Roger Hallam, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, speaks to a packed hall in Penzance, Cornwall, during his 'Time is Now' tour. He examines the reality of climate change, what social collapse means and why non violent direct action is a catalyst for change.
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Lots of respect for Roger Hallam, from what I have seen in the past he is good value. I was going to say I wish they would make shorter videos, but I'm only ten minutes in and holy fuck this is good. Compulsory and riveting.
This is a man who knows there is nothing left to lose and it willing to speak the truth and do what needs to be done. He has a beautiful blend of social, political and emotional intelligence. I feel relieved when I see that people like him are the ones running things in ER.
This is why ER in the UK is exemplary. I think other ER around the world, eg in NZ, are struggling a bit to get the deeper aspects of what ER UK are doing and why it works. I need to have a think about this so I can get my thoughts clearer, but it's something that needs to be talked about. What should rebellion look like in NZ?
Government now needs to hear and learn from those who know truth to power.
We all need to concentrate on the thorny issue of tyre dust with the major component 1,3, butadiene and black carbon polution as a real human threat as tyre dust is now being washed off our roads into drains, creeks, rivers, lakes, aquifers, and into the sea and now found on the polar ice caps speeding up melting of the polar ice caps.
Tyre dust is our ticking time boomb as plastic was.so see the human damage we face now from tyre dust.
*sigh* I s'pose there may be some new readers seeing this for the first time, so it needs to be explained yet again.
1,3 butadiene is a gaseous precursor that gets polymerised with liquid styrene to form solid styrene-butadiene rubber. SBR is part of the mix in modern tyre rubber. That does not mean tyres will be a significant source of 1,3 butadiene in the environment, the original gaseous butadiene has been entirely converted to a different solid polymer.
The hazard of a monomer tells you nothing about how hazardous a compound formed from that monomer may be. The hazards of styrene or propylene tell you nothing about the hazards of polystyrene of polypropylene plastic. Isocyanates used to make polyurethanes are so hazardous I'm astonished they're legal to be sold without a license, but the resulting polyurethane is very low hazard. 1,3 butadiene gas is hazardous, styrene-butadiene rubber is damn near inert and is now more likely to evolve 1,3 butadiene during decomposition or burning than any other mostly carbon substances.
1,3 butadiene will be detectable beside busy roads. However the source will be almost entirely vehicle exhaust (mostly diesel), not tyre dust. Or from burning wood or other vegetation nearby. It's the kind of small carbon-rich molecule commonly produced by incomplete combustion.
Learn your chemistry fundermentals as you believe Tyres are a stable composition no that is false.
Any polymer can be broken down when mixing with other elements..
Study "subsitution reaction" and see how it changes the composition of any chemical in any form and combines to produce a far more hazardous chemical harmful to humans.
Heat also combines to release unstable elements of a so called stable polymer and you should know this.
I suppose you think DDT is good for us and other banned substances such as carbon tetrachloride?
Dont try to say that chemicals are stable as you look foolish.
I should know as i was checally poisoned by those like you who reasured us to breathe the air in the builing when 40 workers got poisoned me as one of them.
I had an adopose tiissue sample conducted on me after exposure and it had proved positive that i had absorbed those ‘so called’ "stable chemicals"
Excellent question. Since I'm 70 next week I'd better act my age rather than speak as the archetypal rebel of the sixties generation!
It must not default to mere protest. Learn from the failure of the Occupy movement: front with a positive alternative rather than petulant complaints about others. Posturing fails to broaden consensus. For that, you have to present a better path to the future than the status quo recycled ad nauseum.
If the positive alternative seems clear, promises benefits that folks can buy into, and seems worth the effort, folks will shift towards it and help actualise the better future.
Yes Dennis as we get older we see through the cracks.
The world is full of con-artists today, and if we believe them we are all sunk, so we have to go on our memory of the past and compare it to our life experience today, and the older folks will finallly shine through.
That will be what a revollution will look like.
We see the clear way forward with the hindsight of a long life experience we have.
Dear NZ Police, Maori land protectors are not the problem.
Before continuing to deploy dozens of officers to Ihumateo to protect the commercial interests of Fletchers All available police resources need to be deployed to track down the convicted neo-nazi white supremacist killer on the loose, before he commits another atrocity.
…..a member of a notorious and extremely violent white power gang, the Fourth Reich, co-founded by convicted murderer and rapist Malcolm Chaston while he was in Christchurch Men’s Prison in the 1990s.
Witnesses at the nine day trial said the day before the murder they heard Howie say: “If any Māoris get in the way we will knock them down,”. His brother gave evidence that Howie told him: “We killed that n….. and threw him in the river.”
Compare the police "manhunt" for Aaron Howie with the police hunt for liam Strickland.
Will the known gang associates and “friends and family” of Aaron Howie, be subjected to the same sort of police “pressure” that is being applied to the “friends and family” of Liam Strickland?
How many of Aaron Howie's friends or associates are registered gun owners?
Are their houses being raided?
Are their doors being broken down?
How many guns do they have?
Well nobody knows the answer to that last question, because registered gun owners are not required to register their guns, or even list how many they have. Nobody would know if one went missing.
Who would ever know if they passed one to Aaron Howie?
If you asked me the public threat level for this murderous white supremacist and his associates in the "Fourth Reich" gang is very high.
Why is a hit and run driver on the run, considered to be more of a public threat than a convicted neo-nazi murderer on the run?
Why is a hit and run driver on the run, considered to be more of a public threat than a convicted neo-nazi murderer on the run?
Because one's on the run for killing somebody, and the other's on the run for breaching parole conditions. The cops consider one of those crimes to imply a more serious and immediate threat to public safety than the other, for fairly obvious reasons.
People can say whatever they like about who they think's more dangerous – everyone's entitled to their opinion. Police operations are a different matter, and it would be a bad thing if those were determined by popular opinion about which criminals are more disliked, rather than the actual nature of the offending. In this case, one offence is much more serious than the other and police operations reflect that.
"dozens of officers to Ihumateo to protect the commercial interests of Fletchers"
Thats not how it started out
A short time ago, kaumatua and kuia representing mana whenua from Te Kawerau ā Maki, Te Ākitai Waiohua, and Tainui, walked onto the land [23 July] that Fletcher Building owns at Ōruarangi Road, known as Ihumātao, and asked protestors to leave.
The kaumaua and kuia recited karakia as they walked towards the maunga (mountain) of Puketāpapa a Hape, supported by Fletcher Building, representatives of the Kingitanga, and Police.
The reason for the local iwi supporting the developers was :
"We have committed to returning over 25% of the land that we own to mana whenua, and we are currently working through how to do this."
"Miscommunication between the police and protesters led to the tense standoff, he said.
Mr Haumaha has assured the occupiers he will ensure that does not happen again.
"We've got to a point now we can minimise the police presence on this whenua and just maintain a small number around the health and safety for everyone," he said.
"We have arrived at a good point to prevent any miscommunication that may have occurred in the past and so to avoid that we have appointed somebody to come along and sit alongside the organisers that are here and continue to work together along those lines.""
Yes. Thats what happened last week, it was different back in 23rd July.
Usually the Police will say they dont get involved in civil disputes, Im sure they are saying SOUL have been there since 2015 ….so why are we even here now….and they see the grassed paddocks they are protecting from what.
I'm looking forward to seeing what eventual consensus brings – even as those opposed to that sow their terminator seeds of dissent disguised as concern.
When I put my magic thinking hat on and guided by real events, I see Auckland Council has long owned the 10 ha or so block next to the Wallace/Fletcher land on Oruarangi Rd , Cnr Ihumatao Rd.
They do a land swap with Fletchers for the land right next to the Papakainga/Makarau Marae, which by various means then becomes land for the iwi they are all happy with. Of course the wind blows my magic hat off and there is no money for creating sections and building houses.
Who knew existing publicly owned land could be so useful ?
Remember Sacha when Key claimed "different hats" when responding to whether he should reveal correspondence with Slater? Funny old World is Parliament.
Is wasnt right then, it's not right now. Genter needs to front and release the letter. Not be a complete hypocrite and opaque.
Bullshit and jellbeans.
Genter has admitted she used the letterhead paper because… that was all she had.
And guess what, since this puerile political ploy was started by the Nats (of course), politicians of all colours have been busy acquiring plain white paper for their offices. So it would seem the use of parliamentary letterheads for all manner of communications has been endemic in parliament… probably for decades.
Oh you naughty girl Julie Anne. Fancy carrying on a tradition that has been practiced for decades. You should have known better. (sarc)
Unless Bishop can point to any rule in the Cabinet rule-book that she has broken, much ado about nothing, seems to me.
"Both Ms Genter and her boss (Minister Twyford) leant on a ruling from the Ombudsman, related to Official Information requests, that argued that political parties in a coalition need to be able to freely communicate opinions without fear of them being revealed."
It would help if the rule-book specified governing party negotiations as private info. Public info would be that covered by the OIA (govt decisions etc). Since the negotiating is a separate process from consequent decision-making, there's a line that can be drawn if it is currently too indistinct.
This idea that a human is actually dual in parliamentary terms if both minister & party rep doesn't factor in human psychology. People are naturally holistic, seeing themselves as single individuals. Pretending they ain't raises the question of the ethics of promoting delusional thinking in democracy…
"If she was writing outside her ministerial remit ( which she was) it was as a Green Party MP."
JAG is the Associate Minister of Transport.
She wrote the letter on Ministerial letterhead, and signed the letter as the Associate Minister.
Multiple Wellington Councillors claim that the mayor told them that JAG and one other Green MP threatened to resign if they did not vote for the mass transit plan. The Mayor denies that, but then of course he would.
The LGWM pan is significantly different to what the LGWM group, and many Wellington councillors, supported.
This has all the hallmarks of the Greens imposing their ideology on Wellington over the best interests of the region. And being stupid enough to think they could get away with it.
Associate Ministers have specific areas of a portfolio. Its not a finger in every part of the Transport pie.
The Schedule of Responsibilities Delegated to Associate Ministers provides a summary list of the responsibilities that portfolio Ministers have delegated to Associate Ministers.
Associate Minister of Transport: Hon Julie Anne Genter
Roles/Responsibilities
Responsibility for walking and cycling policy, including policy development and consequential Regulations (excluding Budget-related decisions);
Responsibility for the electric vehicles programme, and the vehicle greenhouse gas emissions programme, including policy development and consequential Regulations (excluding Budget-related decisions);
Responsibility for all land transport Rules and Regulations, unless otherwise specifically advised by the Minister of Transport;
Responsibility for all transport safety matters (aviation, maritime, rail and road), including policy development and making of all relevant Rules and consequential Regulations, unless otherwise specifically advised by the Minister of Transport;
Day-to-day oversight of Crown agency relations in respect of the Transport Accident Investigation Commission and Maritime New Zealand (excluding Budget-related decisions);
Responsibility for all maritime transport matters, including policy development and making of all relevant Rules and consequential Regulations, unless otherwise specifically advised by the Minister of Transport;
Responsibility for the provision of weather forecasting services (currently provided under contract by MetService), in terms of the Meteorological Services Act 1990 (excluding Budget-related decisions);
Responsibility for transport research and statistics, and the associated publications throughout the year;
General assistance in the portfolio, in particular in relation to setting the strategic direction for the transport sector, ensuring alignment between strategy, policy and regulations within the land transport sector, and policy development to integrate transport (including public transport) and urban development.
The letterhead is just an office issue. If the letter wasnt about road safety issues it wasnt within her remit as an associate minister.
"Associate Ministers have specific areas of a portfolio. Its not a finger in every part of the Transport pie."
I don't see that as relevant. JAG is an Associate Minister. And the first words of the last paragraph of the list of responsibilities indicates her involvement can be broad.
"The letterhead is just an office issue."
No, it isn't. If she was writing as a Green MP, she could have sent a generic email, and signed it as a Green MP.
"If the letter wasnt about road safety issues it wasnt within her remit as an associate minister."
From your list above"
"General assistance in the portfolio, in particular in relation to setting the strategic direction for the transport sector, ensuring alignment between strategy, policy and regulations within the land transport sector, and policy development to integrate transport (including public transport) and urban development."
Absolutely a letter to the MoT about LGWM is within her remit as a Minister.
No, I meant people operate as, and also see themselves as, organic wholes. Human nature is naturally holistic. The binary divide kicks in via differentiation, which is indeed a basic survival skill, but self vs other is less basic than the sense of being part of the whole (world).
The problem I'm seeing in respect of ministerial convention is that some folks are more binary than others, some more naturally holistic. Those of us adept at playing a variety of roles in life can do the shapeshifter thing easily. Others are liable to forget the necessity to wear the different hats and pretend to be merely a functionary when required – which is the reductionist stance you mention…
Chris Bishop is questioning Julie Anne Genter over a letter sent from her as deputy Minister of Transport to Minister of transport Phil Twyford?????
The letter apparently contains Green Party opinions expressed by Genter to Twyford on a Wellington City transport plan; opinions which may have influenced the shape of the plan that was agreed to.
But the details of the letter are unknown and have not been the main fight so far. The fight has been over whether the letter should be public.
Was that the best "dirt" the National Party strategists coucld find on these associated Ministers of Transport?
So how did he get the letter which was suppoosed to be an 'internal 'confidential' document as we saw when Natioinal was last in Government?
Was it an internional leaked document sent from a 'National Party mole' opeerating inside these two Ministers offices?
There is something very odd about the Minister oif Transport Phil Twyford's office because for two years we have as a NGO in Napier been refused our letters requesting to meet with Minister Phil Twyford and on several occassions our NGO has called Phil Twyford's office and been 'rebuttled' with a sharp refussal to discuss the issue of why we are not recieving an apointment time to meet with Phil twyford in Wellington.
We are not impressed at all with the office staff at Phil Twyfords office and perhsaps they need to investigate the beackground of all Government ministers as some may be opposition policitical operatives trying to sabotage the govenement?
I recall that during the Last 'toxic' National Government it was Steven Joyce who sent a memo around the office staffers warning them that they would need to be loyal to the ministers and not report any issues or information to the press that ?may embassess the Governemt and would be a 'dismissable offence if it was carried out".
Perhaps now Labour leader PM Adern needs to repeat this threat using the Steven Joyce memo again during her reign?
Or at least conduct full background intellegence into the 'polical leanings' of all office staff within the parliamentary pool?
Do you feel sufficiently coddled? Try to put your answer in context of how governance ought to provide for sufficient coddling. You could produce the long-awaited revival of socialism!
"US social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt spoke on 1 August in Auckland to a crowd of around one thousand people. He is best known for his book The Coddling of the American Mind which examines the new climate of trigger warnings and acute sensitivity of Gen Z." Apparently the ego fragility of this generation is noteworthy. The marxist reviewer was impressed by the audience…
Well, blow me down. Competitive grandstanding and time-hogging by audiences pretending to ask questions has been a thing for as long as I can remember. People are becoming more polite & considerate??
When a rich, powerful man connected lots of other rich, powerful men in suspected child sex trafficking crimes has allegedly killed himself while in custody at one of the most secure facilities in the US…
Hillary Clinton, revitalised by eating lots of pizza from a noted pizza place, got out of the coffin she'd been in for four years after suffering a terminal illness, inveigled her way into the the place Epstein was being held and dealt to him.
Look forward to Chris Bishop asking the PM the serious questions this week:
"Did the Prime Minister get messages from Karel Sroubek about Hillary Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein? If not, why not?"
A trove of court documents unsealed Friday detail allegations by an alleged victim of wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein that while working as a teenage locker room attendant at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort nearly two decades ago she was recruited to give Epstein massages that often involved sexual activity.
The housing situation is dire up there and this is compounded by the ubiquity of meth. Its fucking everywhere up there. Some of us thought, in years past, that the problem was cannabis…but P…a whole different level of damage.
And its not as if there aren't some very good local groups trying to address these issues…
xanthe…I get the argument about criminalization of drug use not being conducive to alleviating/avoiding/mitigating drug harm…but if severe punishment would stop folks from deliberately packing their kids into the car and filling the same with thick cannabis smoke so said kids were totally zonked by the time the family go to where they are going, then bring on the stocks and the lash. Sorry if this offends….but I have seen this with my own eyes and ask any teacher in the North about the effect this has on the kids' ability to learn. One small school board a few years ago when P was starting to become a 'thing' challenged all whanau at the school to commit to zero drugs and alcohol. Maybe two out of twenty families took the pledge. And so the cycle continues. Most of the the time this is deliberate, and they'll do it with alcohol as well, so it is disingenuous to blame ignorance and poverty. It was bad enough with cannabis…but now its P, and its happening that the way P affects thought processes those parents who may have not subjected their kids to first hand cannabis and alcohol have few if any inhibitions when they're on P.
I've been speaking with a van dwelling friend who has roamed that region over the past few years and she says it is almost impossible to find safe overnight parking at the moment. (We spend a lot of our time up there in our bus, and would be in a position to support her were we not stuck in the Waikato) I've been encouraging her to go to campgrounds for safety…but these can also habour individuals and groups using P and alcohol and just last night she was alarmed when violence erupted in the camp.
P is cheaper and more readily available than cannabis, I'm told, and the North is flooded with it.
The article speaks about struggling to find work….there has been about 1000000 avacado trees planted up there over the past few years, and those who are willing and able to work shouldn't have much of a problem. Housing is shit…and I'm hoping some of those rich prick orchardists up North will see their way clear to emulate the apple growers in Hawkes Bay who are investing in better seasonal worker housing to free up houses for the community.
"but if severe punishment would stop folks from deliberately packing their kids into the car and filling the same with thick cannabis smoke so said kids were totally zonked by the time the family go to where they are going, then bring on the stocks and the lash"
That's the crux of the matter, history and many years of experience shows it doesn't !
check out this quote which may or may not be Einstein's
What is the answer xanthe? Be buggered if I can think of a way to get the message through to parents who simply don't ever consider that their actions/inactions today are very possibly condemning their kids to the same dead end miserable shit hole conditions that they, the parents, will argue (or will be told by a succession of well meaning do gooders)drove them to the drugs in the first place.
(Btw, without going into whole lot of personal disclosures…it is possible to have seriously neglected and abused children living in households unaffected by material poverty. It is possible, but extraordinarily difficult, to not go down the same path as one's parents…but from my own experience, and after speaking with the many others who have also survived to not repeat the cycle, the key seems to be steering well clear of routine alcohol and drug use.)
Trouble with avocadoes is that they are expensive in shops and therefore worth stealing. If an orchardist in Far North could get a relationship with surrounding Maori to provide work for those who want it, and it was ongoing, there could be a fair amount of peer watchfulness and 'ownership' of our orchard workplace. If another group or person could start work gangs and get them regular work going outside the area for those who are rated as A workers, there could be a real change of mindset within a couple of years. But entrenched attitudes put entrepreneurs off up there according to what I have been told.
Some of the orchards are owned by iwi. We shot back up North last month for a couple of weeks and for the first time we heard that the established orchards are having to post security…it will be interesting to see how the come-lately Big Boys participating in the Mass Plant fare when their trees begin producing in earnest. Many of those new orchards are planted along SH1, not off the back roads with big shelter belts. Up until this year, the avos up there would have definitely been worth stealing….even the five for 2 dollars bags had lovely fruit. This year….not so much. I threw away a four for five dollars bag. Seasonal work has been a regular thing up there for ages and the local WINZ, after pushing many off the dole (and off the wharves fishing) and into some of the many jobs going up there seems to be amenable to not knobbling those people who fill vital labour gaps by doing part time work. A phone call, and an adjustment is made to the benefit without the person being worse off or ending up with a bog debt. Come mussel spat harvest time its all available hands on deck…and good hourly rate too. But this is not work for the hungover….
I can't get my head around it. Lots of people used cannabis and many people use P and the problem is the criminalization those things?
Why do so many right through our society have to use drugs like tobacco, alcohol cannabis and P? Are they crutches and props because life without them is so shit?
Drug abuse including Alcohol get worse when you have politicians who would rather scapegoat and puit the boot in ………. than help.
When it comes to slum condition housing, and kids living in cars …. Politicians and bad governance are FAR more to blame … than drug abuse….
Judith Collins in particular was the Govt arm in the Dirty Politics operation to neuter Alcohol reform …. Alcohol abuse was one of the main pillars for the violence and dysfunction portrayed in the very well acted NZ movie, "Once were Warriors"…..
She also makes unbelievable excuses in defense of rich criminals … according to one of the worlds best corruption exposing investigative journalists.
After inviting questions after her speech, a Northland delegate referenced a recent UN report on child poverty, and said that was the background of all people they dealt with, particularly gang members.
"Do you think your government is doing enough for child poverty, and the gap between those that do have, and those that don't have?" Collins was asked.
Collins then started projecting the type of person she is ,,, particulary her concern for struggling families onto her victims.
It's not that, it's people who don't look after their children, that's the problem.
"I see a poverty of ideas, a poverty of parental responsibility, a poverty of love, a poverty of caring."
This morning, Collins did not back away from that view, telling Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking that it was the "usual suspects" who were upset by her comments.
God save NZ from politicians like her …………. shes a 'taker'.
The focus on stopping cigarette smoking by putting the prices up high would tend to divert some to P or whatever if the price is then equal. Once getting on the drug taking practice, then economics and bang for your buck comes into it. And the peer thing, friends are taking it and they share with you when in funds, and in turn you share with them. It's a bonding thing.
Getting your kids past the age of youth addiction to alcohol and these other things when there isn't a shiny future of work and creating a life, is quite a task for parents. If they are users, doubly hard, it would be don't do what I do. If they could travel away from their cohort to where they could make up their minds what to study and be looked after in a hostel it could put a wedge into youth addiction.
The emphasis would be to study and pass something, try one or two subjects and pass them, get a feeling for what career they would like, physical and outdoor stuff, fencing or managing, or indoor stuff, computer work combined with skilled artisan stuff. An appreciative encouragement from gummint and their would be an upward line towards successful numbers of trainess and the spiteful class would have to find other targets to vent their displeasure on.
There's much sense in what you suggest GWS and mostly I agree. Trouble is that tragically, many of these children are adversely affected before birth and this is compounded by getting extra doses, sometimes on a daily basis, because they are breathing in the second hand smoke from ma and pa's cannabis, synthetics or P. Little buggers are multiply handicapped and often end up in the care of grandparents because their own drug addled parents can't cope with the damage they've done. Its a tragedy and needs to be turned around. I hoped within hope that Whanau Ora was going to create a program where a whaea can be paid to mentor a family out of these destructive lives…https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12257338
Whanau Ora workers know hundreds of families live in these circumstances every day.
And we do know that for every family struggling to survive there is another family member, immediate or extended, who would step up and start to transform the family if supported to do so.
Someone who is trusted, someone who will call bad behaviour exactly what it is in many instances, neglect. Someone who will need to be resourced whether for training or skills development in how to handle the high and multiple needs of their family.
saying that giving people hope and purpose will reduce drug abuse is not excusing any behavior, Its stating a fairly obvious fact
on the other hand It is my firm opinion that the war on P is being shown to be just about as effective as the war on cannabis. That is it completely ineffective at reducing use and greatly increasing harm.
back to the definition of insanity!
what the "war on drugs" does do is
1 creates a massively profitable criminal industry.
Lately from Oz: 'Dirty apartments' from bad building in Australia – a very bad business. Neolib economics we who desire good governance, good standards, and good lives – we despise you and all that push you like demented druggies.
Deregulation and poor-quality workmanship over the last two decades have resulted in shoddily built apartments, some with major structural cracks forcing residents to evacuate, flammable cladding, and balconies with water seeping through them.
We know a little bit about these (NZF) voters from the New Zealand Election Survey, a massive post-election survey of voters … A quarter of the 2014 NZ First voters said "abortion is always wrong" – a far higher proportion than the ratings for Labour, National, and the Greens.
Yeah, it's certainly true that around a quarter of 2014 NZF voters agreed that abortion is always wrong according to NZES. But the proportion of 2014 Labour & National voters feeling the same way was only mildly lower.
abortion is always wrong ?
49% Cons
37% Maori Party
25% NZF
23% Non-Voters
22% Labour
17% National
15% IMP
11% Green
(Note: a larger margin of error for NZF Con Maori & IMP voters).
That, in turn, raises the broader point that Labour voters are by no means as overwhelmingly liberal / libertarian … nor Nats as overwhelmingly conservative / authoritarian … as many pundits seem to assume.
Recent iterations of the NZES suggest the support-bases of both Major Parties are relatively evenly divided between Moral Cons & Libs … whereas voters for the Smaller Parties fall decisively one way or the other: … Greens being Economically Left & Morally Liberal / NZFers being Economically Left & Morally Conservative.
Interesting comment. To me, it shows that defining or categorising politics and people’s values and attitudes (and morals!) in terms of Left-Right or Liberal-Conservative is overly simplistic and not at all helpful when discussing singular but complex issues.
But you didn't volunteer a personal opinion on how well their test operates. That's the obvious way to assess the merit of their framing. It printed me out precisely in the middle of Bernie Sanders' face. I commented here a couple of years ago that it merely confirms that I share typical leftist values. I've never been a socialist. So the site seems designed to ignore identity politics. Ignoring the primary way people act and think politically nowadays is silly…
Not sure what I think at times. When I did it a few years ago I was damn near centre point – at a time when a lot of acquaintances would have been calling me a bleeding heart leftie. It looks like it was an attempt to try and map matters economic against social considerations – probably in light of all that 3rd Way shite that's still with us.
Anyway, I'm only reluctant to comment at the mo 'cos I'm in the middle of tinkering with things mechanical (with greasy, oily paws and not wanting my keyboard to go buggerup)
It does not help me much with singular issues such as abortion, euthanasia, free speech, et cetera. It does not guide my thinking in any ways, shape, or form.
It is also designed as a tool to increase voter engagement. But I don’t know that it really does achieve what it aims for. To me, it encourages you to align more with a party, and use heuristic labels to decide which tribe you want to belong to, i.e. your location on the ‘map’. Job done – two ticks (on the ballot form). I’d love to know how many people changed their party allegiance and voter pattern after doing the test. I’d say, not many. Others might feel confirmed in their engrained thinking and voting behaviour. Maybe so-called swing-voters are an interesting group to research in this context. Even more interesting would be the million or so non-voters.
Parties are shown as distinct little dots on this political landscape as if they are or have fixed positions. IMO they should be large shapes that touch and overlap each other. Nothing is fixed anyway; politics and political (and personal) opinions are fluid and dynamic although not nearly as much as they perhaps should be. It would be interesting to see how party positions change over time on the ‘map’.
The other issue I have with this ‘compass’ is that it reduces complex multi-dimensional and multi-factorial issues into two dimensions (I think the correct term is projection). This might make it easier for voters but it might hinder progressive politics and policies and public debate on those. Voters and the public need to be informed and educated so that they can think and decide for themselves (i.e. make informed decisions) rather than sheepishly following some party and/or party leader and then complain afterwards that it is not what they wanted. Worse, they defend that party or leader because they voted for them even though they had no clear idea of what they voted on and for and even though it was not what they wanted.
Such are the downsides of party politics and the so-called representative democratic system as it stands IMHO.
Then there's the difference between one's own values, and the positioning of who you end up voting for.
In the NZ context, I'm really relieved there's the Greens I can vote for that are somewhat close to my political positioning (right in the middle of Political Compass' left/libertarian quadrant) and are likely to actually make it in to Parliament to represent something close-ish to my views.
In US elections, any candidate close to my views hasn't got a hope in hell of actually winning a general election (except maybe in a handful of scattered House districts), so I have to try to judge who has the best balance of actually being electable and push some progress (however small) in a direction I'm ok with.
Absolutely … esp Intersectionals who seem to hold a deeply reductive (& strangely romanticised / paternalistic / 'Noble Savage') understanding of Māori … they appear to conceive of both Māori & Pasifika voters as monolithic blocs, all holding morally liberal views similar to themselves (ie the Intersectionals) … it’s beyond absurd …
… But then the more dogmatic ID Politics activists do tend to emerge from an exclusive & socially distant Pakeha Upper-Middle Establishment (I suspect they don't actually meet Māori or Pasifikas until well into adulthood).
In 2011, incidentally, Tariana Turia sought to appoint a conservative on abortion issues to the Abortion Supervisory Committee, the administrative body responsible for supervising the process. Labour and Green MPs unanimously opposed the amendment; National MPs were close to evenly split and the four ACT MPs voted against. New Zealand First had no parliamentary representation at the time.
.
On top of the Party Support perspective …
The key anti-Abortion demographics are:
– Moral Authoritarians
– Regular Churchgoers
– Pasifika, Asian & (to a somewhat lesser extent) Māori ethnicities
Absolutely … esp Intersectionals who seem to hold a deeply reductive (& strangely romanticised / paternalistic / 'Noble Savage') understanding of Māori … they appear to conceive of both Māori & Pasifika voters as monolithic blocs, all holding morally liberal views similar to themselves (ie the Intersectionals) … it’s beyond absurd …
lol wee bee in you wee bonnet there – the point of intersectionality imo is to NOT put people into monolithic blocks. Maybe this will help
Definition of intersectionality
: the complex, cumulative way in which the effects of multiple forms of discrimination (such as racism, sexism, and classism) combine, overlap, or intersectespecially in the experiences of marginalized individuals or groups
Unfortunately, I was never part of that scene at College … basically (among the boys at what was a co-ed school) there were 3 essential sub-cultures:
– the Māori / Pasifika lads who tended toward Rugby / Disco / Black American Sitcoms (here I am indulging in the same reductivism I've accused the Intersectionals of)
– the Maths/Computer/Physics/Nerdy lads who spent every lunchtime playing heroic characters in D & D and tended to shy away from both sports & girlfriends (an unusually large number of lads with freckles in this particular sub-group)
– the Soccer lads: who played both The Beautiful Game & a new sport they invented called Soccer-Tennis (like Tennis Doubles … only with a soccer ball & restricted to head & feet) & identified with higher quality UK comedy like Fawlty Towers & Python (this was before the Rik+Ade Comedies arrived)
I was very solidly in the last of these groups (albeit still enjoying a good game of Rugger now & then).
Interesting. My college years were '63-'67 inclusive, and there was only a single sub-culture: non-conformist. Me & a bunch of others. Everyone else conformed.
Actually Wanganui Boys ensured that no Beatles mop-tops grew on any of us, if my memory is correct. We gained a few millimetres by the time I left, then I uni I stopped cutting my hair. Aversion to Kiwi Keith didn't kick in till '69 because even the rebels were totally apolitical at college (the left were just as much establishment/mainstream as the right).
But just prior to that – there was that fella with the silly hat if memory serves – Sir Bernard, if you ever needed someone to ridicule. And there was also that mad hatter in charge of broadcasting who insisted on being referred to by his military rank
True … actually one of my closest friends in the 7th form had emerged from the Geeky D & D subculture. Very nice guy & dry sense of humour … but they were never, shall we say, overly successful with the femme fatale half of the School population.
Desperation seems to have set in to John Tamihere's mayoral campaign.
His homelessness and begging policy has him creating an 0800 JACINDA hotline to call if residents see rough sleepers or beggars. He said a caller would find a "person all loving and caring that knows everything about your wellbeing" on the other end of the line and a social worker would then be sent to work with the beggar.
No doubt the media releases have the usual official stuff on them about their authorisation.
"Authorised by heading down the toilet John Tamihere, Desperate F'wit"? Oh well, it'll garner more attention for him than promising to walk naked over the Harbour Bridge if he doesn't win.
John Tamihere won't get any of my respect if he is suggesting that there should be a hotline as described above. I have decided that the word 'spiteful' is appropriate for those who are unempathetic and unsympathetic and uninformed about the reasons for the poor state of many NZs. I hadn't expected to apply that to JT but if the cap fits wear it.
John has a good idea to ban trucks in Auckland as it seems to be happening overeas now too.
We look forward that plan spreading around NZ too as trucks emit ‘heavy (low frequency noise) (LFN) and vibrations that crack our home foundations and poison our air with jheavy pollution from several soures including exhaust brake and trye dust. All recognised as health risks.
About a week ago I made a post noting our nu New Zealander Peter Thiel … and his proximity to racist politicians … and Palantirs involvement with ICE raids / operation, targeting the 'invaders' …
'Invaders' is how the President of the usa, along with white supremacist mass murderers,,, describe refugees or Muslims.
Palantir describes them as a $40 Million plus contract …. $$$$$$$$
The company Palantir appears to enter into some contracts which seem to be a melding of Dirty Politics with Dirty Business ….
One contract ,,,,, was described by reporter and 'target' Glen Greenwald as ,,,
an odious and quite possibly illegal scheme to target progressive activists and their families, threaten the careers of journalists as a means of silencing them, and fabricate forged documents intended for public consumption — and then steadfastly refuse to comment — is just inexcusable.
HBGary Federal, Palantir, and Berico Technologies (collectively called Team Themis) — to develop tactics for damaging progressive groups and labor unions, in particular ThinkProgress, the labor coalition called Change to Win, the SEIU, US Chamber Watch, and StopTheChamber.com.
New emails reveal that the private spy company investigated the families and children of the Chamber’s political opponents.
The security firms hoped to obtain $200,000 for initial background research, then charge up to $2 million for a larger disinformation campaign against progressives.
one proposal from HBGary Federal and its associates proposed targeting Salon reporter and Wikileaks-supporter Glenn Greenwald with “actions to sabotage or discredit” him.
About a week ago I made a post noting our nu New Zealander Peter Thiel … and his proximity to racist politicians … and Palantirs involvement with ICE raids / operation, targeting the 'invaders' …
'Invaders' is how the President of the usa, along with white supremacist mass murderers,,, describe refugees or Muslims.
Palantir describes them as a $40 Million plus contract …. $$$$$$$$
Palantir are not Peter Thiel … and visa versa of course …
But out of his own mouth he compares usa teachers to bank tellers ,,,, literally as well as figuratively
And Tax fairness seems to be a corporate rate of 10%-15% …. apparently.
I'd put up the vids of his 'talks' on teachers & 'fair tax' … but three posts on this interesting nu new zealander previously had me labeled with the dreaded derangement diagnosis.
My next post on elite Nzers ,,,, will be a dose of the Legatums…
The Chandler Bro's ….Billionare Brexiters .. one funding the tory cuddling neo-Con 'think tank'…. Legabrex sarc
trail blazers who went full cold war / red scare … before it became trendy again.
I'd put up the vids of his 'talks' on teachers & 'fair tax' … but three posts on this interesting nu new zealander previously had me labeled with the dreaded derangement diagnosis. [sic]
No, you were asked to start your own comment threads. Thank you for being so understanding and obliging.
A sweeping – and sobering – account of the way that concentrated wealth has both shaped our past and is creating a deeply unequal future. Based on economist Thomas Piketty’s bestselling book.
The Tory establishment are done pulling their punches.
There is no getting away from it: this is a rightwing coup. I agree with Ferdinand Mount, once head of Margaret Thatcher’s policy unit at Downing Street in what now look like less disturbing times. Writing in the current London Review of Books, Mount sees echoes of Mussolini’s rise to power, in that “yes, [Johnson] has come to power by strictly constitutional means”; it is what happens after that matters, and the do-or-die approach of Johnson and his warlord Dominic Cummings is truly disturbing.
As my former Observer colleague Neal Ascherson says in the same vintage issue of the LRB: “We have leading Tories – not only Johnson – apparently prepared to suspend a sovereign parliament in order to force through a Brexit meant to restore the sovereignty of parliament.”
Yes, this is a right-wing coup. It is duplicitous or self-deceiving to pretend that British politics is still proceeding more or less as normal. We are told that it is ‘hysterical’ to argue that Boris Johnson’s regime is in any way comparable to the nationalist dictatorships of yesterday or today. If this is a temptation, I shall happily succumb to it as a patriotic duty. By every standard of measurement, the Conservative Party has been transformed into Britain’s own BJP. ‘Optimism with a hint of menace’ was how the Sunday Times approvingly described Johnson’s first days in power – pretty much the way you might describe the first hundred days of Narendra Modi, or Donald Trump, or Benito Mussolini. Yes, he has come to power by strictly constitutional means. So did they all. It is how they govern when they get there that counts.
I think I've commented already to the effect that BoJo's lot quite possibly don't actually believe in Brexit as an ideology. It's just a convenient train to hitch their wagon to – that wagon being a far-right takeover of the UK's institutions. This item from the Guardian appears to be consistent with the notion:
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. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
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 ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?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 ...
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 ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
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 ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
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 ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. 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 ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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; ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,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, Monday 6 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Roger Hallam, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, speaks to a packed hall in Penzance, Cornwall, during his 'Time is Now' tour. He examines the reality of climate change, what social collapse means and why non violent direct action is a catalyst for change.
A Concise Overview
[Deleted long text (again; 1,316 words, this time) without quote marks that is in the link provided]
https://guymcpherson.com/2019/08/a-concise-overview/#more-20742
[You have asked before to put quote marks around copied & pasted text.
You have been asked to provide a brief summary, reason, and explanation why people should watch a (long) clip or read a link (to long text; in this case, 1,316 words).
In your comment @ 1 (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-11-08-2019/#comment-1645338) you actually do it well so I conclude that you are lazy and can’t be bothered other times. You continue to display inconsiderate behaviour and you continue to ignore repeat moderation requests and warnings. Take a week off to contemplate whether you want to continue commenting here – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 7:22 AM.
Lots of respect for Roger Hallam, from what I have seen in the past he is good value. I was going to say I wish they would make shorter videos, but I'm only ten minutes in and holy fuck this is good. Compulsory and riveting.
This is a man who knows there is nothing left to lose and it willing to speak the truth and do what needs to be done. He has a beautiful blend of social, political and emotional intelligence. I feel relieved when I see that people like him are the ones running things in ER.
This is why ER in the UK is exemplary. I think other ER around the world, eg in NZ, are struggling a bit to get the deeper aspects of what ER UK are doing and why it works. I need to have a think about this so I can get my thoughts clearer, but it's something that needs to be talked about. What should rebellion look like in NZ?
Agree Weka;
Government now needs to hear and learn from those who know truth to power.
We all need to concentrate on the thorny issue of tyre dust with the major component 1,3, butadiene and black carbon polution as a real human threat as tyre dust is now being washed off our roads into drains, creeks, rivers, lakes, aquifers, and into the sea and now found on the polar ice caps speeding up melting of the polar ice caps.
Tyre dust is our ticking time boomb as plastic was.so see the human damage we face now from tyre dust.
TYRE DUST = EPA has classified 1,3-butadiene as a known human carcinogen. The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) has given 1,3-butadiene a rating of A2, suspected human carcinogen.
https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/butadiene/healtheffects.html?ncid=edlinkushpmg00000313
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
• 1,3-Butadiene
*sigh* I s'pose there may be some new readers seeing this for the first time, so it needs to be explained yet again.
1,3 butadiene is a gaseous precursor that gets polymerised with liquid styrene to form solid styrene-butadiene rubber. SBR is part of the mix in modern tyre rubber. That does not mean tyres will be a significant source of 1,3 butadiene in the environment, the original gaseous butadiene has been entirely converted to a different solid polymer.
The hazard of a monomer tells you nothing about how hazardous a compound formed from that monomer may be. The hazards of styrene or propylene tell you nothing about the hazards of polystyrene of polypropylene plastic. Isocyanates used to make polyurethanes are so hazardous I'm astonished they're legal to be sold without a license, but the resulting polyurethane is very low hazard. 1,3 butadiene gas is hazardous, styrene-butadiene rubber is damn near inert and is now more likely to evolve 1,3 butadiene during decomposition or burning than any other mostly carbon substances.
1,3 butadiene will be detectable beside busy roads. However the source will be almost entirely vehicle exhaust (mostly diesel), not tyre dust. Or from burning wood or other vegetation nearby. It's the kind of small carbon-rich molecule commonly produced by incomplete combustion.
Learn your chemistry fundermentals as you believe Tyres are a stable composition no that is false.
Any polymer can be broken down when mixing with other elements..
Study "subsitution reaction" and see how it changes the composition of any chemical in any form and combines to produce a far more hazardous chemical harmful to humans.
Heat also combines to release unstable elements of a so called stable polymer and you should know this.
I suppose you think DDT is good for us and other banned substances such as carbon tetrachloride?
Dont try to say that chemicals are stable as you look foolish.
I should know as i was checally poisoned by those like you who reasured us to breathe the air in the builing when 40 workers got poisoned me as one of them.
I had an adopose tiissue sample conducted on me after exposure and it had proved positive that i had absorbed those ‘so called’ "stable chemicals"
What should rebellion look like in NZ?
Excellent question. Since I'm 70 next week I'd better act my age rather than speak as the archetypal rebel of the sixties generation!
It must not default to mere protest. Learn from the failure of the Occupy movement: front with a positive alternative rather than petulant complaints about others. Posturing fails to broaden consensus. For that, you have to present a better path to the future than the status quo recycled ad nauseum.
If the positive alternative seems clear, promises benefits that folks can buy into, and seems worth the effort, folks will shift towards it and help actualise the better future.
Yes Dennis as we get older we see through the cracks.
The world is full of con-artists today, and if we believe them we are all sunk, so we have to go on our memory of the past and compare it to our life experience today, and the older folks will finallly shine through.
That will be what a revollution will look like.
We see the clear way forward with the hindsight of a long life experience we have.
I watched it through.
reasons for rebelling #3: "a sense of adventure" !
Dear NZ Police, Maori land protectors are not the problem.
Before continuing to deploy dozens of officers to Ihumateo to protect the commercial interests of Fletchers All available police resources need to be deployed to track down the convicted neo-nazi white supremacist killer on the loose, before he commits another atrocity.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/114906063/dangerous-convicted-killer-aaron-howie-on-the-run-from-police
Who knows what could happen if this racist killer gets hold of a weapon, or his known associates supply him with one.
Compare the police "manhunt" for Aaron Howie with the police hunt for liam Strickland.
Will the known gang associates and “friends and family” of Aaron Howie, be subjected to the same sort of police “pressure” that is being applied to the “friends and family” of Liam Strickland?
If not, why not?
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/content/tvnz/onenews/story/2019/08/09/friends-of-christchurch-hit-and-run-driver-urge-him-to-hand-hims.html?auto=6070254009001
How many of Aaron Howie's friends or associates are registered gun owners?
Are their houses being raided?
Are their doors being broken down?
How many guns do they have?
Well nobody knows the answer to that last question, because registered gun owners are not required to register their guns, or even list how many they have. Nobody would know if one went missing.
Who would ever know if they passed one to Aaron Howie?
If you asked me the public threat level for this murderous white supremacist and his associates in the "Fourth Reich" gang is very high.
Why is a hit and run driver on the run, considered to be more of a public threat than a convicted neo-nazi murderer on the run?
Why is a hit and run driver on the run, considered to be more of a public threat than a convicted neo-nazi murderer on the run?
Because one's on the run for killing somebody, and the other's on the run for breaching parole conditions. The cops consider one of those crimes to imply a more serious and immediate threat to public safety than the other, for fairly obvious reasons.
One killed someone unintentionally with reckless disregard for public safety.
One killed someone intentionally with malice aforethought.
One is linked to a political movement that has committed and endorsed mass killings.
One is a gang affiliate.
One is having his associates and family's doors kicked in.
One isn't.
Which one of these fugitives do you think represents a bigger potential threat to public safety?
It probably depends who you ask.
White Pakeha New Zealanders might say the Maori gang member.
Maori and Asian immigrants and Muslim New Zealanders might say the White Supremacist.
How many Pakeha New Zealanders believe New Zealand is “racist as f***" that New Zealand is "a racist place."
People can say whatever they like about who they think's more dangerous – everyone's entitled to their opinion. Police operations are a different matter, and it would be a bad thing if those were determined by popular opinion about which criminals are more disliked, rather than the actual nature of the offending. In this case, one offence is much more serious than the other and police operations reflect that.
"dozens of officers to Ihumateo to protect the commercial interests of Fletchers"
Thats not how it started out
A short time ago, kaumatua and kuia representing mana whenua from Te Kawerau ā Maki, Te Ākitai Waiohua, and Tainui, walked onto the land [23 July] that Fletcher Building owns at Ōruarangi Road, known as Ihumātao, and asked protestors to leave.
The kaumaua and kuia recited karakia as they walked towards the maunga (mountain) of Puketāpapa a Hape, supported by Fletcher Building, representatives of the Kingitanga, and Police.
The reason for the local iwi supporting the developers was :
"We have committed to returning over 25% of the land that we own to mana whenua, and we are currently working through how to do this."
Yes. Thats what happened last week, it was different back in 23rd July.
Usually the Police will say they dont get involved in civil disputes, Im sure they are saying SOUL have been there since 2015 ….so why are we even here now….and they see the grassed paddocks they are protecting from what.
I'm looking forward to seeing what eventual consensus brings – even as those opposed to that sow their terminator seeds of dissent disguised as concern.
When I put my magic thinking hat on and guided by real events, I see Auckland Council has long owned the 10 ha or so block next to the Wallace/Fletcher land on Oruarangi Rd , Cnr Ihumatao Rd.
They do a land swap with Fletchers for the land right next to the Papakainga/Makarau Marae, which by various means then becomes land for the iwi they are all happy with. Of course the wind blows my magic hat off and there is no money for creating sections and building houses.
Who knew existing publicly owned land could be so useful ?
yep I'm sure everyone will end up being happy (to a point) actually – funny that
The settlements in the 1990s had violent protest from some Maori.
Deja Vu
yes would be good to see true partnership decision making not tokenism from the Crown
Clear and concise explanation of what's involved in the Genter letter situation: https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/the-house/audio/2018707861/the-battle-of-two-julie-annes-mps-roles-and-the-public-interest
Remember Sacha when Key claimed "different hats" when responding to whether he should reveal correspondence with Slater? Funny old World is Parliament.
Painfully so.
Is wasnt right then, it's not right now. Genter needs to front and release the letter. Not be a complete hypocrite and opaque.
Is wasnt right then, it's not right now. Genter needs to front and release the letter. Not be a complete hypocrite and opaque.
Bullshit and jellbeans.
Genter has admitted she used the letterhead paper because… that was all she had.
And guess what, since this puerile political ploy was started by the Nats (of course), politicians of all colours have been busy acquiring plain white paper for their offices. So it would seem the use of parliamentary letterheads for all manner of communications has been endemic in parliament… probably for decades.
Oh you naughty girl Julie Anne. Fancy carrying on a tradition that has been practiced for decades. You should have known better. (sarc)
In other words when National did it = bad. When we do it = it's just the norm. Got it…
I hope you do get it because otherwise you'll be pretty unhappy and moaning a lot.
Unless Bishop can point to any rule in the Cabinet rule-book that she has broken, much ado about nothing, seems to me.
"Both Ms Genter and her boss (Minister Twyford) leant on a ruling from the Ombudsman, related to Official Information requests, that argued that political parties in a coalition need to be able to freely communicate opinions without fear of them being revealed."
It would help if the rule-book specified governing party negotiations as private info. Public info would be that covered by the OIA (govt decisions etc). Since the negotiating is a separate process from consequent decision-making, there's a line that can be drawn if it is currently too indistinct.
This idea that a human is actually dual in parliamentary terms if both minister & party rep doesn't factor in human psychology. People are naturally holistic, seeing themselves as single individuals. Pretending they ain't raises the question of the ethics of promoting delusional thinking in democracy…
Thats right.
Genter is Associate Minister for Road Safety. If she was writing outside her ministerial remit ( which she was) it was as a Green Party MP.
"If she was writing outside her ministerial remit ( which she was) it was as a Green Party MP."
JAG is the Associate Minister of Transport.
She wrote the letter on Ministerial letterhead, and signed the letter as the Associate Minister.
Multiple Wellington Councillors claim that the mayor told them that JAG and one other Green MP threatened to resign if they did not vote for the mass transit plan. The Mayor denies that, but then of course he would.
The LGWM pan is significantly different to what the LGWM group, and many Wellington councillors, supported.
This has all the hallmarks of the Greens imposing their ideology on Wellington over the best interests of the region. And being stupid enough to think they could get away with it.
Associate Ministers have specific areas of a portfolio. Its not a finger in every part of the Transport pie.
The Schedule of Responsibilities Delegated to Associate Ministers provides a summary list of the responsibilities that portfolio Ministers have delegated to Associate Ministers.
https://dpmc.govt.nz/our-business-units/cabinet-office/ministers-and-their-portfolios/delegations
Associate Minister of Transport: Hon Julie Anne Genter
Roles/Responsibilities
Responsibility for walking and cycling policy, including policy development and consequential Regulations (excluding Budget-related decisions);
Responsibility for the electric vehicles programme, and the vehicle greenhouse gas emissions programme, including policy development and consequential Regulations (excluding Budget-related decisions);
Responsibility for all land transport Rules and Regulations, unless otherwise specifically advised by the Minister of Transport;
Responsibility for all transport safety matters (aviation, maritime, rail and road), including policy development and making of all relevant Rules and consequential Regulations, unless otherwise specifically advised by the Minister of Transport;
Day-to-day oversight of Crown agency relations in respect of the Transport Accident Investigation Commission and Maritime New Zealand (excluding Budget-related decisions);
Responsibility for all maritime transport matters, including policy development and making of all relevant Rules and consequential Regulations, unless otherwise specifically advised by the Minister of Transport;
Responsibility for the provision of weather forecasting services (currently provided under contract by MetService), in terms of the Meteorological Services Act 1990 (excluding Budget-related decisions);
Responsibility for transport research and statistics, and the associated publications throughout the year;
General assistance in the portfolio, in particular in relation to setting the strategic direction for the transport sector, ensuring alignment between strategy, policy and regulations within the land transport sector, and policy development to integrate transport (including public transport) and urban development.
The letterhead is just an office issue. If the letter wasnt about road safety issues it wasnt within her remit as an associate minister.
"Associate Ministers have specific areas of a portfolio. Its not a finger in every part of the Transport pie."
I don't see that as relevant. JAG is an Associate Minister. And the first words of the last paragraph of the list of responsibilities indicates her involvement can be broad.
"The letterhead is just an office issue."
No, it isn't. If she was writing as a Green MP, she could have sent a generic email, and signed it as a Green MP.
"If the letter wasnt about road safety issues it wasnt within her remit as an associate minister."
From your list above"
"General assistance in the portfolio, in particular in relation to setting the strategic direction for the transport sector, ensuring alignment between strategy, policy and regulations within the land transport sector, and policy development to integrate transport (including public transport) and urban development."
Absolutely a letter to the MoT about LGWM is within her remit as a Minister.
In your last paragraph, did you mean “reductionist” instead of “holistic”?
No, I meant people operate as, and also see themselves as, organic wholes. Human nature is naturally holistic. The binary divide kicks in via differentiation, which is indeed a basic survival skill, but self vs other is less basic than the sense of being part of the whole (world).
The problem I'm seeing in respect of ministerial convention is that some folks are more binary than others, some more naturally holistic. Those of us adept at playing a variety of roles in life can do the shapeshifter thing easily. Others are liable to forget the necessity to wear the different hats and pretend to be merely a functionary when required – which is the reductionist stance you mention…
More evidence of National's dirty politics part two is now fronting on main stream media RNZ and others.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/the-house/audio/2018707861/the-battle-of-two-julie-annes-mps-roles-and-the-public-interest
Chris Bishop is questioning Julie Anne Genter over a letter sent from her as deputy Minister of Transport to Minister of transport Phil Twyford?????
The letter apparently contains Green Party opinions expressed by Genter to Twyford on a Wellington City transport plan; opinions which may have influenced the shape of the plan that was agreed to.
But the details of the letter are unknown and have not been the main fight so far. The fight has been over whether the letter should be public.
Was that the best "dirt" the National Party strategists coucld find on these associated Ministers of Transport?
So how did he get the letter which was suppoosed to be an 'internal 'confidential' document as we saw when Natioinal was last in Government?
Was it an internional leaked document sent from a 'National Party mole' opeerating inside these two Ministers offices?
There is something very odd about the Minister oif Transport Phil Twyford's office because for two years we have as a NGO in Napier been refused our letters requesting to meet with Minister Phil Twyford and on several occassions our NGO has called Phil Twyford's office and been 'rebuttled' with a sharp refussal to discuss the issue of why we are not recieving an apointment time to meet with Phil twyford in Wellington.
We are not impressed at all with the office staff at Phil Twyfords office and perhsaps they need to investigate the beackground of all Government ministers as some may be opposition policitical operatives trying to sabotage the govenement?
I recall that during the Last 'toxic' National Government it was Steven Joyce who sent a memo around the office staffers warning them that they would need to be loyal to the ministers and not report any issues or information to the press that ?may embassess the Governemt and would be a 'dismissable offence if it was carried out".
Perhaps now Labour leader PM Adern needs to repeat this threat using the Steven Joyce memo again during her reign?
Or at least conduct full background intellegence into the 'polical leanings' of all office staff within the parliamentary pool?
Breaking news…'Kieran Read's Colgate sponsorship could be at risk!
Not smiling …enough.
Anyone else's legs hurt from putting up local electorate candidate hoardings all day yesterday?
You put them up with your legs?
Even John Key used a hammer (sort of).
You get lots of bruised shins with that guy's poor aim. 🙂
Out west we had a magnificent crew and my crew put up twice as many billboards as I ever have in a day before.
🙂
My fav candidate got elected on a zero expense budget last time, so no 🙂
47-26
James?
Glad I missed it. Australia doesn't seem bothered by the absence of Israel Folau. Looking ominous.
Do you feel sufficiently coddled? Try to put your answer in context of how governance ought to provide for sufficient coddling. You could produce the long-awaited revival of socialism!
"US social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt spoke on 1 August in Auckland to a crowd of around one thousand people. He is best known for his book The Coddling of the American Mind which examines the new climate of trigger warnings and acute sensitivity of Gen Z." Apparently the ego fragility of this generation is noteworthy. The marxist reviewer was impressed by the audience…
"At question time were serious questions, and no long grandstanding time-hogging speeches. So it clearly wasn’t a left wing crowd!" https://rdln.wordpress.com/2019/08/11/jonathan-haidt-in-auckland-a-quick-recap/
Well, blow me down. Competitive grandstanding and time-hogging by audiences pretending to ask questions has been a thing for as long as I can remember. People are becoming more polite & considerate??
When a rich, powerful man connected lots of other rich, powerful men in suspected child sex trafficking crimes has allegedly killed himself while in custody at one of the most secure facilities in the US…
https://twitter.com/PreetBharara/status/1160211039864197121
https://twitter.com/CharlesPPierce/status/1160225866170982400
Yup. It wuz the Clintons.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/conspiracy-theories-erupt-after-jeffrey-epsteins-death?ref=home
Dinesh DFelon's onto it.
https://twitter.com/DineshDSouza/status/1160233223273811968
Here we go again…
Hillary Clinton, revitalised by eating lots of pizza from a noted pizza place, got out of the coffin she'd been in for four years after suffering a terminal illness, inveigled her way into the the place Epstein was being held and dealt to him.
Look forward to Chris Bishop asking the PM the serious questions this week:
"Did the Prime Minister get messages from Karel Sroubek about Hillary Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein? If not, why not?"
the dems are blaming trump
the repugs are blaming clinton
good advice from Cenk at TYT …..
Frantic deflection.
https://twitter.com/Stonekettle/status/1160311867534979072
A trove of court documents unsealed Friday detail allegations by an alleged victim of wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein that while working as a teenage locker room attendant at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort nearly two decades ago she was recruited to give Epstein massages that often involved sexual activity.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/09/epstein-mar-a-lago-trump-1456221
Sobering Stuff from the Far Far North, https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/114339192/a-couple-pay-300-a-week-for-a-room-with-no-lights-at-a-decrepit-backpackers one of a series co-written by a journalist who has caught my attention for her propensity for 'horses mouth' articles.
The housing situation is dire up there and this is compounded by the ubiquity of meth. Its fucking everywhere up there. Some of us thought, in years past, that the problem was cannabis…but P…a whole different level of damage.
And its not as if there aren't some very good local groups trying to address these issues…
that is some good journalism/use of stats..
the far north creaks from the burden of endemic poverty…
"Some of us thought, in years past, that the problem was cannabis…but P…a whole different level of damage."
Some of us have thought for many years that the problem was the criminalization of cannabis. The current P epidemic seems to support that thought.
xanthe…I get the argument about criminalization of drug use not being conducive to alleviating/avoiding/mitigating drug harm…but if severe punishment would stop folks from deliberately packing their kids into the car and filling the same with thick cannabis smoke so said kids were totally zonked by the time the family go to where they are going, then bring on the stocks and the lash. Sorry if this offends….but I have seen this with my own eyes and ask any teacher in the North about the effect this has on the kids' ability to learn. One small school board a few years ago when P was starting to become a 'thing' challenged all whanau at the school to commit to zero drugs and alcohol. Maybe two out of twenty families took the pledge. And so the cycle continues. Most of the the time this is deliberate, and they'll do it with alcohol as well, so it is disingenuous to blame ignorance and poverty. It was bad enough with cannabis…but now its P, and its happening that the way P affects thought processes those parents who may have not subjected their kids to first hand cannabis and alcohol have few if any inhibitions when they're on P.
I've been speaking with a van dwelling friend who has roamed that region over the past few years and she says it is almost impossible to find safe overnight parking at the moment. (We spend a lot of our time up there in our bus, and would be in a position to support her were we not stuck in the Waikato) I've been encouraging her to go to campgrounds for safety…but these can also habour individuals and groups using P and alcohol and just last night she was alarmed when violence erupted in the camp.
P is cheaper and more readily available than cannabis, I'm told, and the North is flooded with it.
The article speaks about struggling to find work….there has been about 1000000 avacado trees planted up there over the past few years, and those who are willing and able to work shouldn't have much of a problem. Housing is shit…and I'm hoping some of those rich prick orchardists up North will see their way clear to emulate the apple growers in Hawkes Bay who are investing in better seasonal worker housing to free up houses for the community.
"but if severe punishment would stop folks from deliberately packing their kids into the car and filling the same with thick cannabis smoke so said kids were totally zonked by the time the family go to where they are going, then bring on the stocks and the lash"
That's the crux of the matter, history and many years of experience shows it doesn't !
check out this quote which may or may not be Einstein's
http://professorbuzzkill.com/einstein-insanity-qnq/
This quote is particularly poignant as it is appropriate to both drug abusers and criminalization promoters,
What is the answer xanthe? Be buggered if I can think of a way to get the message through to parents who simply don't ever consider that their actions/inactions today are very possibly condemning their kids to the same dead end miserable shit hole conditions that they, the parents, will argue (or will be told by a succession of well meaning do gooders)drove them to the drugs in the first place.
(Btw, without going into whole lot of personal disclosures…it is possible to have seriously neglected and abused children living in households unaffected by material poverty. It is possible, but extraordinarily difficult, to not go down the same path as one's parents…but from my own experience, and after speaking with the many others who have also survived to not repeat the cycle, the key seems to be steering well clear of routine alcohol and drug use.)
Trouble with avocadoes is that they are expensive in shops and therefore worth stealing. If an orchardist in Far North could get a relationship with surrounding Maori to provide work for those who want it, and it was ongoing, there could be a fair amount of peer watchfulness and 'ownership' of our orchard workplace. If another group or person could start work gangs and get them regular work going outside the area for those who are rated as A workers, there could be a real change of mindset within a couple of years. But entrenched attitudes put entrepreneurs off up there according to what I have been told.
Some of the orchards are owned by iwi. We shot back up North last month for a couple of weeks and for the first time we heard that the established orchards are having to post security…it will be interesting to see how the come-lately Big Boys participating in the Mass Plant fare when their trees begin producing in earnest. Many of those new orchards are planted along SH1, not off the back roads with big shelter belts. Up until this year, the avos up there would have definitely been worth stealing….even the five for 2 dollars bags had lovely fruit. This year….not so much. I threw away a four for five dollars bag. Seasonal work has been a regular thing up there for ages and the local WINZ, after pushing many off the dole (and off the wharves fishing) and into some of the many jobs going up there seems to be amenable to not knobbling those people who fill vital labour gaps by doing part time work. A phone call, and an adjustment is made to the benefit without the person being worse off or ending up with a bog debt. Come mussel spat harvest time its all available hands on deck…and good hourly rate too. But this is not work for the hungover….
I can't get my head around it. Lots of people used cannabis and many people use P and the problem is the criminalization those things?
Why do so many right through our society have to use drugs like tobacco, alcohol cannabis and P? Are they crutches and props because life without them is so shit?
"Why do so many right through our society have to use drugs like tobacco, alcohol cannabis and P?"
Peer pressure is one 'door', followed by (biochemical/physiological) addiction which can overwhelm any incentives to get 'clean'.
"$1.8 Billion: Estimated annual social cost of illicit drug-related harm"
https://www.drugfoundation.org.nz/policy-and-advocacy/drugs-in-nz/
You need to add to that the cost of alcohol harm.
Drug abuse including Alcohol get worse when you have politicians who would rather scapegoat and puit the boot in ………. than help.
When it comes to slum condition housing, and kids living in cars …. Politicians and bad governance are FAR more to blame … than drug abuse….
Judith Collins in particular was the Govt arm in the Dirty Politics operation to neuter Alcohol reform …. Alcohol abuse was one of the main pillars for the violence and dysfunction portrayed in the very well acted NZ movie, "Once were Warriors"…..
She also makes unbelievable excuses in defense of rich criminals … according to one of the worlds best corruption exposing investigative journalists.
Collins then started projecting the type of person she is ,,, particulary her concern for struggling families onto her victims.
God save NZ from politicians like her …………. shes a 'taker'.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ruakaka/@-35.868501,174.4650468,60m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x6d0c84ab7cf51103:0x500ef6143a30170!8m2!3d-35.9063963!4d174.4471293
The focus on stopping cigarette smoking by putting the prices up high would tend to divert some to P or whatever if the price is then equal. Once getting on the drug taking practice, then economics and bang for your buck comes into it. And the peer thing, friends are taking it and they share with you when in funds, and in turn you share with them. It's a bonding thing.
Getting your kids past the age of youth addiction to alcohol and these other things when there isn't a shiny future of work and creating a life, is quite a task for parents. If they are users, doubly hard, it would be don't do what I do. If they could travel away from their cohort to where they could make up their minds what to study and be looked after in a hostel it could put a wedge into youth addiction.
The emphasis would be to study and pass something, try one or two subjects and pass them, get a feeling for what career they would like, physical and outdoor stuff, fencing or managing, or indoor stuff, computer work combined with skilled artisan stuff. An appreciative encouragement from gummint and their would be an upward line towards successful numbers of trainess and the spiteful class would have to find other targets to vent their displeasure on.
There's much sense in what you suggest GWS and mostly I agree. Trouble is that tragically, many of these children are adversely affected before birth and this is compounded by getting extra doses, sometimes on a daily basis, because they are breathing in the second hand smoke from ma and pa's cannabis, synthetics or P. Little buggers are multiply handicapped and often end up in the care of grandparents because their own drug addled parents can't cope with the damage they've done. Its a tragedy and needs to be turned around. I hoped within hope that Whanau Ora was going to create a program where a whaea can be paid to mentor a family out of these destructive lives…https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12257338
Whanau Ora workers know hundreds of families live in these circumstances every day.
And we do know that for every family struggling to survive there is another family member, immediate or extended, who would step up and start to transform the family if supported to do so.
Someone who is trusted, someone who will call bad behaviour exactly what it is in many instances, neglect. Someone who will need to be resourced whether for training or skills development in how to handle the high and multiple needs of their family.
saying that giving people hope and purpose will reduce drug abuse is not excusing any behavior, Its stating a fairly obvious fact
on the other hand It is my firm opinion that the war on P is being shown to be just about as effective as the war on cannabis. That is it completely ineffective at reducing use and greatly increasing harm.
back to the definition of insanity!
what the "war on drugs" does do is
1 creates a massively profitable criminal industry.
2 engenders corruption in the law enforcement .
how does any rational person support that ?
Just to remind ourselves what dirty dairying can look like. 16/5/2018
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/357531/council-fails-to-recover-50-000-in-dirty-dairy-case
And good news from the Labour coalition 11 August 2019: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/396427/govt-backs-community-led-waterways-cleanup-with-12m-boost
.
Lately from Oz: 'Dirty apartments' from bad building in Australia – a very bad business. Neolib economics we who desire good governance, good standards, and good lives – we despise you and all that push you like demented druggies.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018707948/australian-apartments-a-plague-of-property-researcher
Deregulation and poor-quality workmanship over the last two decades have resulted in shoddily built apartments, some with major structural cracks forcing residents to evacuate, flammable cladding, and balconies with water seeping through them.
Glad to see Henry Cooke & I are on the same page vis-a-vis NZF support trajectories when in Govt.
(Me: https://thestandard.org.nz/what-is-up-with-nz-first/#comment-1644703 & https://thestandard.org.nz/what-is-up-with-nz-first/#comment-1644972 He: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/114881495/winston-peters-doesnt-care-about-the-average-voter-neither-should-the-greens ) …
… I'd take issue, however, when Cooke argues:
Yeah, it's certainly true that around a quarter of 2014 NZF voters agreed that abortion is always wrong according to NZES. But the proportion of 2014 Labour & National voters feeling the same way was only mildly lower.
abortion is always wrong ?
49% Cons
37% Maori Party
25% NZF
23% Non-Voters
22% Labour
17% National
15% IMP
11% Green
(Note: a larger margin of error for NZF Con Maori & IMP voters).
That, in turn, raises the broader point that Labour voters are by no means as overwhelmingly liberal / libertarian … nor Nats as overwhelmingly conservative / authoritarian … as many pundits seem to assume.
Recent iterations of the NZES suggest the support-bases of both Major Parties are relatively evenly divided between Moral Cons & Libs … whereas voters for the Smaller Parties fall decisively one way or the other: … Greens being Economically Left & Morally Liberal / NZFers being Economically Left & Morally Conservative.
That Māori Party number is interesting. So many people misread them as a party of the left.
Interesting comment. To me, it shows that defining or categorising politics and people’s values and attitudes (and morals!) in terms of Left-Right or Liberal-Conservative is overly simplistic and not at all helpful when discussing singular but complex issues.
/agreed. Having said that, I'd be interested to know what you and others think of the political compass ( https://www.politicalcompass.org/ ).
Not perfect, but maybe its just that we need different labels on the Left-Right axis
Excuse me if I just selfishly sit back and watch for the responses
But you didn't volunteer a personal opinion on how well their test operates. That's the obvious way to assess the merit of their framing. It printed me out precisely in the middle of Bernie Sanders' face. I commented here a couple of years ago that it merely confirms that I share typical leftist values. I've never been a socialist. So the site seems designed to ignore identity politics. Ignoring the primary way people act and think politically nowadays is silly…
" It printed me out precisely in the middle of Bernie Sanders' face".
Is that what it is? I thought it was just a very pronounced birthmark.
Not sure what I think at times. When I did it a few years ago I was damn near centre point – at a time when a lot of acquaintances would have been calling me a bleeding heart leftie. It looks like it was an attempt to try and map matters economic against social considerations – probably in light of all that 3rd Way shite that's still with us.
Anyway, I'm only reluctant to comment at the mo 'cos I'm in the middle of tinkering with things mechanical (with greasy, oily paws and not wanting my keyboard to go buggerup)
Personally, I don’t think much of it. It is a tool designed to help voters to decide how to vote.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11920998
It does not help me much with singular issues such as abortion, euthanasia, free speech, et cetera. It does not guide my thinking in any ways, shape, or form.
It is also designed as a tool to increase voter engagement. But I don’t know that it really does achieve what it aims for. To me, it encourages you to align more with a party, and use heuristic labels to decide which tribe you want to belong to, i.e. your location on the ‘map’. Job done – two ticks (on the ballot form). I’d love to know how many people changed their party allegiance and voter pattern after doing the test. I’d say, not many. Others might feel confirmed in their engrained thinking and voting behaviour. Maybe so-called swing-voters are an interesting group to research in this context. Even more interesting would be the million or so non-voters.
Parties are shown as distinct little dots on this political landscape as if they are or have fixed positions. IMO they should be large shapes that touch and overlap each other. Nothing is fixed anyway; politics and political (and personal) opinions are fluid and dynamic although not nearly as much as they perhaps should be. It would be interesting to see how party positions change over time on the ‘map’.
The other issue I have with this ‘compass’ is that it reduces complex multi-dimensional and multi-factorial issues into two dimensions (I think the correct term is projection). This might make it easier for voters but it might hinder progressive politics and policies and public debate on those. Voters and the public need to be informed and educated so that they can think and decide for themselves (i.e. make informed decisions) rather than sheepishly following some party and/or party leader and then complain afterwards that it is not what they wanted. Worse, they defend that party or leader because they voted for them even though they had no clear idea of what they voted on and for and even though it was not what they wanted.
Such are the downsides of party politics and the so-called representative democratic system as it stands IMHO.
Then there's the difference between one's own values, and the positioning of who you end up voting for.
In the NZ context, I'm really relieved there's the Greens I can vote for that are somewhat close to my political positioning (right in the middle of Political Compass' left/libertarian quadrant) and are likely to actually make it in to Parliament to represent something close-ish to my views.
In US elections, any candidate close to my views hasn't got a hope in hell of actually winning a general election (except maybe in a handful of scattered House districts), so I have to try to judge who has the best balance of actually being electable and push some progress (however small) in a direction I'm ok with.
Do you get to vote in NZ and the USA?
Yup.
Absolutely … esp Intersectionals who seem to hold a deeply reductive (& strangely romanticised / paternalistic / 'Noble Savage') understanding of Māori … they appear to conceive of both Māori & Pasifika voters as monolithic blocs, all holding morally liberal views similar to themselves (ie the Intersectionals) … it’s beyond absurd …
… But then the more dogmatic ID Politics activists do tend to emerge from an exclusive & socially distant Pakeha Upper-Middle Establishment (I suspect they don't actually meet Māori or Pasifikas until well into adulthood).
In 2011, incidentally, Tariana Turia sought to appoint a conservative on abortion issues to the Abortion Supervisory Committee, the administrative body responsible for supervising the process. Labour and Green MPs unanimously opposed the amendment; National MPs were close to evenly split and the four ACT MPs voted against. New Zealand First had no parliamentary representation at the time.
.
On top of the Party Support perspective …
The key anti-Abortion demographics are:
– Moral Authoritarians
– Regular Churchgoers
– Pasifika, Asian & (to a somewhat lesser extent) Māori ethnicities
lol wee bee in you wee bonnet there – the point of intersectionality imo is to NOT put people into monolithic blocks. Maybe this will help
of course if you are privileged and are not a marginalized individual or group then it is a bit hard to get your head around
Or, putting it another way (Good/Evil axis determined by economic policy; Lawful/Chaotic axis determined by abortion stance):
Greens/IMP – Chaotic Good
NZF – Lawful Good
Labour/non-voters – Neutral Neutral
Maori – Lawful Neutral
Cons – Lawful Evil
Nats/Act – Chaotic Evil
Dungeons & Dragons alignment ?
Unfortunately, I was never part of that scene at College … basically (among the boys at what was a co-ed school) there were 3 essential sub-cultures:
– the Māori / Pasifika lads who tended toward Rugby / Disco / Black American Sitcoms (here I am indulging in the same reductivism I've accused the Intersectionals of)
– the Maths/Computer/Physics/Nerdy lads who spent every lunchtime playing heroic characters in D & D and tended to shy away from both sports & girlfriends (an unusually large number of lads with freckles in this particular sub-group)
– the Soccer lads: who played both The Beautiful Game & a new sport they invented called Soccer-Tennis (like Tennis Doubles … only with a soccer ball & restricted to head & feet) & identified with higher quality UK comedy like Fawlty Towers & Python (this was before the Rik+Ade Comedies arrived)
I was very solidly in the last of these groups (albeit still enjoying a good game of Rugger now & then).
The pleasures of D & D eluded me.
Interesting. My college years were '63-'67 inclusive, and there was only a single sub-culture: non-conformist. Me & a bunch of others. Everyone else conformed.
🙂
You were in the Fourth Form the year I was born.
I can just imagine you proudly sporting a Beatles Mop-Top …
… and a baaad attitude to Kiwi Keith …
People tried to put you d-down (talkin’ ’bout your generation)
… Just because you g-got aroun’ (talkin’ ’bout your generation)
Actually Wanganui Boys ensured that no Beatles mop-tops grew on any of us, if my memory is correct. We gained a few millimetres by the time I left, then I uni I stopped cutting my hair. Aversion to Kiwi Keith didn't kick in till '69 because even the rebels were totally apolitical at college (the left were just as much establishment/mainstream as the right).
But just prior to that – there was that fella with the silly hat if memory serves – Sir Bernard, if you ever needed someone to ridicule. And there was also that mad hatter in charge of broadcasting who insisted on being referred to by his military rank
Bless. Geeky guys shying away from girlfriends rather than the more painful reverse. 🙂
True … actually one of my closest friends in the 7th form had emerged from the Geeky D & D subculture. Very nice guy & dry sense of humour … but they were never, shall we say, overly successful with the femme fatale half of the School population.
Touché
Touché yourself.
roblogic
Your analysis is complete bullshit, but I absolutely love it and find it illuminating
I think you may be missing that common alignment, chaotic stupid, it's very prevalent in some places.
Yes good one there Roblogic.
Desperation seems to have set in to John Tamihere's mayoral campaign.
His homelessness and begging policy has him creating an 0800 JACINDA hotline to call if residents see rough sleepers or beggars. He said a caller would find a "person all loving and caring that knows everything about your wellbeing" on the other end of the line and a social worker would then be sent to work with the beggar.
No doubt the media releases have the usual official stuff on them about their authorisation.
"Authorised by heading down the toilet John Tamihere, Desperate F'wit"? Oh well, it'll garner more attention for him than promising to walk naked over the Harbour Bridge if he doesn't win.
Boagalicious.
John Tamihere won't get any of my respect if he is suggesting that there should be a hotline as described above. I have decided that the word 'spiteful' is appropriate for those who are unempathetic and unsympathetic and uninformed about the reasons for the poor state of many NZs. I hadn't expected to apply that to JT but if the cap fits wear it.
His track record is not big on empathy.
John has a good idea to ban trucks in Auckland as it seems to be happening overeas now too.
We look forward that plan spreading around NZ too as trucks emit ‘heavy (low frequency noise) (LFN) and vibrations that crack our home foundations and poison our air with jheavy pollution from several soures including exhaust brake and trye dust. All recognised as health risks.
Whats to like about that when rail lies idle with no tyre dust and low pollution emissions.
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/hamburg-becomes-first-german-city-to-ban-trucks-and-older-diesel-cars-1.3514147
Hamburg becomes first German city to ban trucks and older diesel cars
Move follows court ruling that cities breaching EU air quality limits must take action
Move is on to ban diesel cars from cities
https://www.dw.com/en/move-is-on-to-ban-diesel-cars-from-cities/a-42747043
A top German court has ruled cities can ban diesel cars on their own. DW looks at several places that have already started implementing similar plans to curb urban air pollution.
About a week ago I made a post noting our nu New Zealander Peter Thiel … and his proximity to racist politicians … and Palantirs involvement with ICE raids / operation, targeting the 'invaders' …
'Invaders' is how the President of the usa, along with white supremacist mass murderers,,, describe refugees or Muslims.
Palantir describes them as a $40 Million plus contract …. $$$$$$$$
The company Palantir appears to enter into some contracts which seem to be a melding of Dirty Politics with Dirty Business ….
One contract ,,,,, was described by reporter and 'target' Glen Greenwald as ,,,
https://www.salon.com/2011/02/15/palantir/
ICE
You'll need more than a few letters to persuade anyone to watch that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRpAFswLrFA&t=236s
ICE as in …
About a week ago I made a post noting our nu New Zealander Peter Thiel … and his proximity to racist politicians … and Palantirs involvement with ICE raids / operation, targeting the 'invaders' …
'Invaders' is how the President of the usa, along with white supremacist mass murderers,,, describe refugees or Muslims.
Palantir describes them as a $40 Million plus contract …. $$$$$$$$
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ku0z5Y3kDs&t=1072s
Palantir are not Peter Thiel … and visa versa of course …
But out of his own mouth he compares usa teachers to bank tellers ,,,, literally as well as figuratively
And Tax fairness seems to be a corporate rate of 10%-15% …. apparently.
I'd put up the vids of his 'talks' on teachers & 'fair tax' … but three posts on this interesting nu new zealander previously had me labeled with the dreaded derangement diagnosis.
My next post on elite Nzers ,,,, will be a dose of the Legatums…
The Chandler Bro's ….Billionare Brexiters .. one funding the tory cuddling neo-Con 'think tank'…. Legabrex sarc
trail blazers who went full cold war / red scare … before it became trendy again.
No, you were asked to start your own comment threads. Thank you for being so understanding and obliging.
So, something hit Jupiter creating a fireball the size of Earth…
https://twitter.com/ChappelAstro/status/1159290187287015429
https://www.space.com/jupiter-impact-flash-photo-august-2019.html
Wow! What could it have been? A tweet from POTUS on CC?
https://www.nziff.co.nz/2019/wellington/capital-in-the-21st-century/
Capital in the 21st Century 2019
Directed by Justin Pemberton Aotearoa
A sweeping – and sobering – account of the way that concentrated wealth has both shaped our past and is creating a deeply unequal future. Based on economist Thomas Piketty’s bestselling book.
Has Venues and Times in drop-down:
https://www.flicks.co.nz/movie/capital-in-the-21st-century/
The Tory establishment are done pulling their punches.
There is no getting away from it: this is a rightwing coup. I agree with Ferdinand Mount, once head of Margaret Thatcher’s policy unit at Downing Street in what now look like less disturbing times. Writing in the current London Review of Books, Mount sees echoes of Mussolini’s rise to power, in that “yes, [Johnson] has come to power by strictly constitutional means”; it is what happens after that matters, and the do-or-die approach of Johnson and his warlord Dominic Cummings is truly disturbing.
As my former Observer colleague Neal Ascherson says in the same vintage issue of the LRB: “We have leading Tories – not only Johnson – apparently prepared to suspend a sovereign parliament in order to force through a Brexit meant to restore the sovereignty of parliament.”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/aug/11/brexit-was-becoming-farce-now-turning-into-coup-johnson
Ferdinand Mount
Yes, this is a right-wing coup. It is duplicitous or self-deceiving to pretend that British politics is still proceeding more or less as normal. We are told that it is ‘hysterical’ to argue that Boris Johnson’s regime is in any way comparable to the nationalist dictatorships of yesterday or today. If this is a temptation, I shall happily succumb to it as a patriotic duty. By every standard of measurement, the Conservative Party has been transformed into Britain’s own BJP. ‘Optimism with a hint of menace’ was how the Sunday Times approvingly described Johnson’s first days in power – pretty much the way you might describe the first hundred days of Narendra Modi, or Donald Trump, or Benito Mussolini. Yes, he has come to power by strictly constitutional means. So did they all. It is how they govern when they get there that counts.
http://archive.li/XQEsr#selection-955.0-955.3
WTF is it with baby nazis and gyms?
https://twitter.com/ColborneMichael/status/1160454218366537730
Putin's thugs arresting opposition politician Lyubov Sobol.
https://twitter.com/christogrozev/status/1160209694528610305
https://twitter.com/christogrozev/status/1160291909102911494
Bridges and Tamihere seem to be on the same page at least.
Bridges tells Ihumatao protectors to 'go home', while Tamihere goes further. He will arrest the homeless for not…er…going home.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/08/go-home-simon-bridges-message-to-ihumatao-protesters.html
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12257555
I think I've commented already to the effect that BoJo's lot quite possibly don't actually believe in Brexit as an ideology. It's just a convenient train to hitch their wagon to – that wagon being a far-right takeover of the UK's institutions. This item from the Guardian appears to be consistent with the notion:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/11/boris-johnson-plot-to-subvert-democracy-is-more-dangerous-than-brexit-itself