Canto Fermo

Saturday, 11 January 2025

FIDDLING WHILE L A BURNS TO DEM D.E.I. TUNE

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Los Angeles wild fires: this says it all

Nero fiddled while Rome burned. It seems that California's Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and L A Fire Department were fiddling before, during and after the death and destruction of the Pacific Palisades wildfires. And the instrument they used for their fiddling was Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: L A Fire Department announced its first-ever diversity, equity and inclusion bureau in November 2022.

Newsom cut state spending by over $100M, just months before the winter wildfire season. A 'Catholic' fanatically, satanically focussed on babykilling and LGBTQ, Newsom owes his success largely to the Getty dynasty which is largely responsible for the transmania overrunning American society. He signed a law allowing California to assert custody over out-of-state children for ‘gender transitions’https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/vatican-gavin-newsom-pro-abortion-pro-lgbt-democrat-climate/And he's helped along by Antipope Francis, who invited him to speak at the Vatican last year.https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/vatican-gavin-newsom-pro-abortion-pro-lgbt-democrat-climate/?utm_source=linkedin He announced a stockpile of 2 million abortion pills known as misoprostol after a Texas judge ruled against using a mifepristone, another medication to terminate pregnancies.

LA Mayor Karen Bass demanded the fire department cut $48.8 million from their budget just days before the fires broke out. Los Angeles' female Fire Chief admits Mayor Bass is to blame for the death and destruction caused by the wildfires. (Shades of New Zealand's DEI captain sinking the Manawanui.) Newsom cut state spending by over $100M, just months before the winter wildfire season. And the Pacific Palisades Reservoir was EMPTY.

Newsom was asked, “What is the situation with the water? Palisades ran out last night.” Newsom (throws hands up): “Local folks are gonna figure that out.”

Pacific Palisades reservoir: EMPTY

The Palisades Fire is now over 22,000 acres, with mandatory evacuations in Encino and Mandeville Canyon. The fire is only 8% contained; 11 people have died; 7,500 firefighters and emergency personnel are fighting the conflagration with a curfew in effect.

History records that Nero – the precursor of the Antichrist – played the lyre from atop a building while much of Rome was consumed by a fire. The Roman historian Suetonius, who was born about five years after the fire, severely criticized Nero’s malicious acts:

For six days and seven nights destruction raged, while the people were driven for shelter to monuments and tombs. At that time, besides an immense number of dwellings, the houses of leaders of old were burned, still adorned with trophies of victory, and the temples of the gods vowed and dedicated by the kings and later in the Punic and Gallic wars, and whatever else interesting and noteworthy had survived from antiquity.

Viewing the conflagration from the tower of Maecenas and exulting, as he said, in "the beauty of the flames," he sang the whole of the "Sack of Ilium," in his regular stage costume.

In addition to recording Nero’s infamous song atop the tower of Maecenas, Suetonius accused Nero of using the fire to his advantage even to the point of leveraging apparent altruism for personal gain:

Furthermore, to gain from this calamity too all the spoil and booty possible, while promising the removal of the debris and dead bodies free of cost he allowed no one to approach the ruins of his own property; and from the contributions which he not only received, but even demanded, he nearly bankrupted the provinces and exhausted the resources of individuals.

The Roman historian Cassius Dio, who was born about forty years after Suetonius died, wrote in his history of Rome that Nero intentionally had the fires set. He wrote:

he secretly sent out men who pretended to be drunk or engaged in other kinds of mischief, and caused them at first to set fire to one or two or even several buildings in different parts of the city, so that people were at their wits' end, not being able to find any beginning of the trouble nor to put an end to it, though they constantly were aware of many strange sights and sounds. For there was naught to be seen but many fires, as in a camp, and naught to be heard from the talk of the people except such exclamations as "This or that is afire," "Where?" "How did it happen?" "Who kindled it?" "Help?"

…
Many houses were destroyed for want of anyone to help save them, and many others were set on fire by the same men who came to lend assistance; for the soldiers, including the night watch, having an eye to plunder, instead of putting out fires, kindled new ones. While such scenes were occurring at various points, a wind caught up the flames and carried them indiscriminately against all the buildings that were left.

These are the people in charge of L A Fire Department

Since Tuesday of this week, fire has raged across 36,000 acres of land, destroying over 9,000 buildings (many of them homes), displacing 180,000 people in Los Angeles County, California. Horrifying images of the fire are a foretaste of Armageddon, reminding observers of the reality of Hell.

But worse than the devastation is the gross (and outright malicious) incompetence of those in authority. As if planned by Nero himself, fire hydrants were dry because the reservoir that should have kept them running was empty.

Firetrucks and emergency personnel were scarcely seen as people fled their homes. From the governor to the LA mayor to the fire chief – all of whom were more interested in DEI programs and environmental protection for a fish than in safeguarding the common good in accordance with their respective offices – not a single person in authority so much as lifted a finger to avert catastrophe.

But while the LA fires reminded me of Nero’s burning of Rome, the godparents of a dear friend – who lost EVERYTHING in this fire – reminded me of the Christian response to Nero. Standing on the ash pile of what used to be their home, with only a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe remaining, they beautifully sang a hymn to Our Lady – the Regina Coeli – without so much as a hint of sorrow in their voices. If you’ve not seen this yet, I highly encourage you to click here and listen to the Heavenly notes sung by Pete and Jackie Halpern, joined by their six children.

Many are currently asking questions about what caused the fires in LA, and at least one man has been arrested on suspicion of arson. And while the socialist leadership in California will do everything possible to deflect from their own negligence and incompetence, blame will be shifted to high winds, drought, global climate change, lack of funds, and a host of other excuses that will allow them to maintain power. Solzhenitsyn once wrote that the worst part of living under Communism were the lies!

Just as the Halpern family provides a beautiful example of the Christian response to disaster, I want to leave you with a story that recently circulated on social media. This story of the power and necessity of forgiveness, even to the point of death, comes from Richard Wurmbrand, author of “Was Karl Marx a Satanist?” (hint: he was).

L A's highest-paid employee: $750k to fill up fire hydrants

Wurmbrand was a Lutheran minister who lived under Communist rule in Romania until 1964 when he granted amnesty. Between 1948 and 1964, he was arrested and tortured several times, spending many of those years in Communist prisons. During one of his imprisonments, he witnessed one of the most profound and moving acts of love on Christmas Eve between an Orthodox priest and the man who tortured him.

I am sharing this story with you now because it is so easy to be filled with outrage over the terrible things being done by leaders within our government and within our church. This outrage, while justified, often blinds us to the faithful response of love required of each of us, and I hope you will be as inspired by this story as I was. Wurmbrand wrote:

L A fire truck

“When I was in jail I fell very, very ill. I had tuberculosis of the whole surface of both lungs, and four vertebrae were attacked by tuberculosis. I also had intestinal tuberculosis, diabetes, heart failure, jaundice, and other sicknesses I can’t even remember. I was near to death.

At my right hand was a priest by the name of Iscu. He was abbot of a monastery. This man, perhaps in his forties, had been so tortured he was near to death. But his face was serene. He spoke about his hope of heaven, about his love of Christ, about his faith. He radiated joy.

On my left side was the Communist torturer who had tortured this priest almost to death. He had been arrested by his own comrades. Don’t believe the newspapers when they say that the Communists only hate Christians or Jews—it’s not true.

They simply hate. They hate everybody. They hate Jews, they hate Christians, they hate anti-Semites, they hate anti-Christians, they hate everybody. One Communist hates the other Communist. They quarrel among themselves, and when they quarrel one Communist with the other, they put the other one in jail and torture him just like a Christian, and they beat him.

And so it happened that the Communist torturer who had tortured this priest nearly to death had been tortured nearly to death by his comrades. And he was dying near me. His soul was in agony.

During the night he would awaken me, saying, “Pastor, please pray for me. I can’t die, I have committed such terrible crimes.”

Then I saw a miracle. I saw the agonized priest calling two other prisoners. And leaning on their shoulders, slowly, slowly he walked past my bed, sat on the bedside of this murderer, and caressed his head—I will never forget this gesture. I watched a murdered man caressing his murderer! That is love—he found a caress for him.

The priest said to the man, “You are young; you did not know what you were doing. I love you with all my heart.” But he did not just say the words. You can say “love,” and it’s just a word of four letters. But he really loved. “I love you with all my heart.”

Then he went on, “If I who am a sinner can love you so much, imagine Christ, who is Love Incarnate, how much He loves you! And all the Christians whom you have tortured, know that they forgive you, they love you, and Christ loves you.

He wishes you to be saved much more than you wish to be saved. You wonder if your sins can be forgiven. He wishes to forgive your sins more than you wish your sins to be forgiven. He desires for you to be with Him in heaven much more than you wish to be in heaven with Him. He is Love. You only need to turn to Him and repent.”

In this prison cell in which there was no possibility of privacy, I overheard the confession of the murderer to the murdered. Life is more thrilling than a novel—no novelist has ever written such a thing. The murdered—near to death—received the confession of the murderer. The murdered gave absolution to his murderer.

They prayed together, embraced each other, and the priest went back to his bed. Both men died that same night. It was a Christmas Eve. But it was not a Christmas Eve in which we simply remembered that two thousand years ago Jesus was born in Bethlehem. It was a Christmas Eve during which Jesus was born in the heart of a Communist murderer.

These are things which I have seen with my own eyes.”

Holy Family with St Anne

"Behold Thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing"

- Gospel, Feast of the Holy Family

Thursday, 9 January 2025

10,000 LATE TBP SUBMISSIONS SMELL LIKE A DEAD TPM RAT

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That's what you think. Winston knows better

Now what could possibly be the reason for the extension to submissions on ACT's Treaty Principles Bill? New Zealand's had months to say why they support or oppose David Seymour's legislation.

Does anyone else smell a large dead rat in the Māori health organisation Hapai Te Hauora hand-delivering more than 10,000 Treaty Principles Bill submissions to Parliament today? There were roughly 300,000 online submissions, half of them received on the last day. Did Maori treaty lawyer and barrister Roimata Smail not get her submission template to "empower everyday people to participate in the democratic process" up and going quite early enough?

Déjà vu: one can't help thinking of the Manurewa marae scandal, the photocopied papers and Te Pati Maori, now under investigation for fraud. And it's instructive to see just who's in the biz of offering templates for submissions: the Greens, the PSA - New Zealand's largest trade union - and the NZCTU.

self-explanatory

But isn't the TPB all "piss and wind"anyway? Because Prime Minister Luxon has said it's no go. And Winston Peters has it all sewn up, in legislation agreed on by National and ACT which will derail the Labour/TPM gravy train. Or else we'll hold a binding referendum.

Treaty bill submissions surge, Hapai health delivers 10,000 in person

‘Inundated’: Over 20k submissions flood Parliament deadline
Māori health organisation Hapai Te Hauora said it would deliver more than 10,000

Treaty Principles Bill submissions to Parliament today following a Justice Select Committee computer glitch. Over the past few days, Hapai has received more than

20,000, submissions to its portal.

Submissions closed at 11.59pm last night but there were calls for that deadline to be extended. Hapai managed to load 10,000 to the committee webpage and decided to deliver the rest personally.

ACT leader David Seymour has no problem with an extension to the Treaty Principles Bill.

Hundreds of complaints have been made that the overload of submissions has caused a meltdown - meaning people could not load their submissions online. Labour and Te Pāti Māori asked for last night’s deadline to be extended .

Meanwhile, New Zealanders are using innovative tools, including submission templates, to voice their concerns about the Bill.

Te Tiriti Gravy Train delivering

"Templates are a universal tool that empower everyday people to participate in the democratic process,” said best-selling author, lawyer and educator Roimata Smail. “They provide a straightforward way for Kiwis, who may not be academics or lawyers, to have their say on legislation that impacts us all.”

“This isn’t just for experts – every New Zealander has the right to tell the select committee what they think of this bill.”

“If someone believes this bill is wrong, they shouldn’t have to spend hundreds of hours drafting a submission from scratch.

“The public response reflects the growing understanding of ordinary New Zealanders that Te Tiriti is our founding document, not just for academics and legal professionals to understand. The huge numbers of Kiwis who joined the hīkoi demonstrated this as well.
“It’s vital for the select committee to hear from everyday New Zealanders.
“This is about democracy in action – ordinary New Zealanders telling those in power that the Treaty Principles Bill is wrong.”

Wellington City Councillor Ray Chung:

I am a born and bred Wellingtonian. I’ve lived here all my life. My parents are Chinese but I am a proud New Zealander and Wellingtonian. I’ve had what I consider a successful career in telecommunications and technology industries, travelled the world working for American, Swedish, German and British companies, including Siemens and Hansaluftbild in Germany, Trimble, Andrew Corporation, Graseby Goring-Kerr and Ericssons.

I never experienced racism until I was elected to council. Even more shocking was that those slurs came from people sitting around the same table and who were also elected to represent the city.

The Wellington City Council media statement yesterday (7 January) confirms the submission it has made against the Treaty Principles Bill. It is my proposition that this submission is outside the mandate of the council.

To suggest that the council must make a submission because the Resource Management Act or the Local Government Act has Treaty provisions within them is a huge obfuscation of the issue.

In response to my argument, Councillor Teri O’Neill made the following statement and looked at me while saying it: “It is sinister to pretend that your opposition to the submission is anything other than racist.”

Wellington City Councillor Teri O'Neill - uses "slander"

The fact Ms. O’Neill considers my opposition to the Treaty Principles Bill submission as “racist” is clear indication that Ms. O’Neill believes that I am racist. But not once did she argue against my position that such a submission falls outside of core council business.

I’ve always viewed such abusiveness and slurs as the last refuge of a weak argument. Slander is the tool used by fools when they know the debate is lost. It is then that they deploy words like “racist” or “Nazi”.

The Mayor, Tory Whanau, defended Ms. O’Neill on Newstalk ZB, saying she “never called anyone racist.” That’s a reinterpretation of events if ever I heard it. But then the Mayor has some form in these matters, for example, refusing to condemn remarks by the unelected iwi representative Liz Kelly who disparaged Filipino workers at Wellington Water as being “seasonal workers” and taking away jobs from Kiwis and refused to apologise when Wellington Water said they were highly qualified Water Engineers.

Too many councils in New Zealand engage in issues that are beyond their remit. The recent decision by the Nelson City Council to sanction Israeli companies operating in Palestine is a case in point. None of these issues are, in my opinion, matters for council involvement. Cultural politics and identity politics don’t belong around the council table.

Malakai

@saltyreigns

An extension has been provided on submissions to the Treaty Principles bill. Just to make sure all those fraudulent, taxpayer funded letters from various separatist councils, groups and organisations make it over the line We’ve had literally months to submit. FFS.

Pigeon Julie

@Julie_nzkiwi

It's obvious the Maori Party (or whatever they're called now, Tea Party Patty Patti Putty) and their mates in the media are doing everything they can to fudge the numbers for the treaty principles bill. Free KFC vouchers for every person who makes a submission??

http://phanza.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Principles-of-the-Treaty-of-Waitangi-Bill-Submission-PHANZA-December-2024-1.pdf

has stated he doesn't agree with anything in the Treaty Principles Bill which means

@NZNationalParty

doesn't support the same rights and duties for all New Zealanders - but rather special rights for some. The next election will be interesting.

Michael Laws (for whom we hold no brief) weighs in:

The Treaty Principles Bill is great marketing for ACT & TPM but both camps are looking the wrong way.
Unlike David Seymour, Winston Peters successfully negotiated with Luxon to support his Treaty Principles Deletion Bill, which will become legislation. That’s called experience. Remember Labour made up Treaty Principles in 1989, and they even are similar to Seymour’s proposal. They then were added to over and over again in the following 35 years. The same would occur if Acts bill were to pass, and probably result in the insertion to the Treaty into many more pieces of legislation, a classic case of backfire.

Listen to Laws carefully explain to a caller why NZFirst is playing a strategic game and their legislation which has been agreed to by both National & Act to become law will be MUCH more injurious to the Treaty industrial complex then Acts marketing bill.

Laws says : “Everyone is looking the wrong way here, I’m going to delight in explaining this to Willie Jackson, it will be like pulling wings off a fly”

“If Winston Peters is going to remove references to the Treaty Principles from legislation, that is seriously going to diminish the influence of the Treaty on the everyday lives of NZ’ers more then Act's bill ever could”. https://x.com/i/status/1858740800408220067