Talking to my dentist down the pub this afternoon evidently Wally Haumaha was thick as thieves with Clint Rickard, Brad Schollum an Shipton with regards to what was going on with the Louise Nicholas Case. Maybe Chris Bishop knows more about this than we do ?
Interesting. Bishop was born in 1983 and was just 10 years old when Louise Nicholas went to the police with her complaint. Bishop is now the opposition spokesperson for police and he and the National Party does seem to be conveniently in receipt of a lot of information that would naturally be held by police.
The National Party then use this information to attack the government with. I’m thinking the Haumaha case, the Whaitiri case, and the Sroubek case (and even the JLR case if you want to go there).
Just wondering what political channels there are currently between police directly to the opposition spokesperson for police.
Would OIA requests be able to find out who from the police speaks with Chris Bishop on a regular basis and what they talk about?
Bishop will make a name for himself if he can get a hit on Haumaha, anyway the damage has been done and Wally has been dragged through the mud through some very unwise words, whether he was involved with Rickards, Shipton & Schollum is another story ?
For sure, Gobby. There will be hundreds of Haumahas in the NZ police though. And they are informing Chris Bishop as we speak. How to put them down the road?
It seems Karel’s former wife’s new partner, Mark Davis is a member of the National Party. He stood in the 2016 local body elections under the right wing ‘Auckland Future’ banner which was supported by National presidents past and present.
Woodhouse claims he has never met Davis but of course he doesn’t have to does he…
Why is Labour willing to die in a ditch over this guy?
Over the last few years, I’ve seen quite a few cases involving some really talented people/families adding a lot to NZ getting booted out for something quite trivial.
Well I wonder how that came to be? Wasn’t he busted for using a false passport in 2009? I would have thought that would have found it’s way to the minister’s desk?
Strangely you can’t just chuck people with residency out on a whim.
For people to get residency they need to pass the Good Character test which includes not lying on their application. If they got residency and then it was found that they lied to get it then there’s a good case to withdraw residency.
Wow. Fascinating. I speculated just now how so much information finds its way to the National Party on this and other cases and now it appears we know…at least in part.
Of course Trump’s going after Native American land, too.
Brazil's next president, Jair Bolsonaro, wants to do away with indigenous territories, which are protected by law. "Where there is indigenous land, there is wealth underneath it," he said last year. https://t.co/vQ0dlD4pn9— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 11, 2018
“This is not about energy,” Zinke said repeatedly as he sought to defend the downsizing of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monuments. Zinke has maintained that the decision to reduce the monuments grew out of his fact-finding mission in the months before the decision was announced. But anyone who lives in what the Utah-born writer Bernard DeVoto called “the plundered province” of the West knows that Zinke’s statements were suspect. Dig deep enough into any conflicts over public lands and you will be reminded of a simple truth: These days, it’s almost always about energy.
Despite Zinke’s denials, it is now clear that the uranium industry lobbied hard to have Bears Ears and Grand Staircase–Escalante reduced. Publicly released Interior Department emails also show that the Bears Ears map was redrawn with potential oil and gas reserves in mind, and that a central motivation for the reduction of Grand Staircase–Escalante was the desire to get at coal reserves. (In June, another Canadian mining firm, Glacier Lake Resources, announced its acquisition of cobalt and copper deposits at Colt Mesa, a site that for more than 20 years had been protected as part of the Grand Staircase–Escalante monument.)
Ah, Jair Bolsonaro in the man-crush of one James of this forum. He believes Bolsonaro is more charming than Jacinda Ardern!
I said previously today that James’ support for loose RW regressive extremists around the world paint a very clear picture of the man. He’s probably outside right now shouting at nature.
Also, Joe, I’m a little confused why you would be so very hard on a fellow traveller in Ed since many, many of your concerns overlap.
I remember once not long ago you ripped into me for agreeing with another commenter that Stormy Daniels has no class. Why the quick temper?
Here we go. Mr Trump wants the vote counting to stop while his people were ahead.
“Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
The Florida Election should be called in favor of Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis in that large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere, and many ballots are missing or forged. An honest vote count is no longer possible-ballots massively infected. Must go with Election Night!
Very distressing. The more awareness the better I would have thought. And if the Brits are going to ban the ad they did, do you really think they are going to allow that?
It’s the same problem we in the West face with censoring developing countries for using nuclear research for energy and defence. And having ignored carbon emissions and added to climate change for profit, who are we, the West, to deny developing countries the same opportunity?
Having cut down all “our” forests for profit, how are we to deny developing counties the same opportunity without being incredibly hypocritical ladder-kicking bastards?
Goes to show all those terrible decisions made 150 years ago still come back to haunt.
The early British Settlors in NZ did particularly well here in NZ stripping out the native forests with the help of Maori labour of course to supply the British Navy with Kauri masts, spars and planking materials ?
Indonesia & Brazil are just going through the colonisation and the asset stripping of indigeneous resources the same as the the British did here 170-180 years ago.
The NZ Dairy Industry and companies like Nestle are the beneficiaries of this asset stripping of indigeneous forests.
Yes. I would have thought if the stripping of our once grand forests stopped at spars and masts we would still have something spectacular.
I also think some economic development will always have been required in NZ but the magnitude of native deforestation for generic agriculture is a crime.
And still in the South Island we see agriculture override natural landscapes with irrigation schemes, water table pollution, and scant regard for what is being lost before our very eyes.
District Council’s & Government’s don’t appear to give a rat’s arse to the pollution and resource plundering by the Dairy Industry and Asian Water Bottlers, make you wonder who is paying the piper ?
The list of the countries currently taking active steps towards eliminating their economic reliance on the US dollar is growing. Russia has joined a league of nations is making a lot of headway with the task, the WSJ reports.
Russia is hardly the only country trying to fight against the predominance of US currency across the global financial system. The European Union has recently announced plans to create a special purpose vehicle to keep on trading with Iran, as these transactions had become a target for US unilateral sanctions. The partners are reportedly working on using the euro in mutual trade and other business activities.
So, not impossible to disconnect from the present US dominated financial system.
‘Required viewing for everyone.
The Washington Institute For Near East Studies just fully admitted that every war we’ve ever been in was a false flag.’
And? That’s a comedy piece met by another comedy piece. What is your point?
And just how has China lost its revolutionary fervour not once ever having held a democratic election? The West has chosen to ignore that, once again for profit.
Joe defends the neoliberal establishment at all costs.
He regularly pimps for war on this site.
He is 28.
He has no historical reference point as to what war looks like.
Don’t know.
But he takes a lot of interest all things American.
Obama, Hilary and Bill would approve of his points of view.
He supports bellicose foreign US policy in the Baltic, Ukraine and Syria.
He believes the White Helmets are a peaceful rescue organisation.
He believes the UK line on the Skripals.
Pathetic. People use pseudonyms here for a reason and don’t deserve your disgusting amateur hour attempts to pigeonhole them. Grow up ffs and just argue your fucken points. Who made you judge, jury and executioner – noone that’s who!
I haven’t changed my view.
And the comments by Clark and Clawson add weight to those of us who ask the question “Cui Bono?”
As Jack Ramaka say, Clark is very credible and what he says is compelling.
So the buildings were destroyed and people murdered in a conspiracy to make it look like a bunch of Saudis had done it, so the US could invade Iraq? Don’t be stupid.
Or maybe a bunch of mostly Saudis organised by a group harboured in Afghanistan did the attack off their own bat, and all the hawks did was use alleged connections with that act (amongst other fabricated evidence) as an excuse to start hostilities against iraq.
Who had the means?
Who had the motive?
Who had the opportunity?
In U.S. criminal law, means, motive, and opportunity is a common summation of the three aspects of a crime that must be established before guilt can possibly be determined in a criminal proceeding. Respectively, they refer to: the ability of the defendant to commit the crime (means), the reason the defendant committed the crime (motive), and whether the defendant had the chance to commit the crime (opportunity).
For example, if a criminal shot someone with a handgun and took his/her money when the victim was in an isolated, secluded area at night, the means would be the handgun, the motive financial (i.e., the money they stole), and the opportunity the fact that it would be unlikely someone else would witness or stop them. For the majority of crimes, means and opportunity are the easiest to prove; however, for some offenses (such as rape or serial killing), the motive can be hard to define.
Opportunity is most often disproved by use of an alibi, which can prove the accused was not able to commit the crime as he or she did not have the correct set of circumstances to commit the crime as it occurred. Some crimes are motiveless. However, proof of a motive can often make it easier to convince a jury of the elements that must be proven for a conviction.
The invasion of Iraq was a crime of opportunity. Like if someone else kicks the door open and runs away, a thief sees it and nicks the purse off the hall table.
Oh, I’m supposed to believe you’d have any idea what a detective would find “interesting”? Watched a lot of Poirot videos, have you?
Because what the neocons actually did in the way of seeing themselves as empire builders and the descendants of Kissinger, that’s what they should be in jail for. Not your fantasy about 9/11, about using it to invade and loot nations completely unrelated to the crime.
They don’t want to destabilise the ME, that’s plan B. They wanted to rule it. And they used the murders of 3,000 people to justify going after people other than the perpetrators.
The Project for the New American Century saw the post 9/11 world as an opportunity to the begin regime changes the organisation had been planning since its inception in 1997.
All they were doing was waiting for a precipitating event. A plane crash, a big bomb, a ship hijacking, a bridge bomb, anything that could be blamed on Iran or Iraq, preferably. Some ME nation. The neocons had a big military dick, and wanted to swing it.
You don’t need a coincidence if you know something of the right character will happen anyway.
“People’s connections in the US to Google – including its cloud, YouTube, and other websites – were suddenly rerouted through Russia and into China in a textbook Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) hijacking attack.
That means folks in Texas, California, Ohio, and so on, firing up their browsers and software and connecting to Google and its services were instead talking to systems in Russia and China, and not servers belonging to the Silicon Valley giant.
Any information exchanged during the hour-and-a-half-long hijacking that wasn’t securely encrypted may have leaked into the wrong hands. Netizens outside of America may also have been affected.’ Quote end.
Is that any differment than the state doing the same thing?
Intercepting every cyber communication and collating data.
I recently rewatched Citizen4, and again was surprised by how quickly the public shrugged, accepted and soon enough the sheeple went back to sleep.
I am aware KDC overegged the big reveal came, but what was revealed was a big warning.
Now minister Little wants the spies to have even more power.
Something to do with the terrorism that was visited on the folk of Te Urewera by the constabulary.
When are you going to learn a little science and understand that continual horticulture is fucking the planet. The emissions of methane from killing plants is just as great as that of animals – rice growing in particular is a major contributor to GHG emissions. Now I don’t advocate for industrial farming any more than you do. But restorative grazing on pasturelands is just as efficient in sequestering carbon as growing trees.
And by the way since you ask. I have been campaigning for action on addressing Global Warming since the 1990’s, and I’ve planted more trees than you have hot dinners.
So get off your high horse. You are not the fountain of all that is good and wonderful, and your repetitive posts here are boring in the extreme.
Going vegan is the ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on Earth
A LANDMARK global study has revealed the one simple thing we can all do to massively reduce our impact on the planet.
This is because a landmark global study into the production of greenhouse gas emissions from over 38,000 farms has pointed to one simple way we can reduce our global warming woes — by avoiding meat and dairy products.
The paper published in Science today shows that without these industries, global farmland use could be reduced by more than 75 per cent.
That’s an area the size of Australia, the US, China and the EU combined. And what’s more, the study shows we don’t even really need meat anyway.
..the livestock industry accounts for a massive 83 per cent of farmland in the world and produces 60 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in farming….
“A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification (of ocean water), eutrophication (the build up of nutrients in water bodies which destroys wildlife), land use and water use,” Oxford University researcher Joseph Poore told The Guardian today.
Over all, the researchers estimated a vegan world would produce 49 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions from food, 50 per cent less acidification, 49 per cent less eutrophication, and reduce water use by 19 per cent.
“It (going vegan) is far bigger than cutting down on your flights or buying an electric car,” Mr Poore added. “Agriculture is a sector that spans all the multitude of environmental problems. Really it is animal products that are responsible for so much of this.
Typically Ed cherry picks from an op ed article in the SMH…
As I quite simply stated above – I don’t advocate for industrialised farming any more than Ed does – ie not at all.
Here is the concluding part of the article that Ed decided wasn’t worth quoting – because it contradicted his viewpoint.
Today’s analysis found there was a massive difference between different ways of producing the same food products.
Take beef for example. Cattle raised on deforested land produce 12 times more greenhouse gases and use 50 times more land than the same livestock would grazing on natural pasture.
They also found that if we cut our meat consumption in half and removed the worst 50 per cent of meat producers, and replaced them with vegetable crops, the benefits to the planet would be massive.
Note that the last paragraph doesnot mandate or advocate a vegan diet but simply a reduced meat intake.
Furthermore, what the article doesn’t take into account is the damage caused by intensified Horticulture and the disruption of the microbial environments in the soil of constant tillage – and the necessity of inorganic fertilisers for the production of maize and soy beans etc. Nor does it provide any comment on the release of GHG from tilled soil. A process that is a fundamental part of vegetable food production on an extensive scale. And the release of GHG from tilled soils is surprisingly large.
What were once the vast prairies of North America – and the natural pasture lands – have now been destroyed by industrial farming. Where once, these soils sequestered vast quantities of Carbon, constant tillage has reduced them to such a state, that scientists predict the soils will be incapable of supporting crops with a few decades. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/only-60-years-of-farming-left-if-soil-degradation-continues/
There is a growing body of opinion – backed by empirical studies in the US, and elsewhere, that a return to natural practices and simple farming techniques can have significant benefits wrt Carbon sequestration, and at the same time improve animal well being and animal health. A recent white paper give some background to what is sometimes referred to as restorative grazing the Summary is here:
Summary: This white paper reviews the literature on soil organic carbon losses and potential gains through regenerative management. It finds that most literature is limited to areas considered in “agriculture” and that rangelands may be largely under represented both in terms of of losses and drawdown potential. It argues that with regenerative rangeland practices, such as Holistic Planned Grazing, the total capture of atmospheric carbon may be much higher than previously considered. An upward estimate of 88 to 210 gigatons (billions of tons) of carbon (88-210 GtC) representing a total drawdown of 25 to 60 tons per hectare on 3500 million hectares of grasslands worldwide is postulated as achievable through proper rangeland/grassland management. This represents a CO2 reduction equivalency of 41 to 99 ppm, enough to return us to the 350 ppm level mandated by the Paris Climate Accords.
Ed your firing tonight, too many greens, a bit of activity on Daily Review for those of us who have to work for a living during the day. Keep up the thought provoking topics, also less trolls active in the evenings and at night.
‘Not on mainstream media: Nearly two years after Syria’s Aleppo was liberated from jihadist terrorism, churches all over the ancient city are filled with Christians who can finally worship once again in peace.’
“Illusion of democracy: If US elections could change anything they wouldn’t be held
Political power lies not with the voters, but with the powerful lobby groups who ‘buy’ elected representatives, who then act in their interests, and not the people’s. It’s not those we see at election time who really call the shots, but those we don’t. Those hidden behind the curtain. Those who write the cheques.
That’s why whoever wins we’ll never get any meaningful gun control, no matter how many mass shootings take place. It’s why neither the Democrats nor the Republicans will introduce an American National Health Service. Why the power of Wall Street and finance capital won’t be curbed. And why in foreign policy, presidents and Congress will always do the bidding of the military-industrial complex and Israel“
Having spent some time travelling and working in Russia over two separate trips I’ve experienced the people first hand. For a start I feel safer walking about a typical Russian city than I do in many other places. (There are of course specific places everywhere that really should be avoided.)
In public they can be very buttoned down, grim almost. But once you get to know them at work or in their personal lives, they are both well educated, serious minded AND at the same time great hosts and capable of a lot of fun. If you ever get the chance I highly recommend making the journey; it will be both challenging and remarkable at the same time.
The video above hits on a lot of strong notes I agree with. The point on imperialism is well made; but no mention of what must take it’s place. I saw the poverty and destruction caused by Western policy towards Russia first hand. Deprivation in a hot country is one thing; in a cold country it’s brutal.
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
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Talking to my dentist down the pub this afternoon evidently Wally Haumaha was thick as thieves with Clint Rickard, Brad Schollum an Shipton with regards to what was going on with the Louise Nicholas Case. Maybe Chris Bishop knows more about this than we do ?
Eww
Interesting. Bishop was born in 1983 and was just 10 years old when Louise Nicholas went to the police with her complaint. Bishop is now the opposition spokesperson for police and he and the National Party does seem to be conveniently in receipt of a lot of information that would naturally be held by police.
The National Party then use this information to attack the government with. I’m thinking the Haumaha case, the Whaitiri case, and the Sroubek case (and even the JLR case if you want to go there).
Just wondering what political channels there are currently between police directly to the opposition spokesperson for police.
Would OIA requests be able to find out who from the police speaks with Chris Bishop on a regular basis and what they talk about?
If it puts wally down the road that’d be a silver lining mutty, he sounds like a right tosser.
Bishop will make a name for himself if he can get a hit on Haumaha, anyway the damage has been done and Wally has been dragged through the mud through some very unwise words, whether he was involved with Rickards, Shipton & Schollum is another story ?
For sure, Gobby. There will be hundreds of Haumahas in the NZ police though. And they are informing Chris Bishop as we speak. How to put them down the road?
Karel Sroubek’s mother is interviewed.
It seems Karel’s former wife’s new partner, Mark Davis is a member of the National Party. He stood in the 2016 local body elections under the right wing ‘Auckland Future’ banner which was supported by National presidents past and present.
Woodhouse claims he has never met Davis but of course he doesn’t have to does he…
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018671052/karel-sroubek-s-mother-mila-give-him-one-last-chance
National certainly gave him plenty of chances ?
For fuck’s sake man, actually read up about the guy’s history before repeating such idiotic comments.
Why is Labour willing to die in a ditch over this guy?
Over the last few years, I’ve seen quite a few cases involving some really talented people/families adding a lot to NZ getting booted out for something quite trivial.
Why does NZ need a Czech drug dealer living here?
The whole thing stinks of a thousand arses.
We let all the Asian drug dealers stay or use their cheque books to buy justice here in NZ especially under our Sir John Key ?
Yes, I hate to think how many smugglers of meth precursors have been openly welcomed by the National Party of New Zealand to our shores.
+ infinity Muttonbird.
I doubt we have much accurate information on many of our new Asian Immigrants.
Information deliberately not gathered.
Yeah I can’t understand why Woodhouse didn’t chuck him out years ago when he had the chance.
He definitely had every right to, hopefully the Inquiry will reveal the answers ?
What chance?
Woodhouse was never informed of what criminal activity the Czech drug dealer was up to, so how could he deport him?
So Immigration and the Police were not giving Woodhouse the information either ?
“Woodhouse was never informed”
Well I wonder how that came to be? Wasn’t he busted for using a false passport in 2009? I would have thought that would have found it’s way to the minister’s desk?
Apparently that was all the fault of the errant leftie judge overseeing the case. At least according to RWNJs that is the story.
I’m wondering if the Nat’s radar has got this badly wrong just like in the JLR situation and they are going to get found out.
Discharge without conviction.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s an untruth.
Did he make sure he wasn’t informed while wearing the wrong hat BMmer?
Mainly because he couldn’t.
Strangely you can’t just chuck people with residency out on a whim.
Which is why it is looking pretty bad for idiot Galloway.
Unless they can extradite him, he will be in the court for years trying to get rid of him.
Idiot along with Jacindarella should have read the report properly ?
It isn’t her job to read it.
There is only one person who wrote the letter (that can’t just be cancelled) and signed it off.
Not sure why she is intent on backing him up though.
Must not want to lose 3 Ministers in a year due to dodgy stuff
For people to get residency they need to pass the Good Character test which includes not lying on their application. If they got residency and then it was found that they lied to get it then there’s a good case to withdraw residency.
Not without grounds to
The judge let him off for it remember.
Wow. Fascinating. I speculated just now how so much information finds its way to the National Party on this and other cases and now it appears we know…at least in part.
The mother says that Karel did go back to the Czech Republic but under a false name. Suggests that he felt at risk.
Evidently he has links with the Hells Angels, so he is obviously well connected ?
Dodgy as, so the new man of the exwife is seems to be out to score points for the national party.
Go figure, typical behaviour of that mob, it’s all just a freaking competition and worries if people get hurt along the way.
May she cotton on to what’s happening, cause from where I’m sitting it looks like she is being used.
Of course Trump’s going after Native American land, too.
“This is not about energy,” Zinke said repeatedly as he sought to defend the downsizing of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monuments. Zinke has maintained that the decision to reduce the monuments grew out of his fact-finding mission in the months before the decision was announced. But anyone who lives in what the Utah-born writer Bernard DeVoto called “the plundered province” of the West knows that Zinke’s statements were suspect. Dig deep enough into any conflicts over public lands and you will be reminded of a simple truth: These days, it’s almost always about energy.
Despite Zinke’s denials, it is now clear that the uranium industry lobbied hard to have Bears Ears and Grand Staircase–Escalante reduced. Publicly released Interior Department emails also show that the Bears Ears map was redrawn with potential oil and gas reserves in mind, and that a central motivation for the reduction of Grand Staircase–Escalante was the desire to get at coal reserves. (In June, another Canadian mining firm, Glacier Lake Resources, announced its acquisition of cobalt and copper deposits at Colt Mesa, a site that for more than 20 years had been protected as part of the Grand Staircase–Escalante monument.)
https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2018-4-september-october/feature/land-grab-trumps-campaign-against-bears-ears-national
Ah, Jair Bolsonaro in the man-crush of one James of this forum. He believes Bolsonaro is more charming than Jacinda Ardern!
I said previously today that James’ support for loose RW regressive extremists around the world paint a very clear picture of the man. He’s probably outside right now shouting at nature.
Also, Joe, I’m a little confused why you would be so very hard on a fellow traveller in Ed since many, many of your concerns overlap.
I remember once not long ago you ripped into me for agreeing with another commenter that Stormy Daniels has no class. Why the quick temper?
“He’s probably outside right now shouting at nature.”
QFT
Here we go. Mr Trump wants the vote counting to stop while his people were ahead.
“Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
The Florida Election should be called in favor of Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis in that large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere, and many ballots are missing or forged. An honest vote count is no longer possible-ballots massively infected. Must go with Election Night!
108K
1:44 AM – Nov 13, 2018”
Damn sight more powerful than a recycled animation.
And despite talk of sustainable production, I ain’t buying the shit.
http://www.saynotopalmoil.com/Whats_the_issue.php
Very distressing. The more awareness the better I would have thought. And if the Brits are going to ban the ad they did, do you really think they are going to allow that?
It’s the same problem we in the West face with censoring developing countries for using nuclear research for energy and defence. And having ignored carbon emissions and added to climate change for profit, who are we, the West, to deny developing countries the same opportunity?
Having cut down all “our” forests for profit, how are we to deny developing counties the same opportunity without being incredibly hypocritical ladder-kicking bastards?
Goes to show all those terrible decisions made 150 years ago still come back to haunt.
The early British Settlors in NZ did particularly well here in NZ stripping out the native forests with the help of Maori labour of course to supply the British Navy with Kauri masts, spars and planking materials ?
Indonesia & Brazil are just going through the colonisation and the asset stripping of indigeneous resources the same as the the British did here 170-180 years ago.
The NZ Dairy Industry and companies like Nestle are the beneficiaries of this asset stripping of indigeneous forests.
Yes. I would have thought if the stripping of our once grand forests stopped at spars and masts we would still have something spectacular.
I also think some economic development will always have been required in NZ but the magnitude of native deforestation for generic agriculture is a crime.
And still in the South Island we see agriculture override natural landscapes with irrigation schemes, water table pollution, and scant regard for what is being lost before our very eyes.
District Council’s & Government’s don’t appear to give a rat’s arse to the pollution and resource plundering by the Dairy Industry and Asian Water Bottlers, make you wonder who is paying the piper ?
It’s only fair to let the third world deliver the coup de grace eh mutty.
Always a petty little barb in there, joe.
Why the need for it?
No idea. It is bizarre because he’s obviously concerned about the same things.
Americans! Declining civilisation and all that.
Because poe-faced wowsers merit barbs.
Shooting the messenger.
Not debating the issue, eh.
Sugar Babies are taxable.
I can imagine the married men who patronise them declaring that expense. 🙂
Russia excels in ditching dollar ahead of pending US sanctions against country’s financial system
So, not impossible to disconnect from the present US dominated financial system.
George Galloway points out CNN is a fake new bureau.
Galloway at 4:30.
heh
Jerome Corsi’s pity party.
@ 5.00
Remember all our RWNJ commenters are right into Trump, and the NRA, and the so called 2nd amendment. Here’s US trauma doctors calling the NRA out:
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/375841/doctors-respond-after-nra-tells-them-to-shut-up-over-gun-control
#stayinyourlane
The vast majority of Americans want gun control in pretty much every survey.
With includes a vast amount of republicans
But no matter how many people want change re gun control, things still seem to stay the same.
Why? There’s no money in peace or unity.
No idea
I would guess NRA lobbyist
I was just disagreeing with Muttonbirds “Remember all our RWNJ commenters are right into Trump, and the NRA, and the so called 2nd amendment.”
First ever and probably the last time I’ll post hip hop.
And for some really bad arse shit and probably my fav rap/hip-hop song
‘Required viewing for everyone.
The Washington Institute For Near East Studies just fully admitted that every war we’ve ever been in was a false flag.’
For context, you disingenuous fool.
And? That’s a comedy piece met by another comedy piece. What is your point?
And just how has China lost its revolutionary fervour not once ever having held a democratic election? The West has chosen to ignore that, once again for profit.
Idiots have taken a stand up at an independent body’s forum, ascribed it as US policy, and said gotcha!.
That’s infowars fuckwittery.
What are you going to fight informers with? You post 100 tweets a month just like the Jimmy Dore crew do but you never suggest solutions.
It’s lazy.
Because I don’t have the po-faced wowser’s delusional discernment to ascribe batshit notions to every, damn thing that goes bump in the night.
It was a comedy show, but if you want to carry on f&^king puppies, feel free.
Joe defends the neoliberal establishment at all costs.
He regularly pimps for war on this site.
He is 28.
He has no historical reference point as to what war looks like.
Is Joe90 American? It would explain a lot.
Don’t know.
But he takes a lot of interest all things American.
Obama, Hilary and Bill would approve of his points of view.
He supports bellicose foreign US policy in the Baltic, Ukraine and Syria.
He believes the White Helmets are a peaceful rescue organisation.
He believes the UK line on the Skripals.
And he posts just like the very people he criticises. Zero self awareness!
Maybe hes a gnat plant lol
Perhaps.
You get my point though. He did just savage the Jimmy Dore clip yet that type of delivery is literally all that Joe90 does on this forum.
Go to bed arsehole.
Yeah, and I post about the goings on in Temple View, in the late sixties.
Pathetic. People use pseudonyms here for a reason and don’t deserve your disgusting amateur hour attempts to pigeonhole them. Grow up ffs and just argue your fucken points. Who made you judge, jury and executioner – noone that’s who!
Go to bed, arsehole.
Lol yeah right.
Why does Iran have to compromise when the NPT guarantees them the right to develop a civilian nuclear program?
And, yes, centrifugal enrichment is still part of a civilian nuclear program.
Why is the US saying that if Iran doesn’t compromise then there must be war?
The video is from 2012, prior to the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
tRump and Bolton want a fucking war with Iran, that’s why they scrapped the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
The US needs a war to protect its economy as it’s too hollowed out from all its corruption and the shifting of production offshore.
We were warned 57 years ago.
Trump & the USA War Machine definitely looking for a punch up with Iran.
Having heard the spokesperson for The Washington Institute For Near East Studies, one can see why people question this event.
Definitely a controlled demolition IMHO.
General Wesley Clark.
About ten days after 9/11.
Very compelling stuff from someone quite credible.
Trailer for the most compelling film on the subject.
🙄
haven’t scratched that itch in too long, huh?
I haven’t changed my view.
And the comments by Clark and Clawson add weight to those of us who ask the question “Cui Bono?”
As Jack Ramaka say, Clark is very credible and what he says is compelling.
So the buildings were destroyed and people murdered in a conspiracy to make it look like a bunch of Saudis had done it, so the US could invade Iraq? Don’t be stupid.
Or maybe a bunch of mostly Saudis organised by a group harboured in Afghanistan did the attack off their own bat, and all the hawks did was use alleged connections with that act (amongst other fabricated evidence) as an excuse to start hostilities against iraq.
Who had the means?
Who had the motive?
Who had the opportunity?
The invasion of Iraq was a crime of opportunity. Like if someone else kicks the door open and runs away, a thief sees it and nicks the purse off the hall table.
It was only made possible by 9/11.
If the USS Cole or the 1993 WTC bombing had happened under their watch, they would have done the same thing.
The neocons weren’t in power in 1993.
They were in 2001.
yes, that’s my point.
Why do anything if something was going to happen anyway?
And we know the official story was a lie.
Commentators have drawn similarities to Pearl Harbour.
You know no such thing
Operation Northwoods was one of the USA’s earlier ones with Cuba in the 1960’s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods they have been in USA’s Military Handbook for a while.
Many see parallels between Northwood and 9/11.
So they chose to frame Saudi Arabia as an excuse to attack Iraq?
Hit the nail on the head.
Don’t believe me.
Listen to Wesley Clark.
What Clark said in no way indicates who did 9/11 or how.
A detective investigating a crime would find his statement very interesting.
Means
Motive
Opportunity.
As if you’d fucking know.
Didn’t take you long to abandon reasoned debate and resort to foul and aggressive abuse.
Oh, I’m supposed to believe you’d have any idea what a detective would find “interesting”? Watched a lot of Poirot videos, have you?
Because what the neocons actually did in the way of seeing themselves as empire builders and the descendants of Kissinger, that’s what they should be in jail for. Not your fantasy about 9/11, about using it to invade and loot nations completely unrelated to the crime.
They don’t want to destabilise the ME, that’s plan B. They wanted to rule it. And they used the murders of 3,000 people to justify going after people other than the perpetrators.
And yeah, Trump has brought back the same folks.
And just as they came into power, 9/11 happened.
That was convenient for them.
something happens every few years.
They didn’t need to do anything.
The Project for the New American Century saw the post 9/11 world as an opportunity to the begin regime changes the organisation had been planning since its inception in 1997.
Correct.
They were ready to seize that opportunity.
The plan was already up and ready to go.
What an amazing coincidence.
And when I win powerball I plan to marry ScarJo.
I’m ready to go.
It’ll be an amazing coincidence.
Loose units ?
We don’t know.
What we do know is that the official story is a lie.
All they were doing was waiting for a precipitating event. A plane crash, a big bomb, a ship hijacking, a bridge bomb, anything that could be blamed on Iran or Iraq, preferably. Some ME nation. The neocons had a big military dick, and wanted to swing it.
You don’t need a coincidence if you know something of the right character will happen anyway.
anyone heard of this?
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016219854
“People’s connections in the US to Google – including its cloud, YouTube, and other websites – were suddenly rerouted through Russia and into China in a textbook Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) hijacking attack.
That means folks in Texas, California, Ohio, and so on, firing up their browsers and software and connecting to Google and its services were instead talking to systems in Russia and China, and not servers belonging to the Silicon Valley giant.
Any information exchanged during the hour-and-a-half-long hijacking that wasn’t securely encrypted may have leaked into the wrong hands. Netizens outside of America may also have been affected.’ Quote end.
interesting times i guess.
I’d call that an act of war.
I would too.
Is that any differment than the state doing the same thing?
Intercepting every cyber communication and collating data.
I recently rewatched Citizen4, and again was surprised by how quickly the public shrugged, accepted and soon enough the sheeple went back to sleep.
I am aware KDC overegged the big reveal came, but what was revealed was a big warning.
Now minister Little wants the spies to have even more power.
Something to do with the terrorism that was visited on the folk of Te Urewera by the constabulary.
‘Bleeding’ vegan burger will come with suspiciously authentic scabs
Something for Ed to take his mind off “false flags” for goodness sake
You must be glad I broach so many thought provoking subjects for you to mull over.
When are you going to make a stand for our children and grandchildren and fight climate change?
When are you going to stop eating meat?
Something to think over before you eat a hamburger.
When are you going to learn a little science and understand that continual horticulture is fucking the planet. The emissions of methane from killing plants is just as great as that of animals – rice growing in particular is a major contributor to GHG emissions. Now I don’t advocate for industrial farming any more than you do. But restorative grazing on pasturelands is just as efficient in sequestering carbon as growing trees.
And by the way since you ask. I have been campaigning for action on addressing Global Warming since the 1990’s, and I’ve planted more trees than you have hot dinners.
So get off your high horse. You are not the fountain of all that is good and wonderful, and your repetitive posts here are boring in the extreme.
You may think so.
Many people don’t.
I don’t give a fuck what people think. I only care about the facts. What do the figures show?
The facts.
https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/going-vegan-is-the-single-biggest-way-to-reduce-your-impact-on-earth/news-story/7f56cd0edd9ec5dea081f267fe3fc2af
Typically Ed cherry picks from an op ed article in the SMH…
As I quite simply stated above – I don’t advocate for industrialised farming any more than Ed does – ie not at all.
Here is the concluding part of the article that Ed decided wasn’t worth quoting – because it contradicted his viewpoint.
Note that the last paragraph doesnot mandate or advocate a vegan diet but simply a reduced meat intake.
Furthermore, what the article doesn’t take into account is the damage caused by intensified Horticulture and the disruption of the microbial environments in the soil of constant tillage – and the necessity of inorganic fertilisers for the production of maize and soy beans etc. Nor does it provide any comment on the release of GHG from tilled soil. A process that is a fundamental part of vegetable food production on an extensive scale. And the release of GHG from tilled soils is surprisingly large.
What were once the vast prairies of North America – and the natural pasture lands – have now been destroyed by industrial farming. Where once, these soils sequestered vast quantities of Carbon, constant tillage has reduced them to such a state, that scientists predict the soils will be incapable of supporting crops with a few decades.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/only-60-years-of-farming-left-if-soil-degradation-continues/
There is a growing body of opinion – backed by empirical studies in the US, and elsewhere, that a return to natural practices and simple farming techniques can have significant benefits wrt Carbon sequestration, and at the same time improve animal well being and animal health. A recent white paper give some background to what is sometimes referred to as restorative grazing the Summary is here:
my bold
https://www.savory.global/the-potential-of-restorative-grazing-to-mitigate-global-warming-by-increasing-carbon-capture-on-grasslands/
Well stated re: restorative grazing. Ed is not in the loop just thinks he is with regards to what agriculture needs.
Get rid of the chemists.
Ed your firing tonight, too many greens, a bit of activity on Daily Review for those of us who have to work for a living during the day. Keep up the thought provoking topics, also less trolls active in the evenings and at night.
Thank you.
The latest from Syria
‘Not on mainstream media: Nearly two years after Syria’s Aleppo was liberated from jihadist terrorism, churches all over the ancient city are filled with Christians who can finally worship once again in peace.’
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DrlhtXSU4AAw2tD.jpg
Which is to say, Ed’s murderous totalitarian idol Assad bombed or gassed all the remaining civilians in the area.
Way to go Ed – our very own Lord Haw Haw.
Your jihadist mates didn’t get the christians ah Stuart Munro, you must be really upset.
Way to go Stuart Munro – our very own Tokyo Rose.
Penultimate thought for the night.
Neil Clark on the U.S. elections.
“Illusion of democracy: If US elections could change anything they wouldn’t be held
Political power lies not with the voters, but with the powerful lobby groups who ‘buy’ elected representatives, who then act in their interests, and not the people’s. It’s not those we see at election time who really call the shots, but those we don’t. Those hidden behind the curtain. Those who write the cheques.
That’s why whoever wins we’ll never get any meaningful gun control, no matter how many mass shootings take place. It’s why neither the Democrats nor the Republicans will introduce an American National Health Service. Why the power of Wall Street and finance capital won’t be curbed. And why in foreign policy, presidents and Congress will always do the bidding of the military-industrial complex and Israel“
https://t.co/hiYxG9samB?amp=1
Ed, shades of National and their money for a place on the list.
And finally.
One of the best left wing thinkers and writers in the U.K.
John Wight discusses the demonisation of Russia.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ5viZQa2F0
NZ MSM and the NZ Government appear to be buying into the demonisation of Russia by the USA.
It’s funny – you murder a couple of former spys and the odd innocent bystander and people demonize you. The UK isn’t like Russia at all.
Having spent some time travelling and working in Russia over two separate trips I’ve experienced the people first hand. For a start I feel safer walking about a typical Russian city than I do in many other places. (There are of course specific places everywhere that really should be avoided.)
In public they can be very buttoned down, grim almost. But once you get to know them at work or in their personal lives, they are both well educated, serious minded AND at the same time great hosts and capable of a lot of fun. If you ever get the chance I highly recommend making the journey; it will be both challenging and remarkable at the same time.
The video above hits on a lot of strong notes I agree with. The point on imperialism is well made; but no mention of what must take it’s place. I saw the poverty and destruction caused by Western policy towards Russia first hand. Deprivation in a hot country is one thing; in a cold country it’s brutal.