So the Fanta Fascist finally declares his national emergency to placate his wallnuts. Then immediately says “I didn’t need to do this”. Then fucks off to Florida to play golf, instead of dealing with the “emergency”. All of which adds up to a totes convincing argument there’s an actual emergency that justifies attempting to abrogate the Constitution.
The Alarming Scope of the President’s Emergency Powers
From seizing control of the internet to declaring martial law, President Trump may legally do all kinds of extraordinary things.
The Full-Spectrum Corruption of Donald Trump
Everyone and everything he touches rots.
There’s never been any confusion about the character defects of Donald Trump. The question has always been just how far he would go and whether other individuals and institutions would stand up to him or become complicit in his corruption.
…….Corruption has been evident in Mr. Trump’s private and public life, in how he has treated his wives, in his business dealings and scams, in his pathological lying and cruelty, in his bullying and shamelessness, in his conspiracy-mongering and appeals to the darkest impulses of Americans…..
…..Some of us who have been lifelong Republicans and previously served in Republican administrations held out a faint hope that our party would at some point say “Enough!”; that there would be some line Mr. Trump would cross, some boundary he would transgress, some norm he would shatter, some civic guardrail he would uproot, some action he would take, some scheme or scandal he would be involved in that would cause large numbers of Republicans to break with the president. No such luck. Mr. Trump’s corruptions have therefore become theirs. So far there’s been no bottom, and there may never be.
That “bottom” may just have been reached, and passed by, with barely a murmur of protest from the Republican Party. Leading Republicans, including Senate leader Mitch McConnell who had previously warned Trump against declaring a State Of National Emergency . But in the end, along with the rest of the Republican establishment, O’Connell went along with Trump’s demand to put the country under a state of emergency.
The President is now left to look for a new “bottom”, that the Republicans will support
The fact that after declaring a State of National Emergency the President then went to his golf course for the weekend, indicates that his declaration of a state of National Emergency is more of a personal insurance policy against impeachment than any real or imagined national emergency.
Will the Republican leaders and party support the President if using his new powers the President over rules Congress, or shuts down or turns aside the investigations into his personal and business affairs?
The Republican Party controlled Senate’s, tame acquiescence, despite muttering their faint disapproval, indicates that they will allow any anti-democratic or extra-legal outrage from this President.
Any comment from a nation that has a natural border wall of thousands of miles of ocean … on any other nation’s border security arrangements lacking such an advantage … almost unconsciously falls into irony.
Given that I’m a citizen of the US, registered to vote in a district on the border, and spent 7 months crossing the border twice every day between my home in San Diego and work in Tijuana at a time when the rate of illegal border crossing was at least 3 times what it is now, and have plans to return to the US to live near the border once my family obligations in NZ are fulfilled, still think I’m unqualified to comment?
In my opinion, the construction of physical barriers authorised by the Secure Fence Act 2006 means there is now already existing physical barriers almost everywhere along the border where there is anything vaguely like rational justification for physical barriers. (There may be a few specific problem areas where new or upgraded barriers might make sense, but those are few and far between). Along parts of the California border I’m familiar with, the barriers put up post 2006 are already excessive, with the ecosystem damage done by stopping animal movement outweighing their minimal effectiveness in stopping border crossing.
There are a lot of good reasons to not put physical barriers where there aren’t already barriers. Ecosystem damage. Impeding floodwaters in the Rio Grande. The rights of native people’s like the Tohono O’odham to move around in their lands that are partly in Mexico and partly in the US. The effectiveness of barriers in stopping people in these remote areas is very low so it’s a waste of money. The message sent by building a barrier is just ugly.
I’m not opposed to further enhancing border security by improving screening technology at entry ports, and I’m even mildly supportive of increased surveillance and sensoring of remote areas to detect border crossers. As much for humanitarian reasons to ensure the crossers are found and made safe, because most of the non-city parts of the border are fkn inhospitable. Lack of water, extreme heat, and winter cold contributed to a death toll I found horrifying while I was there.
The privilege I had of crossing the border every day wasn’t free. I had to get permits from US and Mexican authorities. I had to go through US Customs every afternoon. US and Mexican authorities both photographed me and my vehicle in both directions every time. The only people talking about open borders are those putting up straw men.
So if getting across the border is so easy for you (apart from the inconveniences you mention, some form filling, queuing and photos) it’s still pertinent to ask yourself, why you have this privilege and many millions who would like to enter the USA don’t.
Still your response is helpful; clearly you believe your legal citizenship of the USA is of value, and this value is worth protecting via effective, enforceable borders.
So the question now devolves down to the details. Exactly what form should this border take? In essence you seem to be arguing that the status quo is adequate; yet during my brief encounter with it at the start of the Pacific Crest Trail many years back, it was quite clear that I had to be aware of illegal migrants in the area, and be careful not to get entangled with them.
And yes the existing border is of some considerable effect; otherwise why would smugglers bother digging tunnels? But clearly the current arrangements are not 100% effective and probably never can be. How many millions of illegal immigrants are there in the USA now? How much drug and people smuggling is enabled because the border is sufficiently porous to make the attempt worthwhile?
A sodding great concrete wall from coast to coast was always just simplistic campaign rhetoric on Trump’s part, but the underlying message was plain enough and hard to argue against … either have an effective border, or not bother. If so it’s hard to understand exactly why this issue has degenerated into the debacle it has.
(Incidentally I have met a person who was a member of the Mexican National Parliament who quite adamantly and seriously argued for no border … so not necessarily the strawman you imagine.)
Fact is Red most Americans don’t want the wall or anything resembling it.
The survey found that 56 percent of respondents do not support the president’s proposal to construct a wall along the southern border, compared to 44 percent who do.
Erecting a broad security barrier along the border is only slightly more popular, according to the poll. Only 46 percent of respondents support that proposal, while 54 percent oppose it.
A majority of U.S. voters surveyed, 58 percent, said Trump should withdraw his demand for the border funding, while 42 percent said the president “should not give in.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/423099-poll-majorities-oppose-trumps-wall-funding-demand-call-for-compromise
And as Andre says – it’s not easy crossing the border – even for US citizens.
Upping the number of personnel at border crossing would not only speed up the process, but slow the number of illegal border crossings considerably because most illegal immigrants in the US actually entered the US legally. They are now illegal immigrants because they overstayed their visa. What is now needed is an amnesty and application period so illegal immigrants can sort their situations out. Many are hard working and supporting the economy and would be valuable citizens.
They are now illegal immigrants because they overstayed their visa. What is now needed is an amnesty and application period so illegal immigrants can sort their situations out.
There is some merit in an amnesty if you can argue that the state had fallen short in it’s processes in the past, and as part of a one-off reform, all prior transgressions will be rectified. But what of the many millions of hard working migrants who went through the onerous process to obtain legal residency? Why devalue their legitimacy?
Amnesties are not a ‘get out of jail free’ card with no consequences.
And more from you link above:
“While a plurality want President Trump to relent in terms of the shutdown, a majority want to see the Democrats and Republicans enter into a compromise with $2.5 billion in barrier funding,” said Mark Penn, the co-director of the Harvard CAPS/Harris poll.
In other words a majority do want a more secure border. But reflexive political polarisation is preventing it.
Red the Dems actually did vote for such funding in the first bill and have always supported more secure borders. The Repugs also agreed with the measures put forward before xmas last year. Trump was about to sign it but his vanity got in the way when the Wallnuts called him out on it, and the US ended up with the longest shutdown in history.
What he has now signed off is almost exactly what was previously agreed! The ones who miss out are the govt contractors who are seriously out of pocket. No funding for them 🙁
However, if I was a Wallnut I wouldn’t be holding my breath right now. Trumps proposed “Emergency” isn’t likely to eventuate in any building of big beautiful walls any time soon. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/2/15/18225325/trump-national-emergency-lawsuits-border-wall https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/national-emergency-blocked-courts-temporarily-doj-warns-white/story?id=61086962
BTW
Trump once called executive action on immigration dangerous, unconstitutional and impeachable
Macro – that is a very interesting little quote you present there and thank you for pinning down one that may have such wide outcomes.
While you are around or i hope you are, could you drop a comment as below at No.11. I would like some thinkers ideas on the matters I raise, just quick ones. I have already had one from the RW non-competents who come here.
Please can I have some feedback from knowledgable, thinking people in the next hour or two.
Any comment on a nation that has an open border of thousands of miles with their Northern White Majority neighboring country, Canada, but demands a weaponised border on their southern border with Mexico almost unconsciously falls into racism.
Maybe if the US had overthrown Canadian governments, installed and armed brutal puppet regimes, stole their natural resources, exploited their people and indebted and impoverished their economy, as the US imperialists have done to a number of Latin American countries, millions of Canadians might be trying to find some sort of refuge in the US.
Not that the Americans haven’t tried.
At that time, luckily for the Canadians, they then had another global Super Power once known as the British Empire on their side.
lol – wtf is this stupefuckerlying turnip up to – he’s either an idiot or really stupid – I just can’t decide. He’s just said there wasn’t an emergency???
Declaring an emergency when there isn’t one – why would someone do that?
a.) it’s just an infantile, petulant way of delivering an election promise? That’s bad, but it is really just the psychopathology of one person and therefore time-limited
b.) the Republican machine likes the idea of an emergency as cover for other things they fancy doing. This is the one to watch out for – for example a supposed national emergency over illegal immigration could unleash voter suppression of poor/black/brown people – all justified as required to preserve the ‘integrity’ of the electoral system from waves of (fictional) illegals taking over the country.
We are not immune to being manipulated by fake emergencies ourselves. Remember how in 1984 the emergency was that our economy was like a ‘Polish Shipyard” and we would go broke and all be eating grass the following week unless we gave away large chunks of it to private profiteers?
Declaring an emergency when there isn’t one – why would someone do that?
Well clearly it’s not Trump’s first choice. This hasn’t happened in a vacuum; this border has a long history of ‘no good choices’.
This is what gets me; Trump is an unconscionable oaf of a man, everything he touches turns to shit. Yet for all the liberal wailing and renting of ash cloth, all the reflexive opposition to Trump, I see very little in the way of realistic analysis over the best way forward here.
It’s not ‘reflexive opposition’ it is considered opposition and imo there are screeds of alternatives from many different angles. This is not a ‘new’ issue just one t.rump invented for votes.
Yes, there are many alternative ways to implement an effective border. The IT world has a concept called ‘Defense in Depth”; the idea being that no single layer of cyber security is adequate by itself, but that multiple layers of technologies each detecting intrusions in different ways is a better solution.
One big concrete wall is analogous to a single firewall; either it’s so locked down and tyrannical that it’s too onerous for legitimate users, or it’s pragmatic but vulnerable to determined hackers. Trump’s big wall idea was flawed from the outset for this very reason.
Accepting that there is no single layer solution to border protection (either in an IT or physical sense) opens up alternative layered means that work ‘in depth’; what one layer misses, another stands a good chance of catching. I’m no security expert but I’m certain there are many ideas to be explored.
I’d argue that the USA voters in general want better border security, and the problem is eminently solvable. But extreme political polarisation means that neither side in Washington will give their opponents any whiff of success. Opposition now means blocking and preventing any constructive solutions simply for the sake of it.
“Yes, there are many alternative ways to implement an effective border.”
like getting agreement about what that actually means for instance. T.rump is fear mongering and whipping up all sorts of bigotry and prejudice for what? To get votes – it has ZERO to do with security – it’s like this dim –
US President Donald Trump’s aide Sarah Sanders has been ridiculed for suggesting a border wall would have stopped Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman from importing drugs…
…But she was castigated for a simple oversight – walls did little to prevent the flood of drugs into the US because El Chapo famously had tunnels dug underneath walls, flew the drugs in on aircraft or smuggled them in through legal points of entry – something people were quick to notice.
The logic of some people defeats me. Because a border can be tunneled underneath, this means we shouldn’t have a border? It’s like saying that seat belts don’t save all car accident victims, therefore we should bother with them.
The mere fact that drug smugglers had to go to all the trouble to dig a tunnel suggests the fences above were in fact serving a purpose as the first layer of the defense. Then you have the police to detect the tunnels; or video/infra-red/sound/vibration sensors that can assist.
Or other police who specialise in drugs/people trafficking and work back to the sources.
Then you have layers of detection well behind the actual border; an obvious one being more efficient means to manage people who choose to illegally over-stay their visa.
A border is way more than just Trump’s cartoonishly simplistic wall, but the entire conversation has been derailed by equally simplistic opposition to it.
You’ll spend so much time and money on a fantasy of protection and security – silly stuff imo. The wall is just the extreme outward presentation of the silliness.
There are deep psychological roots to this discussion. Each one of us has a different level of openness to new experience that is fairly hard-wired into us for good evolutionary reasons.
Strangers represent a Darwinian problem. Outsiders represent threat in many different ways; they may be dangerous and warlike, they may be dominant and greedy, they may bring disease unwittingly. Those of us who were too willing to welcome strangers into their house were subject to these risks and often did not survive.
Equally strangers also represent opportunity; new information, new ideas, fresh genes, trade and expansion. Those of us who closed their doors and erected walls too high would in time stagnate and perish for lack of progress.
There are almost only two human archetypal stories; a man goes on a journey and a stranger comes to town. Both are tales of danger and victory. Not all the characters survive.
As a result modern humans are a genetic mosaic, some of us open to newness, others much less so. And in this our vulnerabilities and our resilience are all bound up together, two sides of one coin. At a social scale we express these as walls and fences around our homes, towns and cities have boundaries, we tend to link place with our identity, and gather our communities into locations where we can mutually support each other.
Borders serve a deep human purpose, yet in the extremes of both totally open and totally closed … they always fail.
that, “Borders serve a deep human purpose, yet in the extremes of both totally open and closed … they always fail.” so you’re against the trumps wall now?
In my experience people make decisions emotionally and then defend them rationally. (Not a personal attack) This is what I see you doing in regards to the wall or borders.
Agreed. People do have different emotional responses to the idea of borders; and I was arguing for good evolutionary reasons. In this respect it’s clear you and I have somewhat different settings, but not all that far apart really.
Recognising and accepting the value of this diversity is possibly the first step in determining exactly what our borders should look like, who we let in and who we keep out. Because it always will be a balance.
As for Trump’s big sodding wall … it always was a simplistic pitch to those Americans who would emotionally respond to it. In that respect it’s not only ineffective by itself, but deplorable, dishonest politics. But that always was Trumps special genius, exploitation of the emotional weaknesses of the rubes he targets.
But if the left’s response is to sneer at that 42% of voters who have emotionally committed to the idea of a stronger border … their natural response is to fight back. Alternatively if we said “let’s build a smarter, more intelligent border, one that allowed us to defend the value of US citizenship, while minimising crime and exploitation, and allowing us flexible humanitarian responses when it’s called for” …. then I’d hope for better results.
Opposition now means blocking and preventing any constructive solutions simply for the sake of it.
All Bubba’s fault, apparently.
A corollary of the delegitimisation of modern-day presidents has been the legitimisation of the politics of no, an oppositional approach whereby constitutional checks and balances have come to be used as vetoes and blockades.
This again can be traced back to the Clinton years. Bob Dole, the Republican’s leader in the Senate, deployed the filibuster more frequently than his predecessors to stymie Bill Clinton’s legislative agenda. Newt Gingrich, the first Republican House speaker since the early-1950s, used government shutdowns as a political weapon.
I guess John Armstrong would know, after all he was one of the media hacks hunting down Cunliffe and then Little. It’s a shame he didn’t use this opportunity to take some responsibility for that.
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! He was one of the carnivores who set upon Labour leaders with teeth bared and in particular he went for David Cunliffe’s hide. And here he is, whinging and sniffing when his preferred party’s leader gets the same treatment.
When people talk about the “arrogant fake news MSM,” Armstrong’s piece is almost the exact description of what they referring to.
Arrogant and fake because journalists apparently have a collective agenda which is excused because they he thinks they are all so fucking stupid that they have to rely on a hive mind.
Hubristic because he massively over-estimates the importance of the MSM in public perception of politics. For better or worse, social media has now usurped much of the ability of the traditional MSM to set the agenda in the public mind.
Armstrong was a self-important horse race political reporter who was so reliably tame that he could be safely fed insider info and leaks with a guarantee of predictable results.
I would be willing to make a small wager that Bridges as National Leader will outlast one on the main bastions of the MSM in New Zealand.
Simon will still be in his job when the Dom/Post stops publishing for good.
I know a few people who continue to get it, but only a few and even then it seems to be just a habit. Inertia rules it would seem.
She was a journalist in Venezuela before moving to NZ, she’s lived here for around 30 years; and is in touch with friends and family over there and a very clued up lady.
Asked for her thoughts on what is happening over there….
There is a massive divide in wealth, drug lords, obscenely wealthy politicians, business people, heads of churches and then there is the rest of the population who live in profane poverty.
The rich refuse to recognise any poverty as it might disrupt their lifestyle. Hence the uprising re Maduro and Maduros continued motivation to rule.
She stressed the importance of the massive oil and mineral wealth over there. She is a wise woman and wouldn’t say anything flippantly, what she said next would have been well thought out… she believes the events in Venezuela could well be the start of a world war.
All of the countries running to support either Maduro or Guaido are only interested in Venezuelas wealth, and not the welfare of the Venezuelan people.
She backs neither Maduro or Guaido. Guaido’s ties with the USA should be of concern to all those backing him and Maduros greed has ruined the country.
The aid offered by the USA is nothing more than a marketing ploy.
She loves Venezuela, but said it’s like nothing has changed, media is being shut down making it difficult for people to hear the truth.
Said she experienced the same when living there, her publications would go missing rather than reaching the people who needed the information the most.
Misinformed people make misinformed decisions.
The massive interest USA is showing in Venezuela should be of major concern to all.
She would love to return there and help the people, but fear prevents her. Extreme poverty, being unable to afford food for ones family, makes an ordinary person do terrible things. She’s been on the receiving end before, mugged etc.
Said to her there are people in NZ following the crisis who are on the side of those suffering. IE some of us here on TS.
Next time I see her, hoping we can have a longer chat, unfortunately I was pressed for time.
Wealthy ‘elite’ from all walks of life, nationality and ethnic make-up, have more to protect on behalf of each other, than the majority…and history says they will support each other and will continue to sacrifice the masses to maintian their ‘position’..
The circumstances as described by your friend , is business as usual…
Thank you. I really enjoy reading this kind of informed comment.
Venezuela touches on two themes important to the world at the moment; the extremes of wealth and poverty and the wretched failure of the conventional, ideological socialist response to it.
Accepting that Maduro’s heart was in the right place, we can only deplore the utter incompetency and greed of how his govt has set about it’s agenda. It represents a body-blow to the left’s moral legitimacy when the outcome is yet another catastrophe.
Maduro has only lasted this long because both Russia and China have backed him this far. And we have to accept Guaido is probably no saviour either; I agree his links to the USA are worrisome and suggest an agenda that is not yet revealed.
I’m so over idiots like Redlogix telling lies about how socialist the Venezuelan economy is.
Here the real kick, France has a more socialist economy. And because you lack facts and any touch on reality, oil was nationalised in 1976 by a Christian Democrat Rafael Caldera Rodriguez.
The fact is the government like ours has put all it’s eggs ibn two baskets oil and coffee – and when the price of those fell so did the economy. Something which has happened before in Venezuela – actually more than once. MMMMMmmmm wonder what other country has fallen for that one.
You like all your hard right loony mates are telling lies. It’s sad and sickening. And I’m really over having to point it out every time Venezuela is brought up.
There are plenty of nations that depend on oil, or coffee for their economic engines. Saudi is the obvious one for oil, and Brazil, Colombia, Vietnam, and Indonesia are all bigger coffee producers. While they may not be booming right now, they certainly haven’t utterly collapsed in any comparable fashion as Venzeula.
Nor was it the socialism per se that is the problem, as you say plenty of other nations that successfully run socialist programs alongside their capitalist economies.
The problem with Venezuela is that it went about it so incompetently, nationalising industries and then getting rid of all the capable managers, price controls that only ever made those industries unprofitable, and uncontrolled money printing that ensured 15,000% inflation levels. Not to mention endemic corruption and greed that went unchecked.
There are no examples of successful pure socialist economies, yet Chavez and Maduro plowed into revolutionary reform as if this didn’t matter. This is what happens when you get zealots in charge; they believe their single minded ideals will solve all the problems of the world, and when they don’t they blame everyone and everything else for their ‘bad luck’.
So what if they did it bad. It’s their country. But a lot of people have homes, have lives and have their health because of the bolivian revolution. It’s not perfect, but so what – it’s their country. All I’m seeing is people like you blaming them for a complicated situation, and promoting war – because of the lies you spin.
The government has a lot of support, more than the opposition – because the opposition are just that bad. They are not trusted, and the are murders – they burn people on the streets.
That said, neo-lib ideologies have screwed this country – but no one is saying we should be invaded. No one is announcing themselves prime minister and trying to start a war.
It’s B.S. to blame them alone. The corporation and the US empire have been trying to kill the Bolivian Revolution from the start.
Consider then North Korea and Iran, both nations that have had tough sanctions in place for many years, and while neither are flourishing happy places, they aren’t the crippled basket cases Venezuela has become.
Sure it may well be their country, and you can blithely maintain they can fuck it up all they want. But when millions start to flee the country and become a problem to the region … the game changes.
As a percentage more kiwis have left NZ under neoliberalism.
Are you advocating war here? Are you advocating wholesale invasion or sparking off a civil war?
Both North Korea and Iran have brutal dictatorships, which Venezuela does not have. It’s a democracy, and the price you pay for democracy as some people can stuff with it.
As I said, both the US and elites internally have been stuffing with the economy. Your argument is the same bullshit one that Gossy runs with, a blind eye at external influences.
At least you backed off the lies you started with.
As a percentage more kiwis have left NZ under neoliberalism.
I’m quite aware of the neo-liberal impact on NZ thank you, I lived through it. And as one of those who has taken the chance to work elsewhere in the world (albeit rather late in life) I’m vividly conscious of what the impact was.
But there is almost zero comparison between people like me leaving NZ because we have a positive choice to do so, and the millions fleeing Venezuela out of desperation, hunger and fear.
Yes the Venezuela story is complex, with many actors and agendas. No question the USA has played it’s own part; but it’s my view that if Chavez and Manduro had not fucked up so badly none of that would have mattered so much.
Last year I worked in Panama over a six month period; one of my closer colleagues was Colombian whose home town is Cienaga, reasonably close to the Venezuelan border.
So when unbidden he talks to me of the dozens of refugees passing his relatively quiet and off the main route home every day (which must represent a small fraction of the total numbers) …. then I have first hand information telling me this refugee crisis is probably not a beat up.
I place myself firmly as a moderate left winger; although on the classic political compass I’m absolutely middle on the social/liberal axis and strongly left on the economic axis. I’ve done this test a number of times over the years and the results have been very consistent.
At this point I thought maybe I’ve become more conservative in recent months so I took it again just now; and much to my surprise I’ve drifted toward the libertarian end a bit; scoring -7.5 Left/Right and -3.9 Authoritarian/Liberal.
This maps me firmly to the left of the NZ Green Party.
Thanks Cinny – I haven’t commented on the situation on here before because I felt that much of the commentary on here was very ill-informed,. It has been helpful to learn that unfortunately both sides are as corrupt as the other. I suspected as much.
What we can do about it I have no idea. The call for a fair and open election has some benefit – but I doubt that such a thing could actually happen in the present climate. And even then, replacing one corrupt person with another!?
And with a corrupted regime employed to help run the country – how can the elected one and party turn the background work force to a different compass point?
One: Maduro is not that powerful. He really isn’t and anyone who thinks he is blowing wind out of their ass. He’s an idiot who relied on oil and coffee as the basis to run an economy – he not alone being an idiot on that – the world is full of idiots who think they understand economics.
Two: The free press is real – the Catholic press which is heavily critical of the the Maduro led government can and still publishes. It also calls for new elections. It’s not being blocked nor is it going missing.
Three: Poverty is real in Venezuela, the Bolivarian Revolution was an attempt to deal with this poverty. A social democratic revolution – to provide universal housing, health care and education. It hit a snag when the economy stumbled with falling commodity prices. But rightly or wrongly the current government is still trying to push it through. One part of it is providing basic food stuffs for the poor.
Four: The USA is creating hell with it’s economic warfare and terrorism. In particular it is causing massive suffering in exactly the same way with which ripped the guts out of Iraq – by the blockade of medicine. Humanitarian my ass.
Does the Maduro government have some idiots in it – indeed. Is it completely corrupt – nope. Is their corruption – sure is. But to think that a democratically elected government should be treated with contempt and be overthrown by outside forces is anti-democratic at best – smug white elitism at worst.
Mineral fuels including oil: US$26.6 billion (91% of total exports)
Organic chemicals: $532.6 million (1.8%)
Iron, steel: $350.8 million (1.2%)
Ores, slag, ash: $333.4 million (1.1%)
Aluminum: $327.5 million (1.1%)
Fertilizers: $173.9 million (0.6%)
Fish: $151.6 million (0.5%)
Inorganic chemicals: $135.8 million (0.5%)
Copper: $60.3 million (0.2%)
Plastics, plastic articles: $60.1 million (0.2%)
The above categories account for 98.3% of Venezuela’s total exported goods by value.
Free Press? There are 1000’s of stories that highlight a media that is far from free.
Maduro not powerful? He is Commander-in chief of a military force with over 350,000 personnel.
FFS David MAc are you deliberately avoiding history? Historically Venezuela relied on coffee as a primary export. It failed. Do I have to explain everything to you dumbass. You pointed out your self 91% of exports are oil, so when the US empire decides to stuff you on this, your in trouble.
Good try at a whataboutism.
As for power, if you think Maduro can tell the military to do anything he wants – you are a dumbass.
You said Maduro’s economy depended on coffee, that industry was crippled long before Maduro sat in the big chair. Rather than the market, the government set the prices growers would receive and drove it into the ground.
Maduro is surrounded by ‘Yes Men’ those opposing his military wishes would do so at their peril.
Whataboutism? I am directly addressing the points you made.
I’m happy for you to consider my views wrong Adam, you don’t need to explain anything to me. I think you’re looking at the situation through Adam tinted glasses, seeing what you want to see.
Yes Adam
my understanding is that the newspapers tend to belong to white elites and the major 3 TV channels that most people watch are not govt mouthpieces and are privately owned .
Seems the masive labour shortage in the fruit industry is becoming a problem for the growers.
That is not surprising considering National flooded the country with cheap labour and now the tap has been turned off.
Maybe a rethink is needed in the conditions offered up for to attract people to work in the industry.
In the meantime they will hold out their hands for a government subsidy.
Consolidation of journalism looks set to continue unabated as larger media conglomerates swallow up smaller players globally. We also appear to be witnessing the death throes of the concept of ‘objective’ truth in journalism. However, perhaps that is not at all as bad as it sounds, and we are just finally waking up to the reality that it never really existed in the first place.
Thousands of schoolkids out demonstrating in Britain yesterday (their Friday) about inaction on climate change. These demonstrations are ramping up after Swedish Greta Thunberg’s initiative. How about NZ? Not even a jot in the media about it and no schoolkids here out on the streets.
Cindy Sage, MA, Owner
Sage Associates
Santa Barbara, CA USA
Full Member. Bioelectromagnetics Society
David O. Carpenter, MD
Director, Institute for Health and the Environment
University at Albany
Rensselaer, New York USA
CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS
Prof. Jitendra Behari, PhD
Bioelectromagnetics Laboratory
School of Environmental Sciences
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi, India
Prof. Carlo V. Bellieni, MD
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
University of Siena
Siena, Italy
Igor Belyaev, Dr. Sc.
Cancer Research Institute
Slovak Academy of Science
Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Carl F. Blackman, PhD
Raleigh, North Carolina USA
Founder, Former President and Full Member, Bioelectromagnetics Society
*opinions expressed are not necessarily those of his employer,
the US Environmental Protection Agency
Martin Blank, PhD Associate Professor (ret.)
Dept. of Physiology. College of Physicians and Surgeons
Columbia University, New York USA
Former President and Full Member, Bioelectromagnetics Society
Michael Carlberg, MSc
Department of Oncology
Orebro University Hospital
Orebro, Sweden
Zoreh Davanipour, DVM, PhD
Friends Research Institute
Los Angeles, CA USA
David Gee, Senior Advisor
Science, Policy, Emerging Issues, Integrated Environmental Assessment
European Environmental Agency
Copenhagen, Denmark
Adamantia F. Fragopoulou, PhD
Department of Cell Biology and Biophysics
Faculty of Biology, University of Athens
Athens, Greece
Prof. Yury Grigoriev, MD
Chairman, Russian National Committee
on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection
Moscow, Russia.
Prof. Kjell Hansson Mild, PhD
Umeå University, Dept of Radiation Sciences
Umeå, Sweden
Former President and Full Member (emeritus), Bioelectromagnetics Society
Prof. Lennart Hardell, MD, PhD
Department of Oncology
Orebro University Hospital
Orebro, Sweden
Martha Herbert, PhD, MD
Pediatric Neurology
TRANSCEND Research Program
Massachusetts General Hospital
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA USA
Prof. Paul Héroux, PhD
Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health
McGill University Faculty of Medicine, and
Department of Surgery, InVitroPlus Laboratory
Montreal, Quebec
Canada
Prof. Michael Kundi, PhD med habil
Institute of Environmental Health, Medical University of Vienna
Vienna, Austria
Full Member, Bioelectromagnetics Society
Prof. Henry Lai, PhD (emeritus)
Department of Bioengineering
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington USA
Prof. Abraham R Liboff, PhD, Professor Emeritus
Department of Physics, Oakland University
Rochester Hills, Michigan
Full Member Emeritus, Bioelectromagnetics Society
Ying Li, PhD
McGill University Health Center
Department of Surgery, InVitroPlus Laboratory
Montreal, Quebec
Canada
Prof. Lukas H. Margaritis, PhD
Department of Cell Biology and Biophysics
Faculty of Biology, University of Athens
Athens, Greece
Henrietta Nittby, MD, PhD
Department of Neurosurgery
Lund University Hospital
Lund, Sweden
Bertil R. Persson, PhD, MD h.c.
Department of Neurosurgery
Lund University Hospital
Lund, Sweden
Gerd Oberfeld, MD
Public Health Department
Regional Government Office Land Salzburg
Salzburg, Austria
Dr Iole Pinto, PhD
Director, Physical Agents Laboratory
Tuscany Health and Safety Service
Siena, Italy
Paulraj Rajamani, PhD
School of Environmental Sciences
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi, India
Prof. Leif Salford, MD, PhD
Professor and Chairman
Department of Neurosurger
Lund University Hospital
Lund, Sweden
Eugene Sobel, PhD
Friends Research Institute
Los Angeles, CA USA
Amy Thomsen, MPH, MSPAS, PA-C
Research Associate
Pinole, CA USA
Planetary electromagnetic pollution: It is time to assess its impact
December 2018: The Lancet
As the Planetary Health Alliance moves forward after a productive second annual meeting, a discussion on the rapid global proliferation of artificial electromagnetic fields would now be apt.
The most notable is the blanket of radio frequency electromagnetic radiation, largely microwave radiation generated for wireless communication and surveillance technologies, as mounting scientific evidence suggests that prolonged exposure to radio frequency electromagnetic radiation has serious biological and health effects.
However, public exposure regulations in most countries continue to be based on the guidelines of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection1
and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,2
which were established in the 1990s on the belief that only acute thermal effects are hazardous
One Two, an alternative reading of your post can be found at http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org Picking Cherries in Science: The Bio-Initiative Report. It shows that exposure to these EMF fields is harmless for everyday encounters with EMF. i.e computer & cellphone use. Only in cases of electric shock or extreme heating of tissue are any health problems caused.
The initial Bio-Initiative report was self published on-line in 2007, without peer review, and that’s not a great look if you want good science. In 2008 the Health Council of Netherlands reviewed the Bio- I report & described it as unbalanced & that it made false claims.
The Australian Centre for Radiofrequency Bioeffects Research stated that the Bio-I report was not an objective & balanced reflection of the current state of scientific knowledge.
Many other major organisations had the same criticisms of the report (European Commission EMF NET, German Fderal Office for Radiation Protection, & on the list goes)
The latest Lancet Article claims are obviously new, but I wonder if this has been peer reviewed before publication?
The recent 2-page comment (so not peer reviewed) in the Lancet reports a roughly ‘19 orders of magnitude‘ increase (since the 1940s) in typical maximum daily exposure to 1 GHz radiation (see Figure).
Given that there’s much we don’t understand about neurodevelopment, “regulating use of wireless devices by children” would seem to be a sensible precaution.
Caution may be warranted, but I think it would be best to wait for a peer review, especially given the totally unrealistic claims made in the earlier report.
It’s a clever global experiment. The ‘materials and methods’ have resulted in increased exposure to anthropogenic radiation, now we await the results.
A limitation is that we may not yet possess the analytical tools and theoretical frameworks necessary to collect and fully analyse the ‘data’, let alone the socioeconomic motivation.
But the Rowland-Molina hypothesis was strongly disputed by representatives of the aerosol and halocarbon industries. The chair of the board of DuPont was quoted as saying that ozone depletion theory is “a science fiction tale…a load of rubbish…utter nonsense“.
That may well be true, but the Bio-Initiative report of 2007 probably would have a got a D- at best if it was awarded a grade. Anything written by this group needs to be taken with a large grain of salt until generally accepted by the scientific community (meaning its findings have to be backed by evidence & not jumping to conclusions as they seemed to do, looked very much like scare mongering)
Who in the Labour-Greens-NZF is practically interested in advancing NZ by applying green solutions to farming and the environment to advance our enterprises and our land resources so we bring new ways to protect against climate extremes?
I see Eugenie Sage has just stopped land tenure rorts on high country.
Now what about day to day practical things with vision, on low-country, farming and horticulture relating to water – irrigation and droughts, fire prevention. Who are the stand out MPs in thinking plus doing here? What has he achieved as example?
Damien O’Connor? Min of Agriculture
David Parker? Min of Economic Development and Min. of Environment and Min of
Trade as well. He should be good value but is he a talk person mainly.
James Shaw? Min of Climate Change – He is new to executive status.
? Anyone else.
I’d like to know you views soon so would appreciate a quick setting down of them.
How about instead of thinking it’s the governments role to determine how I farm my land, you buy a farm and show all the farmers how you can run your farm differently and achieve better outcomes.
There are plenty of farms available on trade me, let me know when you’ve bought one. I’m sure your ideas aren’t wacky at all, and you’ve got a bank willing to throw a few million your way.
Until you’re prepared to put your livelihood and capital at risk, then your ideas and your opinions doesn’t matter.
Macro
I am shocked that you would fall for the quick humorous jab when i have asked people for advice and I asked you in particular under a previous comment of yours.
There are six comments under my original NONE replies to my request. Can we not get some more commitment to the left cause and people trying to do something in NZ for fellow citizens, and not keep being fascinated by orange hair elsewhere?
If you put your time instead into saving orange orangoutangs you would be doing something more worthwhile!
Grey I’m sorry that you did not see that reply as tongue in cheek – and a reference to the pollution that farmers have been perpetuating on NZ by externalising their cost of production onto others.
Macro I’m so quick to jump – I’m nearly in the lake myself. I want to put an idea forward and want to know how a left thinker would prioritise the MPs I put. James Shaw, David Parker, Damien O’Connor.
what about day to day practical things with vision, on low-country, farming and horticulture relating to water – irrigation and droughts, fire prevention. Who are the stand out MPs in thinking plus doing here? What has he achieved as example?
James Shaw and his Zero Carbon Bill. Okay that is good but not yet passed and I guess would take time to get running effectively. Needs implementation of practical and theoretical methods to mitigate carbon. What would it do with water – stop irrigation? Introduce drip feeding as Israel did when they ‘made the deserts bloom’ as once quoted.?
Patricia – you mention Damien’s hard work on myco… But it isn’t dealing with water and drought resistance and so on – that’s what I am looking at. What new ideas, old ones revisited, has he tried or referred to even?
As you say foreign trade comes to mind with Parker.
Tax redits for wetland establishment is an idea that forward-looking tax practitioners and thinkers might have on the cusp. But tax people tend to be dry, not wet aren’t they? Hah.
I think you should put the idea to Eugene. That is the area she is very involved with, and has been for years.
From her wiki page:
Sage was a field officer and spokesperson for Forest and Bird[2] before being elected as councillor for the Selwyn-Banks Peninsula Regional Constituency of Environment Canterbury at the 2007 elections.[3] She lost her seat when the Environment Canterbury Council were replaced by Commissioners on 1 May 2010.[4]
In October 2010 she was appointed as a community member to the Selwyn-Waihora Zone Water Management Committee of Canterbury Water Management Strategy (CWMS).[5]
Macro – thank you also Patricia
I am thinking of the bible caution – ‘By their fruits you shall know them’ when I think of Eugenie Sage. I noted with caution, when Sage suggested as a way of limiting rubbish that fees should be put up at Council rubbish depots. I thought that this was an impractical way of dealing with things and I do like well-thought out ideas as to whether they serve the ordinary person. So she did not come to mind as a top person to approach with this present idea I have.
I am looking for an MP, man or woman who knows their environment, and understands faming needs, and who wants to be a problem-solver helping the rural and also the whole environment to cope better with the droughts and weather extremes we are getting.
Having good theories but ensuring they work in the particular conditions and to the future, which we can guarantee will have conditions harder to cope with than today and what we know from past history.
I can’t be assed arguing on open mike with rednecks who ‘put their ass on the line’ for our country every day, battling with teats…
But an interesting anecdote:
Yesterday, I got a haircut. In the barbers were half a dozen elderly, not greenie looking gentlemen.
“Excuse me gentlemen, if I might have a moment of your time. I just want a show of hands, who here is worried about climate change”
All of them, and the barbers.
“Who here has been able to talk about your fears surrounding climate change with their family and friends”
None of them, nor the barbers.
“Well, I don’t have any answers, but I do know if we’re all scared we need to be talking about it, and if you’re scared, you can bet your families are scared too. So I guess it’s time to start that conversation.”
There was a somber silence. A guy finishes paying for his cut, comes and shakes my hand.
Yeah. I just had to know if ‘the truth is out there’. Was worried they’d hide their feelings like ‘real men’. Tried it again tonight with 3 people who all gave JK a vote for a tax break. All worried, all had not discussed fears. One tried to make jokes, weak, crumbled under scrutiny.
I did cover a bit of ‘slowdown stuff’ with the barber and a couple of blokes still there when I got the cut.
I think you are just going to have to accept the truth of the situation.
No one nominated any people because there aren’t any left.
There is no-one in the Labour, Green or NZF Parties who has the slightest interest in green matters, or the development of New Zealand generally.
In particular you will have to decide, sadly or otherwise, that the green skin of the water melon party left the room when they kicked Kennedy Graham and David Clendon out.
There are no environmentalists or conservationists left in our current Government.
I mean conservation or environmental affairs.
I don’t mean the attitude that says we should provide unlimited attention to people who simply want to collect taxpayer benefits to which they are not entitled.
Rural Guy, you have a loan to buy your farm, but if your land use impinges on others water rights, or you do not follow the laws on moving stock, or using methods of farming that harm helpful insects and soil bacteria, the public and the Government have a right to ask you to change.
If you persist in being stupidly aggressive in the face of the science of best practice, there will come a day where you will be fined or even imprisoned, just as a road user who breaks the laws of the road can be.
You are not King of your farm. You do not make the laws, and the fact you chose to go farming does not make your opinion more valuable than the next persons. You are a citizen and bound by the law.
One day your Insurer will ask what you are doing to mitigate fire risk/water loss on your farm. Are you going to tell that party to buy their own farm?
Or the Bank, cognisant with the problems of climate change will ask you for your mitigation plans for your farm, and your plans for how to be profitable in the face of changed markets.
The last Government allowed farming to dodge the effects of their actions. Those days are long gone. So learn to communicate and to be accountable.
A give reply showing what you are currently doing, or is that a sore spot??
And you seem to think that externalising your costs of production doesn’t matter, and that those who have to then pick up the costs shouldn’t have a say. Well they do.
Are you an on-the-farm king farmer – or run one from behind a computer most of the time? You do realise but vaguely i suppose ruralguy that everything you know you learned from other people, who learned their stuff from others and so on. You haven’t reached the end of the road yet,
there’s more to learn than what you know in your little corner with your friends no doubt as small-minded as you.
Oh i am so happy that you RW are so clever and happy at the same time and perfectly managing as is so obvious. Everything is so, so good, there is no room to learn anything new and it is laughable to try and fit a new idea into your very full brains, or would be if you could find them to check on that.
I can see we’re Rural Guy is coming from, not sure why you think he is stupidly aggressive Patricia, when other commenters are equally or in my opinion much more aggressive.
This site is full of people who have never farmed in a commercial farming environment , yet have all the answers, too all sorts of farming problems and say so with great confidence that if only they could explain to the stupid farmers the right way too do it, the world would be saved.
For farmers that live and breath and understand the job, it really is irritating.
Farming is a complex and regulated workplace, much more so than many seem too grasp.
You farming superheroes… I’ve been a fisherman fencer forester horticulture viticulture dry stock… shove your milking where it don’t shine though what a shitty job. Broken all manner of records.
Y’all think we’ve not had a life of experience cos we’re not pulling tits?
Classic ignorant BS. I farm thus you know nothing.
I could maybe save your farm from the audit that’s coming. But I’m thinking fuck ya, I’d rather you lose it.
You’ll all be whining soon. The drought…
‘I suggest you learn to hold water on the land’ – bloody snowflake don’t know nothing…
Jim, It was the comments to “Go buy a farm and then you can talk”
“think the Government should tell me how to farm” smacks of aggression.
Suggests he thinks A. he is right
B. he doesn’t respect others and patronizes
C. our bleak future will require co-operation which he doesn’t seem to value.
D. our family were farmers and miners. Opposites!!
Jim
Farming is complex and regulated – how come the regulated can’t stay alive on their quad bikes then? Why don’t you all have roll bars set up to protect yourselves? You are irritated when we say you don’t understand something!
This site does not think it has all the farming answers, and discusses questions with each other and any farmer who is interested in passing on stuff and learning new information and whether necessary regulations are being applied successfully and doing the task. That is the general pattern, thsough some commenter here may put forward something personal that is wrong. You have freely come here and written prejudiced generalisations.
Anybody can do that.
Next time pick out something definite and comment on that to demonstrate your point.
“Do you use roundup on your property?”
Chris – can you tell us how farmers have been working on this and where they have got to with it?
Genuine interest.
91 per cent of respondents said they wanted a target of net zero emissions across all greenhouse gases by 2050 set in legislation now.
96 per cent of respondents supported the establishment of a Climate Change Commission, with an advisory role to Government.
92 per cent of respondents thought the Bill should include provisions to help New Zealand adapt to the effects of climate change
This will be a major piece of legislation which needs to be cross party if it is to have any success and future. As James says
Minister of Climate Change and Green Party co-leader James Shaw hopes everyone is “equally unhappy” with the final version of the Zero Carbon Bill. “I think the thing that people are going to have to realise is that it’s going to involve some compromise from everyone. No one is going to get everything that they want as a result of this process… As long as everyone’s equally unhappy, we have a chance of getting this over the line.”
• The Minister says the Zero Carbon Bill will be a cross-party effort. “We are talking through the detail of the targets between the Government and the Opposition as we negotiate the final form of the Bill,” said Mr Shaw.
Greywarshark, I see Shaw has a number of large businesses now going carbon neutral, and many changing the way they operate to remove plastic from their processes.
Farming has to consider land health and water retension, change their roundup use and stocking levels. Damien O’Connor has worked very hard on Micoplasma bovis erradication. Parker appears to be dealing with trade in an increasingly hostile environment.
As you say Eugene Sage has delivered, regarding land use.
I wouldn’t be surprised if tax is applied to change the use of some fertilizers, and the development of wetlands on farms is rewarded with tax credits. Others might have ideas. Cheers. Like Macro xx
Thanks Patricia you are a gem.
I don’t think I will wait for any further responses. I have some ideas, but thought others would like to discuss. It is Saturday afternoon, they probably are enjoying it or working. No weekend break for the majority any more, with time and a half or double for the minority.
Got to keep buying and serving in the shops. Know how to bring NZ to its knees ? Stop buying anything even for a weekend.
Isn’t it interesting how the unconcerned RW turn every comment to their own use, it’s all about their prejudices and whining that they aren’t treated right. My country (or you townies) aren’t appreciating me.
Americas tough justice and how as we already knew that African Americans make up a large proportion of the prison system.
Even minor theft can give you a life sentence without parole.
“While the report shied away from saying that climate change was definitely a factor, it said that it was “salient to consider” the role climate change played in record-breaking high-impact weather.
“Natural variability in extreme rainfall in Australia is inherently very large, making it more difficult to discern climate change influences,” the report said.”
what a bunch of cowards ffs if even these people cant tell the bloody truth no wonder shit all is happening.
Actually marty it will take quite a bit of number crunching to be able to say just how much AGW contributed to this particular event as it does with all the others. There is no doubt however that AGW exacerbated it.
Bare in mind the exceptional storm Wellington weathered in 1968 which culminated in the Wahine disaster. While the world was even at that time warming, we would be reluctant to say that that was the direct result of CC. The severity was a result of 2 weather events which on their own would have produced severe weather colliding in the vicinity of the southern North Island. Similarly the event in North Queensland was the result of a late monsoonal wave meeting a tropical cyclone.
I suppose I think ALL weather events are now influenced by global warming. This is manifested in the severity and frequency of events. Everything must now be used to align back to recognising and mitigating the catastrophic effects of global warming imo.
I agree, we are now certainly experiencing the results of humanities unfortunate experiment with the climate, and there is no doubt that it is going to get worse. The problem for scientists is, that even though they have been warning about this for years, they have this discipline that requires that what ever they say, they need to say it as precisely as possible – because if they don’t some other sod is going to “hang” them academically for it.
I know and understand that. For me I’m over the bullshit and pretending that everything is okay – it is not okay and the sooner people actually get that the sooner things can be done. At the moment non disclosure of the actual situation and tip toeing around the facts is hindering efforts to do something.
I know what you and macro are saying and I think we need to talk differently. There is a direct relationship between global warming and weather events – they are interconnected eternally. I get that we don’t want to turn people off, or scare the horses – or do we? Maybe the horses need to be scared and maybe fuck the people that turn off. How long are we going to wait for everyone to get with the program? Tomorrow, next week, next year… when are we going to get serious?
But we’ve been here before – Katrina comes to mind. We say something was caused by AGW, the fossil crowd point out the link can’t be made with certainty (and they have no confidence interval around certainty) which leaves us either lying (with which they have a field day) or stepping back from the earlier comment (with which they have a field day).
“Salient to consider” is pretty much all actual report writers can do. Especially if they’re funded by an Aussie govt.
Except they’ll be ripping in with a valid criticism in order to support their invalid denial of AGW.
It’s one thing for them to spin shit whichever way they want, it’s another for them to point out validly that we’re making claims that the stats can’t actually support.
So their next step becomes that “AGW data has been misused to falsify attribution of cause, so what else has it been misused for?”
Or if someone comes up with a valid point in future, the deniers say “but they were caught lying about stats that one time”.
And because it’s actually a valid criticism, it works better than something they just invented.
I cannot see how a system wide response (global warming) doesn’t affect specific climate events within that system (flooding) even though the butterfly wings can’t be found.
Global petroleum giant Shell has announced it will take over German home battery company Sonnen, as part of its strategy of investing in renewable technologies.
Shell says Sonnen is a global leader in energy storage
Advocates say the takeover is a positive step for renewables
Sonnen is currently expanding its business north of Adelaide
Sonnen is an emerging player in Australia’s energy market, establishing a base at the former Holden site in Adelaide’s north to manufacture batteries for installation in homes.
By itself this is nothing like the silver bullet; but it is an example of what can happen when the big money end of town starts to put some serious resource into chasing the change.
This is an existential challenge like none other; we’ll need to throw everything at it if we stand a chance of beating this bugger.
In a letter sent to the company on April 4, Friends of the Earth Netherlands claims that Shell, through its corporate activities and corporate strategy, breaches its legal duty of care by causing climate damage across the globe and undermining the Paris Agreement.
Here are eight of Shell’s most immoral and, often, illegal corporate scandals to come to light, and why they should be brought to justice…
I wasn’t asking anyone to trust them. If you read the link it’s quite plain where the motives lie: “This is about money … this is a business decision, this is not a moral decision.”
I’m not suggesting for a second Shell is ‘doing good’ here. What I am saying is that when the big money end of town get serious, they can throw resources and competent people at a problem at a scale few of us here can imagine.
Personally I think this is pocket change to Shell; they’re hedging their bets here. Nor would I regard Sonnen as the most obviously innovative acquisition target, unless it was just their brand recognition you were buying.
But ultimately their motives don’t matter if they can produce a storage technology that transforms the market.
I fully concur with your comments Marco, it’s with these small changes to the various weather systems around world atm is a result of CC and by the time our Governments wake to the fact then I believe we maybe cross our LD (Point of No Return).
But at the sametime I understand Marty’s anger as well, that we are acting faster a enough in CC and I the powers at be won’t act at solving CC until it’s to late.
My own life has been indirectly affected by this extreme weather event (albeit in a pretty minor way) so we have followed this closely.
It’s not obviously linked to climate change in any directly provable fashion, but it’s entirely consistent with it. The impact on Townsville was immediate and dramatic, but inland there were places where 2 meters of rain fell over huge areas in 4 days. That’s hard to describe.
Just to give some sense of the scale; the Burdekin River system at the southern edge of this event has a catchment larger than the entire South Island.
Vast numbers of cattle have been lost, many stations will have lost all of them. This will take years to recover from, if ever.
It’s not obviously linked to climate change in any directly provable fashion, but it’s entirely consistent with it.
And this is the conundrum Redlogix. People like many on this site who have specialist knowledge on the subject – either through their work or because they have a strong interest in things meteorological – are able to understand what is occurring. But the rest of the population (including the incumbent US President) has no real comprehension of CC, but many won’t own up to their lack of knowledge. Instead they jump on the ‘denial’ bandwagon and it continues to roll on gathering the uninformed in it’s wake. By the time they start to feel the full frontal effects of CC it will be too late.
When I was base at RAAF Amberley many moons ago, I always did the convoys up the goat track (Bruce Hwy) in the dry season. Crossing such rivers like Burdekin and others. I remember saying to my mate at the time as we cross the lower Burdekin River bridge, I hate to see this in flood as the flood marker was at 3m’s, with river way below the bridge and at trickle.
It’s even worst driving across from Amberley to Tindal or Townsville to the Isa and be on sometimes, driving past the various flood ways or bridges with flood markers saying to 2-3m’s with next to no water in them.
And trying to explain the amount of water that travel through these catchments is hard to explain and especially during or after a major drought as most people think you are punch drunk 🥴.
Thanks for that. It did seem bigger than a 50 year event but I was only born then so don’t have frame of reference. Leighton Smith the numpty muppet in NZH today saying it was not climate…
Someone get that man a gold watch and a unit someplace quiet.
The Flinders river where the rail bridge. The Qld Government and ARTC rebuilt that bridge higher and bigger IOT future proof it when they finally standardised the rail gauge on the Townsville to Isa Line rose 2metres above the current bridge. This river is part of what the call the Gulf Country catchment and they usually get a 1.5 to over 2m of rain during a normal wet season. I know a few ADF Ops and planning staff at higher and at Unit level have gone WTF at the seer scale of has just happened and this weather event has smashed records all over the place.
The last big drought summit in Canberra just before Xmas, the major players at the summit have now realised or now firmly understand that CC is now major factor driving in these major weather events across Oz. There is some serious talk now at abandonment of pastoral areas where drought is happening on a more regular basis, as BOM in conjunction farmers local weather records have notice a tend between a good season and bad seasons is getting smaller. This tend is making life a lot harder across the broad be purely if you are a stock producer or even mixed cropping producer and the effects of this going to effect everyone from the farm gate to the big end of town (Banks and Corporate Farmers etc) as long term planning on the farm etc is now effectively kicked into touch.
Some big questions are now being asked at Cotton and Rice producers (yes they do grow this in the outback) , giving farmers comp’o IOT walk off the land with at least having money in the their back pocket without the banks wanting their cut as well, which adds further stress and whole heap of other human and technical factors from the farm to the big end of town.
Russia special counsel Robert Mueller asked a federal judge on Friday to send former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to prison for between 20 and 24 years for his conviction on multiple financial fraud charges.
Prosecutors also urged a federal judge in Virginia to move forward with the sentencing, which could amount to a life term for the 69-year-old Manafort who less than three years ago presided over President Donald Trump’s nomination at the 2016 Republican National Convention.
“Manafort acted for more than a decade as if he were above the law, and deprived the federal government and various financial institutions of millions of dollars,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing Friday night, adding that they agreed with a pre-sentence report filed by federal probation authorities. “The sentence here should reflect the seriousness of these crimes, and serve to both deter Manafort and others from engaging in such conduct.”
More importantly Mueller should go to prison for 20 years for the lies he told of Iraq’s non existent WMD. There by giving the US government so called permission to murder hundreds and thousands of Iraqis and reducing the country to a hell hole.
Rewriting history doesn’t make it any more truthful.
The fact of the matter was that Hussain had used WMD against not only Iran but also his own people. Had he opened up his facilities to proper inspection it would have been seen that the cupboard was now bare. The conclusions reached in then would have been very different.
Meanwhile:
Special counsel Robert Mueller said in a new court filing that search warrants have uncovered communications between longtime GOP operative Roger Stone and “Organization 1,” which is widely believed to be WikiLeaks.
Mueller made the disclosure in a filing Friday arguing that Stone’s case is related to the one involving Russian military hackers who are alleged to have breached the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and personal account of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
The communications were uncovered in search warrants executed on accounts in the investigation into Russian hackers, Mueller said.
At work and home there is an ugly tension in the air.
What would normally be tolerated or ignored is causing all sorts of aggro.
Here on TS, Grey is getting told off by VV on Icognitos post on the Nats.
I trust this will pass as a hot kitchen is a nasty place when tempers are frayed.
I am pushing the envelope gsays. Veutoviper is trying to maintain an orderly progress on the site. I am trying to get some advice and assessment of MPs so I can take an idea to the most suitable one for a project that could be important and is very timely.
I was frustrated when I only got replies from a couple of RWs who feel a new idea about the land or farming is as annoying as a blowfly wanting to strike. But tensions and stress are going to rise as mine have, from time to time, especially if those who have concerns feel that response to problems is too slow. And those suffering the loss of hope for a life and a home will get more upset if nobody cares enough to try to improve things. I think about them a lot.
gw, some folks are comfortable with being lead down the garden path of incrementalism….your comments regularly indicate not so easily distracted by such conspicuous and persistent tactics…
The frustrations you feel, are being felt by the proverbial ‘all’. Consciously or otherwise , it is being felt right along with other emotions brought about by the same indomitable issues…
It’s a tough one GWS. I’ve been fraying round the edges a little too. It is normal to feel sad, angry, frustrated and despairing at the current situation. We can deal with the grief together. Welcome to the vanguard. Others will need us as reality sinks in.
I liked that anecdote though. I think every now and then a mood lightener?
I hope most people like Monty Python – they were so good at taking things to the ridiculous level.
Hippies eh! Long hair and Jandals eh? Well I can cope with that type.
Just played the other day Diamonds and Rust by Joan Baez, written by her about Bob Dylan. Very clever and poignant; people were for a while back then.
For what it’s worth GW I’m entirely sympathetic toward what you’re doing here. Sorry I can’t contribute right now as I’m over-committed and don’t have the expertise your looking for.
What I can suggest is to think of ways to turn this into an educational project with a longer term view to find ways to commercialise it. With everything you want to achieve in the world, cash flow is king. Find a way to reliably sponsor or monetise it and it will be successful.
Package the idea in a pragmatic, can-do fashion (keep the message simple, positive and strong) and you’ll be amazed at who comes out of the woodwork to offer help. There are already many farmers on the land trying out new ideas, and they have the experience and networks that will be critical to success.
What you’re talking about is a big idea, and a tough one to pull off, and will only work if you connect with competent people who’ve done this sort of thing before.
Red L
Thanks for advice. You really stick in here. We long term people have learned a lot on the journey. I’ll talk about it if it comes off. Have got a floating plan at present.
And I need to think about your ideas, and what Drowsy M Kram is saying too. About reducing greenhouse em. Will going by bus to family in Christchurch instead of flying be halving emissions for that?
As for vv, she is so good on here and I and everybody appreciate her. But sometimes I have to rebel and hope that I fit the unreasonable man who causes change paradigm.
GWS, keep up the good work, and asking pertinent questions – it is important to reiterate that urgent action is required to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions (climate change is our “nuclear-free moment”). I thought VV’s reply to your comment/request (in Incognito’s post) was a bit over the top (too authoritarian), but I have my own biases, and appreciate that keeping the site running smoothly is not a simple matter.
Hey grey, in response to yr query that led to the brouhaha, an idea I have enjoyed is for the public, en masse, to either boycott or support an oil company.
Either on a roster, one month here one month there.
Sticking point is, if WE were to act as one for a month, what would be on the ransom note?
Super markets must be nicer to Hector’s dolphins….?
If we could do consumer boycott in that way the public would make useful points. Have to be careful these days though, making enough fuss that is carried through, without people having to be laid off because there are sure to be some relying for their living on the enterprise and them working their shift.
Fascinating. She claims the NZ-Chinese friendship has been worked on for more than 40 years. What then happened in 1989 when the Chinese government slaughter 10,000 civilians in the streets?
Kat your description of Audrey made me smile. Now we have China through a spokesperson saying some are “trying to ferment trouble for their own ends” I thought “Yes, to try to undermine our PM.” Audrey is a tired echo of the Gnats.
“Adults, she said, do not act on climate change because “they’re involved with their money and their work. They don’t care,” said de Wardener, who sported a polar bear hat and a hand-coloured sign reading, “Your failure, our future”.”
“Global temperatures are on course for a rise of 3 degrees to 5 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees to 9 degrees Fahrenheit) this century, far overshooting a global target of limiting the increase to 2C or less, the U.N. World Meteorological Organization says.
That is bringing growing risks from extreme weather – including worsening droughts, floods, fires and storms – as well as threats of worsening hunger, poverty and water shortages, scientists say.
Limiting those risks will require “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes” to the world’s energy systems and to human behavior, scientists said in an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report released last October.“
Dr Bryce parrots David Farrer and argues the left have fallen into a trap set by National by reading too much into the sausage ad.
I think Farrar is in damage control. And ironically it is Edwards reading too much into so called “reverse dog whistle politics”. National aren’t that bright. I can’t believe this was deliberate.
In reality is was a very clumsy attempt at attack advertising.
Farrar and Edwards seem to be saying it was deliberate trolling, and a deliberate attempt to import and pour petrol on the culture wars. But that seems like a desperate and very risky strategy because we know Kiwis are turned off by such cynical baiting.
It will be interesting to see what the next ad in the tax-payer funded series looks like. Will they double down, firming up their hard right vote? Or will they retreat to try to grow their centre vote which I’m sure will have been turned off by this sort of behaviour.
Dr Bryce seems to think the centre love cynical politics but if you ever need to gauge his political nous just remember he thought Simon Bridges was correct when he launched the also tax-payer funded investigations into the leak of his excessive limo use…which was also tax-payer funded.
Bryce Edwards is a sophisticated Gnats poodle. Where with Audrey and Soper you know where they stand Dr. Edwards presents an apparently balanced view… until one does their own research and realises he omits slants and generally weights everything to favour a right wing view. Seldom does he really criticise the right.
Has all the signs of a whitewash in order to protect the National Party. An investigation which will find not fault and no blame and all the details will be forever suppressed.
Likewise, the public will never have closure in the case of National Party donation fiddling. This was as serious, if not more serious, than the Banks/Dotcom saga which thankfully completely ruined the career of John Banks. Yet it will be swept under the carpet.
Both these scandals will quietly be shut down because essentially the National Party is ‘too big to fail’.
Kia ora The AM Show The representative of the doctors from Rotorua and Hamilton hospital looked hot under the collar for one thing its nationals mess in the first place he is a national puppet + there is a budget to keep to I would say more but It would effect the service that MY WHANO get.
simon duncan kisses your – – – he treats you and your m8 Alot better than the Coalition Government Mp,s
As for China national shonky would have made a big mess of that. O that’s the way national grows a economy shorts our house market and flooding the land with imagination that’s is easy as counting 123 to achieve GDP growth how about something innovative like pumping up all of NZ O that’s right you don’t want to share the lollies /with Maori /minority cultures .
I did give advice that prefab low cost housing was the best way to get cheap housing to Te tangata it was obvious to me that my nemesis in the state services would have said you cannot do that as it will give Eco Maori to much mana its not wise to build expense house in place were there are not many wealthy people like Pukekohe Auckland the people will be scared the value of the property will flat Line still shonky puppets in Minstery business and innovation deliberately making those stuff ups .
Eco Maori say the way the housing market is rising prices at the minute is going into other place beside Auckland Wellington an Queens Town that’s spreading the risk and the lollys money to the many.
Steven that’s correct our relationship with China is fine just a little bump in the road we just have to ride out the bumpy road till 2020 then things will settle down.
That is why shonky filled the Pike River Mine up with concrete it was a big cover up by WHO.
Catherine that’s a better response we fruit fly issue than the last lot they would have covered it up and when a few more were found the public get the isuses out then panic that’s what happened to the bovine virus issues we have .
As for gentic engineer food the the executive of these multiple countries companies to stick it in their plates and eat it we don’t need it and don’t want it to smear our great food production so genitc engineering our pest will just open the doors for other things to be genitc engineering that’s how we got the pest in the first place doing things that we did not think of the consequences to that action Its obvious Le French do not have the culture to nerture some of our Kiwi stars
That’s the way Chloe give duncan a serve he has turn Bright Red lol.
A survey will tell what the person who runs it will give the results your are looking for data to back your views so stop turning red your letters is a total froud plane and simple froud you are giving duncan a good clean up KA PAI.
YEA right losing weight from eating almonds only and the real problems is surgery pop drinks I see that there stocks are crashing GOOD about time that’s what you should be talking about AM Show pop drinks.
Yes the big picture is we need a good environment to live healthy happy prosperous lives and China is backing that. Ka kite ano
This is why Eco Maori says carbon credits are rubbish like fishing quotes it is just a tool that the wealthy crooked people can cheat the common person and make billions of dollars in falsely made trades . I back a carbon tax on carbon that is given to the pruducers of clean green energy and to poor people who don’t have the money to build there clean green futures for there grandchildren.
Residents of a coalmining region in Siberia have been posting videos online showing entire streets and districts covered in toxic black snow that critics say highlight a manmade ecological catastrophe.
In one video, filmed in Kiselyovsk, a town in the Kuzbass region, a woman drives past mounds of coal-coloured snow stretching to the horizon, covering a children’s playground and the courtyards of residential buildings. The scenes in the footage were described as “post-apocalyptic” by Russian media.
The coal dust that turns the snow black in the Kuzbass comes from numerous open pit mines that environmental activists say have had disastrous consequences for the health of the region’s 2.6 million people, with life expectancy three to four years lower than Russia’s national average of 66 for men and 77 for women.
Cancer, child cerebral palsy, and tuberculous rates in the Kuzbass region are all above the national average.
“It’s harder to find white snow than black snow during the winter,” Vladimir Slivyak, a member of the Ecodefense environmental group, said. “There is a lot of coal dust in the air all the time. When snow falls, it just becomes visible. You can’t see it the rest of the year, but it is still there.” Ana to kai Ka kite ano links below
Kia ora Newshub That’s the way the billionaire tech giants needs to pay there dues to society so everyone can have a happy life not just the top 20 % OUR Coalition Government closing the tax loopholes that let them avoid paying taxes in Aotearoa The Australian government is having some computer dramas A.
Yes the fruit fly found in Auckland is going to be a hassle for some peoples fruit and vegetables purchasing problems.
That photo of trump is ten years old lol.
I say gentic engineering is working against mother nature the most successful society’s have worked with Papatuanukue not against her like we currently are doing. That poll is good news Hub it gives me hope that my Mokopunas will have a happy healthy future Ka pai.
Ka kite ano
Kia ora James & Wairangi from The Crowd Goes Wild Eco Maori has already stated that Le French billionaire does not no how to nerture our Kiwi Rugby Stars Gates said they wanted A billionaire like him in Le France?
That’s a big crash at the is it Datona 500 got the Mokopunas here I am quite a bit busy chasing them around.
Yes that’s what it’s about the team first.
I Heard the Australian tangata whenua Rugby Star was in Aotearoa boys. Ka kite ano
Kia ora Newshub with NZ been off IKEAs maps it’s you scratch my back I will scratch yours There you go puncan negative brown minority culture news that’s what you floated your toilet with a small group of people making a mess in Auckland they are probley some ones ASSET and have impunity to create a mess of brown peoples MANA it’s a area that has mostly brown people .
I don’t see what Britain giving Huawei the option to bid to install there 5 G, Has a negative look for NZ position I say it’s a good THING.
Bullshit you are just trying to repair the GCSB & SIS credibility I no they love their pears in America everytime I put them down next minute their loud noise starts up they say jump and next minute how high SIR. Sam I Do agree that Aotearoa getting 5 G is going to EARN us billions of low carbon export income it’s very important .
There is nothing wrong with NZ Joining the movement of making the tech billionaire pay there fair share of dues to society we were first to give Wahine the rights to vote and that would have had some push back to .
There you go making false statements about Britain stance And making false statements about OUR position on the 5 G network there you go once again trying to spray WAI on OUR government. It is good to get the Tech company to pay more tax you see te tangata te tangata around the world are demanding it. Everyone can see your position on the Mana Wahine its fine so long as Wahine are behind a man #METOO I know it’s above your thought process to put yourself in someone’else SHOES.
Yes some tech company’s will risk losing consumers and rise price. The tax is worth it the revenue and giving our companies a better chance at getting the contracts look at NOVA Pay The justice department and a few other government new program updates they were a big mess. If we had let locals bid & build the software and hardware for these organisations it would have been much cheaper less stressful for NZ big boy giving big kick backs that’s the way of the Papatuanukue . trump & scott are not going to be in power for long soon they will be neutered especially being climate change deniers with all the weather records being broken in there countries that they are supposed to be caring for their future but only care for their power.
Another attempt to attack EQUALITY mark boys can be boys just don’t shit on Wahine in the process.
If I could start a tree planting crew I would go to a four day week give the men Friday off as its usually half a day the van seats will be full 4 days a week and we would only have to a work a extra hour a day and production won’t fall it will decrease accident as fatigue would drop the men would have more time for their families less cost less less miles travelled =more profits more times to vote Some people don’t want common people to have Time to participate in our /there civic duty, s they only want the wealthy peoples opinion to get oxygen the common tangata opinions don’t count.
Arr bullshit the the wealthy get to the cream of Atoearoa and only let the crumbs fall on the floor for the minority that’s a fact NZ income disparity has grown very fast in the west if a wealth person is charged with tax evasion they bribe the pollies to charge the laws to class that activity as avoidance and WALAR no one breaking the law here no kai falling on the floor for common people THE GREAT WESTERN culture MYTHS The trickle down effect is fool of shit. Ka kite ano
“Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The political parties are legally obliged to make ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Here is my subjective ranking on a “most-left” to “most-right” scale of most of our major NZ Universities, with some anecdotal (and at times amusing) evidence to back up the claim.Extreme Left Auckland University of TechnologyEvidenceThe ...
Eric Crampton writes – I hadn’t thought about this one until a helpful email showed up in my inbox.It’s pretty obvious that income tax thresholds should automatically index with inflation – whether to anchor the thresholds in percentiles of the income distribution, or to anchor against a real ...
Jacqui Van Der Kaay writes – Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National ...
Gary Judd writes – The Dean of the law school at the Auckland University of Technology is someone called Khylee Quince. I have been sent her social media posting in which she has, over the LawNews headline “Senior King’s Counsel files complaint about compulsory tikanga Maori studies for ...
Cleo Paskal writes – WASHINGTON, D.C.: ‘Many of us have received phone calls from [the opposing camp] telling them if they join the camp they will be given projects for their wards and $300,000 [around US$35,000] each’, says former Malaita Premier Daniel Suidani. The elections in Solomon Islands aren’t ...
With hindsight, it was inevitable that (a) Hamas would agree to the ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar and that ( b) Israel would then immediately launch attacks on Rafah, regardless. We might have hoped the concessions made by Hamas would cause Israel to desist from slaughtering thousands more ...
Placards and mourners outside the Kilbirnie Mosque following the Christchurch terror attack: MSD has terminated the Kaiwhakaoranga service, which has been used by 415 families since the attacks. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The Government’s pledge to only cut ‘back office’ staff rather than ‘frontline’ services is on increasingly shaky ground, with ...
There’s been a few smaller public transport announcements over the last week or so that I thought I’d cover in a single post. Fareshare I’ve long called for Auckland Transport to offer a way to enable employer-subsidised public transport options. The need for this took on even more importance ...
Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National Minister Matt Doocey, reflects poorly on Genter and ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Responding to an Auditor-General's report slamming failures in the administration of the 2023 General Election, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said: ...
The Taxpayers’ Union says the Beehive need to lead by example, following reports of more than $50,000 spent upgrading video conferencing equipment and furniture in the Prime Minister’s office. Taxpayers’ Union Campaign Manager, Connor Molloy, ...
An objective list of the 50 most powerful people in New Zealand, as judged by the Spinoff Editorial Board. It’s power list season, baby, and we want in on the action. Sure, there’s the rich list and the powerful “c-suite” list and the young people with power (hmmm) but here, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thalia Anthony, Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney ShutterstockThis article contains information on deaths in custody and the names of deceased people, and describes ongoing colonial violence towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. First Nations people in Australia ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alex Simpson, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Macquarie University Netflix Baby Reindeer’s phenomenal success has much to do with its writer and lead, Richard Gadd, who plays Donny in a tender semi-autobiographical account of sexual abuse, harassment and stalking. Gadd’s story has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Laureate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle KarolinaGrabowska/Pexels If you didn’t have food allergies as a child, is it possible to develop them as an adult? The short answer is yes. But the reasons why are much ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Moon, Professor of History, Auckland University of Technology Ans Westra, self-portrait, c. 1963. National Library ref AWM-0705-F They try but invariably fail – those writers who believe they are capable of encapsulating in prose or verse the essence of ...
Stewart Sowman-Lund looks at the growing concern around the world in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. What’s all this? When Covid-19 arrived on our shores in early 2020, some argued we were too slow, or crucially, ill-prepared for a pandemic. So ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Franco Montalto, Professor of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering and Director, Sustainable Water Resource Engineering Laboratory, Drexel University Water runs into a storm drain in a Los Angeles alley on Aug. 19, 2023, during Tropical Storm Hilary.Citizen of the Planet/Universal Images ...
The inquest into the death of Gore toddler Lachlan Jones has turned up a new witness who says he saw two teenagers and a small child in a high vis vest in the area where the boy’s body was found the day he died. Lachie’s body was discovered face up ...
Stories from the tenancy trenches, featuring spider infestations, cupboard rats and same-sex discrimination. Lucy’s brother was living in a damp 1930s building in Mt Eden where “he had to tie the cupboard doors closed so the rats didn’t get in”. Although he shared custody of his six-year-old son, his property ...
Simeon Brown, Chris Luxon, and Wayne Brown climbed into a hole and announced a plan to solve Auckland’s water woes. This is how it’ll work. New Zealand’s pipes are munted. They’re cracked and leaking, and struggling to handle all the extra poos excreted by our rising population. It’s a big, ...
What do a sombrero in Argentina and cognitive driving tests have in common? Don’t worry, we’re not setting up a bad joke. Hinengaro Clinic dementia clinician Gregory Winkelman has the answer on today’s episode of The Detail. “We ask a patient’s spouse or son or daughter: If you went to ...
Wellington long jumper Phoebe Edwards is back and she’s having fun again. Until this year, Edwards, a top athlete in her teens, had never competed as a senior athlete in New Zealand. In March, the 26-year-old won a national long jump title in a lifetime best of 6.28m after ...
After replacing a fifth of their caucus in just four months, the Greens’ opportunity to reset, reshuffle and refocus on the Government is quickly slipping away The post Persistent Green Party scandals delay caucus reset appeared first on Newsroom. ...
I knew Taika Waititi quite well when he was a kid. His mother lived in a tall narrow house in Aro St, and my youngest sister had a similar house two doors along. They were both single mums, they each had a son aged seven. Taika and my nephew Stepan ...
Opinion: “As time passes, knowledge of the circumstances of the August 2016 outbreak will fade and its immediate impact will be lost.” This statement is from the 2017 report of the Official Inquiry into the Havelock North campylobacteriosis outbreak. The then National-led government established the inquiry after the outbreak left ...
Opinion: Nicholas Khoo looks at two key points in the high-stakes foreign policy pact debate – and asks if NZ can engage with as little drama as possible. The post Where to next for the Aukus ruckus? appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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Opinion: ‘Reference-class forecasting’ is at the heart of improving pricing a project and identifying the expected timeframe but it doesn’t appear to be in use here The post ‘Think fast and act slowly’ is failing big projects appeared first on Newsroom. ...
ANALYSIS:By Olli Hellmann, University of Waikato When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day today on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also to mark a defining event for national identity. The battle of Gallipoli against ...
By Robin Martin, RNZ News reporter A New Zealand local authority, Whanganui District Council, has passed a motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, condemnation of all acts of violence and terror against civilians on both sides of the conflict and the immediate return of hostages. It comes as ...
Asia Pacific Report The Aotearoa chapter of the Women’s International league for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) has appealed to the New Zealand government to call out Israel over the “cruel and barbaric use of force” in Gaza and demand a permanent ceasefire. The league’s open letter was sent to Prime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government will invest $566 million over a decade on data, maps and other tools to promote exploration and development in Australia’s resources industry. The project will fund “the first comprehensive map of what’s ...
Asia Pacific Report Following an open letter by Auckland University academics speaking out in support of their students’ right to protest against the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza, a group of academics at Otago University have today also called on New Zealand academic institutions to “repair colonial violence” and end ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Linda J. Graham, Professor and Director of the Centre for Inclusive Education, Queensland University of Technology Ryan Tauss/ Unsplash, CC BY Two male students have been expelled from a Melbourne private school for their involvement in a list ranking female students. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The Reserve Bank is now assuming Australians will see no interest rate cuts this year – and quite possibly none before the next federal election, due next May. That’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Hayward, Emeritus Professor of Public Policy, RMIT University The Victorian budget offered more of the same on Tuesday, with the only change being how the budget papers were packaged. The usual shrink wrap was gone, hinting at savings in the pages ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Coalition is demanding extensive amendments to the government’s legislation targeting non-citizens who refuse to co-operate with their removal. In a dissenting report to the senate inquiry into the legislation, the Coalition says it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vanita Yadav, Senior Research Fellow, Urban Transformations Research Centre, Western Sydney University Brett Boardman/Belvoir The complex and grappling issue of violence against women takes centre stage in the soul-stirring solo dance drama Nayika: A Dancing Girl. During a dinner conversation ...
Disruption to patient care from a nationwide junior doctors strike is bordering on unsafe, a senior doctor claims, despite what health officials say. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Diepstraten, Senior Research Officer, Blood Cells and Blood Cancer Division, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute Ground Picture/Shutterstock The anti-cancer drug abemaciclib (also known as Vernezio) has this month been added to the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) to treat certain ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominic McAfee, Postdoctoral researcher, marine ecology, University of Adelaide Robbie Porter, OzFish Unlimited Around Australia, hundreds of people are coming together to help a once-prized, but decimated and largely forgotten marine ecosystem. They’re busy restoring Australia’s native oyster and mussel reefs. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sara Webb, Lecturer, Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology Austin Human/Unsplash How does Earth stop meteors from hitting Earth and hurting people? –Asher, 6 years 11 months, New South Wales Alright, let’s embark on a meteor ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rory Mulcahy, Associate Professor of Marketing, University of the Sunshine Coast Professional sports organisations regularly promote and develop initiatives to support diversity, equity and inclusion. While sport has the power to change attitudes by sparking conversations about political issues and social ...
Comment: The weekly Monday post-Cabinet press conference is a useful forum for observing Christopher Luxon and how he is developing into the job of Prime Minister. He attempts to convey the impression of a man of action, speaking fast, delivering memorised National Party strategies in a connect-the-slogans kind of way, ...
Double votes, missing ballot boxes, tired tech and stressed staff: how tick-tallying went astray at last year’s election. Cast your mind back to November 2023, that bleary-eyed post-election period duringwhichwewaited, andwaited, for a coalition deal to be hammered out. A distraction from the hotel-hopping of our ...
International audiences are starting to discover what New Zealand already knew about After the Party.When After the Party aired in New Zealand last year, the response was fast and furious. In his preview for Rec Room, Duncan Greive said it was a “gritty, wrenching and highly confronting” series. By ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shahram Akbarzadeh, Convenor of the Middle East Studies Forum (MESF), and Acting Director the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University Iran’s leadership has been a direct beneficiary of the months-long war in Gaza. With every missile that Israel fires ...
Claire Mabey reviews the haunting and sexy debut novel from Sinéad Gleeson, who is about to touch down in Aotearoa for a string of live events.When Irish writer Sinéad Gleeson was in Aotearoa in 2018 with her spectacular collection of essays, Constellations, she told me she was working on ...
PNG Post-Courier Bougainville Affairs Minister Manasseh Makiba has described the Post-Courier’s front page story yesterday regarding a meeting between Bougainville and national government leaders as “sensationalised” and without substance. The Autonomous Bougainville Government (AGB) had warned it might use “other avenues to gain its independence” should the PNG government “continue ...
Where some saw the worst press conference given by the government to date, Anna Rawhiti-Connell recognised girl maths game.Nicola Willis, recently exasperated by comparisons to Ruth Richardson, said she was “a bit sick of being compared with every female finance minister that’s ever been out there.”Some think that’s ...
The March results are reported against forecasts based on the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update 2023 (HYEFU 2023), published on 20 December 2023 and the results for the same period for the previous year. ...
Jamie Arbuckle, the district councillor who became an MP but decided to keep getting paid for both roles, will instead donate one salary to charity. ...
Adding gender to the Human Rights Act would simply make the implicit explicit. So why is it so controversial? Paul Thistoll explain. At present, Aotearoa’s 1993 Human Rights Act (HRA) includes sex, marital status, religious belief, ethical belief (meaning a lack of religious belief), colour, race, ethnicity or national origin, ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, an 18-year-old who’s studying and working in hospo shares their approach to spending and saving. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Transmasc Age: 18 Ethnicity: Pākehā/Māori Role: Student, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Kelsey, Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Resources Minister Shane Jones has reportedly asked officials for advice on whether oil and gas companies could be offered “bonds” as compensation if drilling rights offered by ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Gleeson, Associate Professor of Law, Macquarie University Shutterstock The Albanese government is weighing up the costs of delivering an election promise to protect religious people from discrimination in Commonwealth law. Such protections were relatively uncontroversial when included in state anti-discrimination ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yen Ying Lim, Associate Professor, Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University Pexels/Andrea Piacquadio Dementia is often described as “the long goodbye”. Although the person is still alive, dementia slowly and irreversibly chips away at their memories and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Judy Bush, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, The University of Melbourne Adam Calaitzis/Shutterstock I met with a friend for a walk beside Merri Creek, in inner Melbourne. She had lived in the area for a few years, and as we walked ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Throsby, Distinguished Professor of Economics, Macquarie University Arts companies and individual artists in Australia are supported by government arts agencies, philanthropists, industry bodies, private donors and patrons. However, it is frequently overlooked that a major source of support for the arts ...
Harm Reduction Coalition Aotearoa, a new incorporated society dedicated to ending harmful drug policies, officially launched today, seeks a new fit-for-purpose drug law for Aotearoa New Zealand, rooted in science, experience and evidence. ...
The Corrections Minister admits he "muddied the water" after he and the Prime Minister repeatedly provided incorrect information about a $1.9 billion prison spend-up. ...
So the Fanta Fascist finally declares his national emergency to placate his wallnuts. Then immediately says “I didn’t need to do this”. Then fucks off to Florida to play golf, instead of dealing with the “emergency”. All of which adds up to a totes convincing argument there’s an actual emergency that justifies attempting to abrogate the Constitution.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-national-emergency-didnt-need_n_5c66e76ce4b05c889d1ed6bf
“Power Corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely”.
It is hard to imagine that absolute power could corrupt Donald Trump, Trump is already corrupt.
Maybe the saying has got it backward; Maybe it is the corrupt who seek power, and just maybe it is the absolutely corrupt that seek absolute power.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/01/presidential-emergency-powers/576418/
The Alarming Scope of the President’s Emergency Powers
From seizing control of the internet to declaring martial law, President Trump may legally do all kinds of extraordinary things.
How corrupt is Donald Trump?
Is there anything that the President wouldn’t do?
Republican commentator Peter Wehner weighs in
That “bottom” may just have been reached, and passed by, with barely a murmur of protest from the Republican Party. Leading Republicans, including Senate leader Mitch McConnell who had previously warned Trump against declaring a State Of National Emergency . But in the end, along with the rest of the Republican establishment, O’Connell went along with Trump’s demand to put the country under a state of emergency.
The President is now left to look for a new “bottom”, that the Republicans will support
The fact that after declaring a State of National Emergency the President then went to his golf course for the weekend, indicates that his declaration of a state of National Emergency is more of a personal insurance policy against impeachment than any real or imagined national emergency.
Will the Republican leaders and party support the President if using his new powers the President over rules Congress, or shuts down or turns aside the investigations into his personal and business affairs?
The Republican Party controlled Senate’s, tame acquiescence, despite muttering their faint disapproval, indicates that they will allow any anti-democratic or extra-legal outrage from this President.
Any comment from a nation that has a natural border wall of thousands of miles of ocean … on any other nation’s border security arrangements lacking such an advantage … almost unconsciously falls into irony.
Given that I’m a citizen of the US, registered to vote in a district on the border, and spent 7 months crossing the border twice every day between my home in San Diego and work in Tijuana at a time when the rate of illegal border crossing was at least 3 times what it is now, and have plans to return to the US to live near the border once my family obligations in NZ are fulfilled, still think I’m unqualified to comment?
Slam dunk!
OK given your expertise; exactly what IS your view on the US/Mexican border?
After all if you have the privilege of travelling freely across this border, why not everyone else?
Should there be any border at all?
In my opinion, the construction of physical barriers authorised by the Secure Fence Act 2006 means there is now already existing physical barriers almost everywhere along the border where there is anything vaguely like rational justification for physical barriers. (There may be a few specific problem areas where new or upgraded barriers might make sense, but those are few and far between). Along parts of the California border I’m familiar with, the barriers put up post 2006 are already excessive, with the ecosystem damage done by stopping animal movement outweighing their minimal effectiveness in stopping border crossing.
There are a lot of good reasons to not put physical barriers where there aren’t already barriers. Ecosystem damage. Impeding floodwaters in the Rio Grande. The rights of native people’s like the Tohono O’odham to move around in their lands that are partly in Mexico and partly in the US. The effectiveness of barriers in stopping people in these remote areas is very low so it’s a waste of money. The message sent by building a barrier is just ugly.
I’m not opposed to further enhancing border security by improving screening technology at entry ports, and I’m even mildly supportive of increased surveillance and sensoring of remote areas to detect border crossers. As much for humanitarian reasons to ensure the crossers are found and made safe, because most of the non-city parts of the border are fkn inhospitable. Lack of water, extreme heat, and winter cold contributed to a death toll I found horrifying while I was there.
The privilege I had of crossing the border every day wasn’t free. I had to get permits from US and Mexican authorities. I had to go through US Customs every afternoon. US and Mexican authorities both photographed me and my vehicle in both directions every time. The only people talking about open borders are those putting up straw men.
So if getting across the border is so easy for you (apart from the inconveniences you mention, some form filling, queuing and photos) it’s still pertinent to ask yourself, why you have this privilege and many millions who would like to enter the USA don’t.
Still your response is helpful; clearly you believe your legal citizenship of the USA is of value, and this value is worth protecting via effective, enforceable borders.
So the question now devolves down to the details. Exactly what form should this border take? In essence you seem to be arguing that the status quo is adequate; yet during my brief encounter with it at the start of the Pacific Crest Trail many years back, it was quite clear that I had to be aware of illegal migrants in the area, and be careful not to get entangled with them.
And yes the existing border is of some considerable effect; otherwise why would smugglers bother digging tunnels? But clearly the current arrangements are not 100% effective and probably never can be. How many millions of illegal immigrants are there in the USA now? How much drug and people smuggling is enabled because the border is sufficiently porous to make the attempt worthwhile?
A sodding great concrete wall from coast to coast was always just simplistic campaign rhetoric on Trump’s part, but the underlying message was plain enough and hard to argue against … either have an effective border, or not bother. If so it’s hard to understand exactly why this issue has degenerated into the debacle it has.
(Incidentally I have met a person who was a member of the Mexican National Parliament who quite adamantly and seriously argued for no border … so not necessarily the strawman you imagine.)
Fact is Red most Americans don’t want the wall or anything resembling it.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/423099-poll-majorities-oppose-trumps-wall-funding-demand-call-for-compromise
And as Andre says – it’s not easy crossing the border – even for US citizens.
Upping the number of personnel at border crossing would not only speed up the process, but slow the number of illegal border crossings considerably because most illegal immigrants in the US actually entered the US legally. They are now illegal immigrants because they overstayed their visa. What is now needed is an amnesty and application period so illegal immigrants can sort their situations out. Many are hard working and supporting the economy and would be valuable citizens.
They are now illegal immigrants because they overstayed their visa. What is now needed is an amnesty and application period so illegal immigrants can sort their situations out.
There is some merit in an amnesty if you can argue that the state had fallen short in it’s processes in the past, and as part of a one-off reform, all prior transgressions will be rectified. But what of the many millions of hard working migrants who went through the onerous process to obtain legal residency? Why devalue their legitimacy?
Amnesties are not a ‘get out of jail free’ card with no consequences.
And more from you link above:
In other words a majority do want a more secure border. But reflexive political polarisation is preventing it.
Red the Dems actually did vote for such funding in the first bill and have always supported more secure borders. The Repugs also agreed with the measures put forward before xmas last year. Trump was about to sign it but his vanity got in the way when the Wallnuts called him out on it, and the US ended up with the longest shutdown in history.
What he has now signed off is almost exactly what was previously agreed! The ones who miss out are the govt contractors who are seriously out of pocket. No funding for them 🙁
However, if I was a Wallnut I wouldn’t be holding my breath right now. Trumps proposed “Emergency” isn’t likely to eventuate in any building of big beautiful walls any time soon.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/2/15/18225325/trump-national-emergency-lawsuits-border-wall
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/national-emergency-blocked-courts-temporarily-doj-warns-white/story?id=61086962
BTW
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/14/politics/kfile-trump-immigration-executive-action-2014/index.html
Macro – that is a very interesting little quote you present there and thank you for pinning down one that may have such wide outcomes.
While you are around or i hope you are, could you drop a comment as below at No.11. I would like some thinkers ideas on the matters I raise, just quick ones. I have already had one from the RW non-competents who come here.
Please can I have some feedback from knowledgable, thinking people in the next hour or two.
Any comment on a nation that has an open border of thousands of miles with their Northern White Majority neighboring country, Canada, but demands a weaponised border on their southern border with Mexico almost unconsciously falls into racism.
Because there are millions of Canadian’s migrating to the USA? Nice attempt on the racism card though.
(Also worth noting that the USA/Canadian border is strongly policed in many ways and can be scarcely described as ‘open’.)
Maybe if the US had overthrown Canadian governments, installed and armed brutal puppet regimes, stole their natural resources, exploited their people and indebted and impoverished their economy, as the US imperialists have done to a number of Latin American countries, millions of Canadians might be trying to find some sort of refuge in the US.
Not that the Americans haven’t tried.
At that time, luckily for the Canadians, they then had another global Super Power once known as the British Empire on their side.
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/canadaweb/factfile/Unique-facts-Canada5.htm
The fun way of watching the downfall of Rome. /sarc
https://www.indy100.com/article/trump-state-of-the-union-bad-lip-reading-video-watch-8776826
lol – wtf is this stupefuckerlying turnip up to – he’s either an idiot or really stupid – I just can’t decide. He’s just said there wasn’t an emergency???
Declaring an emergency when there isn’t one – why would someone do that?
a.) it’s just an infantile, petulant way of delivering an election promise? That’s bad, but it is really just the psychopathology of one person and therefore time-limited
b.) the Republican machine likes the idea of an emergency as cover for other things they fancy doing. This is the one to watch out for – for example a supposed national emergency over illegal immigration could unleash voter suppression of poor/black/brown people – all justified as required to preserve the ‘integrity’ of the electoral system from waves of (fictional) illegals taking over the country.
We are not immune to being manipulated by fake emergencies ourselves. Remember how in 1984 the emergency was that our economy was like a ‘Polish Shipyard” and we would go broke and all be eating grass the following week unless we gave away large chunks of it to private profiteers?
Got some good grass recipes? Perhaps marinating it in oil and vinegar would make it digestible? Any ideas from people who have heard something about?
Declaring an emergency when there isn’t one – why would someone do that?
Well clearly it’s not Trump’s first choice. This hasn’t happened in a vacuum; this border has a long history of ‘no good choices’.
This is what gets me; Trump is an unconscionable oaf of a man, everything he touches turns to shit. Yet for all the liberal wailing and renting of ash cloth, all the reflexive opposition to Trump, I see very little in the way of realistic analysis over the best way forward here.
It’s not ‘reflexive opposition’ it is considered opposition and imo there are screeds of alternatives from many different angles. This is not a ‘new’ issue just one t.rump invented for votes.
Yes, there are many alternative ways to implement an effective border. The IT world has a concept called ‘Defense in Depth”; the idea being that no single layer of cyber security is adequate by itself, but that multiple layers of technologies each detecting intrusions in different ways is a better solution.
One big concrete wall is analogous to a single firewall; either it’s so locked down and tyrannical that it’s too onerous for legitimate users, or it’s pragmatic but vulnerable to determined hackers. Trump’s big wall idea was flawed from the outset for this very reason.
Accepting that there is no single layer solution to border protection (either in an IT or physical sense) opens up alternative layered means that work ‘in depth’; what one layer misses, another stands a good chance of catching. I’m no security expert but I’m certain there are many ideas to be explored.
I’d argue that the USA voters in general want better border security, and the problem is eminently solvable. But extreme political polarisation means that neither side in Washington will give their opponents any whiff of success. Opposition now means blocking and preventing any constructive solutions simply for the sake of it.
“Yes, there are many alternative ways to implement an effective border.”
like getting agreement about what that actually means for instance. T.rump is fear mongering and whipping up all sorts of bigotry and prejudice for what? To get votes – it has ZERO to do with security – it’s like this dim –
https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/social/sarah-sanders-mercilessly-ridiculed-over-tweet-about-el-chapo-and-border-wall/news-story/bc8a20776c9145e50c0c774cfa325d60
The logic of some people defeats me. Because a border can be tunneled underneath, this means we shouldn’t have a border? It’s like saying that seat belts don’t save all car accident victims, therefore we should bother with them.
The mere fact that drug smugglers had to go to all the trouble to dig a tunnel suggests the fences above were in fact serving a purpose as the first layer of the defense. Then you have the police to detect the tunnels; or video/infra-red/sound/vibration sensors that can assist.
Or other police who specialise in drugs/people trafficking and work back to the sources.
Then you have layers of detection well behind the actual border; an obvious one being more efficient means to manage people who choose to illegally over-stay their visa.
A border is way more than just Trump’s cartoonishly simplistic wall, but the entire conversation has been derailed by equally simplistic opposition to it.
You’ll spend so much time and money on a fantasy of protection and security – silly stuff imo. The wall is just the extreme outward presentation of the silliness.
There are deep psychological roots to this discussion. Each one of us has a different level of openness to new experience that is fairly hard-wired into us for good evolutionary reasons.
Strangers represent a Darwinian problem. Outsiders represent threat in many different ways; they may be dangerous and warlike, they may be dominant and greedy, they may bring disease unwittingly. Those of us who were too willing to welcome strangers into their house were subject to these risks and often did not survive.
Equally strangers also represent opportunity; new information, new ideas, fresh genes, trade and expansion. Those of us who closed their doors and erected walls too high would in time stagnate and perish for lack of progress.
There are almost only two human archetypal stories; a man goes on a journey and a stranger comes to town. Both are tales of danger and victory. Not all the characters survive.
As a result modern humans are a genetic mosaic, some of us open to newness, others much less so. And in this our vulnerabilities and our resilience are all bound up together, two sides of one coin. At a social scale we express these as walls and fences around our homes, towns and cities have boundaries, we tend to link place with our identity, and gather our communities into locations where we can mutually support each other.
Borders serve a deep human purpose, yet in the extremes of both totally open and totally closed … they always fail.
whew a pretty long way of saying what exactly?
that, “Borders serve a deep human purpose, yet in the extremes of both totally open and closed … they always fail.” so you’re against the trumps wall now?
In my experience people make decisions emotionally and then defend them rationally. (Not a personal attack) This is what I see you doing in regards to the wall or borders.
Agreed. People do have different emotional responses to the idea of borders; and I was arguing for good evolutionary reasons. In this respect it’s clear you and I have somewhat different settings, but not all that far apart really.
Recognising and accepting the value of this diversity is possibly the first step in determining exactly what our borders should look like, who we let in and who we keep out. Because it always will be a balance.
As for Trump’s big sodding wall … it always was a simplistic pitch to those Americans who would emotionally respond to it. In that respect it’s not only ineffective by itself, but deplorable, dishonest politics. But that always was Trumps special genius, exploitation of the emotional weaknesses of the rubes he targets.
But if the left’s response is to sneer at that 42% of voters who have emotionally committed to the idea of a stronger border … their natural response is to fight back. Alternatively if we said “let’s build a smarter, more intelligent border, one that allowed us to defend the value of US citizenship, while minimising crime and exploitation, and allowing us flexible humanitarian responses when it’s called for” …. then I’d hope for better results.
All Bubba’s fault, apparently.
A corollary of the delegitimisation of modern-day presidents has been the legitimisation of the politics of no, an oppositional approach whereby constitutional checks and balances have come to be used as vetoes and blockades.
This again can be traced back to the Clinton years. Bob Dole, the Republican’s leader in the Senate, deployed the filibuster more frequently than his predecessors to stymie Bill Clinton’s legislative agenda. Newt Gingrich, the first Republican House speaker since the early-1950s, used government shutdowns as a political weapon.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47164909
That link is an extra good read. A lot of interesting detail and events I’d quite forgotten.
I guess John Armstrong would know, after all he was one of the media hacks hunting down Cunliffe and then Little. It’s a shame he didn’t use this opportunity to take some responsibility for that.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/john-armstrongs-opinion-media-script-requires-bridges-end-up-dog-tucker
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! He was one of the carnivores who set upon Labour leaders with teeth bared and in particular he went for David Cunliffe’s hide. And here he is, whinging and sniffing when his preferred party’s leader gets the same treatment.
Armstrong’s hubris is incredible.
When people talk about the “arrogant fake news MSM,” Armstrong’s piece is almost the exact description of what they referring to.
Arrogant and fake because journalists apparently have a collective agenda which is excused because they he thinks they are all so fucking stupid that they have to rely on a hive mind.
Hubristic because he massively over-estimates the importance of the MSM in public perception of politics. For better or worse, social media has now usurped much of the ability of the traditional MSM to set the agenda in the public mind.
Armstrong was a self-important horse race political reporter who was so reliably tame that he could be safely fed insider info and leaks with a guarantee of predictable results.
His day is gone.
Armstrong is another silly old man who needs to stop flapping his gums and get out of the way. What an embarrassing decline of a long career.
Leave the old and the man out of it and make a proper argument
The problem with Armstrong
Always a mean difficult man, John Armstrong seems to have developed strange mental streaks when it comes to political issues.
Worse still, is his willingness to destroy his prey – like an animal.
However, The Herald keeps him on. Probably because the Herald is about Money. Not about People or Society.
Armstrong and the Herald are Twins. Totally Objectionable
I would be willing to make a small wager that Bridges as National Leader will outlast one on the main bastions of the MSM in New Zealand.
Simon will still be in his job when the Dom/Post stops publishing for good.
I know a few people who continue to get it, but only a few and even then it seems to be just a habit. Inertia rules it would seem.
Of course it was going to be a big war.
https://twitter.com/HelenKennedy/status/1096446095251656705
The bigliest.
Had a quick chat with beautiful ‘O’ yesterday.
She was a journalist in Venezuela before moving to NZ, she’s lived here for around 30 years; and is in touch with friends and family over there and a very clued up lady.
Asked for her thoughts on what is happening over there….
There is a massive divide in wealth, drug lords, obscenely wealthy politicians, business people, heads of churches and then there is the rest of the population who live in profane poverty.
The rich refuse to recognise any poverty as it might disrupt their lifestyle. Hence the uprising re Maduro and Maduros continued motivation to rule.
She stressed the importance of the massive oil and mineral wealth over there. She is a wise woman and wouldn’t say anything flippantly, what she said next would have been well thought out… she believes the events in Venezuela could well be the start of a world war.
All of the countries running to support either Maduro or Guaido are only interested in Venezuelas wealth, and not the welfare of the Venezuelan people.
She backs neither Maduro or Guaido. Guaido’s ties with the USA should be of concern to all those backing him and Maduros greed has ruined the country.
The aid offered by the USA is nothing more than a marketing ploy.
She loves Venezuela, but said it’s like nothing has changed, media is being shut down making it difficult for people to hear the truth.
Said she experienced the same when living there, her publications would go missing rather than reaching the people who needed the information the most.
Misinformed people make misinformed decisions.
The massive interest USA is showing in Venezuela should be of major concern to all.
She would love to return there and help the people, but fear prevents her. Extreme poverty, being unable to afford food for ones family, makes an ordinary person do terrible things. She’s been on the receiving end before, mugged etc.
Said to her there are people in NZ following the crisis who are on the side of those suffering. IE some of us here on TS.
Next time I see her, hoping we can have a longer chat, unfortunately I was pressed for time.
That is an interesting anecdote from someone experienced and knowledgable, and explains more than a simple news report. Thanks for that.
Thanks for sharing that, Cinny….
Wealthy ‘elite’ from all walks of life, nationality and ethnic make-up, have more to protect on behalf of each other, than the majority…and history says they will support each other and will continue to sacrifice the masses to maintian their ‘position’..
The circumstances as described by your friend , is business as usual…
Beware ‘leaders’…. of all and every persuasion …
Thank you. I really enjoy reading this kind of informed comment.
Venezuela touches on two themes important to the world at the moment; the extremes of wealth and poverty and the wretched failure of the conventional, ideological socialist response to it.
Accepting that Maduro’s heart was in the right place, we can only deplore the utter incompetency and greed of how his govt has set about it’s agenda. It represents a body-blow to the left’s moral legitimacy when the outcome is yet another catastrophe.
Maduro has only lasted this long because both Russia and China have backed him this far. And we have to accept Guaido is probably no saviour either; I agree his links to the USA are worrisome and suggest an agenda that is not yet revealed.
It is the kind of toxic stew we’ve seen before.
And has repercussions in the region
https://haitiliberte.com/haitis-unfolding-revolution-is-directly-linked-to-venezuelas/
I’m so over idiots like Redlogix telling lies about how socialist the Venezuelan economy is.
Here the real kick, France has a more socialist economy. And because you lack facts and any touch on reality, oil was nationalised in 1976 by a Christian Democrat Rafael Caldera Rodriguez.
The fact is the government like ours has put all it’s eggs ibn two baskets oil and coffee – and when the price of those fell so did the economy. Something which has happened before in Venezuela – actually more than once. MMMMMmmmm wonder what other country has fallen for that one.
You like all your hard right loony mates are telling lies. It’s sad and sickening. And I’m really over having to point it out every time Venezuela is brought up.
There are plenty of nations that depend on oil, or coffee for their economic engines. Saudi is the obvious one for oil, and Brazil, Colombia, Vietnam, and Indonesia are all bigger coffee producers. While they may not be booming right now, they certainly haven’t utterly collapsed in any comparable fashion as Venzeula.
Nor was it the socialism per se that is the problem, as you say plenty of other nations that successfully run socialist programs alongside their capitalist economies.
The problem with Venezuela is that it went about it so incompetently, nationalising industries and then getting rid of all the capable managers, price controls that only ever made those industries unprofitable, and uncontrolled money printing that ensured 15,000% inflation levels. Not to mention endemic corruption and greed that went unchecked.
There are no examples of successful pure socialist economies, yet Chavez and Maduro plowed into revolutionary reform as if this didn’t matter. This is what happens when you get zealots in charge; they believe their single minded ideals will solve all the problems of the world, and when they don’t they blame everyone and everything else for their ‘bad luck’.
So what if they did it bad. It’s their country. But a lot of people have homes, have lives and have their health because of the bolivian revolution. It’s not perfect, but so what – it’s their country. All I’m seeing is people like you blaming them for a complicated situation, and promoting war – because of the lies you spin.
The government has a lot of support, more than the opposition – because the opposition are just that bad. They are not trusted, and the are murders – they burn people on the streets.
That said, neo-lib ideologies have screwed this country – but no one is saying we should be invaded. No one is announcing themselves prime minister and trying to start a war.
It’s B.S. to blame them alone. The corporation and the US empire have been trying to kill the Bolivian Revolution from the start.
Consider then North Korea and Iran, both nations that have had tough sanctions in place for many years, and while neither are flourishing happy places, they aren’t the crippled basket cases Venezuela has become.
Sure it may well be their country, and you can blithely maintain they can fuck it up all they want. But when millions start to flee the country and become a problem to the region … the game changes.
As a percentage more kiwis have left NZ under neoliberalism.
Are you advocating war here? Are you advocating wholesale invasion or sparking off a civil war?
Both North Korea and Iran have brutal dictatorships, which Venezuela does not have. It’s a democracy, and the price you pay for democracy as some people can stuff with it.
As I said, both the US and elites internally have been stuffing with the economy. Your argument is the same bullshit one that Gossy runs with, a blind eye at external influences.
At least you backed off the lies you started with.
As a percentage more kiwis have left NZ under neoliberalism.
I’m quite aware of the neo-liberal impact on NZ thank you, I lived through it. And as one of those who has taken the chance to work elsewhere in the world (albeit rather late in life) I’m vividly conscious of what the impact was.
But there is almost zero comparison between people like me leaving NZ because we have a positive choice to do so, and the millions fleeing Venezuela out of desperation, hunger and fear.
Yes the Venezuela story is complex, with many actors and agendas. No question the USA has played it’s own part; but it’s my view that if Chavez and Manduro had not fucked up so badly none of that would have mattered so much.
Your nothing but a ideological hack. Who hates people trying to have power over their own lives, just be honest with yourself.
As for the whole fleeing thing, it’s a beat up. Not everyone leaving Venezuela is fleeing. As a percentage it’s small.
As for ‘positive choice’ how much more newspeak can you get…
I just knew I shouldn’t have bothered with you.
I won’t bother again, unless you start lying again. At that point I’ll treat you just like the other hard core idelogical tosser, Gosman.
Last year I worked in Panama over a six month period; one of my closer colleagues was Colombian whose home town is Cienaga, reasonably close to the Venezuelan border.
So when unbidden he talks to me of the dozens of refugees passing his relatively quiet and off the main route home every day (which must represent a small fraction of the total numbers) …. then I have first hand information telling me this refugee crisis is probably not a beat up.
Then there is what the UN is saying about this:
https://www.undispatch.com/venezuela-is-a-refugee-crisis/
I place myself firmly as a moderate left winger; although on the classic political compass I’m absolutely middle on the social/liberal axis and strongly left on the economic axis. I’ve done this test a number of times over the years and the results have been very consistent.
At this point I thought maybe I’ve become more conservative in recent months so I took it again just now; and much to my surprise I’ve drifted toward the libertarian end a bit; scoring -7.5 Left/Right and -3.9 Authoritarian/Liberal.
This maps me firmly to the left of the NZ Green Party.
https://www.politicalcompass.org/nz2017
The problem with you Redlogix your just another pointless war monger.
When hundreds of thousands people start dying, just remember you smug comments.
You say some site says your left wing, worst joke ever.
Thanks Cinny – I haven’t commented on the situation on here before because I felt that much of the commentary on here was very ill-informed,. It has been helpful to learn that unfortunately both sides are as corrupt as the other. I suspected as much.
What we can do about it I have no idea. The call for a fair and open election has some benefit – but I doubt that such a thing could actually happen in the present climate. And even then, replacing one corrupt person with another!?
And with a corrupted regime employed to help run the country – how can the elected one and party turn the background work force to a different compass point?
Was super grateful to her for sharing, must ask if she can recommend a media outlet re Venezuela situation.
It’s often worth while chatting to strangers or helping people.
One day at the shop, her eftpos declined, which bothered me as she is an ‘oldie’.
Rather than embarrassing her in the shop, I approached her outside to ask if she needed some help.
She freaked out on me, thought I was trying to mug her (my gardening clothes and her life experiences wouldn’t have helped lolz).
We’ve been friends ever since, shes a bit of magic that lady.
Anyways, keep your eyes on Venezuela, Winston is correct in not choosing sides on the crisis at present.
Cinny Thanks An interesting read.
One: Maduro is not that powerful. He really isn’t and anyone who thinks he is blowing wind out of their ass. He’s an idiot who relied on oil and coffee as the basis to run an economy – he not alone being an idiot on that – the world is full of idiots who think they understand economics.
Two: The free press is real – the Catholic press which is heavily critical of the the Maduro led government can and still publishes. It also calls for new elections. It’s not being blocked nor is it going missing.
Three: Poverty is real in Venezuela, the Bolivarian Revolution was an attempt to deal with this poverty. A social democratic revolution – to provide universal housing, health care and education. It hit a snag when the economy stumbled with falling commodity prices. But rightly or wrongly the current government is still trying to push it through. One part of it is providing basic food stuffs for the poor.
Four: The USA is creating hell with it’s economic warfare and terrorism. In particular it is causing massive suffering in exactly the same way with which ripped the guts out of Iraq – by the blockade of medicine. Humanitarian my ass.
Does the Maduro government have some idiots in it – indeed. Is it completely corrupt – nope. Is their corruption – sure is. But to think that a democratically elected government should be treated with contempt and be overthrown by outside forces is anti-democratic at best – smug white elitism at worst.
Coffee?
2017 Exports
Mineral fuels including oil: US$26.6 billion (91% of total exports)
Organic chemicals: $532.6 million (1.8%)
Iron, steel: $350.8 million (1.2%)
Ores, slag, ash: $333.4 million (1.1%)
Aluminum: $327.5 million (1.1%)
Fertilizers: $173.9 million (0.6%)
Fish: $151.6 million (0.5%)
Inorganic chemicals: $135.8 million (0.5%)
Copper: $60.3 million (0.2%)
Plastics, plastic articles: $60.1 million (0.2%)
The above categories account for 98.3% of Venezuela’s total exported goods by value.
Free Press? There are 1000’s of stories that highlight a media that is far from free.
Maduro not powerful? He is Commander-in chief of a military force with over 350,000 personnel.
FFS David MAc are you deliberately avoiding history? Historically Venezuela relied on coffee as a primary export. It failed. Do I have to explain everything to you dumbass. You pointed out your self 91% of exports are oil, so when the US empire decides to stuff you on this, your in trouble.
Good try at a whataboutism.
As for power, if you think Maduro can tell the military to do anything he wants – you are a dumbass.
You said Maduro’s economy depended on coffee, that industry was crippled long before Maduro sat in the big chair. Rather than the market, the government set the prices growers would receive and drove it into the ground.
Maduro is surrounded by ‘Yes Men’ those opposing his military wishes would do so at their peril.
Whataboutism? I am directly addressing the points you made.
I’m happy for you to consider my views wrong Adam, you don’t need to explain anything to me. I think you’re looking at the situation through Adam tinted glasses, seeing what you want to see.
Another pointless war monger.
When hundreds of thousands people start dying, just remember you smug comments.
Yes Adam
my understanding is that the newspapers tend to belong to white elites and the major 3 TV channels that most people watch are not govt mouthpieces and are privately owned .
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/02/15/how-much-of-venezuelas-crisis-is-really-maduros-fault/
Primo link Francesca, thanks.
The three main TV channels are Venevisión, Televén, and Globovisión.
Have heard Globovision mentioned many times on Al Jazeeras The Listening Post.
Globovisión have to watch what they say currently because the Minister of Information has delayed the review of their license.
It’s owned by an elite Latino, made his money from insurance,
Adam,
Maduro has said he is happy to have elections this year, currently they are scheduled for 2020.
Problem is Guaido doesn’t want to.
Whether Maduro is useless or not, Guaido’s response speaks volumes, dodgy AF.
Seems the masive labour shortage in the fruit industry is becoming a problem for the growers.
That is not surprising considering National flooded the country with cheap labour and now the tap has been turned off.
Maybe a rethink is needed in the conditions offered up for to attract people to work in the industry.
In the meantime they will hold out their hands for a government subsidy.
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2019/02/why-is-labour-subsidising-bad-employers.html
The seething feeding frenzy that is often our journalism seen now – is that the future? Joseph Cederwall discusses this on Scoop.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1902/S00066/the-end-of-objectivity-in-journalism.htm
Consolidation of journalism looks set to continue unabated as larger media conglomerates swallow up smaller players globally. We also appear to be witnessing the death throes of the concept of ‘objective’ truth in journalism. However, perhaps that is not at all as bad as it sounds, and we are just finally waking up to the reality that it never really existed in the first place.
Thousands of schoolkids out demonstrating in Britain yesterday (their Friday) about inaction on climate change. These demonstrations are ramping up after Swedish Greta Thunberg’s initiative. How about NZ? Not even a jot in the media about it and no schoolkids here out on the streets.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/15/children-climate-inaction-protests-uk
Housing proponents; tiny house proponents – Auckland, April conference. Don’t miss last year’s Carterton one was a sell-out apparently.
http://community.scoop.co.nz/2019/02/tiny-house-conference-coming-to-auckland-in-april/
A Rationale for Biologically Based Exposure Standards for Low Intensity Electromagnetic Radiation
EDITORS:
Cindy Sage, MA, Owner
Sage Associates
Santa Barbara, CA USA
Full Member. Bioelectromagnetics Society
David O. Carpenter, MD
Director, Institute for Health and the Environment
University at Albany
Rensselaer, New York USA
CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS
Prof. Jitendra Behari, PhD
Bioelectromagnetics Laboratory
School of Environmental Sciences
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi, India
Prof. Carlo V. Bellieni, MD
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
University of Siena
Siena, Italy
Igor Belyaev, Dr. Sc.
Cancer Research Institute
Slovak Academy of Science
Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Carl F. Blackman, PhD
Raleigh, North Carolina USA
Founder, Former President and Full Member, Bioelectromagnetics Society
*opinions expressed are not necessarily those of his employer,
the US Environmental Protection Agency
Martin Blank, PhD Associate Professor (ret.)
Dept. of Physiology. College of Physicians and Surgeons
Columbia University, New York USA
Former President and Full Member, Bioelectromagnetics Society
Michael Carlberg, MSc
Department of Oncology
Orebro University Hospital
Orebro, Sweden
Zoreh Davanipour, DVM, PhD
Friends Research Institute
Los Angeles, CA USA
David Gee, Senior Advisor
Science, Policy, Emerging Issues, Integrated Environmental Assessment
European Environmental Agency
Copenhagen, Denmark
Adamantia F. Fragopoulou, PhD
Department of Cell Biology and Biophysics
Faculty of Biology, University of Athens
Athens, Greece
Prof. Yury Grigoriev, MD
Chairman, Russian National Committee
on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection
Moscow, Russia.
Prof. Kjell Hansson Mild, PhD
Umeå University, Dept of Radiation Sciences
Umeå, Sweden
Former President and Full Member (emeritus), Bioelectromagnetics Society
Prof. Lennart Hardell, MD, PhD
Department of Oncology
Orebro University Hospital
Orebro, Sweden
Martha Herbert, PhD, MD
Pediatric Neurology
TRANSCEND Research Program
Massachusetts General Hospital
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA USA
Prof. Paul Héroux, PhD
Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health
McGill University Faculty of Medicine, and
Department of Surgery, InVitroPlus Laboratory
Montreal, Quebec
Canada
Prof. Michael Kundi, PhD med habil
Institute of Environmental Health, Medical University of Vienna
Vienna, Austria
Full Member, Bioelectromagnetics Society
Prof. Henry Lai, PhD (emeritus)
Department of Bioengineering
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington USA
Prof. Abraham R Liboff, PhD, Professor Emeritus
Department of Physics, Oakland University
Rochester Hills, Michigan
Full Member Emeritus, Bioelectromagnetics Society
Ying Li, PhD
McGill University Health Center
Department of Surgery, InVitroPlus Laboratory
Montreal, Quebec
Canada
Prof. Lukas H. Margaritis, PhD
Department of Cell Biology and Biophysics
Faculty of Biology, University of Athens
Athens, Greece
Henrietta Nittby, MD, PhD
Department of Neurosurgery
Lund University Hospital
Lund, Sweden
Bertil R. Persson, PhD, MD h.c.
Department of Neurosurgery
Lund University Hospital
Lund, Sweden
Gerd Oberfeld, MD
Public Health Department
Regional Government Office Land Salzburg
Salzburg, Austria
Dr Iole Pinto, PhD
Director, Physical Agents Laboratory
Tuscany Health and Safety Service
Siena, Italy
Paulraj Rajamani, PhD
School of Environmental Sciences
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi, India
Prof. Leif Salford, MD, PhD
Professor and Chairman
Department of Neurosurger
Lund University Hospital
Lund, Sweden
Eugene Sobel, PhD
Friends Research Institute
Los Angeles, CA USA
Amy Thomsen, MPH, MSPAS, PA-C
Research Associate
Pinole, CA USA
I would like to read what it says as its an interesting topic but I’m getting ” cannot open page because too many redirects”
Maybe the EMF spectrum is too saturated with signals.
https://bioinitiative.org
Maybe the EMF spectrum is too saturated with signals.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(18)30221-3/fulltext
Planetary electromagnetic pollution: It is time to assess its impact
December 2018: The Lancet
As the Planetary Health Alliance moves forward after a productive second annual meeting, a discussion on the rapid global proliferation of artificial electromagnetic fields would now be apt.
The most notable is the blanket of radio frequency electromagnetic radiation, largely microwave radiation generated for wireless communication and surveillance technologies, as mounting scientific evidence suggests that prolonged exposure to radio frequency electromagnetic radiation has serious biological and health effects.
However, public exposure regulations in most countries continue to be based on the guidelines of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection1
and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,2
which were established in the 1990s on the belief that only acute thermal effects are hazardous
One Two, an alternative reading of your post can be found at http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org Picking Cherries in Science: The Bio-Initiative Report. It shows that exposure to these EMF fields is harmless for everyday encounters with EMF. i.e computer & cellphone use. Only in cases of electric shock or extreme heating of tissue are any health problems caused.
A direct link to the article I’m pretty sure you’re talking about is:
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/picking-cherries-in-science-the-bio-initiative-report/
That’s the one.
Thanks
The initial Bio-Initiative report was self published on-line in 2007, without peer review, and that’s not a great look if you want good science. In 2008 the Health Council of Netherlands reviewed the Bio- I report & described it as unbalanced & that it made false claims.
The Australian Centre for Radiofrequency Bioeffects Research stated that the Bio-I report was not an objective & balanced reflection of the current state of scientific knowledge.
Many other major organisations had the same criticisms of the report (European Commission EMF NET, German Fderal Office for Radiation Protection, & on the list goes)
The latest Lancet Article claims are obviously new, but I wonder if this has been peer reviewed before publication?
The recent 2-page comment (so not peer reviewed) in the Lancet reports a roughly ‘19 orders of magnitude‘ increase (since the 1940s) in typical maximum daily exposure to 1 GHz radiation (see Figure).
Given that there’s much we don’t understand about neurodevelopment, “regulating use of wireless devices by children” would seem to be a sensible precaution.
Caution may be warranted, but I think it would be best to wait for a peer review, especially given the totally unrealistic claims made in the earlier report.
It’s a clever global experiment. The ‘materials and methods’ have resulted in increased exposure to anthropogenic radiation, now we await the results.
A limitation is that we may not yet possess the analytical tools and theoretical frameworks necessary to collect and fully analyse the ‘data’, let alone the socioeconomic motivation.
That may well be true, but the Bio-Initiative report of 2007 probably would have a got a D- at best if it was awarded a grade. Anything written by this group needs to be taken with a large grain of salt until generally accepted by the scientific community (meaning its findings have to be backed by evidence & not jumping to conclusions as they seemed to do, looked very much like scare mongering)
Finally some hope for outlawing some rodeo practices that torture animals.
I hope Labour back this bill and send the message that we have to change our animal welfare practices.
They were certainly timid in their approach to the animal welfare act that needed an overhaul.
This from Scoop.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1902/S00120/bill-aiming-to-ban-rodeo-cruelty-welcomed-by-safe.htm
Who in the Labour-Greens-NZF is practically interested in advancing NZ by applying green solutions to farming and the environment to advance our enterprises and our land resources so we bring new ways to protect against climate extremes?
I see Eugenie Sage has just stopped land tenure rorts on high country.
Now what about day to day practical things with vision, on low-country, farming and horticulture relating to water – irrigation and droughts, fire prevention. Who are the stand out MPs in thinking plus doing here? What has he achieved as example?
Damien O’Connor? Min of Agriculture
David Parker? Min of Economic Development and Min. of Environment and Min of
Trade as well. He should be good value but is he a talk person mainly.
James Shaw? Min of Climate Change – He is new to executive status.
? Anyone else.
I’d like to know you views soon so would appreciate a quick setting down of them.
How about instead of thinking it’s the governments role to determine how I farm my land, you buy a farm and show all the farmers how you can run your farm differently and achieve better outcomes.
There are plenty of farms available on trade me, let me know when you’ve bought one. I’m sure your ideas aren’t wacky at all, and you’ve got a bank willing to throw a few million your way.
Until you’re prepared to put your livelihood and capital at risk, then your ideas and your opinions doesn’t matter.
Oh go jump in a lake, or a river, or a duck pond even and cool your hot head.
🙂 Now that isn’t very nice grey – as they are now nearly all unswimable!
Macro
I am shocked that you would fall for the quick humorous jab when i have asked people for advice and I asked you in particular under a previous comment of yours.
There are six comments under my original NONE replies to my request. Can we not get some more commitment to the left cause and people trying to do something in NZ for fellow citizens, and not keep being fascinated by orange hair elsewhere?
If you put your time instead into saving orange orangoutangs you would be doing something more worthwhile!
Grey I’m sorry that you did not see that reply as tongue in cheek – and a reference to the pollution that farmers have been perpetuating on NZ by externalising their cost of production onto others.
BTW I had to go out for a while hence my slow reply.
Macro I’m so quick to jump – I’m nearly in the lake myself. I want to put an idea forward and want to know how a left thinker would prioritise the MPs I put. James Shaw, David Parker, Damien O’Connor.
what about day to day practical things with vision, on low-country, farming and horticulture relating to water – irrigation and droughts, fire prevention. Who are the stand out MPs in thinking plus doing here? What has he achieved as example?
James Shaw and his Zero Carbon Bill. Okay that is good but not yet passed and I guess would take time to get running effectively. Needs implementation of practical and theoretical methods to mitigate carbon. What would it do with water – stop irrigation? Introduce drip feeding as Israel did when they ‘made the deserts bloom’ as once quoted.?
Patricia – you mention Damien’s hard work on myco… But it isn’t dealing with water and drought resistance and so on – that’s what I am looking at. What new ideas, old ones revisited, has he tried or referred to even?
As you say foreign trade comes to mind with Parker.
Tax redits for wetland establishment is an idea that forward-looking tax practitioners and thinkers might have on the cusp. But tax people tend to be dry, not wet aren’t they? Hah.
Any more comment would be welcome.
I think you should put the idea to Eugene. That is the area she is very involved with, and has been for years.
From her wiki page:
Macro – thank you also Patricia
I am thinking of the bible caution – ‘By their fruits you shall know them’ when I think of Eugenie Sage. I noted with caution, when Sage suggested as a way of limiting rubbish that fees should be put up at Council rubbish depots. I thought that this was an impractical way of dealing with things and I do like well-thought out ideas as to whether they serve the ordinary person. So she did not come to mind as a top person to approach with this present idea I have.
I am looking for an MP, man or woman who knows their environment, and understands faming needs, and who wants to be a problem-solver helping the rural and also the whole environment to cope better with the droughts and weather extremes we are getting.
Having good theories but ensuring they work in the particular conditions and to the future, which we can guarantee will have conditions harder to cope with than today and what we know from past history.
I can’t be assed arguing on open mike with rednecks who ‘put their ass on the line’ for our country every day, battling with teats…
But an interesting anecdote:
Yesterday, I got a haircut. In the barbers were half a dozen elderly, not greenie looking gentlemen.
“Excuse me gentlemen, if I might have a moment of your time. I just want a show of hands, who here is worried about climate change”
All of them, and the barbers.
“Who here has been able to talk about your fears surrounding climate change with their family and friends”
None of them, nor the barbers.
“Well, I don’t have any answers, but I do know if we’re all scared we need to be talking about it, and if you’re scared, you can bet your families are scared too. So I guess it’s time to start that conversation.”
There was a somber silence. A guy finishes paying for his cut, comes and shakes my hand.
“thank you”.
WtB
Thanks for the anecdote. It is counter to what I had come to think was the norm.
Have you checked your email box for one from TRP? I think he was going to contact you.
You did that?
Respect, WTB.
Yeah. I just had to know if ‘the truth is out there’. Was worried they’d hide their feelings like ‘real men’. Tried it again tonight with 3 people who all gave JK a vote for a tax break. All worried, all had not discussed fears. One tried to make jokes, weak, crumbled under scrutiny.
I did cover a bit of ‘slowdown stuff’ with the barber and a couple of blokes still there when I got the cut.
They were quite receptive.
The real story is, my new haircut looks fabulous.
So…why are you cutting your hair?
A wild man would…not.
I think you are just going to have to accept the truth of the situation.
No one nominated any people because there aren’t any left.
There is no-one in the Labour, Green or NZF Parties who has the slightest interest in green matters, or the development of New Zealand generally.
In particular you will have to decide, sadly or otherwise, that the green skin of the water melon party left the room when they kicked Kennedy Graham and David Clendon out.
There are no environmentalists or conservationists left in our current Government.
alwyn, can you please tell me what you mean by “green matters”?
I’m genuinely wanting to know what you mean.
Thanks
Robert
I mean conservation or environmental affairs.
I don’t mean the attitude that says we should provide unlimited attention to people who simply want to collect taxpayer benefits to which they are not entitled.
“conservation or environmental affairs”?
Sounds like Forest & Bird crossed with DoC. Is that who you think a political party should be?
My heads not hot, it’s a serious suggestion – buy a farm if you can do it better. There are plenty of opportunities.
Buy a farm?
Instant debt, yes?
Rural Guy, you have a loan to buy your farm, but if your land use impinges on others water rights, or you do not follow the laws on moving stock, or using methods of farming that harm helpful insects and soil bacteria, the public and the Government have a right to ask you to change.
If you persist in being stupidly aggressive in the face of the science of best practice, there will come a day where you will be fined or even imprisoned, just as a road user who breaks the laws of the road can be.
You are not King of your farm. You do not make the laws, and the fact you chose to go farming does not make your opinion more valuable than the next persons. You are a citizen and bound by the law.
One day your Insurer will ask what you are doing to mitigate fire risk/water loss on your farm. Are you going to tell that party to buy their own farm?
Or the Bank, cognisant with the problems of climate change will ask you for your mitigation plans for your farm, and your plans for how to be profitable in the face of changed markets.
The last Government allowed farming to dodge the effects of their actions. Those days are long gone. So learn to communicate and to be accountable.
A give reply showing what you are currently doing, or is that a sore spot??
Look at that, you have an opinion. That’s nice dear.
You seem to think that risk management isn’t practiced on farm. All of what you’ve written happens already.
I’ll be sure to keep my eyes peeled for the official insects inspectors. Good to know the woke left understand how food is produced.
And you seem to think that externalising your costs of production doesn’t matter, and that those who have to then pick up the costs shouldn’t have a say. Well they do.
Do you patronize all the women you meet?
Do you use roundup on your property?
Do you realise we have already lost two thirds of our insects.
Be as rude as you like… but we have to change.. All of us.
Are you an on-the-farm king farmer – or run one from behind a computer most of the time? You do realise but vaguely i suppose ruralguy that everything you know you learned from other people, who learned their stuff from others and so on. You haven’t reached the end of the road yet,
there’s more to learn than what you know in your little corner with your friends no doubt as small-minded as you.
My view is it is laughable for you to think that farmers haven’t been working on this already, for a long time.
Oh i am so happy that you RW are so clever and happy at the same time and perfectly managing as is so obvious. Everything is so, so good, there is no room to learn anything new and it is laughable to try and fit a new idea into your very full brains, or would be if you could find them to check on that.
I can see we’re Rural Guy is coming from, not sure why you think he is stupidly aggressive Patricia, when other commenters are equally or in my opinion much more aggressive.
This site is full of people who have never farmed in a commercial farming environment , yet have all the answers, too all sorts of farming problems and say so with great confidence that if only they could explain to the stupid farmers the right way too do it, the world would be saved.
For farmers that live and breath and understand the job, it really is irritating.
Farming is a complex and regulated workplace, much more so than many seem too grasp.
You farming superheroes… I’ve been a fisherman fencer forester horticulture viticulture dry stock… shove your milking where it don’t shine though what a shitty job. Broken all manner of records.
Y’all think we’ve not had a life of experience cos we’re not pulling tits?
Classic ignorant BS. I farm thus you know nothing.
I could maybe save your farm from the audit that’s coming. But I’m thinking fuck ya, I’d rather you lose it.
You’ll all be whining soon. The drought…
‘I suggest you learn to hold water on the land’ – bloody snowflake don’t know nothing…
Really, you deserve to fail.
Best of luck, get well soon!
XX XX
Jim, It was the comments to “Go buy a farm and then you can talk”
“think the Government should tell me how to farm” smacks of aggression.
Suggests he thinks A. he is right
B. he doesn’t respect others and patronizes
C. our bleak future will require co-operation which he doesn’t seem to value.
D. our family were farmers and miners. Opposites!!
Jim
Farming is complex and regulated – how come the regulated can’t stay alive on their quad bikes then? Why don’t you all have roll bars set up to protect yourselves? You are irritated when we say you don’t understand something!
This site does not think it has all the farming answers, and discusses questions with each other and any farmer who is interested in passing on stuff and learning new information and whether necessary regulations are being applied successfully and doing the task. That is the general pattern, thsough some commenter here may put forward something personal that is wrong. You have freely come here and written prejudiced generalisations.
Anybody can do that.
Next time pick out something definite and comment on that to demonstrate your point.
Some farmers Chris T
“Do you use roundup on your property?”
Chris – can you tell us how farmers have been working on this and where they have got to with it?
Genuine interest.
I can’t really speak for the others but in the case of James he has been working on the Zero Carbon Bill which is to be introduced to Parliament this year.
https://www.pce.parliament.nz/media/196427/zero-carbon-act-for-nz-web.pdf
http://www.mfe.govt.nz/news-events/15000-submissions-zero-carbon-bill-consultation-publicly-released
This will be a major piece of legislation which needs to be cross party if it is to have any success and future. As James says
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1810/S00091/the-nation-minister-for-climate-change-james-shaw.htm
Greywarshark, I see Shaw has a number of large businesses now going carbon neutral, and many changing the way they operate to remove plastic from their processes.
Farming has to consider land health and water retension, change their roundup use and stocking levels. Damien O’Connor has worked very hard on Micoplasma bovis erradication. Parker appears to be dealing with trade in an increasingly hostile environment.
As you say Eugene Sage has delivered, regarding land use.
I wouldn’t be surprised if tax is applied to change the use of some fertilizers, and the development of wetlands on farms is rewarded with tax credits. Others might have ideas. Cheers. Like Macro xx
Thanks Patricia you are a gem.
I don’t think I will wait for any further responses. I have some ideas, but thought others would like to discuss. It is Saturday afternoon, they probably are enjoying it or working. No weekend break for the majority any more, with time and a half or double for the minority.
Got to keep buying and serving in the shops. Know how to bring NZ to its knees ? Stop buying anything even for a weekend.
Isn’t it interesting how the unconcerned RW turn every comment to their own use, it’s all about their prejudices and whining that they aren’t treated right. My country (or you townies) aren’t appreciating me.
This review by ANZASW
Aotearoa NZ Association of Social Workers
Some proposals the government must consider ahead of Mays 2019 budget.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1902/S00118/anzasw-response-to-state-of-the-nation-report.htm
Americas tough justice and how as we already knew that African Americans make up a large proportion of the prison system.
Even minor theft can give you a life sentence without parole.
https://www.democracynow.org/2013/11/15/jailed_for_life_for_stealing_a
They swing, they miss…
https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1096420134435123201
https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/02/224559/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-boyfriend-riley-roberts-congress-staff-email
Surely after 3 swings and 3 misses they are out!?
For those that have following the Nth Qld floods,
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-15/queensland-floods-special-climate-statement/10816184?WT.ac=statenews_nt
“While the report shied away from saying that climate change was definitely a factor, it said that it was “salient to consider” the role climate change played in record-breaking high-impact weather.
“Natural variability in extreme rainfall in Australia is inherently very large, making it more difficult to discern climate change influences,” the report said.”
what a bunch of cowards ffs if even these people cant tell the bloody truth no wonder shit all is happening.
Actually marty it will take quite a bit of number crunching to be able to say just how much AGW contributed to this particular event as it does with all the others. There is no doubt however that AGW exacerbated it.
Bare in mind the exceptional storm Wellington weathered in 1968 which culminated in the Wahine disaster. While the world was even at that time warming, we would be reluctant to say that that was the direct result of CC. The severity was a result of 2 weather events which on their own would have produced severe weather colliding in the vicinity of the southern North Island. Similarly the event in North Queensland was the result of a late monsoonal wave meeting a tropical cyclone.
I suppose I think ALL weather events are now influenced by global warming. This is manifested in the severity and frequency of events. Everything must now be used to align back to recognising and mitigating the catastrophic effects of global warming imo.
I agree, we are now certainly experiencing the results of humanities unfortunate experiment with the climate, and there is no doubt that it is going to get worse. The problem for scientists is, that even though they have been warning about this for years, they have this discipline that requires that what ever they say, they need to say it as precisely as possible – because if they don’t some other sod is going to “hang” them academically for it.
I know and understand that. For me I’m over the bullshit and pretending that everything is okay – it is not okay and the sooner people actually get that the sooner things can be done. At the moment non disclosure of the actual situation and tip toeing around the facts is hindering efforts to do something.
Anyway their way is probably the better way…
The floods are heart disease, and AGW is smoking.
Was a particular heart attack caused by the person’s smoking? Maybe, maybe not – but it’s something to bear in mind when planning recovery.
I know what you and macro are saying and I think we need to talk differently. There is a direct relationship between global warming and weather events – they are interconnected eternally. I get that we don’t want to turn people off, or scare the horses – or do we? Maybe the horses need to be scared and maybe fuck the people that turn off. How long are we going to wait for everyone to get with the program? Tomorrow, next week, next year… when are we going to get serious?
But we’ve been here before – Katrina comes to mind. We say something was caused by AGW, the fossil crowd point out the link can’t be made with certainty (and they have no confidence interval around certainty) which leaves us either lying (with which they have a field day) or stepping back from the earlier comment (with which they have a field day).
“Salient to consider” is pretty much all actual report writers can do. Especially if they’re funded by an Aussie govt.
Isn’t it like being scared that the gnats will rip in when they’ll rip in anyway?
Except they’ll be ripping in with a valid criticism in order to support their invalid denial of AGW.
It’s one thing for them to spin shit whichever way they want, it’s another for them to point out validly that we’re making claims that the stats can’t actually support.
So their next step becomes that “AGW data has been misused to falsify attribution of cause, so what else has it been misused for?”
Or if someone comes up with a valid point in future, the deniers say “but they were caught lying about stats that one time”.
And because it’s actually a valid criticism, it works better than something they just invented.
I suppose I’ll just have to live with it.
I cannot see how a system wide response (global warming) doesn’t affect specific climate events within that system (flooding) even though the butterfly wings can’t be found.
when are we going to get serious?
This is how big change can happen:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-16/shell-to-buy-battery-manufacturer-sonnen/10818752
By itself this is nothing like the silver bullet; but it is an example of what can happen when the big money end of town starts to put some serious resource into chasing the change.
This is an existential challenge like none other; we’ll need to throw everything at it if we stand a chance of beating this bugger.
trust shell? – hell no!
https://www.foei.org/news/these-eight-scandals-prove-shells-long-history-of-contempt-for-people-and-planet
I find it unbelievable that that is your example of getting serious ffs //bangs head on desk
I wasn’t asking anyone to trust them. If you read the link it’s quite plain where the motives lie: “This is about money … this is a business decision, this is not a moral decision.”
I’m not suggesting for a second Shell is ‘doing good’ here. What I am saying is that when the big money end of town get serious, they can throw resources and competent people at a problem at a scale few of us here can imagine.
Personally I think this is pocket change to Shell; they’re hedging their bets here. Nor would I regard Sonnen as the most obviously innovative acquisition target, unless it was just their brand recognition you were buying.
But ultimately their motives don’t matter if they can produce a storage technology that transforms the market.
I fully concur with your comments Marco, it’s with these small changes to the various weather systems around world atm is a result of CC and by the time our Governments wake to the fact then I believe we maybe cross our LD (Point of No Return).
But at the sametime I understand Marty’s anger as well, that we are acting faster a enough in CC and I the powers at be won’t act at solving CC until it’s to late.
My own life has been indirectly affected by this extreme weather event (albeit in a pretty minor way) so we have followed this closely.
It’s not obviously linked to climate change in any directly provable fashion, but it’s entirely consistent with it. The impact on Townsville was immediate and dramatic, but inland there were places where 2 meters of rain fell over huge areas in 4 days. That’s hard to describe.
Just to give some sense of the scale; the Burdekin River system at the southern edge of this event has a catchment larger than the entire South Island.
Vast numbers of cattle have been lost, many stations will have lost all of them. This will take years to recover from, if ever.
It’s not obviously linked to climate change in any directly provable fashion, but it’s entirely consistent with it.
And this is the conundrum Redlogix. People like many on this site who have specialist knowledge on the subject – either through their work or because they have a strong interest in things meteorological – are able to understand what is occurring. But the rest of the population (including the incumbent US President) has no real comprehension of CC, but many won’t own up to their lack of knowledge. Instead they jump on the ‘denial’ bandwagon and it continues to roll on gathering the uninformed in it’s wake. By the time they start to feel the full frontal effects of CC it will be too late.
When I was base at RAAF Amberley many moons ago, I always did the convoys up the goat track (Bruce Hwy) in the dry season. Crossing such rivers like Burdekin and others. I remember saying to my mate at the time as we cross the lower Burdekin River bridge, I hate to see this in flood as the flood marker was at 3m’s, with river way below the bridge and at trickle.
It’s even worst driving across from Amberley to Tindal or Townsville to the Isa and be on sometimes, driving past the various flood ways or bridges with flood markers saying to 2-3m’s with next to no water in them.
And trying to explain the amount of water that travel through these catchments is hard to explain and especially during or after a major drought as most people think you are punch drunk 🥴.
Thanks for that. It did seem bigger than a 50 year event but I was only born then so don’t have frame of reference. Leighton Smith the numpty muppet in NZH today saying it was not climate…
Someone get that man a gold watch and a unit someplace quiet.
“Someone get that man a gold watch and a unit someplace quiet.”
You are funny, WTB.
The Flinders river where the rail bridge. The Qld Government and ARTC rebuilt that bridge higher and bigger IOT future proof it when they finally standardised the rail gauge on the Townsville to Isa Line rose 2metres above the current bridge. This river is part of what the call the Gulf Country catchment and they usually get a 1.5 to over 2m of rain during a normal wet season. I know a few ADF Ops and planning staff at higher and at Unit level have gone WTF at the seer scale of has just happened and this weather event has smashed records all over the place.
The last big drought summit in Canberra just before Xmas, the major players at the summit have now realised or now firmly understand that CC is now major factor driving in these major weather events across Oz. There is some serious talk now at abandonment of pastoral areas where drought is happening on a more regular basis, as BOM in conjunction farmers local weather records have notice a tend between a good season and bad seasons is getting smaller. This tend is making life a lot harder across the broad be purely if you are a stock producer or even mixed cropping producer and the effects of this going to effect everyone from the farm gate to the big end of town (Banks and Corporate Farmers etc) as long term planning on the farm etc is now effectively kicked into touch.
Some big questions are now being asked at Cotton and Rice producers (yes they do grow this in the outback) , giving farmers comp’o IOT walk off the land with at least having money in the their back pocket without the banks wanting their cut as well, which adds further stress and whole heap of other human and technical factors from the farm to the big end of town.
I guess Roger Stone is paying attention.
Russia special counsel Robert Mueller asked a federal judge on Friday to send former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to prison for between 20 and 24 years for his conviction on multiple financial fraud charges.
Prosecutors also urged a federal judge in Virginia to move forward with the sentencing, which could amount to a life term for the 69-year-old Manafort who less than three years ago presided over President Donald Trump’s nomination at the 2016 Republican National Convention.
“Manafort acted for more than a decade as if he were above the law, and deprived the federal government and various financial institutions of millions of dollars,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing Friday night, adding that they agreed with a pre-sentence report filed by federal probation authorities. “The sentence here should reflect the seriousness of these crimes, and serve to both deter Manafort and others from engaging in such conduct.”
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/15/paul-manafort-deserves-prison-sentence-20-years-mueller-says/2881393002/
More importantly Mueller should go to prison for 20 years for the lies he told of Iraq’s non existent WMD. There by giving the US government so called permission to murder hundreds and thousands of Iraqis and reducing the country to a hell hole.
Rewriting history doesn’t make it any more truthful.
The fact of the matter was that Hussain had used WMD against not only Iran but also his own people. Had he opened up his facilities to proper inspection it would have been seen that the cupboard was now bare. The conclusions reached in then would have been very different.
Meanwhile:
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/430299-new-filing-suggests-mueller-has-evidence-stone-communicated-with
Is the moon on at an odd phase or something?
At work and home there is an ugly tension in the air.
What would normally be tolerated or ignored is causing all sorts of aggro.
Here on TS, Grey is getting told off by VV on Icognitos post on the Nats.
I trust this will pass as a hot kitchen is a nasty place when tempers are frayed.
I am pushing the envelope gsays. Veutoviper is trying to maintain an orderly progress on the site. I am trying to get some advice and assessment of MPs so I can take an idea to the most suitable one for a project that could be important and is very timely.
I was frustrated when I only got replies from a couple of RWs who feel a new idea about the land or farming is as annoying as a blowfly wanting to strike. But tensions and stress are going to rise as mine have, from time to time, especially if those who have concerns feel that response to problems is too slow. And those suffering the loss of hope for a life and a home will get more upset if nobody cares enough to try to improve things. I think about them a lot.
gw, some folks are comfortable with being lead down the garden path of incrementalism….your comments regularly indicate not so easily distracted by such conspicuous and persistent tactics…
The frustrations you feel, are being felt by the proverbial ‘all’. Consciously or otherwise , it is being felt right along with other emotions brought about by the same indomitable issues…
It’s a tough one GWS. I’ve been fraying round the edges a little too. It is normal to feel sad, angry, frustrated and despairing at the current situation. We can deal with the grief together. Welcome to the vanguard. Others will need us as reality sinks in.
I liked that anecdote though. I think every now and then a mood lightener?
I hope most people like Monty Python – they were so good at taking things to the ridiculous level.
And did trp send an email? Is it yey or nay?
Don’t look now, but there’s a damn hippy in your in box.
Hippies eh! Long hair and Jandals eh? Well I can cope with that type.
Just played the other day Diamonds and Rust by Joan Baez, written by her about Bob Dylan. Very clever and poignant; people were for a while back then.
Loved it.
Cool.
Thanks 1-2 and 3 +
What’s that saying…something like…
Don’t let the bastards get you down…
It’s not the new idea, it’s the way it’s presented/delivered.
For what it’s worth GW I’m entirely sympathetic toward what you’re doing here. Sorry I can’t contribute right now as I’m over-committed and don’t have the expertise your looking for.
What I can suggest is to think of ways to turn this into an educational project with a longer term view to find ways to commercialise it. With everything you want to achieve in the world, cash flow is king. Find a way to reliably sponsor or monetise it and it will be successful.
Package the idea in a pragmatic, can-do fashion (keep the message simple, positive and strong) and you’ll be amazed at who comes out of the woodwork to offer help. There are already many farmers on the land trying out new ideas, and they have the experience and networks that will be critical to success.
What you’re talking about is a big idea, and a tough one to pull off, and will only work if you connect with competent people who’ve done this sort of thing before.
Best wishes.
Red L
Thanks for advice. You really stick in here. We long term people have learned a lot on the journey. I’ll talk about it if it comes off. Have got a floating plan at present.
And I need to think about your ideas, and what Drowsy M Kram is saying too. About reducing greenhouse em. Will going by bus to family in Christchurch instead of flying be halving emissions for that?
As for vv, she is so good on here and I and everybody appreciate her. But sometimes I have to rebel and hope that I fit the unreasonable man who causes change paradigm.
GWS, keep up the good work, and asking pertinent questions – it is important to reiterate that urgent action is required to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions (climate change is our “nuclear-free moment”). I thought VV’s reply to your comment/request (in Incognito’s post) was a bit over the top (too authoritarian), but I have my own biases, and appreciate that keeping the site running smoothly is not a simple matter.
” as annoying as blowfly ”
This is good…
Hey grey, in response to yr query that led to the brouhaha, an idea I have enjoyed is for the public, en masse, to either boycott or support an oil company.
Either on a roster, one month here one month there.
Sticking point is, if WE were to act as one for a month, what would be on the ransom note?
Super markets must be nicer to Hector’s dolphins….?
If we could do consumer boycott in that way the public would make useful points. Have to be careful these days though, making enough fuss that is carried through, without people having to be laid off because there are sure to be some relying for their living on the enterprise and them working their shift.
“Is the moon on at an odd phase or something?
At work and home there is an ugly tension in the air.”
Yes.
Audrey the tired old Nat poodle at it again:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12204271
Fascinating. She claims the NZ-Chinese friendship has been worked on for more than 40 years. What then happened in 1989 when the Chinese government slaughter 10,000 civilians in the streets?
Kat your description of Audrey made me smile. Now we have China through a spokesperson saying some are “trying to ferment trouble for their own ends” I thought “Yes, to try to undermine our PM.” Audrey is a tired echo of the Gnats.
We are scared – listen to us!
https://uk.reuters.com/article/climatechange-youth-strike/we-are-scared-listen-to-us-london-students-demand-at-climate-protest-idUKL5N20A546
“Won’t somebody please think of the children!”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_of_the_children
Dr Bryce parrots David Farrer and argues the left have fallen into a trap set by National by reading too much into the sausage ad.
I think Farrar is in damage control. And ironically it is Edwards reading too much into so called “reverse dog whistle politics”. National aren’t that bright. I can’t believe this was deliberate.
In reality is was a very clumsy attempt at attack advertising.
Farrar and Edwards seem to be saying it was deliberate trolling, and a deliberate attempt to import and pour petrol on the culture wars. But that seems like a desperate and very risky strategy because we know Kiwis are turned off by such cynical baiting.
It will be interesting to see what the next ad in the tax-payer funded series looks like. Will they double down, firming up their hard right vote? Or will they retreat to try to grow their centre vote which I’m sure will have been turned off by this sort of behaviour.
Dr Bryce seems to think the centre love cynical politics but if you ever need to gauge his political nous just remember he thought Simon Bridges was correct when he launched the also tax-payer funded investigations into the leak of his excessive limo use…which was also tax-payer funded.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=12204396
Bryce Edwards is a sophisticated Gnats poodle. Where with Audrey and Soper you know where they stand Dr. Edwards presents an apparently balanced view… until one does their own research and realises he omits slants and generally weights everything to favour a right wing view. Seldom does he really criticise the right.
He is a paid commentator… not paid by the left!!
Sarah Dowie and the text message inquiry – what the police won’t tell you.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12204474
Has all the signs of a whitewash in order to protect the National Party. An investigation which will find not fault and no blame and all the details will be forever suppressed.
Likewise, the public will never have closure in the case of National Party donation fiddling. This was as serious, if not more serious, than the Banks/Dotcom saga which thankfully completely ruined the career of John Banks. Yet it will be swept under the carpet.
Both these scandals will quietly be shut down because essentially the National Party is ‘too big to fail’.
Bet the Haddled won’t be interviewing hubby anytime soon also.
I think like the Todd tapes which was the main reason English went, the fact Police did not proceed remained a gaul in the bark of public opinion.
That type of gaul remains, reminding the voting public of the imperfections, the cruelties and the infighting by National.
Nastiness cheating fudging facts and treating our democracy as an item to be purchased….. “Trust the Team?” Ha ha ha LOL LOL Hardly.
A court case would uncover endless dirty linen, so no, that won’t be likely.
I’m surprised they haven’t lost the evidence yet.
Well, that is settled.
This is in direct contrast to what David Farrar has been saying that, “the article will have been approved by the Chinese Government.”
So much for Farrar’s analysis.
Geng continues to say in regard to supposed warnings to Chinese against travelling to New Zealand:
No shit, Geng!
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/382667/chinese-foreign-ministry-addresses-nz-china-relationship
Yes, I agree.
Massive shake up in the Democrats. Pretty sure Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will at some point be the victim of an assassination attempt.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/382653/amazon-decision-a-win-for-democrats-rising-left-wing
This is not right and action must be taken
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/02/17/pike-families-shocked-by-missing-evidence/
Kia ora The AM Show The representative of the doctors from Rotorua and Hamilton hospital looked hot under the collar for one thing its nationals mess in the first place he is a national puppet + there is a budget to keep to I would say more but It would effect the service that MY WHANO get.
simon duncan kisses your – – – he treats you and your m8 Alot better than the Coalition Government Mp,s
As for China national shonky would have made a big mess of that. O that’s the way national grows a economy shorts our house market and flooding the land with imagination that’s is easy as counting 123 to achieve GDP growth how about something innovative like pumping up all of NZ O that’s right you don’t want to share the lollies /with Maori /minority cultures .
I did give advice that prefab low cost housing was the best way to get cheap housing to Te tangata it was obvious to me that my nemesis in the state services would have said you cannot do that as it will give Eco Maori to much mana its not wise to build expense house in place were there are not many wealthy people like Pukekohe Auckland the people will be scared the value of the property will flat Line still shonky puppets in Minstery business and innovation deliberately making those stuff ups .
Eco Maori say the way the housing market is rising prices at the minute is going into other place beside Auckland Wellington an Queens Town that’s spreading the risk and the lollys money to the many.
Steven that’s correct our relationship with China is fine just a little bump in the road we just have to ride out the bumpy road till 2020 then things will settle down.
That is why shonky filled the Pike River Mine up with concrete it was a big cover up by WHO.
Catherine that’s a better response we fruit fly issue than the last lot they would have covered it up and when a few more were found the public get the isuses out then panic that’s what happened to the bovine virus issues we have .
As for gentic engineer food the the executive of these multiple countries companies to stick it in their plates and eat it we don’t need it and don’t want it to smear our great food production so genitc engineering our pest will just open the doors for other things to be genitc engineering that’s how we got the pest in the first place doing things that we did not think of the consequences to that action Its obvious Le French do not have the culture to nerture some of our Kiwi stars
That’s the way Chloe give duncan a serve he has turn Bright Red lol.
A survey will tell what the person who runs it will give the results your are looking for data to back your views so stop turning red your letters is a total froud plane and simple froud you are giving duncan a good clean up KA PAI.
YEA right losing weight from eating almonds only and the real problems is surgery pop drinks I see that there stocks are crashing GOOD about time that’s what you should be talking about AM Show pop drinks.
Yes the big picture is we need a good environment to live healthy happy prosperous lives and China is backing that. Ka kite ano
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
This is why Eco Maori says carbon credits are rubbish like fishing quotes it is just a tool that the wealthy crooked people can cheat the common person and make billions of dollars in falsely made trades . I back a carbon tax on carbon that is given to the pruducers of clean green energy and to poor people who don’t have the money to build there clean green futures for there grandchildren.
Residents of a coalmining region in Siberia have been posting videos online showing entire streets and districts covered in toxic black snow that critics say highlight a manmade ecological catastrophe.
In one video, filmed in Kiselyovsk, a town in the Kuzbass region, a woman drives past mounds of coal-coloured snow stretching to the horizon, covering a children’s playground and the courtyards of residential buildings. The scenes in the footage were described as “post-apocalyptic” by Russian media.
The coal dust that turns the snow black in the Kuzbass comes from numerous open pit mines that environmental activists say have had disastrous consequences for the health of the region’s 2.6 million people, with life expectancy three to four years lower than Russia’s national average of 66 for men and 77 for women.
Cancer, child cerebral palsy, and tuberculous rates in the Kuzbass region are all above the national average.
“It’s harder to find white snow than black snow during the winter,” Vladimir Slivyak, a member of the Ecodefense environmental group, said. “There is a lot of coal dust in the air all the time. When snow falls, it just becomes visible. You can’t see it the rest of the year, but it is still there.” Ana to kai Ka kite ano links below
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/15/toxic-black-snow-covers-siberian-coalmining-region
Kia ora Newshub That’s the way the billionaire tech giants needs to pay there dues to society so everyone can have a happy life not just the top 20 % OUR Coalition Government closing the tax loopholes that let them avoid paying taxes in Aotearoa The Australian government is having some computer dramas A.
Yes the fruit fly found in Auckland is going to be a hassle for some peoples fruit and vegetables purchasing problems.
That photo of trump is ten years old lol.
I say gentic engineering is working against mother nature the most successful society’s have worked with Papatuanukue not against her like we currently are doing. That poll is good news Hub it gives me hope that my Mokopunas will have a happy healthy future Ka pai.
Ka kite ano
Kia ora James & Wairangi from The Crowd Goes Wild Eco Maori has already stated that Le French billionaire does not no how to nerture our Kiwi Rugby Stars Gates said they wanted A billionaire like him in Le France?
That’s a big crash at the is it Datona 500 got the Mokopunas here I am quite a bit busy chasing them around.
Yes that’s what it’s about the team first.
I Heard the Australian tangata whenua Rugby Star was in Aotearoa boys. Ka kite ano
Kia ora Newshub with NZ been off IKEAs maps it’s you scratch my back I will scratch yours There you go puncan negative brown minority culture news that’s what you floated your toilet with a small group of people making a mess in Auckland they are probley some ones ASSET and have impunity to create a mess of brown peoples MANA it’s a area that has mostly brown people .
I don’t see what Britain giving Huawei the option to bid to install there 5 G, Has a negative look for NZ position I say it’s a good THING.
Bullshit you are just trying to repair the GCSB & SIS credibility I no they love their pears in America everytime I put them down next minute their loud noise starts up they say jump and next minute how high SIR. Sam I Do agree that Aotearoa getting 5 G is going to EARN us billions of low carbon export income it’s very important .
There is nothing wrong with NZ Joining the movement of making the tech billionaire pay there fair share of dues to society we were first to give Wahine the rights to vote and that would have had some push back to .
There you go making false statements about Britain stance And making false statements about OUR position on the 5 G network there you go once again trying to spray WAI on OUR government. It is good to get the Tech company to pay more tax you see te tangata te tangata around the world are demanding it. Everyone can see your position on the Mana Wahine its fine so long as Wahine are behind a man #METOO I know it’s above your thought process to put yourself in someone’else SHOES.
Yes some tech company’s will risk losing consumers and rise price. The tax is worth it the revenue and giving our companies a better chance at getting the contracts look at NOVA Pay The justice department and a few other government new program updates they were a big mess. If we had let locals bid & build the software and hardware for these organisations it would have been much cheaper less stressful for NZ big boy giving big kick backs that’s the way of the Papatuanukue . trump & scott are not going to be in power for long soon they will be neutered especially being climate change deniers with all the weather records being broken in there countries that they are supposed to be caring for their future but only care for their power.
Another attempt to attack EQUALITY mark boys can be boys just don’t shit on Wahine in the process.
If I could start a tree planting crew I would go to a four day week give the men Friday off as its usually half a day the van seats will be full 4 days a week and we would only have to a work a extra hour a day and production won’t fall it will decrease accident as fatigue would drop the men would have more time for their families less cost less less miles travelled =more profits more times to vote Some people don’t want common people to have Time to participate in our /there civic duty, s they only want the wealthy peoples opinion to get oxygen the common tangata opinions don’t count.
Arr bullshit the the wealthy get to the cream of Atoearoa and only let the crumbs fall on the floor for the minority that’s a fact NZ income disparity has grown very fast in the west if a wealth person is charged with tax evasion they bribe the pollies to charge the laws to class that activity as avoidance and WALAR no one breaking the law here no kai falling on the floor for common people THE GREAT WESTERN culture MYTHS The trickle down effect is fool of shit. Ka kite ano