Russell Brown

This is the number one reason we should want there to be big, established media organisations, imo. Anyone without legal resources can be harassed into silence, or worse. I speak from experience.

Global credit rating agencies warn against National Party (and Taxpayer Union) rates cap law - the modelling is fascinating and will hit Council expenses hard #nzpol #kiwi newsroom.co.nz/2026/02/04/g...

I watched a lot of the UK media coverage last night and it's feeling like an era-defining story. One big question is whether the US DoJ will cooperate in a British prosecution of Mandelson. It very well might not.

Yeah, it reads like fiction, but isn't.

In the mid-1980s, Epstein traveled multiple times between the United States, Europe, and the Middle East.[41][42] While in London, Epstein met Steven Hoffenberg. They had been introduced through Douglas Leese, a defense contractor, and John Mitchell, the former US attorney general.[22] An anonymous source met with Epstein and Leese as early as 1981.[43] Epstein also stated to some people at the time that he was a CIA intelligence agent.[44] Epstein associate Hoffenberg in 2020 alleged that Epstein was recruited in the 1980s by Leese to work for British intelligence[citation needed], and that Hoffenberg introduced Epstein to Robert Maxwell.[43] During the 1980s, Epstein possessed an Austrian passport that had his photo, but with a false name. The passport showed his place of residence as Saudi Arabia.[41][42] In 2017, "a former senior White House official" reported that Alexander Acosta, the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida who had handled Epstein's criminal case at the end of the George W. Bush administration, had stated to interviewers of President Donald Trump's first transition team: "I was told Epstein 'belonged to intelligence' and to 'leave it alone'", and that Epstein was "above his pay grade."[45][46] During this period, one of Epstein's clients was the Saudi Arabian businessman Adnan Khashoggi,[47] who was the middleman in transferring American weapons from Israel to Iran as part of the Iran–Contra affair in the 1980s.[48] Khashoggi had been introduced to him by Leese.[43] Khashoggi was one of several defense contractors that he knew.[22][44]

It really is a sprawling web. Epstein seems to have been linked with multiple intelligence agencies.

I actually thought you were replying to a different thread where someone was telling me off for daring to mention Russia! But what Steele said this week was interesting: that Maxwell Snr helped Epstein into handling money smuggled out by Russian elites, and that's where his initial capital came from

The Harikua stage sounds quite good from across the lake, btw. Might pop down later for a listen to Benee and Geese.

Young neighbours are having an enthusiastic pre-Laneway gathering. Bless. I jumped on my bike to go down and see the crowds arriving.

Steele talks about the Russian relationship probably beginning with Robert Maxwell's documented cultivation of Kremlin figures (at the same time that Maxwell was probably an Israeli asset) in the 70s, to facilitate the exit of Russian jews. It's a big web. So maybe don't tell me what to think.

Probably the best art experience of my life was getting to the Tate Modern early on a Sunday and having the Rothko room to myself. Just sitting quietly looking at – and in some sense, listening to – those paintings.

Wyden is a Democrat with a longstanding interest in govt surveillance and privacy rights – he's a smart man. This is clearly intended to put the fact of his classified letter on the record. And it's surely about what the CIA knows or suspects about US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

Trump DOJ Files 9/11-Era Charges Against Leftists Across the Country Across the country, federal prosecutors are upgrading what would have been routine...

We're going to see two years of the UK working through a generational political scandal, likely involving a sensational criminal prosecution, while the FBI runs around hallucinating Antifa. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-d...

More than one thing can be true at time.

Yeah. I watched a lot of related content last night and it occurred to me that the UK has a political culture than can deal with this as a massive corruption scandal. The US doesn't.

But there's another important question here: the UK's criminal investigation of Mandelson will rely on DoJ cooperation, to provide additional docs and share redacted names and details. Will the American leadership do that?

YouTube video by Times News Epstein Was 'Effectively Involved In Russian Organised Crime' | Christopher Steele

Christopher Steele (he's back!) says the FBI has tracked Epstein's links with Russia as far back as the 70s, and that was likely the source of his original investment capital. Says the US DoJ had and *should* have shared info about Mandelson when MI5 was vetting him. www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8Gh...

Paula Penfold searched 1000 New Zealand Epstein files. Here’s what they reveal Inside the web of connections revealed in more than 1000 New Zealand documents from the Epstein archive.

You’re welcome.

There’s also a tool in here so you can search the files yourself .. easier than the DOJ site which is clunky as, and I’ve stripped out the duplicates/irrelevancies

#NZpol

SPEAKING OF THROWING $$$ ON BS, at the literal downstream expense of *checks notes* Absolutely Everything ELSE since '23 (hitting us directly back in the form of rates rises, higher cost of living, unemployment and ALL THE REST for "mOrE EfFiCiENcY, BeTTeR OuTcOMes!") this hasn't aged well:

Great move. She can do this without having to ask anyone's permission because merch accrues to the artist.

I am absolutely genuine when asking this:

Are there any significant economic indicators for New Zealand that are now better than they were ahead of the last election?

Inflation is lower, but was trending down heading into 2023 election, and is trending up now.

Government rejects plan to prevent landslides and save hundreds of millions in Gisborne Plan pitched as a model for other regions too.

It's $36m a year, for goodness sake. The cost to taxpayers in 2023-24 from storm damage *in Tairāwhiti alone* was nearly half a billion. Yet the same govt throws tens of billions at mega-roads because they're very important for the economy. www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3609...

looking at this along with miller and mizelle begging for DM applications to AUSA positions plus the story about the sUrGe they want to do tells the story of a DOJ that is coming completely unglued

The Saturday leg of Somethin' Else in Aotea Square is an amazing free show. You'll really want to get there in time to see Joe Kaptein and his young band.

If the rest of us were fretting, the Prime Minister seemed determined to stay blithe. On the Wednesday evening, with five active states of emergency in place, hundreds evacuating their homes and one poor man already missing in the floodwaters, Christopher Luxon’s Facebook account posted pictures of him having “great fun” while “out campaigning across Christchurch with our National MPs today”. It seemed unfathomably tone-deaf. What next? A disaster-themed Spotify playlist? The following morning, part of Mauao collapsed into the Mt Maunganui campground and six bodies lay under the rocks and soil.

Russell Brown: After recent events, will our government talk honestly about climate change? One policy after another, our response to climate problems is weakening.

Ah, my Listener column about the government's feckless attitude to climate change is now online. www.nzherald.co.nz/the-listener...

Dr Jordan B Peterson @jordanbpeterson Go to hell you woke Virtue-signaling race-baiting Anti-science postmodern neo-Marxist Clickbait disseminating Bastards Pop Base @PopBase • 12h Today is Elmo's birthday. He turns 3½ years old every year.

It's Elmo's birthday

Trump's DOJ: we've redacted all the images of death, physical abuse and injury, but also there is absolutely nothing to see here please go back to what you were doing.

Sadly, this is NOT satire.

and then we have this .... where, despite damages in 2024 in the area costing us (the NZ taxpayer and ratespayers) over $1b, this pathetic government says it is too expensive to transition to a plan that seeks to reduce risk exposure to extreme weather events.