The MSM have been trying to combat the effect the internet has on their new papers for years. They are up against it with decent sites such as this one. I don’t buy their papers and certainly won’t be paying to read their propaganda. Stuff online is crap and they can get stuffed trying to pay wall their dross.
If it isn’t a paywall then the premium service is probably offering targeted news. Either that or a pathetic gateway that forces non subscribers to look at an ad that will be tolerated only by those who reside in hospital and have run out of Women’s Weekly.
Basically with targeted news the viewer is profiled based on what they have read in the past, ordered online etc.
Unfortunately it isn’t the news you are most familiar with that you need to be aware of (meaning that if I’m right and this is the type of service they are going to offer those who are foolish enough to subscribe will end up even less informed than they already are….).
What if someone set up a registered charity? The charitable purpose would be to disseminate information free of charge or political bias that is so prevalent in our news media. The site would be supported by charitable donations and therefore fully tax deductable. Hog damn.
Yeah – but most of your links are to stories from the main stream media anyway. Where you going to run to then?
You guys who hate on the media but spend your whole time linking to it and commenting on it make me laugh.
So much judgement from someone who has not created any original content in his life.
How hard is it to sit at the kitchen table and cut and paste links all day?
Give me a break. Every one of those I looked at on your page was a couple of short sentences linking to an MSM story. Even a letter-to-the-editor writer could do better.
I see leader of the God Botherers Collin Craig has announced they will not contest the Northland By-Election. Craig has said he does not want to split the Centre-Right vote and give arch rival Winston Peters a helping hand.
I am of the opinion that the con jobs would more likely take more votes off Peters than the National party’s patsy candidate. Things are falling nicely into place for the old shark Winnie.
Because according to a very good source within the region, HQ (Goodfellow, Joyce) steamrollered the local democratic process. They figure they already have the farmers vote more so than the small business sector. So apparently many of the rural voting delegates were spewing National office kept pushing forward their man and taking no notice the wishes of them to install their favourite farming son.
Such was the angry mood, the snub to Peters could be on the cards. Even unsuccessful candidate Ken R who setup and stood for his own indie party Focus NZ last election, he achieved the quite remarkable result of 1,600 candidate votes to stand in protest. He hammered Nationals abandonment of Northland during the campaign and picked up alot of their votes. Focus NZ Whangarei candidate was most impressive at our forum, with a hold no bars let down by National speech.
“I am of the opinion that the con jobs would more likely take more votes off Peters than the National Party’s patsy candidate. Things are falling nicely into place for the old shark Winnie.”
It’d certainly be nice to think the absence of a Conservative candidate will hurt National more than NZF or Labour. And I know more than a few commentators see the Conservatives and NZF appealing to essentially the same constituency. But I have strong doubts on that score.
For one thing, people who Party-Voted Conservative in 2011 and 2014 were pretty evenly split in their Candidate-Vote between the National and Cons candidates. Vey few went Labour and even fewer NZF.
The Candidate-Vote split for people who had Party-Voted Conservative in 2014 (for General Electorates as a whole), for instance, was 42% Nat, 41% Cons, 10% Lab, 2% NZF
In Northland at the last Election, Cons split 40% Con / 44% Nat in their Candidate-Vote. So a fairly typical seat. Admittedly, that means, of course, that quite a few erstwhile Cons would be voting National in this By-election anyway, regardless of whether or not a Con candidate stood. But it does still suggest (albeit not proving beyond doubt) that, with no candidate of their own, those Cons that do turn out to vote (and who gave two ticks to the Conservatives at the last General Election) will more likely go National’s way.
The other comparative measure to look at is: the relative proportion of National and NZF voters who cast their Candidate-Vote for the Cons. It’s true that in most seats in 2014, a slightly larger proportion of NZF Party-Voters gave their Candidate-vote to the Cons. But the fact that (relative to NZF) National received more than 5X the Party-Vote in most seats meant that, in sheer raw numbers, more Nats than NZFers voted for the Cons candidate. In General Electorates as a whole, 25,000 Nats Candidate-Voted Conservative in 2014 compared to 8,000 NZF supporters. In Northland, 312 Nats / 242 NZFers cast their Candidate-Vote</I for the Cons.
Obviously, there are a few caveats involved. Chief among them, the fact that Winnie himself is standing rather than just any old nondescript NZF candidate. And we, of course, can't be entirely sure that those Cons who gave two ticks to their party/candidate in 2014 are precisely the same manner of beast as those who split their Candidate-vote in favour of the Nats. There’s also the question of turnout among previous Con voters.
But, overall, (in the absence of definitive proof) I’d say this move by Colin Craig will put a wider smile on John Key’s face than on Winston Peters’, Willow Prime’s or Andrew Little’s.
Yeah that’s a fair cop and a very good breakdown, and thanks for the crunching ( makes me wonder if your an accountant) however depending on what’s squeaked or possibly roared out during the campaign, as to how the holier than thou religious vote. The tarred by association factor, just thinking back to the Christian heritage party’s dramatic voter fall away. Got any numbers on that one?
Politicians really really make me angry quite often…. most always for their blatant lies
Now we have Tony Abbot speaking as if the fucking Aussies have been bombing the middle east to death alongside the warmongering US for 14 years in order to defend attacks on their home turf.
So lets get this straight – the Aussies have been attacked in response to their own unilateral bombings in the middle east, and not vice versa.
Thanks to those of you who’ve posted Tourette’s song/freestyle “John Key’s son’s a DJ” from the Splore festival.
It’s getting airplay on Radio Active this morning, not surprising as they’ve played every anti Key song there is except @peace’s “kill the PM”. They got banned from playing Darren Watson’s “Planet Key” but that doesn’t stop them from talking about the state of our country under Key and playing political songs.
Onya Active.
Here’s the studio version of John Key’s son’s a DJ
Eh? You mean the cynicism in the lyrics? I didn’t hear cynicism, maybe I’m just too hardened, or too familiar with this style. Good that different folks take different things from music. Always good to have a fresh pair of ears for analysis.
And in regard to wingnuts, are you referring them always banging on about the Left not having a sense of humour, or as I would see it a different sense of humour (eg not reliant upon misogyny or racism)?
A Zambian magistrate will decide the future of a case in which the country’s top prosecutor said he would not be pursuing a case against himself and declared himself a free man.
“I am the director of public prosecution of the republic of Zambia and I have decided to enter a nolle prosequi against all the charges,” Mutembo Nchito told the magistrate from the dock last week, using the Latin term for refusing to pursue a case…
Nchito was briefly arrested last week on nine charges, including abusing his authority, contempt of court and fraudulent contracting of debt. The offences were allegedly committed between 2008 and 2013.
that seems to be a bit of a structural oversight, although I suspect that as a former british-occupied territory someone might be bringing up the magna carta.
Which may then lead to this from Monty Python “Look I’ve found some lovely filth here” and lots of circular arguments about process. An oldie but still got lots of wear left in it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOOTKA0aGI0
Just substitute King Key for King Arthur and make appropriate changes including in the cast, Winston, Little, Joyce, English, etc..to see what is really happening in various overt and covert ways, to the common people, the workers and what Key terms the “underclass” from the rich “upper class” corporate lackeys.
Government is again killing off NZ small business instead of encouraging it. Minimum Social Development is going to a single provider of whiteware in Northland. this cuts out business from small retailers who provide a small core of commerce there and provide jobs, distribution of some money in the area, and keep some investment money bubbling there. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/northland-age/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503402&objectid=11406892
[The Kaikohe Business Association:] The association says it is inconceivable that a government department should be allowed to operate in direct competition with retail businesses that not only pay tax but were effectively paying the wages of their opposition.
Beneficiaries who applied to the MSD for loans to purchase whiteware were forced to purchase their appliance through the ministry, which passed the goods on to the buyer at cost.
And I hate to think what sort of shoddy crap the Govt supplied whiteware is. My friend in a HNZ place was supplied with a heater/fan arrangement when HNZ responded to her request to fix the drafty chimney. They blocked the chimney and installed an electric combined heater/fan/cooler appliance which costs an absolute fortune to run. After the first bill, it has never been turned on since and my friend is back to the old gas bottle heater.
@
The problem for bennies is not solved by not matching any household appliance to the beneficiaries needs. It makes no difference how good it is, how well made, how energy saving. If it can’t be afforded, then it can’t be used.
In this case it is the business people griping. It may seem that they are well off but they are actually very small businesses, often one man, partnership, or family and haven’t got much slack these days in depressed economic areas.
There is not much help for people suffering from electricity heating costs it seems. The metered properties with these Smart meters don’t sound as if they are getting much benefit! I think the meter automatically charges them at the highest electricity price so they are being punished for having them.
For heating I’ve got a clean pellet burner. It is a well devised machine that needs to be carefully cleaned to operate well, and the pellets burn in a controlled system, but still far too fast. So sometimes I use my fan operated elderly large electric bar heater. It is straightforward and doesn’t need its vent holes cleaned and it keeps going, while the pellets can lock and the burner turns off. Also it doesn’t go in high winds and if the electricity goes off, it does to because it runs off mains power. So good idea but lacking. One day I’ll enquire and see if they have invented a battery clip-on, as there are some that are battery operated. Now that would be a forward looking development.
Enough of my experiences with energy saving, smokeless heaters adopted under the stringent rules set by Labour. I can’t even burn string or paper rubbish so it goes to the dump if I can’t reuse it or give it away.
According to the very helpful person at the local WINZ office, the reason for the change of policy is to ensure (a) quality appliances are bought (b) beneficiaries don’t contract to pay private suppliers more than they can really afford with some of the shonky merchants who exploit those with poor credit history. Repayment spread over 100 weeks (I believe) deducted before benefit is paid out.
The reality is that appliances do wear out, no matter your financial status and those elderly, ill, care giving or jobseeking are in no position to incur high levels of indebtedness to payday lenders and pay as you use agencies.
Those local businesses probably got very little business from MSD clients as the Red Shed is far more likely to have given the more competitive quote.
By the way, I believe that F & P are the preferred whiteware brand.
(I stand to be corrected but this information was from the source)
F&P is my unpreferred whiteware brand. Along with all their other brands they either import or seem to co-produce.
There is no reason that a bennie who isn’t too ill or old to walk and talk can’t get quotes for models from two or three different stores one of which then gets the Minse okay if it can be supplied and installed and old one taken away within one week or so. That could be ascertained over the phone from their office, and the deal set up.
Then other retailers get a chance, the money gets spread better and the bennie can’t be taken to the cleaners for their new washing machine or such.
Not difficult. It just takes an effort of will that Minse will be a good social actor in the community.
Sixty British women and girls have left the UK to join ISIS
Seems like our much vaunted FVEY mass surveillance system isn’t any good at stopping school children looking to become terrorist supporters. It’s only good at targetting people AFTER authorities have discovered that they are a problem.
Must be time to give the security intelligence industrial complex more millions and more unregulated powers so they can successfully stop school kids.
It’s often pointed out that Islamic State is a barbaric organisation trying to establish medieval-type social control. It is also, however, a repository of the dispossessed, the marginalised, the fanatical, the extreme, and, yes, the evil. ISIS is not the main source of barbarism, brutality and evil in the region, however.
Beside the barbarism, brutality and evil of US imperialism ISIS are rank amateurs. And while we recoil in horror at their public beheadings this is a common form of execution by the state in Saudi Arabia, one of Washington’s chief allies in the world. John Key may mouth outrage at ISIS beheadings, but a mere few weeks ago he asked for NZ flags to be lowered as a mark of respect following the death of the Saudi dictator, “King” Abdullah, the man who presided over public beheadings and floggings by the state throughout his reign (as does his successor now).
ISIS can control a territory of 8M people (some of whom are veterans of the war with Iraq and also with the USA) with a bare 20,000 to 30,000 men because those people consider ISIS a reasonable bet compared to the corrupt, incompetent authorities in Baghdad.
In other words, this has all the makings of an Iraqi civil war.
Cheers, Joe90. That gives a decent perspective. I tried looking myself, but couldn’t find anything definitive. Really hard to know what population remains in the affected areas and what percentage are under direct control.
Got a cite for that population figure, CV? And how do you know what they “consider”?
Gee I hope you didn’t just support a troop deployment whilst having no idea of the enemy numbers, disposition and territory held. I did, and that’s why I declined to support the troop deployment.
You posted a figure about the Iraqi population under ISIS control and I was just trying to verify whether it was accurate or not. Not, as it turns out. But, of course, you can also link to where you got the figure from and we can compare and contrast.
I know because it’s bloody obvious. It’s degenerating into a civil war, and you can’t hold hundreds of thousands of square kilometres with that large a population, with so few troops, without most of that population either actively or tacitly supporting you.
Remember that territory is full of ex-Iraqi army soldiers and officers, veterans of campaigns against Iran and the USA. If they wanted to take partisan action against the rag tag lightly armed rabble that is ISIS and throw them out, that could very easily be done.
Sweet, it’s bloody obvious to you. Well, that’s all the facts I need, folks, lets call the whole thing off. I’m surprised anybody is fighting ISIS with overwhelming empirical evidence like that to call on. 🙄
Or put it another way: best estimates is that ISIS has 20,000 to 30,000 fighters.
The Iraqi army is 300,000 men plus Sh’ite militia (50,000 or more). Jordan has an army of 90,000. Turkey, a NATO member has an army of 315,000. Iran’s army is so large, it could deploy 10 divisions into Iraq and not blink.
That plus US airstrikes, intel, satellite recon, and still they need little ol’ NZ and its 143 or so soldiers over there?
Of course, the most likely reason that ISIS is not being beaten is that it’s not just a ragtag militia of up to 30,000 lightly armed troops, but a de facto rebellion, highly funded and organised, in the north of Iraq against Baghdad.
>If they wanted to take partisan action against the rag tag lightly armed rabble that is ISIS and throw them out, that could very easily be done.
Nah, the veterans of campaigns against Iran and the USA are remnants of the culture bound top to bottom losing armies of the past while the rag tag bunch are a new breed – devolved decision-making by western trained commanders and veteran insurgents with a western approach to problem solving making for a fleet footed nimble force who by the day are becoming more effective while heavier and heavier weapons arrive as we speak.
I understand what you mean but those same ex-Iraqi soldiers/Sunni militia you speak of also managed to kill approx 4000 US servicemen over 10 years, from memory. So not entirely ineffective, are they.
Basically I think you understand my point. That ISIS have plenty of grassroots on the ground sympathy in the Sunni areas of Iraq that they hold.
This is wikipedia on executions and beheadings and they are usually reliable.
Beheading
A public beheading will typically take place around 9am. The convicted person is walked into the square and kneels in front of the executioner. The executioner uses a sword known as a sulthan to remove the condemned person’s head from his or her body at the neck. Sometimes it may take several strikes before victim is decapitated.[7] After the criminal is pronounced dead, a loudspeaker announces the crimes committed by the beheaded alleged criminal and the process is complete. This is the most common method of execution in Saudi Arabia because it is specifically called for by Sharia Law.[8] Professional executioners behead as many as ten people in a single day.[8] The severed head is usually sewn back on,[9] and sometimes put on crucifixes for public display. In 2011, an Indonesian maid’s dead body was hung from a helicopter for display.[8]…
Of the 6,221 executions known to have taken place around the world from 2007-2012 (excluding China), 423 (6.8%) were carried out in Saudi Arabia.[1]
The government does not release figures on executions in the Kingdom[2] but human rights organisations keep tab.
Another heading – this time referring to USA executions.
America – the land of the not so free? | Interesting Facts! http://www.interestingfactss.com › All Facts › Interesting Facts
Since 1976, 1,348 individuals have been executed for their crimes in the USA with 220 of this figure being between the years of 2007 – 20012. The most …
Credit Union NZCU Baywide had a disagreement with an ex-employee who put f.ck you with the company’s initials iced on a cake. And they went ballistic. Just as well I can manage to cope with the word fuck as young schoolboys passing by my place may use it at every third word, and if I objected would probably say it to me too.
It would be rather annoying to hear about for the credit union. But they pressured a young employee to show them the image of the cake which was only sent to particular Facebook Friends under privacy. Unbelievable behaviour which got worse as they continued in a very unprofessional and unprincipled way. http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/267496/record-damages-in-facebook-cake-ruling
If you want to be HEARD in person by the Local Government Commissioners in support of your submission:
Your PHONE NUMBER: (So you can be contacted to arrange a time to speak to the Local Government Commissioners, if you want to be heard.
Your SUBMISSION:
It can be as simple as:
I do NOT support the Draft Wellington Reorganisation Proposal.
Add whatever reasons you want…..
eg: There has never been a full, proper, independent audit of the Auckland ‘Supercity’ (forced) amalgamation, for ‘cost-effectiveness’ for the majority of citizen and ratepayers.
YOU CAN MAKE A SUBMISSION FROM OUTSIDE THE GREATER WELLINGTON REGION!
Aucklanders – SEIZE THE MOMENT!
I have seen and heard for myself – the blatant LIES that are being told about the Auckland ‘Supercity’.
eg: That the reason for large rate increases in Auckland are the shift from ‘land value’ to ‘capital value’.
eg: That Auckland Council ‘Local Boards’ have brought ‘local democracy’ to citizens and ratepayers.
Here is YOUR chance to TELL THE TRUTH about YOUR experience of this Auckland ‘Supercity’!
I find the thinking behind this article both fascinating and truly disturbing. In particular the solutions offered to the problem caused by the government of Venezuela massively subsidising the price of petrol.
“In order to eliminate the enormous state expense of the subsidy on gasoline, without affecting the popular classes, it is necessary for the state to control all heavy freight and long-haul transport, making them the distributors of goods and services across the country.
However, this would not be enough, because even if the state were able to offer distributing and transport services to the bourgeoisie at much lower prices than third-party companies do at present, the bourgeoisie would undoubtedly use the change as an excuse to artificially raise prices across the board. This makes it necessary to complete the socialist revolution, taking radical measures such as:
The nationalization of the levers that control the economy, which at this time is in the hands of the parasitic bourgeoisie, made up of: big industry and national monopolies, latifundios and private banks. It must be placed under the democratic control of the working people, the Socialist Workers’ and Farmworkers’ Councils, in combination with the other organs of peoples’ power, including Communal Councils, and communes, etc
The nationalization of all centers of distribution and the supply chain of food items and other basic items, including supermarket and pharmacy chains, to be under the democratic control of workers, also under the Socialist Workers’ Council. In this way, the state would be in charge of selling primary food and medicine, ridding the country of hoarding, forced scarcity, and speculation induced by the bourgeoisie.”
I’m curious how many leftists here actually support this view. I suspect someone like Draco T Bastard probably would but how about more moderate leftists?
Not entirely sure that venezuala’s my cup of tea, but I have no problem with infrastructure being nationalised on a case-by-case basis. Although even in Venezuela I’d probably go rail to undercut long-haul truckers rather than nationalising trucking companies as such.
Except it isn’t just one small aspect of the economy that would come under the control of the State but the vast majority of it including ALL heavy freight and long haul distribution businesses plus all big businesses. If you are comfortable with that then you should not have any problem with understanding why people on the right are so opposed to left wing economics.
The right are opposed to left wing economics because the right are happy to leave companies to self-regulate and thereby kill workers.
Personally, I reckon NZ should bring back the hundred mile limit for heavy goods vehicles. And cabotage. And sort out the slavery on NZ chartered fishing vessels. And make company directors personally liable for workplace deaths via corporate manslaughter charges. And eliminate zero-hour contracts. And increase the burden on directors to ensure the truth of reports they sign off on. And have a memorial at every workplace for every worker who died on site, including during construction. And make companies more liable for subcontractors’ safety, including fatigue and avenues to/from the workplace. And ban freeloading non-members from collective contracts. And get rid of fire at will legislation. And have a living minimum wage.
That lot gets opposition from tories, but most of them simply support a worker’s right to life.
The question is why you wouldn’t support policies as proposed in that article on Venezuela. The article makes clear that the sort of policies you mention are just making accomodation with the property owning classes which does not work. Do you disagree with this and if so why?
The answer is that I don’t have a particular ideological problem with the proposed policies, but given that I look at these things on a case by case basis I do not have enough information about the Venezualan economy to firmly commit either way.
But my second response was more to the fact that the specific policies in Venezuala are irrelevant, because the right are vehemently opposed to any policy that puts worker or public welfare ahead of their ability to extract the maximum possible buck from the country.
So bringing up relatively extreme left wing policies and then touting that as to “why people on the right are so opposed to left wing economics” is a camouflage of tory greed, because tories are equally opposed to much more moderate policies, too.
hi mcflock,
“Personally, I reckon NZ should bring back the hundred mile limit for heavy goods vehicles.”
couldnt agree more.
this is one of my hobby horses.
we have a big electric railway running up most of the centre (sorry northland) of this skinny land. ideal for moving loads.
i can handle waiting an extra day for something to travel the country.
Especially since the roads up north are getting washed out by torrential rain and floods a few times a year! It would be awesome to catch a fast train straight through to Whangarei and Kerikeri without the risk of death one currently faces going through the Dome Valley and the Brynderwyns (boy racers & middle aged maniacs are common)
It seems right whingers like socialist policies even more with the European Central Bank printing $1.8 trillion in a new quantative easing program.
Gosman taking one economy and taring all socialist economies with the same brush makes you out to be foolish.
And completely destroys you argument.
You are talking about Venezuela it has a very long history of despotic leader’s
Mainly right wing murderous fascists.
Putin is a freemarketeer.
But he is a despot fascist.
For every left wing despot leader their are 10 right wing fascists.
Neither are good for their country.
So the likes of Singapore.
Is an example.
That works but its not perfect.
Venezuelanalysis – the website Gosman likes to selectively quote from, has this poll out yesterday:
“According to a new poll released by International Consulting Services (ICS), approximately 57% of Venezuelans have confidence that the Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro will improve the economy.
The poll also featured several results which suggest that Chavismo continues to be the preferred political option for the country’s citizens.
In the midst of an economic crisis triggered by crashing oil prices and economic war in which basic goods remain scarce, only one fourth of Venezuelans regard scarcities as the country’s biggest problem. This finding contradicts the image of widespread hunger and desperation among Venezuelans projected by the international media.
Moreover, in the face of an inflation rate fast approaching 70%, only 1 in 10 Venezuelans consider inflation as the nation’s principal issue. Rather, insecurity, a perennial problem in Venezuela, remains the top concern for half of the country’s citizens.
The study also contained some unexpected findings regarding upcoming parliamentary elections. Contrary to international predictions of a landslide victory for the opposition, 43.6% of Venezuelans said they would vote for the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and its allied parties if elections were held today.
This figure means that even in the midst of acute economic difficulties, the PSUV retains a strong lead over the opposition, which was the preference of less than 32% of poll respondents.
Additionally, the poll found that on the eve of the second anniversary of the death of Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, around 62% of Venezuelans consider themselves chavistas, or “partisans… of the ideals” of the late Venezuelan leader. This result attests to the ongoing majoritarian popularity of the Bolivarian project initiated by Chávez, even despite his physical absence.
Furthermore, in the area of human rights, the survey discovered that 80% of Venezuelans believe that respect for human rights is guaranteed in the Bolivarian republic. This figure stands at odds with statements by the U.S. government and international media, regarding alleged “human rights violations” committed by the government of Nicolas Maduro. “
Despite all the concern some of the RWNJs have shown over toilet paper and condoms, it seems the Venezuelans themselves are still Chavistas.
Venezuelaanalysis.com has previously received funding from the Venezuelan Government through the Ministry of Culture. It also has had a linkage to the Tele Sur media outlet, funded by the Venezuelan Government.
By the standards you have set in previous posts Molly, this would disqualify it as a credible source of information?
So who are ‘International Consulting Services’. A well known, credible and independent source of polling information?
Well, I can’t verify that unfortunately, because there doesn’t seem to be very much information out there about them at all outside of their own website. Started late 2013. No offices it seems. No specific personal listed. Only work they seem to have done is 6 polls on Venezuelan voters preferences. No methodology or references listed for those polls.
By now I’m not surprised to find the polls all paint a rosy picture of support for the Government.
Other purpose of site seems to be to provide news about Venezuela that has a striking similarity to the ‘official’ news off the Govt. Tele Sur media.
Yeah right. That’s all credible then!
Here’s some info. I found from a media outlet calling themselves “The Independent’. Haven’t got time to research them Molly, but they say bad things about the Venezuelan situation and Government, so no doubt they are a RW propaganda site funded by the U.S. government.sarc.
Personally, I only mentioned Venezuela because Morrisey kept posting articles about it.
Governments suppressing human rights and freedoms and committing violence against citizens concerns me where ever it occurs.
If the Scandinavian countries start acting that way I’ll be the first here to start pointing the finger.
But in the meantime it is the Venezuelan Government that is following the route towards removal of freedoms and human rights, and ultimately the violent suppression of opposition from Venezuelan citizens.
I would love to have events prove me wrong on that, but I predict that when if and that end game comes, some posters here will be acting as apologists for that suppression.
Lost sheep, I mixed you up with Gosman. You both put forward similar arguments, and don’t listen very often to considered responses. I apologise for that.
(BTW: I searched a few of the authors on Venezuela analysis and found out quite a lot. Are you sure you know how to use Google effectively?)
And I thought you were interested in debating content. Not playing he said, she said. That said 😉 , are you going to discuss any of the points in the article or are we just going to play commenter tag?
It seems right whingers like socialist policies even more with the European Central Bank printing $1.8 trillion in a new quantative easing program.
Gosman taking one economy and taring all socialist economies with the same brush makes you out to be foolish.
And completely destroys you argument.
You are talking about Venezuela it has a very long history of despotic leader’s
Mainly right wing murderous fascists.
Putin is a freemarketeer.
But he is a despot fascist.
For every left wing despot leader their are 10 right wing fascists.
Neither are good for their country.
So the likes of Singapore.
Is an example.
That works but its not perfect.
At the moment Brazilian owners of transport companies are busy with the first stages of a coup. Their inspiration seems to be Pinochet. I think all businesses taking part should be nationalised without compensation. The other things you mention will be necessary shortly as well.
Thanks for being so open in your support to policies that I find so abhorent. You are at least not trying to hide your true motivation behind the cloak of moderation.
I do find it funny in a tragic kind of way that left wing ‘solutions’ to problems caused by other leftist policies are so brutal and damaging to individual rights.
Thanks for supporting a nascent military coup which would take rights away from almost everyone, up to and including the right to life. My true motivation in the case I mentioned is to support democracy. If that can’t be done moderately, so be it.
“The nationalization of all centers of distribution and the supply chain of food items and other basic items, including supermarket and pharmacy chains, to be under the democratic control of workers, also under the Socialist Workers’ Council.”
Why yes I would be all for this Gosman, we would be able to pay a living wage and give our state workers and politicians a higher annual payrise, certainly above the 1.6 % mark our dictator Comandante Key has/is imposing.
Again thanks for the honest answer. It confirms in my mind why it is vital to oppose left wing politics. Not to do so risks great harm being done to society.
Can someone point me or give me a link to where somewhere in past comments Gosman espoused his version of what being left is for him? I am sure that someone bookmarked such a delightfully ironic piece of resistance.
You need a holiday Gosman as your sounding like your suffering from that toxic illness ‘over exposure to Pete G syndrome’ a particularly nasty condition we all get exposed too. I suggest you come up North and I will take you fishing.
And while your here you can do some rural door knocking, god knows the National candidate needs all the support he can get, after Joyce slapped the local farmers on the back of their red necks and rejected their local farm boy hero.
Just bring a straw hat some chewing tobacco, and for Christ sake leave that ACT baby poo’s jacket of yours at home.
A related question to the point I raised about Venezuela.
Are leftists generally happy demonising a large section of society as being essentially traitors for simply doing what basic economic philosophy predicts they will do given the sort of conditions imposed upon them?
If I run a business and the government imposes rules that reduce my profits significantly why am I at fault if i decide no longer supply at the level I was doing so previously? Surely I am just reacting to what the State has done in a manner that i am entitled to do just as workers should be entitled to strike if their wages or conditions are reduced.
answer to the first question: yes, because people are moral agents, not slaves to economic philosophy
as to the second question, you make the assumption that you’re at fault, when actually tobacco and alcohol regulation have those outcomes in mind. Do you have a more specific hypothetical?
The specific scenario (not hypothetical) in question relates to Venezuela blaming suppliers for causing shortages when they impose price controls on items that make it difficult to get returns from selling those items. If I forced you to sell an item at a price that you deemed to be insufficient for your requirements why would you be at fault if you stopped selling the item?
Well, it is hypothetical because I’m not a supplier of whatever it is in venezuela you’re bitching about.
But even so it doesn’t match the scenario you intially outlined. Say a supplier is paying 50 for transport and getting a profit of 30. Your initial comment seemed to indicate that you are already cool supplying x at a profit of 30. If your transport costs go down from 50 to 40, the problem is that you (being a tory) would pocket the extra 10 in addition to your 30 profit.
In that case, in the simplistic environment a price control of -10 would still give you a profit of 30 (which you’re happy to supply at, remember?) and pass the savings on to consumers.
If you as a producer was all “damn government forcing me to give up my extra 10, I’m outta here”, I’d say “don’t let the door hit your arse on the way out, I’ll do the job and keep the 30 that you were previously happy with”.
So to boil it down – should we blame people from acting in a toxic way when they have been immersed in a toxic environment for a long time.
Of course not. You blame the people (sociopaths) with the power and wealth who deliberately created the toxic environment: neolibs, banksters and right wingers.
and who paid stuart nash [deleted] per month ‘support’ he received in the year before being elected to parliament..?
..exactly who ‘owns’ him…?
[lprent: Cite a source if you want to claim a ‘fact’ that is as potentially defamatory as that one.
I am unaware of anything reasonably reputable that said he was paid anything on a monthly basis. A two week ban for putting this site into jeopardy for not citing a source.
A further two weeks for making up a ‘fact’ that you can get off by pointing to a source for a monthly payment that would have been sufficient for us to allow.
BTW: Calculations of averages won’t count by the way because you didn’t state that as a basis of calculation in your comment. FFS: that was a bloody stupid comment of the exact type that could cause US to get into legal danger. What in the hell were you thinking! ]
[lprent: Not blocked. It goes into the spam queue. I read the spam queue last in the moderation cycle. That is because I check for comments that should not have gone into it (ie false positives).
However I notice that
a. You didn’t post the link in any comment that you put there.
b. Ignored why I said I banned you which was because you didn’t provide the link to substantiate a potentially defamatory fact (CV and adam did it for you).
c. Ignored any effect it could potentially have on our site.
So I’ll remove the 2 weeks. You now just have a two weeks ban. I will refrain from following my natural inclination to just ban you permanently as being a danger to the site and to me.
However in view of your attitude which appear to be all about your wounded pride and not about what you actually got banned for… If I see you ever make a comment stating a potentially defamatory fact without a link again I will ban you permanently.
If you want to state something as a fact that involves a person or company and may be viewed defamatory on the face of it, then it is your responsibility to provide the required support for what you claim is true in the comment. You will note that virtually everyone else links or sources where they heard something. There is a reason for that. They are aware that it is something that may affect the site and we intensely dislike people putting us at risk
Moderators simply don’t have time to read everything in the newspaper or listen to the radio. We expect the person making an assertion of fact to provide enough information for us to check it out.
So if you are going to be so irresponsible to assert a fact and not back it WHEN you make the comment, I will treat you just as I would for any arsehole trying to make me waste time and resources in court. I will do so preemptively as an example to others. If you don’t like it, then I really don’t care. I care about my time more than I care about your pride… ]
New Labour MP Stuart Nash was bankrolled to the tune of $4000 a month by political backers for more than a year leading up to last year’s general election…The returns showed Mr Nash received $36,000 from Caniwi Capital Partners and $31,000 from Andrew Kelly, mostly paid in monthly instalments dating from June 2013.
[lprent: Agreed, that lets him off two weeks. However he still didn’t provide the link that is required if you want to claim a potentially defamatory fact on the site. ]
[lprent: Read my note more carefully this time. The specific fact that philu said was that Nash was receiving a stipend per month.
He then didn’t provide a source so I can’t verify it.
What part of definition of “defamation” do you not understand? Claiming some false fact as being true is at the heart of it, especially if it involves a clearly malicious intent. I have to pass all these types of comments through as a risk to me of legal action. I can’t do that without facts and as far as I am concerned it is up to commenters to provide the links to facts.
If he’d used the word ‘average’ in there somewhere, it wouldn’t have been a problem. However he didn’t, no doubt for malicious reasons to make the ‘story’ seem better – which is what defamation is intended to limit.
Now I’m sure that we will have some conspiracy nuts going on about Labour or the Greens or something (and I suspect that I can just vaguely sense Bomber preparing to be a complete pillock somewhere), however part of my task in this site is to prevent people dragging me and this site into court because they want to make a fool of themselves.
If you want to claim a possibly defamatory fact on this site then them to the bloody source or get banned.
I’m afraid that I really don’t like people trying to drag me into court. ]
Iprent – my point was simply to point out, whilst phil, may write odd, and it can be hard to read – I do not believe he would deliberately make your life hell – via a court case. Sloppy is my take – but in a 24 hour news cycle – with a government hell bent on dirty politics – non reflective, reactions are a reality of this process.
It is also, and I’ll paraphrase Chris Trotter – “there is a hell of a story there!”
And yes, I’ve very well aware of how defamation works in this country. I’m very careful how I write here, indeed my style of writing does provoke some to attack me. Because I allude, rather than name names
To late on the conspiracy nut angle – blubber boy beat everyone. I will not link to that idiot sorry – I don’t want hits for him – but Google it. It is a sad sad piece of propaganda.
Look – sometimes I think you need help doing this – you work long hours and have a family – and what you write sounds like a tired person. This not an attack – just, you seem stretched to the limit. I thought there was a collective running this? Should not others be standing up, and helping you out!?
We all have full lives and demands on our time. Basically comments that assert facts without links or source are a waste of time for any on be reading the site. But with our very limited moderation time, ones that attack people with anything that might be viewed as a malicious intent are just a danger to us and they waste our time a lot. We have to spend time verifying them.
If people want to comment here then they had better keep those facts in mind because my general preference would be to start booting them off site four longer periods of time.
We get 30k-50k unique people reading the site every month. We have hundreds and sometimes a thousand commenting each month, with more bthan 10k comments. Commenters need to take responsibility for their comments if the site is to keep going.
On a personal note anyone have a disastrous year last year especially if you’r poor ?
I put it down to the fact that Keys father was born 100 yrs ago and to celebrate Key decided to make as many people who hate his guts pay the best part of their year in misery a little known but probably personal truth
Plus the usual bullying expenses of an election as well as a fully integrated police state and a boat loads of lies ,deceit, coercion, club membership to the CIA old boys FBI pension club The Federal reserve community of tight wads ,The NY Stock exchange ,Mossad ,THe Five Eyes wave your democracy byebyes club, Tppa club not fully defined yet but after we get this Iraqi thing sorted its should be relatively easy to break it to the country by that stage they should be pretty fucked in the head and now with the ability to act as president Key will be able to take a holiday what a relief for us all. can I sabotage his plane to Hawaii no just leave it up to those hes probably pissed off more that a 100 Kiwi soldiers have become targets of.
Why cant we have the cunt for TREASON is that reserved for Britain to make the decision
Because fundamentally the problem is the Managers here.
Constructive dismissal of more than one staff = venting in private which has then not only been pried into by these Managers but they maliciously spread the illegally accessed info to other employees in the industry specifically to ruin her career.
Hopefully the massive payout Cake Lady got will put off idiot managers from nosing about in staff FB pages and launching totally inappropriate vendettas. Well done Cake Lady!
Its further evidence of NZs major problem with utterly shockingly bad Managers as reported in various surveys which show our Managers are overpaid & incompetent.
And further evidence that our Media likes to pander to Management side of things.
Peter Sinclair reviews Merchants of Doubt, a documentary how the climate denial industry and their shills have adopted tobacco company tactics to market doubt.
Ideologically, the Reform Party has consistently advocated market liberalism.[11] The Reform Party is the most economically liberal in the political landscape of Estonia.
The party supports Estonian 0% corporate tax on re-invested income and wants to eliminate the dividend tax.
The party wanted to cut flat income tax rate from 22% (in 2007) to 18% by 2011. Due to economic crisis the campaign for cutting income tax rate was put on hold with the tax rate at 21% in 2008 and 2009.
The party used to oppose VAT general rate increase until late spring 2009 when it changed its position in the light of dire economic crisis and the need to find more money for budget. VAT was increased from 18% to 20% on 1 July 2009.
The party wants eventually to end conscription and introduce a voluntary army.[13]
The neoliberal/financial/bankster outfit have a very effective playbook that they roll out via media outlets, paid “experts”, tame academics and well funded think tanks.
If a nation has armed forces, I personally prefer there is compulsory CONSCRIPTION for all youth to train and serve for a couple of years at least, rather than the voluntary system, because in the latter case it is the poor, the less privileged and the “underclass” that will “volunteer” while the rich and their well-to-do privileged kids go scot-free from serving, and the rich privileged “leaders” will have the audacity to tell every one else, except themselves and their own progeny to show “some guts”!
So – how committed are Labour to electorally ‘clipping the wings’ of this John Key led National Government?
How many folks here agree that the ‘commonsense’ / electorally ‘savvy’ thing for Labour to do in the Northland by-election, is to campaign hard on the issues, but for Labour Party supporters to VOTE for Winston Peters, in order to stop National winning back this pivotal seat, and being left with 59 out of 121 MPs?
Who is electorally the ‘main’ political ‘enemy’ here?
‘Unite the many to defeat the few’?
If I was a Northland voter – I’d be voting Winston Peters.
Yes and you distracted from the topic of the By-Election on Jackos show today, thought I got some traction going especially when that dude called after me trying to blurt out the Sabin issue. Anyway Jenny good effort on the proposed Wellington super city scam.
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
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 ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
The allure of sport transcends age, culture, and geographical boundaries. It captivates hearts, ignites passions, and provides unparalleled entertainment. Behind the spectacle, however, lies a fascinating world of financial investment and expenditure. Among the vast array of competitive pursuits, one question looms large: which sport carries the hefty title of ...
Introduction Pickleball, a rapidly growing paddle sport, has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions around the world. Its blend of tennis, badminton, and table tennis elements has made it a favorite among players of all ages and skill levels. As the sport’s popularity continues to surge, the question on ...
Abstract: Soccer, the global phenomenon captivating millions worldwide, has a rich history that spans centuries. Its origins trace back to ancient civilizations, but the modern version we know and love emerged through a complex interplay of cultural influences and innovations. This article delves into the fascinating journey of soccer’s evolution, ...
Tinting car windows offers numerous benefits, including enhanced privacy, reduced glare, UV protection, and a more stylish look for your vehicle. However, the cost of window tinting can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article provides a comprehensive guide to help you understand how much you can expect to ...
The pungent smell of gasoline in your car can be an alarming and potentially dangerous problem. Not only is the odor unpleasant, but it can also indicate a serious issue with your vehicle’s fuel system. In this article, we will explore the various reasons why your car may smell like ...
Tree sap can be a sticky, unsightly mess on your car’s exterior. It can be difficult to remove, but with the right techniques and products, you can restore your car to its former glory. Understanding Tree Sap Tree sap is a thick, viscous liquid produced by trees to seal wounds ...
The amount of paint needed to paint a car depends on a number of factors, including the size of the car, the number of coats you plan to apply, and the type of paint you are using. In general, you will need between 1 and 2 gallons of paint for ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Wilmot, Senior Lecturer, Film, Deakin University Among the many Australian who served during the second world war, there is a small group of people whose stories remain largely untold. These are the Muslim men and women who, while small in number, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kelly Saunders, PhD Candidate, University of Canberra There has been much analysis and praise of Justice Michael Lee’s recent judgement in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Channel Ten. Many people were openly relieved to read Lee’s “forensic” and “nuanced” application of law ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathy Gibbs, Program Director for the Bachelor of Education, Griffith University zEdward_Indy/Shutterstock Around one in 20 people has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It’s one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood and often continues into adulthood. ADHD is diagnosed ...
The Fairer Future coalition of anti-poverty groups say Whaikaha must be properly funded going forward, and that to argue that poor financial management of the new Ministry is a red herring by the Prime Minister. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is today congratulating Hon. Paul Goldsmith on his appointment as Minister for Media and Communications and urges him to rule out state intervention in the private media sector. ...
Asia Pacific Report The West Papuan resistance OPM leader has condemned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden, accusing their countries of “six decades of treachery” over Papuan independence. The open letter was released today by OPM chairman Jeffrey P Bomanak on the eve of ANZAC Day ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits and quirks of New Zealanders at large. This week: writer and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024, Lauren Groff.The book I wish I’d writtenIf I wish I’d written a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Fechner, Research Fellow, Social Marketing, Griffith University mavo/Shutterstock Imagine having dinner at a restaurant. The menu offers plant-based meat alternatives made mostly from vegetables, mushrooms, legumes and wheat that mimic meat in taste, texture and smell. Despite being given that ...
“Three Strikes is a dead-end policy proposed by a dead-end government. The Three Strikes law ignores the causes of crime, instead just brutalising people already crushed by the cost of living.” ...
By Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific senior journalist An Australian-born judge in Kiribati could well face deportation later this week after a tribunal ruling that he should be removed from his post. The tribunal’s report has just been tabled in the Kiribati Parliament and is due to be debated by MPs ...
With its clear mandate for police use, political nuances, and nuanced public trust, Denmark's insights provide valuable considerations for Australia and New Zealand. ...
Books editor Claire Mabey reviews poet Louise Wallace’s debut novel. A famous poet once said to me that he’s always suspicious when a poet publishes a novel. I never really understood why but maybe it’s something to do with cheating on your first form. Louise Wallace is a poet. She’s ...
For a few months at the turn of the millennium, TrueBliss burned bright as the biggest pop stars in the country. Alex Casey chats to two superfans who still hold the flame. During a humble backyard wedding in Nelson, 1999, one of the cordially invited guests had to excuse themselves ...
How will the recent wave of job cuts impact ethnic diversity in the media? In November last year, I was working a very busy day in the newsroom of a large online news site, interviewing whānau about their concerns over the imminent closure of one of the few puna reo ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruth Knight, Researcher, Queensland University of Technology Have you ever felt sick at work? Perhaps you had food poisoning or the flu. Your belly hurt, or you felt tired, making it hard to concentrate and be productive. How likely would you be ...
Despite heavy criticism and an ongoing select committee process, the Police Minister says the Government will forge ahead with a ban on gang patches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Whiting, Lecturer – Creative Industries, University of South Australia Shutterstock Everyone has a favourite band, or a favourite composer, or a favourite song. There is some music which speaks to you, deeply; and other music which might be the current ...
A new survey says ‘outlook not great’ for those charged with building infrastructure, while RMA changes delight farmers and depress environmentalists, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. First RMA changes announced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olli Hellmann, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Waikato Getty Images When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also ...
A leaked document shows the Canterbury/Waitaha arm of health agency Te Whatu Ora is scurrying to save $13.3 million by July. The “financial sustainability target”, which was “allocated” to Waitaha, is consistent with what’s happening in other districts, says Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists. ...
A look at the state of the previous government’s affordable housing scheme, and what could come next.Remind me: What’s KiwiBuild again?First announced in 2012, KiwiBuild was a flagship policy of the Labour Party heading into both its 2014 and 2017 election campaigns. With Jacinda Ardern as prime minister, ...
Labour in opposition will be shocked to learn which party had six years in power but squandered any chance to make real change. Grant Robertson’s valedictory speech was a predictably entertaining trip down memory lane. The acid-tongued incoming Otago University chancellor administered a sick burn to the coalition government. He ...
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry is seen some as its ‘silicon shield’ against invasion – but how will overseas expansion affect that protection? The post The state of Taiwan’s silicon shield appeared first on Newsroom. ...
There’s relief for building owners bending under the weight of earthquake strengthening rules – and costs – that came into force seven years ago. Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk has announced a scheduled 2027 review of the earthquake-prone building regulations will now start this year. Owners will also get ...
Opinion: It has been announced that nine percent of roles at Oranga Tamariki will be disestablished, presumably to help fund the tax cuts promised by the coalition Government. I am reminded of the graphics used to illustrate pandemic events, where five thousand people are standing in a field and then ...
After more than two sleepless days, running through savage terrain, Greig Hamilton didn’t know if he was going to finish one of the most gruelling psychological assaults in sport. He was metres away from the finish line, a yellow gate made famous in a Netflix documentary; a race he’d dreamed ...
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, Wednesday 24 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
The following interview with former Green Party MP Sue Kedgley came about because she features in the new memoir Hine Toa by activist Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku; the two knew each other at the University of Auckland in the early 70s, when they were both took on leadership roles in the ...
COMMENTARY:By Murray Horton New Zealand needs to get tough with Israel. It’s not as if we haven’t done so before. When NZ authorities busted a Mossad operation in Auckland 20 years ago, the government didn’t say: “Oh well, Israel has the right to defend itself.” No, it arrested, prosecuted, ...
NEWSMAKERS:By Vijay Narayan, news director of FijiVillage Blessed to be part of the University of Fiji (UniFiji) faculty to continue to teach and mentor those who want to join our noble profession, and to stand for truth and justice for the people of the country. I was privileged to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Three weeks from now, some of us will be presented with a mountain of budget papers, and just about all of us will get to hear about them on radio, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Lowry, Ice Sheet & Climate Modeller, GNS Science Hugh Chittock/Antarctica New Zealand, CC BY-SA As the climate warms and Antarctica’s glaciers and ice sheets melt, the resulting rise in sea level has the potential to displace hundreds of millions of ...
The government's plan to reintroduce a three strikes regime is being strongly opposed by lawyers, who argue there is no evidence it reduces crime or helps people rehabilitate. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Jerker B. Svantesson, Professor specialising in Internet law, Bond University Do Australian courts have the right to decide what foreign citizens, located overseas, view online on a foreign-owned platform? Anyone inclined to answer “yes” to this question should perhaps also ask ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giovanni E Ferreira, NHMRC Emerging Leader Research Fellow, Institute of Musculoskeletal Health, University of Sydney Last week in a post on X, owner of the platform Elon Musk recommended people look into disc replacement if they’re experiencing severe neck or back pain. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Hayward, Emeritus Professor of Public Policy, RMIT University anek.soowannaphoom/Shutterstock NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey caught the headlines yesterday, courtesy of a blistering speech condemning the latest GST carve-up. New South Wales, he claimed, would be A$11.9 billion worse off over the ...
While police are "broadly in favour", the government's proposed anti-gang laws are facing pushback from lawyers, rights groups and former gang members. ...
While police are "broadly in favour", the government's proposed anti-gang laws are facing pushback from lawyers, rights groups and former gang members. ...
By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has arrived at Kokoda Station, Northern province, at the start of his state visit to Papua New Guinea. Both Albanese and Prime Minister James Marape will meet with the locals and the Northern Provincial government before they begin their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Wallace, Professor, School of Politics Economics & Society, Faculty of Business Government & Law, University of Canberra Shutterstock An important principle was invoked by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last week in defence of the government’s Future Made in Australia industry ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk Security forces reinforcements were sent from France ahead of two rival marches in the capital Nouméa today, at the same time and only two streets away one from the other. One march, called by Union Calédonienne party (a component of the ...
A poll last August found that just 16% of New Zealanders oppose bringing back the ‘Three Strikes’ law. The nationwide poll of 1,000 New Zealanders was commissioned by Family First NZ and carried out by Curia Market Research. ...
The solo show from Ana Scotney is both sprawling and intimate, and a must-see, writes Mad Chapman. In the opening moments of Scattergun: After the Death of Rūaumoko, writer and performer Ana Scotney lays out the groundwork, literally. Silently moving around the square stage, Scotney is not so much dancing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Burridge, Professor of Linguistics, Monash University Who makes the words? Why are trees called trees and why are shoes called shoes and who makes the names? – Elliot, age 5, Eltham, Victoria Good question Elliot! Let’s start with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne at amRawpixel.com/Shutterstock Roles of health professionals are still unfortunately often stuck in the past. That is, before the ...
COMMENTARY:By Malcolm Evans Last week’s leaked New York Times staff directive, as to what words can and cannot be used to describe the carnage Israel is raining on Palestinians, is proof positive, since those reports are published verbatim here in New Zealand, that our understanding of the conflict is ...
In the case of New Zealand, the results confirm that there is no popular support for the vicious austerity program being imposed by the National Party-led government, which is backed in all fundamental respects by the opposition Labour Party. ...
The ‘Vampire’ singer has never visited our part of the world, but that might all be about to change. We assess the evidence.Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour is pulling in massive crowds as it whips around the US and Europe, even helping to catapult regular supporting act Chappell Roan ...
Testing of drinking water in rural Canterbury over the weekend by Greenpeace revealed that several public town supplies were reaching levels of nitrate above 5 mg/L - the threshold which a growing body of scientific evidence has linked to increased ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rohan Fisher, Information Technology for Development Researcher, Charles Darwin University It may come as a surprise to hear 2023 was Australia’s biggest bushfire season in more than a decade. Fires burned across an area eight times as big as the 2019–20 Black ...
Responding to the Government’s announcement of changes to resource management laws, Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, said: “These changes are a step in the right direction in terms of removing ideological and unworkable ...
More than two years after the Human Rights Council called for the establishment of a national human rights commission, such a body has yet to be formed. ...
Comment:An emergency management system with wide variations in performance, significant capability gaps, funding shortfalls and above all a setup that is not meeting the needs of New Zealanders at times of crisis. The Government’s inquiry into the response to Cyclone Gabrielle and other severe weather events in the North ...
Welcome to the whirring wonders of one brain trying to align its actions with its beliefs within a system it thinks is evil. My brain has been spiralling in a woke conundrum ever since I found out a bookshop I’ve never been to was shutting down. Good Books, a bookshop ...
We repeat our call for criminal justice policy to be based on evidence, something the three strikes regime neglects to recognise – with no evidence that it either reduces crime or assists with rehabilitation. ...
(first laff of the week..)
“..Stuff looks at premium membership..” (ed:..now that is funny..!..)
“..Fairfax Media’s news website stuff.co.nz may not be considering a paywall –
– but options to offer a premium membership service to New Zealand online readers are ‘really quite exciting’-
– says Fairfax Media chief executive Greg Hywood..”
(cont..)
(ed:..this one has me both puzzled and laughing..
..what wd this ‘premium-service’ be..?
..are they suddenly going to get ‘better’..?.”
(cont..)
http://whoar.co.nz/2015/stuff-looks-at-premium-membership-ed-now-that-is-funny/
Hope they use a paywall.
Then even less people will read their propaganda.
it really cracks me up – the pretensions/self-regard they have for what – quality-wise
– is the equivalent of a supermarket tabloid giveaway..
..as in – a really crap rag..
..and the herald is little better..
..the dead-tree media does not serve us well..
..and the funny thing is..stuff and whoar are looking out at the same media-world..
..how is it i can find so much good shit each and every day..(about 50 stories/links usually..)
..and these people just seek out/publish the mindless fucken dross..?
..and how some stories stay on their site for what seems eons..?
and the huge amount of people/activity to produce something so lite-weight..
..(vs..one person @ whoar..)
..is a modern-mystery..
.as in..w.t.f do they all do all day..?
At least Rhinehart is selling up her stake in fearfacts, so it’ll be less of a mouthpiece for mining interests with any luck.
The MSM have been trying to combat the effect the internet has on their new papers for years. They are up against it with decent sites such as this one. I don’t buy their papers and certainly won’t be paying to read their propaganda. Stuff online is crap and they can get stuffed trying to pay wall their dross.
If it isn’t a paywall then the premium service is probably offering targeted news. Either that or a pathetic gateway that forces non subscribers to look at an ad that will be tolerated only by those who reside in hospital and have run out of Women’s Weekly.
Basically with targeted news the viewer is profiled based on what they have read in the past, ordered online etc.
Unfortunately it isn’t the news you are most familiar with that you need to be aware of (meaning that if I’m right and this is the type of service they are going to offer those who are foolish enough to subscribe will end up even less informed than they already are….).
Wait.a.minute…
What if someone set up a registered charity? The charitable purpose would be to disseminate information free of charge or political bias that is so prevalent in our news media. The site would be supported by charitable donations and therefore fully tax deductable. Hog damn.
https://charities.govt.nz/apply-for-registration/charitable-purpose/
maybe i should do that with whoar…
Yeah – but most of your links are to stories from the main stream media anyway. Where you going to run to then?
You guys who hate on the media but spend your whole time linking to it and commenting on it make me laugh.
not so..not all msm is shit..
..the guardian/independent r two of merit..
..it is just that our m.s.m is shit…
So much judgement from someone who has not created any original content in his life.
How hard is it to sit at the kitchen table and cut and paste links all day?
all original material is in the op-ed section @ whoar..
here’s ten yrs worth..
http://whoar.co.nz/category/op-ed/
your turn…
..how hard is it to bitch bullshit..?..eh..?
Give me a break. Every one of those I looked at on your page was a couple of short sentences linking to an MSM story. Even a letter-to-the-editor writer could do better.
Premium service. Advertorials written by such stalwarts as Mike Hoskings in support of something or other. Sky or the Nats he don’t care.
(this reasoned demolition of austerity-politics is worth the read..)
“..Mr Osborne’s Economic Experiment: Austerity 1945-51 and 2010- review – an elegant demolition of the chancellor’s policies..
..By comparing Britain in 2010 with the postwar years of his childhood –
– William Keegan demolishes the coalition’s arguments for austerity economics..”
(cont..)
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/mar/01/osborne-economic-experiment-austerity-1945-51-2010-elegant-demolition-chancellor-policies
“..Drugs Live: why I wanted to get stoned on TV..
..Channel 4’s experiment into the effects of cannabis –
– aims to research the differences between ingesting hashish and skunk –
– in a controlled environment..”
(cont..)
(um..!..why either/or..?..why not both together..?
..(mm!!!..skunk leavened with hash..!..tasty..!..)
http://www.theguardian.com/society/shortcuts/2015/mar/01/drugs-live-why-wanted-to-get-stoned-live-tv-channel-four
I see leader of the God Botherers Collin Craig has announced they will not contest the Northland By-Election. Craig has said he does not want to split the Centre-Right vote and give arch rival Winston Peters a helping hand.
I am of the opinion that the con jobs would more likely take more votes off Peters than the National party’s patsy candidate. Things are falling nicely into place for the old shark Winnie.
Why do you describe the National party’s candidate a patsy?
because he is being set up for a fall..?
..’beauty-parlour’ owner from taipa..as he is..
.(i guess he puts the ‘small’ in ‘small-business..)
Because according to a very good source within the region, HQ (Goodfellow, Joyce) steamrollered the local democratic process. They figure they already have the farmers vote more so than the small business sector. So apparently many of the rural voting delegates were spewing National office kept pushing forward their man and taking no notice the wishes of them to install their favourite farming son.
Such was the angry mood, the snub to Peters could be on the cards. Even unsuccessful candidate Ken R who setup and stood for his own indie party Focus NZ last election, he achieved the quite remarkable result of 1,600 candidate votes to stand in protest. He hammered Nationals abandonment of Northland during the campaign and picked up alot of their votes. Focus NZ Whangarei candidate was most impressive at our forum, with a hold no bars let down by National speech.
“I am of the opinion that the con jobs would more likely take more votes off Peters than the National Party’s patsy candidate. Things are falling nicely into place for the old shark Winnie.”
It’d certainly be nice to think the absence of a Conservative candidate will hurt National more than NZF or Labour. And I know more than a few commentators see the Conservatives and NZF appealing to essentially the same constituency. But I have strong doubts on that score.
For one thing, people who Party-Voted Conservative in 2011 and 2014 were pretty evenly split in their Candidate-Vote between the National and Cons candidates. Vey few went Labour and even fewer NZF.
The Candidate-Vote split for people who had Party-Voted Conservative in 2014 (for General Electorates as a whole), for instance, was 42% Nat, 41% Cons, 10% Lab, 2% NZF
In Northland at the last Election, Cons split 40% Con / 44% Nat in their Candidate-Vote. So a fairly typical seat. Admittedly, that means, of course, that quite a few erstwhile Cons would be voting National in this By-election anyway, regardless of whether or not a Con candidate stood. But it does still suggest (albeit not proving beyond doubt) that, with no candidate of their own, those Cons that do turn out to vote (and who gave two ticks to the Conservatives at the last General Election) will more likely go National’s way.
The other comparative measure to look at is: the relative proportion of National and NZF voters who cast their Candidate-Vote for the Cons. It’s true that in most seats in 2014, a slightly larger proportion of NZF Party-Voters gave their Candidate-vote to the Cons. But the fact that (relative to NZF) National received more than 5X the Party-Vote in most seats meant that, in sheer raw numbers, more Nats than NZFers voted for the Cons candidate. In General Electorates as a whole, 25,000 Nats Candidate-Voted Conservative in 2014 compared to 8,000 NZF supporters. In Northland, 312 Nats / 242 NZFers cast their Candidate-Vote</I for the Cons.
Obviously, there are a few caveats involved. Chief among them, the fact that Winnie himself is standing rather than just any old nondescript NZF candidate. And we, of course, can't be entirely sure that those Cons who gave two ticks to their party/candidate in 2014 are precisely the same manner of beast as those who split their Candidate-vote in favour of the Nats. There’s also the question of turnout among previous Con voters.
But, overall, (in the absence of definitive proof) I’d say this move by Colin Craig will put a wider smile on John Key’s face than on Winston Peters’, Willow Prime’s or Andrew Little’s.
Yeah.
Yeah that’s a fair cop and a very good breakdown, and thanks for the crunching ( makes me wonder if your an accountant) however depending on what’s squeaked or possibly roared out during the campaign, as to how the holier than thou religious vote. The tarred by association factor, just thinking back to the Christian heritage party’s dramatic voter fall away. Got any numbers on that one?
Politicians really really make me angry quite often…. most always for their blatant lies
Now we have Tony Abbot speaking as if the fucking Aussies have been bombing the middle east to death alongside the warmongering US for 14 years in order to defend attacks on their home turf.
So lets get this straight – the Aussies have been attacked in response to their own unilateral bombings in the middle east, and not vice versa.
Fuck the lying politicians.
+1 veets
Thanks to those of you who’ve posted Tourette’s song/freestyle “John Key’s son’s a DJ” from the Splore festival.
It’s getting airplay on Radio Active this morning, not surprising as they’ve played every anti Key song there is except @peace’s “kill the PM”. They got banned from playing Darren Watson’s “Planet Key” but that doesn’t stop them from talking about the state of our country under Key and playing political songs.
Onya Active.
Here’s the studio version of John Key’s son’s a DJ
http://tourettesone.bandcamp.com/track/john-keys-sons-a-dj
Oh and a word of warning. Don’t do what I did out of curiosity and go and listen to Troskey. You’ll burn your ears. It’s formulaic BS.
The cynicism reminds me of old ‘communist’ ‘jokes’ – the sort of humour that develops when people don’t have a stake in their own country.
You’d’ve thought wingnuts would have cottoned on to that, considering they spent most of last century whining about it.
Eh? You mean the cynicism in the lyrics? I didn’t hear cynicism, maybe I’m just too hardened, or too familiar with this style. Good that different folks take different things from music. Always good to have a fresh pair of ears for analysis.
And in regard to wingnuts, are you referring them always banging on about the Left not having a sense of humour, or as I would see it a different sense of humour (eg not reliant upon misogyny or racism)?
“John Key’s son’s a DJ.”
“The rise of the short poppy.”
“Let them eat instant noodles”.
“Cameron Slater’s a journalist”.
etc. etc.
The wingnuts have failed to learn the lessons they were so busy pointing out for the last hundred years,
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/01/zambian-court-decide-prosecutor-drop-case-against-himself
?!
that seems to be a bit of a structural oversight, although I suspect that as a former british-occupied territory someone might be bringing up the magna carta.
This cartoon symbolises the attitudes of the rich bastards against the “Under Class”.
http://media.nzherald.co.nz/webcontent/image/jpg/20159/cartoo1.jpg
Which may then lead to this from Monty Python “Look I’ve found some lovely filth here” and lots of circular arguments about process. An oldie but still got lots of wear left in it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOOTKA0aGI0
Thanks1 I enjoyed that and found its transcript.
Just substitute King Key for King Arthur and make appropriate changes including in the cast, Winston, Little, Joyce, English, etc..to see what is really happening in various overt and covert ways, to the common people, the workers and what Key terms the “underclass” from the rich “upper class” corporate lackeys.
http://www.intriguing.com/mp/_scripts/peasant.php
So, Stuart Nash raised $99,000 in political donations last year. Well done, that shows true prowess.
36K of it from the guys that commissioned a Lusk report on the viability of Nash setting up a spolier party, so yeah. Golf clap.
no..it shows he is supported by rightwing-trouts.
(one of them even bought his fucken fire-engine for him..!..f.f.s..!)
..and williams was all praising of him for ‘winning’..
..failing to note the key fact that nash only won that seat because that idiot/clown from sensible-sentencing split the rightwing vote for him..
..had that not happened..
..nash wd still be forlornly tootling around napier in that fire-engine..
..don’t give him credit – where none is fucken due..
..nash is a tool of the rightwing..
..supported by the likes of slater..
..he is their stalking horse/best hope for labour to stay neo-liberal…
..and a major supporter of those labour ’14 election-policies –
– of drill/mine/fuck-the-poor!…
..he is a very large part of labours neo-liberal ‘problem’..
+1 Phillip
and let’s not forget this piece of hate-preaching/madness from that fucken clown mcvicar..
“..He stated that crime would increase if gays were allowed to marry..”
..(how did that work out..?..vile hate-merchant that he is..)
(oh..!..and mcvicar resigned from the conservative party after his successful vote-split in napier..
..leaving the strong suspicion the whole thing was a set-up by the right..
..to help nash win the seat..
..nash is a fucken tory stalking/trojan-horse..!
..get that into yr heads..!
Thought you guys might have missed this piece of news, that’s all 🙂
yes..but the devil is in the detail..isn’t it..?
..and pushing a bullshit idea that nash is a hardworking/gun fundraiser..
..when in fact that money came from his rich rightwing-backers..
..just advances the cause of the neo-liberal/rightwing who have so successfully colonised labour..
..i thought you were anti-them..?
Just making sure the right people had seen this piece of news 😈
Yes CR, it does. I thank you for bringing this to our attention.
Government is again killing off NZ small business instead of encouraging it. Minimum Social Development is going to a single provider of whiteware in Northland. this cuts out business from small retailers who provide a small core of commerce there and provide jobs, distribution of some money in the area, and keep some investment money bubbling there.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/northland-age/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503402&objectid=11406892
[The Kaikohe Business Association:] The association says it is inconceivable that a government department should be allowed to operate in direct competition with retail businesses that not only pay tax but were effectively paying the wages of their opposition.
Beneficiaries who applied to the MSD for loans to purchase whiteware were forced to purchase their appliance through the ministry, which passed the goods on to the buyer at cost.
And I hate to think what sort of shoddy crap the Govt supplied whiteware is. My friend in a HNZ place was supplied with a heater/fan arrangement when HNZ responded to her request to fix the drafty chimney. They blocked the chimney and installed an electric combined heater/fan/cooler appliance which costs an absolute fortune to run. After the first bill, it has never been turned on since and my friend is back to the old gas bottle heater.
@
The problem for bennies is not solved by not matching any household appliance to the beneficiaries needs. It makes no difference how good it is, how well made, how energy saving. If it can’t be afforded, then it can’t be used.
In this case it is the business people griping. It may seem that they are well off but they are actually very small businesses, often one man, partnership, or family and haven’t got much slack these days in depressed economic areas.
There is not much help for people suffering from electricity heating costs it seems. The metered properties with these Smart meters don’t sound as if they are getting much benefit! I think the meter automatically charges them at the highest electricity price so they are being punished for having them.
For heating I’ve got a clean pellet burner. It is a well devised machine that needs to be carefully cleaned to operate well, and the pellets burn in a controlled system, but still far too fast. So sometimes I use my fan operated elderly large electric bar heater. It is straightforward and doesn’t need its vent holes cleaned and it keeps going, while the pellets can lock and the burner turns off. Also it doesn’t go in high winds and if the electricity goes off, it does to because it runs off mains power. So good idea but lacking. One day I’ll enquire and see if they have invented a battery clip-on, as there are some that are battery operated. Now that would be a forward looking development.
Enough of my experiences with energy saving, smokeless heaters adopted under the stringent rules set by Labour. I can’t even burn string or paper rubbish so it goes to the dump if I can’t reuse it or give it away.
According to the very helpful person at the local WINZ office, the reason for the change of policy is to ensure (a) quality appliances are bought (b) beneficiaries don’t contract to pay private suppliers more than they can really afford with some of the shonky merchants who exploit those with poor credit history. Repayment spread over 100 weeks (I believe) deducted before benefit is paid out.
The reality is that appliances do wear out, no matter your financial status and those elderly, ill, care giving or jobseeking are in no position to incur high levels of indebtedness to payday lenders and pay as you use agencies.
Those local businesses probably got very little business from MSD clients as the Red Shed is far more likely to have given the more competitive quote.
By the way, I believe that F & P are the preferred whiteware brand.
(I stand to be corrected but this information was from the source)
F&P is my unpreferred whiteware brand. Along with all their other brands they either import or seem to co-produce.
There is no reason that a bennie who isn’t too ill or old to walk and talk can’t get quotes for models from two or three different stores one of which then gets the Minse okay if it can be supplied and installed and old one taken away within one week or so. That could be ascertained over the phone from their office, and the deal set up.
Then other retailers get a chance, the money gets spread better and the bennie can’t be taken to the cleaners for their new washing machine or such.
Not difficult. It just takes an effort of will that Minse will be a good social actor in the community.
Sixty British women and girls have left the UK to join ISIS
Seems like our much vaunted FVEY mass surveillance system isn’t any good at stopping school children looking to become terrorist supporters. It’s only good at targetting people AFTER authorities have discovered that they are a problem.
Must be time to give the security intelligence industrial complex more millions and more unregulated powers so they can successfully stop school kids.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/01/london-schoolgirls-60-female-britons-joined-isis
Aw, c’mon CV, give the poor guys a break! How many school girls you seen sporting terrorist beards?
It’s often pointed out that Islamic State is a barbaric organisation trying to establish medieval-type social control. It is also, however, a repository of the dispossessed, the marginalised, the fanatical, the extreme, and, yes, the evil. ISIS is not the main source of barbarism, brutality and evil in the region, however.
Beside the barbarism, brutality and evil of US imperialism ISIS are rank amateurs. And while we recoil in horror at their public beheadings this is a common form of execution by the state in Saudi Arabia, one of Washington’s chief allies in the world. John Key may mouth outrage at ISIS beheadings, but a mere few weeks ago he asked for NZ flags to be lowered as a mark of respect following the death of the Saudi dictator, “King” Abdullah, the man who presided over public beheadings and floggings by the state throughout his reign (as does his successor now).
The Washington-led intervention is about. . .
full article at: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/02/27/no-to-all-western-military-intervention-in-the-middle-east/
ISIS can control a territory of 8M people (some of whom are veterans of the war with Iraq and also with the USA) with a bare 20,000 to 30,000 men because those people consider ISIS a reasonable bet compared to the corrupt, incompetent authorities in Baghdad.
In other words, this has all the makings of an Iraqi civil war.
Got a cite for that population figure, CV? And how do you know what they “consider”?
Estimated number of fighters/population.
http://warontherocks.com/2015/02/how-many-fighters-does-the-islamic-state-really-have/?singlepage=1
Cheers, Joe90. That gives a decent perspective. I tried looking myself, but couldn’t find anything definitive. Really hard to know what population remains in the affected areas and what percentage are under direct control.
Following these blokes too in an effort to sort the wheat from the chaff.
http://grahamefuller.com/blog/
http://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/author/7e9d647f-91f8-4574-844b-e75354d59915
Gee I hope you didn’t just support a troop deployment whilst having no idea of the enemy numbers, disposition and territory held. I did, and that’s why I declined to support the troop deployment.
Thanks for the links joe90.
Ha! Who says I didn’t know?
You posted a figure about the Iraqi population under ISIS control and I was just trying to verify whether it was accurate or not. Not, as it turns out. But, of course, you can also link to where you got the figure from and we can compare and contrast.
I know because it’s bloody obvious. It’s degenerating into a civil war, and you can’t hold hundreds of thousands of square kilometres with that large a population, with so few troops, without most of that population either actively or tacitly supporting you.
Remember that territory is full of ex-Iraqi army soldiers and officers, veterans of campaigns against Iran and the USA. If they wanted to take partisan action against the rag tag lightly armed rabble that is ISIS and throw them out, that could very easily be done.
Sweet, it’s bloody obvious to you. Well, that’s all the facts I need, folks, lets call the whole thing off. I’m surprised anybody is fighting ISIS with overwhelming empirical evidence like that to call on. 🙄
Or put it another way: best estimates is that ISIS has 20,000 to 30,000 fighters.
The Iraqi army is 300,000 men plus Sh’ite militia (50,000 or more). Jordan has an army of 90,000. Turkey, a NATO member has an army of 315,000. Iran’s army is so large, it could deploy 10 divisions into Iraq and not blink.
That plus US airstrikes, intel, satellite recon, and still they need little ol’ NZ and its 143 or so soldiers over there?
Of course, the most likely reason that ISIS is not being beaten is that it’s not just a ragtag militia of up to 30,000 lightly armed troops, but a de facto rebellion, highly funded and organised, in the north of Iraq against Baghdad.
Nah, the veterans of campaigns against Iran and the USA are remnants of the culture bound top to bottom losing armies of the past while the rag tag bunch are a new breed – devolved decision-making by western trained commanders and veteran insurgents with a western approach to problem solving making for a fleet footed nimble force who by the day are becoming more effective while heavier and heavier weapons arrive as we speak.
I understand what you mean but those same ex-Iraqi soldiers/Sunni militia you speak of also managed to kill approx 4000 US servicemen over 10 years, from memory. So not entirely ineffective, are they.
Basically I think you understand my point. That ISIS have plenty of grassroots on the ground sympathy in the Sunni areas of Iraq that they hold.
This is wikipedia on executions and beheadings and they are usually reliable.
Beheading
A public beheading will typically take place around 9am. The convicted person is walked into the square and kneels in front of the executioner. The executioner uses a sword known as a sulthan to remove the condemned person’s head from his or her body at the neck. Sometimes it may take several strikes before victim is decapitated.[7] After the criminal is pronounced dead, a loudspeaker announces the crimes committed by the beheaded alleged criminal and the process is complete.
This is the most common method of execution in Saudi Arabia because it is specifically called for by Sharia Law.[8] Professional executioners behead as many as ten people in a single day.[8] The severed head is usually sewn back on,[9] and sometimes put on crucifixes for public display. In 2011, an Indonesian maid’s dead body was hung from a helicopter for display.[8]…
Of the 6,221 executions known to have taken place around the world from 2007-2012 (excluding China), 423 (6.8%) were carried out in Saudi Arabia.[1]
The government does not release figures on executions in the Kingdom[2] but human rights organisations keep tab.
Another heading – this time referring to USA executions.
America – the land of the not so free? | Interesting Facts!
http://www.interestingfactss.com › All Facts › Interesting Facts
Since 1976, 1,348 individuals have been executed for their crimes in the USA with 220 of this figure being between the years of 2007 – 20012. The most …
Further
http://www.interestingfactss.com/america-land-free/
This site says that there are more people in jail in the USA than in Russia – using the same measurement method.
Credit Union NZCU Baywide had a disagreement with an ex-employee who put f.ck you with the company’s initials iced on a cake. And they went ballistic. Just as well I can manage to cope with the word fuck as young schoolboys passing by my place may use it at every third word, and if I objected would probably say it to me too.
It would be rather annoying to hear about for the credit union. But they pressured a young employee to show them the image of the cake which was only sent to particular Facebook Friends under privacy. Unbelievable behaviour which got worse as they continued in a very unprofessional and unprincipled way.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/267496/record-damages-in-facebook-cake-ruling
These outfits think that they own their employees. Push back is a bitch, eh corporates.
Ok folks!
Horrified at the thought of a Wellington ‘Supercity’?
You still have time to have your say on the Draft Wellington Reorganisation (Supercity) Proposal!
Your submission needs to be in by 4pm TODAY, 2 March 2015!
Email your submission to:
submissions@lgc.govt.nz
Include:
Your NAME:
Your ADDRESS:
If you want to be HEARD in person by the Local Government Commissioners in support of your submission:
Your PHONE NUMBER: (So you can be contacted to arrange a time to speak to the Local Government Commissioners, if you want to be heard.
Your SUBMISSION:
It can be as simple as:
I do NOT support the Draft Wellington Reorganisation Proposal.
Add whatever reasons you want…..
eg: There has never been a full, proper, independent audit of the Auckland ‘Supercity’ (forced) amalgamation, for ‘cost-effectiveness’ for the majority of citizen and ratepayers.
YOU CAN MAKE A SUBMISSION FROM OUTSIDE THE GREATER WELLINGTON REGION!
Aucklanders – SEIZE THE MOMENT!
I have seen and heard for myself – the blatant LIES that are being told about the Auckland ‘Supercity’.
eg: That the reason for large rate increases in Auckland are the shift from ‘land value’ to ‘capital value’.
eg: That Auckland Council ‘Local Boards’ have brought ‘local democracy’ to citizens and ratepayers.
Here is YOUR chance to TELL THE TRUTH about YOUR experience of this Auckland ‘Supercity’!
Use it – or lose it.
Kind regards
Penny Bright
http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz
I find the thinking behind this article both fascinating and truly disturbing. In particular the solutions offered to the problem caused by the government of Venezuela massively subsidising the price of petrol.
“In order to eliminate the enormous state expense of the subsidy on gasoline, without affecting the popular classes, it is necessary for the state to control all heavy freight and long-haul transport, making them the distributors of goods and services across the country.
However, this would not be enough, because even if the state were able to offer distributing and transport services to the bourgeoisie at much lower prices than third-party companies do at present, the bourgeoisie would undoubtedly use the change as an excuse to artificially raise prices across the board. This makes it necessary to complete the socialist revolution, taking radical measures such as:
The nationalization of the levers that control the economy, which at this time is in the hands of the parasitic bourgeoisie, made up of: big industry and national monopolies, latifundios and private banks. It must be placed under the democratic control of the working people, the Socialist Workers’ and Farmworkers’ Councils, in combination with the other organs of peoples’ power, including Communal Councils, and communes, etc
The nationalization of all centers of distribution and the supply chain of food items and other basic items, including supermarket and pharmacy chains, to be under the democratic control of workers, also under the Socialist Workers’ Council. In this way, the state would be in charge of selling primary food and medicine, ridding the country of hoarding, forced scarcity, and speculation induced by the bourgeoisie.”
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/11220
I’m curious how many leftists here actually support this view. I suspect someone like Draco T Bastard probably would but how about more moderate leftists?
Not entirely sure that venezuala’s my cup of tea, but I have no problem with infrastructure being nationalised on a case-by-case basis. Although even in Venezuela I’d probably go rail to undercut long-haul truckers rather than nationalising trucking companies as such.
Except it isn’t just one small aspect of the economy that would come under the control of the State but the vast majority of it including ALL heavy freight and long haul distribution businesses plus all big businesses. If you are comfortable with that then you should not have any problem with understanding why people on the right are so opposed to left wing economics.
The right are opposed to left wing economics because the right are happy to leave companies to self-regulate and thereby kill workers.
Personally, I reckon NZ should bring back the hundred mile limit for heavy goods vehicles. And cabotage. And sort out the slavery on NZ chartered fishing vessels. And make company directors personally liable for workplace deaths via corporate manslaughter charges. And eliminate zero-hour contracts. And increase the burden on directors to ensure the truth of reports they sign off on. And have a memorial at every workplace for every worker who died on site, including during construction. And make companies more liable for subcontractors’ safety, including fatigue and avenues to/from the workplace. And ban freeloading non-members from collective contracts. And get rid of fire at will legislation. And have a living minimum wage.
That lot gets opposition from tories, but most of them simply support a worker’s right to life.
The question is why you wouldn’t support policies as proposed in that article on Venezuela. The article makes clear that the sort of policies you mention are just making accomodation with the property owning classes which does not work. Do you disagree with this and if so why?
The answer is that I don’t have a particular ideological problem with the proposed policies, but given that I look at these things on a case by case basis I do not have enough information about the Venezualan economy to firmly commit either way.
But my second response was more to the fact that the specific policies in Venezuala are irrelevant, because the right are vehemently opposed to any policy that puts worker or public welfare ahead of their ability to extract the maximum possible buck from the country.
So bringing up relatively extreme left wing policies and then touting that as to “why people on the right are so opposed to left wing economics” is a camouflage of tory greed, because tories are equally opposed to much more moderate policies, too.
hi mcflock,
“Personally, I reckon NZ should bring back the hundred mile limit for heavy goods vehicles.”
couldnt agree more.
this is one of my hobby horses.
we have a big electric railway running up most of the centre (sorry northland) of this skinny land. ideal for moving loads.
i can handle waiting an extra day for something to travel the country.
get these trucks off my roads.
it’s more efficient, safer for other road users, and adds diversity to the transport infrastructure. Can’t be a bad thing.
Also, reduces the maintenance costs to the road. Those super trucks greatly increase the wear and tear.
There was some rail up in Northland but most of it’s not used any more 🙁
Yeah. When it was privatised many of the branch lines were ripped up or abandoned. Central Otago is another.
Fucking stupid.
Especially since the roads up north are getting washed out by torrential rain and floods a few times a year! It would be awesome to catch a fast train straight through to Whangarei and Kerikeri without the risk of death one currently faces going through the Dome Valley and the Brynderwyns (boy racers & middle aged maniacs are common)
It seems right whingers like socialist policies even more with the European Central Bank printing $1.8 trillion in a new quantative easing program.
Gosman taking one economy and taring all socialist economies with the same brush makes you out to be foolish.
And completely destroys you argument.
You are talking about Venezuela it has a very long history of despotic leader’s
Mainly right wing murderous fascists.
Putin is a freemarketeer.
But he is a despot fascist.
For every left wing despot leader their are 10 right wing fascists.
Neither are good for their country.
So the likes of Singapore.
Is an example.
That works but its not perfect.
Venezuelanalysis – the website Gosman likes to selectively quote from, has this poll out yesterday:
Despite all the concern some of the RWNJs have shown over toilet paper and condoms, it seems the Venezuelans themselves are still Chavistas.
Venezuelaanalysis.com has previously received funding from the Venezuelan Government through the Ministry of Culture. It also has had a linkage to the Tele Sur media outlet, funded by the Venezuelan Government.
By the standards you have set in previous posts Molly, this would disqualify it as a credible source of information?
So who are ‘International Consulting Services’. A well known, credible and independent source of polling information?
Well, I can’t verify that unfortunately, because there doesn’t seem to be very much information out there about them at all outside of their own website. Started late 2013. No offices it seems. No specific personal listed. Only work they seem to have done is 6 polls on Venezuelan voters preferences. No methodology or references listed for those polls.
By now I’m not surprised to find the polls all paint a rosy picture of support for the Government.
Other purpose of site seems to be to provide news about Venezuela that has a striking similarity to the ‘official’ news off the Govt. Tele Sur media.
Yeah right. That’s all credible then!
Here’s some info. I found from a media outlet calling themselves “The Independent’. Haven’t got time to research them Molly, but they say bad things about the Venezuelan situation and Government, so no doubt they are a RW propaganda site funded by the U.S. government.sarc.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/corruption-falling-oil-prices-and-talk-of-a-coup-the-end-of-chavezs-socialist-dream-in-venezuela-10060576.html
Why are right wingers obsessed by Venezuela? Is it because they can’t manage substantive criticism of Scandinavia?
Or just that they’re keeping very, very quiet about Honduras?
Personally, I only mentioned Venezuela because Morrisey kept posting articles about it.
Governments suppressing human rights and freedoms and committing violence against citizens concerns me where ever it occurs.
If the Scandinavian countries start acting that way I’ll be the first here to start pointing the finger.
But in the meantime it is the Venezuelan Government that is following the route towards removal of freedoms and human rights, and ultimately the violent suppression of opposition from Venezuelan citizens.
I would love to have events prove me wrong on that, but I predict that when if and that end game comes, some posters here will be acting as apologists for that suppression.
You mean like the way you act as an apologist for the Party that destroyed collective bargaining and enabled Mike Sabin?
PS: Honduras.
No. Don’t mean that at all OAB, and I’m not biting on any of your red herrings.
Lost sheep, I mixed you up with Gosman. You both put forward similar arguments, and don’t listen very often to considered responses. I apologise for that.
I don’t apologise for using your own link on a previous comment to point out a contradiction in your assertions.
(BTW: I searched a few of the authors on Venezuela analysis and found out quite a lot. Are you sure you know how to use Google effectively?)
And I thought you were interested in debating content. Not playing he said, she said. That said 😉 , are you going to discuss any of the points in the article or are we just going to play commenter tag?
Do you think the article’s (asserted) fact that most Venezuelans are still Chavistas, has something to do with the fact that there was a concerted effort to ensure that all Venezuelans had access to – and are aware of – their rights under the constitution?
Or do you think it is the intent and implementation of the Bolivarian missions that keeps the poor optimistic that they can ride out the difficulties?
(PS. Do you read the links to the governments response to your noble concerns regarding toilet paper and condoms?)
It seems right whingers like socialist policies even more with the European Central Bank printing $1.8 trillion in a new quantative easing program.
Gosman taking one economy and taring all socialist economies with the same brush makes you out to be foolish.
And completely destroys you argument.
You are talking about Venezuela it has a very long history of despotic leader’s
Mainly right wing murderous fascists.
Putin is a freemarketeer.
But he is a despot fascist.
For every left wing despot leader their are 10 right wing fascists.
Neither are good for their country.
So the likes of Singapore.
Is an example.
That works but its not perfect.
At the moment Brazilian owners of transport companies are busy with the first stages of a coup. Their inspiration seems to be Pinochet. I think all businesses taking part should be nationalised without compensation. The other things you mention will be necessary shortly as well.
Thanks for being so open in your support to policies that I find so abhorent. You are at least not trying to hide your true motivation behind the cloak of moderation.
I do find it funny in a tragic kind of way that left wing ‘solutions’ to problems caused by other leftist policies are so brutal and damaging to individual rights.
Thanks for supporting a nascent military coup which would take rights away from almost everyone, up to and including the right to life. My true motivation in the case I mentioned is to support democracy. If that can’t be done moderately, so be it.
“The nationalization of all centers of distribution and the supply chain of food items and other basic items, including supermarket and pharmacy chains, to be under the democratic control of workers, also under the Socialist Workers’ Council.”
Why yes I would be all for this Gosman, we would be able to pay a living wage and give our state workers and politicians a higher annual payrise, certainly above the 1.6 % mark our dictator Comandante Key has/is imposing.
many times plus one…
Again thanks for the honest answer. It confirms in my mind why it is vital to oppose left wing politics. Not to do so risks great harm being done to society.
Maggie told you there was no such thing as society. Bad disciple!
heh..!
Unlike many leftists I don’t blindly follow what adherents of my political philosophy come out with.
Can someone point me or give me a link to where somewhere in past comments Gosman espoused his version of what being left is for him? I am sure that someone bookmarked such a delightfully ironic piece of resistance.
I don’t think he means he is a lefty. He just has a problem constructing non-ambiguous sentences.
You need a holiday Gosman as your sounding like your suffering from that toxic illness ‘over exposure to Pete G syndrome’ a particularly nasty condition we all get exposed too. I suggest you come up North and I will take you fishing.
And while your here you can do some rural door knocking, god knows the National candidate needs all the support he can get, after Joyce slapped the local farmers on the back of their red necks and rejected their local farm boy hero.
Just bring a straw hat some chewing tobacco, and for Christ sake leave that ACT baby poo’s jacket of yours at home.
A related question to the point I raised about Venezuela.
Are leftists generally happy demonising a large section of society as being essentially traitors for simply doing what basic economic philosophy predicts they will do given the sort of conditions imposed upon them?
If I run a business and the government imposes rules that reduce my profits significantly why am I at fault if i decide no longer supply at the level I was doing so previously? Surely I am just reacting to what the State has done in a manner that i am entitled to do just as workers should be entitled to strike if their wages or conditions are reduced.
answer to the first question: yes, because people are moral agents, not slaves to economic philosophy
as to the second question, you make the assumption that you’re at fault, when actually tobacco and alcohol regulation have those outcomes in mind. Do you have a more specific hypothetical?
The specific scenario (not hypothetical) in question relates to Venezuela blaming suppliers for causing shortages when they impose price controls on items that make it difficult to get returns from selling those items. If I forced you to sell an item at a price that you deemed to be insufficient for your requirements why would you be at fault if you stopped selling the item?
Well, it is hypothetical because I’m not a supplier of whatever it is in venezuela you’re bitching about.
But even so it doesn’t match the scenario you intially outlined. Say a supplier is paying 50 for transport and getting a profit of 30. Your initial comment seemed to indicate that you are already cool supplying x at a profit of 30. If your transport costs go down from 50 to 40, the problem is that you (being a tory) would pocket the extra 10 in addition to your 30 profit.
In that case, in the simplistic environment a price control of -10 would still give you a profit of 30 (which you’re happy to supply at, remember?) and pass the savings on to consumers.
If you as a producer was all “damn government forcing me to give up my extra 10, I’m outta here”, I’d say “don’t let the door hit your arse on the way out, I’ll do the job and keep the 30 that you were previously happy with”.
So to boil it down – should we blame people from acting in a toxic way when they have been immersed in a toxic environment for a long time.
Of course not. You blame the people (sociopaths) with the power and wealth who deliberately created the toxic environment: neolibs, banksters and right wingers.
after three months fucken xmas-hols..
..and being back for about two weeks..
..parliament takes/needs another break this week…(!)
..w.t.f..!
and who paid stuart nash [deleted] per month ‘support’ he received in the year before being elected to parliament..?
..exactly who ‘owns’ him…?
[lprent: Cite a source if you want to claim a ‘fact’ that is as potentially defamatory as that one.
I am unaware of anything reasonably reputable that said he was paid anything on a monthly basis. A two week ban for putting this site into jeopardy for not citing a source.
A further two weeks for making up a ‘fact’ that you can get off by pointing to a source for a monthly payment that would have been sufficient for us to allow.
BTW: Calculations of averages won’t count by the way because you didn’t state that as a basis of calculation in your comment. FFS: that was a bloody stupid comment of the exact type that could cause US to get into legal danger. What in the hell were you thinking! ]
and what do they expect from him..for that ‘support’..?
u ask me to cite a fucken source..
.and then u block me from posting it..?
[lprent: Not blocked. It goes into the spam queue. I read the spam queue last in the moderation cycle. That is because I check for comments that should not have gone into it (ie false positives).
However I notice that
a. You didn’t post the link in any comment that you put there.
b. Ignored why I said I banned you which was because you didn’t provide the link to substantiate a potentially defamatory fact (CV and adam did it for you).
c. Ignored any effect it could potentially have on our site.
So I’ll remove the 2 weeks. You now just have a two weeks ban. I will refrain from following my natural inclination to just ban you permanently as being a danger to the site and to me.
However in view of your attitude which appear to be all about your wounded pride and not about what you actually got banned for… If I see you ever make a comment stating a potentially defamatory fact without a link again I will ban you permanently.
If you want to state something as a fact that involves a person or company and may be viewed defamatory on the face of it, then it is your responsibility to provide the required support for what you claim is true in the comment. You will note that virtually everyone else links or sources where they heard something. There is a reason for that. They are aware that it is something that may affect the site and we intensely dislike people putting us at risk
Moderators simply don’t have time to read everything in the newspaper or listen to the radio. We expect the person making an assertion of fact to provide enough information for us to check it out.
So if you are going to be so irresponsible to assert a fact and not back it WHEN you make the comment, I will treat you just as I would for any arsehole trying to make me waste time and resources in court. I will do so preemptively as an example to others. If you don’t like it, then I really don’t care. I care about my time more than I care about your pride… ]
Ahhh. lovely…… a month!! of no more RSI from rapid scrolling fingers Thanks
thought I should do this on behalf of PU
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11410292
[lprent: Agreed, that lets him off two weeks. However he still didn’t provide the link that is required if you want to claim a potentially defamatory fact on the site. ]
onya cv
Iprent – Didn’t Chris Trotter mention this on National radio this afternoon?
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/thepanel/audio/20169254/the-panel-with-amanda-millar-and-chris-trotter-part-2
The last minute
And was it not in the Herald?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11410292
Oh and for/from Phil
http://whoar.co.nz/2015/comment-whoar-was-stuart-nash-paid-4000-per-month-support-in-the-yr-before-the-election/
[lprent: Read my note more carefully this time. The specific fact that philu said was that Nash was receiving a stipend per month.
He then didn’t provide a source so I can’t verify it.
What part of definition of “defamation” do you not understand? Claiming some false fact as being true is at the heart of it, especially if it involves a clearly malicious intent. I have to pass all these types of comments through as a risk to me of legal action. I can’t do that without facts and as far as I am concerned it is up to commenters to provide the links to facts.
If he’d used the word ‘average’ in there somewhere, it wouldn’t have been a problem. However he didn’t, no doubt for malicious reasons to make the ‘story’ seem better – which is what defamation is intended to limit.
Now I’m sure that we will have some conspiracy nuts going on about Labour or the Greens or something (and I suspect that I can just vaguely sense Bomber preparing to be a complete pillock somewhere), however part of my task in this site is to prevent people dragging me and this site into court because they want to make a fool of themselves.
If you want to claim a possibly defamatory fact on this site then them to the bloody source or get banned.
I’m afraid that I really don’t like people trying to drag me into court. ]
Iprent – my point was simply to point out, whilst phil, may write odd, and it can be hard to read – I do not believe he would deliberately make your life hell – via a court case. Sloppy is my take – but in a 24 hour news cycle – with a government hell bent on dirty politics – non reflective, reactions are a reality of this process.
It is also, and I’ll paraphrase Chris Trotter – “there is a hell of a story there!”
And yes, I’ve very well aware of how defamation works in this country. I’m very careful how I write here, indeed my style of writing does provoke some to attack me. Because I allude, rather than name names
To late on the conspiracy nut angle – blubber boy beat everyone. I will not link to that idiot sorry – I don’t want hits for him – but Google it. It is a sad sad piece of propaganda.
Look – sometimes I think you need help doing this – you work long hours and have a family – and what you write sounds like a tired person. This not an attack – just, you seem stretched to the limit. I thought there was a collective running this? Should not others be standing up, and helping you out!?
We all have full lives and demands on our time. Basically comments that assert facts without links or source are a waste of time for any on be reading the site. But with our very limited moderation time, ones that attack people with anything that might be viewed as a malicious intent are just a danger to us and they waste our time a lot. We have to spend time verifying them.
If people want to comment here then they had better keep those facts in mind because my general preference would be to start booting them off site four longer periods of time.
We get 30k-50k unique people reading the site every month. We have hundreds and sometimes a thousand commenting each month, with more bthan 10k comments. Commenters need to take responsibility for their comments if the site is to keep going.
On a personal note anyone have a disastrous year last year especially if you’r poor ?
I put it down to the fact that Keys father was born 100 yrs ago and to celebrate Key decided to make as many people who hate his guts pay the best part of their year in misery a little known but probably personal truth
Plus the usual bullying expenses of an election as well as a fully integrated police state and a boat loads of lies ,deceit, coercion, club membership to the CIA old boys FBI pension club The Federal reserve community of tight wads ,The NY Stock exchange ,Mossad ,THe Five Eyes wave your democracy byebyes club, Tppa club not fully defined yet but after we get this Iraqi thing sorted its should be relatively easy to break it to the country by that stage they should be pretty fucked in the head and now with the ability to act as president Key will be able to take a holiday what a relief for us all. can I sabotage his plane to Hawaii no just leave it up to those hes probably pissed off more that a 100 Kiwi soldiers have become targets of.
Why cant we have the cunt for TREASON is that reserved for Britain to make the decision
i have just noticed that maori tv is screening what looks like an excellent doco-series on world war one..
..episode two screens @ 9.30 2nite..
..and episode one is available on maori tv website..
http://www.maoritelevision.com/tv/shows/first-world-war
Why are both these articles headlined ‘rude cake woman’ rather than ‘shockingly inappropriate Managers’?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/better-business/66827105/rude-cake-baker-gets-record-168k-in-damages
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11410412
Because fundamentally the problem is the Managers here.
Constructive dismissal of more than one staff = venting in private which has then not only been pried into by these Managers but they maliciously spread the illegally accessed info to other employees in the industry specifically to ruin her career.
Hopefully the massive payout Cake Lady got will put off idiot managers from nosing about in staff FB pages and launching totally inappropriate vendettas. Well done Cake Lady!
Indeed.
Its further evidence of NZs major problem with utterly shockingly bad Managers as reported in various surveys which show our Managers are overpaid & incompetent.
And further evidence that our Media likes to pander to Management side of things.
Hmmm surely the answer must be to pay these people at the top even more
I wonder why the NZCU board hasn’t fired all the fuckers responsible for this utter disgrace. Their members should be insisting on it.
The problem is that they want to be paid as if they’re world class superstars when they’re hardly even garage band quality.
Big props to RNZ reporters who did a solid job focusing on the shittyness of the Managers this morning 🙂
Peter Sinclair reviews Merchants of Doubt, a documentary how the climate denial industry and their shills have adopted tobacco company tactics to market doubt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJIW5yVk__w
edit: trailer and review
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jrF0aGqhyo
http://variety.com/2014/film/reviews/telluride-film-review-merchants-of-doubt-1201297810/
Rupert’s short on liars.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/mar/01/rebekah-brooks-rehired-rupert-murdoch-work-us-news-corp
Just what a struggling economy needs.
/
http://www.euractiv.com/sections/elections/estonia-swears-youngest-eu-prime-minister-301189
Ideologically, the Reform Party has consistently advocated market liberalism.[11] The Reform Party is the most economically liberal in the political landscape of Estonia.
The party supports Estonian 0% corporate tax on re-invested income and wants to eliminate the dividend tax.
The party wanted to cut flat income tax rate from 22% (in 2007) to 18% by 2011. Due to economic crisis the campaign for cutting income tax rate was put on hold with the tax rate at 21% in 2008 and 2009.
The party used to oppose VAT general rate increase until late spring 2009 when it changed its position in the light of dire economic crisis and the need to find more money for budget. VAT was increased from 18% to 20% on 1 July 2009.
The party wants eventually to end conscription and introduce a voluntary army.[13]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonian_Reform_Party#Ideology
The neoliberal/financial/bankster outfit have a very effective playbook that they roll out via media outlets, paid “experts”, tame academics and well funded think tanks.
And the Left still has nothing to push back with.
If a nation has armed forces, I personally prefer there is compulsory CONSCRIPTION for all youth to train and serve for a couple of years at least, rather than the voluntary system, because in the latter case it is the poor, the less privileged and the “underclass” that will “volunteer” while the rich and their well-to-do privileged kids go scot-free from serving, and the rich privileged “leaders” will have the audacity to tell every one else, except themselves and their own progeny to show “some guts”!
How nasty, unfair and shitty is that!
So – how committed are Labour to electorally ‘clipping the wings’ of this John Key led National Government?
How many folks here agree that the ‘commonsense’ / electorally ‘savvy’ thing for Labour to do in the Northland by-election, is to campaign hard on the issues, but for Labour Party supporters to VOTE for Winston Peters, in order to stop National winning back this pivotal seat, and being left with 59 out of 121 MPs?
Who is electorally the ‘main’ political ‘enemy’ here?
‘Unite the many to defeat the few’?
If I was a Northland voter – I’d be voting Winston Peters.
End of story.
Penny Bright
Yes and you distracted from the topic of the By-Election on Jackos show today, thought I got some traction going especially when that dude called after me trying to blurt out the Sabin issue. Anyway Jenny good effort on the proposed Wellington super city scam.
” Jackos show’
What and where and when was it?