Open mike 06/01/2025
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6:00 am, January 6th, 2025 - 18 comments
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- Submission on Treaty Principles Bill
..I/We wish to make the following comments:I oppose the Treaty Principles Bill."5. Act binds the CrownThis Act binds the Crown."How does this Act "bind the Crown" when Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which the Act refers to, has been violated by the Crown on numerous occassions, resulting in massive loss of ...2 hours ago - Sabin 33 #10 – Will utility-scale solar farms destroy the value of nearby homes?
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This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Much like 2023, many climate and energy records were broken in 2024. It was Earth’s hottest year on record by a wide margin, breaking the previous record that was set just last year by an even larger margin. Human-caused climate-warming pollution and ...1 day ago
- Submitted!
Submissions on National's racist, white supremacist Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill are due tomorrow! So today, after a good long holiday from all that bullshit, I finally got my shit together to submit on it. As I noted here, people should write their own submissions in their own ...1 day ago - The Treaty Principles Bill
My submission - made at the last moment because I'm a neurodivergent millennial - on David Seymour's terrible legislation. ...1 day ago - Rich Opinions
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- Dance Magic
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Returning to the model that was failing for most polytechnics and Institutes of Technology is not the answer. ...3 weeks ago
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Uia te pō, rangahaua te pō, whakamāramatia mai he aha tō tango, he aha tō kāwhaki? Whitirere ki te ao, tirotiro kau au, kei hea taku rātā whakamarumaru i te au o te pakanga mo te mana motuhake? Au te pō, ngū te pō, ue hā! E te kahurangi māreikura, ...4 days ago
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Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says people with diabetes and other painful conditions will benefit from a significant new qualification to boost training in foot care. “It sounds simple, but quality and regular foot and nail care is vital in preventing potentially serious complications from diabetes, like blisters or sores, which can take a long time to heal ...5 days ago
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The Government’s measures to reduce airport wait times, and better transparency around flight disruptions is delivering encouraging early results for passengers ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Improving the efficiency of air travel is a priority for the Government to give passengers a smoother, more reliable ...3 weeks ago
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The Government today announced the intended closure of the Apollo Hotel as Contracted Emergency Housing (CEH) in Rotorua, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. This follows a 30 per cent reduction in the number of households in CEH in Rotorua since National came into Government. “Our focus is on ending CEH in the Whakarewarewa area starting ...3 weeks ago
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Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp');Got a good quiz question? Send Newsroom your questions.The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 7 January appeared first on Newsroom. ...17 hours ago
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https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/01/06/protecting-our-democracy-by-reforming-parliament/?utm_source=Newsroom&utm_campaign=dc45283043-Summer_Briefing+06.01.2025&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_71de5c4b35-dc45283043-47886425&mc_cid=dc45283043&mc_eid=49bcaeb6a5
”From my own experience as a former Prime Minister, and from examining extensive international literature on the decline of democracies around the world, I am proposing 12 specific policies to reform Parliament and improve how government functions, and how law is made. These steps could help avert a decline in democracy in New Zealand and improve public confidence in our core democratic institutions.”
Sir Geoffrey Palmer being all sensible. The only one I’d mildly disagree with is lowering the voting age to 16.
Those guidelines would split NZ into fiefdoms and accelerate us towards the Right. If this really is what Sir Palmer thinks, he should join ACT to put those "democratic" ideas to the public. I'll consol myself with the thought that the RNZ story was generated by AI, and that Māori will be quite eager to stomp all over his dreams.
Palmer got the MMP he wanted, the Select Committee processes he wanted, the liberal politicized education system he wanted, and the far stronger Maori consultation processes he wanted.
And what we have is a country who voted knowing full well this Government would rapidly reverse all of that.
We will only believe in Parliament again when it starts delivering equal opportunity for all, a rapid decrease in wealth disparity, and reliable futures for their family.
Tinkering Parliamentry processes don't cut it.
Harris lost many votes, and may well have lost the election, because of Biden's support for war crimes in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon. Biden keeps supplying many billions of dollars of war materials to Israel right to the end of his presidency.
“The Biden White House is persisting in [the mass supply of weapons to Israel]despite being punished in the polls by the Progressive wing of Democrats, including in key states like Michigan, which has a large Arab-American population. The Israel issue assisted with Trump’s sailing to an easy victory as these communities wanted to ‘punish’ Biden and the Democrats.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/biden-approve-massive-8bn-weapons-sale-israel-leaving-office
“Many of the weapons [in Biden’s final $8 billion deal with Israel] especially the 500-pound bombs, have been condemned by rights groups and among some European politicians as causing mass civilian casualties. Israel has claimed it hits Hamas targets in precision strikes, but a 500-pound bomb is by design meant to inflict destruction with a large radius.”
I have no doubt that Israel uses 500 pound bombs to kill indiscriminately.
I also have no doubt that Israel conducts 'precision strikes', on Drs. on Aid Workers, on Journalists, on Poets.
The most famous, being Refaat Alareer, who was killed in a precision strike on his sister’s apartment where he went to after being warned by phone that he would be killed if he did not leave the school where he was sheltering alongside dozens of other civilians.
Alareer's poem “If I Must Die” has become one of the most read and translated poems of the 21st century.”
If
I must die,
You must live
To tell my story
To sell my things
To buy some cloth and some strings
Make it white with a long tail,
So that some child in Gaza while looking heaven in the eye
While waiting for his Dad who left in a blaze
Never saying goodbye, not even to himself
Not even to his flesh
Sees my kite, the kite you made
And thinks for an instant
There is an angel above
Bringing back love.
If I must die
Make it a
Tale
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Like it's going to be different.
Like everything US Trump voters will just have to figure it out the hard way.
They won't, though. They'll just go: "well he wasn't allowed to do it properly".
I think that support for Israel will go up with Trump in the White House. I also suspect that the people who supposedly wouldn't vote for Harris because they weren't happen with Biden's help for Israel don't exist. Unless they were really thick they would know that Trump was going to be worse. I also suspect that they weren't going to abstain from voting on the grounds that "that would show him". They would still vote for Harris even it was only for the better of two evils.
Look at what Trump's approach to Israel does involve.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/06/world/middleeast/trump-israel-support.html
That they did exist in Michigan is a known (highest number of Moslems and Palestinians).
Younger voters are the ones calling into question traditional support for Israel, but it was not the major determination in their vote, liberals still voted Dem and conservatives still voted GOP.
I am not sure how even Trump could be worse than the war crimes and (in many people's opinion) the genocide that Biden has supported. Harris basically said she would continue with Biden's policies on Israel.
My guess is that many people refused to vote for either Harris or Trump because of this issue. Policies that treated Palestinians as human beings rather than cannon fodder could have brought the Democrats many votes.
The problem in the USA (and the UK) is that really there are only two viable alternatives to choose from. Long live MMP in NZ.
If you're not sure, you only have until Jan 21st when his first round of Executive orders roll out.
Why people voted for Trump is so, so immaterial now.
You'll see the stronger reality of this politics once Germany votes AfD 20% and the fascists gain proper coalition in Austria and Trudeau loses big and hands Canada over to a v similar party to Luxon.
Harris is just fish and chip wrapper.
Harris got 6M less votes than Biden and Trump got 3M more votes than in 2020.
So there were 3M less votes than in 2020 (Harris still got 10M more votes than Clinton in 2016, when the turnout was lower).
Trump won the popular vote by 2M.
Wrong SPC.
Trump got 77.3m and 49.9%
Harris got 75.0m and 48.4%
Trump won by 2.3m votes and by 1.5%
America was split right down the middle despite what Trump claims.
I still say the Palestinian vote could have swung it for the Left-its called having beliefs and scruples.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_States_presidential_election
What is wrong?
Going by total voting, 3M more votes for Trump than he got against Biden.
As I said that indicates, there were 3M votes for Biden in 2020 that were not cast for either Trump or Harris.
The variable in right to vote, older people dying off and new younger voters.
It is a known that the low vote for Harris in Moslem and Palestinian areas of Michigan had an impact in that state.
All I can find on google about this issue since the election is here.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/11/kamal-harris-gaza-democrats-arab-american-voters-donald-trump
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_States_presidential_election
Musk tells the UK he will donate to the UK Reform Pasty … but is leader must agree to do what Musk wants.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70ep8lp4jjo
Last day for submissions for the The Treaty Principles Bill and RNZ run this! On the road with Amanda Luxon https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/538283/on-the-road-with-amanda-luxon
Must be real slow in the news world, I mean really who gives a toss
Vomit inducing article.