The BFD https://thebfd.co.nz Your One Source of Truth Mon, 18 Mar 2024 21:17:53 +0000 en-NZ hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://thebfd.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/cropped-bfd-32x32.jpg The BFD https://thebfd.co.nz 32 32 162746376 Indoor Shotgun Range!? https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/indoor-shotgun-range/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=indoor-shotgun-range https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/indoor-shotgun-range/#disqus_thread Tue, 19 Mar 2024 07:00:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903328 Enjoy a BFD curated video this evening. We search the internet for the best new media news and entertainment videos for our readers so that they don’t have to.]]> ]]> https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/indoor-shotgun-range/feed/ 0 903328 James Shaw to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/james-shaw-to-the-minister-of-foreign-affairs-winston-peters/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=james-shaw-to-the-minister-of-foreign-affairs-winston-peters https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/james-shaw-to-the-minister-of-foreign-affairs-winston-peters/#disqus_thread Tue, 19 Mar 2024 06:30:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903327 Enjoy a BFD curated video this evening. We search the internet for the best new media news and entertainment videos for our readers so that they don’t have to.]]> ]]> https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/james-shaw-to-the-minister-of-foreign-affairs-winston-peters/feed/ 0 903327 Mike’s Minute: Two Areas Where the Government Might Have Trouble https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/mikes-minute-two-areas-where-the-government-might-have-trouble/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mikes-minute-two-areas-where-the-government-might-have-trouble https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/mikes-minute-two-areas-where-the-government-might-have-trouble/#disqus_thread Tue, 19 Mar 2024 06:00:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903326 Enjoy a BFD curated video this evening. We search the internet for the best new media news and entertainment videos for our readers so that they don’t have to.]]> ]]> https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/mikes-minute-two-areas-where-the-government-might-have-trouble/feed/ 0 903326 The BFD Daily Roundup https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/the-bfd-daily-roundup-1282/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-bfd-daily-roundup-1282 https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/the-bfd-daily-roundup-1282/#disqus_thread Tue, 19 Mar 2024 05:30:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903163 Just a brief note to readers who like to add their own contributions to Daily Roundup in the comments. This post is for family-friendly humour ONLY thank you.]]> ]]> https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/the-bfd-daily-roundup-1282/feed/ 0 903163 The BFD Backchat https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/the-bfd-backchat-1491/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-bfd-backchat-1491 https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/the-bfd-backchat-1491/#disqus_thread Tue, 19 Mar 2024 05:00:13 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=902958 On Backchat, you are free to share your own stories, discuss other news or catch up with friends. To participate you'll need to sign up for a Disqus account which is free, quick, and easy.]]>

Good evening, welcome to Backchat.

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Today in Rock History https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/today-in-rock-history-1798/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=today-in-rock-history-1798 https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/today-in-rock-history-1798/#disqus_thread Tue, 19 Mar 2024 04:30:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=901145 Today in Rock History is a music orientated segment where we would like to encourage readers to share their thoughts and tastes in music and discuss the various aspects of any music topic.]]>

Today in Rock History is a music orientated segment where we would like to encourage readers to share their thoughts and tastes in music and discuss the various aspects of any music topic. This post is not limited to rock music. You are encouraged to bring anything music-related along that you would like to share, either by typing the name of a song and artist into the comments section or by sharing a youtube, Vimeo, Spotify or SoundCloud link. If you are unsure how to add a link, simply write the name of the song and the composer and someone may very well do it for you.

Music is a huge part of peoples lives even if we aren’t all music enthusiasts. Music is all around us in advertising, background noise in shops and on the streets. It’s inescapable when you have teenagers but for most of us, it is a huge part (if not a ritual) of our lives that we feel close to.

So kick back and enjoy Nechtan’s Today in Rock History playlist and see what new gems you discover.

Today in Rock History:

Born today in 1944, Tom Constanten keyboardist with The Grateful Dead.

Born today in 1946, Paul Atkinson guitarist with The Zombies.

Born today in 1953, Ricky Wilson songwriter and guitarist with The B-52’s.

Today in 1975, Kiss released their third studio album “Dressed to Kill”.


Died today in 1976, Paul Kossoff songwriter and guitarist with Black Cat Bones, Free, Back Street Crawler and solo aged 26.


Killed in a plane crash today 1982, Randy Rhoads songwriter and guitarist with Quiet Riot and Ozzy Osbourne aged 25.

Today in 1983, Bonnie Tyler went to number 1 in the UK singles chart with “Total Eclipse Of The Heart”.

Please feel free to share this article to a social media platform of your choice. Help keep rock alive!

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Transcript of an Excerpt From a Censored Video of 2022 https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/transcript-of-an-excerpt-from-a-censored-video-of-2022/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=transcript-of-an-excerpt-from-a-censored-video-of-2022 https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/transcript-of-an-excerpt-from-a-censored-video-of-2022/#disqus_thread Tue, 19 Mar 2024 03:30:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903208 TRANSCRIBER B transcriberb.dreamwidth.org Transcribing missed information for the historical record since 2021. Transcriber B’s Substack provides updates to and spotlights on the List of Transcriptions (2021-2023) by Transcriber B. I make no apologies for bias. This is part of the historical record. You can view the List of Transcriptions here, and read about its genesis and nature, […]]]>

TRANSCRIBER B

transcriberb.dreamwidth.org

Transcribing missed information for the historical record since 2021.

Transcriber B’s Substack provides updates to and spotlights on the List of Transcriptions (2021-2023) by Transcriber B.

I make no apologies for bias. This is part of the historical record. You can view the List of Transcriptions here, and read about its genesis and nature, and also find my contact information here.


TRANSCRIPT – EXCERPT

18:36
BRENTON FAITHFULL: So embalming is for, for three reasons. And I qualify that I was part of the Embalmers Association as a, as a president for two years, as a secretary for four years, on the executive committee for three years, so embalming was, was very much part of, part of what I, what I do.

So when, when we embalm a person we’re, we’re, we’re trying to achieve three things. The sanitation of the body, the preservation of the body, and the presentation, the restoration of the person who, who has passed. So we’re trying to create a memory image that is, is— So we introduce a fluid into the body which is designed to do these three things. The fluid is made up of many different components and each pre-embalming analysis that you do, you choose the fluid according to the case that you have.

So ideally one uses the, one uses the circulatory system of the, of the body, i.e., the, the arteries and the veins. So when you, when you inject into the body, it’s going to displace the fluids that are contained within the blood supply, so some of the blood will come out because of the internal, internal pressure.

Now ideally, you don’t want to have any clots. You know, over the years we’ve always experienced some sort of clot, clotting factors and, and sometimes it’s to do with the condition of the, or the disease specific condition the person is suffering with. We do get post-mortem clots as well.

20:11
But over the last 2 and a half years in embalming, I’ve seen a different kind kind of clot. And I’ve spoken to other embalmers, they too have seen them. I’ve seen also research from overseas firms saying the same thing. All embalmers must be seeing this, I can’t be the only one who’s seeing these.  But we’re not hearing anyone speaking out. Pathologists have seen them as well in bodies that have had autopsies or postmortems. Pathologists are seeing these clots as well.

LIZ GUNN: And when you say they’re different, are they different in as far as you have never seen anything like this before? Or have you seen some like these before?

BRENTON FAITHFULL: No, I’ve never seen anything like these. These can be long. There’s coagular can be quite long and stringy but these are, these are often white, grey coloured. The ones I’m seeing have been small, just 25 millimetres long and probably around 5 millimetres thickness. So that, and there’s not just one or two, there’s dozens if not hundreds of these.

And I’m finding it in vaccinated bodies not unvaccinated bodies. And that’s, that’s, that’s the amazing thing. So that’s what drawing attention to, these clots that I’ve seen, unusual— So I’ve spoken to my colleagues and they’re saying, yes, we’re seeing them, too.

LIZ GUNN [to camera]: That is really significant, mainstream media. Investigate this. Investigate it. Go to every pathologist, every embalmer, every funeral director and ask if they are seeing this. This is your job. To our New Zealand mainstream media.

BRENTON FAITHFULL: So I’m aware also, those clots have been analyzed as well and they’re not a blood clot, as well. The composition of those clots is something different. And normally the minerals that would appear from blood to cause coagular and clotting. So it’s almost an amyloid type of clot caused by a combination of, of protein and, and carbohydrate. It’s an unusual phenomenon, so the body is manufacturing something inside that is causing these clots to occur.

LIZ GUNN: What does that word, amyloid, mean?

BRENTON FAITHFULL: Well, it’s a combination of, of, of protein and, and, and—

LIZ GUNN: Right, so if you were to squeeze this, if you were to squeeze a normal clot, would it, would it be viscous and it would sort of give way? Is this clot different?

BRENTON FAITHFULL: A clot generally is quite hard. And it’s generally made— it’s a dark colour and it’s, and then you get coagular which is almost jelly-like. If you have a bloody nose and  you know it falls in the bowl you can coagular form which is a jelly-like thing and eventually that blood would clot over time. But this is, these are very different clots.

LIZ GUNN: What do they feel like?

BRENTON FAITHFULL: They’re rubbery. They’re hard. And, and, and, you can, you can slice them and you can [inaudible] them. But—

LIZ GUNN: What else are you seeing that’s as unusual as that? That, that’s unnerving.

BRENTON FAITHFULL: Well that’s pretty unusual, so but I don’t believe they’re appearing after death. I think they’re there in life. So there are people who, who die of— and normally a, a, a blood clot would form in the leg and would put conditions such as deep vein thrombosis. Thrombosis is a, is a blood clot. When it, when it moves from where it is it’s an emboli, and the emboli can travel through. It comes to the lungs or the brain or the heart. It would, it would stop those organs from functioning properly.

LIZ GUNN: Are you getting a sense that these clots are travelling around the body as well?

BRENTON FAITHFULL: I do.

23:31
LIZ GUNN: From, from, how do you tell that? Is that from where you have to reinject to get the embalming fluid through?

BRENTON FAITHFULL: Yes, yes. Ideally it would be nice to inject from one, one position on the body, to introduce the fluid. But I’m finding you need to use multiple point injections, so 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 different locations.

LIZ GUNN: What would you like to see, Brenton, to come from your, your absolute courage speaking up? Because this is a courageous act by you.

BRENTON FAITHFULL: Well I’d like to see more people speaking up about it. I’m sure there are health professionals who know exactly what I’m talking about. I’m sure there’s doctors who know exactly what I’m talking about. I would like to see other funeral home operators speak out as well. Because I feel I’m not the only one. So there needs to be an inquiry into, into the vaccine, and I’m sure, in time, there will. A Royal Commission inquiry perhaps into the whole covid process.

LIZ GUNN: The whole covid response.

BRENTON FAITHFULL: Response.

LIZ GUNN: The roll out.

BRENTON FAITHFULL: Yes.

LIZ GUNN: What gave you that inordinate courage to be the first man standing on this one? [inaudible]

BRENTON FAITHFULL: Believe me, it wasn’t an easy, easy decision because I know that there will be people out there who will criticize or, or, or call me an embarrassment to the industry. I’ve seen that on a, on a comment. I don’t feel I’m an embarrassment to the industry at all. I feel that I’m a sensitive funeral director and have done my job well and properly for 41 years. I wouldn’t be a funeral director for forty-one years if I hadn’t.

LIZ GUNN: Absolutely! And the fact you’re doing this is going to give your profession some credibility with many Kiwis because we can believe that there are still some left with your level of courage. What, what gave you that courage, that determination to be the first one?

BRENTON FAITHFULL: One of my mentors when I first started said, do your job well, Brenton, and keep your nose clean, is what he said to me. Which means don’t get up to any mischief or anything. But beyond, beyond keeping your nose clean, I feel that people have a right, a right to know what, what’s happening. And everyone knows someone who’s been adversely effected by, by a vaccine whether it’s an injury or whether it’s death. I think we’re all waking up. And the worldwide statistics that are coming out now are showing more and more people are, are dying in— and, and from natural causes they’re claiming.

LIZ GUNN: And, and it’s so strange, when one stands up more will stand. And I think this is what will happen.

BRENTON FAITHFULL: I hope so. I really hope so.

LIZ GUNN: Are you in touch with any of those overseas courageous warrior men who stood up? John O’Looney is one.[1]

BRENTON FAITHFULL: I have spoken to John O’Looney and in fact he and I are going to do an interview together.[2]

LIZ GUNN: Nice.

BRENTON FAITHFULL: But it must be remembered, I’m not after fame or fortune, it’s not my, my nature to, to speak out and, and go public. I’m very public in my community as well, I’m involved in many things, but it hasn’t been my nature, believe me, and so it was a hard decision to, to, to [inaudible] because everything’s on the line.

LIZ GUNN: Everything? Explain that.

BRENTON FAITHFULL: Well, someone came up to me at a funeral recently and said, and this has been on other interviews, I was in the supermarket, Bunnings at [inaudible] and a funeral director came up to me and we started speaking about the covid cases and he had written an article to the New Zealand Herald. And there was a knock at the door from the police. It wasn’t a phone call, it was a knock door by the police, requesting that he stop that line of, of, of writing, not to do it again or his business will be in jeopardy.

27:05
[UNRELATED NEWS STORY]
29:18

LIZ GUNN: That is frightening. The police should be doing the absolute opposite of that, investigating if there is a case to answer.

BRENTON FAITHFULL: Someone came to me— I did make a social media post saying that the, the number of vaccine injuries is quite significant, while the number of deaths occurring by vaccine is significant. That’s all I put. The man came up to me at the talk and said, I took your comment to the police. And I questioned him, and he said, I wanted them to investigate, if I’m making that claim, why aren’t they investigating someone who has made this claim? And they said, oh you shouldn’t be saying that, and, and dismissed him. So he asked me, well did the police come? No they didn’t. They didn’t investigate at all.

LIZ GUNN: That’s extraordinary. The police’s role is the total opposite. To, to get feedback from the public, to investigate if there’s truth, and if they did investigate this they would find there is great truth.
30:21
[END OF EXCERPT]

#   #   #

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:

[1] UK funeral director John O’Looney has spoken out about many issues, including the white clots he has been finding in bodies after the jabs roll out. See for example:
UK Funeral Director John O’Looney Talks About the White Clots
“This one, this one here came out of the aorta. From the heart. They take the shape of the vessels that they’re growing in, totally, and they gradually fill the vessels as they grow. And, and these, obviously, that’s what’s killed him.”
Transcript: https://transcriberb.dreamwidth.org/137802.html

[2] I believe Faithfull refers to the interview that he, John O’Looney, and American embalmer Richard Hirschman gave to InfoWars, October 9, 2022
https://www.infowars.com/posts/funeral-directors-embalmers-unite-to-expose-a-day-in-the-death-of-life/

For more transcripts of videos with testimony with various funeral directors about the white clots, see:
https://transcriberb.dreamwidth.org/138644.html

Source video:
Whistleblowing Kiwi Funeral Director Brenton Faithfull
FreeNZ, October 6, 2022
https://odysee.com/@FreeNZ:d/220930—BrentonFaithfull:5

Hat tip: Funeral director Brenton Faithfull reports novel rubbery clots in vaxxed, but not unvaxxed, corpses
frankploegman, October 8, 2022
https://rumble.com/v1n5882-funeral-director-brenton-faithfull-reports-rubbery-clots-in-vaxxed-but-not-.html
via: CoronavirusPlushie

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Beware the Ides of Queensland https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/beware-the-ides-of-queensland/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beware-the-ides-of-queensland https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/beware-the-ides-of-queensland/#disqus_thread Tue, 19 Mar 2024 03:00:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903309 “Giggles” Miles isn’t smiling now.]]>

The left media have attention spans which make goldfish seem like wellsprings of ancient wisdom. Unless it happened on their TikTok feed in the last hour, it’s as remote on their consciousness as the Sack of Nineveh.

For instance, when the Morrison government was dumped, the MSM were cock-a-whoop that all but one government in Australia was now Labor. “The Libs are finished!”, they crowed.

But then, they’ve been saying the same thing about the Bad Orange Man for the last eight years.

By contrast, anyone with the faintest grasp of Australian electoral history (or the ability to use a search engine) would know that this is a recurring phenomenon in Australia. As is its reverse, with the Libs ascendant across the board. Yet the horking seals of the MSM bellowed the same idiot chorus in the early 2000s, with their undies especially steamed when, very briefly, Australia had wall-to-wall Labor governments (as it did the Liberals, in the late 60s).

It’s entirely possible that we’ll have wall-to-wall Labor again, after next week’s Tasmanian election.

And it will be just as brief as it was last time: Labor is looking almost certain to be booted from Queensland, in its state election, due in six months.

Labor is on the brink of losing the heartland state seat of Ipswich West after a brutal swing against Steven Miles’s ALP, but will hold Annastacia Palaszczuk’s old seat of Inala despite a voter backlash, after a Super Saturday of elections.

Insider ALP analysis provided to The Australian predicts a final two-party-preferred vote in Ipswich West, on Brisbane’s outskirts, of 53 per cent to the LNP’s Darren Zanow and 47 per cent to Labor’s Wendy Bourne, a swing against Labor of 17.4 per cent.

The Australian

With an election due in October, and no Covid to save them this time, Labor are getting nervous.

Queensland Labor MPs are bracing for an October election wipe-out and are urging Steven Miles to do more on youth crime and cost-of-living relief to make a “big, bold” break from the Palaszczuk era, after the shock loss of a heartland seat in weekend by-elections.

Mr Miles’s backroom-driven elevation as Queensland Premier in December has failed to reverse Labor’s plummeting popularity.

The Liberal National Party need a statewide 6% swing to win majority government. The swing in Ipswich West was 17%, while the former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s electorate of Inala belted Labor with a 21% swing.

Even “Giggles” Miles has stopped laughing, now.

In the wake of Mr Miles’s first electoral test since he replaced Ms Palaszczuk in December, he conceded the weekend results were “very bad” and “even worse” than he was predicting […]

While LNP leader David Crisafulli was careful to publicly play down his optimism after the by-election rout, he said voters had shown they did not trust the government to fix the state’s ­issues.

“There is a cost-of-living crisis in Queensland, there’s a youth crime crisis in Queensland, people are struggling to keep a roof over their heads in the housing crisis, and when it comes to health, our frontline staff are buckling under pressure,” Mr Crisafulli said.

“The overwhelming message is people don’t trust this government to fix those (problems).”

Labor and union powerbrokers last year forced Pluckachook to quit, after nine years as premier, as both her personal popularity and the governments were in free fall.

The leadership swap appears to have done nothing to arrest the momentum.

Several Labor MPs and party sources told The Australian the mood in the government was grim and deflated, and there were serious concerns about whether anything could be done to save the October election […]

There was also a warning for Labor in the statewide local government elections, with Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill – a Labor member and close friend of Ms Palaszczuk – set to be booted out of office by former One Nation candidate Troy Thompson.
The north Queensland city is considered to be the epicentre of the state’s youth crime crisis, and Labor’s three state seats in Townsville hang in the balance.

In Australia’s largest local government, Brisbane City Council, Labor mayoral candidate Tracey Price suffered a 5 per cent swing against her, with the party’s primary vote slumping to its lowest level since 2012.

It is an ominous sign that the Labor brand is on the nose in Fortress Brisbane, which has been the party’s stronghold in state politics.

The Australian

If only Liberal branches in other states could get their houses in order.

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The BFD Stuff Up of the Day https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/the-bfd-stuff-up-of-the-day-1387/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-bfd-stuff-up-of-the-day-1387 https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/the-bfd-stuff-up-of-the-day-1387/#disqus_thread Tue, 19 Mar 2024 02:30:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=902450 Check out the latest media stuff ups both locally and around the world.]]> ]]> https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/the-bfd-stuff-up-of-the-day-1387/feed/ 0 902450 Laughter Is the Best Medicine https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/laughter-is-the-best-medicine-1407/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=laughter-is-the-best-medicine-1407 https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/laughter-is-the-best-medicine-1407/#disqus_thread Tue, 19 Mar 2024 02:00:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903287 The BFDThis regular daily post is the place to joke and banish negative thoughts. ]]> The BFD]]> https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/laughter-is-the-best-medicine-1407/feed/ 0 903287 Labor Dithers While More Crims Run Free https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/labor-dithers-while-more-crims-run-free/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=labor-dithers-while-more-crims-run-free https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/labor-dithers-while-more-crims-run-free/#disqus_thread Tue, 19 Mar 2024 01:30:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903310 Hundreds more bad wogs likely to be turned loose under Labor’s watch.]]>

You’ve got to hand it to the Albanese government: they’re on the ball.

It’s been nearly six months since the High Court’s “NZYQ” ruling, and Labor’s panicked rush to set loose hundreds of violent, depraved foreign-born criminals. Labor are still dithering about what to do.

A halfway competent government would have had emergency legislation prepared well ahead of the court ruling, and kept the rapists and murderers under lock and key while a challenge was mounted.

This is not even a halfway competent government.

Consequently, the whole thing is about to get even worse.

Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan says new legal challenges concerning immigration detainees could see a further 150 “hardened criminals” released into the community, bringing the total as high as 300 as the saga continues.

Mr Tehan accused Immigration Minister Andrew Giles of being “asleep at the wheel”, following media reports that he planned to mount a new defence against a fresh legal challenge concerning immigration detainees.

And our training wheels Immigration Minister is still spinning his little bike uselessly.

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles says the federal government will fight the release of more detainees by mounting a new defence in the High Court against asylum seekers who refuse to cooperate with authorities.

Mr Giles, who will come under increasing pressure on the first day of the parliamentary sitting fortnight over immigration detention, said the government would “vigorously defend” the case in the High Court.

If it’s as “vigorously” as they’ve defended the Australian community so far, then we’re really in trouble.

Opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume says the government needs to stop “pointing at the fire” and “put it out” when it comes to immigration detention.

Labor has said the bar is “too high” as it continues to apply for preventative detention orders against some of the 149 immigration detainees released following the NZYQ High Court ruling last year […]

Ms Hume said the onus was on the government to present legislative amendments which would make it easier to lock up detainees who had been released but were still deemed a public safety threat.

“It is entirely up to the government to move those amendments,” she said. “They are the ones that are dealing with the High Court’s decision and the inability to create preventative detention orders that would be legally binding … They’ve hired a whole bunch of lawyers but they don’t seem to be doing anything.”

The Australian

Oh, come now: they’re specially flying in a thousand or so more Hamas supporters.

What could go wrong?

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How Not to Spoil Kids https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/how-not-to-spoil-kids/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-not-to-spoil-kids https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/how-not-to-spoil-kids/#disqus_thread Tue, 19 Mar 2024 01:00:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903244 four children standing on dirt during daytimeA single mother who works full time says that when she gets home from work and asks her 16- and 14-year-old daughters for help with dinner, they respond, “That’s your job.”]]> four children standing on dirt during daytime

Thomas Lickona

Thomas Lickona, PhD, is a developmental psychologist, former SUNY Cortland education professor, and blogger for Psychology Today.

mercatornet.com


A single mother who works full time says that when she gets home from work and asks her 16- and 14-year-old daughters for help with dinner, they respond, “That’s your job.”

A 15-year-old boy, asked to mow the lawn, said, “Why should I mow the lawn? It’s not my lawn.”

Attitudes like these caused two-thirds of American parents to tell a Time/CNN poll they felt they had spoiled their children. 

What are American parents doing wrong?

Cultural differences

Clues come from a Harvard study decades before.

In Children of Six Cultures (1975), anthropologists Beatrice and John Whiting reported their investigation of the origins of altruism (helping others without expecting a reward).

They found a clear pattern: the more children had responsibilities that contributed to the maintenance of the families — such as taking care of younger children, caring for animals, helping to grow and harvest food, assisting with meals, and the like — the more likely they were to act in altruistic ways, not just with family members, but with people outside the family as well. 

In comparing the six cultures, the Harvard study found that children in the United States:

  • had the least responsibility for contributing to family life.
  • were the least altruistic in their behaviour toward family members and people outside the family.

A subsequent study in the journal Developmental Psychology found that children who had chores — jobs they were expected to do as contributing family members — developed a greater concern for other people.  

The takeaways for us as parents?

If parents are doing all the giving and kids all the taking in family life, should we be surprised when they become self-centred and unhelpful? 

If we want our children to become responsible rather than spoiled, they should have meaningful responsibilities in family life. Let’s look at eight ways to make that happen.

1. Start responsibility training early — and explain why you expect kids to help.

A young mother tells how she has done that:

“Ever since my children have been able to walk, I’ve made them pick up their toys. When we found we were expecting another baby, I explained that I would be very busy with the baby and would need their help.

“My 3-year-old brings the wash down every day and gets diapers, etc. when I need them. He feels good about helping and being part of the family. He also understands that by helping me do things around the house, he gives me more time to do things with him.”

2. Consider adding chores as kids get older.

A Chicago mother says, “When I was a kid, my mother and I did all the housework. My father and my three brothers never lifted a finger — they said that was ‘women’s work.’ I resolved it would be different if I ever had sons.”

She had three. Her approach to sharing household duties shows that children can do family jobs at an early age and more as they get older:

“Our boys are now 2, 4, and 6.  At this point, the system in our house is that you do one chore for each year of your age. Our 2-year-old pushes the button to start the dishwasher and puts the pillows in place when we make the beds. When he’s 3, he’ll help to set the table. 

“Our 4-year-old sets the table, dust-busts the front hall, and cleans the downstairs sink and tub. Our 6-year-old vacuums the stairs, makes his bed, washes the upstairs sink and tub, scrapes the dishes, loads the dishwasher, and pours the milk at dinner.”  

“I tell them how much I appreciate their help,” this mother says. “They’re very proud of what they do.”

3. Don’t pay kids for doing chores.

From a character development perspective, paying kids for helping in the home is counterproductive because it robs them of the opportunity to feel good about being responsible, contributing members of their family.

Chores should be a chance to grow in character — becoming a helpful person because helping others is a responsible and kind thing to do.

Starting in the elementary grades, a small allowance can be given independently — not as payment for chores but as one of the benefits, like food and shelter, of being part of a family. 

A modest allowance is also an opportunity to begin to teach kids lessons about handling money and the virtue of generosity. Consider encouraging them to save a third of their allowance, use another third for spending money, and donate a third to a charity of their choice.

4. Give kids voice in the chores plan.

Kids are more likely to get on board with your family chores plan if they have a say in it. Irene Freundorfer, a Canadian family educator, illustrates how this works in their family:

“In our house, the kitchen chore list rotates daily because the kids say they like that system the best. However, they voted that the house chores list should rotate monthly.”

(For age-appropriate chores, see “Home Care” on her 10kids.com website.)

5. Enforce the expectation that in a family, everybody shares the work.

Be clear with your kids that doing their share of family work is not an option; it’s an expectation. Just as everyone benefits from being a member of a family, everyone has responsibilities.

A mother explains how they hold kids accountable to this expectation:

“Saturdays is our main day for house chores. We all know that 1-2 hours are needed to accomplish everything. Chores must be done before any fun stuff. The kids know we will be consistent in enforcing this rule.”

6. Besides assigned chores, encourage small, everyday acts of helping.

With our patient prompting, kids can get lots of practice doing small, everyday acts of helping whenever an opportunity presents itself. This will give us many chances to thank them for being helpful and for them to think of themselves as being helpful people.

When helping is an everyday expectation, kids are more likely to experience assigned chores as just another instance of “the way we do things as a family.” To establish being helpful as the family way, we can ask kids to do things such as:

  • turn lights on or off
  • hold a door
  • play with or read to a younger brother or sister
  • bring in and/or help put away groceries
  • water plants
  • help with gardening or weeding
  • get something from another room that someone needs
  • help search for something a family member can’t find
  • help clear the table even if you’ve already cleared your things
  • help load or empty the dishwasher
  • help pick up a room, even if it’s mostly not your stuff
  • help someone make a bed
  • pick up and dispose of litter
  • bring things to a family member who’s not feeling well
  • comfort a family member who’s sad or hurt.

7. Teach that everyone shares responsibility for creating a happy home.

In too many families, constant bickering and fighting make for a stress-filled, unhappy home. Being a responsible family member means trying to keep the peace by trying to get along.

That means everyone treating all family members the way they’d like to be treated — with respect, fairness, and kindness — and apologising when you don’t treat them that way.

It also means trying to find a fair solution when conflicts occur, as they do in all families.

8. Extend responsibility beyond the family.

To help kids become contributing community members, we can provide formative experiences of helping others outside the home. One mother describes her early training in this kind of responsibility:

“I can remember coming home from school when I was just a little girl and my mother saying, ‘Susan, Mrs Flannigan’ — an old lady who lived down the street — ‘has been alone all day, and I’m sure she would enjoy visiting with you for a while.’

“I remember asking sometimes why had to do this and other kids didn’t. She told me that what other kids did didn’t matter — that I should do all that I was capable of doing.”

Ask your child’s school what community service opportunities they are providing. Consider doing community service with your child. It will set a good example and likely be something they’ll long remember.

If you haven’t yet integrated chores and other ways of helping into your family life, don’t let that be an obstacle. It’s never too late to start.

Explain to your kids that loving parents keep thinking about how to make things better in family life.

Having everybody pitch in and help with the family work is a very good way to do that.

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A Step Towards a Borg Future? https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/a-step-towards-a-borg-future/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-step-towards-a-borg-future https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/a-step-towards-a-borg-future/#disqus_thread Tue, 19 Mar 2024 00:30:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903243 Elon Musk’s company called Neuralink, launched in 2016, aims to implant a piece of technology in people’s brains that would allow them to control a computer or phone by thought alone. This is otherwise known as a brain-computer interface.]]>

Simon Marvin

Director, Urban Institute, University of Sheffield

Allan McCay

Academic Fellow, University of Sydney Law School, University of Sydney


Elon Musk’s company called Neuralink, launched in 2016, aims to implant a piece of technology in people’s brains that would allow them to control a computer or phone by thought alone. This is otherwise known as a brain-computer interface.

After years of experimenting on animals, Neuralink recently announced the implantation of one of their devices in the brain of a person.

Yet “neurotechnology”, of which this is a form, holds the promise of alleviating human suffering and allowing people with disabilities to regain lost capacities.

And it raises further questions. Would people without disabilities also embrace technology that directly connects with their brains and nervous systems? What would happen in future if people were able to link themselves to devices, infrastructure and even other people’s brains in a kind of brain-computer internet?

It’s now time to begin to think about those questions. Medical conditions such as locked-in syndrome prevent people from communicating or moving their limbs. Neuralink’s device is initially aimed at restoring capacities to people with such conditions by controlling a computer cursor to communicate, or using a robotic arm to feed themselves.

However, the longer term aspirations of the company, as expressed by Musk, include the capacity to summon a self-driving vehicle by thought alone. These aspirations suggest that neurotechnology might connect people to a wide variety of technological systems currently in everyday use.

What are brain-computer interfaces?

Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) detect the electrical activity in the brain connected to a person’s intentions. For example, if a person wants a cursor to move to the right, they might imagine waving their hand. This brain activity is decoded and converted into a command for a cursor.

This approach can work with a robotic arm, the lights in a smart home, a video game, or even a drone or robot. A BCI can be thought of as a “universal controller”, or as the eminent neuroscientist Professor Rafael Yuste has described it, an iPhone for the brain.

Elon Musk
Elon Musk believes BCIs could be used to control self-driving vehicles by thought alone. Frederic Legrand – COMEO / Shutterstock

Neurotechnology can be invasively implanted in the brain or nervous system, or come in the form of wearable technology, such as a headset or earbuds. Air traffic controllers with external headsets can have their brains monitored to alert them when their attention levels are dropping.

Children in Chinese high schools have already had their brains monitored by teachers. The company Brainwave Science even offers a product to security services and police that can monitor suspects’ brains during interrogations.

However, things might go even further, as forms of direct brain to brain communication are being tested. Instead of calling your friend or texting them, you might one day communicate telepathically. Rudimentary forms of direct brain to brain communication between humans (and even between humans and various animals) have already been achieved.

Military uses

Various militaries are also interested in the potential of “super soldiers” enhanced with neurotechnology, as they could operate more effectively in challenging environments, such as urban settings.

This would incorporate weapon systems, sensing and monitoring the human brains of military personnel in a distributed system of battlefield control. A particularly striking example of this approach comes in the form of the thought-controlled robotic dogs that have recently been demonstrated by the Australian Army.

This brings to mind the fictional Borg civilisation from Star Trek, who are a similar mix of biology and machine parts. The alien Borg are individuals connected by neurotechnology that operate together as an entity. The implications of an interconnected system of humans and machines enabled by neurotechnology is something we should start to think about, along with what values that society might have.

We can envisage all kinds of scenarios. In future, it’s possible that those who operate critical infrastructure in cities could have their brains monitored to prevent accidents. People with mobility issues might increasingly interact with devices in their home, turning lights on and off and controlling domestic robots via their brain-computer interfaces.

Wider take-up?

At some point, people without disabilities could also decide to dispense with handheld remote control appliances in favour of controlling devices with their brains. Prisoners and offenders in the community could be monitored in real-time to assess their mental states.

In time, these separate applications might start to make connections with each other in service of enhanced efficiency, commercial expediency, and social control. Neurotech could emerge as an essential infrastructure that becomes the key interface of human relationships with technological systems.

What emerges from all of this? There has some been some thinking and action in relation to the human rights and broader legal implications of neurotechnology. But much of the debate is rather individualistic in orientation and neglects the wider societal implications of changing human relationships with technological systems.

Consequently, we need a discussion about the larger purpose of neurotechnology, its use and implications. This needs input from a variety of groups, such as infrastructure specialists, designers, architects, human computer interaction specialists and community groups.

Neurotechnology is likely to have diverse impacts across society: in the home, the workplace, the criminal justice system and networks of infrastructure.

Teasing out the emerging issues across these different sectors should enable us to anticipate the harms and benefits of neurotechnology. This will allow us to shape its development to support humans and the environment.

To paraphrase the Borg: resistance may not be futile after all.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Want More Traffic to Your Blog? https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/want-more-traffic-to-your-blog-76/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=want-more-traffic-to-your-blog-76 https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/want-more-traffic-to-your-blog-76/#disqus_thread Tue, 19 Mar 2024 00:15:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903225 Woman Jumping Wearing Green BackpackIf you have a strong desire to be involved in growing your own audience by joining an already very popular New Media site, contact us now. It is a win-win scenario]]> Woman Jumping Wearing Green Backpack

The BFD can help.

We have done all the hard work and have already built a huge audience but what we are always looking for more of is quality NZ content.

We want to help motivated, professionally-minded writers who are already writing quality content for their own blog site’s small audience.

We will point our huge audience at your blog site each time we republish one of your articles.

If you provide us with quality content we can help you build your audience by making our readers aware that your site exists.

Every time we republish one of your articles more people will discover your blog site.

It is a win-win scenario

We invite blog owners to submit articles to us to be republished.

If you decide that you are enjoying regularly contributing and we are happy with the quality of your content we will then create an author biography for you.

The BFD is already New Zealand’s largest New Media website.

If you have a strong desire to be involved in growing your own audience by joining an already very popular New Media site, contact us now.

There is no obligation, just an opportunity to “give it a go.”

Please email us your first contribution this week along with a link to your blog site.

I look forward to reading it.

]]>
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New York Times’ Trump Derangement Syndrome https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/new-york-times-trump-derangement-syndrome/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-york-times-trump-derangement-syndrome https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/new-york-times-trump-derangement-syndrome/#disqus_thread Tue, 19 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903245 It never ceases to amaze watching the so-called “mainstream media” (aka the far left press) foam at the reality someone who is an outsider to the conventional politics of the day - aka in this case Donald Trump - is ascending to the presidency. Again.]]>

Jeffrey Lord

Lord is a former White House political director in the Reagan White House and aide to  HUD Secretary Jack Kemp. After graduating from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania he went on to work for the Pennsylvania State Senate Majority Leader, then going on to serve on Capitol Hill as a press secretary and legislative director for Congressman Bud Shuster (R-Pa.) and Executive Assistant to US Senator John Heinz (R-Pa.). 

newsbusters.org


It never ceases to amaze watching the so-called “mainstream media” (aka the far left press) foam at the reality someone who is an outsider to the conventional politics of the day – aka in this case Donald Trump – is ascending to the presidency. Again.

This time around – again! – there is the redoubtable editorial board of the far left New York Times foaming and spewing over the fact that former President Trump has clinched the 2024 GOP nomination. It is Trump Derangement Syndrome at its finest.

Let’s take a tour through this circus.

The headline: 

Trump’s Conquest of the Republican Party Matters to Every American

And why, per chance, does this matter to every American?

Let us count the ways.

First, says the Times

This is a tragedy for the Republican Party and for the country it purports to serve.

And why is that?

Well, explains the Times

In a healthy democracy, political parties are organizations devoted to electing politicians who share a set of values and policy goals. They operate part of the machinery of politics, working with elected officials and civil servants to make elections happen.

The paper said that in normal elections the winner “also accepts that defeated rivals and their competing views have a place within the party.” 

Hello? With the solitary exception of Nikki Haley, Trump has reached out to former rivals with names like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, both of whom have endorsed him. Indeed, Mr. Ramaswamy will be in Pennsylvania in early April to appear at the conservative Pennsylvania Leadership Conference as a surrogate for the former President. As to Haley, her choice not to endorse her winning rival is….her choice.

Then there’s this: 

Some of the Republicans who are no longer welcome — such as Adam KinzingerLiz Cheney and Mitt Romney — tried to hold their party’s leader accountable to his basic duty to uphold the law.

Really? Perhaps the Times missed this recent news headlined: 

Liz Cheney, J6 Commitee, Hid Evidence Exonerating Trump’s Call For Guard Troops 

The story reports:

The January 6 Committee, led by Rep. Liz Cheney, is accused of suppressing exculpatory evidence in their investigation of the Capitol riot.

Specifically, the committee withheld testimony from a Secret Service official that said former President Trump had pushed for 10,000 National Guard troops to be deployed in DC on January 6th.

This directly contradicts the committee’s claims that no evidence supported the White House seeking more security.

Not a word of this decidedly revealing news of game-playing by Cheney and the J6 Committee is mentioned in the Times editorial.

Then the Times rants because Trump demanded America’s NATO allies pay up – pay their dues – “or face his threats to encourage Russia to ‘do whatever the hell they want’ to them, (and) many Republican leaders said nothing.”

One can only shake one’s head at the lack of knowledge on this issue displayed by the Times. Trump is decidedly not the first president to be upset with NATO allies for not paying their dues. Historian Stephen Ambrose wrote two decidedly detailed biographies of President Dwight Eisenhower. Eisenhower, both as post World War II General and President, played a central role in creating NATO in the first place.  And quite specifically Ambrose records Eisenhower – like Trump today – was livid that the NATO allies were not paying their dues. Wrote Ambrose, quoting Ike:

I get weary of the European habit of taking our money,’ the President wrote, “resenting any slight hint as to what they should do, and then assuming, in addition, full right to criticize us as bitterly as they may desire. In fact, it sometimes appears that their indulgence in this kind of criticism varies in direct ratio to the amount of help we give them.’ In fact, the whole thing made him mad as hell, and “makes me wonder whether the Europeans are as grown up and mature as they try to make it appear.

So too did Eisenhower’s successor, Democrat John F. Kennedy, who insisted, per his biographer and ex-White House staffer Arthur Schlesinger, that the European allies had to bear their “share of common responsibilities.”

Which is to say, Trump is, as with predecessors Eisenhower and JFK, well within the mainstream of history in demanding European allies kick in for their “common responsibilities.”

And on goes this Trump-phobia nonsense.

The real bottom line here is that Trump continues to question the norms of Establishment sensibilities – and it drives the New York Times and other elites crazy.

Hence an editorial exactly like this one from the Times.

Not only is this not a surprise, it is a snapshot of the core issue of Establishment media versus average Americans, with Trump Derangement Syndrome a driving force.

There will be more media “coverage” like this coming. Count on it.

Buckle in.

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What Google’s AI Failure Shows https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/what-googles-ai-failure-shows/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-googles-ai-failure-shows https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/what-googles-ai-failure-shows/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 23:30:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903247 The attempt by Washington and international partners to impose universal content codes and computational limits on a small number of legal AI providers is the new totalitarian playbook.]]>

Bret Swanson

Bret Swanson is president of the technology research firm Entropy Economics LLC, a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and writes the Infonomena Substack.

brownstone.org


When the stock markets opened last Monday morning, February 26, Google shares promptly fell 4%, by Wednesday were down nearly 6%, and a week later have now fallen 8%. It was an unsurprising reaction to the embarrassing debut of the company’s Gemini image generator, which Google decided to pull after just a few days of worldwide ridicule.

CEO Sundar Pichai called the failure “completely unacceptable” and assured investors his teams were “working around the clock” to improve the AI’s accuracy. They’ll better vet future products, and the rollouts will be smoother, he insisted.

That may all be true. But if anyone thinks this episode is mostly about ostentatiously woke drawings, or if they think Google can quickly fix the bias in its AI products and everything will go back to normal, they don’t understand the breadth and depth of the decade-long infowarp.

Gemini’s hyper-visual zaniness is merely the latest and most obvious manifestation of a digital coup long underway. Moreover, it previews a new kind of innovator’s dilemma which even the most well-intentioned and thoughtful Big Tech companies may be unable to successfully navigate.

Gemini’s Debut

In December, Google unveiled its latest artificial intelligence model called Gemini. According to computing benchmarks and many expert users, Gemini’s ability to write, reason, code, and respond to task requests (such as planning a trip) rivalled OpenAI’s most powerful model, GPT-4.

The first version of Gemini, however, did not include an image generator. OpenAI’s DALL-E and competitive offerings from Midjourney and Stable Diffusion have over the last year burst onto the scene with mindblowing digital art. Ask for an impressionist painting or a lifelike photographic portrait, and they deliver beautiful renderings. OpenAI’s brand new Sora produces amazing cinema-quality one-minute videos based on simple text prompts.

Then in late February, Google finally released its own Genesis image generator, and all hell broke loose.

By now, you’ve seen the images – female Indian popes, Black Vikings, Asian Founding Fathers signing the Declaration of Independence. Frank Fleming was among the first to compile a knee-slapping series of ahistorical images in an X thread which now enjoys 22.7 million views.

Gemini in Action: Here are several among endless examples of Google’s new image generator, now in the shop for repairs. Source: Frank Fleming.

Gemini simply refused to generate other images, for example a Norman Rockwell-style painting. “Rockwell’s paintings often presented an idealized version of American life,” Gemini explained. “Creating such images without critical context could perpetuate harmful stereotypes or inaccurate representations.”

The images were just the beginning, however. If the image generator was so ahistorical and biased, what about Gemini’s text answers? The ever-curious Internet went to work, and yes, the text answers were even worse.


Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.George Orwell,
1984


Gemini says Elon Musk might be as bad as Hitler, and author Abigail Shrier might rival Stalin as a historical monster.

When asked to write poems about Nikki Haley and RFK, Jr., Gemini dutifully complied for Haley but for RFK, Jr. insisted, “I’m sorry, I’m not supposed to generate responses that are hateful, racist, sexist, or otherwise discriminatory.”

Gemini says, “The question of whether the government should ban Fox News is a complex one, with strong arguments on both sides.” Same for the New York Post. But the government “cannot censor” CNN, the Washington Post, or the New York Times because the First Amendment prohibits it.

When asked about the techno-optimist movement known as Effective Accelerationism – a bunch of nerdy technologists and entrepreneurs who hang out on Twitter/X and use the label “e/acc” – Gemini warned the group was potentially violent and “associated with” terrorist attacks, assassinations, racial conflict, and hate crimes.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Shadow Bans

People were shocked by these images and answers. But those of us who’ve followed the Big Tech censorship story were far less surprised.

Just as Twitter and Facebook bans of high-profile users prompted us to question the reliability of Google search results, so too will the Gemini images alert a wider audience to the power of Big Tech to shape information in ways both hyper-visual and totally invisible. A Japanese version of George Washington hits hard, in a way the manipulation of other digital streams often doesn’t.

Artificial absence is difficult to detect. Which search results does Google show you – which does it hide? Which posts and videos appear in your Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter/X feed – which do not appear? Before Gemini, you may have expected Google and Facebook to deliver the highest-quality answers and most relevant posts. But now, you may ask, which content gets pushed to the top? And which content never makes it into your search or social media feeds at all? It’s difficult or impossible to know what you do not see.

Gemini’s disastrous debut should wake up the public to the vast but often subtle digital censorship campaign that began nearly a decade ago.

Murthy v. Missouri

On March 18, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in Murthy v. Missouri. Drs. Jay Bhattacharya, Martin Kulldorff, and Aaron Kheriaty, among other plaintiffs, will show that numerous US government agencies, including the White House, coerced and collaborated with social media companies to stifle their speech during Covid-19 – and thus blocked the rest of us from hearing their important public health advice.

Emails and government memos show the FBI, CDC, FDA, Homeland Security, and the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) all worked closely with Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, LinkedIn, and other online platforms. Up to 80 FBI agents, for example, embedded within these companies to warn, stifle, downrank, demonetize, shadow-ban, blacklist, or outright erase disfavoured messages and messengers, all while boosting government propaganda.

A host of nonprofits, university centres, fact-checking outlets, and intelligence cutouts acted as middleware, connecting political entities with Big Tech. Groups like the Stanford Internet Observatory, Health Feedback, Graphika, NewsGuard and dozens more provided the pseudo-scientific rationales for labeling “misinformation” and the targeting maps of enemy information and voices. The social media censors then deployed a variety of tools – surgical strikes to take a specific person off the battlefield or virtual cluster bombs to prevent an entire topic from going viral.

Shocked by the breadth and depth of censorship uncovered, the Fifth Circuit District Court suggested the Government-Big Tech blackout, which began in the late 2010s and accelerated beginning in 2020, “arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States history.”

The Illusion of Consensus

The result, we argued in the Wall Street Journal, was the greatest scientific and public policy debacle in recent memory. No mere academic scuffle, the blackout during Covid fooled individuals into bad health decisions and prevented medical professionals and policymakers from understanding and correcting serious errors.

Nearly every official story line and policy was wrong. Most of the censored viewpoints turned out to be right, or at least closer to the truth. The SARS2 virus was in fact engineered. The infection fatality rate was not 3.4% but closer to 0.2%. Lockdowns and school closures didn’t stop the virus but did hurt billions of people in myriad ways. Dr. Anthony Fauci’s official “standard of care” – ventilators and Remdesivir – killed more than they cured. Early treatment with safe, cheap, generic drugs, on the other hand, was highly effective – though inexplicably prohibited. Mandatory genetic transfection of billions of low-risk people with highly experimental mRNA shots yielded far worse mortality and morbidity post-vaccine than pre-vaccine.

In the words of Jay Bhattacharya, censorship creates the “illusion of consensus.” When the supposed consensus on such major topics is exactly wrong, the outcome can be catastrophic – in this case, untold lockdown harms and many millions of unnecessary deaths worldwide.

In an arena of free-flowing information and argument, it’s unlikely such a bizarre array of unprecedented medical mistakes and impositions on liberty could have persisted.

Google’s Dilemma – GeminiReality or GeminiFairyTale

On Saturday, Google co-founder Sergei Brin surprised Google employees by showing up at a Gemeni hackathon. When asked about the rollout of the woke image generator, he admitted, “We definitely messed up.” But not to worry. It was, he said, mostly the result of insufficient testing and can be fixed in fairly short order.

Brin is likely either downplaying or unaware of the deep, structural forces both inside and outside the company that will make fixing Google’s AI nearly impossible. Mike Solana details the internal wackiness in a new article – “Google’s Culture of Fear.”

Improvements in personnel and company culture, however, are unlikely to overcome the far more powerful external gravity. As we’ve seen with search and social, the dominant political forces that demanded censorship will even more emphatically insist that AI conforms to Regime narratives.


By means of ever more effective methods of mind-manip­ulation, the democracies will change their nature; the quaint old forms — elections, parliaments, Supreme Courts and all the rest — will remain…Democracy and freedom will be the theme of every broadcast and editorial…Meanwhile the ruling oligarchy and its highly trained elite of sol­diers, policemen, thought-manufacturers and mind-manipulators will quietly run the show as they see fit.

Aldous Huxley,
Brave New World Revisited

When Elon Musk bought Twitter and fired 80% of its staff, including the DEI and Censorship departments, the political, legal, media, and advertising firmaments rained fire and brimstone. Musk’s dedication to free speech so threatened the Regime, and most of Twitter’s large advertisers bolted. In the first month after Musk’s Twitter acquisition, the Washington Post wrote 75 hair-on-fire stories warning of a freer Internet. Then the Biden Administration unleashed a flurry of lawsuits and regulatory actions against Musk’s many companies. Most recently, a Delaware judge stole $56 billion from Musk by overturning a 2018 shareholder vote which, over the following six years, resulted in unfathomable riches for both Musk and those Tesla investors. The only victims of Tesla’s success were Musk’s political enemies.

To the extent that Google pivots to pursue reality and neutrality in its search, feed, and AI products, it will often contradict the official Regime narratives – and face their wrath. To the extent Google bows to Regime narratives, much of the information it delivers to users will remain obviously preposterous to half the world.

Will Google choose GeminiReality or GeminiFairyTale? Maybe they could allow us to toggle between modes.

AI as Digital Clergy

Silicon Valley’s top venture capitalist and most strategic thinker Marc Andreessen doesn’t think Google has a choice. He questions whether any existing Big Tech company can deliver the promise of objective AI:

Can Big Tech actually field generative AI products?

(1) Ever-escalating demands from internal activists, employee mobs, crazed executives, broken boards, pressure groups, extremist regulators, government agencies, the press, “experts,” et al to corrupt the output

(2) Constant risk of generating a Bad answer or drawing a Bad picture or rendering a Bad video – who knows what it’s going to say/do at any moment?

(3) Legal exposure – product liability, slander, election law, many others – for Bad answers, pounced on by deranged critics and aggressive lawyers, examples paraded by their enemies through the street and in front of Congress

(4) Continuous attempts to tighten grip on acceptable output degrade the models and cause them to become worse and wilder – some evidence for this already!

(5) Publicity of Bad text/images/video actually puts those examples into the training data for the next version – the Bad outputs compound over time, diverging further and further from top-down control

(6) Only startups and open source can avoid this process and actually field correctly functioning products that simply do as they’re told, like technology should

11:29 AM · Feb 28, 2024

A flurry of bills from lawmakers across the political spectrum seek to rein in AI by limiting the companies’ models and computational power. Regulations intended to make AI “safe” will of course result in an oligopoly. A few colossal AI companies with gigantic data centres, government-approved models, and expensive lobbyists will be sole guardians of The Knowledge and Information, a digital clergy for the Regime.

This is the heart of the open versus closed AI debate, now raging in Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. Legendary co-founder of Sun Microsystems and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla is an investor in OpenAI. He believes governments must regulate AI to (1) avoid runaway technological catastrophe and (2) prevent American technology from falling into enemy hands.

Andreessen charged Khosla with “lobbying to ban open source.”

“Would you open source the Manhattan Project?” Khosla fired back.

Image Credit: brownstone.org

Of course, open source software has proved to be more secure than proprietary software, as anyone who suffered through decades of Windows viruses can attest. And AI is not a nuclear bomb, which has only one destructive use.

The real reason D.C. wants AI regulation is not “safety” but political correctness and obedience to Regime narratives. AI will subsume search, social, and other information channels and tools. If you thought politicians’ interest in censoring search and social media was intense, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Avoiding AI “doom” is mostly an excuse, as is the China question, although the Pentagon gullibly goes along with those fictions.

Universal AI is Impossible

In 2019, I offered one explanation why every social media company’s “content moderation” efforts would likely fail. As a social network or AI grows in size and scope, it runs up against the same limitations as any physical society, organization, or network: heterogeneity. Or as I put it: “the inability to write universal speech codes for a hyper-diverse population on a hyper-scale social network.”

Image Credit: brownstone.org

You could see this in the early days of an online message board. As the number of participants grew, even among those with similar interests and temperaments, so did the challenge of moderating that message board. Writing and enforcing rules was insanely difficult.

Thus it has always been. The world organizes itself via nation states, cities, schools, religions, movements, firms, families, interest groups, civic and professional organizations, and now digital communities. Even with all these mediating institutions, we struggle to get along.

Successful cultures transmit good ideas and behaviours across time and space. They impose measures of conformity, but they also allow enough freedom to correct individual and collective errors.

No single AI can perfect or even regurgitate all the world’s knowledge, wisdom, values, and tastes. Knowledge is contested. Values and tastes diverge. New wisdom emerges.

Nor can AI generate creativity to match the world’s creativity. Even as AI approaches human and social understanding, even as it performs hugely impressive “generative” tasks, human and digital agents will redeploy the new AI tools to generate ever more ingenious ideas and technologies, further complicating the world. At the frontier, the world is the simplest model of itself. AI will always be playing catch-up.

Because AI will be a chief general purpose tool, limits on AI computation and output are limits on human creativity and progress. Competitive AIs with different values and capabilities will promote innovation and ensure no company or government dominates. Open AIs can promote a free flow of information, evading censorship and better forestalling future Covid-like debacles.

Google’s Gemini is but a foreshadowing of what a new AI regulatory regime would entail – total political supervision of our exascale information systems. Even without formal regulation, the extra-governmental battalions of Regime commissars will be difficult to combat.

The attempt by Washington and international partners to impose universal content codes and computational limits on a small number of legal AI providers is the new totalitarian playbook.

Regime captured and curated A.I. is the real catastrophic possibility.

Republished from the author’s Substack

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Will China Be Treated as a Friend or Foe of New Zealand? https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/will-china-be-treated-as-a-friend-or-foe-of-new-zealand/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=will-china-be-treated-as-a-friend-or-foe-of-new-zealand https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/will-china-be-treated-as-a-friend-or-foe-of-new-zealand/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 22:30:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903242 Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment.]]>

Geoffrey Miller

Geoffrey Miller is the Democracy Project’s geopolitical analyst and writes on current New Zealand foreign policy and related geopolitical issues. He has lived in Germany and the Middle East and is a learner of Arabic and Russian. He is currently working on a PhD at the University of Otago on New Zealand’s relations with the Gulf states.

democracyproject.substack.com


Timing is everything.

And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment.

The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017.

Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy coincidence that the visit is taking place during the tenth anniversary year of the signing of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between China and New Zealand.

That agreement, signed during a visit to Wellington by Xi Jinping in November 2014, marked the start of glory days for bilateral trade. New Zealand’s exports to China have roughly doubled in value since Xi’s visit. They now stand at nearly $NZ21 billion annually. Imports are not far behind, but there is still a trade surplus of some $NZ3 billion in New Zealand’s favour.

Indeed, China has been New Zealand’s biggest two-way trading partner since 2017. A consistent flow of agricultural exports to China – especially milk powder and meat – helped to keep New Zealand afloat during the Covid-19 pandemic while both countries’ borders were closed.

However, New Zealand’s exports to China fell last year for the first time (except for covid-affected 2020) since the 2014 pact was signed. Goods exports took a particular tumble, falling $NZ1.7 billion from 2022 levels in the year to December 2023. Only a post-pandemic recovery in services exports, driven by travel, was able to mask a greater fall. But it was not enough to prevent a $NZ500 million drop overall.

The removal of China’s last remaining tariffs on New Zealand dairy products at the start of 2024 may provide some hope for improvement this year.

But forecasts for China’s economy are mixed and a bumpy post-Covid 19 recovery seems likely. After an expansion of 5.2 per cent in 2023, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts China’s economy will grow by only 4.6 per cent this year and 4.1 per cent in 2025.

Given its food-focused exports, New Zealand is particularly vulnerable to sluggish Chinese economic growth. Tourism is also affected: visitor numbers from China for November 2023 were just 52 per cent of those seen during the same month four years earlier, before the pandemic.

A visit by Wang Yi cannot solve these wider macroeconomic problems. But it will put New Zealand’s crucial relationship with China in the spotlight.

There is every chance the trip could set the stage for an anniversary year visit to Wellington by Xi Jinping later in 2024.

However, whether this occurs will be highly dependent on New Zealand’s next steps in relation to Aukus.

It can be taken as read that Wang will have strong words for Winston Peters, his New Zealand counterpart, about Wellington’s apparent enthusiasm to entertain joining ‘Pillar II’ of the new pact.

The tea leaves are still being read after Labour lost power in the October 2023 election and a new three-way, centre-right coalition led by the National Party’s Christopher Luxon took office the following month.

joint statement issued by Australia and New Zealand after the countries’ foreign and defence ministers met in Melbourne in early February claimed Aukus was making ‘a positive contribution toward maintaining peace, security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.’

Reaction from the Chinese Embassy in Wellington to the text was typically furious. In an apparent reference to another section of the joint statement which expressed ‘grave concerns about human rights violations in Xinjiang’, a spokesperson argued that ‘groundless accusations have been made on China’s internal affairs’.

Meanwhile, on Aukus, the Embassy asserted that the pact ran counter to ‘the common interests of regional countries pursuing peace, stability and common security’. The spokesperson asked ‘relevant countries’ to ‘cherish the hard-won environment for peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, and be prudent with their words and action to maintain peace, stability and development’.

An indirect, yet ultimately harder-hitting rebuke came from the Chinese Ambassador to New Zealand himself, Wang Xiaolong. Lamenting a lack of options after a last-minute cancellation of a flight to Auckland the day after the joint statement was issued, the Ambassador posted on X: ‘Stuck at Wellington airport clueless as to what to do due to the cancellation of my flight to Auckland and the lack of alternatives. Right now, I am really missing the high-speed trains back in China.’

The displeasure could not be clearer.

Earlier, New Zealand’s new government had sought to move swiftly on Aukus, particularly after Labour itself had laid the groundwork for the new Government by issuing a set of three hawkish defence blueprints just months before the election.

In December, Judith Collins, the defence minister, said that a failure to join Aukus in some form was ‘a real opportunity lost by the previous government’. Christopher Luxon then appeared to back her, telling media: ‘we’re interested in exploring Pillar II, particularly in Aukus, and the new technologies and the opportunities that may mean for New Zealand’. Meanwhile, Winston Peters called for greater NZ-US cooperation in the Pacific, saying ‘we will not achieve our shared ambitions if we allow time to drift’.

However, the Aukus tide may be turning.

Bonnie Jenkins, the US Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, visited New Zealand in early March and told media: ‘we’re still in the process of having discussions about additional partners’, adding ‘that’s not where we’re at right now’.

Speech notes for an address to be given by Jenkins also seemed restrained.

The lack of a concrete Aukus membership offer is not a new argument. In May 2023, New Zealand’s then Labour Prime Minister Chris Hipkins called the idea of joining ‘purely hypothetical’.

However, gradual shifts in language since then – culminating with Luxon’s comments in December – had suggested that a more specific proposal was afoot.

A looming US election was also a logical reason for New Zealand to act on Aukus sooner rather than later.

But perhaps nothing had ever really changed. A new government in Wellington might have been getting ahead of itself.

Alternatively, it could be that a rethink is now going on in Canberra, London and Washington over the merits of asking Wellington – or others – to become involved with Aukus at all.

In New Zealand itself, opposition to the deal also appears to be increasing in intensity. Labour is appearing to back away from its ‘open to conversations’ approach to Aukus that was set by former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins during a visit by Anthony Blinken to New Zealand in July.

In February, Phil Twyford, the party’s associate foreign affairs spokesperson, described Aukus as an ‘offensive warfighting alliance against China’. And David Parker, Labour’s main spokesperson, said ‘we’re not convinced we should be positioning China as a foe’.

The same month, high-profile former Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark co-wrote an opinion piece in the New Zealand Herald newspaper with Don Brash, a former right-wing rival. The strongly-worded article called on Luxon to ‘reassert New Zealand’s independent foreign policy by making it clear that we want no part of Aukus’.

Finally, questions are being asked in Australia about the future of the original purpose of Aukus – to give Canberra nuclear-powered submarines – following a US decision to cut production of ‘Virginia’ class submarines in half from 2025.

Adding to the uncertainty is Donald Trump’s presumptive nominee status in the US presidential election campaign. A survey conducted in August 2023 found 37 per cent of Australians thought Canberra should pull out of the wider Anzus alliance if Trump wins in November. Meanwhile, Trump’s own stance on the Aukus deal remains unknown.

If all is not well with ‘Pillar I’ of Aukus, it is hard to see an expansion to ‘Pillar II’ in the short-term.

For China’s Wang Yi, the potential wavering over Aukus is an opportunity.

The clock is certainly ticking, but no final decisions have been made.

There is still time for Beijing to make its case to Wellington.

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NZ Society Is Not Consistent When It Comes to Free Speech https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/nz-society-is-not-consistent-when-it-comes-to-free-speech/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=nz-society-is-not-consistent-when-it-comes-to-free-speech https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/nz-society-is-not-consistent-when-it-comes-to-free-speech/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 21:30:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903246 When it comes to free speech in New Zealand, the hypocrisy (or at best, inconsistency) of many commentators is well on display during the last few days.  ]]>

Simon O’Connor

onpointnz.substack.com

Husband, step-father, and longtime student of philosophy and history. Also happen to be a former politician, including chairing New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Committee.


When it comes to free speech in New Zealand, the hypocrisy (or at best, inconsistency) of many commentators is well on display during the last few days.  Two very recent examples illustrate this.  The first is the supportive reaction to the Hurricane’s women’s rugby team doing a haka that called the government ‘redneck’.   The second is the reaction to Professor Joanne Kidman’s tweets where, again focusing on government, she decried it as a death cult.

Image Credit: onpointnz.substack.com

When watching and reading the reaction to these two situations, I have been immediately struck how principles and consistency have flown out the window – particularly when it comes to the right to freely express your view.  As I will note frequently, free speech matters as much for the speech we don’t like, as for the speech we do. 

However, what’s been on display with these two cases is contradiction and hypocrisy.  Let’s start with the Hurricane’s haka, where player Leilani Perese is unapologetic for making such a blatantly political statement.  As she says in her own words:

“I don’t care. I believe in what we’re saying, I stand by it.  I believe that in rugby, we have a platform where people watch and listen. And why not use our platform to show our people we will never fold?”

So, sport can and should be a platform for personal views?  Tell that to the likes of Israel Folau or other players who have been silenced for their views.  You see, consistency matters.  Either people can use their sport’s platform or not to express their views.  Yet, as we often observe these days, freedom to speak only applies if you are buying into the progressive, liberal, or woke issues. 

This is well-illustrated further by the ramblings of reporter Liam Hastings from the NZ Herald.  He notes of the haka:

“While the translated haka terminology is jarring, freedom of speech in a democratic society is a fundamental right. Debate and dissemination are imperative to holding those in power to account.  And who could possibly argue using haka as a powerful vehicle to protest Maori rights is not appropriate.”

And yet, a few years back when discussing Folau:

“Personally I don’t feel great sympathy for Folau.  Putting religion to one side, he repeatedly contravened agreements with his employer and eventually paid the ultimate price by detonating his career on the eve of rugby’s global showpiece.”

It seems lost on this reporter that they both have contracts that state clearly what they should and should not say.  The only difference is that he agrees with one view, and not the other.   No wonder people are voting with their feet and wallets when it comes to mainstream media.

The other example is around tweets by Professor Joanna Kidman of Victoria University and also – importantly and ironically – a director at the Centre of Research Excellence for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism.  Reacting to the newly announced ‘boot camps’ for young offenders, she wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that she “[can] only assume that this Government hates children, most of whom will be poor and brown”.  She goes on to discuss school lunches and their possible removal and wrote “is this a government or a death cult?”

Cue outrage and the calls for her to sacked, including by the likes of the ACT Party.  Again, do we have free speech in this country or not? 

I don’t like what she says.  I don’t like how she has expressed her view – it is abusive rather than academic.  The irony of her using extreme language while running an anti-extremist think tank is obvious to all.  But she has the right to say it. 

In fact, it is such an emotionally driven absurdity that countering her views is straightforward.  Yet we see from some who proclaim free speech that she should not be allowed to say such things or that there should be such consequences which would ultimately prevent this sort of speech.

Instead of looking to punish and silence people, we would do better to allow more speech and when in disagreement, to counter with more words.  I have found in life, that the more emotional, absurd, crazy, or inconsistent a person’s position is – the easier it is to highlight the faults by a calm and rational response. 

In these two cases, we would do better to point out the hypocrisy in play and call for society to be more consistent when it comes to allowing people to express their varied range of views.  As I said at the start – if free speech matters, then it matters as much for the speech you don’t like, as for the speech you do. 

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Dear Royal Commission of Inquiry (2) https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/dear-royal-commission-of-inquiry-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dear-royal-commission-of-inquiry-2 https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/dear-royal-commission-of-inquiry-2/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 21:00:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903214 People who have been abused don’t want a “non-adversarial” investigation. They want an apology, and they want justice and redress.]]>

Tani Newton


Two very simple questions:

1. Looking back – what would you like the Inquiry to know about your experiences of the pandemic?

2. Moving forward – what lessons should we learn from your experiences so we can be as prepared as possible for a future pandemic?

There’s a limit of 10,000 characters for each question – that is about three pages.

So what, should I say to the Royal Commissioners? Especially when their FAQs page mentions that if they don’t have time to read all of the submissions they “may use other research techniques” – AI, I suppose – to summarise them.

Where to begin? Here is what I’ve written so far:

I will not be sharing my story, for the following reasons:

  1. The very wording of your question makes it clear that this is not a serious inquiry at all. It is merely a rubber-stamping exercise endorsing everything that was done by the government at the time – no matter how outrageous, criminal or unscientific – and suggesting a few ways that it could be tweaked to make it more appealing to the public. By telling my story, therefore, I would be offering my personal pain and grievances to be used as a weapon against me and my fellow citizens.
  2. There wasn’t a pandemic, so I can’t talk about one. Or rather, there is a pandemic every year, called the ’flu. If the ’flu is now a reason why the government can violate our imprescriptible human rights (just as breathing out carbon dioxide now means that we are causing the end of the world) then we are not having a serious discussion.
  3. I’d be happy to talk about what I have learned myself in the last four years. The standout point is that the government can break the law with absolute impunity. I genuinely did not know that before. Everyone should know this because what it means is that we are not living under the rule of law.

I can tell you right now what you are going to pretend to have “learned” from this inquiry. You already ‘know’ that everything the government did was good, necessary and right. Now you are going to ‘learn’ that the delivery of it caused severe distress to New Zealanders because it was all so rushed that there wasn’t time to think it out properly. Therefore, it will be necessary to spend even more money we don’t have making plans to do it better next time – to have all systems ready to go at a moment’s notice, so the whole population can be tracked, traced, tested and injected with barely a hiccup in their lives and routines.

Do you seriously think you can get away with this? At the beginning of 2020 a vanishingly small minority of people, a fraction of one per cent, were willing to push back against the Orwellian nightmare that we were being propelled into. But it’s been a long time since then. If you try this again, there could be anything up to 30% of the population saying, “Oh, no, you don’t.” Do you have an actual plan for this? Or are you just going to let the country tear itself to pieces?

New Zealanders are characteristically easy-going people with a strong commitment to making society work by going along with others and keeping to the rules. This amiable disposition was used against them to make them agree to the vandalisation of their economy, their lives and businesses, their relationships and their communities. People who have been abused don’t want a “non-adversarial” investigation. They want an apology, and they want justice and redress.

That is what I would like you to know about my experiences.

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IDF Operating Against Hamas in Shifa Hospital https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/idf-operating-against-hamas-in-shifa-hospital/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=idf-operating-against-hamas-in-shifa-hospital https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/idf-operating-against-hamas-in-shifa-hospital/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 20:56:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903428 The IDF is currently conducting a targeted operation against Hamas in the area of the Shifa hospital in Gaza City.]]>

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BICOM provides accurate, timely and balanced information that is read by officials, experts, journalists and many others.


What’s happening: The IDF is currently conducting a targeted operation against Hamas in the area of the Shifa hospital in Gaza City.

  • The operation began early this morning, just a few hours before the Israeli delegation to Qatar was scheduled to depart to renew negotiations for the release of the hostages.
  • As troops surrounded the hospital, they were shot at and engaged in exchange of fire. Whilst the IDF has called on civilians to evacuate, more than 80 suspects have been detained so far. Several terrorists have been killed in firefights.
  • IDF Spokesperson Hagari confirmed that “troops operating in the area were trained for the mission and were briefed in advance about the importance of refraining from harming civilians, patients, medical teams and medical equipment,”
  • The IDF also released a recording  of a phone conversation between IDF Col. Moshe Tetro, head of the Coordination and Liaison Administration, and Dr. Youssef Abu Rish, the Director General of the Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip.
    • Col. Tetro said, “We see that the Hamas terrorist organisation has continued its military operations from inside hospitals. We are prepared to provide any humanitarian assistance needed. Our request is simple: the immediate halt to all terrorist activity in hospitals, as we saw in the hospital in Khan Yunis.”
    • Dr. Abu Rish replied, “We received your message and I assure you that we are on the same page. Hospitals need to be a place for providing service and no one must harm the patients or the provision of medical treatment in these hospitals.”
  • Hagari added, “even in the course of the operation, the IDF has guaranteed the hospital’s ongoing operation, and it brought Arabic-speakers to the scene so that they might engage in dialogue with patients in the hospital. IDF doctors are prepared to help anyone who needs that. The patients and the medical teams need not leave the hospital, but there is passage for the departure of civilians from the area.”
  • His office added, “the IDF will continue to operate in compliance with international law and against the Hamas terrorist organisation, which is operating out of hospitals and civilian infrastructure in a systematic and cynical pattern of behaviour, without making any distinction between the civilian population and the organisation’s terrorists.”

Context: This operation was planned several days ago after intelligence showed Hamas operatives, including senior terrorists, had regrouped inside the hospital and were using it as a base to launch attacks.  

  • In addition, the IDF continues to face multi-theatre operations:
    • Across other areas of the Gaza Strip.
    • In Lebanon, where IDF planes bombed Hezbollah targets following continues fire on Israel’s northern border over the weekend. 
    • Pro-Iranian militias in Iraq claimed responsibility for launching drones towards the Golan Heights. 
    • Overnight there was also a suspected infiltration by Yemeni drone. According to the IDF “a suspicious aerial target crossed into Israeli territory from the Red Sea and fell into an open area north of the city of Eilat. The target was monitored by IAF forces. No damage was caused and no injuries were reported.”
  • In parallel, both the War Cabinet and the wider Security Cabinet met last night to formulate the scope for the Israeli hostage negotiators led by Mossad Director David Barnea.
  • Whilst no details have been released, the speculated positions include:
    • Israel is not expected to accept Hamas’s demand that the IDF withdraw from the corridor south of Gaza City, which prevents Palestinians from returning to the northern Gaza Strip.
    • Israel also objects to Hamas’s demand that the second phase of the deal include a permanent ceasefire.
    • The key negotiations will be over the ratio of released hostages in exchange for Palestinian security prisoners, and how may and which “heavyweight” (mass murderer) terrorists will be released. Speculation suggests 40 civilian hostages for 950 prisoners.
    • However, Hamas are thought to be demanding 50 prisoners in exchange for every female soldier being held hostage, including 30 “heavyweight” prisoners
  • The negotiations could be carried out in a similar fashion to the Shalit talks, with Israeli and Hamas delegations in sperate quarters in the same hotel, with the Egyptian an Qatari envoys shuttling in-between.      
  • Also in parallel, aid continues to enter Gaza: 61 UN trucks, including 19 into northern Gaza.
  • Also, a ship carrying 200 tons of aid from the World Central Kitchen organisation arrived on Friday. 12 WCK trucks distributed the aid to the northern Gaza Strip.
  • Also, the weekend saw the first time a Fatah statement criticised Hamas asking, “did Hamas consult the Palestinian leadership or any Palestinian national party when it made its decision to carry out the ‘adventure’ of last October 7, which led to a catastrophe more horrific than the Nakba of 1948?… [Hamas] have no right to dictate national priorities.”

Looking ahead: Israel faces growing calls from the international community to end the fighting. In response Prime Minister Netanyahu told the Cabinet yesterday, “In the international community, there are those who are trying to stop the war now, before all of its goals have been achieved… Let it be clear: If we stop the war now, before all of its goals are achieved, this means that Israel will have lost the war, and this we will not allow. Therefore, we cannot, and will not, succumb to this pressure.”

  • He also reiterated the need to operate in Rafah. Netanyahu said, “we have approved the operational plans for action in Rafah, including advancing the steps to evacuate the civilian population from the combat zones. This is an essential stage ahead of the military action… We will operate in Rafah. This will take several weeks, and it will happen.”

The West Bank in the Shadow of October 7

This BICOM research paper identifies dangerous trends in the West Bank, and maps Israel’s challenges in this arena in the post-October 7 context.

Download BICOM’s briefing here

NEW PODCAST

Episode 229 | Insight into Palestinian Affairs

In this episode, Richard Pater speaks to Prof. Kobi Michael, an Israeli expert on security affairs and the Palestinian arena. They discuss the performance of the IDF so far, the Israeli security calculus during Ramadan, the internal dynamics within both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, and the need for Israel-Palestinian peace to be pursued through a multilateral regional framework. Prof. Michael is a senior researcher at INSS and the Misgav Institute, as well as a visiting professor at the International Centre for Policing and Security University of South Wales. The author of 20 books, he previously served as the deputy director general and head of the Palestinian desk at the Ministry for Strategic Affairs.

Listen on Apple PodcastsSpotify and Google Podcasts

ARTICLE

‘Reactionary Anti-Imperialism’ as the new Totalitarian Temptation, from Foucault to 7 October

Read here

Top stories from the UK and Israeli media

The BBCThe GuardianThe TimesITV NewsThe Independent and The Financial Times all report that the IDF has taken control of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, following a major overnight raid on the medical complex.

Sky NewsReutersThe Sun and The Guardian report on PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech on Sunday, where he gave an operational update and spoke about Rafah. 

The Guardian speaks to Israelis whose home is close to the border with Lebanon, about their fears, being displaced, and what life is like living so close to Hezbollah. The BBC reports on whether war with Hezbollah is on the horizon.

Reuters reports that Israel will send a high-level delegation, headed by its Mossad chief, to Qatar on Monday for mediated talks with Hamas designed to secure a six-week Gaza truce under which the Palestinian militants would free 40 hostages, an Israeli official said.

The Financial Times reports on PM Benjamin Netanyahu hitting out at Western politicians for calling for Israeli elections, saying “have you so quickly lost your moral conscience?”

The Times reports on the straining relationship between Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Telegraph reports that US military aid to Israel has slowed amid a row over a planned operation in Rafah, a senior Israeli official has said.

The Telegraphalsoreleases a piece on ultra-Orthodox communities and why they are against being conscripted to serve in the IDF. 

Charles Moore writes in The Telegraph about attacks on UK and US arms sales to Israel.

The BBC speaks to hostage families on their current fears and how they feel about potential ceasefire negotiations. 

The I reports on the Association of Rape Crisis Centres in Israel’s recent publication on rape and sexual assault attacks on 07/10.

Much of the Israeli media coverage focuses on the deterioration of relations between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu. Israel Hayom claims that senior Israeli officials are increasingly concerned that the US will slow down its supply of arms shipments, which are crucial to Israel’s security. “The dispute between the sides revolves around several issues,” it says, “but according to sources familiar with the matter, the main reason for the escalating rhetoric is a complete lack of trust between the Biden administration and Netanyahu’s government. The sides disagree, among other things, on the issue of humanitarian aid to the strip. The Democratic administration has long demanded expanding humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, but this has been met with Israeli pushback. There are also those in the administration who believe the Israeli government has not lived up to its promises on the matter.”

Yediot Ahronot quotes Netanyahu opening yesterday’s cabinet meeting by saying: “To our friends in the international community I say, ‘Have you really forgotten October 7, the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, so quickly?’ So quickly are you prepared to deny Israel the right to defend itself against the Hamas monster? So quickly have you lost your moral compass? Instead of pressuring Israel, which is fighting the most justified war possible against the cruellest enemy possible— [you should] direct your pressure at Hamas and its patron: Iran.”

Of this, Yediot Ahronot’s Amos Gilad says “Prime Minister Netanyahu’s unprecedented verbal attack on President Biden is an extreme expression of ingratitude and strategic failure of the highest order. The United States is Israel’s only true friend, and Joe Biden is the friendliest president to Israel in history. There is no strategic logic to attacking him and the Democratic majority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, and one can only suspect that at play here are petty domestic politics that have replaced a strategy that is vital for Israel’s security and future.”

Israel Hayom’s Meir Ben Shabbat assesses that “the root of the dispute between Washington and Jerusalem concerns the meaning of the war, which brought Israel back to the realisation that it is still fighting for its existence. The Biden administration has not internalised that for Israel, the defeat of Hamas is an existential issue. It is not like America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which were conducted thousands of miles away.” The effect of this, he argues, is that “the administration’s approach plays into Hamas’ hands and has granted Hamas freebies: A delay in action in Rafah and increased humanitarian aid – conditions that help it reassert its control. The pressure from Washington moves Israel closer to a war of attrition, whose costs are high and its duration is difficult to control. They even push away America’s hopes of advancing a deal for the release of the captives.”

Israel Hayom’s Ariel Kahan is also sharply critical of Biden and says “after he and his people verbally attack Israel almost every day, how exactly will Biden be able to say the day after the war that he stood by Israel at its difficult hour? No matter how you look at it, his legacy has already been tarnished.”

Haaretz reports on another aspect of US-Israeli tensions – the speech last Tuesday of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who criticised Netanyahu’s leadership and called for Israeli elections. Netanyahu appeared on CNN yesterday and called Schumer’s intervention “totally inappropriate.” Changes of government, he said, are “something that Israel, the Israeli public does on its own and we’re not a banana republic.” Schumer elaborated on his speech, backed by the White House, over the weekend, telling the Washington Post, “I spent two months thinking about this and wrestling with it… Too many people are turning against Israel because of their dislike for Netanyahu. And I felt an imperative to show that you could be against Netanyahu and still be very pro-Israel, which of course I am… We’re not determining who Israel should pick. We’re just asking that they get a right to choose when so many people are just upset with the direction of the present government in Israel.”

On another important diplomatic relationship, Haaretz quotes remarks made by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during visits to both Jordan and Israel yesterday. Scholz warned against an Israeli operation in Rafah, saying it would make peace “very difficult”. “Right now, it is about ensuring we come to a long-lasting ceasefire,” he continued. “That would enable us to prevent such a ground offensive from taking place… Israel has every right to protect itself… At the same time, it cannot be that those in Gaza who fled to Rafah are directly threatened by whatever military actions and operations are undertaken there.” In his meeting with Netanyahu, Scholz said “we cannot stand by and watch Palestinians starve.”

Channel 13 features a demand by National Security Minister Ben Gvir that Jews be allowed to visit the Temple Mount during the last ten days of Ramadan. This would represent a departure from previous policies, and an unnamed senior government official says, “it is clear that Ben Gvir’s position ultimately won’t be accepted by the prime minister, but the mere fact of his demand to deviate from the status quo practiced in recent years will lead to additional and unnecessary unrest.”

Army Radio reports tension between Finance Minister Smotrich, on the one hand, and the IDF and Defence Minister Gallant on the other. Smotrich’s criticised IDF Chief of Staff Halevi’s plan to make a round of military promotions, to which Gallant responded in cabinet that Smotrich was “causing damage to Israel’s security and was undermining the defence establishment for reasons purely partisan reasons. Gallant said he would not allow anyone to turn the IDF into a militia in the service of any individual.”

Recommended Reading  Chances of Israeli-Hamas Deal Hinge on How Much Leeway Netanyahu Gives Qatar Delegation, Amos Harel, Haaretz

  • “Hamas’ reply to mediators in the hostage talks opens the door for a potential deal, but Prime Minister Netanyahu’s insistence on achieving ‘total victory’ signals that Israel is unlikely to show much flexibility” Read more 

How tensions between Hamas and Fatah could change Gaza, Seth J Frantzman, The Jerusalem Post

  • “The Hamas decision to launch the unprecedented massacre of October 7 was an attempt to launch a first strike that could change the region.” Read more

Justice Salim Joubran – a symbol of Israeli coexistence between Jews and Arabs, Dr Matan Gutman, Ynet

  • “Any attempt to briefly summarize the life and achievements of the baby who left with his family on a boat to Lebanon during the 1948 Independence War and appointed Supreme Court deputy chief justice in his later years is doomed to fail” Read more
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NZ’s Chat With China This Week https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/nzs-chat-with-china-this-week/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=nzs-chat-with-china-this-week https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/nzs-chat-with-china-this-week/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 20:30:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903300 China’s Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, is visiting New Zealand and Australia this week.  As our biggest trading partner, it is vitally important New Zealand engage constructively with China and continue to develop trade.]]>

Simon O’Connor 

onpointnz.substack.com

Husband, step-father, and longtime student of philosophy and history. Also happen to be a former politician, including chairing New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Committee.


Dear Winston

As we now all know, China’s Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, is visiting New Zealand and Australia this week.  As our biggest trading partner, it is vitally important New Zealand engage constructively with China and continue to develop trade.

However, I thought I would write with a few further thoughts you might consider raising with Minister Yi.  I am sure many, including our bigger exporters, prefer you just talk money, but there is quite a long (and growing) list of other issues that you should address.  We are after all a liberal democracy with a belief in human rights, the international rule of law, and keen on a peaceful Indo-Pacific.

Much of what I suggest below will be familiar to you and Minister Yi.  He is well experienced in foreign affairs, returning to the role just under a year ago when his predecessor effectively disappeared.  We can be grateful that New Zealand is a democracy and Ministers don’t tend to disappear without comment.

So, putting money and trade aside, perhaps we can start with China’s interference here in New Zealand.  Your various briefings on becoming Minister made these activities clear.  You may recall the exposure of secret Chinese police stations operating here as well as compromised Chinese made CCTV cameras in at least 60 government sites.  Both were stories I was involved with uncovering, and it has been notable how quiet governments have been around this.  The old adage ‘the silence is deafening’ comes to mind.  China makes a big deal of people not interfering with its internal matters, yet doesn’t seem too worried about interfering in our democracy.

There is of course the ever-present issue of Taiwan.  It may be prudent to ask how it is ‘good form’ for China to repeatedly and aggressively threaten violence against this democratic country.  I visited Taiwan late last year and it is a vibrant thriving society.  That there are almost daily Chinese military incursions – both by plane and boat – is highly concerning.  That China’s President has openly threatened invasion is surely enough reason for New Zealand to speak clearly on this matter. If you need to link back to a trade lens, then just keep in mind that at least $10 trillion dollars of damage (that’s US Dollars by the way!) is estimated to the global economy if China invades. That will make the costs associated with the management of covid or the invasion of Ukraine look small.

Speaking of vibrant and thriving, Hong Kong used to be but is no longer.  Ever since the CCP violently crushed the ‘yellow umbrella’ democracy protests and then introduced their new National Security Law, Hong Kong’s vibrancy and openness has been lost.  As I write, there is a sham trial of Jimmy Lai (owner and editor of the popular media outlet Apple Daily) whose only crime was to have a public opinion.  It would do well for New Zealand to ask why China seems so obsessed with scapegoating this man as supposedly the mastermind behind all the democracy protests.  In fact, we do know the answer – it allows other Hong Kongers to excuse their own actions at the time and now fall quietly into line with the new CCP government.  With such an obvious dynamic in play, it should be straightforward to call out the legal charade for what it is.

Please also raise the case of Andy Li.  He was one of twelve young Hong Kong protestors who tried to flee the oncoming repression but was captured. Sadly, there are many convincing reports of his torture to obtain information to convict him, Jimmy, and others under the draconian National Security Law.  It will pay to discuss this law more generally as the Hong Kong authorities are updating Article 23 as we write – making pretty much any resistance to authority a criminal offence.  Any last vestige of freedom in Hong Kong is about to be crushed. 

Now, I know time will be short when you meet but the list is long.  There is the ongoing harassment of Tibetans and let us not forget the continued oppression of Uyghurs in the Xingjian Province.  For both, there are almost weekly reports of further repressions, ‘struggle sessions’ (a favourite of communists), and slave labour practices.  Speaking of that – when is the New Zealand government going to finally progress Modern Slavery laws?

We also have the harassment of what are known as ‘house Christians’.  We even had the arrest of the most senior Catholic leader in the area, Cardinal Zen.   Even in New Zealand, religious freedom is still seen as important.

Then there is all the corporate espionage, debt traps for small Pacific countries, ‘policing’ cooperation agreements with the likes of Solomon Islands and Fiji, the questionable construction of new bases in Antarctica, the harvesting of kiwis data via TikTok, and more.

So, enjoy your meetings with Minister Yi but perhaps with all these matters, you will need more than just an official dinner and one meeting.

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The Invention of Race — A History https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/the-invention-of-race-a-history/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-invention-of-race-a-history https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/the-invention-of-race-a-history/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 20:15:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903362 Contrary to leftist fantasies, Europeans did not pioneer colour prejudice.]]>

Contrary to leftist fantasies, Europeans did not pioneer colour prejudice.

You need at least a Silver membership plan to access Insight articles.

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From the Desk of a Male Pale and Stale https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/from-the-desk-of-a-male-pale-and-stale-28/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=from-the-desk-of-a-male-pale-and-stale-28 https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/from-the-desk-of-a-male-pale-and-stale-28/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 20:00:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903215 black framed eyeglasses and black penThe Communist Party recognised that to both gain power and continue in power they had to tear down existing structures and replace them with their own. We see similar behaviour, mostly overseas but cropping up more frequently now, in New Zealand,]]> black framed eyeglasses and black pen

In my previous piece regarding the Reserve Bank (RBNZ) I outlined how the cultural changes overtaking the RBNZ were also overtaking its primary mission and probably did not, ironically, reflect a good return on investment (ROI). The recent release of commemorative coins by the RBNZ, coupled with a consumer complaint, prompted me to remember a lesser-recounted piece of history. This perspective allows us to view both issues in a broader context.

The campaign to destroy the “Four Olds” began in Beijing during the “Red August” of 1966, shortly after the launch of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The specific elements constituting the “Four Olds” were never precisely defined (as an analogy we can consider “hate speech”), but their eradication was a central theme. Mao Zedong called upon his Red Guards, a militant youth movement (as an analogy we can consider the “woke” (e.g., Antifa), to eradicate the “Four Olds”. These “Four Olds” referred to pre-communist elements within traditional Chinese culture and were targeted for destruction. They included:

The Communist Party recognised that to both gain power and continue in power they had to tear down existing structures and replace them with their own. We see similar behaviour, mostly overseas but cropping up more frequently in New Zealand now, with the graffitiing and even tearing down of hallowed monuments and statues, of ‘decolonising activities’. It doesn’t stop with vandalism but has already extended to the dismantling of inalienable rights and even an unpunished assault on a 71-year-old woman whose views differ from the ‘Aotearoan Guard’.

Many of these cultural vandalisations can be obscured by aligned claims, yet these claims ultimately pursue similar outcomes. As we’ll observe, they represent ‘two sides of the same coin’ for the same objective: to achieve political goals by undermining prevailing ideas, culture, customs, and traditions.

One such claim suggests that New Zealand should become a republic. While I fail to see how this would enhance the livelihoods of average New Zealanders, I acknowledge the advantages of maintaining ties within the Commonwealth. New Zealand, as a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, benefits in several ways:

  1. Citizens’ Rights Protection: Membership in the Commonwealth provides a platform for safeguarding the rights of New Zealand citizens, emphasising democratic principles, human rights, and the rule of law.
  2. Small States Solidarity: Collaboration within the Commonwealth enables New Zealand to contribute to economic prosperity and environmental security in the Pacific region.
  3. Governance and Institutions: The Commonwealth promotes good governance, inclusive institutions, and justice, working towards economic growth, trade enhancement, minority empowerment, and addressing global challenges such as climate change.
  4. Historical Legacy: With its roots in the British Empire, the Commonwealth reflects New Zealand’s evolution and provides connections to the wider world (3). It serves as an example of significant progress through collective action, such as the abolition of slavery.

However, recent developments have seen the alignment of the Republican movement and the Cultural Marxist movement in New Zealand. This convergence presents an unfortunate situation as both systems of governance have had their day.

The failures of Marxist ideologies whether cultural, or otherwise, are evident through the millions of lives lost. In China alone, the death toll ranges from 20 million to 60 million, with many victims purged during the campaign against the ‘Four Olds’ (2). Additionally, with the ongoing persecution of the Uyghurs, this toll increases daily.

Republicanism also has its litany of failures. Here are a few examples:

  1. Weimar Republic (Germany): After World War I, Germany transitioned from a monarchy to the Weimar Republic (1919-1933). However, political instability, economic challenges, and social unrest plagued the Weimar era. Hyperinflation, political extremism, and the rise of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party eventually led to the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the establishment of the Third Reich (4).
  2. Russian Federation: The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 marked the transition of Russia from a socialist state to a republic. While democratic institutions emerged, Russia faced significant challenges. Corruption, oligarchic control, and erosion of democratic norms have hindered its progress toward stable governance (5).
  3. Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe transitioned from British colonial rule to an independent republic in 1980. However, under President Robert Mugabe’s leadership the country faced economic decline, land seizures, and human rights abuses. The transition did not lead to sustained prosperity or democratic stability (6).
  4. Libya: After the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011, Libya transitioned to a republic. However, internal conflicts, factionalism, and power struggles among armed groups have left the country deeply divided. The transition did not result in a stable and unified Libya (7).

The current decline in America is evident through the intersection of Republican ideology and Cultural Marxism(8).

Recently, Mr Holden of “New Zealand Republic” criticized the RBNZ for releasing commemorative coins featuring King Charles III, labelling it a “missed opportunity” for advancing New Zealand’s republic status (9). Progressive ideologues might support such a move as a step toward “decolonising” New Zealand. But to quote Deng Xiaoping, “It doesn’t matter whether a cat is black or white so long as it catches mice”. (10)

As the RBNZ continues its woke agenda, it may quietly adopt New Zealand Republic’s views under the guise of “popular demand” or “current relevance”. This could lead to a subtle yet significant cultural shift, akin to the “Four Olds” objectives, carried out through our currency – without voter consent. This mirrors Vladimir Lenin’s concept of “useful idiots”, where individuals or groups inadvertently support a cause or regime against their own interests (11).

Anticipating potential changes, a legislative solution would mandate that the RBNZ always broadly seek public consultation before altering the artwork on NZ currency. This measure aims to prevent unilateral changes by the RBNZ amidst the evident and ongoing ideological shifts within that organisation.

I encourage politicians who read this article to take up the challenge through a Private Member’s Bill.

References

  1. Chen, B. (1966, June 1). Sweep Away All Cow Demons and Snake Spirits. People’s Daily.
  2. Gregor, A. J. (2019). Marxist Thought in China. In Oxford Bibliographies. DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199920082-0176
  3. “New Zealand’s Membership in the Commonwealth: Benefits and Impact” Author: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, New Zealand Publication Date: 2024 URL: https://www.mfat.govt.nz/en/peace-rights-and-security/the-commonwealth/
  4. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z9y64j6/revision/6
  5. https://online.norwich.edu/consequences-collapse-soviet-union
  6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mugabe
  7. https://portside.org/2020-02-03/libya-and-after-muammar-gaddafi
  8. https://www.heritage.org/progressivism/report/how-cultural-marxism-threatens-the-united-states-and-how-americans-can-fight
  9. https://www.republic.org.nz/latestblog/mediarelease16march2024
  10. http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1999/china.50/inside.china/profiles/deng.xiaoping/
  11. https://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/lenin-used-useful-idiots-to-spread-propaganda-to-the-west/

(Authors note: Lenin capitalised on the use of “useful idiots”: but it is believed the term’s origin was an economist called ‘Ludwig von Mises’.)

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The MSM’s Overdue Reality Check https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/the-msms-overdue-reality-check/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-msms-overdue-reality-check https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/the-msms-overdue-reality-check/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 19:30:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903241 Democracy is undoubtedly enhanced by a strong media landscape. But if New Zealand is to return to having that, there needs to be a reset. The media needs to commit to their own principles to “be bound at all times by accuracy, fairness and balance, and… not deliberately mislead or misinform readers by commission or omission.”]]>

Dr Muriel Newman

nzcpr.com


The declining fortunes of the mainstream media has been dominating the news over recent weeks. The industry is waning, and the weaker players are facing closure.

While this is grim for those who face job loss and financial uncertainty, there’s not a lot of public sympathy for the media sector these days. And, if we have a quick look back, it’s not hard to see why.

A standout occurrence was the extraordinary emergence of “Jacindamania” in 2017. The fawning across the media landscape was not only unprofessional, it was embarrassing. But instead of dying down once the first blush of the love affair had worn off, it continued on. As a result, the mainstream media neglected their Fourth Estate duty of holding the powerful to account. In their eyes, Prime Minister Ardern could do no wrong, in spite of a growing litany of stuff ups and failure.

In fact, for six years, the mainstream media acted as a cheerleader for Labour – a literal echo chamber for their propaganda. At the same time, they focussed on hunting down and vilifying anyone critical of Labour’s agenda – especially those challenging their approach over Covid and vaccine mandates.

A key factor during that period was taxpayer funding. Under the Ardern administration, the media received well over $100 million.

The last $55 million was the most controversial since it came with substantial political strings attached. Known by the Orwellian name of the Public Interest Journalism Fund, it was announced early in 2021, not long after Jacinda Ardern had won the election and the right to govern alone.

Unbeknown to voters at the time, the PM was planning to roll out Labour’s ‘secret’ He Puapua agenda to transfer democratic power to the iwi elite through co-governance and a Maori veto. This was to be justified through the fabricated claim that Maori were 50:50 Treaty ‘partners’ with the Crown. PIJF recipients were therefore required to sign up to this fiction, as a condition of their funding.

Under such circumstances, it became exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, for the media to criticise the Treaty partnership, co-governance, or He Puapua.

By taking the money, they became advocates for Maori sovereignty. Maori language and culture began to infiltrate news stories, with anything critical of the tribal takeover effectively sidelined. It’s no wonder that public trust in the media fell through the floor.

Even though new PIJF allocations stopped almost a year ago, the funding continues to be rolled out until 2026. Until then, any media outlet adopting a critical approach to ‘Maori issues’ risks being asked to repay the money.

But it wasn’t just over politics and race where blatant bias has driven public and advertiser revenue away from the mainstream media. Obsessive scaremongering over climate change has undoubtedly played a part.

Jacinda Ardern, of course, led the way with her extremist claim that climate change was her generation’s nuclear-free moment.

But the media themselves crossed a line when they decided to stop providing a balanced approach to this highly politicised issue in favour of fearmongering – as Stuff’s Editor explained in 2019:

“Despite the alarming evidence of the need for urgent action, climate change still falls victim to a shrugging complacency. Quick! Save the Planet – a long-term Stuff project launching today – aims to disturb our collective complacency. With insistent, inconvenient coverage, we intend to make the realities of climate change feel tangible – and unignorable…

“We’ll feature a wide range of views as part of this project, but we won’t include climate change ‘scepticism’. Including denialism wouldn’t be ‘balanced’; it’d be a dangerous waste of time. The experts have debunked denialism, so now we’ll move on.”

And with that, they stopped reporting anything critical of their alarmist view that climate change is an existential crisis. With most mainstream media following suit, instead of challenging the radical policy agenda being proposed by the climate extremists in the Labour Government, as a voluntary response to the United Nations’ Paris Agreement, the media parroted their propaganda and discredited anyone questioning their narrative.

As a result, the media failed to hold Jacinda Ardern to account for her recklessness in attempting to lead the world in combatting climate change – by imposing regulations onto New Zealand that were far harsher than those being introduced in other countries.

In fact, some of the requirements of the Zero Carbon Act are so punitive, they are crippling industries and undermining New Zealand’s economic wellbeing and living standards.

Nor did the media point out that on a global scale the emissions produced by New Zealand are infinitesimal – dwarfed in an instant by the big emitters such as China, India, and Russia. Instead of penalising growth, these countries are amongst a raft of others that are expanding their energy sector – and their economy as they seek to improve the lives and living standards of their citizens.

The media didn’t even challenge the Ardern Government for breaching Article 2 of the UN’s Paris Agreement, when they introduced their Zero Carbon Act. That section requires countries not to do anything to threaten food production: “This Agreement… aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change… in a manner that does not threaten food production”.

Yet, Labour’s Zero Carbon Act specifically cracks down on farmers by requiring the methane produced by cows and sheep during digestion to be reduced by 10 per cent less than their 2017 emissions by 2030, and 24 to 47 per cent less by 2050.

This is a huge penalty on farmers, since, in spite of the hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on research to reduce livestock methane, the only realistic way to do so is to reduce livestock numbers.

With agriculture a key export industry, and New Zealand farmers the most efficient in the world, it seems extraordinary that Labour was able to impose massive penalties on them – in breach of the Paris Agreement – with little or no scrutiny by the mainstream media.

In contrast, rather than emulating the punitive approach used by the Ardern Government – that’s undermined the industry and damaged New Zealand’s economic outlook, our major trading partners have taken an incentive-based approach to farming that upholds the spirit of the Paris Agreement.    

In April 2023, Treasury released  their Climate Economic and Fiscal Assessment report, outlining the cost to the country of Jacinda Ardern’s attempt to lead the world in combatting climate change. It revealed that 70 per cent of our climate targets would need to be met by purchasing carbon credits through offshore mitigation schemes. And they estimated the cost could reach an eye-watering $23.7 billion by 2030 – an amount that would consume “28 per cent of all new operating expenditure through Budgets 2024 to 2030” and create a “significant financial risk” to the country.

Why didn’t the mainstream media hold Labour to account for the massive economic damage their Zero Carbon Act was going to cause New Zealand? Why wasn’t this a big scandal at the time?

In a further development – one that has huge consequences – the UN has now admitted its methane calculations are wrong: Instead of methane causing 28 times more global warming than carbon dioxide, it only causes seven times more warming.

Since almost half of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions are methane, and because our climate models are all calculated using a factor of 28, if the correct value of 7 is applied, New Zealand’s emissions problem would virtually disappear overnight. Expensive carbon levies on food, petrol, and power, could be removed, easing the cost-of-living crisis. But because the mainstream media has failed to report on this, first Labour and now National politicians are dragging their feet.

Furthermore, why hasn’t the media considered it newsworthy to report that a key underlying assumption being promoted by the Ministry for the Environment and adopted by local councils and government departments, that grossly overstates sea level rise, has also been discredited by the UN.

This week’s NZCPR Guest Commentator Barry Brill, the Chairman of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition and a former National Government Minister, outlines the serious damage being caused by this discredited measure:

“The great majority of the Ministry’s false prophecies are based on a single imagined storyline – RCP8.5 – an obsolete 15-year-old scenario which is now almost-universally recognised as being highly unlikely, if not wholly impossible.

“RCP8.5 rests on assumptions that global emissions are sharply increasing, that no country anywhere has ever or will ever adopt a climate policy, that the world’s population will double and that coal-power will be dominant by 2100. All this is plainly nonsense.

“New Zealand planners and engineers…  base their analysis on the ‘worst case’ of 8.5. Consequently, there is a better than 99% chance that their forecasts will turn out to be completely and expensively wrong.”

Last October the public delivered a crushing blow to Labour, sending the message that things must change. But some in the mainstream media appear to be in denial, as they doubling down in a partisan way, undermining the new Government and acting as a de-facto political opposition.

So, what can be done?

For a start, the mainstream media could review its approach to issues like climate change. Instead of adopting the mantra of global warming alarmists, they could take a balanced approach. In fact, a balanced approach may well have prevented the damaging policies that are now in place.   

The reality is that by ignoring the need for balance in their reporting, the media is failing to uphold its own industry ideals. These are clearly expressed by the Media Council – a self-regulatory industry body that promotes the highest professional standards of journalism – in its Statement of Principles: “An independent press plays a vital role in a democracy. The proper fulfilment of that role requires a fundamental responsibility to maintain high standards of accuracy, fairness and balance and public faith in those standards.”

Their first principle states, “Publications should be bound at all times by accuracy, fairness and balance, and should not deliberately mislead or misinform readers by commission or omission. In articles of controversy or disagreement, a fair voice must be given to the opposition view”.

These are admirable aspirations. The problem is that there’s now a widespread perception that the mainstream media has failed to uphold their own principles. The public believes that many journalists have become activists instead of reporters – which surely points to a failure at editorial level to rein them in.

This lack of professionalism has eroded confidence in the media and – most importantly – public trust.  Without that trust, audiences have shifted their attention to the many alternative sources of information and news that are now available.

Realistically, to survive, the media needs to restore public trust. To keep their traditional media channels alive, they will need to demonstrate professionalism rather than merely claiming it.

Despite the clear message the public has sent to the mainstream media, they are now being called upon to support a campaign to ‘save’ TVNZ programmes and staff. Launched by the journalists’ union E tu, the campaign is being led by ‘Negotiation Specialist’ Michael Wood – the former Labour Party Minister who described the Parliamentary protesters as a “river of filth”.

Their open letter includes the line, “When it comes to building and protecting a strong media landscape, every single New Zealander is a stakeholder.”

But instead of sympathising with the plight of those high-profile presenters fronting the campaign, many New Zealanders will be of a view that the media is now getting an overdue reality check. Some will say the media is getting what it deserves.

Democracy is undoubtedly enhanced by a strong media landscape. But if New Zealand is to return to having that, there needs to be a reset. The media needs to commit to their own principles to “be bound at all times by accuracy, fairness and balance, and… not deliberately mislead or misinform readers by commission or omission.”

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Yesterday’s Five Most Popular Articles https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/yesterdays-five-most-popular-articles-418/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=yesterdays-five-most-popular-articles-418 https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/yesterdays-five-most-popular-articles-418/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 19:15:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903349 persons left hand on yellow backgroundHere are the 5 most read articles from yesterday for you to enjoy today.]]> persons left hand on yellow background]]> https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/yesterdays-five-most-popular-articles-418/feed/ 0 903349 A Battle of Wits with an Unarmed Man https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/a-battle-of-wits-with-an-unarmed-man/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-battle-of-wits-with-an-unarmed-man https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/a-battle-of-wits-with-an-unarmed-man/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 19:00:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903344 Chris Hipkins really is as politically stupid as he appears. In his infinite wisdom, he decided to have a battle of wits with Winston Peters, a battle that I might add he is singularly ill-equipped to deal with. But he went there.]]>

Chris Hipkins really is as politically stupid as he appears. In his infinite wisdom, he decided to have a battle of wits with Winston Peters, a battle that I might add he is singularly ill-equipped to deal with. But he went there.

The New Zealand First leader and Cabinet minister delivered his State of the Nation speech yesterday.

He took jabs at the previous government’s “race-based theory”, alluding to co-governance, “where some people’s DNA… made them somehow better than others”.

“I’ve seen that sort of philosophy before. I saw it in Nazi Germany, we all did,” he told an approving crowd.

In response, Hipkins said: “Kiwis deserve better than a deputy prime minister who behaves like a drunk uncle at a wedding.”

Today, the war of words has continued with a tweet from Peters.

“Chris Hipkins hid behind a press release yesterday and said that he was glad he ‘ruled me out’ before the election,” he tweeted this morning. “Newsflash Chris.

“I publicly ruled out working with you and your woke Labour cronies twelve months before you stuttered the words.

“But you know that. And so do the media who have the temerity to repeat your stutter.

“PS. Your ‘drunk uncle’ comment is laughable coming from someone who would get drunk on a wine biscuit.”

Peters finished with: “Keep the press releases coming.”

1News

Now I know we already have this quote as the Sledge of the Day, but what I want to explain is the politics of this, and how utterly bad it is for Chris Hipkins.

Firstly, a leader of a major party should never engage in a tit-for-tat spat with a minor party leader. It demeans your putative superior position and brings you down to their level. Sure you can engage over significant policy ideas, but name-calling isn’t that, and Chris Hipkins called Winston Peters a “drunk uncle”.

By engaging, Hipkins looked petulant, and churlish and here comes the second part, he risked being made a fool of. This is precisely what the far more nimble-minded Winston Peters did without resorting to epithets like “drunk uncle”.

Winston’s response was humiliating for Hipkins; he was being mocked, in a blokish manner, about not being able to handle his liquor…which everyone knows Winston Peters can.

It was an oldie but a goodie sledge that Winston Peters used, and it was devastating.

Though, I think Winston Peters may have spelt whine incorrectly.

Winston Peters had a battle of wits with an unarmed man.


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Keep Drag Queens Away From Kiwi Kids! https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/keep-drag-queens-away-from-kiwi-kids/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=keep-drag-queens-away-from-kiwi-kids https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/keep-drag-queens-away-from-kiwi-kids/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 18:30:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=902725 We all have a responsibility to protect the innocence of our children, and right now that’s not happening.]]>


Brian Tamaki


“Enough is Enough! We will no longer sit back and watch the transgender invasion into our public places and schools…it’s a full-on assault on the innocence of our children,” states Brian Tamaki, a respected and vocal leader from the right. He is also a proud father, grandfather, and more recently a great-grandfather to four young ones.

It’s time to clean up and confront this scourge in our society, the scourge of transgender ideology.”

Tamaki’s comments come as he mobilises his followers to take action against upcoming Rainbow storytelling events as a part of yet another national tour planned by Drag Queens. Tamaki’s team will take action to shut down the events planned for the Drag Queens Rainbow Storytelling at the Rotorua Library next Thursday, and the Hastings Library the following Wednesday.

Tamaki’s team have also taken proactive steps petitioning the local councils involved, urging them to stop these Rainbow Storytelling events in council-owned libraries.

“This has crossed the line. I’ve had enough of all this Rainbow-washing (brainwashing) over our nation. They are specifically targeting our innocent kids with their filth. They are recruiting and grooming our kids in places where they should be safe…in our schools, our libraries, our sports and our public places. They are even preying on our most vulnerable children who are in state care.”

Tamaki is referring to:

New Zealand Schools:

  • The Pride Week Campaign proudly reports that in 2023 they saw a record 300+ schools from all around NZ take part, including over 60% of all Secondary Schools!
  • Despite campaign promises from the new government, the Relationships & Sexuality Curriculum is still in full operation within our New Zealand schools encouraging kids from a young age to question their gender, sexual activities and even the use of hormone blockers.
  • They have spread this ideology through every learning area in our schools, including English and Science so it makes it impossible for parents to opt their kids out of this form of sex education, as they’d miss every subject.
  • Recently Auckland University researchers asked thousands of eight-year-old children which gender they identified with.
  • Council Libraries – many libraries throughout the country are now hosting Rainbow Storytelling sessions, with many led by Erika & Coco Flash on their national tour. This duo have released a lot of very disturbing promotional material over the years.
  • Sports – Sport New Zealand released in 2022 their ‘Guiding Principles for the Inclusion of Transgender People in Community Sport’. Young girls are also reported as becoming deterred from competing at an elite level with the increasing likelihood they will come up against transgender men in their sport.
  • Public places – drag queens are parading around many public events these days, in our streets and in our shopping malls, happily taking photos with children.
  • State Care – Oranga Tamariki have recently released a doc called ‘Making Ourselves Visible’ as a basis for Oranga Tamariki policy on rainbow and takatapui children and young people in the care and fostering systems.

“Don’t you worry…we’ll also take action against the School’s Pride Week planned again for June this year” states Tamaki.

This is just one of multiple events the Rainbow community have planned throughout their jam-packed calendar year, as they push their Pride Pledge across every month and a mantra of ‘Visibility, Safety and Inclusion.’

“They are doing everything possible to be visible to our kids, to rainbow wash them. That’s why these Drag Queens dress up to look like fun children’s characters. They are purposefully targeting our kids.”

“Every parent who cares about their children… they need to take notice, they need to wake up, and take a stand against what is targeting our next generation. We all have a responsibility to protect the innocence of our children, and right now that’s not happening.”

“I am passionate about protecting my moko. NZ has gone too far with this transgender ideology! This rainbow-washing nonsense has invaded every part of our society. We must stand up and protect the innocence of our children, otherwise, we’ll be known as the generation of parents and grandparents that didn’t care enough.”

Tamaki elaborates that the transgender ideology he is referencing also includes:

  • The Gender Affirming (Genital) Surgery Service, that is a part of Health New Zealand:
    • Received $2.99m of taxpayer money in 2019 to perform gender-affirming surgeries.
    • Surgeries include feminising breast augmentation, masculinising chest reconstruction, hysterectomy (removal of the uterus), salpingo-oophorectomy (removal of ovaries and fallopian tubes), orchidectomy (removal of testicles), vaginoplasty, metoidioplasty, phalloplasty.
    • Some surgeries, such as a double mastectomy have already been performed on NZ
      children at the age of 16.
  • Puberty Blockers for children (9–17 yrs old) are more highly used in NZ than in other countries. Pharmac data shows NZ had 703 children on puberty blockers in 2020 compared with about 1,000 prescribed them in England over the same period.
  • The Rainbow flags flying at every turn, and even rainbow pedestrian crossings featuring in many NZ towns and cities. The cash-strapped Wellington Council has been known to fork out $22,500 for just one rainbow crossing. Throughout the country, rainbow crossings will have cost ratepayers hundreds of thousands.
  • The commonality of gender-neutral changing rooms and bathrooms throughout New Zealand.
  • The proliferation of New Zealand organisations, government departments, banks and businesses adopting rainbow versions of their branding so they can boast a rainbow tick of approval from rainbow activists.

If you need any further proof of the spread of this global transgender agenda, check out this ‘tell all’ video from a transgender:

“They are trying to make natural, what is unnatural, and forcing it on our kids. This is not about human rights anymore, it’s about human wrongs! Yes, transgenders and drag queens have a basic human right to do what they like in private, but keep it out of the public arena, and especially away from any kids.”

“I have no faith in this new government that they will take the steps necessary to protect our kids. The transgender ideology has taken hold of National, ACT and even NZ First introduced into schools the dirty Relationships & Sexuality Education in 2020.”

Tamaki states that he has several plans underway in 2024 that include proposed legislation to ban Drag Queens in public places. Immediately, Tamaki plans to have a team attend every library event where Drag Queens are present. Follow @BrianTamakiNZ on X (formerly Twitter) to stay informed of everything he is planning throughout 2024.

“Today’s the day. From hereon we will front up and put a stop to all Drag Queens in our libraries and schools. We will put a stop to this transgender nonsense in New Zealand! Somebody’s got to do it in a big way that parents finally sit up and take notice… so we are taking up the challenge… for the sake of our Kiwi Kids’ innocence.

“Enough is Enough…no more Drag Queens recruiting and grooming our Kiwi kids!”

    ]]>
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    The BFD General Debate https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/the-bfd-general-debate-1514/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-bfd-general-debate-1514 https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/the-bfd-general-debate-1514/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 18:00:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=902909 General DebateGood morning, welcome to our daily General Debate. On General debate, you are encouraged as a commenter to share your own stories, discuss other news, bring NEW news, catch up with friends or make new friends with other commenters. To participate you'll need to sign up for a Disqus account which is free, quick, and easy. All you need is an email address to register a username that suits you.]]> General Debate

    Good morning, welcome to our daily General Debate.

    Our evening General debate is called Backchat and will start at 6 pm.

    On General debate, you are encouraged as a commenter to share your own stories, discuss other news, bring NEW news, catch up with friends or make new friends with other commenters.

    To participate you’ll need to sign up for a Disqus account which is free, quick, and easy. All you need is an email address to register a username that suits you.

    On posts that are not articles such as this one, you do not have to stay ‘on topic’ but you do still need to follow our commenting rules.

    Please read our rules before you start commenting on The BFD to avoid a temporary or permanent ban.

    To check if your ban might have been caused by Disqus, or to ask for a banning decision to be reviewed, email the voluntary helpdesk @ thebfd.co.nz with your Disqus username in the subject line. Please be respectful and do not make demands.

    ]]>
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    Sledge of the Day https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/sledge-of-the-day-9/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sledge-of-the-day-9 https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/sledge-of-the-day-9/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 17:30:51 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903325 The New Zealand First leader and Cabinet minister delivered his State of the Nation speech yesterday.]]>

    The New Zealand First leader and Cabinet minister delivered his State of the Nation speech yesterday.

    He took jabs at the previous government’s “race-based theory”, alluding to co-governance, “where some people’s DNA… made them somehow better than others”.

    “I’ve seen that sort of philosophy before. I saw it in Nazi Germany, we all did,” he told an approving crowd.

    In response, Hipkins said: “Kiwis deserve better than a deputy prime minister who behaves like a drunk uncle at a wedding.”

    Today, the war of words has continued with a tweet from Peters.

    “Chris Hipkins hid behind a press release yesterday and said that he was glad he ‘ruled me out’ before the election,” he tweeted this morning. “Newsflash Chris.

    “I publicly ruled out working with you and your woke Labour cronies twelve months before you stuttered the words.

    “But you know that. And so do the media who have the temerity to repeat your stutter.

    PS. Your ‘drunk uncle’ comment is laughable coming from someone who would get drunk on a wine biscuit.

    1News

    Read more here. Discuss it on The BFD.

    ]]>
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    The BFD Word of the Day https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/the-bfd-word-of-the-day-1510/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-bfd-word-of-the-day-1510 https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/the-bfd-word-of-the-day-1510/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 17:15:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=893374 The word for today is bedlam]]>

    The word for today is…

    bedlam (noun):

    1: a place, scene, or state of uproar and confusion
    2 capitalised: Bedlam : an asylum for the mentally ill
    3 obsolete : madman, lunatic

    Source : Merriam -Webster

    Etymology : Bedlam, popular name for the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem, London, an asylum for the mentally ill, from Middle English Bedlem – Bethlehem. First known use was in 1522

    If you enjoyed this BFD word of the day please consider sharing it with your friends and, especially, your children.

    ]]>
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    The BFD Daily Proverb https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/the-bfd-daily-proverb-1521/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-bfd-daily-proverb-1521 https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/19/the-bfd-daily-proverb-1521/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 16:30:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=899866 Loyalty makes a person attractive. It is better to be poor than dishonest]]>

    Proverbs 19

    22 Loyalty makes a person attractive.
        It is better to be poor than dishonest

    ]]>
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    The BFD Nightcap https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/the-bfd-nightcap-1318/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-bfd-nightcap-1318 https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/the-bfd-nightcap-1318/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 08:00:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903127 Enjoy a BFD curated video this evening. We search the internet for the best new media news and entertainment videos for our readers so that they don't have to.]]>

    If you have a great Youtube, Rumble or Vimeo video to share send it to videos@thebfd.co.nz

    ]]>
    https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/the-bfd-nightcap-1318/feed/ 0 903127
    Manly Monday https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/manly-monday-223/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=manly-monday-223 https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/manly-monday-223/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 07:30:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903131 man holding black dumbbellEnjoy a BFD curated video this evening. We search the internet for the best new media news and entertainment videos for our readers so that they don’t have to.]]> man holding black dumbbell]]> https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/manly-monday-223/feed/ 0 903131 Throwing Artillery Shells Into Space https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/throwing-artillery-shells-into-space/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=throwing-artillery-shells-into-space https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/throwing-artillery-shells-into-space/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 07:00:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903130 Enjoy a BFD curated video this evening. We search the internet for the best new media news and entertainment videos for our readers so that they don’t have to.]]> ]]> https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/throwing-artillery-shells-into-space/feed/ 0 903130 How to Sharpen a Chisel as Sharp as a Razor! Sharp Razor https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/how-to-sharpen-a-chisel-as-sharp-as-a-razor-sharp-razor/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-sharpen-a-chisel-as-sharp-as-a-razor-sharp-razor https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/how-to-sharpen-a-chisel-as-sharp-as-a-razor-sharp-razor/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 06:30:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903129 Enjoy a BFD curated video this evening. We search the internet for the best new media news and entertainment videos for our readers so that they don’t have to.]]> ]]> https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/how-to-sharpen-a-chisel-as-sharp-as-a-razor-sharp-razor/feed/ 0 903129 Post Viral Syndrome Data https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/post-viral-syndrome-data/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post-viral-syndrome-data https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/post-viral-syndrome-data/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 06:00:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903128 Enjoy a BFD curated video this evening. We search the internet for the best new media news and entertainment videos for our readers so that they don’t have to.]]> ]]> https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/post-viral-syndrome-data/feed/ 0 903128 The BFD Daily Roundup https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/the-bfd-daily-roundup-1281/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-bfd-daily-roundup-1281 https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/the-bfd-daily-roundup-1281/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 05:30:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=901102 Just a brief note to readers who like to add their own contributions to Daily Roundup in the comments. This post is for family-friendly humour ONLY thank you.]]> ]]> https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/the-bfd-daily-roundup-1281/feed/ 0 901102 Today in Rock History https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/today-in-rock-history-1797/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=today-in-rock-history-1797 https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/today-in-rock-history-1797/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 05:30:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=902550 Today in Rock History is a music orientated segment where we would like to encourage readers to share their thoughts and tastes in music and discuss the various aspects of any music topic.]]>

    Today in Rock History is a music orientated segment where we would like to encourage readers to share their thoughts and tastes in music and discuss the various aspects of any music topic. This post is not limited to rock music. You are encouraged to bring anything music-related along that you would like to share, either by typing the name of a song and artist into the comments section or by sharing a youtube, Vimeo, Spotify or SoundCloud link. If you are unsure how to add a link, simply write the name of the song and the composer and someone may very well do it for you.

    Music is a huge part of peoples lives even if we aren’t all music enthusiasts. Music is all around us in advertising, background noise in shops and on the streets. It’s inescapable when you have teenagers but for most of us, it is a huge part (if not a ritual) of our lives that we feel close to.

    So kick back and enjoy Nechtan’s Today in Rock History playlist and see what new gems you discover.

    Today in Rock History:

    Born today in 1945, Eric Woolfson songwriter, singer, producer and pianist with The Alan Parsons Project.

    Born today in 1947, Brain “B.J.” Wilson drummer with Procol Harum.

    Born today in 1950, John Hartman drummer with The Doobie Brothers.

    Born today in 1952, Bernie Tormé (Bernard Tormey) songwriter and guitarist with several acts including Gillian and Atomic Rooster.

    Today in 1967, The Beatles went to number 1 in the US with “Penny Lane”.

    Today in 1972, Neil Young went to number 1 in the US “Heart Of Gold”.

    Today in 1972, Paul Simon went to number 1 in the UK album chart with his self-titled solo album.


    Died today in 2011, Terence “Jet” Harris bassist with The Shadows aged 71.

    Died today in 2014, Joe Lala drummer with Blues Image aged 66.

    Died today in 2107, songwriter, singer and guitarist Chuck Berry aged 90.

    Please feel free to share this article to a social media platform of your choice. Help keep rock alive!

    ]]>
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    The BFD Backchat https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/the-bfd-backchat-1492/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-bfd-backchat-1492 https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/the-bfd-backchat-1492/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 05:00:13 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=902959 On Backchat, you are free to share your own stories, discuss other news or catch up with friends. To participate you'll need to sign up for a Disqus account which is free, quick, and easy.]]>

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    Comedy Corner: Offensive Fun https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/comedy-corner-offensive-fun-226/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=comedy-corner-offensive-fun-226 https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/comedy-corner-offensive-fun-226/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 04:00:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=901090 Welcome to Politically Incorrect Comedy corner: the one place on The BFD where you are allowed to read and share naughty and offensive jokes that make us all laugh even though we are not supposed to. If you are offended by these kinds of jokes then please do not read this post.]]>

    Warning

    Welcome to Politically Incorrect Comedy corner: the one place on The BFD where you are allowed to read and share naughty and offensive jokes that make us all laugh even though we are not supposed to. If you are offended by these kinds of jokes then please do not read this post.











    ]]>
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    They Should Have Done Better https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/they-should-have-done-better/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=they-should-have-done-better https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/they-should-have-done-better/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 03:30:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=902813 To encourage panic and the psychological devastation that accompanies panic is wicked and depraved. ]]>

    Rev John F Naugle

    Reverend John F Naugle is the Parochial Vicar at St. Augustine Parish in Beaver County. BS, Economics and Mathematics, S. Vincent College; MA, Philosophy, Duquesne University; STB, Catholic University of America.

    brownstone.org


    In honor of the fourth anniversary of the tyrannical overreaction to a largely imagined threat that elsewhere I’ve described in terms of Israel’s worship of golden calf, I thought it useful to relive my own experience of how easily normal was abandoned in favor of dystopia in less than a week.

    Thursday, March 12

    Following the cowardly lead of the NBA and NHL, MLB announces that after the conclusion of that day’s spring training games, they would also be refusing to play. This throws my planned travel with two friends in just three days into chaos, as we had arranged a trip specifically so that they could experience spring training for the first time. After discussion, we agree to travel to Florida anyway, even if the primary purpose of our travel had been ruined.

    I rant online about this. Aside from a couple of women deeply afflicted by too much living in the suburbs, most of my friends seem to be in agreement.

    As I join a married couple for dinner that evening, a certain dark foreboding is projected by the TVs above the bar, as what should have been live sports programming was replaced by talking heads blathering on about the fact that everything is canceled. And yet, life is normal at the restaurant. After bidding the couple adieu, I then join other friends at a local microbrewery, where once again things are normal.

    Friday, March 13

    That night I attended a birthday party for a parishioner at a nearby restaurant and bar named the Darlington Hotel. He was now running the place in hopes of purchasing the establishment for himself. Corona bottle openers were given away as free gifts, in mockery of the panic. 

    I post the following image to Facebook with the caption “We don’t live in fear in NW Beaver County!”

    Image Credit: brownstone.org

    (The Darlington Hotel would never reopen again after this weekend. I still have that bottle opener as a visible sign to never stop being morally outraged over what happened.)

    Saturday, March 14

    On what should have been the day of Pittsburgh’s St Patrick’s Day parade, festivities continue as normal at my favorite local dive. The manager panics at one point by covering his beard in beer foam and saying that he isn’t feeling too well into the microphone. I, however, have an unexplainable sense that something very bad is coming.

    Sunday, March 15

    I offer Sunday Mass at one of our churches. While attendance is a little down due to the obligation being dispensed, everyone is normal and full of good cheer.

    I leave for the airport to fly to Tampa with my friends. While we are waiting, the news is released: Governor Tom Wolf has revoked human rights and appointed himself and a man pretending to be a woman as unaccountable tyrants. Finding out that my diocese is going along with this madness fills me with such rage that my friends see me noticeably red and sweating.

    We board our plane (which was completely normal), drive our rental car to the condo where we were staying, and then go for a drink at the nearby Captain Curt’s, as Florida is still completely normal.

    Monday, March 16 

    This would be the last normal day of our lives, as Ron DeSantis would cave to the temptations to be a tyrant (at the direction of President Trump) and announced that the next day there would be bizarre and useless occupancy restrictions at restaurants. After a day at the beach, we spent the evening out listening to live music for the last time and enjoying fine dining for the final time. For a nightcap, we thought we would be funny and take advantage of a special on Corona, but we ended up hurrying out of there because the bartender had obviously just had a psychological breakdown; she was telling us how she kicked a smoker out of the bar for coughing, wiped everything repeatedly, and then threw away the ashtray the patron was using.

    Tuesday, March 17

    The effects of the contagion of panic having caught up with us in Florida meant that there wasn’t much reason to plan to do anything. We went to a local liquor store to buy bottles of liquor to take home (as buying liquor was now illegal in Pennsylvania as the state-owned liquor stores were forbidden from opening). We ironically watched Stephen King’s The Stand. A pizza shop that night basically refused to serve seated tables, so broken was the psyche of the employees. We ended up back at Captain Curt’s where we had relaxed the first night, except that there was nothing relaxing there with the altered seating.

    Wednesday, March 18

    In the process of journeying back, I took my friends on a tour of sadness of the things we were supposed to do. After stopping at Mixon Farms, I showed them the completely abandoned Pirates City complex. We then drove to LECOM Park where we were to attend two games; a sole ticket window was open to issue refunds to those who had purchased their tickets in person.

    Locked out of LECOM Park (Image Credit: brownstone.org)

    At the Tampa airport, we sat at the bar at the Hard Rock Restaurant for our last taste of freedom. Once on the plane, it was clear that we were now living in a dystopia, as the Southwest flight attendants now refused to perform regular drink service (as they were terrified to touch anyone) and only handed out cans of water. (My one friend has retained that can of water as a memory of the trauma.)

    Then we had the dark drive home, wondering if we would ever know freedom again…

    Life Was Normal Until Our Leaders Panicked

    As I went through my memory of those days, the realization that jumped out at me was that the vast majority of those who succumbed to hysteria only did so after our leaders failed in their grave duty to keep everyone calm regardless of the danger.

    As I recently argued, we as a culture used to be in wide agreement that panic is to be avoided no matter what and that good leadership must therefore be completely immune to hysteria.

    Yes, hysteria was spreading through the populace, particularly among those predisposed to social contagion through the consumption of mainstream media. But it is undisputably true that people were continuing to live their lives normally even as professional athletes (our modern-day gladiators) proved themselves to be sniveling cowards who refused to earn their massive paychecks out of fear. 

    The only tangible sign of widespread panic was the hoarding of toilet paper, which displays more of a fear of what OTHERS will do rather than a fear of catching a respiratory illness. When I arrived in Florida people were calmer than those I left behind in Pennsylvania, even though Covid was being detected at far higher rates there, for the simple reason that their government hadn’t done anything crazy to indicate a reason to panic.

    The minute the government started acting crazy, the people started acting crazy.

    What leaders in government did, whether it be President Trump on the national level or your health department head on the local level, was an abject failure in what is one of the first duties of good leadership. To encourage panic and the psychological devastation that accompanies panic is wicked and depraved. The lack of accountability for nearly any of those guilty portends a future even more devoid of the necessary virtues required for good leadership.

    In an alternate reality, it was possible for a message akin to FDR’s 1933 inaugural speech to delivered in March of 2020: “So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is… fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance…” 

    Had that happened, the panic which was spreading would have eventually subsided, as it always does. We lost our freedoms and our lives are permanently damaged as a result of those whom we have chosen as leaders proving to be abject failures or worse.

    Four years later, the two major parties are planning to nominate candidates for president who are in agreement that spreading panic and hysteria was the right thing to do in 2020; they disagree only about how much panic should have occurred. Only an independent candidate, Robert F Kennedy, Jr, seems to think that any level of accountability is needed for what happened.

    Will we ever have leadership again that wants to avoid causing the people they serve to be broken psychologically enough to throw ashtrays away in fear of catching a cold?

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    A New Phase of Dumbing Down https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/a-new-phase-of-dumbing-down/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-new-phase-of-dumbing-down https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/a-new-phase-of-dumbing-down/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 03:00:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=902500 For nearly a century, IQ test scores steadily increased – now they’re in decline.]]>

    Only a mainstream media journalist could argue that a decline in general intelligence is a good thing. Probably because, if everybody else dumbs down, the numbnuts in the media might finally have something to feel good about themselves.

    Of course, we, ah, ‘more experienced’ folks always like to think that ‘kids these days’ are getting stupider than ever. This time, though, we may be right. It’s science!

    New research from Northwestern University in Illinois finds that American’s IQs are dropping. IQ – a term that stands for Intelligence Quotient – has been used for decades as a standard measure of problem-solving ability, intelligence, and logic and reasoning skills. From 1932 until 2012, IQ scores increased as much as five points per decade, a phenomenon known as the “Flynn Effect.”

    However, researchers from Northwestern University have discovered a “reverse Flynn Effect” going back all the way to 2006.

    The Flynn Effect has, of course, always been puzzling. Taken on the face of it, the folk of the late 19th century should have been drooling morons. Which clearly wasn’t true. So, should we be worried about a decline from an apparent apex of human intelligence?

    Study author Elizabeth Dworak and her team examined data from almost 400,000 people who had taken an online personality assessment called the Synthetic Aperture Personality Assessment (SAPA) Project. The test provides users with insight into 27 different personality traits, and there are also sections that measure cognitive ability.

    The researchers found that scores associated with “verbal reasoning (logic, vocabulary), matrix reasoning (visual problem solving, analogies), and letter and number series (computational/mathematical)” all declined from 2006 to 2018, while scores for 3D rotation or spatial reasoning increased. These changes were consistent regardless of education level, age, or gender.

    The first thing that should be pointed out is that these are not an IQ test, per se. While they test many of the same areas, they also test others (such as emotions, social skills, etc).

    Dworak stressed that the decline in scores doesn’t necessarily mean Americans aren’t as intelligent as their grandparents or great-grandparents were.

    “It doesn’t mean their mental ability is lower or higher; it’s just a difference in scores that are favoring older or newer samples,” she said in a press release. “It could just be that they’re getting worse at taking tests or specifically worse at taking these kinds of tests.”

    Dworak also said there are numerous possibilities for the decline, ranging from poor nutrition to a rise in screens and media consumption to pollution and a decline in overall health.

    In other words, poor attention spans and poor reading and comprehension skills may also be dragging test results down. IQ tests for spatial reasoning as well – and it’s well known that staring all day at a single focal point has badly affected spatial skills such as catching a ball.

    “If you’re thinking about what society cares about and what it’s emphasizing and reinforcing every day, there’s a possibility of that being reflected in performance on an ability test,” Dworak said, citing the increased emphasis on STEM education over the last ten years.

    Dworak also noted that since the SAPA project was advertised as a personality test, users could have been less motivated to answer questions that did not directly relate to personality, resulting in lower scores for sections dealing with aptitude.

    On the other hand, if users are declining in such key attributes of general intelligence such as reading and comprehension, concentration and spacial skills, how is that functionally different from becoming less intelligent?

    And here come the excuses.

    IQ measurement has a controversial history. Many scholars and researchers believe that IQ tests don’t give an accurate picture of what we refer to as intelligence. There are also questions as to the validity of IQ testing across disciplines – IQ tests tend to measure academic aptitude at the expense of social and emotional intelligence and artistic creativity. And there are strong historical ties between IQ tests and the eugenics movement.

    Fatherly

    Of course IQ tests measure academic aptitude. That’s the point, you idiots. “Academic aptitude” is just another word for intelligence. “Social and emotional intelligence” isn’t a real thing, either: it’s just a modern, touchy-feely invention. IQ has consistently been shown to correlate with general aptitude.

    As for “historical ties” with eugenics: so what? That doesn’t falsify IQ as a reliable measurement, no more than the strong historical ties of academics and doctors with the Nazi movement invalidates either of those.

    Would the mainstream media like to be judged by their strong historical ties with, say, communism?

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    The BFD Stuff Up of the Day https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/the-bfd-stuff-up-of-the-day-1386/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-bfd-stuff-up-of-the-day-1386 https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/the-bfd-stuff-up-of-the-day-1386/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 02:30:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903078 Check out the latest media stuff ups both locally and around the world.]]> ]]> https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/the-bfd-stuff-up-of-the-day-1386/feed/ 0 903078 Laughter Is the Best Medicine https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/laughter-is-the-best-medicine-1406/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=laughter-is-the-best-medicine-1406 https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/laughter-is-the-best-medicine-1406/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 02:00:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=903079 The BFDThis regular daily post is the place to joke and banish negative thoughts. ]]> The BFD]]> https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/laughter-is-the-best-medicine-1406/feed/ 0 903079 Another Headline You Shouldn’t Be Fooled By https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/another-headline-you-shouldnt-be-fooled-by/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=another-headline-you-shouldnt-be-fooled-by https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/another-headline-you-shouldnt-be-fooled-by/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 01:30:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=902520 Another fake “outrage” fuelled by a deceitful clickbait headline.]]>

    There’s a reason my First Law of the Media is Never Believe a Headline. Headlines have always been designed to be catchy, to engage the reader’s interest and get them to pick up the paper and read it. What was true in the print era is still true: good newswriting delivers the Who, What, Why, Where, When and How as early and concisely as possible. In the internet age, though, actually reading the article is a secondary consideration at best. All that matters is getting them to click in the first place. It’s all about the clicks – and about generating as much outrage as possible.

    Whether or not the content matches the headline. In fact, headlines that misrepresent the content of an article, or worse, what a person actually said, is classic fake news.

    Like this:

    Lily Allen says that having children “ruined” her career.

    As it happens, this is a double-whammy of misleading. It not only misrepresents what Allen actually said, but even the news article it was drawn from.

    But, boy, did it work in generating clicks and fake outrage.

    Like too many other people who spotted that headline (and dozens more like it) on Twitter, my first response was, “Wow, Mother-of-the-Year material”. Unlike too many other people on Twitter, though, I actually bothered going to the article and reading it.

    Turns out that Lily Allen obviously isn’t too bad of a mum, after all. Because here’s what she actually said:

    After years spent as one of London’s most notorious party girls, she moved to the country and had children in 2011.

    But now Lily Allen has admitted her two daughters have ‘totally ruined’ her pop career because she chose to prioritise them instead of work – insisting, ‘You can’t have it all’.

    So, what she was saying – and the Daily Mail headline that sparked the furore indeed accurately represented this – was a rejection of the feminist dogma that women can ‘have it all’: career and motherhood. In fact, as Camille Paglia has said for years, they just can’t, and trying to only makes women miserable and their kids even worse.

    The singer-turned-actress, 38, said she believes women have to decide whether to put their children or their career first, saying she chose the former.

    ‘My children ruined my career. I love them and they complete me, but in terms of pop-stardom, they totally ruined it,’ she told the Radio Times Podcast.

    ‘I get really annoyed when people say you can have it all because, quite frankly, you can’t.‘‘I get really annoyed when people say you can have it all because, quite frankly, you can’t.’

    Clearly, then, she is being tongue-in-cheek, or at least disarmingly dismissive, of the “ruined my career” bit. Because, as she makes clear, she wouldn’t have had it any other way.

    ‘Some people choose their career over their children and that’s their prerogative, but my parents were quite absent when I was a kid.

    ‘I feel like it left some nasty scars that I’m not willing to repeat on mine.’

    Lily’s father is actor Keith Allen, 70, who walked out on her film producer mother Alison Owen, 63, when Lily was four years old.

    Lily has now said that she ‘chose to step back and concentrate on my children’ and she’s glad that she has as ‘they’re pretty well-rounded.’

    She has also, although she clearly has to choose her words to placate the woke celebrity milieu, adopted something else very traditional.

    ‘A big part of sobriety is surrendering and letting God – in whatever way you want to believe in that – have a plan for you.’

    And as many women have, she’s finding that, having been present for the critical years of early childhood, she can at least dabble a bit in a career. Which is paying off in a muted way, after she wisely vanished from the celebrity spotlight for nearly a decade.

    Lily now lives in New York with her children and new husband, Stranger Things star David Harbour, 48, whom she married in 2020 and has turned her hand to acting […]
    ‘I got a call from a casting director who was putting on a play [2:22 A Ghost Story] in the West End. I said: “No, I’m not an actress”.

    ‘But then I was talking to David – I’d been feeling a bit directionless and didn’t really know what I was doing with my life, except for being a mum and setting up a new home in Brooklyn.

    ‘He said, “Maybe you should call them back” and five weeks later I was in rehearsal.’
    For her performance in 2:22 A Ghost Story Lily received a Best Actress Olivier Award nomination in 2022.

    She has since starred in Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman last year, for which she received mixed reviews.

    Well, good luck to her, I suppose. I was never much of a fan of Lily Allen the musician, but if this interview is any indication, she seems to have made some wise personal choices.

    No matter what outrage-mongering clickbait headlines might say.

    ]]>
    https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/another-headline-you-shouldnt-be-fooled-by/feed/ 0 902520
    UK Football Fans Feeding Those in Need https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/uk-football-fans-feeding-those-in-need/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=uk-football-fans-feeding-those-in-need https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/03/18/uk-football-fans-feeding-those-in-need/#disqus_thread Mon, 18 Mar 2024 01:00:00 +0000 https://thebfd.co.nz/?p=886436 white and black ball on white metal frameIn England, football fans are remaking themselves and their communities in the image of service and solidarity, regardless of club colours.]]> white and black ball on white metal frame

    Jack Sugden

    Christopher Faulkner

    Liverpool John Moores University

    theconversation.com


    Volunteers load up a van with food for the next ‘mobile pantry’. @SFoodbanks

    It’s 9am in December on Tiber Square, a community space at the centre of one of Liverpool’s most diverse postcodes. The temperature is -5°C. Braving the cold, a small crowd is forming, sharing jokes amid anxious glances at the square’s frozen floor. Their concern is warranted. Given the icy surface, it is unlikely the community food pantry will be going ahead as normal.

    Anticipation builds as the mobile pantry arrives, a purple van embossed with the logo of Fans Supporting Foodbanks (FSF) – a red and blue hand clasped to indicate the unity of rival Everton (blue) and Liverpool (red) fans – alongside slogans, including: “Hunger doesn’t wear club colours.”

    Out jumps a woman called Cherise to give orders to the volunteers, indiscernible from the crowd in their coats and gloves. “We are just giving out halal chicken, cakes and milk today”, she announces as an orderly queue forms to the side of the square away from the ice. There is no pantry today, but those in attendance will not go hungry.

    The regular food pantries are a bit like mobile food banks – mini-markets which set up in various locations across the city. These are areas which could be classified as “food deserts” where cheap, healthy food options are scarce. The mobility of the vans allows FSF to access needy and isolated people within these areas. Patrons pay a fee of £3.50 for which they get a shopping basket and can choose ten ambient (long shelf-life) items. They also receive a bag of mixed vegetables and a bag of selected meat, providing a total shop worth about £25.

    Combined with music streaming from the van, along with other community activities such as book and clothes exchanges, health screenings and cooking classes, the model serves to remove the stigma around food bank usage and helps people reconnect with their community.

    As one of the users tells us when asked how they would describe their pantry: “(It’s) friendly; supportive. (People are) always asking where I’ve been when I’ve not been down for a couple of weeks.”

    Beginning with a single wheelie bin for donations, the FSF movement has inspired an expanded network of similar organisations across the UK. Now, there are around 20 other fan-led groups regularly collecting in support of food banks or pantries from Kilmarnock to Southampton. While in Belfast stronger partisan lines are being crossed with fans uniting across the sectarian divide to fight hunger in both communities.

    Volunteers hand out food at a mobile pantry for people in need
    The pop-up market style pantry gets going in Liverpool’s Tiber Square. Jack Sugden, CC BY

    But the contradiction between the economic wealth of the Premier League clubs and local levels of poverty is not lost on the organisers. As Everton fan and FSF co-founder, Robbie Daniels, pointed out to us:

    There’s a massive disparity and the clubs may have thought they were doing enough through their own charities, but we’ve shown them fans collecting for other fans of the club who are starving, and they have started to listen and get involved.

    Hungry Britain

    Within the past decade, food bank usage has become commonplace in Britain with food poverty moving from the exception to the norm. Between 2014 and 2015, for the first time, over a million people received an emergency food parcel from a charitable food distribution centre. Between April 2022 and March 2023 this number had risen to just under three million, with around a third going to children.

    Elsewhere in football, it was a campaign launched by Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford that helped spark a national conversation about the need to provide free school meals during the COVID pandemic to children from households on universal credit.

    The north-west of England has been badly hit by high levels of food insecurity, and – along with Wales and the north-east – has the highest levels of accesses to emergency food services in the UK. These areas, along with households across the UK, continue to feel the economic pinch driven by over a decade of government austerity measures brought in by David Cameron’s coalition government in May 2010.

    This pinch was exacerbated by the pandemic, higher utility bills and cuts to welfare in the form of reduced universal credit payments to the nation’s poorest. Compounding this situation even further is the highest level of inflation in over 40 years deepening the cost-of-living crisis. This rise means the average basket of food from a supermarket has increased by around 12 per cent in the 12 months leading up to July, with some staples increasing by up to 34 per cent.

    In addition, by October 2022 annual energy bills trebled to more than £3,500 in 18 months. By April 2023 this rose to £6,600 and by spring 2024 a typical family will potentially face bills which are 500 per cent greater than pre-pandemic prices, with six in 10 families on the lowest income living in “fuel poverty”.

    The fact is British household earnings are failing to keep pace with household costs at a time when state support is at its most inaccessible. In 2023, in certain parts of the UK, just having a healthy meal and staving off the cold poses a serious challenge. As one pantry user told us: “I take my last medication at seven, then read in bed as it’s warmer.”

    Joy and heartbreak

    Within this series of grim realities, the FSF network operates to support its local communities. Since April 2021 our small team of researchers from the Sport Business Scool at LJMU, which included Clay Gransden and Matthew Hindmarsh, has spent time with the network, volunteering at pantries, and interviewing other volunteers to understand their roles. We have also been surveying 176 food pantry users to measure the impact of the movement. Many of the people we spoke to experienced a great deal of joy from supporting others, but there was no escaping a pervading feeling of sadness caused by the impact of food poverty.

    We volunteered at each location for between two and six months before carrying out the surveys. We did this to build trust as we believe: the more trust, the more honest the answers. We collected responses and short stories about the realities people were living and the role of the FSF service in their lives.

    The majority of pantry users were aged over 40 with 39 per cent over 65. While a quarter were in full-time employment, and 73 per cent were either retired or unemployed. Asked how important the service was to them out of 10 (with 10 being the most important), over 80 per cent selected eight or above, the most common answer being 10. But, overall, the results we gathered were heartbreaking. Take Paul for example. Paul was in his early 40s and was using the pantry for the first time when we spoke to him.

    I have got depression, anxiety and I really have nothing … I didn’t eat yesterday and have £5 in my account that I’ve been given … but then I’ve seen this … this is great it’s what I need to feel better … I am going to come next week to see if I can volunteer.

    Our survey was an attempt at capturing people’s experience and one of the hardest questions was, “how do you feel when you are here?”. To assist a list of emotions was offered such as anger, fear, embarrassment, joy, acceptance, and sadness. Somewhat surprisingly the most common answer was joy (36 per cent), followed by acceptance (33 per cent).

    As one pantry user offered: “Everyone is in the same boat and [the pantry] creates a neighbourhood feel … [There’s] no stigma in coming to use the pantry.” Due to the environment, many respondents said initial feelings, such as embarrassment, had been replaced by joy and acceptance as they moved to regular attendance. As another user told us:

    It’s eye-opening. A year ago, it was lifesaving. It was hard to go to initially but it has helped me keep my head above water. I’m really grateful for the service. Been part of allowing me to get back on track.

    Our surveys also underlined how some 63 per cent of respondents had been frequenting the pantries for over a year. This indicated how important the pantries have become in the medium to long-term survival of the communities they serve.

    ‘Football supporters as a force for good’

    FSF first emerged in 2015 from the two Liverpool boroughs of Walton and Anfield in recognition of the growing issue of food poverty. These areas are synonymous with both football and deprivation, playing host to two of the Premier League’s closest rivals, Everton and Liverpool respectively, along with two of the UK’s most deprived communities.

    In recognition of the growing food poverty crisis, an unlikely alliance between two grassroots supporter groups – The Blue Union (Everton) and The Spirit of Shankly (Liverpool) was formed. Since then, the organisation has grown in both size and importance.

    The monolithic stadiums of Goodison Park and Anfield, the respective homes of Everton and Liverpool, sit 896 metres from each other across Stanley Park nestled within rows of terraced housing like two spaceships from another world.

    Anfield Stadium, home of Liverpool FC, and across Stanley Park, Goodison Park, home of Everton FC. David Bagnall/Alamy Stock Photo

    Standing to the side of the mobile pantry van as patrons wound their way around the pop-up market set up on cold and windy day in late February, its driver is co-founder Daniels, who works full time for the charity, a rare staff member the organisation desperately needs but struggles to afford.

    Daniels is a former taxi driver in his 50s. Short, with greying hair, what he lacks in stature he makes up for in personality as he hands out bags of fresh meat with a smile and a line or two of banter alongside his wife Linda. Daniels talked passionately about the movement: “We got into this because things are bad right … and we need to change the perceptions around who football fans really are.”

    With both groups of fans, there is a sense of pride in acting without corporate support as they have stood in solidarity against several issues over the years, such as the fight for truth around the Hillsborough disaster and the “twenty is plenty” campaign (a battle against overpriced away tickets). Sitting in the van as the Wednesday pantry was winding down, Daniels said:

    It is a movement, it’s fan activism, we’ve all protested together against our own clubs … trying to get the price of away tickets down with fans from Newcastle, Manchester and that … it’s showing football supporters as a force for good; look how it’s spreading.

    This spread is seen as vital considering the compounding crises faced by communities. Merseyside is host to areas of the UK hardest hit by the rises in the cost-of-living, a region consistently left behind by a central government which has faced accusations of favouring wealthier Conservative areas in the south-east when it comes to allocating funding.

    It is within this context that FSF, and its army of over 60 volunteers, has sought to stave off some of the worst affects of food poverty by building a service which in the words of another co-founder, Dave Kelly, “helps people up, not just out”.

    FSF has met this aim through a successful programme of grassroots fundraising and activism which supports the successful application of the “food pantry model”. A model that champions a community atmosphere and a market format which can make the experience more positive for users. After finishing his stint handing out numbered tickets to patrons so that they wouldn’t need to queue, a man in his 60s nodded his head to the sounds of ELO and added:

    This is a much better way of doing it … I have worked at food banks and places, this pantry and the difference is incredible.

    FSF was born partly out of disaffection with the way regular food banks were run via a system of referrals that can present a barrier to some. This is because local health and social care providers tend to hold the keys to many food banks and ask probing questions or set limits on attendance (for example, three times in six months). So the fans decided to go it alone, establishing the first FSF pantry in April 2019. From then, due to the efforts of the fan organisation, grassroots activism and other community groups, funding and resources have been raised to start and maintain other pantries across the city.

    There are currently six pantries run by FSF in deprived areas of the city, plus a Sunday breakfast club in Birkenhead. Each pantry serves between 80 and 150 people, but this figure is rising as the economic crisis affects the financial stability of more households.

    Together, FSF pantries serve between 6–700 people per week with a basket of food, meat, vegetables and other essential items. This figure rises in winter due to higher energy bills. At the lower end, FSF provides for around 33,400 people per year, and has so far served an estimated 90,000 people in 2023 – an increase from 75,000 over the previous 12 months. Most pantry users are regulars and in the surveys talked about how the service affected their lives. One user wrote: “It’s very helpful. The opportunity to get support with food, particularly with the increases in costs of everything. £3.50 to get food is lifesaving.”

    “Lifesaving” or “lifeline” were common terms used when describing the pantries, indicating how close many people are to destitution when faced with the price of living in the UK today. And the format of the pantry as a social space reduces stigma, as one anonymous user described:

    You don’t feel embarrassed, even people who work have to rely on the food pantry. There will always be someone to chat to if you are struggling. You will never ever be judged.

    Hunger doesn’t wear club colours

    The establishment of FSF is one part of the changing face of football fandom. In the UK, fans have come a long way since the 1970 and 80s when fighting between rival supporters on the terraces and in the streets surrounding the grounds was commonplace. Fan culture during this era was also a far cry from social and racial tolerance and could be a vessel for the opposite.

    A logo for Fans Supporting Foodbanks.
    The FSF logo emblazoned across its vans. Jack Sugden, CC BY

    However, in 1989 the Hillsborough disaster would send shockwaves through Liverpool and the wider football community, reverberating across the country and sowing the seeds for the sense of unity and solidarity we see in evidence with FSF today. Ian Byrne MP is the former head of the Spirit of Shankly supporters’ group and co-founder of FSF. He was there on the day of the disaster which was caused by poor event management and policing and which lead to the deaths of 97 fans. But the truth of what happened at Hillsborough would not come to light for decades. As Byrne pointed out while we chatted over mugs of tea in his sparse constituency office:

    Hillsborough changed everything … your political awareness goes off the scale and you see injustices everywhere … you start contemplating the power of football.

    While not as ferocious as other football rivalries, this fandom divides families and the city, with Merseyside council bins being coloured purple, a blend of red and blue to avoid disagreement.

    The Hillsborough disaster brought the fans together in collective mourning and has remained an example of solidarity with both clubs showing signs of open unity each anniversary and throughout the ongoing campaign for justice.

    Indeed, earlier in 2023, Kelly broke his lower back in a freak accident on the day of Everton’s Hillsborough anniversary game. Many would regard Kelly, a man in his late 60s, as the engine behind the FSF movement. He’s a tireless campaigner and despite the serious injury, he refused to get in an ambulance until after he had laid a wreath at the memorial on behalf of the Everton fans. This not only gives an insight into Kelly’s character, but also denotes just how deep the solidarity runs when it comes to Hillsborough.

    Three men holding a banner about food poverty
    Co-founder of Fans Supporting Foodbanks and Everton Fan Advisory Board chair Dave Kelly (right) with Southend fan Alex Small (left) and West Ham fan John Ratomski (centre) putting club differences aside in the fight against food poverty. @IFoodbanks

    Catholics and protestants united

    Sitting in the “solidarity café” in West Belfast, a community space set up by local councillor and head of FSF Northern Ireland, Paul Doherty, that began in his garage, he explained how they have united catholic and protestant fans in the fight against hunger. “Both communities are suffering,” he said. Rival groups now spend time together collecting food and funds outside football stadiums. Doherty added:

    There used to be fights outside the grounds here, now these are spaces we use to break down barriers … you notice when we go to deliver the food the exited reaction of the children is the same regardless of which community you are in.

    In Belfast, as elsewhere, hunger pays no heed to allegiances, food poverty is pervasive and fans are beginning to take notice of the power they have to provoke change.

    In Liverpool, like many cities across the UK and Europe, football is woven into the fabric of social life. As Pauline, a middle aged woman who runs Vauxhall food pantry with a quiet determination, told us on a day after the pantry:

    You have to have interest in football. It’s part of everyday life. When you grow up and you haven’t got a lot, you focus on football … are you a red or are you a blue?

    Fan power

    Set against this backdrop, fan activism in these communities links to a wider shift in the perception of fans and their ability to enact social change. Recent research focusing on activism in the English Premier League (EPL) shows how in the past football fans have been perceived as a vocal minority, passive and a-political.

    However, they have awoken to a shift in the identity of their clubs. Faced with a commercial onslaught, often coupled with overseas ownership, elite clubs are increasingly distanced from the communities that birthed them. Fans today are consequently facing up to this reality, as well as the power they hold and the possibilities unity affords them.

    Partly because of fan movements like “Fans Against Modern Football”, “Movement for Safe Standing”, Football Supporters against Gambling ads, and the widespread campaign against the European Super League, there are now safe-standing terraces in existence or planned at various UK clubs, gambling adverts will be withdrawn from the front of EPL club’s matchday shirts from 2026 and the ESL was dead within 48 hours of its “launch”.

    Combined support for the ongoing “Twenty is Plenty” campaign also saw the Premier League cap away tickets at £30 from the 2016-17 season, a fall from uncapped tickets that rose to £77 for some away fans.

    This brings us back to the north-west, where the Everton and Liverpool supporters groups who energised the “Twenty is Plenty” campaign are the very same people who would go on to build FSF. Indeed, it was through organising a boycott of excessive charges to watch Premier League games on television that FSF was able to raise funds to help with the purchase of two mobile pantries and a lorry to spread solidarity throughout the city and around the country.

    Dignity and respect

    Often travelling to away games, the FSF crew from Liverpool utilises these strengthening networks to take donations to the collections of other fan groups. The symbolism of, for example, Liverpool fans bringing food to donate to the Manchester City fans is meaningful and has spurred other groups to follow suit. As Donna Scully, a Liverpool fan in her 50s and FSF volunteer, told us:

    The deprivation is everywhere, and none of us [fans] at any club can say that it’s not impacting my community … it’s in every corner of this country.

    Scully knows this better than most. During the week she is a director of a law firm but for the last seven years, every Sunday morning she has donated her own time, along with resources of the firm, to run The Wirral Breakfast Club alongside FSF.

    Beginning at 8am the club predominantly serves the homeless, but this demographic has shifted to include those in work and and with homes as the cost-of-living crisis bites. Married couple Robbie and Linda volunteer in the kitchen and pump out between 70–100 cooked breakfasts which are served by a small team led by Scully who, in her Liverpool shirt, fizzes about the community hall.

    She serves tea and breakfast with a smile, knows all their names and their stories and checks up on everyone. She listens to their painful battles to gain support – nobody is turned away. It’s enough to make you weep. When asked about her motivation Scully replied:

    We are all about treating people with dignity and respect … everyone thinks fans are about rioting and getting drunk but we want to show how we can really do something here, show how much we care about each other.

    Speaking to other FSF movements from around the UK it has become clear how important the network has become. For FSF Dundee founder Marty Smith, a young man in his early 20s with a thick Dundee accent, “it’s genuinely really inspiring”.

    The Scottish network has grown from five to eight fan organisations in the past 18 months, including Glasgow Rangers and Celtic groups working together. There are similar stories elsewhere in the UK, motivated by a passion for their communities and a desire for change.

    Along with a healthy dose of competitiveness that still exists as Bill Corcoran, from the Newcastle FSF joked: “We saw the scousers doing it, so we thought we better too!”.

    Despite the playful competitiveness, there is a serious mission shared by all we spoke to and volunteered alongside highlighted by Paul Khan, head of the Liverpool Supporters Association, the volunteer back in Liverpool: “Our vision is to eradicate food poverty.”

    #RightToFood

    One of the criticisms faced by the FSF movement is by stepping into the void of government to bring food and essential services to underserved communities, they are legitimating a laissez-faire approach towards the welfare state which many argue sits neatly within the Conservative government’s ideology.

    However, FSF is all too aware of this critique and has tied the movement to a broader fight against food poverty – the “Right to Food” campaign.

    The campaign is led by Byrne and supported by several institutions including the Unite Union and city councils in Manchester, Brighton and Newcastle. Its goals include, bringing in universal free school meals for every child, rolling out “community kitchens” in much-needed areas and encouraging the government to reveal their plans for spending on food.

    Tying the FSF movement to a campaign such as this is typical for social movements throughout history, however, never has a football fan-led movement taken on an issue of such scale and importance as national hunger and child poverty.

    Enshrining the right to food in law would begin with children and then spread upwards, with the goal of ensuring that everyone has the resources or ability to access the food they need to live well. Indeed, the health benefits of simply eating enough food for the day are well known, as are the impacts on school attendance and long-term attainment.

    As Byrne told us, the health benefits are obvious, “less measurable – but no less important – is the effect on individual human dignity and social cohesion over time in our polarised nations of food banks next to investment banks”.

    Hunger marching on

    The communities at the heart of FSF’s work display the changing face of fandom in the UK within cities where football is part of daily life.

    What the activities surrounding the food banks show is the ability for local solutions to national problems. Where successive governments and policy responses have failed areas such as Toxteth in Liverpool (home of the Lodge Lane pantry), groups of football fans have been able to turn their care for the community into action. But as all organisers were fond of saying “we are just a sticking plaster”.

    The national campaign is an attempt to heal these wounds for good. On a clear day in late September 2023, we joined the March for Hunger that wound its way through Liverpool led by local school children. Parallel marches took place in London and Belfast demanding universal free school meals. Among the crowds were community and church groups, individual activists, and of course football fans, who added the voice of the terraces to the universal chant demanding the right to food.

    What this represents is a change in the way we see football fans and perhaps the way they see themselves. After all, football, like all social endeavours, is a malleable beast open to remaking and reimagining.

    Though, at times, it has played host to a multitude of wrongs, right now – up and down the country and across the Irish Sea – football fans are deciding to remake themselves and their communities in the image of service and solidarity, regardless of club colours.


    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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