Just tried to delete this message as I see that Lynn has commented below about the problems, clicking on the “delete” link takes me to an otherwise blank page that says “-1” in the top left corner.
Work has its own dignity and reward built in. Jobs on the other hand? Can’t see any dignity there at all…just a tawdry exchange that attempts to mask blatent theft while promoting various human traits associated with selfishness that in turn cast us in the role of adverseries to one another … A waste of life and living.
There is no dignity in creating surplus value for some capitalist prick to steal.
Until this myth is rejected there is no viable pathway to a fair and sustainable society based on the allocation of resources according to need, and of individual contibutions according to ability and meeting the requirements of the community.
The first step is to start differentiating between jobs and work.
Outage this morning. The database server jammed up at 03:35 (cleared itself at 0449) and at 06:05 (I hard rebooted at 09:34) in a pattern I have seen a couple of irritating times now. I got some more logs on what the problem is.. I’ll have a look at them after breakfast.
I was hoping that upgrading and cleaning up the database would either fix it or make it clearer what was going on. Hopefully the latter has happened.
Damn I set my phone to silent whilst watching Warm Bodies last night (you can just see the pitch – romeo and juliet in the zombie apocalypse)
Hypocrisy Watch: Ali Williams criticizes the referee
Queensland Reds 12 defeat Auckland Blues 11, Brisbane, 26 April 2013
Ironic quote of the weekend, probably of the whole year, comes from the Auckland Blues captain Ali Williams, after his team went down by one point in Brisbane:
The referee he was complaining about was the notorious CRAIG JOUBERT. Just eighteen months ago, not a peep was heard from Williams after he and his All Black team-mates had been effectively gifted the World Cup not by one marginal call, but by Joubert’s defiant refusal to penalize their flagrant repeated fouling of a superior Tricolors team.
This time, though, after Joubert had actually done what he is always supposed to do, and refereed a match honestly, Williams is whining and bitching about not a systematic refusal to do his job, as happened to Williams’ benefit in the RWC final, but one marginal decision.
As any French fan would say: quelle hypocrisie.
And as local observers of Ali Williams, that tiresomely childish streak of narcissism, would say: fucking idiot.
If professional sports “stars” are having difficultly with the pressure that their job entails they should resign from their position before taking their mental issues out on other people…and then blame the pressures of their job.
Screen out the weak ones BEFORE you sign them and create a climate of zero tolerance rather than offer up pathetic excuses for abuse.
AND FYI, if it really were the pressure of the job why aren’t they hitting each other? Because
– it is much easier to take your anger out on weaker females
– it isn’t an acceptable thing to smack around a fellow sports star
– the coach wouldn’t allow it to happen. They might lose a game.
A 5ft (1.5m) piece of landing gear believed to be from one of the planes destroyed in the 9/11 attacks has been discovered wedged between a mosque site and another building near the World Trade Centre.
The piece of equipment was discovered on Wednesday by surveyors inspecting the lower Manhattan site of a planned Islamic community centre, at 51 Park Place, on behalf of the building’s owner. The inspectors called police who secured the scene, documenting it with photos.
Got to keep those anti *muslim/islamic* emotions, well fired up, at all times!
is the propaganda that they have found a bit of a plane with identification or something to do with the planned Islamic community centre I can’t work it out.
Edit – I see you’ve added a bit but it still seems pretty murky in regards to the propaganda imo
Marty the propagada is in the timing of these *factual news releases*.
They are designed to keep the racial/religious tensions ratcheted right up, an to provide constant programming of fear into the minds of the people, these are all techniques, make no mistake about it!
The convenience of this *find*, being so soon after the Boston Bombings, and coming hot on the heels of the latest financial (rate swaps scandal).
Such *news*, has multi facted distractions to fend off/to provide cover/support for, and ensure the focus remains firmly on the muslims/islamic *terrorists*, everywhere….because they’re everywhere, Marty!
Never forget that, the news media certainly won’!
This is more bankers sponsored *news*, just like the bankers sponsored *wars*, all of them!!
Fair points muzza although I’d imagine if they were holding onto this ‘evidence’ they could have found a few good (for them) moments over the last few years to ‘find’ this and report it.
Interesting point about there being terrorists everywhere. If the definition of terrorist is defined by them then they can find terrorists everywhere and, based on their definition, they are correct, they are everywhere, and that certainly maintains and amplifies the fear.
Exactly Marty – It like Key claiming WMDs in NZ, well under those who control the definition, about what constitutes WMDs these days, Key can easily claim he was not lying!
Let’s not forget NZ’s shameful part in the history of chemical warfare!
Yes, there are some twisted sad individuals out there, eh. Ghouls, preying on horror to satisfy their own limited understanding, and bolster their pathetic alternative histories. Are you one of them?
No, but then I’m not attempting to draw attention by exploiting victims of a bomb attack, I’m the one expressing my contempt and disgust for those who do.
The 12 supposed dead reported by the NY Post, from a “trusted law enforcement source”?
The people who suffered shock, disorientation, and possibly temporary hearing loss after the first explosion (supposedly loaded with shrapnel), which was just a few feet away from them?
The man with shredded clothes who immediately ran from the epicenter after the first explosion?
The Saudi national Abdul Rahman Ali Al-Harbi, who was reported to have suffered a leg injury from shrapnel, yet was able to run from the scene and was later held in custody in hospital?
What do we call those creatures who feed on corpses? Ah, that’s right, we call them maggots, but maggots are just following their nature. What’s your excuse?
Well put. Limited understanding and a digital world where there are only two options. Question the smallest element of their narrative and it’s “OMG OMG Another sheeple who believes everything in the MSM!!!”
Small minds and a messianic complex, overflowing with hatred, they place watching youtube well before organised militancy in their arsenal of methods to change the world. In fact, they don’t even want to change the world. The horror is so all pervading and everything is so tied up in these enormous conspiracies that nothing can be changed. In their world, marching against asset sales = ignoring the non existent chemtrails; saving some whales = supporting the Kenyan Obama as he disarms us (forgetting in the transfer from Alex Jones to The Standard that we don’t live in the US and A); feeding kids = supporting Agenda 21 (whatever that is, it’s not a plan for world government and overly pigmented helicopters)……….
Ghouls is too nice a word for them.
DOVER — New Hampshire State Rep. Stella Tremblay is calling for answers about whether the American government was involved in detonating explosives at the Boston Marathon last week, killing three people and wounding more than 170 others.
In an interview with Foster’s Daily Democrat Tuesday, Tremblay said she can’t rule out the possibility the government was involved in carrying out the bombings.
Tremblay’s remarks came a few hours after she was criticized by the New Hampshire Democratic Party for a comment she posted on Facebook several days earlier, in which Tremblay wrote that the marathon attack on April 15 was carried out by “Black Ops.”
Glen Beck has claimed that he has proof the federal government has covered up the Boston bombing as being carried out by Chechnya terrorists. He says that the bombing was actually carried out by Saudi nationals and that he has the evidence to prove it.
In relation to Glenn Beck’s position, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano refused to answer questions on the subject by Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) on Capitol Hill on April 18, saying the inquiry was “so full of misstatements and misapprehension that it’s just not worthy of an answer.”
Duncan’s question was:
“Wouldn’t you agree with me that it’s negligent for us as an American administration to deport someone who was reportedly at the scene of the bombing and we’re going to deport him, not to be able to question him anymore?”
Yes. No doubt you find that significant. I suggest you spread your faith in Mr. Beck far and wide, especially in your workplace and to random strangers at the bar. Make a sign, a sandwich board perhaps. You’ll gain everyone’s undying respect, I promise.
Beck’s position as an argument is supported by facts, it is more than rambling.
I find it ironic that you accuse me of feeding off death when that is the defining characteristic of the industry of war which is being exposed by people who are challenging the MSM narrative.
The relationship of the war industry to all this is that the empire depends on the existence of a adversary, real or perceived. The adversary could be something as simple as a noun, like “terror”, or as complex as a foreign religion like Islam or a shadowy organisation like Al Qaeda. The Boston narrative provides Islam from Tamerlan and Chechnya, and has the potential to supply Al Qaeda from the Saudi national at the heart of Glen Beck’s campaign.
Really???? Gosh, that sounds just like Orwell’s vision from 1984, can you teach me to suck eggs too???????
Speaking of eggs, that the US has sewn dragons’ teeth is old news around here, but the notion that it’s part of some sort of coherent strategy is beyond stupid.
Whether or not the strategy is coherent is irrelevant. What matters is whether or not it exists and what the implications are if it does. The fact that it exists is implied by the repeated behaviour of the US empire regarding manufactured threats. Beck’s position is a problem for the empire because the response of the Obama administration to the exposure of AbdulRahman ali Al-Harbi only makes sense if he was a potential asset.
The shallow, foolish, rhythmically challenged TV chatterer Ellen DeGeneres is championing Maurice Williamson, who along with his other National Party colleagues took secret payments from the gay-hating Brethren cult, as a hero for the gay cause. She is going to go ahead with the booking of Williamson despite the efforts of many New Zealand gay activists to inform her of Williamson’s record. As shown by that incident and the following story, gay politics are little different from “straight” or “mainstream” politics: the people who get to the top of organizations are generally corrupt and/or cowardly individuals….
Bradley Manning is off limits at SF Gay Pride parade, but corporate sleaze is embraced
A seemingly trivial controversy reveals quite a bit about pervasive political values
by GLENN GREENWALD, The Guardian, 27 April 2013
News reports yesterday indicated that Bradley Manning, widely known to
be gay, had been selected to be one of the Grand Marshals of the
annual San Francisco gay pride parade, named by the LGBT Pride
Celebration Committee. When the predictable backlash instantly ensued,
the president of the Board of SF Pride, Lisa L Williams, quickly
capitulated, issuing a cowardly, imperious statement that has to be
read to be believed.
Williams proclaimed that “Manning will not be a grand marshal in this
year’s San Francisco Pride celebration” and termed his selection “a
mistake”. She blamed it all on a “staff person” who prematurely made
the announcement based on a preliminary vote, and she assures us all
that the culprit “has been disciplined”: disciplined. She then accuses
Manning of “actions which placed in harms way the lives of our men and
women in uniform”: a substance-free falsehood originally spread by top
US military officials which has since been decisively and extensively
debunked, even by some government officials (indeed, it’s the US
government itself, not Manning, that is guilty of “actions which
placed in harms way the lives of our men and women in uniform”). And
then, in my favorite part of her statement, Williams decreed to all
organization members that “even the hint of support” for Manning’s
action – even the hint – “will not be tolerated by the leadership of
San Francisco Pride”. Will not be tolerated.
I originally had no intention of writing about this episode, but the
more I discovered about it, the more revealing it became. So let’s
just consider a few of the points raised by all of this.
First, while even a hint of support for Manning will not be tolerated,
there is a long roster of large corporations serving as the event’s
sponsors who are welcomed with open arms. ….
Morresey i,m a referee Joubert,s refereeing of the tackle was poor went both ways, you are right on the World Cup Final had that game been refereed properly France win
Just watched Q&A if you need reminding what a out of touch dinosaur Michelle Boag is catch it on demand or on TV1later tonight her echoing of Key and Joyce,s rant during the week had to be seen to be believed Jon Johansen,s reaction to the crap that came fron her mouth is a must see
Yep I just watched her as well. I did send them an E-mail.
“Why oh Why do you keep giving Boag credibility by allowing her to spout Nationalistic rubbish on National TV???”
I have no need to reference her in my study of Q + A; what’s the word, oh yeah, irrelevant, and a week late with the commentary.(get all current and up-to-date political commentary right here from The Standard, your one-stop-shop for laughs and barffs.
Shane Jones- “comfortable with Greens now”. 😉 (you cheeky man).
Joyce releases a press statement to the effect-“that centrist Labour MPs being isolated by the shift to the Greens”.
(well, OK, her spin was “giving ground to the Greens is very scary for most New Zealanders”).Really?
David Round (man who does not like The Treaty and fears the current constitutional review)- “countries can ruin (ruin none-the-less, ruin we tell you) themselves through their own folly.” Well…
John Minto (Excellent composure if you are reading this).- a “furious, hysterical reaction to NZPower by vested interests”. (well, near enough).
There is an Excellent article by Eugenie Sage in the links column on the dodgy dealings behind the H.B Irrigation Scheme development.
They put DAVID ROUND on this programme? As anybody who saw this pretentious bow-tied ninny on Willie Jackson’s Eye to Eye will know, Round is an extreme race-baiter, almost pathological in his detestation of Māori culture. Round often teamed up with the S.S. advocate and ACT benchwarmer Stephen Franks to scoff, sneer and disparage any liberal speaker on the programme. I thought that, with the death of Paul Holmes, we had seen the end of racist louts being given the run of the studio on TVNZ; clearly I was wrong.
Why don’t they just hire Kyle Chapman as a commentator and be done with it?
How many Labour front benchers does it take to change a light bulb?
Two.
First, Shearer announces that he, as Leader of the Labour Party that he’s leader of the Labour Party and Party of as the Leader, he’ll um, well, consider hiring a glow worm to replace the light bulb, no um, ah as Learer of the Paybour Larty, ah, he personally, himself, as Pay TV of the Leaper is personally responsible for providing a source of continual heat and light that will be available to all for half of every day and it will be called “The Sun” and it was his initiative, as a television.
Second, after hearing Hooton screech that sunlight is communism and it made his budgie explode, Robertson will promptly wet his pants and announce, so as to protect budgies everywhere, there will be no more sunlight.
Oh, and then the lightbulb doesn’t get changed after all.
It’s always a tragedy when careerism destroys a once-great party.
Humour is a raft I’m clinging too, and it’s in danger of falling apart.
The fact is, a few people have been repeating the canard that the right-wing LINO is “opening up space on the left”, but that dollop of custard Robertson has shown – as I predicted – that LINO will use the Greens to get superficial cred, but kill their initiatives once they threaten to change the status quo. Instead, they’re going to smear yet more lipstick on the neoliberal pig.
Just to make things perfectly clear. This isn’t LINO “opening up space on the left”, this is LINO announcing that they want to use the Greens and possibly Mana to get the numbers, and to appease them, they’ll let their initiatives get a hearing, but don’t worry, my dear, dear, precious markets, we won’t let them get to the status of law. We are never, ever going to disrupt the status quo.
If they were honest, the front benchers would call the party “Middle-Class Baby Boomer Technocrats Who Mainly Work in Media, PR and Law”, but it doesn’t really have much of a ring to it.
There is a real Labour party, a progressive socialist party, and it’s on the back benches.
Can we realistically expect a mainstream political party with membership invested in the current socio-economic hierarchy to throw out or revolutionise the very same status quo?
It’s not going to happen. By definition, a mainstream party must be conservative to exist in the mainstream*.
But maybe life will be made a bit more tolerable for the bottom 50%?
*The key here is realising that too often, political parties aim for the mainstream of the media, not the mainstream of the nation.
Too long speaking to the media, they mistake the media for the nation.
But maybe life will be made a bit more tolerable for the bottom 50%?
Fingers crossed. Keep the pressure on, I say. They’ll never be perfect, but keep the pressure on, and maybe they’ll be just a bit better.
It’s all Bellamy’s fault, I say – metaphorically – the nice meals for free, the comforts and the limousines breed complacency (Hell, look at he effect BMW 7-series limos have had on the Maori Party – they must be automotive heroin). I representative should never be complacent. Making excuses for them is never going to work.
It was an old Roman custom to have a slave riding with a triumphant general in his victory parade to whisper in his ear “remember that thou art a man”.
Um
If your critics are obsessive or nuts, they don’t apply any pressure whatsoever.
But more specifically, your joke was too long and too niche.
A better version would be:
How many labour mps does it take to change a lightbulb?
Two: shearer to change the bulb, and robertson to promise that labour has no further territorial demands on the free market mechanism.
“I keep being kicked in the gutter”: the cruelty of multiple disability cuts ~ That should shame Britain to the core
“Thousands of people with disabilities or long-term illness are now being affected by simultaneous cuts. As the welfare state undergoes unprecedented changes, the same people are being hit over and over again, says Frances Ryan.”
“During the first half of our marriage he suffered a brain haemorrhage and although he was ok and could still do things, one side was quite paralysed and he was not able to work,”
Mrs Barker told the inquest.
“I know he had been on some sort of benefit for a number of years.”
Mrs Barker said she had last seen Mr Barker on December 8 when he had called to see her at work.
“He was going for a drink and seemed happy but he wanted me to help him go through his benefit papers because he was worried that he was going to be sent back to work,”
Shame on the fascist scum tories! Camoron and Untergrupenfuhrer IDS.
Not just in Britain: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8606036/Appalling-plight-of-elderly-revealed
Its a worldwide phenomena that the elderly and infirm are basically killed by neglect and abuse as the law will not persecute this at all, neither as neglect nor abuse and let alone deliberate homicide. What people don’t seem to comprehend: we will all be old one day – or hopefully not.
Sickening report that. I feel rage but don’t know who to rage at – politicians, the owners of these hellholes, the exploiters of elders, our society, the mirror.
Rage at the institution would be appropriate. As for me, I would rather die in the ditch then be holed up in a home where people with such disregard for dignity and life join to make someone else’s last days full of misery. Mind you I saw an article today (stuff) where it is noted that Gay adoption and Euthanasia are the final frontier for the Government.
Seems that the Government is already working on plan B – Euthanasia. It will lead to some vigorous debate – but only because these sadists will loose their job if the elderly need “too much care” and it is “better” to not have them suffer. Still, ditch for me….
ffs! Get shot of the private providers! Universal state provisioning of aged care with properly paid and resourced staff wouldn’t sort out all of the problems. But it would be a damned sight better than the ‘ship ’em in, rip ’em off and trundle ’em out’ culture that’s all the rage at the moment.
after only another day of events, ICAP / ISDA, rest-home reports, and OIA obstruction, and viewing an S.A promo fo their current mission, I despair, I really do. For example, the army is charting the social decline of the casualties of the “free” markets, yet by their very nature and function are well-enmeshed in that decline; phenemona measured and token-funded.
And yet this is nothing new, has been happening a long time – We have all allowed this to happen, and collectively each and every number, will at some stage in the timeline, reap what has been sowed!
Just finished dealing with Orcon’s Call Centre, now in the Phillipines…….what used to be relatively good local experience is now just like Vodafone, Telecom etc
Smaller has significant merits in service and quality, I’m seeing this with what were good local tradeys. They can’t say no to work they should turn away, employ whoever they can and then hope for the best as they are too busy quoting, demanding deposits and eagerly collecting the money without checking the quality of their new employees or often their qualifications.
Isn’t deregulation and toothless industry bodies just wonderful. I’ve had the plumbers board basically toss their arms up over ripping a family member off and not completing the job and the vet association did same over a vet who ignored a direct instruction from the pet owner which could have resulted in the Pets death except the owner went to another Vet who did as asked and diagnosed/fixed the problem.
Yup a colleague asked me about Telstra clear and moving across, once I explained who had bought them and what comes next they decided against it, an easy call if you study history.
in historical times I imagine my people and I would have. sadly, I have met and socialized with former armed bank-robbers; regrettably , once a fire-arm is concerned, the outcomes can be (yet were not in these cases) irreversible.
feck! that Instant Finance promotes some arrears dunnit. All this lending in a context where nearly half of all NZ households live week to week. The mind boggles! and with Winter coming…so many threads to the tapestry of the future yet they are all being woven into a web together.
Our findings parallel those of previous work and show that endorsement of free-market economics predicted rejection of climate science. Endorsement of free markets also predicted the rejection of other established scientific findings…
Most people who believe conspiracy crap seem to be incredibly right wing once you scratch them. They also tend to believe in Zionist/Illuminati conspiracies, Obama as a Kenyan, chemtrails, scientists conspiring to make a buck out of global warming, and similar nonsense. Explaining everything as a conspiracy, they explain nothing. Irrespective of country, they seem to think the second amendment holds.
If they’re left wing, it’s not any left I recognise.
“If they’re left wing, it’s not any left I recognise.”
Really?
Well then, let me help you recognise it.
On this thestandard.org.nz page under the Links menu there is a LEFT Blogs list with the link below to a LEFT blog, scroll down the page a bit and in the right hand column of this LEFT blog page is a big picture of the collapsing towers with the heading:
“As seen in this revealing photo the Twin Towers’ destruction exhibited all the characteristics of destruction by explosions:”
Still no geo-engineering reading done, eh Murray, come along, you can’t just keep poking holes in what you know nothing about!
I see your comment attracted some approval from OAB, shame man!
Should be all the catalyst you need to get yourself informed eh!
Edit, I see you got Joe90 too, unlucky!
Edit 2 – Do you believe the constitution, should be completely openly trashed, or are you losing your marbles with that second amendment comment, or perhaps in general!
I realise that the second amendment of the US Constitution doesn’t have any status in law in any country I live in. That already gives me quite a few more marbles than you.
As for reading anything you’d recommend on geoengineering – I’d rather clean my eyes with a cheese grater, thanks. If something smells like shit and looks like shit, I don’t actually have to taste it just to be sure, let alone try to make a golden calf out of it.
TV3’s tame—and untrustworthy—news department
That $43 million bribe to MediaWorks has worked well
TV3 “news” preview, Sunday 28 April 2013, 5:50 p.m.
CAROLYN ROBINSON: Coming up tonight on Three News! The public’s take on political BRAIN FADES, like those suffered by John Key and David Shearer…
Excuse me? Shearer “suffered” a “brain fade” like John Key did? They are trying to suggest that Shearer belatedly declaring his overseas bank account—not hiding it, just being tardy—is equivalent to John Key’s systematic, massive, scandalous pattern of dishonesty?
Yes, I think they are.
I guess they justify such rancid bias, such partisan distortion, such open, shameless and sycophantic support for their major sponsor by calling it “balance”. The rest of us will remember that, less than two years ago, TV3’s parent company was gifted forty-three million dollars by the Key government.
It certainly appears someone in the editorial team is a bit of a yes man… or woman.
I’m surprised some of the senior presenters would read the stuff they’re given, but then I guess they don’t want to get kicked off air and have to get real jobs.
Imagine how that poor lady from N Korea must feel when she’s reading out how kim lil dong is gonna nuke it all unless psy teaches him the dance steps in person – Pyongyang style.
“They are trying to suggest that Shearer belatedly declaring his overseas bank account—not hiding it, just being tardy—is equivalent to John Key’s systematic, massive, scandalous pattern of dishonesty?”
You’re being disingenuous there. He failed to declare it 4 years in a row, while declaring it on his tax return each year. That’s more than “just being tardy”. Yes, he was upfront about it – so he handled the outcome well, but that doesn’t excuse the behaviour.
Shearer: bad behaviour, good response
Key: bad behaviour, bad response
You’re being disingenuous there. He failed to declare it 4 years in a row, while declaring it on his tax return each year. That’s more than “just being tardy”.
I’m not being disingenuous; you are being provocative. I shall, however, take the advice of our good friend “dumrse” and refrain from (to use a John Banks expression) “tearing your wings off”.
So let’s get back to the matter in hand: Shearer failed to include his overseas bank account on his parliamentary declaration. The fact that he declared it to the Inland Revenue shows that it was an oversight, not a deliberate deception. It is immensely different to, say, taking secret payments from a fanatically anti-democratic, anti-homosexual, anti-women religious cult.
Yes, he was upfront about it – so he handled the outcome well, but that doesn’t excuse the behaviour.
I’m not trying to excuse his behaviour, I’m pointing out what you already know, viz., Shearer’s behaviour was not comparable to Key’s systematic dishonesty.
Shearer: bad behaviour, good response
Key: bad behaviour, bad response
I never suggested anything different.
See how that works?
I sure do, although I’m a little concerned that you can’t quite understand how grave Key’s dishonesty is.
Yes, I agree TV3 is partly following the (flawed) logic of “impartiality – showing both sides. But it’s a false equivalence. They only seem similar (Shearer brain fade compared with Key and Banks), because of another feature of “neoliberal” infotainment – lack of background context.
If they were to look more deeply into each of the “brain fades” they’d see that Key’s and Banks relate to some crucial issues of democracy, and accountability on intelligence services, cronyism and funding of political campaigns.
Shearer’s brain fade seems to relate more to personal savings, possibly individual tax dodging – not a good thing but it’s peripheral to NZ”s political structure.
I just saw that silly vain self centred has-been Shane Jones on the news.
What an embarrassment to the Party.
I look forward to hearing that he has been strongly admonished for his publicity seeking antics.
He has contributed nothing to the Labour Party. Yet he is allowed to speak on TV on a wide range of topics.
I loose my appetite just hearing him.
No doubt that stellar deputy and action Leader Grant Robertson will whip Shane’s ass.
Yes between DS, the mallarfia old guard, Jones arrogance and lightweight brown noses like Curran, Hipkins etc the hollowmen just have to keep the shonkey one in check and 2014 is a shoe in.
Of course having the media on your side helps which makes the need to have an effective opposition so vital, sadly these are not the droids we are looking for to biff out the evil empire.
I wondered which RWNJ had driven the comments to over 100 and see ‘ugly truth’ has been busy. When there is a high count it’s often a case of an annoying mosquito. Some are resistant to spray and require the quick, hard bash. At one time when mosquitoes were bad I had numerous bloody marks on my bedroom wall. It was satisfying and worked – till the next outbreak.
come on muzza why are you sticking up for ugly or do you agree with his repetitive use of the derogatory and disgusting term ‘retarded’. On that basis alone, let alone his fawning of beck, he/she should be treated as a lowrider and given the short shift, as OAK has done. Just because OAK has not treated your views with much respect or credence in the past doesn’t mean that who he/she opposes is correct or valid.
Prism mused that the comment count had gone up, then went on to throw insults at UT.
My only contention, was to point out, that there were two invovled in a long conversation, the other happened to be OAB. I would have called prism on that one regardless, because his comment was unblanced!
Not sure where you read support in there bro, or the part where I am concerned about what OAB makes of my posts here…
I moved past most the usual hangups people grapple through their lives with, from a very young age!
sure mate but I think you’ll find that prism did mention ‘knuckle’ in the comment. And the fact is that often a high comment count is a RWNJ getting dealt to, as has happened today.
it’s cool that you have got through the usual hangups at a very young age although I’m not sure what you are meaning there, but whatever…
marty mars
Thanks for bringing some light to muzza’s page. How can people write here frequently commenting on others stuff yet not even read it all. It is really important to glance over the whole thing to get the actual message, the whole thought. I added at the bottom in plain sight that it was UT and knuckle and gave the count I had just made, with a one-word observation that I might be wrong in my original statement.
@muzza
So muzza get with it, brain warmed up, running nicely before going into gear – and do start off at first for a smooth takeoff. Those kangaroo hops are a telling sign that here there is a practitioner still evolving in skills. That’s going to get up your nose probably but hey you can’t win them all.
It’ll probably take the extinction of their beloved Chesapeake oysters before rising sea temperatures are taken seriously.
Sea surface temperatures in the Northeast Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem during 2012 were the highest recorded in 150 years, according to the latest Ecosystem Advisory issued by NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC). These high sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are the latest in a trend of above average temperature seen during the spring and summer seasons, and part of a pattern of elevated temperatures occurring in the Northwest Atlantic, but not seen elsewhere in the ocean basin over the past century.
They’ve only just cleaned up a lot of the growing areas enough to make the oysters edible again as well. Contamination of oysters around New York especially provided a big impetus to cutting down on dumping crap straight into the water. Hmmm. Too late.
Personally, I’d kick all the NAct voters’ yachts out of Opua as well to preserve the oysters up there, then carry on with the rest of the country.
I am not normally impressed by him, but Shane Jones’ performance on Q and A was impressive.
It was particularly heartening to hear a Labour MP use such language as:
‘The merchant bankers have gone absolutely nutty’
The rhetoric of the merchant bankers is “tainted”
Taking advice from them is like taking grooming advice from Frankenstein”
Yeah, but the problem is that if you remove the “merchant bankers” and substitute in “shane jones” (after the last years of screwups at least since the GFC), then guess what – you have a match!
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
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 ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
A ballot for 4 Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Insurance Contracts Bill (Duncan Webb) Income Tax (Clean Transport FBT Exclusion) Amendment Bill (Julie Anne Genter) Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill (Greg Fleming) Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) ...
One of the strongest narratives about "our" spy agencies is that they are basically institutional traitors, working for foreign powers (or just themselves), without any control or oversight by the elected government. And today, we have yet another report from the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security which explicitly confirms this. ...
“It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April to meet the Prime Minister’s ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
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Quiet here this morning, or has there been a hiccup?
There was a hiccup.
Just tried to delete this message as I see that Lynn has commented below about the problems, clicking on the “delete” link takes me to an otherwise blank page that says “-1” in the top left corner.
“The dignity of work” – Is it just as dignified if our labour will be worth less than those on a collective contract?
Work has its own dignity and reward built in. Jobs on the other hand? Can’t see any dignity there at all…just a tawdry exchange that attempts to mask blatent theft while promoting various human traits associated with selfishness that in turn cast us in the role of adverseries to one another … A waste of life and living.
There is no dignity in creating surplus value for some capitalist prick to steal.
Until this myth is rejected there is no viable pathway to a fair and sustainable society based on the allocation of resources according to need, and of individual contibutions according to ability and meeting the requirements of the community.
The first step is to start differentiating between jobs and work.
Outage this morning. The database server jammed up at 03:35 (cleared itself at 0449) and at 06:05 (I hard rebooted at 09:34) in a pattern I have seen a couple of irritating times now. I got some more logs on what the problem is.. I’ll have a look at them after breakfast.
I was hoping that upgrading and cleaning up the database would either fix it or make it clearer what was going on. Hopefully the latter has happened.
Damn I set my phone to silent whilst watching Warm Bodies last night (you can just see the pitch – romeo and juliet in the zombie apocalypse)
Hypocrisy Watch: Ali Williams criticizes the referee
Queensland Reds 12 defeat Auckland Blues 11, Brisbane, 26 April 2013
Ironic quote of the weekend, probably of the whole year, comes from the Auckland Blues captain Ali Williams, after his team went down by one point in Brisbane:
****************************************************
“It comes down to what the referee sees. That hurts, that sucks.”
****************************************************
The referee he was complaining about was the notorious CRAIG JOUBERT. Just eighteen months ago, not a peep was heard from Williams after he and his All Black team-mates had been effectively gifted the World Cup not by one marginal call, but by Joubert’s defiant refusal to penalize their flagrant repeated fouling of a superior Tricolors team.
This time, though, after Joubert had actually done what he is always supposed to do, and refereed a match honestly, Williams is whining and bitching about not a systematic refusal to do his job, as happened to Williams’ benefit in the RWC final, but one marginal decision.
As any French fan would say: quelle hypocrisie.
And as local observers of Ali Williams, that tiresomely childish streak of narcissism, would say: fucking idiot.
Maybe Williams can only win when he cheats?
Almost any player will cheat if given the opportunity. The fault in the 2011 RWC final lay with the referee, or (to be accurate) the non-referee.
This is a good summary, from British television, of Joubert’s outrageous failure in that match….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XBqetaCfgo
There are, of course, many more exhaustive French analyses of the catastrophe.
Absolute rubbish there – you cherry pick analysis that has been completely disowned except for whinging French fans.
You don’t have a clue about rugby do you? At least come up with some examples instead of posting to something thats been completely discredited.
If professional sports “stars” are having difficultly with the pressure that their job entails they should resign from their position before taking their mental issues out on other people…and then blame the pressures of their job.
Screen out the weak ones BEFORE you sign them and create a climate of zero tolerance rather than offer up pathetic excuses for abuse.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/04/28/stop-pretending-the-all-blacks-are-just-normal-ordinary-guys/
Pressure of the game crap: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/union-news/all-black-granted-bail-but-barred-from-contact-with-partner-20130422-2i9qb.html
AND FYI, if it really were the pressure of the job why aren’t they hitting each other? Because
– it is much easier to take your anger out on weaker females
– it isn’t an acceptable thing to smack around a fellow sports star
– the coach wouldn’t allow it to happen. They might lose a game.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/26/september-11-landing-gear-found-nypd
Got to keep those anti *muslim/islamic* emotions, well fired up, at all times!
The propganda war, NEVR sleeps!
How is it propaganda to report the facts?
is the propaganda that they have found a bit of a plane with identification or something to do with the planned Islamic community centre I can’t work it out.
Edit – I see you’ve added a bit but it still seems pretty murky in regards to the propaganda imo
Or the fact that they can call it Evidence, and tie up the building of said Mosque for a few years?
Thanks David that makes sense
Marty the propagada is in the timing of these *factual news releases*.
They are designed to keep the racial/religious tensions ratcheted right up, an to provide constant programming of fear into the minds of the people, these are all techniques, make no mistake about it!
The convenience of this *find*, being so soon after the Boston Bombings, and coming hot on the heels of the latest financial (rate swaps scandal).
Such *news*, has multi facted distractions to fend off/to provide cover/support for, and ensure the focus remains firmly on the muslims/islamic *terrorists*, everywhere….because they’re everywhere, Marty!
Never forget that, the news media certainly won’!
This is more bankers sponsored *news*, just like the bankers sponsored *wars*, all of them!!
Fair points muzza although I’d imagine if they were holding onto this ‘evidence’ they could have found a few good (for them) moments over the last few years to ‘find’ this and report it.
Interesting point about there being terrorists everywhere. If the definition of terrorist is defined by them then they can find terrorists everywhere and, based on their definition, they are correct, they are everywhere, and that certainly maintains and amplifies the fear.
Exactly Marty – It like Key claiming WMDs in NZ, well under those who control the definition, about what constitutes WMDs these days, Key can easily claim he was not lying!
Let’s not forget NZ’s shameful part in the history of chemical warfare!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ranch_Hand
EDIT: I’ll be following with interest, the progess of the landing gear, and how it turns out to related/unrelated to 911.
Managing the Boston actors:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UYpNmEHIf_U
Yes, there are some twisted sad individuals out there, eh. Ghouls, preying on horror to satisfy their own limited understanding, and bolster their pathetic alternative histories. Are you one of them?
Yes, there are some retards out there, uncritically accepting the MSM narrative. Are you one of them?
Good that you have admitted that you are twisted and sad ugly – that is the first step in sorting it all out – good luck with that.
No, but then I’m not attempting to draw attention by exploiting victims of a bomb attack, I’m the one expressing my contempt and disgust for those who do.
Which victims?
The 12 supposed dead reported by the NY Post, from a “trusted law enforcement source”?
The people who suffered shock, disorientation, and possibly temporary hearing loss after the first explosion (supposedly loaded with shrapnel), which was just a few feet away from them?
The man with shredded clothes who immediately ran from the epicenter after the first explosion?
The Saudi national Abdul Rahman Ali Al-Harbi, who was reported to have suffered a leg injury from shrapnel, yet was able to run from the scene and was later held in custody in hospital?
No, the ghoulish trash who seek to draw attention to themselves.
Why can’t you identify any victims, are you retarded or something?
All of them, collectively, are being exploited by attention-seeking trash.
So you are both a retard and a liar. Glad we’ve got that sorted out.
What do we call those creatures who feed on corpses? Ah, that’s right, we call them maggots, but maggots are just following their nature. What’s your excuse?
good questions : disturbing.
But wait, there’s more….
http://www.madcowprod.com/2013/04/26/boston-bombers-uncle-married-daughter-of-top-cia-official/
Are Blogs (political) Echo-Chambers? ; top article, a pdf, is revealing.
and the Veenstra et al; (2008) article at the bottom of page.
Well put. Limited understanding and a digital world where there are only two options. Question the smallest element of their narrative and it’s “OMG OMG Another sheeple who believes everything in the MSM!!!”
Small minds and a messianic complex, overflowing with hatred, they place watching youtube well before organised militancy in their arsenal of methods to change the world. In fact, they don’t even want to change the world. The horror is so all pervading and everything is so tied up in these enormous conspiracies that nothing can be changed. In their world, marching against asset sales = ignoring the non existent chemtrails; saving some whales = supporting the Kenyan Obama as he disarms us (forgetting in the transfer from Alex Jones to The Standard that we don’t live in the US and A); feeding kids = supporting Agenda 21 (whatever that is, it’s not a plan for world government and overly pigmented helicopters)……….
Ghouls is too nice a word for them.
DOVER — New Hampshire State Rep. Stella Tremblay is calling for answers about whether the American government was involved in detonating explosives at the Boston Marathon last week, killing three people and wounding more than 170 others.
In an interview with Foster’s Daily Democrat Tuesday, Tremblay said she can’t rule out the possibility the government was involved in carrying out the bombings.
Tremblay’s remarks came a few hours after she was criticized by the New Hampshire Democratic Party for a comment she posted on Facebook several days earlier, in which Tremblay wrote that the marathon attack on April 15 was carried out by “Black Ops.”
http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130423/GJNEWS_01/130429720/-1/FOSNEWS
Yes, she’s a fucking idiot alright.
Why do you think she’s an idiot?
http://www.freepatriot.org/2013/04/20/glenn-beck-says-he-has-proof-boston-bombing-is-inside-job/
Glen Beck has claimed that he has proof the federal government has covered up the Boston bombing as being carried out by Chechnya terrorists. He says that the bombing was actually carried out by Saudi nationals and that he has the evidence to prove it.
Morans unite.
So you were lying about uncritically accepting the MSM narrative, then?
Skepticism, you’re doing it wrong.
I’ll take that as a yes.
If you were skeptical of the MSM account you would have been able so say what was wrong with Glenn Beck’s position.
What’s right about Glenn Beck’s position would be a shorter list:
1. Nothing.
I think he’s a waste of oxygen, but you knock yourself out.
I don’t give a shit what you think, OAK.
In relation to Glenn Beck’s position, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano refused to answer questions on the subject by Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) on Capitol Hill on April 18, saying the inquiry was “so full of misstatements and misapprehension that it’s just not worthy of an answer.”
Duncan’s question was:
“Wouldn’t you agree with me that it’s negligent for us as an American administration to deport someone who was reportedly at the scene of the bombing and we’re going to deport him, not to be able to question him anymore?”
Yes. No doubt you find that significant. I suggest you spread your faith in Mr. Beck far and wide, especially in your workplace and to random strangers at the bar. Make a sign, a sandwich board perhaps. You’ll gain everyone’s undying respect, I promise.
I have no faith in Beck, retard.
You just find his ramblings significant enough to bear repetition, maggot.
Beck’s position as an argument is supported by facts, it is more than rambling.
I find it ironic that you accuse me of feeding off death when that is the defining characteristic of the industry of war which is being exposed by people who are challenging the MSM narrative.
That’s because you have no more clue about irony than you do of scepticism.
PS: Thinking you to be a witless maggot ≠ support for the MSM
Another lie from OAK, the retarded MSM sycophant.
http://www.dailywritingtips.com/what-is-irony-with-examples/
The relationship of the war industry to all this is that the empire depends on the existence of a adversary, real or perceived. The adversary could be something as simple as a noun, like “terror”, or as complex as a foreign religion like Islam or a shadowy organisation like Al Qaeda. The Boston narrative provides Islam from Tamerlan and Chechnya, and has the potential to supply Al Qaeda from the Saudi national at the heart of Glen Beck’s campaign.
Really???? Gosh, that sounds just like Orwell’s vision from 1984, can you teach me to suck eggs too???????
Speaking of eggs, that the US has sewn dragons’ teeth is old news around here, but the notion that it’s part of some sort of coherent strategy is beyond stupid.
Whether or not the strategy is coherent is irrelevant. What matters is whether or not it exists and what the implications are if it does. The fact that it exists is implied by the repeated behaviour of the US empire regarding manufactured threats. Beck’s position is a problem for the empire because the response of the Obama administration to the exposure of AbdulRahman ali Al-Harbi only makes sense if he was a potential asset.
Argh, the stupid, it burns.
“…potential asset.”
The term is “political football”.
Speaking of stupid, who was the fuckwit who was engaged in a knee-jerk attack on Beck’s position not so very long ago?
You do understand the term political football, don’t you?
PS: You think Glenn Beck is a credible source of anything? I pity you.
The shallow, foolish, rhythmically challenged TV chatterer Ellen DeGeneres is championing Maurice Williamson, who along with his other National Party colleagues took secret payments from the gay-hating Brethren cult, as a hero for the gay cause. She is going to go ahead with the booking of Williamson despite the efforts of many New Zealand gay activists to inform her of Williamson’s record. As shown by that incident and the following story, gay politics are little different from “straight” or “mainstream” politics: the people who get to the top of organizations are generally corrupt and/or cowardly individuals….
Bradley Manning is off limits at SF Gay Pride parade, but corporate sleaze is embraced
A seemingly trivial controversy reveals quite a bit about pervasive political values
by GLENN GREENWALD, The Guardian, 27 April 2013
News reports yesterday indicated that Bradley Manning, widely known to
be gay, had been selected to be one of the Grand Marshals of the
annual San Francisco gay pride parade, named by the LGBT Pride
Celebration Committee. When the predictable backlash instantly ensued,
the president of the Board of SF Pride, Lisa L Williams, quickly
capitulated, issuing a cowardly, imperious statement that has to be
read to be believed.
Williams proclaimed that “Manning will not be a grand marshal in this
year’s San Francisco Pride celebration” and termed his selection “a
mistake”. She blamed it all on a “staff person” who prematurely made
the announcement based on a preliminary vote, and she assures us all
that the culprit “has been disciplined”: disciplined. She then accuses
Manning of “actions which placed in harms way the lives of our men and
women in uniform”: a substance-free falsehood originally spread by top
US military officials which has since been decisively and extensively
debunked, even by some government officials (indeed, it’s the US
government itself, not Manning, that is guilty of “actions which
placed in harms way the lives of our men and women in uniform”). And
then, in my favorite part of her statement, Williams decreed to all
organization members that “even the hint of support” for Manning’s
action – even the hint – “will not be tolerated by the leadership of
San Francisco Pride”. Will not be tolerated.
I originally had no intention of writing about this episode, but the
more I discovered about it, the more revealing it became. So let’s
just consider a few of the points raised by all of this.
First, while even a hint of support for Manning will not be tolerated,
there is a long roster of large corporations serving as the event’s
sponsors who are welcomed with open arms. ….
Read more….
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/27/bradley-manning-sf-gay-pride?commentpage=1
Mozza – Which war/envionmental/human suffering sponsoring media empire does DeGeneres work for – Oh look its NBC Universal, who owns NBC, COMCAST/GE
Maurice Williamson’s speech was a fraud, and I expect was written as part of the playbook!
Morresey i,m a referee Joubert,s refereeing of the tackle was poor went both ways, you are right on the World Cup Final had that game been refereed properly France win
Just watched Q&A if you need reminding what a out of touch dinosaur Michelle Boag is catch it on demand or on TV1later tonight her echoing of Key and Joyce,s rant during the week had to be seen to be believed Jon Johansen,s reaction to the crap that came fron her mouth is a must see
Yep I just watched her as well. I did send them an E-mail.
“Why oh Why do you keep giving Boag credibility by allowing her to spout Nationalistic rubbish on National TV???”
No wonder they laughed at her.
Why do you keep giving Boag credibility by allowing her to spout Nationalistic rubbish on National TV?
You meant to write “National Party rubbish”. If Michelle Boag was in any way nationalistic, she would oppose the flogging off of our national assets.
Yeah Sorry I was being distracted by my 2 year old. But yeah, that’s what I meant.
I have no need to reference her in my study of Q + A; what’s the word, oh yeah, irrelevant, and a week late with the commentary.(get all current and up-to-date political commentary right here from The Standard, your one-stop-shop for laughs and barffs.
Shane Jones- “comfortable with Greens now”. 😉 (you cheeky man).
Joyce releases a press statement to the effect-“that centrist Labour MPs being isolated by the shift to the Greens”.
(well, OK, her spin was “giving ground to the Greens is very scary for most New Zealanders”).Really?
David Round (man who does not like The Treaty and fears the current constitutional review)- “countries can ruin (ruin none-the-less, ruin we tell you) themselves through their own folly.” Well…
John Minto (Excellent composure if you are reading this).- a “furious, hysterical reaction to NZPower by vested interests”. (well, near enough).
There is an Excellent article by Eugenie Sage in the links column on the dodgy dealings behind the H.B Irrigation Scheme development.
David Round (man who does not like The Treaty)…
They put DAVID ROUND on this programme? As anybody who saw this pretentious bow-tied ninny on Willie Jackson’s Eye to Eye will know, Round is an extreme race-baiter, almost pathological in his detestation of Māori culture. Round often teamed up with the S.S. advocate and ACT benchwarmer Stephen Franks to scoff, sneer and disparage any liberal speaker on the programme. I thought that, with the death of Paul Holmes, we had seen the end of racist louts being given the run of the studio on TVNZ; clearly I was wrong.
Why don’t they just hire Kyle Chapman as a commentator and be done with it?
Americans increasingly cynical about official promises of progress.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/nation-starting-to-realize-new-era-of-american-inn,32156/?ref=auto
How many Labour front benchers does it take to change a light bulb?
Two.
First, Shearer announces that he, as Leader of the Labour Party that he’s leader of the Labour Party and Party of as the Leader, he’ll um, well, consider hiring a glow worm to replace the light bulb, no um, ah as Learer of the Paybour Larty, ah, he personally, himself, as Pay TV of the Leaper is personally responsible for providing a source of continual heat and light that will be available to all for half of every day and it will be called “The Sun” and it was his initiative, as a television.
Second, after hearing Hooton screech that sunlight is communism and it made his budgie explode, Robertson will promptly wet his pants and announce, so as to protect budgies everywhere, there will be no more sunlight.
Oh, and then the lightbulb doesn’t get changed after all.
It’s always a tragedy when passion destroys a sense of humour
or a giggle puts you off your stroke
Nice retort 🙂
It’s always a tragedy when careerism destroys a once-great party.
Humour is a raft I’m clinging too, and it’s in danger of falling apart.
The fact is, a few people have been repeating the canard that the right-wing LINO is “opening up space on the left”, but that dollop of custard Robertson has shown – as I predicted – that LINO will use the Greens to get superficial cred, but kill their initiatives once they threaten to change the status quo. Instead, they’re going to smear yet more lipstick on the neoliberal pig.
Just to make things perfectly clear. This isn’t LINO “opening up space on the left”, this is LINO announcing that they want to use the Greens and possibly Mana to get the numbers, and to appease them, they’ll let their initiatives get a hearing, but don’t worry, my dear, dear, precious markets, we won’t let them get to the status of law. We are never, ever going to disrupt the status quo.
We’re safe!
For the rich.
OK, what’s a LINO again?
What is LINO rhino?
edit – snap cv
Labour In Name Only
If they were honest, the front benchers would call the party “Middle-Class Baby Boomer Technocrats Who Mainly Work in Media, PR and Law”, but it doesn’t really have much of a ring to it.
There is a real Labour party, a progressive socialist party, and it’s on the back benches.
Ahhhh of course
Can we realistically expect a mainstream political party with membership invested in the current socio-economic hierarchy to throw out or revolutionise the very same status quo?
It’s not going to happen. By definition, a mainstream party must be conservative to exist in the mainstream*.
But maybe life will be made a bit more tolerable for the bottom 50%?
*The key here is realising that too often, political parties aim for the mainstream of the media, not the mainstream of the nation.
Too long speaking to the media, they mistake the media for the nation.
But maybe life will be made a bit more tolerable for the bottom 50%?
Fingers crossed. Keep the pressure on, I say. They’ll never be perfect, but keep the pressure on, and maybe they’ll be just a bit better.
It’s all Bellamy’s fault, I say – metaphorically – the nice meals for free, the comforts and the limousines breed complacency (Hell, look at he effect BMW 7-series limos have had on the Maori Party – they must be automotive heroin). I representative should never be complacent. Making excuses for them is never going to work.
It was an old Roman custom to have a slave riding with a triumphant general in his victory parade to whisper in his ear “remember that thou art a man”.
we like that custom
Um
If your critics are obsessive or nuts, they don’t apply any pressure whatsoever.
But more specifically, your joke was too long and too niche.
A better version would be:
How many labour mps does it take to change a lightbulb?
Two: shearer to change the bulb, and robertson to promise that labour has no further territorial demands on the free market mechanism.
But even that is a niche taste.
“I keep being kicked in the gutter”: the cruelty of multiple disability cuts ~ That should shame Britain to the core
“Thousands of people with disabilities or long-term illness are now being affected by simultaneous cuts. As the welfare state undergoes unprecedented changes, the same people are being hit over and over again, says Frances Ryan.”
http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2013/04/18/i-keep-being-kicked-in-the-gutter-the-cruelty-of-multiple-disability-cuts-that-should-shame-britain-to-the-core/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BlackTriangleCampaign+%28Black+Triangle+Campaign%29
‘Benefits withdrawal led to man’s suicide’
http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2013/04/17/man-partially-paralysed-with-brain-haemorrhage-shot-himself-after-benefits-stopped/
“During the first half of our marriage he suffered a brain haemorrhage and although he was ok and could still do things, one side was quite paralysed and he was not able to work,”
Mrs Barker told the inquest.
“I know he had been on some sort of benefit for a number of years.”
Mrs Barker said she had last seen Mr Barker on December 8 when he had called to see her at work.
“He was going for a drink and seemed happy but he wanted me to help him go through his benefit papers because he was worried that he was going to be sent back to work,”
Shame on the fascist scum tories! Camoron and Untergrupenfuhrer IDS.
Not just in Britain:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8606036/Appalling-plight-of-elderly-revealed
Its a worldwide phenomena that the elderly and infirm are basically killed by neglect and abuse as the law will not persecute this at all, neither as neglect nor abuse and let alone deliberate homicide. What people don’t seem to comprehend: we will all be old one day – or hopefully not.
Sickening report that. I feel rage but don’t know who to rage at – politicians, the owners of these hellholes, the exploiters of elders, our society, the mirror.
Rage at the institution would be appropriate. As for me, I would rather die in the ditch then be holed up in a home where people with such disregard for dignity and life join to make someone else’s last days full of misery. Mind you I saw an article today (stuff) where it is noted that Gay adoption and Euthanasia are the final frontier for the Government.
Seems that the Government is already working on plan B – Euthanasia. It will lead to some vigorous debate – but only because these sadists will loose their job if the elderly need “too much care” and it is “better” to not have them suffer. Still, ditch for me….
ffs! Get shot of the private providers! Universal state provisioning of aged care with properly paid and resourced staff wouldn’t sort out all of the problems. But it would be a damned sight better than the ‘ship ’em in, rip ’em off and trundle ’em out’ culture that’s all the rage at the moment.
+1
Get shot of the private providers!
Private profit-takers, you mean.
after only another day of events, ICAP / ISDA, rest-home reports, and OIA obstruction, and viewing an S.A promo fo their current mission, I despair, I really do. For example, the army is charting the social decline of the casualties of the “free” markets, yet by their very nature and function are well-enmeshed in that decline; phenemona measured and token-funded.
And yet this is nothing new, has been happening a long time – We have all allowed this to happen, and collectively each and every number, will at some stage in the timeline, reap what has been sowed!
When will the people rise!
How despicable the tories are. This had me in tears.
The crazy spreads.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/27/false-flags-sharia-law-and-gun-grabs-gop-lawmakers-embrace-the-crazy.html
it’s only the biking and walking they fear joe, (oh, and the hippie mind-control). 😀
Just finished dealing with Orcon’s Call Centre, now in the Phillipines…….what used to be relatively good local experience is now just like Vodafone, Telecom etc
Smaller has significant merits in service and quality, I’m seeing this with what were good local tradeys. They can’t say no to work they should turn away, employ whoever they can and then hope for the best as they are too busy quoting, demanding deposits and eagerly collecting the money without checking the quality of their new employees or often their qualifications.
Isn’t deregulation and toothless industry bodies just wonderful. I’ve had the plumbers board basically toss their arms up over ripping a family member off and not completing the job and the vet association did same over a vet who ignored a direct instruction from the pet owner which could have resulted in the Pets death except the owner went to another Vet who did as asked and diagnosed/fixed the problem.
Small IS Good (dark days indeed)
Yup a colleague asked me about Telstra clear and moving across, once I explained who had bought them and what comes next they decided against it, an easy call if you study history.
Gerald Hensley. “Richard Prebble told me ——-“
“Richard Prebble told me ——-”
Says everything you need to know about Hensley’s integrity, and his reliability.
I must say, though, that Hensley’s books are extraordinarily good reads. He could have been New Zealand’s John Le Carré.
Just a pity he doesn’t seem to be able to differentiate fiction from truth….
Lol
banks are pissed that new loansharking legislation will apply to them, even though they assure us that they don’t do any of the nastythings mentioned.
And I am outraged that laws against bank robbery apply to me, even though I would never rob a bank.
Have you no heart, McFlock? Think of all the bankers who will be made redundant now their day job is illegal.
in historical times I imagine my people and I would have. sadly, I have met and socialized with former armed bank-robbers; regrettably , once a fire-arm is concerned, the outcomes can be (yet were not in these cases) irreversible.
feck! that Instant Finance promotes some arrears dunnit. All this lending in a context where nearly half of all NZ households live week to week. The mind boggles! and with Winter coming…so many threads to the tapestry of the future yet they are all being woven into a web together.
I found those numbers pretty shocking too, I would’ve thought no more than 25% in arrears.
But probably the worse part is that he says that if they turn the customer down, they’ll just go to another lender and get the money instead.
The ongoing cataloguing of right-wing buffoonery continues apace. NASA faked the moon landings, therefore climate science is a hoax.
findings too abstract for free-market adherents; if you cannot steal it it can’t be real.
“The ongoing cataloguing of right-wing buffoonery continues apace.”
As compared to the Left wing 9 11 conspiracy about the deliberate demolition of the twin towers by the US Government.
I wouldn’t call it “left-wing”…. I believe that it originally started in some right wing groups in the US.
No mate, its definitely a Left Wing number, own it.
Right wingers are more than happy to accept its Muslims who did it.
Of course many Muslims say it was the Jews, so maybe some Christian Yank right wingers would pay attention to that…
I just LOVE multiculturalism, LOL.
Most people who believe conspiracy crap seem to be incredibly right wing once you scratch them. They also tend to believe in Zionist/Illuminati conspiracies, Obama as a Kenyan, chemtrails, scientists conspiring to make a buck out of global warming, and similar nonsense. Explaining everything as a conspiracy, they explain nothing. Irrespective of country, they seem to think the second amendment holds.
If they’re left wing, it’s not any left I recognise.
+1
the search for the location of anti-matter goes on I guess
“If they’re left wing, it’s not any left I recognise.”
Really?
Well then, let me help you recognise it.
On this thestandard.org.nz page under the Links menu there is a LEFT Blogs list with the link below to a LEFT blog, scroll down the page a bit and in the right hand column of this LEFT blog page is a big picture of the collapsing towers with the heading:
“As seen in this revealing photo the Twin Towers’ destruction exhibited all the characteristics of destruction by explosions:”
http://aotearoaawiderperspective.wordpress.com/
How was that, you ‘recognise’ it now, Mr Olsen?
There is absolutely nothing left about that blog, so thanks for the help. I will refuse it in the same bad faith with which it was offered.
++1
there sure is some nuttiness on the net joe; takes a bit a discernement from the average bear. 😀
Still no geo-engineering reading done, eh Murray, come along, you can’t just keep poking holes in what you know nothing about!
I see your comment attracted some approval from OAB, shame man!
Should be all the catalyst you need to get yourself informed eh!
Edit, I see you got Joe90 too, unlucky!
Edit 2 – Do you believe the constitution, should be completely openly trashed, or are you losing your marbles with that second amendment comment, or perhaps in general!
I realise that the second amendment of the US Constitution doesn’t have any status in law in any country I live in. That already gives me quite a few more marbles than you.
As for reading anything you’d recommend on geoengineering – I’d rather clean my eyes with a cheese grater, thanks. If something smells like shit and looks like shit, I don’t actually have to taste it just to be sure, let alone try to make a golden calf out of it.
K_P has a point though, there are certainly left-wing conspiracy theorists. The difference being that their ravings don’t become policy statements.
or invasions
Maddow on the conspiracy racket.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/27/maddow-right-wing-fringe-is-now-a-cynical-money-making-racket/
As opposed to the likes of Maddow, and the network she spins for Joe?
If your point was that the narrative is controlled, you would be correct..
Or were you simply making some idle noise..
Hows SFO coming along, you know, geographically speaking?
TV3’s tame—and untrustworthy—news department
That $43 million bribe to MediaWorks has worked well
TV3 “news” preview, Sunday 28 April 2013, 5:50 p.m.
CAROLYN ROBINSON: Coming up tonight on Three News! The public’s take on political BRAIN FADES, like those suffered by John Key and David Shearer…
Excuse me? Shearer “suffered” a “brain fade” like John Key did? They are trying to suggest that Shearer belatedly declaring his overseas bank account—not hiding it, just being tardy—is equivalent to John Key’s systematic, massive, scandalous pattern of dishonesty?
Yes, I think they are.
I guess they justify such rancid bias, such partisan distortion, such open, shameless and sycophantic support for their major sponsor by calling it “balance”. The rest of us will remember that, less than two years ago, TV3’s parent company was gifted forty-three million dollars by the Key government.
It certainly appears someone in the editorial team is a bit of a yes man… or woman.
I’m surprised some of the senior presenters would read the stuff they’re given, but then I guess they don’t want to get kicked off air and have to get real jobs.
Imagine how that poor lady from N Korea must feel when she’s reading out how kim lil dong is gonna nuke it all unless psy teaches him the dance steps in person – Pyongyang style.
‘ol 49ers aye.(looking forward to that touchdown).
Like rugby, a game played by men with funny shaped balls.
And touchdown, we all know where that brings me round again to find 😉
“They are trying to suggest that Shearer belatedly declaring his overseas bank account—not hiding it, just being tardy—is equivalent to John Key’s systematic, massive, scandalous pattern of dishonesty?”
You’re being disingenuous there. He failed to declare it 4 years in a row, while declaring it on his tax return each year. That’s more than “just being tardy”. Yes, he was upfront about it – so he handled the outcome well, but that doesn’t excuse the behaviour.
Shearer: bad behaviour, good response
Key: bad behaviour, bad response
See how that works?
You’re being disingenuous there. He failed to declare it 4 years in a row, while declaring it on his tax return each year. That’s more than “just being tardy”.
I’m not being disingenuous; you are being provocative. I shall, however, take the advice of our good friend “dumrse” and refrain from (to use a John Banks expression) “tearing your wings off”.
So let’s get back to the matter in hand: Shearer failed to include his overseas bank account on his parliamentary declaration. The fact that he declared it to the Inland Revenue shows that it was an oversight, not a deliberate deception. It is immensely different to, say, taking secret payments from a fanatically anti-democratic, anti-homosexual, anti-women religious cult.
Yes, he was upfront about it – so he handled the outcome well, but that doesn’t excuse the behaviour.
I’m not trying to excuse his behaviour, I’m pointing out what you already know, viz., Shearer’s behaviour was not comparable to Key’s systematic dishonesty.
Shearer: bad behaviour, good response
Key: bad behaviour, bad response
I never suggested anything different.
See how that works?
I sure do, although I’m a little concerned that you can’t quite understand how grave Key’s dishonesty is.
So now you’re acknowledging that Shearer did indeed have a brain fade.
Sure, everything about it wasn’t as bad was what Key did, but it still happened.
So we were in agreement all along.
Sheesh!
Bloggers only get so many key strokes in life. You could lengthen your life considerably if you took the emotion out of your post.
Bloggers only get so many key strokes in life. You could lengthen your life considerably if you took the emotion out of your post.
Thanks for the advice. I’ll try to stay cool.
First the first time Morrisey, I agree with you. Patrick Gower is to journalism as Craig Joubert is to refereeing.
First the first time Morrisey, I agree with you.
Thanks, buddy. That’s the best news I’ve had all year.
Patrick Gower is to journalism as Craig Joubert is to refereeing.
He may well be, but my criticism was directed at the delectable but dim Carolyn Robinson and whoever wrote her outrageous script for her.
Yes, I agree TV3 is partly following the (flawed) logic of “impartiality – showing both sides. But it’s a false equivalence. They only seem similar (Shearer brain fade compared with Key and Banks), because of another feature of “neoliberal” infotainment – lack of background context.
If they were to look more deeply into each of the “brain fades” they’d see that Key’s and Banks relate to some crucial issues of democracy, and accountability on intelligence services, cronyism and funding of political campaigns.
Shearer’s brain fade seems to relate more to personal savings, possibly individual tax dodging – not a good thing but it’s peripheral to NZ”s political structure.
Well no, it is actually important to the political narrative and the perception of voters as to trustworthiness and hypocrisy.
I just saw that silly vain self centred has-been Shane Jones on the news.
What an embarrassment to the Party.
I look forward to hearing that he has been strongly admonished for his publicity seeking antics.
He has contributed nothing to the Labour Party. Yet he is allowed to speak on TV on a wide range of topics.
I loose my appetite just hearing him.
No doubt that stellar deputy and action Leader Grant Robertson will whip Shane’s ass.
Yes between DS, the mallarfia old guard, Jones arrogance and lightweight brown noses like Curran, Hipkins etc the hollowmen just have to keep the shonkey one in check and 2014 is a shoe in.
Of course having the media on your side helps which makes the need to have an effective opposition so vital, sadly these are not the droids we are looking for to biff out the evil empire.
from the tele;
Key: on ChCh, “this 40B may not be the ” ceiling for rebuilding ChCh. (but won’t affect surplus targets, oh no…)
Joyce- “Labour going further left is bad for New Zealand”.
…now there is this Russian state telephone surveillance of the Boston Bomber’s family in 2010?
I wondered which RWNJ had driven the comments to over 100 and see ‘ugly truth’ has been busy. When there is a high count it’s often a case of an annoying mosquito. Some are resistant to spray and require the quick, hard bash. At one time when mosquitoes were bad I had numerous bloody marks on my bedroom wall. It was satisfying and worked – till the next outbreak.
Dunno though only 31 with ut and knuckle
Yet no mention of the other half of that conversation , OAB
You think the count can rise on the back of one person only Prism!
Come on Prism, keep it balanced!
come on muzza why are you sticking up for ugly or do you agree with his repetitive use of the derogatory and disgusting term ‘retarded’. On that basis alone, let alone his fawning of beck, he/she should be treated as a lowrider and given the short shift, as OAK has done. Just because OAK has not treated your views with much respect or credence in the past doesn’t mean that who he/she opposes is correct or valid.
Marty, Marty, Marty…
Prism mused that the comment count had gone up, then went on to throw insults at UT.
My only contention, was to point out, that there were two invovled in a long conversation, the other happened to be OAB. I would have called prism on that one regardless, because his comment was unblanced!
Not sure where you read support in there bro, or the part where I am concerned about what OAB makes of my posts here…
I moved past most the usual hangups people grapple through their lives with, from a very young age!
sure mate but I think you’ll find that prism did mention ‘knuckle’ in the comment. And the fact is that often a high comment count is a RWNJ getting dealt to, as has happened today.
it’s cool that you have got through the usual hangups at a very young age although I’m not sure what you are meaning there, but whatever…
marty mars
Thanks for bringing some light to muzza’s page. How can people write here frequently commenting on others stuff yet not even read it all. It is really important to glance over the whole thing to get the actual message, the whole thought. I added at the bottom in plain sight that it was UT and knuckle and gave the count I had just made, with a one-word observation that I might be wrong in my original statement.
@muzza
So muzza get with it, brain warmed up, running nicely before going into gear – and do start off at first for a smooth takeoff. Those kangaroo hops are a telling sign that here there is a practitioner still evolving in skills. That’s going to get up your nose probably but hey you can’t win them all.
It’ll probably take the extinction of their beloved Chesapeake oysters before rising sea temperatures are taken seriously.
Sea surface temperatures in the Northeast Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem during 2012 were the highest recorded in 150 years, according to the latest Ecosystem Advisory issued by NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC). These high sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are the latest in a trend of above average temperature seen during the spring and summer seasons, and part of a pattern of elevated temperatures occurring in the Northwest Atlantic, but not seen elsewhere in the ocean basin over the past century.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130426115614.htm?
love the intro joe
They’ve only just cleaned up a lot of the growing areas enough to make the oysters edible again as well. Contamination of oysters around New York especially provided a big impetus to cutting down on dumping crap straight into the water. Hmmm. Too late.
Personally, I’d kick all the NAct voters’ yachts out of Opua as well to preserve the oysters up there, then carry on with the rest of the country.
MO
Heavens! What next?
I am not normally impressed by him, but Shane Jones’ performance on Q and A was impressive.
It was particularly heartening to hear a Labour MP use such language as:
‘The merchant bankers have gone absolutely nutty’
The rhetoric of the merchant bankers is “tainted”
Taking advice from them is like taking grooming advice from Frankenstein”
Tough talking Shane O will take on the global banking cartel then I expect…
Nah , thought not!
Yeah, but the problem is that if you remove the “merchant bankers” and substitute in “shane jones” (after the last years of screwups at least since the GFC), then guess what – you have a match!
hence my (cheeky man)