I’m sure trump will trump Obama if he ever lasts as long. He’s setting up some big ones by shitting on the military – they’ll want to rub his stinking face in his statementa of their ability and will. Thus he will warmonger and all nations will get pulled in – the Pacific, Europe, the east, the med – where he looks is where strife will increase.
A bit of a stretch to characterise Trump as “non-war mongering”. If my recollection is right, the only issue that was pointed to in relation to his “non-war mongering” was Russia.
The guy said he was going to bomb ISIS members and families. Right off the top of my head, he’s been openly far too supportive of Israel, threatening towards Iran and saber rattling with China.
We’ve no idea of Trump’s legal interpretation, what targeting standards apply, what strategic objectives these strikes support.
Obama also had the prerogative to launch drones with no oversight. And he did. Trump is merely using a system of non-accountability set up under Obama and used by Obama.
The guy said he was going to bomb ISIS members and families. Right off the top of my head, he’s been openly far too supportive of Israel, threatening towards Iran and saber rattling with China.
Yep. Everything I saw indicated that he was itching for a war.
“If my recollection is right, the only issue that was pointed to in relation to his “non-war mongering” was Russia.”
Not quite. It was that he was isolationist, so no foreign wars (war on terrorism excluded). The Russian thing was in relationship to Clinton wasn’t it?
Trump is a nationalist, who is saving the world from WW3 by only bombing targets that are Russian approved as that will prevent WW3 with Russia.
Clinton was literally just the scary vagina, who can’t use emails correctly, is a war monger and will ring in a nuclear holocaust on Jan 22nd for breakfast.
“Trump is merely using a system of non-accountability set up under Obama and used by Obama.”
It seems that Trump can’t stand even the tiny little bit of heat from Obama’s system of non-accountability and may be trying to pass the decisions and accountability down the chain.
Given the way Devyn Springer peddles obfuscatory socialist “bulshytt” (per Neal Stephenson), it’s pretty rich for him to claim “…the liberal creation of the “alt-left” is part of the historical assault on the left by those willfully apt to compromise with fascism.” The German socialists’ support of fascism on the basis of “After Hitler, us” should be a little harder to forget than that. Those of us who would have been more like the “social fascists” of the SDP that the socialists refused to compromise with to defeat fascism certainly don’t forget it.
It is not an end to identity politics we seek, rather a politic that encompasses the realities of different identities infused with class analysis and observation of power dynamics.
The version of identity politics that Springer, and some others on the left, are criticising, is one that I have long called “liberal feminism”. I know there are issues with the use of “liberal” as a negative. For me a liberal feminist has always been one who accepts the status quo of capitalism and its patriarchal, imperialist culture – only want equality for women within that system e.g. Judith Collins.
But maybe “conservative feminism” would be a better term.
I see Springer refers to Angela Davis as a positive example of an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist feminist:
As longtime political activist, writer, and academic Angela Davis (who Wolcott surely would categorize as “alt-left” by his standards) explains in her latest book Freedom Is A Constant Struggle, we “find our strength in collectivities,” and through the “intersectionality of struggles, not only identities.” It is in this same breath that the left wishes to not disrupt or dismiss identity politics, rather move beyond identity politics into a deeper analysis of institutions of power which can easily be infused by the layers of identity-based oppression.
I like this because Davis was also my choice for an example of a more anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist feminist, in my last post on EveningReport.
It is about power. And Springer, via Davis explains that the regimes of power can only be dismantled by collective actions from ordinary people – from the bottom up.
I spluttered and laughed at yesterday’s link. There is no more an ‘alt-left’ than there is an ‘alt-right’. (I guess some will disagree with my take on ‘alt-right’, but hey)
There is a radical center or a liberal center or (call it what you want) status quo that’s kind of lost its sheen – people vote against it when the opportunities arise.
There are some people who hold authoritarian political views that are a part of what we’d normally call the ‘right’ who have been labeled the ‘alt-right’ as though their views are somehow utterly disconnected with the more general body of ‘the right’. They aren’t. They are a continuation or extrapolation.
There are also people on the left who hold authoritarian political views and they (just as the suppossed ‘alt-right’ represent an certain extrapolation of left thought and politics…
The center is lashing in all directions and seeking to cast anything that challenges the status quo as thoroughly despicable…it’s a kind of political infanticide.
On the other hand, there is the non-authoritarian reaction to all this nonsense. And that non-authoritarian streak doesn’t can’t speak against so-called identity politics because they (‘identity politics’) are a fundamental expression of power – asymmetries of power.
We can fall down a collapsing rabbit hole and be buried by meaningless debates on such things and ‘left and alt-left’ and ‘right and alt-right’, or we can draw a meaningful and revealing distinction between authoritarianism (of the left and right) and non-authoritarianism (of the left and right)
I didn’t mean to suggest individual approaches to ‘identity politics’ are beyond criticism. For example, like Corolyn -nth, I’ve long been critical of the accommodation sought by liberal feminism . But there can be no objection to basic analyses of power per se from non-authoritarians.
If alt-right is known by its seeds, then are you not saying the same as me? That the so-called ‘alt-right’ is just an extension or expression of the right?
If we allow it (and some imagined ‘alt-left’) to be separated out, then ‘the centre’ gets to construct a ‘basket of deplorables’ into which it can toss all and sundry who speak against it by the simple act of labeling any criticism ‘alt’ (ie ‘unacceptable) right or left…as opposed to their contained and constrained ideas of, I guess, ‘liberal’ left and’ liberal’ right
In other words, by granting those terms legitimacy, we’d acquiesce to giving the ‘Project Fear of ‘the centre’ a certain degree of form, definition and efficacy.
As already said, rather than slicing and dicing everything to the ‘nth degree’ drawing a quite simple and obvious line between authoritarian and non-authoritarian is far more useful.
I agree it is a subset of rught and structured to appeal to those who don’t identify as right so it is its own thing as well. Because it is disguised it needs to be called out.
I think an authoritarian axis of analysis is also helpful.
There’s something particularly delightful about seeing someone using phrases such as “…which reads like a tabloid-writer grabbed a thesaurus and attempted to assault the left…” or “Logical fallacies and facetious arguments are made quickly within Wolcott’s “article” when he ungracefully pulls quotes…” to argue against someone else’s opinion, when those sentiments are equally (if not more) validly applicable to his own piece.
Espiner grilling Joyce re Super this morning and claimed that 0.6% of $1000.00 is 6 cents. And then had the temerity to call such a balls up a “rounding error”. Epic fail.
It’s not just Trump who is wrong about Islam. All the monotheists are wrong when you take a step back and see how their actions are basically the opposite of what they preach.
Jews ,Christians and Muslims… they are all tarred with the same brush. Blind faith in something supernatural at best, or patriarchal power hungry bastard at worst.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Avoid politics and religion, and all topics likely to excite argument, or to lead to warmth of feeling or expression…
Avoid whatever is personal in tone or allusion; neither flatter nor make observations of an offensive character; do not even indulge in badinage unless with friends, who will not be likely to put a false construction on your words, or to take in earnest what you man in sport…
(In discussion); Never charge him with having made a wilful misstatement; suggest a correction, rather than make it, and if the point in question is immaterial, it is best to let it pass unnoticed. (I think this is one good piece of advice to adopt.)
If addressed in an offensive tone,… even when you perceive an intention to annoy or insult, either pass it over..or..withdraw…Such a thing as a ‘scene’ is, above all things, to be avoided.
Seems to me that this type of approach has passed to us through our majorly British connections and why we have been dubbed (by a Brit who thinks he is better,) as ‘the passionless people’.
May we have lots of discussions, with offensive tone sometimes, and limit ourselves a little so we have only one or two “scenes” a day – too many and they cease to be interesting events that stand out form the normal intercourse.
And let’s have interesting comments that might break this constricting rule of Britishness, xenophobia and lack of learning. Do not interlard your conversation with French and other languages. (Moi!) If you are tempted into a Greek or Latin quotation, apologise to the ladies for its use, or translate it…Puns and slang terms are to be avoided as much as possible.
Well, how do you like that ladies, get back to your embroidery and female duties, and don’t give out that you have any education or ideas of your own. Not the thing, you know. Feeling smothered, mother? Don’t frown girly. Look pretty, talk pretty, be agreeable, and conform or else you won’t find a husband and being married is really the only thing for a woman of good family and repute. For rabid feminists who don’t understand sarcasm, I’m channelling that male society.
Let’s keep on having informed, honest, interesting discussion all pointed towards building knowledge, understanding and the ability to form thoughtful scenarios to be used as a base for shaping policy to keep our world in balance at a high level of wellbeing which is above just accumulation or exchange of money or virtual tokens.
hey, stop all those pesky abortion, and we are not gonna cut your funding.
(lucky, the signer of this document has a penis and can thus walk away from any female he fucked and got pregnant, so clearly this is a win win – cause he wont ever need an abortion, or a pap smear, or birth control or any such thing, cause rich too.)
Not the first time you’ve thrown that riposte in relation to the debacle around abortion in the US .
But do you really mean to suggest that the welfare of Syrian women is somehow lesser than that of US women – that no challenge to ‘Roe versus Wade’ would have outweighed the sum total suffering that would have been inflicted upon Syrian women with a ‘no-fly’ zone (Clinton’s Syrian preference)?
And what of the many Syrian women who right now can no longer access abortions because they are unfortunate enough to live in areas ruled over by western backed and armed militias/terrorists? Is that of any lesser significance than women in some US states being denied abortion services?
What about women in Libya having no access to abortion services (or much of anything else) since the western engineered overthrow of Gaddafi? Or the women in Afghanistan who enjoyed a great leap backwards in their rights as a direct consequence of western meddling there, after having already taking a backwards tumble with the ascendancy of the Taliban?
Iraqi women? It doesn’t matter that they’re negotiating a decimated health service/system due to years of western sanctions, two invasions and a clusterfuck of an occupation? (Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s not “really” an occupation)
The direction of travel in the US with abortion is lamentable. But I’m a bit lost when it gets played off against suffering elsewhere in a way that would suggest that that suffering (potential and/or actual) is somehow inconsequential or secondary.
Thank fuck there’s less bombing of women going on in Syria than there would have been with a ‘no-fly’ zone. Does that make the shit around abortion in the US okay? No – just as no challenge to Roe versus Wade would not in any way have excused the imposition of a ‘no-fly’ zone in Syria.
“But do you really mean to suggest that the welfare of Syrian women is somehow lesser than that of US women ”
No, I don’t. I’m not the one that pitted those two politics against each other.
I think it’s highly problematic to make arguments politically where one is trying to trade off one sets of women’s rights against another. As soon as you start weighing up abortion against Syria, you’re in fucked up territory. It’s even more problematic for left wing men to do this without risking minimising some pretty fundamental human rights of women. And I’d say it’s almost impossible to do that since the US election.
mate if we have to stop working for the welfare of women until other women in other countries have rights we would still be burning women on the stakes on grounds of witchcraft.
But i guess welfare for women has absolutely no meaning if one has a penis.
It makes it so much easier chastising women who might not be bombed as greedy and selfish and why won’t you just shut up until the women in syria ain’t being bombed anymore or the women in Saudi Arabia get to drive a car, or the girls in Afghanistan are not being married of at 13, or the Duggar women in the US stop breeding like cattle.
Another 4 minute wait to get onto site, and then from Home to Open Mike a further 4 minutes. Even the statcounter readout has to wake itself up, shake, and start counting again! Are machines allowed to discriminate, is this fair, wot abart equality then. I am in the slow queue while other b…s go flying by because I haven’t got a new toy with all the bells and whistles. Sniffs…
Sabine
The bloke might have to be careful himself as I think that syphillus is on the rise, a nasty VD.
The thing for an ultimate authoritarian government of the future would be to ban sexual intercourse. and rapes would go down, births would go down, and we would be a less stressed planet and people. Maybe. Ordinary living might be better but wars would go up where men are away from their civilised lives to a theatre of war where you ad lib the moves so you can manage to live. Then there is an excuse for letting the soul go and doing whatever you can get away with. So women need to tame the world thoughtfully rather than with emotion or admonishment, fat chance but a noble cause.
Did you try BMs answer from a couple days ago that blocks secure.statcounter.com? It worked for me, joe90 and maybe weka. It’s also sped up a few other sites like HuffPo and Salon that would be very slow cause of loading lots of shite. Yes, I did a brief check on it before installing and it seems legit.
okay Andre thanks. I copied the link but don’t dash in to muck my machine around, as if I would know how to do that purposefully. I wonder why we suddenly need this new antiblocker.
Nikki Kaye is getting publicity rubbishing Jacinda Arden for a Super flip-flop.
Gold medal gymnastics material that, to be part of a whole big team doing a big group flip-flop and being so aware as to discern in the spinning landscape that someone else could be doing the same.
How come the spinning one’s perception gets the attention?
All I can see in an Herald article by a Nat cheerleader, in which Ardern gets all the running. Kaye just sounds like her nose is a bit out of joint – doesn’t get the attention of Bennett in the media.
Ben Carson Refers to Slaves as ‘Immigrants’ in First Remarks to HUD Staff
by LIAM STACK, New York Times, March 6, 2017
Ben Carson’s first full week as secretary of Housing and Urban Development got off to a rough start on Monday after he described African slaves as “immigrants” during his first speech to hundreds of assembled department employees. The remark, which came as part of a 40-minute address on the theme of America as “a land of dreams and opportunity,” was met with swift outrage online.
Mr. Carson turned his attention to slavery after describing photographs of poor immigrants displayed at the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration. These new arrivals worked long hours, six or seven days a week, with little pay, he said. And before them, there were slaves.
“That’s what America is about, a land of dreams and opportunity,’’ he said. “There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less. But they too had a dream that one day their sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, great-grandsons, great-granddaughters, might pursue prosperity and happiness in this land.”
The comparison was first reported by USA Today and quickly drew the ire of social media users who attacked the secretary, who is African-American, for what they saw as racially insensitive comments. …..
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
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Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
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The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
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Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
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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 ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
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. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
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. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
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. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Wansolwara The news media’s crucial role in climate change and environment journalism was the focus of The University of the South Pacific’s Journalism Programme 2024 World Press Freedom Day celebrations. The European Union Ambassador to the Pacific, Barbara Plinkert, and Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Henry Puna were the chief ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Adams, Professor of Corporate Law & Academic Director of UNE Sydney campus, University of New England Last August, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) launched legal proceedings against Qantas. The consumer watchdog accused the airline of selling thousands of tickets ...
This episode of A View From Afar was recorded LIVE on May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, May 5, 2024 at 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Taylor, Assistant Professor, Bond University Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures At the crux of the critical response to Luca Guadagnino’s new movie Challengers is one word: “sexy”. The film charts a love triangle between three up-and-coming tennis players: Tashi (Zendaya), ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jenny Stewart, Professor of Public Policy, ADFA Canberra, UNSW Sydney For years, First Nations people have been telling governments they want to be listened to. In particular, they want more ownership of the programs and services that are supposed to help them. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Why do trees have bark? Julien, age 6, Melbourne. This is a great question, Julien. We are so familiar with bark on trees, that most of us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Nasser, Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy, University of Technology Sydney PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is an important ligament in the knee. It runs from the thigh bone (femur) to the shin bone (tibia) and helps stabilise ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne I covered the May 2 United Kingdom local government elections for The Poll Bludger. The Blackpool South parliamentary byelection was also held, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deanna Grant-Smith, Professor of Management, University of the Sunshine Coast The federal government has announced a “Commonwealth Prac Payment” to support selected groups of students doing mandatory work placements. Those who are studying to be a teacher, nurse, midwife or social ...
We round up everything coming to streaming services this week, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, ThreeNow, Neon and TVNZ+. If you love a dark comedy: Bodkin (Netflix, May 9)An English podcaster, an Irish podcaster and American podcaster walk into a pub and…make a TV show? ...
By Eleisha Foon, RNZ Pacific senior journalist A Pacific regionalism academic has called out New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS and says the security deal “raises serious questions for the Pacific region”. Auckland University of Technology academic Dr Marco de Jong ...
How worried should we be about the cloud? This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. I currently have a few thousand unread emails languishing in my inbox, mostly old marketing newsletters and piles of unread science journal press releases. I have a similar number ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nuurrianti Jalli, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies College of Arts and Sciences Department of Languages, Literature, and Communication Studies, Northern State University Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Southeast Asian governments not only have to deal with the virus but also with the false ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Murakami Wood, Professor of Critical Surveillance and Securities Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa The skyline of Riyadh, the capital and largest city of the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia.(Shutterstock) There is a long history of planned city building by both governments ...
The LIVE Recording of A View from Afar podcast will begin today at 12:45pm May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment of ...
The Boil Up’s Lucinda Bennett considers the oyster – from freshness to pearls to the joy of shucking your own. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. In Carmen Maria Machado’s short story ‘Eight Bites’, a woman begins her last supper before bariatric surgery with “a cavalcade ...
Asia Pacific Report A group of 65 Auckland University academics have written an open letter to vice-chancellor Dawn Freshwater criticising the institution’s stance over students protesting in solidarity with Palestine. They have called on her administration to “support” the students who were denied permission to establish an “overnight encampment” by ...
The Student Volunteer Army is on the march, generating approximately 1.6 million hours of volunteering from roughly 35,000 secondary school students in just five years. For Rebekah Brown, the pathway to volunteering started with her singing coach. With a passion for the arts, the suggestion to volunteer at Acting Antics, ...
Keeping up with online communication can be exhausting, so Fran Barclay enlisted the help of Meta’s new ‘intelligent assistant’ to respond to all her messages. Could her mates tell the difference? For centuries, technology has ruled the ways in which we communicate. From the dawn of written language, to the ...
Jamie Arbuckle, a councillor who has become an member of parliament, says he has settled into having two roles so comfortably he's going to keep both pay cheques. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of Wollongong Fifty years ago, Australian feminist Anne Summers denounced “the ideology of sexism” governing over so many women’s lives. Unfortunately, sexism is as lethal today as it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jose Antonio Lara-Hernandez, Senior Researcher in Architecture, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images The COVID-19 pandemic and the hybrid work patterns it fostered have changed the way we think about office space, and central business districts in general. While fears ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dale Boccabella, Associate Professor of Taxation Law, UNSW Sydney There’s a good reason your local volunteer-run netball club doesn’t pay tax. In Australia, various nonprofit organisations are exempt from paying income tax, including those that do charitable work, such as churches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marina Deller, Casual Academic, Creative Writing and English Literature, Flinders University NetflixComedy is opening up spaces for silences to be broken and trauma stories to be told. In 2018, Hannah Gadsby started a revolution with Nanette, asking audiences to rethink ...
The workplace can be a minefield of bad comms and passive aggression. Kinksters can help you navigate it. A friend and colleague recently gave me a compliment I loved. They told me I’d always been good at emotional communication and making people feel comfortable. “But I feel like it’s really ...
Even if some students are now just texting on their laptops. Stewart Sowman-Lund writes in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Councils from Horowhenua, Kāpiti, Wairarapa, the Hutt Valley, Porirua and Wellington City will meet this Friday to work together on a plan for a Greater Wellington region water deal. ...
Renowned musician, advocate, and proud born and raised daughter of Tauranga, Ria Hall, is announcing her candidacy for Mayor of Tauranga and Pāpāmoa Ward for the upcoming election on July 20th. ...
The new Aotearoa histories curriculum is rich with potential. There’s still work to be done, but the education minister’s criticisms about ‘balance’ miss the mark, argues primary school teacher Jessie Moss. In 2015, Ōtorohanga College students presented to parliament a petition signed by more than 10,000 people calling for a ...
For too long our so-called national bird has maintained its stranglehold on the economy of regional New Zealand. Thanks to the fast track legislation, we will have our revenge. Theories abound on what ails New Zealand’s economy. National leader Chris Luxon has posited that we’re negative, wet, whiny, and inward-looking; ...
Comment: The debate over the future relationship between news and social media is bringing us closer to a long-overdue reckoning. Social media isn’t trying to kill journalism, because social media has never really cared about journalism. Social media is resolutely in the attention business. News propels some attention — perhaps ...
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For the past 12 years, Georgia-Rose Brown has balanced on the brink of making an Olympic Games – but always landed gracefully on the wrong side. Reaching the Olympics is a dream the gymnast has harboured since she was a six-year-old; a dream that would dwindle every four years, yet ...
Late one afternoon in March 1860 a man in a thin green velveteen jacket and a wide-awake hat arrived on foot at a sheep station named Glenmark, about 65 kilometres north of Christchurch. The man was in his mid-fifties but he looked older. Several people who met him that day ...
If building one of Auckland’s possible waterfront stadiums was funded privately, it would need to hold a sold-out Ed Sherran concert every weekday for 25 years. That’s Rob Hamlin’s finding – he’s a senior marketing lecturer at the University of Otago. “It’s not going to happen; forget about it,” he ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A new Commonwealth Prac Payment will provide students with $319.50 a week when they are on clinical and professional placements. The payment will be means tested and start from July 1 next year, which ...
Asia Pacific Report About 500 people honoured Palestinian journalists in the heart of the New Zealand city of Auckland today for their brave coverage of Israel’s War on Gaza, now in its seventh month with almost 35,000 people killed, mostly women and children. Marking the annual May 3 World Press ...
The Government Communications Security Bureau denies hosting a foreign spying capability flagged by the watchdog, differentiating it from the system recently criticised. ...
RNZ News A group of academic staff at New Zealand’s largest university have expressed concern at the administration’s move to block a protest encampment that was planned to take place on campus calling for support for the rights of Palestinians. This week, the University of Auckland warned that while it ...
Genterwocky After a hard days marching, Sir Doocey calls in at the Village Tavern For a pint of ale and a pork pie. The grim villagers stare at him. “Do not be travelling on the forest road,” warns a crusty old beak. “And why is that, antique peasant?” Grins Sir ...
Political conferences after a party returns to power are usually a chance for some healthy, even unhealthy backslapping. Yet National Party president Sylvia Wood’s address to its mainland representatives on Saturday hardly contained the unalloyed delight that one might have expected following National’s escape from the wilderness of opposition. Yes, ...
Comment: Almost half the world is voting in national elections this year and artificial intelligence is the elephant in the room. There are genuine fears AI-generated or AI-edited deepfakes will potentially manipulate election outcomes not just in the US and UK, but critically in countries such as India. For that ...
Ahead of the reality franchise’s return to New Zealand, allow us to introduce the eight brides and grooms. Chuck on a veil and tie back your man bun, because it’s time to say “I do” to a new season of Married at First Sight NZ. The reality TV “social experiment” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
Ah, the non-war mongering president,
Update: Trump has approved at least 36 drone strikes or raids in 45 days—one every 1.25 days.
In Obama’s 8 yrs, only one 45-day period (in 2012, when CIA bombed Pak Taliban constantly) saw such numerous drone strikes.
Troubling: We’ve no idea of Trump’s legal interpretation, what targeting standards apply, what strategic objectives these strikes support.
For an alleged “non-interventionist” president, Trump is quite willing to OK a huge quantity of strikes so early in his presidency.
Finally: Trump admin’s absence of transparency + accountability, and vast increase in lethal strikes, is a terrible combo for democracy.
https://twitter.com/MicahZenko/status/838760996160344065
Thread,
…she persisted.
🗽 @leahmcelrath
We are at a critical point in our #resistance.
Trump is feeling the heat and melting down.
…
In many ways, that makes our situation more dangerous than ever before.
Trump knows he’s cornered. Cornered animals have nothing to lose.
https://twitter.com/leahmcelrath/status/838777751381360640
Lets bring back that peace loving leftist pres Obama then, only 26,000+ bombs last year and I’m sure they were all surgical strikes…
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/09/america-dropped-26171-bombs-2016-obama-legacy
I’m sure trump will trump Obama if he ever lasts as long. He’s setting up some big ones by shitting on the military – they’ll want to rub his stinking face in his statementa of their ability and will. Thus he will warmonger and all nations will get pulled in – the Pacific, Europe, the east, the med – where he looks is where strife will increase.
A bit of a stretch to characterise Trump as “non-war mongering”. If my recollection is right, the only issue that was pointed to in relation to his “non-war mongering” was Russia.
The guy said he was going to bomb ISIS members and families. Right off the top of my head, he’s been openly far too supportive of Israel, threatening towards Iran and saber rattling with China.
We’ve no idea of Trump’s legal interpretation, what targeting standards apply, what strategic objectives these strikes support.
Obama also had the prerogative to launch drones with no oversight. And he did. Trump is merely using a system of non-accountability set up under Obama and used by Obama.
Yep. Everything I saw indicated that he was itching for a war.
“If my recollection is right, the only issue that was pointed to in relation to his “non-war mongering” was Russia.”
Not quite. It was that he was isolationist, so no foreign wars (war on terrorism excluded). The Russian thing was in relationship to Clinton wasn’t it?
nah, mate you are getting this mixed up somehow.
Trump is a nationalist, who is saving the world from WW3 by only bombing targets that are Russian approved as that will prevent WW3 with Russia.
Clinton was literally just the scary vagina, who can’t use emails correctly, is a war monger and will ring in a nuclear holocaust on Jan 22nd for breakfast.
“Trump is merely using a system of non-accountability set up under Obama and used by Obama.”
It seems that Trump can’t stand even the tiny little bit of heat from Obama’s system of non-accountability and may be trying to pass the decisions and accountability down the chain.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/03/01/generals-may-launch-new-isis-raids-without-trump-s-ok.html
For those that read this bit on the supposed alt-left in yesterday’s OM,
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-06032017/#comment-1306856
a follow up piece,
https://medium.com/@DevynSpringer/the-alt-left-only-exists-to-liberals-ec0560910fe9#.6syl2xh11
Given the way Devyn Springer peddles obfuscatory socialist “bulshytt” (per Neal Stephenson), it’s pretty rich for him to claim “…the liberal creation of the “alt-left” is part of the historical assault on the left by those willfully apt to compromise with fascism.” The German socialists’ support of fascism on the basis of “After Hitler, us” should be a little harder to forget than that. Those of us who would have been more like the “social fascists” of the SDP that the socialists refused to compromise with to defeat fascism certainly don’t forget it.
Thanks weka. This from the Springer link:
The version of identity politics that Springer, and some others on the left, are criticising, is one that I have long called “liberal feminism”. I know there are issues with the use of “liberal” as a negative. For me a liberal feminist has always been one who accepts the status quo of capitalism and its patriarchal, imperialist culture – only want equality for women within that system e.g. Judith Collins.
But maybe “conservative feminism” would be a better term.
I see Springer refers to Angela Davis as a positive example of an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist feminist:
I like this because Davis was also my choice for an example of a more anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist feminist, in my last post on EveningReport.
It is about power. And Springer, via Davis explains that the regimes of power can only be dismantled by collective actions from ordinary people – from the bottom up.
I spluttered and laughed at yesterday’s link. There is no more an ‘alt-left’ than there is an ‘alt-right’. (I guess some will disagree with my take on ‘alt-right’, but hey)
There is a radical center or a liberal center or (call it what you want) status quo that’s kind of lost its sheen – people vote against it when the opportunities arise.
There are some people who hold authoritarian political views that are a part of what we’d normally call the ‘right’ who have been labeled the ‘alt-right’ as though their views are somehow utterly disconnected with the more general body of ‘the right’. They aren’t. They are a continuation or extrapolation.
There are also people on the left who hold authoritarian political views and they (just as the suppossed ‘alt-right’ represent an certain extrapolation of left thought and politics…
The center is lashing in all directions and seeking to cast anything that challenges the status quo as thoroughly despicable…it’s a kind of political infanticide.
On the other hand, there is the non-authoritarian reaction to all this nonsense. And that non-authoritarian streak doesn’t can’t speak against so-called identity politics because they (‘identity politics’) are a fundamental expression of power – asymmetries of power.
We can fall down a collapsing rabbit hole and be buried by meaningless debates on such things and ‘left and alt-left’ and ‘right and alt-right’, or we can draw a meaningful and revealing distinction between authoritarianism (of the left and right) and non-authoritarianism (of the left and right)
+1 Bill
Thank you for your contibution to this meaningless debate.
Alt right is a thing imo it is known by its seeds.
People that believe in identity politics can be criticized, as identity politics itself can be, must be, and is, by people that believe in it.
The middle is just the hole on a farmers farm – all the shit gets chucked down it. It is used to attract pests.
I didn’t mean to suggest individual approaches to ‘identity politics’ are beyond criticism. For example, like Corolyn -nth, I’ve long been critical of the accommodation sought by liberal feminism . But there can be no objection to basic analyses of power per se from non-authoritarians.
If alt-right is known by its seeds, then are you not saying the same as me? That the so-called ‘alt-right’ is just an extension or expression of the right?
If we allow it (and some imagined ‘alt-left’) to be separated out, then ‘the centre’ gets to construct a ‘basket of deplorables’ into which it can toss all and sundry who speak against it by the simple act of labeling any criticism ‘alt’ (ie ‘unacceptable) right or left…as opposed to their contained and constrained ideas of, I guess, ‘liberal’ left and’ liberal’ right
In other words, by granting those terms legitimacy, we’d acquiesce to giving the ‘Project Fear of ‘the centre’ a certain degree of form, definition and efficacy.
As already said, rather than slicing and dicing everything to the ‘nth degree’ drawing a quite simple and obvious line between authoritarian and non-authoritarian is far more useful.
I meant deeds lol but seeds is right ☺
I agree it is a subset of rught and structured to appeal to those who don’t identify as right so it is its own thing as well. Because it is disguised it needs to be called out.
I think an authoritarian axis of analysis is also helpful.
There’s something particularly delightful about seeing someone using phrases such as “…which reads like a tabloid-writer grabbed a thesaurus and attempted to assault the left…” or “Logical fallacies and facetious arguments are made quickly within Wolcott’s “article” when he ungracefully pulls quotes…” to argue against someone else’s opinion, when those sentiments are equally (if not more) validly applicable to his own piece.
Personally I think both sides need their heads banging together.
Espiner grilling Joyce re Super this morning and claimed that 0.6% of $1000.00 is 6 cents. And then had the temerity to call such a balls up a “rounding error”. Epic fail.
The media are the opposition in your mind, eh.
Understanding of maths WRONG twice!!
Not even close to a rounding error as 6 cents in 1000 is 0.006%
0.6% of 1000 is $6!!!!!!
Not only can’t work percentages, doesn’t under stand rounding.
Thank heavens he is not the finance minister!!
Oh but wait………Bugger
Um, it was Guyon Espiner who made the “rounding error”. Sam is doing his best to divert attention from Mr. Fuxit’s performance.
OH, so did Fuxirt fix it?
He seized the opportunity to waste airtime on a diversion. Have a listen to the interview, eh?
Not trying to divert at all. But you could tell from the glee in Guyon’s voice that he thought he had scored a big hit on Joyce. Um, not so much.
That time Mr. Fuxit did better sums than a journalist. It’s nice that you have something to feel good about 😆
Very good post about Auckland’s pollution of the Waitemata harbour and how the government and council are minimising and covering it up.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/03/02/guest-blog-mike-lee-aucklands-dirty-secret-can-we-handle-the-truth/
you’ll never get an angry response to a dirty water post unless you insert the words
”DIRTY DAIRY FARMERS” better luck next time
And on a similar vein about increasing pollution cover ups…
Forest & Bird quits water forum, saying govt ignores advice
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/326009/forest-and-bird-quits-water-forum,-saying-govt-ignores-advice
Surprised?
“Jacinda Ardern, my nominee to be our next Deputy Leader, has just been confirmed to the role, with the unanimous support of Caucus.”
It’s not just Trump who is wrong about Islam. All the monotheists are wrong when you take a step back and see how their actions are basically the opposite of what they preach.
Jews ,Christians and Muslims… they are all tarred with the same brush. Blind faith in something supernatural at best, or patriarchal power hungry bastard at worst.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Could you take this kind of broader debate to Open Mike please.
Some tips from my 1880 book of etiquette:
Seems to me that this type of approach has passed to us through our majorly British connections and why we have been dubbed (by a Brit who thinks he is better,) as ‘the passionless people’.
May we have lots of discussions, with offensive tone sometimes, and limit ourselves a little so we have only one or two “scenes” a day – too many and they cease to be interesting events that stand out form the normal intercourse.
And let’s have interesting comments that might break this constricting rule of Britishness, xenophobia and lack of learning.
Do not interlard your conversation with French and other languages. (Moi!) If you are tempted into a Greek or Latin quotation, apologise to the ladies for its use, or translate it…Puns and slang terms are to be avoided as much as possible.
Well, how do you like that ladies, get back to your embroidery and female duties, and don’t give out that you have any education or ideas of your own. Not the thing, you know. Feeling smothered, mother? Don’t frown girly. Look pretty, talk pretty, be agreeable, and conform or else you won’t find a husband and being married is really the only thing for a woman of good family and repute. For rabid feminists who don’t understand sarcasm, I’m channelling that male society.
Let’s keep on having informed, honest, interesting discussion all pointed towards building knowledge, understanding and the ability to form thoughtful scenarios to be used as a base for shaping policy to keep our world in balance at a high level of wellbeing which is above just accumulation or exchange of money or virtual tokens.
You’re not in 1880 any more Doctor Ropata.
its only identity politics if …..
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/06/us/politics/planned-parenthood.html?_r=0
hey, stop all those pesky abortion, and we are not gonna cut your funding.
(lucky, the signer of this document has a penis and can thus walk away from any female he fucked and got pregnant, so clearly this is a win win – cause he wont ever need an abortion, or a pap smear, or birth control or any such thing, cause rich too.)
2017, still protesting this shit.
But think of all the women in Syria not being bombed.
Not the first time you’ve thrown that riposte in relation to the debacle around abortion in the US .
But do you really mean to suggest that the welfare of Syrian women is somehow lesser than that of US women – that no challenge to ‘Roe versus Wade’ would have outweighed the sum total suffering that would have been inflicted upon Syrian women with a ‘no-fly’ zone (Clinton’s Syrian preference)?
And what of the many Syrian women who right now can no longer access abortions because they are unfortunate enough to live in areas ruled over by western backed and armed militias/terrorists? Is that of any lesser significance than women in some US states being denied abortion services?
What about women in Libya having no access to abortion services (or much of anything else) since the western engineered overthrow of Gaddafi? Or the women in Afghanistan who enjoyed a great leap backwards in their rights as a direct consequence of western meddling there, after having already taking a backwards tumble with the ascendancy of the Taliban?
Iraqi women? It doesn’t matter that they’re negotiating a decimated health service/system due to years of western sanctions, two invasions and a clusterfuck of an occupation? (Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s not “really” an occupation)
The direction of travel in the US with abortion is lamentable. But I’m a bit lost when it gets played off against suffering elsewhere in a way that would suggest that that suffering (potential and/or actual) is somehow inconsequential or secondary.
Thank fuck there’s less bombing of women going on in Syria than there would have been with a ‘no-fly’ zone. Does that make the shit around abortion in the US okay? No – just as no challenge to Roe versus Wade would not in any way have excused the imposition of a ‘no-fly’ zone in Syria.
“But do you really mean to suggest that the welfare of Syrian women is somehow lesser than that of US women ”
No, I don’t. I’m not the one that pitted those two politics against each other.
I think it’s highly problematic to make arguments politically where one is trying to trade off one sets of women’s rights against another. As soon as you start weighing up abortion against Syria, you’re in fucked up territory. It’s even more problematic for left wing men to do this without risking minimising some pretty fundamental human rights of women. And I’d say it’s almost impossible to do that since the US election.
My previous comment was wholly sarcastic.
mate if we have to stop working for the welfare of women until other women in other countries have rights we would still be burning women on the stakes on grounds of witchcraft.
But i guess welfare for women has absolutely no meaning if one has a penis.
It makes it so much easier chastising women who might not be bombed as greedy and selfish and why won’t you just shut up until the women in syria ain’t being bombed anymore or the women in Saudi Arabia get to drive a car, or the girls in Afghanistan are not being married of at 13, or the Duggar women in the US stop breeding like cattle.
yeah, It must be really good to be a man.
I have a question…
If the Cullen Fund contributions had not been suspended by National would it cover shortfalls in funding Super going forward?
If not, couldn’t we just increase contributions?
Or, is the problem much bigger than that?
Yes, yes, no.
Another 4 minute wait to get onto site, and then from Home to Open Mike a further 4 minutes. Even the statcounter readout has to wake itself up, shake, and start counting again! Are machines allowed to discriminate, is this fair, wot abart equality then. I am in the slow queue while other b…s go flying by because I haven’t got a new toy with all the bells and whistles. Sniffs…
Sabine
The bloke might have to be careful himself as I think that syphillus is on the rise, a nasty VD.
The thing for an ultimate authoritarian government of the future would be to ban sexual intercourse. and rapes would go down, births would go down, and we would be a less stressed planet and people. Maybe. Ordinary living might be better but wars would go up where men are away from their civilised lives to a theatre of war where you ad lib the moves so you can manage to live. Then there is an excuse for letting the soul go and doing whatever you can get away with. So women need to tame the world thoughtfully rather than with emotion or admonishment, fat chance but a noble cause.
Did you try BMs answer from a couple days ago that blocks secure.statcounter.com? It worked for me, joe90 and maybe weka. It’s also sped up a few other sites like HuffPo and Salon that would be very slow cause of loading lots of shite. Yes, I did a brief check on it before installing and it seems legit.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-05032017/#comment-1306780
okay Andre thanks. I copied the link but don’t dash in to muck my machine around, as if I would know how to do that purposefully. I wonder why we suddenly need this new antiblocker.
Well done the greens, Jan Logie’s Bill has the numbers.
https://www.greens.org.nz/policy/fairer-society/domestic-violence-victims-protection-bill
AWESOMENESS 😀
Nikki Kaye is getting publicity rubbishing Jacinda Arden for a Super flip-flop.
Gold medal gymnastics material that, to be part of a whole big team doing a big group flip-flop and being so aware as to discern in the spinning landscape that someone else could be doing the same.
How come the spinning one’s perception gets the attention?
Not seeing it. Links please?
All I can see in an Herald article by a Nat cheerleader, in which Ardern gets all the running. Kaye just sounds like her nose is a bit out of joint – doesn’t get the attention of Bennett in the media.
Ben Carson Refers to Slaves as ‘Immigrants’ in First Remarks to HUD Staff
by LIAM STACK, New York Times, March 6, 2017
Ben Carson’s first full week as secretary of Housing and Urban Development got off to a rough start on Monday after he described African slaves as “immigrants” during his first speech to hundreds of assembled department employees. The remark, which came as part of a 40-minute address on the theme of America as “a land of dreams and opportunity,” was met with swift outrage online.
Mr. Carson turned his attention to slavery after describing photographs of poor immigrants displayed at the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration. These new arrivals worked long hours, six or seven days a week, with little pay, he said. And before them, there were slaves.
“That’s what America is about, a land of dreams and opportunity,’’ he said. “There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less. But they too had a dream that one day their sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, great-grandsons, great-granddaughters, might pursue prosperity and happiness in this land.”
The comparison was first reported by USA Today and quickly drew the ire of social media users who attacked the secretary, who is African-American, for what they saw as racially insensitive comments. …..
Read more…
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/06/us/politics/ben-carson-refers-to-slaves-as-immigrants-in-first-remarks-to-hud-staff.html?rref=collection%2Fnewseventcollection%2FThe%20Trump%20White%20House&action=click&contentCollection=Business%20Day&module=Collection®ion=Marginalia&src=me&version=newsevent&pgtype=article
“But they too had a dream that one day…”
too sickening to have a decent comment on it – I hope carson suffers for those statements.
In the Trump administration, stupidity and ignorance are rewarded handsomely.