Great reporting and analysis in this article.....recommended reading.

Potemkin Presidency

That's a little condescending. I assume that you are suggesting we shouldn't upset the Chinese. Shouldn't we be able to clearly state our principles?
Actually I was just reacting to the Mountain Tui's rather lazy implication Health spending good...Defence spending bad.
Maybe I missed the context.

Could you please clarify, I don't understand your reference to paper helicopters?

The Ukrainians would have something to say about that.

Preventing war "coming to our door" by contributing to defence with suitable allies costs. Just ask the Baltics, the Poles and the Scandinavians.

Tourist strolling in London the other day I took this photo, it summed up my feelings of hypernormalization

Wtf...don't blame the messenger. MAGA will weapons anything and EVERYTHING.

Here it is...the royal "we"

The try hard rightists

Whoa....just realized I'm a Trotskyite, and there are hoards of us in NZ