With the US increasingly divided from Europe and alienating just about everyone else, a Russia-China bloc, well, that would be a fair old shift for the world to get their heads around that they haven't had to do since the Sino-Soviet split of 1956.
Sure, too much distrust from the Russian elite to make it work yet, but all it takes is a singular enemy to forge common interest.
If you have 17 minutes well worth the watch. Except for left centerists, who may just cry, as it seems your approach to politics is an utter failure… Social Democrats on the other hand, should rejoice.
Regarding the Chch Mosque attacks, many people saw it as a commentary on NZ and on the state of our race relations etc yada yada, despite it being a result of a foreigner coming into our country and killing New Zealanders. Some people say Australian, so no diff.
Well now another Australian has shot four people in a rampage in Darwin.
To all those people who saw the Aussie attack as pretty much being carried out by us – you best get your apologies going again to deal with the Darwin attack. Same thing.
But then the French came into NZ and killed a person and sunk a ship. By same argument that was by us too. Yet none of us dreamed that was carried out by us, or our government.
Sadly, you're correct, marty. It didn't have to be like this of course. The Democrats had the chance in 2016 to select the most popular politician in the United States, but Wasserman Schultz and her cronies made sure they installed the worst possible candidate instead.
Do you think those brilliant Democratic Party strategists will have any luck in linking Trump to those dastardly, all-powerful Russian puppeteers? So far it's two and a half years of wasted effort. And quite a bit of comedy….
You really need to get your head out of your ass marty mars, the russia gate conspiracy theory, is just that – a conspiracy theory. Look at this http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/files/Piketty2018.pdf the whole centre left project is dead.
The only answer to these crazy right demagogues is solid social democratic candidates. Otherwise, the voters will go for the likes of trump and co.
You're quite correct, Macro. Trump is more heinous and more horrific than anyone could have imagined. His "popularity" is tenuous at best.
So why are the Democrats even considering a chump like Biden? And—more to the point—instead of pursuing the chimera of "Russian collusion", why don't they talk about Trump's massive, radical attacks on education, his dismantling of environmental regulations, his backing of dastardly regimes in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and Israel?
Five and a half more years. Then there'll be four, maybe eight years of Pence. And the "Democrats" and their media stooges will still be pushing Russian fantasies.
Because it's not even remotely a chimera. There's as much evidence of collusion by Trump as there was against the Rosenbergs. The only reason he won't go to the chair is the size and activity level of the rightwing machine.
Look at the paper bag Trump has in his hand. A Happy Meal! It's photoshopped but that is what he likes for his dinner. So he is not looking forward to his dinner which will probably be roast beef of old england and suet pudding with mushy peas. lol Queenie on the other hand is not looking forward to having to spend the evening at the dinner table with a narcistic blowhard and certified idiot. Notice that even with 45 bedrooms in Buck House they were unable to put him up for the night!
He would probably have claimed his right to what passes for Royal privilege in the Utter State of America, and pinched the towels if they had Royal crests on them.
Trump's just learnt there's going to be a big protest against him the next day, and the quaint old doll is thinking… when is this nightmare going to be over?
This is nothing new, of course. Ever since the late 70s when Paul Weyrich and others in the Reagan Revolution/Conservative movement discovered they could make big bucks by bilking little old ladies and guzzling from the billionaire's trough, it's been a dominant feature of Republican politics. But the money has gotten huge in recent years (for obvious reasons — there are more billionaires than ever funding their grift) and it's become something they really can't avoid talking about anymore.
Here's Jim Geraghty of National Review:
Back in 2015, RightWingNews reviewed the financial filings of 21 prominent conservative PACs and found the ten 10 groups at the bottom of their list spent $54.3 million only paid out $3.6 million to help get Republicans elected.
Back in 2016, campaign finance lawyer Paul H. Jossey detailed how some of the PACs operated and lamented, “the Tea Party movement is pretty much dead now, but it didn’t die a natural death. It was murdered — and it was an inside job. In a half decade, the spontaneous uprising that shook official Washington degenerated into a form of pyramid scheme that transferred tens of millions of dollars from rural, poorer Southerners and Midwesterners to bicoastal political operatives.”
With commercial tenants fleeing his Trump Tower, President Donald Trump continues to spend $37,500 a month of campaign money for office space there — with some of that cash destined for his own wallet ― even as thousands of square feet go unused at a newly opened office in northern Virginia.
No more than “four or five” campaign staffers work at Trump’s Manhattan base, according to an informal adviser close to the White House, where the campaign rents a few thousand square feet as its “headquarters.” The per-square-foot cost is likely at least triple what the Republican National Committee pays for the much larger space it shares with the campaign in Arlington, according to a HuffPost analysis.
"The world’s greatest rainforest – which is a vital provider of oxygen and carbon sequestration – lost 739sq km during the 31 days, equivalent to two football pitches every minute, according to data from the government’s satellite monitoring agency."
After his (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed) 2003 capture in Pakistan he was held and tortured in secret CIA “black sites” in Afghanistan and eastern Europe for three years, before being flown to Guantánamo Bay, the US military zone in south-east Cuba.
The base is now the venue for military tribunal hearings into 9/11 – arguably the biggest criminal case in US history, in terms of its 3,000 murder victims, the breadth of the investigation and its political significance. But nearly seven years after they began, those hearings are only inching forward…
…The 9/11 defendants arrived in Guantánamo having undergone at least three years of “enhanced interrogation” at CIA black sites. Mohammed was subjected to waterboarding – simulated drowning – 183 times. Hawsawi comes to court with a special cushion and is unable to bear sitting down for long after repeated surgeries made necessary by forced rectal examinations in CIA detention…
…There are several other constraints on the defence that would be unthinkable in federal court, especially in a death penalty case. It is not allowed to reveal classified information, but in a touch of Kafka in the Caribbean, the government has not provided clear guidance on what is classified and what is not. Even more importantly, the defence cannot call its own witnesses but must go through the government, which attorneys claim has turned down 90% of its requests.
“This is by definition a broken system. If the purpose of all this is justice, no one is getting any,” said Brig Gen John Baker, who oversees all the defence teams at Guantánamo. “The bedrock principle of our nation is justice, due process and rule of law, making sure people get proper representation. Our system is on trial here. The defence are the only ones standing up for the system…”
They need someone to keep voicing that sort of thing not just claiming greatness so that the finer details of unselfishness and compassion get a chance to bed themselves in and grow.
The dead deserve nothing more and nothing less than to have the truth told about them. Here's someone who actually tells the truth about Robert Kennedy, as opposed to the overweening propaganda and mythos….
The timing is so cynical, SocMo over in Europe for the DD 75th hiding from accountability while the blatant attempt to suppress the free media occurs.
"Defence" and Home Affairs (Ministerial boss of their police) stymied from spying on the Oz public also want to suppress media investigation of their military – similar to Hager "Hit and Run" here.
Astronomers combined 7,500 exposures containing 265,000 galaxies into one image representing more than 250 days of Hubble observing time. Like other deep surveys, astronomers can use it as a time capsule from the early universe, and as a portal into more than 13 billion years between then and now. The new image, called the Hubble Legacy Field, is a mosaic of many previous Hubble surveys…
Many of the objects that turned up in the image are located at the farthest edge of the universe; their light has traveled for billions of years to reach Earth. That means we’re seeing them as they were just after the Big Bang, when galaxies were new features of the universe.
oh and
“Garth Illingworth of the University of California, Santa Cruz, is the leader of the team that assembled the Legacy image. He pointed out in a statement that, “The Legacy Field is a pathfinder for WFIRST, which will capture an image that is 100 times larger than a typical Hubble photo. In just three weeks’ worth of observations by WFIRST, astronomers will be able to assemble a field that is much deeper and more than twice as large as the Hubble Legacy Field.””
OMG on the first one – are they all like that? Anyone who has smpled further and finds it amusing….informative…entertaining….a slice of the real world world (with hopefully blunt knieves)…?
Yup Stuff stuffed up rehashing this fake news. It's a sign of second rate media that whatever prejudice is flavour of the month gets passed around so much without anyone checking before publishing.
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 ...
In a month’s time, the Right Honourable Winston Peters will be celebrating his 80th birthday. Good for him. On the evidence though, his current war on “wokeness” looks like an old man’s cranky complaint that the ancient virtues of grit and know-how are sadly lacking in the youth of today. ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
Opinion: I was too young to remember, but when my father heard I was researching public opinions on gene technologies, he recalled a television interview that became known as ‘Corngate’. John Campbell put the then-Prime Minister Helen Clark on the spot about the suspected release of genetically modified corn seed, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Peter Dutton, when he gets on his favoured ground of security, too often goes for the quick hit, and frequently over-reaches. His suggestion of running a possible referendum to facilitate the removal of bad ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marika Sosnowski, Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of Melbourne When a ceasefire in the war between Hamas and Israel finally came into effect on January 19, the world breathed a collective sigh of relief. However, that ceasefire agreement, and its associated ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marika Sosnowski, Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of Melbourne When a ceasefire in the war between Hamas and Israel finally came into effect on January 19, the world breathed a collective sigh of relief. However, that ceasefire agreement, and its associated ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marika Sosnowski, Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of Melbourne When a ceasefire in the war between Hamas and Israel finally came into effect on January 19, the world breathed a collective sigh of relief. However, that ceasefire agreement, and its associated ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Next week’s budget will have cost-of-living assistance that will be meaningful and substantial but “responsible”, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has said. In a Tuesday speech framing the budget Chalmers said, “it will be a responsible ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Greens have heaped a lot of pressure on the government during this term, from issues of the environment, housing, and Medicare, to the war in the Middle East. With the polls close to a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gabrielle Meagher, Professor Emerita, School of Society, Communication and Culture, Macquarie University On Monday, an ABC’s Four Corners investigation reported shocking cases of abuse and neglect in Australian childcare centres. This included examples of children being sexually abused, restrained for hours in ...
By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist Papua New Guinea being declared a Christian nation may offer the impression that the country will improve, but it is only “an illusion”, according to a Catholic priest in the country. Last week, the PNG Parliament amended the nation’s constitution, introducing a declaration in ...
Asia Pacific Report A national Palestinian advocacy group has called on the Aotearoa New Zealand government to immediately condemn Israel for its resumption today of “genocidal attacks” on the almost 2 million Palestinians trapped in the besieged Gaza enclave. Media reports said that more than 230 people had been killed ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Cohen, Senior Lecturer, University of Technology Sydney The National Rugby League has recently made headlines for trying to crack the American sporting landscape by hosting matches in Las Vegas. But the NRL’s great rival, the Australian Football League (AFL), has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John L. Hopkins, Associate Professor of Management, Swinburne University of Technology The reality of shorter working hours could be one step closer for many Australians, pending the outcome of the federal election. The Greens, who could control crucial cross bench votes in ...
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/new-zealand-well-being-budget-happiness-economy_n_5cf4f7e1e4b0e8085e3cf4b0
https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/14318/hilary-long-gdp-no-match-happiness
https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/in-perspective/an-environment-for-the-self-738106.html
https://www.7sur7.be/monde/que-signifie-le-budget-bien-etre-de-la-nouvelle-zelande~a7bf6ad2/?referrer=https://www.google.com/
http://www.sggp.org.vn/new-zealand-quyet-can-dai-gia-cong-nghe-tron-thue-597362.html
and last but not least…..
'…. Eingeborenensprache Te Reo Māori und modernem Thrash Metal ……. von Neuseelands Regierungschefin Jacinda Ardern mit den ……'
https://www.metal.de/news/alien-weaponry-thrash-meets-maori-kultur-auf-deutschlandtour-377091/
Haaaaaa ——– these news geeks are real nutters ——– no wonder the world is in such mess.
Next we will have Jacinda pregnant again !
An added value societal global trading partner is what makes NZ strong in the global market place.
With the US going full oppositional on both Russia and China, imagine what would happen to the world if China made Russia a proper ally.
https://www.dw.com/en/vladimir-putin-and-xi-jinping-talk-russia-china-relations/a-49060041
With the US increasingly divided from Europe and alienating just about everyone else, a Russia-China bloc, well, that would be a fair old shift for the world to get their heads around that they haven't had to do since the Sino-Soviet split of 1956.
Sure, too much distrust from the Russian elite to make it work yet, but all it takes is a singular enemy to forge common interest.
If you have 17 minutes well worth the watch. Except for left centerists, who may just cry, as it seems your approach to politics is an utter failure… Social Democrats on the other hand, should rejoice.
Good stuff – thanks for that.
The Picketty article is here: http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/files/Piketty2018.pdf
https://i.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/113231978/survey-how-should-stuff-cover-climate-change
How should stuff cover cc
"What one thing should we write about (paraphrased)
Gave them ten suggestions and told them to read How to Get There.
Regarding the Chch Mosque attacks, many people saw it as a commentary on NZ and on the state of our race relations etc yada yada, despite it being a result of a foreigner coming into our country and killing New Zealanders. Some people say Australian, so no diff.
Well now another Australian has shot four people in a rampage in Darwin.
To all those people who saw the Aussie attack as pretty much being carried out by us – you best get your apologies going again to deal with the Darwin attack. Same thing.
But then the French came into NZ and killed a person and sunk a ship. By same argument that was by us too. Yet none of us dreamed that was carried out by us, or our government.
gobshite all round
slack thinking and too quick to the knee and jerk
A very Happy Meal!
I got this quaint old doll with the deal.
Hehehe – It truly is an Art!
Laugh away. You've got five and a half more years of this chump to go.
so have you idiot
Sadly, you're correct, marty. It didn't have to be like this of course. The Democrats had the chance in 2016 to select the most popular politician in the United States, but Wasserman Schultz and her cronies made sure they installed the worst possible candidate instead.
Do you think those brilliant Democratic Party strategists will have any luck in linking Trump to those dastardly, all-powerful Russian puppeteers? So far it's two and a half years of wasted effort. And quite a bit of comedy….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrKKPGhh-ZU
yep I'm sure vlad and the don are laughing about it all the way to the dacha
You really need to get your head out of your ass marty mars, the russia gate conspiracy theory, is just that – a conspiracy theory. Look at this http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/files/Piketty2018.pdf the whole centre left project is dead.
The only answer to these crazy right demagogues is solid social democratic candidates. Otherwise, the voters will go for the likes of trump and co.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/?ex_cid=rrpromo
You're quite correct, Macro. Trump is more heinous and more horrific than anyone could have imagined. His "popularity" is tenuous at best.
So why are the Democrats even considering a chump like Biden? And—more to the point—instead of pursuing the chimera of "Russian collusion", why don't they talk about Trump's massive, radical attacks on education, his dismantling of environmental regulations, his backing of dastardly regimes in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and Israel?
Five and a half more years. Then there'll be four, maybe eight years of Pence. And the "Democrats" and their media stooges will still be pushing Russian fantasies.
Because it's not even remotely a chimera. There's as much evidence of collusion by Trump as there was against the Rosenbergs. The only reason he won't go to the chair is the size and activity level of the rightwing machine.
You mean he's too big to fall?
A very Happy Meal!
So how come they both look like they're chewing razor blades?
Look at the paper bag Trump has in his hand. A Happy Meal! It's photoshopped but that is what he likes for his dinner. So he is not looking forward to his dinner which will probably be roast beef of old england and suet pudding with mushy peas. lol Queenie on the other hand is not looking forward to having to spend the evening at the dinner table with a narcistic blowhard and certified idiot. Notice that even with 45 bedrooms in Buck House they were unable to put him up for the night!
He would probably have claimed his right to what passes for Royal privilege in the Utter State of America, and pinched the towels if they had Royal crests on them.
Trump's just learnt there's going to be a big protest against him the next day, and the quaint old doll is thinking… when is this nightmare going to be over?
And they're proud of their stupidity.
This is nothing new, of course. Ever since the late 70s when Paul Weyrich and others in the Reagan Revolution/Conservative movement discovered they could make big bucks by bilking little old ladies and guzzling from the billionaire's trough, it's been a dominant feature of Republican politics. But the money has gotten huge in recent years (for obvious reasons — there are more billionaires than ever funding their grift) and it's become something they really can't avoid talking about anymore.
Here's Jim Geraghty of National Review:
https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2019/06/oh-my-somebody-on-right-notices-gops.html
Meanwhile back at Trump Tower:
With commercial tenants fleeing his Trump Tower, President Donald Trump continues to spend $37,500 a month of campaign money for office space there — with some of that cash destined for his own wallet ― even as thousands of square feet go unused at a newly opened office in northern Virginia.
No more than “four or five” campaign staffers work at Trump’s Manhattan base, according to an informal adviser close to the White House, where the campaign rents a few thousand square feet as its “headquarters.” The per-square-foot cost is likely at least triple what the Republican National Committee pays for the much larger space it shares with the campaign in Arlington, according to a HuffPost analysis.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-tower-campaign_n_5cf572e2e4b0e346ce82d3eb?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly90YWxrLndoYXR0aGVmdWNranVzdGhhcHBlbmVkdG9kYXkuY29tLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALNsPDHll5S41VQ6aIwU5GIM1YTYdXomZzUjvW8MKIlV5uNh_38hQQ297q73V8_Y_r-rdDZfCqnxpxym8jaRNMnFOnGVX-nAatfV0ncac-xCJajkaWDPTjTqeo68Ac_V3VsZhapC1bKD6-38E2NfZtdIa5JzKwAxF30bPkTlY2n1
Sorry about the massive link
You can shorten addresses by deleting everything past the question mark.
Anyhoo, tRump tentacles.
DONALD J. TRUMP SIGNATURE COLLECTION
New Zealand
2018-2019 Income: $222,053
TRUMP
New Zealand
2018-2019 Income: $0
New Zealand
FARA Spending: $354,958
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/06/trump-foreign-business-interests/
"The world’s greatest rainforest – which is a vital provider of oxygen and carbon sequestration – lost 739sq km during the 31 days, equivalent to two football pitches every minute, according to data from the government’s satellite monitoring agency."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/04/deforestation-of-brazilian-amazon-surges-to-record-high-bolsonaro
Tough read if you believe in justice
Dude was 42.
https://twitter.com/BeschlossDC/status/1136044855610789890
They need someone to keep voicing that sort of thing not just claiming greatness so that the finer details of unselfishness and compassion get a chance to bed themselves in and grow.
The dead deserve nothing more and nothing less than to have the truth told about them. Here's someone who actually tells the truth about Robert Kennedy, as opposed to the overweening propaganda and mythos….
http://johnpilger.com/articles/the-kennedy-myth-rises-again
Why is there so little coverage of the full blown tyranny that is ScoMo's government in New Zealand?
The timing is so cynical, SocMo over in Europe for the DD 75th hiding from accountability while the blatant attempt to suppress the free media occurs.
"Defence" and Home Affairs (Ministerial boss of their police) stymied from spying on the Oz public also want to suppress media investigation of their military – similar to Hager "Hit and Run" here.
Want to get real?
oh and
“Garth Illingworth of the University of California, Santa Cruz, is the leader of the team that assembled the Legacy image. He pointed out in a statement that, “The Legacy Field is a pathfinder for WFIRST, which will capture an image that is 100 times larger than a typical Hubble photo. In just three weeks’ worth of observations by WFIRST, astronomers will be able to assemble a field that is much deeper and more than twice as large as the Hubble Legacy Field.””
There are 5000 people in Letterkenny. These are their problems.
OMG on the first one – are they all like that? Anyone who has smpled further and finds it amusing….informative…entertaining….a slice of the real world world (with hopefully blunt knieves)…?
Re-Discussion bottom of today's Open Mike https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-05-06-2019/#comment-1624821 here
https://twitter.com/NaomiOhReally/status/1136189899672084480
Sigh.
Yup Stuff stuffed up rehashing this fake news. It's a sign of second rate media that whatever prejudice is flavour of the month gets passed around so much without anyone checking before publishing.
Try the search.
Fixed the issue with the search engine falling over.
Fixed the issue with the rss feed getting mixed into the posts and pages
Fixed the issue with private post comments being visible.
Still to do
Reinstate the @author tag and add some others.
Got to check why the initial searches seem slow after restart of the db.
Fix the cookie based display of the advanced selection
Test – is cron running the indexer job ?