@rembrandt said in Vehicular Attack Melbourne:

Acting Chief Commissioner Shane Patton tells 3AW: “He has made utterances, speaking of voices and dreams, attributing his actions to the treatment of Muslims around the world”.

He said the same thing on ABC, but also said the guy doesn't appear to have any links to terrorist groups.

Formal interview to be conducted today.

It's an interesting topic, and one that is increasingly difficult to discuss with the fringe left loudly screaming RACISM at pretty much everything, poisoning the debate.

Racism exists in NZ, it probably always will, but NZ is not a racist country. There's nothing stopping anyone of any racial background achieving what they want and living a great life. The vast majority of people are not racist, just existing in the real world tells you that, and those that are genuinely racist are generally uneducated idiots with no real sway in society anyway.

As others have mentioned, racism goes in all directions. My wife, who is from PNG, experienced the most racism from Maori where she grew up. My boss is half Samoan half Maori and grew up caught in the crossfire between her parents families racism towards each other. There's always a lot of focus on white people's racism but the rest gets largely ignored. Tribalism is human nature, and takes some conscious effort to overcome - I think NZ is way further down the path of overcoming it than most countries around the world.

The only openly racist comments I sometimes hear these days are directed towards the Chinese, and Labours campaign against the Chinese owning property in NZ definitely brought out the worst in a lot of people, which was a shame.

As to the opening post, I would be very wary of poeple like Eliota as he is basically a professional race hustler, playing on the victimhood theme to keep himself in the limelight and painting a picture of society that does not reflect reality. People like him would do far more damage to the PI population than anyone else with the toxic, racist message they promote. Check out Tariq Nasheed from the States if you want another example of that - those types of people are incredibly frustrating.

@mokey said in Mugabe toast?:

@jegga More like a stopover at The Hague.

For Bob yes, Grace can answer her charges in South Africa first. I’m sure their prisons aren’t as comfortable as whatever The Hague has to offer.

This makes for depressing reading,

Samantha Power  /  Dec 1, 2003  /  Global How To Kill A Country How To Kill A Country

Turning a breadbasket into a basket case in ten easy steps—the Robert Mugabe way

I wunder where "USA Today" gets their fabulous hot-take scoops...?

Be afraid.

Hashtags #ChainsawBayonet #GasolinePowered #ElectricsOkay #ButGasolineIsBetter #Scarier

Barcelona city hall right now removing Spanish and EU flags. Shit is about to get really-real.

China’s Silk Road Illusions

The Chinese government’s marketing of the Belt Road Initiative has played upon myths and half-remembered facts about China’s past—“the glory of the silk routes,” in Xi Jinping’s words. And the narrative gives credence to the notion that, until the age of Western aggression, China was the master of the region. But China has enough problems on its own borders without dreams of reliving the achievements of the Ming dynasty master mariner Zheng He. Where will the BRI be in 2030?

Philip Bowring has been based in Asia for forty-four years writing on regional financial and political issues successively as correspondent for the Financial Times, editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review and columnist for the International Herald Tribune. He currently writes columns for the South China Morning Post, www.asiasentinel.com, a website of which he is a founder, and The Globalist. He has just completed a history of Maritime Southeast Asia, focused mainly on the pre-colonial eras, to be published in 2018.

@baron-silas-greenback said in Manchester Arena Explosion:

That clip is only 5 months old -- and thanks for posting it, I just watched it for the first time -- but as a time capsule it's eye-opening -- or, as Concha calls it, "grotesque."

@godder the lost votes is key. if some people's votes don't count, that isn't democracy. it also gives a massive 'barrier to entry' for any small or new party. nobody wants their vote wasted.
i know a few people who said they would have voted TOP, but didn't think they would get 5% so didn't. good decision under the current rules.
if you have enough votes proportionally to get an MP, then you should get one i think. there's 50 ish list seats, so the threshold should be 2%, and fuck off the coat-tails nonsense.
don't know if this will paste properly, but it shows that MPs under MMP has been much more closely aligned with people's votes. from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_system_of_New_Zealand#MMP_in_New_Zealand

Representation statistics[edit]
The Gallagher Index is a measurement of how closely the proportions of votes cast for each party is reflected in the number of parliamentary seats gained by that party. The resultant disproportionality figure is a percentage – the lower the index, the better the match.[39]

Election Disproportionality[40] Number of Parties in Parliament
1946–1993 average 11.10% 2.4
1996 3.43% 6
1999 2.97% 7
2002 2.37% 7
2005 1.13% 8
2008 3.84% 7
2011 2.38% 8

@no-quarter said in Another attack in London:

@reprobate said in Another attack in London:

@baron-silas-greenback said in Another attack in London:

@reprobate said in Another attack in London:

diversity as a concept is positive.

No it isn't. Diversity is neither positive or negative. Diversity of stock might be a good thing, diversity of infections in your body might be a bad thing. Picking and choosing like you have is a nonsense.

yep, hence the 2 sentences following the one you picked out.
to clarify, the context of the topic is human populations.

Human populations.. so given the large number of people from North Africa and the Middle East that believe homosexuality should be a punishable crime, do you think it would be good to have them in our society to help with the "diversity" problem we have?

i never said there was a diversity problem. and no, i don't think that is a good idea either.

let me know if you would like me to confirm any other things i don't think for you.

yep got ya now, it's the vibe.

This is a terrific summary by Sargon

@Frank said in Syria:

Syria could be planning chemical attack, White House says

Jun 25, 2017  /  00:27 Syria could be planning chemical attack, White House says Syria could be planning chemical attack, White House says

The Trump administration said late Monday that it had discovered evidence that the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad could be planning another chemical weapons attack.

Sounds like complete b.s. Nikki Haley is a saber-rattling moron. The last alleged gas attack by Assad has been debunked by the evidence, it was almost certainly detonated by ISIS, and since Trump gave them cover last time they'll only be encouraged to do more of the same. It's Trump's blind spot and may bring him ruin.

Turkish Guards Will Be Charged in Embassy Protest, Officials Say

By NICHOLAS FANDOS JUNE 14, 2017
THE NEW YORK TIMES

WASHINGTON — Law enforcement officials plan to announce charges Thursday against a dozen members of the Turkish president’s security detail for their involvement in a brutal attack on protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence here last month, two American officials said on Wednesday.

Authorities have already charged several others, including two Americans and two Canadians, with taking part in the violent skirmish.

The Washington police have been investigating the May 16 incident along with the State Department and the Secret Service. The police planned to announce the charges at a news conference on Thursday morning, according to the two officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the charges before they were made public.

Coming almost a month after the incident, the charges are the most significant retaliatory step taken to date by American authorities, who have fumed privately and publicly over what they see as a highly offensive attack on free speech — not to mention American law enforcement.

[...]

MORE...

Sadly most of the Turkish henchmen are back home and unlikely to be extradited. So I guess it's mostly finger-wagging optics.

@gollum the difference between the Pope and a celebrity is that the Pope is pushing an ideology based on a holy text and has 1.2 billion followers that try and live most aspects of their life in line with that ideology. Which makes them prime targets for exploitation - the biggest strongholds for the Catholic church is uneducated poor people in third world nations. You'll have to forgive me if I have a problem with exploitation.

Celebrities really just try and make money. And don't have anywhere near as many followers. And people don't try and live their lives in line with... well anything.. because celebrities don't push any specific ideology. Given vaccination rates by percentage for children in western countries is in the high 90s I don't think Jenny McCarthy is reaching many people.

I thought that would be obvious.

Look, it's nothing like as bad as something like Islam, it's undergone pretty consistent reformation for a long time now - they literally just change the rules as they go to try and move with the times. Some of the stuff in Catholicism is genuinely good, but the negative impacts it has on people worldwide far outweigh the positive. They've been forced to change their views on a number of things in recent times, and Pope Francis is the guy they've chosen to lead that, because if they don't there won't be any Catholics living in the west in the near future - the numbers are declining every year.

I'm familiar with how religion works. Those that buy it are overwhelmingly people that were raised within the religion. And when you have someone that's spent their entire youth and most of their adult life dedicating much of their time/money into something, it's pretty bloody difficult to tell them it's all nonsense. That's not an easy thing to deal with. So yeah.. "good luck with that".. thanks.

Again, if you don't give a shit, great for you. I do happen to give a shit, and will take pretty much any opportunity I can to call it out for the corrupt, bullshit organisation that it is.

What I don't get is why you'd have a problem with that.

@Crucial Substitute?

Good old Mal. The climate change dernier, who says NASA is corrupting data, and got into the Senate with 77 direct votes and a heap of party votes. What a twat.

@booboo

"Things that shit me" IIRC. Started by the inimitable MvJ. I miss him. And Teddy.

And Mr Mike (great piss taking sense of humour).