If you can’t stop your fucking bitching about Hillary Clinton for one goddamn second because she hurt your precious fucking feelings you’re not a progressive fighting for a better tomorrow, you’re a fucking spoiled brat throwing a temper tantrum because you didn’t get an iPhone for Christmas. You, yes you, are part of the problem and you’re making things worse by falling for this transparent garbage.
If I said it, I’d probably add a few more fucks, fucking, morons, narcissists, millennial brats, emos and then a few more fucks.
A very dear friend of mine is now posting regularly about suicide because she’s one (she falls into a number of categories, actually) of the minorities targeted by Trump, so I don’t fucking care about your “Ooh, Hillary is the Devil! Pizzas!”
But what the hell, you’re in a co-op and you might have a man bun and all that matters to you is scraping up some spurious vindication based on spiteful misrepresentation by someone who’s been proven to be a liar. That’s going to change the world.
I’d add “privileged idiot living in their bubble” too. So EVERYTHING is a cover-up? It must be, right, because then you’d have to face the fact that in the real world where flawed people might accomplish more good that blithely letting truly evil people have their way.
Yeah, the people who are really suffering and literally fearing for their lives are “nothing to see” for the likes of you.
A lot of people have expressed their disgust with you, and it’s well deserved.
Please look at yourself, I didn’t launch into a personal attack. If you can’t face the fact that the system is stacked against working people – then you need to take a cold hard look at yourself.
Just pointing out name calling starts flame wars – as I could responded by calling you a low brow thinker who can’t find his moral center in the name of political expediency – then where would we be?
That just gets boring.
Just stop for two seconds and think.
h.r.c was a loser, the democratic party are going down the losers path and we are left with the real possibility with Pence ending up as president. If that does not give you nightmares I not sure what does.
Fewer nightmares than nuclear war. Unlike you, I remember the 80s, and some here probably remember the Cuban missile crisis.
I don’t care if you’re bored or not. I might add that I have a hopelessly unfashionable hairstyle and my friends are uncool too. In the end, my personal moral centre means shit – as does yours. What matters is what happens to real people now.
You’re still pouting. I’m not mummy and I won’t give you that iPhone.
Poor poppet – making things up to feel better. The lies from you this evening rhinocrates are outstanding, have to learn how to lie like you then I might be an acceptable here by your clique on the standard.
Took offense by my pointing out you have no morals did we.
You seem to think you are the arbitrage of political left – just another wet who uses abuse to win the day.
How about this for popcorn. If the parties of the left, actually represented the issues and interest of the working class then we should support them. Rather than play this game we been playing since the 80’s – or as you call it, compromise till we get a nazi in the white house. Your real politics has led us here. Not mine, I’m sick to death of the abuse and lies people like you spray to make socialism the enemy. Just so you can give more pathos and go it could be worse.
Well it is worse, its get guns out worse, and people like you are the reason we are at this point. Drop the name calling, drop the hiding behind being a smug wanker, and face the reality your world view is why we in the shit, not mine.
Took offense by my pointing out you have no morals did we.
As I said, morals are worthless if they’re not practiced with consciousness of theirs effects, which matter immeasurably more than purity of intention. Fuck morals. Look at effects now.
till we get a nazi in the white house
Well, I’m sorry to break this to you, but that’s what happened, or at least someone who thinks that Nazis are “very fine people.”
Morals do matter, and that is where you and I differ. You have none, and that is your choice. I have a moral centre which I keep to. That’s why I make choices, which are trying to make people’s lives better, not compromising in the name of real politics.
So rhinocrates done any direct action lately? Or are you just all blow, and another keyboard warrior?
Sanders was never going to win. Although his polling was high among alt. democrats, the Republicans had a dirt file on him two feet thick. The Republicans hadn’t run one single attack ad against him when he was polled. Now most of it would hardly be “dirt” to liberals, but it would be political poison to the midwesterners who swung to Trump. His support for left wing governments in South American in particular would have been presented as treason. If you think that every American is going to vote like a Californian or a New Yorker, then, well…
In addition, Sanders’ actually record in getting legislation passed in congress is pitiful. He was simply not a successful politician. He could not make alliances to get the votes he wanted, instead he alienated the people who would have been his allies. Brand is not substance.
Then there’s this talk by him about how his “German blood” makes him a “winner.” I’ve got Jewish family old enough to remember where that led and I can’t brush that aside.
Really shitty example, Rik.
The swing states would never have gone to Sanders. Most likely they would have swung farther right. Now if Nader hadn’t run against Gore, we wouldn’t have had a war in Iraq and if Berniebrats and Greens hadn’t been too so morally pure, then that 3 million popular vote advantage Clinton already had over Trump might have swung the electoral college.
That’s leaving aside the gerrymandering and voter suppression, let alone any other interference.
But I’ve got to remind myself – I can’t relitigate as you want to. The question is, where are we now? What do we have present before us ? Not what we want, not angels, but real people here and now who aren’t morally pure but who vote?
Oh that’s right, you don’t vote. That’s too “vulgar.”
You know, I do teaching and counselling work with refugees. For some years now I’ve worked with a man who’s fled a brutal military dictatorship. Last month I helped him enrol and vote for the first time in his life. All terribly “vulgar” I’m afraid.
Wow the old Nader conspiracy theory – sheesh. And you have the gall to run around name calling. Fluffy bunny.
And who could have stood up to voter suppression by the republicans, oh wait that would be the democrats – wouldn’t it be?
And who voted for the wars – that would be h.r.c would it not?
Oh poor poppet, can’t get your head around the idea people don’t worship at the pot of liberalism like you. Some of us actually like democracy, not the shades of one, but yeah too pure for wanting a system where by people feel they are part of it, rather than a pawn for people like you.
How about you show some compassion for the almost million kiwis who did not vote, rather than make stuff up to attack me with.
So saying morals don’t matter then attack me for being “vulgar” a moral point. Odd your thinking, but real politics does that, makes people lie to justify any old bull.
“Nader conspiracy”? Hardly. No planning, no secret messages. Just stupidity.
I’ve a thick skin, so I’m afraid your homophobic labels aren’t working. Still, it’s nice to see you drop your mask and be honest about what sort of person you are.
Apart from suggesting that I’m effeminate, “vulgar” is your favourite insult, remember? I was being sarcastic. Surely you must’ve noticed since I’ve been very sarcastic tonight.
I hardly “made up” the fact that you refuse to vote.
I don’t waste my compassion on people who refuse to vote and then whinge. I do know that people who’ve never had the right to vote before know the value of their vote when they get it.
If I were gay (well, I am a little bit), I wouldn’t be embarrassed about it, by the way, but the fact that you want to insinuate that someone might be as if it were shameful is something a number of people will note.
You say you have a thick skin, then make stuff up to get offended by. You call me names, then twist like a right wing nut job to make my throw away comment fit into some sort of label so you can feel indignant, smug and superior.
You constantly misrepresent my position, by lying. I voted, but just not how you wanted me to.
You have no compassion, but you want people to worship your worldview, and will abuse anyone who questions it.
So to you 1 million kiwis don’t count, and this is a system they must be part of, because that is what you think. One step away from full blown authoritarianism you are, one step. Stalin would be proud.
What about if Clinton had won? Because I’m sensing in NZ a bit of conflict already between those that want to run with Jacindamania and those that have a sinking feeling already, not to mention a much deeper sense of anger.
Bet I’ve got more fucks to say than you if someone calls me a hipster to dismiss my politics too 😉
I don’t have any love for Clinton, let alone neoliberalism, but I sure as hell know that Trump is worse. People I love are in trouble who wouldn’t have been otherwise, so I’m not going to construct some jerkoff fantasy about my personal moral superiority and pronounce from the peaks of Olympus that “the lesser evil is still evil.”
I am sick to death of people saying “there’s no difference”. Sure, there’s no difference if you’re
White
NOT LGBTQI
NOT Mexican
NOT Muslim
NOT Jewish
NOT black
NOT poor
NOT sick
NOT a woman
NOT seeking birth control or an abortion
NOT corrupt as fuck
Actually very very rich and probably a stockholder in Lockheed Martin, Blackwater etc.
Oh, and if you’re a Nazi, you might do well. “Very fine people,” the orange one tells us. Once upon a time America had Werner von Braun to get them to the Moon, now they have Bannon, Gorka and Spencer. They even need better Nazis.
True, and I think the “there’s no difference” argument is fundamentally dishonest (same as when it gets used here). But I think Adam ticks some of those boxes of the NOT list, as do many people who are in that lesser of evil debate. My point was more about if we condemn those people (not just their arguments), what happens when we get the eventual Clinton or Ardern in power? Of the people who previously argued that lesser of evils was valid, how many are now going to criticise the shitty and unacceptable things that Clinton or Ardern are doing.
I’m a lesser of two evils person myself. But I understand that some of the people saying Trump isn’t worse have some solid politics behind them that can’t be written off as hipster rhetoric.
Basically I’m asking what’s going to happen in NZ now we have a neoliberal-lite govt if lefties like you and adam are so antagonistic to each other’s politics? Because this is close to the scenario that was being argued as the opposing one in the US. It’s not theoretical anymore. Clinton won.
Politics is always about unfortunate compromises, and we just have to keep pushing. I believe in fighting from a hard position to force a government as far left as possible, but not in throwing childish tantrums and sulking because mummy didn’t give me an iPhone.
I hate the far right – and the people doing the work of the far right.
Of the people who previously argued that lesser of evils was valid, how many are now going to criticise the shitty and unacceptable things that Clinton or Ardern are doing.
Rik from The Young Ones, sorry I mean Adam’s problem is that he thinks in binaries, of essences without scale or degree. I problem I had with a lot of parliamentary Labour supporters over the last nine years was that they supported the hollow brand of Labour while it took positions – especially under those shitheads Goff and Shearer – that were contrary to Labour principles.
How many will criticise? I don’t know. Probably less than there should be. However, The Standard is not a Labour Party site, as has been made abundantly clear in many, many posts and as is written into the policy. It owes the parliamentary Labour Party nothing. I don’t think that it’s going to acquiesce – I sense a battle coming over TPPA.
Focus on the policies at hand, not the personalities, be they Clinton or Ardern. Keep the pressure on, always on policy. We should not do the right’s work for them by blithering about pizzas and lizard people and then congratulating ourselves on how pure we are.
“How many will criticise? I don’t know. Probably less than there should be. However, The Standard is not a Labour Party site, as has been made abundantly clear in many, many posts and as is written into the policy. It owes the parliamentary Labour Party nothing. I don’t think that it’s going to acquiesce – I sense a battle coming over TPPA.”
Yes and no. We’re talking about the community (authors and commenters). The site has no editorial position, authors write what they want, so do commenters. But, there’s been many more pro-Labour posts this year than pro-Green or pro-left of Labour ones (if we are talking parliamentary politics). And there is a solid contingent of people who are wanting to support Labour with a good start, something I have quite a bit of sympathy for.
I’m not concerned about there not being any Labour critique, lol, like that would ever happen. What I’m pointing to is that now we’re not in this constant state of pushing back against National, what’s going to happen? Bill has been talking about this for some time. I’m trying to get my head around the shifting landscape.
For me the issue is how to now push back against neoliberalism in this new landscape. We don’t get a break for 3 or 9 years and leave that until National are in again.
I get the problems with the left who go down the lizard theory path, but here’s the thing. If us lot here can’t find common ground, if people like adam are routinely ridiculed then they will leave. Adam, thankfully, will most likely stick around, but others will go. And that will leave use with the place becoming more dominated by the centre left crowd. I could make up some witty ridicules about them if I weren’t so tired atm, but what is the point?
I guess what I’m getting to here is that now that we’re not in perpetual attack mode, perhaps we don’t have to be quite so hostile to each other?
now we’re not in this constant state of pushing back against National, what’s going to happen?
That’s a very good question and something we should deal with. It’s going to have to be thrashed out, probably painfully, over quite a while. Indeed, it’s quite fundamental. Here’s a good topic then, Where to from here?
perhaps we don’t have to be quite so hostile to each other?
“Can’t we all just get along?”
Well, at the risk of saying, “But he did it first!”, the left proved itself to be its own worst enemy once again in 2016. The fact is, our problem is the purists who are fighting Waterloo all over again. If our objective is to move forward, then we have to move forward. Childish point scoring over conspiracy theories is going to continue to sabotage progress.
Speaking of Waterloo, historians argue that while Napoleon was a supreme chessplayer, Wellington’s ultimate advantage was his ability to improvise on the fly with his tactics, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each regiment individually. That is, Napoleon fought as if he had an ideal army, but Wellington knew that he was fighting with “the scum of the earth” – and that is why he won.
Where are we now? What do we do next that will have an effect in the real world?
@ weka … 6 November 2017 at 9:26 pm [reply buttons ran out]
You said:
For me the issue is how to now push back against neoliberalism in this new landscape. We don’t get a break for 3 or 9 years and leave that until National are in again.
That’s a good point to raise but we should not forget that there is increasing pushback against neoliberalism in many places across the world. It is easy to do when you watch them bicker in the House or constantly get bombarded with the binary and polarising narrative from NZ MSM but it is not about Labour vs. National; just like climate change or shifting of tectonic plates it is a global current.
Sorry. I tried to say that what’s happening here in NZ is a reflection of what’s happening elsewhere in the world too (i.e. pushback against neoliberalism). We should not ‘navel-gaze’ too much but look up & around and take our cues from others when/where possible. Of course, we’re already doing this but I thought it was a good moment to say it out loud.
IMHO we tend to get a little parochial here in NZ and too focused on the little local dramas between a couple of individual politicians. The picture is much bigger than that.
Well, that depends on whether the “shitty” things that are being done are a step forwards of a step back.
Because 4 more weeks paid parental leave is fine, but it’s shitty if it’s as far as it goes for the rest of the government. But rather than bitching that it’s not a universal allowance to every parent, the two questions are “is it a move forward” and “is it realistic as a move forward in the current environment?”
I’m glad they flagged another increase by the next election. The immediate hundred days increase is nothing spectacular. It is, however, moving forwards.
Pike River looks like it might be a serious recovery effort.
I’m cautious that the tpp will be a fizzle, but I suspect that it will be to the letter of what they offered, not the desire of some to just walk away.
Big things to look out for will be employment legislation, I guess. But so far they’re still moving into their offices.
Labour (and co) will do many good and useful things.
Choosing to keep the ETS but giving Shaw the CC Ministerial post, is a compromise but moving in the right direction. Because it shifts the culture and maybe next time we will have even more Greens in govt.
Shitty would be signing the TPPA with an altered ISDS clause in it. Don’t really care whether that fits with Labour’s previous statements (from my pov it’s very hard right now to make sense of Labour’s ongoing position apart from the idea that we should trust them because), it’s still shitty.
But I guess that answers part of it. The left who want more change than you are going to have to argue with you about that as well as critique Labour.
See, now to me “critique”, because it’s more posh, implies an even-handed, intellectual, dispassionate approach that identifies areas for improvement but also recognises and encourages those positive areas that should be sustained or even congratulated.
It’s often in the posts, but if I see it in the comments more than generalised whining that the revolution hasn’t happened yet, I’ll be bloody gobsmacked.
“implies an even-handed, intellectual, dispassionate approach that identifies areas for improvement but also recognises and encourages those positive areas that should be sustained or even congratulated.”
Yes, that’s how I see it too, and honestly, it’s how I prefer to write both posts and comments. Which begs the question of why I’m feeling the need to be actively critical. All I’m saying is that there is something important going on here and I hope that the more centre left people don’t just write all that off because it’s not presented in the best way.
Not sure if you just called my commenting whiney btw 🙂
You’re one of the least whiney people here, lol. It’s just the tendency of the commentariat.
frankly I think the jacindamania thing is more of a media hype than anything else. Most people here have been bitten so many times by potential heroes that we know better than to expect a thousand years of light to gush forth, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be many times better than the last nine years.
And a few weeks into it, a little optimism wouldn’t go astray. especially as I reckon Labour would have difficulty getting anything but the most open and banal ISDS past NZ1 or the Greens.
Clintion winning would have been Obama take 2 – a reasonable, sane and competent leader handling the geopolitical situation they’d been dealt, making some solid advances but still never getting an inch of credit from the american left and being pilloried and lied about from the american right.
And then the deranged left and the deplorable right ll sharing the same memes and lies.
So you’re calling Descendant Of Sssmith part of the deranged left because they’re being negative at the wrong time? I mean, I can see the problem with the framing and the timing but the point they are making seems quite valid to me.
Actually, I quite like a lot of DoSsss comments. But that one is a convenient NZ example of what we will see: Labour do something progressive, someone will post that it’s not good enough and probably tack on that labour are a bunch of neoliberal bastards. Meanwhile, the tories will regard the slightest progressive act as communism run amok in the Beehive.
Best thing Labour can do is ignore most of the blog comments, read the posts for interesting ideas and topics of the day, and do their own thing if it seems reasonable.
Most internet commenters couldn’t govern food into their mouths without a fucking disaster happening.
Clintion winning would have been Obama take 2 – a reasonable, sane and competent leader handling the geopolitical situation they’d been dealt, making some solid advances but still never getting an inch of credit from the american left and being pilloried and lied about from the american right.
There was a lot of difference in policy between Obama and Clinton.
She was pro-fracking, even more pro-war than Obama (her criticisms of his not using enough military force), really foolish when it came to foreign policy (again, a ‘might makes right’ fixation on using force), opposed relaxing disastrous drug laws, opposed raising the minimum wage, happily stuffed her pockets with cash from any corporate benefactors…
Recall that Obama pointed out these same flaws when he defeated her in the 2008 primary.
So her campaign used a compliant DNC to cheat, assisting her take the primary from Sanders. The corporate media had already lined up behind Clinton, and did their best to minimise Sanders’ exposure and lie about his appeal — because, you can’t let the people know that ‘socialism’ is popular — while also giving Trump’s every brain-fart maximum exposure.
It is this stupidity, rather than the Republican Party’s eventual repugnant candidate, that set the ground for the electoral outcome.
Hillary Clinton is even worse than her husband, who at least got distracted somewhat from the neo-liberal agenda through his obsessive chasing of women. Trump is her fault, and the fault of the other corrupt, cheating, lying, weasels splashing about in the cesspool in Washington DC.
It isn’t between jacindamania – that is just a cheap shot. Some of us can read people and their politics and we are genuinely impressed win Jacinda – not under any illusions about pragmagtism and the realities of running the country. But on this forum it appears we get put into the mania category.
I don’t think Jacindamania is a pejorative. I like her and am impressed by her. That’s not incompatible with critique. I just shorthanded the dynamic above. Maybe it’s the Jacindamania crew vs the doom and gloom crew. There, I’ve balanced the stereotyping a bit.
I was pointing more to the dynamic that the people with the sinking feeling, or the anger, are experiencing. There is this tension between those that want a positive response to Labour and those that are stressed by what is happening. I think that’s worth looking at.
I’m guessing you’re not feeling that sinking feeling stuff, and not angry with Labour or the potential for glossing over problems?
I have dedicated a lot of my energy over the years in fighting inequality and exploitation. I am prepared to give Jacinda time to continue to do things. I don’t begrudge others having different or even opposite views – for me I can’t judge yet. It is too early imo to say Jacinda is this or that – parliament hasn’t even started yet.
I’m not actually talking about judging Jacinda, other than what she is already doing. ie. I don’t like her approach on the TPPA.
I agree both her and Labour need time. Unfortunately for them the TPPA signing is this week. Not much any of us can do about that, but Labour do have choices in their actions. What is happening now is happening now, already on TS too.
been part of a process that’s reduced the issues to the ISDS. Been willing to sign us into a deal that’s going to compromise NZ. Been increasingly unclear on what Labour’s position is.
“If you can’t stop your fucking bitching about Hillary Clinton for one goddamn second because she hurt your precious fucking feelings you’re not a progressive fighting for a better tomorrow, you’re a fucking spoiled brat throwing a temper tantrum because you didn’t get an iPhone for Christmas. You, yes you, are part of the problem and you’re making things worse by falling for this transparent garbage.”
It isn’t mysogynistic to point out the failings of a politician who happens to be a woman.
Not facing up to the truth — Clinton was a particularly terrible candidate, as evidence for which we have that repugnant monster in the Oval Office — is foolish. You won’t get improvements from the political establishment by ignoring their reprehensible behaviour.
The word is used to denote weakness by misogynists – such as Adam. I don’t have to be a misogynist to note that it exists or call out its use. You may as well say that if I call out someone for shoplifting, I must be a shoplifter.
Really, what did I make up? You used “wet” as a pejorative” and that word is used as a word of contempt for women or “effeminate” men. Even Boggis, in their confused way, admits that.
You typed it, I didn’t make it up.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a few hundred thousand Kulaks to deport to the Gulag.
No. In fact, I was pointing out that your assumption that it was a pejorative indicative of ‘feminine’ traits made your incorrect assertion odd. Indicative of a misogynistic mindset, possibly.
And if folk like yourself and Brazile continue to do the right’s work for them by parroting their spin and willfully misrepresenting positions, compromises and concessions that you don’t agree with, the left will never win.
Bullocks and you know it, h.r.c was a bust and people like you and others jumped on anyone who pointed that out at the time. Now information is coming to hand that it was as dirty as we thought, and saying that make me the enemy.
Sheesh this is some time to be alive, when you have a position that says yes to having working class control their lives, some so called leftist attack you as the enemy. Truly fubar. Mind you with the liberalism in control – up is down, right is wrong, and being morally bankrupt is the new normal.
‘The left’ can’t win anything by putting neo-liberal maniacs like Clinton in office.
‘Less disastrous than Trump’ isn’t a good enough qualification, clearly. Maybe if Sanders had been given a fair chance the world would be much better off right now: which is the real point behind this.
“So Brazile herself, though she obviously disapproves of the JFA, says the primaries weren’t rigged and there was no internal corruption at the DNC that favored Clinton. In something that suprises me not at all, it appears that even though Clinton had substantial authority and could have rigged things, she instead used this authority to raise lots of money; make sure the DNC hired competent people; and try to get the party apparatus working again.
In the end, then, this strikes me as almost classic Hillary: she did nothing wrong, but practically went out of her way to make it look like she was doing something slippery. I have never seen another human being do this so frequently. But, in fact, it looks like she really didn’t do anything seriously unscrupulous here, and nearly everyone agrees that, in the end, the primaries weren’t rigged in any serious way.²”
Goodness, does that article also say Clinton runs through fields with the sound of music. And the party leadership compulsively blurting out “rigged” while she’s doing it is just white noise.
So wikipedia is politics new fact checker now? When the two major headings of his whole biography are “General madness” and “Conspiracy theories” you have to wonder where the balance starts to comes in…
edit – lol, infact his entire biography comes under those 2 headings.
If someone has been regularly shown to be full of shit in a subject area, it’s worth knowing that before wasting a lot of time on them. Would you expect to waste time unpacking BP pronouncements about the benefits of fossil fuels over and over again?
Well boggis the cat they keep saying I support trump. Which is the corporate left’s favourite attack line these days. Along with purist, whinger, whining, and other personal abuse. You get that when you point out that liberalism is fundamentally flawed, just have to roll with the punches.
People they don’t need drones to spy on you they use your phone . They can drive past a house scan and pick up any phone signal that’s being used and listen and watch you
They can use your lap top any computer all my computer’s have tape on the mic and Camera P.S they won’t even get a warrant because we have to prove what they are doing you can tell if your phone starts draining your battier and your data use spikes Good topics The project
To my Maori cultured People here in Aotearoa and in Australia Kiora.
I get time travel its all about the speed one travels from the object that one has to use to measure the time one travels forward into time. My wish is that I travel forward into time 40 years and see that all my Maori Cultured People have got Mana we had seized the moment and 40 years ago we all came together as one IWI People we did not use violence to get OUR Mana back we all voted for the political people that could see that we were at a disadvantage to the other people of NZ .
So they/ we set things up to level out the ladders of life for my People we wiped away the Hinu on every ones top rungs on there ladders of life. Maori people were all displaying our culture non were ashamed of our culture .The most famous sports person in NZ was a maori cultured Lady she played ______________ .
I watched a lot of good movies about Maori and the Settlers in the 1800 to up to the present date. There are Maori comedies on every Chanel giving us a sore face 1/2 of all our sports teams are Maori no one talks about crime or war as there is minimal and no movies are aloud to be made about war or crime .We have the lowest jail population in the OECD . 90% of all people have there own house there are no health waiting lists. Maori have there fair share of all the resources in NZ and so does every one else.
We are 100% carbon free and have a pristine environment everything is Kia pai.
But if we don’t come together as one IWI 40% of us will end up on those reservation for Maori jail and the other 59.9 present will be paddling hard out just to keep there Waka were it is at that time not forward and many are slipping behind. In my view this will be a fact . The present goverment is good to Maori but I have a good view on reality and I say now is the time to act Kia Kaha.
Have just read Bryce Edward’s editoral in the Herald online and I agree with him, Jacinda Adhern has not done enough on the Manus Island tragedy unfolding before us. This will come back to haunt her as the one thing she could have done and that’s stepped up to the plate and told the Australian Government to do the humanitarian deed and release the refugees or at the very least put the power, medicines, water and food supplies back in the compound for them.
What does this do to our country when the world sees her flying back home having done nothing but accept the word that the US might in the future be taking some of these refugees into the states. Australia may be our biggest trading partner but that still doesn’t excuse us not standing firm with them. It wouldn’t matter if we insulted them and displayed some leadership, they will always want to trade with us, just like some countries trade with dispicable countries, anything for the dollar (us for example with the Saudi Arabia). Autralia’s governments are pretty dispicable themselves and an insult or two is hardly going to stop them trading with us.
Jacinda, sorry but you have gone down in my estimation but then I never did think you were a true progressive, just a Labour-lite more of the same.
And, for that matter – where is Winston?? He should be over there sorting the Australian Government out, he is the Foreign Minister for god sake. He hasn’t been seen since the election. He has a big portfolio and so does his mate Shane – so I hope the two of them are out there in the ether somewhere pulling finger and actually doing something constructive.
Given the glacial pace of the US response, and the urgency of the humanitarian crisis on Manus, there is no justification for not proceeding with an approach to PNG right now.
…
Globally, the care of refugees continues to fall on poor countries like Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Bangladesh.
Sooner rather than later, New Zealand has to stand up to Australia over its refugee policy. Otherwise, our silence and inaction will be taken as tacit acceptance, and we will be seen (accurately) as enabling Canberra’s systematically inhuman treatment of hundreds of the world’s most vulnerable people, and their families.
On the other hand, I am happy with the paid parental leave policy, and with Andrew Little’s approach to Pike River Mine.
This is what happens when you shift huge amounts of wealth from the poorer classes to the wealthy. Lots of money seeking an easy return on investment, and plenty of brokerage firms bidding up the ‘value’ of stocks.
The 2007 ‘correction’ didn’t result in any fix to the system, because it was viable to simply force the poorer classes to foot the bill.
The Australian Financial Review has linked the Paradise Papers to John Key’s lawyer, Kenneth Whitney, saying the documents show he in 2007 set up a trust for a New York investment banker, Neil Winward, who used to work for Dresdner Kleinwort.
The AFR also reports:
The files raise questions about the loose oversight role that New Zealand’s government holds over the Cook Islands, a year after the Panama Papers forced changes in how New Zealand foreign trusts operate.
Former Allens Arthur Robinson lawyer James McConvill reported after a 2010 marketing trip for Appleby to Auckland and Wellington that law firms told him that then Prime Minister John Key was leading measures to promote New Zealand as an offshore hub through foreign trusts, which pay no tax on earnings outside New Zealand.
“Apparently the New Zealand Prime Minister is personally pushing the proposal, and it is expected to come into effect in 2011,” Mr McConvill reported. “In numerous meetings I was told that this proposal, if implemented, could lead to a lot of work for Appleby and other offshore firms.”
Cooks Island residents also hold New Zealand citizenship, but Rarotonga runs its own foreign policy.
The Cook Islands was the first country to enact an asset protection law in 1989, under which foreign creditors are barred from challenging the assets of a trust after a waiting period of one to two years.
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
So h.r.c rigged the primaries. Not so much of a conspiracy theorists now those on the left who said it looked suspect.
Fake news.
https://twitter.com/ABCPolitics/status/927177726334603264
Why am I not surprised …
And:
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/04/top-clinton-staffers-hit-back-at-brazile-244554
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/07/tweetstorm-bernie-sanders-former-press-secretary-amazing/
https://thedailybanter.com/2017/11/nbc-just-exposed-donna-braziles-rigged-claim-as-a-total-lie/
With a very appropriate quote:
If you can’t stop your fucking bitching about Hillary Clinton for one goddamn second because she hurt your precious fucking feelings you’re not a progressive fighting for a better tomorrow, you’re a fucking spoiled brat throwing a temper tantrum because you didn’t get an iPhone for Christmas. You, yes you, are part of the problem and you’re making things worse by falling for this transparent garbage.
If I said it, I’d probably add a few more fucks, fucking, morons, narcissists, millennial brats, emos and then a few more fucks.
A very dear friend of mine is now posting regularly about suicide because she’s one (she falls into a number of categories, actually) of the minorities targeted by Trump, so I don’t fucking care about your “Ooh, Hillary is the Devil! Pizzas!”
But what the hell, you’re in a co-op and you might have a man bun and all that matters to you is scraping up some spurious vindication based on spiteful misrepresentation by someone who’s been proven to be a liar. That’s going to change the world.
Nothing to see here , move along
“Nothing to see here, move along” “narrative.”
I’d add “privileged idiot living in their bubble” too. So EVERYTHING is a cover-up? It must be, right, because then you’d have to face the fact that in the real world where flawed people might accomplish more good that blithely letting truly evil people have their way.
Yeah, the people who are really suffering and literally fearing for their lives are “nothing to see” for the likes of you.
A lot of people have expressed their disgust with you, and it’s well deserved.
Grow the hell up.
Please look at yourself, I didn’t launch into a personal attack. If you can’t face the fact that the system is stacked against working people – then you need to take a cold hard look at yourself.
Of course the system is stacked against working people. You’re not the only person who knows that.
Try not speaking in cliches.
Also, I do not care about your precious feelings.
I’m not offended.
Just pointing out name calling starts flame wars – as I could responded by calling you a low brow thinker who can’t find his moral center in the name of political expediency – then where would we be?
That just gets boring.
Just stop for two seconds and think.
h.r.c was a loser, the democratic party are going down the losers path and we are left with the real possibility with Pence ending up as president. If that does not give you nightmares I not sure what does.
Fewer nightmares than nuclear war. Unlike you, I remember the 80s, and some here probably remember the Cuban missile crisis.
I don’t care if you’re bored or not. I might add that I have a hopelessly unfashionable hairstyle and my friends are uncool too. In the end, my personal moral centre means shit – as does yours. What matters is what happens to real people now.
You’re still pouting. I’m not mummy and I won’t give you that iPhone.
Poor poppet – making things up to feel better. The lies from you this evening rhinocrates are outstanding, have to learn how to lie like you then I might be an acceptable here by your clique on the standard.
Took offense by my pointing out you have no morals did we.
You seem to think you are the arbitrage of political left – just another wet who uses abuse to win the day.
How about this for popcorn. If the parties of the left, actually represented the issues and interest of the working class then we should support them. Rather than play this game we been playing since the 80’s – or as you call it, compromise till we get a nazi in the white house. Your real politics has led us here. Not mine, I’m sick to death of the abuse and lies people like you spray to make socialism the enemy. Just so you can give more pathos and go it could be worse.
Well it is worse, its get guns out worse, and people like you are the reason we are at this point. Drop the name calling, drop the hiding behind being a smug wanker, and face the reality your world view is why we in the shit, not mine.
Took offense by my pointing out you have no morals did we.
As I said, morals are worthless if they’re not practiced with consciousness of theirs effects, which matter immeasurably more than purity of intention. Fuck morals. Look at effects now.
till we get a nazi in the white house
Well, I’m sorry to break this to you, but that’s what happened, or at least someone who thinks that Nazis are “very fine people.”
Pence is a real nazi, a christian nazi.
Morals do matter, and that is where you and I differ. You have none, and that is your choice. I have a moral centre which I keep to. That’s why I make choices, which are trying to make people’s lives better, not compromising in the name of real politics.
So rhinocrates done any direct action lately? Or are you just all blow, and another keyboard warrior?
Sanders was never going to win. Although his polling was high among alt. democrats, the Republicans had a dirt file on him two feet thick. The Republicans hadn’t run one single attack ad against him when he was polled. Now most of it would hardly be “dirt” to liberals, but it would be political poison to the midwesterners who swung to Trump. His support for left wing governments in South American in particular would have been presented as treason. If you think that every American is going to vote like a Californian or a New Yorker, then, well…
In addition, Sanders’ actually record in getting legislation passed in congress is pitiful. He was simply not a successful politician. He could not make alliances to get the votes he wanted, instead he alienated the people who would have been his allies. Brand is not substance.
And yet the democrats lost. The put up someone deeply flawed, and gifted the swing states to the republicans.
Sheesh your real politics gets caught out in it’s own lies quickly.
Then there’s this talk by him about how his “German blood” makes him a “winner.” I’ve got Jewish family old enough to remember where that led and I can’t brush that aside.
Really shitty example, Rik.
The swing states would never have gone to Sanders. Most likely they would have swung farther right. Now if Nader hadn’t run against Gore, we wouldn’t have had a war in Iraq and if Berniebrats and Greens hadn’t been too so morally pure, then that 3 million popular vote advantage Clinton already had over Trump might have swung the electoral college.
That’s leaving aside the gerrymandering and voter suppression, let alone any other interference.
But I’ve got to remind myself – I can’t relitigate as you want to. The question is, where are we now? What do we have present before us ? Not what we want, not angels, but real people here and now who aren’t morally pure but who vote?
Oh that’s right, you don’t vote. That’s too “vulgar.”
You know, I do teaching and counselling work with refugees. For some years now I’ve worked with a man who’s fled a brutal military dictatorship. Last month I helped him enrol and vote for the first time in his life. All terribly “vulgar” I’m afraid.
Wow the old Nader conspiracy theory – sheesh. And you have the gall to run around name calling. Fluffy bunny.
And who could have stood up to voter suppression by the republicans, oh wait that would be the democrats – wouldn’t it be?
And who voted for the wars – that would be h.r.c would it not?
Oh poor poppet, can’t get your head around the idea people don’t worship at the pot of liberalism like you. Some of us actually like democracy, not the shades of one, but yeah too pure for wanting a system where by people feel they are part of it, rather than a pawn for people like you.
How about you show some compassion for the almost million kiwis who did not vote, rather than make stuff up to attack me with.
So saying morals don’t matter then attack me for being “vulgar” a moral point. Odd your thinking, but real politics does that, makes people lie to justify any old bull.
“Nader conspiracy”? Hardly. No planning, no secret messages. Just stupidity.
I’ve a thick skin, so I’m afraid your homophobic labels aren’t working. Still, it’s nice to see you drop your mask and be honest about what sort of person you are.
Apart from suggesting that I’m effeminate, “vulgar” is your favourite insult, remember? I was being sarcastic. Surely you must’ve noticed since I’ve been very sarcastic tonight.
I hardly “made up” the fact that you refuse to vote.
I don’t waste my compassion on people who refuse to vote and then whinge. I do know that people who’ve never had the right to vote before know the value of their vote when they get it.
You seem rather confused.
If I were gay (well, I am a little bit), I wouldn’t be embarrassed about it, by the way, but the fact that you want to insinuate that someone might be as if it were shameful is something a number of people will note.
You say you have a thick skin, then make stuff up to get offended by. You call me names, then twist like a right wing nut job to make my throw away comment fit into some sort of label so you can feel indignant, smug and superior.
You constantly misrepresent my position, by lying. I voted, but just not how you wanted me to.
You have no compassion, but you want people to worship your worldview, and will abuse anyone who questions it.
So to you 1 million kiwis don’t count, and this is a system they must be part of, because that is what you think. One step away from full blown authoritarianism you are, one step. Stalin would be proud.
“throw away comment”
Casual homophobia and misogyny is still homophobia and misogyny.
“Stalin”
Okay… we all know the Godwin rule, don’t we?
Yeah, because working people really need more fake conspiracies to distract them from the facts.
Nothing to see here, move along.
What about if Clinton had won? Because I’m sensing in NZ a bit of conflict already between those that want to run with Jacindamania and those that have a sinking feeling already, not to mention a much deeper sense of anger.
Bet I’ve got more fucks to say than you if someone calls me a hipster to dismiss my politics too 😉
I don’t have any love for Clinton, let alone neoliberalism, but I sure as hell know that Trump is worse. People I love are in trouble who wouldn’t have been otherwise, so I’m not going to construct some jerkoff fantasy about my personal moral superiority and pronounce from the peaks of Olympus that “the lesser evil is still evil.”
I am sick to death of people saying “there’s no difference”. Sure, there’s no difference if you’re
White
NOT LGBTQI
NOT Mexican
NOT Muslim
NOT Jewish
NOT black
NOT poor
NOT sick
NOT a woman
NOT seeking birth control or an abortion
NOT corrupt as fuck
Actually very very rich and probably a stockholder in Lockheed Martin, Blackwater etc.
No, no difference at all /sarc
Oh, and if you’re a Nazi, you might do well. “Very fine people,” the orange one tells us. Once upon a time America had Werner von Braun to get them to the Moon, now they have Bannon, Gorka and Spencer. They even need better Nazis.
True, and I think the “there’s no difference” argument is fundamentally dishonest (same as when it gets used here). But I think Adam ticks some of those boxes of the NOT list, as do many people who are in that lesser of evil debate. My point was more about if we condemn those people (not just their arguments), what happens when we get the eventual Clinton or Ardern in power? Of the people who previously argued that lesser of evils was valid, how many are now going to criticise the shitty and unacceptable things that Clinton or Ardern are doing.
I’m a lesser of two evils person myself. But I understand that some of the people saying Trump isn’t worse have some solid politics behind them that can’t be written off as hipster rhetoric.
Basically I’m asking what’s going to happen in NZ now we have a neoliberal-lite govt if lefties like you and adam are so antagonistic to each other’s politics? Because this is close to the scenario that was being argued as the opposing one in the US. It’s not theoretical anymore. Clinton won.
Politics is always about unfortunate compromises, and we just have to keep pushing. I believe in fighting from a hard position to force a government as far left as possible, but not in throwing childish tantrums and sulking because mummy didn’t give me an iPhone.
I hate the far right – and the people doing the work of the far right.
Yes. That doesn’t address what I raised though.
Right, I know that you’re arguing in good faith.
Of the people who previously argued that lesser of evils was valid, how many are now going to criticise the shitty and unacceptable things that Clinton or Ardern are doing.
Rik from The Young Ones, sorry I mean Adam’s problem is that he thinks in binaries, of essences without scale or degree. I problem I had with a lot of parliamentary Labour supporters over the last nine years was that they supported the hollow brand of Labour while it took positions – especially under those shitheads Goff and Shearer – that were contrary to Labour principles.
How many will criticise? I don’t know. Probably less than there should be. However, The Standard is not a Labour Party site, as has been made abundantly clear in many, many posts and as is written into the policy. It owes the parliamentary Labour Party nothing. I don’t think that it’s going to acquiesce – I sense a battle coming over TPPA.
Focus on the policies at hand, not the personalities, be they Clinton or Ardern. Keep the pressure on, always on policy. We should not do the right’s work for them by blithering about pizzas and lizard people and then congratulating ourselves on how pure we are.
Love this series of comments Rhino. Thanks.
“How many will criticise? I don’t know. Probably less than there should be. However, The Standard is not a Labour Party site, as has been made abundantly clear in many, many posts and as is written into the policy. It owes the parliamentary Labour Party nothing. I don’t think that it’s going to acquiesce – I sense a battle coming over TPPA.”
Yes and no. We’re talking about the community (authors and commenters). The site has no editorial position, authors write what they want, so do commenters. But, there’s been many more pro-Labour posts this year than pro-Green or pro-left of Labour ones (if we are talking parliamentary politics). And there is a solid contingent of people who are wanting to support Labour with a good start, something I have quite a bit of sympathy for.
I’m not concerned about there not being any Labour critique, lol, like that would ever happen. What I’m pointing to is that now we’re not in this constant state of pushing back against National, what’s going to happen? Bill has been talking about this for some time. I’m trying to get my head around the shifting landscape.
For me the issue is how to now push back against neoliberalism in this new landscape. We don’t get a break for 3 or 9 years and leave that until National are in again.
I get the problems with the left who go down the lizard theory path, but here’s the thing. If us lot here can’t find common ground, if people like adam are routinely ridiculed then they will leave. Adam, thankfully, will most likely stick around, but others will go. And that will leave use with the place becoming more dominated by the centre left crowd. I could make up some witty ridicules about them if I weren’t so tired atm, but what is the point?
I guess what I’m getting to here is that now that we’re not in perpetual attack mode, perhaps we don’t have to be quite so hostile to each other?
OAB, thanks.
Weka.
now we’re not in this constant state of pushing back against National, what’s going to happen?
That’s a very good question and something we should deal with. It’s going to have to be thrashed out, probably painfully, over quite a while. Indeed, it’s quite fundamental. Here’s a good topic then, Where to from here?
perhaps we don’t have to be quite so hostile to each other?
“Can’t we all just get along?”
Well, at the risk of saying, “But he did it first!”, the left proved itself to be its own worst enemy once again in 2016. The fact is, our problem is the purists who are fighting Waterloo all over again. If our objective is to move forward, then we have to move forward. Childish point scoring over conspiracy theories is going to continue to sabotage progress.
Speaking of Waterloo, historians argue that while Napoleon was a supreme chessplayer, Wellington’s ultimate advantage was his ability to improvise on the fly with his tactics, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each regiment individually. That is, Napoleon fought as if he had an ideal army, but Wellington knew that he was fighting with “the scum of the earth” – and that is why he won.
Where are we now? What do we do next that will have an effect in the real world?
@ weka … 6 November 2017 at 9:26 pm [reply buttons ran out]
You said:
That’s a good point to raise but we should not forget that there is increasing pushback against neoliberalism in many places across the world. It is easy to do when you watch them bicker in the House or constantly get bombarded with the binary and polarising narrative from NZ MSM but it is not about Labour vs. National; just like climate change or shifting of tectonic plates it is a global current.
Not quite getting that Incog. Do you mean understanding what is happening internationally will help us in that here?
@ weka … 6 November 2017 at 10:49 pm
Sorry. I tried to say that what’s happening here in NZ is a reflection of what’s happening elsewhere in the world too (i.e. pushback against neoliberalism). We should not ‘navel-gaze’ too much but look up & around and take our cues from others when/where possible. Of course, we’re already doing this but I thought it was a good moment to say it out loud.
IMHO we tend to get a little parochial here in NZ and too focused on the little local dramas between a couple of individual politicians. The picture is much bigger than that.
Yes, I think that would help us here.
ah, a topic for a Guest Post perhaps? 🙂
Well, that depends on whether the “shitty” things that are being done are a step forwards of a step back.
Because 4 more weeks paid parental leave is fine, but it’s shitty if it’s as far as it goes for the rest of the government. But rather than bitching that it’s not a universal allowance to every parent, the two questions are “is it a move forward” and “is it realistic as a move forward in the current environment?”
I’m glad they flagged another increase by the next election. The immediate hundred days increase is nothing spectacular. It is, however, moving forwards.
Pike River looks like it might be a serious recovery effort.
I’m cautious that the tpp will be a fizzle, but I suspect that it will be to the letter of what they offered, not the desire of some to just walk away.
Big things to look out for will be employment legislation, I guess. But so far they’re still moving into their offices.
Labour (and co) will do many good and useful things.
Choosing to keep the ETS but giving Shaw the CC Ministerial post, is a compromise but moving in the right direction. Because it shifts the culture and maybe next time we will have even more Greens in govt.
Shitty would be signing the TPPA with an altered ISDS clause in it. Don’t really care whether that fits with Labour’s previous statements (from my pov it’s very hard right now to make sense of Labour’s ongoing position apart from the idea that we should trust them because), it’s still shitty.
But I guess that answers part of it. The left who want more change than you are going to have to argue with you about that as well as critique Labour.
🙄
See, now to me “critique”, because it’s more posh, implies an even-handed, intellectual, dispassionate approach that identifies areas for improvement but also recognises and encourages those positive areas that should be sustained or even congratulated.
It’s often in the posts, but if I see it in the comments more than generalised whining that the revolution hasn’t happened yet, I’ll be bloody gobsmacked.
As for ISDS, I’ll call it if I see it.
“implies an even-handed, intellectual, dispassionate approach that identifies areas for improvement but also recognises and encourages those positive areas that should be sustained or even congratulated.”
Yes, that’s how I see it too, and honestly, it’s how I prefer to write both posts and comments. Which begs the question of why I’m feeling the need to be actively critical. All I’m saying is that there is something important going on here and I hope that the more centre left people don’t just write all that off because it’s not presented in the best way.
Not sure if you just called my commenting whiney btw 🙂
You’re one of the least whiney people here, lol. It’s just the tendency of the commentariat.
frankly I think the jacindamania thing is more of a media hype than anything else. Most people here have been bitten so many times by potential heroes that we know better than to expect a thousand years of light to gush forth, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be many times better than the last nine years.
And a few weeks into it, a little optimism wouldn’t go astray. especially as I reckon Labour would have difficulty getting anything but the most open and banal ISDS past NZ1 or the Greens.
Clintion winning would have been Obama take 2 – a reasonable, sane and competent leader handling the geopolitical situation they’d been dealt, making some solid advances but still never getting an inch of credit from the american left and being pilloried and lied about from the american right.
And then the deranged left and the deplorable right ll sharing the same memes and lies.
But maybe with one or two policy victories.
Can you please translate that into a NZ example?
Sure. Ardern announced an increase in paid parental leave, the positive is ignored in favour of a moan.
Three, six or nine years of this will follow.
So you’re calling Descendant Of Sssmith part of the deranged left because they’re being negative at the wrong time? I mean, I can see the problem with the framing and the timing but the point they are making seems quite valid to me.
Actually, I quite like a lot of DoSsss comments. But that one is a convenient NZ example of what we will see: Labour do something progressive, someone will post that it’s not good enough and probably tack on that labour are a bunch of neoliberal bastards. Meanwhile, the tories will regard the slightest progressive act as communism run amok in the Beehive.
Best thing Labour can do is ignore most of the blog comments, read the posts for interesting ideas and topics of the day, and do their own thing if it seems reasonable.
Most internet commenters couldn’t govern food into their mouths without a fucking disaster happening.
There was a lot of difference in policy between Obama and Clinton.
She was pro-fracking, even more pro-war than Obama (her criticisms of his not using enough military force), really foolish when it came to foreign policy (again, a ‘might makes right’ fixation on using force), opposed relaxing disastrous drug laws, opposed raising the minimum wage, happily stuffed her pockets with cash from any corporate benefactors…
Recall that Obama pointed out these same flaws when he defeated her in the 2008 primary.
So her campaign used a compliant DNC to cheat, assisting her take the primary from Sanders. The corporate media had already lined up behind Clinton, and did their best to minimise Sanders’ exposure and lie about his appeal — because, you can’t let the people know that ‘socialism’ is popular — while also giving Trump’s every brain-fart maximum exposure.
It is this stupidity, rather than the Republican Party’s eventual repugnant candidate, that set the ground for the electoral outcome.
Hillary Clinton is even worse than her husband, who at least got distracted somewhat from the neo-liberal agenda through his obsessive chasing of women. Trump is her fault, and the fault of the other corrupt, cheating, lying, weasels splashing about in the cesspool in Washington DC.
🙄
It isn’t between jacindamania – that is just a cheap shot. Some of us can read people and their politics and we are genuinely impressed win Jacinda – not under any illusions about pragmagtism and the realities of running the country. But on this forum it appears we get put into the mania category.
I don’t think Jacindamania is a pejorative. I like her and am impressed by her. That’s not incompatible with critique. I just shorthanded the dynamic above. Maybe it’s the Jacindamania crew vs the doom and gloom crew. There, I’ve balanced the stereotyping a bit.
I was pointing more to the dynamic that the people with the sinking feeling, or the anger, are experiencing. There is this tension between those that want a positive response to Labour and those that are stressed by what is happening. I think that’s worth looking at.
I’m guessing you’re not feeling that sinking feeling stuff, and not angry with Labour or the potential for glossing over problems?
I like her and am impressed by her. That’s not incompatible with critique.
Exactly.
you’re not feeling that sinking feeling
Nope, (a) I’m a cynic who started with low expectations and (b) I have fluoxetine.
I have dedicated a lot of my energy over the years in fighting inequality and exploitation. I am prepared to give Jacinda time to continue to do things. I don’t begrudge others having different or even opposite views – for me I can’t judge yet. It is too early imo to say Jacinda is this or that – parliament hasn’t even started yet.
I’m not actually talking about judging Jacinda, other than what she is already doing. ie. I don’t like her approach on the TPPA.
I agree both her and Labour need time. Unfortunately for them the TPPA signing is this week. Not much any of us can do about that, but Labour do have choices in their actions. What is happening now is happening now, already on TS too.
What has she actually done on the tppa?
been part of a process that’s reduced the issues to the ISDS. Been willing to sign us into a deal that’s going to compromise NZ. Been increasingly unclear on what Labour’s position is.
“If you can’t stop your fucking bitching about Hillary Clinton for one goddamn second because she hurt your precious fucking feelings you’re not a progressive fighting for a better tomorrow, you’re a fucking spoiled brat throwing a temper tantrum because you didn’t get an iPhone for Christmas. You, yes you, are part of the problem and you’re making things worse by falling for this transparent garbage.”
Exactly how I view Adam
Oh look, another wet having a go without entering the debate.
Oh, “wet”. We should be “hard”? You seem to have a problem with assumed feminine qualities.
Adam, if you want to talk about your superior moral stance, do it without misogyny or homophobia. You do yourself no favours.
It isn’t mysogynistic to point out the failings of a politician who happens to be a woman.
Not facing up to the truth — Clinton was a particularly terrible candidate, as evidence for which we have that repugnant monster in the Oval Office — is foolish. You won’t get improvements from the political establishment by ignoring their reprehensible behaviour.
“Wet” as a pejorative is misogynistic.
Assuming it is misogynistic seems misogynistic.
The usual informal meaning is ‘weak’ or ‘ineffectual’. So are you saying that you consider women to be weak and/or ineffectual?
The word is used to denote weakness by misogynists – such as Adam. I don’t have to be a misogynist to note that it exists or call out its use. You may as well say that if I call out someone for shoplifting, I must be a shoplifter.
rhinocrates the fact you think women are weak and feeble because of their gender, says more about you than any word I may use.
Have to say, I find the term wet as a pejorative in political debate to be problematic in terms of sexism.
But you’re all intent on being mean to each other so it’s a difficult situation to have that conversation in.
Just making stuff up again rhinocrates – will you ever stop with your lies?
Actually it was you that put the fake news up. Look in the mirror.
Really, what did I make up? You used “wet” as a pejorative” and that word is used as a word of contempt for women or “effeminate” men. Even Boggis, in their confused way, admits that.
You typed it, I didn’t make it up.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a few hundred thousand Kulaks to deport to the Gulag.
No. In fact, I was pointing out that your assumption that it was a pejorative indicative of ‘feminine’ traits made your incorrect assertion odd. Indicative of a misogynistic mindset, possibly.
This is why the left can’t win, when the cheaters control the narrative
And if folk like yourself and Brazile continue to do the right’s work for them by parroting their spin and willfully misrepresenting positions, compromises and concessions that you don’t agree with, the left will never win.
Bullocks and you know it, h.r.c was a bust and people like you and others jumped on anyone who pointed that out at the time. Now information is coming to hand that it was as dirty as we thought, and saying that make me the enemy.
Sheesh this is some time to be alive, when you have a position that says yes to having working class control their lives, some so called leftist attack you as the enemy. Truly fubar. Mind you with the liberalism in control – up is down, right is wrong, and being morally bankrupt is the new normal.
‘The left’ can’t win anything by putting neo-liberal maniacs like Clinton in office.
‘Less disastrous than Trump’ isn’t a good enough qualification, clearly. Maybe if Sanders had been given a fair chance the world would be much better off right now: which is the real point behind this.
The best summary I’ve seen…
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/11/donna-brazile-and-the-latest-great-hillary-scandal/
“So Brazile herself, though she obviously disapproves of the JFA, says the primaries weren’t rigged and there was no internal corruption at the DNC that favored Clinton. In something that suprises me not at all, it appears that even though Clinton had substantial authority and could have rigged things, she instead used this authority to raise lots of money; make sure the DNC hired competent people; and try to get the party apparatus working again.
In the end, then, this strikes me as almost classic Hillary: she did nothing wrong, but practically went out of her way to make it look like she was doing something slippery. I have never seen another human being do this so frequently. But, in fact, it looks like she really didn’t do anything seriously unscrupulous here, and nearly everyone agrees that, in the end, the primaries weren’t rigged in any serious way.²”
Goodness, does that article also say Clinton runs through fields with the sound of music. And the party leadership compulsively blurting out “rigged” while she’s doing it is just white noise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3wMN7jLKCs
Jimmy Dore, huh?
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Jimmy_Dore
So wikipedia is politics new fact checker now? When the two major headings of his whole biography are “General madness” and “Conspiracy theories” you have to wonder where the balance starts to comes in…
edit – lol, infact his entire biography comes under those 2 headings.
Wikipedia has had a lot of very heavy editing of content taking place.
A lot of money being spent.
If the narrative is inconvenient and difficult to address, then alter the ‘facts’.
That guy reads like a sack of shit. Sad anyone quoting him.
How about taking people on what they say on something from topic to topic, rather than judge them by one or two actions?
Or is it much simple to make a box?
If someone has been regularly shown to be full of shit in a subject area, it’s worth knowing that before wasting a lot of time on them. Would you expect to waste time unpacking BP pronouncements about the benefits of fossil fuels over and over again?
Grow up Adam ffs you whinge – your guy was and is a sack of shit – end of.
So simpler to put in box then. Thanks for the clarification marty mars.
Are you also vaguely disappointed that you haven’t been accused of being a ‘Bernie bro’?
😉
Well boggis the cat they keep saying I support trump. Which is the corporate left’s favourite attack line these days. Along with purist, whinger, whining, and other personal abuse. You get that when you point out that liberalism is fundamentally flawed, just have to roll with the punches.
Brian Edward Cox he’s the man
People they don’t need drones to spy on you they use your phone . They can drive past a house scan and pick up any phone signal that’s being used and listen and watch you
They can use your lap top any computer all my computer’s have tape on the mic and Camera P.S they won’t even get a warrant because we have to prove what they are doing you can tell if your phone starts draining your battier and your data use spikes Good topics The project
” Barnaby Bennett @mrbarnabyb 45m45 minutes ago
FACT: The current parliament has a smaller opposition than the last one.”
https://twitter.com/mrbarnabyb/status/927431312540975105
To my Maori cultured People here in Aotearoa and in Australia Kiora.
I get time travel its all about the speed one travels from the object that one has to use to measure the time one travels forward into time. My wish is that I travel forward into time 40 years and see that all my Maori Cultured People have got Mana we had seized the moment and 40 years ago we all came together as one IWI People we did not use violence to get OUR Mana back we all voted for the political people that could see that we were at a disadvantage to the other people of NZ .
So they/ we set things up to level out the ladders of life for my People we wiped away the Hinu on every ones top rungs on there ladders of life. Maori people were all displaying our culture non were ashamed of our culture .The most famous sports person in NZ was a maori cultured Lady she played ______________ .
I watched a lot of good movies about Maori and the Settlers in the 1800 to up to the present date. There are Maori comedies on every Chanel giving us a sore face 1/2 of all our sports teams are Maori no one talks about crime or war as there is minimal and no movies are aloud to be made about war or crime .We have the lowest jail population in the OECD . 90% of all people have there own house there are no health waiting lists. Maori have there fair share of all the resources in NZ and so does every one else.
We are 100% carbon free and have a pristine environment everything is Kia pai.
But if we don’t come together as one IWI 40% of us will end up on those reservation for Maori jail and the other 59.9 present will be paddling hard out just to keep there Waka were it is at that time not forward and many are slipping behind. In my view this will be a fact . The present goverment is good to Maori but I have a good view on reality and I say now is the time to act Kia Kaha.
Have just read Bryce Edward’s editoral in the Herald online and I agree with him, Jacinda Adhern has not done enough on the Manus Island tragedy unfolding before us. This will come back to haunt her as the one thing she could have done and that’s stepped up to the plate and told the Australian Government to do the humanitarian deed and release the refugees or at the very least put the power, medicines, water and food supplies back in the compound for them.
What does this do to our country when the world sees her flying back home having done nothing but accept the word that the US might in the future be taking some of these refugees into the states. Australia may be our biggest trading partner but that still doesn’t excuse us not standing firm with them. It wouldn’t matter if we insulted them and displayed some leadership, they will always want to trade with us, just like some countries trade with dispicable countries, anything for the dollar (us for example with the Saudi Arabia). Autralia’s governments are pretty dispicable themselves and an insult or two is hardly going to stop them trading with us.
Jacinda, sorry but you have gone down in my estimation but then I never did think you were a true progressive, just a Labour-lite more of the same.
And, for that matter – where is Winston?? He should be over there sorting the Australian Government out, he is the Foreign Minister for god sake. He hasn’t been seen since the election. He has a big portfolio and so does his mate Shane – so I hope the two of them are out there in the ether somewhere pulling finger and actually doing something constructive.
I often don’t agree with Bryce Edwards. I most often agree with Gordon Campbell, and do agree with his response to Ardern in Australia:
On the other hand, I am happy with the paid parental leave policy, and with Andrew Little’s approach to Pike River Mine.
I haven’t seen transcripts of everything that was said about Manus Island between Ardern and Turnbull and any officials involved.
Has anyone?
No. And you won’t see transcripts of such PM to PM discussions. These are never public discussions and transcripts are not released.
> What does this do to our country when the world sees her flying back home having done nothing
Not much. NZ is a small country and not very powerful, we are not expected to get everything we ask for
A.
Crash coming.
Rare to see it mentioned in the msm.
Must be getting close.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11941160
This is what happens when you shift huge amounts of wealth from the poorer classes to the wealthy. Lots of money seeking an easy return on investment, and plenty of brokerage firms bidding up the ‘value’ of stocks.
The 2007 ‘correction’ didn’t result in any fix to the system, because it was viable to simply force the poorer classes to foot the bill.
Of course there’s a connection.
New Zealand links
The Australian Financial Review has linked the Paradise Papers to John Key’s lawyer, Kenneth Whitney, saying the documents show he in 2007 set up a trust for a New York investment banker, Neil Winward, who used to work for Dresdner Kleinwort.
The AFR also reports:
https://www.interest.co.nz/news/90746/ird-gets-involved-paradise-papers-probe-prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-seek-more
https://web.archive.org/web/20171106004852/http://www.afr.com/news/policy/tax/paradise-papers-link-to-firm-that-sued-murdered-malta-journalist-daphne-caruana-galizia-20171105-gzf1v0
What do people think about this Kelvin Davis quote?
“Davis said some innovative thinking could be used to rehabilitate women prisoners, whose needs and motives are different to men.
‘Men normally do things because we’re a bit stupid. Women normally commit crime to protect others, their families, their children.'”
A.
Please put a link if you are quoting. It’s the polite thing to do, but it also gives people a context for the words.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11940296 (sorry)
Stockholm syndrome
That such generalisations are really bloody stupid and sexist.