Coleman’s Cultural Cringe Moment.
For some time I have had the impression that Defense Minister Jonathan Coleman is out of his depth on issues of defense and security, so I was not surprised by his joyful celebration of the signing of...
View ArticleMedia Link: Gettysburg Address and its contemporary relevance.
It is the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address and Jim Mora at RNZ remembered it. He invited me on to the Panel segment to discuss its relevance today with a person who is well informed and one...
View ArticleRepost: The torture-terror doctrine.
Release of the US Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA “enhanced interrogation” program has once again brought to the fore arguments about the ethics and efficiency of torture when used as...
View ArticlePerhaps not yet a Cuba Libre, but an opening nevertheless.
In a previous life one of the US government roles I played was as co-team leader of the OSD/JCS Cuba Task Force. That was a combined team of officials and officers from the US Office of the Secretary...
View ArticleDon’t tase me bro
Police Commissioner Mike Bush on Friday announced that tasers will be deployed for the use of all front-line officers. The reasoning behind tasers emphasises the taser’s potential for de-escalation — a...
View ArticleThe US has a mass murder problem, not a terrorism problem.
The latest spate of mass murder in the US has again demonstrated the hypocrisy and bigotry of right-wingers on the subject. When the murderers are white Christians such as the Colorado Planned...
View ArticleSeditious stupidity.
To state the obvious, things have gotten pretty crazy in the US this election year. The GOP presidential campaign is a clown car driven by Donald Trump that has a trunk full of gun worshiping liars,...
View ArticleThe destruction of brand Trump.
As readers may be aware I am delighted by the Trump candidacy because it is destroying the Republican Party and will pave the way for an epic defeat in the November general elections. Not only will the...
View ArticleMedia Link: Responding to idiocy about the effectiveness of torture.
I have had a professional interest in torture since my days doing human rights work in Latin America. As part of that work I talked to victims as well as perpetrators of state terrorism and...
View ArticleSome details about the US election campaign.
Coverage of the US election in NZ is pretty bad. The local media pundits are shallow at best and take their lead from US cable news services. The best analyses are either reprints or canned footage...
View ArticleDefensive voting and split tickets.
As part of the ongoing effort to clarify some aspects of the US elections this year, this post focuses on two tactics: defensive voting and ticket splitting. Some readers may already be familiar with...
View Article“Culture wars” as election year bait trapping.
One proven strategy for campaigns that have little substantive by the way of policy to offer and which are trailing in the polls is to drop any pretence of having a grounded policy platform and instead...
View ArticleBernie the spoiler.
Things are getting interesting on the Democratic side of the US presidential primaries. Although Hillary Clinton is on pace to win the nomination, Bernie Sanders continues to dog her steps with wins...
View ArticleMedia Link: The US election circus.
I have just returned to NZ after a month traveling in the US. While there I spent a fair bit of time talking with political friends and former colleagues, and it has been refreshing to see that there...
View ArticleA note on the US navy ship visit.
So the US has agreed to send a ship to the RNZN 75th anniversary celebrations in November. That means that it has accepted New Zealand’s non-nuclear policy and will send a ship that is neither nuclear...
View ArticleNo Hard Feelings?
Sources in the US Navy have revealed that it will send an Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer to the RNZN 75th anniversary celebrations in November. The details of the participating ship have...
View ArticleMoment or Movement.
Barring some disaster, Hillary Clinton will win the US presidential election in November. That poses an interesting question for the US Left, because the defensive support for her offered by Sanders...
View ArticleConstitutional Coups.
When people think about coups d’etat, they tend to think about armed interruptions of the constitutional order, usually perpetrated by the military against an elected government. Such was the case with...
View ArticleSuch a nice crowd.
Unfortunately I know people, to include some in my own family, who are Trump supporters and who think that Fox News is “fair and balanced.” I also know some people, including one here at KP, who think...
View ArticlePeddling False Hope.
By way of a short thought, I venture again into the waters of US election year politics. Today’s subject is Donald Trump, or more precisely, the promises he passes off as solutions to the US malaise...
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