US President Biden told the Business Roundtable’s CEO Quarterly Meeting that the new world order is coming. Folks haven't been so excited since President Bush did likewise more than 30 years ago!
Joe Biden caused a stir on Monday during a gathering of business leaders at the White House when he alluded to a coming “new world order” in the wake of the Ukraine crisis, apparently not stopping to consider the awkward legacy of the phrase.
The New World Order conspiracy theory is the belief that a secretive totalitarian cabal of world governments are attempting to establish an international order that would see the people of earth suppressed under a globalist regime.
The common theme is that a secretive elite (for instance, the “Illuminati”) is conspiring to eventually rule the world through an authoritarian one-world government, which would replace sovereign nation-states.
Usage of the phrase can be traced back as far as the early 20th century, when figures like Churchill used the term…
Well, good luck with that. A couple of centuries of geopoliticking by American presidents has caused most of the free world to adopt a fairly jaundiced view of the prospects. But god loves a trier, so watch this space…
There's a new twist on this – the baddies are liberals.
He also referenced a “liberal world order,” which he said has helped the world avoid global conflicts since 1946.
Some might say the New World Order is comprised of the “Illuminati.” Others might say Freemasons, and some might say Communists. Antisemitic conspiracy theorists have placed Jews at the center of this cabal. These days, it’s often a hodgepodge of “liberal” villains, such as billionaire philanthropist George Soros (often the target of antisemitic conspiracies), the Clintons, and Bill Gates.
Jacinda Ardern saying she was going to the bakery department of a New World supermarket to order a birthday cake would be enough to get some in a lather.
They would quote that as her confirming that the NWO implementation was underway. That is the way of the wacky conspiracy world.
Interesting – as someone who has spoken frequently toward the necessity of a global order that supercedes the nations right to war – I am pretty familiar with these concerns.
In my view the choice will come down to this – a system of world governance that no-one likes, or nuclear annihilation.
Ambivalence around the topic is due to variable framing. For instance, if Biden were not afflicted by the habitual US as global policeman tacit default, he might have deployed a multipolar framing for the NWO.
Reform of the UN Security Council can always be declared as item #1 on the NWO agenda. If it were, those of us who look askance at the powers that be could then reframe somewhat: "okay, maybe they aren't really fos."
Just a question of authenticity & collective intent. Humans are self-organising systems by nature, but they became hierarchic by culture. If geopolitics were to produce a biodiverse global governance system, folks everywhere would see it as authentic – provided hierarchies collapsed, decision-making was consensual, the UN got re-organised to prioritise delivery of suitable results, etc.
Conservatives would argue that hierarchies are natural due to human nature inclining towards meritocracy rather than democracy. I think there's enough truth in that to preserve it as a working hypothesis – but not enough to use it to prevent progress.
Yeah, most likely. Dunno if that means Biden was merely frothing at the mouth though. And even if he's the archetypal liberal, I wouldn't assume incompetence will necessarily result…
Conservatives would argue that hierarchies are natural due to human nature…
I'm nearly finished Graeber and Wengrow (The Dawn of Everything) and I'm not reaching that conclusion at all. Matters of hierarchy and authority have historically been deliberate choices by self-conscious actors – and there is a pre-history of cultures deliberately preventing hierarchies from becoming fixed in nature or permanent in time.
there is a pre-history of cultures deliberately preventing hierarchies from becoming fixed
Whilst it's true that we can only speculate on prehistory re social structures, I suspect you're right – I've read books describing the pattern of hunter/gatherer societies as based on parity relations. Anthropological investigation of relic survivors into the modern era disclosed a culture of collectively punishing aspirants who tried to attain control.
The consensual view seems to be that hierarchy arose via settlement and the protection of grain stores – thus it first emerged in villages, then towns, then cities, before rulers achieved dominion over regions.
The economic analysis of the transition from hunter/gatherers to herding then settlement focuses on evidence that items valued had to be carried personally until storage became habitual & settlers became location-bound.
"The economic analysis of the transition from hunter/gatherers to herding then settlement…"
Jesus wept.
The assumption hunter-gatherers were not in settlements holds no weight at all. Australia's been settled for more than 65 000 years. Migrations or walkabout may also have been lifestyle choices, once an area was known. So entire continents may have been utilised aka settled with relatively small numbers of us on the scene. Back then, maybe everyone had a bach and a blind out the coast.
Settlements grew larger as populations grew larger. Cultivation grew around settlements. Security in numbers enabled survival against the odds – to beating the odds – and now finally stacking the odds back upon ourselves.
The various landmasses of the Earth have been settled as long as people have been here. While these cowboy-cosplay types flopping their missiles out still think it's a frontier to be conquered.
I'm all for cooperation. If US led the charge on how it is to be, I'd most firmly decline.
Yeah maybe you could do anarchic anti-hierarchy in a world with no technology and less than a few million people scattered across the planet in tiny groups.
They give examples of it occurring in what at the time would have been large groups. And although the technology was simple by modern standards, it existed. Flint-knapping for instance is a highly sophisticated skill, you or I would be utterly crap at it.
I think you are assuming that current arrangements are inevitable and are then doing a deterministic backwards projection. That – and making assumptions about what I think this knowledge of early human hierarchy formation and resistance actually might mean for the present day. On the latter point I have no specific idea at all, only that we might have more agency (to use a fashionable word, I prefer “free will”) than we imagine.
Bertrand Russel suggested at one time that world government would be necessary if we wished to avoid nuclear annihilation. He thought the best bet for bringing it about lay with the Soviet Union.
The largest obstacle remains totalitarian actors like the Kremlin and the CCP – and until they're gone the US will never let go it's objections either.
No. The main obstacle is the US, who won't countenance world government unless they get to be in charge. And the main reason they want to be in charge is so that can have first dibs on the worlds resources. The US fear that the massive continent, at the top of the world, a continent that includes Russia, China and Europe, will come to dominate. This why they meddle in affairs on the other side off the world from their own hemisphere.
They say they want to make the world safe for democracy; but in reality they want to make the world receptive to a predatory form of capitalism
Mindless marxist boiler plate anti-US bigotry. It is so pervasive on the far-left that even here on this thread we see one morally bankrupt fool after another unable to bring themselves to condemn the murdering of a country right under their noses.
To repeat myself – there is no moral difference between the extremes on the left and right – both will happily condone mass murder if they think it might promote their cause.
or a simple system which dis allows the United snakes States from doing what eva the fuck it likes in the world whether thats suffocating fledgling democracys or imposing totally illegal sanctions on sovereign countries
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Mike Hoskings "The Hosk" reckons the rot is setting in for Jacinda and Labour in the polls, when will this guy just disappear and piss off back to his relations in Australia.
I reckon it was just a one off spike for National after Jacinda has had some bad press about the Covid Protest in Wellington and the other issues associated with Covid.
Whatever decision Jacinda makes it will be deemed to be wrong by MSM and National/ACT/NZF as they are vying for the swing voters. She is on hiding to nothing Jacinda and Labour can only make the best decisions on the information that is available.
Hospo spokesman on the radio bemoaning the lack of patronage, blaming government messaging on covid and all ignoring the elephant in the room….diminished discretionary dollars.
Also, people not wanting to get Covid-19, so have changed their social behaviour.
We are at peak Covid right now with several dozen dying every week. Not sure why Hoskings or the hospitality sector don't seem able to acknowledge that.
Lol I've been going to the cinema a bit in the last few months, but accidentally went to a popular movie. Lots of people, even with spacing. Masked up, and no increase in coughs over pre-covid times, but the one or two that happened were a visceral fucking tension-raiser. Never again – obscure movies just before they finish their run for me from now on.
don't see why not. If we set aside the high vote because of covid, then they look like they're in a similar position as before, most likely a L/G government. Hard to predict though, it's not like the world is going to be particularly stable.
Best thing that could happen would be for not a lot to happen for six months and the PM and caucus getting to recover from the intense sustained stress the past two years.
Best thing that could happen would be for not a lot to happen for six months and the PM and caucus getting to recover from the intense sustained stress of the past two years.
Always a good idea to put oneself in other people's shoes. Thanks weka.
The moaners and the complainers have had stresses sure, but they are nothing compared to the PM and her ministers. Yet they reward the Govt. with bitter insults and the spreading of nasty memes like a bunch of 3 year olds denied cookies from the cookie jar.
I doubt the PM has had a single day's rest and recreation since the start of the pandemic. I doubt her ministers have had either. Yet they have had to put up with an unprecedented vitriolic lashing from a variety of sources including some in the media who apparently don't know any better.
General election is more than a year away and a week is a long time in politics. The mandates will be water under the bridge. It will be back to BAU before then and I think it will be much tighter than in 2020 producing a genuine coalition government this time.
I guess that point does need to be repeatedly stressed. Even to me. Oh How I LONG for days of old… but maybe I just long for less disasters, dictators and death.
General life, news cycle, politics, et cetera. Covid stats and those daily updates will disappear from the MSM front pages. People will forget Ashley’s surname. Even those QR codes will have disappeared from view. In 2023, we’re likely to see a Budget that’s no longer dominated by Covid and the parties will go into full campaign mode. That’s not to say that this pandemic is over – it will have a long fat tail.
I’d like to think that many would want to return to what they consider ‘normal’ or at least near-normal life. That might be wishful thinking, of course, and depends on how fat & long the pandemic tail will be. I have Stockholm Syndrome 🙁
One of the many things the government doesn't seem to be getting credit for is bringing house price growth under control.
If this stabilisation continues they'll have fulfilled their biggest election promise. That, on top of our stellar Covid response are things voters will remember in the booths.
If they campaign on that, expect activists and some organisations to go hard on how many people are living in poverty because Labour wouldn't sort the housing crisis.
slowing house price rises is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Likewise stalling them. There is nothing to celebrate there and if Labour try and trumpet that they deserve everything they get (unfortunately we don't deserve a Nact govt).
keeping housing prices high isn't stable and sustainable. It pleases the middle class liberals who want their cake and to eat it too, and keeps a lot of people in poverty and the poverty keeps compounding over time.
Very difficult for the Government to control house prices when NZ'ers are addicted to housing, like drug addicts are addicted to heroine or methamphetamine. It has been a road to riches for many NZers for very little effort.
This government has used some controls to obvious effect. This is what Labour had promised and they are delivering. They will have used political capital but this is what most people want.
Agree it is difficult to change a society which has accepted and promoted real estate agents being bigger than pop stars. How did we get to a situation where selling houses warrants shiny marketing billboards up and down main roads.
Given that they've presided over sky-rocketing housing prices during the last 4.5 years – the fact that it looks as though these may have reached apogee is not much to celebrate.
And, begs the question, if these strategies to calm the housing market are so successful, why didn't they apply them at the beginning of the Ardern government?
Frankly, I think that house prices may have plateaued because they've reached the maximum extent the 'market' is willing to pay, right now. Which (I think) says more about financial uncertainty (impact on international markets, cost-of-living, etc.) than it does about the strategies Labour may have put in place.
Looks like the market decided to grant Grant his wish – but only for half a year. Not sure how thrilled he'll be about that. These neoliberals get seriously addicted to rising markets & I wouldn't want him to be traumatised. However it is entirely possible that Muttonbird actually meant Reserve Bank signalling instead & wrote that bit accidentally.
Certainly telling the truth as far as I’m aware. I'm talking about the policy changes made by the government which I have outlined below @ 5.3.2.1.1.2.
Even the Reserve Bank's remit was changed by Grant Robertson when he asked them to consider housing in their monetary policy. This is also something the government has done to address the over-heated housing market.
And, begs the question, if these strategies to calm the housing market are so successful, why didn't they apply them at the beginning of the Ardern government?
Winston Peters, of course.
A lot of things have contributed to the current pausing of the market. Interest rates and uncertainty, but also the foreign buyers ban, extension of the bright line test and removal of interest deductions, stricter immigration management, and record house building too.
Some of this is external but some of it is policy and behaviour and the government should be congratulated for that.
Fair enough, I probably took controls too literally. Whether this mix generated the market result is a moot point but not one I'm in any position to argue about – I agree the mix would have influenced expectations significantly but competition for houses is hard to defeat…
Some evidence that Peters was a barrier in the way of the Ardern government implementing house price calming strategies, would be nice.
It's a lazy argument that all of the failures of the first Ardern government, can be laid at the feet of its coalition partner.
I don't hold much brief for Peters – but don't think there is any evidence that he (or the people who traditionally voted for him) wanted the skyrocketing prices for housing evidenced over the last 5 years. Stability, and possibly a slow but steady increase, yes; but the unsustainable levels that we've seen, no.
The foreign buyers ban (which Peters enthusiastically supported) had little, if any, impact on house prices. It was implemented in 2018 – and prices continued their upward spiral unabated.
The extension of the bright line test (with the continued exemption of the family home – a loophole through which you can drive a truck) – and applying only for 'new' buys – also had little immediate impact. It was implemented in March 2021 (so a year ago) – while prices continued their upwards trajectory, unabated.
The one policy which *may* have had an impact is the removal of interest deductions. Implemented in October 21, for property bought from March 21 – and phased in over 4 years for existing rental properties. There was no sign of immediate levelling off of prices – but it's possible that it did cause some medium-term unwillingness to invest in housing.
The policy which (unintentionally) may have an impact on house prices was the government's anti-loan-shark legislation – which caught up first-home buyers in its net. The result being that it was *much* harder to qualify for a mortgage with the banks (because of the liabilities accruing to lenders if the borrower was unable to pay back the loan). The impact was seen in the dropping numbers of buyers, and topping-out of prices in Jan/Feb this year. [It's unintentional, because the government is on record as saying that there was no intention to affect mortgage lending]
The factor which does look as though is having an effect, is inflation (which, as has been so eloquently expressed on this site – is primarily international in origin), combined with the financial uncertainty caused by the international supply chain and (now) the Ukraine situation. People are less willing to 'invest' in 30+ year mortgages in an uncertain financial environment – which has an impact on the number of willing buyers, and therefore the prices that the willing sellers may be 'forced' to accept.
The anti loan shark effect is exaggerated by banks ,by the opposition as a cause for a slowdown,when the reality is…the market is correcting..regardless.
So 3 months of prudent expenditure is too much to expect from home buyers…do me a..favour.
Every 2nd hand car dealer in Sth Auck should be out of business with this legislation…how come they ..aren't?
It may surprise you but I think 'every' is appropriate.
I actually had access to deals done in this sector and believe you me,I was appalled at the conditions and blatant profiteering inflicted on unsophisticated and gullible…people.
It does moderately surprise me that you believe, literally, that there should not be a single used car yard able to operate in South Auckland.
Sure, used car dealers are by reputation and often in practise capitalist predators upon the weak, but it's surely and exaggeration to say that there aren't enough fiscally-ok people in South Auckland to keep a single car yard running. We're still talking 100k+ people. Even at half the national rate of 0.8 cars per people, That's 40k lpvs. Ten year lifespan for a vehicle is still 4k car purchases a year, no? Wouldn't that be enough for one car yard at least?
The factor which does look as though is having an effect, is inflation (which, as has been so eloquently expressed on this site – is primarily international in origin), combined with the financial uncertainty caused by the international supply chain
Nah it is funny money, a decade of low interest rates (which made credit too cheap) drawdowns from existing home equity to fund " investment housing" and incorrect investment by councils to fund both vanity and Potemkin projects.
It was my understanding funny money (printed out of thin air) needs to be matched to goods or inflation occurs but all knowing folks here assured me I was wrong. It seems quite clear, and shows how easy a land grab from the investor class takes place. Pump in money, inflate goods, people throw their life savings at a seemingly vanishing (real estate) market… raise interest, Mom & Pop go into negative equity, mortgagee bonanza.
Glad I'm not the only one who's wrong all the time.
Arrogant pricks talked to one yesterday talked to me as if I was a child, I am 64 years old and have worked in the Real Estate Industry for 3 years, worst 3 years of my life hated every minute of it.
Yes, but it depends on the peter principle. If they have reached the plateau of their natural level of competence, policy delivery will continue to underwhelm.
Therefore parity with National is likely to persist. However the effect of the protest & the 20% to a third of the electorate resonance it achieved will diminish increasingly, so any achievements the govt produces will be likely to re-open a margin over National.
If they have reached the plateau of their natural level of competence, policy delivery will continue to underwhelm.
That sounds so pompous Dennis.
We have been delivered one of the better responses to covid, with fewer deaths plus support for people's wellbeing and work as we led as normal lives as possible during a pandemic.
We have more reality in bringing the housing "market" back to the concept of a "shelter", with the reason for speculation reined in by clever tax policy, begun by National but extended and improved by Labour.
We have recognition that "the rule of law" may need mandates to achieve health outcomes, that democracy allows people to get grumpy and not see the wood for the trees, and even burn down the forest at times in a childish tantrum.
I await the next budget with interest, as climate is our next big task, and there will be other difficulties to overcome, that shock jocks and poorly chosen candidates think they have answers for, or ways to ignore.
As the saying goes in Government and in Opposition. “Show me the Policy”
It is our right to sit in judgement of other's work, but praise where it is due is only fair, and sweeping generalisations are unhelpful imo.
So you glossed over my if at the start, huh? Pomposity is in your mind, realism in mine. I judge them only on the results they get – which is why my language is always carefully phrased to indicate an open mind.
But your bias is so powerful you don't notice that. And your addiction to exhibiting whataboutism merely makes you seem deviant. Evasion of poll results is the inevitable consequence. What if you were to get real instead? Then you might be worth reading.
I agree that "praise where it is due is only fair" and Labour "delivered one of the better responses to covid" – but I'd go further. I think they delivered the best out of all the nations, based on the evidence I've seen. However the voters no longer rate that highly, right? Only a third of them do currently.
My bias has been out there for ages lol. Bringing up items that may sway people's opinions is not whataboutism. Like you, I choose my words with care. I am not as clever as you Dennis, but I did say "It sounded.. not that it was pompous' There was no personal slagging in what I wrote. Cheers.
There is more vitriol on the PM's facebook, but generally doing a count of "thumbs up" plus "hearts", they outnumber all others by 2/3rds to 3/4s. The antis have just ramped up their criticisms. The worst perpetrators have very new pages, or they are full of religious cant or large oily vehicles.
Nobody “wins” it’s just that the incumbents piss off the voters enough to get booted out. Ordinary Kiwis lose if National gets in.
Jacinda used to be Labour’s greatest asset but now everyone is sick of her. I can’t be bothered with the weekly announcement of weird & complex new rules to be implemented in 6 weeks time that nobody will follow in practice.,
The Opposition parties have tapped into a rich vein of resentment and frustration. After locking up Auckland for 100 days and keeping MIQ going for too long with v thin justification, Labour has evaporated all its good will. The first lockdown was supposed to be a short sharp response not repeated endlessly.
Covid does not let the Government off the hook for their failures and betrayals of working class Kiwis by sustaining the housing bubble, suppressing wages for essential workers, allowing food banks to become the norm, ignoring beneficiaries, failing at mental health reform, & doubling down on neoliberal austerity
Arrogant pricks talked to one yesterday talked to me as if I was a child, I am 64 years old and have worked in the Real Estate Industry for 3 years, worst 3 years of my life hated every minute of it.
The Hospitality sector never stop complaining, ever, no matter what. Covid has changed the world in the last two years but Hospitality cannot seem to accept that people are not so ready to wine and dine among crowds of others. Perhaps there are simply too many cafes and restaurants now. And with the cost of living rising steeply people probably cannot eat out quite as often.
There were too many cafes and restaurants even before the pandemic! Though an upside of fewer of them would be increased home ownership for millennials and younger; no more flat whites and avocado toast denuding their deposits!
RNZ this morning reports the IMF has said the government has handled the economy and pandemic well. The economy is in a strong position because of "sound management".
Guessing we will not hear Hosking raise that on his morning hate rants. Nor will Luxon/Seymour.
A bit of good news today with the death of Allbright, the one that thought the death of…
In a 1996 interview with CBS, Albright defended the Clinton administration's economic sanctions against Iraq, saying that the deaths of 600,000 Iraqi children under the age of 5 was "worth it."
I hardly think celebrating someone's death is an appropriate reaction.
She described the quote you reference as being 'trapped' by a journalist asking an 'unfair' question (one to which there is no acceptable answer)- and said something that she did not mean.
It turns out, subsequently, that the mortality rates were fabricated by the Iraqi government as a piece of propaganda – and there was no major rise in child-mortality as a result of the international sanctions.
I suppose the deaths and ongoing deaths of Iraqi children by the use of depleted uranium used by her cohorts is fictitious too. I don't shed tears for dead american warmongers.
Good and rather chilling article by Gordon Campbell in his Werewolf blog about Luxon's dismissal of the "poor and unambitious". (a theme already covered on the Standard by Micky a couple of days ago). Predictably, Luxon's poor choice of words (Campbell unfavourably compares this to John key's more careful phraseology) has not been challenged by the MSM. Mind you, one wonders just how many politicians (of most stripes) think the same as Luxon, but are astute enough not to be so stupid to admit it?
This from the Campbell article worth a full repeat.
Jeremy Rose is so consistent with Luxon’s comments yesterday that it reads as confirmation:
“I met a former Air NZ flight attendant recently. She told me how their conditions were cut to the point that she had to pay for her own tickets to Auckland to work on international flights. On a return trip to Wellington she was told she’d be sitting next to Luxon. She asked not to be, but they said it was the only seat.
So, she told, me she had to decide whether to tell him how she felt or live with the fact that she hadn’t. So, she started to explain the situation and he interrupted her with: “You’re just waiters and waitresses…”. She said to me not only was that not true – there’s a lot of safety training, first aid etc, etc – but it was insulting to wait staff. She then pointed out to Luxon that the top 10 staff were earning $19 million between them to which he replied: “I could earn a lot more elsewhere.” He seems to lack any self-awareness, humility, decency or even intelligence.”
Don't we hear the same putdown about our Prime Minister's first job as an assistant in a fish and chip shop? Some observations about the worth of work follow.
First, f&c shops served our Catholic family with a weekly meal. That was always appreciated.
I'm the son of a grocer. My first paid job was mowing lawns. Then a shop assistant in Woolworths. Then working as a cleaner in a tyre factory got me through Uni. Those men sweated at their work, hard and long, in three shift work cycles. Then working as a coal trimmer one year at Uni for a holiday job taught me how wield a shovel, thirty six tons in a day emptying rail wagons of coal.
There I worked alongside medal-bedecked WW2 veterans and staunch unionists.
At the end of my working life and retired from teaching I went back to cleaning and met again with the same reactions about my worth sinceI was a lowly cleaner. The people I worked for, whose houses I cleaned, some of whom were openly despisers, did not realise that the people they employed were better educated than they were, brighter, better read judging from the bookshelves that did not exist, appreciating art better than the 'art' on the walls from accessory shops, more musical judging from the musical instruments not able to be seen. My fellow cleaner had an MA and had been a secondary school head of department.
Yet we were judged, as was Prime Minister Ardern, by our job status.
One last fact. hospital cleaners have a social value rating of x15 their actual wage, whereas bankers have a negative social rating according to an article in the Guardian in 2009.
As well as being open despisers the open despisers were arrogant and ignorant arseholes.
I remember in the early '70s a kid being upset about his father being a driver of a petrol tanker. They were on strike and the target of public opprobrium. It wasn't the drama of the strike or the criticism but the fact that his father was a mere truck driver. Of course his mates' fathers who were mangers doctors and lawyers were totally dependent on his father. Society could not operate without his contribution.
Seeing him become aware of that was heartening. If there weren't assistants in takeaway shops and cleaners how would things be? And how would Air NZ with Luxon have got on without cleaners and "waiters and waitresses?"
The PM is disparaged because she worked in a fish and chip shop as a teenager – somewhere I have seen a photo of Luxon as a teenager when he worked at McDonalds. Wonder when the right wingers will hone in on that and snort at him as they do with the PM.
However she went on to university, travelled quite widely, worked, and entered Parliament. The pathetic sneering seems to me simply to be jealousy because she is so popular and won an outright majority at the last election, and for some males it's because she is a woman. I will never forget the likes of the "girl in a skirt" comment – how dare a young, attractive woman think she can be the PM.
I think the majority of teenagers have worked at 'entry level' to earn some money before they start out on their career choice. It actually teaches them how to interact with others, some of whom may be very different to those they usually mix with. They learn how to listen, follow instructions, and concentrate on their tasks. Good on them.
The point isn't that teens and young adults shouldn't engage in retail as a first job, to supplement the family income, or to fund tertiary study. That is – in the neo-liberal centre-right rhetoric – a meritorious achievement. For all of the good reasons you've listed.
Their argument is that this fish and chip outlet is the only place Ardern has ever worked outside the political establishment.
And is 'evidence' that she is out-of-touch with the realities of those who run businesses, or who's jobs depend on business or trade.
It's the same level of sneering which is addressed to all MPs who've come through the ranks of political parties, unions or government departments – 'never had a real job'
[Please note, I'm not agreeing with them – simply explaining the thinking]
Nearly twenty years using the bench to harass, humiliate, and belittle women and girls in open court but it's unfair for “unsubstantiated allegations” to be aired in public.
My betting is that the judge [not naming or identifying – even though it's well known who it is] will resign – and take the (very) substantial retirement superannuation fund.
Then claim that 'nothing was ever proven'.
Judiciary needs to clean house much more effectively, and considerably more quickly.
Vladmir Putin and the white race imperialism of the Eastern Christendom. It began with Vladimir of Kiev and conversion to Christendom (so he could marry the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor).
On the eve of his murderous invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a long and rambling discourse denying the existence of Ukraine and Ukrainians, a speech many Western analysts found strange and untethered. Strange, yes. Untethered, no. The analysis came directly from the works of a fascist prophet of maximal Russian empire named Aleksandr Dugin.
But as the world watches with horror and disgust the indiscriminate bombing of Ukraine, a broader understanding is needed of Dugin’s deadly ideas. Russia has been running his playbook for the past 20 years, and it has brought us here, to the brink of another world war.
In his magnum opus, “The Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russia,” published in 1997, Dugin mapped out the game plan in detail. Russian agents should foment racial, religious and sectional divisions within the United States while promoting the United States’ isolationist factions. (Sound familiar?) In Great Britain, the psy-ops effort should focus on exacerbating historic rifts with Continental Europe and separatist movements in Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Western Europe, meanwhile, should be drawn in Russia’s direction by the lure of natural resources: oil, gas and food. NATO would collapse from within.
Belladonna makes the point that some people think union reps, public servants and politicians are not 'real' jobs. Very narrow minded and blinkered. There are many cases of politicians from who have had 'real' jobs who are hopeless politicians.
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On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
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By Jo Moir, RNZ News political editor, and Craig McCulloch, deputy political editor New Zealand’s Labour Party is demanding Winston Peters be stood down as Foreign Minister for opening up the government to legal action over his “totally unacceptable” attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. In an interview on RNZ’s ...
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US President Biden told the Business Roundtable’s CEO Quarterly Meeting that the new world order is coming. Folks haven't been so excited since President Bush did likewise more than 30 years ago!
Novices may need to read this primer:
What he actually said was this: "now is a time when things are shifting. There's going to be a new world order out there, and we've got to lead it. And we've got to unite the rest of the free world in doing it." https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-new-world-order-conspiracy-qanon-1690335
Well, good luck with that. A couple of centuries of geopoliticking by American presidents has caused most of the free world to adopt a fairly jaundiced view of the prospects. But god loves a trier, so watch this space…
There's a new twist on this – the baddies are liberals.
Jacinda Ardern saying she was going to the bakery department of a New World supermarket to order a birthday cake would be enough to get some in a lather.
They would quote that as her confirming that the NWO implementation was underway. That is the way of the wacky conspiracy world.
Interesting – as someone who has spoken frequently toward the necessity of a global order that supercedes the nations right to war – I am pretty familiar with these concerns.
In my view the choice will come down to this – a system of world governance that no-one likes, or nuclear annihilation.
Ambivalence around the topic is due to variable framing. For instance, if Biden were not afflicted by the habitual US as global policeman tacit default, he might have deployed a multipolar framing for the NWO.
Reform of the UN Security Council can always be declared as item #1 on the NWO agenda. If it were, those of us who look askance at the powers that be could then reframe somewhat: "okay, maybe they aren't really fos."
Just a question of authenticity & collective intent. Humans are self-organising systems by nature, but they became hierarchic by culture. If geopolitics were to produce a biodiverse global governance system, folks everywhere would see it as authentic – provided hierarchies collapsed, decision-making was consensual, the UN got re-organised to prioritise delivery of suitable results, etc.
Conservatives would argue that hierarchies are natural due to human nature inclining towards meritocracy rather than democracy. I think there's enough truth in that to preserve it as a working hypothesis – but not enough to use it to prevent progress.
Oh you guys.
There's not going to be a new world order.
In 2009 the EU couldn't even act usefully on the GFC. So the hard right continues to rise despite strong multilateralism.
Last year we barely had a functioning world trade order. So we have instead trade agreements.
If the world's countries were now asked to vote on the existence of the UN, my bet is there's be a strong NO.
We have gradualist improvements like a global corporate tax floor, and the Paris Agreement.
I think we'll just muddle along.
we'll just muddle along
Yeah, most likely. Dunno if that means Biden was merely frothing at the mouth though. And even if he's the archetypal liberal, I wouldn't assume incompetence will necessarily result…
muddle, muddle – boom
I'm nearly finished Graeber and Wengrow (The Dawn of Everything) and I'm not reaching that conclusion at all. Matters of hierarchy and authority have historically been deliberate choices by self-conscious actors – and there is a pre-history of cultures deliberately preventing hierarchies from becoming fixed in nature or permanent in time.
there is a pre-history of cultures deliberately preventing hierarchies from becoming fixed
Whilst it's true that we can only speculate on prehistory re social structures, I suspect you're right – I've read books describing the pattern of hunter/gatherer societies as based on parity relations. Anthropological investigation of relic survivors into the modern era disclosed a culture of collectively punishing aspirants who tried to attain control.
The consensual view seems to be that hierarchy arose via settlement and the protection of grain stores – thus it first emerged in villages, then towns, then cities, before rulers achieved dominion over regions.
The economic analysis of the transition from hunter/gatherers to herding then settlement focuses on evidence that items valued had to be carried personally until storage became habitual & settlers became location-bound.
"The economic analysis of the transition from hunter/gatherers to herding then settlement…"
Jesus wept.
The assumption hunter-gatherers were not in settlements holds no weight at all. Australia's been settled for more than 65 000 years. Migrations or walkabout may also have been lifestyle choices, once an area was known. So entire continents may have been utilised aka settled with relatively small numbers of us on the scene. Back then, maybe everyone had a bach and a blind out the coast.
Settlements grew larger as populations grew larger. Cultivation grew around settlements. Security in numbers enabled survival against the odds – to beating the odds – and now finally stacking the odds back upon ourselves.
The various landmasses of the Earth have been settled as long as people have been here. While these cowboy-cosplay types flopping their missiles out still think it's a frontier to be conquered.
I'm all for cooperation. If US led the charge on how it is to be, I'd most firmly decline.
Yeah maybe you could do anarchic anti-hierarchy in a world with no technology and less than a few million people scattered across the planet in tiny groups.
They give examples of it occurring in what at the time would have been large groups. And although the technology was simple by modern standards, it existed. Flint-knapping for instance is a highly sophisticated skill, you or I would be utterly crap at it.
I think you are assuming that current arrangements are inevitable and are then doing a deterministic backwards projection. That – and making assumptions about what I think this knowledge of early human hierarchy formation and resistance actually might mean for the present day. On the latter point I have no specific idea at all, only that we might have more agency (to use a fashionable word, I prefer “free will”) than we imagine.
Bertrand Russel suggested at one time that world government would be necessary if we wished to avoid nuclear annihilation. He thought the best bet for bringing it about lay with the Soviet Union.
The largest obstacle remains totalitarian actors like the Kremlin and the CCP – and until they're gone the US will never let go it's objections either.
No. The main obstacle is the US, who won't countenance world government unless they get to be in charge. And the main reason they want to be in charge is so that can have first dibs on the worlds resources. The US fear that the massive continent, at the top of the world, a continent that includes Russia, China and Europe, will come to dominate. This why they meddle in affairs on the other side off the world from their own hemisphere.
They say they want to make the world safe for democracy; but in reality they want to make the world receptive to a predatory form of capitalism
Mindless marxist boiler plate anti-US bigotry. It is so pervasive on the far-left that even here on this thread we see one morally bankrupt fool after another unable to bring themselves to condemn the murdering of a country right under their noses.
To repeat myself – there is no moral difference between the extremes on the left and right – both will happily condone mass murder if they think it might promote their cause.
" Governance that noone wants "etc
or a simple system which dis allows the United
snakesStates from doing what eva the fuck it likes in the world whether thats suffocating fledgling democracys or imposing totally illegal sanctions on sovereign countriesThats my idea of a new world order !
No idea how that G got there !
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Mike Hoskings "The Hosk" reckons the rot is setting in for Jacinda and Labour in the polls, when will this guy just disappear and piss off back to his relations in Australia.
I reckon it was just a one off spike for National after Jacinda has had some bad press about the Covid Protest in Wellington and the other issues associated with Covid.
Whatever decision Jacinda makes it will be deemed to be wrong by MSM and National/ACT/NZF as they are vying for the swing voters. She is on hiding to nothing Jacinda and Labour can only make the best decisions on the information that is available.
Hoskins whinging hard about the PM's press conferences again. Doesn't like the way she promotes NZ's Covid response.
The desperation is real.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-omicron-calls-to-boost-vaccines-masks-as-pm-relaxes-covid-protections/WU52MEDIZUWVSH5Y5GDO5GPLX4/
The good thing about this is that Hosking is more often proven by time to be writing rubbish rather than accurate analysis.
I reckon the rot is setting in, in his mind
Hosk and NZ Granny Herald Setting the Narrative.
Not here they don't. Unless you let them.
Hospo spokesman on the radio bemoaning the lack of patronage, blaming government messaging on covid and all ignoring the elephant in the room….diminished discretionary dollars.
Also, people not wanting to get Covid-19, so have changed their social behaviour.
We are at peak Covid right now with several dozen dying every week. Not sure why Hoskings or the hospitality sector don't seem able to acknowledge that.
I got discretionary dollars to go out and get completely trolloped, and a strong desire to do so. What I don't have is suicidal tendencies.
Business folk think their overpriced drinks and muffins are so good we should risk death to consume them.
What a joke these people are.
"Your coffee wine and a serve of covid on the side"
Hear Hear
Jokes with soapboxes whining constantly like video store owners who haven't woken up to the world of streaming.
We, along with others, no longer consider restaurants and bars as places of interest.
Covid forced a change we will persist with as others are.
Lol I've been going to the cinema a bit in the last few months, but accidentally went to a popular movie. Lots of people, even with spacing. Masked up, and no increase in coughs over pre-covid times, but the one or two that happened were a visceral fucking tension-raiser. Never again – obscure movies just before they finish their run for me from now on.
People frequented their establishments because of the restrictions.
Wait untill they find out that people will have second thoughts about sharing spaces with other, previously ineligible patrons.
People do not really want a free side dish of Covid when they go out to dinner and to socialize with family and friends.
The mandates may be history, but can Labour recover enough for a third term?
don't see why not. If we set aside the high vote because of covid, then they look like they're in a similar position as before, most likely a L/G government. Hard to predict though, it's not like the world is going to be particularly stable.
Best thing that could happen would be for not a lot to happen for six months and the PM and caucus getting to recover from the intense sustained stress the past two years.
Always a good idea to put oneself in other people's shoes. Thanks weka.
The moaners and the complainers have had stresses sure, but they are nothing compared to the PM and her ministers. Yet they reward the Govt. with bitter insults and the spreading of nasty memes like a bunch of 3 year olds denied cookies from the cookie jar.
I doubt the PM has had a single day's rest and recreation since the start of the pandemic. I doubt her ministers have had either. Yet they have had to put up with an unprecedented vitriolic lashing from a variety of sources including some in the media who apparently don't know any better.
General election is more than a year away and a week is a long time in politics. The mandates will be water under the bridge. It will be back to BAU before then and I think it will be much tighter than in 2020 producing a genuine coalition government this time.
Bring it. This mandated to be meh is getting up my nose.
what will be back to BAU?
I guess that point does need to be repeatedly stressed. Even to me. Oh How I LONG for days of old… but maybe I just long for less disasters, dictators and death.
General life, news cycle, politics, et cetera. Covid stats and those daily updates will disappear from the MSM front pages. People will forget Ashley’s surname. Even those QR codes will have disappeared from view. In 2023, we’re likely to see a Budget that’s no longer dominated by Covid and the parties will go into full campaign mode. That’s not to say that this pandemic is over – it will have a long fat tail.
I imagine the election year will proceed as usual, although I don't feel as optimistic (or pragmatic?) as you on the rest.
I’d like to think that many would want to return to what they consider ‘normal’ or at least near-normal life. That might be wishful thinking, of course, and depends on how fat & long the pandemic tail will be. I have Stockholm Syndrome 🙁
One of the many things the government doesn't seem to be getting credit for is bringing house price growth under control.
If this stabilisation continues they'll have fulfilled their biggest election promise. That, on top of our stellar Covid response are things voters will remember in the booths.
If they campaign on that, expect activists and some organisations to go hard on how many people are living in poverty because Labour wouldn't sort the housing crisis.
(and afaik, it's not under control).
Perhaps under control is a bit strong, but there is no doubt house prices at the moment have slowed or stopped, and in some areas reversed.
You can tell by the tense doom and gloom articles in the property sections of the media.
slowing house price rises is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Likewise stalling them. There is nothing to celebrate there and if Labour try and trumpet that they deserve everything they get (unfortunately we don't deserve a Nact govt).
It's one part of the long process of changing behaviour. If it can stick, why shouldn't it be celebrated?
A stable and sustainable housing sector is what we want, isn't it?
keeping housing prices high isn't stable and sustainable. It pleases the middle class liberals who want their cake and to eat it too, and keeps a lot of people in poverty and the poverty keeps compounding over time.
Very difficult for the Government to control house prices when NZ'ers are addicted to housing, like drug addicts are addicted to heroine or methamphetamine. It has been a road to riches for many NZers for very little effort.
This government has used some controls to obvious effect. This is what Labour had promised and they are delivering. They will have used political capital but this is what most people want.
Agree it is difficult to change a society which has accepted and promoted real estate agents being bigger than pop stars. How did we get to a situation where selling houses warrants shiny marketing billboards up and down main roads.
Given that they've presided over sky-rocketing housing prices during the last 4.5 years – the fact that it looks as though these may have reached apogee is not much to celebrate.
And, begs the question, if these strategies to calm the housing market are so successful, why didn't they apply them at the beginning of the Ardern government?
Frankly, I think that house prices may have plateaued because they've reached the maximum extent the 'market' is willing to pay, right now. Which (I think) says more about financial uncertainty (impact on international markets, cost-of-living, etc.) than it does about the strategies Labour may have put in place.
Good comment. I googled housing price controls nz to see if Muttonbird was telling the truth but none showed up.
What I got included this Stuff report from six months ago where
Looks like the market decided to grant Grant his wish – but only for half a year. Not sure how thrilled he'll be about that. These neoliberals get seriously addicted to rising markets & I wouldn't want him to be traumatised. However it is entirely possible that Muttonbird actually meant Reserve Bank signalling instead & wrote that bit accidentally.
Certainly telling the truth as far as I’m aware. I'm talking about the policy changes made by the government which I have outlined below @ 5.3.2.1.1.2.
Even the Reserve Bank's remit was changed by Grant Robertson when he asked them to consider housing in their monetary policy. This is also something the government has done to address the over-heated housing market.
Winston Peters, of course.
A lot of things have contributed to the current pausing of the market. Interest rates and uncertainty, but also the foreign buyers ban, extension of the bright line test and removal of interest deductions, stricter immigration management, and record house building too.
Some of this is external but some of it is policy and behaviour and the government should be congratulated for that.
Fair enough, I probably took controls too literally. Whether this mix generated the market result is a moot point but not one I'm in any position to argue about – I agree the mix would have influenced expectations significantly but competition for houses is hard to defeat…
Some evidence that Peters was a barrier in the way of the Ardern government implementing house price calming strategies, would be nice.
It's a lazy argument that all of the failures of the first Ardern government, can be laid at the feet of its coalition partner.
I don't hold much brief for Peters – but don't think there is any evidence that he (or the people who traditionally voted for him) wanted the skyrocketing prices for housing evidenced over the last 5 years. Stability, and possibly a slow but steady increase, yes; but the unsustainable levels that we've seen, no.
The foreign buyers ban (which Peters enthusiastically supported) had little, if any, impact on house prices. It was implemented in 2018 – and prices continued their upward spiral unabated.
The extension of the bright line test (with the continued exemption of the family home – a loophole through which you can drive a truck) – and applying only for 'new' buys – also had little immediate impact. It was implemented in March 2021 (so a year ago) – while prices continued their upwards trajectory, unabated.
The one policy which *may* have had an impact is the removal of interest deductions. Implemented in October 21, for property bought from March 21 – and phased in over 4 years for existing rental properties. There was no sign of immediate levelling off of prices – but it's possible that it did cause some medium-term unwillingness to invest in housing.
The policy which (unintentionally) may have an impact on house prices was the government's anti-loan-shark legislation – which caught up first-home buyers in its net. The result being that it was *much* harder to qualify for a mortgage with the banks (because of the liabilities accruing to lenders if the borrower was unable to pay back the loan). The impact was seen in the dropping numbers of buyers, and topping-out of prices in Jan/Feb this year. [It's unintentional, because the government is on record as saying that there was no intention to affect mortgage lending]
The factor which does look as though is having an effect, is inflation (which, as has been so eloquently expressed on this site – is primarily international in origin), combined with the financial uncertainty caused by the international supply chain and (now) the Ukraine situation. People are less willing to 'invest' in 30+ year mortgages in an uncertain financial environment – which has an impact on the number of willing buyers, and therefore the prices that the willing sellers may be 'forced' to accept.
I suspect Labour also expected kiwibuild to actually work. The next obvious strategy was a CGT, but they'd ruled that out to get elected.
Agree about the anti-loan shark measures – lowered demand by making it difficult to buy a home to actually live in (sigh)
The anti loan shark effect is exaggerated by banks ,by the opposition as a cause for a slowdown,when the reality is…the market is correcting..regardless.
So 3 months of prudent expenditure is too much to expect from home buyers…do me a..favour.
Every 2nd hand car dealer in Sth Auck should be out of business with this legislation…how come they ..aren't?
Except your own exaggerations merely exaggerate the banks' exaggeration…
What exaggerations would they be..then?N.F.I
Every used car dealership isn't a teeny tiny exaggeration?
It may surprise you but I think 'every' is appropriate.
I actually had access to deals done in this sector and believe you me,I was appalled at the conditions and blatant profiteering inflicted on unsophisticated and gullible…people.
It does moderately surprise me that you believe, literally, that there should not be a single used car yard able to operate in South Auckland.
Sure, used car dealers are by reputation and often in practise capitalist predators upon the weak, but it's surely and exaggeration to say that there aren't enough fiscally-ok people in South Auckland to keep a single car yard running. We're still talking 100k+ people. Even at half the national rate of 0.8 cars per people, That's 40k lpvs. Ten year lifespan for a vehicle is still 4k car purchases a year, no? Wouldn't that be enough for one car yard at least?
O.K ,I agree at least one car yard will survive.
How's business.
no better idea than you.
Nah it is funny money, a decade of low interest rates (which made credit too cheap) drawdowns from existing home equity to fund " investment housing" and incorrect investment by councils to fund both vanity and Potemkin projects.
https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/1469296635167526913?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1469296635167526913%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublish.twitter.com%2F%3Fquery%3Dhttps3A2F2Ftwitter.com2Fnntaleb2Fstatus2F1469296635167526913widget%3DTweet
The days of cheap money are over,high inflation is here and higher interest rates are coming NO mistake its in big yellow lights
https://twitter.com/business/status/1506792171193745417?cxt=HHwWkoC-peLfmekpAAAA
It was my understanding funny money (printed out of thin air) needs to be matched to goods or inflation occurs but all knowing folks here assured me I was wrong. It seems quite clear, and shows how easy a land grab from the investor class takes place. Pump in money, inflate goods, people throw their life savings at a seemingly vanishing (real estate) market… raise interest, Mom & Pop go into negative equity, mortgagee bonanza.
Glad I'm not the only one who's wrong all the time.
When investment appreciation exceeds productive growth ( output) both asset inflation occurs and inequality rises.
Until the great equalization occurs then its turtles all the way down.
Arrogant pricks talked to one yesterday talked to me as if I was a child, I am 64 years old and have worked in the Real Estate Industry for 3 years, worst 3 years of my life hated every minute of it.
Yes, but it depends on the peter principle. If they have reached the plateau of their natural level of competence, policy delivery will continue to underwhelm.
Therefore parity with National is likely to persist. However the effect of the protest & the 20% to a third of the electorate resonance it achieved will diminish increasingly, so any achievements the govt produces will be likely to re-open a margin over National.
So you glossed over my if at the start, huh? Pomposity is in your mind, realism in mine. I judge them only on the results they get – which is why my language is always carefully phrased to indicate an open mind.
But your bias is so powerful you don't notice that. And your addiction to exhibiting whataboutism merely makes you seem deviant. Evasion of poll results is the inevitable consequence. What if you were to get real instead? Then you might be worth reading.
I agree that "praise where it is due is only fair" and Labour "delivered one of the better responses to covid" – but I'd go further. I think they delivered the best out of all the nations, based on the evidence I've seen. However the voters no longer rate that highly, right? Only a third of them do currently.
My bias has been out there for ages lol. Bringing up items that may sway people's opinions is not whataboutism. Like you, I choose my words with care. I am not as clever as you Dennis, but I did say "It sounded.. not that it was pompous' There was no personal slagging in what I wrote. Cheers.
Okay thanks Patricia. I do try to be careful but sometimes fail…
All good. D. I should have asked..” Do you think they have plateaued and lack skill?”
There is more vitriol on the PM's facebook, but generally doing a count of "thumbs up" plus "hearts", they outnumber all others by 2/3rds to 3/4s. The antis have just ramped up their criticisms. The worst perpetrators have very new pages, or they are full of religious cant or large oily vehicles.
It's cruel but there's nothing Labour can do.
Still 2 months to Budget, and it better be a vote-suction machine.
National/ACT/NZF don't have a shit show in hell of getting anywhere near Government in 2023.
Tax cuts win.
Nobody “wins” it’s just that the incumbents piss off the voters enough to get booted out. Ordinary Kiwis lose if National gets in.
Jacinda used to be Labour’s greatest asset but now everyone is sick of her. I can’t be bothered with the weekly announcement of weird & complex new rules to be implemented in 6 weeks time that nobody will follow in practice.,
The Opposition parties have tapped into a rich vein of resentment and frustration. After locking up Auckland for 100 days and keeping MIQ going for too long with v thin justification, Labour has evaporated all its good will. The first lockdown was supposed to be a short sharp response not repeated endlessly.
Covid does not let the Government off the hook for their failures and betrayals of working class Kiwis by sustaining the housing bubble, suppressing wages for essential workers, allowing food banks to become the norm, ignoring beneficiaries, failing at mental health reform, & doubling down on neoliberal austerity
Arrogant pricks talked to one yesterday talked to me as if I was a child, I am 64 years old and have worked in the Real Estate Industry for 3 years, worst 3 years of my life hated every minute of it.
The Hospitality sector never stop complaining, ever, no matter what. Covid has changed the world in the last two years but Hospitality cannot seem to accept that people are not so ready to wine and dine among crowds of others. Perhaps there are simply too many cafes and restaurants now. And with the cost of living rising steeply people probably cannot eat out quite as often.
But they keep demanding subsidies, vouchers….
There were too many cafes and restaurants even before the pandemic! Though an upside of fewer of them would be increased home ownership for millennials and younger; no more flat whites and avocado toast denuding their deposits!
$12.00 Steinlagers and Heinekins, people do not have the discretionary spendinding these days especially after 2 x Years of Covid.
RNZ this morning reports the IMF has said the government has handled the economy and pandemic well. The economy is in a strong position because of "sound management".
Guessing we will not hear Hosking raise that on his morning hate rants. Nor will Luxon/Seymour.
https://www.interest.co.nz/public-policy/114965/imf-calls-significant-increases-ocr-more-targeted-govt-spending-fuel-tax-cuts
A bit of good news today with the death of Allbright, the one that thought the death of…
In a 1996 interview with CBS, Albright defended the Clinton administration's economic sanctions against Iraq, saying that the deaths of 600,000 Iraqi children under the age of 5 was "worth it."
hope they bury her face down.
I hardly think celebrating someone's death is an appropriate reaction.
She described the quote you reference as being 'trapped' by a journalist asking an 'unfair' question (one to which there is no acceptable answer)- and said something that she did not mean.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Albright#Controversies
It turns out, subsequently, that the mortality rates were fabricated by the Iraqi government as a piece of propaganda – and there was no major rise in child-mortality as a result of the international sanctions.
I suppose the deaths and ongoing deaths of Iraqi children by the use of depleted uranium used by her cohorts is fictitious too. I don't shed tears for dead american warmongers.
Presumably not for any other warmongers either….
She wasn't Kissinger.
Frankly, any job at the level of secstate/foreign minister is a bit like a surgeon in the 19th century: the best ones save more lives than they kill.
But even then, there's always the possibility of a single operation with a 300% mortality rate.
Lovely Lady RIP ?
Good and rather chilling article by Gordon Campbell in his Werewolf blog about Luxon's dismissal of the "poor and unambitious". (a theme already covered on the Standard by Micky a couple of days ago). Predictably, Luxon's poor choice of words (Campbell unfavourably compares this to John key's more careful phraseology) has not been challenged by the MSM. Mind you, one wonders just how many politicians (of most stripes) think the same as Luxon, but are astute enough not to be so stupid to admit it?
Yes a thought provoking read.
Nationals media never holds it to account.
Luxon knows that so has gone for the dog whistling, innuendo, rubbery tax claims etc
This from the Campbell article worth a full repeat.
“I met a former Air NZ flight attendant recently. She told me how their conditions were cut to the point that she had to pay for her own tickets to Auckland to work on international flights. On a return trip to Wellington she was told she’d be sitting next to Luxon. She asked not to be, but they said it was the only seat.
So, she told, me she had to decide whether to tell him how she felt or live with the fact that she hadn’t. So, she started to explain the situation and he interrupted her with: “You’re just waiters and waitresses…”. She said to me not only was that not true – there’s a lot of safety training, first aid etc, etc – but it was insulting to wait staff. She then pointed out to Luxon that the top 10 staff were earning $19 million between them to which he replied: “I could earn a lot more elsewhere.” He seems to lack any self-awareness, humility, decency or even intelligence.”
Classic Luxon Can he learn to mask his true colours?
'Honest John' pulled it off, on and off, for a decade.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/22/new-zealand-prime-minister-john-key-apologises-for-pulling-waitresss-hair
Donkey was just horsing around. You can lead a horse to a pony, but you cannot make the horse pull the ponytail.
Another failure to discern the difference between earning and being paid, commonly made, whereby the latter assumes the former. Not the same alas.
“You’re just waiters and waitresses…"
Don't we hear the same putdown about our Prime Minister's first job as an assistant in a fish and chip shop? Some observations about the worth of work follow.
First, f&c shops served our Catholic family with a weekly meal. That was always appreciated.
I'm the son of a grocer. My first paid job was mowing lawns. Then a shop assistant in Woolworths. Then working as a cleaner in a tyre factory got me through Uni. Those men sweated at their work, hard and long, in three shift work cycles. Then working as a coal trimmer one year at Uni for a holiday job taught me how wield a shovel, thirty six tons in a day emptying rail wagons of coal.
There I worked alongside medal-bedecked WW2 veterans and staunch unionists.
At the end of my working life and retired from teaching I went back to cleaning and met again with the same reactions about my worth sinceI was a lowly cleaner. The people I worked for, whose houses I cleaned, some of whom were openly despisers, did not realise that the people they employed were better educated than they were, brighter, better read judging from the bookshelves that did not exist, appreciating art better than the 'art' on the walls from accessory shops, more musical judging from the musical instruments not able to be seen. My fellow cleaner had an MA and had been a secondary school head of department.
Yet we were judged, as was Prime Minister Ardern, by our job status.
One last fact. hospital cleaners have a social value rating of x15 their actual wage, whereas bankers have a negative social rating according to an article in the Guardian in 2009.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2009/dec/14/new-economics-foundation-social-value
As well as being open despisers the open despisers were arrogant and ignorant arseholes.
I remember in the early '70s a kid being upset about his father being a driver of a petrol tanker. They were on strike and the target of public opprobrium. It wasn't the drama of the strike or the criticism but the fact that his father was a mere truck driver. Of course his mates' fathers who were mangers doctors and lawyers were totally dependent on his father. Society could not operate without his contribution.
Seeing him become aware of that was heartening. If there weren't assistants in takeaway shops and cleaners how would things be? And how would Air NZ with Luxon have got on without cleaners and "waiters and waitresses?"
The PM is disparaged because she worked in a fish and chip shop as a teenager – somewhere I have seen a photo of Luxon as a teenager when he worked at McDonalds. Wonder when the right wingers will hone in on that and snort at him as they do with the PM.
However she went on to university, travelled quite widely, worked, and entered Parliament. The pathetic sneering seems to me simply to be jealousy because she is so popular and won an outright majority at the last election, and for some males it's because she is a woman. I will never forget the likes of the "girl in a skirt" comment – how dare a young, attractive woman think she can be the PM.
I think the majority of teenagers have worked at 'entry level' to earn some money before they start out on their career choice. It actually teaches them how to interact with others, some of whom may be very different to those they usually mix with. They learn how to listen, follow instructions, and concentrate on their tasks. Good on them.
The sneering is real.
The point isn't that teens and young adults shouldn't engage in retail as a first job, to supplement the family income, or to fund tertiary study. That is – in the neo-liberal centre-right rhetoric – a meritorious achievement. For all of the good reasons you've listed.
Their argument is that this fish and chip outlet is the only place Ardern has ever worked outside the political establishment.
And is 'evidence' that she is out-of-touch with the realities of those who run businesses, or who's jobs depend on business or trade.
It's the same level of sneering which is addressed to all MPs who've come through the ranks of political parties, unions or government departments – 'never had a real job'
[Please note, I'm not agreeing with them – simply explaining the thinking]
Need more skills working in a Fish & Chip Shop cf to working in McDonalds imo.
Nearly twenty years using the bench to harass, humiliate, and belittle women and girls in open court but it's unfair for “unsubstantiated allegations” to be aired in public.
Boo-fucking-hoo, arsehole.
/
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300548439/embattled-judge-loses-bid-to-have-conduct-inquiry-held-in-private
My betting is that the judge [not naming or identifying – even though it's well known who it is] will resign – and take the (very) substantial retirement superannuation fund.
Then claim that 'nothing was ever proven'.
Judiciary needs to clean house much more effectively, and considerably more quickly.
My SO has better work stories about the arsehole. Skin-crawling stuff.
White Man Behind A Desk on the Hobbit Law 12 years on. Utterly, depressingly brilliant.
White Man Behind A Desk – The Hobbit Law 12 Years On
Vladmir Putin and the white race imperialism of the Eastern Christendom. It began with Vladimir of Kiev and conversion to Christendom (so he could marry the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor).
https://wapo.st/3wvlhsn
Evidently, “Dugin is Putin’s Rasputin”. Here’s an incredible bit of fascist propaganda — deeply heretical against the basic teachings of Christ IMNSHO
https://twitter.com/contentinople_/status/1504533911979843603?s=21
Belladonna makes the point that some people think union reps, public servants and politicians are not 'real' jobs. Very narrow minded and blinkered. There are many cases of politicians from who have had 'real' jobs who are hopeless politicians.