The repeal of Roe vs Wade by the US Supreme Court is part of a broader “New Conservative” agenda financed by reactionary billionaires like Peter Thiel, Elon Mush, the Kochs and Murdochs (and others), organised by agitators like Steve Bannon and Rodger Stone and legally weaponised by Conservative (often Catholic) judges who are Federalist Society members. The agenda, as Clarence Thomas openly (but partially) stated, is to roll back the rights of women, ethnic and sexual minorities as part of an attempt to re-impose a heteronormative patriarchal Judeo-Christian social order in the US.
Worse, the influence of these forces radiates outwards from the US into places like NZ, where the rhetoric, tactics and funding of rightwing groups increasingly mirrors that of their US counterparts. Although NZ is not as institutionally fragile as the US, such foreign influences are corrosive of basic NZ social values because of their illiberal and inegalitarian beliefs. In fact, they are deliberately seditious in nature and subversive in intent. Thus, if we worry about the impact of PRC influence operations in Aotearoa, then we need to worry equally about these.
In fact, of the two types of foreign interference, the New Conservative threat is more immediate and prone to inciting anti-State and sectarian violence. Having now been established in NZ under the mantle of anti-vax/mask/mandate/”free speech” resistance, it is the 5th Column that needs the most scrutiny by our security authorities.
Did you ever read Roe v Wade? It definitely misses a few logical steps in trying to establish a constitutional status for a specific right. The judgement overturning it simply sends the question back to the state legislatures.
However, it seems that you are proposing here that NZ law enforcement and security agencies conduct surveillance on citizens based on their specific ethical or religious beliefs. Is that what you intend?
William:
Roe versus Wade was upheld by a 7-2 vote by the (then) conservative Burger Court. It maintained that the privacy provisions in the Due Process Clause extended to women seeking abortions, which ipso facto made abortions constitutionally protected. It was a thin legal reason that opened the way for its review and repeal. And so it was, fifty years later.
The seditious behaviour of the likes of (foreign funded) Counterspin and their assorted a-hole fellow travelers in the anti-vax/mask/mandate/Ardern crowd has already been identified by the NZIC as the main likely threat of extremist violence in NZ. It has nothing to do with ethical or religious beliefs but correctly focuses on the potential for violence from elements within, even if on the fringes, of the New Conservative 5th column now operating in NZ. Given that assessment, I can only concur with their priorities.
Question for you: are you trolling or simply being obtuse?
Well, if I ask a provocative question, it is intended to get a clarification around a possible logical outworking of what was originally stated. Which is what you provided.
Well, in this connection, maybe it’s not purely just interesting that, if I/m not wrong, Solicitor General Olson and Attorney General Ashcroft in 2001 were also members of the Federalist Society, which was involved in drafting the US Patriot Act during 1999-2001. I don’t understand how this was ‘originalist’ in intent? However, the Act established the Homeland Security system, with an essential political police force enabled to spy on citizens (the operation thereof as revealed by Snowden) and to suspend the Bill of Rights in cases of terrorism. At around the same period, Pentagon established an assassin force of up to 60,000 that could strike anywhere in the world (“Exclusive : Inside the Military’s Secret Undercover Army”, William M. Arkin, Newsweek, May 17, 2021). One can only look at how this HS system is being used in the US today to enforce specific ‘orthodoxies’ and define other viewpoints as ‘dangerous,’ in an ‘ideologically’ intensified environment, and exacerbating social differences to create a social conflict cauldron, and to wonder about how this whole ideologically charged environment is slowly spreading to other 5-eyes members, and whether the same level of surveillance of citizens could follow? This is an intellectual discussion about matters that affect civil and political rights; it’s nothing to do with any supposed Court of the Mountain King.
And with that, you jumped the shark and went off-topic into, quite frankly, conspiracy land. That will conclude our discussion about this post.
A “heteronormative patriarchal Judeo-Christian social order”?
Why don’t you also characterise it as “white supremacist” and “neofascist”, Paul?
A “heteronormative patriarchal Judeo-Christian social order”?
Isn’t it also “white supremacist” and “neofascist”?
Rob:
I see the New Conservatism as spanning a spectrum that ranges from Federalists to cryptofascists with everything from Evangelicals and Opus Dei, incels and Jordan Peterson, gun fetishists, chicken hawks, MAGAites and assorted bigots and reactionary morons thrown in between. My use of the term was meant as a “big tent” reference that includes more than the extremes.
Hi Paul
I had to google the meaning of ‘5th column’ to understand the gist of your post.
I will now begrudgingly accept these groups are here in New Zealand, each with their own agenda.
So two questions arise:
1) At what point do government institutions intervene ?
2) Has the NZ security apparatus got the necessary skills to deal with these groups ?
Hola Edward,
Answers are that the NZ govt is likely to intervene against local extremist groups with links to designated rightwing foreign terrorist groups pretty soon. They may even involve Australian groups
Ome can only hope that the NZIC and law enforcement agencies have been developing cases against individuals and groups. Some of these are very open about their seditious and subversive intent and their connections to like minded groups abroad. Open source intel reports suggest foreign financial backing for the like of Counterspin, Action Zealandia and VfF, some of which may come from designated terrorist entities as well as malicious State actors. We shall see what happens but in terms of capabilities they should have ample tools at their disposal. What is now needed is the will to enforce the law on these Rightwing extremist groups and individuals, but in that regard the NZIC/law enforcement record is decidedly mixed.
I think this was announced in NZ earlier, but here is the report on the Guardian today :
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/01/new-zealand-declares-us-far-right-proud-boys-and-the-base-terrorist-groups
Kind regards.
Thanks Barbara,
I wonder why they did not include Oathkeepers and other smaller groups that are equally if not more violent? Maybe they evidence connecting NZ freaks to PB and TB but not the others.
On a previous post you mentioned the A-10 fighter jets (CAS).
Found this video on youtube – love these women!
The comments are interesting – back up what you said.
Someone asks, is it just PR to show women pilots ?
Barbara,
There is always am element of PR involved when military forces showcase minorities or females in non-traditional roles. But these women can clearly fly and are serving in a front line unit in ROK. Fighter jocks may look down their noses at CAS pilots but I cannot think of many more satisfying military things than killing enemy tanks and columns and coming in to lay suppressive fire around besieged troops, all pretty up close and personal. Plus, riding on top of a 30 mm, 7 barrel Gatling gun while smoking the bad guys has got to be a thrill.
“Thanks Barbara,
I wonder why they did not include Oathkeepers and other smaller groups that are equally if not more violent? Maybe they evidence connecting NZ freaks to PB and TB but not the others.”
Atomwaffen is possibly next on the list, in line with Canada’s official designation of terror groups. AFAIK, Oathkeepers don’t have any chapters outside the US like the Proud Boys do, so they’re still technically a US domestic paramilitary.
On a related note, is it coincidence or not that “The Base” is the literal English translation of “al-Qaeda”?
White Power!
Thank God our friends in NZ, the National Interest Battalion, have formed such a strong milita to take all you nigger Jews out!
Albeit quite crude and vulgar, I presume that you are referring to the Beta Israelites from Ethiopia? As for the NZ NIB, is that not the rebrand of what was previously known as the NZ Onanist Society? if so, does David Seymour belong to it? Good to see that we are being read by marginalized communities.