For the Lefties here who are trying to get a grip on the entire context behind what Israel is doing, this talk by Miko Peled, son of very senior, early and highly decorated Israeli General Mattityahu Peled, talks honestly about the founding of Israel and its attitudes and objectives through to the modern day.
His father, after leaving the Israeli military, became a strong advocate for an independent Palestinian state and also a strong advocate for Palestinians living in Israel to receive equal rights to Jews.
He also had a 13 year old niece who was killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber.
It is an exceptional and interesting presentation.
The IDF is the most moral millitary force in the history of warfare.
I’m just repeating it. The British Commander in Afganistan said it. The Israelis use guided missiles at a rate that is far higher than any other millitary, and which is not required under the rules of war. They are also packed with low impact explosives so as to cripple Hamas weapons while minimising civilian casualties.
Civilian lose of life happens in all wars, through starvation, disease outbreaks, lack of medical care, murder. It is not uncommon. It is the norm.
Come on Harriet. We are witnessing genocide. Even the US has now criticised Israel for what it is doing. Israel is killing kids and bombing schools and homes without any appearance of guilt.
If you had said “less barbaric” then you may have an argument but to use the word “moral” in the same sentence as “IDF” is just wrong.
On Morning Report some honest balanced reportage for a change( about time!)….an interview with an Israeli black hawk pilot refusing to take part in Israel’s “crimes against humanity”..he says that 90% of Israelis are taken in by propaganda and never see the results of their war on the Palestinians
( one cant help but be reminded of the Germans who said they had no idea of what the Nazis were doing…Israelis will also be judged as the Germans have been for the crimes committed by their government)
Harriet, you are human scum and a bloodthirsty Nazi bitch. As you applaud the murder of children I wish upon you the worst the world can offer. Nazi you. Spin it however you like but you are psycopathic Nazi scum.
Yep – ‘pinpoint accuracy’ they said. If so, bombing schools with civilians, electricity supplies, water supplies, hospitals and market places must be a strategy.
“… starvation, disease outbreaks, lack of medical care… That is not happening in Palestine.
Give it another few days Harriet and get back to me on that.
“……..Yep – ‘pinpoint accuracy’ they said. If so, bombing schools with civilians, electricity supplies, water supplies, hospitals and market places must be a strategy…….”
Yes of course it is. It is a war.
“…..A civilian structure loses its protected status when it is used for military purposes. A home that serves as a Hamas command post or hides a tunnel entrance is by definition not a civilian structure any longer. Israel targets such buildings, but does not target structures that are not used for military purposes. A church or a mosque that houses a sniper loses its protected status under the laws of war……”
Oh, wow. You quote zionist writer Jonathan Keiler as if it was gospel or the law. It’s not. It’s just a biased opinion. I think from what I’ve seen so far that Israel is likely to be facing war crimes charges. The Hague would be a great place for the IDF leaders to argue their case, IMHO.
No, it is a massacre of civilians and it is ethnic cleansing.
BTW people, to be clear, from its very beginnings Israel has seen the entire of the Palestinian territories as theirs and theirs alone, from the Jordan river in the east to the Mediterranean in the west, with no exception.
The Israelis will never ever give a square mile of illegally occupied and settled land back to the Palestinians, not back to the 1967 borders, not back to the 1947 borders.
This should help explain Israeli actions over the last 50 years.
harriet the Gaza strip is a concentration camp where Palestinian Arabs have been ghettoized in an ethnic cleansing process by Fundamentalist Israeli Jews now Fundamentalist Hamas are the latest version of what happens when you suppress and impoverish another race.
This war has been going on for more than 2,000 years by religious nut jobs.
In 1948 the Israeli Jews and the Israeli Arabs agreed to share Israel in peace .
but immigration by fundamentalist Jews has tipped the balance of power towards the Israeli fundamentalist Jews who continue to inflame and cause radicalization of both Jews and Arabs .
harriet you are New Zealands fundamentalist fermenter!
you should go to Gaza and ferment their you would be right at home.
The IDF is the most moral millitary force in the history of warfare.
Of course, these words form part of a blatant and ahistoric lie, and is part of the mythology that Israel tries to perpetrate around its military forces.
Even if there is such a thing as “moral warfare” (gag), the original Israeli military and its leadership was formed from the Jewish/Zionist armed militia groups like the Haganah and Irgun which ethnically cleansed large areas of Palestine 1947-1948, perpetrating multiple massacres of Palestinians and displacing over 700,000 civilians in the process..
In other words, that brutal ethos and history has been embedded into the Israeli military from its very beginnings.
“so as to cripple Hamas weapons while minimising civilian casualties.”
theyve flattened entire neighbourhoods, bombed schools, bombed homes for disabled, targeted kids, forced people from their homes, – blown the homes up and then blown up the refuges they told them to go to, blown up power stations, crippled water and other infrasturcture – the list goes on!
your a ghoul of the worst kind – one that attempts to paper over state terrorism by the powerful directed at the weak
you make me sick
still – i guess its a good thing the palestinians arent allowed musical instruments
@ Harriet 8.14
Your point? This is killing but not as we know it. It is a higher sort of killing, more technically superb, and the people, sorry but it is your karma.
It doesn’t matter whether karma comes from Jewish or Muslim traditions or Indian or… If your karma is to suffer then you feel the pain no matter what religion.
Or one can stop blaming everything on fate and look at our wonderful abilities to reason and to analyse complex matters and feel compassion. Shove karma over the cliff. And stop being resigned about other people’s suffering. Whether it is in your good cause or not.
edited
Jesus wept, Harriet. Do you actually believe what you’ve written?
The IDF deliberately kills civilians. It targets them as part of a terror campaign against the Palestinian people. It is designed to destroy their morale.
The British Commander in Afghanistan was carrying out a war crime against a people who had been pushed back into the dark ages. What the hell would he know about morality?
What the hell is a low impact explosive? Do we believe that the US makes warheads with these low impact explosives and stores them for the Israelis for when they get a bit carried away and use them too rapidly? There is in fact such a thing, but if you knew what you were talking about, you’d know why it’s not used in warheads.
Your last bit about loss of life is just unbelievable rubbish. Palestinians are being murdered. I’m sure there’ll be disease outbreaks soon, because the hospitals are being destroyed.
Of course, it’s just that I hold Hamas to blame completely. Using women and children as “human shields” is despicable, as is showering Israeli civilians with rockets fired from hospitals and schools.
Every country is entitled to self defence and Hamas has started this war, chosen the battleground and the participants (women and children) in a cynical ploy to involve it’s symathisers in a media driven conflict.
I missed the concentrated media and left wing outrage at the many orders of magnitude higher death toll perpetrated by Hamas allies on other muslims. Surely that was not because some sectors of society hate Israel so much that anything it’s enemy does can be overlooked?
No country can attack another with impunity. Showering a neighbour with rockets is an act of war, perpetrated by Palestine on Israel. Israel is quite entitled to take out the Hamas military apparatus.
But not entitled to murder civilians refugees children and destroy hospitals schools and the peoples only power station which provides the essentials of life. These are grave breaches of the geneva conventions and are war crimes
CV, you must admit Hamas are a pretty unlovely pack of bastards to find yourself sticking up for. This in NZ Herald today.
“As the toll grew, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay accused both Israel and Hamas militants of violating the rules of war.
She said Hamas is violating international humanitarian law by “locating rockets within schools and hospitals, or even launching these rockets from densely populated areas.” But she added that this did not absolve Israel from disregarding the same law.”
Really, Hamas and their allies ISIS are solely motivated towards the Islamic Caliphate and all unbelievers – including you and me – are to be converted or killed. even if you are the “wrong brand” of muslim, you are doomed.
These guys are murderous thugs pure and simple, you do your otherwise normally sound (for a lefty) common sense no credit in trying to defend them.
@ grumpy 9.55
Any bloody excuse for killing people. You don’t add anything to this discussion. Why not go outside and build an Andersen shelter. With your lack of peace-making abilities you might need it.
The idf have a missile defence system in place don’t they, that they claim is almost 100% effective?
So in reality, it’s spit balls against against a brick wall, but it gives them the ‘right’ to systematically slaughter hundreds of civilians indiscriminately.
…all the more insane to start a war with Israel then – eh?
Israel is an apartheid security state.
They could not tolerate the Palestinian Authority and Hamas coming together in a peaceful unity Palestinian govt.
So they launched this massive military attack against Gaza which is designed to destroy every piece of infrastructure the Palestinians require to live there, on the pretext of 3 kidnapped Israeli teenagers.
Grumpy, did you ever attack the huge school bully (and his even bigger mate) single handed even though he was three times your size and carried a cosh? I suspect you did, because you sound that stupid if you really believe that any lightly armed group would take on the IDF deliberately.
This is a general argument I’ve often heard in the media, blogs, etc. over the past few weeks.
It assumes – for the present conflict – that it was started by Hamas rockets. It wasn’t.
For better or worse, we have the official Israeli position that it was started by a kidnapping. Whatever Hamas rockets were entering Israel prior to that were obviously not sufficient to provoke the current offensive from Israel.
So, the first point is that the claim that this has something to do with Hamas rockets is factually incorrect – unless you want to argue that Israel used the kidnapping as a disingenuous cover for an assault they had already planned to make?
The second point concerns the implicit moral claim that Hamas rockets (and their ineffectual strike rate) are a greater provocation to mass violence than is the blockading of Gaza, the routine supersonic flyovers of Gaza over the last few years, the game-playing by Israel over the funds Gaza needs to survive, the predictable increases in illnesses and general deprivation and, most obviously, the frequent bombing of Gaza all of which have been clear causes of many, many Palestinian deaths (over a thousand dead just a couple of years ago in yet another short, sharp assault).
In that context, it is very hard to see how this ‘greater provocation’ argument can hold any water at all. Surely, provocations are in part to be judged by their effectiveness at killing, intimidating and oppressing? Israeli actions have achieved these goals to a much greater extent than have Hamas actions. So which side has been most ‘provocative’? (Remember, provocation relates to each action – it is not about ultimate ‘blame’.)
Third – and relatedly – it is often claimed that the terror induced by the Hamas rockets should help to explain the Israeli government’s reaction. That is, the question has been posed to critics of Israel ‘How would you like to have rockets raining down on you? Wouldn’t you want to retaliate?’
This unreflective plea misses entirely the obvious response in defence of Hamas launching their rockets. That is, ‘How would you feel if your children were dying through lack of sanitation, good nutrition, Israeli bombs, etc. on a regular basis? Wouldn’t you want to retaliate?’
In the current conflict, of course, the Israeli bombs (that, it should be remembered, preceded the current increase in Hamas rocket firing as they – the bombs – were a response to a kidnapping) are orders of magnitude more violent and more ‘effective’ than are the Hamas rockets.
Given that, Israelis who are suffering under the terror of Hamas rockets should understand entirely how Palestinians suffering under the terror of Israel bombs feel and, therefore, why they wish to fire their rockets. Shouldn’t they? Yet, in fact, they don’t appear to understand.
Aren’t both deliberate forms of terror? And isn’t one form of terror clearly far more ‘effective’ at terrorising?
Finally, Golda Meir once said “We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.”
In the context of the disproportionate casualties that have always characterised the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians- and the extremely limited number of Israeli children killed by Hamas rockets – it would be hard to conjure up a more immoral justification for the current mass and indiscriminate killing of children.
It’s as if one is somehow ‘forced’ to kill hundreds of children should one child be killed. This can’t be true.
Such an overwhelming onslaught also seems like an extraordinarily ineffective way to encourage the Palestinians to love their (dead) children more than they hate Israelis.
Killing someone’s child is not usually the best way to make them hate you less.
But it is, of course, quite a good example of an act of terrorism.
Taking over palestinians homes and using them as military posts while the families were still inside. Huh seems the israelis are definitely guilty of what you are trying to lay on hamas
What’s your version of how this episode of the ‘war’ between Hamas and Israel started grumpy? Maybe you can start with why Hamas started firing the rockets. I’m thinkng there are about 350 reasons for it (futile as the response may have been). Also a ‘mistaken’ belief that Gaza is the West Bank. But you may have a different view.
I’m not seeing a lot of evidence that the killing of civilians, especially in UN facilities, involves human shields either.
What reason could there be for starting a pointless war with the aim of forcing your enemy to inadvertently kill your women and children so your cause can be really waged through the media and “useful idiots”.
Why don’t you tell Israel that? Seems to me they were fully prepared to start this one.
Even if you’re right, and I don’t concede that for one second, it’s the responsibility of a ‘moral’ army as the IDF likes to call itself, to minimise civilian casualties. The IDF does not do that. At all. In fact they were pretty keen to go on about their ‘pinpoint accuracy’.
Still, back to the point… how did Hamas start this war?
What do you think would happen if the mad Nazi Ukrainian “government” fired a missile at Moscow? Exactly – war!…..and who would have started it?
More fucking bullshit Grumpy, Ukranian artillery has already landed on Russian soil, causing the death of at least 1 Russian civilian. The Russians know how to play it cool.
The Russians know more than anyone how to play it cool and are refusing to respond to the most outrageous provocation. My sympathies are with Russia in this dispute – surprise you?
Mildly surprised. You are a flexible and observant thinker in many ways. There is a further parallel – US EU and NATO pouring on the pressure with Russia has only accelerated BRICS moves away from the US dollar and western financial investments, and is already causing blowback on European economies.
Just as Israel’s continuing action in Gaza is weakening Israel etc for the long term, and threatening its continuing existence as a liberal, democratic state.
CV, I am certain that the Ukraine crisis is of real importance to the future of the world with the superpowers lining up in a stupid pissing contest led by the US.
The Israel/Hamas conflict is one (and I am sure you will disagree) that we need to have if the spread of fundamental Islam is to be checked. Without that, all liberal thought on this planet is threatened.
I have submitted a “guest Post” to this august journal on Ukraine (or rather a Russian mate’s “guest Post”….I hope it makes it through selection as those directly involved in the neighbouring countries see it much more clearly.
I think Israel is running a risk but I doubt they feel they have any choice.
The point of the useless israeli war against defenseless families was i believe “to mow the grass”. Seriously the israelis are utterly unconcerned about about the pathetic fireworks that hamas shoots off. The israeli hawks have been planning this murdering spree on gazans for a long time
So are all the murdered palestinians best friends with isis. Are the children guilty because their second cousin three times removed is a member of hamas? Utter diversion and a complete lack of humanity grumpy
No, the Palestinians actually chose Hamas as their governing body. They knew what they were getting.
Haven’t you heard – even on the kids programmes – the Palestinians “love” jihad?
No, the Palestinians actually chose Hamas as their governing body. They knew what they were getting.
That happened after years of Israeli weakening of the Palestinian authority. So your comment “they knew what they were getting” applies exactly to the Israelis as well.
But more recently Hamas and the Palestinian authority entered into a unity government agreement. There was absolutely no way that Israel was going to give the Palestinians a chance to become politically stronger, and to present a united front in terms of future international negotiations.
Hence the destruction being wrought upon Gaza today.
I think the immediate cause of this particular heinous war was the kidnapping, killing and dumping of the bodies of three Israelis innocent students by Palestinian extremists.
How that terrible and evil incidence has descended into this cruel war is so shocking and heart wrenching.
I wish that at that initial time the Hamas should have condemned those murders, arrested the perpetrators and either prosecuted them in Palestine or handed them to Israel for prosecution. Sadly, that did not happen.
The kidnapping was not the cause of this war, it was the pretext. Utterly different.
And it should have been handled as the criminal/law enforcement affair that it was, not as the reason to unload several thousand tonnes of heavy ordinance on to Gaza.
Of course as I already said, it was used as the pretext.
You don’t know that. It is your best guess. The fog of war.
I take no sides. In am appalled and saddened by the loss of innocent lives and misery experienced by the ordinary people, children and property in Palestine. But they seem have an appalling stupid extremist obdurate uncompromising leadership consumed by hate and politics. Where there is hate, in both Palestine and Israel, solutions are very difficult. This hate is now passed on to more and more people, including little children. Peace, friendship, independence, co existence seems a very long way off. It is easy to pontificate on blogs and comments, but the reality and solution is very dire.
The UN, EU, ME, China, Russia and USA should enforce a solution on Israel and Palestine. But how?
Your comment makes no sense. The Israelis have used the kidnapping as a pretext to destroy the new Palestinian unity government and to work toward everything they want.
Btw peace, friendship and co-existence with the Palestinians is not on the Israeli agenda. And it hasnt been for 60 years.
No, it was the West Bank. Why do you think Israel is bombing Gazan civilians for the kidnappings and murders on the West Bank? Why not take out retribution for that appaling crime there? The Palestinian Authority runs the West Bank, not Hamas, if the perpetrators are from the West Bank Hamas has no jurisdiction there. Why has Israel not called in Abbas?
Note also that Hamas in Gaza has not claimed responsibility for the kidnappings (and as Grumpy says they gloat about killing jews) and no evidence supports Hamas as being culpable.
Despite all this, even if Hamas was responsible, nothing, absolutely nothing, justifies the level of carnage that the IDF is inflicting on the Palestinian people trapped in Gaza.
Go to Wikipedia to see who is using Palestinians as human shields – a good example of “Do as I say – not as I do” – by the IDF.
These two images: OneTwo of Israeli soldiers and children are unlikely to have been photoshopped – and an Israeli court even convicted the soldiers of this crime – but likely after publication of the images.
Remember it is the Israelis who have illegally militarily occupied Palestine. While Palestinian militia action can be said to be conducted in self defence, Israeli action must be viewed as those of a illegal military occupation. It is the military suppression of the indigenous Palestinian people and their partisans, but it is not self defence.
Grumpy – no fears of indoctrination of Gaza kids with the clip you linked to. Most of those that are left will have no TV, no electricity and probably no homes, so won’t be able to access it. However, the most lethal indoctrination is being provided by the IDF and the 90% of Israeli citizens who are claimed to be supporting the genocide.
“However, the most lethal indoctrination is being provided by the IDF and the 90% of Israeli citizens who are claimed to be supporting the genocide.”
….because they are fed up with their kids being showered with Hamas rockets with no condemnation by the West.
Dear old Harriet and Grumpers appear to recognise The Truth by the way it comes with an official Israeli Ministry of Information logo stamped on it. They’ve clearly been exposed to a few too many MEMRI soundbytes over the years.
Apparently, there’s a “war” going on in Gaza, with wicked old Hamas showering Israeli kids with Rockets. Strange then the death toll is:
Palestinians
More than 1200
At least 850 Civilians
At least one quarter Children
Israelis
3 Civilians
Around 60 IDF Soldiers
A very similar death-ratio to Israel’s last massacre of Gazan civilians in late08/early09.
And, of course, as report after report from internationally-respected Human Rights organisations have attested, Israel’s attempts to deflect from their War Crimes by accusing (at various times) Hamas or Hezbollah of using human shields / firing rockets from Schools and Hospitals has no basis whatsoever – whether we’re talking about Israel’s carpet-bombing of Lebanon in 2006, its massacre of 1400 Gaza civilians in the previous massacre of late 08/early 09, or the latest massacre and associated terror-bombing. What these Human Rights groups have shown, however, is that the IDF have a long sordid history of using Palestinian and Lebanese civilians as human shields.
But by all means stick to the official Israeli script, Harriet and Grumpers. We wouldn’t want you to start suffering any yucky cognitive dissonance now, would we ? You dumb, cold-blooded immoral fucks.
Apparently the brilliant argument you see is that: 6M Jews died in WWII, so today Israeli state politicians are justified turning Gaza into the Warsaw Ghetto, slowly strangling it to death over many years, and intermittently launching full scale military assaults on to a hapless civilian population?
Let’s take one particular line:
Let’s get down to tin tacks. Exactly how many Jews do these people want to die for every 100 Palestinians? One for two, or an eye for an eye?
And how should Israel manage this, given its technological superiority – a vital edge granted to an open society? By handing over volunteers to Hamas for execution? By letting a few more Hamas rockets actually land in Tel Aviv?
Firstly, Israel is not an open society. It is a apartheid security state. IF you are Jewish, then yes, Israel appears much more like a liberal democracy. If you are an Arab living in Israel, bad luck. Several dozen laws as well as the whole of Israeli civil society discriminates against you.
Secondly how Israel should “manage” this is to end its illegal occupation of Palestinian land.
This of course will never be allowed to happen; extremist right wing Israelis have a habit of killing their own Prime Ministers before allowing illegal settlements to be taken down.
There’s heaps of evidence out there if you actually look. Like Hamas training to their social media counter parts. All casualties are to be called ‘civilians’.
Storing and shooting rockets from residential homes. Telling residents to stay put.
Wow those 4 kids on the beach who were killed by a precision missile must have been launching rockets too?
How about offices and hotels where journalists were working? Launching missiles from the roof tops in between filing stories were they?
How about the UNSWRA schools, I suppose they were full of militant tunnels and armaments right?
And the Palestinian authority finance ministry. What was going on there? Did the Israelis level that building because…I dunno…it was doing book keeping for Hamas???
Come on mate grow a brain and see that Israel simply wants to take what little is left of Palestinian land.
I don’t profess to take a side in the Israeli-Palestinian debate as I don’t think it is quite clear cut (either way) as many believe but there is certainly a lot of truth in the below article.
It never ceases to amaze me the level of vitriol aimed at Israel compared with other far worse atrocities being committed across the world – I.e. the massacre of Christians across the middle east.
Wreckingball….I could cite any number of pro Israeli articles and any number of pro Palestinian that would contradict one another and confuse and contort the whole thing.
From the sidelines we appear to have an intractable issue, sort of “East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet”. Hard line Jews (Gods chosen people) and Islamic militants (to whom everyone else is an Infidel). Blame is too late, the issue is how both parties can accommodate the others existence in the same spot. Because if they don’t both sides are as the say “a goner”. The only way to “win” is to make lasting peace, and that does not require armies regular or asymetric.
Probably best comment so far. But Jews are not killing people around the world for not being Jews, killing homosexuals, repressing women, forcing female genital mutilation. In the insane conflict you describe, which side are we actually on?……and which one do the left want us to be?….turkey…..christmas….early?
I agree Ennui, I am not try to apportion blame and do not necessarily support either side. It is just that some of the facts need to be given some airtime. The whole situation is very sad and I do not know what the solution is. Any ceasefire will only be temporary – a long term solution must be sought.
So Israel’s a “goner” is it, as the beneficiary upwards of $US 3 billion military aid annually is it ? Sounds very John Armstrong to me. I’m sick of the fucking lies. Why am I encouraged to support some Nazi’s religious zealotry ? And applaud the cold murder of children ? And weep the deaths of 50 Nazi IDF stormtroopers ? Fuck them. I don’t care about them. I care about 1,400 Palestinians. Poor oppressed people. The European Jews of 2014.
+1 North. I agree completely. I can’t feel anything for IDF soldiers who die while looking for Palestinians to kill. As far as I’m concerned, the idea of god’s chosen people is fully equivalent to that of an Aryan master race. Zionism has morphed into the new fascism, and things would be worse if they could survive without US help. The only thing that slows them down is fear of losing all those greenbacks.
Household Labour Force Survey out next Wednesday. Probably the most significant statistic in the minds of voters, and final one before the election. Consensus is for a drop in unemployment from 6.0% to 5.8%. Consensus or lower could see a strong election night result for National. Any increase will probably see weaker polling.
Did you hear that terrible, terrible news about Iran on yesterday’s ‘Nine to Noon? The interviewee was aghast over the fact that so many Iranians who work struggle to survive and that (unbelievable!) some people even have two jobs and can’t make ends meet.
Thank god we live in NZ and not some basket case country.
The Household Labour Force survey is a survey of 15,000 households. Even though it is produced by Statistics NZ it is reliant on the response from said households.
Easy to comprehend that the chronically unemployed and transient are excluded from such surveys, and that the findings are not the same as those that might be found from data analysis of census statistics etc.
RadioNZ National has just reported that Banks has been formally convicted. Apparently he has decided not to seek discharge without conviction. Hearing continues; sentence yet to be announced.
And hard on the heels of the latest Roy Morgan comes a One News Colmar-Brunton that finds that “New Zealanders are more trusting of Mr Dotcom than the Prime Minister”.
On the question of when Key knew about Dotcom – 48% believe Dotcom’s telling the truth, just 33% think Key is and the remaining 19% are Unsure.
Sooo, what you reckon the odds are that Finlayson was looking for a heads up from Giuliano on what possible information Dotcom might have got his hands on? I mean, assuming that Greenwald is speaking to the Auckland meeting on more than just general issues of spying, and given that it’s already out there that the NSA doesn’t really know what info Snowdon has…
When asked by TVNZ who they believed – Kim Dotcom or John Key, an overwhelming number of people backed Kim over John…
Taking into account the bias of land lines opinion polls, that’s an extraordinary result and it’s a result that is keeping up National Party strategists late into the night as they try and work out what bomb Kim will drop on September 15th.
Sadly for the National Party there are multiple bombs and they are all incredibly damaging.
…because you might like to go to that site and explore other little gems by other writers…. or more of Bomber’s writings on other subjects…also under every piece on that site comes that link ie “See more at…etc
Why do you support the murder and butchery on unarmed women and children by the Israelis who of all people should know what it is like to be murdered and butchered over the past 2000 years for no reason other than they were Jewish.
If you were in the IDF would you shoot women and children in cold blood?
I suggest you read more widely. Hamas admit using human shield and many so called cases of Israeli shelling of UN facilities are, in fact, malfunctioning Hamas rockets.
Also, well documented cases (with fulsome UN apologies) of Hamas rockets being found in UN schools.
You really should get out more…..
No independent corroboration of these despicable claims youre making. Only one case of hamas using a school during a holiday to store rockets which were immediately reported and removed by the UN when they inspected the school before term started. And how does that give the right to a modern high tech equipped army to then fire shells at a school being used as a refuge? Outrageous and totally indefesible argument you are putting forward grumpy. I suggest you read more widely than Ynet
Israeli propanganda website citing an Israeli television channel. And even then they’re still forced to admit that “one IDF shell struck the school”. You really are a true-believer, aren’t you Grumps. Keep on regurgitating the latest IDF spin and linking to these embarrassing (for you) websites. At least 6 UN Schools have been murderously attacked by Israel over the last couple of weeks, precisely as it did in the massacre of 2008-09. Schools, Hospitals, Places of Worship, untold family homes, vital economic infrastructure.
If only we could get a parachute onto your back and drop you into Gaza as your much-loved IDF continues its terror-bombing. You might finally start to get a bit of a clue. You know, as opposed to sitting safely on your arse thousands of miles away while cheering on the mass murder of civilian men, women and children.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear….The Washington Free Beacon – an extremist Neo-Conservative website that thinks Obama is some kind of Commie Israel-hater.
Thanks for highlighting the truly bizarre ideological circles you move in, Grumps.
Now, tell us again why 1300 Gazans, most of them civilian men, women, and children – people who have had to suffer for years under a brutal blockade (considered by the UN, leading human rights groups, and anyone with an ounce of moral substance to constitute a major humanitarian crisis, bordering on War Crime), part and parcel of Israel’s brutal 47-year Occupation and on-going ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people – tell us all again, Grumpy me old love, why they deserve to be murdered by Israel’s orgy of destruction, as you sit nice and safe a few thousand miles away ?
Breitbart “News” – yet another aggressively far-right, neo-conservative social media site.
How incredibly “convincing”, Grumpers.
As those in the know have pointed out: “Muslim-bashing, conspiracy-mongering and Israel-boosting” are at the heart of the Breitbart brand (in addition to one or two other perennial uber-neo-conservative obsessions). Their core view seems to be the conspiracy theory that Muslims and western liberals have conspired together to destroy the West.
A number of sites have accused them of creating entirely false “news” reports to further their far right political agenda. And I see, amongst other things, that:
Breitbart sponsored a special “Uninvited” panel for 2 right-wing neo-conservative speakers at last year’s Conservative Political Action Conference in the UK after they were rejected as speakers in the main forum for being “too hateful”.
Breitbart’s uber-Right-Wing, pro-gun, liberal-hating Orthodox Jewish editor-at-large, Ben Shapiro, recently (on Fox News) charged Obama with leading an “anti-Israel” and “borderline Jew-hating” administration. Shapiro followed this up with an article with the unambiguous title ‘The Jew-Hating Obama Administration’
Meanwhile, back in April, one of its recent “contributing journalists” wondered aloud (in a tweet that was later deleted) if it wasn’t time for “Americans to start slaughtering Muslims in the streets, all of them”
Yeah, we “give up” alright, Grumpers, give up on you ever seeing sense.
Gross from the Minister of Trade Tim Gosser via Granny Herald this morning, ‘protected’ Patagonian Tooth-fish washed down with 90 bucks worth of wine was the menu for Tim and ‘officials’ at a recent TPPA meeting in Singapore,
Wonder what was in the salt shakers, ground Tiger bones perhaps, these people have no shame and worse the taxpayer picks up the tab as Grosser and friends devour a species of fish for dinner that the rest of the world is putting a huge effort into saving from extinction,
One more small reason to vote Out National in September…
PS – re Hauiti, perhaps Grahame McCready should take up Bob Jones on his offer to fund legal action against Hauiti in this Herald ‘opinion piece’ a few days ago.
Heightening the entertainment, fraudster, tax cheat and bankrupt Graham McCready, having failed with his bribery and corruption charges against the much put-upon Len Brown, lodged similar nonsensical claims against the Prime Minister, the police and some senior public servants. If he directed his attention to Claudette Hauiti, whose spending of public funds has been euphemistically described as “misuse”, why, I’d pay his costs.
RadioNZ National…about now, can plants ‘hear’, a couple of researchers discussing the playing of a recording of a caterpillar munching on a mustard plant which then responded by producing defensive chemicals…
That’s interesting Bad. Makes me wonder what the plants in those attic grow room concentration camps throw out when they hear the death camp cultivators coming up the stairs.
More the death throes of the plants Alien as the good growers can judge to an nth when root and vegetable material has reached an end of life state and the flowers are about to…
I’m not unfamiliar or inexperienced with the practices Bad, but these days, and for a long while, I’m no Mengele of the grow room.
If legalised (or controlled) I could be tempted back, but I’d have to buy some ear muffs so I didn’t have to hear those poor plants screaming as I ripped their flowers from their stalks.
When I was in Gaza people were begging me to help them get out.
In surrounding countries I met Palestinian refugees who knew that I was going to Gaza who were begging to be allowed entry to visit their relatives. I met business leaders who were begging to be allowed imported parts to repair the old and warn machines in their factories.
As David Cameron the Prime Minister of Britain has remarked Gaza is the world’s biggest open air prison.
I went to Gaza in a time of relative peace to deliver medical aid and supplies as part of the Viva Palestina efforts to break the medieval like siege of the city.
When I was there in a time of so called peace the Israelis would mount military raids or fire shots into Gaza killing its citizens, mostly farmers tending their fields near the border, or fishermen trying to make a living from the sea. When I was there, there was an air raid on the tunnels which were Gaza’s only lifeline to the outside world. And military jets often buzzed the city at night. None of this of course is mentioned in polite society.
Presently the the Israelis are most definitely waging a war of racist genocide on a people who can not escape and can barely resist.
It is the duty of the people of the world to do what they can to stop this genocide. In this remote corner of the world there is probably little people can do to stop this genocide. But we should do it.
The first minimum thing we should, and can do, and which a number of other countries are doing, is call for the closing of the Israeli Embassy in Wellington.
If the government won’t do it then the opposition parties should pledge to do it.
The Green and Mana Parties do not hesitate to make this call against genocide.
Labour of course like National are “very similar” or “close” on this issue, as they are on most other issues.
As an article in the Listenerlifts the lid on Maoribashing and other types of bigotry in NZ’s Steiner schools, a senior Steiner teacher condemns Maori culture as primitive and doomed in a letter to the Otago Daily Times. There’s clearly cause for a wide-ranging investigation by the Ministry of Education into this mess: http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2014/08/steiner-teachers-and-racism-tale-of-two.html
@ RTM 10.02
Thanks for passing that on. That’s shocking. I had always admired Steiner schools,and never realised that within their take on life they could adopt such ugly attitudes.
Wikipedia has an extensive background bio for Steiner, who was Austrian. It notes that Hitler hated him and he was attacked much after the end of WW1 and foresaw the degeneration that Hitler’s people were introducing..
It is interesting that Hayek, Steiner and Hitler were all Austrians. And all have had a big effect on the rest of the world.
On Steiner and race Wikipedis says: Steiner occasionally characterized specific races, nations, and ethnicities in ways that have been termed racist by critics[121] including descriptions of certain races and ethnic groups as flowering, others as backward, destined to disappear, or even degenerate;[120]
and presented explicitly hierarchical views of the spiritual evolution of different races,[122] including—at times, and inconsistently—portraying the white race, European culture, or Germanic culture as representing the high point of human evolution as of the early 20th century,
though describing these as destined to be superseded by future cultures.
@ RTM…while we are at it lets take a good hard look at the racism and sexism messages in the Old Testament and examine New Zealand state funded Christian religious schools to see if they are perpetuating a sexist or racist message…lets start with the Catholic Church Schools of special character …then we could move on to fundamentalist religious Charter Schools of special character
Not sure what your issue is with state integrated religious schools Chooky I have relieved at a number of them around Auckland and without exception have found them to be very good.
Certainly I agree we don’t want to have the problems they’ve been seeing in the UK but I don’t believe there’s any evidence for that in NZ.
@Chooky 10.36
Let’s start keeping to the point and not wandering off into other side avenues. There is no chance of looking closely at one thing when conflicting other matters are being raised with comparative fault being allocated to all parties, apparently in an effort to confuse the original issue. This is not the first time you have done this.
not at all… it is very relevant …i know people ( Jewish, Dutch with European ancestry ) who have been or sent their kids to Steiner schools …and they were not racist at all as far as i could see…nor do i think the Steiner schools they went to were racist
A Steiner school would not be my choice ….however they do seem to turn out very creative kids and some very academic kids when they get to university
Why judge all Steiner Schools by one school or one piece of aberrant philosophy?
….and are Christian schools so different? …look closely at the Old Testament and you will find both racism and sexism…the Christian Church in New Zealand was often quite racist and paternalistic ….and sexism is institutionalised in many Christian denominations and especially in Catholicism ….are we going to apply the same standards to Catholic Schools that are applied to Steiner Schools?….or are we going to be smug, paternalistic and hypocritical?…and just pick on Steiner Schools?
Personally i dont think the State should be propping up private schools at all ….if people want to go to or send their kids to schools of special character or religious character or Charter Schools they should pay for it ALL themselves…and not hit up on the secular tax payer!
It is a bit unfair to reference the old testament which is sort of common in some parts to Jewish, Christian and Islamic religions but then hold modern ‘Christians’ to account, when in reality the Christians are followers of the teachings of the ‘New Testament’ as taught by Jesus ‘Christ’ who most certainly was neither sexist nor racist, in spite of those 2,000 year old times and cultures, as far as I know. So, I am not sure what point you were trying to make.
I dont believe ALL Steiner schools are racist …not in my experience …quite the contrary!….in fact recently i spent several days with two young Americans who had been educated in an American Steiner School….both were university educated in the biological sciences…one was part Cherokee and was fascinated by Maori culture….as I also have Maori ancestry we greeted each other like cousins and with great respect …we both have great regard for the ‘Wisdom of the Elders’ as David Suzuki and David Knudtson put it… and their deep cultural roots in the environment and polytheistic nature spirituality
I would like to know more about Catherine Woulf and her background and agenda on Steiner Schools…they are certainly Not racist in my experience or many others’ experience …maybe the school she talks about is an aberration, in which case it will be dealt with …but to slander all Steiner Schools as racist is not fair or honest…especially as fundamentalist Judaism and Christianity also have very questionable philosophies
While most of us have a lot of respect for Christians who adhere to the ‘God of Love’ and tolerance of the New Testament…..this is Not the ‘God of the Old Testament’ that, lets be honest here, fundamentalist Christians and Jews adhere to, is it? In 2006 Richard Dawkins in ‘The God Delusion’ wrote:
“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust,unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully”.
Perhaps our Christian Schools are not based on the God of the Old Testament …one would hope not….but the philosophy is still there….so why get so precious about a strand of outmoded philosophy in Steiner?
Maybe we should be more concerned about Old Testament religious fundamentalism and its horrendous effects in the Middle East?
Good article by Scott and as he notes in the comments it’s not that racism occurs via individuals but rather it is how the structure of the group deals with those views and in this case the answer is not very well at all.
We have a lot of alternative education options here in Mohua, personally we are homeschooling via democratic, child-led, project based education and have not/will not go steiner.
Radio Australia is being gutted by Tony Abbott’s government. Mike Field Pacific reporter speaking on RadioNZ says its a tragedy. RA has been the main news source for the Pacific and helped to reveal problems and relay needed information. Sounds as it is has been the BBC of our area of the globe. Radio NZ International will be more important now.
The important pieces of infrastructure that responsible well managed countries with good standards which they aspire to maintain are being thrown out, and citizens are electing governments that indicate that they will act in this way. So then they are complicit in the destruction of their civilised way of government and life that has been built slowly and only with great effort from committed people, who I believe are not the largest percentage of the population either.
Brain Fade Key lying for New Zilanders.
Key has painted himself into corner on Kim Dotcom,
When Key was reassuring New Zealanders about the increased surveillance powers of the GSCB and SIS Brain Fade Key said not to worry as their were only a hand full of people being surveilled and he knew all the names on the list being in charge of the SIS.
Now Slyman Bredges is lying about electricity price increases being the fault of infrastructure cost when only 20% of the increase is due to that the rest is price gouging by cartels screwing New Zealanders with the help of the socold free market party.
National Screwing Kiwis for everything they can get.
Hauiti is that!
National are in big trouble!
Winston doesn’t like National and doesn’t like the Greens, Winston doesn’t want to go into a coalition deal with the Mana or the Maori Party, Winston has always said he’d prefer to go with party that gains the largest vote
National plus Winston = 51% + Dunnes vote + Acts vote = 3 more years for John Key and if Ron Mark takes over NZfirst then John Key might even go for another term after that
“Winston has always said he’d prefer to go with party that gains the largest vote”
No, he’s said he’d always talk to the party with the largest vote first. Which actually is meaningless, because you can say “hello National, nice seeing you” and that counts as “talking”.
It’s rather interesting that he named mana and maori, but not a word about the Greens. I think you can take that as a sign that he sees L+G+NZF as a definite option. And I think his ego would rather like the idea that he personally ended John Key’s career, don’t you? Revenge, dish, cold etc.
I think the key word is Ego, Winston will achieve a more impressive legacy (whatever that means to him) by working with National not forgetting that NZFirst is a more natural fit with National then the Greens
He doesn’t have to have anything to do with the Greens, though obviously he worked with them on the Manufacturing Enquiry a couple of years ago. As the maori party pointed out the other day, their deal is with national, not ACT. The same would apply to a Labour/NZF deal. And I think you really need to get your head out of the nineties. That’s the last time Winnie did a deal with the Nats. More recently, they shafted him royally and sent him into purgatory for 3 years. I reckon the latter is what will be uppermost in his mind.
Last time around, Key did Winston a great favour for NZF’s party vote by ruling it out in his government. Some anti-Key/anti-Nat vote went to NZF giving them the threshold.
This time around, Key has done Winston a great favour for NZF’s party vote by NOT ruling it out in his government. Some anti-key, anti-Cons, as well as some pro-key, pro-ACT vote will go to NZF helping them to get the threshold.
Colon and the Conservatives half inch a small % of Winston’s vote in September leaving NZFirst stranded like a beached whale on 4.5% of the vote = History for Slippery’s National Government along with ACT/Dunne,
Colon the Conservative’s 2.7% of the vote, along with Winston’s 4.5% is redistributed among the Parties that do succeed in entering the Parliament giving Labour 33%, Greens 12%, InternetMana 5%, =50% which just happens to trump National now stranded on 48% with Dunne and that ACT non-entity who’s name i keep forgetting…
You see things somewhat ‘strangely’, if you watch yesterdays Question Time in the Parliament you will actually see Brownlee as Leader of the House offer up one of National’s allotted ‘supplementary questions’ so Peters can continue to question Paula Benefit,
Do not be fooled by stage managed perceptions, the best that can be said about NZFirst is its 50/50 either way, and, if Ron Marks is to be believed,(afterall He is a NZFirst insider),then Winston has been a lot less than honest with the ”no deals till after the vote” snake-oil…
Bearded, your hunching presupposes that Winston will gather enough votes to be back in the Parliament at all, 3 weeks ago i would have not entertained the possibility that NZFirst wouldn’t,
Now the game i would suggest has change somewhat with Slippery the PM ‘ruling out’ a deal for Colon and the Conservatives,
‘Hunching’ using the latest Roy Morgan which gives those Conservatives only 1% of support, and, Winston’s crew a bare 5%, i would suggest that with a hell of a bigger bankroll this time round Colon the Conservative aint about to quietly exit stage right and will likely pull a little over 2% of the Party Vote in September,
A % of that Party Vote that Colon an the Conservatives gather will come from the NZFirst voter pool, how big a % is not measurable, however, with 5% of the vote Winston cannot afford to lose any small fraction which indicates to me that NZFirst is likely to fall as it did in 2008 agonizingly short of the necessary 5%, but, short non-the-less…
The ideal result would be the Crazy Col on 4%, ACT on 4% and Peters First on 4%, with none winning any electorate seats. Even though democratic purists may quibble, that would remove the most racist 12% of New Zealanders from the political equation.
Could be a Machiavellian cunning plan to give the soft NAT, ACT and CONS supporters to think that NZF will be going with the NAT coalition government, thus hoping to get some easy votes for the threshold?
The person that can offer the most baubles is the one that will get his support and when it comes to business Keys streets ahead of David “Fonterra” Cunliffe
But don’t worry you’ve got a little bit of time left when you can entertain hopes of a left-wing govt being formed 🙂
The article, as it appeared, did not include some important details, which I will provide for you here. First, and foremost, we are not discarding our laptops as the article seems to suggest!
She shows shes ready to step straight back into left-wing politics though she should stop listening to Kris fa’foi when it comes to remembering things 🙂
(my comment: Hoskings is a fruit and vege market reporter …he excelled at this …he is absolutely gifted on talking about the current status, quality and quantity of NZ locally grown fruit and veges…TVNZ should make a special programme for him…take him away from politics )
the notion that Hitler hated Steiner schools is a myth which seems, so far as I can tell, to be used by Steiner’s followers when they get called out for racism. A US academic called Peter Staudenmaier has recently published a book after excavating some of the archives of Europe: he argues that the Steiner school movement thrived under Hitler, and he cites numerous documents, including friendly letters from Steiner’s followers to the Nazi government, to prove his point. There’s an interesting interview with Staudenmaier here: http://www.swans.com/library/art18/barker122.html
Of course most Steiner teachers aren’t raving racists, and anthroposophy, like all religions, is quite capable of being interpreted in ways its racist founder never imagined. What I think recent events show, though, is that the Steiner schools movement is at present incapable of policing itself, when it comes to issues like racism.
And although early twentieth century Austria produced Hitler, Steiner, and Hayek, it did also give us Wittgenstein, Klimt, and Freud!
I watched the wonderful Jonathan Meades on Youtube going over Nazi architecture. The thing that he made plain about Hitler and his cronies was that they were very in tune with occult spiritualism, and pseudo science. That might explain something re Steiner.
@ RTM 11.08
Hi that was interesting stuff but I have to read more yet. Have yet to look at the link.
In the meantime I have found a bit about Wittgenstein. He was in Britain from 1929-1947. Saved from hateful Hitler by boofhead Brits eh!
He was –
Born in Vienna into one of Europe’s richest families, he inherited a large fortune from his father in 1913. He gave some considerable sums to poor artists. In a period of severe personal depression after the first World War, he then gave away his entire fortune to his brothers and sisters.[9][10] Three of his brothers committed suicide, with Wittgenstein contemplating it too.
He seemed to be highly original in his thinking and the lengths he would go to in following a different path to the norm.
Freud has led the way in new thinking in psychology though went OTT on sex and mother love.
Klimt was a painter. They can be influential in demonstrating attitudes of mind and rendering subjects to display psychological features, in symbolic form.
None of the above match Hitler and Hayek’s contorted thinking that has left us an awful legacy. And what you say about Steiner contradicts Wikipedia which details harrassment of Steiner by Hitler, who may have accepted him at one time and cast him off at others.
You say something different to their version. If they are wrong Wikipedia should be edited for correctness.
Welfare activist group Auckland Action Against Poverty is holding its third beneficiary ‘impact’ next week in Mangere.
9.00am – 4.00pm Tues 5 – Wed 6 – Thurs 7 August
Mangere Work & Income, 93 Mascot Ave
“These are desperate times for people who aren’t getting the support they need and to which they are entitled,” says AAAP spokesperson and co-chair Sue Bradford.
“An ‘impact’ is an intervention in which beneficiary advocates come together from different organisations to help as many people as possible over a concentrated three day period at one Work & Income office.
[…]
“National’s welfare reforms are really bedding in now, and we are expecting to see even more people this time round.”
“Our team of volunteer advocates is bigger than ever this year, with over 40 people involved, while MSD is putting on more than 20 extra staff over the three days.
“People who need help from Work & Income should be treated with respect and get their full entitlements from the minute they walk into any office. Unfortunately, the reality is often very different.
These events are where Sue and the other experienced and new advocates excel and they get results if the one I attended (by chance, saw Paul Blair on street) at Onehunga is typical. For a few hours the dept. behaved more like it should do all the time.
Yes, that’s the way it looked to me when I attended the Onehunga one on the day that they had a demo and speeches from AAAP people and some opposition MPs.
They were a strong presence on the streets of New Lynn during the last impact action, so looked also to be successful.
Mangere is a very important area to focus on, and I think is very good in the lead up to the election to highlight the impacts of Bennett’s nasty little laws.
Is it just me that has the feeling that the MSM has started to turn against the arrogance and venality of this government? Groser…McCully…Smith…Collins…Bridges…Coleman…Brownlee…Hauiti…Key versus KDC…deals with racist ACT…
A bit of light on Amy Adams conflict of interest in the sacking of the Canterbury Regional Council should be next.
So National does its deals in the open and thats bad but Labour tries (and fails) to keep it secret but thats ok, do as Labour says not as it does apparantly 😉
framu is correct. DPF is lying when he uses that headline. Mana do not claim to have a secret deal. In the TV3 report a mana candidate, Annette Sykes, waffles a bit about TTT:
“I think it’s already happening there,” says Ms Sykes.”It’s been informally signalled.”
“I think”. “informally” Vague nothingness.
Cunliffe also calls bullshit on the claim in the article, as does the Maori party’s Te Araroa Flavell. It’s a nothing, but that doesn’t stop Farrar lying.
It’s a vacuous, fact free article, interesting only because Tova O’Brien has written a candidate for the year’s stupidest bit of Jonolism:
“Labour’s taken the higher moral ground over coat-tailing, despite not ruling out working with Internet Mana – the masters of coat-tailing – after the election.”
Get that? An alliance that has only been together a few weeks and has a grand total of no coat-tail MP’s what so fucken ever are the “masters of coat-tailing”. Muppet.
HUGE load of codswallop, Puck Rogue, and you (and Whale Oil) know it. Kelvin Davis is going all out for Te Tai Tokerau seat – he’s going flat-out …. getting around the electorate, talking to people, HELPING people who’ve lost stuff in the floods, or who can’t get out, or who need food – that’s a huge effort on Kel and his assistants – getting sponsorship for food items, and actually driving over munted and dangerous roads to get it out to people, and they’ve done it three times so far. And then he’s doing his normal electorate stuff …. look on his FB page for what he’s doing, has been doing – and don’t think that the slowness of getting a few hoardings up is not an indication of how he’s going.
His actual work on the ground is a bit more important than the billboards at the moment … and they’re
going up around the place via volunteer support. Unlike his opponent, Kel is not paying anyone to put them up !
That’s the second time I’ve seen someone say that Mana is paying to have billboards put up. The first time turned out to be wrong and the person who said it apologised.
reply Ennui at 19.1…seems like Hitler had quite a connection with Catholicism
According to Hitler’s chief architect, Albert Speer, Hitler remained a formal member of the
Catholic Church until his death and even ordered his chief associates to remain members. (Albert
Speer, Inside the Third Reich:Memoirs (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997),p.96);
Biographer John Toland argues that Hitler was “a member in good standing of the Church of Rome” and “carried within himself its teaching that the Jew was the killer of God. The extermination, therefore, could be done without a twinge of conscience since he was merely acting as the avenging hand of God” (John Toland, Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography (New York:Anchor Books, 1976), p.703) ; Historian,Richard Steigmann-Gall notes that “Hitler gave no indication of being an atheist or agnostic or of believing in only a remote, rationalist divinity. Indeed, he referred continually to a providential, active deity.” (Richard Steigmann-Gall, The Holy Reich (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003,p.26). He argues Christianity was fused into Hitler’s thinking (p. 46); Nazi General Gerhard Engel reported in his diary that in 1941 Hitler stated, “I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so.”( John Toland, Adolf Hitler (New York: Anchor Publishing, 1992),p.507); According to Hitler’s personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann, the Catholic priest Bernhard Stempfle was a prominent member of Hitler’s inner circle and frequently advised him on religious issues( Derek Hastings, Catholicism and the Roots of Nazism (Oxford University Press, 2010), p.119); Catholic historian Jose Sanchez argues that Hitler’s anti-semiticism was explicitly rooted in Christianity. (Jose M. Sanchez, Pius XII and the Holocaust: Understanding the Controversy (Washington, D.C: Catholic University of American Press, 2002), p.70); Feminist Gloria Steinem draws parallels between the recent Christian Right, the Roman Catholic Church and Nazism – particularly in regard to women’s rights to contraception, work outside the family, their role in the family and society as breeders, mothers and wives;and issues such as abortion, homosexuality and feminism. For example; “In 1933, feminists were removed from teaching and other public posts by the same law that removed “non-Ayrans” from such jobs. All women were banned from the Reichstag, from judgeships, and from other decision-making posts”.(Gloria Steinem (1982) ‘The Nazi Connection’ (from research done at the Woodrow Wilson Center of the Smithsonian Institution; published in Herbert F. Vetter (ed.), Speak Out Against the NewRight ( Boston: Beacon Press, 1982)
…seems like Hitler had quite a connection with Catholicism
That looks to me to be drawing a long bow. He was an Austrian, and baptised Catholic, but most historians say that he had washed his hands of the religion by the time he was a young adult. When I read Kershaw’s biography of him, I thought that his world view seemed in part shaped by a sort of bastardised reading of Nietzsche, and at some point he did give Mussolini a leather bound set of the complete works of Nietzsche as a gift.
EVEN if he was a ‘catholic’, he could NOT have been a TRUE catholic because what Hitler DID were NOT based on the teachings of Jesus nor the Catholic church. By the way, that chap in Zimbabwe too is a catholic I think. So are other so called ‘CHRISTIAN’ (born as) leaders such as Mussolini, Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt, Truman (atomic bomb dropper), Mafia dons, Putin, Bill English etc etc!
“There is no school tomorrow; there are no children left in Gaza,” the men can be seen chanting as part of a roughly formed song that also included the stanzas “I hate all the Arabs” and “Gaza is a cemetery.”
The mob also called for Israeli Arabs to be stripped of their citizenship.
The ‘fail’ only seems to be in the minds of those who see restrictions on small time growers entering the production marketplace as a bad thing.
I’m sure most lefties would agree that a nationalised pot industry, employing workers, would be the best way to go, taking the profits away from privateers, thus ensuring revenues are collected and redistributed by the state.
phillip ure ….lol…if all else fails you can go out on a high….(personally i would hit the whiskey in preference to the puff)…here is something for you to contemplate on
‘2014 and 1914’
By Keith Rankin / August 1, 2014
“Historian Nicholas Boyle (in ’2014, How to Survive the Next World Crisis’) foresees a big event happening this decade that will define the global geopolitical environment this century, much as World War 1 created the politics of the 20th century….
(…yes well us chooks dont have much gold currency only Kiwibank…so this is why i want the new Labour Left Coalition to guarantee Kiwibank is not raided by the overseas ferrets)
Meanwhile, from Ukraine, as from my friend Konstantin this morning – strangely unreported by our media…
“Here’s more to the riddle namely “What the f… is going on?” – A fair part of the regular Ukrainian army, about 5000 troops, is boxed in at the Russian border by the separatists. They are in a “kessel”, being constantly shelled and supplied only by air. The Ukrainian commanders asked the Russian Border Control to let the wounded Ukrainian soldiers into Russia, mend them in the local Russian hospitals and return them back across the border. Russia DID THAT!
Ukraine has a big problem. The problem is a deadly combination of craftiness and stupidity.
You probably won’t agree with this analysis Grumpy…but it looks plausible to me
‘Malaysian Airlines MH17: Who Stands to Gain?’
By Dr. Chandra Muzaffar ( who is a prominent Malaysian scholar and author, President of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST).)
“The Russian military has released military monitoring data which challenge allegations circulating in the media pertaining to the MH 17 crash in the Donetsk Region of Eastern Ukraine on July 17 2014. Questions have been raised about Kiev military jets tracking MH 17, Ukrainian air traffic controllers and the deployment of Buk missile systems. Kiev should also release military data on the circumstances leading to the crash. So should the Pentagon which reportedly has relevant intelligence and satellite data….
How come they don’t report like this on stories on Whaleoil or The Taxpayer Unity Party or D Farrier?
Documents released to Labour strategist and blogger Rob Salmond by Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee’s office show most of the 14 projects have a benefit to cost ratio of less than four with five in the range of 0 to 2.
Because that’s too hurtful to the Nats, Papa T. WhaleOil and his cohorts prefer to make things up.
Its easier for them, and it takes the heat off the Nats !
A quote from the Te Ara history on education. Applicable again?
From the mid-1930s, however, reforms led to a spirit of optimism. With the abolition of the Proficiency exam in 1936, primary teachers could explore subjects in more depth, and allow children to do more self-directed project work. Better understanding of child psychology encouraged teaching tailored to each child’s individual abilities and nee
The vultures have been circling round Christchurch’s assets for some time….and in that fine tradition of centre -left leaders, Lianne is going to let them have them.
It looks like CHC is going to sell the most important parts of a city (power grid, airport, seaport etc) to pay for a stadium and convention center.
….”power grid, airport, seaport etc” are precisely the things Christchurch MUST hang on to long term for the people of Christchurch and Canterbury….they dont need a new stadium and convention centre….
Lianne Dalziel and the Council must hang on until after the Election ….and then Christchurch must be supported by the new Labour coalition government to hang on to its assets…anything else is a sell out of the people!
This should be an Election issue!
Reminds me of the Shock Doctrine…on disaster capitalism
Lianne on TV3 tonight is pushing asset sales. It’s Lianne’s agenda that needs to be resisted, rather than being trusted to ‘hang on’ to the people’s assets until a change of government.
She ‘honestly’ doesn’t believe people will allow their rates to go up, rather than framing it as the asset sales being the no go.
Good question, National would prefer it after the election. Maybe Lianne is somehow playing fifth columnist and has the public interest at heart after all, by bringing this out before the election?
I would have thought it’s the opportunity for her to highlight the difference between National’s TINA and Labour’s new economic thinking, and to remind the electorate of National’s failed asset sales programme.
Incidentally it was sickening to hear Ryall’s valadictory the other day bragging about having perhaps privatised more assets than Prebble. They have no shame.
I would have thought it’s the opportunity for her to highlight the difference between National’s TINA and Labour’s new economic thinking, and to remind the electorate of National’s failed asset sales programme.
You may have thought that, but is she doing it?
Otherwise it will simply be a reminder that senior people in the Labour Party are open to the prospect of asset sales and can’t come up with alternatives.
That’s how I see it, CV. Too many senior figures in Labour are still in love with the seductive TINA. She is doing a real disservice to Labour in terms of showing that it also gives stuff to the rich, just when they’re pretending they don’t in order to get votes. She could lose them a few votes, and possibly tip the scales in the election.
I’d rather they could keep pretending they don’t gift our stuff to corporates, and get elected. Then Mana and the Greens would be in a position to stop them.
FFS helping to minimise labours presence in CHCH.
I rather felt that the people who voted for her wanted her to nix the stadium and convention centre and put the available funds into real infrastructure.
It’s a bit ike transmissin gully in Wellington, we need some creative thinking to get us out of these Nact promises that they don’t have to find the funds for.
I rather felt that the people who voted for her wanted her to nix the stadium and convention centre and put the available funds into real infrastructure.
Yep, she and the council should have said that Chch had better things to spend money on than the stadium and convention centre and that if Gerry Brownlee wanted them so bad that he could fund the bloody things.
Can you elaborate?
It does seem odd, Bob Parker pushed back quite hard on asset sales. As he said last May on TV3’s FirstLine:
“In terms of our portfolio and the level of income we have, they generate around 15 percent of our rates’ cashflow.
“If you take them away, you get some money you can spend on capital projects, but your operating costs – which are met through rates – are no longer subsidised to the tune of about 15 or so percent. In essence, you don’t really save anything in the fairly closed economic system that we find ourselves in.”
Security researchers have found a fundamental flaw that could affect billions of USB devices. This flaw is so serious that, now that it has been revealed, you probably shouldn’t plug a USB device into your computer ever again.
NSA engineer in NZ Feb. 2013 to discuss how to intercept traffic on the Sth. Cross fibre optic cable.
And a three months later John Key introduces legislation to enable the GCSB to extend their electronic spying capabilities.
Coincidence? You bet it isn’t.
Relevant quote given at time by John Key.
Firstly, it will continue to collect foreign intelligence but it will not be allowed to spy on New Zealanders. Secondly, it will give the GCSB a legal mandate to assist the police, Defence Force and the Security Intelligence Service. Thirdly, it will extend the GCSB’s cyber-security functions to encompass protecting private-sector cyber systems.
Very strange that the very day the American NSA man came to call, that John Key was not in Parliament, and he’s been strangely missing from our tv screens for two days now! And right when this info has come out about the selling of the huge farm near Taupo to the Chinese firm who bought the Crafar Farms! Must be Colin Craig paying Key back for not gifting him the seat of East Coast Bays!
At least £122bn of property in England and Wales is held through companies in offshore tax havens where ownership is difficult to trace, a Financial Times analysis of Land Registry data has found.
The figure – more than the total value of all housing stock in Westminster and the City of London – reveals for the first time the detail of the scale of offshore property ownership in the UK. It raises concern that London property in particular has become a haven for dirty money from around the world.
I ran across a recent essay from The Brothers Krynn, which attempts to map common horror monsters onto the Seven Deadly Sins: https://canadianculturecorner.substack.com/p/horror-monsters-and-vice My interest, however, is not in the meat of the piece, but rather the opening paragraph: It is an interesting fact that in recent decades, Vampires have ...
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 29 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
The unidentified foreign intelligence operation discussed in a scathing report by New Zealand’s Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) last week appears to be a controversial United States intelligence system. The IGIS report said the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) decision to host a foreign system from 2012-2020 was “improper” ...
What hope is there?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0ORAM-usqhQ
…not much hope
…that some people will start adding a brief description of what is linked to
For the Lefties here who are trying to get a grip on the entire context behind what Israel is doing, this talk by Miko Peled, son of very senior, early and highly decorated Israeli General Mattityahu Peled, talks honestly about the founding of Israel and its attitudes and objectives through to the modern day.
His father, after leaving the Israeli military, became a strong advocate for an independent Palestinian state and also a strong advocate for Palestinians living in Israel to receive equal rights to Jews.
He also had a 13 year old niece who was killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber.
It is an exceptional and interesting presentation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etXAm-OylQQ
Good point, Grumpy. Best the IDF kills all the kids, just in case. They’ve made an excellent start.
The IDF is the most moral millitary force in the history of warfare.
I’m just repeating it. The British Commander in Afganistan said it. The Israelis use guided missiles at a rate that is far higher than any other millitary, and which is not required under the rules of war. They are also packed with low impact explosives so as to cripple Hamas weapons while minimising civilian casualties.
Civilian lose of life happens in all wars, through starvation, disease outbreaks, lack of medical care, murder. It is not uncommon. It is the norm.
That is not happening in Palestine.
…apart from the murdering, of course.
Computer says no.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/28/israeli-military-most-moral-no-more-outrage-indifference
Come on Harriet. We are witnessing genocide. Even the US has now criticised Israel for what it is doing. Israel is killing kids and bombing schools and homes without any appearance of guilt.
If you had said “less barbaric” then you may have an argument but to use the word “moral” in the same sentence as “IDF” is just wrong.
LOL Micky.
Since when was the US ever a moral authority on war?
Weren’t you one of those people raving sometime back about Iraq or somewhere?
Are we or are we not witnessing genocide? You claim that Israel is acting morally, but there are 1400 Palestinian lives that say otherwise.
“Genocide” maybe, but it is a genocide self inflicted by Hamas.
or they are just responded to the terror and destruction inflicted upon them by an occupying force
Self inflicted? Has the English language suddenly changed?
On Morning Report some honest balanced reportage for a change( about time!)….an interview with an Israeli black hawk pilot refusing to take part in Israel’s “crimes against humanity”..he says that 90% of Israelis are taken in by propaganda and never see the results of their war on the Palestinians
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/20143931/former-israeli-black-hawk-pilot-condemns-israeli-campaign
( one cant help but be reminded of the Germans who said they had no idea of what the Nazis were doing…Israelis will also be judged as the Germans have been for the crimes committed by their government)
This cartoon describes perfectly the USA’s crocodile tears
https://twitter.com/Adamstoon1/status/494906933665869825
Just don’t mention the holocaust…
Harriet, you are human scum and a bloodthirsty Nazi bitch. As you applaud the murder of children I wish upon you the worst the world can offer. Nazi you. Spin it however you like but you are psycopathic Nazi scum.
“guided missiles”
Yep – ‘pinpoint accuracy’ they said. If so, bombing schools with civilians, electricity supplies, water supplies, hospitals and market places must be a strategy.
“… starvation, disease outbreaks, lack of medical care… That is not happening in Palestine.
Give it another few days Harriet and get back to me on that.
“……..Yep – ‘pinpoint accuracy’ they said. If so, bombing schools with civilians, electricity supplies, water supplies, hospitals and market places must be a strategy…….”
Yes of course it is. It is a war.
“…..A civilian structure loses its protected status when it is used for military purposes. A home that serves as a Hamas command post or hides a tunnel entrance is by definition not a civilian structure any longer. Israel targets such buildings, but does not target structures that are not used for military purposes. A church or a mosque that houses a sniper loses its protected status under the laws of war……”
Source? Not the Geneva convention, I suspect. I note your quote doesn’t mention people. All so …. clean and rational /sarc
“Yes of course it is. It is a war”
It’s murder of innocents.
Even the Americans (finally) have said the attack on the UNRWA facility is indefensible
Oh, wow. You quote zionist writer Jonathan Keiler as if it was gospel or the law. It’s not. It’s just a biased opinion. I think from what I’ve seen so far that Israel is likely to be facing war crimes charges. The Hague would be a great place for the IDF leaders to argue their case, IMHO.
They (The Hague) have to get through all the Syrian, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Ukraine cases first.
It’s not…..in the updated context it’s Naziism. Practised ‘proudly’ what is more obscene. Wheel on Adolf.
Ah, so it’s a war, and crimes are taking place, so the whole of the Knesset should be in the Hague on war crimes charges?
No, it is a massacre of civilians and it is ethnic cleansing.
BTW people, to be clear, from its very beginnings Israel has seen the entire of the Palestinian territories as theirs and theirs alone, from the Jordan river in the east to the Mediterranean in the west, with no exception.
The Israelis will never ever give a square mile of illegally occupied and settled land back to the Palestinians, not back to the 1967 borders, not back to the 1947 borders.
This should help explain Israeli actions over the last 50 years.
harriet the Gaza strip is a concentration camp where Palestinian Arabs have been ghettoized in an ethnic cleansing process by Fundamentalist Israeli Jews now Fundamentalist Hamas are the latest version of what happens when you suppress and impoverish another race.
This war has been going on for more than 2,000 years by religious nut jobs.
In 1948 the Israeli Jews and the Israeli Arabs agreed to share Israel in peace .
but immigration by fundamentalist Jews has tipped the balance of power towards the Israeli fundamentalist Jews who continue to inflame and cause radicalization of both Jews and Arabs .
harriet you are New Zealands fundamentalist fermenter!
you should go to Gaza and ferment their you would be right at home.
Wow, you swallowed all that bullshit?
Harriet, and your point is?
Harriet said:
Of course, these words form part of a blatant and ahistoric lie, and is part of the mythology that Israel tries to perpetrate around its military forces.
Even if there is such a thing as “moral warfare” (gag), the original Israeli military and its leadership was formed from the Jewish/Zionist armed militia groups like the Haganah and Irgun which ethnically cleansed large areas of Palestine 1947-1948, perpetrating multiple massacres of Palestinians and displacing over 700,000 civilians in the process..
In other words, that brutal ethos and history has been embedded into the Israeli military from its very beginnings.
The original Israeli military were outright terrorists. From what I can make out, they haven’t changed any.
“so as to cripple Hamas weapons while minimising civilian casualties.”
theyve flattened entire neighbourhoods, bombed schools, bombed homes for disabled, targeted kids, forced people from their homes, – blown the homes up and then blown up the refuges they told them to go to, blown up power stations, crippled water and other infrasturcture – the list goes on!
your a ghoul of the worst kind – one that attempts to paper over state terrorism by the powerful directed at the weak
you make me sick
still – i guess its a good thing the palestinians arent allowed musical instruments
@ Harriet 8.14
Your point? This is killing but not as we know it. It is a higher sort of killing, more technically superb, and the people, sorry but it is your karma.
It doesn’t matter whether karma comes from Jewish or Muslim traditions or Indian or… If your karma is to suffer then you feel the pain no matter what religion.
Or one can stop blaming everything on fate and look at our wonderful abilities to reason and to analyse complex matters and feel compassion. Shove karma over the cliff. And stop being resigned about other people’s suffering. Whether it is in your good cause or not.
edited
Jesus wept, Harriet. Do you actually believe what you’ve written?
The IDF deliberately kills civilians. It targets them as part of a terror campaign against the Palestinian people. It is designed to destroy their morale.
The British Commander in Afghanistan was carrying out a war crime against a people who had been pushed back into the dark ages. What the hell would he know about morality?
What the hell is a low impact explosive? Do we believe that the US makes warheads with these low impact explosives and stores them for the Israelis for when they get a bit carried away and use them too rapidly? There is in fact such a thing, but if you knew what you were talking about, you’d know why it’s not used in warheads.
Your last bit about loss of life is just unbelievable rubbish. Palestinians are being murdered. I’m sure there’ll be disease outbreaks soon, because the hospitals are being destroyed.
Sometimes I despair. Now is one of those times.
See what happens when you imprison a nation, take away its citizens’ rights and mercilessly destroy their neighbourhoods and kill their children?
Must have amazing teacher training scheme. No Broadcasting Standards Authority either? Let alone “hate speech” laws.
Arn’t you even slightly upset at the murder of over 1,400 Palestinians in the past few weeks?
Of course, it’s just that I hold Hamas to blame completely. Using women and children as “human shields” is despicable, as is showering Israeli civilians with rockets fired from hospitals and schools.
Every country is entitled to self defence and Hamas has started this war, chosen the battleground and the participants (women and children) in a cynical ploy to involve it’s symathisers in a media driven conflict.
I missed the concentrated media and left wing outrage at the many orders of magnitude higher death toll perpetrated by Hamas allies on other muslims. Surely that was not because some sectors of society hate Israel so much that anything it’s enemy does can be overlooked?
Except, apparently, Palestine.
No country can attack another with impunity. Showering a neighbour with rockets is an act of war, perpetrated by Palestine on Israel. Israel is quite entitled to take out the Hamas military apparatus.
But not entitled to murder civilians refugees children and destroy hospitals schools and the peoples only power station which provides the essentials of life. These are grave breaches of the geneva conventions and are war crimes
Deliberately locating military assets in schools and hospitals are war crimes. Using civilians, including children, as human shields is a war crime.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4542765,00.html
Utter bullshit grumpy. Firstly, the rockets only started flying at Israel AFTER Israel launched combat operations unto Gaza.
The 4 Palestinian kids killed on the beach by precision munitions – where were the rockets they were hiding?
The hotels foreign journalists were staying in – where were the rockets they were hiding?
The Palestinian Authority finance ministry which was levelled – where were the rockets they were hiding?
The UNRWA schools and refuges which have now been hit multiple times – where were the rockets they were hiding?
Seriously mate, fuck you for trying to justify what is now over 300 Palestinian children dead and over 1300 Palestinians killed.
CV, you must admit Hamas are a pretty unlovely pack of bastards to find yourself sticking up for. This in NZ Herald today.
“As the toll grew, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay accused both Israel and Hamas militants of violating the rules of war.
She said Hamas is violating international humanitarian law by “locating rockets within schools and hospitals, or even launching these rockets from densely populated areas.” But she added that this did not absolve Israel from disregarding the same law.”
Really, Hamas and their allies ISIS are solely motivated towards the Islamic Caliphate and all unbelievers – including you and me – are to be converted or killed. even if you are the “wrong brand” of muslim, you are doomed.
These guys are murderous thugs pure and simple, you do your otherwise normally sound (for a lefty) common sense no credit in trying to defend them.
@ grumpy 9.55
Any bloody excuse for killing people. You don’t add anything to this discussion. Why not go outside and build an Andersen shelter. With your lack of peace-making abilities you might need it.
The idf have a missile defence system in place don’t they, that they claim is almost 100% effective?
So in reality, it’s spit balls against against a brick wall, but it gives them the ‘right’ to systematically slaughter hundreds of civilians indiscriminately.
…all the more insane to start a war with Israel then – eh?
All the more barbaric and inhumane to imprison and exterminate palestinians.
And of course, let us not forget, the Jews created their state with terrorism.
Israel is an apartheid security state.
They could not tolerate the Palestinian Authority and Hamas coming together in a peaceful unity Palestinian govt.
So they launched this massive military attack against Gaza which is designed to destroy every piece of infrastructure the Palestinians require to live there, on the pretext of 3 kidnapped Israeli teenagers.
Grumpy, did you ever attack the huge school bully (and his even bigger mate) single handed even though he was three times your size and carried a cosh? I suspect you did, because you sound that stupid if you really believe that any lightly armed group would take on the IDF deliberately.
Mate, I come and comment on this site, don’t I?
This is a general argument I’ve often heard in the media, blogs, etc. over the past few weeks.
It assumes – for the present conflict – that it was started by Hamas rockets. It wasn’t.
For better or worse, we have the official Israeli position that it was started by a kidnapping. Whatever Hamas rockets were entering Israel prior to that were obviously not sufficient to provoke the current offensive from Israel.
So, the first point is that the claim that this has something to do with Hamas rockets is factually incorrect – unless you want to argue that Israel used the kidnapping as a disingenuous cover for an assault they had already planned to make?
The second point concerns the implicit moral claim that Hamas rockets (and their ineffectual strike rate) are a greater provocation to mass violence than is the blockading of Gaza, the routine supersonic flyovers of Gaza over the last few years, the game-playing by Israel over the funds Gaza needs to survive, the predictable increases in illnesses and general deprivation and, most obviously, the frequent bombing of Gaza all of which have been clear causes of many, many Palestinian deaths (over a thousand dead just a couple of years ago in yet another short, sharp assault).
In that context, it is very hard to see how this ‘greater provocation’ argument can hold any water at all. Surely, provocations are in part to be judged by their effectiveness at killing, intimidating and oppressing? Israeli actions have achieved these goals to a much greater extent than have Hamas actions. So which side has been most ‘provocative’? (Remember, provocation relates to each action – it is not about ultimate ‘blame’.)
Third – and relatedly – it is often claimed that the terror induced by the Hamas rockets should help to explain the Israeli government’s reaction. That is, the question has been posed to critics of Israel ‘How would you like to have rockets raining down on you? Wouldn’t you want to retaliate?’
This unreflective plea misses entirely the obvious response in defence of Hamas launching their rockets. That is, ‘How would you feel if your children were dying through lack of sanitation, good nutrition, Israeli bombs, etc. on a regular basis? Wouldn’t you want to retaliate?’
In the current conflict, of course, the Israeli bombs (that, it should be remembered, preceded the current increase in Hamas rocket firing as they – the bombs – were a response to a kidnapping) are orders of magnitude more violent and more ‘effective’ than are the Hamas rockets.
Given that, Israelis who are suffering under the terror of Hamas rockets should understand entirely how Palestinians suffering under the terror of Israel bombs feel and, therefore, why they wish to fire their rockets. Shouldn’t they? Yet, in fact, they don’t appear to understand.
Aren’t both deliberate forms of terror? And isn’t one form of terror clearly far more ‘effective’ at terrorising?
Finally, Golda Meir once said “We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.”
In the context of the disproportionate casualties that have always characterised the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians- and the extremely limited number of Israeli children killed by Hamas rockets – it would be hard to conjure up a more immoral justification for the current mass and indiscriminate killing of children.
It’s as if one is somehow ‘forced’ to kill hundreds of children should one child be killed. This can’t be true.
Such an overwhelming onslaught also seems like an extraordinarily ineffective way to encourage the Palestinians to love their (dead) children more than they hate Israelis.
Killing someone’s child is not usually the best way to make them hate you less.
But it is, of course, quite a good example of an act of terrorism.
This is all that needs be said PG. Thank you.
Thanks Puddlegum I admire your ability to always dismantle such illogical propositions so calmly.
Thanks Puddleglum. Mind if I use this for a guest post?
Not at all.
Israel is an invasion, by war, of Palestine. If the Jews left Palestine they wouldn’t get bombarded by rockets.
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/survivors-massacre-palestinians.html
Taking over palestinians homes and using them as military posts while the families were still inside. Huh seems the israelis are definitely guilty of what you are trying to lay on hamas
The Israelis have been taking over Palestinian homes since 1947. This is just business as usual for them.
Hear Hear CV !
Some facts: http://palestine.org.nz/phrc/index.php
What’s your version of how this episode of the ‘war’ between Hamas and Israel started grumpy? Maybe you can start with why Hamas started firing the rockets. I’m thinkng there are about 350 reasons for it (futile as the response may have been). Also a ‘mistaken’ belief that Gaza is the West Bank. But you may have a different view.
I’m not seeing a lot of evidence that the killing of civilians, especially in UN facilities, involves human shields either.
What reason could there be for starting a pointless war with the aim of forcing your enemy to inadvertently kill your women and children so your cause can be really waged through the media and “useful idiots”.
Why don’t you tell Israel that? Seems to me they were fully prepared to start this one.
Even if you’re right, and I don’t concede that for one second, it’s the responsibility of a ‘moral’ army as the IDF likes to call itself, to minimise civilian casualties. The IDF does not do that. At all. In fact they were pretty keen to go on about their ‘pinpoint accuracy’.
Still, back to the point… how did Hamas start this war?
What do you think would happen if the mad Nazi Ukrainian “government” fired a missile at Moscow? Exactly – war!…..and who would have started it?
Still, back to the point… how did Hamas start this war?
More fucking bullshit Grumpy, Ukranian artillery has already landed on Russian soil, causing the death of at least 1 Russian civilian. The Russians know how to play it cool.
The Russians know more than anyone how to play it cool and are refusing to respond to the most outrageous provocation. My sympathies are with Russia in this dispute – surprise you?
Mildly surprised. You are a flexible and observant thinker in many ways. There is a further parallel – US EU and NATO pouring on the pressure with Russia has only accelerated BRICS moves away from the US dollar and western financial investments, and is already causing blowback on European economies.
Just as Israel’s continuing action in Gaza is weakening Israel etc for the long term, and threatening its continuing existence as a liberal, democratic state.
CV, I am certain that the Ukraine crisis is of real importance to the future of the world with the superpowers lining up in a stupid pissing contest led by the US.
The Israel/Hamas conflict is one (and I am sure you will disagree) that we need to have if the spread of fundamental Islam is to be checked. Without that, all liberal thought on this planet is threatened.
I have submitted a “guest Post” to this august journal on Ukraine (or rather a Russian mate’s “guest Post”….I hope it makes it through selection as those directly involved in the neighbouring countries see it much more clearly.
I think Israel is running a risk but I doubt they feel they have any choice.
The point of the useless israeli war against defenseless families was i believe “to mow the grass”. Seriously the israelis are utterly unconcerned about about the pathetic fireworks that hamas shoots off. The israeli hawks have been planning this murdering spree on gazans for a long time
Speaking of “mowing the grass”, it’s always good to look at someone’s friends to get a glimpse into their character. In this case, Hamas’ BFF ISIS.
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/there_is_no_root_cause_to_talk_about_with_animals_like_these/
You were saying…..?
So are all the murdered palestinians best friends with isis. Are the children guilty because their second cousin three times removed is a member of hamas? Utter diversion and a complete lack of humanity grumpy
No, the Palestinians actually chose Hamas as their governing body. They knew what they were getting.
Haven’t you heard – even on the kids programmes – the Palestinians “love” jihad?
That happened after years of Israeli weakening of the Palestinian authority. So your comment “they knew what they were getting” applies exactly to the Israelis as well.
But more recently Hamas and the Palestinian authority entered into a unity government agreement. There was absolutely no way that Israel was going to give the Palestinians a chance to become politically stronger, and to present a united front in terms of future international negotiations.
Hence the destruction being wrought upon Gaza today.
I think the immediate cause of this particular heinous war was the kidnapping, killing and dumping of the bodies of three Israelis innocent students by Palestinian extremists.
How that terrible and evil incidence has descended into this cruel war is so shocking and heart wrenching.
I wish that at that initial time the Hamas should have condemned those murders, arrested the perpetrators and either prosecuted them in Palestine or handed them to Israel for prosecution. Sadly, that did not happen.
The kidnapping was not the cause of this war, it was the pretext. Utterly different.
And it should have been handled as the criminal/law enforcement affair that it was, not as the reason to unload several thousand tonnes of heavy ordinance on to Gaza.
Of course as I already said, it was used as the pretext.
You don’t know that. It is your best guess. The fog of war.
I take no sides. In am appalled and saddened by the loss of innocent lives and misery experienced by the ordinary people, children and property in Palestine. But they seem have an appalling stupid extremist obdurate uncompromising leadership consumed by hate and politics. Where there is hate, in both Palestine and Israel, solutions are very difficult. This hate is now passed on to more and more people, including little children. Peace, friendship, independence, co existence seems a very long way off. It is easy to pontificate on blogs and comments, but the reality and solution is very dire.
The UN, EU, ME, China, Russia and USA should enforce a solution on Israel and Palestine. But how?
?
Your comment makes no sense. The Israelis have used the kidnapping as a pretext to destroy the new Palestinian unity government and to work toward everything they want.
Btw peace, friendship and co-existence with the Palestinians is not on the Israeli agenda. And it hasnt been for 60 years.
Where was the kidnapping Clemgeopin? Gaza?
No, it was the West Bank. Why do you think Israel is bombing Gazan civilians for the kidnappings and murders on the West Bank? Why not take out retribution for that appaling crime there? The Palestinian Authority runs the West Bank, not Hamas, if the perpetrators are from the West Bank Hamas has no jurisdiction there. Why has Israel not called in Abbas?
Note also that Hamas in Gaza has not claimed responsibility for the kidnappings (and as Grumpy says they gloat about killing jews) and no evidence supports Hamas as being culpable.
Despite all this, even if Hamas was responsible, nothing, absolutely nothing, justifies the level of carnage that the IDF is inflicting on the Palestinian people trapped in Gaza.
Thank you for articulating the bloody bleeding obvious.
Go to Wikipedia to see who is using Palestinians as human shields – a good example of “Do as I say – not as I do” – by the IDF.
These two images: One Two of Israeli soldiers and children are unlikely to have been photoshopped – and an Israeli court even convicted the soldiers of this crime – but likely after publication of the images.
In their own words.
http://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/testimonies/videos/?ci=115
“Every country is entitled to self defence”
except palestine?
Remember it is the Israelis who have illegally militarily occupied Palestine. While Palestinian militia action can be said to be conducted in self defence, Israeli action must be viewed as those of a illegal military occupation. It is the military suppression of the indigenous Palestinian people and their partisans, but it is not self defence.
And Israel continuing to build settlements on Palestinian land is not also using their own people as human shields?
Grumpy – no fears of indoctrination of Gaza kids with the clip you linked to. Most of those that are left will have no TV, no electricity and probably no homes, so won’t be able to access it. However, the most lethal indoctrination is being provided by the IDF and the 90% of Israeli citizens who are claimed to be supporting the genocide.
“However, the most lethal indoctrination is being provided by the IDF and the 90% of Israeli citizens who are claimed to be supporting the genocide.”
….because they are fed up with their kids being showered with Hamas rockets with no condemnation by the West.
like the metservice forecasts
some reports prove more sensational than substantial
http://i.imgur.com/W7qUmCv.png
Dear old Harriet and Grumpers appear to recognise The Truth by the way it comes with an official Israeli Ministry of Information logo stamped on it. They’ve clearly been exposed to a few too many MEMRI soundbytes over the years.
Apparently, there’s a “war” going on in Gaza, with wicked old Hamas showering Israeli kids with Rockets. Strange then the death toll is:
Palestinians
More than 1200
At least 850 Civilians
At least one quarter Children
Israelis
3 Civilians
Around 60 IDF Soldiers
A very similar death-ratio to Israel’s last massacre of Gazan civilians in late08/early09.
And, of course, as report after report from internationally-respected Human Rights organisations have attested, Israel’s attempts to deflect from their War Crimes by accusing (at various times) Hamas or Hezbollah of using human shields / firing rockets from Schools and Hospitals has no basis whatsoever – whether we’re talking about Israel’s carpet-bombing of Lebanon in 2006, its massacre of 1400 Gaza civilians in the previous massacre of late 08/early 09, or the latest massacre and associated terror-bombing. What these Human Rights groups have shown, however, is that the IDF have a long sordid history of using Palestinian and Lebanese civilians as human shields.
But by all means stick to the official Israeli script, Harriet and Grumpers. We wouldn’t want you to start suffering any yucky cognitive dissonance now, would we ? You dumb, cold-blooded immoral fucks.
A brilliant retort to your quite silly comment above.
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/how_many_jews_must_die_before_israel_may_defend_itself/
That’s what you call a “brilliant retort”?
Apparently the brilliant argument you see is that: 6M Jews died in WWII, so today Israeli state politicians are justified turning Gaza into the Warsaw Ghetto, slowly strangling it to death over many years, and intermittently launching full scale military assaults on to a hapless civilian population?
Let’s take one particular line:
Firstly, Israel is not an open society. It is a apartheid security state. IF you are Jewish, then yes, Israel appears much more like a liberal democracy. If you are an Arab living in Israel, bad luck. Several dozen laws as well as the whole of Israeli civil society discriminates against you.
Secondly how Israel should “manage” this is to end its illegal occupation of Palestinian land.
This of course will never be allowed to happen; extremist right wing Israelis have a habit of killing their own Prime Ministers before allowing illegal settlements to be taken down.
There’s heaps of evidence out there if you actually look. Like Hamas training to their social media counter parts. All casualties are to be called ‘civilians’.
Storing and shooting rockets from residential homes. Telling residents to stay put.
Yeah, ok.
Wow those 4 kids on the beach who were killed by a precision missile must have been launching rockets too?
How about offices and hotels where journalists were working? Launching missiles from the roof tops in between filing stories were they?
How about the UNSWRA schools, I suppose they were full of militant tunnels and armaments right?
And the Palestinian authority finance ministry. What was going on there? Did the Israelis level that building because…I dunno…it was doing book keeping for Hamas???
Come on mate grow a brain and see that Israel simply wants to take what little is left of Palestinian land.
“because they are fed up with their kids being showered with Hamas rockets with no condemnation by the West.
Really?
https://www.google.co.nz/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Israel+right+to+defend&tbm=nws
I don’t profess to take a side in the Israeli-Palestinian debate as I don’t think it is quite clear cut (either way) as many believe but there is certainly a lot of truth in the below article.
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/07/31/The-Left-Hate-Israel-Because-It-Is-Everything-They-Despise-Capitalist-Conservative-and-Patriotic
It never ceases to amaze me the level of vitriol aimed at Israel compared with other far worse atrocities being committed across the world – I.e. the massacre of Christians across the middle east.
Wreckingball….I could cite any number of pro Israeli articles and any number of pro Palestinian that would contradict one another and confuse and contort the whole thing.
From the sidelines we appear to have an intractable issue, sort of “East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet”. Hard line Jews (Gods chosen people) and Islamic militants (to whom everyone else is an Infidel). Blame is too late, the issue is how both parties can accommodate the others existence in the same spot. Because if they don’t both sides are as the say “a goner”. The only way to “win” is to make lasting peace, and that does not require armies regular or asymetric.
Probably best comment so far. But Jews are not killing people around the world for not being Jews, killing homosexuals, repressing women, forcing female genital mutilation. In the insane conflict you describe, which side are we actually on?……and which one do the left want us to be?….turkey…..christmas….early?
I agree Ennui, I am not try to apportion blame and do not necessarily support either side. It is just that some of the facts need to be given some airtime. The whole situation is very sad and I do not know what the solution is. Any ceasefire will only be temporary – a long term solution must be sought.
Well said ennui.
So Israel’s a “goner” is it, as the beneficiary upwards of $US 3 billion military aid annually is it ? Sounds very John Armstrong to me. I’m sick of the fucking lies. Why am I encouraged to support some Nazi’s religious zealotry ? And applaud the cold murder of children ? And weep the deaths of 50 Nazi IDF stormtroopers ? Fuck them. I don’t care about them. I care about 1,400 Palestinians. Poor oppressed people. The European Jews of 2014.
+1 North. I agree completely. I can’t feel anything for IDF soldiers who die while looking for Palestinians to kill. As far as I’m concerned, the idea of god’s chosen people is fully equivalent to that of an Aryan master race. Zionism has morphed into the new fascism, and things would be worse if they could survive without US help. The only thing that slows them down is fear of losing all those greenbacks.
chances of anyone here reading that – nil
Less than nil.
Saying you don’t profess to taking a side doesn’t mean that you just didn’t.
When Israeli children aspire to killing Arabs, none.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ca2_1405199802
What a load of Hasbara crap, made in an IDF studio. I know people who’ve been in Gaza, and they never saw this on tv.
comment@whoar:..a tale of two interviews…the very best and the very worst of new zealand media..mary wilson vs. rawdon christie…
ed:..on checkpoint on national radio last nite mary wilson was at her very best..
..wilson was interviewing the israeli ambassador..who was trying to defend what the israeli govt/people are doing to the palestinians..
..(polls in israel show overwhelming support for the attacks on gaza)..
..wilson wasn’t having a bar of this..and she was all over him..like a laser beam..
..and it was an example of questioning-journalism at its’ very best..
..the other side of the coin was on breakfast television this morning..
(cont..)
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/commentwhoar-a-tale-of-two-interviews-the-very-best-and-the-very-worst-of-new-zealand-media-mary-wilson-vs-rawdon-christie/
+100 spot on phillip.
Watch how Key and cronies are given soft Checkpoint interviews by Mora in the election campaign
and after that tour de force from wilson…listening to mora..
..i came to the conclusion that inserting mora into wilsons’ show..
..was like putting a clock on something that doesn’t really need/want a clock..
..and whereas you have internet/mana being greater than the sum of their parts..
..the exact opposite has happened with the pairing of wilson/mora..
..neither of them come out looking better…
..and the sum of their parts is a lesser…
..and the listener is the ultimate loser..
..(what on earth were they thinking..?..)
..poss solution..?
..split the afternoon in half..give mora a tighter show from 3-5..
..and then just let wilson do her thing @ five..
Interesting to note how closely the Israeli Ambassador tried to keep to the Dr. Frank Luntz propaganda ‘script’. http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/israelgaza-conflict-the-secret-report-that-helps-israelis-to-hide-facts-9630765.html
Household Labour Force Survey out next Wednesday. Probably the most significant statistic in the minds of voters, and final one before the election. Consensus is for a drop in unemployment from 6.0% to 5.8%. Consensus or lower could see a strong election night result for National. Any increase will probably see weaker polling.
yeah, right ! tell that to all the unemployed, the underemployed, and those struggling, Seti.
Did you hear that terrible, terrible news about Iran on yesterday’s ‘Nine to Noon? The interviewee was aghast over the fact that so many Iranians who work struggle to survive and that (unbelievable!) some people even have two jobs and can’t make ends meet.
Thank god we live in NZ and not some basket case country.
The Household Labour Force survey is a survey of 15,000 households. Even though it is produced by Statistics NZ it is reliant on the response from said households.
Easy to comprehend that the chronically unemployed and transient are excluded from such surveys, and that the findings are not the same as those that might be found from data analysis of census statistics etc.
seti unnecessary power price increase today lol
Breaking – on John Banks’ sentencing etc
RadioNZ National has just reported that Banks has been formally convicted. Apparently he has decided not to seek discharge without conviction. Hearing continues; sentence yet to be announced.
Respectfully, M’Lud, send him down.
@..OBA,No chance,I think you’ll find M’Lud has drowned out your plea,(snorring in is cup of tea.)I think they said.
Here is the link to the RNZ report. Presumably this will be updated as the hearing continues/concludes.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/251121/banks-convicted-of-filing-false-electoral-return
And hard on the heels of the latest Roy Morgan comes a One News Colmar-Brunton that finds that “New Zealanders are more trusting of Mr Dotcom than the Prime Minister”.
On the question of when Key knew about Dotcom – 48% believe Dotcom’s telling the truth, just 33% think Key is and the remaining 19% are Unsure.
see….http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/finlayson-keeps-mum-dotcom-after-fbi-meeting-6042785
(and read details of Finlayson’s murky meeting with FBI Deputy Director)
And the Jackal’s brief overview here…http://thejackalman.blogspot.co.nz/2014/07/who-do-you-believe.html
Sooo, what you reckon the odds are that Finlayson was looking for a heads up from Giuliano on what possible information Dotcom might have got his hands on? I mean, assuming that Greenwald is speaking to the Auckland meeting on more than just general issues of spying, and given that it’s already out there that the NSA doesn’t really know what info Snowdon has…
and here from Bomber and his commenters
‘More NZers trust Kim Dotcom than John Key’
By Martyn Bradbury / August 1, 2014
When asked by TVNZ who they believed – Kim Dotcom or John Key, an overwhelming number of people backed Kim over John…
Taking into account the bias of land lines opinion polls, that’s an extraordinary result and it’s a result that is keeping up National Party strategists late into the night as they try and work out what bomb Kim will drop on September 15th.
Sadly for the National Party there are multiple bombs and they are all incredibly damaging.
Chooky. When you’ve cut and pasted the entire commentary, why pre-face the link with ”See more at”?
…because you might like to go to that site and explore other little gems by other writers…. or more of Bomber’s writings on other subjects…also under every piece on that site comes that link ie “See more at…etc
…in addition it is interesting to read comments on Bradbury’s Posts on his own Daily Blog site
Grumpy and Harriet,
Why do you support the murder and butchery on unarmed women and children by the Israelis who of all people should know what it is like to be murdered and butchered over the past 2000 years for no reason other than they were Jewish.
If you were in the IDF would you shoot women and children in cold blood?
I suggest you read more widely. Hamas admit using human shield and many so called cases of Israeli shelling of UN facilities are, in fact, malfunctioning Hamas rockets.
Also, well documented cases (with fulsome UN apologies) of Hamas rockets being found in UN schools.
You really should get out more…..
No independent corroboration of these despicable claims youre making. Only one case of hamas using a school during a holiday to store rockets which were immediately reported and removed by the UN when they inspected the school before term started. And how does that give the right to a modern high tech equipped army to then fire shells at a school being used as a refuge? Outrageous and totally indefesible argument you are putting forward grumpy. I suggest you read more widely than Ynet
I think you are looking for something like this…UNRWA good enough for you?
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=6a3_1406444248
Absolutely pathetic.
Israeli propanganda website citing an Israeli television channel. And even then they’re still forced to admit that “one IDF shell struck the school”. You really are a true-believer, aren’t you Grumps. Keep on regurgitating the latest IDF spin and linking to these embarrassing (for you) websites. At least 6 UN Schools have been murderously attacked by Israel over the last couple of weeks, precisely as it did in the massacre of 2008-09. Schools, Hospitals, Places of Worship, untold family homes, vital economic infrastructure.
If only we could get a parachute onto your back and drop you into Gaza as your much-loved IDF continues its terror-bombing. You might finally start to get a bit of a clue. You know, as opposed to sitting safely on your arse thousands of miles away while cheering on the mass murder of civilian men, women and children.
Like I said: DUMB. COLD-BLOODED. IMMORAL FUCK.
Oh dear….
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/state-dept-defends-un-agency-that-gave-rockets-back-to-hamas/
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear….The Washington Free Beacon – an extremist Neo-Conservative website that thinks Obama is some kind of Commie Israel-hater.
Thanks for highlighting the truly bizarre ideological circles you move in, Grumps.
Now, tell us again why 1300 Gazans, most of them civilian men, women, and children – people who have had to suffer for years under a brutal blockade (considered by the UN, leading human rights groups, and anyone with an ounce of moral substance to constitute a major humanitarian crisis, bordering on War Crime), part and parcel of Israel’s brutal 47-year Occupation and on-going ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people – tell us all again, Grumpy me old love, why they deserve to be murdered by Israel’s orgy of destruction, as you sit nice and safe a few thousand miles away ?
…and another one. Give up yet?
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/07/22/Complicit-in-Terror-Rockets-Found-At-US-Funded-UN-School-In-Gaza-For-Second-Time
Ahhhhh, I see you’re going for the trifecta !
Breitbart “News” – yet another aggressively far-right, neo-conservative social media site.
How incredibly “convincing”, Grumpers.
As those in the know have pointed out: “Muslim-bashing, conspiracy-mongering and Israel-boosting” are at the heart of the Breitbart brand (in addition to one or two other perennial uber-neo-conservative obsessions). Their core view seems to be the conspiracy theory that Muslims and western liberals have conspired together to destroy the West.
A number of sites have accused them of creating entirely false “news” reports to further their far right political agenda. And I see, amongst other things, that:
Yeah, we “give up” alright, Grumpers, give up on you ever seeing sense.
grod mate, pleased you’re contributing to the Standard…
Cheers, CV. Your comments on Israel’s massacre have been spot-on (as always).
We can keep going for weeks…..
http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/07/30/italian-journalist-defies-hamas-out-of-gaza-far-from-hamas-retaliation-misfired-rocket-killed-children-in-shati/
Presuming the story is credible how about the other 1,392 Palestinian deaths?
@ grumpy 9.36
You are the one who should get out more, and expose yourself to sunlight.
I figure that you just pulled that one out of your arse.
It’s regurgitating the propaganda from the Israeli media (and NBC et al). They cannot admit that they are actually killing civilians and children.
This was most evident in the pulling of Ayman Mohyeldin from Gaza:
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/07/17/nbc-removes-ayman-mohyeldin-gaza-coverage-witnesses-israeli-beach-killing-four-boys/
Gross from the Minister of Trade Tim Gosser via Granny Herald this morning, ‘protected’ Patagonian Tooth-fish washed down with 90 bucks worth of wine was the menu for Tim and ‘officials’ at a recent TPPA meeting in Singapore,
Wonder what was in the salt shakers, ground Tiger bones perhaps, these people have no shame and worse the taxpayer picks up the tab as Grosser and friends devour a species of fish for dinner that the rest of the world is putting a huge effort into saving from extinction,
One more small reason to vote Out National in September…
Here is Stuff’s article on this yesterday.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10333885/Taxpayers-pay-ministers-300-tab
This article also shows that Claudette Hauiti spent $30,000 on travel over a three month period ….
I/S at NRT has also posted on McCully’s spending (particularly booze) here.
http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2014/07/murray-mccullys-taxpayer-funded-pissups.html
PS – re Hauiti, perhaps Grahame McCready should take up Bob Jones on his offer to fund legal action against Hauiti in this Herald ‘opinion piece’ a few days ago.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11300478
Heightening the entertainment, fraudster, tax cheat and bankrupt Graham McCready, having failed with his bribery and corruption charges against the much put-upon Len Brown, lodged similar nonsensical claims against the Prime Minister, the police and some senior public servants. If he directed his attention to Claudette Hauiti, whose spending of public funds has been euphemistically described as “misuse”, why, I’d pay his costs.
LOL – bold is mine.
Grosser had the munchies from his cannabis daze
RadioNZ National…about now, can plants ‘hear’, a couple of researchers discussing the playing of a recording of a caterpillar munching on a mustard plant which then responded by producing defensive chemicals…
That’s interesting Bad. Makes me wonder what the plants in those attic grow room concentration camps throw out when they hear the death camp cultivators coming up the stairs.
THC Alien, oodles and oddles of THC, a lot of it crystallized by the growing conditions…
So potheads are in fact smoking the induced fear of those innocent sativa and indica plants.
Oh the humanity. 😆
More the death throes of the plants Alien as the good growers can judge to an nth when root and vegetable material has reached an end of life state and the flowers are about to…
I’m not unfamiliar or inexperienced with the practices Bad, but these days, and for a long while, I’m no Mengele of the grow room.
If legalised (or controlled) I could be tempted back, but I’d have to buy some ear muffs so I didn’t have to hear those poor plants screaming as I ripped their flowers from their stalks.
Oddly, now it makes me yearn for bacon.
Not ignoring you bad, I have a comment in moderation.
Eveerything, that’s my motto Alien, should be in moderation that is…
the allen a cunning plan fill grow room with cannibis smoke and the plants play loud pschodelic music comfortably numbing etcetc
Meanwhile, in the vegetable bin…
Potato: Vegans!
Leek: Eek!
As opposed to the screams of animals in the freezing works!
Do dead animals scream?
only at my tastebuds, begging for attention. And my tastebuds respond “why certainly, get in my belly“.
You fat ba$tard 😆
When I was in Gaza people were begging me to help them get out.
In surrounding countries I met Palestinian refugees who knew that I was going to Gaza who were begging to be allowed entry to visit their relatives. I met business leaders who were begging to be allowed imported parts to repair the old and warn machines in their factories.
As David Cameron the Prime Minister of Britain has remarked Gaza is the world’s biggest open air prison.
I went to Gaza in a time of relative peace to deliver medical aid and supplies as part of the Viva Palestina efforts to break the medieval like siege of the city.
When I was there in a time of so called peace the Israelis would mount military raids or fire shots into Gaza killing its citizens, mostly farmers tending their fields near the border, or fishermen trying to make a living from the sea. When I was there, there was an air raid on the tunnels which were Gaza’s only lifeline to the outside world. And military jets often buzzed the city at night. None of this of course is mentioned in polite society.
Presently the the Israelis are most definitely waging a war of racist genocide on a people who can not escape and can barely resist.
It is the duty of the people of the world to do what they can to stop this genocide. In this remote corner of the world there is probably little people can do to stop this genocide. But we should do it.
The first minimum thing we should, and can do, and which a number of other countries are doing, is call for the closing of the Israeli Embassy in Wellington.
If the government won’t do it then the opposition parties should pledge to do it.
The Green and Mana Parties do not hesitate to make this call against genocide.
Labour of course like National are “very similar” or “close” on this issue, as they are on most other issues.
As an article in the Listenerlifts the lid on Maoribashing and other types of bigotry in NZ’s Steiner schools, a senior Steiner teacher condemns Maori culture as primitive and doomed in a letter to the Otago Daily Times. There’s clearly cause for a wide-ranging investigation by the Ministry of Education into this mess: http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2014/08/steiner-teachers-and-racism-tale-of-two.html
@ RTM 10.02
Thanks for passing that on. That’s shocking. I had always admired Steiner schools,and never realised that within their take on life they could adopt such ugly attitudes.
Wikipedia has an extensive background bio for Steiner, who was Austrian. It notes that Hitler hated him and he was attacked much after the end of WW1 and foresaw the degeneration that Hitler’s people were introducing..
It is interesting that Hayek, Steiner and Hitler were all Austrians. And all have had a big effect on the rest of the world.
On Steiner and race Wikipedis says:
Steiner occasionally characterized specific races, nations, and ethnicities in ways that have been termed racist by critics[121] including descriptions of certain races and ethnic groups as flowering, others as backward, destined to disappear, or even degenerate;[120]
and presented explicitly hierarchical views of the spiritual evolution of different races,[122] including—at times, and inconsistently—portraying the white race, European culture, or Germanic culture as representing the high point of human evolution as of the early 20th century,
though describing these as destined to be superseded by future cultures.
@ RTM…while we are at it lets take a good hard look at the racism and sexism messages in the Old Testament and examine New Zealand state funded Christian religious schools to see if they are perpetuating a sexist or racist message…lets start with the Catholic Church Schools of special character …then we could move on to fundamentalist religious Charter Schools of special character
Not sure what your issue is with state integrated religious schools Chooky I have relieved at a number of them around Auckland and without exception have found them to be very good.
Certainly I agree we don’t want to have the problems they’ve been seeing in the UK but I don’t believe there’s any evidence for that in NZ.
@Chooky 10.36
Let’s start keeping to the point and not wandering off into other side avenues. There is no chance of looking closely at one thing when conflicting other matters are being raised with comparative fault being allocated to all parties, apparently in an effort to confuse the original issue. This is not the first time you have done this.
not at all… it is very relevant …i know people ( Jewish, Dutch with European ancestry ) who have been or sent their kids to Steiner schools …and they were not racist at all as far as i could see…nor do i think the Steiner schools they went to were racist
A Steiner school would not be my choice ….however they do seem to turn out very creative kids and some very academic kids when they get to university
Why judge all Steiner Schools by one school or one piece of aberrant philosophy?
….and are Christian schools so different? …look closely at the Old Testament and you will find both racism and sexism…the Christian Church in New Zealand was often quite racist and paternalistic ….and sexism is institutionalised in many Christian denominations and especially in Catholicism ….are we going to apply the same standards to Catholic Schools that are applied to Steiner Schools?….or are we going to be smug, paternalistic and hypocritical?…and just pick on Steiner Schools?
Personally i dont think the State should be propping up private schools at all ….if people want to go to or send their kids to schools of special character or religious character or Charter Schools they should pay for it ALL themselves…and not hit up on the secular tax payer!
It is a bit unfair to reference the old testament which is sort of common in some parts to Jewish, Christian and Islamic religions but then hold modern ‘Christians’ to account, when in reality the Christians are followers of the teachings of the ‘New Testament’ as taught by Jesus ‘Christ’ who most certainly was neither sexist nor racist, in spite of those 2,000 year old times and cultures, as far as I know. So, I am not sure what point you were trying to make.
@Clemgeopin
There are several points I would like to make
“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust,unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully”.
Perhaps our Christian Schools are not based on the God of the Old Testament …one would hope not….but the philosophy is still there….so why get so precious about a strand of outmoded philosophy in Steiner?
Maybe we should be more concerned about Old Testament religious fundamentalism and its horrendous effects in the Middle East?
I had not made any reference to Steiner school, as I don’t know much about it at all.
In my opinion, Richard Dawkins is a man with an extremist agenda as if he ‘knows’ everything. He is the God of the atheists!
Good article by Scott and as he notes in the comments it’s not that racism occurs via individuals but rather it is how the structure of the group deals with those views and in this case the answer is not very well at all.
We have a lot of alternative education options here in Mohua, personally we are homeschooling via democratic, child-led, project based education and have not/will not go steiner.
Radio Australia is being gutted by Tony Abbott’s government. Mike Field Pacific reporter speaking on RadioNZ says its a tragedy. RA has been the main news source for the Pacific and helped to reveal problems and relay needed information. Sounds as it is has been the BBC of our area of the globe. Radio NZ International will be more important now.
The important pieces of infrastructure that responsible well managed countries with good standards which they aspire to maintain are being thrown out, and citizens are electing governments that indicate that they will act in this way. So then they are complicit in the destruction of their civilised way of government and life that has been built slowly and only with great effort from committed people, who I believe are not the largest percentage of the population either.
Brain Fade Key lying for New Zilanders.
Key has painted himself into corner on Kim Dotcom,
When Key was reassuring New Zealanders about the increased surveillance powers of the GSCB and SIS Brain Fade Key said not to worry as their were only a hand full of people being surveilled and he knew all the names on the list being in charge of the SIS.
Now Slyman Bredges is lying about electricity price increases being the fault of infrastructure cost when only 20% of the increase is due to that the rest is price gouging by cartels screwing New Zealanders with the help of the socold free market party.
National Screwing Kiwis for everything they can get.
Hauiti is that!
National are in big trouble!
RON Marks wasn’t he accused of corruption a few years ago
Philip Field was convicted of corruption a few years ago so whats your point?
Tito won’t be groveling to any party to do a coalition!
wasn’t Banks convicted
Winston doesn’t like National and doesn’t like the Greens, Winston doesn’t want to go into a coalition deal with the Mana or the Maori Party, Winston has always said he’d prefer to go with party that gains the largest vote
National plus Winston = 51% + Dunnes vote + Acts vote = 3 more years for John Key and if Ron Mark takes over NZfirst then John Key might even go for another term after that
Happy days for NZ 🙂
“Winston has always said he’d prefer to go with party that gains the largest vote”
No, he’s said he’d always talk to the party with the largest vote first. Which actually is meaningless, because you can say “hello National, nice seeing you” and that counts as “talking”.
Do you think Winston and his supporters would prefer National or Labour/Greens?
It’s rather interesting that he named mana and maori, but not a word about the Greens. I think you can take that as a sign that he sees L+G+NZF as a definite option. And I think his ego would rather like the idea that he personally ended John Key’s career, don’t you? Revenge, dish, cold etc.
I think the key word is Ego, Winston will achieve a more impressive legacy (whatever that means to him) by working with National not forgetting that NZFirst is a more natural fit with National then the Greens
He doesn’t have to have anything to do with the Greens, though obviously he worked with them on the Manufacturing Enquiry a couple of years ago. As the maori party pointed out the other day, their deal is with national, not ACT. The same would apply to a Labour/NZF deal. And I think you really need to get your head out of the nineties. That’s the last time Winnie did a deal with the Nats. More recently, they shafted him royally and sent him into purgatory for 3 years. I reckon the latter is what will be uppermost in his mind.
NZFirst wants to buy back the SOEs. So do the Greens. Seems he has more in common with them than National, to me.
Last time around, Key did Winston a great favour for NZF’s party vote by ruling it out in his government. Some anti-Key/anti-Nat vote went to NZF giving them the threshold.
This time around, Key has done Winston a great favour for NZF’s party vote by NOT ruling it out in his government. Some anti-key, anti-Cons, as well as some pro-key, pro-ACT vote will go to NZF helping them to get the threshold.
Strange/confusing stuff, I know!
Colon and the Conservatives half inch a small % of Winston’s vote in September leaving NZFirst stranded like a beached whale on 4.5% of the vote = History for Slippery’s National Government along with ACT/Dunne,
Colon the Conservative’s 2.7% of the vote, along with Winston’s 4.5% is redistributed among the Parties that do succeed in entering the Parliament giving Labour 33%, Greens 12%, InternetMana 5%, =50% which just happens to trump National now stranded on 48% with Dunne and that ACT non-entity who’s name i keep forgetting…
Winnie really hates Key=PM Cunliffe. Anybody who watches parliament would realise this. How can Winnie forget the way Key treated him in 2008?
The final nail in the coffin was when the Nats allowed Horan some of their questions at QT to hassle Winnie.
You see things somewhat ‘strangely’, if you watch yesterdays Question Time in the Parliament you will actually see Brownlee as Leader of the House offer up one of National’s allotted ‘supplementary questions’ so Peters can continue to question Paula Benefit,
Do not be fooled by stage managed perceptions, the best that can be said about NZFirst is its 50/50 either way, and, if Ron Marks is to be believed,(afterall He is a NZFirst insider),then Winston has been a lot less than honest with the ”no deals till after the vote” snake-oil…
You may well be right bad12. My hunch is he will go with Cunliffe. Your hunch is Key? September 27th will reveal all.
Bearded, your hunching presupposes that Winston will gather enough votes to be back in the Parliament at all, 3 weeks ago i would have not entertained the possibility that NZFirst wouldn’t,
Now the game i would suggest has change somewhat with Slippery the PM ‘ruling out’ a deal for Colon and the Conservatives,
‘Hunching’ using the latest Roy Morgan which gives those Conservatives only 1% of support, and, Winston’s crew a bare 5%, i would suggest that with a hell of a bigger bankroll this time round Colon the Conservative aint about to quietly exit stage right and will likely pull a little over 2% of the Party Vote in September,
A % of that Party Vote that Colon an the Conservatives gather will come from the NZFirst voter pool, how big a % is not measurable, however, with 5% of the vote Winston cannot afford to lose any small fraction which indicates to me that NZFirst is likely to fall as it did in 2008 agonizingly short of the necessary 5%, but, short non-the-less…
Hope you are right-there could be 8% wasted vote between Colonservatives/NZF.
The ideal result would be the Crazy Col on 4%, ACT on 4% and Peters First on 4%, with none winning any electorate seats. Even though democratic purists may quibble, that would remove the most racist 12% of New Zealanders from the political equation.
Could be a Machiavellian cunning plan to give the soft NAT, ACT and CONS supporters to think that NZF will be going with the NAT coalition government, thus hoping to get some easy votes for the threshold?
The person that can offer the most baubles is the one that will get his support and when it comes to business Keys streets ahead of David “Fonterra” Cunliffe
But don’t worry you’ve got a little bit of time left when you can entertain hopes of a left-wing govt being formed 🙂
Key will probably offer Winston the biggest possible bauble, the PM post and fly off to Hawaii.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/07/why-one-new-jersey-school-district-killed-its-student-laptop-program/?utm_source=digg&utm_medium=email
Stupid fuck.
The article, as it appeared, did not include some important details, which I will provide for you here. First, and foremost, we are not discarding our laptops as the article seems to suggest!
http://www.hoboken.k12.nj.us/hoboken/Recent%20News/Letter%20to%20the%20community%20regarding%20laptops.txt/_top
http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/auckland/news/nbnat/1178242804-mana-candidate-claims-she-fell-foul-of-90-day-trial-period-law
‘You won’t believe Mike Hosking’s latest column’
By Martyn Bradbury / August 1, 2014
“How can someone openly taunting one of the candidates be even remotely suitable for the Public Broadcaster?…
(my comment: Hoskings is a fruit and vege market reporter …he excelled at this …he is absolutely gifted on talking about the current status, quality and quantity of NZ locally grown fruit and veges…TVNZ should make a special programme for him…take him away from politics )
Hi Grey Warbler,
the notion that Hitler hated Steiner schools is a myth which seems, so far as I can tell, to be used by Steiner’s followers when they get called out for racism. A US academic called Peter Staudenmaier has recently published a book after excavating some of the archives of Europe: he argues that the Steiner school movement thrived under Hitler, and he cites numerous documents, including friendly letters from Steiner’s followers to the Nazi government, to prove his point. There’s an interesting interview with Staudenmaier here:
http://www.swans.com/library/art18/barker122.html
Of course most Steiner teachers aren’t raving racists, and anthroposophy, like all religions, is quite capable of being interpreted in ways its racist founder never imagined. What I think recent events show, though, is that the Steiner schools movement is at present incapable of policing itself, when it comes to issues like racism.
And although early twentieth century Austria produced Hitler, Steiner, and Hayek, it did also give us Wittgenstein, Klimt, and Freud!
I watched the wonderful Jonathan Meades on Youtube going over Nazi architecture. The thing that he made plain about Hitler and his cronies was that they were very in tune with occult spiritualism, and pseudo science. That might explain something re Steiner.
@ RTM 11.08
Hi that was interesting stuff but I have to read more yet. Have yet to look at the link.
In the meantime I have found a bit about Wittgenstein. He was in Britain from 1929-1947. Saved from hateful Hitler by boofhead Brits eh!
He was –
Born in Vienna into one of Europe’s richest families, he inherited a large fortune from his father in 1913. He gave some considerable sums to poor artists. In a period of severe personal depression after the first World War, he then gave away his entire fortune to his brothers and sisters.[9][10] Three of his brothers committed suicide, with Wittgenstein contemplating it too.
He seemed to be highly original in his thinking and the lengths he would go to in following a different path to the norm.
Freud has led the way in new thinking in psychology though went OTT on sex and mother love.
Klimt was a painter. They can be influential in demonstrating attitudes of mind and rendering subjects to display psychological features, in symbolic form.
None of the above match Hitler and Hayek’s contorted thinking that has left us an awful legacy. And what you say about Steiner contradicts Wikipedia which details harrassment of Steiner by Hitler, who may have accepted him at one time and cast him off at others.
You say something different to their version. If they are wrong Wikipedia should be edited for correctness.
Auckland Action Against Poverty is having its 3rd Impact beneficiary advocacy action at Mangere in Sth Auckland next week.
These events are where Sue and the other experienced and new advocates excel and they get results if the one I attended (by chance, saw Paul Blair on street) at Onehunga is typical. For a few hours the dept. behaved more like it should do all the time.
Yes, that’s the way it looked to me when I attended the Onehunga one on the day that they had a demo and speeches from AAAP people and some opposition MPs.
They were a strong presence on the streets of New Lynn during the last impact action, so looked also to be successful.
Mangere is a very important area to focus on, and I think is very good in the lead up to the election to highlight the impacts of Bennett’s nasty little laws.
Dita De Boni excellent here on how money talks in the Key government:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/election-2014/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503581&objectid=11302143
Is it just me that has the feeling that the MSM has started to turn against the arrogance and venality of this government? Groser…McCully…Smith…Collins…Bridges…Coleman…Brownlee…Hauiti…Key versus KDC…deals with racist ACT…
A bit of light on Amy Adams conflict of interest in the sacking of the Canterbury Regional Council should be next.
Its just you, the MSM have always acted this way the left just choose not to see it
I forgot Finlayson and his secret talks with the Yanks on KDC (nicely lampooned by Gower on tv3 last night)….and the criminal Banks.
The list of misdemeanours is really getting too long to remember.
Unbearable to watch a new genocide is happening before our eyes. Yet as in the past the world turns a blind eye. New Zealand needs to give a lead.
Close the Israeli embassy.
Remove all diplomatic and travel privileges from Israel.
These are the very minimum things we can do.
The opposition parties should be demanding it now.
Will they? Or will they keep their silence in the face of this massacre, and with their silence become complicit in it?
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2014/07/mana_claims_they_have_a_secret_deal_with_labour_in_te_tai_tokerau.html
The Left’s simple guide to tactical voting:
Green Party Supporters-Party Vote Green
Labour Party Supporters-Party Vote Labour
Internet-Mana Supporters-Party Vote Internet-Mana
Te Tai Tokerau Constituency
Green, Labour and Internet-Mana supporters Candidate Vote Mana-Hone Harawira
Epsom Constituency
Green, Labour and Internet-Mana supporters Candidate Vote National-Paul Goldsmith
East Coast Bays Constituency
Green, Labour and Internet-Mana supporters Candidate Vote National-Murray McCully
Ohariu Constituency
Green, Labour and Internet-Mana supporters Candidate Vote Labour-Virginia Andersen
you still havent figured out DPF uses a slightly odd version of truth?
Just like slater he is a paid for player in nationals shitty little dirty tricks war
Its linked from that well known bastion of right wing thinking TV3
framu is correct. DPF is lying when he uses that headline. Mana do not claim to have a secret deal. In the TV3 report a mana candidate, Annette Sykes, waffles a bit about TTT:
“I think it’s already happening there,” says Ms Sykes.”It’s been informally signalled.”
“I think”. “informally” Vague nothingness.
Cunliffe also calls bullshit on the claim in the article, as does the Maori party’s Te Araroa Flavell. It’s a nothing, but that doesn’t stop Farrar lying.
http://www.3news.co.nz/Annette-Sykes-chasing-Waiariki-deal/tabid/1607/articleID/354778/Default.aspx
It’s a vacuous, fact free article, interesting only because Tova O’Brien has written a candidate for the year’s stupidest bit of Jonolism:
“Labour’s taken the higher moral ground over coat-tailing, despite not ruling out working with Internet Mana – the masters of coat-tailing – after the election.”
Get that? An alliance that has only been together a few weeks and has a grand total of no coat-tail MP’s what so fucken ever are the “masters of coat-tailing”. Muppet.
Aye. It is a figment of someone’s imagination.
You’re linking to Kiwiblog to substantiate that?
HUGE load of codswallop, Puck Rogue, and you (and Whale Oil) know it. Kelvin Davis is going all out for Te Tai Tokerau seat – he’s going flat-out …. getting around the electorate, talking to people, HELPING people who’ve lost stuff in the floods, or who can’t get out, or who need food – that’s a huge effort on Kel and his assistants – getting sponsorship for food items, and actually driving over munted and dangerous roads to get it out to people, and they’ve done it three times so far. And then he’s doing his normal electorate stuff …. look on his FB page for what he’s doing, has been doing – and don’t think that the slowness of getting a few hoardings up is not an indication of how he’s going.
His actual work on the ground is a bit more important than the billboards at the moment … and they’re
going up around the place via volunteer support. Unlike his opponent, Kel is not paying anyone to put them up !
That’s the second time I’ve seen someone say that Mana is paying to have billboards put up. The first time turned out to be wrong and the person who said it apologised.
What is your evidence of this?
How CAN an ELECTORAL deal be SECRET when PEOPLE needs to be AWARE there IS a SECRET deal!
reply Ennui at 19.1…seems like Hitler had quite a connection with Catholicism
According to Hitler’s chief architect, Albert Speer, Hitler remained a formal member of the
Catholic Church until his death and even ordered his chief associates to remain members. (Albert
Speer, Inside the Third Reich:Memoirs (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997),p.96);
Biographer John Toland argues that Hitler was “a member in good standing of the Church of Rome” and “carried within himself its teaching that the Jew was the killer of God. The extermination, therefore, could be done without a twinge of conscience since he was merely acting as the avenging hand of God” (John Toland, Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography (New York:Anchor Books, 1976), p.703) ; Historian,Richard Steigmann-Gall notes that “Hitler gave no indication of being an atheist or agnostic or of believing in only a remote, rationalist divinity. Indeed, he referred continually to a providential, active deity.” (Richard Steigmann-Gall, The Holy Reich (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003,p.26). He argues Christianity was fused into Hitler’s thinking (p. 46); Nazi General Gerhard Engel reported in his diary that in 1941 Hitler stated, “I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so.”( John Toland, Adolf Hitler (New York: Anchor Publishing, 1992),p.507); According to Hitler’s personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann, the Catholic priest Bernhard Stempfle was a prominent member of Hitler’s inner circle and frequently advised him on religious issues( Derek Hastings, Catholicism and the Roots of Nazism (Oxford University Press, 2010), p.119); Catholic historian Jose Sanchez argues that Hitler’s anti-semiticism was explicitly rooted in Christianity. (Jose M. Sanchez, Pius XII and the Holocaust: Understanding the Controversy (Washington, D.C: Catholic University of American Press, 2002), p.70); Feminist Gloria Steinem draws parallels between the recent Christian Right, the Roman Catholic Church and Nazism – particularly in regard to women’s rights to contraception, work outside the family, their role in the family and society as breeders, mothers and wives;and issues such as abortion, homosexuality and feminism. For example; “In 1933, feminists were removed from teaching and other public posts by the same law that removed “non-Ayrans” from such jobs. All women were banned from the Reichstag, from judgeships, and from other decision-making posts”.(Gloria Steinem (1982) ‘The Nazi Connection’ (from research done at the Woodrow Wilson Center of the Smithsonian Institution; published in Herbert F. Vetter (ed.), Speak Out Against the NewRight ( Boston: Beacon Press, 1982)
…seems like Hitler had quite a connection with Catholicism
That looks to me to be drawing a long bow. He was an Austrian, and baptised Catholic, but most historians say that he had washed his hands of the religion by the time he was a young adult. When I read Kershaw’s biography of him, I thought that his world view seemed in part shaped by a sort of bastardised reading of Nietzsche, and at some point he did give Mussolini a leather bound set of the complete works of Nietzsche as a gift.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_and_Nazi_Germany
EVEN if he was a ‘catholic’, he could NOT have been a TRUE catholic because what Hitler DID were NOT based on the teachings of Jesus nor the Catholic church. By the way, that chap in Zimbabwe too is a catholic I think. So are other so called ‘CHRISTIAN’ (born as) leaders such as Mussolini, Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt, Truman (atomic bomb dropper), Mafia dons, Putin, Bill English etc etc!
Moral people….
//
“There is no school tomorrow; there are no children left in Gaza,” the men can be seen chanting as part of a roughly formed song that also included the stanzas “I hate all the Arabs” and “Gaza is a cemetery.”
The mob also called for Israeli Arabs to be stripped of their citizenship.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/watch-far-right-israelis-celebrate-gaza-kids-deaths/
Meanwhile the Saudi sponsored terror brigades unleash horror and destruction through the Levant,and whose death toll is 3 orders of magnitude greater.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/isis-winning-its-war-in-iraq-and-syria-30476455.html
“..Independent Think Tank: Marijuana Legalization in Colorado Is a Success..
..The Brookings Institution said Colorado’s system addresses ‘key concerns-..”
(cont..)
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/independent-think-tank-marijuana-legalization-colorado-success
and a warning/cautionary-tale on how not to do it..
..canada seems to have screwed up..somewhat..
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/closer-look-canadas-new-mmj-regulatory-system
The ‘fail’ only seems to be in the minds of those who see restrictions on small time growers entering the production marketplace as a bad thing.
I’m sure most lefties would agree that a nationalised pot industry, employing workers, would be the best way to go, taking the profits away from privateers, thus ensuring revenues are collected and redistributed by the state.
Agree or not?
phillip ure ….lol…if all else fails you can go out on a high….(personally i would hit the whiskey in preference to the puff)…here is something for you to contemplate on
‘2014 and 1914’
By Keith Rankin / August 1, 2014
“Historian Nicholas Boyle (in ’2014, How to Survive the Next World Crisis’) foresees a big event happening this decade that will define the global geopolitical environment this century, much as World War 1 created the politics of the 20th century….
GFC II is gonna be big in itself
And now I hear they are moving infected American Ebola patients from West Africa to be treated in the USA!
@ CV….What is CFC II…something to do with the ozone hole?
moving Ebola patients to USA…weird?…what is the rationale?
@ CV … oh i have got it !…Global Financial Crisis… number 2…is on the way!!!!….yes another thing to worry about…eeeek!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-29/australia-more-vulnerable-than-before-gfc-economist-says/5633472
(…yes well us chooks dont have much gold currency only Kiwibank…so this is why i want the new Labour Left Coalition to guarantee Kiwibank is not raided by the overseas ferrets)
Meanwhile, from Ukraine, as from my friend Konstantin this morning – strangely unreported by our media…
“Here’s more to the riddle namely “What the f… is going on?” – A fair part of the regular Ukrainian army, about 5000 troops, is boxed in at the Russian border by the separatists. They are in a “kessel”, being constantly shelled and supplied only by air. The Ukrainian commanders asked the Russian Border Control to let the wounded Ukrainian soldiers into Russia, mend them in the local Russian hospitals and return them back across the border. Russia DID THAT!
Ukraine has a big problem. The problem is a deadly combination of craftiness and stupidity.
Konstantin”
Who can argue?
@ Grumpy
You probably won’t agree with this analysis Grumpy…but it looks plausible to me
‘Malaysian Airlines MH17: Who Stands to Gain?’
By Dr. Chandra Muzaffar ( who is a prominent Malaysian scholar and author, President of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST).)
“The Russian military has released military monitoring data which challenge allegations circulating in the media pertaining to the MH 17 crash in the Donetsk Region of Eastern Ukraine on July 17 2014. Questions have been raised about Kiev military jets tracking MH 17, Ukrainian air traffic controllers and the deployment of Buk missile systems. Kiev should also release military data on the circumstances leading to the crash. So should the Pentagon which reportedly has relevant intelligence and satellite data….
http://www.globalresearch.ca/mh-17-who-stands-to-gain/5393540
I reckon the Russian theory that it was mistaken for Putin’s jet which had been in the same airspace only minutes before has better legs.
possibly so
How come they don’t report like this on stories on Whaleoil or The Taxpayer Unity Party or D Farrier?
Documents released to Labour strategist and blogger Rob Salmond by Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee’s office show most of the 14 projects have a benefit to cost ratio of less than four with five in the range of 0 to 2.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11302678
Because that’s too hurtful to the Nats, Papa T. WhaleOil and his cohorts prefer to make things up.
Its easier for them, and it takes the heat off the Nats !
A quote from the Te Ara history on education. Applicable again?
From the mid-1930s, however, reforms led to a spirit of optimism. With the abolition of the Proficiency exam in 1936, primary teachers could explore subjects in more depth, and allow children to do more self-directed project work. Better understanding of child psychology encouraged teaching tailored to each child’s individual abilities and nee
The vultures have been circling round Christchurch’s assets for some time….and in that fine tradition of centre -left leaders, Lianne is going to let them have them.
It looks like CHC is going to sell the most important parts of a city (power grid, airport, seaport etc) to pay for a stadium and convention center.
Gotta love this country…
Oh ffs you have to be kidding
Why not just transfer the funds to the NZRFU
@ millsey… that is bad!
….”power grid, airport, seaport etc” are precisely the things Christchurch MUST hang on to long term for the people of Christchurch and Canterbury….they dont need a new stadium and convention centre….
Lianne Dalziel and the Council must hang on until after the Election ….and then Christchurch must be supported by the new Labour coalition government to hang on to its assets…anything else is a sell out of the people!
This should be an Election issue!
Reminds me of the Shock Doctrine…on disaster capitalism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iW1SHPgUAQ
Lianne on TV3 tonight is pushing asset sales. It’s Lianne’s agenda that needs to be resisted, rather than being trusted to ‘hang on’ to the people’s assets until a change of government.
She ‘honestly’ doesn’t believe people will allow their rates to go up, rather than framing it as the asset sales being the no go.
face palm
Why is she not pushing for govt to fund the shortfall instead of gifting strategic assets to big corporate investors.
And why is this proposal for Christchurch appearing now, weeks before the General Election.
Good question, National would prefer it after the election. Maybe Lianne is somehow playing fifth columnist and has the public interest at heart after all, by bringing this out before the election?
I would have thought it’s the opportunity for her to highlight the difference between National’s TINA and Labour’s new economic thinking, and to remind the electorate of National’s failed asset sales programme.
Incidentally it was sickening to hear Ryall’s valadictory the other day bragging about having perhaps privatised more assets than Prebble. They have no shame.
You may have thought that, but is she doing it?
Otherwise it will simply be a reminder that senior people in the Labour Party are open to the prospect of asset sales and can’t come up with alternatives.
That’s how I see it, CV. Too many senior figures in Labour are still in love with the seductive TINA. She is doing a real disservice to Labour in terms of showing that it also gives stuff to the rich, just when they’re pretending they don’t in order to get votes. She could lose them a few votes, and possibly tip the scales in the election.
I’d rather they could keep pretending they don’t gift our stuff to corporates, and get elected. Then Mana and the Greens would be in a position to stop them.
She was part of the labour party for over twenty years so we shouldn’t be surprised.
FFS helping to minimise labours presence in CHCH.
I rather felt that the people who voted for her wanted her to nix the stadium and convention centre and put the available funds into real infrastructure.
It’s a bit ike transmissin gully in Wellington, we need some creative thinking to get us out of these Nact promises that they don’t have to find the funds for.
Yep, she and the council should have said that Chch had better things to spend money on than the stadium and convention centre and that if Gerry Brownlee wanted them so bad that he could fund the bloody things.
Yes; creative thinking rather than yet more TINA.
But that’s labour through and through. We have a duty to ensure the voting public understand this.
National are Blackmailing Lianne
Can you elaborate?
It does seem odd, Bob Parker pushed back quite hard on asset sales. As he said last May on TV3’s FirstLine:
“In terms of our portfolio and the level of income we have, they generate around 15 percent of our rates’ cashflow.
“If you take them away, you get some money you can spend on capital projects, but your operating costs – which are met through rates – are no longer subsidised to the tune of about 15 or so percent. In essence, you don’t really save anything in the fairly closed economic system that we find ourselves in.”
BadUSB
Security researchers have found a fundamental flaw that could affect billions of USB devices. This flaw is so serious that, now that it has been revealed, you probably shouldn’t plug a USB device into your computer ever again.
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/187279-undetectable-indefensible-security-flaw-found-in-usb-its-time-to-get-your-ps2-keyboard-out-of-the-cupboard
Surprised the following has not been mentioned on TS.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/251191/government-called-to-account-for-spy-claims"
NSA engineer in NZ Feb. 2013 to discuss how to intercept traffic on the Sth. Cross fibre optic cable.
And a three months later John Key introduces legislation to enable the GCSB to extend their electronic spying capabilities.
Coincidence? You bet it isn’t.
Relevant quote given at time by John Key.
Very strange that the very day the American NSA man came to call, that John Key was not in Parliament, and he’s been strangely missing from our tv screens for two days now! And right when this info has come out about the selling of the huge farm near Taupo to the Chinese firm who bought the Crafar Farms! Must be Colin Craig paying Key back for not gifting him the seat of East Coast Bays!
I wonder if this story would have legs if the Editor of the Herald had not been on the plane…..
“New Zealand Herald editor-in-chief Tim Murphy, who was on board the flight, tweeted that the takeoff was aborted “at speed mid-runway”.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11302700
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11301087
Tax haven buyers set off property alarm in England and Wales
IMO, the chances of the same happening here, now that NZ has become a tax haven, is probably pretty high.
Link is FT so you’ll have to sign in/up to read the article.
Test comment to see if the replication is working.