I see the man-child narcissist in the USA wants to have his own parade like his good mates in other parts of the world. I reckon his will be huger than theirs though.
I think it's great that he got over the trauma of not being able to serve in the forces and now loves to be seen with the military. That shows the enormous courage and quality of the man.
Ever since President William McKinley’s administration — which began in 1897 — every single occupant of the White House, save for Trump, has had a dog at some point.
“I don’t know, I don’t feel good,” he said. “Feels a little phony to me.” A lot of people had told him to get a dog because it would look good politically, he added, but he hadn’t felt the need because “that’s not the relationship I have with my people.”
lol didn't need one politically – what a crooked stick he is
First POTUS to legitimise a murderous thug and his regime's system of collective punishment that results in the intergenerational and often lifetime incarceration, forced hard labour, calculated starvation and torture of families percieved or otherwise to be enemies of the ruling clique.
You could have mentioned their green tech and decent public transport that functions under heavy sanctions, but that would be a whole lot less warmongering.
It's just Trumpian farce. No-one who has been watching him objectively could think it was anything but. It may be to show Iran that if they would just abandon their plans for nuclear use they too could be sweet flavour of the month.
The North Koreans being shown the pics on their side of the border don't necessarily know the orange one is a petulant manbaby.
All many of them know is that the regime rattled sabres with the US and the US now recognises their regime. Helps keep the slave camps going for a bit longer.
Given that list was heavy with right wing fuckwits, I'm not sure you demonstrated any point of note. Got a similar list of lefties who refused service using paperwork shenanigans? Not conchies, who stood up and said "no" and took the consequences, but the dudes who sadly just missed out because of some convenient condition that hasn't stopped them leading full lives, or because their bosses just really needed them and only them as a law clerk?
I'm sure that the millionaire fraudster living in a golden mansion (that would make Louis IV make snide comments to Liberace about the tacky decor) and the hardline prosecutor would both have been regarded as "lefties", but I was thinking someone more conventionally "left", even for the US.
Sanders was a conchy, and faced billyclubs anyway. Biden seems to be the closest bet, as far as I can see.
To be fair, he was dealing with his own personal Vietnam at the time. It was so unfair to him that he didn't get a Congressional Medal of Honor for it.
The problem the world has with trump is not trump himself but the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have been disenfranchised by previous administrations and think he is the second messiah because his go to phrase is “ put America first.” Don’t blame the clown preacher blame the dumb congregation.
You could also blame tradition. America First has been percolating through US society for a century, so all Trump did was revive it. Complex memes that have been doing contagion for a century are very powerful.
The Native American Party, renamed the American Party in 1855 and commonly known as the Know Nothing movement, was an Americannativistpolitical party that operated nationally in the mid-1850s. It was primarily anti-Catholic, xenophobic, and hostile to immigration, starting originally as a secret society. The movement briefly emerged as a major political party in the form of the American Party. Adherents to the movement were to reply "I know nothing" when asked about its specifics by outsiders, thus providing the group with its common name.
Ah, so that's where Sergeant Schultz got his favourite saying from!
"The Prime Minister sounded increasingly like Sergeant Schultz, his repeated “I know NOTHING” denials less and less credible or convincing as the interviews proceeded. He looked irritated and out of sorts, frustrated by the inability of these idiots to see his point of view that, though he was Minister for the SIS, he could not be held responsible for the actions of people in his department that impinged on the impartiality of the Service. It had nothing to do with him."
Blame them both New view. Cheap, crass, dim-witted, a thug and devoid of class. That's Trump for you and his supporters are no better.
I listened to some of Trump's 4th July speech extolling the military – courageous and the mightiest soldiers in the world he said – or something like that. How would he know? He was a draft dodger.
In the meantime the concentration camps are thriving in the South but not the inmates, they are dying. It's only a matter of time before the camps start appearing elsewhere.
Thanks Anne and Andre (that's got a good ring about it …) will check them out.
I tried to see some on an Indy100 link but that froze my computer so did not pursue that link or others.
You two will also appreciate the link that Sabine put up at 6 on Open Mike – check it out if you haven't already. LOL.
I suspect it is going to be another little sleep night tonight as I check out July 4 'celebrations' in my adopted US home town (Washington DC). I lived there for almost 7 years, aged 14 – 21, so it disgusts me what Trump is doing to some very important American traditions etc.
Decoding things, looks like democracy is intended to be introduced to Europe in 2025, and it will happen as the result of realistic disobedience. The code format seems to be derived from standard internet password format (upper & lower case letters mixed with numbers), to get younger generations aboard I guess.
Top work those Westland Milk farmers who took the dividends for years, underinvested, hollowed the company with low product development, made the only choice to go for a for sale, cut its executives bonuses if they completed the sale, the sold it off the the Chinese.
Pack of pricks.
Really, really hard to see us getting ahead as a country when this is the long term attitude of milk farmers.
They bring to mind some of the cockies of my youth.
Dumb AF on their 60 acre rehab blocks with 40 cows, separators and pigs, yet they considered themselves landed gentry because could afford a new car every other year.
It looks like dressing up in traditional costume and sitting cross-legged on the floor, then taking your short sword and stabbing it deep into your abdomen before twisting it and slicing left, then right. Somehow I doubt that the board chair will genuinely take full responsibility.
Climate sceptic MP Mark Cameron has slammed National for being ‘out of touch’ by sticking to our climate commitments. Photo: Lynn GrievesonMōrena. Long stories shortest:ACT’s renowned climate sceptic MP Mark Cameron has accused National of being 'out of touch' with farmers by sticking with New Zealand’s Paris accord pledges ...
Now I've heard there was a secret chordThat David played, and it pleased the LordBut you don't really care for music, do you?It goes like this, the fourth, the fifthThe minor falls, the major liftsThe baffled king composing HallelujahSongwriter: Leonard CohenI always thought the lyrics of that great song by ...
People are getting carried away with the virtues of small warship crews. We need to remember the great vice of having few people to run a ship: they’ll quickly tire. Yes, the navy is struggling ...
Mōrena. Here’s my selection1 of scoops, breaking news, news, analyses, deep-dives, features, interviews, Op-Eds, editorials and cartoons from around Aotearoa’s political economy on housing, climate and poverty from RNZ, 1News, The Post-$2, The Press−$, Newsroom/$3, NZ Herald/$, Stuff, BusinessDesk/$, Politik-$, NBR-$, Reuters, FT/$, WSJ/$, Bloomberg/$, New York Times/$, The Atlantic-$, ...
US President Donald Trump’s hostile regime has finally forced Europe to wake up. With US officials calling into question the transatlantic alliance, Germany’s incoming chancellor, Friedrich Merz, recently persuaded lawmakers to revise the country’s debt ...
We need to establish clearer political boundaries around national security to avoid politicising ongoing security issues and to better manage secondary effects. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) revealed on 10 March that the Dural caravan ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi have reiterated their call for Government to protect workers by banning engineered stone in a submission on MBIE’s silica dust consultation. “If Brooke van Velden is genuine when she calls for an evidence-based approach to this issue, then she must support a full ban on ...
The Labour Inspectorate could soon be knocking on the door of hundreds of businesses nation-wide, as it launches a major crackdown on those not abiding by the law. NorthTec staff are on edge as Northland’s leading polytechnic proposes to stop 11 programmes across primary industries, forestry, and construction. Union coverage ...
It’s one thing for military personnel to hone skills with first-person view (FPV) drones in racing competitions. It’s quite another for them to transition to the complexities of the battlefield. Drone racing has become a ...
Seymour says there will be no other exemptions granted to schools wanting to opt out of the Compass contract. Photo: Lynn GrievesonLong stories shortest:David Seymour has denied a request from a Christchurch school and any other schools to be exempted from the Compass school lunch programme, saying the contract ...
Russian President Boris Yeltsin, U.S. President Bill Clinton, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, and British Prime Minister John Major signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in ...
Edit: The original story said “Palette Cleanser” in both the story, and the headline. I am never, ever going to live this down. Chain me up, throw me into the pit.Hi,With the world burning — literally and figuratively — I felt like Webworm needed a little palate cleanser at the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah Wesseler(Image credit: Antonio Huerta) Growing up in suburban Ohio, I was used to seeing farmland and woods disappear to make room for new subdivisions, strip malls, and big box stores. I didn’t usually welcome the changes, but I assumed others ...
Myanmar was a key global site for criminal activity well before the 2021 military coup. Today, illicit industry, especially heroin and methamphetamine production, still defines much of the economy. Nowhere, not even the leafiest districts ...
What've I gotta do to make you love me?What've I gotta do to make you care?What do I do when lightning strikes me?And I wake up and find that you're not thereWhat've I gotta do to make you want me?Mmm hmm, what've I gotta do to be heard?What do I ...
Here’s my selection1 of scoops, breaking news, news, analyses, deep-dives, features, interviews, Op-Eds, editorials and cartoons from around Aotearoa’s political economy on housing, climate and poverty from RNZ, 1News, The Post-$2, The Press−$, Newsroom3, NZ Herald, Stuff, BusinessDesk-$, NBR-$, Reuters, FT-$, WSJ-$, Bloomberg-$, New York Times-$, The Atlantic-$, The Economist-$ ...
Whenever Christopher Luxon drops a classically fatuous clanger or whenever the government has a bad poll – i.e. every week – the talk resumes that he is about to be rolled. This is unlikely for several reasons. For starters, there is no successor. Nicola Willis? Chris Bishop? Simeon Brown? Mark ...
Australia, Britain and European countries should loosen budget rules to allow borrowing to fund higher defence spending, a new study by the Kiel Institute suggests. Currently, budget debt rules are forcing governments to finance increases ...
The NZCTU remains strongly committed to banning engineered stone in New Zealand and implementing better occupational health protections for all workers working with silica-containing materials. In this submission to MBIE, the NZCTU outlines that we have an opportunity to learn from Australia’s experience by implementing a full ban of engineered ...
The Prime Minister has announced a big win in trade negotiations with India.It’s huge, he told reporters. We didn't get everything we came for but we were able to agree on free trade in clothing, fabrics, car components, software, IT consulting, spices, tea, rice, and leather goods.He said that for ...
I have been trying to figure out the logic of Trump’s tariff policies and apparent desire for a global trade war. Although he does not appear to comprehend that tariffs are a tax on consumers in the country doing the tariffing, I can (sort of) understand that he may think ...
As Syria and international partners negotiate the country’s future, France has sought to be a convening power. While France has a history of influence in the Middle East, it will have to balance competing Syrian ...
One of the eternal truths about Aotearoa's economy is that we are "capital poor": there's not enough money sloshing around here to fund the expansion of local businesses, or to build the things we want to. Which gets used as an excuse for all sorts of things, like setting up ...
National held its ground until late 2023 Verion, Talbot Mills & Curia Polls (Red = Labour, Blue = National)If we remove outlier results from Curia (National Party November 2023) National started trending down in October 2024.Verion Polls (Red = Labour, Blue = National)Verian alone shows a clearer deterioration in early ...
In a recent presentation, I recommended, quite unoriginally, that governments should have a greater focus on higher-impact, lower-probability climate risks. My reasoning was that current climate model projections have blind spots, meaning we are betting ...
Daddy, are you out there?Daddy, won't you come and play?Daddy, do you not care?Is there nothing that you want to say?Songwriters: Mark Batson / Beyonce Giselle Knowles.This morning, a look at the much-maligned NZ Herald. Despised by many on the left as little more than a mouthpiece for the National ...
Employers, unions and health and safety advocates are calling for engineered stone to be banned, a day before consultation on regulations closes. On Friday the PSA lodged a pay equity claim for library assistants with the Employment Relations Authority, after the stalling of a claim lodged with six councils in ...
Long stories shortest in Aotearoa’s political economy:Christopher Luxon surprises by announcing trade deal talks with India will start next month, and include beef and dairy. Napier is set to join Whakatane, Dunedin and Westport in staging a protest march against health spending restraints hitting their hospital services. Winston Peters ...
At a time of rising geopolitical tensions and deepening global fragmentation, the Ukraine war has proved particularly divisive. From the start, the battle lines were clearly drawn: Russia on one side, Ukraine and the West ...
Here’s my selection1 of scoops, breaking news, news, analyses, deep-dives, features, interviews, Op-Eds, editorials and cartoons from around Aotearoa’s political economy on housing, climate and poverty from RNZ, 1News, The Post-$2, The Press−$, Newsroom3, NZ Herald, Stuff, BusinessDesk-$, Newsroom-$, Politik-$, NBR-$, Reuters, FT-$, WSJ-$, Bloomberg-$, New York Times-$, The Atlantic-$, ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 9, 2025 thru Sat, March 15, 2025. This week's roundup is again published by category and sorted by number of articles included in each. We are still interested ...
Max Harris and Max Rashbrooke discuss how we turn around the right wing slogans like nanny state, woke identity politics, and the inefficiency of the public sector – and how we build a progressive agenda. From Donald Trump to David Seymour, from Peter Dutton to Christopher Luxon, we are subject to a ...
The Government dominated the political agenda this week with its two-day conference pitching all manner of public infrastructure projects for Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories shortest in our political economy this week: The Government ploughed ahead with offers of PPPs to pension fund managers ...
You know that it's a snake eat snake worldWe slither and serpentine throughWe all took a bite, and six thousand years laterThese apples getting harder to chewSongwriters: Shawn Mavrides.“Please be Jack Tame”, I thought when I saw it was Seymour appearing on Q&A. I’d had a guts full of the ...
So here we are at the wedding of Alexandra Vincent Martelli and David Seymour.Look at all the happy prosperous guests! How proud Nick Mowbray looks of the gift he has made of a mountain of crap plastic toys stuffed into a Cybertruck.How they drink, how they laugh, how they mug ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is waste heat from industrial activity the reason the planet is warming? Waste heat’s contribution to global warming is a small fraction of ...
Some continue to defend David Seymour on school lunches, sidestepping his errors to say:“Well the parents should pack their lunch” and/or “Kids should be grateful for free food.”One of these people is the sitting Prime Minister.So I put together a quick list of why complaint is not only appropriate - ...
“Bugger the pollsters!”WHEN EVERYBODY LIVED in villages, and every village had a graveyard, the expression “whistling past the graveyard” made more sense. Even so, it’s hard to describe the Coalition Government’s response to the latest Taxpayers’ Union/Curia Research poll any better. Regardless of whether they wanted to go there, or ...
Prof Jane Kelsey examines what the ACT party and the NZ Initiative are up to as they seek to impose on the country their hardline, right wing, neoliberal ideology. A progressive government elected in 2026 would have a huge job putting Humpty Dumpty together again and rebuilding a state that ...
See I try to make a differenceBut the heads of the high keep turning awayThere ain't no useWhen the world that you love has goneOoh, gotta make a changeSongwriters: Arapekanga Adams-Tamatea / Brad Kora / Hiriini Kora / Joel Shadbolt.Aotearoa for Sale.This week saw the much-heralded and somewhat alarming sight ...
Here’s my selection1 of scoops, breaking news, news, analyses, deep-dives, features, interviews, Op-Eds, editorials and cartoons from around Aotearoa’s political economy on housing, climate and poverty from RNZ, 1News, The Post-$2, The Press−$, Newsroom3, NZ Herald, Stuff, BusinessDesk-$, NBR-$, Reuters, FT-$, WSJ-$, Bloomberg-$, New York Times-$, The Atlantic-$, The Economist-$ ...
By international standards the New Zealand healthcare system appears satisfactory – certainly no worse generally than average. Yet it is undergoing another redisorganisation.While doing some unrelated work, I came across some international data on the healthcare sector which seemed to contradict my – and the conventional wisdom’s – view of ...
When Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he knew that he was upending Europe’s security order. But this was more of a tactical gambit than a calculated strategy ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Over the last year, I’ve been warning about Luxon’s pitch to privatise our public assets.He had told reporters in October that nothing was off the cards:Schools, hospitals, prisons, and ...
When ASPI’s Cyclone Tracy: 50 Years On was published last year, it wasn’t just a historical reflection; it was a warning. Just months later, we are already watching history repeat itself. We need to bake ...
1. Why was school lunch provider The Libelle Group in the news this week?a. Grand Winner in Pie of The Yearb. Scored a record 108% on YELP c. Bought by Oravida d. Went into liquidation2. What did our Prime Minister offer prospective investors at his infrastructure investment jamboree?a. The Libelle ...
South Korea has suspended new downloads of DeepSeek, and it was were right to do so. Chinese tech firms operate under the shadow of state influence, misusing data for surveillance and geopolitical advantage. Any country ...
Previous big infrastructure PPPs such as Transmission Gully were fiendishly complicated to negotiate, generated massive litigation and were eventually rewritten anyway. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesLong stories shortest: The Government’s international investment conference ignores the facts that PPPs cost twice as much as vanilla debt-funded public infrastructure, often take ...
Woolworths has proposed a major restructure of its New Zealand store operating model, leaving workers worried their hours and pay could be cut. Public servants are being asked how productive their office is, how much they use AI, and whether they’re overloaded with meetings as part of a “census”. An ...
Robert Kaplan’s book Waste Land: A World in Permanent Crisis paints a portrait of civilisation in flux. Drawing insights from history, literature and art, he examines the effect of modern technology, globalisation and urbanisation on ...
Sexuality - Strong and warm and wild and freeSexuality - Your laws do not apply to meSexuality - Don't threaten me with miserySexuality - I demand equalitySong: Billy Bragg.First, thank you to everyone who took part in yesterday’s survey. Some questions worked better than others, but I found them interesting, ...
Hi,I just got back from a week in Japan thanks to the power of cheap flights and years of accumulated credit card points.The last time I was in Japan the government held a press conference saying they might take legal action against me and Netflix, so there was a little ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on the week in geopolitics, including Donald Trump’s wrecking of the post-WW II political landscape; andHealth Coalition Aotearoa co-chair Lisa ...
Hi,I just got back from a short trip to Japan, mostly spending time in Tokyo.I haven’t been there since we shot Dark Tourist back in 2017 — and that landed us in a bit of hot water with the Japanese government.I am glad to report I was not thrown into ...
I’ve been on Substack for almost 8 months now.It’s been good in terms of the many great individuals that populate its space. So much variety and intelligence and humour and depth.I joined because someone suggested I should ‘start a Substack,’ whatever that meant.So I did.Turning on payments seemed like the ...
Open access notables Would Adding the Anthropocene to the Geologic Time Scale Matter?, McCarthy et al., AGU Advances:The extraordinary fossil fuel-driven outburst of consumption and production since the mid-twentieth century has fundamentally altered the way the Earth System works. Although humans have impacted their environment for millennia, justification for ...
Australia should buy equipment to cheaply and temporarily convert military transport aircraft into waterbombers. On current planning, the Australian Defence Force will have a total of 34 Chinook helicopters and Hercules airlifters. They should be ...
Indonesia’s government has slashed its counterterrorism (CT) budgets, despite the persistent and evolving threat of violent extremism. Australia can support regional CT efforts by filling this funding void. Reducing funding to the National Counterterrorism Agency ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Resource Management (Prohibition on Extraction of Freshwater for On-selling) Amendment Bill (Debbie Ngarewa-Packer) The bill does exactly what it says on the label, and would effectively end the rapacious water-bottling industry ...
Twilight Time Lighthouse Cuba, Wigan Street, Wellington, Sunday 6 April, 5:30pm for 6pm start. Twilight Time looks at the life and work of Desmond Ball, (1947-2016), a barefooted academic from ‘down under’ who was hailed by Jimmy Carter as “the man who saved the world”, as he proved the fallacy ...
Foreign aid is being slashed across the Global North, nowhere more so than in the United States. Within his first month back in the White House, President Donald Trump dismantled the US Agency for International ...
Nicola Willis has proposed new procurement rules that unions say will lead to pay cuts for already low-paid workers in cleaning, catering and security services that are contracted by government. The Crimes (Theft by Employer) Amendment Bill passed its third reading with support from all the opposition parties and NZ ...
Most KP readers will not know that I was a jazz DJ in Chicago and Washington DC while in grad school in the early and mid 1980s. In DC I joined WPFW as a grave shift host, then a morning drive show host (a show called Sui Generis, both for ...
Long stories shortest: The IMF says a capital gains tax or land tax would improve real economic growth and fix the budget. GDP is set to be smaller by 2026 than it was in 2023. Compass is flying in school lunches from Australia. 53% of National voters say the new ...
Last year in October I wrote “Where’s The Opposition?”. I was exasperated at the relative quiet of the Green Party, Labour and Te Pati Māori (TPM), as the National led Coalition ticked off a full bingo card of the Atlas Network playbook.1To be fair, TPM helped to energise one of ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkGood data visualizations can help make climate change more visceral and understandable. Back in 2016 Ed Hawkins published a “climate spiral” graph that ended up being pretty iconic – it was shown at the opening ceremony of the Olympics that year – and ...
An agreement to end the war in Ukraine could transform Russia’s relations with North Korea. Moscow is unlikely to reduce its cooperation with Pyongyang to pre-2022 levels, but it may become more selective about areas ...
This week, the Government is hosting a grand event aimed at trying to interest big foreign capital players in financing capital works in New Zealand, particularly its big rural motorway programme. Financing vs funding: a quick explainer The key word in the sentence above is financing. It is important ...
The Green Party stands in support of volunteer firefighters petitioning the Government to step up and change legislation to provide volunteers the same ACC coverage and benefits as their paid counterparts. ...
At 2.30am local time, Israel launched a treacherous attack on Gaza killing more than 300 defenceless civilians while they slept. Many of them were children. This followed a more than 2 week-long blockade by Israel on the entry of all goods and aid into Gaza. Israel deliberately targeted densely populated ...
Living Strong, Aging Well There is much discussion around the health of our older New Zealanders and how we can age well. In reality, the delivery of health services accounts for only a relatively small percentage of health outcomes as we age. Significantly, dry warm housing, nutrition, exercise, social connection, ...
Shane Jones’ display on Q&A showed how out of touch he and this Government are with our communities and how in sync they are with companies with little concern for people and planet. ...
Labour does not support the private ownership of core infrastructure like schools, hospitals and prisons, which will only see worse outcomes for Kiwis. ...
The Green Party is disappointed the Government voted down Hūhana Lyndon’s member’s Bill, which would have prevented further alienation of Māori land through the Public Works Act. ...
The Labour Party will support Chloe Swarbrick’s member’s bill which would allow sanctions against Israel for its illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territories. ...
The Government’s new procurement rules are a blatant attack on workers and the environment, showing once again that National’s priorities are completely out of touch with everyday Kiwis. ...
With Labour and Te Pāti Māori’s official support, Opposition parties are officially aligned to progress Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick’s Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in Palestine. ...
Te Pāti Māori extends our deepest aroha to the 500 plus Whānau Ora workers who have been advised today that the govt will be dismantling their contracts. For twenty years , Whānau Ora has been helping families, delivering life-changing support through a kaupapa Māori approach. It has built trust where ...
Labour welcomes Simeon Brown’s move to reinstate a board at Health New Zealand, bringing the destructive and secretive tenure of commissioner Lester Levy to an end. ...
This morning’s announcement by the Health Minister regarding a major overhaul of the public health sector levels yet another blow to the country’s essential services. ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill that will ensure employment decisions in the public service are based on merit and not on forced woke ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ targets. “This Bill would put an end to the woke left-wing social engineering and diversity targets in the public sector. ...
Police have referred 20 offenders to Destiny Church-affiliated programmes Man Up and Legacy as ‘wellness providers’ in the last year, raising concerns that those seeking help are being recruited into a harmful organisation. ...
Te Pāti Māori welcomes the resignation of Richard Prebble from the Waitangi Tribunal. His appointment in October 2024 was a disgrace- another example of this government undermining Te Tiriti o Waitangi by appointing a former ACT leader who has spent his career attacking Māori rights. “Regardless of the reason for ...
Police Minister Mark Mitchell is avoiding accountability by refusing to answer key questions in the House as his Government faces criticism over their dangerous citizen’s arrest policy, firearm reform, and broken promises to recruit more police. ...
The number of building consents issued under this Government continues to spiral, taking a toll on the infrastructure sector, tradies, and future generations of Kiwi homeowners. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Prime Minister to rule out joining the AUKUS military pact in any capacity following the scenes in the White House over the weekend. ...
The Green Party is appalled by the Government’s plan to disestablish Resource Teachers of Māori (RTM) roles, a move that takes another swing at kaupapa Māori education. ...
The Government’s levies announcement is a step in the right direction, but they must be upfront about who will pay its new infrastructure levies and ensure that first-home buyers are protected from hidden costs. ...
The Government’s levies announcement is a step in the right direction, but they must be upfront about who will pay its new infrastructure levies and ensure that first-home buyers are protected from hidden costs. ...
After months of mana whenua protecting their wāhi tapu, the Green Party welcomes the pause of works at Lake Rotokākahi and calls for the Rotorua Lakes Council to work constructively with Tūhourangi and Ngāti Tumatawera on the pathway forward. ...
New Zealand First continues to bring balance, experience, and commonsense to Government. This week we've made progress on many of our promises to New Zealand.Winston representing New ZealandWinston Peters is overseas this week, with stops across the Middle East and North Asia. Winston's stops include Saudi Arabia, the ...
The anniversary of New Zealand’s worst mass shooting—which the United Nations designated in 2022 as an International Day to Combat Islamophobia—attracted minimal media coverage. ...
Voters who find themselves disappointed in the current government should realise that these parties are actually delivering what they promised – for all the talk of efficiency, they never promised real change. ...
While zoomers are skewering millennials online, the results of market research are damning: copious amounts of optimism, superfanning and fairy smut define Gen Z. Hello. It’s a 1991 baby here, a millennial. I’ve been happily scrolling on Instagram, trying to dodge algorithmic exposure to cortisol bellies, body transformations and how-to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharha Sharha, PhD Candidate in Kamasutra Feminism, Cardiff Metropolitan University A carved erotic scene on the outer wall of temple in Khajuraho complex, India.Cortyn/Shutterstock For some people, the Kamasutra is little more than a name associated with condom brands, scented oils ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Cantrell, Senior Lecturer – Writing, Editing, and Publishing, University of Southern Queensland Netflix Filmed in a one-take style, Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham’s new crime drama Adolescence is being hailed by critics as a technical masterpiece. Out now on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yucong Wang, Lecturer, School of Law and Justice, University of Newcastle In the first few months of 2025, there’s been a flurry of private venture space missions. Some have been successful, such as American company Firefly Aerospace landing its spacecraft Blue Ghost ...
Comment: It was all going so well. Then Christopher Luxon threatened to get in his own way.Luxon went into his India trip hoping to accumulate a few singles and keep the scoreboard ticking over, but ended up clearing the boundary.Launching free trade negotiations, deepening his leader-to-leader ties with Indian Prime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grant Duncan, Teaching Fellow in Politics and International Relations, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images We’re roughly half way through this parliamentary term, and it looks as though the 2026 election could deliver “Christopher vs Chris: the sequel”. Neither ...
After months of bad headlines, Chris Luxon’s trip to India seems to be reaping dividends – and not just economically, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. PM puts wins on the board Christopher Luxon is having a ...
New Zealand has joined military exercises in the Californian desert testing the world's most lethal drones, even as the Pentagon moves to fully embrace AI. ...
We call on the New Zealand government to immediately condemn these attacks and implement sanctions against Israel, in accordance with international law. ...
From coup conjecture at home to a breakthrough abroad. It wasn’t just the one week, not really. Back in February a series of unfortunate events – many of his own making – befell Christopher Luxon. After a burst of growthy-changey music at the outset of the year, the weeks since ...
In a long overdue move, Act will become New Zealand’s first modern rightwing party to run candidates in council elections. David Seymour announced on Tuesday that the Act Party will stand council candidates in the October local body election. The party has opened expressions of interest in all council districts ...
Analysis: Experts say NZ will need to carefully navigate sensitive issues with India, with both countries vulnerable to criticism on human rights and indigenous rights – but that doesn’t mean Luxon should stay silent The post How to talk human rights with India and not trigger a diplomatic incident appeared ...
There were two knock-out sights when I interviewed Jacqueline Fahey, 95, in the dining room of her Grey Lynn home, a wooden box darkened and surrounded by tropical jungle – the vast trunk of a Phoenix palm that dominated the picture window, and the sight of Fahey herself, a beautifully ...
When journalist Paddy Gower attempted to trademark his brand and news entity “This is the F***ing News” a year ago, his application stalled at the Intellectual Property of New Zealand. (The asterisks are ours – Gower’s application used the full word.)The reason? It would “likely offend a significant section of ...
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I see the man-child narcissist in the USA wants to have his own parade like his good mates in other parts of the world. I reckon his will be huger than theirs though.
https://time.com/5619191/donald-trump-july-4-speech-controversy/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMLtkp4AFkchttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMLtkp4AFkc
tRump sized.
https://twitter.com/biner54/status/1146436537074298880
Hey, those were among the best APCs money could buy back in 1990.
Sabine also posted a wonderful picture at 6 on Open Mike today – well worth a look and a laugh.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-04-07-2019/#comment-1634002
all those tanks will do wonders for the US crumbling infrastructure
Those seventy tonne behemoths should grind the National Mall into hard fill.
So there's that.
I think it's great that he got over the trauma of not being able to serve in the forces and now loves to be seen with the military. That shows the enormous courage and quality of the man.
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/donald-trump-avoided-the-military-draft-which-was-common-at-the-time-vietnam-war-2018-12?r=US&IR=T
Anyone with connections avoided the draft
https://www.cheatsheet.com/money-career/its-not-just-donald-trump-these-famous-americans-also-received-draft-deferments.html
tRump is the chickenhawk personified – a bullying, strutting, obnoxious and dangerous thug who liked to play soldier boi dress-up.
https://web.archive.org/web/20110604160503/http://www.nhgazette.com/chickenhawks/
First US Pres to step inside North Korea though, and gets along pretty well with Vlad too. Hopeful signs for the world.
he's not cool – 120 years
this is why he doesn't
lol didn't need one politically – what a crooked stick he is
First POTUS to legitimise a murderous thug and his regime's system of collective punishment that results in the intergenerational and often lifetime incarceration, forced hard labour, calculated starvation and torture of families percieved or otherwise to be enemies of the ruling clique.
Too many CNN talking points possibly there Joe…
You could have mentioned their green tech and decent public transport that functions under heavy sanctions, but that would be a whole lot less warmongering.
Apparently things were as peachy as fuck in Theresienstadt, too.
/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZt92quVOsg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresienstadt_(1944_film)
Legitimising the NK regime is a shit idea.
And so is joe90's Godwinism.
Likening Bartlett's vile propaganda to an historical example ain't Godwinism.
/
It's just Trumpian farce. No-one who has been watching him objectively could think it was anything but. It may be to show Iran that if they would just abandon their plans for nuclear use they too could be sweet flavour of the month.
The North Koreans being shown the pics on their side of the border don't necessarily know the orange one is a petulant manbaby.
All many of them know is that the regime rattled sabres with the US and the US now recognises their regime. Helps keep the slave camps going for a bit longer.
That's a pretty good list of arseholes. Didn't know about Clinton (the least arseholey of the lot). There was a pretty good scene in Trumbo where John Wayne gets bollocked for having avoided doing anything in WW2.
Given that list was heavy with right wing fuckwits, I'm not sure you demonstrated any point of note. Got a similar list of lefties who refused service using paperwork shenanigans? Not conchies, who stood up and said "no" and took the consequences, but the dudes who sadly just missed out because of some convenient condition that hasn't stopped them leading full lives, or because their bosses just really needed them and only them as a law clerk?
Wasn't really taking into consideration their political affiliations, as I just was pointing out it was a common thing for people with connections.
But if you insist on going there
Both Trump and Rudy would have been democrats at the time.
Comments?
I'm sure that the millionaire fraudster living in a golden mansion (that would make Louis IV make snide comments to Liberace about the tacky decor) and the hardline prosecutor would both have been regarded as "lefties", but I was thinking someone more conventionally "left", even for the US.
Sanders was a conchy, and faced billyclubs anyway. Biden seems to be the closest bet, as far as I can see.
People of all colours have been getting out of ugly work and risk since time immemorial.
It is one of those things where "who is the worst" is a tad silly.
The whole democrat/republican thing in the US is a tad silly anyway given everything kind of switched.
Don't know why people bother so much talking about the idiot orange sexist twat or even US politics in general
Maybe a case that your list had a funny sample bias?
No idea
I just googled famous people who avoided the draft and that came up
Feel free to do a "right", "left", "politicians", if it gives you a buzz
John Wayne was a racist piece of scum by all accounts btw
You mean hollywood…… 14.20
Not just John wayne … who fitted in just fine 15 mins 55 secs
To be fair, he was dealing with his own personal Vietnam at the time. It was so unfair to him that he didn't get a Congressional Medal of Honor for it.
https://money.cnn.com/2016/10/14/media/trump-stern-vietnam-stds/index.html
Very excited.
'scuse the male pale stale that follows.
The Chills, Straitjacket Fits and The Blams (as well as a bunch of other artists), are playing The Others Way gig.
K Road, August 30th from 10 am.
Flying out.co.nz for tickets.
I am stoked to see The Blams.
Did you see this review/story? https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/04-07-2019/shayne-carters-rock-n-roll-memoir-and-stories-from-someone-who-was-there/
No, thanks Sacha.
IMO Kim Hill's hour long in depth interview with Shane Carter last Saturday was well worth a listen if you did not hear it.
Here is the RNZ article about the interview with links to the actual interview.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018693579/shayne-carter-on-his-memoir-dead-people-i-have-known
Thanks VV for pointing that out. Always enjoy hearing Shane Carter speak.
The problem the world has with trump is not trump himself but the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have been disenfranchised by previous administrations and think he is the second messiah because his go to phrase is “ put America first.” Don’t blame the clown preacher blame the dumb congregation.
You could also blame tradition. America First has been percolating through US society for a century, so all Trump did was revive it. Complex memes that have been doing contagion for a century are very powerful.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_First
Preceded by this mob.
The Native American Party, renamed the American Party in 1855 and commonly known as the Know Nothing movement, was an American nativist political party that operated nationally in the mid-1850s. It was primarily anti-Catholic, xenophobic, and hostile to immigration, starting originally as a secret society. The movement briefly emerged as a major political party in the form of the American Party. Adherents to the movement were to reply "I know nothing" when asked about its specifics by outsiders, thus providing the group with its common name.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing
Ah, so that's where Sergeant Schultz got his favourite saying from!
"The Prime Minister sounded increasingly like Sergeant Schultz, his repeated “I know NOTHING” denials less and less credible or convincing as the interviews proceeded. He looked irritated and out of sorts, frustrated by the inability of these idiots to see his point of view that, though he was Minister for the SIS, he could not be held responsible for the actions of people in his department that impinged on the impartiality of the Service. It had nothing to do with him."
https://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/uncanny-resemblance-between-john-key-and-sergeant-schultz
Blame them both New view. Cheap, crass, dim-witted, a thug and devoid of class. That's Trump for you and his supporters are no better.
I listened to some of Trump's 4th July speech extolling the military – courageous and the mightiest soldiers in the world he said – or something like that. How would he know? He was a draft dodger.
In the meantime the concentration camps are thriving in the South but not the inmates, they are dying. It's only a matter of time before the camps start appearing elsewhere.
This is interesting. Aussie billionaire selling his property to himself for increased value.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/113994687/aussie-billionaire-tim-roberts-sells-queenstown-property-for-top-price#comments
The comments touch on a few interesting scenarios:
This is worth investigating.
My theory: Poor misunderstood billionaire suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder flips house to an alternate personality state.
Shades of 'I wasn't speaking as a Prime Minister at that moment.' Rich people can afford lots of hats.
A big thank you to whoever is choosing the Daily Review pictures – am loving the "Where is
WallyIvanka?" series!A wonderful follow-on to her performance as ‘Ambassador-at-Large’ at the G20 meeting last week – LOL Shame she was not accredited to the role …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambassador-at-large
Ya wanna know where to go to overdose on them or you prefer to enjoy them one by one as micky trickles them out?
Here’s a few of them:
https://news.sky.com/story/unwantedivanka-awkward-g20-meeting-inspires-flurry-of-parodies-11752649
My fave is "Yalta". Three old men are sitting on a park bench and Ivanka is serenading them. 😉
I wasn't going to spoil it by linking a bunch, but this one brought tears to my eyes so I had to share …
https://c.nau.ch/i/54WBw/1024/512/unwantedivanka.jpg
There's some brilliant ones out there. I nearly had a wee accident the other night. Micky must show the 'allied landing' one. It's a classic.
"The Shining" might be a bit too scary for use here, tho.
Oh my goooooddddd…..!!!!!!! Not just tears to my eyes, but what Anne said below!
Thanks Anne and Andre (that's got a good ring about it …) will check them out.
I tried to see some on an Indy100 link but that froze my computer so did not pursue that link or others.
You two will also appreciate the link that Sabine put up at 6 on Open Mike – check it out if you haven't already. LOL.
I suspect it is going to be another little sleep night tonight as I check out July 4 'celebrations' in my adopted US home town (Washington DC). I lived there for almost 7 years, aged 14 – 21, so it disgusts me what Trump is doing to some very important American traditions etc.
Just google unwanted ivanka and check out the images. Here's a starter pack.
https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=CUZob_1562030953
Won’t somebody please think of the racist, sexist turnkeys.
https://twitter.com/hectorgarza2455/status/1146484821654478848
https://www.propublica.org/article/secret-border-patrol-facebook-group-agents-joke-about-migrant-deaths-post-sexist-memes
lol put those arseholes in the cages I say – dirty racists
There's an exciting fashion trend evident in leftist political thought: using code in brand names for political parties. This quote gives two examples: "The European Realistic Disobedience Front, or MeRA25, is a left-wing Greek political party founded in 2018. Its founder and secretary is former Syriza MP and Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis. MeRa25 is part of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25), the European Spring and the Progressive International". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MeRA25
Decoding things, looks like democracy is intended to be introduced to Europe in 2025, and it will happen as the result of realistic disobedience. The code format seems to be derived from standard internet password format (upper & lower case letters mixed with numbers), to get younger generations aboard I guess.
Top work those Westland Milk farmers who took the dividends for years, underinvested, hollowed the company with low product development, made the only choice to go for a for sale, cut its executives bonuses if they completed the sale, the sold it off the the Chinese.
Pack of pricks.
Really, really hard to see us getting ahead as a country when this is the long term attitude of milk farmers.
They bring to mind some of the cockies of my youth.
Dumb AF on their 60 acre rehab blocks with 40 cows, separators and pigs, yet they considered themselves landed gentry because could afford a new car every other year.
I heard the chair of the board say he bears full responsibility, so that's ok.
I wonder what full responsibility looks like?
It looks like dressing up in traditional costume and sitting cross-legged on the floor, then taking your short sword and stabbing it deep into your abdomen before twisting it and slicing left, then right. Somehow I doubt that the board chair will genuinely take full responsibility.
I doubt that was in the prospectus.
it's a shower of gold
Do you mean in $NZ dollars?
Somebody got annoyed with the West Coast intransigence about new ideas, new business and called them 'feral'.
It's a miracle!
https://twitter.com/VicBergerIV/status/1145888528439508992
Nazis lie?
Say it ain't so.
https://twitter.com/IGD_News/status/1146238223485743104
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/07/02/news/allegations-against-portland-antifa-latest-effort-far-right-activists-vilify
Priorities.
https://twitter.com/AJEnglish/status/1146173126373498884
https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1146172211251822593
yep, one saving them, one killing them and we know which one is punished
I’ve seen a dementia sufferer get as teary AF.
https://twitter.com/ShotgunZen/status/1135453852617052161