I am not sure I really care about “punishing” her on behalf of those who had the cash to invest. I no longer believe in ma and pa investors, garden faeries are more believable. Stuffed if I want taxes spent protecting the rich from the predations of other rich people: if they can afford to invest it they can afford to lose it, or be taxed.
It surprises me that the home is apparently not in a trust, so she’ll lose it anyway. The quality of Directors these day eh? She should have at least known how to protect her own assets even if she didn’t have a clue about protecting the easy money of the investors looking for super returns.
Great, if people save instead of consume and try to invest that capital to keep themselves out of poverty in old age they are according to Leftists like you “EVIL CAPITALIST SCUM WHO DESERVE TO GET FUCKED!!!”.
You might wish to check out who the average investor was: it was not you and me. The small ones who saved and scrimped were pretty much a tiny minority. Look at SCF, the “Ma and Pa” investors got a guarantee and ripped the tax payer big time. Look at the “ma and pa” 2.5% of the NZ population who bought MRP shares…are they you and me? Fuck them, Let the buyer beware.
On the other hand there are the savers who believe in banks for long term security. Think more about how their savings get rorted by tax / inflation / bank rip offs etc.
Moral does not equal integrity either. An investor with integrity will be aware they’re getting pretty high interest for taking pretty high risks. They’ll check out the background of the Directors before they invest, weigh it up and wear it when they take a loss, not withstanding the criminal charges a Director, or ‘financial planners’ should get if they mislead.
This is also why it’s curious that this Director doesn’t have her home in a Trust. Finance company directors aren’t known for integrity nor for selling homes to pay back investors.
So you also believe that a savings bank deposit is the only “moral” wealth anyone is allowed to have?
Nope, that’s completely immoral. Or, to be more precise, expecting interest on it is.
What about kiwisaver?
Completely immoral as well as it seeks to prop up an immoral system. It can’t, of course, as the system depends upon ever increasing debt and use of oil neither of which is possible.
Completely immoral as well as it seeks to prop up an immoral system. It can’t, of course, as the system depends upon ever increasing debt and use of oil neither of which is possible.
Best investment – put excess money into things that will promote survival and resiliency in the future (that’s not accrual of money in case it’s not obvious).
Draco, what do you think about organisations like Prometheus?
Isn’t the problem with under-investment in NZ that everyone now knows the market here is just dangerously risky for small players, and you don’t know which advisers you can trust when they are all probably more heavily attuned to taking their personal cut of transactions than worrying about your personal risk?
Mr Turkey Brain aka KP. State your working credentials before you accuse me of that. Do you run companies? Do you understand the workings of general ledgers, P&Ls, tax accounting, finance, contracts etc? Is it something you have to apply to company operations, sales, profitability on a daily basis? Demonstrate that and I might consider your flippant charge of illiteracy worthy of debate.
PS The leftist anti capitalist bit…what the hell did I say that was necessarily leftist per se? Who are these “capitalists” of whom you speak?
You might wish to check out who the average investor was: it was not you and me. The small ones who saved and scrimped were pretty much a tiny minority. Look at SCF, the “Ma and Pa” investors got a guarantee and ripped the tax payer big time. Look at the “ma and pa” 2.5% of the NZ population who bought MRP shares…are they you and me? Fuck them, Let the buyer beware.
Ennui, do you have some figures on that? Leaving aside MRP, how many people who got burned in the finance company collapses were of what class and income bracket?
I have seen a finance companies books but cannot comment on that publicly as it was in confidence. I will have a look around the public records however and report back what is there.
Cut one was revealing, read this little beauty http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/research/econresearch/3198451.pdf does not give hard numbers but if you read between the lines pages 3 to 5 you get the flavour of huge under investment in finance because disposable income is too low and housing seen as safer with better returns.
You’re vigorous for so early on a Saturday morning there KP. Triple-shot was it ?
Rosy simply points-up that empathy for others doing it hard is an unknown quantity amongst many who have “done well”. The ones who cluck disgustedly, point judgmental fingers, then cheer Boss Hogg Bennett when she launches yet another dog-whistling salvo against beneficiaries and other “unworthy” types.
The “done-well” become vaguely aware of the concept only when they themselves are reduced to the level of their “lessers”. Even then it’s not actually empathy. It’s essentially sympathy, for themselves.
I support Rosy in making that point without you jamming your abusive words into her mouth.
Hope your day improves. Im sure it can. Just summon up some humility, offer it up to your own petard, and ask politely that you be hoisted down a little.
Doesn’t matter who you “thought” you were replying to – given the “ideologially driven” screech you’re broadly into your reply can be taken up by many.
Got nothing to do with belief – just the facts of what actually happens in a capitalist society. A few get very rich and well off while everyone else becomes poorer.
Well, actually it does Draco, because you have made a blanket statement that every capitalist (without defining what ‘capitalist’ means to you) is ‘scum’.
You seem to believe and hold the opinion that ‘capitalist’ is a single entity where, in actual fact, there are sharp degrees of capitalism.
“just the facts of what actually happens in a capitalist society. A few get very rich and well off while everyone else becomes poorer.”
That has happened, and can always happen, under any ideology. The best we can do is mitigate the bad while trying to exemplify the good.
I think capitalism can work just fine. Does that me a ‘capitalist’ because you need to define your terms here. We touched on this on The Daily Blog where you suggested that capitalism = Right Wing but used neo-liberalism as an example. Neo-liberalism is a type of capitalism, not capitalism in itself. I am not a neo-liberal, but I am a proponent Social-market economy capitalism. They are different beasts.
Well, actually it does Draco, because you have made a blanket statement that every capitalist (without defining what ‘capitalist’ means to you) is ‘scum’.
They’re the biggest bludgers in the world. Seemingly their sole purpose in life is to have an income from other peoples work. That’s what investment means in our society and what having money in the bank is. To have an income generated by the work of others.
It’s what our entire society is geared for but it only works for the few as to produce a high income from it it needs to clip the ticket of as many people as possible. It’s why globalisation happens – to increase the number of people that the rich can steal from.
We don’t need foreign investment as we have all the resources we need right here in NZ – the actual physical resources, the education and the people – and yet the governments keep saying that we do and making it possible for foreigners to buy up NZ. The only reason for foreign investment to happen is for the rich of other countries to steal from us as well as their own people because they’ve reached the limits of their own economy (a firm in a local economy can only grow so much but a global firm can grow so much bigger – the limits are still there though).
I am not a neo-liberal, but I am a proponent Social-market economy capitalism. They are different beasts.
What a crock of shit, Draco. It is hard to find a starting point in order to address your bizarre uttering so I’ll just address the relevant points here.
“They’re the biggest bludgers in the world. Seemingly their sole purpose in life is to have an income from other peoples work.”
Who is ‘they’? Are ‘they’ the ‘capitalists’? You’ll have to define your term here. Are ‘they’ those whose actively seek to use capitalism as an economic system to benefit themselves at the expense of others? Or those who benefit from the capitalist system without ever considering it as the ruling economic paradigm? Your use of ‘they’ and ‘the capitalists’ is so ill defined as to be useless.
“No, not really.”
Yes, really. You understand there is a difference between laissez faire neo-liberalism and Social-Market Economy, right? One promotes privatisation of everything from the police to healthcare while the other supports and fund social welfare, education and health (to name but a few). This is your problem Draco, you have an extremely binary view of the world. Black, white, On, off. Which, to be frank, is a conservative, right-wing view. One that you cloak in left-wing rhetoric but it is a ‘us/them’ mentality all the same which reeks of no true scotsman fallacy.
“It’s always centred around private ownership and the dead weight loss of profit and it is that which makes capitalism, any variant of it, right wing.”
False.
Private ownership of goods =/= right-wing. Capitalism =/= right-wing.
Do you own anything, Draco? Have you ever benefited from interest, investment or Kiwisaver?
Capitalism is the major problem. People making a habit of using their existing wealth to garner additional unearned wealth, while the labour utilised on the way gets fuck all.
I fail to understand why you remain in NZ. The country does not have a communist party in power nor is it likely to have in the near future. You are so far left you should wear a harness to arrest your fall.
That’s a bit unfair. I wouldn’t say Draco T Bastard is hard left for thinking every capitalist is a scumbag! Most capitalists have attained their wealth from the suffering of the poor after all. If you recognize or have been a victim of a corrupted system, then viewing those who have benefited from that corruption as being scum is entirely justified.
It might not be strictly correct in terms of all rich people aren’t capitalist scum, but it is entirely justified to have formed such beliefs because of the failures inherent within capitalism, namely that it increases inequality. Such a view as Draco has expressed is therefore not extreme at all, unless you’re arguing that inequality is somehow justified?
“unless you’re arguing that inequality is somehow justified?”
no, i doubt they would go so far as ‘justified’, they would turn off at ‘necessary’ and take the link road back to Imperialism via the scenic vistas of ‘entitlement’
Here’s a better idea.
How about we release a number of women serving time in Arohata or Wiri for minor property crimes equal to the total amount that this woman ripped off. And let them serve out the rest of their sentences in this Remuera Mansion. I am sure they won’t mind. And it would be a big saving on the tax payer.
May 10, 2013 Assange speech about to read by Daniel Ellsberg in San Francisco for Global Exchange Human Rights Award tonight
(Noam Chomsky and Jacob Appelbaum also present)
Thank you for this honor.
I am very happy to be sharing it with Noam Chomsky whose generosity and strength of character I have felt personally. Noam, you are the sea–relentless and enduring. You have crashed wave after wave of understanding into towering cliffs of lies, eroding them at their base. If the rotten foreshore of empire collapses it will be for this reason. You have inspired and continue to inspire many, including me.
Thank you to the people in this room for supporting this award. I’m going to thank you and Dan in the best way I know. By keeping this speech short. Then you can go and do the important thing. Make alliances to fight for WikiLeaks, Bradley Manning and me. Don’t think you can escape just because I am not there. We have a lot more spies in this room than the FBI.
San Francisco and the Bay Area is important to us. We fought our first big court case in the San Francisco federal courts in 2008; That was no coincidence. If we were going to have a fight, anywhere in the world, then I wanted it to be in San Francisco. I structured WikiLeaks to encourage attacks on us to be drawn to San Francisco (sorry about that). The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Freedom of the Press Foundation and many of our other defenders are based here. If any state of the Union is going to save the United States from itself, it will be California. Washington sees that too–that’s why we’re being prosecuted in Virginia and Maryland.
Noam’s presence in this room –useful, even though he’s from Massachusetts– reflects something very special. Cross generational solidarity. From Dan and Noam to Michael Ratner, from Kiki to me, from Jacob to Bradley Manning. The issues of each demi-generation are being understood as a continuation into the present. My fight is right now. But so is Bradley Manning’s. So is Jacob’s. I want Dan, Noam and Jacob–all of you here–together with me in this fight because I know you understand. Our conflict tests every aspect of character, but it has also shown it in many and I am proud of them.
Remember that Bradley Manning’s trial starts on June 3. It is scheduled to run for twelve to sixteen weeks. The prosecution is bringing 141 witnesses. That is a show trial. A twelve-week off-Broadway extravaganza being performed at Fort Mead. Its legal and political result will directly feed into the larger prosecution of WikiLeaks.
What is to be done? The answer is easy. It has always been easy. Stop saying “not in my name” and start saying “over my dead body”. That’s what we did. It works. Do it.
Sorry, haven’t you heard, he is a Feminist pariah? Assange is a white guy with CIA backed false rape allegations made against him which the feminasties have swallowed hook, sinker and line.
You will accused of “rape culture” supporter in a political necklacing, Morrissey, if you are not careful.
KP, Who knows? But the comment does not help because right now we need EVERY believer in justice and fair play to put their support very publicly behind Bradley Manning.
“right now we need EVERY believer in justice and fair play”
[Deleted]
[lprent: So you took that as an opportunity to offensively insulting my half of my relatives again. Cretinous misogynistic drivel. And I too believe in delivering justice and fair play. I delete the ravings of bigoted fuckwits. ]
The western garment industry exploits the vulnerable, largely women, in poor countries, so they can make exorbitant profits, and try to buy off our resistance with relatively cheap clothing.
“throwing out some obscure points that most feminists have never heard of.”
The examples I give are of ideas central to Feminist ideology – Critical Theory, Feminist “Theory”, “Queer Theory” – all psuedo intellectual drivel that has wrecked the Humanities.
k_p has been given enormous leeway in recent days with multiple warnings for his horrible bigotry and false accusations. It doesn’t seem to be working. Again and again he spouts nonsense about the views of others, as he always has.
I wonder if he ought to be given some sort of penance to perform. Perhaps the severity of the penance could be determined by the quality of his answer to your question above.
k_p drops in and repeats a cherry-picked one liner, making accusations about feminism. He brandishes it like a weapon, jumps up and down claiming victory, then runs away without seriously engaging.
Yes, we know that, but perhaps it’s time to pull the plug? He’s derailing at best, but his intention is to intimidate and his method is stalking. Maybe no single post has violated any rule, but perhaps his pattern has to be considered?
He’s definitely a misogynist and he’s clearly trying to bully specific women he’s very obsessively targeted, and he consistently tries to derail threads to shut down discussion.
Moreover, he ignores repeated warnings about appropriate conduct.
It’s all very well if Karol and The Queen of Thorns have thick skins, but I worry that he’s driving off other potential contributors – as he intends to.
Indeed. Manning too often gets neglected and he is suffering a the result of his brave act in passing over the damning information about the US military.
My first tertiary education was in education, especially education of those with disabilities. I learned things about biology, neurology, and how people learn, and child development. This learning formed the basis of much of my later learning inside and outside the uni.
The human brain is a wondrous thing. I learn more about it every day, but some people’s brain functioning remains curiously obscure.
I’m appalled at Manning’s treatment, but the fact of the matter is that he committed treason in the eyes of the law. It is inconceivable that he wouldn’t be punnished in some way, but torture is unacceptable.
It is often overlooked. The entire document is a flow on from those three simple words. It was the People he was defending, but I do have my doubts you even grasp what that means.
He swore the U.S. Armed Forces Oath of Enlistment
This includes the propagandized ‘against all enemies foreign and domestic’ line.
He concentrated this time on the domestic bit.
Freedom, I presume that you do realize you’re trying to argue in good faith with the Kiwi equivalent of a Soviet commissar.
If you’re engaging in that futile exercise as an intellectual workout, that’s fine. As long as you don’t expect anything like enlightened or serious debate.
…the fact of the matter is that he committed treason in the eyes of the law.
What a disgusting, Wieselian hypocrite you are. As those of us who do not share your Maoist/Stalinist view of the world know, is not treason to bring war crimes to the attention of the world.
And spare us the bombast about being “appalled” by mistreatment of which you have repeatedly endorsed on this forum.
It is inconceivable that he wouldn’t be punnished [sic] in some way…
It is conceivable that he would be lauded and honoured in a state that valued human rights and the rule of law.
….but torture is unacceptable.
But you endorse the torturers and say that the person who exposed them “committed treason”. If I did not know better, I would think you were merely another bewildered mouth-breathing NewstalkZB listener.
For anyone with a shred of commonsense or common decency, here’s a reminder of why the full vengeance of the state is being unleashed on Manning and Assange…. http://www.collateralmurder.com/
…which the feminasties have swallowed hook, sinker and line.
Some nasty and politically aligned women have chosen to accept the British government’s black propaganda, but Swedish Rape Crisis has, like anyone honest, condemned the British-U.S. government campaign.
and the lead prosecutor, a woman, resigned from the case. A lot of of media are saying she resigned because the case was unravelling faster than a cardigan caught in a cartoon cartwheel
I think the ladies did the right thing: go public. Let the court of public opinion judge the hoteliers with their cash. Conversely if you legislate you only force legal acceptance, which is worth nothing compared to mind share.
Just observing that the guesthouse proprietor refused to allow a lesbian couple to share a bed because they would be accommodating “behaviour that is sodomy.”
That doesn’t go quite so well as Hillary Sodom Clinton—which I am sure, by the way, is actually used by the legion of extreme right wing “Christian” Hillary-haters—but it is not bad, I suppose.
TRP……..(apologies Morrissey – I’m a fan of yours)……..shouldn’t it be MorrisOddomy ? OK, not as good as either of yours’ but I’m a little hobbled today.
Consequent upon Kiwi Promethium alleging I’m on synthetic cannabis and Bowel Motion counselling that I should lay off the drink in the mornings. Have a good day folks. Must back to ma Twelve Steps.
Ironically – sodomy is anything that isn’t straight missionary position (hard right fundy def.) and given the Ruskin’s love of prying into other consenting adults sex-lives, methinks then it’s fair to speculate that the Ruskin’s hath done much sodomy themselves
Ergo, they should kick themselves out of their dwelling since apparently “no sodomites allowed” is the golden rule thou shalth not break.
But owner Karen Ruskin said she and husband Michael could dictate what went on at the property: “Homosexuals have a whole industry of hotels that they can go to,” she said.
Legally a business cannot discriminate on the basis of stuff that falls under the Human Rights Act iirc and you can bet these two muppets would scream blue murder along that line if they suddenly got booted from a business due to being fundamentalist christians.
Bring on the rainbow cluebat of bad PR and legal challenges!
as noted in the corresponding thread; we all know about sublimation, delusional projection, distortion, superiority complexes and repression do we not.
“No one becomes equal by the killing of another innocent life. That’s not equality, that’s enmity.” – Ryan Bomberger
Supporting mothers in having the ‘right’ to work from 9-3 tax free, in ‘most’ jobs, if they choose to do so, means that children will be feed before school.Amongst other things.
Now doesn’t all that bring new meaning to the words ‘productivity gains’ now, and in the next generations!
Four conclusions can be drawn from this.
1) Our continued civilisation is under threat on this planet.
2) More people in NZ know about Aaron Gilmore than details about climate change.
3) The NZ Herald is a poor excuse for journalism.
4) There is a link between 1,2 and 3.
Jeeez they are a fiesty lot today on open mike TRP, every day is still like Sunday for Morrissey and KP can’t get much higher. “Sodom Clinton” heh what next.
Must be something about the weekend that brings out the warrior in them! Sadly, I’m off to footy, so I’ll have to wait till tonight to catch up with various witterings. Have a good one, TM.
Just what is it that makes today’s Labour leaders so dithering, so unappealing?
Let’s not beat about the bush: David Shearer is a terrible, ineffective, wishy-washy Labour leader.
But as bad as Shearer might be, here’s one fellow who is even worse. Pity the good people of Great Britain if this is all they can put up against Dave Snooty and his Eton chums…
The neoliberals captured the British Labour Party when Blair took over.
There is no one for workers to vote for in the UK.
People are that desperate for an alternative and the corporations are ensuring there is not one.
Elie Wiesel: Break Your Silence and Come with Us to Gaza!
When Elie Wiesel spoke at Saint Louis University on December 1, 2009, three women challenged him to break his silence about Gaza and to travel with them on the Gaza Freedom March to see for himself the devastation caused by Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in December 2008 and the ongoing siege.
Keen has his eye on margin debt. This is the money people borrow from their stockbrokers to expand their holdings of shares. Keen says the ratio is now 70%, meaning with $300,000 you can borrow $1 million worth of shares.
Here’s where it gets interesting. Steve has found a relationship between the change in margin debt and the level of asset prices. Even more importantly, he points to a correlation between the acceleration in margin debt and the rise in asset prices.
If his theory holds true, this means we’re relying on the acceleration of margin debt to drive rising share prices. And when that acceleration slows down, equity prices will fall.
Thing is, it’s more borrowing that both National and Labour are after with their affordable homes. More people buying = more borrowing and thus we get an increase in money in the system raising GDP. It’s not sustainable and must crash but the politicians will just push some other barrow that achieves the same end – more borrowing.
The only winners in such a system are the people who print the money with interest on it – the private banks.
No one has the stomach to reform our debt based money supply. It’s possibly the biggest no-no in the capitalist banking framework that we have locked ourselves into.
and it is one simple question every person can consider for themselves without having to wave a flag or sign a paper or anything. All they have to do is spend a moment of honest contemplation. Something many more should do, more often than we do. I am as guilty as any of that failing.
Here are ten facts you may wish to pop into tonight’s dinner conversations. I know, I know, facts are so infuriating when they completely contradict hysterical fantasies, but reality is like that, facts are facts and lies are just business. http://www.collective-evolution.com/2012/10/16/10-eye-opening-facts-about-hemp/
Instead of building its future, New Zealand is disintergrating. An average house for a family should not cost $750,000. Things are out of control. A future requires a society to obtain levels of sustainability.
(If you do not believe that, good luck to you and yours.)
There is not one single reason hemp should not become a primary industry in NZ.
Building. Medicines. Food. Textiles. Plastics. Fuel. It just goes on and on and on.
We could be making milllions of dollars from hemp and hemp related industries if we wanted to, at the very least we could be saving billions if we chose to. The employment opportunities, the related economic growth, the social benefits, the sustainability bonuses, these are not things that should be dismissed lightly. But we all know the drill.
We have a problem, we look for a solution.
Whenever hemp is investigated as a viable solution, BAM ! straight into the wall !
It does have a very bad habit of highlighting sustainability nightmares. Mostly though, there are good responsible reasons given why not to go forward and they usually hold water as strongly as a $2 bucket.
However you spin it, money influence and engrained propaganda are difficult to overcome without forcing a fundamental breakthrough in how people comprehend the machine around them, and that’s not gonna happen anytime soon if some of the wanderers we meet here are anything to go by. I get that.
To the reader, I ask you. Will ignoring it all, solve any of the issues?
Shall we let blinkers crop the vista of our future?
A future requires a society to obtain levels of sustainability.
Building. Medicines. Food. Textiles. Plastics. Fuel.
I cannot see a single reason hemp should not become a primary industry in NZ.
This is quite a big deal, we get that, but ….
Anyone know why he was here?
What the event was?
Who the other businessmen that are mentioned were?
What this piece of US-focused dross is meant to be conveying?
“How Class Works – Richard Wolff Examines Class ”
Shows up the class war of selling our Power companies whose future profits will accrue to the wealthy instead of the commons.
“Working for an employer is like rowing an oar as a galley slave. You can quit and jump overboard but you splash right into the great ocean of unemployment, exclusive professional guilds, multi-level marketing scams, lying temp agencies, credit card debt, college loan scams, a 90% self-employment failure rate due to competition and deficient government benefits. You are forced to swim to and board another galley. Now all the galley ships have robotic oarsmen and you sink beneath the waves.”
I’m gradually learning more about the Second World War. There is so much to know and it has always been in my background, occasionally coming to the fore. Now I am older and less hopeful about humanity I have been reading about Resistance fighters etc.
This morning I am looking at The White Rose on wikepedia. That was the name that a group of protesting and defiant young people mostly students used as their symbol. When studying events in Germany between the wars it becomes obvious that the country had been occupied mentally internally by this authoritarian and brutal regime far before the 1939 declaration of war against Germany.
The things that are so emotionally expressed in these students’ words have been applied to what is going on in NZ. Many of these young people died at Nazi hands. One group were beheaded in 1943 I think in a public square.
So what happens every day to limit human rights and step up authoritarianism and fascism must be looked at carefully. Some quotes from the German group:
If everyone waits until the other man makes a start, the messengers of avenging Nemesis will come steadily closer. (From Leaflet 1, urging immediate initiative by the reader. Nemesis of course punished those who had fallen to the temptation of hubris.)
…why do you allow these men who are in power to rob you step by step, openly and in secret, of one domain of your rights after another, until one day nothing, nothing at all will be left but a mechanised state system presided over by criminals and drunks? Is your spirit already so crushed by abuse that you forget it is your right – or rather, your moral duty – to eliminate this system? (From Leaflet 3)
Why do German people behave so apathetically in the face of all these abominable crimes, crimes so unworthy of the human race? … The German people slumber on in their dull, stupid sleep and encourage these fascist criminals….[The German] must evidence not only sympathy; no, much more: a sense of complicity in guilt….For through his apathetic behaviour he gives these evil men the opportunity to act as they do…. he himself is to blame for the fact that it came about at all! Each man wants to be exonerated ….But he cannot be exonerated; he is guilty, guilty, guilty!… now that we have recognized [the Nazis] for what they are, it must be the sole and first duty, the holiest duty of every German to destroy these beasts. (From Leaflet 2)
One of the episodes is about the Soviet partisan war against the Germans.
Also consider – 4 out of 5 German soldiers killed in WWII were killed on the Eastern Front.
The D-Day landings at Normandy in 1944, although an important step in securing western europe, were not very relevant to Germany’s final defeat. Germany had already long lost the war in 1943, at the Battle of Kursk.
The role of the ANZACs is not to be unterestimated. Had they not kept Rommel tied up in North Africa, the Soviets might not have had time to rearm after the Ribbentrop-Molotov fiasco.
Not to mention that if the Germans had secured fuel supplies from the middle east then their strategies in Russia wouldn’t have been so skewed by the need to secure oilfields during Barbarossa.
Ultimately it was the inability of Germany to get a few essential strategic materials from outside of their conquered territories that lost them the battles. It forced them to make strategic mistakes.
They made strategic errors, yes, but their big error was going into total war with Russia AND America. Either one could have out produced, outgunned and out fought Germany in the long run. By wars end Russia and the USA were just getting warmed up and Germany was a smoking ruin which had run out of manpower and the ability to re-arm. Also, the conventional war had just about run it’s course anyway. The US had the A bomb. They also had the means to deliver it anywhere in German territory. Germany were close to a bomb, but had lost air superiority and were a long way from having true ICBM’s.
I agree that North African action greatly limited German options. Further, the horrific two and a half year siege of Leningrad was a disaster for Germany – it tied down 20% of their eastern forces even as 500-1000 Leningrad citizens starved to death daily.
As for forced mistakes…Hitler regarded himself as a military super-genius and things went down hill rapidly when he decided to put himself in charge of all military operations. Not letting his army withdraw from Stalingrad and deciding that a quarter million cut off German forces could be resupplied by air? Mad.
The Afrika Korps wouldn’t have even been noticed on the Russian Front. It swallowed up whole Army Groups. Rommel fought against a few divisions which made up the 8th Army. Operation Barbarossa kicked off seventeen months before the second Battle of El Alamein, which was three years after Ribbentrop and Molotov divided up Poland.
If anything, the Red Army saved Egypt for the British Empire, not the other way around.
It helped that Hitler made a few bad choices as well, peeling off elsewhere when he had a chance to press home his advantage. I think one of them was to push down into Ukraine when he could have taken Moscow before winter.
You would’ve thought that Germany would not want to make Napolean’s same mistakes in Russia.
Hitler did need to capture the industrial centre of Kiev so there was a strategic purpose to that. However, delays to capturing Moscow created huge problems for the Germans, and it allowed the Soviets to ship in elite eastern divisions to bolster the Moscow front.
Trying to go after the caucuses and Stalingrad and Moscow at the same time was never going to work. Classic Art of War – if you try to be everywhere, everywhere you will be weak.
You also have to factor in the massive intelligence failures of the Nazis regarding the USSR. They completely underestimated the size of the soviet forces and their massive reserves. They underrated the intelligence and determination of the soviet soldiers and officers who, after initial mass surrenders, chose to thereafter fight on behind advancing German lines even after being encircled and were a constant threat to their rear and flanks, as well as to their fronts.
They had no idea that the soviets even had the T34 and KV tanks, far superior to the panzer III and IV’s, nor that they had developed aircraft like the Mig 3, Yak 3, La 5 and 7’s, Il 2 and 10 shturmovics, and their katyushas etc. They never gave any consideration to the industrial capacity of the USSR and their ability to dismantle and reassemble their armaments factories well out of reach of German short-range bombers. Even though lend-lease provided them with allied war materiel, the USSR proved itself able to produce all manner of war materiel in such high volumes they were easily able to replace their losses as the war dragged on, when the Germans could not.
If you can get access to the War Memorial Museum library, then that’d be about the best source in NZ on some of the resistance movements.
Not only did we have people scattered throughout europe and the pacific and they wrote stuff down, but we also got quite a lot of refugees and emigres pre and post war who did as well. It seems like most of the hardcopy wound up there.
There was a year when I was a kid where I was attempting to soak up that library.
The same steady withdrawl of rights is happening now in NZ, but the populance finds it hard to get a fix on it and react. Much easier to join in the scrum on Mr Gilmore’s flaws than that of democratic rights or security from spying etc. We need a serious focus to prevent the slide. Sympathise with the Germans of the 30’s because they by the time they realised the significance of what they had lost it was too late to resist.
(Read about a butcher in Vienna who was anti-Nazi until the day the German army marched into Austria and declared the country to be part of the German Nazi empire. The next day the butcher marched down the road waving the German flag. “Survival,” he said.)
A survivor of a high-level ring involving child sacrifice, torture and trafficking went public today in an exclusive disclosure and interview with Freedom Central’s Mel Ve and ITCCS Field Secretary Kevin Annett.
Toos Nijenhuis, a fifty four year old physiotherapist and mother of five from Holland, was tortured, raped and used experimentally from the age of four years old by wealthy and powerful men around the world, including top officials of churches and governments.
And, Nijenhuis claims, these crimes are continuing today, including the ritual sacrifice of children in rural Holland.
Is that tinfoil hat too tight again. Show me on the doll where the Illuminati touched you?
Seriously? I’m not doubting she suffered terrible abuse, but she’s quite obviously projecting this elaborate fantasy onto it to try and give that horrible abuse some meaning. Another similar and widespread projection onto childhood sexual abuse is alien abduction. There is no global satanic conspiracy and this sort of nonsense just distracts from the horrible mundane reality of child abuse.
To The Handlers;
Risk is not necessary. Scientific development concept
Bone-modern-marrow admirably sails, bracing
the vigorous weight of the People while The Struggles
with the Persians remaining indecisive, abundant Africa
is being recovered from the vandal al1ens.
You can pencil that in three places
(Ray-guns are a fetish for steam-Punks,
may be buried with Wessex culture) We all
harden up with influence and Able instrumental guidance;
Plumb the depths, clean out the pipes, dispose the waste.
Quelle : Lectiones geometricae; pictures italicized
(or a combination Friend rice, Edgar; #23 8)
Eponymous / Mick Ronson Priestley (Whats My Name)
contend more in written acts than words.
The Shepherd’s crook, cuts right across the diagonal;
“he came to minister, not to be ministered to”.
“and let no-one attempt to reclaim (them) from the stigmata of their new master”.
Let no-one trouble them for the record of their transaction is in the temple.
Odd fact about the Broadcasting Standards Authority: for the last few years, they’ve only been upholding about 5% of complaints. Why? I think there’s a range of reasons. Generally responsible broadcasters. Dumb complaints. Complaints brought under the wrong standard. Greater adherence to broadcasters’ rights to freedom of expression in the ...
And I said, "Mama, mama, mama, why am I so alone"'Cause I can't go outside, I'm scared I might not make it homeWell I'm alive, I'm alive, but I'm sinking inIf there's anyone at home at your place, darlingWhy don't you invite me in?Don't try to feed me'Cause I've been ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ star is on the rise, having just added the Energy, Local Government and Revenue portfolios to his responsibilities - but there is nothing ambitious about the Government’s new climate targets. Photo: SuppliedLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
It may have been a short week but there’s been no shortage of things that caught our attention. Here is some of the most interesting. This week in Greater Auckland On Tuesday Matt took a look at public transport ridership in 2024 On Thursday Connor asked some questions ...
The East Is Red: Journalists and commentators are referring to the sudden and disruptive arrival of DeepSeek as a second “Sputnik moment”. (Sputnik being the name given by the godless communists of the Soviet Union to the world’s first artificial satellite which, to the consternation and dismay of the Americans, ...
Hi,Back on inauguration day we launched a ridiculous RFK Jr. “brain worms” tee on the Webworm store, and I told you I’d be throwing my profits over to Mutual Aid LA and Rainbow Youth New Zealand. Just to show I am not full of shit, here are the receipts. I ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump over Gaza and Ukraine.Health expert and author David Galler ...
In an uncompromising paper Treasury has basically told the Government that its plan for a third medical school at Waikato University is a waste of money. Furthermore, the country cannot afford it. That advice was released this week by the Treasury under the Official Information Act. And it comes as ...
Back in November, He Pou a Rangi provided the government with formal advice on the domestic contribution to our next Paris target. Not what the target should be, but what we could realistically achieve, by domestic action alone, without resorting to offshore mitigation. Their answer was startling: depending on exactly ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guest David Patman and ...
I don't like to spend all my time complaining about our government, so let me complain about the media first.Senior journalistic Herald person Thomas Coughlan reported that Treasury replied yeah nah, wrong bro to Luxon's claim that our benighted little country has been in recession for three years.His excitement rose ...
Back in 2022, when the government was consulting internally about proactive release of cabinet papers, the SIS opposed it. The basis of their opposition was the "mosaic effect" - people being able to piece together individual pieces of innocuous public information in a way which supposedly harms "national security" (effectively: ...
With The Stroke Of A Pen:Populism, especially right-wing populism, invests all the power of an electoral/parliamentary majority in a single political leader because it no longer trusts the bona fides of the sprawling political class among whom power is traditionally dispersed. Populism eschews traditional politics, because, among populists, traditional politics ...
I’ve spent the last week writing a fairly substantial review of a recent book (“Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism: How we crushed the curve but lost the race”) by a couple of Australian academic economists on Australia’s pandemic policies and experiences. For all its limitations, there isn’t anything similar in New Zealand. ...
Mr Mojo Rising: Economic growth is possible, Christopher Luxon reassures us, but only under a government that is willing to get out of the way and let those with drive and ambition get on with it.ABOUT TWELVE KILOMETRES from the farm on the North Otago coast where I grew up stands ...
You're nearly a good laughAlmost a jokerWith your head down in the pig binSaying, 'Keep on digging.'Pig stain on your fat chinWhat do you hope to findDown in the pig mine?You're nearly a laughYou're nearly a laughBut you're really a crySongwriter: Roger Waters.NZ First - Kiwi Battlers.Say what you like ...
This is a re-post from the Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler Climate denial is dead. Renewable energy denial is here. As “alternative facts” become the norm, it’s worth looking at what actual facts tell us about how renewable energy sources like solar and wind are lowering the price of electricity. As ...
SIR GEOFFREY PALMER is worried about democracy. In his Newsroom website post of 27 January 2025 he asserts that “the future of democracy across the world now seems to be in question.” Following a year of important electoral contests across the world, culminating in Donald Trump’s emphatic recapture of the ...
The Government hasn’t stopped talking about growth since the Prime Minister made his “yes” speech at the Auckland Chamber of Commerce last week. But so far, the measures announced would seem hardly likely to suddenly pitch New Zealand into the fast-growth East Asian league. The digital nomad announcement hardly deserved ...
It's election year for Wellington City Council and for the Regional Council. What have the progressive councillors achieved over the last couple of years. What were the blocks and failures? What's with the targeting of the mayor and city council by the Post and by central government? Why does the ...
Someone defames you anonymously online. Can you find out who it is? Maybe. There are legal avenues to seek a court order that an internet host reveal the identity of the person. One of them is called a Norwich Pharmacal order, but as Hugh Tomlinson KC points out, it only ...
The results of the 2025 Mood of the Workforce survey have been released, with working people revealing deep concerns regarding their work lives, housing, health care, and perceptions of the coalition government in Aotearoa New Zealand.Christopher Luxon has signalled that National may campaign on asset sales in the next election, ...
Hey, hey, heyJust think, while you've been gettin' down and out about the liarsAnd the dirty, dirty cheats of the worldYou could've been gettin' down to this sick beatSongwriters: Taylor Swift / Shellback / Martin Max. Read more ...
Luxon has once again let National’s junior coalition partner, ACT, set the political agenda, dragging him and National into another politically draining debate. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, January 29 are:PM Christopher ...
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Fresh from the maelstrom surrounding the Treaty Principles Bill, and before fury and dust from that toxic piece of rubbish has settled, Act Leader, David Seymour has launched a new narrative into the public ...
Note: This video featuring speakers such as Finlayson, Waring, Kelsey and Little is a long one - 35 minutes. In the first 9 of 80 hours that the Justice Select Committee will spend on Treaty Principles Bill public hearings1, from a smidgeon of the 343,000 record submissions2, in a months ...
When I created a Youtube channel, I labelled the playlist for National: “National Privatize NZ Party”.Now, why did I do that?It’s late and my brain isn’t working at full capacity, so my off the cuff answer is - 1. I follow far too much of this Government’s statements, actions, and ...
The week’s big story has been about China’s DeepSeek low-cost AI model. Because DeepSeek requires fewer advanced chips, its advent has had a huge impact on the fortunes of US chip-making giant, Nvidia – which immediately lost $600 billion of its value, making that the biggest one day loss in ...
1. Is this the one that brings everything crashing down? This is a question I have asked myself many times now: The '87 crash; the Asian Financial Crisis; the Dotcom bubble; the Global Financial Crisis; the COVID.Each time the answer has turned out be: no, there will be No Great ...
The NZCTU strongly opposes the Employment Relations (Pay Deductions for Partial Strikes) Amendment Bill (the Bill). It is a clumsily drafted and punitive piece of legislation aimed at taking industrial power away from working people, undermining the right to strike and entrenching the inherent imbalance of power between workers and ...
A ballot for two member's bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Crimes (Coward Punch Causing Injury or Death) Amendment Bill (Paulo Garcia) Juries (Age of Excusal) Amendment Bill (Carl Bates) So a harmless bill and some "tough on crime" bullshit. There were ...
I wanna be FREE! Don't wanna be judged; I wanna be meIt's easy to see stereotypes are cutting me deepI pray every day doesn't mean I'm gonna get my wayBut Look how we get displayed. We need to get this straightLyrics of Freedom by Tipene Harmer.Nothing says a right-wing populist ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters The planet was besieged by 58 billion-dollar weather disasters in 2024, ranking second-highest behind only 2023, which had 73, said insurance broker Gallagher Re in its annual report issued 17. The total damage wrought by weather disasters in 2024 was $402 billion, ...
National campaigned on a digital nomad visa capped at 250 applicants a year but has pivoted to allow an uncapped number people to stay working remotely for up to nine months. Photo: Getty ImagesLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on ...
Hi,Just quickly, I wanted to say thanks for all the discussion going on under the Elon Musk piece. Your commentary has helped me feel more sane. The AMA was also super fun — I’ll be emailing the 10 Flightless Bird t-shirt winners later this week.Now, onto something else entirely. Have ...
How did public transport ridership perform in 2024, where has the post-covid recovery been the strongest and weakest and how do we compare to other cities. Those and more are questions that I’ll answer over few posts. In this first post I’m taking a look at the high-level numbers. In ...
Insecurity in work, housing, and health among working people has emerged as the key finding from the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi’s 2025 annual Mood of the Workforce survey. NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff says the survey, which polled more than 1900 people, shows immense concern that ...
Since 2019, we have asked working people to talk about their experiences of work over the past 12 months, and what their thoughts are on issues likely to impact their work and lives in the future. We do this because we think the voice of working people should be heard ...
Oral submissions on National's racist, ahistorical Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill are being heard today, and in addition to the expected iwi, academics, lawyers, and constitutional experts calling bullshit, there's been a succession of racist, swivel-eyed loons spewing hate. You might think that that's the luck of the ...
Here’s the six things I think mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to January 27 around housing, climate and poverty:PM Christopher Luxon bought himself another six months of National caucus peace and tried to reassure an increasingly restive business community by massively reshuffling his key personnel in the ...
Hi,It’s not even been week since the inauguration and I can already feel reality slipping. Let me try and explain where my head is at.Ever since 2016 — with Donald Trump’s cries of “fake news” — the line between what is real and what is not has become increasingly blurred. ...
Money changes everythingI said money, money changes everythingWe think we know what we're doin'That don't mean a thingIt's all in the past nowMoney changes everythingSong: Tom Gray.Late last year, the Fast-track Approvals Bill passed into law to the consternation of opponents concerned about removing environmental protections, a government that sees ...
Donald Trump made his fortune by speculating in real estate. These days, Christopher Luxon makes a lot of his money the very same way. True, Luxon did also run a neo-monopoly airline during those bygone days when domestic and international air travel was affordable, and consumer demand was at its ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, January 19, 2025 thru Sat, January 25, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Sooner or later, like a gym bro flexing in the mirror, like a teen rolling their eyes, like a mansplainer patronisingly clearing his throat, the ACT party will start talking about privatisation.In the eyes of David Seymour and his LinkedIn ACTolytes, there's not a thing in this world that cannot ...
Confession: I used to follow US politics and UK politics - never as closely as this - but enough to identify the broad themes.I stopped following US politics after I came to the somewhat painful realisation that my perception was simply that - a perception. Mountain Tui is a reader-supported ...
Life is cruel, life is toughLife is crazy, then it all turns to dustWe let 'em out, we let 'em inWe'll let 'em know when it's the tipping point. The tipping point.Songwriters: Roland Orzabal / Charlton PettusYesterday, we saw the annual pilgrimage to Rātana, traditionally the first event in our ...
The invitation to comment on the proposed Regulatory Standards Bill opens with Minister David Seymour stating ‘[m]ost of New Zealand's problems can be traced to poor productivity, and poor productivity can be traced to poor regulations’. I shall have little to say about the first proposition except I can think ...
My friend Selwyn Manning and I are wondering what to do with our podcast “A View from Afar.” Some readers will also have tuned into the podcast, which I regularly feature on KP as a media link. But we have some thinking to do about how to proceed, and it ...
Don't try to hide it; love wears no disguiseI see the fire burning in your eyesSong: Madonna and Stephen BrayThis week, the National Party held its annual retreat to devise new slogans, impressing the people who voted for them and making the rest of us cringe at the hollow words, ...
Support my work through a paid subscription, a coffee or reading and sharing. Thank you - I appreciate you all.Luxon’s penchant for “economic growth”Yesterday morning, I warned libertarianism had penetrated the marrow of the NZ Coalition agenda, and highlighted libertarian Peter Thiel’s comments that democracy and freedom are unable to ...
A couple of recent cases suggest that the courts are awarding significant sums for defamation even where the publication is very small. This is despite the new rule that says plaintiffs, if challenged, have to show that the publication they are complaining about has caused them “more then minor harm.” ...
Damages for breaches of the Privacy Act used to be laughable. The very top award was $40,000 to someone whose treatment in an addiction facility was revealed to the media. Not only was it taking an age for the Human Rights Review Tribunal to resolve cases, the awards made it ...
It’s Friday and we’ve got Auckland Anniversary weekend ahead of us so we’ve pulled together a bumper crop of things that caught our attention this week. This post, like all our work, is brought to you by a largely volunteer crew and made possible by generous donations from our readers ...
Long stories short, the six things of interest in the political economy in Aotearoa around housing, climate and poverty on Friday January 24 are:PM Christopher Luxon’s State of the Nationspeech in Auckland yesterday, in which he pledged a renewed economic growth focus;Luxon’s focused on a push to bring in ...
Hi,It’s been ages since I’ve done an AMA on Webworm — and so, as per usual, ask me what you want in the comments section, and over the next few days I’ll dive in and answer things. This is a lil’ perk for paying Webworm members that keep this place ...
I’m trying a new way to do a more regular and timely daily Dawn Choruses for paying subscribers through a live video chat about the day’s key six things @ 6.30 am lasting about 10 minues. This email is the invite to that chat on the substack app on your ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on Donald Trump’s first executive orders to reverse Joe Biden’s emissions reductions policies and pull the United States out of ...
The Prime Minister’s State of the Nation speech yesterday was the kind of speech he should have given a year ago.Finally, we found out why he is involved in politics.Last year, all we heard from him was a catalogue of complaints about Labour.But now, he is redefining National with its ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and ...
Aotearoa's science sector is broken. For 35 years it has been run on a commercial, competitive model, while being systematically underfunded. Which means we have seven different crown research institutes and eight different universities - all publicly owned and nominally working for the public good - fighting over the same ...
One of the best speakers I ever saw was Sir Paul Callaghan.One of the most enthusiastic receptions I have ever, ever seen for a speaker was for Sir Paul Callaghan.His favourite topic was: Aotearoa and what we were doing with it.He did not come to bury tourism and agriculture but ...
The Tertiary Education Union is predicting a “brutal year” for the tertiary sector as 240,000 students and teachers at Te Pūkenga face another year of uncertainty. The Labour Party are holding their caucus retreat, with Chris Hipkins still reflecting on their 2023 election loss and signalling to media that new ...
The Prime Minister’s State of the Nation speech is an exercise in smoke and mirrors which deflects from the reality that he has overseen the worst economic growth in 30 years, said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff. “Luxon wants to “go for growth” but since he and Nicola ...
People get readyThere's a train a-comingYou don't need no baggageYou just get on boardAll you need is faithTo hear the diesels hummingDon't need no ticketYou just thank the LordSongwriter: Curtis MayfieldYou might have seen Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde's speech at the National Prayer Service in the US following Trump’s elevation ...
Long stories short, the six things of interest in the political economy in Aotearoa around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday January 23 are:PM Christopher Luxon’s State of the Nation speech after midday today, which I’ll attend and ask questions at;Luxon is expected to announce “new changes to incentivise research ...
I’m trying a new way to do a more regular and timely daily Dawn Choruses for paying subscribers through a live video chat about the day’s key six things @ 6.30 am lasting about 10 minues. This email is the invite to that chat on the substack app on your ...
Yesterday, Trump pardoned the founder of Silk Road - a criminal website designed to anonymously trade illicit drugs, weapons and services. The individual had been jailed for life in 2015 after an FBI sting.But libertarian interest groups had lobbied Donald Trump, saying it was “government overreach” to imprison the man, ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s move to increase speed limits substantially on dozens of stretches of rural and often undivided highways will result in more serious harm. ...
In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis chose to loosen restrictions for digital nomads from other countries, rather than focus on everyday Kiwis. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to stand firm and work with allies to progress climate action as Donald Trump signals his intent to pull out of the Paris Climate Accords once again. ...
The Green Party has welcomed the provisional ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, and reiterated its call for New Zealand to push for an end to the unlawful occupation of Palestine. ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
A new monthly podiatry clinic has been launched today in Wairoa and will bring a much-needed service closer to home for the Wairoa community, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Health New Zealand has been successful in securing a podiatrist until the end of June this year to meet the needs of ...
The Judicial Conduct Commissioner has recommended a Judicial Conduct Panel be established to inquire into and report on the alleged conduct of acting District Court Judge Ema Aitken in an incident last November, Attorney-General Judith Collins said today. “I referred the matter of Judge Aitken’s alleged conduct during an incident ...
Students who need extra help with maths are set to benefit from a targeted acceleration programme that will give them more confidence in the classroom, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Last year, significant numbers of students did not meet the foundational literacy and numeracy level required to gain NCEA. To ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced three new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ...
Ki te kahore he whakakitenga, ka ngaro te Iwi – without a vision, the people will perish. The Government has achieved its target to reduce the number of households in emergency housing motels by 75 per cent five years early, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The number of households ...
The opening of Palmerston North’s biggest social housing development will have a significant impact for whānau in need of safe, warm, dry housing, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The minister visited the development today at North Street where a total of 50 two, three, and four-bedroom homes plus a ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced the new membership of the Public Advisory Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control (PACDAC), who will serve for a three-year term. “The Committee brings together wide-ranging expertise relevant to disarmament. We have made six new appointments to the Committee and reappointed two existing members ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora, good morning, talofa, malo e lelei, bula vinaka, da jia hao, namaste, sat sri akal, assalamu alaikum. It’s so great to be here and I’m ready and pumped for 2025. Can I start by acknowledging: Simon Bridges – CEO of the Auckland ...
The Government has unveiled a bold new initiative to position New Zealand as a premier destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) that will create higher paying jobs and grow the economy. “Invest New Zealand will streamline the investment process and provide tailored support to foreign investors, to increase capital investment ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins today announced the largest reset of the New Zealand science system in more than 30 years with reforms which will boost the economy and benefit the sector. “The reforms will maximise the value of the $1.2 billion in government funding that goes into ...
Turbocharging New Zealand’s economic growth is the key to brighter days ahead for all Kiwis, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. In the Prime Minister’s State of the Nation Speech in Auckland today, Christopher Luxon laid out the path to the prosperity that will affect all aspects of New Zealanders’ lives. ...
The latest set of accounts show the Government has successfully checked the runaway growth of public spending, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. “In the previous government’s final five months in office, public spending was almost 10 per cent higher than for the same period the previous year. “That is completely ...
The Government’s welfare reforms are delivering results with the number of people moving off benefits into work increasing year-on-year for six straight months. “There are positive signs that our welfare reset and the return consequences for job seekers who don't fulfil their obligations to prepare for or find a job ...
Jon Kroll and Aimee McCammon have been appointed to the New Zealand Film Commission Board, Arts Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “I am delighted to appoint these two new board members who will bring a wealth of industry, governance, and commercial experience to the Film Commission. “Jon Kroll has been an ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has hailed a drop in the domestic component of inflation, saying it increases the prospect of mortgage rate reductions and a lower cost of living for Kiwi households. Stats NZ reported today that inflation was 2.2 per cent in the year to December, the second consecutive ...
Two new appointed members and one reappointed member of the Employment Relations Authority have been announced by Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden today. “I’m pleased to announce the new appointed members Helen van Druten and Matthew Piper to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) and welcome them to ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has delivered a refreshed team focused on unleashing economic growth to make people better off, create more opportunities for business and help us afford the world-class health and education Kiwis deserve. “Last year, we made solid progress on the economy. Inflation has fallen significantly and now ...
Veterans’ Affairs and a pan-iwi charitable trust have teamed up to extend the reach and range of support available to veterans in the Bay of Plenty, Veterans Minister Chris Penk says. “A major issue we face is identifying veterans who are eligible for support,” Mr Penk says. “Incredibly, we do ...
A host of new appointments will strengthen the Waitangi Tribunal and help ensure it remains fit for purpose, Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka says. “As the Tribunal nears its fiftieth anniversary, the appointments coming on board will give it the right balance of skills to continue its important mahi hearing ...
Almost 22,000 FamilyBoost claims have been paid in the first 15 days of the year, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The ability to claim for FamilyBoost’s second quarter opened on January 1, and since then 21,936 claims have been paid. “I’m delighted people have made claiming FamilyBoost a priority on ...
The Government has delivered a funding boost to upgrade critical communication networks for Maritime New Zealand and Coastguard New Zealand, ensuring frontline search and rescue services can save lives and keep Kiwis safe on the water, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. “New Zealand has ...
Mahi has begun that will see dozens of affordable rental homes developed in Gisborne - a sign the Government’s partnership with Iwi is enabling more homes where they’re needed most, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. Mr Potaka attended a sod-turning ceremony to mark the start of earthworks for 48 ...
New Zealand welcomes the ceasefire deal to end hostilities in Gaza, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Over the past 15 months, this conflict has caused incomprehensible human suffering. We acknowledge the efforts of all those involved in the negotiations to bring an end to the misery, particularly the US, Qatar ...
The Associate Minster of Transport has this week told the community that work is progressing to ensure they have a secure and suitable shipping solution in place to give the Island certainty for its future. “I was pleased with the level of engagement the Request for Information process the Ministry ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour says he is proud of the Government’s commitment to increasing medicines access for New Zealanders, resulting in a big uptick in the number of medicines being funded. “The Government is putting patients first. In the first half of the current financial year there were more ...
New Zealand's first-class free trade deal and investment treaty with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been signed. In Abu Dhabi, together with UAE President His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, New Zealand Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, witnessed the signing of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and accompanying investment treaty ...
The latest NZIER Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion, which shows the highest level of general business confidence since 2021, is a sign the economy is moving in the right direction, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. “When businesses have the confidence to invest and grow, it means more jobs and higher ...
Events over the last few weeks have highlighted the importance of strong biosecurity to New Zealand. Our staff at the border are increasingly vigilant after German authorities confirmed the country's first outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD) in nearly 40 years on Friday in a herd of water buffalo ...
Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee reminds the public that they now have an opportunity to have their say on the rewrite of the Arms Act 1983. “As flagged prior to Christmas, the consultation period for the Arms Act rewrite has opened today and will run through until 28 February 2025,” ...
Under the Paris Agreement, countries are required to set targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). ...
A finalised government mining strategy announced by the Minister of Resources, Shane Jones, in the Coromandel today sees coal and gold added to the new Critical Minerals List. ...
The target, which locks unavoidable agricultural emissions into New Zealand’s international targets, are even more ‘ambitious’ than the 2030 targets made when Jacinda Ardern/James Shaw flew to Glasgow. They will cost future taxpayers literally tens of billions ...
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“A director of Dominion Finance, which lost investors more than $176 million, wants to serve home detention in her $6.8 million Remuera mansion.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10882946
Stick bricks in her coat pockets and throw her in the swimming pool.
I am not sure I really care about “punishing” her on behalf of those who had the cash to invest. I no longer believe in ma and pa investors, garden faeries are more believable. Stuffed if I want taxes spent protecting the rich from the predations of other rich people: if they can afford to invest it they can afford to lose it, or be taxed.
It surprises me that the home is apparently not in a trust, so she’ll lose it anyway. The quality of Directors these day eh? She should have at least known how to protect her own assets even if she didn’t have a clue about protecting the easy money of the investors looking for super returns.
Great, if people save instead of consume and try to invest that capital to keep themselves out of poverty in old age they are according to Leftists like you “EVIL CAPITALIST SCUM WHO DESERVE TO GET FUCKED!!!”.
Sigh.
You might wish to check out who the average investor was: it was not you and me. The small ones who saved and scrimped were pretty much a tiny minority. Look at SCF, the “Ma and Pa” investors got a guarantee and ripped the tax payer big time. Look at the “ma and pa” 2.5% of the NZ population who bought MRP shares…are they you and me? Fuck them, Let the buyer beware.
On the other hand there are the savers who believe in banks for long term security. Think more about how their savings get rorted by tax / inflation / bank rip offs etc.
“savings get rorted by tax / inflation / bank rip offs etc.”
You aren’t telling me anything their I’m not already aware of.
You are in la la land though if you think bank deposits are the only legitimate form of investment or will ever give good investment returns.
Finance companies play an important role in the economy, too bad that poor regulation and inforcement have blown that sector up – NZ is poorer for it.
But you are obviously too ideologically driven to realise the importance of investment for personal and national wealth creation.
Learn how to read and reason, Get the facts first. Idiot.
You are financially illiterate.
Financial integrity does not equal financial illiteracy.
So you also believe that a savings bank deposit is the only “moral” wealth anyone is allowed to have?
Anything else brings suspicion and accusations of being a “Capitalist Enroader!”.
What about kiwisaver?
Moral does not equal integrity either. An investor with integrity will be aware they’re getting pretty high interest for taking pretty high risks. They’ll check out the background of the Directors before they invest, weigh it up and wear it when they take a loss, not withstanding the criminal charges a Director, or ‘financial planners’ should get if they mislead.
This is also why it’s curious that this Director doesn’t have her home in a Trust. Finance company directors aren’t known for integrity nor for selling homes to pay back investors.
What about Kiwisaver?
Nope, that’s completely immoral. Or, to be more precise, expecting interest on it is.
Completely immoral as well as it seeks to prop up an immoral system. It can’t, of course, as the system depends upon ever increasing debt and use of oil neither of which is possible.
“What about kiwisaver?
Completely immoral as well as it seeks to prop up an immoral system. It can’t, of course, as the system depends upon ever increasing debt and use of oil neither of which is possible.
Best investment – put excess money into things that will promote survival and resiliency in the future (that’s not accrual of money in case it’s not obvious).
Draco, what do you think about organisations like Prometheus?
http://www.prometheus.co.nz/
Isn’t the problem with under-investment in NZ that everyone now knows the market here is just dangerously risky for small players, and you don’t know which advisers you can trust when they are all probably more heavily attuned to taking their personal cut of transactions than worrying about your personal risk?
” What about kiwisaver?
Completely immoral as well as it seeks to prop up an immoral system.”
Are you in the Kiwisaver scheme Draco, or did you opt out?
Saving bank deposits were the choices of our parents and grandparents generations. They seem to do pretty alright.
You seem to be speaking the same language of those who support the so-called MOM for SOE’s.
Mr Turkey Brain aka KP. State your working credentials before you accuse me of that. Do you run companies? Do you understand the workings of general ledgers, P&Ls, tax accounting, finance, contracts etc? Is it something you have to apply to company operations, sales, profitability on a daily basis? Demonstrate that and I might consider your flippant charge of illiteracy worthy of debate.
PS The leftist anti capitalist bit…what the hell did I say that was necessarily leftist per se? Who are these “capitalists” of whom you speak?
You might wish to check out who the average investor was: it was not you and me. The small ones who saved and scrimped were pretty much a tiny minority. Look at SCF, the “Ma and Pa” investors got a guarantee and ripped the tax payer big time. Look at the “ma and pa” 2.5% of the NZ population who bought MRP shares…are they you and me? Fuck them, Let the buyer beware.
Ennui, do you have some figures on that? Leaving aside MRP, how many people who got burned in the finance company collapses were of what class and income bracket?
I have seen a finance companies books but cannot comment on that publicly as it was in confidence. I will have a look around the public records however and report back what is there.
Cut one was revealing, read this little beauty http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/research/econresearch/3198451.pdf does not give hard numbers but if you read between the lines pages 3 to 5 you get the flavour of huge under investment in finance because disposable income is too low and housing seen as safer with better returns.
You’re vigorous for so early on a Saturday morning there KP. Triple-shot was it ?
Rosy simply points-up that empathy for others doing it hard is an unknown quantity amongst many who have “done well”. The ones who cluck disgustedly, point judgmental fingers, then cheer Boss Hogg Bennett when she launches yet another dog-whistling salvo against beneficiaries and other “unworthy” types.
The “done-well” become vaguely aware of the concept only when they themselves are reduced to the level of their “lessers”. Even then it’s not actually empathy. It’s essentially sympathy, for themselves.
I support Rosy in making that point without you jamming your abusive words into her mouth.
Hope your day improves. Im sure it can. Just summon up some humility, offer it up to your own petard, and ask politely that you be hoisted down a little.
You got yourself all confused North, if you check the thread I wasn’t replying to Rosy, at that point I didn’t notice she had posted.
Synthetic marijuana was it, North?
Not needed in the North, dickhead.
Doesn’t matter who you “thought” you were replying to – given the “ideologially driven” screech you’re broadly into your reply can be taken up by many.
Disingenuous is what you are.
Um, that’s the whole basis of capitalism. What you’re actually demanding is that people don’t have to pay the costs of the risks that they take.
And, yes, every capitalist out there is scum who wants money for nothing. That too is part and parcel of capitalism.
Shorter Draco:
“And, yes, every person who doesn’t believe as I do is scum who want money for nothing.”
You have an extremely binary view of the world, Draco.
Got nothing to do with belief – just the facts of what actually happens in a capitalist society. A few get very rich and well off while everyone else becomes poorer.
“Got nothing to do with belief”
Well, actually it does Draco, because you have made a blanket statement that every capitalist (without defining what ‘capitalist’ means to you) is ‘scum’.
You seem to believe and hold the opinion that ‘capitalist’ is a single entity where, in actual fact, there are sharp degrees of capitalism.
“just the facts of what actually happens in a capitalist society. A few get very rich and well off while everyone else becomes poorer.”
That has happened, and can always happen, under any ideology. The best we can do is mitigate the bad while trying to exemplify the good.
I think capitalism can work just fine. Does that me a ‘capitalist’ because you need to define your terms here. We touched on this on The Daily Blog where you suggested that capitalism = Right Wing but used neo-liberalism as an example. Neo-liberalism is a type of capitalism, not capitalism in itself. I am not a neo-liberal, but I am a proponent Social-market economy capitalism. They are different beasts.
They’re the biggest bludgers in the world. Seemingly their sole purpose in life is to have an income from other peoples work. That’s what investment means in our society and what having money in the bank is. To have an income generated by the work of others.
It’s what our entire society is geared for but it only works for the few as to produce a high income from it it needs to clip the ticket of as many people as possible. It’s why globalisation happens – to increase the number of people that the rich can steal from.
We don’t need foreign investment as we have all the resources we need right here in NZ – the actual physical resources, the education and the people – and yet the governments keep saying that we do and making it possible for foreigners to buy up NZ. The only reason for foreign investment to happen is for the rich of other countries to steal from us as well as their own people because they’ve reached the limits of their own economy (a firm in a local economy can only grow so much but a global firm can grow so much bigger – the limits are still there though).
No, not really.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism
It’s always centred around private ownership and the dead weight loss of profit and it is that which makes capitalism, any variant of it, right wing.
What a crock of shit, Draco. It is hard to find a starting point in order to address your bizarre uttering so I’ll just address the relevant points here.
“They’re the biggest bludgers in the world. Seemingly their sole purpose in life is to have an income from other peoples work.”
Who is ‘they’? Are ‘they’ the ‘capitalists’? You’ll have to define your term here. Are ‘they’ those whose actively seek to use capitalism as an economic system to benefit themselves at the expense of others? Or those who benefit from the capitalist system without ever considering it as the ruling economic paradigm? Your use of ‘they’ and ‘the capitalists’ is so ill defined as to be useless.
“No, not really.”
Yes, really. You understand there is a difference between laissez faire neo-liberalism and Social-Market Economy, right? One promotes privatisation of everything from the police to healthcare while the other supports and fund social welfare, education and health (to name but a few). This is your problem Draco, you have an extremely binary view of the world. Black, white, On, off. Which, to be frank, is a conservative, right-wing view. One that you cloak in left-wing rhetoric but it is a ‘us/them’ mentality all the same which reeks of no true scotsman fallacy.
“It’s always centred around private ownership and the dead weight loss of profit and it is that which makes capitalism, any variant of it, right wing.”
False.
Private ownership of goods =/= right-wing. Capitalism =/= right-wing.
Do you own anything, Draco? Have you ever benefited from interest, investment or Kiwisaver?
Thanks for the clarification.
Capitalism is the major problem. People making a habit of using their existing wealth to garner additional unearned wealth, while the labour utilised on the way gets fuck all.
hey Contrarian, have you heard about the trickle down theory?
it’s going to be a great economic boon for everybody.
It’s so exciting,
i can’t wait
I fail to understand why you remain in NZ. The country does not have a communist party in power nor is it likely to have in the near future. You are so far left you should wear a harness to arrest your fall.
That’s a bit unfair. I wouldn’t say Draco T Bastard is hard left for thinking every capitalist is a scumbag! Most capitalists have attained their wealth from the suffering of the poor after all. If you recognize or have been a victim of a corrupted system, then viewing those who have benefited from that corruption as being scum is entirely justified.
It might not be strictly correct in terms of all rich people aren’t capitalist scum, but it is entirely justified to have formed such beliefs because of the failures inherent within capitalism, namely that it increases inequality. Such a view as Draco has expressed is therefore not extreme at all, unless you’re arguing that inequality is somehow justified?
“unless you’re arguing that inequality is somehow justified?”
no, i doubt they would go so far as ‘justified’, they would turn off at ‘necessary’ and take the link road back to Imperialism via the scenic vistas of ‘entitlement’
Oh so you now accept that we’re not overrun by North Korean answers do you Dunmbarse. Jesus you’re an egg. Piss off to Slater Porn.
You shouldn’t start drinking so early…….. Wanker.
Here’s a better idea.
How about we release a number of women serving time in Arohata or Wiri for minor property crimes equal to the total amount that this woman ripped off. And let them serve out the rest of their sentences in this Remuera Mansion. I am sure they won’t mind. And it would be a big saving on the tax payer.
Splendid and creative idea.
Jenny for Minister of Justice and Housing. I love that idea.
May 10, 2013
Assange speech about to read by Daniel Ellsberg in San Francisco for Global Exchange Human Rights Award tonight
(Noam Chomsky and Jacob Appelbaum also present)
Thank you for this honor.
I am very happy to be sharing it with Noam Chomsky whose generosity and strength of character I have felt personally. Noam, you are the sea–relentless and enduring. You have crashed wave after wave of understanding into towering cliffs of lies, eroding them at their base. If the rotten foreshore of empire collapses it will be for this reason. You have inspired and continue to inspire many, including me.
Thank you to the people in this room for supporting this award. I’m going to thank you and Dan in the best way I know. By keeping this speech short. Then you can go and do the important thing. Make alliances to fight for WikiLeaks, Bradley Manning and me. Don’t think you can escape just because I am not there. We have a lot more spies in this room than the FBI.
San Francisco and the Bay Area is important to us. We fought our first big court case in the San Francisco federal courts in 2008; That was no coincidence. If we were going to have a fight, anywhere in the world, then I wanted it to be in San Francisco. I structured WikiLeaks to encourage attacks on us to be drawn to San Francisco (sorry about that). The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Freedom of the Press Foundation and many of our other defenders are based here. If any state of the Union is going to save the United States from itself, it will be California. Washington sees that too–that’s why we’re being prosecuted in Virginia and Maryland.
Noam’s presence in this room –useful, even though he’s from Massachusetts– reflects something very special. Cross generational solidarity. From Dan and Noam to Michael Ratner, from Kiki to me, from Jacob to Bradley Manning. The issues of each demi-generation are being understood as a continuation into the present. My fight is right now. But so is Bradley Manning’s. So is Jacob’s. I want Dan, Noam and Jacob–all of you here–together with me in this fight because I know you understand. Our conflict tests every aspect of character, but it has also shown it in many and I am proud of them.
Remember that Bradley Manning’s trial starts on June 3. It is scheduled to run for twelve to sixteen weeks. The prosecution is bringing 141 witnesses. That is a show trial. A twelve-week off-Broadway extravaganza being performed at Fort Mead. Its legal and political result will directly feed into the larger prosecution of WikiLeaks.
What is to be done? The answer is easy. It has always been easy. Stop saying “not in my name” and start saying “over my dead body”. That’s what we did. It works. Do it.
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1rk78hl
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Assange
https://www.eff.org/
http://somersetbean.blogspot.co.nz/2012/12/new-ts-for-launch-of-fpf.html
Sorry, haven’t you heard, he is a Feminist pariah? Assange is a white guy with CIA backed false rape allegations made against him which the feminasties have swallowed hook, sinker and line.
You will accused of “rape culture” supporter in a political necklacing, Morrissey, if you are not careful.
KP, Who knows? But the comment does not help because right now we need EVERY believer in justice and fair play to put their support very publicly behind Bradley Manning.
“right now we need EVERY believer in justice and fair play”
[Deleted]
[lprent: So you took that as an opportunity to offensively insulting my half of my relatives again. Cretinous misogynistic drivel. And I too believe in delivering justice and fair play. I delete the ravings of bigoted fuckwits. ]
That’s right lprent, censor anything that doesn’t concur with your feminist dogma.
What’s wrong lprent, that it enrages you when I point out crazy feminist propaganda like the “E=mc2 is a sexed equation” nonsense.
You are no better than a fundamentalist Christian.
*sigh* more of your dogma, k_p, throwing out some obscure points that most feminists have never heard of.
Tell that to the 1000+ people (mainly women) who died in the Bangladesh garment factory collapse.
The western garment industry exploits the vulnerable, largely women, in poor countries, so they can make exorbitant profits, and try to buy off our resistance with relatively cheap clothing.
“throwing out some obscure points that most feminists have never heard of.”
The examples I give are of ideas central to Feminist ideology – Critical Theory, Feminist “Theory”, “Queer Theory” – all psuedo intellectual drivel that has wrecked the Humanities.
That’s your feminist contribution to knowledge.
[lprent: enough bullshit. bye. ]
Please explain how that “E=mc2 is a sexed equation” is central to Critical Theory, Feminist “Theory”, “Queer Theory”?
k_p has been given enormous leeway in recent days with multiple warnings for his horrible bigotry and false accusations. It doesn’t seem to be working. Again and again he spouts nonsense about the views of others, as he always has.
I wonder if he ought to be given some sort of penance to perform. Perhaps the severity of the penance could be determined by the quality of his answer to your question above.
k_p drops in and repeats a cherry-picked one liner, making accusations about feminism. He brandishes it like a weapon, jumps up and down claiming victory, then runs away without seriously engaging.
Yes, we know that, but perhaps it’s time to pull the plug? He’s derailing at best, but his intention is to intimidate and his method is stalking. Maybe no single post has violated any rule, but perhaps his pattern has to be considered?
He’s definitely a misogynist and he’s clearly trying to bully specific women he’s very obsessively targeted, and he consistently tries to derail threads to shut down discussion.
Moreover, he ignores repeated warnings about appropriate conduct.
It’s all very well if Karol and The Queen of Thorns have thick skins, but I worry that he’s driving off other potential contributors – as he intends to.
reminds me of our PM on any old day in the House
The examples I give are of ideas central to Feminist ideology
Citation needed. As usual.
Don’t hold your breath.
Indeed. Manning too often gets neglected and he is suffering a the result of his brave act in passing over the damning information about the US military.
“Manning too often gets neglected”
By you maybe, not by me.
You went to Uni right karol? What did you study?
My first tertiary education was in education, especially education of those with disabilities. I learned things about biology, neurology, and how people learn, and child development. This learning formed the basis of much of my later learning inside and outside the uni.
The human brain is a wondrous thing. I learn more about it every day, but some people’s brain functioning remains curiously obscure.
We’re learning more and more about bigotry. Things will get interesting when someone invents a cure.
there is a great new adventure sport called chuteless base jumping he could try,
I’m appalled at Manning’s treatment, but the fact of the matter is that he committed treason in the eyes of the law. It is inconceivable that he wouldn’t be punnished in some way, but torture is unacceptable.
“he committed treason” or the equally strong footed view :
He was upholding the Constitution of the Republic that he was serving.
Perhaps you would like to point out which bit of said Constitution he was upholding when he comitted treason against it?
‘We the People’ is a pretty good place to start.
It is often overlooked. The entire document is a flow on from those three simple words. It was the People he was defending, but I do have my doubts you even grasp what that means.
He swore the U.S. Armed Forces Oath of Enlistment
This includes the propagandized ‘against all enemies foreign and domestic’ line.
He concentrated this time on the domestic bit.
but you knew that already
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/imgart/frny13-d1-diary-metrpolitan-punk-02.jpg
“This is what punk was all about—about truth and justice and making a better world,”
Freedom, I presume that you do realize you’re trying to argue in good faith with the Kiwi equivalent of a Soviet commissar.
If you’re engaging in that futile exercise as an intellectual workout, that’s fine. As long as you don’t expect anything like enlightened or serious debate.
Cry me a river, build a bridge, and get over it.
that is an insult to the integrity and resourcefulness of a Soviet commissar.
Populuxe1 is more like the boot buckle worn by the Soviet commissar.
Rigid, functional but largely ineffectual to the goings on around him.
(i’ma gonna pay for that one i bet)
Well, a decent political commissar will keep his boot buckle pretty and polished up
So basically you’ve got nothing except handwaving and fantasy. Typical.
…the fact of the matter is that he committed treason in the eyes of the law.
What a disgusting, Wieselian hypocrite you are. As those of us who do not share your Maoist/Stalinist view of the world know, is not treason to bring war crimes to the attention of the world.
And spare us the bombast about being “appalled” by mistreatment of which you have repeatedly endorsed on this forum.
It is inconceivable that he wouldn’t be punnished [sic] in some way…
It is conceivable that he would be lauded and honoured in a state that valued human rights and the rule of law.
….but torture is unacceptable.
But you endorse the torturers and say that the person who exposed them “committed treason”. If I did not know better, I would think you were merely another bewildered mouth-breathing NewstalkZB listener.
For anyone with a shred of commonsense or common decency, here’s a reminder of why the full vengeance of the state is being unleashed on Manning and Assange….
http://www.collateralmurder.com/
Maoist? Hahahahaahahaha
What colour is the sky in your little fantasy world?
Your blind and rabid reiteration of government propaganda is comparable to the sort of comical craziness that came out of Red China in the 1960s.
I didn’t recognise the first blush when I read it this morning
…which the feminasties have swallowed hook, sinker and line.
Some nasty and politically aligned women have chosen to accept the British government’s black propaganda, but Swedish Rape Crisis has, like anyone honest, condemned the British-U.S. government campaign.
and the lead prosecutor, a woman, resigned from the case. A lot of of media are saying she resigned because the case was unravelling faster than a cardigan caught in a cartoon cartwheel
Link?
Or lie ?
Hyperlink?
Back to the old “cite everything” strategy, I see.
https://www.google.co.nz/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=assange+prosecutor+resigns&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&redir_esc=&ei=ZxWOUaaeFOyiiAeEtIGIBA
why would i say something like that without it being true? FFS, so boring !
Actually, that was for morrissey’s claim about rape crisis coming to assange’s support.
But to be fair, I didn’t see anything about the prosecutor’s motives for leaving the case in that google search you linked.
The trouble is that so many people heavily filter what they see or interpret on this issue that yeah, I want to see links for any claim they make.
just like TV ONE; it’s a Predicament!
“We have a lot more spies in this room than the FBI”
And the likes of Ian Fletchers are planted into Key spying positions while the “rotten foreshore of empire collapses”.
Well well, another gold star for an arrogant, mysogynist narcissist and a mendacious, hypocritical old fart.
“”Why do they assume that we have to change our standards, our values, to accommodate behaviour that is sodomy?””
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8659922/Guesthouse-refuses-to-let-gay-couple-sleep-together
Seems bigotry is perfectly fine though.
I think the ladies did the right thing: go public. Let the court of public opinion judge the hoteliers with their cash. Conversely if you legislate you only force legal acceptance, which is worth nothing compared to mind share.
The Pilgrim Planet Lodge. No sodomy.
LOL, they look like twins!
Who??? John Key and Aaron Gilmore ? Why they even dress the same. Maybe secretly separated Siamese twins?
“”Why do they assume that we have to change our standards, our values, to accommodate behaviour that is sodomy?”
So lesbians practice sodomy over and above any other sexual pairing? Riiight.
Don’t tell the heteros or they’ll be wanting to do the sodomy too.
What’s this about lesbians? Can you be more specific please?
hey Morrissey … rtfm
hey Morrissey … rtfm
WABM
“Can you be more specific please?”
Just observing that the guesthouse proprietor refused to allow a lesbian couple to share a bed because they would be accommodating “behaviour that is sodomy.”
Well, you know Rosy………just generally………Sodom and Gonorrh(oe)a.
It’s all in the same GPS ballpark.
As in Hillary Sodom Clinton?
As in Morrisodomy?
That doesn’t go quite so well as Hillary Sodom Clinton—which I am sure, by the way, is actually used by the legion of extreme right wing “Christian” Hillary-haters—but it is not bad, I suppose.
Keep it up, Te Reo!
TRP……..(apologies Morrissey – I’m a fan of yours)……..shouldn’t it be MorrisOddomy ? OK, not as good as either of yours’ but I’m a little hobbled today.
Consequent upon Kiwi Promethium alleging I’m on synthetic cannabis and Bowel Motion counselling that I should lay off the drink in the mornings. Have a good day folks. Must back to ma Twelve Steps.
Ironically – sodomy is anything that isn’t straight missionary position (hard right fundy def.) and given the Ruskin’s love of prying into other consenting adults sex-lives, methinks then it’s fair to speculate that the Ruskin’s hath done much sodomy themselves
Ergo, they should kick themselves out of their dwelling since apparently “no sodomites allowed” is the golden rule thou shalth not break.
Legally a business cannot discriminate on the basis of stuff that falls under the Human Rights Act iirc and you can bet these two muppets would scream blue murder along that line if they suddenly got booted from a business due to being fundamentalist christians.
Bring on the rainbow cluebat of bad PR and legal challenges!
as noted in the corresponding thread; we all know about sublimation, delusional projection, distortion, superiority complexes and repression do we not.
“No one becomes equal by the killing of another innocent life. That’s not equality, that’s enmity.” – Ryan Bomberger
Supporting mothers in having the ‘right’ to work from 9-3 tax free, in ‘most’ jobs, if they choose to do so, means that children will be feed before school.Amongst other things.
Now doesn’t all that bring new meaning to the words ‘productivity gains’ now, and in the next generations!
No, it just sounds like more uninformed ideological crap from you.
From the Guardian online today……
“Global carbon dioxide in atmosphere passes milestone level”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/may/10/carbon-dioxide-highest-level-greenhouse-gas
From the Herald online today….
“Do you know who I am now?”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10882882
Four conclusions can be drawn from this.
1) Our continued civilisation is under threat on this planet.
2) More people in NZ know about Aaron Gilmore than details about climate change.
3) The NZ Herald is a poor excuse for journalism.
4) There is a link between 1,2 and 3.
Happy 400 ppm day, folks. Gonna be a warm one.
Jeeez they are a fiesty lot today on open mike TRP, every day is still like Sunday for Morrissey and KP can’t get much higher. “Sodom Clinton” heh what next.
Must be something about the weekend that brings out the warrior in them! Sadly, I’m off to footy, so I’ll have to wait till tonight to catch up with various witterings. Have a good one, TM.
Just what is it that makes today’s Labour leaders so dithering, so unappealing?
Let’s not beat about the bush: David Shearer is a terrible, ineffective, wishy-washy Labour leader.
But as bad as Shearer might be, here’s one fellow who is even worse. Pity the good people of Great Britain if this is all they can put up against Dave Snooty and his Eton chums…
Those hurrah henrys got enough bucks to finish their collars properly, surely ?
The neoliberals captured the British Labour Party when Blair took over.
There is no one for workers to vote for in the UK.
People are that desperate for an alternative and the corporations are ensuring there is not one.
hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way…
ashes and diamonds
foe and friend
we were all equal in the end
They haven’t yet silenced Chunkymark “The Artist Taxi Driver” and his “BBC Sucks O Cocks News” on YouTube. Ya gotta watch this one – it’s hilarious.
Elie Wiesel: Break Your Silence and Come with Us to Gaza!
When Elie Wiesel spoke at Saint Louis University on December 1, 2009, three women challenged him to break his silence about Gaza and to travel with them on the Gaza Freedom March to see for himself the devastation caused by Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in December 2008 and the ongoing siege.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4wkR1IUUE8
Three years later, and the old hypocrite has still not gone to Gaza.
The Stock Market Is a Debt-Fueled Bubble: Steve Keen
Thing is, it’s more borrowing that both National and Labour are after with their affordable homes. More people buying = more borrowing and thus we get an increase in money in the system raising GDP. It’s not sustainable and must crash but the politicians will just push some other barrow that achieves the same end – more borrowing.
The only winners in such a system are the people who print the money with interest on it – the private banks.
No one has the stomach to reform our debt based money supply. It’s possibly the biggest no-no in the capitalist banking framework that we have locked ourselves into.
a great little video doing the rounds, with an interesting question
http://www.upworthy.com/watch-these-straight-people-answer-a-question-gay-people-have-been-asked-for-years-6?c=gt1
funny how it gets down to a very simple question. Great clip freedom.
and it is one simple question every person can consider for themselves without having to wave a flag or sign a paper or anything. All they have to do is spend a moment of honest contemplation. Something many more should do, more often than we do. I am as guilty as any of that failing.
Great clip. So true.
Here are ten facts you may wish to pop into tonight’s dinner conversations. I know, I know, facts are so infuriating when they completely contradict hysterical fantasies, but reality is like that, facts are facts and lies are just business.
http://www.collective-evolution.com/2012/10/16/10-eye-opening-facts-about-hemp/
Greens have been going on about that for awhile although I think that ALCP have more in depth policies on it.
Instead of building its future, New Zealand is disintergrating. An average house for a family should not cost $750,000. Things are out of control. A future requires a society to obtain levels of sustainability.
(If you do not believe that, good luck to you and yours.)
There is not one single reason hemp should not become a primary industry in NZ.
Building. Medicines. Food. Textiles. Plastics. Fuel. It just goes on and on and on.
We could be making milllions of dollars from hemp and hemp related industries if we wanted to, at the very least we could be saving billions if we chose to. The employment opportunities, the related economic growth, the social benefits, the sustainability bonuses, these are not things that should be dismissed lightly. But we all know the drill.
We have a problem, we look for a solution.
Whenever hemp is investigated as a viable solution, BAM ! straight into the wall !
It does have a very bad habit of highlighting sustainability nightmares. Mostly though, there are good responsible reasons given why not to go forward and they usually hold water as strongly as a $2 bucket.
However you spin it, money influence and engrained propaganda are difficult to overcome without forcing a fundamental breakthrough in how people comprehend the machine around them, and that’s not gonna happen anytime soon if some of the wanderers we meet here are anything to go by. I get that.
To the reader, I ask you. Will ignoring it all, solve any of the issues?
Shall we let blinkers crop the vista of our future?
A future requires a society to obtain levels of sustainability.
Building. Medicines. Food. Textiles. Plastics. Fuel.
I cannot see a single reason hemp should not become a primary industry in NZ.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/8661224/Like-China-Rens-still-a-wild-card
This is quite a big deal, we get that, but ….
Anyone know why he was here?
What the event was?
Who the other businessmen that are mentioned were?
What this piece of US-focused dross is meant to be conveying?
Good news.
http://www.680news.com/2013/05/10/ex-dictator-efrain-rios-montt-convicted-of-genocide-in-guatemala/
Strange that even the basics of US involvement in Guatemala since the 1950s have not rated a mention in the MSM.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/US_ThirdWorld/US_Guat.html
Reagan refused to invite our PM David Lange to the White House, while right behind this murderer.
Despicable –
http://www.soaw.org/about-the-soawhinsec/soawhinsec-grads/notorious-grads
http://www.soaw.org/category-table/3873-guatemala-rios-montt-and-the-soa
USAID used to destabilise as well.
Wikileaks just keeps on giving.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/05/10/big-labors-tool-of-empire/
“How Class Works – Richard Wolff Examines Class ”
Shows up the class war of selling our Power companies whose future profits will accrue to the wealthy instead of the commons.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGOA2WedIQo
“Working for an employer is like rowing an oar as a galley slave. You can quit and jump overboard but you splash right into the great ocean of unemployment, exclusive professional guilds, multi-level marketing scams, lying temp agencies, credit card debt, college loan scams, a 90% self-employment failure rate due to competition and deficient government benefits. You are forced to swim to and board another galley. Now all the galley ships have robotic oarsmen and you sink beneath the waves.”
RD Wolff makes a good political economic case for democratic socialism.
so does The Standard
I’m gradually learning more about the Second World War. There is so much to know and it has always been in my background, occasionally coming to the fore. Now I am older and less hopeful about humanity I have been reading about Resistance fighters etc.
This morning I am looking at The White Rose on wikepedia. That was the name that a group of protesting and defiant young people mostly students used as their symbol. When studying events in Germany between the wars it becomes obvious that the country had been occupied mentally internally by this authoritarian and brutal regime far before the 1939 declaration of war against Germany.
The things that are so emotionally expressed in these students’ words have been applied to what is going on in NZ. Many of these young people died at Nazi hands. One group were beheaded in 1943 I think in a public square.
So what happens every day to limit human rights and step up authoritarianism and fascism must be looked at carefully. Some quotes from the German group:
Excellent documentary series on WWII from the Soviet perspective:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A6UWkK2U4s
One of the episodes is about the Soviet partisan war against the Germans.
Also consider – 4 out of 5 German soldiers killed in WWII were killed on the Eastern Front.
The D-Day landings at Normandy in 1944, although an important step in securing western europe, were not very relevant to Germany’s final defeat. Germany had already long lost the war in 1943, at the Battle of Kursk.
The role of the ANZACs is not to be unterestimated. Had they not kept Rommel tied up in North Africa, the Soviets might not have had time to rearm after the Ribbentrop-Molotov fiasco.
Not to mention that if the Germans had secured fuel supplies from the middle east then their strategies in Russia wouldn’t have been so skewed by the need to secure oilfields during Barbarossa.
Ultimately it was the inability of Germany to get a few essential strategic materials from outside of their conquered territories that lost them the battles. It forced them to make strategic mistakes.
They made strategic errors, yes, but their big error was going into total war with Russia AND America. Either one could have out produced, outgunned and out fought Germany in the long run. By wars end Russia and the USA were just getting warmed up and Germany was a smoking ruin which had run out of manpower and the ability to re-arm. Also, the conventional war had just about run it’s course anyway. The US had the A bomb. They also had the means to deliver it anywhere in German territory. Germany were close to a bomb, but had lost air superiority and were a long way from having true ICBM’s.
I agree that North African action greatly limited German options. Further, the horrific two and a half year siege of Leningrad was a disaster for Germany – it tied down 20% of their eastern forces even as 500-1000 Leningrad citizens starved to death daily.
As for forced mistakes…Hitler regarded himself as a military super-genius and things went down hill rapidly when he decided to put himself in charge of all military operations. Not letting his army withdraw from Stalingrad and deciding that a quarter million cut off German forces could be resupplied by air? Mad.
The Afrika Korps wouldn’t have even been noticed on the Russian Front. It swallowed up whole Army Groups. Rommel fought against a few divisions which made up the 8th Army. Operation Barbarossa kicked off seventeen months before the second Battle of El Alamein, which was three years after Ribbentrop and Molotov divided up Poland.
If anything, the Red Army saved Egypt for the British Empire, not the other way around.
It helped that Hitler made a few bad choices as well, peeling off elsewhere when he had a chance to press home his advantage. I think one of them was to push down into Ukraine when he could have taken Moscow before winter.
You would’ve thought that Germany would not want to make Napolean’s same mistakes in Russia.
Hitler did need to capture the industrial centre of Kiev so there was a strategic purpose to that. However, delays to capturing Moscow created huge problems for the Germans, and it allowed the Soviets to ship in elite eastern divisions to bolster the Moscow front.
Trying to go after the caucuses and Stalingrad and Moscow at the same time was never going to work. Classic Art of War – if you try to be everywhere, everywhere you will be weak.
You also have to factor in the massive intelligence failures of the Nazis regarding the USSR. They completely underestimated the size of the soviet forces and their massive reserves. They underrated the intelligence and determination of the soviet soldiers and officers who, after initial mass surrenders, chose to thereafter fight on behind advancing German lines even after being encircled and were a constant threat to their rear and flanks, as well as to their fronts.
They had no idea that the soviets even had the T34 and KV tanks, far superior to the panzer III and IV’s, nor that they had developed aircraft like the Mig 3, Yak 3, La 5 and 7’s, Il 2 and 10 shturmovics, and their katyushas etc. They never gave any consideration to the industrial capacity of the USSR and their ability to dismantle and reassemble their armaments factories well out of reach of German short-range bombers. Even though lend-lease provided them with allied war materiel, the USSR proved itself able to produce all manner of war materiel in such high volumes they were easily able to replace their losses as the war dragged on, when the Germans could not.
If you can get access to the War Memorial Museum library, then that’d be about the best source in NZ on some of the resistance movements.
Not only did we have people scattered throughout europe and the pacific and they wrote stuff down, but we also got quite a lot of refugees and emigres pre and post war who did as well. It seems like most of the hardcopy wound up there.
There was a year when I was a kid where I was attempting to soak up that library.
The same steady withdrawl of rights is happening now in NZ, but the populance finds it hard to get a fix on it and react. Much easier to join in the scrum on Mr Gilmore’s flaws than that of democratic rights or security from spying etc. We need a serious focus to prevent the slide. Sympathise with the Germans of the 30’s because they by the time they realised the significance of what they had lost it was too late to resist.
(Read about a butcher in Vienna who was anti-Nazi until the day the German army marched into Austria and declared the country to be part of the German Nazi empire. The next day the butcher marched down the road waving the German flag. “Survival,” he said.)
I agree ianmac, I spent some time there just yesterday and have real fear it is being repeated en masse.
A survivor of a high-level ring involving child sacrifice, torture and trafficking went public today in an exclusive disclosure and interview with Freedom Central’s Mel Ve and ITCCS Field Secretary Kevin Annett.
Toos Nijenhuis, a fifty four year old physiotherapist and mother of five from Holland, was tortured, raped and used experimentally from the age of four years old by wealthy and powerful men around the world, including top officials of churches and governments.
And, Nijenhuis claims, these crimes are continuing today, including the ritual sacrifice of children in rural Holland.
http://itccs.org/2013/05/08/child-sacrifice-and-trafficking-in-holland-and-abroad-an-eyewitness-comes-forward-and-names-her-torturers/
Is that tinfoil hat too tight again. Show me on the doll where the Illuminati touched you?
Seriously? I’m not doubting she suffered terrible abuse, but she’s quite obviously projecting this elaborate fantasy onto it to try and give that horrible abuse some meaning. Another similar and widespread projection onto childhood sexual abuse is alien abduction. There is no global satanic conspiracy and this sort of nonsense just distracts from the horrible mundane reality of child abuse.
Oh shucks another online spychology diagnosis.
Well why should you have all the fun with your diagnoses of sociopathy for the entire NACT caucus and so forth? Or did the Illuminati touch you too?
So are online psych diagnoses credible or not? Or only credible when they come from you?
Well either we can both be right or we can both be wrong. I’m fine either way, so take your pick.
You’ll have to ask Dr. Prentice.
cornell
“she’s quite obviously projecting this elaborate fantasy onto it to try and give that horrible abuse some meaning”
Obviously, meaning in your deranged opinion.
Institutional sexual abuse is nothing new.
Republican theory is not even wrong
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/05/facts-are-in-and-paul-ryan-is-wrong.html
not even “investing in new hospitals”, just ideology.
To The Handlers;
Risk is not necessary. Scientific development concept
Bone-modern-marrow admirably sails, bracing
the vigorous weight of the People while The Struggles
with the Persians remaining indecisive, abundant Africa
is being recovered from the vandal al1ens.
You can pencil that in three places
(Ray-guns are a fetish for steam-Punks,
may be buried with Wessex culture) We all
harden up with influence and Able instrumental guidance;
Plumb the depths, clean out the pipes, dispose the waste.
Quelle : Lectiones geometricae; pictures italicized
(or a combination Friend rice, Edgar; #23 8)
Eponymous / Mick Ronson Priestley (Whats My Name)
contend more in written acts than words.
The Shepherd’s crook, cuts right across the diagonal;
“he came to minister, not to be ministered to”.
“and let no-one attempt to reclaim (them) from the stigmata of their new master”.
Let no-one trouble them for the record of their transaction is in the temple.
Signs Of The End Of The Age, Watch!
Damn. The weird crash of php5-fpm and then apache happened again.
Reading the logs.
I think I’ll pull the APC offline as whatever is happening seems to be too low level to get logged.
Expect the odd outage for the next hour while I juggle the server.
Found. Fixed. Off for a walk while the weather lasts
This.
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/history.html
Hollywood Irons another 15% out of the NZ Film Submission taxpayer.Man