I think you will find that your response proves his point. You have been duped and that you instantly spit out a vacuous response showing that you are duped or colluding only makes you look, well, foolish.
some nat supporters start to be exposed for supporting something they don’t know about or understand… they BELIEVE the government is doing a good job but why, when you scratch beneath the repeated slogans of their chosen team, they don’t know…
“The person has a problem with a slogan and spends paragraphs saying they don’t get it.”
No, the person uses the whole article to write a satirical piece on the extent to which we are being screwed by the National Govt. The Emperor has no clothes. If you believe the Emperor when he says he has this beautiful new coat you won’t be able to understand what Ganesh Nana is saying.
see below for an explanation of why you might not get it… but in case you don’t scroll down. You and NZ are being lied to. Because you have chosen to believe everything you are being told about the economic management of this country, you don’t think we are being lied to. That means you are being duped.
Ganesh also had a close look through the budget docs and he was in the lock up.
He couldn’t FIND the plan. Not that he didn’t understand it. He couldn’t find IT!!!!
Chris have you found the plan – if so help by telling us please.
“”What with the foundation economic forecasts resting on an assumed 60% rebound in export dairy prices over the next 18 months,””
I can 100% bet that not one farmer in nz is budgeting on a 60%rebound in dairy and people still believe these idiots are a safe pair of hands.
Yep, I guffawed when I read that. Considering the way the rest of the world is ramping up dairy production I’d expect a continuing decline in world dairy prices.
“I can 100% bet that not one farmer in nz is budgeting on a 60%rebound in dairy”
Of course they wouldn’t! They will be forecasting based on a far more conservative figure to give themselves room for the unexpected, however this forecast will be built on long term trends and modelling (think weather vs climate).
“and people still believe these idiots are a safe pair of hands”
Far safer than the idiot that doesn’t understand the concept above!
I believe the main reason the nats missed surplus this year is because old trader john gambled on the futures of dairy and lost ,still when its not his money I’m sure he shrugs his shoulders and thinks better luck next time.
I have no doubts Collins is undermining Key’s leadership by first pulling the strings behind Williamson’s little tantrum the other day. And now she defiantly openly discusses talk at the caucus table. Key is being criticised for being too conservative which gives Judy doll an opening to apply pressure right up Johnny boys arse. The crack is starting to show.
Sheesh, I just cannot picture Collins as PM material…. she is more of the rabid dog scrapping and snarling…. and none of the mana that is required for the top job …. mind you that didn’t stop that piece of nothing John Key in the National Party
No one often asks me about the revolution, and when it might come.
It’s been coming a long time. Marx himself estimated 400 years, starting sometime last century. Don’t ask which year we’re at on that timeframe: it’d be like trying to pinpoint a Muslim event on the Roman calendar, with no recourse to events in the zodiac.
But some serious dudes, and even more serious dudettes, have been pushing the revolution for all their lives. Ben Morea was one of many in a constantly evolving American anarchist group in the late sixties called, at times, Black mask, The Family and later, as a collective, “Up Against the Wall Motherfucker!”.
Here’s an interview with him in 2006 , which, at least theoretically, gave him plenty of time to reflect on the past.
On the subject of his understanding of societal revolution, he says,
“From my perspective and that of the people I worked with we saw a need to change everything from the way we lived to the way we thought to the way we even ate. Total Revolution was our way of saying that we weren’t going to settle for political or cultural change, but that we want it all, we want everything to change. Western society had reached a stalemate and needed a total overhaul. We knew that wasn’t going to happen, but that was our demand, what we were about.
It also meant seeing that you need all types of people involved, not just political activists. Poets and artists are just as important. Revolution comes about as a cumulative effect and part of that is a change in consciousness, a new way of thinking.”
Sound familiar? The whole interview is illuminating for those who either believe change will come from the top down, the bottom up, or from the street. It’s not clear whether he believes any of that, anymore, but what is most important is that the process continues. People often ask who will save them, who will provide the new answer, who will become the next leader of XYZ party – and if they can’t, then to hell with them. It’s missing the point: Start Something. Anything. Begin your revolution today.
How? Where’s the plan?
What fucking plan?
Where’s the bunting and trumpets?
What fanfare?
Where’s the heavily-armed tribe?
You’re most likely on your own, armed only with what you have.
Do anything that matches your style of politics. Like a good religion, you have to live it. Start small and easy.
Nothing will turn out the way we think. And nothing turned out the way Ben Morea thought, but Jesus, he had one hell of a life. Some of the things he remembered don’t match recorded moments of the actual event. That also sounds familiar, and that’s important too. We have to risk looking a bit dumb, to observers, sometimes. Ben says,
“…We believed in what we were doing, but we didn’t want to be too serious. We could laugh at ourselves. The best influence we felt we could have was not just to inject militancy, but also joy and humour into the struggles of the time…”.
And they didn’t scrimp on the militancy. Seriously. The people who he calls the “fighters” of his group were fist-fighting armed police and street gangs, and he openly supported the attempted murder of Andy Warhol – for reasons clear to them,
“After she shot him I wrote a pamphlet supporting her. I may have been the only person who did that publicly. I went up to MOMA and handed it out there. Everybody I met was very negative about it, but, hey, I disliked Andy Warhol immensely and I loved Valerie. I felt she was right in her anger and that he was way more destructive than she was because he was helping to destroy the whole idea of creativity in art. Some people dislike the term, but I feel that creativity is a kind of spiritual act, a profound thing for people to do. Warhol was the exact opposite, he tried to deny and purge the core of creativity and put it on a commercial basis. As a person he was really despicable, as well, and that’s why Valerie hated him. He used and manipulated people.
…Even the people who liked her feminist approach couldn’t deal with the fact that she would harm Andy. Black Mask and The Family drove the political people nuts because we didn’t fit into any of their blueprints, because we were loose cannons, so you can imagine how they looked upon Valerie…”
He is clear that in including anyone, they weren’t just looking for the shouty-punchy types with a chip on their shoulder. If you weren’t a fighter, you were under no obligation to get your ass-whipped in a situation far above your abilities. Getting beat up for the sake of it wasn’t the point, or a point of honour.
“…Whoever felt inspired would come along and we’d all collaborate. People who have reprinted our work, both at the time and since, often failed to appreciate our sense of humour. …
We had our own mimeograph machine so people were constantly running off leaflets and posters. A lot of the time I would see one on the street that I didn’t even know had come out. The beauty of our family was that it was multi-armed and had no central brain so people were often doing actions and producing things that the rest knew little about…”
If we accept his version of events, they were compassionate people too. Their compassion for what he called the “runaways” and homeless that crowded into the Lower East Side during the sixties, that were harassed and beaten by the good polite people and vigilantes of mainstream society, his “affinity groups” supported their basic needs and artistic (spiritual) requirements and finally, when things got too hot, found safe homes for as many as they could, out of the danger zone.
One of the “doesn’t quite match the actual” recollections, is the time they “assassinated” the… what would now be called, Hipster Poet… Kenneth Koch. Ironically, his second name is pronounced, Coke,
“…Koch was a symbol to us of this totally bourgeois, dandy world. Myself, Dan Georgakas, Alan Van Newkirk and some of the other Black Mask people went to one of his readings. I think I came up with idea to shoot him with a blank pistol. Alan looked like the classic image of the bomb throwing anarchist. He was about six foot three, long and thin with a gaunt face and always dressed in black – the anarchist incarnate. So we decided “You’re the one, you’re going to shoot him.” (laughter) We printed a leaflet and all it had on it was a picture of Leroi Jones with the words `Poetry is revolution.’ On the night when Alan shot the blank Koch fainted and everyone in the audience assumed he was dead and started screaming . Some people threw the leaflet from the balcony into the crowd and then we all left.
Reactions after the event were split between people who thought it was the greatest thing they’d ever heard and those that thought we were a bunch of sophomoric assholes. Which was great because so much of what Black Mask and The Family was about was pushing people to decide “Do I belong with this group of people or this one?” We were determined to be outrageous in order to force people to decide where they stood on things. We wanted to push people, force them to think. “Why shoot Koch? He’s just a nice poet…”
Here is an actual recording of that night. One version of this event has no visual evidence, but has sounds, and is clearly edited; the other version no sound and relies on memory. One claims symbolic victory, the other claims courage under fire. What do you think?
Embarrassment is nothing. The world wants us dead, the political opposition wants us living in fear and poverty, that much is clear. What useful advantage would it be to feel embarrassed in the face of that kind of enemy? To ourselves, we’ll always seem the very best of everything good… (a bit like GenXers thinking they’re better than Boomers… something for next time perhaps)… we will fall short, we’ll look dumb, feel uncomfortable, but it doesn’t mean the end of our personal revolution. There is no way to know what it will start when we’re gone. No point squabbling over it.
There aren’t many hippies any more, and modern-day anarchists are considered more delusional than teenage girls who say they’re feminists.
The dramatically sounding “Up Against the Wall Mother Fucker!” finally splintered and literally disappeared off into the hills on horseback to discover new ways of living, for a few years, or a decade, before returning to whatever was left.
They “failed” by our contemporary consumer standards, because they don’t now occupy the White House and drive Porsches. That wasn’t ever their goal.
The reason our world is the way it is now was contributed to by what the people before us thought and did and lived. Like a hundred-thousand other unknown political groups, their influence is here, now. Their ideas aren’t a rigid design for today, they’re an enduring example of what happens when we do something. Revolution is slow and starts small. In politics, everything happens slowly. It can still be exciting.
Today the U.S. ordered Swiss police to raid, incarcerate and extradite to the U.S. six FIFA officials for alleged corruption. The raid, with obviously pre-alarmed New York Times reporters on the scene, comes shortly before a FIFA vote to expel Israel from the association.
This Friday the world football association FIFA is meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, for its 65th regular World Congress. One of the votes on the agenda (pdf) is about the “Suspension or expulsion of a member”. There is also an “Update on Israel-Palestine”.
The Palestinian Football Association has called for a vote to suspend Israel from FIFA:
The Palestinian group objects to Israeli teams playing in the West Bank. They also say Israel restricts movements of Palestinian players between the West Bank and Gaza as well as for international matches.
“They keep bullying here and there, and I think they have no right to keep being the bully of the neighborhood,” Palestinian Football Association President Jibril Rajoub said of Israel. “If the Israelis are using the issue of security, I can say that their security concern is mine. I am ready to fix parameters for security concerns, but security should not be used … as a tool in order to keep this racist, apartheid policies.”
He declared the situation in the West Bank far worse than apartheid that existed in South Africa because right-wingers and extremists in Israel want to “delete Palestine.” In the 1960s, FIFA suspended South Africa for decades after it failed to comply with the association’s nondiscrimination policies. The nation was also expelled from FIFA a month after the Soweto Youth Uprising of 1976.
“I am not asking for the suspension of the Israeli association; I am asking to end the suffering of the Palestinian footballers,” Rajoub said. “I am asking to end the grievances, the humiliation we are facing.”
The vote requires a 75% majority of the 209 FIFA members. There was a good chance that it was going to be successful.
But now, just by chance, the U.S. government ordered the Swiss police to raid the hotel where the main FIFA functionaries are residing to arrest some of them on corruption charges going back to the early 1990s. The U.S. wants these to be extradited to face a U.S. court.
Also, just by chance, reporters and photographers of the New York Times happen to be in that very Swiss hotel lobby, at 6 am, to capture the incident live….
The intersection between NSA, sports and politics. A very interesting article, and it’s hard not to agree with both his summary of human nature and his conslusions.
“Imagine that someone knows about almost every case of corruption in the world, and given NSA’s programs we recently heard about, it is not such a complete fantasy. This “someone” could easily use this information to remove inconvenient people, and keep or install convenient ones, almost everywhere. At least, he could change 10% of the composition of all similar bodies “immediately” and replace additional heads through the officials’ responsibility for their subordinates.
Is it right that the arrests took place two days before the selection of the new FIFA head?
I think that the timing suggests that it’s no coincidence. It surely looks like someone wanted to maximize the impact of the theater. In other words, someone apparently wanted to reduce the chances of Mr Blatter to be reelected. He had some information about the bribery and decided to use it at the optimum time. I don’t have a proof of this motive but you would have to present a rather accurate and complete alternative explanation if you wanted me not to think that this is the most likely explanation of the timing.
It also makes sense to think that the target isn’t necessarily Mr Blatter himself but the decisions that were made under his supervision, like the decision to move the 2022 World Cup to Qatar and especially the 2018 World Cup to Russia. If someone wanted to reverse those decisions, this could be an optimal strategy. No explicit charges related to these future world cups are known at this moment”
Is it possible that this Government is steadily and quietly restricting their exposure to scrutiny? Hidden in the Budget according to Myles Thomas:
“…And in the Budget the Government has tightened the screws further. Just as NZ on Air was making noises about possibly funding more current affairs, the 2015 Budget introduces new targets that require 70 per cent of its prime-time programmes on TVOne, TV2 and TV3 to reach more than 200,000 viewers…..
TV3 – their brand-new show 3D just scraped in over 200,000 viewers last Sunday.
“….Our loss is the Government’s gain – the prevalence of government-friendly hosts and entertainment shows means it’s unlikely any government minister will face a series of awkward questions on prime-time television. Most people would agree that’s not a good thing either….” http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11455661
I turned off Kathryn Ryan and nine-to-noon when i heard her interviewing ‘Cunliffe the Horrible’
( not the nice Labour Xian one that got crucified )
….and ‘Cunliffe the Horrible’ was telling nine-to- noon listeners what unhealthy sweet treats Media Works had in store for us New Zealanders
( “PUKE ” I thought …and click went my index finger on the button….and then I got myself a nice cup of tea….”I dont have to listen to that bilge” I thought. Amazing how a click of the button can make you feel good. Sorry Kathryn Ryan because i DO like your programme.)
“Would he be at home speaking on a marae, to farmers or to trade unionists, Mr Hague asked, and could the wider population relate to a Wellington-based, metrosexual MP who doesn’t drive?”
I wonder if New Zealand politicians are also receiving money and bribes by the corporates to fast track the TPPA….against New Zealanders’ wishes and without New Zealand parliamentary democratic agreement
Money talked and the people’s representatives caved…
Mind you, in a so-called confidential negotiation where the people cannot know (to preserve negotiating positions), the US had over 400 corporate agents at meetings to negotiate TPP so clearly it wasn’t a need to keep it secret from everyone, just the people.
Dr Mapp tells us that receiving donations doesn’t make any difference to politicians, it doesn’t determine how they vote/work…
Perhaps this is a form of evidence that he is wrong. And precisely because he knows he was talking BS when he wrote that he could confidently say that the congress would give Obama the fast-track…. I am sure he will say the money is just a coincidence.
For those who cannot be bothered reading katipo’s link here is some of what it reveals.
“Using data from the Federal Election Commission, this chart shows all donations that corporate members of the US Business Coalition for TPP made to US Senate campaigns between January and March 2015, when fast-tracking the TPP was being debated in the Senate:
Out of the total $1,148,971 given, an average of $17,676.48 was donated to each of the 65 “yea” votes.
The average Republican member received $19,673.28 from corporate TPP supporters.
The average Democrat received $9,689.23 from those same donors.
The amounts given rise dramatically when looking at how much each senator running for re-election received.
Two days before the fast-track vote, Obama was a few votes shy of having the filibuster-proof majority he needed. Ron Wyden and seven other Senate Democrats announced they were on the fence on 12 May, distinguishing themselves from the Senate’s 54 Republicans and handful of Democrats as the votes to sway.
In just 24 hours, Wyden and five of those Democratic holdouts – Michael Bennet of Colorado, Dianne Feinstein of California, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Patty Murray of Washington, and Bill Nelson of Florida – caved and voted for fast-track.
Bennet, Murray, and Wyden – all running for re-election in 2016 – received $105,900 between the three of them. Bennet, who comes from the more purple state of Colorado, got $53,700 in corporate campaign donations between January and March 2015, according to Channing’s research.
Almost 100% of the Republicans in the US Senate voted for fast-track – the only two non-votes on TPA were a Republican from Louisiana and a Republican from Alaska.
Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, who is the former US trade representative, has been one of the loudest proponents of the TPP. He received $119,700 from 14 different corporations between January and March, most of which comes from donations from Goldman Sachs ($70,600), Pfizer ($15,700), and Procter & Gamble ($12,900). Portman is expected to run against former Ohio governor Ted Strickland in 2016 in one of the most politically competitive states in the country.
Seven Republicans who voted “yea” to fast-track and are also running for re-election next year cleaned up between January and March. Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia received $102,500 in corporate contributions. Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, best known for proposing a Monsanto-written bill in 2013 that became known as the Monsanto Protection Act, received $77,900 – $13,500 of which came from Monsanto.
Arizona senator and former presidential candidate John McCain received $51,700 in the first quarter of 2015. Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina received $60,000 in corporate donations. Eighty-one-year-old senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who is running for his seventh Senate term, received $35,000. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, who will be running for his first full six-year term in 2016, received $67,500 from pro-TPP corporations.”
…”the big fight over TPP is really about corporate power and who’s going to write the rules about the global game, so to speak…the people who are most outspoken about being against this deal are trade unions and worker’s rights groups and environmentalists – those are the ones, the people who traditionally are on Obama’s side.
President Obama is essentially fighting the core elements of his own party. … This coalition has learned from history, workers have learned on their own backs, communities have died, jobs have gone, factories closed – but others are now standing up and saying: “enough! We want true enforcement mechanisms of labor and environmental protection; we want to know what’s in the agreement.” How is this truly American to have agreements, conceived in secret with private corporate courts overseeing and arbitrating agreements? No, enough!
…TPP means loss of jobs and sinking middle class, extreme inequality…
“The RBNZ’s latest national breakdown of mortgage lending by borrower type for April showed that of the $5.66 billion loaned on houses, some $1.84 billion (32.5%) was advanced to property investors.”
Almost $2b speculative house purchases in Auckland in April alone. Incredible. No bubble here then.
NB “property investor” doesn’t necessarily mean property speculator. Investors, properly understood, are an important part of the mix in providing long term rental accommodation. Sensible policy should be designed to discourage speculation (eg. capital gains tax) but not long term investment. It would seem the term used by the Reserve Bank encompasses both in this instance so I’m not downplaying the issue.
It is, as you can guess, a look at the biased reporting of the MSM but this bit stood out:
But is a 90 percent top rate “obviously too high”? Is it something one should instinctively “flinch” at? Not really, says Bryce Covert:
Last year, economists found that the point at which the top tax rate is high enough to maximize government revenues but not so high that it discourages the rich from trying to earn more is quite high: about 95 percent for the 1 percent. History bears that out. Economists have pointed out that post-war American growth has been higher during periods with much higher top marginal tax rates and lower when tax rates were substantially lower. When the top rate was more than 90 percent in the 50s, economic growth averaged more than 4 percent a year. But recently when the top rate has been closer to 35 percent, growth has been less than 2 percent a year on average.
So, yeah, all these RWNJs complaining that 30% tax is too high are just talking out their arse (as per normal) and history shows that we really do need that higher 90+ percent tax rate to boost growth.
…””The war in Iraq has never been seen as popular, especially in Scotland, and the Scottish Parliament in 2003 voted against British forces going into Iraq,” the classified briefing paper says.
“The conflict in Afghanistan has more support, but that is also waning. Salmond is firmly against the war, and as both MSP and MP he has been quite vocal in his opposition in both Houses,” the paper says, adding that the fourth First Minister of Scotland was also opposed to the UN-sanctioned actions in Kosovo and Iraq, “so his opposition to Iraq and Afghanistan is not surprising.”
The motivation for this charge is a recent report about the monetary system by member of parliament Frosti Sigurjónsson, commissioned by the Prime Minister’s Office. The report states very clearly that banks have in fact been creating new money when they issue loans in the form of new deposits which add to the supply of money already in circulation.
Anyone counterfeiting money for the purpose of putting it into circulation as legal tender and anyone acquiring counterfeit money for himself or others with the selfsame end in view shall be subject to imprisonment for up to 12 years.
In case counterfeiting be performed in such a manner as to reduce the specific value of legal tender the penalty shall consist of imprisonment for up to 4 years.
What happens when the bankers get put into jail for counterfeiting?
Dita de Boni’s column excellent as usual. This comment from a reader was of interest to me. Wonder if it can be validated? “At a hui with Blinglish yesterday. He confirmed a few things.
1. We’re officially in a recession – and recovery is dependent on the global economy which is in the toilet!
2. From 2010 onwards, the government borrowed more than $40bn offshore and have spent it all and some and are still borrowing $300m/week
3. The only way to pay for the benefit increase of $25 was to cancel kiwisaver contributions
4. Plan for the future …. make it up as we go! I mean, he said they will manage the country prudently! Haha!”
Must see climate change presentation ? maybe ??
This presentation uses temperature data over three decades ending in 2011 to demonstrate the exponential nature of climate change and shows that climate change is now accelerating in an extremely dangerous way. https://vimeo.com/128141163
Folks,
This is one of the most clear and startling presentations on climate change that I have ever seen. The graphs presented are sort of intimidating at first, but it is thoroughly explained so even a math/statistics dummy like myself can understand. Run-time is a little over 12 minutes in length.
Hamlet
Alas Babylon co-owner
Reading “The Standard” these days is like looking at a deflated balloon. Once it was full of (hot) air, and could (in hope) rise above the ground. Now, it lies forlorn, unable to escape the force that weighs it down. Kinda like the the Labour Party and the Green movement.
Oh but for the days when hope did flower
Now wilted but the Right’s exalted power
His information was interesting, backed up by some moderately credible evidence, but Ben appeared too erratic to do much with. The chains of evidence weren’t that obvious, but quite intriguing and compelling. Clearly enough to warrant a criminal investigation against Cameron Slater.
When I get some time, I’ll probably lay a complaint myself against that stupid arsehole Cameron Slater for attempting to hire someone to crack into my systems. That way I’d at least get some idea of if the investigation is ongoing.
If the police don’t do something about it, then I’d have to assume that cracking into computers isn’t a criminal offence…. In which case the way that Nicky Hager was turned over by the police gets rather politically messy for the police.
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Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from 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 public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
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:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
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. ...
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 ...
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. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
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http://pundit.co.nz/content/yes-at-long-last-we-have-a-plan-–-its-a-secret-but-it-is-working
Really worth the read.
Ganesh Nana
Writing about “the plan thats working” and his search for the plan.
“I got to work, spending the next 90 minutes trawling through the documents searching for a plan”
He found the plan, I won’t spoil what he found
I don’t get the point of the article.
The first half is pointless and the second doesn’t actually say anything.
“The first half is pointless and the second doesn’t actually say anything.
Sort of like “The plan is working”
Pointless and doesn’t say anything
The person has a problem with a slogan and spends paragraphs saying they don’t get it.
Every major organisation, corporation, political party uses slogans when announcing things. Labour and National at elections for example.
I think the most valid point in the thing is this.
“Perhaps illustrating my somewhat naive experiences in these matters,”
Is that you Bill? Bill, is that you?
I think you will find that your response proves his point. You have been duped and that you instantly spit out a vacuous response showing that you are duped or colluding only makes you look, well, foolish.
OK then Chris what is the actual plan?
Don’t ask me. I don’t know.
Political parties use buzz words. This is hardly a new phenomenon.
Is it working?
Is there a plan?
If there is a plan how come you don’t know Chris?
And why are we not told.
That was whole point of the Nana article
some nat supporters start to be exposed for supporting something they don’t know about or understand… they BELIEVE the government is doing a good job but why, when you scratch beneath the repeated slogans of their chosen team, they don’t know…
Yes the plan to hatch a plan some day will happen. However Commercial sensitivity forbids the release.
Garesh found it
The plan was clearly there for all to see in the Budget speech. And I quote:
“Looking beyond our present circumstances, our future depends on our ability to export.”
Yes, there it is – on page 7, Budget Speech, delivered by the Minister of Finance, to the New Zealand House of Representatives, 01 June, 1978.
“The person has a problem with a slogan and spends paragraphs saying they don’t get it.”
No, the person uses the whole article to write a satirical piece on the extent to which we are being screwed by the National Govt. The Emperor has no clothes. If you believe the Emperor when he says he has this beautiful new coat you won’t be able to understand what Ganesh Nana is saying.
+1
T Chris obviously believes that the Emperor has a shiny coat.
see below for an explanation of why you might not get it… but in case you don’t scroll down. You and NZ are being lied to. Because you have chosen to believe everything you are being told about the economic management of this country, you don’t think we are being lied to. That means you are being duped.
T Chris
The first half is pointless and the second doesn’t actually say anything.
Are you talking about the article or National’s economic strategy or both?
He doesn’t know what Nat’s strategy is, and he didn’t understand the article… so is there a third option?
The whole article is about the author not understanding it. And nothing else
So in that case perhaps you could clearly elucidate what YOU believe the plan to be?
Ganesh also had a close look through the budget docs and he was in the lock up.
He couldn’t FIND the plan. Not that he didn’t understand it. He couldn’t find IT!!!!
Chris have you found the plan – if so help by telling us please.
“”What with the foundation economic forecasts resting on an assumed 60% rebound in export dairy prices over the next 18 months,””
I can 100% bet that not one farmer in nz is budgeting on a 60%rebound in dairy and people still believe these idiots are a safe pair of hands.
Yep, I guffawed when I read that. Considering the way the rest of the world is ramping up dairy production I’d expect a continuing decline in world dairy prices.
“I can 100% bet that not one farmer in nz is budgeting on a 60%rebound in dairy”
Of course they wouldn’t! They will be forecasting based on a far more conservative figure to give themselves room for the unexpected, however this forecast will be built on long term trends and modelling (think weather vs climate).
“and people still believe these idiots are a safe pair of hands”
Far safer than the idiot that doesn’t understand the concept above!
I believe the main reason the nats missed surplus this year is because old trader john gambled on the futures of dairy and lost ,still when its not his money I’m sure he shrugs his shoulders and thinks better luck next time.
You, along with National, appear to be that idiot.
He must be an extreme left wing activist, right?
https://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/andrew-little-judith-collins-vying-for-top-job-2015052718
🙂
I’d suggest he might to watch his own back but then I’m sure theres no one in the Labour caucus that’d want to knife Little
I have no doubts Collins is undermining Key’s leadership by first pulling the strings behind Williamson’s little tantrum the other day. And now she defiantly openly discusses talk at the caucus table. Key is being criticised for being too conservative which gives Judy doll an opening to apply pressure right up Johnny boys arse. The crack is starting to show.
Sheesh, I just cannot picture Collins as PM material…. she is more of the rabid dog scrapping and snarling…. and none of the mana that is required for the top job …. mind you that didn’t stop that piece of nothing John Key in the National Party
I wouldn’t worry about Key getting rolled anytime soon unless his personal ratings drop and Nationals drop
No one often asks me about the revolution, and when it might come.
It’s been coming a long time. Marx himself estimated 400 years, starting sometime last century. Don’t ask which year we’re at on that timeframe: it’d be like trying to pinpoint a Muslim event on the Roman calendar, with no recourse to events in the zodiac.
But some serious dudes, and even more serious dudettes, have been pushing the revolution for all their lives. Ben Morea was one of many in a constantly evolving American anarchist group in the late sixties called, at times, Black mask, The Family and later, as a collective, “Up Against the Wall Motherfucker!”.
Here’s an interview with him in 2006 , which, at least theoretically, gave him plenty of time to reflect on the past.
https://libcom.org/history/against-wall-motherfucker-interview-ben-morea
On the subject of his understanding of societal revolution, he says,
“From my perspective and that of the people I worked with we saw a need to change everything from the way we lived to the way we thought to the way we even ate. Total Revolution was our way of saying that we weren’t going to settle for political or cultural change, but that we want it all, we want everything to change. Western society had reached a stalemate and needed a total overhaul. We knew that wasn’t going to happen, but that was our demand, what we were about.
It also meant seeing that you need all types of people involved, not just political activists. Poets and artists are just as important. Revolution comes about as a cumulative effect and part of that is a change in consciousness, a new way of thinking.”
Sound familiar? The whole interview is illuminating for those who either believe change will come from the top down, the bottom up, or from the street. It’s not clear whether he believes any of that, anymore, but what is most important is that the process continues. People often ask who will save them, who will provide the new answer, who will become the next leader of XYZ party – and if they can’t, then to hell with them. It’s missing the point: Start Something. Anything. Begin your revolution today.
How? Where’s the plan?
What fucking plan?
Where’s the bunting and trumpets?
What fanfare?
Where’s the heavily-armed tribe?
You’re most likely on your own, armed only with what you have.
Do anything that matches your style of politics. Like a good religion, you have to live it. Start small and easy.
Nothing will turn out the way we think. And nothing turned out the way Ben Morea thought, but Jesus, he had one hell of a life. Some of the things he remembered don’t match recorded moments of the actual event. That also sounds familiar, and that’s important too. We have to risk looking a bit dumb, to observers, sometimes. Ben says,
“…We believed in what we were doing, but we didn’t want to be too serious. We could laugh at ourselves. The best influence we felt we could have was not just to inject militancy, but also joy and humour into the struggles of the time…”.
And they didn’t scrimp on the militancy. Seriously. The people who he calls the “fighters” of his group were fist-fighting armed police and street gangs, and he openly supported the attempted murder of Andy Warhol – for reasons clear to them,
“After she shot him I wrote a pamphlet supporting her. I may have been the only person who did that publicly. I went up to MOMA and handed it out there. Everybody I met was very negative about it, but, hey, I disliked Andy Warhol immensely and I loved Valerie. I felt she was right in her anger and that he was way more destructive than she was because he was helping to destroy the whole idea of creativity in art. Some people dislike the term, but I feel that creativity is a kind of spiritual act, a profound thing for people to do. Warhol was the exact opposite, he tried to deny and purge the core of creativity and put it on a commercial basis. As a person he was really despicable, as well, and that’s why Valerie hated him. He used and manipulated people.
…Even the people who liked her feminist approach couldn’t deal with the fact that she would harm Andy. Black Mask and The Family drove the political people nuts because we didn’t fit into any of their blueprints, because we were loose cannons, so you can imagine how they looked upon Valerie…”
He is clear that in including anyone, they weren’t just looking for the shouty-punchy types with a chip on their shoulder. If you weren’t a fighter, you were under no obligation to get your ass-whipped in a situation far above your abilities. Getting beat up for the sake of it wasn’t the point, or a point of honour.
“…Whoever felt inspired would come along and we’d all collaborate. People who have reprinted our work, both at the time and since, often failed to appreciate our sense of humour. …
We had our own mimeograph machine so people were constantly running off leaflets and posters. A lot of the time I would see one on the street that I didn’t even know had come out. The beauty of our family was that it was multi-armed and had no central brain so people were often doing actions and producing things that the rest knew little about…”
If we accept his version of events, they were compassionate people too. Their compassion for what he called the “runaways” and homeless that crowded into the Lower East Side during the sixties, that were harassed and beaten by the good polite people and vigilantes of mainstream society, his “affinity groups” supported their basic needs and artistic (spiritual) requirements and finally, when things got too hot, found safe homes for as many as they could, out of the danger zone.
One of the “doesn’t quite match the actual” recollections, is the time they “assassinated” the… what would now be called, Hipster Poet… Kenneth Koch. Ironically, his second name is pronounced, Coke,
“…Koch was a symbol to us of this totally bourgeois, dandy world. Myself, Dan Georgakas, Alan Van Newkirk and some of the other Black Mask people went to one of his readings. I think I came up with idea to shoot him with a blank pistol. Alan looked like the classic image of the bomb throwing anarchist. He was about six foot three, long and thin with a gaunt face and always dressed in black – the anarchist incarnate. So we decided “You’re the one, you’re going to shoot him.” (laughter) We printed a leaflet and all it had on it was a picture of Leroi Jones with the words `Poetry is revolution.’ On the night when Alan shot the blank Koch fainted and everyone in the audience assumed he was dead and started screaming . Some people threw the leaflet from the balcony into the crowd and then we all left.
Reactions after the event were split between people who thought it was the greatest thing they’d ever heard and those that thought we were a bunch of sophomoric assholes. Which was great because so much of what Black Mask and The Family was about was pushing people to decide “Do I belong with this group of people or this one?” We were determined to be outrageous in order to force people to decide where they stood on things. We wanted to push people, force them to think. “Why shoot Koch? He’s just a nice poet…”
Here is an actual recording of that night. One version of this event has no visual evidence, but has sounds, and is clearly edited; the other version no sound and relies on memory. One claims symbolic victory, the other claims courage under fire. What do you think?
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/features/audioitem/30 (actual webpage)
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/download-file?file=/audio/PoetryFoundation.orgPodcast.04.28.06.mp3 (podcast of the event)
Embarrassment is nothing. The world wants us dead, the political opposition wants us living in fear and poverty, that much is clear. What useful advantage would it be to feel embarrassed in the face of that kind of enemy? To ourselves, we’ll always seem the very best of everything good… (a bit like GenXers thinking they’re better than Boomers… something for next time perhaps)… we will fall short, we’ll look dumb, feel uncomfortable, but it doesn’t mean the end of our personal revolution. There is no way to know what it will start when we’re gone. No point squabbling over it.
There aren’t many hippies any more, and modern-day anarchists are considered more delusional than teenage girls who say they’re feminists.
The dramatically sounding “Up Against the Wall Mother Fucker!” finally splintered and literally disappeared off into the hills on horseback to discover new ways of living, for a few years, or a decade, before returning to whatever was left.
They “failed” by our contemporary consumer standards, because they don’t now occupy the White House and drive Porsches. That wasn’t ever their goal.
The reason our world is the way it is now was contributed to by what the people before us thought and did and lived. Like a hundred-thousand other unknown political groups, their influence is here, now. Their ideas aren’t a rigid design for today, they’re an enduring example of what happens when we do something. Revolution is slow and starts small. In politics, everything happens slowly. It can still be exciting.
Hawkes Bay DHB votes to keep food preperation in-house
Good to see one DHB drawing a red line on the creeping privatisation in our health sector.
TG at least one DHB has seen reason.
Ahead Of Israel Expulsion Vote U.S. Orders Raid On FIFA
May 27, 2015
http://www.moonofalabama.org/
Today the U.S. ordered Swiss police to raid, incarcerate and extradite to the U.S. six FIFA officials for alleged corruption. The raid, with obviously pre-alarmed New York Times reporters on the scene, comes shortly before a FIFA vote to expel Israel from the association.
This Friday the world football association FIFA is meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, for its 65th regular World Congress. One of the votes on the agenda (pdf) is about the “Suspension or expulsion of a member”. There is also an “Update on Israel-Palestine”.
The Palestinian Football Association has called for a vote to suspend Israel from FIFA:
The Palestinian group objects to Israeli teams playing in the West Bank. They also say Israel restricts movements of Palestinian players between the West Bank and Gaza as well as for international matches.
“They keep bullying here and there, and I think they have no right to keep being the bully of the neighborhood,” Palestinian Football Association President Jibril Rajoub said of Israel. “If the Israelis are using the issue of security, I can say that their security concern is mine. I am ready to fix parameters for security concerns, but security should not be used … as a tool in order to keep this racist, apartheid policies.”
He declared the situation in the West Bank far worse than apartheid that existed in South Africa because right-wingers and extremists in Israel want to “delete Palestine.” In the 1960s, FIFA suspended South Africa for decades after it failed to comply with the association’s nondiscrimination policies. The nation was also expelled from FIFA a month after the Soweto Youth Uprising of 1976.
“I am not asking for the suspension of the Israeli association; I am asking to end the suffering of the Palestinian footballers,” Rajoub said. “I am asking to end the grievances, the humiliation we are facing.”
The vote requires a 75% majority of the 209 FIFA members. There was a good chance that it was going to be successful.
But now, just by chance, the U.S. government ordered the Swiss police to raid the hotel where the main FIFA functionaries are residing to arrest some of them on corruption charges going back to the early 1990s. The U.S. wants these to be extradited to face a U.S. court.
Also, just by chance, reporters and photographers of the New York Times happen to be in that very Swiss hotel lobby, at 6 am, to capture the incident live….
Read more….
http://www.moonofalabama.org/
The intersection between NSA, sports and politics. A very interesting article, and it’s hard not to agree with both his summary of human nature and his conslusions.
http://motls.blogspot.co.nz/2015/05/raid-on-fifa-extradition-timing-are.html?m=1
Excerpt:
“Imagine that someone knows about almost every case of corruption in the world, and given NSA’s programs we recently heard about, it is not such a complete fantasy. This “someone” could easily use this information to remove inconvenient people, and keep or install convenient ones, almost everywhere. At least, he could change 10% of the composition of all similar bodies “immediately” and replace additional heads through the officials’ responsibility for their subordinates.
Is it right that the arrests took place two days before the selection of the new FIFA head?
I think that the timing suggests that it’s no coincidence. It surely looks like someone wanted to maximize the impact of the theater. In other words, someone apparently wanted to reduce the chances of Mr Blatter to be reelected. He had some information about the bribery and decided to use it at the optimum time. I don’t have a proof of this motive but you would have to present a rather accurate and complete alternative explanation if you wanted me not to think that this is the most likely explanation of the timing.
It also makes sense to think that the target isn’t necessarily Mr Blatter himself but the decisions that were made under his supervision, like the decision to move the 2022 World Cup to Qatar and especially the 2018 World Cup to Russia. If someone wanted to reverse those decisions, this could be an optimal strategy. No explicit charges related to these future world cups are known at this moment”
Is it possible that this Government is steadily and quietly restricting their exposure to scrutiny? Hidden in the Budget according to Myles Thomas:
“…And in the Budget the Government has tightened the screws further. Just as NZ on Air was making noises about possibly funding more current affairs, the 2015 Budget introduces new targets that require 70 per cent of its prime-time programmes on TVOne, TV2 and TV3 to reach more than 200,000 viewers…..
TV3 – their brand-new show 3D just scraped in over 200,000 viewers last Sunday.
“….Our loss is the Government’s gain – the prevalence of government-friendly hosts and entertainment shows means it’s unlikely any government minister will face a series of awkward questions on prime-time television. Most people would agree that’s not a good thing either….”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11455661
I turned off Kathryn Ryan and nine-to-noon when i heard her interviewing ‘Cunliffe the Horrible’
( not the nice Labour Xian one that got crucified )
….and ‘Cunliffe the Horrible’ was telling nine-to- noon listeners what unhealthy sweet treats Media Works had in store for us New Zealanders
( “PUKE ” I thought …and click went my index finger on the button….and then I got myself a nice cup of tea….”I dont have to listen to that bilge” I thought. Amazing how a click of the button can make you feel good. Sorry Kathryn Ryan because i DO like your programme.)
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11455774
“Would he be at home speaking on a marae, to farmers or to trade unionists, Mr Hague asked, and could the wider population relate to a Wellington-based, metrosexual MP who doesn’t drive?”
Really Kevin?
Instead people would be much more likely to get behind a homosexual, uncharismatic Green leader…
Just thought that was a bit of howler like imagine if James Shaw had said something similar about Kevin Hague
The media would be all over it
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/may/27/corporations-paid-us-senators-fast-track-tpp
From the Gaurdian
“Critics of the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership are unlikely to be silenced by an analysis of the flood of money it took to push the pact over its latest hurdle”
…..
I wonder if New Zealand politicians are also receiving money and bribes by the corporates to fast track the TPPA….against New Zealanders’ wishes and without New Zealand parliamentary democratic agreement
Questions in the House?…Labour?….Greens? …NZF?
Thanks katipo.
Money talked and the people’s representatives caved…
Mind you, in a so-called confidential negotiation where the people cannot know (to preserve negotiating positions), the US had over 400 corporate agents at meetings to negotiate TPP so clearly it wasn’t a need to keep it secret from everyone, just the people.
Dr Mapp tells us that receiving donations doesn’t make any difference to politicians, it doesn’t determine how they vote/work…
http://thestandard.org.nz/nrt-there-is-too-much-money-in-our-politics/#comment-1010727
Perhaps this is a form of evidence that he is wrong. And precisely because he knows he was talking BS when he wrote that he could confidently say that the congress would give Obama the fast-track…. I am sure he will say the money is just a coincidence.
For those who cannot be bothered reading katipo’s link here is some of what it reveals.
“Using data from the Federal Election Commission, this chart shows all donations that corporate members of the US Business Coalition for TPP made to US Senate campaigns between January and March 2015, when fast-tracking the TPP was being debated in the Senate:
Out of the total $1,148,971 given, an average of $17,676.48 was donated to each of the 65 “yea” votes.
The average Republican member received $19,673.28 from corporate TPP supporters.
The average Democrat received $9,689.23 from those same donors.
The amounts given rise dramatically when looking at how much each senator running for re-election received.
Two days before the fast-track vote, Obama was a few votes shy of having the filibuster-proof majority he needed. Ron Wyden and seven other Senate Democrats announced they were on the fence on 12 May, distinguishing themselves from the Senate’s 54 Republicans and handful of Democrats as the votes to sway.
In just 24 hours, Wyden and five of those Democratic holdouts – Michael Bennet of Colorado, Dianne Feinstein of California, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Patty Murray of Washington, and Bill Nelson of Florida – caved and voted for fast-track.
Bennet, Murray, and Wyden – all running for re-election in 2016 – received $105,900 between the three of them. Bennet, who comes from the more purple state of Colorado, got $53,700 in corporate campaign donations between January and March 2015, according to Channing’s research.
Almost 100% of the Republicans in the US Senate voted for fast-track – the only two non-votes on TPA were a Republican from Louisiana and a Republican from Alaska.
Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, who is the former US trade representative, has been one of the loudest proponents of the TPP. He received $119,700 from 14 different corporations between January and March, most of which comes from donations from Goldman Sachs ($70,600), Pfizer ($15,700), and Procter & Gamble ($12,900). Portman is expected to run against former Ohio governor Ted Strickland in 2016 in one of the most politically competitive states in the country.
Seven Republicans who voted “yea” to fast-track and are also running for re-election next year cleaned up between January and March. Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia received $102,500 in corporate contributions. Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, best known for proposing a Monsanto-written bill in 2013 that became known as the Monsanto Protection Act, received $77,900 – $13,500 of which came from Monsanto.
Arizona senator and former presidential candidate John McCain received $51,700 in the first quarter of 2015. Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina received $60,000 in corporate donations. Eighty-one-year-old senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who is running for his seventh Senate term, received $35,000. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, who will be running for his first full six-year term in 2016, received $67,500 from pro-TPP corporations.”
Not even Americans like the TPP…because it is a takeover of Democracy by the corporates
‘TPP agreement will deal mortal blow to democracy in US – Nation magazine chief’
http://rt.com/shows/sophieco/261033-obama-terrorist-threat-war/
…”the big fight over TPP is really about corporate power and who’s going to write the rules about the global game, so to speak…the people who are most outspoken about being against this deal are trade unions and worker’s rights groups and environmentalists – those are the ones, the people who traditionally are on Obama’s side.
President Obama is essentially fighting the core elements of his own party. … This coalition has learned from history, workers have learned on their own backs, communities have died, jobs have gone, factories closed – but others are now standing up and saying: “enough! We want true enforcement mechanisms of labor and environmental protection; we want to know what’s in the agreement.” How is this truly American to have agreements, conceived in secret with private corporate courts overseeing and arbitrating agreements? No, enough!
…TPP means loss of jobs and sinking middle class, extreme inequality…
Where is the NZ Labour Party on leading the charge opposing the TPP …. loud and clear !… and not fence sitting?
This from interest.co.nz today:
“The RBNZ’s latest national breakdown of mortgage lending by borrower type for April showed that of the $5.66 billion loaned on houses, some $1.84 billion (32.5%) was advanced to property investors.”
Almost $2b speculative house purchases in Auckland in April alone. Incredible. No bubble here then.
NB “property investor” doesn’t necessarily mean property speculator. Investors, properly understood, are an important part of the mix in providing long term rental accommodation. Sensible policy should be designed to discourage speculation (eg. capital gains tax) but not long term investment. It would seem the term used by the Reserve Bank encompasses both in this instance so I’m not downplaying the issue.
The media’s sickening Sanders double standard: How the socialist brings out their true colors
It is, as you can guess, a look at the biased reporting of the MSM but this bit stood out:
So, yeah, all these RWNJs complaining that 30% tax is too high are just talking out their arse (as per normal) and history shows that we really do need that higher 90+ percent tax rate to boost growth.
Washington kept tabs on the Scots
‘Secret US files reveal Washington’s interest in Scottish referendum – report’
http://rt.com/news/219827-scottish-referendum-us-interest/
…””The war in Iraq has never been seen as popular, especially in Scotland, and the Scottish Parliament in 2003 voted against British forces going into Iraq,” the classified briefing paper says.
“The conflict in Afghanistan has more support, but that is also waning. Salmond is firmly against the war, and as both MSP and MP he has been quite vocal in his opposition in both Houses,” the paper says, adding that the fourth First Minister of Scotland was also opposed to the UN-sanctioned actions in Kosovo and Iraq, “so his opposition to Iraq and Afghanistan is not surprising.”
Now this is going to be interesting:
What happens when the bankers get put into jail for counterfeiting?
Dita de Boni’s column excellent as usual. This comment from a reader was of interest to me. Wonder if it can be validated?
“At a hui with Blinglish yesterday. He confirmed a few things.
1. We’re officially in a recession – and recovery is dependent on the global economy which is in the toilet!
2. From 2010 onwards, the government borrowed more than $40bn offshore and have spent it all and some and are still borrowing $300m/week
3. The only way to pay for the benefit increase of $25 was to cancel kiwisaver contributions
4. Plan for the future …. make it up as we go! I mean, he said they will manage the country prudently! Haha!”
Must see climate change presentation ? maybe ??
This presentation uses temperature data over three decades ending in 2011 to demonstrate the exponential nature of climate change and shows that climate change is now accelerating in an extremely dangerous way.
https://vimeo.com/128141163
Folks,
This is one of the most clear and startling presentations on climate change that I have ever seen. The graphs presented are sort of intimidating at first, but it is thoroughly explained so even a math/statistics dummy like myself can understand. Run-time is a little over 12 minutes in length.
Hamlet
Alas Babylon co-owner
+100 …very sobering
Reading “The Standard” these days is like looking at a deflated balloon. Once it was full of (hot) air, and could (in hope) rise above the ground. Now, it lies forlorn, unable to escape the force that weighs it down. Kinda like the the Labour Party and the Green movement.
Oh but for the days when hope did flower
Now wilted but the Right’s exalted power
you are not jonkey in a pink tutu are you…or Joyce in sparkley tights?
Why don’t you liven the place up by coming over to open mike and telling us all why this government is so good for the country.
Where the hell is Ben Rachinger?
Not a mention on TDailyBlog…
Not a mention on WhaleFilth…
CAn anyone help??
Daily Blog is still going strong…where have you been?!…under a rug ( whose ponytail are you pulling?)
As for Whaleoil dirty politics filth …it is unsurprisingly quiet now that its source in jonkey nactional has dried up
….and who the hell is Ben Rachiner?
Rachinger was a guy who came forward and said he had done some Dirty Politics stuff and been paid by Whale OIl
thanx for the info…must be a good guy to admit it
@ JeevesPOnzi…..ooops …i see i misunderstood/misread what you said ….sorry
His information was interesting, backed up by some moderately credible evidence, but Ben appeared too erratic to do much with. The chains of evidence weren’t that obvious, but quite intriguing and compelling. Clearly enough to warrant a criminal investigation against Cameron Slater.
When I get some time, I’ll probably lay a complaint myself against that stupid arsehole Cameron Slater for attempting to hire someone to crack into my systems. That way I’d at least get some idea of if the investigation is ongoing.
If the police don’t do something about it, then I’d have to assume that cracking into computers isn’t a criminal offence…. In which case the way that Nicky Hager was turned over by the police gets rather politically messy for the police.
Thanks L
🙂
He’s back on twitter. Use his real name account not the one with the odd characters in it.
weka if you have a e-reader – whilst this is a bit heavy going, still a great book.
https://libcom.org/files/Murray_Bookchin_The_Ecology_of_Freedom_1982.pdf
This is a great resource too
http://dorothyday.catholicworker.org/
Thanks. It’s a bit too long for me at the moment, but have had a read of the various wikipedia pages. Interesing.
What do you mean by anti-green rubbish?