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notices and features - Date published:
5:30 pm, May 23rd, 2019 - 70 comments
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The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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Absolutely marvellous just seen Hannah Tāmaki of the coalition party. More or less said about the new party “it’s exciting. Imagine if colonel sanders had never tried we would never have had that delicious chicken.
comedy gold!
Yep – it's funny/ludicrous. But this potentially represents than National Party aligning with the most authoritarian and regressive elements in society. I wouldn't want to be in any cohort that's on the receiving end of their punitive delusions. .
Our very own Waterford family bringing the Gilead project down under.
Love it – this election coming up is shaping up to be a monster – in a good way!!!
…but Nek Minnit …Prime Minister
TrumpTamaki!Been a bad day for Donnie two scoops.
https://twitter.com/DanEggenWPost/status/1131346967089565696
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7Nt5XXXkAIHUuu.jpg:large
https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1131401373440978950
Unbelievable. For some reason this sprung to mind.
Rare earth minerals, China responds to any threat to the supply of chips by raising the issue of rare earth mineral supply to the USA.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-rareearth-explainer/explainer-chinas-rare-earth-supplies-could-be-vital-bargaining-chip-in-u-s-trade-war-idUSKCN1SS2VW
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/05/21/china-raises-threat-of-rare-earth-mineral-cutoff-to-us/
A real bargaining chip then.
*groan*
steady..
I have my bag of chips out atm watching Lynas Corporation jump up by 14% since Monday.
In the short term I see this may be a problem for the US after the China has threaten to cut off the supply of rare earth minerals. The only other major supplier of rare earths outside of China is Lynas and before this threat from China IRT China's supply of Heavy and Light Rare Earths. Lynas is now looking to build another Rare Earth separation facility in a JV with Blue Line at their facility at Hondo in Texas.
Disclaimer: I have shares in Lynas and two other major Lithium miners in Australia who are tried up Sth Korean, Jap, US auto and computer chip companies
It's all the talk in WA at the moment too replacing the coal mining.
Some wag has called it the new "white gold" and its not only just in the WA where the major lithium and Rare Earth finds. But also in the NT, SA, the far Western states in QLD around the Isa and around the Hill and Cobar in Western NSW as there is a number of rock kickers kicker around atm. Then there is a mad rush a Nickel and Copper going on as well at the moment.
credit where credit is due – whoever painted that mural has some serious talent.
Awesome James.
Deow?
It was street artist Loretta Lizzio who "donated her time "to paint an image of unity, an image of hope" on the Tinning Street silos, in Melbourne's north".
From the artist's instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxeo-irAmLN/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
embiggened
Deow mos def does some fine work. But this awesome piece was done by Loretta Lizzio.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/humanity-hoisted-above-the-humbug-art-critic-s-verdict-on-ardern-mural-20190522-p51q83.html
I see shit-lite is sticking with another austerity budget.
Can they get any further right wing economically – they probably will when the majority of the so called left in this country can't even talk about left wing economics, let alone debate it.
Yeah, well. There's been a couple of law changes, guns, benefit penalties, the Climate bill. So there's been some shifts in bureaucracy from piss poor interpretations of the social contract so that's a piss poor interpretation of the rights of New Zealand citizens. But some times you just got to clean them out from the top down and bring in new people as laws are change because old habits can die hard. Otherwise I'd like to see more state control really, and that dosnt necessarily mean bigger is better. WINZ staff need a good clean out, so to does Orange Children. But unless we have more democratised energy or "solar on your roof" then there's probably not a heck of a lot of ways to brake up the monopolies.
And the RNZAF needs new transport aircraft before 2025 as the first one will be grounded due to it running out of airfame hrs. As the last pack of muppets in 97-2001 or 2002 kicked the can down the rd yet again for some other silly muppet to sort out.
The Pirates, the puss, jack tars need two new southern ocean OPV's as the current two OPV's are no longer fit for purpose for the southern ocean as one nearly sunk 12mths ago with almost a total loss of all hands including those on broad were Ronnie, Ms Sage and two of my cuzzie bro's
Would they like an independent complaints authority with that sir?
@EXKIWIFORCE
Faark. I'm gob smacked. Almost sunk eh. Well I think Ron Marks is the right guy for the job right here right now. There is the Capability Plan that was supposed to be released end of last year and it's been sent back several times for revision so presumably it's sitting on Ron'z desk in preparation for the budget announcements latter on this month. He's been a busy lad going from defence meetings in Singapore, the Pacific, APEC, all the usually meet and greets so it will be on him to convert all that political capital into something that can coupe with Climate a Change. This we will need ships and planes, that means cash.
Natural Resources are on the move so to are immigrants, as stocks dwindle from over consumption and foreign raiders, and as new stocks are found that can cause conflict. This we will need an army, airforce and navy.
Cyber Sercurity is a nice to have when you've got ships of your own. This we don't need an army for, don't need the Greens okay neither.
They may be trying to have their cake and eat it. By not bringing in the slight relaxation in budget limits until next year they please the austerity masters, keep the economy stable which is necessary as you know the RW are watching Labour Co. like a kea and will dive down an peck its liver when the slightest advantage, and offer some hope for jam tomorrow. I'll put my order in now in case there isn't enough for latecomers; I think I'll go for raspberry.
What? No. You can't let these economic nobodies run the place. Public life isn't like private life because for a few calories of effort over here in government can cause major change over there. But in private life it's the other way around. You give up your comforts for public life not to rest on it.
Labour, NZFirst and The Greens still have billions in infrastructure spending to budget for and R&D funding to go after 2 years in government and a lot of fortune tellers will be keen to see the devilery end of this governments policies sooner rather than later. Treez and houses, need more.
Jacinda Ardern's performance as PM has certainly shut those "little girl" detractors up. They are all very quiet now. The coalition's actions are seeing the broken pieces of Key's smoke and mirrors "blighted future" jigsaw puzzle of nine years of neglect exposed for the con job it was. The National party are visibly edgy and reeling from not being able to land any more"big hits" on the govt. The tactics of trying to discredit every other minister and get them to resign is backfiring in a swirl of gotcha politics blow-back. The house today was comical and now National faces a developing nightmare script with the formation of nut job political party's akin to a Quentin Tarantino movie.
Ding dong…
The Times newspaper reported that May would name a date for her departure on Friday. May will remain as prime minister while her successor is elected in a two-stage process, the newspaper said.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu/may-expected-to-announce-on-friday-that-she-will-quit-the-times-idUKKCN1ST0E2?rpc=401&
Fascinating article…
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190522-how-the-malaria-vaccine-could-change-world-health
If ever our Minister of Education needs to find some additional money and pay teachers appropiately.
So our teachers do not earn enough to qualify for the skilled migrant category. He should resign as he has NO IDEA.
https://www.times.co.nz/news/teachers-residency-rejected-due-to-low-pay/
To qualify for residency under the skilled migrant category you need to earn at least $25 per hour, a total of $52,000 per year based on 40 hour working week.
After some research she discovered that according to the Novopay salary assessment, teachers are only contracted to work 25 hours per week which brings their hourly pay to around $36 per hour. Wonder how many teachers react to that ONLY 25 hours a week. A family member does that each week from home after hours.
Ok so someone is looking for residency and they are a teacher. They did look into the situation properly before they came to NZ yes?
Anyways from the same article…
“Many skills shortages are temporary and our needs as a country change over time. That’s why it’s not automatic that a skills shortage visa should lead to residency,” he says.
If you are concerned maybe spend some time going through teachers contacts, maybe your family members contract. Here’s a helpful link….
https://education.govt.nz/school/people-and-employment/employment-agreements/collective-agreements/secondary-teachers-collective-agreement/part-four-remuneration/4-1-salary-scales/
Interesting meeting with the principal and deputy about Miss 14's bullying problem.
…'I noticed a number of email addresses you sent your email to regarding Miss 14's bullying problem..' Yes.
'Did the chair of the BOT reply?'.. Yes, rather promptly.
'What did they say?' They were very helpful and supportive about the situation.
'They've asked for a report on our meeting, no need for you to do it, I can take care of that'…. Ok.
'So you don't need to contact them again on this matter, instead you can deal directly with myself.' I see.
I found that interesting… sure the principal is a lovely person and told me everything a parent would want to hear…. but dang that part was a wtf moment for sure.
On the upside, am thrilled the media are continuing to highlight bullying, somethings got to change, the conversation is getting out there, long may that continue.
Keep the dialogue going please media.
'So you will copy me in on your report to the Board about our meeting?'
Mhmmmm you know it Sacha.
I might have known it
Another abstention at the UN
So much for backing the "rules based order"
Easy to see whose rules we obey
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-uk-has-no-friends-left.html
But interesting to see that despite weeks of energetic lobbying the majority of UN nations backed the ruling from the International Court of Justice
Signals the fraying of US/UK power
Pacific music awards live-stream.
So here's an interesting thing on Newsroom arguing that milkshakes do the same thing as hate speech. No, not bringing the boys to the yard, but silencing people:
I believe the author has fundamentally missed the problem with hate speech: the problem isn't just how it makes the victims feel, the problem is that it empowers bigots and encourages further, physical, and lethal violence.
The intended audience of hate speech isn't the marginalised community, it is other bigots.
The intended audience of milkshake-throwers are people who might be fooled into approving of the lactose-recipient. The waste of food is regrettable, but the absurdity of using food is funny. It doesn't encourage escalation, punches are not so funny (although we should punch nazis). Knives and bullets aren't funny at all. But eggs and milk and flour are inherently absurd. Like dildo baggins. That was fucking hilarious. Escalating that to a brick would have destroyed the entire principle of the act.
Whereas hate speech is always just a step intended to lead somewhere badly.
RW protester – I will stop at nothing to fully eradicate them all.
LW protester – I will milkshake/egg them.
Ivory tower denizen – Oh noes, they're the same.
QFT
Unfortunately too many people fail to see this, thereby confusing all forms of protest as the same. They are not.
Real freedom is being able to do what we think is right. Freedom is meaningless without a moral code.
So if you're white and say nigger then it's a cultural norm no mater which country you're in that people around you will frown on you.
Hiring white only will get you fined and frowns.
Material support or actively engaging in brutality will get you arrested.
But as I say nasty words will just get you nasty frowns.
Why milkshaking works: https://newrepublic.com/article/153959/milkshaking-nigel-farage-effective
I have a different take on that article, which was quite good, I thought.
I don’t think the author was trying to demonstrate equivalence at all. He started off arguing that there is a resemblance, a similarity, if you like, between hate speech and throwing a milk shake. The resemblance is in one of the possible consequences.
He then tried to develop the milkshake into a more powerful metaphor:
I don’t think for one moment that he was suggesting that the harms are equal.
The key is in his second-to-last sentence:
Fair comment, to a degree, but the article still ignores the elephant that the right wing want to keep invisible.
I think that about the biggest lie against regulating hate speech is that it's only being suggested because the people on the brunt of it are offended, or scared, or intimidated.
The "snowflake" argument.
Hate speech needs to be regulated because the people on the brunt of it end up getting murdered.
The problem with the woke isn't that police require resource A or that criminal offence B needs to be increased in order to police the community. It's that Mc Trash reckons nasty words are killing people.
That's a dumbass interpretation to make. Hopefully sane people will just ignore his ignorant ramblings as if to say LGBT or who ever can't speak up and stand up for themselves in a free society so it all needs to be policed with the power of the state.
This kind of political correctness is indeed fascism masked by politeness.
To eradicate parts of our society McTrash can't handel out of a perceived need to cleanse the social conscious of sin, is a disservice not only to those who fought, bled, and died against the tide of abjectly maddened polities, but a disservice to those who will and do fight against these structures–here and elsewhere. This white-washing of things done in the past will only allow them to be facilitated again down the road, as once you destroy a peoples' history, it inevitably sets up a paradigm of resurgence and cyclical reoccurrence. Now the rise in the culture wars is facilitating a Christian reaction from Trump to Putin, Turkey to China and now Brian Tamaki and Alfred Ngaro against the "oppressor classes."
Is that the official cuck view sambam?
[Please stop the deliberate and pointless provocation and personal insults. I left a similar moderation note for you just 3 days ago here and you have run out of warnings – Incognito]
Fuck off Gabby
Snofwake spambam.
fascist scum
See my Moderation note @ 8:43 AM.
Gabby You only encourage him and your satirical style takes a nose dive. Please stay giving us the essence of your measured thinking.
We don’t understand most things. Not in the way we will understand them in the future if we continue to approach them with a beginners mind.
Sam Why don't you ponce off and pontificate somewhere else?
You're out the gate. So you aren't going to defend yourself or your comments and just baselessly talk shit? Get it in. I'll rubbish any of your economic theories, want to come at me with feelings? I'll rubbish those too. It's quite simple. The social contract puts human rights above animals so it's illegal to send humans to slaughtered houses but it's cool to send animals to slaughtered houses for food. But if you are mean to animals, even say nasty words to them then that might get the err of society in which case that would be immoral. But the case for humans to have free speech is much higher than animals as the social contract implies and again, rubbishing your [deleted] arguments.
This would be the 'don't cross Jasimonatthew, he'll just spew even more bile, let him be his poisonous self' approach?
Sam's a dick.
I like to read your comments.
Sam will self-ban some time.
I'd prefer it if you were still able to comment when that happens 🙂
Generally speaking, people don’t get banned without ample prior warning and explanation as to what choices they have in order to improve their behaviour. It helps to read and understand the site’s policy 🙂
Commenters usually don’t stray by themselves but they often receive ‘a little help from their friends’, e.g. pointless provocation, little jabs, ‘mild’ personal abuse, etc.
Any corrective measures by Moderators should (IMO) reflect the negative behavioural act or pattern they are aimed at and initially bans can be short and sharp but can also rapidly escalate to long or even permanent bans. Different Moderators deal with issues differently and as they see fit – we all have our idiosyncrasies. So, don’t count on a short ban for a seemingly minor ‘offence’ or on a ban at all. Sometimes auto-moderation is used but this requires much more Moderator’s time and inhibits the flow of the comments.
Is there anything that is not clear in the above? Please ask 😉
Yeah, there's usually a lot of warning, in general.
One thing I have noticed is that occasionally someone just spits the dummy and keeps going like the energiser bunny, not letting something go or deciding a mod note was unjust and ending up outright abusing the mods.
Which is fine if they're a general dick, but sometimes it's just screaming that a normally-regular someone is at the end of their tether, probably with absolutely nothing to do with the TS thread they're dropping the bomb on. Those ones get me down a bit.
Yeah, I know what you mean (I think) and trust me, it gets me down too, especially after a long day when I just want to read the TS and relax a little.
I’m learning that as a Moderator you need to have a much thicker skin than as an Author, which is thicker again than a regular commenter’s skin.
I don’t want to come down on somebody like a ton of bricks because they may be going through a rough patch or something that I/we don’t necessarily know about. However, if they become a nuisance to others it is sometimes better for that person and for the site in general to give them time-out, i.e. a short period to cool down before it becomes too bad (damage control). Most recipients respond reasonable well to this, I’m glad to say.
Some commenters keep harping back to stuff that was said ages ago, as if they keep a tally of all the ‘bad experiences’ here on TS and they can’t or don’t want to let go of things. I feel sad when I see that.
You may have noticed that I’m flexing my Moderator muscles a wee bit more often but I’m still a lousy Moderator and I learn as I go. So far, so good 😉
Sort of disappeared up his/her own arse there.
Thread.
https://twitter.com/donna_gallers/status/1131257328798507008
https://tttthreads.com/thread/1131257328798507008.html
😂
Brilliant. 😀
An Estonian social media ad about the perils of the far-right.
https://twitter.com/koigieesti/status/1129658080332013570
A recent social media initiative called Kõigi Eesti has seen a blossoming of the movement's logo, appearing on individual social media accounts.
Kõigi Eesti sprang up on Sunday, 17 March, and at the time of writing has over 26,000 ''likes'' on its Facebook page, and a similar number of ''followers''
Kõigi Eesti, literally ''Everyone's Estonia'', also has a Twitter hashtag, rendered into English as ''My Estonia too'', and into Russian as well. However, it is its logo, an outline of a white heart, used as a sticker on individual Facebook profile pictures, which has raised most awareness, according to a report on ETV's Aktuaalne kaamera current affairs show on Tuesday.
https://news.err.ee/922982/koigi-eesti-movement-launched-by-concerned-residents
Thanks Joe – effective messaging. What would Bishop and Pastor Tamaki make of it?
Estonia – has a very very low debt to GDP rate. How do they manage that?
Oh boy…
Julian Assange's belongings from his time living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London will be handed over to US prosecutors, WikiLeaks has claimed. Ecuadorian officials are said to be travelling to London to allow US prosecutors to 'help themselves' to the items, which include legal papers, medical records and electronic equipment
https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6038758723001
What are the Ecuadorians getting out of that? A nice old Stealth bomber or one tonne of IEDs partly used? Or trips to Disneyland – Korbachev? wanted to see that when there was a thaw in relations.
ISTR a coincidental IMF loan and a trade deal – this is all probably part of the same package.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/112960575/comedian-tim-batt-trolls-brian-and-hannah-tamakis-coalition-party-with-domain-name-purchase
yet more fun to be had with the bigoted Tāmakis. Go Tim. Marvelous idea