"It's understood there've been moves against the MP at a national and local level, with two other nominations. Ms Wall missed out on promotion when Labour came into power despite securing gay marriage, its only big win in opposition".
"1 NEWS understands a deal has been signed off, moving her higher up the party list, ensuring her return to parliament. Tonight, Labour announced Arena Williams has been selected as the party's candidate for Manurewa. The lawyer and mum-of-two is of Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki, Tūhoe and Ngai Tahu descent." And a lawyer.
Watching the story One News ran last night, I was intrigued to see Matt McCarten appear twice – carefully avoiding any reference to stalinism. Well done, stealth is essential. Dame Marilyn Waring: "She'd better be high enough on the list!"
I imagined the spectre of an elderly sisterhood marching against the Labour Party, banners waving, during the election campaign, may have flickered briefly in the tiny wee minds of the stalinists, before they reassured themselves that no, that couldn't happen.
Linda Clark this morning on RNZ, talking with Richard Harman and Jim Mora: "Helen Clark kept files on all sorts of people." Well, obviously. Stalinism 1.01 😆
the principles of communism associated with Joseph Stalin, characterized especially by the extreme suppression of dissident political or ideological views, the concentration of power in one person, and an aggressive international policy.
The thing the Labour government needs is support for David Parker who is overworked and one of the few competent Ministers they have, and also for Andrew Little who has been pretty ineffectual in the role of Justice, Courts, and Treaty of Waitangi stuff.
The Labour Party needs more lawyers. Mostly that's because law is the core business of Parliament.
Arena Williams brings Auckland networks that the Labour party otherwise doesn't have.
You'll also notice Kris Fa'afoi going onto the list in Mana. That's a majority of over 10,000.
The replacement there is Barbara Edmonds. Barbara is a bona fide legal tax specialist. It's pretty apparent that Deborah Russell hasn't made much policy headway in tax reform at all, so Labour definitely needs help in that department.
So no, it's not a Leninist conspiracy. It's just targeted renewal, in safe seats, to get more of what the Labour Party needs in parliament.
You should expect to see more renewal movement in the next 2 months.
Dr Webb is a pretty high profile lawyer, as are Kiri Allan and Willow-Jean Prime, not to mention the Deputy PM. Assuming all return in 2020, Labour will be very well served. Getting more talent through is very important, but it's not like the current caucus is bereft.
Also, I think Little has been excellent when NZ First has let him.
I accept that premise Ad but wonder if it can't be achieved in a less divisive way. Deborah Russell has been finding her feet this term in government and suspect she's just coming into her own now. Helen Clark had a low profile during her first term in parliament too.
I think it was Keith Holyoake who used to warn incoming newbies to "hold their noses during their first term and learn how parliament operates before jumping into the fray" – words to that effect anyway. Wise advice given the many complexities of parliamentary life.
I'm curious about the underlying reasons for the Louisa Wall affair. On the surface it smacks of a clash between ideological/religious conservatism and a whiff of identity politics in the shape of a strong Maori woman MP who also happens to be gay.
It is said that Louisa does not suffer fools gladly. Helen Clark didn't either but she learnt to manage her 'affliction' as I can personally attest to… when once many years ago I decided to be too clever by half at a local meeting. She put me in my place neatly and without rancour. A lesson well learnt that I never repeated. 😀
Honestly this is the best time to cut out the low performers.
At 55%+ polling Labour in parliament is about to be flooded with a whole phalanx of new MPs.
With that volume of intake you want to ensure there aren't any weak ones; any low performers who aren't achieving much.
And anyone except Labour Ministerial staff would accept that most of the current crop aren't that good. Only insiders would recognise a Labour Minister beyond the top five.
This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to not only invigorate the Labour Party – it's an opportunity to get the talent pipeline so good that National is waiting until 2029 before it even gets a sniff.
On the surface it smacks of a clash between ideological/religious conservatism and a whiff of identity politics in the shape of a strong Maori woman MP who also happens to be gay.
'On the surface' from what little has come out of the Thorndon bubble over recent years it seems to have far more to do with being a team player than which social groupings the person may belong to. Low cabinet ranking also a function of that despite obvious smartness and ability to reach across parties when progressing that signature achievement.
My (third hand) understanding is that she was pushing some identity politics stuff too hard and insulting people simply for holding a different opinion.
That is what I suspected. It's not the first time it has happened in the Labour Party either.
Back in the 1970s and early 1980s there was a small group of women who were overly aggressive with their views. [The meme 'identity politics' was not part of the vocabulary then.] Instead of attracting other women to the cause they actually turned quite a few of them off. I was one of them.
You don't win battles by forcing your views on to other people. You gently persuade them over time.
Edit
The Labour Party needs more pragmatic idealists. Lawyers per se, but they do not necessarily have the sense to go with driving good laws. They normally just work within them. Workers from all levels of society who are thoughtful and practical and care about people and our small business that binds the nation are needed.
So a mix of politician types is needed, provided they can see beyond neolib to the field beyond. They would go to where the grass is actually greener and there is enough for all who are keen enough to walk over and chew their cuds, and take time to talk about getting opportunities and setting limits and bringing the people to education on how we need to live in the 21st century and find value in ourselves and satisfaction as we do work within a thoughtful, kind, sustainable society.
Could Labour manage this? Might take them out of their well-paid comfort zone.
lol – the thing about lawyers and politics is principles. They don't have any. And no – that's not a gratuitous swipe. Many a lawyer will punt for the legal path over the unlawful path, even where the unlawful path is principled and the legal one an arse that might leave you with an uneasy conscience that needs salved to escape or deny a world of regret. Just ask Andrew Little.
The lawyers that have been chosen for these two seats are lawyers of strong principle. You need to look at their work to demonstrate how they apply principle within policy to decisionmaking frameworks.
If you're making a swipe against Minister Little as a lawyer as well as Minister, for being unlawful, you need to back that up.
A very good lawyer does not necessarily a good politician make, Ad. That's my point.
If a lawyer is presented with a situation where they can be correct in law, they will tend to let that outweigh any principled actions that might contravene the law.
Taking a legally correct route in relation to wildcat strikes over health and safety may or may not ring any bells for you.
I haven't seen any informed explanation of what's behind this dispute, but somehow you can confidently put it down to Wall being in conflict with a Stalinist faction within Labour. Is that based on some evidence you've seen and we haven't? Or is it just the Internet having no shortage of blowhards?
Or is it an observer deducing the theoretical possibility on the basis of the behavioural evidence cited? Gosh, so many questions, so little time to explore the answers.
"Wall was a list MP before winning the seat after Labour veteran George Hawkins retired in 2011. She is best known for getting the marriage equality bill passed into law. She also chairs the health select committee and is a former Silver Fern and Black Fern."
"She received high-profile support this week from Dame Marilyn Waring who, writing in the Herald, said Wall was a national and international figure with a major profile. "She is highly regarded by a large number of significant women leaders, by our nation's sporting community, by community activists and by the nation's LGBTIQ community."" https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12335909
"Waring rejected reported comments that Wall was a "polarising" figure in the Labour caucus. "I was subject to the same criticisms," said the former National MP. "Time has a way of showing that critical thinkers on the inside improve a Government's performance, especially when there are weak opposition parties in Parliament." Labour president Claire Szabo will be running the selection meeting."
So you will be dead keen to provide your own explanation of all this, eh? Go for it. Explain why Labour's president felt the necessity to travel to the local selection and take charge of their process. Then explain why stalinists never do total control (so that proves she ain't stalinist).
Did you give it an actual go and fail to select the text that's the quote and then click the button with the quote marks (it's centre right, between the smiley face and the Source button)? Or is it all just a bit too much of a new tricks/old dog situation?
Not ruling out the latter possibility totally, but I actually forgot. I'm doing concreting concurrently, so I come & scan comments in between stints of that.
I did make the decision to change, and will enact that. Maybe not today tho. And to the other couple of commentors above, I call it as I see it. I did cite the evidence that made me see it that way.
Are you trying to suggest that subjective impressions aren't valid in political commentary? Better have a go at Andre, then, whose technicolour impressions of Trump often colour the scenery here. But no, I bet you aren't serious or consistent in your judgments. Just doing knee-jerk stuff, brain disengaged.
I'm trying to suggest the readability of what you contribute would be improved by making it clearer what content is yours and what is quoted from elsewhere. With improved readability there is likely to be improved understanding and engagement and less sniping snark.
When it comes to the situation in Manurewa with Louisa Wall and the broader Labour party, I have no particular information or insight or experience that might make my reckons have any value. Nor have I any stake in the outcome. So on that topic, any comment I might make would be just random internet noise, which I don't really want to add to.
Yeah, all good. Just to clarify to you & Sacha, owning personal impressions is a good point but evidence cited in support of a theory is something else again. It's a valuable political lesson when indicating a dark side. Just as comments here keep stressing how Trump's banalities indicate a dark side.
History has shown us that the dark side of the left is more of a threat to the people than the dark side of the right. Last time we addressed this point I proved it by citing how all four of the greatest political mass-murderers in the 20th century originated in leftist political organisations. Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.
You do not like the left. We get that. Sadly it means you reach for Stalin or Idi Amin at the slightest sign of unease. Perhaps you would be happier somewhere like Kiwibog?
At this point I usually remind folks that I share leftist values, ideals, aspirations. You may recall some of those instances. I'm motivated to help raise consciousness around the typical ways leftists defeat themselves. I believe doing so enhances the common good. If they were to figure it out by themselves, I wouldn't have to.
Re Kiwibog, the miasma produced by the political ecology there always seems too lame, toxic often, distasteful otherwise. Rightists ought to be able to do better but never seem to even try…
Last time we addressed this point I proved it by citing how all four of the greatest political mass-murderers in the 20th century originated in leftist political organisations.
Indeed. How do you know when a political philosophy has gone too far?
It is a question of boundaries, and on this the right we understand that racial superiority and fascism put a player out of bounds. On the left it seems the more radical and disruptive the idea, the more virtuously it's treated; which makes the left very unlikeable at times.
Didn't quite follow that, can you try a rephrasing of the point. Trust seems to be the achilles heel in leftist political orgs (back-stabbing) but the chaos in National currently suggests it may be rife with factionalism too. In the USA the right seems to have become likewise riven with factions in recent years.
In the old days factions were identified via ideology. Not easy to do that nowadays. If political psychologists weren't useless an explanation deriving from depth psychology would be available.
Gadaffi saying he was going to "hunt terrorists house to house " prompted the UN no fly zone in Libya that culminated in the barbaric hunting and killing of Gadaffi "We came, we saw , he died" And the nation destroying chaos that is now Libya.That was Obama/Clinton
Now we have Trump
"US President Donald Trump on Saturday claimed that many Secret Service agents were "just waiting for action'' and ready to unleash "the most vicious dogs, and the most ominous weapons, I have ever seen"
Four experts say now is the time to usher in systemic economic change.
Leftist & rightist mainstreamers: no way! Over our dead bodies!
Yeah, probably.
One prominent policy blueprint with a deep time horizon is the European Commission’s European Green Deal, which offers several ways to support the communities and businesses most at risk from the current crisis.
COVID-19 reflects a broader trend: more planetary crises are coming. If we muddle through each new crisis while maintaining the same economic model that got us here, future shocks will eventually exceed the capacity of governments, financial institutions, and corporate crisis managers to respond. Indeed, the “coronacrisis” has already done so.
Stating the obvious doesn't work with mainstreamers. They know they've got the numbers to make denial and resistance effective.
The Club of Rome issued a similar warning in its famous 1972 report, The Limits to Growth, and again in Beyond the Limits, a 1992 book by the lead author of that earlier report, Donella Meadows. As Meadows warned back then, humanity’s future will be defined not by a single emergency but by many separate yet related crises stemming from our failure to live sustainably. By using the Earth’s resources faster than they can be restored, and by releasing wastes and pollutants faster than they can be absorbed, we have long been setting ourselves up for disaster.
Mainstreamers: Look, we've been rolling our eyes at this stuff for half a century. Who cares about future generations? Only the Greens, and they don't matter.
Rather than simply reacting to disasters, we can use the science to design economies that will mitigate the threats of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pandemics. We must start investing in what matters, by laying the foundation for a green, circular economy that is anchored in nature-based solutions and geared toward the public good.
Yeah, way to go. Ignore the political left & right. They're determined to remain clueless forever.
Dennis, I hope you don't mind but I reformatted your comment. I find how you format comments now makes it hard to read and understand what you are saying, so I wanted to see if separating out your words from the quotes made a difference.
Okay, I'll have a go at that. Looks like it introduces more space around the quotes and I can see how it could seem more easy to read to some. I'm habituated to traditional denser text formatting & probably need to get over it.
When I first started reading leftist writing it was the late 1960s. I couldn't believe how long their paragraphs were! Eyes glazing over before I got even half-way and I'd been reading constantly all my life so was adept and routinely scored above 95% in English exams. No wonder they never got traction with the masses…
That's interesting. No, I don't mind that alteration, and am sympathetic to the problem you encounter. My style recycles traditional print format, and dates from the '80s – I agree new tech requires communication styles to evolve. I will take this advice on board. Will see if I can adopt that new style.
future shocks will eventually exceed the capacity of governments, financial institutions, and corporate crisis managers to respond.
That's taken as a read. But what is their collective responsive capabilities when we're talking about the end of capitalism (which any non-growth economic model entails)?
Corporations + government + financial institutions fighting for their existence as entities (ie, the people who benefit from their existence fighting) versus a largely dis-empowered populace in the path of those future shocks becoming increasingly distracted by just trying to stay alive …
They hang on for the first few rounds, and the odds move in their favour….until climate wipes them out alongside the rest of us.
I frequently disagree with Frank on things, but think gratitude is in order that we have people who will put up arguments whether we agree with them or not. Otherwise it's an echo chamber, and potentially a boring one.
I disagree with Bob most of the time but I like how he has arguments plural, not just the same one over and over (to which a therapist might be a better answer). Worst kind of echo chamber.
Me too, on a functional relevance basis. Often significant stuff emerges during the course of the day. Working commentators can't be expected to comment until after the evening meal.
The other functional point is that threads on open mike meander and new stuff gets lost to the attention of many readers once there's an abundance. Issues can therefore get a fresh start on the later platform.
No, a few more people have commented on its demise.
What I liked about it is the opportunity to refresh the discussions at the end of the day or comment on a development that has come out of maybe the 6pm news. Add to that some of us don't always get the time to indulge at length during the day. Even retirees have other things to do.
How about a rule that if you have commented on Open Mike after noon you are not allowed to bless Daily Review with your reckons? Might encourage fresh voices.
Just scheduled a Post for tomorrow. Not my best ever, but I was long overdue for one. I’ve got too many half-finished ones and then I lose interest or they get overtaken by developments or events.
I totally understand, looking at my list of unfinished posts 😳 I'm trying to teach myself to put the posts up even if I am not completely satisfied with them.
reflecting on that a bit more. I started writing posts after covid hit and then not posting them because it was harder to tell in those early days what was useful or even ok to write*. Now it's more like yes I could say these things but is this what I really want to be saying? Do people want to be reading? What are we even doing? lol. I'm sure the election will sharpen my focus again.
Covid was and still is hugely confusing and scary. I had many things on my mind but decided to stick closely to the facts and the science that was rapidly evolving. As soon as economics and politics became involved – they always go hand-in-hand – the story became murkier and harder to follow and comment on.
BLM is too emotionally charged to have a sensible conversation about on this blog IMHO. Whatever I’d say, it would not make one iota of difference to what’s happening and likely to be taken the wrong way as Taika Waititi has found out.
John Wight has written an excellent article about the murder of George Floyd and the recurrent theme of racism in U.S history.
Born out of genocide, raised through slavery, the U.S. is an imperialist rogue state.
'Chauvin with his knee on the neck of a supine George Floyd was the acme of the evil of white supremacy. He was the overseer with his knee on the neck of a runaway slave. He was the the slaveowner’s whip, the lynch mob’s noose, the prison guard’s boot. In other words, Chauvin symbolised in those eight minutes the entire legacy and long history of racial oppression in country that was born in genocide and developed and nourished for two centuries on the back of the African slave trade."
Not a betting man (and I know it doesn’t portend anything) but occasionally I check the markets for the odds on our election.
They’ve all pretty much blown out for Labour in the week since Muller took over.
In the UK William Hill is paying 1/7 for Labour to form government after the election versus 9/2 for National.
In Australia, Sportsbet has Labour at 1.14 versus the Nats at 5.50. Going into Covid the odds were pretty even. They have opened a second market on the likelihood of Labour to govern in its own right (with no support partners regardless of whether they’re needed or not) currently paying 1.50 for Labour to NOT form government in its own right versus 2.25 for them to do so.
Seems like the alt-right and white supremacists are seizing on a gifted opportunity to create trouble and further division in a troubled country.
“Let’s be very clear, the situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd,” he added.
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said most of the arrests made last night were of people from out of state and while “there’s a group of folks that are sad and mourning,” he said “there seems to be another group that are using Mr. Floyd’s death as a cover to create havoc.”
Department of Safety Commissioner John Harrington said they are contact-tracing the arrested and added that an investigation is underway about white nationalist groups posting online to encourage their members to use the protests as a cover to create chaos.
He said some of the 40 arrests made in the Twin Cities Friday night were of people linked to white supremacist groups and organized crime.
“The people that are doing this are not Minneapolis residents,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said. “They are coming largely from outside the city outside the region to prey on everything we have built.”
I think if you threw a stone in any crowd you'd hit another faction, there's even people with bows and arrows ffs. And the leader tweets while the place burns.
From the Fox News politics front page (scan down) – runs as a news clip without it's own page. The presenter interviews a legal adviser to explore the viability of Trump's attempt.
He flags a likely constitutional issue (separation of powers) in respect of the question of whether the exec order is in breach of the act of congress he is attempting to get around.
He ends by saying Twitter needs to decide what it will do when it grows up. After alerting us to media policy inconsistency by Twitter (owner/managers) and citing examples to validate his reasoning.
So in a time of very challenging employment uncertainty the National Party wants the government to bring back the 90 day fire-at-will laws for medium and large employers. They want to increase uncertainty for stressed out NZ workers? Just who is advising these losers?
ACT wants a 12 month trial period and 3 year minumum wage freeze..
If these clowns had their way, we would have the US system of at will employment where you could be just sacked at any time for any reason, and that if you turned up at work and found your password didnt work, that meant you were sacked.
COVID has provided the once in a life time opputunity for employers and businesses to slash their wage bill by 20%.
a) The 90 day trial period is still there for employers with 19 or less people, as Labour didn't fulfill their promise to get rid of it.
b) Do you mind posting some stats on how many of your claimed workers were "fired at will" and how many got work they would have otherwise not got due to risk to the employer of them being crap without it?
As always, the onus on satisfactorily employing staff lies on the employer doing their due diligence during and after the interviewing process. If they fuck up, tough, they had their chance.
Having said that, I'm okay with a trial period, though not three months, more like a couple of weeks at most. Any employer that needs, or waits, until day 89 to find out it hasn't worked out is a bit of a wanker.
Background of the new police commissioner. Interesting interview in which his faith is mentioned numerous times but we don't find out exactly what it is based on. This and other articles have also outlined his career trajectory. While his background and education are nothing particularly unusual at some point he seems to have entered a career path that even the most competent could only dream about. Was he being groomed as a future commissioner and if so by whom ? Can’t quite put my finger on it but there is something that feels not quite comfortable?
by a group called "50 shades of green". This included signs calling the government "c***s", the "make Ardern go away" placards, MAGA caps, and suchlike.
It's a mixture of self-pity, whataboutery and special pleading, with the actual argument very difficult to discern. He seems like an excellent fit with National's existing caucus, in other words.
I know we are generally supposed to be opposed to private spaceflight, SpaceX and Elon Musk, but this was pretty impressive, and good to see something positive happen for a change.
Jeez, got cops driving into people, there's footage of some shop owner being beaten to death by mob, batman, it's a real mess. I watched the doco LA92 a few months back but this is a whole new level of cray cray.
Gripped by disease, unemployment and outrage at the police, America plunges into crisis
[…]
“The threads of our civic life could start unraveling, because everybody’s living in a tinderbox,” said historian and Rice University professor Douglas Brinkley.
Barbara Ransby, a historian at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a longtime political activist, said the toll of the coronavirus outbreak made long-standing racial inequities newly stark. Then, images of police violence made those same disparities visceral.
There are always tensions. There have always been upset people and violence has happened.
The emotional state of the country is in an unusual place with the pandemic. The many media platforms means everyone has access to attitude forming material. Something dramatic happens and what you rely on is rationality, resilience, respect and trust in systems and leadership.
There has been burning in the streets over a couple of days. Over a couple of years there have been fires burning rationality, respect and trust. Welcome to Trump's America.
"When the law not merely fails to guarantee the safety of life and property, but directly threatens both, the subject is absolved from obedience to it, and civil society collapses."(Paul Johnson: "The Offshore Islanders", 1972)
He was writing about the causes of the misleadingly-termed Great Rebellion which led to the English Civil War of the 1640s. But the sentiment is relevant in any age or society. By all means do what's necessary to curb out-of-town looters seizing chances for mayhem. That most emphatically does not include charging down a peaceful residential street loosing off missiles at people on their own properties going about their lawful occasions. State-supported terrorism doesn't altogether too strong a term for this appalling behaviour.
Isn’t it interesting how our woke media criticism the Nats supposed lack of diversity on it’s front bench but not the Greens lack of gender diversity? In their Party List there is one male and seven females.Would the woke media be criticising a front bench of seven men and one women?
Standing for being an MP would be attractive to more men if there was more power attached to the job.
Our current Prime Minister is building the Labour Party list with young and talented women. Over three terms there's just a chance they will collectively get to redefine how power is exercised in Parliament full stop.
Three men in the top ten, ten in the top twenty. Want to know how long we had the reverse or less? Yeah, when the balance of power in society has been redressed the Greens can revisit their gender equity policy.
Meh. They are all capable and won their selection on merit. Wake me up to care about it when men are under-represented overall in positions of power and capable male candidates are routinely shoved aside to make room for time-serving female drones.
You are trolling and posted the same ‘query’ over at KB today. The answer was provided and to be more precise, it was answered in great detail by Graeme Edgeler on KB on 16 April. Something tells me that you do not care and do not have the slightest interest in the answer/explanation. It is a sure sign of you being a stupid little troll. You can prove me wrong, of course, but I won’t hold my breath.
‘This is how we feel every day’ – protester compares violence in LA to racial inequality in society
“This is what it’s like to walk down the streets. It’s chaos. I’m afraid every time a police officer drives past me.”
I was a fairly surprised this evening to hear my 78yr old dad defending the protesters going nuts on the street. In his view it was because the same people were being treated the same way for multiple decades, it wasn't getting better, and they've had enough.
That's not usual for my dad who is usually a NZFirst voter.
Your dad is 4 years my senior, but I think a lot of us septuagenarians would share a similar viewpoint. We grew up with the powerful film "To Kill a Mockingbird" and read the book. We saw and read "Black Like Me" the true story of John Howard Griffin who darkened his skin and travelled through the segregated US south. And many more. We saw the tyranny of the KKK and similar groups. Lived through the 60's and witnessed, via television and radio, the civil rights movement and heard Martin Luther King and probably sang "We shall overcome". And saw the slow dismantling of segregation in the south.
On the 28 August 1963 Martin Luther King in his famous "I have a Dream" speech said'
We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
These last few days have laid bare that we are a nation furious at injustice. Every person of conscience can understand the rawness of the trauma people of color experience in this country, from the daily indignities to the extreme violence, like the horrific killing of George Floyd.
Protesting such brutality is right and necessary. It’s an utterly American response. But burning down communities and needless destruction is not. Violence that endangers lives is not. Violence that guts and shutters businesses that serve the community is not.
The act of protesting should never be allowed to overshadow the reason we protest. It should not drive people away from the just cause that protest is meant to advance.
I know that there are people all across this country who are suffering tonight. Suffering the loss of a loved one to intolerable circumstances, like the Floyd family, or to the virus that is still gripping our nation. Suffering economic hardships, whether due to COVID-19 or entrenched inequalities in our system. And I know that a grief that dark and deep may at times feel too heavy to bear.
I know.
And I also know that the only way to bear it is to turn all that anguish to purpose. So tonight, I ask all of America to join me — not in denying our pain or covering it over — but using it to compel our nation across this turbulent threshold into the next phase of progress, inclusion, and opportunity for our great democracy.
We are a nation in pain, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us. We are a nation enraged, but we cannot allow our rage to consume us. We are a nation exhausted, but we will not allow our exhaustion to defeat us.
As President, I will help lead this conversation — and more importantly, I will listen. I will keep the commitment I made to George’s brother, Philonise, that George will not just be a hashtag. We must and will get to a place where everyone, regardless of race, believes that “to protect and serve” means to protect and serve them. Only by standing together will we rise stronger than before. More equal, more just, more hopeful — and that much closer to our more perfect union.
How the police endanger us and why we need to find an alternative
Alex S. Vitale The End of Policing (Verso, 2017)
Recent years have seen an explosion of protest against police brutality and repression—most dramatically in Ferguson, Missouri, where longheld grievances erupted in violent demonstrations following the police killing of Michael Brown. Among activists, journalists, and politicians, the conversation about how to respond and improve policing has focused on accountability, diversity, training, and community relations. Unfortunately, these reforms will not produce results, either alone or in combination. The core of the problem must be addressed: the nature of modern policing itself. “Broken windows” practices, the militarization of law enforcement, and the dramatic expansion of the police’s role over the last forty years have created a mandate for officers that must be rolled back.
This book attempts to spark public discussion by revealing the tainted origins of modern policing as a tool of social control. It shows how the expansion of police authority is inconsistent with community empowerment, social justice—even public safety. Drawing on groundbreaking research from across the world, and covering virtually every area in the increasingly broad range of police work, Alex Vitale demonstrates how law enforcement has come to exacerbate the very problems it is supposed to solve.
In contrast, there are places where the robust implementation of policing alternatives—such as legalization, restorative justice, and harm reduction—has led to reductions in crime, spending, and injustice. The best solution to bad policing may be an end to policing.
Reviews
“The End of Policing combines the best in academic research with rhetorical urgency to explain why the ordinary array of police reforms will be ineffective in reducing abusive policing. Alex Vitale shows that we must move beyond conceptualizing public safety as interdiction, exclusion, and arrest if we hope to achieve racial and economic justice.”
– Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Professor, CUNY Graduate Center, Co-Founder of Critical Resistance, author of Golden Gulag
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
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The saga of Louisa Wall vs the Labour stalinist faction: "After nine years as the MP, Ms Wall has thrown in the towel over what's been called a "vicious" in-house fight for her seat." https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/louisa-wall-has-list-seat-deal-see-her-return-parliament-despite-bowing-labour-s-manurewa-candidate-race
"It's understood there've been moves against the MP at a national and local level, with two other nominations. Ms Wall missed out on promotion when Labour came into power despite securing gay marriage, its only big win in opposition".
"1 NEWS understands a deal has been signed off, moving her higher up the party list, ensuring her return to parliament. Tonight, Labour announced Arena Williams has been selected as the party's candidate for Manurewa. The lawyer and mum-of-two is of Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki, Tūhoe and Ngai Tahu descent." And a lawyer.
Watching the story One News ran last night, I was intrigued to see Matt McCarten appear twice – carefully avoiding any reference to stalinism. Well done, stealth is essential. Dame Marilyn Waring: "She'd better be high enough on the list!"
I imagined the spectre of an elderly sisterhood marching against the Labour Party, banners waving, during the election campaign, may have flickered briefly in the tiny wee minds of the stalinists, before they reassured themselves that no, that couldn't happen.
Linda Clark this morning on RNZ, talking with Richard Harman and Jim Mora: "Helen Clark kept files on all sorts of people." Well, obviously. Stalinism 1.01 😆
Stalinism
[ stah-luh-niz-uh m ]SHOW IPA
noun
the principles of communism associated with Joseph Stalin, characterized especially by the extreme suppression of dissident political or ideological views, the concentration of power in one person, and an aggressive international policy.
Yeah right /cue Tui advert
But doesn't Wall herself go to the extremes at times? She could be being hoist on her own petard!
Louisa Wall has been prominent in her support for marriage equality and transgender rights. Are those the "extremes" to which you refer?? Do tell…
The thing the Labour government needs is support for David Parker who is overworked and one of the few competent Ministers they have, and also for Andrew Little who has been pretty ineffectual in the role of Justice, Courts, and Treaty of Waitangi stuff.
The Labour Party needs more lawyers. Mostly that's because law is the core business of Parliament.
Arena Williams brings Auckland networks that the Labour party otherwise doesn't have.
You'll also notice Kris Fa'afoi going onto the list in Mana. That's a majority of over 10,000.
The replacement there is Barbara Edmonds. Barbara is a bona fide legal tax specialist. It's pretty apparent that Deborah Russell hasn't made much policy headway in tax reform at all, so Labour definitely needs help in that department.
So no, it's not a Leninist conspiracy. It's just targeted renewal, in safe seats, to get more of what the Labour Party needs in parliament.
You should expect to see more renewal movement in the next 2 months.
that makes more sense. Doesn't explain why there was conflict, but does show up the TVNZ piece as useless.
Dr Webb is a pretty high profile lawyer, as are Kiri Allan and Willow-Jean Prime, not to mention the Deputy PM. Assuming all return in 2020, Labour will be very well served. Getting more talent through is very important, but it's not like the current caucus is bereft.
Also, I think Little has been excellent when NZ First has let him.
I accept that premise Ad but wonder if it can't be achieved in a less divisive way. Deborah Russell has been finding her feet this term in government and suspect she's just coming into her own now. Helen Clark had a low profile during her first term in parliament too.
I think it was Keith Holyoake who used to warn incoming newbies to "hold their noses during their first term and learn how parliament operates before jumping into the fray" – words to that effect anyway. Wise advice given the many complexities of parliamentary life.
I'm curious about the underlying reasons for the Louisa Wall affair. On the surface it smacks of a clash between ideological/religious conservatism and a whiff of identity politics in the shape of a strong Maori woman MP who also happens to be gay.
It is said that Louisa does not suffer fools gladly. Helen Clark didn't either but she learnt to manage her 'affliction' as I can personally attest to… when once many years ago I decided to be too clever by half at a local meeting. She put me in my place neatly and without rancour. A lesson well learnt that I never repeated. 😀
Oops… Holyoake's comment was "breathe through your noses".
Okay. Some might say the former is more appropriate but………
Honestly this is the best time to cut out the low performers.
At 55%+ polling Labour in parliament is about to be flooded with a whole phalanx of new MPs.
With that volume of intake you want to ensure there aren't any weak ones; any low performers who aren't achieving much.
And anyone except Labour Ministerial staff would accept that most of the current crop aren't that good. Only insiders would recognise a Labour Minister beyond the top five.
This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to not only invigorate the Labour Party – it's an opportunity to get the talent pipeline so good that National is waiting until 2029 before it even gets a sniff.
We are going to tilt this country for good.
'On the surface' from what little has come out of the Thorndon bubble over recent years it seems to have far more to do with being a team player than which social groupings the person may belong to. Low cabinet ranking also a function of that despite obvious smartness and ability to reach across parties when progressing that signature achievement.
My (third hand) understanding is that she was pushing some identity politics stuff too hard and insulting people simply for holding a different opinion.
That is what I suspected. It's not the first time it has happened in the Labour Party either.
Back in the 1970s and early 1980s there was a small group of women who were overly aggressive with their views. [The meme 'identity politics' was not part of the vocabulary then.] Instead of attracting other women to the cause they actually turned quite a few of them off. I was one of them.
You don't win battles by forcing your views on to other people. You gently persuade them over time.
Edit
The Labour Party needs more pragmatic idealists. Lawyers per se, but they do not necessarily have the sense to go with driving good laws. They normally just work within them. Workers from all levels of society who are thoughtful and practical and care about people and our small business that binds the nation are needed.
So a mix of politician types is needed, provided they can see beyond neolib to the field beyond. They would go to where the grass is actually greener and there is enough for all who are keen enough to walk over and chew their cuds, and take time to talk about getting opportunities and setting limits and bringing the people to education on how we need to live in the 21st century and find value in ourselves and satisfaction as we do work within a thoughtful, kind, sustainable society.
Could Labour manage this? Might take them out of their well-paid comfort zone.
lol – the thing about lawyers and politics is principles. They don't have any. And no – that's not a gratuitous swipe. Many a lawyer will punt for the legal path over the unlawful path, even where the unlawful path is principled and the legal one an arse that might leave you with an uneasy conscience that needs salved to escape or deny a world of regret. Just ask Andrew Little.
The lawyers that have been chosen for these two seats are lawyers of strong principle. You need to look at their work to demonstrate how they apply principle within policy to decisionmaking frameworks.
If you're making a swipe against Minister Little as a lawyer as well as Minister, for being unlawful, you need to back that up.
A very good lawyer does not necessarily a good politician make, Ad. That's my point.
If a lawyer is presented with a situation where they can be correct in law, they will tend to let that outweigh any principled actions that might contravene the law.
Taking a legally correct route in relation to wildcat strikes over health and safety may or may not ring any bells for you.
Yes agree with that.
…Louisa Wall vs the Labour stalinist faction:
I haven't seen any informed explanation of what's behind this dispute, but somehow you can confidently put it down to Wall being in conflict with a Stalinist faction within Labour. Is that based on some evidence you've seen and we haven't? Or is it just the Internet having no shortage of blowhards?
Or is it an observer deducing the theoretical possibility on the basis of the behavioural evidence cited? Gosh, so many questions, so little time to explore the answers.
"Wall was a list MP before winning the seat after Labour veteran George Hawkins retired in 2011. She is best known for getting the marriage equality bill passed into law. She also chairs the health select committee and is a former Silver Fern and Black Fern."
"She received high-profile support this week from Dame Marilyn Waring who, writing in the Herald, said Wall was a national and international figure with a major profile. "She is highly regarded by a large number of significant women leaders, by our nation's sporting community, by community activists and by the nation's LGBTIQ community."" https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12335909
"Waring rejected reported comments that Wall was a "polarising" figure in the Labour caucus. "I was subject to the same criticisms," said the former National MP. "Time has a way of showing that critical thinkers on the inside improve a Government's performance, especially when there are weak opposition parties in Parliament." Labour president Claire Szabo will be running the selection meeting."
So you will be dead keen to provide your own explanation of all this, eh? Go for it. Explain why Labour's president felt the necessity to travel to the local selection and take charge of their process. Then explain why stalinists never do total control (so that proves she ain't stalinist).
Is that based on some evidence you've seen and we haven't?
So that's a "No" then. Could have saved yourself a few paras.
Why use a few well chosen words when you can bore for England?
Or is it an observer deducing the theoretical possibility on the basis of the behavioural evidence cited?
No, it's clearly not that, as it was asserted as fact, not offered as a theoretical possibility. "Behavioural evidence" was also lacking.
So you will be dead keen to provide your own explanation of all this, eh?
Er, no, I won't. Not without some evidence to base an explanation on. That's my point.
Okay, I'll have a go at that. 3.2.1.2 at 11:42 am
Did you give it an actual go and fail to select the text that's the quote and then click the button with the quote marks (it's centre right, between the smiley face and the Source button)? Or is it all just a bit too much of a new tricks/old dog situation?
Not ruling out the latter possibility totally, but I actually forgot. I'm doing concreting concurrently, so I come & scan comments in between stints of that.
I did make the decision to change, and will enact that. Maybe not today tho. And to the other couple of commentors above, I call it as I see it. I did cite the evidence that made me see it that way.
Are you trying to suggest that subjective impressions aren't valid in political commentary? Better have a go at Andre, then, whose technicolour impressions of Trump often colour the scenery here. But no, I bet you aren't serious or consistent in your judgments. Just doing knee-jerk stuff, brain disengaged.
Best to own your subjective impressions as what they are rather than dress them up as 'evidence'. Nothing wrong with "I believe".
I'm trying to suggest the readability of what you contribute would be improved by making it clearer what content is yours and what is quoted from elsewhere. With improved readability there is likely to be improved understanding and engagement and less sniping snark.
When it comes to the situation in Manurewa with Louisa Wall and the broader Labour party, I have no particular information or insight or experience that might make my reckons have any value. Nor have I any stake in the outcome. So on that topic, any comment I might make would be just random internet noise, which I don't really want to add to.
Yeah, all good. Just to clarify to you & Sacha, owning personal impressions is a good point but evidence cited in support of a theory is something else again. It's a valuable political lesson when indicating a dark side. Just as comments here keep stressing how Trump's banalities indicate a dark side.
History has shown us that the dark side of the left is more of a threat to the people than the dark side of the right. Last time we addressed this point I proved it by citing how all four of the greatest political mass-murderers in the 20th century originated in leftist political organisations. Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.
You do not like the left. We get that. Sadly it means you reach for Stalin or Idi Amin at the slightest sign of unease. Perhaps you would be happier somewhere like Kiwibog?
At this point I usually remind folks that I share leftist values, ideals, aspirations. You may recall some of those instances. I'm motivated to help raise consciousness around the typical ways leftists defeat themselves. I believe doing so enhances the common good. If they were to figure it out by themselves, I wouldn't have to.
Re Kiwibog, the miasma produced by the political ecology there always seems too lame, toxic often, distasteful otherwise. Rightists ought to be able to do better but never seem to even try…
Last time we addressed this point I proved it by citing how all four of the greatest political mass-murderers in the 20th century originated in leftist political organisations.
Indeed. How do you know when a political philosophy has gone too far?
It is a question of boundaries, and on this the right we understand that racial superiority and fascism put a player out of bounds. On the left it seems the more radical and disruptive the idea, the more virtuously it's treated; which makes the left very unlikeable at times.
Didn't quite follow that, can you try a rephrasing of the point. Trust seems to be the achilles heel in leftist political orgs (back-stabbing) but the chaos in National currently suggests it may be rife with factionalism too. In the USA the right seems to have become likewise riven with factions in recent years.
In the old days factions were identified via ideology. Not easy to do that nowadays. If political psychologists weren't useless an explanation deriving from depth psychology would be available.
Hitler. Leftish?
Gadaffi saying he was going to "hunt terrorists house to house " prompted the UN no fly zone in Libya that culminated in the barbaric hunting and killing of Gadaffi "We came, we saw , he died" And the nation destroying chaos that is now Libya.That was Obama/Clinton
Now we have Trump
"US President Donald Trump on Saturday claimed that many Secret Service agents were "just waiting for action'' and ready to unleash "the most vicious dogs, and the most ominous weapons, I have ever seen"
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/300024659/trump-threatens-to-set-vicious-dogs-on-george-floyd-protesters-at-white-house
Time for the UN Security Council to be involved? Or the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) to be invoked?
In a parallel universe Xi says "Trump must go "
And promises arms and funding to freedom fighters in Minneapolis
"I stand with the American people "says Putin
Ominous weapons????
Is Trump going to nuke them????
Or maybe twitter them!!!
Maybe he's planning to get his Space Farce team onto it and deploy their new Super Duper Missile on them.
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/trumps-super-fast-and-super-duper-missile-confusion-2020-5?r=US&IR=T
Nice Andre
I like this quote from that article—
"Trump is well known for serving up nonsensical word salads, and this was no exception,” Reif said."
Or maybe the ominous weapon is Covid!!!
Don't underestimate what Trump is building in receptive minds, and look at him as a sideshow obscuring the action behind the theatre curtain.
Easy to forget this is the employed clown not the circus owners.
People are so easily distracted by the big red
hatnose.Leftist & rightist mainstreamers: no way! Over our dead bodies!
Yeah, probably.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/a-green-reboot-after-the-pandemic/
Stating the obvious doesn't work with mainstreamers. They know they've got the numbers to make denial and resistance effective.
Mainstreamers: Look, we've been rolling our eyes at this stuff for half a century. Who cares about future generations? Only the Greens, and they don't matter.
Yeah, way to go. Ignore the political left & right. They're determined to remain clueless forever.
4.9% / 5.1%
That reboot better start looking attractive.
Labourites starting to get nervous 😉
🙂 🙂 🙂
Dennis, I hope you don't mind but I reformatted your comment. I find how you format comments now makes it hard to read and understand what you are saying, so I wanted to see if separating out your words from the quotes made a difference.
Works way better for me, thanks.
Dennis, there is a button with quote marks on the editor toolbar when you are assembling your comments. Please use it.
oh good. Made a big difference to me too.
Okay, I'll have a go at that. Looks like it introduces more space around the quotes and I can see how it could seem more easy to read to some. I'm habituated to traditional denser text formatting & probably need to get over it.
When I first started reading leftist writing it was the late 1960s. I couldn't believe how long their paragraphs were! Eyes glazing over before I got even half-way and I'd been reading constantly all my life so was adept and routinely scored above 95% in English exams. No wonder they never got traction with the masses…
Thank you. Comprehension on screen is lower than in print without extra spacing.
That's interesting. No, I don't mind that alteration, and am sympathetic to the problem you encounter. My style recycles traditional print format, and dates from the '80s – I agree new tech requires communication styles to evolve. I will take this advice on board. Will see if I can adopt that new style.
Thanks Dennis. I found it much easier to get the nuance in what you were saying once I could easily separate the quotes from your own words.
I've started writing a post in response 🙂
future shocks will eventually exceed the capacity of governments, financial institutions, and corporate crisis managers to respond.
That's taken as a read. But what is their collective responsive capabilities when we're talking about the end of capitalism (which any non-growth economic model entails)?
Corporations + government + financial institutions fighting for their existence as entities (ie, the people who benefit from their existence fighting) versus a largely dis-empowered populace in the path of those future shocks becoming increasingly distracted by just trying to stay alive …
They hang on for the first few rounds, and the odds move in their favour….until climate wipes them out alongside the rest of us.
Lotsa fuckery going on.
https://twitter.com/JoyAnnReid/status/1266741059163389952
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1266741059163389952.html
https://twitter.com/Freeyourmindkid/status/1266598693647638528
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1266598693647638528.html
edit:
https://twitter.com/whartonrigby/status/1266200742727016449
That footage of the guy in black wearing a gas mask calmly smashing windows was very chilling, night of broken crystal indeed.
COINTELPRO.
The boot fits.
https://twitter.com/Cooperstreaming/status/1266734581538893826
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-economy-crashing-quote/
https://twitter.com/AthenaCloud/status/1266732638372593665
https://www.facebook.com/bobby.headbird/videos/10104359133179255/?d=n
How about starting the open mikes at a random time each day (maybe 8am pm 60mins) so that different people get to be the first poster?
Nah, it's fine the way it is. I've programmed the autoscroll to kick in if there's a green avatar at the top.
+100 scroll
Truth hurts. Best to avoid both. 😎
I just scroll past all posts by Dennis Frank …too long…usually irrelevant or a distraction from the real issues. Very close to trolling.
No you don't. You often respond, and agree more than disagree. Be honest!
I frequently disagree with Frank on things, but think gratitude is in order that we have people who will put up arguments whether we agree with them or not. Otherwise it's an echo chamber, and potentially a boring one.
I disagree with Bob most of the time but I like how he has arguments plural, not just the same one over and over (to which a therapist might be a better answer). Worst kind of echo chamber.
That's you added to the 2034 killer zinger list 😆
We had "Daily Review" which appeared around 5:30 pm Mon. to Fri., but it was canned at the start of Lockdown and hasn't reappeared.
Just seems to be you and me Anne, mourning the demise of Daily Review!
Me too, on a functional relevance basis. Often significant stuff emerges during the course of the day. Working commentators can't be expected to comment until after the evening meal.
The other functional point is that threads on open mike meander and new stuff gets lost to the attention of many readers once there's an abundance. Issues can therefore get a fresh start on the later platform.
I liked the review too even if I don't participate in it.
No, a few more people have commented on its demise.
What I liked about it is the opportunity to refresh the discussions at the end of the day or comment on a development that has come out of maybe the 6pm news. Add to that some of us don't always get the time to indulge at length during the day. Even retirees have other things to do.
I miss Daily Review too.
How about a rule that if you have commented on Open Mike after noon you are not allowed to bless Daily Review with your reckons? Might encourage fresh voices.
Same here. Bring back Daily Review please.
Meh. Daily Review just diluted threads and repeated stuff that was already covered in Open Mike. But maybe a Night Owls post would be good, from 8 pm
That’s my usual dinner time, 8:00 PM. I’d suggest a Midnight Oil (MO) post but then I’d have to schedule and monitor it 🙁
Midnight Oil Review. That'd be you, me and McFlock.
We could do worse.
🙂
Just scheduled a Post for tomorrow. Not my best ever, but I was long overdue for one. I’ve got too many half-finished ones and then I lose interest or they get overtaken by developments or events.
I totally understand, looking at my list of unfinished posts 😳 I'm trying to teach myself to put the posts up even if I am not completely satisfied with them.
Off to have a read now 🙂
reflecting on that a bit more. I started writing posts after covid hit and then not posting them because it was harder to tell in those early days what was useful or even ok to write*. Now it's more like yes I could say these things but is this what I really want to be saying? Do people want to be reading? What are we even doing? lol. I'm sure the election will sharpen my focus again.
*same with BLM right now too.
Covid was and still is hugely confusing and scary. I had many things on my mind but decided to stick closely to the facts and the science that was rapidly evolving. As soon as economics and politics became involved – they always go hand-in-hand – the story became murkier and harder to follow and comment on.
BLM is too emotionally charged to have a sensible conversation about on this blog IMHO. Whatever I’d say, it would not make one iota of difference to what’s happening and likely to be taken the wrong way as Taika Waititi has found out.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/121686071/george-floyd-taika-waititi-under-fire-for-black-lives-matter-comments
It makes it very hard to moderate, at times, but luckily, the commentariat has been exemplary 🙂
Bring on the Election, I say!
Me too.
How the Minister Of Truth (a.k.a. D Cummings) rewrites the past on his blog, to make himself seem ultra-prescient.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/30/dominic-cummings-boris-johnson-evil-geniuses-hardly-lazy-incompetent
A longish piece, but well worth sticking with.
John Wight has written an excellent article about the murder of George Floyd and the recurrent theme of racism in U.S history.
Born out of genocide, raised through slavery, the U.S. is an imperialist rogue state.
'Chauvin with his knee on the neck of a supine George Floyd was the acme of the evil of white supremacy. He was the overseer with his knee on the neck of a runaway slave. He was the the slaveowner’s whip, the lynch mob’s noose, the prison guard’s boot. In other words, Chauvin symbolised in those eight minutes the entire legacy and long history of racial oppression in country that was born in genocide and developed and nourished for two centuries on the back of the African slave trade."
The Murder of George Floyd — White Supremacy’s War on Black America Rolls on
Not a betting man (and I know it doesn’t portend anything) but occasionally I check the markets for the odds on our election.
They’ve all pretty much blown out for Labour in the week since Muller took over.
In the UK William Hill is paying 1/7 for Labour to form government after the election versus 9/2 for National.
In Australia, Sportsbet has Labour at 1.14 versus the Nats at 5.50. Going into Covid the odds were pretty even. They have opened a second market on the likelihood of Labour to govern in its own right (with no support partners regardless of whether they’re needed or not) currently paying 1.50 for Labour to NOT form government in its own right versus 2.25 for them to do so.
Oh fuck.
https://twitter.com/KillerMartinis/status/1266618525600399361
https://twitter.com/KillerMartinis/status/1266786725185142784
https://twitter.com/KillerMartinis/status/1266786161143537669
https://twitter.com/KillerMartinis/status/1266789497842393088
(Linda Tirado on TS)
Seems like the alt-right and white supremacists are seizing on a gifted opportunity to create trouble and further division in a troubled country.
https://www.courthousenews.com/minnesota-officials-link-arrested-looters-to-white-supremacist-groups/
Surprise…
https://twitter.com/CharlesPPierce/status/1266788911939977217
White supramacists and KKK types have been infiltrating US police forces for decades.
They have swapped the burning crosses and white hoods for badges and pepper spray.
Seems to me like a lot of angry young people of all different races involved in the chaos. But hey blame it on the alt-right.. or next why not Russia?
I think if you threw a stone in any crowd you'd hit another faction, there's even people with bows and arrows ffs. And the leader tweets while the place burns.
Because people that were very fine people, on both sides, right.
/
"Trump targets social media companies in new executive order "
From the Fox News politics front page (scan down) – runs as a news clip without it's own page. The presenter interviews a legal adviser to explore the viability of Trump's attempt.
He flags a likely constitutional issue (separation of powers) in respect of the question of whether the exec order is in breach of the act of congress he is attempting to get around.
He ends by saying Twitter needs to decide what it will do when it grows up. After alerting us to media policy inconsistency by Twitter (owner/managers) and citing examples to validate his reasoning.
So in a time of very challenging employment uncertainty the National Party wants the government to bring back the 90 day fire-at-will laws for medium and large employers. They want to increase uncertainty for stressed out NZ workers? Just who is advising these losers?
Mediocre business managers and owners who lack the ability to select good staff, that's who.
ACT wants a 12 month trial period and 3 year minumum wage freeze..
If these clowns had their way, we would have the US system of at will employment where you could be just sacked at any time for any reason, and that if you turned up at work and found your password didnt work, that meant you were sacked.
COVID has provided the once in a life time opputunity for employers and businesses to slash their wage bill by 20%.
a) The 90 day trial period is still there for employers with 19 or less people, as Labour didn't fulfill their promise to get rid of it.
b) Do you mind posting some stats on how many of your claimed workers were "fired at will" and how many got work they would have otherwise not got due to risk to the employer of them being crap without it?
Sad when we set the bar so low that employers will only take workers on if they can get rid of them.
That implies that workers are treated as disposable in this country and have no value.
As always, the onus on satisfactorily employing staff lies on the employer doing their due diligence during and after the interviewing process. If they fuck up, tough, they had their chance.
Having said that, I'm okay with a trial period, though not three months, more like a couple of weeks at most. Any employer that needs, or waits, until day 89 to find out it hasn't worked out is a bit of a wanker.
Background of the new police commissioner. Interesting interview in which his faith is mentioned numerous times but we don't find out exactly what it is based on. This and other articles have also outlined his career trajectory. While his background and education are nothing particularly unusual at some point he seems to have entered a career path that even the most competent could only dream about. Was he being groomed as a future commissioner and if so by whom ? Can’t quite put my finger on it but there is something that feels not quite comfortable?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300003371/national-portrait-andrew-coster–top-cop
I was giving it a thought on what those with spare cash to buy shares with, what type of shares they will buy?
For some current share holders it will be like a crash, depending on what they have invested in
I expect people will still invest in residential property as people always need a home.
Commodities such as gold, lithium etc i.e. the elements of an electrical world.
Oil and airline shares were never any good for the planet.
There has to be a better way in extracting gold without the damage it causes.
The largest gold mines are rubbish dumps in developed countries.
National have picked Mike Butterick as their candidate for Wairarapa, a seat they hold.
In the pre-Covid days, you might remember the angry protest march on Parliament
by a group called "50 shades of green". This included signs calling the government "c***s", the "make Ardern go away" placards, MAGA caps, and suchlike.
The group is (was?) led by Butterick.
Here's his speech (I think from the same event).
It's a mixture of self-pity, whataboutery and special pleading, with the actual argument very difficult to discern. He seems like an excellent fit with National's existing caucus, in other words.
He does indeed. An "actual argument" is that the townies and their arts fucking festivals and delicatessens mainly leach off agriculture to survive.
Damn them for adding value. Milk powder forever!
Scoop forgot to add Mike's protest to his bio.
Space X mission launched this morning:
I know we are generally supposed to be opposed to private spaceflight, SpaceX and Elon Musk, but this was pretty impressive, and good to see something positive happen for a change.
Safer out in space than in the USA at present. And I would have thought a Covid free NZ pretty good news lately.
200 years.
https://twitter.com/ericabuddington/status/1266531249914601472
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1266531249914601472.html
Things are going well.
https://twitter.com/breaking911/status/1265839057994764288
https://twitter.com/dailydigger19/status/1266146984513191944
https://twitter.com/jeffgoodell/status/1266869845972463618
https://twitter.com/Gingersonfire/status/1266884702519955456
Jeez, got cops driving into people, there's footage of some shop owner being beaten to death by mob, batman, it's a real mess. I watched the doco LA92 a few months back but this is a whole new level of cray cray.
The headline of a failed state.
Gripped by disease, unemployment and outrage at the police, America plunges into crisis
[…]
“The threads of our civic life could start unraveling, because everybody’s living in a tinderbox,” said historian and Rice University professor Douglas Brinkley.
Barbara Ransby, a historian at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a longtime political activist, said the toll of the coronavirus outbreak made long-standing racial inequities newly stark. Then, images of police violence made those same disparities visceral.
http://archive.li/4p9JH (wapo)
There are always tensions. There have always been upset people and violence has happened.
The emotional state of the country is in an unusual place with the pandemic. The many media platforms means everyone has access to attitude forming material. Something dramatic happens and what you rely on is rationality, resilience, respect and trust in systems and leadership.
There has been burning in the streets over a couple of days. Over a couple of years there have been fires burning rationality, respect and trust. Welcome to Trump's America.
In the land of the free and the home of the brave, residents must stay inside their homes or the National Guard will shoot you.
https://www.twitter.com/tkerssen/status/1266921821653385225
"When the law not merely fails to guarantee the safety of life and property, but directly threatens both, the subject is absolved from obedience to it, and civil society collapses." (Paul Johnson: "The Offshore Islanders", 1972)
He was writing about the causes of the misleadingly-termed Great Rebellion which led to the English Civil War of the 1640s. But the sentiment is relevant in any age or society. By all means do what's necessary to curb out-of-town looters seizing chances for mayhem. That most emphatically does not include charging down a peaceful residential street loosing off missiles at people on their own properties going about their lawful occasions. State-supported terrorism doesn't altogether too strong a term for this appalling behaviour.
wow…
Isn’t it interesting how our woke media criticism the Nats supposed lack of diversity on it’s front bench but not the Greens lack of gender diversity? In their Party List there is one male and seven females.Would the woke media be criticising a front bench of seven men and one women?
is it interesting? I must admit I've yet to look up the definition of "woke", but I don't think I really care.
I'm confident it has nothing to do with our media. But yes, meh.
I did look up the meaning once and still don't understand what it means. I don't care either because its a silly word.
Standing for being an MP would be attractive to more men if there was more power attached to the job.
Our current Prime Minister is building the Labour Party list with young and talented women. Over three terms there's just a chance they will collectively get to redefine how power is exercised in Parliament full stop.
Just maybe it's time for that.
Three men in the top ten, ten in the top twenty. Want to know how long we had the reverse or less? Yeah, when the balance of power in society has been redressed the Greens can revisit their gender equity policy.
Meh. They are all capable and won their selection on merit. Wake me up to care about it when men are under-represented overall in positions of power and capable male candidates are routinely shoved aside to make room for time-serving female drones.
You are trolling and posted the same ‘query’ over at KB today. The answer was provided and to be more precise, it was answered in great detail by Graeme Edgeler on KB on 16 April. Something tells me that you do not care and do not have the slightest interest in the answer/explanation. It is a sure sign of you being a stupid little troll. You can prove me wrong, of course, but I won’t hold my breath.
Wise – "the Nats supposed lack of diversity on it’s front bench" does not suggest a good faith intent.
Well, since the purpose of trolling is to rark up responses, it has to be conceded that was actually a fairly successful troll.
The whetstone is always ready for trolls and with the upcoming Election my tolerance levels are lowering.
Scythe away..
Ooh that's right election season is banning season .
Lprent usually shows no mercy ,great fun to watch.
Actually what our "woke media" did was … wait for it … ask the National leader some questions. The horror, the mind control!
They couldn't have predicted the hilarity of the answers.
Global deaths in 2020 from different causes:
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/2562261/
pretty crazy watching covid jump up like that.
But hey, it's just a flu, no need for worry. /sarc
‘This is how we feel every day’ – protester compares violence in LA to racial inequality in society
“This is what it’s like to walk down the streets. It’s chaos. I’m afraid every time a police officer drives past me.”
https://abc7.com/video/embed/?pid=6222259
I was a fairly surprised this evening to hear my 78yr old dad defending the protesters going nuts on the street. In his view it was because the same people were being treated the same way for multiple decades, it wasn't getting better, and they've had enough.
That's not usual for my dad who is usually a NZFirst voter.
Your dad is 4 years my senior, but I think a lot of us septuagenarians would share a similar viewpoint. We grew up with the powerful film "To Kill a Mockingbird" and read the book. We saw and read "Black Like Me" the true story of John Howard Griffin who darkened his skin and travelled through the segregated US south. And many more. We saw the tyranny of the KKK and similar groups. Lived through the 60's and witnessed, via television and radio, the civil rights movement and heard Martin Luther King and probably sang "We shall overcome". And saw the slow dismantling of segregation in the south.
On the 28 August 1963 Martin Luther King in his famous "I have a Dream" speech said'
Those words could be echoed today
https://twitter.com/Namixcv/status/1266378273161768964
Statement by Joe Biden
Thanks Macro. I'm impressed with that statement.
How the police endanger us and why we need to find an alternative
Alex S. Vitale The End of Policing (Verso, 2017)
Recent years have seen an explosion of protest against police brutality and repression—most dramatically in Ferguson, Missouri, where longheld grievances erupted in violent demonstrations following the police killing of Michael Brown. Among activists, journalists, and politicians, the conversation about how to respond and improve policing has focused on accountability, diversity, training, and community relations. Unfortunately, these reforms will not produce results, either alone or in combination. The core of the problem must be addressed: the nature of modern policing itself. “Broken windows” practices, the militarization of law enforcement, and the dramatic expansion of the police’s role over the last forty years have created a mandate for officers that must be rolled back.
This book attempts to spark public discussion by revealing the tainted origins of modern policing as a tool of social control. It shows how the expansion of police authority is inconsistent with community empowerment, social justice—even public safety. Drawing on groundbreaking research from across the world, and covering virtually every area in the increasingly broad range of police work, Alex Vitale demonstrates how law enforcement has come to exacerbate the very problems it is supposed to solve.
In contrast, there are places where the robust implementation of policing alternatives—such as legalization, restorative justice, and harm reduction—has led to reductions in crime, spending, and injustice. The best solution to bad policing may be an end to policing.
Reviews
“The End of Policing combines the best in academic research with rhetorical urgency to explain why the ordinary array of police reforms will be ineffective in reducing abusive policing. Alex Vitale shows that we must move beyond conceptualizing public safety as interdiction, exclusion, and arrest if we hope to achieve racial and economic justice.”
– Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Professor, CUNY Graduate Center, Co-Founder of Critical Resistance, author of Golden Gulag
https://www.versobooks.com/books/2426-the-end-of-policing