases - omission of party lists and names from voter packs (apparently across the country)...

...alongside various other such glaring omissions emerging out of the woodwork over recent days and weeks as nationwide radio networks (RNZ National in particular) have been reporting...

To Be Continued (before I run myself right ragged and further down, down, down...)  

No, We Ain't 'Screwing the Scrum', Really We're Not...Vis-a-Vis New Zealand's 'End-of-Life'/'Assisted Dying'/Euthanasia/Assisted Suicide Referendum: Or When Orwellian 'NEWSPEAK' (aka Eric Blair's '1984') Gets Taken to a Whole New Level...

Though this isn't written to re-litigate the euthanasia debate, happening to listen in for a few minutes this morning (to RNZ National's weekly 'Media Watch') to a conversation upon such referenda between reporter Hayden Vennall and Auckland University politics lecturer Lara Greaves... 

I couldn't help myself from - far from even reading between the lines as such - hearing a less than tacit, a veritable explicit admission by said political expert...

...that the actual wording of the question (for the 'end of life choice' referendum) - doubtless as for any and every other such referendum - is all-important...(i.e. in determining peoples' responses)...

Which wouldn't raise an eyebrow - even Judith's, I assume/presume - except for this (fact): the pro-Smacking Ban folk (who'd succeeded a little while previously in seeing Sue Bradford's infamous repeal of Section 91 of the Crimes Act enacted into law - otherwise known as the anti-smacking law of 2007/2008), whether before, during and/or after the debate upon that well-remembered referendum back in P.M. John Key's early years, stressed the selfsame point. 

Which was why selfsame 'experts' were subsequently able to explain away the resounding defeat for Ms Bradford's (Labour Government-endorsed) smacking ban (already passed into law in the dying days of the Helen Clark-led Government)...i.e. as a badly-worded question, which, and oh how very, incredibly - if predictably and typically - condescending and patronizing of them, they claimed had confused the voters thereupon, that the voters had misunderstood that question...

...the clear and obvious implication being, if they really had understood it aright, they'd have voted accordingly, i.e. against the (referendum) proposition to overturn the legislation banning smacking. A triple negative being hard to digest/comprehend at the best of times, I'm suggesting selfsame experts really, truly believed the voters would actually maintain the recently-legislated ban on smacking. Clear as mud?

Or so they self-delusionally tried to convince themselves... 

Anyhow, the new National Government never carried out/put into legal effect the clear (87%:13%) referendum edict (of the voters), leaving intact the (smacking ban) status quo (which, to be fair, they themselves had taken over the line under (now, Sir) John Key's (pre-Prime Ministership) very fleet-footed, conciliatory, and (political masterstroke) leadership when the then 'anti-smacking bill' was struggling to get over the line).

Just as Nelson M.P. (Dr) Nick Smith et al rather endlessly banged on about in parliamentary select committee debates late last and early this year on the same (i.e. end-of-life) referendum question, pointing out the vast difference between calling the upcoming-and-now-present referendum on ending one's life by every conceivable euphemism imaginable...anything and everything, in other words, except calling it what it most patently is: assisting people to commit suicide.

Another case of conveniently 'screwing the scrum' when(ever) it so happens to suit your particular (side of the) argument? You tell me, but, as I often say about this, that and especially the other (particular matter under discussion),

*/**If it looks like a ............, if it sounds like a ............, and if it talks like a ............, hey, folks, -no, it ain't rocket science- it usually is ............ 

*You fill in the missing word; though admittedly I simply can't recall it this mo, I believe there are any number of alternative possibilities which would well suffice...

**Alternatively, you might also find my similarly-(en)titled 42-pager in the run-up to the 2016 American Presidential Election - posted on my original blogsite, i.e.

http://nuffsaid:consideryourself-frombothsidesnow.blogspot.co.nz/ (or .com/)

on August 22nd, 2016 - 

worth a read/looking at, and not just for this reason...

It's entitled

Yes, They Really Suppose They've Got Us All Fooled: or, If It Looks Like A Set-Up, & It Walks Like a Set-Up, & It Talks Like a Set-Up...Hey Folks - "Wise Up" (& Fast!) - Perhaps It Really Is A Con Job - or, alternatively: The 2016 American Presidential Election A Real Jack-Up? Why, Yes Indeed, And In More Ways Than Might Appear; From Its Very Inception, Moreover; And With Bill Clinton Himself Holding the Trump Card

But Perhaps 'the Donald' Et Al Might Well Share That Particular Trophy With the Singer-Songwriter Gunned Down 40 Years Ago Today (i.e. John Lennon) Who Gifted Our World With the Gracious and, I Dare Say, Almost Inspired Song IMAGINE...A Song Which has Inspired the Generations to Reach Up and Beyond the Dictates of Petty Bickering and Beastly Bloodshed to Hope for a Better World Beyond...

Though, in all too typical contradiction to *what I've just written, that particular goal will never be possible of accomplishment without the good and gracious interposition and intervention of One Whose purposes of goodness towards His human creation will continue forever...

*For, as those familiar with Imagine well recollect, Lennon (fervently) expresses his desire/wish to achieve world peace and harmony without the Good Lord...

...a 'dream' which I respectfully suggest is simply not possible of fulfilment and so will ultimately fail...

You Might Believe I've REALLY Gone Off The Deep End This Time, and Moreover That My Particular 'Pick' is the Height (or rather, Depth) of Treason - to my Own Nation - But I Have A Rather Inconceivable Choice for This Year's (or, perhaps more aptly, this demi/semi-decade's) Soon-to-be Announced NOBEL PEACE Prize Winner. And Whom Do I Pick? You Guessed It, Yes, 'the man himself', and for One and Only One Reason (but I Suggest it's a Pretty Good One): 'For' - as Someone Variously Described as Narcissistic (to an Extreme), Psychotic, Even Pathological (and Much More Besides, Little of it Remotely Flattering Much Less Positive) 'Not (Re)Acting According to Type and Precipitating World War 111' (as Yet, Anyway), Though According to Every Sane Assessment, Evaluation and Prediction He's So Extremely Erratic and Utterly Unpredictable and Unstable, Let Alone Seemingly Uniquely Insecure and Unhinged, He Ought to Have Done So Lickety-Split, Pretty Well Upon Arrival at the White House/in the Oval Office - the Current Commander-in-Chief of the United States of America...And for THAT 'Small' Mercy/Blessing, I Respectfully Suggest Everyone and Everybody Everywhere Ought to Be Supremely Thankful (If Not to Him Directly As Such, At the Very Least to the ONE Holding Everything in Check; 'the One' (as the great Apostle Paul Once Wrote) 'in [Whom] we live and move and have our being')...

The selfsame reason, in fact, I've come to regard Ronald Reagan as a great President...despite every likelihood and prediction by (left-of-centre) scaremongers and the like - and I certainly was doubtless one (if a then silent member) of this populous 'club' - he didn't start World War 111...

despite having every conceivable pretext and excuse for so doing...

But once again, One wielding supreme authority over this little earthly orb - whilst 'employing' the efforts of President Reagan and Pope John Paul the Second in an historic pact and secret alliance which put paid in near record time to the Eastern Bloc - and ultimately the Soviet Union, the U(nited) S(oviet) S(ocialist) R(epublics) itself/themselves - had, I again respectfully suggest, the very last word on the matter...

Praise the LORD!  ('Coz if He hadn't, folk, we wouldn't even be here discussing the matter, would we.)

 

Incidentally - 'by the way' - where are all the tried and true 'radicals', all the perennial protesters and other assorted 'agitators', those who cannot rest at ease one solitary night lest they can point out the sins, flaws, failings and other faults of the U S of A (in particular), when it comes to China's much-oppressed ethnic Uighurs? Your Collective Silence is Quite Deafening, Folks...and Despite All the Shortcomings of America - and even Australia of recent times - at least they're prepared to be counted when it comes to ACTIVELY and VOCIFEROUSLY protesting - to the relevant (i.e. Chinese) authorities - their shameless and shameful (mis)treatment of this much-oppressed People

"It is Understood in the Good Book...the Separation Between Church and State...THAT is Clearly Spelled Out." Yep, Winston (the Right Honourable W Peters, NZ Deputy Prime Minister), I Couldn't Have Put It Better Myself...

 To Be Continued...

Here[in] is [W]isdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six

As my *600th blogpost (upon my main, original two blogsites), I couldn't resist posting this scripture, all the more coming upon the heels of a debate in the U S of A - nicknamed 'interruptus horribilis' by some wag - wherein one particular participant therein, 

has **elsewhere been 'equated' with a number of other scriptures, if not ***this one in particular, scriptures all (of which) delineate in somewhat clear and distinct, stark and anything but glowing - rather glowering - colours,

a personage - the biblical Antichrist - who is therein described (and by such words and terms) as

a vile person

to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom

but he shall come in peaceably, 

and obtain the kingdom by flatteries

a king of fierce countenance

understanding dark sentences

And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand

and he shall magnify himself in his heart

a little horn...[having] eyes like the eyes of a man,

and a mouth speaking great things

that horn that had eyes,

and a mouth that spake very great things,

whose look was more stout than his fellows

****Etcetera etcetera etcetera...

Though I happen, as someone with a fairly thorough knowledge of such scriptures, to believe these refer far more aptly and precisely, to another class of personage altogether,

I'll admit they do contain a number of notable and unmistakable resonances with and to a certain individual whose advent into political life and world affairs seems to indicate our world may well never be the same again...

yet - praise the LORD - as I say elsewhere (awhile ago) both upon this very blogsite and upon my original one,

http://nuffsaid: consideryourself-frombothsidesnow.blogspot.co.nz/ (or .com/)

the truly Great One will ultimately have the last laugh...

*****at the last trump (sic)...the trump (sic) of God  

*520th upon this, my second blogsite.

**By Benjamin Corey (elsewhere referred to upon this blogsite, and others of mine).

***I.e my blogpost title.

****Assorted scriptures from the King James Bible.

*****Specific, Second Advent-related scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, (King James Version): i.e. 1 Corinthians 15: 52 and 1 Thessalonians 4: 16. 

What, moreover, has greatly intrigued and even fascinated me ever since re-stumbling upon said verses over recent years (i.e. since Donald J Trump's own 'advent' to the White House, and indeed since his name was really 'out there' following his announcement of standing for the Republican Party's presidential nomination back in 2014, 2015 or whenever) was that said King James Bible is the one and only Bible version employing that particular verbal form of 'trumpet', and indeed (in 1 Corinthians 15:52, anyhow) also employs that selfsame alternate term 'trumpet' therein, only serving to strengthen said word and concept association further - to my own understanding, anyhow...