Open mike 07/09/2024
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6:00 am, September 7th, 2024 - 48 comments
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- Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Politicians need to lift their game
Declining trust in New Zealand politicians should be a warning to them to lift their game. Results from the New Zealand Election Study for the 2023 election show that the level of trust in politicians has once again declined. Perhaps it is not surprising that the results, shared as part ...3 hours ago - A dysfunctional watchdog
The reality of any right depends on how well it is enforced. But as The Post points out this morning, our right to official information isn't being enforced very well at all: More than a quarter of complaints about access to official information languish for more than a year, ...6 hours ago - Climate Change: The threat of a good example
Since taking office, the climate-denier National government has gutted agricultural emissions pricing, ended the clean car discount, repealed water quality standards which would have reduced agricultural emissions, gutted the clean car standard, killed the GIDI scheme, and reversed efforts to reduce pollution subsidies in the ETS - basically every significant ...7 hours ago
- Vegas Baby
Good morning, lovely people. Don’t worry. This isn’t really a newsletter, just a quick note. I’m sitting in our lounge, looking out over a gloomy sky. Although being Rotorua, the view is periodically interrupted by steam bursting from pipes and dispersing—like an Eastern European industrial hellscape during the Cold War.Drinking ...14 hours ago - Why Entrust Needs New Leadership
I am part of a new team running in the Entrust election in October. Entrust is a community electricity trust representing a significant part of Auckland, set up to serve the community. It is governed by five trustees are elected every three years in an election the trust itself oversees. ...15 hours ago - London Bridge is falling down
In the UK, London is the latest of council groups to signal potential bankruptcy.That’s after Birmingham, Britain’s second largest city, went bankrupt in June, resulting in reduced sanitation services, libraries cut, and dimmed streetlights.Some in the city described things as “Dickens” like.Please, Sir, Can I have some more?For families with ...15 hours ago - Govt may kick elderly out of hospitals
The Government is considering how to shunt elderly people out of hospitals, and also how to cut their access to other support. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, ...16 hours ago - Getting the nephs off the couch
The so-called “Prince of the Provinces”, Shane Jones, went home last Friday. Perhaps not quite literally home, more like 20 kilometres down the road from his house on the outskirts of Kerikeri. With its airport, its rapidly growing (mostly retired) population, and a commercial centre with all the big retail ...17 hours ago - De moralibus orcorum: Sargon of Akkad, Rings of Power, Evil, and George R.R. Martin
I have noted before that The Rings of Power has attracted its unfortunate share of culture war obsessives. Essentially, for a certain type of individual, railing on about the Wokery of Modern Media is a means of making themselves a online livelihood. Clicks and views and advertising revenue, and all ...24 hours ago - 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #37
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Yesterday, I ruminated about the effects of being a political follower.And, within politics, David Seymour was smart enough on Friday to divert attention from “race blind” policies [what about gender blind I thought - thinking of maternity wards] and cutting school lunches by throwing meat to the media. Teachers were ...2 days ago - A warm embrace
Far, far away from here lives our King. Some of his subjects can be quite the forelock tuggers, but plenty of us are not like that, and why don't I wheel out my favourite old story once more about Kiwi soldiers in the North African desert?Field Marshal Montgomery takes offence ...2 days ago - Literal clowns are running the place, we must put a timeout on this stupidity… right Aotearoa?
These people are inept on every level. They’re inept to the detriment of our internal politics, cohesion and increasingly our international reputation. And they are reveling in the fact they are getting away with it. We cannot even have “respectful debate” with a government that clearly rejects the very ...2 days ago - Fact brief – Does manmade CO2 have any detectable fingerprint?
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2 days ago - Managed Democracy: Letting The People Decide, But Only When They Can Be Relied Upon To Give the Righ...
Uh-uh! Not So Fast, Citizens! The power to initiate systemic change remains where it has always been in New Zealand’s representative democracy – in Parliament. To order a binding referendum, the House of Representatives must first to be persuaded that, on the question proposed, sharing its decision-making power with the people ...2 days ago
- Looking For Labour’s Vital Signs.
Flatlining: With no evidence of a genuine policy disruptor at work in Labour’s ranks, New Zealand’s wealthiest citizens can sleep easy.PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN has walked a picket-line. Presidential candidate Kamala Harris has threatened “price-gauging” grocery retailers with price control. The Democratic Party’s 2024 platform situates it well to the left of Sir ...2 days ago
- Forty Years Of Remembering To Forget.
The Beginning of the End: Rogernomics became the short-hand descriptor for all the radical changes that swept away New Zealand’s social-democratic economy and society between 1984 and 1990. In the bitterest of ironies, those changes were introduced by the very same party which had entrenched New Zealand social-democracy 50 years earlier. ...2 days ago
- Kōrero Mai – Speak to Me.
Good morning all you lovely people. 🙂I woke up this morning, and it felt a bit like the last day of school. You might recall from earlier in the week that I’m heading home to Rotorua to see an old friend who doesn’t have much time. A sad journey, but ...3 days ago - Winning ways
3 days ago - 48 seconds on a plan that would reverberate for a million years
Despite fears that Trump presidency would be disastrous for progress on climate change, the topic barely rated a mention in the Presidential debate. Photo: Getty ImagesLong stories short, here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey ...3 days ago
- Using blunt instruments and magical thinking to ignore evidence of harm
The abrupt cancellations and suspensions of Government spending also caused private sector hiring, spending, and investment to freeze up for the first six months of the year. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāThis week we learned:The new National/ACT/NZ First Coalition Government ignored advice from Treasury that it didn’t have to ...3 days ago - Is This A Dagger Which I See Before Me: A Review and Analysis of The Rings of Power Episode 5 (Seaso...
Another week of The Rings of Power, season two, and another confirmation that things are definitely coming together for the show. The fifth Episode of season one represented the nadir of the series. Now? Amid the firmer footing of 2024, Episode Five represents further a further step towards excellent Tolkien ...3 days ago - In Open Seas; A Book
The background to In Open Seas: How the New Zealand Labour Government Went Wrong:2017-2023Not in Narrow Seas: The Economic History of Aotearoa New Zealand, published in 2020, proved more successful than either I or the publisher (VUP, now Te Herenga Waka University Press) expected. I had expected that it would ...3 days ago - The Hoon around the week to Sept 13
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts and talking about the week’s news with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on the latest climate science on rising temperatures and the climate implications of the US Presidential elections; and special guests Janet ...3 days ago
- Do or do not. There is no try
1. Upon receiving evidence that school lunches were doing a marvellous job of improving outcomes for students, David Seymour did what?a. Declared we need much more of this sort of good news and poured extra resources and funding into them b. Emailed Atlas network to ask what to do next c. Cut ...3 days ago - Dangerous ground
The Waitangi Tribunal has reported back on National's proposed changes to gut the Marine and Coastal Area Act and steal the foreshore and seabed for its greedy fishing-industry donors, and declared it to be another huge violation of ti Tiriti: The Waitangi Tribunal has found government changes to the ...3 days ago
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In 2016, the then-National government signed the Paris Agreement, committing Aotearoa to a 30 (later 50) percent reduction in emissions by 2030. When questioned about how they intended to meet that target with their complete absence of effective climate policy, they made a lot of noise about how it was ...3 days ago
- Treasury warned Govt lower debt limits meant less ‘productivity-enhancing investment’
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I liked what Kieran McAnulty had to say about the Treaty Principles bill this morning so much I've written it down and copied it out for you. He was saying that rather than let this piece of ordure spend six months in Select Committee, the Prime Minister could stop making such ...4 days ago - A government-funded hate campaign
Cabinet discussed National's constitutionally and historically illiterate "Treaty Principles Bill" this week, and decided to push on with it. The bill will apparently receive a full six month select committee process - unlike practically every other policy this government has pushed, and despite the fact that if the government is ...4 days ago
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- Kamala Harris Did Something Unthinkable
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- David Seymour is such a loser
For paid subscribersNot content with siphoning off $230,000,000 of taxpayers money for his hobby projects - and telling everyone his passion is education and early childcare - an intersection painfully coincidental to the interests of wealthy private families like Sean Plunkett’s1 backers, the Wright Family, Seymour is back in the ...4 days ago - Cross-party consensus: there’s no pipeline without good faith
There’s been a lot of talk recently about a cross-party agreement to develop a pipeline for infrastructure, including transport. Last month, outgoing CRL boss Sean Sweeney talked about the importance of securing an enduring infrastructure programme. He outlined the high costs of the relentless political flip-flopping of priorities, which drives ...5 days ago
- Voters love this climate policy they’ve never heard of
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The Inflation Reduction Act is the Biden administration’s signature climate law and the largest U.S. government investment in reducing climate pollution to date. Among climate advocates, the policy is well-known and celebrated, but beyond that, only a minority of Americans ...5 days ago
- ACC wants to administer inflation at more than double the RBNZ’s target rate
ACC levies are set to rise at more than double the inflation rate targeted by the RBNZ. Photo: Lynn GrievesonKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, September 12:The state-owned monopoly for accident insurance wants ...5 days ago - Harris vs Trump
5 days ago - Treaty Bill “a political stunt”
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- An average 219 NZers migrated each day in July
Kia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, September 11:Annual migration of New Zealanders rose to a record-high 80,963 in the year to the end of July, which is more than double its pre-Covid levels.Two ...5 days ago - What you’re wanting to win more than anything is The Narrative
Hubris is sitting down on election day 2016 to watch that pig Trump get his ass handed to him, and watching the New York Times needle hover for a while over Hillary and then move across to Trump where it remains all night to your gathering horror and dismay. You're ...5 days ago - National’s automated lie machine
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- Christopher Luxon: A Man of “Faith” and “Compassion” Speaks on the Treaty Pr...
Synopsis: Today - we explore two different realities. One where National lost. And another - which is the one we are living with here. Note: the footnote on increased fees/taxes may be of interest to some readers.Article open.Subscribe nowIt’s an alternate timeline.Yesterday as news broke that the central North Island ...5 days ago - Member’s Day
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However much I'm falling downNever enoughHowever much I'm falling outNever, never enough!Whatever smile I smile the mostNever enoughHowever I smile I smile the mostSongwriters: Robert James Smith / Simon Gallup / Boris Williams / Porl ThompsonToday in Nick’s Kōrero:A death in the Emergency Department at Rotorua Hospital.A sad homecoming and ...6 days ago - Question Two of The Kākā Project of 2026 for 2050 (TKP 26/50)
Kia ora.Last month I proposed restarting The Kākā Project work done before the 2023 election as The Kākā Project of 2026 for 2050 (TKP 26/50), aiming to be up and running before the 2025 Local Government elections, and then in a finalised form by the 2026 General Elections.A couple of ...6 days ago
- Why is God Obsessed with Spanking?
Hi,If you’ve read Webworm for a while, you’ll be aware that I’ve spent a lot of time writing about horrific, corrupt megachurches and the shitty men who lead them.And in all of this writing, I think some people have this idea that I hate Christians or Christianity. As I explain ...6 days ago - Inside the public service
In 2023, there were 63,117 full-time public servants earning, on average, $97,200 a year each. All up, that is a cost to the Government of $6.1 billion a year. It’s little wonder, then, that the public service has become a political whipping boy castigated by the Prime Minister and members ...6 days ago
- New Models Show Stronger Atlantic Hurricanes, and More of Them
This is a re-post from This is Not Cool Here’s an example of some of the best kind of climate reporting, especially in that it relates to impacts that will directly affect the audience. WFLA in Tampa conducted a study in collaboration with the Department of Energy, analyzing trends in ...6 days ago
- Where ever do they find these people?
A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, is how Winston Churchill described the Soviet Union in 1939. How might the great man have described the 2024 government of New Zealand, do we think? I can't imagine he would have thought them all that mysterious or enigmatic. I think ...6 days ago - Motorway madness
How mad is National's obsession with roads? One of their pet projects - a truck highway to Whangārei - is going to eat 10% of our total infrastructure budget for the next 25 years: Official advice from the Infrastructure Commission shows the government could be set to spend 10 ...6 days ago
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Ever since Wayne Brown became mayor (nearly two years ago now) he’s been wanting to progress an “integrated transport plan” with the government – which sounded a lot like the previous Auckland Transport Alignment Project (ATAP) with just a different name. It seems like a fair bit of work progressed ...7 days ago
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And they taught usWhoa-oh, black woman, thou shalt not stealI said, hey, yeah, black man, thou shalt not stealWe're gonna civilise your black barbaric livesAnd we teach you how to kneelBut your history couldn't hide the genocideThe hypocrisy to us was realFor your Jesus said you're supposed to giveThe oppressed ...7 days ago - How mismanagement, not wind and solar energy, causes blackouts
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Chris Bishop has enthusiastically dubbed himself and Simeon Brown “the Infra Boys”, but they need to take note of the sums around their roading dreams. Photo: Lynn GrievesonMōrena. Long stories short, here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, September ...7 days ago - Media Link: “AVFA” on the politics of desperation.
In this podcast Selwyn Manning and I talk about what appears to be a particular type of end-game in the long transition to systemic realignment in international affairs, in which the move to a new multipolar order with different characteristics … Continue reading ...1 week ago - The cost of flying blind
Just over two years ago, when worries about immediate mass-death from covid had waned, and people started to talk about covid becoming "endemic", I asked various government agencies what work they'd done on the costs of that - and particularly, on the cost of Long Covid. The answer was that ...1 week ago
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For paid subscribers“Aotearoa is not as malleable as they think,” Lynette wrote last week on Homage to Simeon Brown:In my heart/mind, that phrase ricocheted over the next days, translating out to “We are not so malleable.”It gave me comfort. I always felt that we were given an advantage in New ...1 week ago - Unstoppable Minister McKee
All smiles, I know what it takes to fool this townI'll do it 'til the sun goes downAnd all through the nighttimeOh, yeahOh, yeah, I'll tell you what you wanna hearLeave my sunglasses on while I shed a tearIt's never the right timeYeah, yeahSong by SiaLast night there was a ...1 week ago - Could outdoor dining revitalise Queen Street?
This is a guest post by Ben van Bruggen of The Urban Room,.An earlier version of this post appeared on LinkedIn. All images are by Ben. Have you noticed that there’s almost nowhere on Queen Street that invites you to stop, sit outside and enjoy a coffee, let alone ...1 week ago
- Hipkins challenges long-held Labour view Government must stay below 30% of GDP
Hipkins says when considering tax settings and the size of government, the big question mark is over what happens with the balance between the size of the working-age population and the growing number of Kiwis over the age of 65. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short; here’s ...1 week ago - Your invite to Webworm Chat (a bit like Reddit)
Hi,One of the things I love the most about Webworm is, well, you. The community that’s gathered around this lil’ newsletter isn’t something I ever expected when I started writing it four years ago — now the comments section is one of my favourite places on the internet. The comments ...1 week ago - Seymour’s Treaty bill making Nats nervous
A delay in reappointing a top civil servant may indicate a growing nervousness within the National Party about the potential consequences of David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill. Dave Samuels is waiting for reappointment as the Chief Executive of Te Puni Kokiri, but POLITIK understands that what should have been a ...1 week ago
- 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #36
A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, September 1, 2024 thru Sat, September 7, 2024. Story of the week Our Story of the Week is about how peopele are not born stupid but can be fooled ...1 week ago
- Time for a Change
You act as thoughYou are a blind manWho's crying, crying 'boutAll the virgins that are dyingIn your habitual dreams, you knowSeems you need more sleepBut like a parrot in a flaming treeI know it's pretty hard to seeI'm beginning to wonderIf it's time for a changeSong: Phil JuddThe next line ...1 week ago - Security Politics in Peripheral Democracies: Excerpt Six.
The “double shocks” in post Cold War international affairs. The end of the Cold War fundamentally altered the global geostrategic context. In particular, the end of the nuclear “balance of terror” between the USA and USSR, coupled with the relaxation … Continue reading ...1 week ago
- Buried deep
Here's a bike on Manchester St, Feilding. I took this photo on Friday night after a very nice dinner at the very nice Vietnamese restaurant, Saigon, on Manchester Street.I thought to myself, Manchester Street? Bicycle? This could be the very spot.To recap from an earlier edition: on a February night ...1 week ago - Security Politics in Peripheral Democracies, Excerpt Five.
Military politics as a distinct “partial regime.” Notwithstanding their peripheral status, national defense offers the raison d’être of the combat function, which their relative vulnerability makes apparent, so military forces in small peripheral democracies must be very conscious of events … Continue reading ...1 week ago
- Govt Warned – Increasing Snapper Quota Breaches Fisheries Settlement
An imminent decision to increase the total allowable commercial catch (TACC) for snapper would be a direct violation of the first-ever Treaty Settlement and inevitably breach Te Tiriti o Waitangi, says Te Pāti Māori. Te Ohu Kaimoana has sought a High Court declaration to prevent the Minister of Oceans and ...6 hours ago
- Govt attacks workers’ rights once again
Today’s announcement from the Minister of Workplace Relations emphasises how deep in the pocket of big business this Government really is. ...1 day ago - Release: Māori business not a priority for this Govt
Scrapping the Progressive Procurement programme designed to support and grow Māori businesses is a missed opportunity. ...1 day ago - Release: March 15 inquiry grants cut by Government
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has cut grants helping overseas family of victims to attend the next phase of the Coronial Inquiry into the 15 March 2019 Christchurch Masjidain Attack. ...1 day ago
- Minister of Injustice seeks to Entrench largest land confiscation in History
The Waitangi Tribunal has released an Urgent Report on the Government’s proposed amendments to the Takutai Moana Act 2011. The report calls out Paul Goldsmith’s proposal for what it is: a “gross breach of the Treaty” and an “illegitimate exercise of kāwanatanga”. The Tribunal is recommending the Crown step down ...3 days ago
- Takutai Moana changes another assault on Te Tiriti
The Government must abandon its Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act interventions after the Waitangi Tribunal found it was committing gross breaches of the Treaty. ...3 days ago
- Greens call on Govt to leave Te Reo in schools alone
As Te Wiki o te Reo Māori approaches, the Government is considering deprioritising teaching Te Reo Māori in our schools. ...3 days ago
- Govt cannot ignore racism
The Government’s directive to the public service to ignore race is nothing more than a dog whistle and distraction from the structural racism we need to address. ...3 days ago
- Release: Lemauga Lydia Sosene to take medical leave
Labour’s Mangere MP Lemauga Lydia Sosene has been diagnosed with breast cancer and will shortly take medical leave. ...4 days ago
- Potential intelligence sharing with Israel must be investigated
Concerns have been raised that our spy arrangements may mean that intelligence is being shared between Aotearoa and Israel. An urgent inquiry must be launched in response to this. ...4 days ago
- Release: Charter schools undermine our education system
The Government is taking a wrecking ball to our public education system by reinstating charter schools. ...4 days ago
- Youngest MP to travel to Canada to accept Politician of the Year Award
Aotearoa’s Youngest Member of Parliament, and Te Pāti Māori MP, Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, will travel to Montreal to accept the One Young World Politician of the Year Award next week. The One Young World Politician of the Year Award was created in 2018 to recognise the most promising young politicians between ...4 days ago
- Greens celebrate huge step forward for ADHD community
The Greens welcome today’s long-coming announcement by Pharmac of consultation to remove the special authority renewal criteria for methylphenidate, dexamfetamine and modafinil and to fund lisdexamfetamine. ...4 days ago
- Release: Millions to be spent dividing NZ for no reason
The National Party is wasting millions of dollars allowing David Seymour’s Treaty Principals Bill to be drafted and go to Select Committee. ...5 days ago
- Release: New Zealanders departing our shores at a record rate
The Migration figures released by Stats NZ today show National is continuing to drive Kiwis away from New Zealand in record numbers. ...5 days ago
- Te Tai Tokerau MP Slams Govt Overreach in Scrapping Māori Wards
Mema Paremata for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, has reflected on the decisions made by the councils of the North amidst the government’s push to remove Māori Wards and weaken mana whenua representation. “Actions taken by the Kaipara District Council to remove Māori Wards are the embodiment of the eradication ...5 days ago
- Govt already seeking advice on Treaty referendum
On one hand, the Prime Minister has assured Aotearoa that his party will not support the Treaty Principles Bill beyond first reading, but on the other, his Government has already sought advice on holding a referendum on our founding document. ...5 days ago
- Release: Aged care will be worse off if redesign rushed
New Zealanders needing aged care support and the people who care for them will be worse off if the Government pushes through a flawed and rushed redesign of dementia and aged care. ...5 days ago
- Release: Govt fails hundreds of workers as mills close
Labour is devastated at news hundreds of workers are set to lose their jobs following the closure of Winstone Pulp mills. ...6 days ago
- Job losses from mill closures consequence of Govt inaction
Hundreds of jobs lost as a result of pulp mill closures in the Ruapehu District are a consequence of government inaction in addressing the shortfalls of our electricity network. ...6 days ago
- Ngarewa-Packer devastated for Ruapehu following WPI closure
Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader and MP for Te Tai Hauāuru is devastated for the Ruapehu community following today’s decision to close two Winstone Pulp mills. “My heart goes out to all the workers, their whānau, and the wider Ruapehu community affected by the closure of Winstone Pulp International,” said Ngarewa-Packer. ...7 days ago
- Release: Cabinet should stop the Treaty Principles Bill
National Party Ministers have a majority in Cabinet and can stop David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill, which even the Prime Minister has described as “divisive and unhelpful.” ...1 week ago
- Release: Staff gagged to keep fast track list secret
The National Government is so determined to hide the list of potential projects that will avoid environmental scrutiny it has gagged Ministry for the Environment staff from talking about it. ...1 week ago
- Release: Labour challenges Te Whatu Ora gag orders
Labour has complained to the Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission about the high number of non-disclosure agreements that have effectively gagged staff at Te Whatu Ora Health NZ from talking about anything relating to their work. ...1 week ago
- Greens call on Treaty Principles Bill to be abandoned after letter from Christian leaders
The Green Party is once again urging the Prime Minister to abandon the Treaty Principles Bill as a letter from more than 400 Christian leaders calls for the proposed legislation to be dropped. ...1 week ago
- Sign the petition: Keep military-style firearms off our streets
Help us tell the Government that reintroducing military-style firearms should not be up for debate. ...1 week ago
- Vast majority of councils support Māori wards
Councils across the country have now decided where they stand regarding Māori wards, with a resounding majority in favour of keeping them in what is a significant setback for the Government. ...1 week ago
- Release: Government on the wrong side of Māori wards
The National-led government has been given a clear message from the local government sector, as almost all councils reject the Government’s bid to treat Māori wards different to other wards. ...1 week ago
- Release: Labour congratulates Kuīni Ngā Wai hono i te po Paki
The Labour Party congratulates Kuīni Ngā Wai hono i te po Paki on being crowned as the eighth Te Ariki Nui – head of Te Kiingitanga. ...2 weeks ago
- Green Party welcomes new Maaori Kuiini
The Green Party welcomes the coronation of the new Maaori Kuiini, Te Arikinui Nga Wai Hono i te Po, today in Turangawaewae. ...2 weeks ago
- ECE teachers deserve better than this Government
The Green Party is unsurprised but disappointed by today’s announcement from the Government that will see our Early Childhood Centre teachers undermined and pay parity pushed further out of reach. ...2 weeks ago
- Urgent intervention needed on supermarkets
The Green Party is calling on the Government to intervene in the supermarket duopoly dominating our supply of groceries following today’s report from the Commerce Commission. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Rainbow youth neglected in mental health funding
Labour backs the call from The Rainbow Support Collective members for mental health funding specifically earmarked for grassroots and peer led community organisations to be set up in a way that they are able to access. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Transport in NZ has to be more than just roads
As expected, the National Land Transport Programme lacks ambition for our cities and our country’s rail network and puts the majority of investment into roads. ...2 weeks ago
- Speech: Barbara Edmonds Building Nations 2024
Tēnā koutou katoa, Thank you for your warm welcome and for having my colleagues and I here today. Earlier you heard from the Labour Leader, Chris Hipkins, on our vision for the future of infrastructure. I want to build on his comments and provide further detail on some key elements ...2 weeks ago
- Govt transport plan deepens fossil fuel fix
The Green Party says the Government’s new National Land Transport Programme marks another missed opportunity to take meaningful action to fight the climate crisis. ...2 weeks ago
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Page generated in The Standard by Wordpress at 2024-09-16T10:18:03+00:00
‘
Meet the genocide denier streamers
Lower than the liberal genocide denier streamers, are the liberal genocide ignorer bloggers.
"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends"
Martin Luther King Jr.
Yet the same deniers/ignorers of the genocide in Gaza strongly condem the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. Choosing to support or condemn based on skewed Racial/Religious/Polititical bias is madness. But not new.
Indeed they did, and with bells on.
The Hipkins administration intervened in the court case brought by Ukraine agains Russia paying over $1million NZ, to fly a high powered team of top New Zealand lawyers to the Netherlands, to prepare and deliver oral sufbmissions, in person, before the International Court of Justice in the ICJ courtroom in the Hague, in support of the case, brought by Ukraine against Russia, under the genocide convention.
The Hipkins administration took a number of other measures:
https://www.mfat.govt.nz/en/countries-and-regions/europe/ukraine/russian-invasion-of-ukraine
The Luxon administration has renewed the Hipkins administrations intervention at the ICJ in the case Ukraine vs Russia by committing to the merits stage of the hearing.
The luxon administration has not taken similar action in the Interantional Court of Justice case South Africa vs. Israel.
South Africa vs Israel: 13 other countries intend to join the ICJ case
New Zealand is not one of them.
The Chris Hipkins opposition Labour Party in parliament, including Chris Hipkins himself, have not taken the Luxon administration to task over this double standard.
The Luxon administration has even sent the New Zealand arned forces to train beside the Israeli armed forces engaged in committing genocide in Gaza.
https://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2024/07/nzdf-does-no-check-legality-of-training-with-israel/#:~:text=250%20soldiers%20and%20sailors%20of,one%20of%20the%20participating%20countries.
Liberal ignoring of the ongoing genocide in Gaza does not give me confidence to think that a liberal Hipkins led administration would have acted similarly to the genocide in Gaza exactly as the Luxon administration has.
The case against both Israel and Russia is one of war crimes, rather than genocide.
There is no "war" in Gaza.
Palestine hs no Army. Navy or Air force.
Israel is backed by the most powerful military on Planet earth.
Same in this country. There was no "War" between Maori and Pakeha.
Because by 1855 Pakeha out numbered Maori by 250,000 to 40,000.
The Pakeha had the British Empire to call upon to replace losses and supply.
Maori had no one to relace losses and no possibility of re supply.
Since the Gaza Israeli “invasion” began Israelis have killed more than 50,000 Palestine,injured 100,000 and displaced 2 million and levelled Cities into rubble.
Since the Israeli “invasion” began Israel has been virtually untouched.
The Russian/Ukraine comflict is a “war” because both sides are evenly matched. If the West supported the Palestinians against the Israelis like they are supporting the Ukranians only then could it be called a war
To call the unopposed Israeli invasion of Gaza a war is pure madness.
Gaza is a war zone.
Heard of the War of Independence? The American Civil War?
The English Civil War.
The Thirty Years War in Germany.
The Maori Land wars
https://teara.govt.nz/en/new-zealand-wars
So
1.you never believed the boasts of Hamas about their resistance to the IDF invasion.
2.know little about the north of Israel and Hezbollah rocket attacks.
3.have not heard about Iran arms supplies to Hamas and Hezbollah, nor of the Houthi.
It’s an interesting argument that if a weaker opponent (with an underground network) provokes a fight by firing rockets or invading and capturing hostages, than what follows is not an action of war – involving removing a regime that began the aggression policing of via military.but just policing – to arrest perps.
Gaza is an occupied territory undergoing a genocide. People under occupation have the right to resist.
It is not a war, or a civil war. It is a genocide.
It is pretty simple.
No area of Gaza was occupied on October 7 2023.
Germany and Japan were occupied after a war. It is common for nations starting a war to have their regime removed.
Genocide is occurring in Sudan now, but not on your radar obviously.
Britain stole the lands we now know as Palestine as a trophy of war in 1919. The Jews started this conflict when they invaded these lands backed by Britain in 1948. Since 1950 the USA has provisded the Jews with the weapons to dominate 400 million Muslims. In 2003 the USA invaded Iraq looking for weapons of mass destruction and did not find any. At the very same time the USA was actually supplying the Jews with weapons of mass destruction. Israel illegally invaded Palestine and remains illegally occupying Palestine. The United Nations has declared that Palestine has the legal right to claim her lands back if need be by military force. Unfortunately Palestine has no Army no Navy and no Airforce. Just a few sky rockets and bows and arrows. The terrorists are and always have been the illegal Jewish invaders and their American backers. If you support Ukraines fight against the Russian invasion you must also support the Palestine fight agains the Jewish Invasion.
Is there any fact in any of that (apart from the USA lies about WMD)?
1.The League of Nations awarded the British a mandate in Palestine – after Ottoman empire lost their Arab "lands".
2.The UN settled the mandate issue with their 1947 decision – two territorial states. Arab nations opposed the UN decision. And said they would war on Israel if it founded.
3.5 Arab armies attacked Israel after May 1948. In the war Israel won extra territory (ending the Gaza – West Bank connection).
4.Egypt and Jordan occupied Gaza and West Bank 1948-1967 but did not form a Palestinian state.
5.Israel took this land in 1967 and agreed to allow a PA to form in Palestine (Oslo Accords 1993) and negotiate a two state peace.*
Citation?
*BN does not want a two state peace.
The League of Nations was in practice just Britain and France. After the end of WW1 Britain and France carved up Europe, imposed huge punishment to Germany and stole German territories as trophies of war. NZ stole or received the "mandate" for Samoa. Britain stole Palestine simple as that there was no "mandate". Britain and France had spent the previous 300 years going around the world invading (mandating") continental North and South America, all of Africa, Asia, Australia Oceania and Europe iteslf even Russia. In the process stealing millions of acres of land enslaving hundeds of millions and raping countries of their resources. This is what the White European Empire powers had been doing for generations let alone stealing 10 million Africans and shipping them to the Americas as slaves. So stealing Palestine was just what the White Europeans had been doing for 300 years.
It would help the people of Gaza greatly if Israel can rid them of genocidal Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamah al-ʾIslāmiyyah once and for all. They might even get to have another election.
By 1855 there were an estimated 59,500 Māori and 37,192 non-Māori.
https://web.archive.org/web/20080305185447/http://www.stats.govt.nz/NR/rdonlyres/064BFF54-5B31-4470-975D-7913BEC5EB1C/0/A_1_1Total_Population.xls
No. The ICC cases are always about war crimes. The ICJ case against Israel is specificly in regard to sufficient evidence supplied by South Africa that allegations of genocide against Israel in Gaza are plausible, and therefore must be answered.
Further, it is incumbent on all nations to actively take measures against supporting Israeli war crimes that otherwise make nations complicit in the genocide that is plausibly occurring.
Obviously, you prefer word games and manipulation to support Israel to control the media narrative but the people here that you are trying to tie in knots have watched enough of the horrific atrocities committed by Israel,to know in their gut that though the case may not yet come to a hearing for a number of years, genocide is the appropriate word.
You can explain away your craven support but we all have eyes to see and ears to hear and understand the sanctity of human life and will not support bullet holes through head and hearts of prepubescent children described by doctors in hopitals, while they existed, as a daily occurrence.
It may bring you joy to defend these barbaric snipers of the IDF, along similar lines as the Two Nice Jewish Boys podcast but its not hard for most of us to be devastated that such acts can occur, driven by the anger and hatred of the old testament god. From the beginning Netanyahu was referencing Amalek where this self same god exhorted Israel to kill the woman and children and all the old people of their enemies. This is the god that the kahanist Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich follow. They live and breathe anhilation of Palestinians and have photos of the terrorist that massacred Palestinian boys in a mosque during morning prayers, displyed in the lounge of their house
Yes, the ICC cases are about war crimes. And the ICJ case is about accusations of genocide.
The case for war crimes against both Israel and Russia is fairly obvious.
The claims of genocide not so. Incitement and hampering aid were the ones the Israeli justice noted had to be addressed – because if not then war crimes can go to the next level.
The rest is just a nasty and dishonest personal attack – you make as a projection and transference against any who do not conform to your singular narrative.
We should take your reckons on what is obvious. I think not.
You do not think the case for war crimes against both Israel and Russia is obvious?
Why do you identify yourself as spokesperson for the “we” people …
The most obvious case is the genocide being perpetrated by Israel. I understand that because of how obvious this is to any person with a functioning empathetic system, you need to sidetrack and obfuscate with wordplay in an attempt to redirect attention elsewhere.
However this is not possible and the west as a centre of human rights is now dead. It cannot be recovered unless immediate action to name the genocide as such is taken and the subsequent obligations by all states to end it and support Palestinians is made.
Many people wonder how it was possible that the holocaust was allowed to unfold. Well, we have even less reason to refuse support to the victims. We can see the genocide progressing in real time. Yet we allow people like yourself to obfuscate and misdirect. We are far more to blame and have nowhere to hide.
Ah empathy – do they know its Christmas …
It's happening again in Sudan, the Tigray war before that, famine in Yemen in the Trump era. We all know the loss of life in Syria and where Islamic State conquered.
I was visited by Wellington police (in essence) for opposition to the Iraq regime change …. (politely asking if I knew Dick Medhurst)
No, I do not. But sure those who merely want amplification rather than discussion would see it that way.
I posted this – hardly obscufication.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-04-09-2024/#comment-2010097
You were dismissive that anything would be done.
Good luck, using your approach.
Wrong on both counts.
But, when have facts ever bothered appologists for genocide.
South Africa's case against Israel is most definitly one alleging Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
https://apnews.com/article/world-court-israel-genocide-gaza-south-africa-774ab3c3d57fd7bcc627602eaf47fd98
Ukraine's case against Russia, is a little more complicated, but is also not about war crimes. (Even though Russia has definitely committed them)
Ukraine took Russia to the International Court of Justice, not for committing war crimes, but for abusing the genocide convention by making false accusations of genocide.
President Putin of the Russian Federation had falsely claimed that the people of Ukraine had been committing genocide against Russian speakers. and ethnic Russians. And used this as his excuse for ordering the invasion of Ukraine.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/9/smells-of-genocide-how-putin-justifies-russias-war-in-ukraine
Lawyers for Ukraine, and 32 other countries, including New Zealand, argued befor the court that Russia must present their evidence for this alleged genocide against Russian speakers and ethnic Russians, to the court. or be found guilty of breaching the genocide convention for making false claims.
Lawyers for the Russian Federation argued up hill and down dale across two days in the International Court of Justice, that Russia should not have to present their evidence of this alleged genocide.
Weird, right?
If Russia had evidence of genocide committed by Ukraine you would think that they would want to present it to the world. Apparently not.
Unlike Russia, which has refused to present their evidence alleging genocide commited by Ukraine to the ICJ, South Africa has presented the ICJ with 84 pages of documentary evidence of genocide committed by Israel
I have said said that there is a reasonable case for claiming that Israel and Russia have committed war crimes.
But not so on the matter of genocide.
The ICJ ruling did not determine this. It did not even make the claim that the war crimes that had occurred could become (over time) genocide. Which I would see as a risk.
Specifically
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3g9g63jl17o
Can you back up this claim with any evidence?
Or will you play the Russian card.
And what of Trump and others of the GOP that support Israel whatever (with military funding) and yet blocked this to Ukraine …
Good question,
Ukraine is not at the centre of US foreign policy concerns, the Middle East is.
It only natural that the venal centre-right and the fanatic far-right in the US would want to abandon Ukraine to better help support America's unsinkable battle ship in the oil rich Middle East.
After all it was the previous Trump administration that began the process of cementing US domination of the Middle East, with the Abraham Accords.
And achieved this despite moving the US embassy to occupied Jerusalem, defacto recognised Israel's illegal by internation law annexation of the occupied territories.
A previous bottom line for Moslem and Arab countries throughout the region.
America's wet dream of uniting the pro-US Islamo-fascist dictatorships, with the proto-fascist apartheid state of Israel, was well on track, before October 7 happened.
A Trump administration will dump Ukraine in a flash. To pour all that money and military aid into crushing the rebellion in Gaza and the West Bank, and possibly will be needed for war with Iran as well, for which Trump will need all the money and arms the US can muster. According to Trump, Russia's invasion of Ukraine can be left up to Europe to sort out.
The PNAC view of the world was to continue to remove left wing regimes after the end of the Cold War – Iraq, Libya and Syria were secular and socialist. Also the oil sector sanctions on Venezuela.
The conservative right in the USA see the EU as a liberal secular regime.
We cannot overlook the Trump administration recognising the Israeli (ring wing nationalist) annexation of the Golan Heights (not walked back by Biden) after Russia annexed Crimea.
This quid pro quo followed after the earlier ones, Abkhazia and South Ossetia off Georgia quid pro quo for changes in Yugoslavia/Serbia).
So we can see the way of Trump operates (abandoning the women of Afghanistan), he operates in a world of strongman conservative nationalism.
In such a world, nations become more dependent on their arms supply – South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Oz and NATO. The MIC as a profit centre.
NACT1 Infighting…(unsurprising given the loons in it), but with a divergence on NZ's Grocery Duopoly.
ACT Primo Dave opines…
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/focusonpolitics/527289/act-pledges-pushback-on-supermarket-crackdown
Riiight. So how has that worked with NZ's Electricity market ? Does he seriously expect us to believe that the Grocery Duopolists will give any of their $Billions freely?
This has been going on for so long, I would find it hard to believe its going to change. Reduced products quite often dont scan as such, and others arent updated…
In reality we would be better served by Consumer NZ having much more involvement !
Nothing will happen with the regulation of Supermarkets, the problem has been around 30-40 years and it has not and never will be addressed.
Little dave is to blinded by ideology to see that you need regulation to create a competitive playing feild!
Yep. As we know NZ's Electricity competition shows that. Thankfully we have Consumer NZ battling for us : )
Seymour singing for his supper by parroting meaningless lines.
You cant have proper competition without these behemoths giving up the real estate they hold in key locations to a competitor.
This only gets sorted with a level of bipartisan political buy in that exists in dreams.
David wants no regulations plunder of the people, the ACT way.
And Sue Chetwin, Grocery Action Group nails it..
Also there was this. Facial Recognition by Big
Brother..Grocer.Yea, no chance of misuse there. And also, what about your Store staffing levels ? And pay rates are pretty low for same Staff !
Anyway, the Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster
Foodstuffs legal eagle reckons…
Fuck off. I recall a kinda similar line from sir John Key ?
Seymour is basically a prostitute.
NYT publisher A.G. Sulzberger on attacks on press freedom globally and the new model of press suppression in Brazil and India. Wonder why it's in the WaPo?
These new would-be strongmen have developed a style more subtle than their counterparts in totalitarian states such as Russia, China and Saudi Arabia, who systematically censor, jail or kill journalists. For those trying to undercut independent journalism in democracies, the attacks typically exploit banal — and often nominally legal — weaknesses in a nation’s systems of governance. This playbook generally has five parts.
https://archive.li/ijdLf (wapo)
Just be careful in putting Brasil in the same category as the others. There, it is the corporatised judiciary who are <a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/under-attack-so-many-quarters-press-freedom-brazil-now-threatened-some-judges-too" rel="nofollow ugc">shutting down journalists who report on their legal rulings</a>, not the government.
Could do better.
https://rsf.org/en/country/brazil
https://rsf.org/en/index
I'd forgotten just how good the Alex Jones' rants as an indie folk song is.
I'm angry
I've had enough of these people
They're a bunch of Christian-murdering scum that run giant death factories
Keeping babies alive and selling their body parts
What more do you need to know about these people?
I go out and face these scum
They literally crawl out from under rocks
They have green-looking skin
And they run around screaming "We love Satan, we want to eat babies."
I have them on video
https://genius.com/Nick-lutsko-alex-jones-as-an-indie-folk-song-lyrics
With the Harris vote now stagnating, feels like the delay of Trump's sentencing to after the election is the loss of her last chance.
Prepare people, for Trump 2.
There are a lot of marginal states.
Harris holds the national lead demonstrating a likely win, as per Clinton, then Biden.
Trump won marginals in 2016, Biden in 2020.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/2024/national/
https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/president/general/2024/trump-vs-harris
She's in a much weaker position than Biden was.
Trump only needs Georgia. Harris needs all the industrial states and Pennsylvania for her shot.
I say Doom! Doom!
Biden never had North Carolina in play.
Harris has Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia in a line up.
Once in a blue moon, Seven Society (Jefferson and Madison) of the rotunda, Chapel Hill well and castle and the Greek Village are in accord.
Governor Kemp is asking the state AG whether he can remove the state election board (taken over by Trump loyalists).
The ending to this election is going to be far worse than Trump's 2020 loss because it will be so close: whichever side loses is going to tie up the courts for months contesting legitimacy.
My favourite though is still LBJ's 1948 Senate nomination contest by LBJ against Coke Stevenson. By one vote. If you ever get hands on a copy, check out Rise to Power by Anthony Caro. Total nasty political thriller.
As a very casual observer of US politics, and since I've seen Kamala Harris speak a few times, I can't see the election going any other way than towards Trump.
As a commenter here said (sorry, I forget who) in Harris: Democrats, rather than getting a female Barack Obama they are getting a black Hilary Clinton.
Just a step too far for the electorate.
arseholes
//
@TaxpayersUnion
Metlink spends more than $1.3 million on seven toilets The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can report through an Official Information Act that Metlink has paid $1,300,245 dollars (inc. GST) for a project to install seven toilets in Wellington, exclusively for the use of bus drivers. The locations of the toilets include Houghton Bay, Darlington Road, Wilton, Mairangi, Lyall Bay, Highbury and Karori.
“This latest waste story is another example of government failing to deliver on the basics. Spending a penny is one thing, but spending 130 million pennies for just seven toilets takes the biscuit.
“At an average cost of over $185,000 per toilet, it makes you wonder – are the seats made of gold? While looking after bus drivers is important, that money could have surely gone further if spent better.
“Through only a quick Google search, Metlink could have bought seven high end portable toilets that would have cost below $2,000 each. Not only that, with the money left over, they could have hired another twenty full-time drivers. Surely that would have helped with the constant bus delays more than installing seven loos?
“Metlink needs to start thinking about where they get their money from. Ratepayers are paying their rates with the expectation that they are paying for busses that will be on time, not on frankly ludicrous toilet spending. To waste a million dollars of ratepayers’ hard-earned money in a time when Kiwis are facing a cost-of-living crisis shows how out of touch they are with the people they are supposed to serve.”
https://xcancel.com/TaxpayersUnion/status/1831868403327627583
Yup, they probably consider even a plastic bottle to urinate in as too much money spent.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/katherinehamilton/2023/05/24/delivery-drivers-sue-amazon-for-being-forced-to-pee-in-bottles/
Closer to home.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/126151544/bus-driver-sacked-for-covering-cameras-so-he-could-urinate-wins-his-job-back-plus-damages
Wonderful thread from Scott Hamilton.
@SikotiHamiltonR
1/4 Tuheitia has taken his place on Taupiri, the maunga that seems to float on the Waikato like a great ship of the dead. Taupiri is a sacred place for Tainui, & also for some Pakeha. In October 1933 a leader died here & an alliance was born.
https://xcancel.com/SikotiHamiltonR/status/1831604834698711115
In 1863 the White Pakeha armies illegally invaded the Waikato just like the murdering Jews illegally invaded Palestine in 1948
I hope your NZ history is more reliable than your Middle Eastern.
In 1948, the surrounding Arab armies invaded the newly declared (by UN mandate) state of Israel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Palestine_war