It’ll be interesting to see how frequently the TV1 and TV3 political polls are done and/or reported on next year. The thing about such polls, is not so much are the figures, as in how the journos spin them.
Morena Beautiful, what delightful news to read this morning about the polls. Isn’t it interesting that the media appears to be keeping hush about the polls. I’m a bit of a news junkie and haven’t heard boo about this poll apart from here on The Standard.
On the first day of solstice nature gave to me
A declining National Party.
On the second day of solstice nature gave to me….
I’m yet to find out what that will be…. 😀
Labour lacks voter trust. Therefore, is it wise for them to run an election campaign touting tax changes to be announced after the election?
Moreover, while Little reaffirmed his opposition to raising the retirement age, he failed to rule out other options such as changes to the current indexing (which links super to wage rates) no doubt leaving a number of voters feeling skeptical.
With such low voter trust, can Labour risk going into an election while leaving voters with such uncertainty?
My gut says it is all there to lose for Labour if they get it wrong and I hope they don’t because that ratpack of gnats is not very bright and don’t deserve to be ministers imo.
The Chairman
In general Labour goes into elections with detailed policy which is outlined on the labour website in the months leading up to the election, not earlier so as not to allow Labour light copying by National. Conversely National generally goes into elections with little detailed policy. Many policy changes such as the increasing of GST after the 2008 election are not anounced prior to the election. Pot calling kettle much!
To date, out of the small number of policies Labour have announced, a number of them are lacking, therefore could and should be improved.
Nevertheless, National can decide to adopt Labour policy at any given time, thus the argument for Labour keeping their powder dry doesn’t stack up.
Until recently, National had brand Key. A brand voters seemed to trust, thereby that political appeal allowed National to get away with more or less as the case may be.
Labour doesn’t carry such voter goodwill, therefore their approach must differ.
All I and my family want is a living wage, an adequate home, affordable doctors visits, some hope for my children, and a government that cares. Good by Blue team, you haven’t delivered, and your not capable.
That isn’t a problem that Labour has.
Their real problem is their leader. He doesn’t have any real opinions at all on anything except that everyone should contribute to the Unions so that they can finance his election campaign.
Little, Andrew bases his policy on a very simple system. Whatever National announce he will insist on the opposite. If National haven’t announced their policy he is helpless. His mouth opens and shuts but nothing emerges.
Look at the flag debate. Labour went into the last election with a firm policy of having a new flag. When National went ahead with the idea he flipped.
Labour went into the last election with a firm policy of raising the age for super. When Bill wouldn’t commit to the same thing Andrew flipped. He has currently come to the right approach but not for the right reason. If National were to announce that there is no need to raise the age Angry will do a double back flip with twist and adopt the other line again.
The man is a fool. Probably due to his original legal training he has no principles or firm beliefs about anything. He will argue either side of the debate, based merely on what pays him the most..
But what Andrew Little isn’t is a cut-and-runner, like Key. Little’s here for the contest. Captain Key’s abandoned ship, leaving his crew flailing wildly in rough seas; Bilge-water Bill at the wheel, fool steam ahead, damn the torpedoes housing crisis!
You really must be dreaming. Here is a man who has reached his 50s but who hasn’t, in spite of the good “rich prick” salaries he has been receiving for many years, apparently not been able to pay of his mortgage and who has accumulated neither savings nor investments.
At least according to his Parliamentary return of pecuniary interests.
Now he has got a job that pays him around $300,000/annum.
Leave? He’s in heaven. He will be like Walter Nash if he can and will be carried out at the age of 86.
Andrew Little, Prime Minister till he’s 86!!
Alwyn! You dark horse, you!
All your previous cantankerousness, a front, a facade for your true pro-Labour position! You had us going, you ol’ scally-wag!
Apparently not. Perhaps Andrew will emulate Walter. If he did it would make him PM in 2040 at the age of 75. He would keep the job for 3 years and then be dumped. They would even kick him out of his leader of the Labour Party in 2045. He would then revert to the back benches and die, still in harness, in 2051.
Possible? I suppose so but do you really think that Grant wouldn’t stab him in the back sometime in the next 24 years while Andrew remains Leader of the Opposition? If you do you clearly have more faith in Grant’s patience than I do.
Walter Nash was before my time, alwyn, and I’m no historian specializing in the Labour Party, as you appear to be and it’s good to have someone with a long memory on board the Good Ship T.S. In fact, I’m not a Labour man, though I certainly enjoy this site. Younger than you and more forgiving, me. I don’t think I’ve ever big-noted Labour or her MPs, but I certainly have sung the praises of some principled politicians at times. You seem not to believe in such creatures. I’ve met a number of them and while I understand the problems with holding a position of political responsibility and making decisions on behalf of a varied population (I’m a local body politician) I am able to forgive those who find themselves in impossible situations or wrongfully portrayed by punters such as yourself (and others – sorry to see Stunned Mullet’s untimely departure from today’s debate 🙂
I didn’t like Key though. I met him personally and felt he was untrustworthy. From my point of view, he seemed to be deceiving us all. I reckon my radar is pretty sound. Misleading, misdirecting; they are signs to give a person a very wide berth, in my opinion. Sadly, we had to tolerate him for a long time. Gone now though. Very Good Thing.
Perhaps you are right.
Looking at Andrew Little he does remind me of the statue of Mahatma Gandhi near the Wellington Railway station. Same haggard look and tatty clothing.
He is probably as intelligent as the statue, although not of course the real person.
I hope he has a better taste in what he drinks than the real Mahatma of course.
Ad-hominem (i.e. personal) attacks will get you nowhere, alwyn.
People have long memories and Aotearoa has a relatively small politically active community.
“Look at the flag debate. Labour went into the last election with a firm policy of having a new flag.” Indeed. A new flag. One chosen by the people of New Zealand. Not Key’s Personal corporate branding rag. You gotta admire Labour for winning that contest, despite Key having tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to waste on his attempt to impose his desire on us. And I suspect you do.
“One chosen by the people of New Zealand”.
And precisely how was that going to happen?
It would have been done in exactly the same way as was actually chosen. What alternative was there?
Why do you bother to waffle on about it being “Key’s Personal rag”. Are you really as stupid as you seem? Key didn’t “choose” it did he.
Probably yes, you really are that stupid. Anyone who thinks Little is Prime Ministerial material clearly must be pretty thick.
If you can’t come up with an argument that at least has a little bit of a connection to reality I don’t think I will waste any more of my time on responding to your dribbling. If you come up with something at least remotely corresponding to reality I may give your education some more of my time.
Am I really as stupid as I seem? If I seem stupid, I’d be stupid to claim otherwise. Regarding the flag, Key certainly appeared to favour one particular option, guided the selection of it, promote it heavily through his comments and wearing it on his lapel, so yes, Key chose a flag but failed to get his choice accepted widely enough to have it replace the existing flag. What alternative to the process Key chose for the selection of a new flag? May I ask you a question in response that that, alwyn? Did you not read anything, any where on the topic of alternative approaches the Government might have taken to the choosing of a flag? If you were and are completely unaware of any discussion around the process, I’m not sure what sort of person you might be – some would say you’d have to have been living under a rock to have missed that debate, but as I’m not in favour of usingad hominem techniques in a debate, (though I note you have no such compunction) I won’t suggest that applies to you. I feel confident that you live in a house, though perhaps you don’t receive a newspaper and maybe your computer only sends, not receives.
Alwyn
The press,national party people,and trolls like yourself always rubbish the current labour leader. Remember the nanny state cat call against Helen Clark and apologising for men’s violence toward women by David Cunliff as apologizing for being a man.This angry Andy thing is just one in a long line of personality bashing and to me shows that the blue machine must be really worried.
To alwyn:
The only fool here is you alwyn. You have been continually trying to knee-cap Andrew Little as leader of the opposition, just to voice your hatred for Labour.
Bill English is hardly solid leadership material, I would give Little a head-start in that department.
“He will argue either side of the debate, based merely on what pays him the most..” very immature of you alwyn.
The Chairman
I remember a few decades ago, Labour held conferences around the country talking to the people and asking what they thought was important. Would that up their profile, and bring them closer to a range of NZrs?
In 2014 there were “Meet the Candidates” sessions in various centres to discuss disability issues.
We attended the one in Hamilton and the one in Kaitaia. Notice was taken on who turned up and what they had to say. Looking back, NZ First fielded folk with the best working knowledge of the issues while some of us took the opportunity to put the National candidate in Hamilton on the griddle, and I understand some rather difficult questions were asked of Te Ureroa Flavell at the meeting in Wellington.
I admit that many of us “veterans” went into those meeting resigned to the fact that it would be SSDD…having expectations of anything getting better in the near or distant future is asking for disappointment.
If there were to be meetings such as you suggest greywarshark, they would have to be open to everyone…not just paid up party members.
Will Chester Borrows have a merry Christmas?
His front-seat passenger/shot-gun rider seems to be happy enough.
I wonder if anyone’s asked Paula for her version of events?
Paula will be like the three monkeys on this occasion, Robert G – see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil. She probably had her eyes closed while Chester Borrows kept driving into those protestors.
Chester should have stopped, let the protestors make dicks of themselves and allowed the police to remove them.
That he drove slowly forward and managed to make them make even larger dicks of themselves was stupid, however, no one was seriously hurt.
So as I said Chester should be wrapped over the hand with a wet bus ticket give the appropriate apology and that should be the end of it.
Without knowing the circumstances of the incident you’re quoting it is difficult to offer any comment.
[I’m taking that as a face value accusation. And banning you for two weeks off the back of it. It should probably be longer, but hey, it’s the season of good will and cheer.] – Bill
“should have” agreed, Stunned Mullet, should have. “Legally obliged to” is another way of saying it. “No one was seriously hurt”, you say and that’s a good thing, but “not seriously hurt” is no legal defense against assault. So there it is and Chester and those of us interested in the case, await the judge’s decision. I wonder if Paula will be required to give evidence; What Paula Saw – or What Paula Said, would be interesting to know. We can speculate, for fun.
Let’s face it, it just wouldn’t be fair to expect a National MP to show some personal responsibility, now would it: far better to have some Stunned Lickspittle minimise and deflect instead.
There was a consequence for the protester (injured foot) and there should be one for Chester as well – the judge will decide. Better things for the courts to do? No doubt. Many cases would fall into that category, however, the courts are there for the purpose of issues great and small. This is a case that interests me and others. If you have no interest in the issue, perhaps you could concern yourself with those “better things”, Stunned.
Politicians are like that.
Remember the former Labour Party leader we had who claimed she never realised that he car night, just might, have been travelling at about twice the speed limit?
Concentrating on important papers she said. The other MP present said he was close to terror at the speed they were travelling.
The other MP wasn’t concentrating on important papers, plus, he was not a cool-as-a-cucumber Prime Minister.
In any case, alwyn-of-the-long-and-bitter-memory, that was then, this is now. Chester was at the wheel and can’t claim to be “concentrating on important papers”…can he? Maybe that’s his defense! Or perhaps Paula had just dropped the “Key’s doing a runner and I’m gunna be Deputy” bombshell and he lost control of his foot.
Yes, it was a long time ago. It is of course just as long since we had a competent leader of the Labour Party.
Keep the faith brother. Someday those glory years will return.
I’m not going to hold my breath while I wait for them though.
People justified Hitler by saying he had them in some mystical thrall. Key projected confidence, that’s all. I could be more direct but I would probably get banned from this forum.
Eyes closed and squealing? I doubt it. She’s no shrinking violet. She’d have been egging Chester on. Whatever it was she said, she’ll be keeping it close to her Chest.
“A French court on Monday convicted International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde of “negligence” for her role in a controversial €400 million payout to a French tycoon in 2008 while she was finance minister.
The Court of Justice did not hand down a sentence, a decision welcomed by her lawyer, Patrick Maisonneuve, as a “partial” victory.
“We wanted a complete acquittal, instead we got a partial one,” said Maisonneuve. “The court has decided not to penalise her – in fact, the court even decided this should not go on Madame Lagarde’s criminal record.”
The executive board representing the IMF’s 189 member countries reaffirmed its full confidence in Lagarde’s ability to lead the crisis lender, hours after the verdict was issued.
Media in France seized on the guilty-without-punishment verdict, voicing indignation in editorials Tuesday morning. In the left-leaning daily Libération, Laurent Joffrin wrote, “The ordinary person answerable to the law, less apt to be handled with kid gloves, will draw from this the notion that the ordinary fellow, who doesn’t enjoy an ‘international reputation’, to quote the decision, will not be able to benefit from similar indulgence.””
“…will not be able to benefit from similar indulgence.” Indeed!
Listen to the BBC, the Washington Post, Radio New Zealand and read the Independent, the Times, the Guardian, Fairfax Media or NZME – you will not hear these voices.
We just hear from activists operating out of Eastern Aleppo, whose reports are uncritically picked up by the corporate media.
Did you read Hitchens?
I’ll repeat two key sections.
“Our sources for this [that the pro-Assad coalition is systematically destroying civilian infrastructure] are people inside eastern Aleppo. There hasn’t, as far as I know, been a single, independent, Western journalist in eastern Aleppo. We rely entirely on propaganda sources, on pictures which always show wounded children being carried by noble, unarmed men in heaps of rubble. And we rely on this and we take it as read.”
“The sources for these reports are so-called ‘activists’. Who are they? As far as I know, there was not one single staff reporter for any Western news organisation in eastern Aleppo last week. Not one.
This is for the very good reason that they would have been kidnapped and probably murdered. The zone was ruled without mercy by heavily armed Osama Bin Laden sympathisers, who were bombarding the west of the city with powerful artillery (they frequently killed innocent civilians and struck hospitals, since you ask). That is why you never see pictures of armed males in eastern Aleppo, just beautifully composed photographs of handsome young unarmed men lifting wounded children from the rubble, with the light just right.”
There’s nothing wrong with only hearing about eastern Aleppo from people living in eastern Aleppo. The problem has been that only the voices of Jihadis in eastern Aleppo have been heard.
And now that eastern Aleppo is clear, who do ‘our’ media go running after? Well, the little girl of a family who decided to evacuate with the terrorists….not any of the vast majority who headed to west Aleppo.
The irony of Kathyrn Ryan’s interview with journalist Kim Zetter this morning summed up how lost the msm have become.
First of all they talk about fake news, commenting on how internet sources do not fact check their sources, then they go on to discuss the twitter account of a 7 year old from Aleppo.
Do you really think we are that stupid?
Susie, Kathryn and Kim need to expand their #SOURCES beyond AP, Reuters, BBC (State organ) and WaPo.
Endless recitals of “white helmet – Mannequin challenge anyone?” and Syria One Man Observatory “syriahr- put another tyre on the fire Danny ! – More smoke now” certainly do SUM to a hysteria that needs such balance.
#SMORGASBOARD
The rise of celebrity culture did not happen by itself. It has long been cultivated by advertisers, marketers and the media. And it has a function. The more distant and impersonal corporations become, the more they rely on other people’s faces to connect them to their customers.
Corporation means body; capital means head. But corporate capital has neither head nor body. It is hard for people to attach themselves to a homogenised franchise owned by a hedge fund whose corporate identity consists of a filing cabinet in Panama City. So the machine needs a mask. It must wear the face of someone we see as often as we see our next-door neighbours. It is pointless to ask what Kim Kardashian does to earn her living: her role is to exist in our minds. By playing our virtual neighbour, she induces a click of recognition on behalf of whatever grey monolith sits behind her this week.
Why do people become obsessed with others in the MSM? Why do they allow themselves to be so overtly manipulated?
For myself not a day goes by where I don’t question the ‘why’ of the masses. If its any consolation the existence of Bernie, Corbyn and Brexit (oh God, and Trump) are the first real cracks in the Manufacturing of Consent in the ‘West’.
Before celebrity culture, there was the Star system – Hollywood stars also performed a role within capitalism from the 1920s -1950s/60s.
They were larger than life, glamorous fronts for US capitalist culture of individualism, the US dream, consumer products, and allegedly an egalitarian culture where individuals could speak out about their concerns. They were part of a magical world on the big screen, that took people out of their everyday lives and worries.
Celebrity culture arose with shifts in both capitalism (to neoliberalism and corporate transnational dominance) and media/communications technologies.
Celebrities appear on small screens, and started to arise in the 1980s with video technologies – where everyone could own movies in their own homes.
Celebrities inhabit more of our everyday world, and are part of more interactive communications – people can phone/txt in their votes for reality TV celebs. And the rise of mobile technologies, and social media, shifted the celebrity culture even more into people’s everyday lives.
I think the percentages of cultural coverage quoted, comparing early & later 20th century with 21st century, are misleading. Media and communications had changed. Late 20th century and 21st century media and communications saturate our lives in ways they never did earlier in the 20th century.
Both Hollywood stars of past times, and more recent celebrity culture, sell a version of capitalism to the general population – albeit different versions.
…with the promise to free up more land for development and fast track consents.
There may even be something in there to give hope to those seeking affordable housing….cue, Tui slogan.
So, while huge tracts of fertile Waikato farm land is being subsumed into housing expansion, with the very real possibility that these developments will join up with the huge tracts of fertile South Auckland horticultural land also being converted….will the new inhabitants of these housing areas have the best vegetable gardens in New Zealand?
And from the ‘nothing better to do with their time’ file…our Friend Wayne, you know,
Wayne ‘New Zealand’s never been in better shape’ Mapp is participating in a belated conversation over on Kiwibog about the Legatum Institute report putting NZ at the top of the most prosperous nation pile.
And obviously because the discussion over on Kiwibog is so predictably formulaic, Friend Wayne has to share with the Kiwiboggers what Standardnistas are thinking about the economic state of the nation.
‘Legatum Limited, also known as Legatum, is a private investment firm headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. With a long-term perspective, Legatum invests proprietary capital in global capital markets.
The Legatum Institute Foundation was established in 2007 as an independent non-partisan charitable public policy think-tank that seeks to understand what drives and restrains national success and individual flourishing. ‘
So an extreme neo-liberal think-tank reckons we are great.
We should be worried, not flattered.
Pity the corporate media does not do a back check on these dodgy organisations.
Notice bullshit Wayne actually starts by talking about GDP per capita, where we have got way behind Australia since our 80’s “reforms.
But he fudges by using total GDP as an indication of our gains over Australia. As this is the result of immigration earthquakes and housing speculation. It is nothing to be proud of.
Out of curiosity I had a look at Kiwiblog, held my nose and read the preceding comments to Wayne Mapp’s contribution. My initial reaction to these were ‘Wow, just wow’ – the ‘names’ of some of the commenters, to me are simply sickening and their comments are obviously par for the course of a blog of that nature. The vitriol, hostility, and contempt towards comments from those who vote other than for Act/National, unions and their members, women (including of course Helen Clark – still after all this time) was quite mind blowing and any moderate comments disagreeing with the theme got the big thumbs down. I felt quite sullied after a few minutes and got out of there. I realise that some of TS commenters are pretty robust at times but the clear majority are sensible and thought provoking. I noticed that a few of the commenters have cropped up on other blogs (including TS), I sometimes read and while they are forthright in their views they are not in the same league as the bile they feel at liberty to spew forth over at KB.
Yep, Farrar’s little cesspit of barely veiled hate -speechers is an eye opener alright.
Kiwibog, the home of the always, always right.
It’s almost as if Farrar has taken it upon himself to keep hate alive.
I think that actually there is Farrar, his disabled person hating mate Garrett and our mutual friend Wayne Mapp who are actually real individuals. The rest, I’m pretty sure are made up personas that enable Farrar to really let down what’s left of his hair on full noise slander and slagging.
I could be wrong.
Now watch one of the Standard mods step in and give me a ticking off for bald shaming. 😉
Peter Hitchens argues for Aleppo and Mosul as equivalent, says terrorists are being defeated in both.
“To me the extraordinary thing about this [the events in eastern Aleppo City] is the attitude we have towards it. We still take a ‘something must be done’ view of Aleppo, when in fact what is happening is that the very, very nasty al-Nusra Front—the kind of people who a few years ago we were denouncing as al-Qaeda and regarding as hopelessly impossible Islamists—are being defeated. And that city [Aleppo] is finally going to come to the point where there will at least be peace. The only mercy in war is a swift victory and there hasn’t been a swift victory. But after seven—nearly seven—years of war in Syria it looks as if we might be reaching the point where Saudi Arabia, and us [Britain], and the French are going—and the Americans—are going to give up trying to overthrow a government, and people can at last begin to rebuild the country. …
Our sources for this [that the pro-Assad coalition is systematically destroying civilian infrastructure] are people inside eastern Aleppo. There hasn’t, as far as I know, been a single, independent, Western journalist in eastern Aleppo. We rely entirely on propaganda sources, on pictures which always show wounded children being carried by noble, unarmed men in heaps of rubble. And we rely on this and we take it as read. You never see any of this kind of reporting from Mosul or from Fallujah, where similar things have happened, which have been done by our side. This blackening of the Russians just seems to me to be particularly ridiculous. The thing is nearly over. We should be pleased at least that they can start rebuilding.”
The reality is that al-Qaeda in Syria, now rebranded as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (JFS) and ostensibly severed from al-Qaeda, had at most 900 fighters inside Aleppo City when this assault began, about 11% of a total insurgent force of 8,000, which has always been dominated in this area by nationalists.
Amid the bombs of Aleppo, all you can hear are the lies.
Peter Hitchens
An excerpt
In the past few days we have been bombarded with colourful reports of events in eastern Aleppo, written or transmitted by people in Beirut (180 miles away and in another country), or even London (2,105 miles away and in another world). There have, we are told, been massacres of women and children, people have been burned alive.
The sources for these reports are so-called ‘activists’. Who are they? As far as I know, there was not one single staff reporter for any Western news organisation in eastern Aleppo last week. Not one.
This is for the very good reason that they would have been kidnapped and probably murdered. The zone was ruled without mercy by heavily armed Osama Bin Laden sympathisers, who were bombarding the west of the city with powerful artillery (they frequently killed innocent civilians and struck hospitals, since you ask). That is why you never see pictures of armed males in eastern Aleppo, just beautifully composed photographs of handsome young unarmed men lifting wounded children from the rubble, with the light just right.
The women are all but invisible, segregated and shrouded in black, just as in the IS areas, as we saw when they let them out.
For reasons that I find it increasingly hard to understand or excuse, much of the British media refer to these Al Qaeda types coyly as ‘rebels’ (David Cameron used to call them ‘moderates’). But if they were in any other place in the world, including Birmingham or Belmarsh, they would call them extremists, jihadis, terrorists and fanatics. One of them, Abu Sakkar, famously cut out and sank his teeth into the heart of a fallen enemy, while his comrades cheered. This is a checked and verified fact, by the way.
Sakkar later confirmed it to the BBC, when Western journalists still had contact with these people, and there is film of it if you care to watch. There is also film of a Syrian ‘rebel’ group,
Nour al-din al Zenki, beheading a 12-year-old boy called Abdullah Issa. They smirk a lot. It is on the behalf of these ‘moderates’ that MPs staged a wholly one-sided debate last week, and on their behalf that so many people have been emoting equally one-sidedly over alleged massacres and supposed war crimes by Syrian and Russian troops – for which I have yet to see a single piece of independent, checkable evidence.
When I used to travel a lot in the communist world, I especially hated the fact that almost every official announcement was a conscious lie, taunting the poor subjugated people with their powerlessness to challenge it.
I would spend ages twiddling dials and shifting aerials to pick up the BBC World Service on my short-wave set – ‘the truth, read by gentlemen’ – because it refreshed the soul just to hear it. These days the state-sponsored lies have spread to my own country, and to the BBC, and I tell the truth as loudly as I can, simply because I cannot hear anyone else speaking it. If these lies go unchallenged, they will be the basis of some grave wrong yet to come.
Peter Hitchens is a right-wing authoritarian (who would voluntarily describe themselves as a “Burkean conservative,” for fuck’s sake?) who works for the Daily Mail, so if you’re quoting him you should maybe re-think what you’re doing. Eva Bartlett is a Syrian regime shill. John Pilger’s a has-been with an obsession that everything bad that happens is somehow the work of the US government. The others actually are proper journalists but don’t appear to share your enthusiasm for the Assad regime.
Also, you’re arguing from authority again. It doesn’t become less of a logical fallacy the more it’s repeated, you know.
There’s more propaganda than news coming out of Aleppo this week
The foreign media has allowed – through naivety or self-interest – people who could only operate with the permission of al-Qaeda-type groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham to dominate the news agenda.
There is more than one truth to tell in the heartbreaking story of Aleppo
But it’s time to tell the other truth: that many of the “rebels” whom we in the West have been supporting – and which our preposterous Prime Minister Theresa May indirectly blessed when she grovelled to the Gulf head-choppers last week – are among the cruellest and most ruthless of fighters in the Middle East. And while we have been tut-tutting at the frightfulness of Isis during the siege of Mosul (an event all too similar to Aleppo, although you wouldn’t think so from reading our narrative of the story), we have been willfully ignoring the behaviour of the rebels of Aleppo.
For the past few weeks, British news-papers have been informing their readers about two contrasting battles in the killing grounds of the Middle East. One is Mosul, in northern Iraq, where western reporters are accompanying an army of liberation as it frees a joyful population from terrorist control. The other concerns Aleppo, just a few hundred miles to the west. This, apparently, is the exact opposite. Here, a murderous dictator, hellbent on destruction, is waging war on his own people.
Both these narratives contain strong elements of truth. There is no question that President Assad and his Russian allies have committed war crimes, and we can all agree that Mosul will be far better off without Isis. Nevertheless, the situations in Mosul and Aleppo are fundamentally identical. In both cases, forces loyal to an internationally recognised government are attacking well-populated cities, with the aid of foreign air power. These cities are under the control of armed groups or terrorists, who are holding a proportion of their population hostage.
A further double standard concerns the reporting of Russian and Syrian atrocities. Much has — rightly — been made of the so-called barrel bombs dropped on Aleppo by the Russians. Yet rebel commanders in eastern Aleppo use equally hideous weapons. Last April, fighters from Jaish al-Islam, backed by Saudi Arabia and considered moderate enough that American diplomats retain relations with them, admitted to using chemical weapons against the Kurds in Aleppo. This attack received almost no attention from the media, and failed to generate the faintest outrage in Britain.
Jaish al-Islam employ a so-called ‘hell cannon’ to fire gas canisters and shrapnel weighing up to 40 kilograms into civilian areas. These are every bit as murderous as the barrel bombs. Reports in the western press have suggested that hell cannons are examples of the engineering ingenuity of plucky rebels. Few journalists have dwelled on the fact that these improvised weapons have been deliberately used to kill hundreds of Aleppo civilians.
Yet another double standard applies to the destruction of hospitals. When I was in Aleppo, I interviewed Mohamad El-Hazouri, head of the department of health, at the Razi hospital. He told me that when rebel groups entered the city they put six of the 16 hospitals out of service, as well as 100 of the 201 health centres, and wiped out the ambulance service.
They’ve all pointed out that the rebel forces in east Aleppo include some very unpleasant people, yes. Which actually hasn’t been concealed from us by our media, because we all knew about it before we read Fisk et al’s pieces on it. You keep quoting them and posting excerpts from their work as if they’d somehow proved that it’s actually OK for the Assad regime and its patrons to be carrying out indiscriminate bombardment of rebel-held cities, but they haven’t proved anything of the kind, or tried to prove it, and would probably be horrified that you’re trying to misrepresent their work in that way.
Peter Hitchens may be right wing and he may right for the Mail. I disagree with him on most things, like George Galloway does.
However, he is not an establishment figure on several issues.
A great deal more independent thinker than the establishment corporate media you get your ideas from.
Clearly you did not watch this or if you did, you did not understand what he was saying.
Well, sure. Famous right-wing authoritarian Peter Hitchens shares your enthusiasm for authoritarian nationalist dictatorships. That’s not something to be proud of.
Eva Bartlett appears brave and independent to me.
And seems to have the authority of the United Nations behind her at this press conference.
Here she schools a mainstream journalist about their biased coverage.
That’s your problem in a nutshell. Someone who’s plainly a regime shill, embarrassingly-obviously so, appears to you “brave and independent.” It explains the risible propaganda you post to this blog every day all by itself.
Opinion is still opinion no matter how ilustrious the source. It pays to try and discuss the facts. Contest them if you can.
What I find with most Assad supporters is that instead of defending or challenging the facts I put up, they tend to talk right past or simply just ignore them if it dosen’t fit their narrative.
On 11 August 2015, the popular gonzo news site VICE published a story about a conspiracy theory surrounding the children’s storybook characters the Berenstain Bears. The theory went like this: many people remember that the bears’ name was spelt “Berenstein” – with an “e” – but pictures and old copies proved it was always spelt with an “a”. The fact that so many people had the same false memory was seen as concrete proof of the supernatural.
“Berenstein” truthers believe in something called the “Mandela Effect”: a theory that a large group of people with the same false memory used to live in a parallel universe (the name comes from those who fervently believe that Nelson Mandela died while in prison). VICE’s article about the theory was shared widely, leading thousands of people to r/MandelaEffect, a subreddit for those with false memories to share their experiences.
Dude spent three years writing a chapter by chapter review of the book without orcs.
Atlas Shrugged
Foreword
A Novel for the 1% (March 22, 2013)
Atlas Shrugged is more popular than ever among economic conservatives, precisely because it offers a full-blown defense of rapacious, predatory capitalism in a time of vast inequality.
So the answer to a question about, say, had you been asked one of course, which no-one would do since you never ever answer awkward questions, house prices along the lines of, oh I dunno, try “Why are there insufficient builders, fisiani?”, then the answer would be Celtic and National?
Well, bugger me. you’re half right. It is National’s fault that the number of apprentices has fallen by nearly half since 2008, and that this is al;so the answer to why there are insufficient builders.
Yay, fisiani. At last a true answer. Well done!
The other answer, Celtic, is also true because of the number of Irish builders brought into the country after the failure of the Celtic Tiger.
Compared to last Election, Lab+Green up 7 points, Opposition Bloc up 5, Right Bloc down 5. Nat’s lead over Lab+Green slashed from 11 points to a mere 2.
Incidentally, my little Tory cheerleader, one minute your implying you’re of Noble Black African birth*, next moment you’re apparently a Catholic Glaswegian from Pollokshields , immersed in the Old Firm Rivalry (“See you, Wee Jimmy“).
Whit are ye daein ya dobber !, Make your mind up, ya wee dunderheed.
It has been largely forgotten that one of the key objectives of postwar free-trade policy was to maintain a roughly balanced trade account—a goal that the country is likely about to pursue anew and that will likely affect its policies touching on not just trade, but investments, currency, technology, and labor as well.
Which, of course, is why we have floating currencies but they’ve been set to float incorrectly being based upon demand rather than actual trade-weighting. This has resulted in a huge misalignment in the economy and such action as the 1987 attack on our own currency by Kreiger and our own John Key.
Trade-weighting would have to take into account the actual balance of trade, the balance of payments, working conditions, the minimum wage and other factors. In other words, all the things that are ignored by present FTAs.
‘Fake News’ in America: Homegrown, and Far From New
Chris Hedges
The media landscape in America is dominated by “fake news.” It has been for decades. This fake news does not emanate from the Kremlin. It is a multibillion-dollar-a-year industry that is skillfully designed and managed by public relations agencies, publicists and communications departments on behalf of individuals, government and corporations to manipulate public opinion. This propaganda industry stages pseudo-events to shape our perception of reality. The public is so awash in these lies, delivered 24 hours a day through electronic devices and print, that viewers and readers can no longer distinguish between truth and fiction.
There are established journalists who have spent their entire careers repackaging press releases or attending official briefings or press conferences—I knew several when I was with The New York Times. They work as stenographers to the powerful. Many such reporters are highly esteemed in the profession…..
……The corporations that own media outlets, unlike the old newspaper empires, view news as simply another revenue stream. Revenue streams compete inside a corporation. When the news division does not make what is seen as enough profit, the ax comes down. Content is irrelevant. The courtiers in the press, beholden to their corporate overlords, cling ferociously to their privileged and well-compensated perches. Because they slavishly serve the interests of corporate power, they are hated by America’s workers, whom they have rendered invisible. They deserve the hate they get…….
……….The object of fake news is to shape public opinion by creating fictional personalities and emotional responses that overwhelm reality. Hillary Clinton, contrary to how she often was portrayed during the recent presidential campaign, never fought on behalf of women and children—she was an advocate for the destruction of a welfare system in which 70 percent of the recipients were children. She is a tool of the big banks, Wall Street and the war industry. Pseudo-events were created to maintain the fiction of her concern for women and children, her compassion and her connections to ordinary people. Trump never has been a great businessman. He has a long history of bankruptcies and shady business practices. But he played the fictional role of a titan of finance on his reality television show, “The Apprentice.”……………
…….Images, which are how most people now ingest information, are especially prone to being made into fake news. Language, as the cultural critic Neil Postman wrote, “makes sense only when it is presented as a sequence of propositions. Meaning is distorted when a word or sentence is, as we say, taken out of context; when a reader or a listener is deprived of what was said before and after.” Images do not have a context. They are “visible in a different way.” Images, especially when they are delivered in long, rapid-fire segments, dismember and distort reality. The condition “recreates the world in a series of idiosyncratic events.”………..
………..A populace divorced from print and bombarded by discordant and random images is robbed of the vocabulary as well as the historical and cultural context to articulate reality. Illusion is truth. A whirlwind of emotionally driven cant feeds our historical amnesia.
The internet has accelerated this process. It, along with cable news shows, has divided the country into antagonistic clans. Members of a clan watch the same images and listen to the same narratives, creating a collective “reality.” Fake news abounds in these virtual slums. Dialogue is shut down. Hatred of opposing clans fosters a herd mentality. Those who express empathy for “the enemy” are denounced by their fellow travelers for their supposed impurity. This is as true on the left as it is on the right. These clans and herds, fed a steady diet of emotionally driven fake news, gave rise to Trump.
Trump is adept at communicating through image, sound bites and spectacle. Fake news, which already dominates print and television reporting, will define the media under his administration. Those who call out the mendacity of fake news will be vilified and banished. The corporate state created this monstrous propaganda machine and bequeathed it to Trump. He will use it.
‘This is a huge waste of taxpayer money’
Families are facing a bleak Christmas in cramped motel rooms that are costing taxpayers thousands of dollars each week.
There is a complete Bias in the Western Media
Press Conference at the United Nations against propaganda and regime change, for peace and national sovereignty.
Yep – post Liberation 130K residents of East Aleppo fled Westward – reunification and safety – now a viable option.
No reports of people “escaping” West Aleppo to the East – at any stage.
Eva Bartlett spoke in Santa Cruz, California on December 14, 2016.
Her speech contextualizes and demystifies the mainstream media portrayal of current events happening on the ground in Aleppo, Syria.
Hey Psycho, that is a ‘Hakenkreuz’ .. broken cross .. any way you cut it.
Symbols have meanings. It may be very ‘post-modern’ to play with them, but you will still get strong emotional reactions. I’m off to bed ..
This National government has been aggressively anti-environment, and is currently ramming through its corrupt Muldoonist "fast-track" legislation to give three ministers dictatorial powers over what gets built and where. But that's not the only thing they're doing. On Thursday they introduced a Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, ...
Whenever politicians dole out taxpayer funding to groups or individuals, they must do so in a wholly transparent way with due process to ensure conflicts of interest don’t occur and that the country receives value for money. Unfortunately, it’s not clear that this has occurred in the announcement this week ...
Last night began earlier than usual. In bed by 6:30pm, asleep an hour later. Sometimes I do sleep odd hours, writing late and/or getting up very early - complemented with the occasional siesta, but I’m usually up a bit later than that on a Saturday night. Last night I was ...
Early in the COVID-19 days, the Boris Johnson government pressed a Big Red Button marked: act immediately, never mind about the paperwork.Their problem was: not having enough PPE gear for all the hospital and emergency staff. Their solution was to expedite things and get them the gear ASAP.This, along with ...
Up until 1989, you could attend a New Zealand University, and never need to pay a cent for your education. That then changed, of course. The sadists of the Fourth Labour Government introduced substantial fees for study, never having had to pay a cent for their own education. The even ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Minister for Children Karen Chhour is putting children first: Hon KAREN CHHOUR: I move, That the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Social Services and Community Committee to consider the bill.It’s a privilege ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Applause and cheers erupted in the House on Wednesday afternoon as Children’s Minister Karen Chhour condemned Te Pāti Māori’s insults about her upbringing. Chhour, who grew up in state care, is repealing section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act – sparking uproar from ...
I could corrupt youIt would be uglyThey could sedate youBut what good would drugs be?Good Morning all,Today there’s a guest newsletter from Gerard Otto (G). By which I mean I read his post this morning and he has kindly allowed me to share it with you.If you don’t already I ...
Is the solution to any of the serious, long term issues we all have to face as a nation, because many governments of all stripes we can probably all admit if we’re deeply truthful with ourselves haven’t done near enough work at the very times they should have, to basically ...
The 2018 Social Security Act suggests that Labour may have retreated to the minimalist (neo-liberal) welfare state which has developed out of the Richardson-Shipley ‘redesign’. One wonders what Michael Joseph Savage, Peter Fraser and Walter Nash would have thought of the Social Security Act passed by the Ardern Labour Government ...
MPs are supposed to serve the public interest, not their own self-interest. And according to the New Zealand Parliament’s website, democracy and integrity are tarnished whenever politicians seek to enrich themselves or the people they are connected with. For this reason, the Parliament has a “Register of Pecuniary Interests” in ...
By now, most of you will have heard about the FLICC taxonomy of science denial techniques and how you can train your skills in detecting them with the Cranky Uncle game. If you like to quickly check how good you are at this already, answer the 12 quiz questions in the ...
Buzz from the Beehive The hacks of the Parliamentary Press Gallery have been able to chip into a rich vein of material on the government’s official website over the past 24 hours. Among the nuggets is the speech by Regional Development Minister Shane Jones and a press statement to announce ...
When Labour was in power, they wasted time, political capital, and scarce policy resources on trying to extend the parliamentary term to four years, in an effort to make themselves less accountable to us. It was unlikely to fly, the idea having previously lost tworeferendums by huge margins - ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: When Whanau Ora chief executive John Tamihere was asked what his expectations for the Budget next Thursday were, he said: “All hope is lost.” Last year Whānau Ora was allocated $163.1 million in the Budget to last for the next four years ...
Nick Hanne writes – There’s a common malady suffered by bureaucracies the world over. They wish to save us from ourselves. Sadly, NZ officials are no less prone to exhibiting symptoms of this occupational condition.Observe, for instance, the reaction from certain public figures to the news ...
Peter Dunne writes – As the city of Tauranga prepares to elect a new Mayor and Council after three and a half years being run by government-appointed Commissioners, the case for replacing the Wellington City Council with Commissioners strengthens. The Wellington City Council has been dysfunctional for years, ...
This will be s short post. It stems from observations I made elsewhere about what might be characterised as some macro and micro aspects of contemporary collective violence events. Here goes. The conflicts between Israel and Palestine and France and … Continue reading → ...
It may be a relic of a previous era of egalitarianism, but many of us like to think that, in general, most New Zealanders are as honest as the day is long. We’re good like that, and smart as. If we’re not punching above our weight on the world stage, ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Why aren’t politicians taking more action on the housing affordability crisis? The answer might lie in the latest “Register of Pecuniary Interests.” This register contains details of the various financial interests of parliamentarians. It shows that politicians own real estate in significant numbers. The ...
I built a time machine to see you againTo hear your phone callYour voice down the hallThe way we were back thenWe were dancing in the rainOur feet on the pavementYou said I was your second headI knew exactly what you meantIn the country of the blind, or so they ...
Why aren’t politicians taking more action on the housing affordability crisis? The answer might lie in the latest “Register of Pecuniary Interests.” This register contains details of the various financial interests of parliamentarians. It shows that politicians own real estate in significant numbers. The register published on Tuesday contains a ...
Microsoft’s transparency about its failure to meet its own net-zero goals is creditable, but the response to that failure is worrying. It is offering up a set of false solutions, heavily buttressed by baseless optimism. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in ...
Another Friday, another Rāmere Roundup! Here are a few things that caught our eye this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday, our new writer Connor Sharp roared into print with a future-focused take on the proposed Auckland Future Fund, and what it could invest in. On ...
Still Waiting: Māori land remains in the hands of Non-Māori. The broken promises of the Treaty remain broken. The mana of the tangata whenua languishes under racist neglect. The right to wear the huia feather remains as elusive as ever. Perhaps these three transformations are beyond the power of a ...
Posters opposing the proposed Fast-Track Approvals legislation were pasted around Wellington last week. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: One of the architects of the RMA and a former National Cabinet Minister, Simon Upton, has criticised the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals bill as potentially disastrous for the environment, arguing just 1% ...
There was less sharing of the joy this week than at the Chinese New Year celebrations in February. China’s ambassador to NZ (2nd from right above) has toldLuxon that relations between China and New Zealand are now at a ‘critical juncture’ Photo: Getty / Xinhua News AgencyTL;DR: The podcast ...
The importance of New Zealand’s relationship with China was surely demonstrated yesterday with the surprise arrival in the capital of top Chinese foreign policy official Liu Jianchao. The trip was apparently organized a week ago but kept secret. Liu is the Minister of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) International Liaison ...
With a crushing 20-plus point lead in the opinion polls, all the signs are that Labour leader Keir Starmer will be the PM after the general election on 4 July, called by Conservative incumbent Rishi Sunak yesterday. The stars are aligned for Starmer. Rival progressives are in abeyance: the Liberal-Democrat ...
We returned last week from England to London. Two different worlds. A quarter of an hour before dropping off our car, we came to a complete stop on the M25. Just moments before, there had been six lanes of hurtling cars and lorries. Now, everything was at a standstill as ...
Buzz from the Beehive A triumvirate of ministers – holding the Agriculture, Environment and RMA Reform portfolios – has announced the introduction of legislation “to slash the tangle of red and green tape throttling development in key sectors”, such as farming, mining and other primary industries. The exact name of ...
The Social Services and Community Committee has called for submissions on the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill. Submissions are due by Wednesday, 3 July 2024, and can be made at the link above. And if you're wondering what to say: section 7AA was enacted because Oranga Tamariki ...
Michael Reddell writes – The Reserve Bank doesn’t do independent fiscal forecasts so there is no news in the fiscal numbers in today’s Monetary Policy Statement themselves. The last official Treasury forecasts don’t take account of whatever the government is planning in next week’s Budget, and as the Bank notes ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – We know the old saying, “Never trust a politician”, and the Charter School debate is a good example of it. Charter Schools receive public funding, yet “are exempt from most statutory requirements of traditional public schools, including mandates around .. human capital management .. curriculum ...
How Do We Silence Them? The ruling obsession of the contemporary Left is that political action undertaken by individuals or groups further to the right than the liberal wings of mainstream conservative parties should not only be condemned, but suppressed.WEB OF CHAOS, a “deep dive into the world of disinformation”, ...
Muriel Newman writes – As the new Government puts the finishing touches to this month’s Budget, they will undoubtedly have had their hands full dealing with the economic mess that Labour created. Not only was Labour a grossly incompetent manager of the economy, but they also set out ...
Today the British PM, Rishi Sunak, called a general election for the 4th of July. He spoke of the challenging times and of strong leadership and achievements. It was as if he was talking about someone else, a real leader, rather than he himself or the woeful list of Tory ...
This post marks the return of an old format: Photo of the Day. Recently I was in an apartment in one of those new buildings on Great North Road Grey Lynn at rush hour, perfect day, the view was stunning, so naturally I whipped out my phone: GNR 5pm Turns ...
The Government may struggle with the political optics of scrapping assistance for first home buyers while also cutting the tax burden on landlords, increasing concerns over the growing generational divide. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government confirmed it will dump first home buyer grants in the Budget next ...
Yesterday, the Reserve Bank confirmed there will be no free card for the economy to get out of jail during the current term of the Government. Regardless of what the Budget next week says, we are in for three years of austerity. Over those three years, we will have to ...
It doesn’t inspire confidence when politicians change their minds. But you must give credit when a bad idea is dropped. Last year, we reported on the determination of British PM Rishi Sunak to lead the world in regulating the dangers of Artificial Intelligence. Perhaps he changed his mind after meeting ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Is carbon dioxide removal - aka "negative emissions" - going to save us from climate change? Or is it just a ...
Headed for the legislative wastepaper basket… Buzz from the Beehive It looks like this government is just as ready as its predecessor to dip into the public funds it is managing to dispense millions of dollars to finance – and favour – the parties it fancies. Or ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – National and Labour and ACT have at various times waxed on about their “vision” of NZ as a high value-added world tech centerWhat subject is tech based upon? Mathematics. A Chicago mathematician just told me that whereas last decade ...
Eric Crampton writes – Danyl McLauchlan over at The Listener on the recent shift toward more contestability in public policy advice in education: Education Minister Erica Stanford, one of National’s highest-ranked MPs, is trying to circumvent the establishment, taking advice from a smaller pool of experts – ...
Ele Ludemann writes – That Kāinga Ora is a mess is no surprise, but the size of the mess is. There have been many reports of unruly tenants given licence to terrorise neighbours, properties bought and left vacant, and the state agency paying above market rates in competition ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s being explained as an “inadvertent error”. However, National MP David MacLeod’s excuse for failing to disclose $178,000 in donations for his election campaign last year is not necessarily enough to prevent some serious consequences. A Police investigation is now likely, and the result ...
The scathing “independent” review of Kāinga Ora barely hit the table before the coalition government had acted on it. The entire Kāinga Ora board will be replaced, and a new chair (Simon Moutter) has been announced. Hmm. No aspersions on Bill English, but the public would have had more confidence ...
I'll light the fireYou place the flowers in the vaseThat you bought todayA warm dry home, you’d think that would be bread and butter to politicians. Home ownership and making sure people aren’t left living on the street, that’s as Kiwi as Feijoa and Apple Crumble. Isn’t it?The coalition are ...
Politics is about compromise, right? And framing it so the voters see your compromise as the better one. John Key was a skilful exponent of this approach (as was Keith Holyoake in an earlier age), and Chris Luxon isn’t too bad either. But in politics, the process whereby an old ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
It’s being explained as an “inadvertent error”. However, National MP David MacLeod’s excuse for failing to disclose $178,000 in donations for his election campaign last year is not necessarily enough to prevent some serious consequences. A Police investigation is now likely, and the result of his non-disclosure could even see ...
The relentless drone coming out of the Prime Minister and his deputy for a million days now has been that the last government was just hosing money all over the show and now at last the grownups are in charge and shutting that drunken sailor stuff down. There is a word ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed a New Zealand Government plane will head to riot-torn New Caledonia in the next hour in the first in a series of proposed flights to begin bringing New Zealanders home. Today’s flight will carry around 50 passengers with the most ...
Precious declaration saysYours is yours and mine you leave alone nowPrecious declaration saysI believe all hope is dead no longerTick tick tick Boom!Unexploded ordnance. A veritable minefield. A National caucus with a large number of unknowns, candidates who perhaps received little in the way of vetting as the party jumped ...
Rex Ahdar writes – The Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, likes to trace his political lineage back to the pioneers of parliamentary Maoridom. I will refer to these as the ‘big four’ or better still, the Four Knights. Just as ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Willie Jackson will participate in the prestigious Oxford Union debate on Thursday, following in David Lange’s footsteps. Coincidentally, Jackson has also followed Lange’s footsteps by living in his old home in South Auckland. And like Lange, Jackson might be the sort of loud-mouth scrapper ...
That is the only way to describe an MP "forgetting" to declare $178,000 in donations. The amount of money involved - more than five times the candidate spending cap, and two and a half times the median income - is boggling. How do you just "forget" that amount of money? ...
In this week’s “A View from Afar” podcast Selwyn Manning and spoke about the upcoming US elections and what the possibility of another Trump presidency means for the US role in world affairs. We also spoke about the problems Joe … Continue reading → ...
Hi,Two years ago I briefly featured in Justin Pemberton’s Web of Chaos documentary, which touched on things like QAnon during the pandemic.I mostly prattled on about how intertwined conspiracy narratives are with Evangelical Christian thinking, something Webworm’s explored in the past.(The doc is available on TVNZ+, if you’re not in ...
The Government is leaving the entire construction sector and the community housing sector in limbo. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government released the long-awaited Bill English-led review of Kāinga Ora yesterday, but delayed key decisions on its build plan and how to help community housing providers (CHPs) build ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Daisy Simmons Farmers who can’t sleep, worrying they’ll lose everything amid increasing drought. Youth struggling with depression over a future that feels hopeless. Indigenous people grief-stricken over devastated ecosystems. For all these people and more, climate change is taking a clear toll ...
New Zealand’s relationship with China is becoming harder to define, and with that comes a worry that a deteriorating political relationship could spill over into the economic relationship. It is about more than whether New Zealand will join Pillar Two of Aukus, though the Chinese Ambassador, more or less, suggested ...
Been hoping we would see something like this from Sir Geoffrey Palmer. This is excellent.The present Bill goes further than the National Development Act 1979 in stripping away procedures designed to ensure that environmental issues are properly considered. The 1979 approach was not acceptable then and this present approach is ...
He’s Got The Moxie: Only Willie Jackson possesses the credentials to meld together a new Labour message that is, at one and the same moment, staunchly working-class, union-friendly, and which speaks to the hundreds-of-thousands of urban Māori untethered to the neo-tribal capitalist elites of the Iwi Leaders Forum.IT’S ONE OF THE ...
Tree-huggers may well accuse the Government of giving them the fingers, after Energy Minister Simeon Brown announced new measures to protect powerlines from trees, rather than measures to protect trees from powerlines. It can be no coincidence, surely, that this has been announced at the same as Fisheries Minister Shane Jones ...
Willie Jackson will participate in the prestigious Oxford Union debate on Thursday, following in David Lange’s footsteps. Coincidentally, Jackson has also followed Lange’s footsteps by living in his old home in South Auckland. And like Lange, Jackson might be the sort of loud-mouth scrapper who could take over the Labour ...
Barrister Gary Judd KC’s complaint to the Regulatory Review Committee has sparked a fierce debate about the place of tikanga Māori – or Māori customs, values and spiritual beliefs – in the law.Judd opposes the New Zealand Council of Legal Education’s plans to make teaching tikanga compulsory in the legal curriculum.AUT ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect New Zealanders' right of free speech. The “Protection of Freedom of Expression Bill” will ensure that no organisation or individual, when acting within the law, is unreasonably denied use of a public venue for an organised event or ...
The Green Party unequivocally condemns the governing parties’ attempts to limit the public’s say on the controversial Māori wards legislation, after the select committee considering the legislation set a deadline for submissions of just five days. ...
Disabled children and families nationwide have recently found out they’re no longer able to use disability support funding for programmes during school hours in another quiet update from the Government. ...
Following a horrific case of stalking that ended in tragedy, Labour’s police spokesperson Ginny Andersen has drafted a bill that would add stalking to the Crimes Act. ...
The Rt Hon Winston Peters, joined by Mike King, has announced $24 million over four years for the ‘I Am Hope Foundation’, and will provide young people aged between 5 to 25 years with free mental health counselling services. This funding will help I Am Hope’s ‘Gumboot Friday’ initiative give ...
Te Pāti Māori have launched a petition to stop the repeal of Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act. This announcement comes prior to the first reading of the Section 7AA repeal bill in Parliament today. “Section 7AA forces the Government to adhere to Te Tiriti o Waitangi with respect ...
The Government has yet again failed to do the one thing that needs to happen to ensure houses can be built – commit to ongoing funding, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Treasury officials have outlined many ways in which the Fast Track Approvals Bill is deeply flawed, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking says. ...
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick used this year's State of the Planet to call on the Government to prioritise people and planet as the delivery of the Budget approaches. A full transcript of their speeches can be found below. ...
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick have used their State of the Planet speeches to challenge the Government to prioritise people and planet over profit as the delivery of the Budget approaches. ...
The Government’s introduction of legislation that would enable landlords to end tenancies with no reason marks a dark day for the 1.4 million people who rent their home in Aotearoa. ...
The Minister for Mental Health has found the Suicide Prevention Office and mental health support for 111 calls slipping through his fingers, says Labour spokesperson for Mental Health Ingrid Leary. ...
Today’s justification from the Minister for Children for scrapping protections for our tamariki was either a case of ignorance or deliberate deception. ...
The Green Party says the Government’s misguided policy on gangs will fail, following the announcement of the establishment of a national gang unit and district gang disruption units to target gang activities. ...
“With Police pay negotiations still unresolved after six months in Government, Mark Mitchell has today rolled the Commissioner out for a rebrand of their approach to gang crime,” Labour police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said. ...
The Government bringing back 50 charter schools will not increase achievement and is a distraction from the core mission of the education system, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Te Pāti Māori is showing extreme concern over the Environment Select Committees adoption of a lucky dip draw to determine hearings for the Fast Track Approvals bill. Of the 27,000 submissions, 2,900 requested to present. All organisations will be heard; however, the remaining 2,350 submitters will be subject to a ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Over the next four years, Budget 24 will support the training and recruitment of 1,500 teachers into the workforce, Education Minister Erica Stanford announced today. “To raise achievement and develop a world leading education system we’re investing nearly $53 million over four years to attract, train and retain our valued ...
1. New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Rt Hon Winston Peters; Minister of Health and Minister for Pacific Peoples Hon Dr Shane Reti; and Minister for Climate Change Hon Simon Watts hosted Cook Islands Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration Hon Tingika Elikana and Minister of Health Hon Vainetutai Rose Toki-Brown on 24 May ...
The Government has approved two-year extensions for four New Zealand Defence Force deployments to the Middle East and Africa, Defence Minister Judith Collins and Foreign Minister Winston Peters announced today. “These deployments are long-standing New Zealand commitments, which reflect our ongoing interest in promoting peace and stability, and making active ...
The Climate Change Commission Chair, Dr Rod Carr, has confirmed his plans to retire at the end of his term later this year, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Prior to the election, Dr Carr advised me he would be retiring when his term concluded. Dr Rod Carr has led ...
Nine highly respected experts have been appointed to the inaugural board of the new Integrity Sport and Recreation Commission, Sport & Recreation Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Integrity Sport and Recreation Commission is a new independent Crown entity which was established under the Integrity Sport and Recreation Act last year, ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters confirmed today that Vote Foreign Affairs in Budget 2024 will balance two crucial priorities of the Coalition Government. While Budget 2024 reflects the constrained fiscal environment, the Government also recognises the critical role MFAT plays in keeping New Zealanders safe and prosperous. “Consistent with ...
New social housing funding in Budget 2024 will ensure the Government can continue supporting more families into warm, dry homes from July 2025, Housing Ministers Chris Bishop and Tama Potaka say. “Earlier this week I was proud to announce that Budget 2024 allocates $140 million to fund 1,500 new social ...
Introduction Today, we are sharing a red-letter occasion. A Blackball event on hallowed ground. Today we underscore the importance of our mineral estate. A reminder that our natural resource sector has much to offer. Such a contribution will not come to pass without investment. However, more than money is needed. ...
Increasing national and regional prosperity, providing the minerals needed for new technology and the clean energy transition, and doubling the value of minerals exports are the bold aims of the Government’s vision for the minerals sector. Resources Minister Shane Jones today launched a draft strategy for the minerals sector in ...
The coalition Government’s legislation to restore the rights of communities to determine whether to introduce Māori wards has passed its first reading in Parliament, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown says. “Divisive changes introduced by the previous government denied local communities the ability to determine whether to establish Māori wards.” The ...
The coalition Government has today introduced legislation to slash the tangle of red and green tape throttling some of New Zealand’s key sectors, including farming, mining and other primary industries. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop says the Government is committed to unlocking development and investment while ensuring the environment is ...
The decision by Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to approve the continued use of hydrogen cyanamide, known as Hi-Cane, has been welcomed by Environment Minister Penny Simmonds and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay. “The EPA decision introduces appropriate environmental safeguards which will allow kiwifruit and other growers to use Hi-Cane responsibly,” Ms ...
Kia ora, Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou kātoa Tāmaki Herenga Waka, Tāmaki Herenga tangata Ngā mihi ki ngā mana whenua o tēnei rohe Ngāti Whātua ō Ōrākei me nga iwi kātoa kua tae mai. Mauriora. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the EMA for hosting this event. Let me acknowledge ...
The coalition Government is investing in social housing for New Zealanders who are most in need of a warm dry home, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. Budget 2024 will allocate $140 million in new funding for 1,500 new social housing places to be provided by Community Housing Providers (CHPs), not ...
Thousands more young New Zealanders will have better access to mental health services as the Government delivers on its commitment to fund the Gumboot Friday initiative, says Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey. “Budget 2024 will provide $24 million over four years to contract the ...
The Coalition Government’s Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill, which will improve tenancy laws and help increase the supply of rental properties, has passed its first reading in Parliament says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “The Bill proposes much-needed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 that will remove barriers to increasing private ...
Standing here in Cassino War Cemetery, among the graves looking up at the beautiful Abbey of Montecassino, it is hard to imagine the utter devastation left behind by the battles which ended here in May 1944. Hundreds of thousands of shells and bombs of every description left nothing but piled ...
I present a legislative statement on the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill Mr. Speaker, I move that the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Social Services and Community Committee to consider the Bill. Thank you, Mr. ...
The Bill to repeal Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act has had its first reading in Parliament today. The Bill reaffirms the Coalition Government’s commitment to the care and safety of children in care, says Minister for Children Karen Chhour. “When I became the Minister for Children, I made ...
Kia ora koutou, good morning, and zao shang hao. Thank you Fran for the opportunity to speak at the 2024 China Business Summit – it’s great to be here today. I’d also like to acknowledge: Simon Bridges - CEO of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce. His Excellency Ambassador - Wang ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed a New Zealand Government plane will head to New Caledonia in the next hour in the first in a series of proposed flights to begin bringing New Zealanders home. “New Zealanders in New Caledonia have faced a challenging few days - and bringing ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed a New Zealand Government plane will head to New Caledonia in the next hour in the first in a series of proposed flights to begin bringing New Zealanders home. “New Zealanders in New Caledonia have faced a challenging few days - and bringing them ...
The Coalition Government will introduce legislation this year that will enable roadside drug testing as part of our commitment to improve road safety and restore law and order, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Alcohol and drugs are the number one contributing factor in fatal road crashes in New Zealand. In ...
The Government has announced a series of immediate actions in response to the independent review of Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “Kāinga Ora is a large and important Crown entity, with assets of $45 billion and over $2.5 billion of expenditure each year. It ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour is pleased that Pseudoephedrine can now be purchased by the general public to protect them from winter illness, after the coalition government worked swiftly to change the law and oversaw a fast approval process by Medsafe. “Pharmacies are now putting the medicines back on their ...
Tēnā koutou katoa. Da jia hao. Good morning everyone. Prime Minister Luxon, your excellency, a great friend of New Zealand and my friend Ambassador Wang, Mayor of what he tells me is the best city in New Zealand, Wayne Brown, the highly respected Fran O’Sullivan, Champion of the Auckland business ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced that the Government will make it easier for lines firms to take action to remove vegetation from obstructing local powerlines. The change will ensure greater security of electricity supply in local communities, particularly during severe weather events. “Trees or parts of trees falling on ...
Wairarapa Moana ki Pouakani were the top winners at this year’s Ahuwhenua Trophy awards recognising the best in Māori dairy farming. Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka announced the winners and congratulated runners-up, Whakatōhea Māori Trust Board, at an awards celebration also attended by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister ...
"On the 27th of March, I sought assurances from the Chief Executive, Department of Internal Affairs, that the Department’s correct processes and policies had been followed in regards to a passport application which received media attention,” says Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden. “I raised my concerns after being ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins has announced the appointment of three new District Court Judges, to replace Judges who have recently retired. Peter James Davey of Auckland has been appointed a District Court Judge with a jury jurisdiction to be based at Whangarei. Mr Davey initially started work as a law clerk/solicitor with ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour is calling on the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) to put ideology to the side and focus on students’ learning, in reaction to the union holding paid teacher meetings across New Zealand about charter schools. “The PPTA is disrupting schools up and down the ...
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly today announced the appointment of Craig Stobo as the new chair of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). Mr Stobo takes over from Mark Todd, whose term expired at the end of April. Mr Stobo’s appointment is for a five-year term. “The FMA plays ...
Surf Life Saving New Zealand and Coastguard New Zealand will continue to be able to keep people safe in, on, and around the water following a funding boost of $63.644 million over four years, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. “Heading to the beach for ...
New Zealand and Tuvalu have reaffirmed their close relationship, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand is committed to working with Tuvalu on a shared vision of resilience, prosperity and security, in close concert with Australia,” says Mr Peters, who last visited Tuvalu in 2019. “It is my pleasure ...
New Zealand is gravely concerned about the situation in New Caledonia, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The escalating situation and violent protests in Nouméa are of serious concern across the Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “The immediate priority must be for all sides to take steps to de-escalate the ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met today with Samoa’s O le Ao o le Malo, Afioga Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, who is making a State Visit to New Zealand. “His Highness and I reflected on our two countries’ extensive community links, with Samoan–New Zealanders contributing to all areas of our national ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has announced that he has approved Waiheke Island ferry operator Island Direct to be eligible for SuperGold Card funding, paving the way for a commercial agreement to bring the operator into the scheme. “Island Direct started operating in November 2023, offering an additional option for people ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters today announced further sanctions on 28 individuals and 14 entities providing military and strategic support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Russia is directly supported by its military-industrial complex in its illegal aggression against Ukraine, attacking its sovereignty and territorial integrity. New Zealand condemns all entities and ...
A year on from the tragedy at Loafers Lodge, the Government is working hard to improve building fire safety, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “I want to share my sincere condolences with the families and friends of the victims on the anniversary of the tragic fire at Loafers ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for having me here in the lead up to my Government’s first Budget. Before I get started can I acknowledge: Simon Bridges – Auckland Business Chamber CEO. Steve Jurkovich – Kiwibank CEO. Kids born ...
Asia Pacific Report A West Papuan independence group has condemned French “modern-day colonialism in action” in Kanaky New Caledonia and urged indigenous leaders to “fight on”. In a statement to the Kanak pro-independence leadership, exiled United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) president Benny Wenda said the proposed electoral changes ...
“The situation in Gaza is desperate,” Will Alexander said. “It’s obvious to everyone that if Christopher Luxon truly cared, our government could do a lot more.” ...
ANALYSIS:By Nicole George, The University of Queensland New Caledonia’s capital city, Nouméa, has endured widespread violent rioting over the past three days. This crisis intensified rapidly, taking local authorities by surprise. Peaceful protests had been occurring across the country in the preceding weeks as the French National Assembly in ...
EDITORIAL:By Fred Wesley, editor-in-chief of The Fiji Times So 40 Fiji members of Parliament voted in favour of the Special Committee on Emoluments Report on the review of MPs’ salaries, allowances and benefits in Parliament on Friday. Now that’s not going down well with the masses, with many venting ...
First Hovel Grant Bishop Chris ventured out of the High Keep For his annual tour of the slums of the Holey Land. His litter bearers held his palanquin high Above the muck strewn and dilapidated alleys Of the Capital. The menials and peons swarmed around And pleaded for Alms from ...
Opinion: Following France’s President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to New Caledonia on Thursday, attention has turned to the country’s political future beyond the ongoing crisis. The uprising, which began on May 14, has demonstrated the capacity and determination of those involved to shut down the country and to inflict extensive economic ...
Asia Pacific ReportBy a Kanak from Aotearoa New Zealand in Kanaky I’ve been trying to feel cool and nice on this beautiful sunny day in Kanaky. But it has already been spoiled by President Emmanuel Macron’s flashy day-long visit on Thursday. Currently special French military forces are trying to ...
RNZ Pacific The survivors of a massive landslide in a remote village in Papua New Guinea’s highlands are still waiting for official help, more than 24 hours after the disaster. Hundreds are feared dead in Yambali village in Enga province after the landslide bulldozed homes and buried families alive early ...
By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby The United States has said it is “ready to lend a helping hand” to the people of Mulitaka, Enga province, after a devasting landslide swallowed an entire village in Papua New Guinea’s highlands yesterday. US President Joe Biden and his wife said in a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Housing remains one of Australia’s most pressing issues in both state and federal politics. The RBA keeping rates up and high mortgage repayments have left many Australians struggling. For those Australians who don’t own a ...
This plan lacks any thought on how to drive New Zealand forward. Giving away rare minerals owned by every New Zealander for a measly return of 2.1% to the crown last year is simply ludicrous. ...
A West Coast conservation leader is lodging a complaint with Police after an officer barred her from a public meeting in Blackball, called by Resources Minister Shane Jones. The NZ First politician was in the historic coal-mining town on Thursday to launch the Government’s new draft minerals strategy, promising to ...
Editor Madeleine Chapman meets an old rival and wonders what could’ve been. Mōrena and welcome to The Weekend, where dreams and regrets have time and space to flower. What’s the thing in your life that you wish you had given more energy to? It could be a relationship, an exam, ...
This year, Tori Peeters will compete at the Paris Olympics in the javelin. Ten years ago, Madeleine Chapman thought she might be in the same position. She talks to Peeters about what it takes to go all the way and mulls her own life decisions in the process.No New ...
The star of High Country talks Tinkerbell, her love for Hawkeye Pierce and why a 98-year-old environmentalist is the most stylish man on television. Sara Wiseman has been a fixture on New Zealand television screens for nearly three decades. First appearing in Hercules and Xena Warrior Princess during the mid ...
Alex Casey takes a trip to Lincoln to visit the only couple from the first season of Married at First Sight NZ that’s still together. To cross the threshold into Brett and Angel’s marital abode is to be greeted with a welcome that sums up the MAFSNZ season one golden ...
In a new weekly interview series, we ask a different local artist to curate their dream weekend soundtrack. First up: Troy Kingi. Troy Kingi is a man on a well-documented mission to make 10 albums, in 10 genres, over 10 years. But finding himself creatively blocked while making his eighth ...
Reflections on a childhood split across Hong Kong and Auckland. The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I arrive in Hong Kong with my mother in the middle of summer. t’s not a good time to travel here, she tells me. It’s June. We’re ...
Pacific Media Watch Pro-Palestinian protesters dressed in blue “press” vests tonight staged a vigil calling on New Zealand journalists to show solidarity with the media of Gaza who have suffered the highest death toll in any war. They staged the vigil at the Viaduct venue of NZ’s annual Voyager Media ...
Opinion: Outside my house, the autumn breeze blows crisp leaves off trees and leaks through the gap in my ranchslider while I slump on my couch listening to our CEO announcing our restructure. With many ums and ahs, he reads his script, talking of “prioritisation,” “working differently,” and “reconceiving the ...
Just days after Taiwan’s new president called on China to stop making threats, Beijing has launched “punishment” military drills around the island. Everyone was watching to see what China’s reaction to the swearing in of President William Lai Ching-te would be. On Thursday night we found out. China had already ...
For the past six weeks Annie has been sleeping with a teacher named Patrick Drury. Twice he has tried to call it an affair. Twice she has considered correcting him. But she likes how he looks when he says it. She likes that he’s older than her. That he’s recently ...
MONDAY Fast-Track Jones stood in the shade beneath an awning of a train station and waited for the 3:10 to Blackball. He narrowed his eyes and studied the view. A water tower. A windmill. A cattle fence. All else was empty land. Locomotive smoke rose over the horizon. The 3:10 ...
A groundbreaking investigative podcast into the death of Gore three-year-old Lachie Jones has won Melanie Reid and Bonnie Sumner two notable awards at the Voyager Media Awards. Their in-depth reporting and nine-part first season of The Boy in the Water, which led to the case being reopened twice and preceded ...
By Eleisha Foon, RNZ Pacific senior journalist Scores of people have died in a huge landslide which has struck a remote village in the Papua New Guinean highlands. The landslide reportedly hit Yambali village in Enga Province, about 600 km north-west of Port Moresby. The landslip has buried homes and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lara Herrero, Research Leader in Virology and Infectious Disease, Griffith University Red-Diamond/Shutterstock We’ve now been living with COVID for well over four years. Although there’s still much to learn about SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID) at least one thing seems ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clive Schofield, Professor, Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS), University of Wollongong The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea has found countries are obliged to protect the oceans from climate change impacts under the law of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca McGirr, Postdoctoral research fellow, Australian National University Bernhard Staehli/Shutterstock Imagine you’re standing near the edge of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, gazing out over the ocean, when the ice near you starts to melt very rapidly. A surge of meltwater flows ...
The Finance Minister prepares to present one of the most difficult budgets, National MP David MacLeod gets himself into trouble and the First Home Buyers Grant is scrapped. ...
The Iranian Solidarity Group NZ met with Minister For Foreign Affairs Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, urging the NZ government to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (the IRGC) as a terrorist organisation. The group continues to advocate for justice ...
On 24th May, 6pm, Palestinian journalists covering Gaza will be honoured in a silent and visually impactful vigil outside Shed 10, 89 Quay Street, Auckland, where the Voyager Media Awards are being held. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Harcourt, Industry Professor and Chief Economist, University of Technology Sydney This should be a golden age for Australian soccer. After all, the big picture is good: the Matildas are waltzing, the Socceroos are well supported and Australia was just awarded hosting ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Wellings, Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations, Monash University Assuming a Labour win in the UK general election – always a risky assumption given Labour’s proclivity for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory – the “Global Britain” bombast emanating ...
The community group People Against Prisons Aotearoa is holding a protest against mass incarceration tomorrow against the Government’s proposed expansion of Waikeria prison. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By T.J. Thomson, Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication & Digital Media, RMIT University Shutterstock OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT, and News Corp, the international media conglomerate, have signed a deal that will let OpenAI use and learn from News Corp’s content. In ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jaimon Kelly, Senior Research Fellow in Telehealth delivered health services, The University of Queensland Shutterstock/Nils Versemann For many Australians the emergency department (ED) is the physical and emblematic front door to accessing urgent health-care services. But health-care services are evolving rapidly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Trelease, Senior Lecturer in Communication Studies, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Following the hugely successful recent season of Married At First Sight (MAFS) Australia, fans of the format – and the reality romance genre in general – will be ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominic Redfern, Associate Professor, School of Art, RMIT University We Are All Unique by Universal Everything commissioned by Hyundai Motorstudio Senayan Park in Beings at ACMI.Image by Michelle Tran At this week’s launch of Beings by Universal Everything, ACMI board member ...
As Married at First Sight New Zealand returns to our screens this Sunday, Tara Ward speaks to the show’s new relationship experts about what lies ahead. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. John Aiken is teasing Jo Robertson about her cup of ...
A new poem by Wellington writer Erin Donohue. The body’s score Here is what happens if you starve yourself for years. Your body will forget herself. She will have to learn new how a heart beats and she will not get it right. She will need MRIs and a quiet ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (Picador, $25)A charming, smash-hit book about ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle “Only the struggle counts . . . death is nothing.” Éloi Machoro — “the Che Guevara of the Pacific” — said this shortly before he was gunned down by a French sniper on 12 January 1985. Machoro, one of the leaders of the newly-formed FLNKS (Kanak ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Wake, Associate Professor, Journalism, RMIT University Photo by Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels The news media play a vital role in shaping the public conversation and covering complex issues such as war, the economy, climate change and technology. Yet our new research ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aviroop Gupta, PhD Candidate, Curtin University Narendra Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has resorted to religious polarisation as it tries to rally its Hindu nationalist base in India’s ongoing general election, which ends on June 1. Just days after voting started ...
Lana Walters’ new show is playing in Auckland for the NZ International Comedy Festival. Madeleine Holden (a parent) and Liv Sisson (not) went along to review. I hadn’t heard of comedian Lana Walters until a colleague posted the following message in one of The Spinoff’s Slack channels: “Has anyone been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paola A. Magni, Associate Professor of Forensic Science, Murdoch University Microgen / Shutterstock When you think of a criminal investigation, you might picture detectives meticulously collecting and analysing evidence found at the scene: weapons, biological fluids, footprints and fingerprints. However, this ...
Recent price falls in the New Zealand market for carbon credits leaves the Government facing the prospect of a significant loss of revenue from carbon auctions this year. The March financial statements from Treasury highlight lower-than-expected revenue ...
ANALYSIS:By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk French President Emmanuel Macron has ended a meeting-packed whirlwind day in New Caledonia with back-to-back sessions including opposing leaders in the French Pacific territory. Macron left New Caledonia this morning, leaving some members of his entourage to deal with details ...
"The government's 'Draft Mineral Strategy' released this week by Minister for Resources Shane Jones is a disaster in the making for the environment, the climate and people as more and more rural communities will have to battle these companies ...
Behind the pretty flower beds at Auckland Botanic Gardens, conservation mahi is under way for the region’s 357 threatened plants. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. At Auckland Botanic Gardens, conservation specialist Ella Rawcliffe has been trying to plant a seed that’s smaller ...
One financial hopeful looks to MPs for inspiration on how to be savvy with money.As a person whose search history includes “easy ways to make money” and “what should I do with $1,000 savings”, my interest was piqued when parliament released the pecuniary interests register this week. Since 2005, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Barbara Mintzes, Professor, School of Pharmacy and Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney Monster Ztudio/Shutterstock Drug companies are paying Australian doctors millions of dollars a year to fly to overseas conferences and meetings, give talks to other doctors, and to serve ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Trivess Moore, Associate Professor, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University The Victorian government is planning Australia’s largest urban renewal project. The plan is to knock down and rebuild 44 large public housing towers in Melbourne. The government says these ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karen Scott, Professor in Law, University of Canterbury Christian Charisius/dpa/Getty Images In a significant development for small island nations threatened by rising seas, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) has found greenhouse gases constitute marine pollution. The ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pi-Shen Seet, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Edith Cowan University William Fortunato/Pexels Entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of any innovative economy. New business creation has been shown to have a significant and positive impact on economic growth, innovation and job creation. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Treena Clark, Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Indigenous Research Fellow, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology Sydney Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains names, images and stories of deceased people. Around the world, fashion researchers, ...
Gumboot Friday pocketed a significant budget boost this week, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in this extract from The Bulletin, but concerns have been raised over transparency. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
It’ll be interesting to see how frequently the TV1 and TV3 political polls are done and/or reported on next year. The thing about such polls, is not so much are the figures, as in how the journos spin them.
Morena Beautiful, what delightful news to read this morning about the polls. Isn’t it interesting that the media appears to be keeping hush about the polls. I’m a bit of a news junkie and haven’t heard boo about this poll apart from here on The Standard.
On the first day of solstice nature gave to me
A declining National Party.
On the second day of solstice nature gave to me….
I’m yet to find out what that will be…. 😀
I think National should be rendered in apostrophes – thus .. ‘national’.
They are anything *but* national !
Labour lacks voter trust. Therefore, is it wise for them to run an election campaign touting tax changes to be announced after the election?
Moreover, while Little reaffirmed his opposition to raising the retirement age, he failed to rule out other options such as changes to the current indexing (which links super to wage rates) no doubt leaving a number of voters feeling skeptical.
With such low voter trust, can Labour risk going into an election while leaving voters with such uncertainty?
My gut says it is all there to lose for Labour if they get it wrong and I hope they don’t because that ratpack of gnats is not very bright and don’t deserve to be ministers imo.
My gut says this approach (leaving so much uncertainty) is extremely risky, thus increases their rate of failure at the polls.
They still have time to re-examine this approach, rebuild voter trust by telling voters what they plan to do.
They are really pushing it if they expect people to race out and vote for the unknown.
“…..rebuild voter trust by telling voters what they plan to do.”
A perfect way to begin the day’s discussion.
(And what that young fella Toby Morris was saying the other day on the wireless….)
http://thewireless.co.nz/articles/the-pencilsword-she-ll-have-the-fish
Labour’s menu is looking rather bare.
I’ve been told Labour don’t want to startle the horses, well uncertainty startles voters.
Expecting voters to vote for change is one thing but expecting them to vote for uncertain change is a step too far.
Labour needs to bring voters along, not leave them out in the dark.
The Chairman
In general Labour goes into elections with detailed policy which is outlined on the labour website in the months leading up to the election, not earlier so as not to allow Labour light copying by National. Conversely National generally goes into elections with little detailed policy. Many policy changes such as the increasing of GST after the 2008 election are not anounced prior to the election. Pot calling kettle much!
To date, out of the small number of policies Labour have announced, a number of them are lacking, therefore could and should be improved.
Nevertheless, National can decide to adopt Labour policy at any given time, thus the argument for Labour keeping their powder dry doesn’t stack up.
Until recently, National had brand Key. A brand voters seemed to trust, thereby that political appeal allowed National to get away with more or less as the case may be.
Labour doesn’t carry such voter goodwill, therefore their approach must differ.
“National can decide to adopt Labour policy at any given time, thus the argument for Labour keeping their powder dry doesn’t stack up.”
Nonsensical.
It’s not nonsensical, it’s the reality Labour face.
Regardless of when Labour announce policy, National can decide to adopt it or elements of it.
All I and my family want is a living wage, an adequate home, affordable doctors visits, some hope for my children, and a government that cares. Good by Blue team, you haven’t delivered, and your not capable.
While National has shown they can’t deliver your desires, a change of Government is pointless if they are also unable to deliver.
They should wait until Bingles announces his policy instead of letting him flog theirs as usual.
That isn’t a problem that Labour has.
Their real problem is their leader. He doesn’t have any real opinions at all on anything except that everyone should contribute to the Unions so that they can finance his election campaign.
Little, Andrew bases his policy on a very simple system. Whatever National announce he will insist on the opposite. If National haven’t announced their policy he is helpless. His mouth opens and shuts but nothing emerges.
Look at the flag debate. Labour went into the last election with a firm policy of having a new flag. When National went ahead with the idea he flipped.
Labour went into the last election with a firm policy of raising the age for super. When Bill wouldn’t commit to the same thing Andrew flipped. He has currently come to the right approach but not for the right reason. If National were to announce that there is no need to raise the age Angry will do a double back flip with twist and adopt the other line again.
The man is a fool. Probably due to his original legal training he has no principles or firm beliefs about anything. He will argue either side of the debate, based merely on what pays him the most..
But what Andrew Little isn’t is a cut-and-runner, like Key. Little’s here for the contest. Captain Key’s abandoned ship, leaving his crew flailing wildly in rough seas; Bilge-water Bill at the wheel, fool steam ahead, damn the
torpedoeshousing crisis!Andrew Little leave voluntarily?
You really must be dreaming. Here is a man who has reached his 50s but who hasn’t, in spite of the good “rich prick” salaries he has been receiving for many years, apparently not been able to pay of his mortgage and who has accumulated neither savings nor investments.
At least according to his Parliamentary return of pecuniary interests.
Now he has got a job that pays him around $300,000/annum.
Leave? He’s in heaven. He will be like Walter Nash if he can and will be carried out at the age of 86.
Andrew Little, Prime Minister till he’s 86!!
Alwyn! You dark horse, you!
All your previous cantankerousness, a front, a facade for your true pro-Labour position! You had us going, you ol’ scally-wag!
You do remember Walter Nash, do you?
Apparently not. Perhaps Andrew will emulate Walter. If he did it would make him PM in 2040 at the age of 75. He would keep the job for 3 years and then be dumped. They would even kick him out of his leader of the Labour Party in 2045. He would then revert to the back benches and die, still in harness, in 2051.
Possible? I suppose so but do you really think that Grant wouldn’t stab him in the back sometime in the next 24 years while Andrew remains Leader of the Opposition? If you do you clearly have more faith in Grant’s patience than I do.
Walter Nash was before my time, alwyn, and I’m no historian specializing in the Labour Party, as you appear to be and it’s good to have someone with a long memory on board the Good Ship T.S. In fact, I’m not a Labour man, though I certainly enjoy this site. Younger than you and more forgiving, me. I don’t think I’ve ever big-noted Labour or her MPs, but I certainly have sung the praises of some principled politicians at times. You seem not to believe in such creatures. I’ve met a number of them and while I understand the problems with holding a position of political responsibility and making decisions on behalf of a varied population (I’m a local body politician) I am able to forgive those who find themselves in impossible situations or wrongfully portrayed by punters such as yourself (and others – sorry to see Stunned Mullet’s untimely departure from today’s debate 🙂
I didn’t like Key though. I met him personally and felt he was untrustworthy. From my point of view, he seemed to be deceiving us all. I reckon my radar is pretty sound. Misleading, misdirecting; they are signs to give a person a very wide berth, in my opinion. Sadly, we had to tolerate him for a long time. Gone now though. Very Good Thing.
Grow up son. Mortgage, savings, and investments ?
Go travel in India. Broaden your perspectives ..
Alwyn .. +1
Perhaps you are right.
Looking at Andrew Little he does remind me of the statue of Mahatma Gandhi near the Wellington Railway station. Same haggard look and tatty clothing.
He is probably as intelligent as the statue, although not of course the real person.
I hope he has a better taste in what he drinks than the real Mahatma of course.
Ad-hominem (i.e. personal) attacks will get you nowhere, alwyn.
People have long memories and Aotearoa has a relatively small politically active community.
“Look at the flag debate. Labour went into the last election with a firm policy of having a new flag.” Indeed. A new flag. One chosen by the people of New Zealand. Not Key’s Personal
corporate brandingrag. You gotta admire Labour for winning that contest, despite Key having tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to waste on his attempt to impose his desire on us. And I suspect you do.“One chosen by the people of New Zealand”.
And precisely how was that going to happen?
It would have been done in exactly the same way as was actually chosen. What alternative was there?
Why do you bother to waffle on about it being “Key’s Personal rag”. Are you really as stupid as you seem? Key didn’t “choose” it did he.
Probably yes, you really are that stupid. Anyone who thinks Little is Prime Ministerial material clearly must be pretty thick.
If you can’t come up with an argument that at least has a little bit of a connection to reality I don’t think I will waste any more of my time on responding to your dribbling. If you come up with something at least remotely corresponding to reality I may give your education some more of my time.
Am I really as stupid as I seem? If I seem stupid, I’d be stupid to claim otherwise. Regarding the flag, Key certainly appeared to favour one particular option, guided the selection of it, promote it heavily through his comments and wearing it on his lapel, so yes, Key chose a flag but failed to get his choice accepted widely enough to have it replace the existing flag. What alternative to the process Key chose for the selection of a new flag? May I ask you a question in response that that, alwyn? Did you not read anything, any where on the topic of alternative approaches the Government might have taken to the choosing of a flag? If you were and are completely unaware of any discussion around the process, I’m not sure what sort of person you might be – some would say you’d have to have been living under a rock to have missed that debate, but as I’m not in favour of usingad hominem techniques in a debate, (though I note you have no such compunction) I won’t suggest that applies to you. I feel confident that you live in a house, though perhaps you don’t receive a newspaper and maybe your computer only sends, not receives.
Alwyn
The press,national party people,and trolls like yourself always rubbish the current labour leader. Remember the nanny state cat call against Helen Clark and apologising for men’s violence toward women by David Cunliff as apologizing for being a man.This angry Andy thing is just one in a long line of personality bashing and to me shows that the blue machine must be really worried.
To alwyn:
The only fool here is you alwyn. You have been continually trying to knee-cap Andrew Little as leader of the opposition, just to voice your hatred for Labour.
Bill English is hardly solid leadership material, I would give Little a head-start in that department.
“He will argue either side of the debate, based merely on what pays him the most..” very immature of you alwyn.
Yes dear.
I ‘m in mind of a gallstone.
And a bunion. Right foot, big toe.
Edit: Hang on! Gout! That’s it!
Shingles?
The Chairman
I remember a few decades ago, Labour held conferences around the country talking to the people and asking what they thought was important. Would that up their profile, and bring them closer to a range of NZrs?
In 2014 there were “Meet the Candidates” sessions in various centres to discuss disability issues.
We attended the one in Hamilton and the one in Kaitaia. Notice was taken on who turned up and what they had to say. Looking back, NZ First fielded folk with the best working knowledge of the issues while some of us took the opportunity to put the National candidate in Hamilton on the griddle, and I understand some rather difficult questions were asked of Te Ureroa Flavell at the meeting in Wellington.
I admit that many of us “veterans” went into those meeting resigned to the fact that it would be SSDD…having expectations of anything getting better in the near or distant future is asking for disappointment.
If there were to be meetings such as you suggest greywarshark, they would have to be open to everyone…not just paid up party members.
@ greywarshark
There are a number of ways a Party can put their finger on the pulse of public opinion.
Holding conferences around the country tend to only attract the truly interested.
As well as rebuilding trust, Labour require to get more people interested, they need to create a buzz.
Will Chester Borrows have a merry Christmas?
His front-seat passenger/shot-gun rider seems to be happy enough.
I wonder if anyone’s asked Paula for her version of events?
Paula will be like the three monkeys on this occasion, Robert G – see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil. She probably had her eyes closed while Chester Borrows kept driving into those protestors.
Waste of court time and money.
Chester should be wrapped over the hand with a wet bus ticket give the appropriate apology and that should be the end of it.
Another one who thinks we should have open season on running people over/ Assualt with a deadly weapon it is properly called.
A young brown person who ran over someones toe is still in Ngawha.
Are you still [deleted] KJT ?
Chester should have stopped, let the protestors make dicks of themselves and allowed the police to remove them.
That he drove slowly forward and managed to make them make even larger dicks of themselves was stupid, however, no one was seriously hurt.
So as I said Chester should be wrapped over the hand with a wet bus ticket give the appropriate apology and that should be the end of it.
Without knowing the circumstances of the incident you’re quoting it is difficult to offer any comment.
[I’m taking that as a face value accusation. And banning you for two weeks off the back of it. It should probably be longer, but hey, it’s the season of good will and cheer.] – Bill
“should have” agreed, Stunned Mullet, should have. “Legally obliged to” is another way of saying it. “No one was seriously hurt”, you say and that’s a good thing, but “not seriously hurt” is no legal defense against assault. So there it is and Chester and those of us interested in the case, await the judge’s decision. I wonder if Paula will be required to give evidence; What Paula Saw – or What Paula Said, would be interesting to know. We can speculate, for fun.
..and the protesters are legallly obliged to not block the footpath Robert…
Don’t you thing the courts have better things to waste their time on ?
Let’s face it, it just wouldn’t be fair to expect a National MP to show some personal responsibility, now would it: far better to have some Stunned Lickspittle minimise and deflect instead.
+111
I have yet to see the “Party for personal responsibility” take personal responsibility for anything!
Did Bill take responsibility for double-dipping?
Well, IIRC, he did stop doing it once caught and did pay back some of the money but was still complaining that it was all legal.
Draco – perhaps for a right-winger, that’s as far as it’s possible to go; reluctant faux admission and token amends?
They’re happy to claim responsibility for all sorts of things.
On examination, these claims turn out to be nothing but symptoms of the self-attribution fallacy.
Self-attribution fallacy
@Robert Guyton
It does seem that these people are so weak as to be unable to admit any fault about themselves.
There was a consequence for the protester (injured foot) and there should be one for Chester as well – the judge will decide. Better things for the courts to do? No doubt. Many cases would fall into that category, however, the courts are there for the purpose of issues great and small. This is a case that interests me and others. If you have no interest in the issue, perhaps you could concern yourself with those “better things”, Stunned.
Politicians are like that.
Remember the former Labour Party leader we had who claimed she never realised that he car night, just might, have been travelling at about twice the speed limit?
Concentrating on important papers she said. The other MP present said he was close to terror at the speed they were travelling.
The other MP wasn’t concentrating on important papers, plus, he was not a cool-as-a-cucumber Prime Minister.
In any case, alwyn-of-the-long-and-bitter-memory, that was then, this is now. Chester was at the wheel and can’t claim to be “concentrating on important papers”…can he? Maybe that’s his defense! Or perhaps Paula had just dropped the “Key’s doing a runner and I’m gunna be Deputy” bombshell and he lost control of his foot.
Yes, it was a long time ago. It is of course just as long since we had a competent leader of the Labour Party.
Keep the faith brother. Someday those glory years will return.
I’m not going to hold my breath while I wait for them though.
I thought, judging by some of your blue-faced comments, that you were.
Why has Key been labelled a popular leader and what has he really done for New Zealand? Probably bugger all!
People justified Hitler by saying he had them in some mystical thrall. Key projected confidence, that’s all. I could be more direct but I would probably get banned from this forum.
Eyes closed and squealing? I doubt it. She’s no shrinking violet. She’d have been egging Chester on. Whatever it was she said, she’ll be keeping it close to her Chest.
Radio blearing Baubles Bangles and Beads,–heard nothing, your honor.
http://www.france24.com/en/20161219-imf-christine-lagarde-found-guilty-negligence-2008-payout-french-tycoon-tapie
“A French court on Monday convicted International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde of “negligence” for her role in a controversial €400 million payout to a French tycoon in 2008 while she was finance minister.
The Court of Justice did not hand down a sentence, a decision welcomed by her lawyer, Patrick Maisonneuve, as a “partial” victory.
“We wanted a complete acquittal, instead we got a partial one,” said Maisonneuve. “The court has decided not to penalise her – in fact, the court even decided this should not go on Madame Lagarde’s criminal record.”
The executive board representing the IMF’s 189 member countries reaffirmed its full confidence in Lagarde’s ability to lead the crisis lender, hours after the verdict was issued.
Media in France seized on the guilty-without-punishment verdict, voicing indignation in editorials Tuesday morning. In the left-leaning daily Libération, Laurent Joffrin wrote, “The ordinary person answerable to the law, less apt to be handled with kid gloves, will draw from this the notion that the ordinary fellow, who doesn’t enjoy an ‘international reputation’, to quote the decision, will not be able to benefit from similar indulgence.””
“…will not be able to benefit from similar indulgence.” Indeed!
Having influential friends makes all the difference. It’s nice to be reassured that justice isn’t blind, just mentally defective.
Have we ever got justice from our justice system?
This letting the rich and famous off while hammering the poor has been going on for a long time.
Some balance at last on Radio New Zealand.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/321032/syrian-mp-defends-regime-'would-you-send-al-qaeda-roses-‘
“Balance?” I don’t recall them interviewing any spokespeople for the defenders that they’d need to balance out by interviewing a regime official.
They were to busy with other tasks.
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201612221048855277-video-syrian-terrorist-daughter-mission/
We have only heard the Jihadis’ point of view for the past 3 months.
That is out and out rubbish and absolute bullshit. YOU have been spamming longer than that.
The following independent journalists have all questioned the propaganda being disseminated by the mainstream western media about Aleppo.
Patrick Cockburn
Peter Hitchens
Robert Fisk
John Pilger
Peter Oborne
Eva Bartlett
What do you know that the 6 journalists above do not know?
You disproved your own point.
Listen to the BBC, the Washington Post, Radio New Zealand and read the Independent, the Times, the Guardian, Fairfax Media or NZME – you will not hear these voices.
We just hear from activists operating out of Eastern Aleppo, whose reports are uncritically picked up by the corporate media.
Did you read Hitchens?
I’ll repeat two key sections.
“Our sources for this [that the pro-Assad coalition is systematically destroying civilian infrastructure] are people inside eastern Aleppo. There hasn’t, as far as I know, been a single, independent, Western journalist in eastern Aleppo. We rely entirely on propaganda sources, on pictures which always show wounded children being carried by noble, unarmed men in heaps of rubble. And we rely on this and we take it as read.”
“The sources for these reports are so-called ‘activists’. Who are they? As far as I know, there was not one single staff reporter for any Western news organisation in eastern Aleppo last week. Not one.
This is for the very good reason that they would have been kidnapped and probably murdered. The zone was ruled without mercy by heavily armed Osama Bin Laden sympathisers, who were bombarding the west of the city with powerful artillery (they frequently killed innocent civilians and struck hospitals, since you ask). That is why you never see pictures of armed males in eastern Aleppo, just beautifully composed photographs of handsome young unarmed men lifting wounded children from the rubble, with the light just right.”
Hitchens scrambles it.
There’s nothing wrong with only hearing about eastern Aleppo from people living in eastern Aleppo. The problem has been that only the voices of Jihadis in eastern Aleppo have been heard.
And now that eastern Aleppo is clear, who do ‘our’ media go running after? Well, the little girl of a family who decided to evacuate with the terrorists….not any of the vast majority who headed to west Aleppo.
(shrug)
The irony of Kathyrn Ryan’s interview with journalist Kim Zetter this morning summed up how lost the msm have become.
First of all they talk about fake news, commenting on how internet sources do not fact check their sources, then they go on to discuss the twitter account of a 7 year old from Aleppo.
Do you really think we are that stupid?
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=201828679
Vanessa Beeley, a journalist who just returned from Aleppo with the real story
https://youtu.be/I8mA0h7dCKI
They think you’re smart enough not to need telling that the little girl’s mum was somewhat involved in proceedings. Were they over-optimistic?
Psycho Milt: What is the significance of the swastika-like symbol you use on this forum ?
“Pedant?” Surely “Ignoramus” would be more appropriate? That’s twice in two days I’ve had to link to this: https://crassahistory.wordpress.com/2010/09/06/15/
Psycho Milt: do you seriously think that is *original* ?
A lot of people have been there before you. It’s derivative and boring .. and can offend people with family histories from that era.
http://deeperweb.com/results.php?cx=%21004415538554621685521%3Avgwa9iznfuo&cof=FORID%3A11%3BNB%3A1&ie=UTF-8&q=swastika+%27broken+cross%27&as_qdr=&siteurl=http%3A%2F%2Fdeeperweb.com%2F
.. and you have the nerve to label someone an ‘ignoramus’ ?
The only charitable explanation is that you are a naive and ignorant young man.
Susie, Kathryn and Kim need to expand their #SOURCES beyond AP, Reuters, BBC (State organ) and WaPo.
Endless recitals of “white helmet – Mannequin challenge anyone?” and Syria One Man Observatory “syriahr- put another tyre on the fire Danny ! – More smoke now” certainly do SUM to a hysteria that needs such balance.
#SMORGASBOARD
RNZ just part of the MSM echo chamber/ propaganda machine.
Yeah – maybe RNZ should interview Craig Murray to attain a #SMORGASBOARD of #SOURCES .
Can’t see that they have done it recently ;
https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=rnz+%22craig+muurray%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-ab&gfe_rd=cr&ei=Cp5bWOLDGKHz8AeZ2qPoCQ
Help to balance ;
https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=rnz+observatory+syria&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-ab&gfe_rd=cr&ei=b59bWMDwJOP98wexg7bYBg#q=rnz+%22white+helmets%22
Interesting article
https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2016/12/21/trump-opponents-and-supporters-have-divergent-racial-attitudes/
No no no, it’s all about white people’s economic anxiety……..
/
Celebrity isn’t just harmless fun – it’s the smiling face of the corporate machine
Why do people become obsessed with others in the MSM? Why do they allow themselves to be so overtly manipulated?
Monbiot is one of my favourite writers.
Here’s my list of commentators I enjoy.
I’d love to hear other people’s suggestions….
New Zealand
Rachel Stewart
Bryan Bruce
Rod Oram
Frank Macskasy
Laila Harré
John Minto
International
Robert Fisk
John PIlger
George Monbiot
George Galloway
Owen Jones
Patrick Cockburn
Peter Hitchens ( my right wing entry)
Jimmy Dore on YouTube I enjoy.
Just watched a couple.
Really good.
Here’s Jimmy Dore on Eva Bartlett.
So there aren’t any international women commentators of note?
I’d also include Jane Kelsey & Sue Bradford in NZ.
And Naomi Klein internationally.
Probably some others, too.
oh, yeah – Morgan Godfery…
tired this evening.
and don’t really want to add some sort of celebrity worship of the above.
http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2014/08/23/noam-chomsky-to-become-new-x-factor-judge/
Not wishing to derail the conversation;)
For myself not a day goes by where I don’t question the ‘why’ of the masses. If its any consolation the existence of Bernie, Corbyn and Brexit (oh God, and Trump) are the first real cracks in the Manufacturing of Consent in the ‘West’.
You know it’s taking the piss out of Chomsky don’t you?
Before celebrity culture, there was the Star system – Hollywood stars also performed a role within capitalism from the 1920s -1950s/60s.
They were larger than life, glamorous fronts for US capitalist culture of individualism, the US dream, consumer products, and allegedly an egalitarian culture where individuals could speak out about their concerns. They were part of a magical world on the big screen, that took people out of their everyday lives and worries.
Celebrity culture arose with shifts in both capitalism (to neoliberalism and corporate transnational dominance) and media/communications technologies.
Celebrities appear on small screens, and started to arise in the 1980s with video technologies – where everyone could own movies in their own homes.
Celebrities inhabit more of our everyday world, and are part of more interactive communications – people can phone/txt in their votes for reality TV celebs. And the rise of mobile technologies, and social media, shifted the celebrity culture even more into people’s everyday lives.
I think the percentages of cultural coverage quoted, comparing early & later 20th century with 21st century, are misleading. Media and communications had changed. Late 20th century and 21st century media and communications saturate our lives in ways they never did earlier in the 20th century.
Both Hollywood stars of past times, and more recent celebrity culture, sell a version of capitalism to the general population – albeit different versions.
The day is fast approaching when Hamilton and Auckland will be joined in a vast, sprawling megalopolis.
Hamilton City Council has just released it’s Housing Accord…a la Auckland and Tauranga….http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/87821424/hamilton-signs-housing-accord-with-government
…with the promise to free up more land for development and fast track consents.
There may even be something in there to give hope to those seeking affordable housing….cue, Tui slogan.
So, while huge tracts of fertile Waikato farm land is being subsumed into housing expansion, with the very real possibility that these developments will join up with the huge tracts of fertile South Auckland horticultural land also being converted….will the new inhabitants of these housing areas have the best vegetable gardens in New Zealand?
There may very well be a silver lining here….
“The day is fast approaching when Hamilton and Auckland will be joined in a vast, sprawling megalopolis”
So finally Auckland will get some style.
Ha!
Beautiful!
And from the ‘nothing better to do with their time’ file…our Friend Wayne, you know,
Wayne ‘New Zealand’s never been in better shape’ Mapp is participating in a belated conversation over on Kiwibog about the Legatum Institute report putting NZ at the top of the most prosperous nation pile.
And obviously because the discussion over on Kiwibog is so predictably formulaic, Friend Wayne has to share with the Kiwiboggers what Standardnistas are thinking about the economic state of the nation.
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2016/12/a_jealous_aussie.html#comment-1842012
I guess he thinks more of this site than I thought.
‘Legatum Limited, also known as Legatum, is a private investment firm headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. With a long-term perspective, Legatum invests proprietary capital in global capital markets.
The Legatum Institute Foundation was established in 2007 as an independent non-partisan charitable public policy think-tank that seeks to understand what drives and restrains national success and individual flourishing. ‘
So an extreme neo-liberal think-tank reckons we are great.
We should be worried, not flattered.
Pity the corporate media does not do a back check on these dodgy organisations.
No wonder people don’t trust the msm any more.
Notice bullshit Wayne actually starts by talking about GDP per capita, where we have got way behind Australia since our 80’s “reforms.
But he fudges by using total GDP as an indication of our gains over Australia. As this is the result of immigration earthquakes and housing speculation. It is nothing to be proud of.
The right-wing have to lie because reality does not conform to their delusion.
Out of curiosity I had a look at Kiwiblog, held my nose and read the preceding comments to Wayne Mapp’s contribution. My initial reaction to these were ‘Wow, just wow’ – the ‘names’ of some of the commenters, to me are simply sickening and their comments are obviously par for the course of a blog of that nature. The vitriol, hostility, and contempt towards comments from those who vote other than for Act/National, unions and their members, women (including of course Helen Clark – still after all this time) was quite mind blowing and any moderate comments disagreeing with the theme got the big thumbs down. I felt quite sullied after a few minutes and got out of there. I realise that some of TS commenters are pretty robust at times but the clear majority are sensible and thought provoking. I noticed that a few of the commenters have cropped up on other blogs (including TS), I sometimes read and while they are forthright in their views they are not in the same league as the bile they feel at liberty to spew forth over at KB.
Yep, Farrar’s little cesspit of barely veiled hate -speechers is an eye opener alright.
Kiwibog, the home of the always, always right.
It’s almost as if Farrar has taken it upon himself to keep hate alive.
I think that actually there is Farrar, his disabled person hating mate Garrett and our mutual friend Wayne Mapp who are actually real individuals. The rest, I’m pretty sure are made up personas that enable Farrar to really let down what’s left of his hair on full noise slander and slagging.
I could be wrong.
Now watch one of the Standard mods step in and give me a ticking off for bald shaming. 😉
Peter Hitchens on Syria.
Listen from 1:37:40
And more from Hitchens.
Peter Hitchens argues for Aleppo and Mosul as equivalent, says terrorists are being defeated in both.
Amid the bombs of Aleppo, all you can hear are the lies.
Peter Hitchens
An excerpt
Read the whole article here.
Amid the bombs of Aleppo, all you can hear are the lies
So let’s review the situation….
The following independent journalists have all questioned the propaganda being disseminated by the mainstream western media about Aleppo.
Patrick Cockburn
Peter Hitchens
Robert Fisk
John Pilger
Peter Oborne
Eva Bartlett
Yet pm, Jenny, Peter Swift and others on this site disagree with them.
What do they know that the 6 journalists above do not know?
Peter Hitchens is a right-wing authoritarian (who would voluntarily describe themselves as a “Burkean conservative,” for fuck’s sake?) who works for the Daily Mail, so if you’re quoting him you should maybe re-think what you’re doing. Eva Bartlett is a Syrian regime shill. John Pilger’s a has-been with an obsession that everything bad that happens is somehow the work of the US government. The others actually are proper journalists but don’t appear to share your enthusiasm for the Assad regime.
Also, you’re arguing from authority again. It doesn’t become less of a logical fallacy the more it’s repeated, you know.
Patrick Cockburn
Robert Fisk
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/aleppo-falls-to-syrian-regime-bashar-al-assad-rebels-uk-government-more-than-one-story-robert-fisk-a7471576.html
http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/11/youre-not-hearing-the-whole-story-about-aleppo/
Peter Oborne
And your point is?
You can’t work it out?
OK.
All 3 of these independent journalists have all questioned the propaganda being disseminated by the mainstream western media about Aleppo.
They’ve all pointed out that the rebel forces in east Aleppo include some very unpleasant people, yes. Which actually hasn’t been concealed from us by our media, because we all knew about it before we read Fisk et al’s pieces on it. You keep quoting them and posting excerpts from their work as if they’d somehow proved that it’s actually OK for the Assad regime and its patrons to be carrying out indiscriminate bombardment of rebel-held cities, but they haven’t proved anything of the kind, or tried to prove it, and would probably be horrified that you’re trying to misrepresent their work in that way.
John PIlger is a proper journalist by anyone;s standards – except yours.
Here is is most recent film.
The Coming War on China.
Peter Hitchens may be right wing and he may right for the Mail. I disagree with him on most things, like George Galloway does.
However, he is not an establishment figure on several issues.
A great deal more independent thinker than the establishment corporate media you get your ideas from.
Clearly you did not watch this or if you did, you did not understand what he was saying.
Well, sure. Famous right-wing authoritarian Peter Hitchens shares your enthusiasm for authoritarian nationalist dictatorships. That’s not something to be proud of.
Eva Bartlett appears brave and independent to me.
And seems to have the authority of the United Nations behind her at this press conference.
Here she schools a mainstream journalist about their biased coverage.
Eva Bartlett appears brave and independent to me.
That’s your problem in a nutshell. Someone who’s plainly a regime shill, embarrassingly-obviously so, appears to you “brave and independent.” It explains the risible propaganda you post to this blog every day all by itself.
The risible propaganda can be seen on the BBC, CNN and other MSM sources.
Ask Patrick Cockburn.
You were looking squarely in the mirror and speaking only to yourself when you wrote that, right?
Opinion is still opinion no matter how ilustrious the source. It pays to try and discuss the facts. Contest them if you can.
What I find with most Assad supporters is that instead of defending or challenging the facts I put up, they tend to talk right past or simply just ignore them if it dosen’t fit their narrative.
Found out why RWNJs always try to rewrite history:
Yep. They’re all from a different dimension. 😈
Dude spent three years writing a chapter by chapter review of the book without orcs.
Atlas Shrugged
Foreword
A Novel for the 1% (March 22, 2013)
Atlas Shrugged is more popular than ever among economic conservatives, precisely because it offers a full-blown defense of rapacious, predatory capitalism in a time of vast inequality.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/series/atlas-shrugged/
Celtic 14 points clear. National 14 points ahead. It’s going to be a great 2017.
Was that an answer to a question?
Celtic and National are always the right answer.
Celtic, huh…
So, what you’re saying is that I should embrace my Celtic heritage and go medieval on your heinie right?
So the answer to a question about, say, had you been asked one of course, which no-one would do since you never ever answer awkward questions, house prices along the lines of, oh I dunno, try “Why are there insufficient builders, fisiani?”, then the answer would be Celtic and National?
Well, bugger me. you’re half right. It is National’s fault that the number of apprentices has fallen by nearly half since 2008, and that this is al;so the answer to why there are insufficient builders.
Yay, fisiani. At last a true answer. Well done!
The other answer, Celtic, is also true because of the number of Irish builders brought into the country after the failure of the Celtic Tiger.
100% accuracy, fisiani.
MMP.
Fisi “Celtic 14 points clear. National 14 points ahead. It’s going to be a great 2017”
Here you go, sweetness …
https://thestandard.org.nz/nats-take-a-plunge-on-the-roy-morgan-roundabout/#comment-1278716
Compared to last Election, Lab+Green up 7 points, Opposition Bloc up 5, Right Bloc down 5. Nat’s lead over Lab+Green slashed from 11 points to a mere 2.
Incidentally, my little Tory cheerleader, one minute your implying you’re of Noble Black African birth*, next moment you’re apparently a Catholic Glaswegian from Pollokshields , immersed in the Old Firm Rivalry (“See you, Wee Jimmy“).
Whit are ye daein ya dobber !, Make your mind up, ya wee dunderheed.
* https://thestandard.org.nz/john-keys-housing-announcement/#comment-959169
Ohhhh! Going forensic on him, swordy!
Big ups.
‘Listening to the voices’: UK priest goes to Aleppo to ‘see what’s really going on’
another sign of arrogance that may yet be rued?
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/321029/national-to-stand-controversial-young-mp-again
Globalization Doesn’t Make as Much Sense as It Used To
Which, of course, is why we have floating currencies but they’ve been set to float incorrectly being based upon demand rather than actual trade-weighting. This has resulted in a huge misalignment in the economy and such action as the 1987 attack on our own currency by Kreiger and our own John Key.
Trade-weighting would have to take into account the actual balance of trade, the balance of payments, working conditions, the minimum wage and other factors. In other words, all the things that are ignored by present FTAs.
Napier welders being paid $3 an hour, legally
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2016/12/napier-welders-being-paid-3-an-hour-legally.html
John Key’s legacy
#brighterfuture (best wear goggles)
‘Fake News’ in America: Homegrown, and Far From New
Chris Hedges
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/fake_news_homegrown_and_far_from_new_20161218
‘This is a huge waste of taxpayer money’
Families are facing a bleak Christmas in cramped motel rooms that are costing taxpayers thousands of dollars each week.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11771870
There is a complete Bias in the Western Media
Press Conference at the United Nations against propaganda and regime change, for peace and national sovereignty.
East Aleppo residents tell of living under al Qaeda rule.
Interview by Vanessa Beeley, December 2016
Yep – post Liberation 130K residents of East Aleppo fled Westward – reunification and safety – now a viable option.
No reports of people “escaping” West Aleppo to the East – at any stage.
Maximally 4K terrorists (and dependents) graciously continue to be “bused” to Idlib where they will likely be “re-provisioned” MANPAD-wise
#SOURCES https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/5293
Idlib – where it started
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-13857654
Eva Bartlett spoke in Santa Cruz, California on December 14, 2016.
Her speech contextualizes and demystifies the mainstream media portrayal of current events happening on the ground in Aleppo, Syria.
The BBC has form on bias.
Just ask the Scots.
Hey Psycho, that is a ‘Hakenkreuz’ .. broken cross .. any way you cut it.
Symbols have meanings. It may be very ‘post-modern’ to play with them, but you will still get strong emotional reactions. I’m off to bed ..
This is the type of manufacturing that 3D printing will be replacing first.