Mike Yardley all excited
Posted: November 12, 2020 Filed under: Letters | Tags: Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, climate change, Dominion Post, Donald Trump, existential cricis of climate change, fear, Joe Biden, Mike Yardley, Post Truth Era, terror Leave a commentThe Editor, The Dominion Post, Wellington
10/11/ 2020
Dear Editor:
Mike Yardley (street appeal, 10/11) gives a roaring misrepresented list of ‘achievements’ of the Trump presidency. Read the rest of this entry »
Analysts should have seen Trump coming in 2016
Posted: November 10, 2020 Filed under: Letters | Tags: analysts, climate change, Dominion Post, exploitation, New Zealand, Post Truth Era, USA Leave a commentThe Editor, The Dominion Post, Wellington
06/11/ 2020
Dear Editor:
Your editorial (frayed soul, 5/11) notes that “critics outside the US, especially in New Zealand” are mystified about Donald Trump’s ‘political resurrection’ after four bizarre years. Yes, and they would be in the majority of analysts here. They shouldn’t have been. In fact, someone of the nature of Trump should have been seen as likely to become President of the US. It’s been coming on steadily and clearly over the last 40 years as the reality of the fundamental changes required to stave off the worst effects of climate change have sunk in. Donald Trump captured the terror of those changes as the grand denier and poster boy of the Post Truth Era where denial has become main stream, but he is only a symptom and a symbol of this denial. He is a fitting personality for the ‘leader of the free world’ in the 21st century, which must be finally seen as ‘free to exploit’. This denial is global, including in New Zealand, hence the reluctance to see Trump coming.
Sincerely,
Richard Keller
Donald Trump is not “the problem”
Posted: November 10, 2020 Filed under: Letters | Tags: consumer society, consumerism, Cult of Convenience, Donald Trump, exploitation, god-class of billionaires, Joe Biden, Post Truth Era, USA Leave a commentThe Editor, The Sunday Star Times, Auckland
06/11/ 2020
Dear Editor:
Donald Trump has not been “the problem”. Yes, unstable denier Trump is a dangerous person to have in such a powerful office. But he is more of a symbol and a symptom of a deeper and wider malaise. We are in the “Post Truth Era” where denial has become mainstream. Now nearly 40 years on since it became known, the reality of climate change has reached mainstream consciousness to the extent that the massive and fundamental changes required to create a new sustainable, survivable world have sunk in. So far the visceral terror of those changes has led to a common human response of trying to find reasons to disbelieve reality. Hence: climate deniers holding on to their exploitative world view (in the same vein as racial supremacists), not in silence as earlier, but as climax in the voting booth and on the streets.
The USA is known as “the leader of the free world” which most deeply should be seen as “freedom to exploit”, as embodied in the Consumer Society and more recently the enabling of a “billionaire class”. This is main stream and neither Donald Trump nor Joe Biden will be seriously challenging this source of fundamental denial.
Sincerely,
Richard Keller
Note to Lately, Karyn Hay
Posted: November 6, 2020 Filed under: Letters | Tags: 'inside job', 9/11, Donald Trump, Hayden Donnell, Karyn Hay, Lately, Media Watch, Radio New Zealand, RNZ Leave a commentKaryn Hay, RNZ Lately
Karyn,
I was surprised that Hayden Donnell hazarded a comment about 9/11 when talking about the US Presidential Election and in particular Trump’s talk of stopping the vote count, etc. To lump those two into a broad definition of ‘conspiracy’ is going to be very confusing as the circumstances and the currently accepted facts of the two are so much different in nature. Read the rest of this entry »
The four recommendations from the Burnham Inquiry will not be not the whole story.
Posted: October 15, 2020 Filed under: Letters | Tags: "Defence Force", Air Marshall Kevin Short, Burnham Inquiry, Five Eyes, NSA, Peace Foundation, Richard Northey, Washington DC Leave a commentThe Editor, The Sunday Star Times, Auckland
29/09/ 2020
Dear Editor:
The Peace Foundation’s International Affairs and Disarmament Committee (chaired by Richard Northey) has recommended that the government not wait until after the election to implement the four recommendations from the Burnham Inquiry. Read the rest of this entry »
Tourism is not an essential service
Posted: September 30, 2020 Filed under: Letters | Tags: Business as Usual, CO2 emissions, hospitality, plane travel, Restaurant Association, tourism Leave a commentThe Editor, The Sunday Star Times, Auckland
25/09/ 2020
Dear Editor:
Tourism is not an essential service and has been overplayed in this country for decades. Read the rest of this entry »
Tourism is not an essential service
Posted: September 25, 2020 Filed under: Letters | Tags: Business as Usual, CO2 emissions, Dominion Post, hospitality, plane travel, Restaurant Association, tourism Leave a commentThe Editor, The Dom Post, Wellington
23/09/ 2020
Dear Editor:
Tourism is not an essential service and has been overplayed in this country for decades. Read the rest of this entry »
Threat to South will increase with release of Aucklanders
Posted: September 18, 2020 Filed under: Letters | Tags: air travel, auckland, bus travel, challenge of Covid-19, Christchurch, COVID-19, fear, novel coronavirus, South, train travel, Wellington Leave a commentThe Editor, The Press, Christchurch
16/09/2020
There is irony in the move to Level 1 in the South at the same time as Level 2 will let the Aucklander’s loose into the South. The threat of transmitting Covid-19 will actually increase for the South. Read the rest of this entry »
Denial of science is wider than you think
Posted: September 17, 2020 Filed under: Letters | Tags: 9/11, 9/11/01, Building #7, climate denialism, COVID-19, Deep State, Jerry Brownlee, Mt Roskill, NIST, science denial, September 11, sunday star times, United States, University of Alaska, USA, World Trade Center Leave a commentThe Editor, The Sunday Star Times, Wellington
10/09/ 2020
Dear Editor:
Again we see reports of denial of health science at an American inspired church in Mt Roskill. Remember Brownlee’s recent conspiracy theory type accusations against the motivations of the government’s approach to Covid-19?
Denial is more main stream than it may seem, the most important one being the denial of the massive changes required to combat climate change.
The denial is worse in the USA with accusations of the so-called “deep state” (what does that even mean?), where historical racism is denied as well as climate change and Covid. Also, with the 9/11/01 anniversary upon us it is appropriate to note the science of high rise building collapse is still denied in the NIST ‘official’ explanation of how the World Trade Center Building #7 came down, as debunked in a recent study from The University of Alaska.
Sincerely,
Richard Keller
Irony in move to Level One
Posted: September 16, 2020 Filed under: Other, responses | Tags: air travel, Ashley Bloomfield, auckland, bus travel, challenge of Covid-19, COVID-19, Jacinda Ardern, novel coronavirus, PM Ardern, public transport, South Island, South of North Island, train travel 1 CommentThere is irony in the move to Level 1 in the South at the same time as Level 2 will let the Aucklander’s loose into the South. The threat of transmitting Covid-19 will actually increase for the South. 100,000 plane tickets sold in Auckland in two hours after removal of the the need to distance on planes, trains, and busses is a startling change in movement of people which means a big change in the chance of the virus being carried around. Look at how the virus went global so widely and so fast: plane travel. So called criticisms of government ‘fear mongering’ are actually open attempts by those critics to display their ignorance of the virus. By now it is clear that the worlds of the humans and the viruses are different. The unknowns about the spread, deadliness, and the long term effects, as well as the unknowns about vaccines, are still too potentially devastating. As time goes by virus experts in the health field are learning more and their advice is paramount. Interesting that Dr Bloomfield and PM Ardern have for the first time expressed differences of opinion during this phase.
