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Open Mike 26/09/25

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, September 26th, 2025 - 35 comments
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35 comments on “Open Mike 26/09/25 ”

  1. Todays Posts 1

    Today's Posts (updated through the day):

    Old man yells at rest of the world

  2. bwaghorn 2

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/574164/winston-peters-drops-a-truth-bomb-at-un-function-on-big-four-emitters?fbclid=IwY2xjawNCa5BleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHg3yEjrVxACjLU7btJMsH8Z5-Y_4s3uFXbCxXsNz9Xgwb-PKT0ww3RaNs1xU_aem_i9DL745XX_XbhtIdBfsuEQ

    Someone should tell the forked tongue old bugger that he's part of a government that is doing diddly squat about climate change so he has no right to grandstand at the un.

  3. SPC 3

    Debt over time

    Scary graph with little change until after 2040, designed to promote radical singular focus from government

    (basically diminish government because of demographics – without an estate tax on the wealthy, so the well to do remain secure in their privilege)

  4. PsyclingLeft.Always 4

    US Defense Secretary, Pete deus vult Hesgeth gets even. (continuing the theme trump/lunatics/asylum)

    Hegseth orders hundreds of senior military officers to Virginia for highly unusual meeting

    Hundreds of US generals and admirals around the globe have been called to Virginia for a meeting with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth next week, several US officials told CNN, though the reason for the meeting is unclear.

    The meeting is expected to be held at the military installation in Quantico, Virginia, multiple officials said, adding that no one seems to know what the meeting is about, including the general and flag officers themselves, or why it was suddenly added to the calendar.

    The complete unaware Irony of ex major, deus vult Hesgeth politicising….

    Before taking on the role of defence secretary, Hegseth repeatedly voiced disdain for much of the military's currently serving general and flag officer corps. In a podcast appearance last summer, Hegseth said a third of the military's senior officers are "actively complicit" in what he argued is a move towards politicization of the military. In a second podcast, he said senior officers are "playing by all the wrong rules" to cater to "idealogues in Washington, DC.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/574169/hegseth-orders-hundreds-of-senior-military-officers-to-virginia-for-highly-unusual-meeting

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Hegseth#Military_service_(2003%E2%80%932006,_2010%E2%80%932014,_2019%E2%80%932021)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_vult#Adoption_by_right-wing_groups_as_slogan

    • Matiri 4.1

      Goldfinger's Rumpus Room – he's going to gas them all!

    • Puckish Rogue 4.2

      He's a smart guy with boots on the ground experience.

      It'll be interesting to see what happens.

      • fender 4.2.1

        You must have him confused with somebody else because Pete Hegseth (also known as Kegbreath) is a stupid minded white supremacist with an alcohol problem.

        • PsyclingLeft.Always 4.2.1.1

          Well, yes. And I did link quite a lot. Puckish might have blinked that out….

        • Puckish Rogue 4.2.1.2

          The Pete Hegseth I'm thinking of has a BA from Princeton and MPP from Harvard.

          Is a New York Times best selling author

          Was awarded a bronze star for his actions in Iraq

          • joe90 4.2.1.2.1

            Was awarded a bronze star for his actions in Iraq

            Hegseth’s Bronze Stars were meritorious service, not valour, awards for his roles as an instructor and civil affairs officer.

            Participation medals for a man who spent thirteen years bouncing between five National Guards and whose service was effectively terminated in 2021 after he was flagged as a potential insider threat.

            • Puckish Rogue 4.2.1.2.1.1

              Please regale us all with your military exploits

              But seriously before he started instructing which given his background makes perfect sense he was also a platoon leader, leading troops into battle

              Dislike him all you want, disagree with everything he says but the guy led troops into enemy fire and that gives him a perspective most people will never have

            • Shanreagh 4.2.1.2.1.2

              Hegseth’s Bronze Stars were meritorious service, not valour, awards for his roles as an instructor and civil affairs officer.

              Far out.

              Have you not heard the phrase 'An army marches on its stomaches' meaning that without support staff there would be no marching.

              This means, according to you, we now deny that anyone that was not on the very frontline a medal even though he/she may have used his engineering training to build temporary bridges in Greece, and then to Crete, and an another who was an instructor/infantry officer in Crete/Egypt/ El Alamein (DCM). A friend who lost a leg while serving in Vietnam.

              By all means criticise his actions/thoughts and the influence being in various roles may have had but please do not criticise the fact that he got his 'war' medals in other than in the 'kapow' and 'splat' war of comics.

              This from someone whose family had five brothers in WW1 & WW2, two of whom were killed, who marched endlessly against the Vietnam war while at Uni and despise war mongers. and Hegseth may be one of those. He may not be a very ‘nice’ person. Surely we can find plenty to criticise other than recognised war service.

      • Grey Area 4.2.2

        Hegseth appears to be in way over his head and only there because he is a Trump yes man. Apparently he was a platoon leader only for a short time and then was assigned to non-combat roles. Claims of alcoholism and sexual assault follow him. Signalgate shows he has poor judgement and would have meant dismissal under other administrations but not Trump's.

  5. Incognito 5

    Not an easy read but a good one and highly recommend for those who’d like to dive a little deeper and look behind the ugly scenes of the Kirk assassination and don’t necessarily get bogged down by mere (and scarce) detailed information.

    https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/09/26/america-has-an-ideology-problem/

    • They have to be joking.

      "To be sure, the claim that Robinson killed in the name of a left-wing cause is not without merit. Given that transgender people are currently a persecuted, vilified, and oppressed constituency in the United States, attempting to advance their cause, even if in a profoundly misguided and violent way, might well be seen as left-wing."

      There is zero evidence that particular claim is true. The Biden/Harris government gave them everything they demanded.

      The backlash to that has certainly started with no more "Lia" Thomas's taking women's medals and prizes in College sports and restrictions on chemical castration of minors, but "Blue" states still insist that any man who claims a female identity should be in a woman's prison, or a woman's shelter, no matter how many convictions for sexual violence they have accumulated.

      • Shanreagh 5.1.1

        I agree Visubversa.

        The author has chosen a strange group to illustrate his theory. But if he had to illustrate by referring to a group who else could he use? (sarc)

        Race, religion, ethnicity, disability don't seem to be a factor. Women as a group are deeply unfashionable when you have a 'misunderstood', so-called, group. Families unless they are very unusually constructed, a trans man with a trans female works out to be hetero and other combos work out to be gay & cannot be used.

        When you do remove that you are still left with the personal that the killer was apparently involved in a relationship with a transgender person.

        Along with the use of this group, the author has constrained himself by seeking to try to divide everything (possibly in the world – perhaps an exaggeration) into left and right, Democrats and Republicans.

        At first given Robinson's family's stated Republican links I first thought it was a person who felt that Kirks' illiberal thoughts/speeches were a bridge too far even for a Republican. There are moderate Republicans.

        I then thought that the person may have been too deeply involved/enmeshed in male sexual politics/gender dysphoria to be thinking rationally. I now think that being deeply involved in male sexual politics is not a reason, even though males are more heavily represented in violence.

        I've come to thinking that the shooter may possess a disease of the mind whether transient or permanent. Such conditions still exist. In the criminological sense blaming, and especially punishing, a person of unsound mind is deeply disturbing/flawed.

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