Hone Harawira under pressure in his Te Tai Tokerau electorate, last weekend a request was made by current Mana members for Clinton Dearlove to stand for Mana in the Tamaki Makaurau.
The request was declined by Mr Dearlove.
This was either a back channel offer by Mr Harawira himself or Mana members breaking ranks over the InternetMONEY party.
Don’t know if the link will function but this has been put up by the Ukraine govt. Purportedly an intercepted conversation proving authorisation from within Russia… (Source Telegraph clip yet to be verified).
It sounds like a horrible mistake in terms of miss identifying the plane, there is some social media from the separatists announcing they had shot down a military plane at the time and place where the Malaysian Jet ended up.
That’s exactly what it is. The rebels only obtained an SA-11 missile system two days ago, and two hours ago were claiming on social media that they’d shot down an AN-26 transport plane.
There is no way that responsible air traffic controllers should have directed a civilian flight through a war zone unnecessarily risking their passengers lives. Especially on a flight path on which two flights had just been shot down in previous days.
This is the height of incompetence and irresponsibility.
There is no way that this should have happened again.
The Soviet Union initially denied knowledge of the incident,[2] but later admitted the shootdown, claiming that the aircraft was on a spy mission.[3] The Politburo said it was a deliberate provocation by the United States[4] to test the Soviet Union’s military preparedness, or even to provoke a war. The White House accused the Soviet Union of obstructing search and rescue operations.[5] The Soviet military suppressed evidence sought by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) investigation, notably the flight data recorders,[6] which were eventually released eight years later after the collapse of the Soviet Union.[7]
The incident was one of the tensest moments of the Cold War and resulted in an escalation of anti-Soviet sentiment, particularly in the United States. The opposing points of view on the incident were never fully resolved. Consequently, several groups continue to dispute official reports and offer alternative theories of the event. The subsequent release of KAL 007 flight transcripts and flight recorders by the Russian Federation has clarified some details.
As a result of the incident, the United States altered tracking procedures for aircraft departing Alaska. The interface of the autopilot used on airliners was redesigned to make it more ergonomic.[8] In addition, the event was one of the most important single events that prompted the Reagan Administration to allow worldwide access to the United States military’s GNSS system, which was classified at the time. Today this system is widely known as GPS
It seems that civilian air flights are being sacrificed as pawns in prelude to all out war.
Putin talked to Obama soon after the downing of the flight. If reports of Putin flying through that airspace just 40 mins beforehand are true, they were probably targetting him.
That’s exactly what it is. The rebels only obtained an SA-11 missile system two days ago, and two hours ago were claiming on social media that they’d shot down an AN-26 transport plane.
The BUK systems require highly trained teams capable of deploying the weapon, arming the system, tracking targets, successfully locking on, and launching. Only Kiev has those teams.
Also AN26 are propeller planes, they look nothing like commercial jets, and usually operate at around 20,000-25,000 feet max: not the ~35,000 feet height of commercial airliners.
Or maybe, karol, people every bit as professional as the sailors on the USS Vincennes, mistaking Iran Air Flight 655 for a military aircraft. They had radars and electronic capabilities well in advance of anything soldiers on the ground with an AA missile launcher and a mobile radar would have.
At this stage I have no idea whether it’s the Ukrainian rebels acting with Russian support, or the neo-fascist government, trying to provoke a Western response. It also comes at a very convenient time for Netanyahu, so I’ll wait and see. While I doubt if the west will intervene militarily, their hypocrisy in condemning this after the number of innocents they have killed really gets to me.
In any case, and whoever did it, killing civilians is horrific. It needs to stop all over the world.
A single MP rather than the entire Parliament. There may even be some other MP’s who share her views but I would suggest they are in the minority. I could equally point you to anti-Jewish views expressed in Arab nations and propagated via state controlled media outlets. There are extremists on both sides.
The chief difference being the ‘terrorists’ in those Parliaments (usually) leave that level of hate-filled commentary to others, namely those not elected by their people to positions of democratic representation and responsibility. As Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan says “If these words had been said by a Palestinian, the whole world would have denounced it,”
The world, including you, conveniently forget on a regular basis how Hamas is part of a democratically elected government so when Egypt does not even bother to consult them when formulating a cease fire plan, can you blame them for doing what any government would do in that position and rightly claim the cease fire has no consideration for their position, so Palestine has no obligation to agree to it. Israel would have done the exact same thing and you likely would have applauded them for it.
Returning to the hate-speech of Ayelet Shaked. This intelligent experienced professional who is a computer engineer and has previously worked in the office of the Prime Minister, is a top five member of Knesset for the Jewish Home, a group who hold 10% of the Israel Parliament. This Parliamentarian you are so quick to dismiss is part of the unicameral national legislature of Israel. As the legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister, approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government. One might say her views hold some weight.
Update: According to a Dutch news paper an anonymous source told Russian Press agency Interfax that Putin’s plane returning from the BRIC meeting was in the same airspace shortly before or after the Malaysian plane was shot down. the plot thickens!
Wow! An anonymous source told a Russian media agency that there was a plane in the area that if targetted would absolve the Russian government of all blame. Why don’t I placve much store in that do you think?
I find interesting her gigantic leap of logic that simply pointing out that her potential conspiracy theory about the so called real reason for the shooting down of the plane somehow means you must support a war with Russia.
Hey Tinfoil, What conspiracy theory would that be. The one we got pushed down our throat within minutes of the plane crashing or how about we just wait and see and keep all our options open and some real investigative work needs to be done. In order of course to respect those who died 154 are my country men and women after all. Would not want them to used for the next godforsaken war.
The reality C.V it’s been bad for a while, just in the last three days leading up to the shooting down of this Malaysian aircraft. Their has been shelling and shootings across Ukraine. With at least 17 civilian deaths and no-one knows how many combatants have been killed – this includes militias and government forces. Anarchist activists on both sides have been arrested, many on the Russian speaking side of Ukraine are ending up in Russian prisons and have been charged as terrorists. And on the other half they just disappear into red tape, or into these guys hands http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28329329
Could someone tell me when the Labour leader is due back?
Seems odd to have a major launch in Wellington, but then, in the same week that Key is absent the media, Cunliffe accedes the media ground following the launch to National?
You can’t start a campaign, put it on hold, then start it again.
phillip ure
Can you keep your opinionated comments shut until after the election? You are neither use nor ornament when you can’t use your intelligence for good advantage to the left.. With this negative stuff you turn to the dark side.
Why not just shut up if you can’t say something helpful and positive. With friends like you… Perhaps after all you are a sneaky right wing white anter. If not, show it by not saying one more negative thing till the election is over or can’t you help being a smart arse know all.
@phillip
to your last comment – I repeat –
‘You are neither use nor ornament when you can’t use your intelligence for good advantage to the left..’ And the best thing you can do is use your judgment to decide to stop making comments that demean the left.
Jesus it’s like you lot are determined to destroy the left on the basis of pointless dogma. Which one of you is the “peoples popular front” and which one is the “popular peoples front”? It is, however, very entertaining.
Greywarbler, the short answer is F off wanker, the longer one, what comments of mine are you trying to suppress,
If you want me to begin a series of anti-Cunliffe/anti- Labour rants leading into the election attempting to suppress my comments is the exact means of achieving this…
@Bad 12 4.56
It is unfortunate that you are so unable to discipline yourself to find a more courteous and thoughtful approach to other people. You would then limit your bad language but you won’t try as I feel that you like yourself as you are too much.
Lets try again shall we greywarbler, exactly who the fuck do you think you are attempting to suppress how and upon what subjects i choose to comment on,
This is ‘Open Mike’ it is provided so that we can comment on ‘anything’ that might be exercising our brains so as to keep the actual Posts relatively free of such distractions,
The Moderators set the boundaries within which the discourse occurs not you greywarbler, so, if you cannot handle the comments i in particular make, its simple just scroll on by when you see the Bad username, or better still, F off with your inane whining…
As far as I can see, Mr. Ure is a complete narcissist who has somehow self-identified with the left. Sometimes he says something quite insightful and useful, but not more than 5% of the time. I don’t think he’s a right wing white anter like Populuxe, but he could usefully learn that less is more. The way he carries on here is likely to make new readers wonder what the hell they’ve staggered into.
As for the squabbles with bad12, the two of them have just about put me off this site completely. I still read some of the posts, but don’t feel very enthusiastic about contributing.
PS I ate chicken tonight and took oxycodone, so feel free to make remarks about fat dripping down my junkie chin.
Don’t go Murry don’t go. It’s not the election time already.
Just come and visit and read Colonial Viper and karol and a few favourites DtB ec etc. There are plenty. You just have to sort out the wheat from the chaff, the gold from the washings, etc etc. But please don’t increase some other blogs IQ and in your absence, drop ours.
All reports would suggest that the best thing Cunliffe could do is stay away. I do wonder how Labour followers are going to feel when the Greens are the official opposition after September 20th.
But Karol even offering “nothing” is polling better than the “something” Labour has proposed. Doesn’t that concern you that there is no resonance with the policies you espouse, despite in your opinion s lack of opposing policies to measure term against. Perhaps, like let’s say in a democracy, people don’t agree with these ” policies”. You might think they’re just peachy which is your right. Clearly most others don’t agree , which is their right.
I think Cunliffe and the team are on the brink of announcing major new policy about letter-boxes.
And I understand caucus and its advisors have been working around the clock and is almost ready to unleash exciting new policy on toothbrushes.
I know. But I expect National to support a status quo that advantages the already advantaged.
Can’t seem to stop expecting something significantly different and better from Labour. Hence the bitter diappointment.
(If Key announced a letterbox policy it would be lauded as a significant innovation).
Sorry Phil – it is not a global ranking. Your score (which is worked for BTW) – is primarily because of all the linking back from other sites considered relevant (Kiwiblog and the Standard).
So in effect you are crowing about something that is useless (at the moment) for how you are driving your site.
BUT – despite me not agreeing with anything you write (or your language skills for that matter) – you have earned the page rank by working / linking / posting etc.
It gives you a base to work from. so congratulations on that. I would recommend some reading on PR, QS, and SEO in order to further improve what you are trying to achieve.
Useless info – did you know Page rank is not named after “ranking the page”, but is named after Larry Page?
Sorry – It seems that your view of people who disagree with you poisons you a little.
I wasnt actually sneering in the slightest. If you read I was actually being congulatory and acknowledging that you have started building up a page – and that this was from your hard work.
If you search kiwiblog etc you will find your website mentioned many, many times – indeed not a link, but the upshot is whoar.co.nz is mentioned in your post on websites that are recognised as “quality content” (subjective I know) for when people are searching for political info in NZ. Also they are “high traffic” – which again increases their google quality index.
I play in this sandpit – with a very high level of success. What you are doing is right as a basis for moving forward – and I gave a polite idea on other ideas that you can continue to learn in order to become more successful.
So no denigrating or sneering from me. I know its hard to build up. So – dont be a hater – it dosnt make you happy.
i find it extremely difficult to dredge up any sympathy for Hamas in this conflict, having fired hundreds of largely ineffective rockets into Israel the only response that they could expect is for the Israeli’s to send in their army to attempt to crush the Hamas ability to fire such ordinance across the border,
Perhaps Hamas think that Israel will pack up lock stock and smoking guns for a destination other than the stolen Palestinian lands,
At some point in time Hamas will get hold of some of the really sophisticated big bangs being produced by both Syria and Iran and the playing field will be somewhat leveled giving Hamas the ability to total cities inside Israel and leaving Israel with the same problem it has after the Israeli army was mauled in the Lebanon,
It also has an even bigger problem only now in its genesis, should the rouge state that the ISIS rebels are trying to carve out of pieces of both Iraq and Syria become a reality Israel is in danger of being over-run at some point in the future…
All my sympathy goes to the average people throughout the region who have to continue to suffer under either the lunatics who rule them or the lunatics who want to rule them.
Unlikely. An offensive ground based military operation requires an awful lot of preparation. It is not something that is launched at a drop of a hat to take advantage of some other event. Unless you are stating the Israelis are responsible for shooting down the airliner. I am sure some wacky conspiracy theorists will claim that shortly.
He was never claiming that. Merely saying that, for Israel, it is fortuitous timing that they can launch their offensive at the same time as this other tragedy.
Unlikely. An offensive ground based military operation requires an awful lot of preparation. It is not something that is launched at a drop of a hat to take advantage of some other event.
Uh, Israel has been planning the details for weeks and has had plans drawn up in the filing cabinet ready to roll for years
It might take the Americans six months to prepare an invasion of Granada, but Israel is always at a high state of readiness and prides itself on being able to launch operations at short notice. Since Gaza is almost defenceless, with no army, navy, or air force, they can probably invade within 12 hours. Still, I doubt if they made the decision after the airliner went down.
Now this also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there.
Calling genocide is like crying wolf. When it really happens noone will be willing to do anything about it (e.g. Rwanda). The situation in Gaza is not genocide. If the Israelis were really interested in wiping out the population they would use the same sort of ordinance that the Syrian regime drops on rebel controlled areas.
And I’m pointing out that if there was actual intent the Israelis would be using much more lethal weapons to achieve their aims. In your views why are they not using more deadly weapons?
Because incremental assassination of the populace is more easily managed on the International stage and Israel have been firing from the grassy knoll for decades.
Apparently not if you and others are crying Genocide.
Also as a genocidal policy it isn’t very effective. These sorts of tactics have been carried out by the Israeli military fro decades yet the Palestinian population hasn’t diminished during this time.
“yet the Palestinian population hasn’t diminished during this time.”
are you ignorant or just stupid ?
https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/
“over 40 years of illegal Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza; 0.1 million 1948-2011 violent Palestinian deaths, post-1967 excess deaths 0.3 million; post-1967 under-5 infant deaths 0.2 million; 3,600 under-5 year old Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) infants die avoidably EACH YEAR in the OPT “Prison” due to Apartheid Israeli war crimes.”
Except the Nazis were remarkable successful at reducing the Jewish population in large parts of Europe. Prior to WWII Jews made up a significant proportion of the population of Poland for example. Do you know how many Polish Jews left in Poland there are now?
The various apologists, doubters and hairsplitters here posting support for the dirty filthy Israeli military, should however unlikely, try and grow some human decency.
My point is by using emotional language and labelling anyone who dares to not agree with your point of view you effectively shut down any ability to sensibly debate and discuss options around the subject. Noone is downplaying any deaths or suffereing of any people here (innocent or otherwise). I am quite sure the Israelis think they are protecting their own innocent children via their actions though.
Please. Israel has done nothing but protect their own children by way of 60 years of settlement expansion, at the expense of the second class citizens’ children in that country, Palestinian children.
They can’t even vote…
If we exclude Gaza, one in every 4.5 people living under Israeli rule doesn’t have the right to vote in the coming elections; that one person is (almost) always Palestinian. If Gaza is included, it’s one in three who is not represented.
And when Hamas get their hands on some more sophisticated rockets and begin to smash up Israeli cities with them will you go Wah Wah Wah about the death of Israeli civilians,
Hamas firing of 100s of largely useless homemade rockets into Israel directly provoked this invasion…
They’re in for the long haul as no one else can give the place security from Hamas and other terror organisations.
Cluetip:
When you’re the one who has caused over 200 civilian deaths through naval bombardment, drone strikes, shelling, and airstrikes, including 4 young boys playing on the beach yesterday, YOU are the terror organisation.
Harrier Jump Jet, you are a very disturbed individual to be making such comments. Your pom pom cheerleading of the Israeli Defence Force, who have brought so much death, pain and suffering to innocent people is incredibly sickening.
I sense though, seeing this is very similar to a comment you made on karol’s post, that you could be intentionally trying to wind people up. Such misery is not a game.
Quite possibly. This intervention on the ground looks imilar to their last invasion of the Gaza strip. They are unlikely to achieve anything long term.
And this is why it is necessary to speak up. Because this can’t go on and, as a society, we need to change. What use is fixing anything if we can, collectively, still fail at providing the most basic of securities to over half the population (including children here)?
piffle.
it is just an example of national party cronies out of their depth.
everytime kiwirail has passed into private hands it has been looted and handed back.
this time it is just ineptitude from national party appointees.
Do you have evidence that the people running Kiwi Rail have liks to the National Party?
Interestingly even if you did that would be another reason why the State should not run comercial enterprises because they can stack the board and management with political appointees.
Seems to me Gosman that like all ‘wing-nuts’ you just cannot help but dribble shit, here’s a taste of a few of the private ferry operator Bluebridges recent woes,
11 Feb 2013–The troubled Bluebridge ferry stuck in Wellington with engine problems may be out of action for a while,
Because it’s a private enterprise and so it’s running and inevitable collapse is of no public concern. Whereas the railways, being a natural monopoly, essential infrastructure and run by the state, is,
Yes, it is because it’s all part of the same infrastructure. We used to understand that. Well, our politicians did and they knew that a state monopoly of infrastructure is the most efficient and cost effective means of supplying that service. Then they got bitten by the neo-liberal bug and privatised everything pushing prices up and services down.
Then so is any enterprise that uses not just shipping terminals but roads and airports as well. I presume you think all of those are natural monopolies as well do you? Would be interesting to see how taxis would work if you do.
What is the reason that to all extents and purposes you are a functional dunce Gosman, Peter’s is grandstanding, looking for publicity from political points scoring,
What you do not know, and i do, probably because my old man was an AB on those ships, is that the ferries have been hitting the wharves at Aotea Quay and the Picton terminal with monotonous regularity since they first came into service,
It is only in the age of the ‘smart-phone’ that such occurrence are more likely than not to receive publicity,
The Aotea Quay wharf used by NZRail to berth its ferries is wide open to both the Northerly and Southerly gales that are a regular feature of Wellingtons weather,having to reverse into such berths mean that in such gales the chances of being blown into the wharf are greatly enhanced,
The ‘stretching’ of the Aratere by some 12 meters has turned that ship into a lemon as the insert allows for the ferry to flex in rough conditions more than the original design allowed for,
The private operator Bluebridge’s problem is of another nature, their ferry Santa Regina is 30 odd years old and just about ready for the scrap yard,
The danger of running these old and ill designed ships is that they will experience a significant engine failure, fully laden, in rough weather coming through the Wellington heads,
What is needed is a significant investment in this part of State Highway One with the building of some new ferries preferably here in New Zealand which would create 1000s of jobs and train 1000s of young workers in skills that are always in demand…
What is needed is a significant investment in this part of State Highway One with the building of some new ferries preferably here in New Zealand which would create 1000s of jobs and train 1000s of young workers in skills that are always in demand…
As much as I agree with you that those ferries should be build in NZ by NZers I doubt if doing so would produce more than a couple of hundred jobs.
That may very well be accurate. However the problem is that the National party gets in to office around half the time so has plenty of opportunity of placing their cronies in to positions of power in these organisations. The obvious solution to this is to not have the government being able to appoint their cronies in the first place.
The state should have no role in running Kiwi rail, nor should it be run by commercial interest either. Both have a shocking track record and both have trampled over the labour force in the industry. It seems to me, the only solution left, is a worker lead industry producing a rail system which works for the whole country. Otherwise were going to keep rolling on and on with this stupid system we currently have which is obviously not working for anyone.
Pity the other 87 New Zealand citizens who were also illegally spied upon have been refused the courtesy of also prosecuting those who behaved illegally toward them by the Governments refusal to inform those people that they had been the target of such illegality…
As a footnote: Perhaps Kim DotCom might like to consider widening His legal action against the illegally spying Government agencies into a class action suit covering all the 88 odd New Zealand citizens illegally spied upon,
In such an action the right of ‘discovery’ might reveal to those who were spied upon the fact that they were…
No Gosman, just pointing out your apparently inferior education or lack of actual ability to be educated,
Hint: i aint here as your on call fucking research department, if you want to ask twenty question and expect an answer then i suggest you fuck off and ask those questions of Google like normal people do…
Anyone interested in the culture of North American Indians will find this interview with Bryan Crump on Nights at Radio New Zealand last night awesome.
“Mixed blood Cherokee map-maker Aaron Carapella has created what appears to be the first map showing the names and locations of Native American tribes before Europeans set foot on the North American continent”
Air New Zealand is making its grabaseat special site customer unfriendly for people wanting to travel within NZ. There are nice informative windows for overseas but for NZ there is just a great mass of destinations run together, not even in a list form with some sort of alphabetic order. So I can’t run my eye down to see what is available.
They said they were doing an $8 flight thing and have 1143 – they say available but don’t count on it as they don’t change their available figures on the main list fast. Perhaps the cheap ones have all gone but no way at all of seeing what the status is.
But I have to start a booking before I am told what the price is.not the other way round. So I have made a tentative search with a trial booking and can’t find sign of anything special,not grabaseat price or $8. What a waste of time and smoke and mirrors. I am losing respect for Air NZ. Bring back Rod Fyfe, his stewardship of the airline led to good outcomes for Kiwis travelling within the country.
The problem that Labour have now is one of momentum, its now almost a like a sport to see just how low Labour can fall in the polls. Will Labour break the 20% barrier? Who knows but the msm will be pushing it and people will be interested in seeing it happen and so will try to make it happen.
Will the Australian government bar Obama from the G8?
(Because of his actions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and Gaza.)
Radio NZ National, 9:30 a.m., Friday 18 July 2014
In August 1968, the U.S.-led propaganda machine went into catatonic overdrive when the USSR sent tanks and troops into Czechoslovakia in order to bring a halt to Alexander Dubček’s program of political liberalisation. Many observers, of course, noted that the last regime in the world that was entitled to denounce a country for invading another was the United States. In 1968 the United States had more than half a million troops perpetrating the murderous destruction of Vietnam, and in a few years it would go on to attack and destroy Laos and Cambodia, perhaps irreparably. The United States was also the major backer of the blood-soaked Suharto dictatorship in Indonesia, as well as other gruesome regimes in Pakistan, Burma, Spain, Portugal, Israel, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Haiti, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
The Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia killed one hundred and eight people in total. Five months earlier, U.S. troops killed more than four times that number in a typical raid—this one was on two hamlets in Quảng Ngãi province in Vietnam. The hamlets were named My Khe and My Lai. The killings were nothing out of the ordinary; American troops did this so regularly that this particular massacre wasn’t even reported until more than a year later.
Over the years, the hypocrisy has never let up, not for a second. Uncle Sam still finds time to mount the pulpit, up to his knees in blood, and denounce others for doing what he himself has done, and continues to do, on a far greater scale.
It would be a lot harder for such vicious regimes to get away with it if people were more informed. To keep them uninformed, and stupid, and posting to Kiwiblog, and hosting radio talkback shows, it’s important to get the media on board. The best way to do this is to get “reporters” to repeat official blather, and routinely express “concern” at the “behavior” of official enemies, while studiously, diplomatically, putting aside such obvious and troublesome quibbles as: “What about what WE are doing?” There will always be troublemaking reporters, real reporters, of course, outriders like Jon Stephenson, Seymour Hersh, Julian Assange, and Matt Lee, but they can be easily sidelined when you have the vast majority of “reporters” on message, and able to suppress the urge to laugh at the absurdity, or screech at the obscenity, of the charade they are asked to perform.
On Radio NZ National this morning, there was a perfect example of this carefully cultivated blindness. A Malaysian Airlines passenger jet has been shot down in the Eastern Ukraine. It looks like there was possibly some Russian involvement. It looks like a significant number of the victims were Australians. To discuss this grave incident, Nine to Noon host Kathryn Ryan interviewed one Karen Middleton, of SBS. After some talk about the terrible event itself, Middleton moved from reporter to propagandist with sinister smoothness. She noted that Australia is due to host the G8 summit later this year, but that “there have been calls” to not invite Vladimir Putin “because of Russia’s actions in the Ukraine.”
She did not mention any calls to not invite Barack Obama or David Cameron, because of the actions of the United States and its deputy in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and Gaza.
I am sure Kathryn Ryan thought exactly what I and virtually everyone else was thinking when she heard that: what cant, what exquisite hypocrisy, what specious, sanctimonious nonsense. But she stifled any qualms she might have had, and said nothing. The nasty little provocation was allowed to lie there, unchallenged. Even in the midst of an awful event like this, the propaganda barrage never stops. And, almost without exception, our media representatives, instead of challenging them, cooperate with the propagandists and serve as their megaphone.
I was also interested in both the statement and Ryan’s failure to challenge it.
The experts / propagandists are being trundled out by the Americans to establish a case against Russia and /or the pro-Russian rebels even though we don’t yet know for certain how the plane was brought down and, if it was by means of a sophisticated ground to air missile, it could have been fired from areas of Ukraine not under rebel control.
We do know that 295 civilians died which is tragic and an eerily similar number to the 290 who died when an American aircraft carrier shot down an Iranian commercial aircraft in 1988. They claimed it was an accident and as I recall no-one really questioned that much except the Iranians – and George Bush Snr gave the captain of the carrier involved an award 2 years later for his exemplary service.
It may be the pro-Russian rebels had acquired a sophisticated air to ground missile and the technical knowledge to launch it – although it’s hard to see how they (or the Russians) would think that shooting down an unidentified plane was going to do their cause anything other than great harm. As to the alleged phone conversation ‘confirming’ rebel involvement, how stupid would you have to be to think that a huge jet plane flying at 30,000 feet was bringing spies to the region?
It may of course be a dirty op – and you’d have to be a very ill-informed or ideologically blinkered person to deny the existence of loads of them or to deny the fact that the perpetrators of them wouldn’t give a damn about killing 300 innocents.
An idea that could be useful. A campaign throughout NZ by those wanting to get our democracy working.
Each day ask at least one new person ‘Are you a Sleeping Beauty?’ They will be puzzled and either reject the question as odd or irrelevant or ask for information. The answer would be ‘A Sleeping Beauty is a dreaming NZer who won’t vote in the September election.”
(If they did not reply it would not matter as they would have heard it and if it could go viral, then they hear other people discussing it, and there will have been a breakthrough in the ‘ignoring the election and our democracy’ wall of shame.)
This would just put the thought into people’s minds, become aware and could be done with anyone except people in authority over you, and those men who are so gender sensitive they might punch you in the nose.
If someone could put that idea up on Facebook it would get around fast, great consciousness raising, with a quirk to make it intriguing. It could mean that everyone in NZ would have heard the question, or about it, before the election.
Anyone up for making a positive personal difference as they circulate round the rohe!
Why don’t YOU start this thing off then? Create that FB page and start building the groundswell for the campaign. I personally don’t think it will be particulaly effective but good on you if you give it a go.
Thanks Gosman. Why don’t you give it a go? You have lots of time to sit and contribute critiques to the discourse and it would be good for you to practice your tech skills. I have lots of things that I absolutely must do. And little time to acquire the Facebook skills. You could put your time to something useful except negative stuff.
Or is it like typical NZ – no-one has an idea then someone brings one up, everyone else likes it and appoints the thinker to carry it out. Or it is damned with faint praise as you have done. Wishy-washy NZ. ‘Oh I don’t knoooww if that would work. Let’s sit around and do nothing and gossip. Oh well time to go home, see you tomorrow.’
Real red hen stuff. (This does not apply to all persons
involved with The Standard.)
I do so have permission to edit this comment.
Edited version.
gosamn is a paid moaner for the national party.
as far as I can recall he has never made a constructive contribution here or anywhere else for that matter.
Hello, I have 3 minutes to go but was not allowed to edit again my last comment.
I realise that I am being wishy washy.
Saying an idea that could be useful. How wet.
It is a great idea that would have big positive outcomes for small input. Like throwing a stone in a pond and the ripples spread in rings around – and each new action likewise.
Very funny Tiger Mountain 11.46am
However I am serious that it would be a good idea and not therefore suitable for saying amusing things of a scatalogical nature.
Companies complain that they can’t find skilled hires, but they aren’t doing much to impart those skills, economists and workforce experts say. U.S. companies have been cutting money for training programs for decades, expecting schools and workers to pick up the slack. Economists say that reluctance to develop workers in-house has made it hard for workers to launch or sustain careers, resulting in a stalemate in the labor market: Companies won’t look at job candidates who lack a specific skill set, so openings go unfilled even as millions linger on the unemployment rolls.
Sounds remarkably like what we have in NZ. Companies complaining about the lack of skills but are unwilling to actually do anything about it.
Great post by the Jackal today. National with a small meeting in what appears to be a rest home in Wanaka while IMP are filling halls in the North. Even some young people present.
Be interesting to see the numbers at West Auckland IMP Road Trip meeting on Sunday, 2pm, Kelston Community Centre top of Waikumete hill.
The Northland meetings were good turnouts being in the storm aftermath. The thing with these Internet Mana events is the people there are active locally or at the very least interested. Public meetings can be useful organisers as Winston knows.
TM – precisely. It is only outside of Harawira’s electorate and even down into the Waikato and BoP that we are going to really get a feel for how much momentum IMP actually has.
They’re getting there, but they do not have the big Mo yet.
This thread is a Gosman sandwich. Trouble is it’s our fingers and ideas being bitten off in Gosman’s mouth and other RWNJ peculiar gourmands.
You do have all day to spend here Gosman so please do go on Facebook and put up my suggestion. I really have to go and do some real work instead of just thinking and worrying about getting a better world so that you can come along and pass some superior judgment on it as being a waste of time.
The work was being completed under warranty, but Rail and Maritime Transport Union general secretary Wayne Butson yesterday said that was ”a false economy”.
”Without transparency of costs, it is hard to see whether the warranty work does, in reality, come at no cost.
”Is the loss of revenue while these wagons are out of service being taken into account? Is the involvement of KiwiRail staff supervising the Chinese workers being realised? ”When all costs are totalled, the result will support the RMTU and our members’ views that the new wagons should have been built at Hillside.”
The BERL report on why they should have been built in New Zealand said that we’d get higher quality from Hillside and now it seems that they were correct.
We didn’t need the BERL report, engineers and management at KiwiRail knew months ahead of product delivery that the rolling stock was going to be woefully substandard.
A political decision pushed through by the Tories, the final win for the Tories being them closing down Hillside workshops irreversibly.
We didn’t need the BERL report, engineers and management at KiwiRail knew months ahead of product delivery that the rolling stock was going to be woefully substandard.
Probably because they read the BERL report before the order went out.
A political decision pushed through by the Tories, the final win for the Tories being them closing down Hillside workshops irreversibly.
Nothing is ever irreversible – it’ll just take a long time to set up again.
We certainly do have to question why the Tories seem so hell bent on destroying NZ’s economy though.
Probably because they read the BERL report before the order went out.
FFS mate, no fucking economic consultants report was needed to tell the Kiwi Rail engineers who have had to deal first hand with the shit gear manufactured out of China for years and years that this was going to be more of the same.
That report was required to try and penetrate the muddle headed bureaucrats and media who had no idea and still have no idea.
It may come as news to you that we have a Free Trade Agreement with China. You can’t reverse that. Indeed there is no alternative to a rapid expansion of such agreements with East Asian countries. I would like to see the next one with Bangladesh. You are living in a 1970s bubble dream about New Zealand manufacturing. If cars can’t be made economically in Australia, how are we going to produce train sets? From memory the Hillside bid came in about sixth on price.
The only way your world view will work is a return to protectionism. That is not happening.
You would be much better advised to work with markets to advance the circumstances of the poor. Otherwise you are just pissing in the wind and irrelevant to modern life. Your ideas will simply never be implemented in New Zealand.
It may come as news to you that we have a Free Trade Agreement with China.
A free trade agreement doesn’t mean that we have to buy from them. Willing buyer, willing seller and such.
If cars can’t be made economically in Australia, how are we going to produce train sets?
Cars can be made economically in Australia same as they can be made economically here. The problem you have, and it’s right across economics, is that you confuse finances with economics.
The only way your world view will work is a return to protectionism.
Nope – count full costs properly and trade between nations will end.
You would be much better advised to work with markets to advance the circumstances of the poor.
Markets only work to empower and enrich the already rich – as we’ve seen throughout history.
What is it with the sub-editors or those who write the headers for the Herald.
“NZ First’s shoot to kill law.”
Sound pretty lethal. But Adam Bennett’s column just explains that NZF wants the laws regarding self-defence to be clarified. Farmers or dairy owners defending themselves. A good idea. Have written to Adam as such a misleading header detracts from the quality of his writing. Shame. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11295250
It is the misleading headers in the Herald that bug me: “Toby Manhire: Dotcom’s delayed bombshell looks like a fizzer.”
Not what Toby says at all + the NZF I forgot to send this morning @21.1
If Samuels took the trouble to read what Cunliffe actually said, not what the MSM reported, you will see that in context it was a brave attempt to initiate a debate on the real problem of violence against women to which our shallow PM could only say this was a “silly” thing to say. Pathetic response.
The highway north can be improved without spending the vast amounts proposed by National. The balance can be spent on things that are desperately needed in NZ like better public transport, smaller class sizes, paying off the $50 billion in debt incurred by this National government etc etc
Notice also that he is not moving his vote to National.
If Samuels took the trouble to read what Cunliffe actually said, not what the MSM reported, you will see that in context it was a brave attempt to initiate a debate on the real problem of violence against women to which our shallow PM could only say this was a “silly” thing to say. Pathetic response.
Dover Samuels a good man? Good at looking after himself. At least as good as Shane Jones. Not quite so good at doing anything worthwhile for the people of Matauri Bay, let alone Te Tai Tokerau.
Each time I make a comment I need to fill in my name and email address. It’s been happening for a few days. Don’t know whether the problem is at my end or TS end.
Lolz, it is giving me apoplexy, i mean how hard is it to learn to ‘look’ each time you make a comment, yet for the last few days despite telling myself how fucking stupid i am over and over i still keep not looking,
Laughs, it got me a goody again this afternoon, straight after i logged onto the Standard i filled in the name and email thinking that will fix it,
Browsed a couple of Posts and then made a comment, again forgetting to look, and the name and email had done the disappearo again….
Please show us where they highlight those who have moved on from a benefit such as ‘Widow’s’ benefit or DPB or Long-Term Invalid’s benefit and are now receiving Superannuation? Whilst doing that would you be so kind to present any data available about those who have simply been removed from assistance with no other form of income. That might be difficult by the way as the government choose not to collect that data. It is a bit tougher to rah rah when reality is asked for isn’t it Puckish Rogue.
snap Freedom.
The Household Labour force survey has in recent years consistently shown higher numbers of unemployed, looking for work and discouraged unemployed, not actively seeking work, than there are numbers on unemployment benefits. And no, they have not migrated to sickness benefits, let alone found stable jobs. Remember the benefit system has been collapsed down into nearly everyone being considered a ‘jobseeker’ regardless of circumstances, inclusive of the sick, some invalids and sole parents.
The answer is;
a) the two Paulas (Bennett and Rebstock) war on the poor which includes making WINZ effectively a difficult to negotiate sadistic process which people basically avoid if they can possibly do so. WINZ have their own designated doctors and more required meetings and useless seminars than you can imagine that require transport, a mobile phone, presentable clothing etc.
b) a large slice of struggling lower mid socio level people drawing Keys “communism by stealth” in work tax credit aka WFF. If not for this Labour devised handout many more would be caught in the WINZ catch 22.
So people end up in cars, garages, petty crime, begging, precarious employment and the ‘black’ economy. Lower benefit numbers mean diddly with all the social dislocation and strife in this country.
It shouldn’t happen but it does and the latest example of racial profiling is shocking.
After police entered Stratford’s Whakaahurangi Marae on Saturday morning, the children, aged from 4 to 17, were made to get out of bed and lined up to show their hands so that police could look for evidence of an assault, marae spokeswoman Lovely Read said.
She said the children were left shaken after rude and aggressive treatment from the police.
This little movie, made of 36 ‘smoothed’ or interpolated images of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, takes it to the next level, showing the comet’s complex shape even more clearly as Rosetta nudges ever closer to its target. Some have likened it to a duck, a boot and even a baby’s foot.
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The following was my submission made on the “Fast Track Approvals Bill”. This potential law will give three Ministers unchecked powers, un-paralled since the days of Robert Muldoon’s “Think Big” projects.The submission is written a bit tongue-in-cheek. But it’s irreverent because the FTAB is in itself not worthy of respect. ...
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1. What was The Curse of Jim Bolger?a. Winston Peters b. Soon after shaking his hand, world leaders would mysteriously lose office or shuffle off this mortal coilc. Could never shake off the Mother of All Budgetsd. Dandruff2. True or false? The Chairman of a Kiwi export business has asked the ...
Jack Vowles writes – New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. ...
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The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
A leaked document shows the Canterbury/Waitaha arm of health agency Te Whatu Ora is scurrying to save $13.3 million by July. The “financial sustainability target”, which was “allocated” to Waitaha, is consistent with what’s happening in other districts, says Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists. ...
A look at the state of the previous government’s affordable housing scheme, and what could come next.Remind me: What’s KiwiBuild again?First announced in 2012, KiwiBuild was a flagship policy of the Labour Party heading into both its 2014 and 2017 election campaigns. With Jacinda Ardern as prime minister, ...
Labour in opposition will be shocked to learn which party had six years in power but squandered any chance to make real change. Grant Robertson’s valedictory speech was a predictably entertaining trip down memory lane. The acid-tongued incoming Otago University chancellor administered a sick burn to the coalition government. He ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Wednesday 24 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
The following interview with former Green Party MP Sue Kedgley came about because she features in the new memoir Hine Toa by activist Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku; the two knew each other at the University of Auckland in the early 70s, when they were both took on leadership roles in the ...
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry is seen some as its ‘silicon shield’ against invasion – but how will overseas expansion affect that protection? The post The state of Taiwan’s silicon shield appeared first on Newsroom. ...
There’s relief for building owners bending under the weight of earthquake strengthening rules – and costs – that came into force seven years ago. Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk has announced a scheduled 2027 review of the earthquake-prone building regulations will now start this year. Owners will also get ...
Opinion: It has been announced that nine percent of roles at Oranga Tamariki will be disestablished, presumably to help fund the tax cuts promised by the coalition Government. I am reminded of the graphics used to illustrate pandemic events, where five thousand people are standing in a field and then ...
After more than two sleepless days, running through savage terrain, Greig Hamilton didn’t know if he was going to finish one of the most gruelling psychological assaults in sport. He was metres away from the finish line, a yellow gate made famous in a Netflix documentary; a race he’d dreamed ...
COMMENTARY:By Murray Horton New Zealand needs to get tough with Israel. It’s not as if we haven’t done so before. When NZ authorities busted a Mossad operation in Auckland 20 years ago, the government didn’t say: “Oh well, Israel has the right to defend itself.” No, it arrested, prosecuted, ...
NEWSMAKERS:By Vijay Narayan, news director of FijiVillage Blessed to be part of the University of Fiji (UniFiji) faculty to continue to teach and mentor those who want to join our noble profession, and to stand for truth and justice for the people of the country. I was privileged to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Three weeks from now, some of us will be presented with a mountain of budget papers, and just about all of us will get to hear about them on radio, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Lowry, Ice Sheet & Climate Modeller, GNS Science Hugh Chittock/Antarctica New Zealand, CC BY-SA As the climate warms and Antarctica’s glaciers and ice sheets melt, the resulting rise in sea level has the potential to displace hundreds of millions of ...
The government's plan to reintroduce a three strikes regime is being strongly opposed by lawyers, who argue there is no evidence it reduces crime or helps people rehabilitate. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Jerker B. Svantesson, Professor specialising in Internet law, Bond University Do Australian courts have the right to decide what foreign citizens, located overseas, view online on a foreign-owned platform? Anyone inclined to answer “yes” to this question should perhaps also ask ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giovanni E Ferreira, NHMRC Emerging Leader Research Fellow, Institute of Musculoskeletal Health, University of Sydney Last week in a post on X, owner of the platform Elon Musk recommended people look into disc replacement if they’re experiencing severe neck or back pain. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Hayward, Emeritus Professor of Public Policy, RMIT University anek.soowannaphoom/Shutterstock NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey caught the headlines yesterday, courtesy of a blistering speech condemning the latest GST carve-up. New South Wales, he claimed, would be A$11.9 billion worse off over the ...
While police are "broadly in favour", the government's proposed anti-gang laws are facing pushback from lawyers, rights groups and former gang members. ...
While police are "broadly in favour", the government's proposed anti-gang laws are facing pushback from lawyers, rights groups and former gang members. ...
By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has arrived at Kokoda Station, Northern province, at the start of his state visit to Papua New Guinea. Both Albanese and Prime Minister James Marape will meet with the locals and the Northern Provincial government before they begin their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Wallace, Professor, School of Politics Economics & Society, Faculty of Business Government & Law, University of Canberra Shutterstock An important principle was invoked by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last week in defence of the government’s Future Made in Australia industry ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk Security forces reinforcements were sent from France ahead of two rival marches in the capital Nouméa today, at the same time and only two streets away one from the other. One march, called by Union Calédonienne party (a component of the ...
A poll last August found that just 16% of New Zealanders oppose bringing back the ‘Three Strikes’ law. The nationwide poll of 1,000 New Zealanders was commissioned by Family First NZ and carried out by Curia Market Research. ...
The solo show from Ana Scotney is both sprawling and intimate, and a must-see, writes Mad Chapman. In the opening moments of Scattergun: After the Death of Rūaumoko, writer and performer Ana Scotney lays out the groundwork, literally. Silently moving around the square stage, Scotney is not so much dancing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Burridge, Professor of Linguistics, Monash University Who makes the words? Why are trees called trees and why are shoes called shoes and who makes the names? – Elliot, age 5, Eltham, Victoria Good question Elliot! Let’s start with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne at amRawpixel.com/Shutterstock Roles of health professionals are still unfortunately often stuck in the past. That is, before the ...
COMMENTARY:By Malcolm Evans Last week’s leaked New York Times staff directive, as to what words can and cannot be used to describe the carnage Israel is raining on Palestinians, is proof positive, since those reports are published verbatim here in New Zealand, that our understanding of the conflict is ...
In the case of New Zealand, the results confirm that there is no popular support for the vicious austerity program being imposed by the National Party-led government, which is backed in all fundamental respects by the opposition Labour Party. ...
The ‘Vampire’ singer has never visited our part of the world, but that might all be about to change. We assess the evidence.Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour is pulling in massive crowds as it whips around the US and Europe, even helping to catapult regular supporting act Chappell Roan ...
Testing of drinking water in rural Canterbury over the weekend by Greenpeace revealed that several public town supplies were reaching levels of nitrate above 5 mg/L - the threshold which a growing body of scientific evidence has linked to increased ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rohan Fisher, Information Technology for Development Researcher, Charles Darwin University It may come as a surprise to hear 2023 was Australia’s biggest bushfire season in more than a decade. Fires burned across an area eight times as big as the 2019–20 Black ...
Responding to the Government’s announcement of changes to resource management laws, Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, said: “These changes are a step in the right direction in terms of removing ideological and unworkable ...
More than two years after the Human Rights Council called for the establishment of a national human rights commission, such a body has yet to be formed. ...
Comment:An emergency management system with wide variations in performance, significant capability gaps, funding shortfalls and above all a setup that is not meeting the needs of New Zealanders at times of crisis. The Government’s inquiry into the response to Cyclone Gabrielle and other severe weather events in the North ...
Welcome to the whirring wonders of one brain trying to align its actions with its beliefs within a system it thinks is evil. My brain has been spiralling in a woke conundrum ever since I found out a bookshop I’ve never been to was shutting down. Good Books, a bookshop ...
We repeat our call for criminal justice policy to be based on evidence, something the three strikes regime neglects to recognise – with no evidence that it either reduces crime or assists with rehabilitation. ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor in Honiara With only four more seats in the 50-member Parliament yet to be officially declared, there is no outright winner in the Solomon Islands elections. As of Monday, the two largest blocs in the winner’s circle, independents and the incumbent Prime Minister Manasseh ...
Two/fiftyseven is a multi-purpose space hidden in the heart of Wellington that is paving a way for sustainable building and responsible landlording in Aotearoa and beyond.By 2060 the world is predicted to double its entire building stock, which equates to building an entire New York City every 34 days, ...
Popstars wasn’t just a reality television revolution, it was also a huge moment for Y2K fashion.It’s 25 years since girl group TrueBliss was formed on New Zealand national television, breaking new ground for both the reality television industry and the shiny clothing industry. With the first episode on NZ ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Pepping, Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology, Griffith University Marvin / Shutterstock Are all single people insecure? When we think about people who have been single for a long time, we may assume it’s because single people have insecurities that make ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By William Geary, Lecturer in Quantitative Ecology & Biodiversity Conservation, The University of Melbourne Trismegist san, Shutterstock Landscapes that have escaped fire for decades or centuries tend to harbour vital structures for wildlife, such as tree hollows and large logs. But these ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Gladstone-Gallagher, Lecturer in Marine Science, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Shutterstock/S Curtis Why are we crossing ecological boundaries that affect Earth’s fundamental life-supporting capacity? Is it because we don’t have enough information about how ecosystems respond to change? Or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Crocker, PhD Student in Economics, Deakin University Here’s something for the board of the Reserve Bank of Australia to ponder as it meets next month to set interest rates. It has pushed up rates on 13 occasions since it began its ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a charity director outlines how she’s saving for retirement and buying secondhand. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Female Age: 45 Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: Charity director, mum of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sophie Yates, Research Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Many Australians with disability feel on the edge of a precipice right now. Recommendations from the disability royal commission and the NDIS review were released late last year. Now a ...
It’s been called a failed experiment and a judicial straightjacket but the government says the revised three strikes law will be a more workable regime, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Three ...
New Zealand’s Palestinian community and Palestinian Youth Aotearoa are voicing alarm and disappointment with the lack of factual rigour present during the Israeli Ambassador’s appearance as a guest on TVNZ’s Q+A With Jack Tame Sunday (21/04). ...
Both ACT leader David Seymour, who played a key role in drawing up the assisted dying law, and hospice leaders say it's time the legislation was changed. ...
Public submissions on proposed gang control laws are being heard today. Rising gang membership has been cited as rationale for a crackdown – but what do we actually know about how many people belong to gangs in New Zealand?What’s all this then?A rise in the number of gang ...
Climate activists are setting their sights on an unpopular target, and hoping to bring lots of the public with them. It’s hard to miss the Majestic Princess: the enormous cruise ship, docked at Auckland’s Prince’s Wharf, looms over the nearby buildings. The ship, which can fit nearly 6,000 people, ...
Opinion: Making sure developers, local and central government, and landowners are all on the same page makes sense The post A new kind of city deal appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 23 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
The following korero between Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku, author of the newly published memoir Hine Toa, one of the year’s most important books, and Dale Husband from e-tangata, was first published in October. It traverses her involvement with the activist group Ngā Tamatoa at Auckland University in the early 1970s, her ...
In the 16 years since it was bought by the government for $690 million, KiwiRail has had several overhauls and turnaround plans worth billions of dollars. Its ambitions as a successful, profitable operator of tourism, freight and ferries have often been derailed by disasters from earthquakes to cyclones, mine explosions ...
Black Ferns trailblazer Kendra Cocksedge was on the verge of tears when her young protégé, Hannah King, unassumingly broke the news. Three-time Rugby World Cup winner Cocksedge and Lincoln agriculture student King meet every few weeks over a hot chocolate, in an enduring mentorship that’s spanned years. “Before we even ...
Opinion: We’ve kicked the tyres on the perception NZ’s economy is in a parlous state compared to Australia. We take a quick tour of relative trends in GDP, housing markets, labour markets, trade, the fiscal situation, and the outlooks for inflation and interest rates. We find the cyclical positions of ...
By Russell Palmer, RNZ News digital political journalist New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters is putting off recognition of Palestine as a state, despite opposition Labour’s formal request that he make the move. Peters said diplomatic recognition of Palestine was a matter of “when not if”, but doing so now ...
The opposition has laid into the government's plan to reintroduce a "three strikes" regime, saying it's inequitable and there's very little evidence it works. ...
Hone Harawira under pressure in his Te Tai Tokerau electorate, last weekend a request was made by current Mana members for Clinton Dearlove to stand for Mana in the Tamaki Makaurau.
The request was declined by Mr Dearlove.
This was either a back channel offer by Mr Harawira himself or Mana members breaking ranks over the InternetMONEY party.
link below
https://www.facebook.com/289480731230120/photos/a.289845987860261.1073741828.289480731230120/300839110094282/?type=1
🙄
Doubly 🙄 so 🙄 ,i have been meaning to ask NzJackson if He has been in possession of a high powered slug rifle recently…
Very very bad news. Malaysian airliner destroyed over eastern Ukraine. Its going to get ugly, fast.
Don’t know if the link will function but this has been put up by the Ukraine govt. Purportedly an intercepted conversation proving authorisation from within Russia… (Source Telegraph clip yet to be verified).
It sounds like a horrible mistake in terms of miss identifying the plane, there is some social media from the separatists announcing they had shot down a military plane at the time and place where the Malaysian Jet ended up.
Correct to say it’s going to get ugly fast…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=V5E8kDo2n6g
Shit. Sounds like some amateurs with deadly weapons, mistaking a civilian plane for a military one.
intercepted phone calls show two russian intelligence officers involved..
That’s exactly what it is. The rebels only obtained an SA-11 missile system two days ago, and two hours ago were claiming on social media that they’d shot down an AN-26 transport plane.
There is no way that responsible air traffic controllers should have directed a civilian flight through a war zone unnecessarily risking their passengers lives. Especially on a flight path on which two flights had just been shot down in previous days.
This is the height of incompetence and irresponsibility.
There is no way that this should have happened again.
From Wikipedia: KAL 007
It seems that civilian air flights are being sacrificed as pawns in prelude to all out war.
it is common for civilian overflights of areas of conflict..
..they fly high..at 30,000 ft…
..and there is no way that hand-held rocket-launchers etc can take them down..
..it has to be a sophisticated missile..one beyond the ken of most conflicts..
Putin talked to Obama soon after the downing of the flight. If reports of Putin flying through that airspace just 40 mins beforehand are true, they were probably targetting him.
http://www.straitstimes.com/news/asia/south-east-asia/story/obama-warns-putin-more-sanctions-over-ukraine-crisis-after-malaysia-
Russia Today reports Kiev had deployed over two dozen BUK advanced anti-aircraft systems to the Donetsk region.
http://rt.com/news/173636-buk-malaysian-plane-crash/
The BUK systems require highly trained teams capable of deploying the weapon, arming the system, tracking targets, successfully locking on, and launching. Only Kiev has those teams.
Also AN26 are propeller planes, they look nothing like commercial jets, and usually operate at around 20,000-25,000 feet max: not the ~35,000 feet height of commercial airliners.
AN 26 data
http://www.flugzeuginfo.net/acdata_php/acdata_an26_en.php
Or maybe, karol, people every bit as professional as the sailors on the USS Vincennes, mistaking Iran Air Flight 655 for a military aircraft. They had radars and electronic capabilities well in advance of anything soldiers on the ground with an AA missile launcher and a mobile radar would have.
At this stage I have no idea whether it’s the Ukrainian rebels acting with Russian support, or the neo-fascist government, trying to provoke a Western response. It also comes at a very convenient time for Netanyahu, so I’ll wait and see. While I doubt if the west will intervene militarily, their hypocrisy in condemning this after the number of innocents they have killed really gets to me.
In any case, and whoever did it, killing civilians is horrific. It needs to stop all over the world.
A horrible mistake? Giving surface to air weapons to a bunch of lunatics in the first place is a horrible mistake. Thanks Vlad.
And yet the Americans keep doing so.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_flag
??
Even worse. Netanyahu just ordered the ground invasion into Gaza to go live.
Here is an example of the unmitigated sickness of mind in the Israeli Parliament
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/07/16/371556/israel-must-kill-all-palestinian-mothers/
A single MP rather than the entire Parliament. There may even be some other MP’s who share her views but I would suggest they are in the minority. I could equally point you to anti-Jewish views expressed in Arab nations and propagated via state controlled media outlets. There are extremists on both sides.
breaking news from Gosman
The chief difference being the ‘terrorists’ in those Parliaments (usually) leave that level of hate-filled commentary to others, namely those not elected by their people to positions of democratic representation and responsibility. As Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan says “If these words had been said by a Palestinian, the whole world would have denounced it,”
The world, including you, conveniently forget on a regular basis how Hamas is part of a democratically elected government so when Egypt does not even bother to consult them when formulating a cease fire plan, can you blame them for doing what any government would do in that position and rightly claim the cease fire has no consideration for their position, so Palestine has no obligation to agree to it. Israel would have done the exact same thing and you likely would have applauded them for it.
Returning to the hate-speech of Ayelet Shaked. This intelligent experienced professional who is a computer engineer and has previously worked in the office of the Prime Minister, is a top five member of Knesset for the Jewish Home, a group who hold 10% of the Israel Parliament. This Parliamentarian you are so quick to dismiss is part of the unicameral national legislature of Israel. As the legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister, approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government. One might say her views hold some weight.
Her post by the way, was published the day before the Palestinian teen was abducted and burned alive in retaliation for the three Israeli teens whose deaths have been central to this latest incident. The same tragic deaths Netanyahu was all too eager to manipulate into full hysteria and escalate into true bloodlust.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/netanyahu-government-knew-teens-were-dead-it-whipped-racist-frenzy/13533
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israeli-lawmakers-call-genocide-palestinians-gets-thousands-facebook-likes
Update: According to a Dutch news paper an anonymous source told Russian Press agency Interfax that Putin’s plane returning from the BRIC meeting was in the same airspace shortly before or after the Malaysian plane was shot down. the plot thickens!
Wow! An anonymous source told a Russian media agency that there was a plane in the area that if targetted would absolve the Russian government of all blame. Why don’t I placve much store in that do you think?
ANNDDDD Wow, The Gos is bored and needs to earn his shill money! Gagging for a war with Russia are you? You fuckin moron.
Please go back to your dark hole Travelleve- your bilious and vile conspiracy theories are grossly disrespectful to those killed and their families.
I find interesting her gigantic leap of logic that simply pointing out that her potential conspiracy theory about the so called real reason for the shooting down of the plane somehow means you must support a war with Russia.
You can go away as well.
Apart from offering heart felt condolences to those involved there’s not much else to be said at present.
+1
hey ev, dont you mean moran!
Hey Tinfoil, What conspiracy theory would that be. The one we got pushed down our throat within minutes of the plane crashing or how about we just wait and see and keep all our options open and some real investigative work needs to be done. In order of course to respect those who died 154 are my country men and women after all. Would not want them to used for the next godforsaken war.
You want to write moron as moran be my guest.
The reality C.V it’s been bad for a while, just in the last three days leading up to the shooting down of this Malaysian aircraft. Their has been shelling and shootings across Ukraine. With at least 17 civilian deaths and no-one knows how many combatants have been killed – this includes militias and government forces. Anarchist activists on both sides have been arrested, many on the Russian speaking side of Ukraine are ending up in Russian prisons and have been charged as terrorists. And on the other half they just disappear into red tape, or into these guys hands http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28329329
Could someone tell me when the Labour leader is due back?
Seems odd to have a major launch in Wellington, but then, in the same week that Key is absent the media, Cunliffe accedes the media ground following the launch to National?
You can’t start a campaign, put it on hold, then start it again.
Cunliffe, you need to come back.
Wasnt he in Queenstown yesterday campaigning with Liz Craig? But yes, basically everyone has bizzarely gone for school holidays.
mp’s can’t be expected to interrupt their ‘school-holidays’..!
..what heresy are you suggesting..?
..they need their extended/frequent holiday-breaks..
..they work so hard..on our behalf..the poor-luvvies..!
..i mean..all those questiontimes..?
Ideally some shots of him with a hammer in his hand putting up billboards tomorrow wouldn’t go astray.
Also we have campaign headquarters open and the old engine gets turned on again.
For most activists, we are neck deep in it – and moral support really counts winter, and when the polls are down.
Yep. Me and mates are putting up hoardings all around Region 6 next weekend. And the one after that.
cunnliffe should have been here..filling that media/information vaccuum..
..he needs a fucken holiday more..?
..that is more important..?..
..at this particular point in time..?
..yet another tactical foot-shot..
..it’s getting to be a long fucken list of them..isn’t it..?
It’s negative comments that fuel the anti-Cunliffe debate. He is good value and the right man for the job.
There is a massive anti Cunliffe MSM campaign out there. He was campaigning in Queenstown not on holiday in Hawaii.
FFS give the man a break and say something positive about him. We are 9 weeks out from an election and the Left needs to pull together.
BG @3.1.3.1. 100+
phillip ure
Can you keep your opinionated comments shut until after the election? You are neither use nor ornament when you can’t use your intelligence for good advantage to the left.. With this negative stuff you turn to the dark side.
Why not just shut up if you can’t say something helpful and positive. With friends like you… Perhaps after all you are a sneaky right wing white anter. If not, show it by not saying one more negative thing till the election is over or can’t you help being a smart arse know all.
and that goes for bad 12 too.
“..or can’t you help being a smart arse know all…”
..i’ve tried treatment..nothing worked…
..and i am ‘working for the left’..
..i am ‘working’ for a real ‘left’ govt..
..not just a national-lite/clark-years rehash..
..which you seem to be more than happy with the prospect of..?
In what way are you working for those things?
u go first tracey..
@phillip
to your last comment – I repeat –
‘You are neither use nor ornament when you can’t use your intelligence for good advantage to the left..’ And the best thing you can do is use your judgment to decide to stop making comments that demean the left.
re yr comment:..i repeat..
“….not just a national-lite/clark-years rehash..
..which you seem to be more than happy with the prospect of..?.”
Jesus it’s like you lot are determined to destroy the left on the basis of pointless dogma. Which one of you is the “peoples popular front” and which one is the “popular peoples front”? It is, however, very entertaining.
Greywarbler, the short answer is F off wanker, the longer one, what comments of mine are you trying to suppress,
If you want me to begin a series of anti-Cunliffe/anti- Labour rants leading into the election attempting to suppress my comments is the exact means of achieving this…
@Bad 12 4.56
It is unfortunate that you are so unable to discipline yourself to find a more courteous and thoughtful approach to other people. You would then limit your bad language but you won’t try as I feel that you like yourself as you are too much.
Lets try again shall we greywarbler, exactly who the fuck do you think you are attempting to suppress how and upon what subjects i choose to comment on,
This is ‘Open Mike’ it is provided so that we can comment on ‘anything’ that might be exercising our brains so as to keep the actual Posts relatively free of such distractions,
The Moderators set the boundaries within which the discourse occurs not you greywarbler, so, if you cannot handle the comments i in particular make, its simple just scroll on by when you see the Bad username, or better still, F off with your inane whining…
As far as I can see, Mr. Ure is a complete narcissist who has somehow self-identified with the left. Sometimes he says something quite insightful and useful, but not more than 5% of the time. I don’t think he’s a right wing white anter like Populuxe, but he could usefully learn that less is more. The way he carries on here is likely to make new readers wonder what the hell they’ve staggered into.
As for the squabbles with bad12, the two of them have just about put me off this site completely. I still read some of the posts, but don’t feel very enthusiastic about contributing.
PS I ate chicken tonight and took oxycodone, so feel free to make remarks about fat dripping down my junkie chin.
Don’t go Murry don’t go. It’s not the election time already.
Just come and visit and read Colonial Viper and karol and a few favourites DtB ec etc. There are plenty. You just have to sort out the wheat from the chaff, the gold from the washings, etc etc. But please don’t increase some other blogs IQ and in your absence, drop ours.
He was indeed CV!
😀
All reports would suggest that the best thing Cunliffe could do is stay away. I do wonder how Labour followers are going to feel when the Greens are the official opposition after September 20th.
It’s a shame the right has nothing to campaign on but negativity. Got nothing to offer the country or the majority of Kiwis.
you also really need to look to labour..
..there are no real game-changing policies ..on matters that really matter ..on offer from them..
..just the same old faces..preaching the same old neo-lib ‘growth’/arbeit-macht-frei! bullshit…
..but as long as the greens and internet/mana pick up those collapsing labour votes..
(.and more..).
..the left bloc cd end up looking how many (including me) wd like it..
..with neo-lib labour collapsing out to those smaller parties..
..the ones that have ‘real’ labour policies…
..and the greens/internet/mana together being able to force labour to enact the changes we need..
..i for one was not happy at the prospect of a dominant-labour..greens as ministers..supported by peters..
..with internet/mana glowering on the opposition benches..
..from chaos comes change..
..(and you can’t say labor haven’t been warned..repeatedly..with the polls also underlining that story..
..a cunnliffe promising major change..soared in the polls..
..cunnliffe/labour veering back to the centre/right since then..showing a corresponding dive in support..’
..just exactly how much more of a fucken heads-up do they need..?..)
Phillip-negative negative negative. Do take a look at all the policies Labour have announced with more to come.
Are you trolling for the Nats now?
yes they have some bits and bobs that r ok…
..but there is no poverty-busting..
..there is no serious fighting global climatechange in there..
..(in fact..to the contrary…more drilling/mines etc..)
..there is no financial transaction tax on the banksters..etc..etc..
..they are just promising more of the fucken same..
..you can’t see that..?
..we should all clap n unison for the hope of a clark yrs reprise…?
..r u kidding me..?
..u can’t see this as the cause for the collapse in support..?
..we do have memories slightly longer than goldfish..
..and show me anyone who just wants that reprise of the clark yrs..
…it’s the same faces..offering the same stuff..and saying ‘trust us..!..again..!..’..
..u seriously can’t see that..?
..and b clear..were they rolling out policies such as above..i wd b cheering them thru the rafters..
..but they ain’t..and i won’t…until they do..
..it’s called agitating for change..real change..
It’s a shame the right has nothing to campaign on but negativity
Really?
Off the top of my head Labour has gone about the:
boat building crisis
manufacturing crisis
housing crisis
social-housing crisis
forestry crisis
immigration crisis (too many kiwis leaving)
immigration crisis (too many people arriving)
marine industry crisis
Because thats positive
yeah – you need to show the positivity from the right to make your argument work
“were not as bad as you” doesnt make something a positive (irrespective of validity of initial claim)
Ah, no, those crisis are all the result of National’s policies. Admittedly, policies originally brought in by the 4th Labour government.
You’ll also note that National are the truly negative party with their outright attacks upon the opposition and no policies.
But Karol even offering “nothing” is polling better than the “something” Labour has proposed. Doesn’t that concern you that there is no resonance with the policies you espouse, despite in your opinion s lack of opposing policies to measure term against. Perhaps, like let’s say in a democracy, people don’t agree with these ” policies”. You might think they’re just peachy which is your right. Clearly most others don’t agree , which is their right.
I think Cunliffe and the team are on the brink of announcing major new policy about letter-boxes.
And I understand caucus and its advisors have been working around the clock and is almost ready to unleash exciting new policy on toothbrushes.
National however is rolling out definitive and innovative new policies on…
…oh look! a photo of John Key with a lei!
I know. But I expect National to support a status quo that advantages the already advantaged.
Can’t seem to stop expecting something significantly different and better from Labour. Hence the bitter diappointment.
(If Key announced a letterbox policy it would be lauded as a significant innovation).
+1
woo-bloody-hoo..!
..last nite at a meeting of internetty-people..
..i heard for the first time about googles’ page-ranking…
..which evaluates websites in a global-ranking between one to ten..
..(a super-ranking..if you will..)
..(ie..facebook is a nine..)
..and looking locally…the standard is a six..which is very very good…
..only pipped by kiwiblog…which is a seven..(‘boo..!’..)
..both whaleoil and the daily blog…are at five..which is also very very good…
..and whoar..?…whoar is also at five..(woo-bloody-hoo..!..eh..?..)
..as the internetty-people looked at me nodding their heads in unison as they said..’that is very very good..!’..
..i felt a definite lifting of spirits..a ‘high’ even…
..and i have achieved this ranking despite no social-media action..no seo-tweaking on my part..
..and that makes where i am now..even sweeter…
..(but as i said to those internetty-people last nite..’ok..but why am i still poor..?’..)
Sorry Phil – it is not a global ranking. Your score (which is worked for BTW) – is primarily because of all the linking back from other sites considered relevant (Kiwiblog and the Standard).
Here is some reading if you are interested: http://www.webworkshop.net/pagerank.html
So in effect you are crowing about something that is useless (at the moment) for how you are driving your site.
BUT – despite me not agreeing with anything you write (or your language skills for that matter) – you have earned the page rank by working / linking / posting etc.
It gives you a base to work from. so congratulations on that. I would recommend some reading on PR, QS, and SEO in order to further improve what you are trying to achieve.
Useless info – did you know Page rank is not named after “ranking the page”, but is named after Larry Page?
that’s funny..!
..kiwiblog..and the standard..linking back to me..?
..that’ll be a cold day in hell..
..where did you pluck that one from..?
..and really..i wd rather take the word/opinion of the people i was with last nite..their credibility/areas of work speak for themselves..
..their ‘very very good’ outweighs yr sneer..
..and hey..!..there are over 20,000 other websites around the world that have me/whoar on their best-blog list..
..how wd you explain away/denigrate that one..?
..and yes..i did know it was named after larry page…
..i learnt that also last nite..
Sorry – It seems that your view of people who disagree with you poisons you a little.
I wasnt actually sneering in the slightest. If you read I was actually being congulatory and acknowledging that you have started building up a page – and that this was from your hard work.
If you search kiwiblog etc you will find your website mentioned many, many times – indeed not a link, but the upshot is whoar.co.nz is mentioned in your post on websites that are recognised as “quality content” (subjective I know) for when people are searching for political info in NZ. Also they are “high traffic” – which again increases their google quality index.
I play in this sandpit – with a very high level of success. What you are doing is right as a basis for moving forward – and I gave a polite idea on other ideas that you can continue to learn in order to become more successful.
So no denigrating or sneering from me. I know its hard to build up. So – dont be a hater – it dosnt make you happy.
apologies 4 negative-reaction..
..i unreservedly withdraw..
..and..chrs..
I read your comment as praising but making a slight information corre tion
Israel has celebrated the end of the truce by killing some more kids and beginning a ground invasion. Shits.
Cynical: while the world is focused on the Ukraine!
Exactly! Never let a good crisis go unexploited.
they have heralded this over recent days..
..with a corresponding build-up of troops on the border..
..but yes..it does suit them…
..but unless they have e.s.p..
..i don’t think this plane-shooting down is why they are invading now.
..this is what they had planned all along..
i find it extremely difficult to dredge up any sympathy for Hamas in this conflict, having fired hundreds of largely ineffective rockets into Israel the only response that they could expect is for the Israeli’s to send in their army to attempt to crush the Hamas ability to fire such ordinance across the border,
Perhaps Hamas think that Israel will pack up lock stock and smoking guns for a destination other than the stolen Palestinian lands,
At some point in time Hamas will get hold of some of the really sophisticated big bangs being produced by both Syria and Iran and the playing field will be somewhat leveled giving Hamas the ability to total cities inside Israel and leaving Israel with the same problem it has after the Israeli army was mauled in the Lebanon,
It also has an even bigger problem only now in its genesis, should the rouge state that the ISIS rebels are trying to carve out of pieces of both Iraq and Syria become a reality Israel is in danger of being over-run at some point in the future…
All my sympathy goes to the average people throughout the region who have to continue to suffer under either the lunatics who rule them or the lunatics who want to rule them.
Exactly…
And the media who like to stir the pot…
Unlikely. An offensive ground based military operation requires an awful lot of preparation. It is not something that is launched at a drop of a hat to take advantage of some other event. Unless you are stating the Israelis are responsible for shooting down the airliner. I am sure some wacky conspiracy theorists will claim that shortly.
He was never claiming that. Merely saying that, for Israel, it is fortuitous timing that they can launch their offensive at the same time as this other tragedy.
Uh, Israel has been planning the details for weeks and has had plans drawn up in the filing cabinet ready to roll for years
It might take the Americans six months to prepare an invasion of Granada, but Israel is always at a high state of readiness and prides itself on being able to launch operations at short notice. Since Gaza is almost defenceless, with no army, navy, or air force, they can probably invade within 12 hours. Still, I doubt if they made the decision after the airliner went down.
So to be up front I am generally an Israel supporter.
But I’d have thought the had made their point by now.
They are acting like assholes.
Israel will occupy the West Bank like Macarther occupied Japan.
They’re in for the long haul as no one else can give the place security from Hamas and other terror organisations.
Go the Israelies.
you are openly supporting genocide?
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/07/16/371556/israel-must-kill-all-palestinian-mothers/
Calling genocide is like crying wolf. When it really happens noone will be willing to do anything about it (e.g. Rwanda). The situation in Gaza is not genocide. If the Israelis were really interested in wiping out the population they would use the same sort of ordinance that the Syrian regime drops on rebel controlled areas.
In a week or so Gosman when the death toll in Palestine passes 2000, 20,000, 200,000 will you still defend Israel?
The intent is what makes it genocide not the fucking bodycount.
How black is the heart that takes light from shadows.
And I’m pointing out that if there was actual intent the Israelis would be using much more lethal weapons to achieve their aims. In your views why are they not using more deadly weapons?
Because incremental assassination of the populace is more easily managed on the International stage and Israel have been firing from the grassy knoll for decades.
Apparently not if you and others are crying Genocide.
Also as a genocidal policy it isn’t very effective. These sorts of tactics have been carried out by the Israeli military fro decades yet the Palestinian population hasn’t diminished during this time.
“yet the Palestinian population hasn’t diminished during this time.”
are you ignorant or just stupid ?
https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/
“over 40 years of illegal Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza; 0.1 million 1948-2011 violent Palestinian deaths, post-1967 excess deaths 0.3 million; post-1967 under-5 infant deaths 0.2 million; 3,600 under-5 year old Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) infants die avoidably EACH YEAR in the OPT “Prison” due to Apartheid Israeli war crimes.”
http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.co.nz/2006/05/post-1967-palestinian-israeli-deaths.html
“7. Post-1967 avoidable mortality and under-5 infant mortality in the Occupied Palestinian Territories total 0.3 and 0.2 million, respectively ”
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread581669/pg1
has some very clear charts in case reading is not your thing
The more pertinent questions are “What was the Palestinian population in 1967 and what is it now?”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_Palestinian_territories
Approximately 1 million in 1970 and over 4 million 40 years later. Not very successful genocide if they are attempting it wouldn’t you agree?
Is this the bit where I am meant to say ‘by that reckoning no genocide of Jews occurred in WWII’ and you get to accuse me of anti-Semitism ?
your tactics need tuning,
I have better things to do today
Except the Nazis were remarkable successful at reducing the Jewish population in large parts of Europe. Prior to WWII Jews made up a significant proportion of the population of Poland for example. Do you know how many Polish Jews left in Poland there are now?
Gossie. There were still plenty of Jews in Poland in 1938.
The various apologists, doubters and hairsplitters here posting support for the dirty filthy Israeli military, should however unlikely, try and grow some human decency.
Won’t someone please think of the little children.
That’s a ugly comment, Gosman, and highlights your lack of empathy. You know full well children are suffering.
My point is by using emotional language and labelling anyone who dares to not agree with your point of view you effectively shut down any ability to sensibly debate and discuss options around the subject. Noone is downplaying any deaths or suffereing of any people here (innocent or otherwise). I am quite sure the Israelis think they are protecting their own innocent children via their actions though.
Please explain how killing 4 young children on Gaza beach furthers that aim.
Please. Israel has done nothing but protect their own children by way of 60 years of settlement expansion, at the expense of the second class citizens’ children in that country, Palestinian children.
They can’t even vote…
– By Noam Sheizaf |Published October 30, 2012
http://972mag.com/who-gets-to-vote-in-israels-democracy/58756/
Apartheid, or not?
Which little children? The little children the Israelis murdered for the crime of playing soccer on a beach, maybe?
And when Hamas get their hands on some more sophisticated rockets and begin to smash up Israeli cities with them will you go Wah Wah Wah about the death of Israeli civilians,
Hamas firing of 100s of largely useless homemade rockets into Israel directly provoked this invasion…
Get your timeline right. Israel used the kidnapping and deaths of those Israeli teenagers as the pretext to launch these full scale military ops.
The deaths of those teenagers should have been dealt with as a CRIMINAL matter, not as a matter for collective responsibility via military assault.
When putting together a reply to Gosman earlier, I included an article which provides a lot of context for the current conflict. It also contains numerous links to associated stories.
you know where I stand,
humans need to grow up and stop hitting each other to solve their problems
You have watched too much FIFA in the last couple of weeks Harriet.
You have the rhythm and semantics of a football supporter in the throes of World Cup fever.
Take your misplaced cheerleading to another sport, until your fevered brain allows you to comment articulately.
This situation deserves more scrutiny and discussion than what you have offered.
Cluetip:
When you’re the one who has caused over 200 civilian deaths through naval bombardment, drone strikes, shelling, and airstrikes, including 4 young boys playing on the beach yesterday, YOU are the terror organisation.
Harrier Jump Jet, you are a very disturbed individual to be making such comments. Your pom pom cheerleading of the Israeli Defence Force, who have brought so much death, pain and suffering to innocent people is incredibly sickening.
I sense though, seeing this is very similar to a comment you made on karol’s post, that you could be intentionally trying to wind people up. Such misery is not a game.
Or part of the organised Israeli Govt social media campaign, as was featured in the Jerusalem Post a couple of days ago.
Quite possibly. This intervention on the ground looks imilar to their last invasion of the Gaza strip. They are unlikely to achieve anything long term.
One of the more powerful things I’ve read this week:
http://publicaddress.net/speaker/not-even-a-statistic/
And this is why it is necessary to speak up. Because this can’t go on and, as a society, we need to change. What use is fixing anything if we can, collectively, still fail at providing the most basic of securities to over half the population (including children here)?
I note Winston is wanting an enquiry in to the running of Kiwi Rail. Seems to me to be a good reason for the State not owning a commercial enterprise.
piffle.
it is just an example of national party cronies out of their depth.
everytime kiwirail has passed into private hands it has been looted and handed back.
this time it is just ineptitude from national party appointees.
Do you have evidence that the people running Kiwi Rail have liks to the National Party?
Interestingly even if you did that would be another reason why the State should not run comercial enterprises because they can stack the board and management with political appointees.
Seems to me Gosman that like all ‘wing-nuts’ you just cannot help but dribble shit, here’s a taste of a few of the private ferry operator Bluebridges recent woes,
11 Feb 2013–The troubled Bluebridge ferry stuck in Wellington with engine problems may be out of action for a while,
http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/…/336738767-troubled-bluebridge-ferry-could-be-out-a-while
7 March 2013–Bluebridges 28 year old Santa Regina is one of three Cook Strait ferries to experience mechanical problems this week,
maritime-connections.com/…/three-cook-strait-ferries-hit-by-mechanical-problems/
29 November 2013–Bluebridge ferry Santa Regina misses sailings with mechanical problems,
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominionpost/news/…/more-woes-for-cook-strait-ferries
31 Jnauary 2014–Mechanical problems meant Blubridge ferry Santa Regina was two and a half hours late sailing from Wellington this morning,
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/9671438/bluebridge-ferry-delayed
3 April 2014–The Bluebridge ferry has experienced overnight engine problems,
article.wn.com/view/2014/04/03/engine_problems_hamper_ferry/
Shall i dig you up the 2012 mechanical problems/cancellations for the privately owned Bluebridge ferry services Gosman…
What is the reason Winston Peters is not calling for an enquiry in to these problems?
Because it’s a private enterprise and so it’s running and inevitable collapse is of no public concern. Whereas the railways, being a natural monopoly, essential infrastructure and run by the state, is,
A ferry service is not a natural monopoly though is it DTB?
Yes, it is because it’s all part of the same infrastructure. We used to understand that. Well, our politicians did and they knew that a state monopoly of infrastructure is the most efficient and cost effective means of supplying that service. Then they got bitten by the neo-liberal bug and privatised everything pushing prices up and services down.
How is it the same infrastucture given that Bluebridge has a separte terminal (at least in Wellington)?
Did you see the bit where I said part of the same infrastructure?
It’s just another part of the transportation network.
Then so is any enterprise that uses not just shipping terminals but roads and airports as well. I presume you think all of those are natural monopolies as well do you? Would be interesting to see how taxis would work if you do.
Nope, only where having more than one operator is an increase in costs with no added benefits.
Who determines if there is no added benefit of additional players? You and your army of bureaucrats I presume?
How about a B/C study?
You know something, we’ve never actually done one on the privatisations – just gone with the ideology.
How much it should cost to get broadband into every home in the country? Shouldn’t take long for you to find out as it’s a regulated price.
What is the reason that to all extents and purposes you are a functional dunce Gosman, Peter’s is grandstanding, looking for publicity from political points scoring,
What you do not know, and i do, probably because my old man was an AB on those ships, is that the ferries have been hitting the wharves at Aotea Quay and the Picton terminal with monotonous regularity since they first came into service,
It is only in the age of the ‘smart-phone’ that such occurrence are more likely than not to receive publicity,
The Aotea Quay wharf used by NZRail to berth its ferries is wide open to both the Northerly and Southerly gales that are a regular feature of Wellingtons weather,having to reverse into such berths mean that in such gales the chances of being blown into the wharf are greatly enhanced,
The ‘stretching’ of the Aratere by some 12 meters has turned that ship into a lemon as the insert allows for the ferry to flex in rough conditions more than the original design allowed for,
The private operator Bluebridge’s problem is of another nature, their ferry Santa Regina is 30 odd years old and just about ready for the scrap yard,
The danger of running these old and ill designed ships is that they will experience a significant engine failure, fully laden, in rough weather coming through the Wellington heads,
What is needed is a significant investment in this part of State Highway One with the building of some new ferries preferably here in New Zealand which would create 1000s of jobs and train 1000s of young workers in skills that are always in demand…
As much as I agree with you that those ferries should be build in NZ by NZers I doubt if doing so would produce more than a couple of hundred jobs.
no only the national party does that.
they need the patronage and its their style to rely on nepotism rather than merit.
That may very well be accurate. However the problem is that the National party gets in to office around half the time so has plenty of opportunity of placing their cronies in to positions of power in these organisations. The obvious solution to this is to not have the government being able to appoint their cronies in the first place.
The state should have no role in running Kiwi rail, nor should it be run by commercial interest either. Both have a shocking track record and both have trampled over the labour force in the industry. It seems to me, the only solution left, is a worker lead industry producing a rail system which works for the whole country. Otherwise were going to keep rolling on and on with this stupid system we currently have which is obviously not working for anyone.
I have no problem if a worker owned collective bought the assets of KiwiRail and ran it. Just don’t expect Government funding to keep it operating.
cool..!..kim dotcom is to launch a private prosecution over his being spied on…
Pity the other 87 New Zealand citizens who were also illegally spied upon have been refused the courtesy of also prosecuting those who behaved illegally toward them by the Governments refusal to inform those people that they had been the target of such illegality…
As a footnote: Perhaps Kim DotCom might like to consider widening His legal action against the illegally spying Government agencies into a class action suit covering all the 88 odd New Zealand citizens illegally spied upon,
In such an action the right of ‘discovery’ might reveal to those who were spied upon the fact that they were…
Does the NZ justice system allow class action suits?
Does the New Zealand education system turn out functional idiots??? apparently so if you are anything to measure it by Gosman…
Anything actually useful to add or is just an ad-hominem attack because you are feeling a little down today?
No Gosman, just pointing out your apparently inferior education or lack of actual ability to be educated,
Hint: i aint here as your on call fucking research department, if you want to ask twenty question and expect an answer then i suggest you fuck off and ask those questions of Google like normal people do…
“Seriously considering…”
You (again) are reading into this what you want.
He said he was “seriously considering”
https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/489619734757797889
Not to be taken for granted as happening as per your post.
Like he was considering sponsoring Team New Zealand, and pitting in another internet pipe to NZ.
both “considered” and nothing happened.
Anyone interested in the culture of North American Indians will find this interview with Bryan Crump on Nights at Radio New Zealand last night awesome.
“Mixed blood Cherokee map-maker Aaron Carapella has created what appears to be the first map showing the names and locations of Native American tribes before Europeans set foot on the North American continent”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/20142107
Air New Zealand is making its grabaseat special site customer unfriendly for people wanting to travel within NZ. There are nice informative windows for overseas but for NZ there is just a great mass of destinations run together, not even in a list form with some sort of alphabetic order. So I can’t run my eye down to see what is available.
They said they were doing an $8 flight thing and have 1143 – they say available but don’t count on it as they don’t change their available figures on the main list fast. Perhaps the cheap ones have all gone but no way at all of seeing what the status is.
But I have to start a booking before I am told what the price is.not the other way round. So I have made a tentative search with a trial booking and can’t find sign of anything special,not grabaseat price or $8. What a waste of time and smoke and mirrors. I am losing respect for Air NZ. Bring back Rod Fyfe, his stewardship of the airline led to good outcomes for Kiwis travelling within the country.
Do the climate a favor and hitch-hike…
The problem that Labour have now is one of momentum, its now almost a like a sport to see just how low Labour can fall in the polls. Will Labour break the 20% barrier? Who knows but the msm will be pushing it and people will be interested in seeing it happen and so will try to make it happen.
On the plus side its good for the Greens
Puckish-see jackals post today on IMP meetings. 22/20/7 gets a left wing government. You can choose who the 22/20 are!
But we may be seeing a Green Revolution developing at this election. Wouldn’t that give NZ some fantastic press across the world.
Its good to think positively, you think Dover Samuels thinks the same?
This is good from Dita de Boni today.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11295224
Yes. The most “with restraint” McCully approach to diversion through boring everyone.
Will the Australian government bar Obama from the G8?
(Because of his actions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and Gaza.)
Radio NZ National, 9:30 a.m., Friday 18 July 2014
In August 1968, the U.S.-led propaganda machine went into catatonic overdrive when the USSR sent tanks and troops into Czechoslovakia in order to bring a halt to Alexander Dubček’s program of political liberalisation. Many observers, of course, noted that the last regime in the world that was entitled to denounce a country for invading another was the United States. In 1968 the United States had more than half a million troops perpetrating the murderous destruction of Vietnam, and in a few years it would go on to attack and destroy Laos and Cambodia, perhaps irreparably. The United States was also the major backer of the blood-soaked Suharto dictatorship in Indonesia, as well as other gruesome regimes in Pakistan, Burma, Spain, Portugal, Israel, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Haiti, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
The Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia killed one hundred and eight people in total. Five months earlier, U.S. troops killed more than four times that number in a typical raid—this one was on two hamlets in Quảng Ngãi province in Vietnam. The hamlets were named My Khe and My Lai. The killings were nothing out of the ordinary; American troops did this so regularly that this particular massacre wasn’t even reported until more than a year later.
Over the years, the hypocrisy has never let up, not for a second. Uncle Sam still finds time to mount the pulpit, up to his knees in blood, and denounce others for doing what he himself has done, and continues to do, on a far greater scale.
It would be a lot harder for such vicious regimes to get away with it if people were more informed. To keep them uninformed, and stupid, and posting to Kiwiblog, and hosting radio talkback shows, it’s important to get the media on board. The best way to do this is to get “reporters” to repeat official blather, and routinely express “concern” at the “behavior” of official enemies, while studiously, diplomatically, putting aside such obvious and troublesome quibbles as: “What about what WE are doing?” There will always be troublemaking reporters, real reporters, of course, outriders like Jon Stephenson, Seymour Hersh, Julian Assange, and Matt Lee, but they can be easily sidelined when you have the vast majority of “reporters” on message, and able to suppress the urge to laugh at the absurdity, or screech at the obscenity, of the charade they are asked to perform.
On Radio NZ National this morning, there was a perfect example of this carefully cultivated blindness. A Malaysian Airlines passenger jet has been shot down in the Eastern Ukraine. It looks like there was possibly some Russian involvement. It looks like a significant number of the victims were Australians. To discuss this grave incident, Nine to Noon host Kathryn Ryan interviewed one Karen Middleton, of SBS. After some talk about the terrible event itself, Middleton moved from reporter to propagandist with sinister smoothness. She noted that Australia is due to host the G8 summit later this year, but that “there have been calls” to not invite Vladimir Putin “because of Russia’s actions in the Ukraine.”
She did not mention any calls to not invite Barack Obama or David Cameron, because of the actions of the United States and its deputy in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and Gaza.
I am sure Kathryn Ryan thought exactly what I and virtually everyone else was thinking when she heard that: what cant, what exquisite hypocrisy, what specious, sanctimonious nonsense. But she stifled any qualms she might have had, and said nothing. The nasty little provocation was allowed to lie there, unchallenged. Even in the midst of an awful event like this, the propaganda barrage never stops. And, almost without exception, our media representatives, instead of challenging them, cooperate with the propagandists and serve as their megaphone.
+111
I was also interested in both the statement and Ryan’s failure to challenge it.
The experts / propagandists are being trundled out by the Americans to establish a case against Russia and /or the pro-Russian rebels even though we don’t yet know for certain how the plane was brought down and, if it was by means of a sophisticated ground to air missile, it could have been fired from areas of Ukraine not under rebel control.
We do know that 295 civilians died which is tragic and an eerily similar number to the 290 who died when an American aircraft carrier shot down an Iranian commercial aircraft in 1988. They claimed it was an accident and as I recall no-one really questioned that much except the Iranians – and George Bush Snr gave the captain of the carrier involved an award 2 years later for his exemplary service.
It may be the pro-Russian rebels had acquired a sophisticated air to ground missile and the technical knowledge to launch it – although it’s hard to see how they (or the Russians) would think that shooting down an unidentified plane was going to do their cause anything other than great harm. As to the alleged phone conversation ‘confirming’ rebel involvement, how stupid would you have to be to think that a huge jet plane flying at 30,000 feet was bringing spies to the region?
It may of course be a dirty op – and you’d have to be a very ill-informed or ideologically blinkered person to deny the existence of loads of them or to deny the fact that the perpetrators of them wouldn’t give a damn about killing 300 innocents.
An idea that could be useful. A campaign throughout NZ by those wanting to get our democracy working.
Each day ask at least one new person ‘Are you a Sleeping Beauty?’ They will be puzzled and either reject the question as odd or irrelevant or ask for information. The answer would be ‘A Sleeping Beauty is a dreaming NZer who won’t vote in the September election.”
(If they did not reply it would not matter as they would have heard it and if it could go viral, then they hear other people discussing it, and there will have been a breakthrough in the ‘ignoring the election and our democracy’ wall of shame.)
This would just put the thought into people’s minds, become aware and could be done with anyone except people in authority over you, and those men who are so gender sensitive they might punch you in the nose.
If someone could put that idea up on Facebook it would get around fast, great consciousness raising, with a quirk to make it intriguing. It could mean that everyone in NZ would have heard the question, or about it, before the election.
Anyone up for making a positive personal difference as they circulate round the rohe!
Why don’t YOU start this thing off then? Create that FB page and start building the groundswell for the campaign. I personally don’t think it will be particulaly effective but good on you if you give it a go.
Thanks Gosman. Why don’t you give it a go? You have lots of time to sit and contribute critiques to the discourse and it would be good for you to practice your tech skills. I have lots of things that I absolutely must do. And little time to acquire the Facebook skills. You could put your time to something useful except negative stuff.
Or is it like typical NZ – no-one has an idea then someone brings one up, everyone else likes it and appoints the thinker to carry it out. Or it is damned with faint praise as you have done. Wishy-washy NZ. ‘Oh I don’t knoooww if that would work. Let’s sit around and do nothing and gossip. Oh well time to go home, see you tomorrow.’
Real red hen stuff. (This does not apply to all persons
involved with The Standard.)
I do so have permission to edit this comment.
Edited version.
gosamn is a paid moaner for the national party.
as far as I can recall he has never made a constructive contribution here or anywhere else for that matter.
“Each day ask at least one new person ‘Are you a Sleeping Beauty?’”
Yep – I cannot imaging anyone taking the mickey out of that at all.
Labour should run with it. Pure Genius!
Hello, I have 3 minutes to go but was not allowed to edit again my last comment.
I realise that I am being wishy washy.
Saying an idea that could be useful. How wet.
It is a great idea that would have big positive outcomes for small input. Like throwing a stone in a pond and the ripples spread in rings around – and each new action likewise.
“Be a voter not a floater…”
lol
Very funny Tiger Mountain 11.46am
However I am serious that it would be a good idea and not therefore suitable for saying amusing things of a scatalogical nature.
Sounds remarkably like what we have in NZ. Companies complaining about the lack of skills but are unwilling to actually do anything about it.
In light of Zetetic’s post this morning, I thought this article is quite apt http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/opinion/10264045/Bias-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder
No it is not. It is based on a false premise that media views are centralist and left and right views are on either side of reality.
Media bias in the eye of the beholder? – including the eye of the people saying it’s in the beholder’s eye?
Great post by the Jackal today. National with a small meeting in what appears to be a rest home in Wanaka while IMP are filling halls in the North. Even some young people present.
Watch IMP in the polls!
http://thejackalman.blogspot.com/2014/07/a-tale-of-two-meetings.html
Be interesting to see the numbers at West Auckland IMP Road Trip meeting on Sunday, 2pm, Kelston Community Centre top of Waikumete hill.
The Northland meetings were good turnouts being in the storm aftermath. The thing with these Internet Mana events is the people there are active locally or at the very least interested. Public meetings can be useful organisers as Winston knows.
+1 Tiger. Winston came to my mind when I saw the pictures of the meetings.
TM – precisely. It is only outside of Harawira’s electorate and even down into the Waikato and BoP that we are going to really get a feel for how much momentum IMP actually has.
They’re getting there, but they do not have the big Mo yet.
This thread is a Gosman sandwich. Trouble is it’s our fingers and ideas being bitten off in Gosman’s mouth and other RWNJ peculiar gourmands.
You do have all day to spend here Gosman so please do go on Facebook and put up my suggestion. I really have to go and do some real work instead of just thinking and worrying about getting a better world so that you can come along and pass some superior judgment on it as being a waste of time.
Slow progress made on wagon repairs
The BERL report on why they should have been built in New Zealand said that we’d get higher quality from Hillside and now it seems that they were correct.
We didn’t need the BERL report, engineers and management at KiwiRail knew months ahead of product delivery that the rolling stock was going to be woefully substandard.
A political decision pushed through by the Tories, the final win for the Tories being them closing down Hillside workshops irreversibly.
Probably because they read the BERL report before the order went out.
Nothing is ever irreversible – it’ll just take a long time to set up again.
We certainly do have to question why the Tories seem so hell bent on destroying NZ’s economy though.
FFS mate, no fucking economic consultants report was needed to tell the Kiwi Rail engineers who have had to deal first hand with the shit gear manufactured out of China for years and years that this was going to be more of the same.
That report was required to try and penetrate the muddle headed bureaucrats and media who had no idea and still have no idea.
It may come as news to you that we have a Free Trade Agreement with China. You can’t reverse that. Indeed there is no alternative to a rapid expansion of such agreements with East Asian countries. I would like to see the next one with Bangladesh. You are living in a 1970s bubble dream about New Zealand manufacturing. If cars can’t be made economically in Australia, how are we going to produce train sets? From memory the Hillside bid came in about sixth on price.
The only way your world view will work is a return to protectionism. That is not happening.
You would be much better advised to work with markets to advance the circumstances of the poor. Otherwise you are just pissing in the wind and irrelevant to modern life. Your ideas will simply never be implemented in New Zealand.
The sin of cheapness.
the idiocy of cheapness, too.
A cheap tender for cabs that have fucking asbestos. 🙄
Yep, people always try to get things that cost less money not realising that, one way or another, you still get to pay the full, real costs.
A free trade agreement doesn’t mean that we have to buy from them. Willing buyer, willing seller and such.
Cars can be made economically in Australia same as they can be made economically here. The problem you have, and it’s right across economics, is that you confuse finances with economics.
Nope – count full costs properly and trade between nations will end.
Markets only work to empower and enrich the already rich – as we’ve seen throughout history.
Toby Manhire superb as ever on Dotcom.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11295624
What is it with the sub-editors or those who write the headers for the Herald.
“NZ First’s shoot to kill law.”
Sound pretty lethal. But Adam Bennett’s column just explains that NZF wants the laws regarding self-defence to be clarified. Farmers or dairy owners defending themselves. A good idea. Have written to Adam as such a misleading header detracts from the quality of his writing. Shame.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11295250
It is the misleading headers in the Herald that bug me: “Toby Manhire: Dotcom’s delayed bombshell looks like a fizzer.”
Not what Toby says at all + the NZF I forgot to send this morning @21.1
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11295684
Don’t talk rubbish Pukish.
If Samuels took the trouble to read what Cunliffe actually said, not what the MSM reported, you will see that in context it was a brave attempt to initiate a debate on the real problem of violence against women to which our shallow PM could only say this was a “silly” thing to say. Pathetic response.
The highway north can be improved without spending the vast amounts proposed by National. The balance can be spent on things that are desperately needed in NZ like better public transport, smaller class sizes, paying off the $50 billion in debt incurred by this National government etc etc
Notice also that he is not moving his vote to National.
If Samuels took the trouble to read what Cunliffe actually said, not what the MSM reported, you will see that in context it was a brave attempt to initiate a debate on the real problem of violence against women to which our shallow PM could only say this was a “silly” thing to say. Pathetic response.
No, it just sounds like he’s still back in the 1950s.
Dover Samuels a good man? Good at looking after himself. At least as good as Shane Jones. Not quite so good at doing anything worthwhile for the people of Matauri Bay, let alone Te Tai Tokerau.
Johnny Winter has died.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Tyg5SJDpiQ
RIP Johnny Winter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkTZvcZs9pY
Note for Lynn.
Each time I make a comment I need to fill in my name and email address. It’s been happening for a few days. Don’t know whether the problem is at my end or TS end.
Cheers.
Lolz, it is giving me apoplexy, i mean how hard is it to learn to ‘look’ each time you make a comment, yet for the last few days despite telling myself how fucking stupid i am over and over i still keep not looking,
Laughs, it got me a goody again this afternoon, straight after i logged onto the Standard i filled in the name and email thinking that will fix it,
Browsed a couple of Posts and then made a comment, again forgetting to look, and the name and email had done the disappearo again….
we could all just log in of course, but as bad12 says, it is it’s own fun 🙂
Lolz, nah it can’t be that easy, can it???…
Cunliffe just can’t catch a break:
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2014/07/benefit_numbers_down_5.html
Please show us where they highlight those who have moved on from a benefit such as ‘Widow’s’ benefit or DPB or Long-Term Invalid’s benefit and are now receiving Superannuation? Whilst doing that would you be so kind to present any data available about those who have simply been removed from assistance with no other form of income. That might be difficult by the way as the government choose not to collect that data. It is a bit tougher to rah rah when reality is asked for isn’t it Puckish Rogue.
Meanwhile here is a little indisputable fact. According to the Household Labour Force Survey, the preferred vehicle for National Government stats. Unemployment has increased by 42 thousand people since 2008. 105K in 2008 147K in 2014 http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/income-and-work/employment_and_unemployment/HouseholdLabourForceSurvey_HOTPMar14qtr.aspx
http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/income-and-work/employment_and_unemployment/HouseholdLabourForceSurvey_HOTPDec08qtr-revised.aspx
snap Freedom.
The Household Labour force survey has in recent years consistently shown higher numbers of unemployed, looking for work and discouraged unemployed, not actively seeking work, than there are numbers on unemployment benefits. And no, they have not migrated to sickness benefits, let alone found stable jobs. Remember the benefit system has been collapsed down into nearly everyone being considered a ‘jobseeker’ regardless of circumstances, inclusive of the sick, some invalids and sole parents.
The answer is;
a) the two Paulas (Bennett and Rebstock) war on the poor which includes making WINZ effectively a difficult to negotiate sadistic process which people basically avoid if they can possibly do so. WINZ have their own designated doctors and more required meetings and useless seminars than you can imagine that require transport, a mobile phone, presentable clothing etc.
b) a large slice of struggling lower mid socio level people drawing Keys “communism by stealth” in work tax credit aka WFF. If not for this Labour devised handout many more would be caught in the WINZ catch 22.
So people end up in cars, garages, petty crime, begging, precarious employment and the ‘black’ economy. Lower benefit numbers mean diddly with all the social dislocation and strife in this country.
I would like to add by way of a small repost
For those listening to and reporting on the latest employment statistics
23 advertisements for the vacant position of a gumboot checker
does not mean there are 23 vacant gumboot checker positions
we’ll file with Treasury reporting on child poverty and police reporting on the burglary rate in Counties Manukau, shall we?
send a copy to vernon small too.
It shouldn’t happen but it does and the latest example of racial profiling is shocking.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10280576/Swoop-on-marae-likened-to-Tuhoe-raids
This was 2am in the morning btw. WTF is going on that these cases slime up every week or so. It is just not good enough not by a bloody long shot.
Yep, absolutely bloody disgusting actions by the police.
Amazing animation of a comet
http://www.universetoday.com/113317/rosetta-zooms-toward-an-extraordinary-comet/#more-113317
Such technical brilliance – mysteries revealed – a pity all of our brainpower couldn’t be used to stop war.
any effective drumbeat for war is typically led by a few hundred people at most, typically all members of the 0.1%.
http://www.fatherlyadviceandrants.com/orwell-vs-huxley.html
Old but good. Never really thought of these two as either/or. More of a blending seemed closer to reality.