"This initiative is calledThe Million Hazelnut Campaign, and I love it. It aims to do three things: First, raise awareness of how terrific hazelnuts are, environmentally, and as an economic engine for farmers, as well as a tasty food. Second, the campaign intends to persuade some farmers to take a gamble on hazelnuts, and transition some land to the shrubby nut-bearing trees. Finally, it wants us restaurant-going city-types to kick in some cash to make it all happen. So buddy, can you spare $7 to plant a local hazelnut tree?"
Here’s what hazelnuts do that’s good: First, like all plants, they take carbon out of the air, and put it back in the ground. However, hazelnuts have a sturdy root system, and unlike, say, corn, once they get established, their land never has to be plowed again, preventing erosion. They also pull an ever greater amount of carbon out of the air as they grow. They prevent erosion and protect waterways. They’re drought-tolerant and don’t need irrigation. They’re bird, critter, and pollinator-friendly and provide habitat up and down the web of life. They’re hardy and pest-resistant and don’t require poisons like pesticides or other inputs. They’re permaculture crops that can live for many years, possibly centuries, because after they’re planted, if they get old and weak you can cut them to the ground and they’ll start up again. “I think it’s on my generation to start showing a real way out of this climate crisis,” says Gamer. “For the farmers who are drowning in debt and input-costs, and for everyone. The way out is hazelnuts.”
I've been arguing for tree crops for years though I also advocate for regenerative farming. Basically, in NZ, we could combine both in many instances, and do very well by it. I can't speak for the rest of NZ but in the Auckland bioregion Macadamias, Walnuts and Hazelnuts are low-no maintenance high value crops.
My neighbour has quite a few hazelnut trees and production is pretty good, like more than the neighbourhood can consume. But they are bloody hard on the fingers getting the things out of the shell, really needs a mechanised sheller.
The plus side is that the rats can't get into them either so aren't attracted. Chestnuts or walnuts are another story, they'll pull every rat in town if you don't collect the nuts as soon as they hit the ground.
Pretty sure there are hazelnut shellers already, but I bet the availability and design would improve if more hazelnuts were being grown/eaten. The people who sell them off their land are shelling them, so there must be a way to do it that is worth the while.
You don't have an excess of rats you have a shortage of hunting cats 😉 (to paraphrase a permaculture solution).
The hunting cats are all good until they present you with a nightly rat from under the walnut tree, on your pillow, at 3am, as an expression of their love…..
Empty rabbit wrappers between the toes on the kitchen floor in the half light of dawn are another delight
lol we had a big cat when I was growing up – it used to leave the rabbit colon behind the best chair in the living room. Ate the rest. Used to have breakfast with us on occasion – the crunching sounds put us off the meal lol
I use a pair of plumbers multigrips (slipjaw pliers) to shell hazelnuts. This works very well if you have small hands and means you can't gobble them all up in one go. It also works for other nuts as you can adjust them.
Growing them from nuts is easy. Buy "Whiteheart" and sow and grow en masse, then purchase as many pollinators as you need (not many). The idea that "city folk" might support a farmer wanting to transition to tree cropping, is to my mind, a very good one, especially if the connection is kept via an app or something, tracking how "your" tree is doing. Sweet chestnuts are an even better option, perhaps, and just as easy to grow from nuts. I imagine someone growing sweet chestnuts and hazels in their back yard might be able to find places to plant them somewhere in the neighbourhood
Russiagate 2.0 drowns out Trump's reckless escalation of US-Russia nuclear arms race
'Pushback with Aaron Maté US media is once again consumed with evidence-free claims that Russia intends to interfere on Donald Trump's behalf. But as Democrats accuse Trump of being "Putin's Puppet," Trump is overseeing a hawkish agenda that has worsened US-Russia tensions. Nowhere is that more dangerous than Trump's escalation of the nuclear arms race with Russia: abandoning arms control treaties while deploying and developing new nuclear weapons. Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter joins Pushback to discuss the overlooked dangers. Guest: Scott Ritter, former UN Weapons Inspector, Marine Corps Intelligence Officer, and author of "Scorpion King: America's Suicidal Embrace of Nuclear Weapons from FDR to Trump."
Trump is overseeing a hawkish agenda that has worsened US-Russia tensions. Nowhere is that more dangerous than Trump's escalation of the nuclear arms race with Russia: abandoning arms control treaties while deploying and developing new nuclear weapons.
Of course he is escalating tensions around the world. He is the new Hitler. But I would have thought his principle target – apart from the Middle East – was China.
I don't care all that much who he's aiming for, just so long as the war mongering thug is annihilated before he destroys all of us.
Hitler had multiple personality flaws but I'm not sure narcissism was one of them. How is Trump a maniac exactly? What has he done that suggests some sort of mania?
WHEN IT’S TOO LATE TO STOP FASCISM, ACCORDING TO STEFAN ZWEIG
I wonder how far along the scale of moral degeneration Zweig would judge America to be in its current state. We have a magnetic leader, one who lies continually and remorselessly—not pathologically but strategically, to placate his opponents, to inflame the furies of his core constituency, and to foment chaos. The American people are confused and benumbed by a flood of fake news and misinformation. Reading in Zweig’s memoir how, during the years of Hitler’s rise to power, many well-meaning people “could not or did not wish to perceive that a new technique of conscious cynical amorality was at work,” it’s difficult not to think of our own present predicament. Last week, as Trump signed a drastic immigration ban that led to an outcry across the country and the world, then sought to mitigate those protests by small palliative measures and denials, I thought of one other crucial technique that Zweig identified in Hitler and his ministers: they introduced their most extreme measures gradually—strategically—in order to gauge how each new outrage was received. “Only a single pill at a time and then a moment of waiting to observe the effect of its strength, to see whether the world conscience would still digest the dose,” Zweig wrote. “The doses became progressively stronger until all Europe finally perished from them.”
And still Zweig might have noted that, as of today, President Trump and his sinister “wire-pullers” have not yet locked the protocols for their exercise of power into place. One tragic lesson offered by “The World of Yesterday” is that, even in a culture where misinformation has become omnipresent, where an angry base, supported by disparate, well-heeled interests, feels empowered by the relentless lying of a charismatic leader, the center might still hold
That such a piece can be written and published when Trump is President suggests that real similarities between Trump and Hitler and not quite as apparent as his opponents would want people to believe.
Oh he's for sure a wannabe Hitler, and an emergent toddler to boot. How tenaciously people grip at straws to defend this so called leader only lends understanding as to how Germany sunk so low in the grip of such a man. Goose-stepwise we go, into the abyss.
If reality is too harsh for a child, they retreat to fantasy. It seems this translates to adults telling themselves they're all good with Trump, or even those who sense cracks in the matrix, but think 'it's not that bad.'
It is that bad. Trumps (convenient for some) climate denial alone threatens the planet. The people he chooses and the people he refuses shows nothing but absolute self-absorption and contempt for all else. He is a fascist bully boy to whom his supporters are just a means to an end. They are the abused children who live in fantasy – for their reality (that their caregiver is abusive) is dark.
Trump is a spinner of lies and discarder of lives.
It's only daft in the sense that any person compared to another will also have points to contrast.
The slow methodical dismantling of common decency, the slow build up of public tolerance to bullshit, the loading of the courts, the dismantling of judicial process… the targeting and blaming of others… You know I could write a seriously lengthy list of 'colorful quirks' this drug fucked fascist has. You can play pick-a-part all you want, he's a little Hitler wannabe. That's not actually Hitler, in case you were struggling with that bit.
As an aside, I have just finished 'Blitzed' by Norman Ohler. It's about the drug use by the Nazis during WWII.
The blitzkrieg was in part fuelled by methamphetamine, soldiers and tanks non stop advancing for three days.
Hitler had a personal physician that kept The Fuhrer 'detached' using, amongst other concoctions, opiates, pure cocaine and amphetamines. Sometimes in the same injection.
Apparently Hitler was a pathetic shell of a junkie leading up to his demise.
Yes I have listened to several interviews with that author, there really was some crazy drug abuse going on during WW2, and not just with the Germans, I must read that book, thanks for reminding me.
Trouble is, Anne, the Democrats—apart from Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard—are little better. Trump has not started any new strife, he's just continuing what Obama, the Bushes and Clinton did in Central America, South America, Africa and the Middle East.
Today has been an interesting one and it's not even luncheon. Twice already DFP has thrown his support behind what he considers dangerous left-wing extremists solely for the purpose of attacking other, presumably more dangerous extremists.
He claims if he were eligible he would vote Bernie Sanders over Trump in that possible scenario.
And he uses Sue Bradford's opinion piece as an attack on The Green Party.
Just goes to show PDF will work with anyone, so bereft of principle is he.
And to Sue Bradford. I drive past the Avondale race course a lot and a bigger eyesore and testament to decline you could not see. That place does not embody healthy community spirit unless you mean the weekend market in the car park.
That place reminds the community not of what could be but of what was, and not in a good way. I think West Auckland wants houses there, not a decrepit third race course in a city whose future demographic doesn’t scream for whipping horses and running them until they drop dead, literally.
The racecourse was eyed by the old Waitakere Council as a huge potential development opportunity for homes and businesses, complete with another connecting road to New Lynn.
"a return to a muscular American first diplomacy that the US developed pre-WWI." read, a ultra aggressive US foreign policy (otherwise known as interventionism) that has changed little in over 100 years, destabilizing, destroying and wreaking havoc at will around the world for their own self interest and that of their corporations and industries.
Nothing has changed in US foreign policy since Marine Corps Major General Smedley Darlington Butler wrote his famous dissertation on the matter titled War is A Racket, in which he wrote;
“I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service… And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street, and for the Bankers.”
Bernie's lived a charmed political life where he's been able to just skate away from awkward situations and questions. Nobody has ever really gone hard after him on anything, mostly because he has basically been an irrelevant sideshow that just needs to be occasionally tossed a minor amendment to a bill to keep him voting for Dem priorities.
That's about to change. Hopefully he'll be properly tested before the majority of primary votes happen. Because sure as shit if he's the nominee, he's in for a firestorm orders of magnitude greater than he's ever faced before, so he'd better get a bit of training before it hits. To see if he can deal with it.
Here's just the first few gentle licks of what's coming, and his answers on his past support of Castro and Ortega, as well as the costs and how to pay for his proposals, are frankly quite crap.
Could you give us an example of what's going to be unleashed on him? Will the "firestorm orders of magnitude greater than he's ever faced before" be lit by those same experts in the Democratic Party who targeted Trump with their awesome powers?
Is Bernie Sanders a Russian stooge? Will they be able to convince people like they've done in the case of Trump?
Trust me, what he has faced to date with the Democratic party establishment is going to be nothing compared to what Trump and the GOP attack machine will throw at him if he become the Democrat nominee
Ooh scary–Bernie will be questioned–and he will likely answer, as he does most enquiries now, in short sentences that can be easily understood, even by “Trumpettes”.
Trust you Gosman? to drop floaters in the pool on daily basis perhaps.
Win or lose, the Sanders Campaign will have changed US politics by the end of the year. People are backing themselves in increasing numbers and next election the young, black, Latino, working class vote will have the best chance ever to defeat the reactionary remnants.
I've no idea what Repugs might have dug up and are holding in their back pockets.
But just in terms of what is already known, and ratfuckers' propensity for fabricating misinformation leveraging off a kernel of truth, there will be stuff attacking Sanders about his record on gun laws purportedly from concerned lefties, Jane's dodgy dealings will get a thorough working over and embellishment, his support for the likes of Castro and Ortega will be blown way up and possibly be 'added to' with deepfakes, his honeymoon in Russia and so on.
Kerry was successfully swiftboated in 2004. There's vastly more technology to create and spread falsehoods available today, and Sanders' background has a much richer variety of source material to provide a kernel of truth to leverage off than Kerry ever did. How do you think Sanders is going to fare against that kind of attack if his defenses are as weak as the fumbling shown in the two links above?
You mean his support for the people of Cuba and Nicaragua, and his opposition to his own government's illegal blockades and terrorism against those people.
Kerry was successfully swiftboated in 2004.
Kerry, as has become abundantly clear in the last decade or so, is not in the same stratosphere as Sanders, either morally or intellectually.
How do you think Sanders is going to fare against kind of attack if his defenses are as weak as the fumbling shown in the two links above?
Fair comment. But can you imagine the unspeakable Michael Bloomberg, the ludicrous Mayor Pete or that ridiculous Elizabeth Warren handling the attacks any better?
There is nothing illegal in what the US did with Cuba in relation to the embargo (not blockade). They are in fact doing something similar with Iran. What international law stops them doing that?
"How do you think Sanders is going to fare against that kind of attack if his defenses are as weak as the fumbling shown in the two links above?"
I don't think they do show that though. If the issue here is that Sanders needs to be prepared for the shit storm about to rain down on him if he wins the nomination, where's the evidence that he isn't prepared?
The first link is an article that talks a lot about the issues of Sanders' political positioning, but it doesn't show him responding to those. Likewise for the video. Neither are evidence that he is fumbling. In fact the video halfway down the page of you first link, shows him being strong and rebutting some stupid communism comment from Bloomberg.
Yes, I accepted Andre's basic premise that much shit will be thrown at Sanders. What I'm saying is that I don't see the evidence for Sanders being weak at dealing with that. His political positioning might be a mistake, but that's not a weakness in Sanders' ability to deal with shit being thrown at him.
eg if I were to give an example of where Cunliffe failed in the 2014 election I'd show the video of him debating Key on national television where he looked like he was being repeatedly punched. His policies were good, but he didn't have the strength to deal with the shit that Key and National were throwing at him. I took Andre's comment to be about that kind of thing, but maybe I misread and he really meant the political positioning.
btw, that vox article is a very good example of irony.
“They would also be required to take government-approved courses that didn’t tolerate any criticism of socialism as a way of life. In other words, education was seen as key to the revolution taking hold and creating a literate population loyal to the government.”
Castro used education bribes, Trump uses social media and hackers.
Yep. I only did it for four years, starting 50 years ago, but I can still remember it:
” I pledge allegiance, to Queen Fragg,And her mighty state of hysteria. And to the reporters, with delicious hams, One nation, under bob, indefensible, With quibbling and lettuce for all. ”
He's fumbling because when it comes to Cuba, there's a large group of swing voters that will totally miss all the nuance in his explanation and just take away 'Bernie thinks Castro did good'. Fantastic fodder for attack ads, so Bernie probably now has zero chance to win Florida in November. That's a fumble before the game has even started.
He's fumbling on the price of his proposals and how they are going to be paid for by not having clear defensible numbers. Numbers he comes out with may turn out to be complete bullshit, but if they are stated confidently and clearly, it sets the frame. By dithering, his opponents can be first out of the blocks with numbers and thereby set the frame.
Similarly with paying for Medicare for all – there's an opportunity for a message like 'right now, employed people's health plans are mostly paid by the employer, and that is how Medicare for All will be paid too. But as workers, the savings from eliminating insurance admin will come back to you by eliminating co-pays'. But no, Bernie's quite quick to say taxes will go up to pay for it. Nobody likes to hear their taxes are going up.
"That's a fumble before the game has even started."
Yeah I think I misunderstood what you meant. To me that's an issue of political positioning rather than weakness (see explanation above).
"but if they are stated confidently and clearly, it sets the frame."
That's more what I was thinking, but I didn't see him not doing that in the links. Not saying you are wrong, and I agree that he needs to be able to demonstrate he can hack the pace before he is nominated, but that applies to all the front runners I assume.
Every time with you Andre, the same attack lines that the MSM media generate against any left candidate.
You did the horse shit "poor union members and their medical insurance" attack line – and what did the union members do – voted for bernie ON MASS!
You did the racist and sexist bernie bro meme. Well enough said on that lie.
And now this, fsheesh Andre why don't you just admit your a corporate lackey and be done with it.
But like most of your arguments there is the sad attempts at spin, but this time the concern trolling is way over the top. I'm surprised you didn't bring up Bernie being anti-semitic – no wait – joe90 covered that for you. Can always trust joe90 to go all tin foil hat.
Bury your head all you want but the repugs are honing their attack lines and the day Sanders is nominated, there will be an absolute deluge of negative material released.
From 2016 –
So what would have happened when Sanders hit a real opponent, someone who did not care about alienating the young college voters in his base? I have seen the opposition book assembled by Republicans for Sanders, and it was brutal. The Republicans would have torn him apart. And while Sanders supporters might delude themselves into believing that they could have defended him against all of this, there is a name for politicians who play defense all the time: losers.
Here are a few tastes of what was in store for Sanders, straight out of the Republican playbook: He thinks rape is A-OK. In 1972, when he was 31, Sanders wrote a fictitious essay in which he described a woman enjoying being raped by three men. Yes, there is an explanation for it—a long, complicated one, just like the one that would make clear why the Clinton emails story was nonsense. And we all know how well that worked out.
Come on, grow up. Pointing out there will be attacks is not a new idea. I'd be shocked if the GOP weren't working on it.
Like how the last loser the DNC put up – and how her depraved husband happened to be a real hinderance.
Sure – but rather than be all tin foil hat about it, – offer solutions. Short sharpe solutions.
Because when the GOP do the whole anti-semitic thing to Bernie – the response from the Bernie camp is probably going to scear you. So many people have been working on it.
I get you don't like the social democratic left – and personally I would like them to be far more radical – but the reality is a social democratic is way more preferable to any sort of authoritarian leftist, or the utter failings of the liberal left.
adam, I live in hope to see the day your reading comprehension skills develop to the point where you can see your idol's name in close proximity to something not entirely positive, and not immediately jump to the conclusion that your chosen one is being sacrilegiously attacked.
When you repeat the same shit over and over, and use attack lines straight from the corporate media – it's tiresome. Be nice if you offered solutions, rather than vapid concern trolling and rehashing baiting memes.
I'm no fan boy of Bernies – I'm for the left actually having a line in the sand. That means not being corporate lap dogs, nor wimps.
When you can pull your head out of your ass, and see the difference. Maybe people would not have to point out your shortcomings. You get there is an actually chance of having a change in the US which will end the failed economics of the last 40 odd years. The bullshit you pull is the odd politics of defeat and wimpish shortcoming. Grow a spin.
It was an observation that a response that has little if any connection to the comment it is following on from simply demonstrates the point of the previous comment if the previous comment suggests the responder has poor and overly defensive reading comprehenson skills.
I didn't start the fire. You're a walking flame war, because you don't make even a cursory attempt to read what people actually write.
Bernie faces a massive shitstorm of bullshit in this election, and berniebros going off half-cocked like you do could well cause him more harm than any actual and intended slights or slurs.
I prefer Warren. Between Bernie and the mayor, I prefer Bernie. I reckon he'll achieve less than Obama did (or even mayor pete might), but he'll keep changing the game to the left.
Most of the people you spend your time abusing probably have a similar opinion. try fighting some tories once in a while.
No you are quite right there McFlock, adam is quite wrong, liberal centrists are more like a cancer in Left politics that need to be cut out before they destroys their host..which people like you have been doing for far far to long….not not Left wing in any sense of the word that is for sure..I mean just look at how the centrists in the UK and USA have shown quite plainly and out in the open that they would rather lose to the Right than win with a Left progressive project, exposing that their ideology is more closely aligned with the Right than that Left.
Yes it's about time you lot grew some back bone and just slink off and start your own centre lane political parties…but then back bone is something centrists have never made much of displayed of.
Yes it's about time you lot grew some back bone and just slink off and start your own centre lane political parties…but then back bone is something centrists have never made much of displayed of.
Let's see – fair call on NZLabour, it definitely tilted right from the left in the 80s.
But the dems? They did start their own party. Bernie only joins it when he wants to use dem organisational resources to run for president. By your logic, he's the one who should start his own damned party.
I didn't say that the dems don't have a right wing. I said that the dems have never been anywhere as left wing as Bernie is. This is why Bernie joins the dems when he wants to run for president, then becomes an independent again.
The dems built their own party. Bernie piggie-backs on it. He has good policies, but I can see why some people who have worked for the dems for their entire lives would want him to fuck off.
"..but I can see why some people who have worked for the dems for their entire lives would want him to fuck off."
The Dems aren't working for working people, haven't for a long long time…so tough shit for them, it's time for them to fuck off and let working people have a voice that really is on their side first and foremost..and if that great thing does happen ( which I will be surprised if it does) hopefully some of that real Left wing progressive excitement will spill over into our political sphere..who knows?
..maybe then our hospital here in the Hawkes Bay will get some love instead of having to operate like some sort of seventies era Soviet satellite state run hospital…which liberal austerity forces upon it today under both Labour and National, it's a fucking disgrace!
So if someone doesn't completely conform to your politics and does not have their own party, they should make their own rather than join someone else's.
If they don't conform to your politics and have their own party, people who do conform to your politics should be able to take over that party with no hard feelings, and the people who don't conform to your politics should slink off and start another "center lane" party all over again.
People who do conform to your politics should just take over a center lane party and not expect any pushback on that at all.
As for hospitals, apparently they're starting demolition on the site for the new Dunedin hospital, oft-promised by the nats and delivered by Labour. Hawke's Bay got a railway and building prefab plant, didn't it?
For all the commenters in this subthread, a reminder about the Policy, especially this bit,
We encourage robust debate and we’re tolerant of dissenting views. But this site run for reasonably rational debate between dissenting viewpoints and we intend to keep it operating that way.
What we’re not prepared to accept are pointless personal attacks, or tone or language that has the effect of excluding others. We are intolerant of people starting or continuing flamewars where there is little discussion or debate.
I'm not following US politics particularly closely, so when I take a gander at some of the threads here the problem comments (in terms of the Policy) really stand out for me as a moderator.
The closer we get to the election the tenser things will be and the more likely it will be that moderation will be required. May as well signal now that the constant name calling and focus on the player not the ball is unlikely to run. There is a plethora of political content in the US election this year, more than enough to focus on. If you can't do that, and are making a comment to simply have a go at another commenter you have history with, then understand that sooner or later that will get moderator attention.
Please, step back from the aggro and make the political points instead. Every person in this subthread is very capable of making political arguments and the debate will be better for that being the focus. The range of political views of commenters here should be an asset (and has been in the past), let's see if we can make it that way again.
Edited to add: I don’t mean any of that to put people off commenting here today. There’s plenty of analysis going on as well, but just a pointer to the problem of the name calling and personal attacks getting out of hand.
100% to Bernie who completed owned his Cuba comments in today's CNN Town Hall with Chris Cumo. And he also owned the China comments (lifting millions out of poverty) that he took artillery for last year.
Weinstein may be a convicted rapist – but also guilty of aesthetic crime in persuading Jackson to turn Tolkien's fantasy into neo-Wagnerian megalomania.
True that, except Wagner was a great artist from beginning to end where as Jackson had a very good period starting with Bad Taste and ending with The Frighteners, well IMO anyway.
Hello Morrissey was wondering where you had got to?
I don't know what Wagner payed anyone, however the story behind his Der Ring des Nibelungen is well worth diving into, it is almost as epic as the opera itself.
As far as Jackson goes, I really believe that his movies have suffered from way too much budget, all his later movies are top heavy and to long for purpose..not to mention he completely butchered both King Kong and Tin Tin, two of my personal favourites.
When my children where young I used to play the original King Kong on 8mm film at their parties (5 reels from memory) all the kids loved it.
June is sooner than the experts thought. Will be a great lead up to the Election especially if "evidence" proving to smear beyond the four charged. I still wonder about the three who say that they were just following the process that they were told to follow.
"If we all pull together, guys, we can still stop this madman from giving us healthcare and a decent education."
In the following clip, those bizarre, anti-democratic Democratic Party "strategists" and their MSNBC mouthpieces are by turns hilarious, hysterical, horrific. Especially funny is the loathesome Clinton apparatchik James Carville at the 1:30 mark, and Chris Matthews at 2:30—especially the part where he says Carville is "damn smart."
In that clip, Chris Matthews actually compares Sanders' win to the Nazis defeating France. Then he goes on to call James Carville “damn smart.” I never thought I'd see a broadcaster more abject and stupid than Duncan Garner, but now I have.
Seems to me like its become more of an echo chamber lately with people getting banned who have different opinions. Personally, I like reading their alternate views even if I do not agree with them
It usually isn't the different opinions that are the issue for moderators, it is how they are expressed. Basically moderators get pissed off cleaning the crap and peeing of the simple of mind who want to have excrement contests. Especially those who go way off topic in posts.
So they see some dickwaving and decide to cut off the flag waving genitals earlier so they don't have to clean up the crap later. After a while the process becomes to cut deeper so we don't have to see the fuckwits for longer.
After all we aren't here to give juvenile morons toilet training. We're here to moderate a robust discussion. Getting rid of reflexive fools who can't control themselves is the easiest and simplest solution. I'm always amazed that most of the moderators don't follow my solution. In election year I start banning repeat offenders who can't seem to help themselves until after the election – for both their own good and for that of everyone who can control themselves.
Problem is, we do not know. Personally I'd say him and his oafish sidekick would have backed a fishing industry wishlist without any fiscal encouragement. But I can't prove it.
Isn't it already being looked at by the relevant authorities?
No doubt the voters will make their opinion known. If they don't want NZ1 in government, they shouldn't vote for 'em. Coalitions are about policy compatibilities.
The three government parties have a lot of common policy areas: regional development, infrastructure, helping poor people (albeit with different ways of doing it).
They have disagreements about other things – fisheries for example.
The coalition document outlines what the govt will work on. Everything else is on a case by case basis, and disagreement on those things isn't a government-breaker.
But to be clear: without NZ1, this government will fall and the other two parties will look like weak failures. Cutting ties to NZ1 because of allegations in order to be propped up by the party whose former bagman is facing actual charges would just be bloody stupid, differing policy frameworks aside.
So unless there is an explicit and demonstrated reason to disown NZ1, labgrn might as well work with them.
So little has been achieved or delivered by this government, largely due to NZ1, it could be argued it's a deal breaker to stay with them. But hey, they managed to work together for 2 years doing little without any serious fights. many successful marriages are built on less
Even if I agreed that the govt had achieved "little", the alternative was a nat/nz1/act govt achieving a lot – in the other direction. So be careful which house you burn down first.
love your binary fpp thinking there. plenty of space to be occupied on the cross benches by any party. National has even less to gain by working with NZ1 on any issue, the greens hand is stronger than they let themselves believe
I never knew my low opinion of NZ1 could be so powerful or persuasive. Thanks Cinny.
Let me make this very clear, my abhorrence for NZ1 has nothing to do with a secret like for simon and national. He looks more like a human thumb every day. the koru croissants are killing him
I'm surprised 25% of National left. If they didn't want simon bridges as leader all they had to do was stay and lose by the narrow margin they likely will when the greens finally grow a spine and attack the soft neo cons in nz1 in the week before the election
And PT turning up to hear Winston speak at the Motueka RSA during last election cycle was perfectly normal.
PT can't stand conservationists, he hates them. He hates the media just as much and is incredibly private.
Am not one little bit surprised about this news. After all TCER forms and the like, would have to be filled in accurately if vessels had camera's on board.
Well look for NZ to take a tumble in the next corruption index, 2 Major political parties one in govt, one recently out are involved in what appears to be fraudulent behavior of a serious nature around funding.
Its corruption plain and simple lets call it as such and
Notice that those nice people were refused in 2016 by the then National Government. So now were are to be pulled by emotional response to allow them a free pass?
Pretty obvious National ploy to undermine the integrity of Immigration helped by an unscrupulous Puck?
With the number and ferocity of career criminals that Australia is sending back here, it's high time that there was a really strong handover of files from Australian state police to our own on these people so that they can be tracked until the very end of their days.
I'm looking forward to the social welfare system, tax system, the intelligence system, and the justice system wrapping all their services around them just to let them know how truly supported they really are.
Congrats – you picked up a ban for being a stupid liar. I found you describing me as having self-proclaimed I was the world greatest sys-op – a somewhat funny and a completely inaccurate assertion about the self-proclaimed. So I exercised a sysop privilege and banned you until October 2021.
I watched the start, but not all of it because it's a year old and it's about some local UK politics, not the rise of fascism in the US. I think the UK is at risk of fascism, but I don't think it's happening yet despite the right there using some of the tactics of 45's team.
If Pie's argument and thus yours, is that UK politics isn't anything like pre-Nazi Germany, then bear in mind that there's plenty of good political analysis of the US situation from people who have studied fascism (and people who have lived through it) pointing to all the things happening in the US that are in fact parallels of what happened in pre-Nazi Germany. They're different because it's the 21C, but the dynamics are the same. We can't say we weren't warned.
You're right. His creeping paranoia makes him more Stalinist than Hitlerite.
The Trump White House and its allies, over the past 18 months, assembled detailed lists of disloyal government officials to oust — and trusted pro-Trump people to replace them — according to more than a dozen sources familiar with the effort who spoke to Axios.
Driving the news: By the time President Trump instructed his 29-year-old former body man and new head of presidential personnel to rid his government of anti-Trump officials, he'd gathered reams of material to support his suspicions.
While Trump's distrust has only intensified since his impeachment and acquittal, he has long been on the hunt for "bad people" inside the White House and U.S. government, and fresh "pro-Trump" options. Outside advisers have been happy to oblige.
In reporting this story, I have been briefed on, or reviewed, memos and lists the president received since 2018 suggesting whom he should hire and fire. Most of these details have never been published.
A well-connected network of conservative activists with close ties to Trump and top administration officials is quietly helping develop these "Never Trump"/pro-Trump lists, and some sent memos to Trump to shape his views, per sources with direct knowledge.
Members of this network include Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and Republican Senate staffer Barbara Ledeen.
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
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 ...
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. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
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"This initiative is called The Million Hazelnut Campaign, and I love it. It aims to do three things: First, raise awareness of how terrific hazelnuts are, environmentally, and as an economic engine for farmers, as well as a tasty food. Second, the campaign intends to persuade some farmers to take a gamble on hazelnuts, and transition some land to the shrubby nut-bearing trees. Finally, it wants us restaurant-going city-types to kick in some cash to make it all happen. So buddy, can you spare $7 to plant a local hazelnut tree?"
Here’s what hazelnuts do that’s good: First, like all plants, they take carbon out of the air, and put it back in the ground. However, hazelnuts have a sturdy root system, and unlike, say, corn, once they get established, their land never has to be plowed again, preventing erosion. They also pull an ever greater amount of carbon out of the air as they grow. They prevent erosion and protect waterways. They’re drought-tolerant and don’t need irrigation. They’re bird, critter, and pollinator-friendly and provide habitat up and down the web of life. They’re hardy and pest-resistant and don’t require poisons like pesticides or other inputs. They’re permaculture crops that can live for many years, possibly centuries, because after they’re planted, if they get old and weak you can cut them to the ground and they’ll start up again. “I think it’s on my generation to start showing a real way out of this climate crisis,” says Gamer. “For the farmers who are drowning in debt and input-costs, and for everyone. The way out is hazelnuts.”
http://mspmag.com/eat-and-drink/foodie/is-it-time-for-a-million-hazelnuts/
Reads as freebies for US farmers to me. Plenty of causes closer to home that require attention.
But wouldn't you agree that many of its benefits are a sound answer to many of the issues we have here?
I've been arguing for tree crops for years though I also advocate for regenerative farming. Basically, in NZ, we could combine both in many instances, and do very well by it. I can't speak for the rest of NZ but in the Auckland bioregion Macadamias, Walnuts and Hazelnuts are low-no maintenance high value crops.
Good crop option for Otago and Southland. As with many foods, seasonal hazelnuts taste incredible.
My neighbour has quite a few hazelnut trees and production is pretty good, like more than the neighbourhood can consume. But they are bloody hard on the fingers getting the things out of the shell, really needs a mechanised sheller.
The plus side is that the rats can't get into them either so aren't attracted. Chestnuts or walnuts are another story, they'll pull every rat in town if you don't collect the nuts as soon as they hit the ground.
Pretty sure there are hazelnut shellers already, but I bet the availability and design would improve if more hazelnuts were being grown/eaten. The people who sell them off their land are shelling them, so there must be a way to do it that is worth the while.
You don't have an excess of rats you have a shortage of hunting cats 😉 (to paraphrase a permaculture solution).
The hunting cats are all good until they present you with a nightly rat from under the walnut tree, on your pillow, at 3am, as an expression of their love…..
Empty rabbit wrappers between the toes on the kitchen floor in the half light of dawn are another delight
lol we had a big cat when I was growing up – it used to leave the rabbit colon behind the best chair in the living room. Ate the rest. Used to have breakfast with us on occasion – the crunching sounds put us off the meal lol
Under the duvet, still alive, for some more playtime.
The family cat from yesteryear used to shove her dead mice into the toes of our shoes. Not a good experience. 🙁
My ex bought me a huge bag of Central Otago hazelnuts (unshelled) from Xmas-superb.
how did you shell them?
Slowly, savoured them for a few weeks…I bought a wooden nut-cracker in Spain a few years ago that tightens with a screw-action…does the trick.
I use a pair of plumbers multigrips (slipjaw pliers) to shell hazelnuts. This works very well if you have small hands and means you can't gobble them all up in one go. It also works for other nuts as you can adjust them.
this is a good idea. Gobbling fresh hazelnuts is definitely an issue.
and who doesn't like nutella, win – win
there has to be a RWNJ joke in there somewhere. Or maybe it's too hard to crack.
I walnut respond to that pun as it would cause irresponsible damage to my dignuty
Hazelnut flavoured plunger coffee is superb.
We're considering planting hazelnuts as part of a big planting project on a 40 hectare block we own.
Lots of delicious things to do with them – hazelnut butter for example.
Growing them from nuts is easy. Buy "Whiteheart" and sow and grow en masse, then purchase as many pollinators as you need (not many). The idea that "city folk" might support a farmer wanting to transition to tree cropping, is to my mind, a very good one, especially if the connection is kept via an app or something, tracking how "your" tree is doing. Sweet chestnuts are an even better option, perhaps, and just as easy to grow from nuts. I imagine someone growing sweet chestnuts and hazels in their back yard might be able to find places to plant them somewhere in the neighbourhood
Hazelnut yoghurt.
We could be the hazelnut empire of the world. 😀
So is Frangelico!
So is Frangelico!
Woops, sorry posted twice
Coffee flavoured anything is blah (though I understand most people would disagree)
Can cows eat them bobs?
Only if you shell them, toast them, dip them in molasses and serve them up on a silver platter, but sure, they'll eat them!
Russiagate 2.0 drowns out Trump's reckless escalation of US-Russia nuclear arms race
'Pushback with Aaron Maté US media is once again consumed with evidence-free claims that Russia intends to interfere on Donald Trump's behalf. But as Democrats accuse Trump of being "Putin's Puppet," Trump is overseeing a hawkish agenda that has worsened US-Russia tensions. Nowhere is that more dangerous than Trump's escalation of the nuclear arms race with Russia: abandoning arms control treaties while deploying and developing new nuclear weapons. Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter joins Pushback to discuss the overlooked dangers. Guest: Scott Ritter, former UN Weapons Inspector, Marine Corps Intelligence Officer, and author of "Scorpion King: America's Suicidal Embrace of Nuclear Weapons from FDR to Trump."
Of course he is escalating tensions around the world. He is the new Hitler. But I would have thought his principle target – apart from the Middle East – was China.
I don't care all that much who he's aiming for, just so long as the war mongering thug is annihilated before he destroys all of us.
Trump is nowhere near being a new Hitler. At most Trump represents a return to a muscular American first diplomacy that the US developed pre-WWI.
Bullshit. He's an obsessional, narcissistic maniac in exactly the same way as Hitler was.
There are none so blind as those who cannot see. Why are conservatives so devoid of insight and comprehension?
Hitler had multiple personality flaws but I'm not sure narcissism was one of them. How is Trump a maniac exactly? What has he done that suggests some sort of mania?
Black unemployment under Trump is the lowest its ever been, elections are still held, hes beloved in Israel and his daughter converted to Judaism…
It Trumps like Hitler then hes not a doing a good job of it
Perhaps you might read this Opinion piece in the New Yorker:
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/when-its-too-late-to-stop-fascism-according-to-stefan-zweig
That such a piece can be written and published when Trump is President suggests that real similarities between Trump and Hitler and not quite as apparent as his opponents would want people to believe.
Oh he's for sure a wannabe Hitler, and an emergent toddler to boot. How tenaciously people grip at straws to defend this so called leader only lends understanding as to how Germany sunk so low in the grip of such a man. Goose-stepwise we go, into the abyss.
Well theres this:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/09/america-dropped-26171-bombs-2016-obama-legacy
and
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-bacevich-trump-iran-strike-cancellation-20190630-story.html
But sure Orange Man Bad
He's for sure a wannabe Hitler based on what exactly ? Seemingly we just need to take your word as gospel and agree with you.
Let's see:
subverting the judiciary in order to oppress religious minorities
an obsession with militarism, especially parades
a disjointed organisational structure that encourages competing power blocs within his leadership, including people with unclear and overlapping roles
encouraging his followers to commit violence.
If reality is too harsh for a child, they retreat to fantasy. It seems this translates to adults telling themselves they're all good with Trump, or even those who sense cracks in the matrix, but think 'it's not that bad.'
It is that bad. Trumps (convenient for some) climate denial alone threatens the planet. The people he chooses and the people he refuses shows nothing but absolute self-absorption and contempt for all else. He is a fascist bully boy to whom his supporters are just a means to an end. They are the abused children who live in fantasy – for their reality (that their caregiver is abusive) is dark.
Trump is a spinner of lies and discarder of lives.
You know who was like Hitler? Hitler was like Hitler, not Trump not anyone.
All that equating Hitler with Trump achieves is minimising what Hitler did
But hey Orange Man Bad right
Who is saying they're all good with Trump on this site ?
All people are commenting on is that comparisons of Trump with Hitler are a bit daft.
Give him time. He's only had three years so far. It took Hitler six years to get serious about lebensraum and ethnic cleansing.
It's only daft in the sense that any person compared to another will also have points to contrast.
The slow methodical dismantling of common decency, the slow build up of public tolerance to bullshit, the loading of the courts, the dismantling of judicial process… the targeting and blaming of others… You know I could write a seriously lengthy list of 'colorful quirks' this drug fucked fascist has. You can play pick-a-part all you want, he's a little Hitler wannabe. That's not actually Hitler, in case you were struggling with that bit.
Yep Trump beloved by Israel (enough said), he might not be a Hitler but he is a clear and present danger to the future of the planet that's for sure…
‘Unprecedented brutality’: Family of Palestinian mangled by bulldozer condemn Israel
Chomsky: Republican Party 'most dangerous organisation on earth'
Wow, Anti-Israel and Noam Chomsky in the same post. You just need to add John Pilger and we have the holy trinity of the hard left belief system.
And you refute what parts of either of the clips?
Grossman has sprayed, now is time to walk away.
Like that muscular relationship Poland enjoyed, eh.
As an aside, I have just finished 'Blitzed' by Norman Ohler. It's about the drug use by the Nazis during WWII.
The blitzkrieg was in part fuelled by methamphetamine, soldiers and tanks non stop advancing for three days.
Hitler had a personal physician that kept The Fuhrer 'detached' using, amongst other concoctions, opiates, pure cocaine and amphetamines. Sometimes in the same injection.
Apparently Hitler was a pathetic shell of a junkie leading up to his demise.
Yes I have listened to several interviews with that author, there really was some crazy drug abuse going on during WW2, and not just with the Germans, I must read that book, thanks for reminding me.
It's not really an aside. US has a drug epidemic right now. And their leader is a ritalin raddled racist.
Trouble is, Anne, the Democrats—apart from Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard—are little better. Trump has not started any new strife, he's just continuing what Obama, the Bushes and Clinton did in Central America, South America, Africa and the Middle East.
Farrar watch:
Today has been an interesting one and it's not even luncheon. Twice already DFP has thrown his support behind what he considers dangerous left-wing extremists solely for the purpose of attacking other, presumably more dangerous extremists.
He claims if he were eligible he would vote Bernie Sanders over Trump in that possible scenario.
And he uses Sue Bradford's opinion piece as an attack on The Green Party.
Just goes to show PDF will work with anyone, so bereft of principle is he.
And to Sue Bradford. I drive past the Avondale race course a lot and a bigger eyesore and testament to decline you could not see. That place does not embody healthy community spirit unless you mean the weekend market in the car park.
That place reminds the community not of what could be but of what was, and not in a good way. I think West Auckland wants houses there, not a decrepit third race course in a city whose future demographic doesn’t scream for whipping horses and running them until they drop dead, literally.
I follow the link re the Sue Bradford piece , was very interesting and she has a point. https://www.pundit.co.nz/content/donations-amp-loss-of-property-rights-means-racing-bill-should-be-withdrawn-immediately
It's not a Bill the Green party should support nor should Labour in theory but I guess that's MMP politics and a formal coalition agreement.
Kind of like a CGT?
Pehaps it wasn't just Winston First that stopped progress.
I suppose it is conceivable that the landlords in the Labour party help kill that initiative off.
The racecourse was eyed by the old Waitakere Council as a huge potential development opportunity for homes and businesses, complete with another connecting road to New Lynn.
"a return to a muscular American first diplomacy that the US developed pre-WWI." read, a ultra aggressive US foreign policy (otherwise known as interventionism) that has changed little in over 100 years, destabilizing, destroying and wreaking havoc at will around the world for their own self interest and that of their corporations and industries.
Nothing has changed in US foreign policy since Marine Corps Major General Smedley Darlington Butler wrote his famous dissertation on the matter titled War is A Racket, in which he wrote;
“I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service… And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street, and for the Bankers.”
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/21/where-have-you-gone-smedley-butler/
Bernie's lived a charmed political life where he's been able to just skate away from awkward situations and questions. Nobody has ever really gone hard after him on anything, mostly because he has basically been an irrelevant sideshow that just needs to be occasionally tossed a minor amendment to a bill to keep him voting for Dem priorities.
That's about to change. Hopefully he'll be properly tested before the majority of primary votes happen. Because sure as shit if he's the nominee, he's in for a firestorm orders of magnitude greater than he's ever faced before, so he'd better get a bit of training before it hits. To see if he can deal with it.
Here's just the first few gentle licks of what's coming, and his answers on his past support of Castro and Ortega, as well as the costs and how to pay for his proposals, are frankly quite crap.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/24/florida-dems-uproar-sanders-cuba-comments-117213
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/24/politics/bernie-sanders-donald-trump-2020/index.html
That's about to change.
Could you give us an example of what's going to be unleashed on him? Will the "firestorm orders of magnitude greater than he's ever faced before" be lit by those same experts in the Democratic Party who targeted Trump with their awesome powers?
Is Bernie Sanders a Russian stooge? Will they be able to convince people like they've done in the case of Trump?
Trust me, what he has faced to date with the Democratic party establishment is going to be nothing compared to what Trump and the GOP attack machine will throw at him if he become the Democrat nominee
Three comments in a row from the same commenter 🙂
Trust me…
LOL.
agreed, I disagree with his policies but on a personal level I feel sorry for him, the heat will be unbearable
Yes, "the heat" has really damaged Trump, hasn't it.
the heat that the Dems have managed to apply to Trump is like a candle compared to the sun that Bernie will face
What "heat" have those incompetents applied to Trump?
Ooh scary–Bernie will be questioned–and he will likely answer, as he does most enquiries now, in short sentences that can be easily understood, even by “Trumpettes”.
Trust you Gosman? to drop floaters in the pool on daily basis perhaps.
Win or lose, the Sanders Campaign will have changed US politics by the end of the year. People are backing themselves in increasing numbers and next election the young, black, Latino, working class vote will have the best chance ever to defeat the reactionary remnants.
"to drop floaters in the pool on daily basis perhaps."
Spot on.
I've no idea what Repugs might have dug up and are holding in their back pockets.
But just in terms of what is already known, and ratfuckers' propensity for fabricating misinformation leveraging off a kernel of truth, there will be stuff attacking Sanders about his record on gun laws purportedly from concerned lefties, Jane's dodgy dealings will get a thorough working over and embellishment, his support for the likes of Castro and Ortega will be blown way up and possibly be 'added to' with deepfakes, his honeymoon in Russia and so on.
Kerry was successfully swiftboated in 2004. There's vastly more technology to create and spread falsehoods available today, and Sanders' background has a much richer variety of source material to provide a kernel of truth to leverage off than Kerry ever did. How do you think Sanders is going to fare against that kind of attack if his defenses are as weak as the fumbling shown in the two links above?
his support for the likes of Castro and Ortega
You mean his support for the people of Cuba and Nicaragua, and his opposition to his own government's illegal blockades and terrorism against those people.
Kerry was successfully swiftboated in 2004.
Kerry, as has become abundantly clear in the last decade or so, is not in the same stratosphere as Sanders, either morally or intellectually.
How do you think Sanders is going to fare against kind of attack if his defenses are as weak as the fumbling shown in the two links above?
Fair comment. But can you imagine the unspeakable Michael Bloomberg, the ludicrous Mayor Pete or that ridiculous Elizabeth Warren handling the attacks any better?
Illegal blockade – LOL!!!!
There is nothing illegal in what the US did with Cuba in relation to the embargo (not blockade). They are in fact doing something similar with Iran. What international law stops them doing that?
Work in progress.
https://twitter.com/IfNotNowOrg/status/1231606354240065538
"How do you think Sanders is going to fare against that kind of attack if his defenses are as weak as the fumbling shown in the two links above?"
I don't think they do show that though. If the issue here is that Sanders needs to be prepared for the shit storm about to rain down on him if he wins the nomination, where's the evidence that he isn't prepared?
The first link is an article that talks a lot about the issues of Sanders' political positioning, but it doesn't show him responding to those. Likewise for the video. Neither are evidence that he is fumbling. In fact the video halfway down the page of you first link, shows him being strong and rebutting some stupid communism comment from Bloomberg.
There is a very good article on Vox which looks at this issue in some detail here:
https://www.vox.com/2020/2/24/21147388/bernie-sanders-cuba-60-minutes-nicaragua
We can be sure that whatever the nuances in play – the Republicans and Trump will spin this to the maximum.
Yes, I accepted Andre's basic premise that much shit will be thrown at Sanders. What I'm saying is that I don't see the evidence for Sanders being weak at dealing with that. His political positioning might be a mistake, but that's not a weakness in Sanders' ability to deal with shit being thrown at him.
eg if I were to give an example of where Cunliffe failed in the 2014 election I'd show the video of him debating Key on national television where he looked like he was being repeatedly punched. His policies were good, but he didn't have the strength to deal with the shit that Key and National were throwing at him. I took Andre's comment to be about that kind of thing, but maybe I misread and he really meant the political positioning.
btw, that vox article is a very good example of irony.
Castro used education bribes, Trump uses social media and hackers.
The US literally makes children stand up at the beginning of school each day and pledge allegiance to the flag.
Yep. I only did it for four years, starting 50 years ago, but I can still remember it:
” I pledge allegiance, to Queen Fragg,And her mighty state of hysteria. And to the reporters, with delicious hams, One nation, under bob, indefensible, With quibbling and lettuce for all. ”
https://no6ody.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/i-pledge-a-mondegreen-to-queen-frag-and-her-mighty-state-of-hysteria/
He's fumbling because when it comes to Cuba, there's a large group of swing voters that will totally miss all the nuance in his explanation and just take away 'Bernie thinks Castro did good'. Fantastic fodder for attack ads, so Bernie probably now has zero chance to win Florida in November. That's a fumble before the game has even started.
He's fumbling on the price of his proposals and how they are going to be paid for by not having clear defensible numbers. Numbers he comes out with may turn out to be complete bullshit, but if they are stated confidently and clearly, it sets the frame. By dithering, his opponents can be first out of the blocks with numbers and thereby set the frame.
Similarly with paying for Medicare for all – there's an opportunity for a message like 'right now, employed people's health plans are mostly paid by the employer, and that is how Medicare for All will be paid too. But as workers, the savings from eliminating insurance admin will come back to you by eliminating co-pays'. But no, Bernie's quite quick to say taxes will go up to pay for it. Nobody likes to hear their taxes are going up.
"That's a fumble before the game has even started."
Yeah I think I misunderstood what you meant. To me that's an issue of political positioning rather than weakness (see explanation above).
"but if they are stated confidently and clearly, it sets the frame."
That's more what I was thinking, but I didn't see him not doing that in the links. Not saying you are wrong, and I agree that he needs to be able to demonstrate he can hack the pace before he is nominated, but that applies to all the front runners I assume.
Bad for the heart, too, all that pressure.
Calling the strongest candidate the american left has an "irrelevant sideshow"… enlightening.
What else would you expect to hear from a centrist attack dog like Andre', a statement like that is him all over.
Every time with you Andre, the same attack lines that the MSM media generate against any left candidate.
You did the horse shit "poor union members and their medical insurance" attack line – and what did the union members do – voted for bernie ON MASS!
You did the racist and sexist bernie bro meme. Well enough said on that lie.
And now this, fsheesh Andre why don't you just admit your a corporate lackey and be done with it.
But like most of your arguments there is the sad attempts at spin, but this time the concern trolling is way over the top. I'm surprised you didn't bring up Bernie being anti-semitic – no wait – joe90 covered that for you. Can always trust joe90 to go all tin foil hat.
Bury your head all you want but the repugs are honing their attack lines and the day Sanders is nominated, there will be an absolute deluge of negative material released.
From 2016 –
So what would have happened when Sanders hit a real opponent, someone who did not care about alienating the young college voters in his base? I have seen the opposition book assembled by Republicans for Sanders, and it was brutal. The Republicans would have torn him apart. And while Sanders supporters might delude themselves into believing that they could have defended him against all of this, there is a name for politicians who play defense all the time: losers.
Here are a few tastes of what was in store for Sanders, straight out of the Republican playbook: He thinks rape is A-OK. In 1972, when he was 31, Sanders wrote a fictitious essay in which he described a woman enjoying being raped by three men. Yes, there is an explanation for it—a long, complicated one, just like the one that would make clear why the Clinton emails story was nonsense. And we all know how well that worked out.
https://www.newsweek.com/myths-cost-democrats-presidential-election-521044
Come on, grow up. Pointing out there will be attacks is not a new idea. I'd be shocked if the GOP weren't working on it.
Like how the last loser the DNC put up – and how her depraved husband happened to be a real hinderance.
Sure – but rather than be all tin foil hat about it, – offer solutions. Short sharpe solutions.
Because when the GOP do the whole anti-semitic thing to Bernie – the response from the Bernie camp is probably going to scear you. So many people have been working on it.
I get you don't like the social democratic left – and personally I would like them to be far more radical – but the reality is a social democratic is way more preferable to any sort of authoritarian leftist, or the utter failings of the liberal left.
adam, I live in hope to see the day your reading comprehension skills develop to the point where you can see your idol's name in close proximity to something not entirely positive, and not immediately jump to the conclusion that your chosen one is being sacrilegiously attacked.
Today is not that day.
When you repeat the same shit over and over, and use attack lines straight from the corporate media – it's tiresome. Be nice if you offered solutions, rather than vapid concern trolling and rehashing baiting memes.
I'm no fan boy of Bernies – I'm for the left actually having a line in the sand. That means not being corporate lap dogs, nor wimps.
When you can pull your head out of your ass, and see the difference. Maybe people would not have to point out your shortcomings. You get there is an actually chance of having a change in the US which will end the failed economics of the last 40 odd years. The bullshit you pull is the odd politics of defeat and wimpish shortcoming. Grow a spin.
case in point.
What is that comment, apart from trying to start a flame war?
It was an observation that a response that has little if any connection to the comment it is following on from simply demonstrates the point of the previous comment if the previous comment suggests the responder has poor and overly defensive reading comprehenson skills.
I didn't start the fire. You're a walking flame war, because you don't make even a cursory attempt to read what people actually write.
Bernie faces a massive shitstorm of bullshit in this election, and berniebros going off half-cocked like you do could well cause him more harm than any actual and intended slights or slurs.
I prefer Warren. Between Bernie and the mayor, I prefer Bernie. I reckon he'll achieve less than Obama did (or even mayor pete might), but he'll keep changing the game to the left.
Most of the people you spend your time abusing probably have a similar opinion. try fighting some tories once in a while.
The liberal left like yourself are the new tories.
awwww, you called me "left", that's sweet.
No you are quite right there McFlock, adam is quite wrong, liberal centrists are more like a cancer in Left politics that need to be cut out before they destroys their host..which people like you have been doing for far far to long….not not Left wing in any sense of the word that is for sure..I mean just look at how the centrists in the UK and USA have shown quite plainly and out in the open that they would rather lose to the Right than win with a Left progressive project, exposing that their ideology is more closely aligned with the Right than that Left.
Yes it's about time you lot grew some back bone and just slink off and start your own centre lane political parties…but then back bone is something centrists have never made much of displayed of.
lols damn now I'm a cancer.
Let's see – fair call on NZLabour, it definitely tilted right from the left in the 80s.
But the dems? They did start their own party. Bernie only joins it when he wants to use dem organisational resources to run for president. By your logic, he's the one who should start his own damned party.
Not really sure what you are talking about there, the Dems have swung Right over the past few decades…as with the Labour UK (before Corbyn)
Here is a good piece unpacking some of the reasons why most liberal centrists don't understand this obvious truth…
Why Can't the Media Admit the Democratic Party Has a Right Wing?
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/why-cant-the-media-admit-the-democratic-party-has-a-right-wing/
Not even FDR argued for "medicare for all".
Did Johnson ever push for it?
I didn't say that the dems don't have a right wing. I said that the dems have never been anywhere as left wing as Bernie is. This is why Bernie joins the dems when he wants to run for president, then becomes an independent again.
The dems built their own party. Bernie piggie-backs on it. He has good policies, but I can see why some people who have worked for the dems for their entire lives would want him to fuck off.
"..but I can see why some people who have worked for the dems for their entire lives would want him to fuck off."
The Dems aren't working for working people, haven't for a long long time…so tough shit for them, it's time for them to fuck off and let working people have a voice that really is on their side first and foremost..and if that great thing does happen ( which I will be surprised if it does) hopefully some of that real Left wing progressive excitement will spill over into our political sphere..who knows?
..maybe then our hospital here in the Hawkes Bay will get some love instead of having to operate like some sort of seventies era Soviet satellite state run hospital…which liberal austerity forces upon it today under both Labour and National, it's a fucking disgrace!
So if someone doesn't completely conform to your politics and does not have their own party, they should make their own rather than join someone else's.
If they don't conform to your politics and have their own party, people who do conform to your politics should be able to take over that party with no hard feelings, and the people who don't conform to your politics should slink off and start another "center lane" party all over again.
People who do conform to your politics should just take over a center lane party and not expect any pushback on that at all.
As for hospitals, apparently they're starting demolition on the site for the new Dunedin hospital, oft-promised by the nats and delivered by Labour. Hawke's Bay got a railway and building prefab plant, didn't it?
For all the commenters in this subthread, a reminder about the Policy, especially this bit,
I'm not following US politics particularly closely, so when I take a gander at some of the threads here the problem comments (in terms of the Policy) really stand out for me as a moderator.
The closer we get to the election the tenser things will be and the more likely it will be that moderation will be required. May as well signal now that the constant name calling and focus on the player not the ball is unlikely to run. There is a plethora of political content in the US election this year, more than enough to focus on. If you can't do that, and are making a comment to simply have a go at another commenter you have history with, then understand that sooner or later that will get moderator attention.
Please, step back from the aggro and make the political points instead. Every person in this subthread is very capable of making political arguments and the debate will be better for that being the focus. The range of political views of commenters here should be an asset (and has been in the past), let's see if we can make it that way again.
Edited to add: I don’t mean any of that to put people off commenting here today. There’s plenty of analysis going on as well, but just a pointer to the problem of the name calling and personal attacks getting out of hand.
Andre 11:05 ……
100% to Bernie who completed owned his Cuba comments in today's CNN Town Hall with Chris Cumo. And he also owned the China comments (lifting millions out of poverty) that he took artillery for last year.
"I'm only speaking the truth"
All power to his arm.
Weinstein may be a convicted rapist – but also guilty of aesthetic crime in persuading Jackson to turn Tolkien's fantasy into neo-Wagnerian megalomania.
True that, except Wagner was a great artist from beginning to end where as Jackson had a very good period starting with Bad Taste and ending with The Frighteners, well IMO anyway.
Was Wagner bullied by a mega-corporation's lawyers into not paying his workers properly?
Hello Morrissey was wondering where you had got to?
I don't know what Wagner payed anyone, however the story behind his Der Ring des Nibelungen is well worth diving into, it is almost as epic as the opera itself.
As far as Jackson goes, I really believe that his movies have suffered from way too much budget, all his later movies are top heavy and to long for purpose..not to mention he completely butchered both King Kong and Tin Tin, two of my personal favourites.
When my children where young I used to play the original King Kong on 8mm film at their parties (5 reels from memory) all the kids loved it.
Ross & co plead not guilty, next appearance June.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/410293/four-men-facing-sfo-charges-over-national-party-donations-plead-not-guilty
June is sooner than the experts thought. Will be a great lead up to the Election especially if "evidence" proving to smear beyond the four charged. I still wonder about the three who say that they were just following the process that they were told to follow.
By whom?
Gives the Nats a few months to thoroughly paint JLR as a rogue operator..
So if JLR was a rogue operator, when will the NATZ pay the 200k back!!
They don't know yet. They're waiting until nearer the time when a senior Nat will let them know what the process was… and who told them.
Brief statement from the Serious Fraud Office – note that they are calling this "the National Party donations case" which is worth repeating often: https://www.sfo.govt.nz/defendants-plead-not-guilty-in-national-party-donations-case
Sorry, I needed to bold that to stand out from the adjacent pollution.
The party name just keeps on coming up despite Simon's attempts at distancing & distracting.
Media are mentioning National Party a fair bit too. Examples from quick Google search:
"If we all pull together, guys, we can still stop this madman from giving us healthcare and a decent education."
In the following clip, those bizarre, anti-democratic Democratic Party "strategists" and their MSNBC mouthpieces are by turns hilarious, hysterical, horrific. Especially funny is the loathesome Clinton apparatchik James Carville at the 1:30 mark, and Chris Matthews at 2:30—especially the part where he says Carville is "damn smart."
Enjoy….
A free Health System? Sanders must be mad! Must be another Hitler surely?
Thanks Morrissey for the link.
Sanders is more like Ardern. Except that Kiwibuild was probably more achievable than Healthcare but both are simply not going to happen
So you don't live in a country which has free health care like many other hundreds of millions right across the western world their Puckish Rogue?
So you did move to North Korea then?
That was fantastic Morrissey, thanks for posting
In that clip, Chris Matthews actually compares Sanders' win to the Nazis defeating France. Then he goes on to call James Carville “damn smart.” I never thought I'd see a broadcaster more abject and stupid than Duncan Garner, but now I have.
Oh how I have missed this post degenerating daily into a shitstorm of denial about US politics. Thank goodness the various bans have expired.
Nice to see you again, Sacha, and thanks for the warm welcome.
A few more long-term bans are about to expire.
Because it is Election Year, cretinous commenting is on the increase, it seems, and Moderators’ tolerance levels are inversely related to this.
I really do feel for you. Can we maybe re-introduce a separate daily sandpit if needed to siphon away the foreign focus?
"daily sandpit"
Given its a shitstorm maybe 'daily cesspit' would be more appropriate …
Some people like it.
will see how it goes but am certainly open to doing this again. Especially to keep other spaces clear for the NZ election.
Seems to me like its become more of an echo chamber lately with people getting banned who have different opinions. Personally, I like reading their alternate views even if I do not agree with them
Then you won't mind reading them in a separate post for foreign politics.
More that those banned who have different opinions struggled to articulate them in a responsible way.
Those banned who have different opinions are on the wind-up first. Articulating those different opinions is secondary.
It usually isn't the different opinions that are the issue for moderators, it is how they are expressed. Basically moderators get pissed off cleaning the crap and peeing of the simple of mind who want to have excrement contests. Especially those who go way off topic in posts.
So they see some dickwaving and decide to cut off the flag waving genitals earlier so they don't have to clean up the crap later. After a while the process becomes to cut deeper so we don't have to see the fuckwits for longer.
After all we aren't here to give juvenile morons toilet training. We're here to moderate a robust discussion. Getting rid of reflexive fools who can't control themselves is the easiest and simplest solution. I'm always amazed that most of the moderators don't follow my solution. In election year I start banning repeat offenders who can't seem to help themselves until after the election – for both their own good and for that of everyone who can control themselves.
Winston First getting undeclared donations from Talleys: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/410299/concerns-over-secret-fisheries-donations-to-nz-first-foundation
From I/S in the sidebar: http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2020/02/more-nz-first-corruption.html
Surely WinnieFirst's position on the Kermadec Marine Sanctuary was not in the slightest influenced by anything like this?
Problem is, we do not know. Personally I'd say him and his oafish sidekick would have backed a fishing industry wishlist without any fiscal encouragement. But I can't prove it.
Got to look strong though by refusing the calls to look at a governments partners poor behaviour, let alone look at it.
Isn't it already being looked at by the relevant authorities?
No doubt the voters will make their opinion known. If they don't want NZ1 in government, they shouldn't vote for 'em. Coalitions are about policy compatibilities.
C0aLiTions ArE aBOuT PoLiCY CoMPaTaBiLiTie/
not this one. This one is all about clinging to power for NZ1 and not actually having policies to implement.
keep telling yourself it’s pure and excellent though. 2/3 parties could be but refuse to cut the anchor chain
The three government parties have a lot of common policy areas: regional development, infrastructure, helping poor people (albeit with different ways of doing it).
They have disagreements about other things – fisheries for example.
The coalition document outlines what the govt will work on. Everything else is on a case by case basis, and disagreement on those things isn't a government-breaker.
But to be clear: without NZ1, this government will fall and the other two parties will look like weak failures. Cutting ties to NZ1 because of allegations in order to be propped up by the party whose former bagman is facing actual charges would just be bloody stupid, differing policy frameworks aside.
So unless there is an explicit and demonstrated reason to disown NZ1, labgrn might as well work with them.
So little has been achieved or delivered by this government, largely due to NZ1, it could be argued it's a deal breaker to stay with them. But hey, they managed to work together for 2 years doing little without any serious fights. many successful marriages are built on less
Even if I agreed that the govt had achieved "little", the alternative was a nat/nz1/act govt achieving a lot – in the other direction. So be careful which house you burn down first.
love your binary fpp thinking there. plenty of space to be occupied on the cross benches by any party. National has even less to gain by working with NZ1 on any issue, the greens hand is stronger than they let themselves believe
"Binary fpp thinking"? It was the result of the 2017 mmp election.
climaction, there's an election in Sept, let the people decide.
Last election, the people decided that they didn't want a national led government and voted for change.
This election 25% of sitting national MP's have decided to resign, they don't want to be part of simons national led government either.
won't you let the people decide climaction???
I never knew my low opinion of NZ1 could be so powerful or persuasive. Thanks Cinny.
Let me make this very clear, my abhorrence for NZ1 has nothing to do with a secret like for simon and national. He looks more like a human thumb every day. the koru croissants are killing him
I'm surprised 25% of National left. If they didn't want simon bridges as leader all they had to do was stay and lose by the narrow margin they likely will when the greens finally grow a spine and attack the soft neo cons in nz1 in the week before the election
If you are going to quote me, do make sure it's accurate, rather than adding words, swapping words around or adding question marks.
climaction, misquoting people makes you appear dishonest.
And PT turning up to hear Winston speak at the Motueka RSA during last election cycle was perfectly normal.
PT can't stand conservationists, he hates them. He hates the media just as much and is incredibly private.
Am not one little bit surprised about this news. After all TCER forms and the like, would have to be filled in accurately if vessels had camera's on board.
Well look for NZ to take a tumble in the next corruption index, 2 Major political parties one in govt, one recently out are involved in what appears to be fraudulent behavior of a serious nature around funding.
Its corruption plain and simple lets call it as such and
Seems impossible for the local branch of Transparency International to whitewash it any longer.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12311405
There maybe more to it but c'mon this seems (on the face of it) an easy decision to say yes to, the sort of people we want to encourage here
Notice that those nice people were refused in 2016 by the then National Government. So now were are to be pulled by emotional response to allow them a free pass?
Pretty obvious National ploy to undermine the integrity of Immigration helped by an unscrupulous Puck?
What Labour could say is that National were wrong not to let these people stay so we'll fix Nationals error and we'll let them stay
An easy win-win for Labour I'd have thought
With the number and ferocity of career criminals that Australia is sending back here, it's high time that there was a really strong handover of files from Australian state police to our own on these people so that they can be tracked until the very end of their days.
I'm looking forward to the social welfare system, tax system, the intelligence system, and the justice system wrapping all their services around them just to let them know how truly supported they really are.
And send the bill back to Australia.
For all those who think Trump is anything like Hitler:
Trump is a lot more like Hitler than any President of the United States since Hitler.
That he can't pursue Hitler-like programs is not for want of doing so, rather the impossibility of the task under the US system.
He is dabbling though. Muslims and Mexicans being the new Jews and Gypsies, etc.
Didn’t watch your video, by the way.
You should, hes a funny guy, quite well balanced in that he gives it to both sides
Congrats – you picked up a ban for being a stupid liar. I found you describing me as having self-proclaimed I was the world greatest sys-op – a somewhat funny and a completely inaccurate assertion about the self-proclaimed. So I exercised a sysop privilege and banned you until October 2021.
/open-mike-23-02-2020/#comment-1686924
You can speak about the election here a year after it happens. I find that funny.
Hitler would never have been so kind and compassionate as this though
I watched the start, but not all of it because it's a year old and it's about some local UK politics, not the rise of fascism in the US. I think the UK is at risk of fascism, but I don't think it's happening yet despite the right there using some of the tactics of 45's team.
If Pie's argument and thus yours, is that UK politics isn't anything like pre-Nazi Germany, then bear in mind that there's plenty of good political analysis of the US situation from people who have studied fascism (and people who have lived through it) pointing to all the things happening in the US that are in fact parallels of what happened in pre-Nazi Germany. They're different because it's the 21C, but the dynamics are the same. We can't say we weren't warned.
oh, the kiddiecamps. I forgot the kiddiecamps and subsequent "adoptions".
You're right. His creeping paranoia makes him more Stalinist than Hitlerite.
The Trump White House and its allies, over the past 18 months, assembled detailed lists of disloyal government officials to oust — and trusted pro-Trump people to replace them — according to more than a dozen sources familiar with the effort who spoke to Axios.
Driving the news: By the time President Trump instructed his 29-year-old former body man and new head of presidential personnel to rid his government of anti-Trump officials, he'd gathered reams of material to support his suspicions.
In reporting this story, I have been briefed on, or reviewed, memos and lists the president received since 2018 suggesting whom he should hire and fire. Most of these details have never been published.
https://www.axios.com/trump-memos-deep-state-white-house-ce5be95f-2418-433d-b036-2bf41c9700c3.html