Lying : the preferred denier behavior

Written By: - Date published: 3:45 pm, September 22nd, 2019 - 26 comments
Categories: australian politics, climate change, Donald Trump, Environment, International, politicans, science - Tags: , , , , , ,

In a striking example of the typical climate change denier, the “Australian Young Coal Coalition” released a photo bemoaning the mess left by friday’s climate change strike rally in Hyde Park. Pity that it was a lying fake.

Being put out by climate change deniers, of course it was just a lie. That is all they ever do.

They re-shared a photo of the mess left behind by a impromptu hemp meeting back in April (looks like you don’t clean up if you are stoned). That in itself had already known have been attributed incorrectly to a previous climate change protest.

Not only do deniers lie, but this exercise demonstrates their other three characteristics – they are stupid, not very creative, and act more like parrots than intelligent beings.

From reddit – photo on left up by ‘AYCC’, one on the right is the Royal Parks pointing out the previous fakery

But consider the other bits of implicit lying that went on. The tiny wee coal coalition, started in 2015 and consisting of a facebook page just happen to have the initials of “AYCC”.  Just like the vastly larger and actually popular Australian Youth Climate Coalition who have been been campaigning since 2009, most recently against the Adani coal mine and the fracking in Northern Territories. At a educated guess, somewhere I’d say there was a coal industry coal PR person involved in the formation of this ‘youth coal coalition’ facebook page.

But this kind of clumsy lying isn’t just amongst the 30 something pseudo-kids in the PR industry. It is all the way through the denier industry from the heads of state like Donald Trump or Scott Morrison to the deluded trolls that have been trying to argue about it here for the last 12 years. They are all of a piece. Too dumb to bother to learn the basic science, too corrupt and immoral refuse the money of the carbon industry, and acting like parrots on speed repeating their obviously fake lines.

For instance this amusing piece at common dreams takes a shot at analysing just how many factual errors Donald Trump makes.

“They’re really at the leading edge of coal technology,” Trump said of Australia.

“Clean coal. Clean coal we call it,” Trump added, referring to something that does not really exist. 

The U.S. president went on to suggest that in terms of dangers to coal workers, Australia had “rectified that 100 percent,” though miners in the country continue to suffer from debilitating mine dust-related diseaes.

Speaking from the Oval Office next to the Australian leader, Trump praised Australia for extracting its minerals and apparent digging capabilities.

“Coal as an example—you’re a leader in safety in coal digging and we’ve actually studied it because we’re doing a lot of coal and you almost have no—you know, you used to have a thing called black lung disease and in Australia you almost don’t have it anymore,” said Trump. “You got all of the dust down and they become wet mines basically.”

“What you’ve been able to do with the environment having to do with taking minerals out of the ground, including—and especially because you know you’re leading in coal—your record is so good in terms of illnesses from digging better than anybody in the world,” Trump said.

Of course this last point can be looked up in seconds. You don’t have to wait for the vapid presenters on Fox News to look it up for you like Donald Trump does every day.

Top on the google lookup list “Black lung advocates say 20 Queenslanders diagnosed with coal dust diseases in a fortnight“. The Queensland State government disagreed, they said only 2 cases had been diagnosed in that week. Most of the article is a disagreements about diagnosis. 

From federal safe work site 

The mining industry has made significant improvements in health and safety over the last decade, reducing the incidence rates of both fatalities and serious injuries. However, the mining industry still has one of the highest rates of fatalities of any industry.

  • In the 12 years to 2015, the fatality rate in the mining industry decreased by 65% from 12.4 worker fatalities per 100 000 workers in 2003, to 4.4 in 2015. The mining industry still has the third highest fatality rate of any industry with an average of 9 workers dying each year.

It also has one of the worst records in Australian industry for both severe injuries and for endemic job related disease. But you’d have to look into the state records to find that out. From the outside of aussie, how such things are measured seems to largely depend on the amount of graft going into politicians pockets. Which is probably why the Liberal/National government keeps resisting forming a body to deal with it. 

But as the common dreams article ended.

Despite the country’s rising emissions and evidence of the climate crisis, Morrison—who once brought in a piece of coal to parliament and shouted “Don’t be afraid!”—has pursued a coal agenda.

In a statement last month, Greenpeace head of Pacific Joseph Moeono-Kolio, said, “The biggest driver of climate change is coal, and the Morrison government remains obsessed with it.”

Hundreds of thousands of students in Australia that took part in the Global Climate Strike on Friday made clear they want change.

It has been a long road towards having the kinds of widespread movements. When I was doing my BSc in Earth Sciences around 1980, the effect of the CO2 was just a theory with a trickle of evidence to indicate that it was credible. That was nearly 40 years ago. The evidence only ever got stronger, the time to significiant change reduced, and the effects expected kept getting worse.

My feelings about the subsequent actions to deal with the emerging evidence about climate change is just the same as Dave Lowe who set up Baring Head observatory in 1972.

“Dave Lowe found measurable proof of climate change 50 years ago – he’s watched in horror ever since“

I still find it incredible to watch the few remaining  climate change deniers try to argue the case, almost invariably putting up links to denier sites who that specialise in lying about the science. The behaviour that always annoyed me the most was when self-professed ‘moral’ people will happily lie about the conclusions on science papers by reframing the title of the paper. I always got the impression that they never read past the title as even the excerpts conflicted with their reframing. 

I’ll leave with this with some excerpts from the Stuff article on Dave Lowe, and a few parting comments.

On measurement technique for CO2.

It was perfect. At the right time, Baring Head gets air currents directly from Antarctica, an incredible undisturbed run through hundreds of kilometres of the Southern Ocean.

“What we got was incredible. Right from the outset you could see that we had struck gold.”

The first they learned was that Baring Head always measured a few ppm behind Mauna Loa. The majority of emissions are produced in the northern hemisphere, this showed that it took time for those gases to spread to the south. 

They also found that Baring Head didn’t show the same huge seasonal swings as the Mauna Loa readings. The huge continents of vegetation in the northern hemisphere were impacting the Hawaiian readings, but the measurements in the South Pacific, surrounded by ocean, were far more stable.

But the most important thing was that the measurements at Baring Head proved that Mauna Loa wasn’t an anomaly. In both the south and the north, the carbon in the atmosphere was slowly rising. 

And talking on the source of the extra CO2.

Lowe and other international researchers found that while total CO2 in the air was increasing, the percentage of Carbon-13 isotopes compared to Carbon-12 was decreasing. 

That proved that the additional CO2 in the atmosphere was coming from the burning of fossil fuels by humans, not anything else. 

“That’s the smoking gun. You can get every sceptic blue in the face but that’s just open and shut evidence that this extra CO2 came from humans,” he says. 

“Unequivocal, no doubt.”

That was proof, settled science. But the battle to convince the public of his findings was only just beginning

And on deniers.

In hindsight, the conservative approach of the scientific community probably held progress back for a number of years, he says.

“As a scientists, we thought, ‘No, you don’t jump up and down and scream, we’re not activists.’ Losing our credibility was the big issue.

“It was a totally different time. If only I knew then what I know now … Now it’s different, many of us are out there doing stuff. We have to, this is an emergency.”

Full-blown arguments with climate change deniers have been a common occurrence in Lowe’s life. His voice bristles with frustration when the topic comes up. 

“It’s better now, but it was hard yards. I’d be yelled at by people. It used to be constant shouting matches with sceptics.

“[Scientists] deal in data and facts and graphs and numbers, it’s really hard to get through with that. In my lifetime I’ve given hundreds of climate change talks and you’re always up against it with this distrust.”

Nothing grinds his gears more than scientists in the 1980s and 1990s who deliberately spread mistruths about climate change while on the payrolls of oil companies, like Fred Singer and others profiled in the 2010 book Merchants of Doubt. 

“I just think … the bastard, how dare he not look at the facts. That makes me angry, people who deliberately go out and falsify what’s going on.” 

Exactly, and there are a lot of people like that.

For me, Dave Lowe is someone I can look to for an inspiration. Someone with a real morality and a sense of duty who has persevered with it through an awful lot of denigration. 

Beats the hell out of the moralistic liars like ScoMo and his pedophilic excusing religious mentor, Trump,  and some unknown coal company PR person swiping the initials of a kids group and replaying old fake allegations.

But I also like that the kids are starting to surprise me. They did well with the worldwide climate change strike and it has a feeling of being more of a focused movement than one year PR wonders like the occupy movement. It may have come late and on the edge of significiant shifts in extreme weather patterns. But it does make me more hopeful that there is a growing momentum to change.

I suspect that it is far too late to do more than to just blunt the edge for these kids’ grandchildren. It is going to be extremely messy dealing with the CO2 over the next few centuries simply because the global climate system is so laggy. Almost all of the CO2 and extra heat from the residual atmospheric changes goes directly into the ocean currents, to be released decades or even centuries later.

Right now I suspect we’re just starting to see the some of the effects from the first half of last century – and that was a period with relatively low (compared to now) generation of waste combustion gases.

26 comments on “Lying : the preferred denier behavior ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Exkiwiforces 1
    22 September 2019 at 4:19 pm

    Thanks for the heads up on this AYCC as I’ve never heard of them before, nor their of activities IRT fracking in the NT.

    I’ve just spent almost 6 days flighting fires in and around rural Darwin area, but mainly in the in Dundee area since last Sunday. Where we seen fire conditions that we thought we would never see in the Northern NT which are so common in the Eastern, Southern States in Oz, or my from own experience in NZ with Nth Canterbury Branch of the DoC High Country Fire Team in the 90’s.

    Would like to grab a bunch of these muppets and take them out to see the damage from the 3 major fire events around Rural Darwin that happened last week on Friday the 13th to Thursday and explained to them. That us volunteers who are unpaid clock up an average of 130hrs (I was nudging around the 110hrs) on the fire line and in most cases in a grass fire unit by themselves of in my driving the tankers or medium attack trucks as today’s generation won’t volunteer unless there is something in return.

    • lprent 1.1
      22 September 2019 at 4:38 pm

      I’ve just spent almost 6 days flighting fires in and around rural Darwin area…

      It is going to get worse for a long time (at least a few hundred years) before it starts to get better. It won't be every year, but the frequency and scale of extreme weather will increase over the decades.

      That us volunteers who are unpaid clock up an average of 130hrs (I was nudging around the 110hrs) on the fire line and in most cases in a grass fire unit by themselves of in my driving the tankers or medium attack trucks as today’s generation won’t volunteer unless there is something in return.

      That is going to be the problem. You can do this as a volunteer if it happens infrequently. But as the frequency goes up, then that becomes not viable. The same thing happens with urban systems like storm water or sewage. When a '100 year' downpour starts to happen every decade, you can't just handle the repeated flooding the same way (thinking of brisbane last year now).

      Rural and semi-rural areas don't have the wherewithall to put in large commitments of backup structures like a standing fireforce or even paying for volunteers.

      Urban areas do, but the sheer number of people who could be affected means that the systems put in for 50 years have to be damn near gold-plated at the start to handle the conditions that are going to be present at the end.

      There is going to have to be a lot of cost going into it to provide the infrastructure to deal to weather, fire and floods a lot earlier – especially in continental areas.I have to say that hilly large islands like NZ are starting to look pretty good bets for the future now.

      Currently the only effective feedback system worth mentioning has been insurance rates. Emission trading systems simply haven’t been worth the paper they are written on (except to grifters of course). None of them work. Taxation systems get grafted into uselessness.

      I really don’t see it changing except from mass movements and probably the threat of using hemp for a non-pleasing political purpose.

  2. Andre 2
    22 September 2019 at 5:24 pm

    Something I find intensely depressing about the denier embrace of coal and other fossil fuels is that we simply don't need fossil fuels. We just don't. I can't think of a single land-based energy use that couldn't electrify. Shipping, medium-and-long-haul aviation will be a lot harder to electrify, but shipping could use nukes and there's enough biofuels being produced worldwide already to prove aviation could be supplied from biofuel.

    Just to illustrate with a couple of examples, steelmaking is often cited as absolutely dependent on coal. But it's not, electrolytic steelmaking is possible. It might even be cheaper than using coal, but all the installed infrastructure is coal-based.

    Concrete production is often cited as absolutely dependent on coal. But it only uses coal for process heat, and that process heat could come from renewable electricity. Further into the future, portland cement might even be produced electrochemically, eliminating the need for massive amounts of heat.

    Modern society is not technologically dependent on fossil fuels. We're just continuing to use them because we're too lazy, timid, unimaginative, misinformed or whatever to make the change to zero-carbon alternatives. It's not even economics, getting serious about making the change would be a massive economic boost from all the work needed. The only losers would be the entrenched fossil-fuel interests.

    • lprent 2.1
      22 September 2019 at 5:59 pm

      Concrete production is often cited as absolutely dependent on coal. But it only uses coal for process heat, and that process heat could come from renewable electricity.

      I'd be more worried about the burning to get the lime for concrete. That is what throws off the majority of CO2.

      The cement industry is one of the two largest producers of carbon dioxide (CO2), creating up to 8% of worldwide man-made emissions of this gas, of which 50% is from the chemical process and 40% from burning fuel.

      And specifically

      Cement manufacture contributes greenhouse gases both directly through the production of carbon dioxide when calcium carbonate is thermally decomposed, producing lime and carbon dioxide…

      The fuel might be removed at a cost. But there aren't that many good alternatives for a formable rock like concrete – if you think through the alternatives in the wikipedia article – none of them look very viable.

      • Andre 2.1.1
        22 September 2019 at 6:29 pm

        Burning coal to get the lime is the process heat part of it, which could come from zero-ghg electricity. It's just the heat that's required, not any of the chemical reactions that happen during coal combustion. This heat could be electrical, or hell, could even by concentrated solar.

        In this way, it's different to coal used in steelmaking or the carbon anodes used in aluminium production, where the energy released by the carbon reacting with oxygen supplies a significant part of the energy required to strip the oxygen from the metal oxide being reduced.

        Going a bit further, the calcination process where the calcium carbonate is heated to thermally decompose into lime and carbon dioxide could be done in a closed chamber and the CO2 easily captured (no costly separation process needed) and stored (slightly less easily done, but there's already plenty of CO2 getting injected underground where it stays).

        Then, if the heat comes from zero-GHG electricity, and the calcination CO2 captured and stored, concrete production would become net-negative CO2. Because concrete actually reabsorbs CO2 during its lifetime.

        We don't need alternatives to concrete for some kind of formable rock. The concrete technology we already have right now could be transformed from a large damaging emitter into a small absorbing mitigator just by giving the producers the right incentives to change to non-emitting energy supply, and to capture and store the emissions from the chemical reactions that must occur to produce cement.

        • lprent 2.1.1.1
          22 September 2019 at 8:17 pm

          The heating isn't really the issue.

          You can in theory replace its generation from several sources – climatech has some of them. I rather think that the biomass one is overrated – usual issues. Nuclear sounds just farfetched – how exactly do you transfer the heat. Cogeneration with waste plants sounds promising – the temps requires are about the right level and the higher density waste gases provide the transfer mechanism.

          But if you are capturing the gases off the calcite anyway for a viable sequestration, then it simply doesn’t matter if you add the fuel exhaust gases into that as well. So just concentrate on the CO2 from the calcite and its sequestration – which is where the problem lies.

          The binding strength and in particular its fast binding strength comes from breaking down various minerals of calcite at high temperatures is the primary problem.

          …but there's already plenty of CO2 getting injected underground where it stays…

          Now there is a foolishly optimistic statement if I ever read one. I don't think that there is a single geologist who'd take a bet on ground injected gases staying if they had to stake their gonads on it.

          So far I haven't heard of any historic oil or gas field that has ever been pressurised that hasn't leaked nearly immediately and wasn't close to flat within decades after injection stopped. It is easy to measure. All you have to do is to leave pressure sensors in place. It'd be big news if one did. But draining an oil or gas field has to date inevitably destroyed it as a gas tight earthquake proof container.

          There have been some moderate short-term results in non-fracked recent fields where the pressurisation was carefully controlled. But you probably have to just wait for a decent earthquake at the right depth. So in 50-100 years we might have a better idea if it will work in practice.

          If you look at the number of potential empty fields around that prove to have drained long ago, you understand why. The earth moves and the optimistic drillers lose their licenses when they drill a dry field.

          There are literally no working examples of humans being able to reliably store gases underground safely for even historic periods, let alone the kinds of time that we'd have to store cement CO2. The oil and gas fields that we have been tapping are just the freakish statistical accidents.

          But the consequences of an immense burp of stored gases from a sequestration field in the wake of earthquake are a statistical certainty within decades. It'd be safer to keep emitting slowly than lose a lot of gas in a single event if you look at the track record on CO2 emitting volcanoes – which would be the nearest analogy.

          And that is just the start. Have you been around cement works? Those immense hot drums or beds, largely open to the atmosphere to vent the generated gases and heat. Most of the heat put in is to start the process on very large quantities of calcite. But much of the energy used to create cement is actually for the processing of raw calcite and the grinding of the sintered lime at the end.

          And as far as I'm aware no-one has ever used a non-fuel source like electricity to cook the calcite. I'm having issues even trying to even conceive of a mechanism to do it. Metals you can do by various kinds of induction. But something as inert as calcite would require a hell of a current and would probably lead to dealing with dangerous as liquid calcium metal.

          There are other ways, for instance, traditional shaft calciners could be enclosed. You'd have to use some kind of fuelled gas system at the hot point to get a even transfer of heat. The heat rises to blow off the water.

          But there are issues. With calcite, once it hits calcining temps, then a lot of the reactions are exothermic. Heat release gets to be a problem. They'd have to design a whole new technique to even try to capture the gases whilst handling the extra heat.

          It'd probably involve reverting to pre-industrial job sizes. It also would cause issues with the bloody complex systems uses to get the precise cement gradings and composition control.

          etc… Plus always remember that cement is a structural material. It'd probably take a *long* time (over human timescales) to test the resulting materials.

          For me, cement and concrete has always been the worst issue for climate change. The oil and gas eventually gets too expensive and other methods will catch on. I still can't see a good way to either get concrete without too much CO2 or a viable substitute for our formable rock.

          • Andre 2.1.1.1.1
            24 September 2019 at 8:33 pm

            Ok, put the sequestration of CO2 in the "yet to be achieved" basket. Although, in the context of the growing realisation that if we want to avoid incredibly unpleasant consequences we're going to have to figure out how to pull massive quantities of CO2 out of the atmosphere, even putting it underground for a few decades or centuries before it leaks back out still buys a bit of time and breathing space.

            When it comes to electric heating of the calcite, the calcination and sintering process has some similarities and temperatures to induration of iron ore into pellets. There's been some development of massive 900kW plasma torches to replace fossil fuels for heating. Admittedly, a cement kiln will need an order of magnitude or more scale-up from that, and I've no idea what the technical obstacles might be for that scale up (if I had to speculate, electrode life and cooling).

            In any case, as long as the required electricity is still likely to come from coal or gas (at 40% or 60% best case thermal efficiency), it would be a step backwards to swap fossil fuel burn for process heat (with 80% + thermal efficiency) for fossil fuel fired electricity.

            Nukes just won't happen, they just don't get to high enough temps except in bombs. But biomass may play a small role. Apparently a lot of the heat transfer to the clinker happens radiatively, so powdered coal is preferred over gas for cement production, because of the glowing particles. So if a swap to massive plasma torches happens, it may still be beneficial to include some burnable material like rice husks into the gas stream leaving the plasma torches.

            The milling and grinding the clinker into cement powder is mechanical work being done at roomish temperature. Chances are that's already being done electrically in a lot of cement plants. The emissions attributed to this step would be from the coal fired power station generating that electricity.

    • Lucy 2.2
      23 September 2019 at 7:51 am

      "Modern society is not technologically dependent on fossil fuels. We're just continuing to use them because we're too lazy, timid, unimaginative, misinformed or whatever to make the change to zero-carbon alternatives"

      Unfortunately non fossil fuel alternatives are expensive and limited. An EV is twice the price of a normal car with less services and range. Also they rely on electricity which requires a coal generator when the less reliable renewables are not working.

      The concept of changing our shipping fleets to nuclear is horrifying – many ships crews currently live under slave like conditions and you would add the possibility of radiation contamination to their misery (or maybe you think the ship owners would suddenly improve conditions). We (the general population) are not adverse to alternatives but there is no incentives for the rich to change as fossil fuels give them money and power and until that changes nothing else changes.

      • lprent 2.2.1
        24 September 2019 at 12:38 pm

        Unfortunately non fossil fuel alternatives are expensive and limited.

        Depends what you need the transport for. In my case I transitioned to a e-bike at the starting at end of 2017. These days that is what I use exclusively for commuting.

        Used to drive to work – but it really was such a pain-in-the-arse. Took hours each day. Getting rear-ended on the bridge by a dickhead talking to his female passenger didn't help. Spent thousands each year on a car – mostly for the benefit of my employer.

        Shifted to bussing and started to take jobs on the bus routes. Nice place to read and moderate – but I was getting seriously annoyed with changing buses. Still cost a thousand dollars or so per year.

        I set my radius limit to work at 5km nearly 9 years. Tended to drive or walk. That dropped my car usage down to a tank about every 6 weeks and seriously increased my 'spare' time. The walking stopped about 6 years ago after the pad between my right foot big toe and foot bone wore out.

        But it also allowed me to shift to ebike when their cost dropped and the cycleways started to seriously get put in. Dropped the car and the parking last year. Now I tend to ride everywhere unless I'm getting groceries or with going somewhere with my partner.

        Way way cheaper than a car, cheaper than even the parking, and it is way cheaper than a gym. I spend some money on wet weather gear – so I get great wet weather and hi-vis gear.

        But I stay on cycle ways so the motorists get less of a chance to try to kill me.

        My partner started working from home a few years ago. Her 1992 Toyota gets filled every few months. The insurance costs, WOF and rego are massively higher than the running cost and maintenance. But not enough so that it is buying a new old vehicle or just hiring cars.

        We'll buy a EV when the price drops or the car conks out or the Toyota can't handle a double bike rack. Probably get her a e-bike before then so we can go 'walking' together.

        Now obviously this isn't likely to work if you have kids. But if you're a couple or on your own look at commuting distance, the cycle paths and a ebike. Relatively cheap. fairly painless (I'm 120kgs, 60yo, had a heart attack in 2011, and ride up Grafton Gully each work day)

  3. joe90 3
    22 September 2019 at 5:36 pm

    Deniers in wingnut circles have doubled down on bullying 16 year old climate activist Greta Thunberg and labeled her and her parents as satanic, antifa thugs.

    Bonus points for Soros, Gore, Bono, and Frankie the pope references, too.

    http://archive.li/e7cL9

    https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1175442382373969921.html

  4. Incognito 4
    22 September 2019 at 7:15 pm

    Good strong post!

    Dave Lowe changed into Rob Lowe, twice, and the famous actor even made it into the tags of the post.

  5. Anne 5
    22 September 2019 at 7:18 pm

    Not only do deniers lie, but this exercise demonstrates their other three characteristics – they are stupid, not very creative, and act more like parrots than intelligent beings.

    In other words they are dumb people who vote for dumb politicians who, in turn, appoint dumb people to run their administrations/governments for them.

  6. PhilA 6
    23 September 2019 at 8:03 am

    As a New Zealander I'm quite attached to Kea; Kaka; and Kakapo. As such I don't apreciate the attacks on Parrots in this article which I consider to be unnecessary and possibly indicative of a disregard for non human life by the author.

    • Gabby 6.1
      23 September 2019 at 8:25 am

      So you're a New Zealander then filet.

    • lprent 6.2
      23 September 2019 at 8:41 am

      Look while our denier trolls are capable of speaking (albeit usually with meaningless lines that they heard from somewhere – probably obscene), they do not resemble our native parrots.

      None of our native parrots will deign to do something as crass as to repeat the lines of others. They are too dignified to speak. I will not deign to dignify the obvious rejoinder – that they cannot speak as their beaks are full of window rubber. If you happen to park some convenient natural resources next to their beaks, then that is just what you should expect – along with the evil side eye.

      I was of course pointing out the comparision of deniers to the inferior parrots from offshore who like all humans has only immigrated here recently within the last 1000 years. Not my irritating neighbours

      Yours sincerely,

      Sharpbeak Wormhunter Kiwi.

  7. cleangreen 7
    23 September 2019 at 8:06 am

    Thanks for the heads up for this weeks Climate Action Emergency conference in New York, so we hope the politicians read this, as they cast their vote in UN this week. Edited (shortened) press release for Climate change week.

    https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/fiveyear-period-ending-2019-set-to-be-hottest-on-record/news-story/895e9c2239979888a2089a1311976c9f Latest 23/9/19 ‘Australian newscorp’

    [this comment got held up in Spam. Probably too many links. Way too much cut and paste as well, and I couldn’t easily tell what was going on so I’ve deleted it. Commenting here requires people to be selective in what they quote, to back up or illustrate something they are saying. – weka]

    • weka 7.1
      23 September 2019 at 3:33 pm

      mod note for you CG

      • greywarshark 7.1.1
        23 September 2019 at 4:29 pm

        Could lprent or someone knowledgable help with advice on putting links up. Cleangreen has got a great long one there as I did also but couldn't bring it down to a few 'live' words. My example is here in this https://thestandard.org.nz/the-climate-action-momentum/#comment-1656954 comment.

        We need to have instructions on how to do our our links now. I am still following the original info in the FAQs for Visible Text but it doesn't seem to work now the system has been reconfigured.

        Incidentally cleangreen if you see this, if you have a paragraph you want to paste and it has links in it you don't want, you can highlight the whole piece where the links are, press the link button which will bring up a window asking for an url, you put a dash in the space and press ok. That should bring up the next link removal window and you click on that. That means that you don't have to remove links individually.

  8. BCE 8
    23 September 2019 at 12:05 pm

    I also read the article on Dave Lowe on the weekend (in the hard copy of the Taranaki Daily News as well as on Stuff) and immediately came to the conclusion that this man deserves a knighthood.

  9. greywarshark 9
    23 September 2019 at 12:15 pm

    Looking on google I read one of the ads on the page. This ad has got it all – sly denier-pretender with buttons for your favourite obsession.

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    Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.Friday Under New Management Week in review, quiz style1. Which of these best describes Aotearoa?a. Progressive nation, proud of its egalitarian spirit and belief in a fair go b. Best little country on the planet c. ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    1 day ago

  • Suggested sessions of EGU24 to submit abstracts to
    Like earlier this year, members from our team will be involved with next year's General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). The conference will take place on premise in Vienna as well as online from April 14 to 19, 2024. The session catalog has been available since November 1 ...
    Skeptical Science
    1 day ago

  • Under New Management
    1. Which of these best describes Aotearoa?a. Progressive nation, proud of its egalitarian spirit and belief in a fair go b. Best little country on the planet c. Under New Management 2. Which of these best describes the 100 days of action announced this week by the new government?a. Petulantb. Simplistic and wrongheaded c. ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago

  • While we wait patiently, our new Minister of Education is up and going with a 100-day action plan
    Sorry to say, the government’s official website is still out of action. When Point of Order paid its daily visit, the message was the same as it has been for the past week: Site under maintenance Beehive.govt.nz is currently under maintenance. We will be back shortly. Thank you for your ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    2 days ago

  • DAVID FARRAR: Hysterical bullshit
    Radio NZ reports: Te Pāti Māori’s co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer has accused the new government of “deliberate .. systemic genocide” over its policies to roll back the smokefree policy and the Māori Health Authority. The left love hysterical language. If you oppose racial quotas in laws, you are a racist. And now if you sack ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    2 days ago

  • ELE LUDEMANN: It wasn’t just $55 million
    Ele Ludemann writes –  Winston Peters reckons media outlets were bribed by the $55 million Public Interest Journalism Fund. He is not the first to make such an accusation. Last year, the Platform outlined conditions media signed up to in return for funds from the PJIF: . . . ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    2 days ago

  • Weekly Roundup 1-December-2023
    Wow, it’s December already, and it’s a Friday. So here are few things that caught our attention recently. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt covered the new government’s coalition agreements and what they mean for transport. On Tuesday Matt looked at AT’s plans for fare increases ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    2 days ago

  • Shane MacGowan Is Gone.
    Late 1996, The Dogs Bollix, Tamaki Makaurau.I’m at the front of the bar yelling my order to the bartender, jostling with other thirsty punters on a Friday night, keen to piss their wages up against a wall letting loose. The black stuff, long luscious pints of creamy goodness. Back down ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago

  • The Hoon around the week to Dec 1
    Nicola Willis, Chris Bishop and other National, ACT and NZ First MPs applaud the signing of the coalition agreements, which included the reversal of anti-smoking measures while accelerating tax cuts for landlords. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago

  • 2023 More Reading: November (+ Writing Update)
    Completed reads for November: A Modern Utopia, by H.G. Wells The Vampire (poem), by Heinrich August Ossenfelder The Corpus Hermeticum The Corpus Hermeticum is Mead’s translation. Now, this is indeed a very quiet month for reading. But there is a reason for that… You see, ...
    A Phuulish FellowBy strda221
    2 days ago

  • Forward to 2017
    The coalition party agreements are mainly about returning to 2017 when National lost power. They show commonalities but also some serious divergencies.The two coalition agreements – one National and ACT, the other National and New Zealand First – are more than policy documents. They also describe the processes of the ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    3 days ago

  • Questions a nine year old might ask the new Prime Minister
    First QuestionYou’re going to crack down on people ram-raiding dairies, because you say hard-working dairy owners shouldn’t have to worry about getting ram-raided.But once the chemist shops have pseudoephedrine in them again, they're going to get ram-raided all the time. Do chemists not work as hard as dairy owners?Second QuestionYou ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago

  • Questions a nine year old might ask the new Prime Minister
    First QuestionYou’re going to crack down on people ram-raiding dairies, because you say hard-working dairy owners shouldn’t have to worry about getting ram-raided.But once the chemist shops have pseudoephedrine in them again, they're going to get ram-raided all the time. Do chemists not work as hard as dairy owners?Second QuestionYou ...
    More than a fieldingBy David Slack
    3 days ago

  • Finally
    Henry Kissinger is finally dead. Good fucking riddance. While Americans loved him, he was a war criminal, responsible for most of the atrocities of the final quarter of the twentieth century. Cambodia. Bangladesh. Chile. East Timor. All Kissinger. Because of these crimes, Americans revere him as a "statesman" (which says ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    3 days ago

  • Government in a hurry – Luxon lists 49 priorities in 100-day plan while Peters pledges to strength...
    Buzz from the Beehive Yes, ministers in the new government are delivering speeches and releasing press statements. But the message on the government’s official website was the same as it has been for the past several days, when Point of Order went looking for news from the Beehive that had ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago

  • DAVID FARRAR: Luxon is absolutely right
    David Farrar writes  –  1 News reports: Christopher Luxon says he was told by some Kiwis on the campaign trail they “didn’t know” the difference between Waka Kotahi, Te Pūkenga and Te Whatu Ora. Speaking to Breakfast, the incoming prime minister said having English first on government agencies will “make sure” ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago

  • Top 10 at 10 am for Thursday, Nov 30
    There are fears that mooted changes to building consent liability could end up driving the building industry into an uninsured hole. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Here’s my pick of the top 10 news and analysis links elsewhere as of 10 am on Thursday, November 30, including:The new Government’s ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago

  • Gordon Campbell on how climate change threatens cricket‘s future
    Well that didn’t last long, did it? Mere days after taking on what he called the “awesome responsibility” of being Prime Minister, M Christopher Luxon has started blaming everyone else, and complaining that he has inherited “economic vandalism on an unprecedented scale” – which is how most of us are ...
    Gordon CampbellBy lyndon
    3 days ago

  • We need to talk about Tory.
    The first I knew of the news about Tory Whanau was when a tweet came up in my feed.The sort of tweet that makes you question humanity, or at least why you bother with Twitter. Which is increasingly a cesspit of vile inhabitants who lurk spreading negativity, hate, and every ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    3 days ago

  • Dangling Transport Solutions
    Cable Cars, Gondolas, Ropeways and Aerial Trams are all names for essentially the same technology and the world’s biggest maker of them are here to sell them as an public transport solution. Stuff reports: Austrian cable car company Doppelmayr has launched its case for adding aerial cable cars to New ...
    Greater AucklandBy Matt L
    3 days ago

  • November AMA
    Hi,It’s been awhile since I’ve done an Ask-Me-Anything on here, so today’s the day. Ask anything you like in the comments section, and I’ll be checking in today and tomorrow to answer.Leave a commentNext week I’ll be giving away a bunch of these Mister Organ blu-rays for readers in New ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    3 days ago

  • National’s early moves adding to cost of living pressure
    The cost of living grind continues, and the economic and inflation honeymoon is over before it began. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: PM Christopher Luxon unveiled his 100 day plan yesterday with an avowed focus of reducing cost-of-living pressures, but his Government’s initial moves and promises are actually elevating ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago

  • Backwards to the future
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has confirmed that it will be back to the future on planning legislation. This will be just one of a number of moves which will see the new government go backwards as it repeals and cost-cuts its way into power. They will completely repeal one ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    3 days ago

  • New initiatives in science and technology could point the way ahead for Luxon government
    As the new government settles into the Beehive, expectations are high that it can sort out some  of  the  economic issues  confronting  New Zealand. It may take time for some new  ministers to get to grips with the range of their portfolio work and responsibilities before they can launch the  changes that  ...
    Point of OrderBy tutere44
    4 days ago

  • Treaty pledge to secure funding is contentious – but is Peters being pursued by a lynch mob after ...
    TV3 political editor Jenna Lynch was among the corps of political reporters who bridled, when Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters told them what he thinks of them (which is not much). She was unabashed about letting her audience know she had bridled. More usefully, she drew attention to something which ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago

  • How long does this last?
    I have a clear memory of every election since 1969 in this plucky little nation of ours. I swear I cannot recall a single one where the question being asked repeatedly in the first week of the new government was: how long do you reckon they’ll last? And that includes all ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    4 days ago

  • National’s giveaway politics
    We already know that national plans to boost smoking rates to collect more tobacco tax so they can give huge tax-cuts to mega-landlords. But this morning that policy got even more obscene - because it turns out that the tax cut is retrospective: Residential landlords will be able to ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago

  • CHRIS TROTTER: Who’s driving the right-wing bus?
    Who’s At The Wheel? The electorate’s message, as aggregated in the polling booths on 14 October, turned out to be a conservative political agenda stronger than anything New Zealand has seen in five decades. In 1975, Bill Rowling was run over by just one bus, with Rob Muldoon at the wheel. In 2023, ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago

  • GRAHAM ADAMS:  Media knives flashing for Luxon’s government
    The fear and loathing among legacy journalists is astonishing Graham Adams writes – No one is going to die wondering how some of the nation’s most influential journalists personally view the new National-led government. It has become abundantly clear within a few days of the coalition agreements ...
    Point of OrderBy gadams1000
    4 days ago

  • Top 10 news links for Wednesday, Nov 29
    TL;DR: Here’s my pick of top 10 news links elsewhere for Wednesday November 29, including:The early return of interest deductibility for landlords could see rebates paid on previous taxes and the cost increase to $3 billion from National’s initial estimate of $2.1 billion, CTU Economist Craig Renney estimated here last ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago

  • Smokefree Fallout and a High Profile Resignation.
    The day after being sworn in the new cabinet met yesterday, to enjoy their honeymoon phase. You remember, that period after a new government takes power where the country, and the media, are optimistic about them, because they haven’t had a chance to stuff anything about yet.Sadly the nuptials complete ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago

  • As Cabinet revs up, building plans go on hold
    Wellington Council hoardings proclaim its preparations for population growth, but around the country councils are putting things on hold in the absence of clear funding pathways for infrastructure, and despite exploding migrant numbers. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Cabinet meets in earnest today to consider the new Government’s 100-day ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago

  • National takes over infrastructure
    Though New Zealand First may have had ambitions to run the infrastructure portfolios, National would seem to have ended up firmly in control of them.  POLITIK has obtained a private memo to members of Infrastructure NZ yesterday, which shows that the peak organisation for infrastructure sees  National MPs Chris ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    4 days ago

  • At a glance – Evidence for global warming
    On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
    Skeptical Science
    4 days ago

  • Who’s Driving The Right-Wing Bus?
    Who’s At The Wheel? The electorate’s message, as aggregated in the polling booths on 14 October, turned out to be a conservative political agenda stronger than anything New Zealand has seen in five decades. In 1975, Bill Rowling was run over by just one bus, with Rob Muldoon at the wheel. In ...
    Bowalley Road
    5 days ago

  • Sanity break
    Cheers to reader Deane for this quote from Breakfast TV today:Chloe Swarbrick to Brook van Velden re the coalition agreement: “... an unhinged grab-bag of hot takes from your drunk uncle at Christmas”Cheers also to actual Prime Minister of a country Christopher Luxon for dorking up his swearing-in vows.But that's enough ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    5 days ago

  • Sanity break
    Cheers to reader Deane for this quote from Breakfast TV today:Chloe Swarbrick to Brook van Velden re the coalition agreement: “... an unhinged grab-bag of hot takes from your drunk uncle at Christmas”Cheers also to actual Prime Minister of a country Christopher Luxon for dorking up his swearing-in vows.But that's enough ...
    More than a fieldingBy David Slack
    5 days ago

  • National’s murderous smoking policy
    One of the big underlying problems in our political system is the prevalence of short-term thinking, most usually seen in the periodic massive infrastructure failures at a local government level caused by them skimping on maintenance to Keep Rates Low. But the new government has given us a new example, ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago

  • NZ has a chance to rise again as our new government gets spending under control
    New Zealand has  a chance  to  rise  again. Under the  previous  government, the  number of New Zealanders below the poverty line was increasing  year by year. The Luxon-led government  must reverse that trend – and set about stabilising  the  pillars  of the economy. After the  mismanagement  of the outgoing government created   huge ...
    Point of OrderBy tutere44
    5 days ago

  • KARL DU FRESNE: Media and the new government
    Two articles by Karl du Fresne bring media coverage of the new government into considerations.  He writes –    Tuesday, November 28, 2023 The left-wing media needed a line of attack, and they found one The left-wing media pack wasted no time identifying the new government’s weakest point. Seething over ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago

  • PHILIP CRUMP:  Team of rivals – a CEO approach to government leadership
    The work begins Philip Crump wrote this article ahead of the new government being sworn in yesterday – Later today the new National-led coalition government will be sworn in, and the hard work begins. At the core of government will be three men – each a leader ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago

  • Black Friday
    As everyone who watches television or is on the mailing list for any of our major stores will confirm, “Black Friday” has become the longest running commercial extravaganza and celebration in our history. Although its origins are obscure (presumably dreamt up by American salesmen a few years ago), it has ...
    Bryan GouldBy Bryan Gould
    5 days ago

  • In Defense of the Media.
    Yesterday the Ministers in the next government were sworn in by our Governor General. A day of tradition and ceremony, of decorum and respect. Usually.But yesterday Winston Peters, the incoming Deputy Prime Minister, and Foreign Minister, of our nation used it, as he did with the signing of the coalition ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago

  • Top 10 news links at 10 am for Tuesday, Nov 28
    Nicola Willis’ first move was ‘spilling the tea’ on what she called the ‘sobering’ state of the nation’s books, but she had better be able to back that up in the HYEFU. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Here’s my pick of top 10 news links elsewhere at 10 am ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago

  • PT use up but fare increases coming
    Yesterday Auckland Transport were celebrating, as the most recent Sunday was the busiest Sunday they’ve ever had. That’s a great outcome and I’m sure the ...
    Greater AucklandBy Matt L
    5 days ago

  • The very opposite of social investment
    Nicola Willis (in blue) at the signing of the coalition agreement, before being sworn in as both Finance Minister and Social Investment Minister. National’s plan to unwind anti-smoking measures will benefit her in the first role, but how does it stack up from a social investment viewpoint? Photo: Lynn Grieveson ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago

  • Giving Tuesday
    For the first time "in history" we decided to jump on the "Giving Tuesday" bandwagon in order to make you aware of the options you have to contribute to our work! Projects supported by Skeptical Science Inc. Skeptical Science Skeptical Science is an all-volunteer organization but ...
    Skeptical Science
    6 days ago

  • Let's open the books with Nicotine Willis
    Let’s say it’s 1984,and there's a dreary little nation at the bottom of the Pacific whose name rhymes with New Zealand,and they've just had an election.Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, will you look at the state of these books we’ve opened,cries the incoming government, will you look at all this mountain ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago

  • Climate Change: Stopping oil
    National is promising to bring back offshore oil and gas drilling. Naturally, the Greens have organised a petition campaign to try and stop them. You should sign it - every little bit helps, and as the struggle over mining conservation land showed, even National can be deterred if enough people ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago

  • Don’t accept Human Rights Commission reading of data on Treaty partnership – read the survey fin...
    Wellington is braced for a “massive impact’ from the new government’s cutting public service jobs, The Post somewhat grimly reported today. Expectations of an economic and social jolt are based on the National-Act coalition agreement to cut public service numbers in each government agency in a cost-trimming exercise  “informed by” head ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago

  • The stupidest of stupid reasons
    One of the threats in the National - ACT - NZ First coalition agreements was to extend the term of Parliament to four years, reducing our opportunities to throw a bad government out. The justification? Apparently, the government thinks "elections are expensive". This is the stupidest of stupid reasons for ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago

  • A website bereft of buzz
    Buzz from the Beehive The new government was being  sworn in, at time of writing , and when Point of Order checked the Beehive website for the latest ministerial statements and re-visit some of the old ones we drew a blank. We found ….  Nowt. Nothing. Zilch. Not a ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago

  • MICHAEL BASSETT: A new Ministry – at last
    Michael Bassett writes – Like most people, I was getting heartily sick of all the time being wasted over the coalition negotiations. During the first three weeks Winston grinned like a Cheshire cat, certain he’d be needed; Chris Luxon wasted time in lifting the phone to Winston ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago

  • Luxon's Breakfast.
    The Prime Minister elect had his silver fern badge on. He wore it to remind viewers he was supporting New Zealand, that was his team. Despite the fact it made him look like a concierge, or a welcomer in a Koru lounge. Anna Burns-Francis, the Breakfast presenter, asked if he ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    6 days ago

  • LINDSAY MITCHELL:  Oranga Tamariki faces major upheaval under coalition agreement
     Lindsay Mitchell writes – A hugely significant gain for ACT is somewhat camouflaged by legislative jargon. Under the heading ‘Oranga Tamariki’ ACT’s coalition agreement contains the following item:   Remove Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 According to Oranga Tamariki:     “Section ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago

  • BRIAN EASTON:  Peters as Minister
    A previous column looked at Winston Peters biographically. This one takes a closer look at his record as a minister, especially his policy record. Brian Easton writes – 1990-1991: Minister of Māori Affairs. Few remember Ka Awatea as a major document on the future of Māori policy; there is ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago

  • Cathrine Dyer's guide to watching COP 28 from the bottom of a warming planet
    Is COP28 largely smoke and mirrors and a plan so cunning, you could pin a tail on it and call it a weasel? Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: COP28 kicks off on November 30 and up for negotiation are issues like the role of fossil fuels in the energy transition, contributions to ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago

  • Top 10 news links at 10 am for Monday, Nov 27
    PM Elect Christopher Luxon was challenged this morning on whether he would sack Adrian Orr and Andrew Coster.TL;DR: Here’s my pick of top 10 news links elsewhere at 10 am on Monday November 27, including:Signs councils are putting planning and capital spending on hold, given a lack of clear guidance ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago

  • Gordon Campbell on the new government’s policies of yesteryear
    This column expands on a Werewolf column published by Scoop on Friday Routinely, Winston Peters is described as the kingmaker who gets to decide when the centre right or the centre-left has a turn at running this country. He also plays a less heralded but equally important role as the ...
    Gordon CampbellBy lyndon
    6 days ago

  • The New Government’s Agreements
    Last Friday, almost six weeks after election day, National finally came to an agreement with ACT and NZ First to form a government. They also released the agreements between each party and looking through them, here are the things I thought were the most interesting (and often concerning) from the. ...
    Greater AucklandBy Matt L
    6 days ago

  • How many smokers will die to fund the tax cuts?
    Maori and Pasifika smoking rates are already over twice the ‘all adult’ rate. Now the revenue that generates will be used to fund National’s tax cuts. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The devil is always in the detail and it emerged over the weekend from the guts of the policy agreements National ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago

  • How the culture will change in the Beehive
    Perhaps the biggest change that will come to the Beehive as the new government settles in will be a fundamental culture change. The era of endless consultation will be over. This looks like a government that knows what it wants to do, and that means it knows what outcomes ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    6 days ago

  • No More Winnie Blues.
    So what do you think of the coalition’s decision to cancel Smokefree measures intended to stop young people, including an over representation of Māori, from taking up smoking? Enabling them to use the tax revenue to give other people a tax cut?David Cormack summed it up well:It seems not only ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    7 days ago

  • 2023 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #47
    A chronological listing of news and opinion articles posted on the Skeptical Science  Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Nov 19, 2023 thru Sat, Nov 25, 2023.  Story of the Week World stands on frontline of disaster at Cop28, says UN climate chief  Exclusive: Simon Stiell says leaders must ‘stop ...
    Skeptical Science
    1 week ago

  • Some of it is mad, some of it is bad and some of it is clearly the work of people who are dangerous ...
    On announcement morning my mate texted:Typical of this cut-price, fake-deal government to announce itself on Black Friday.What a deal. We lose Kim Hill, we gain an empty, jargonising prime minister, a belligerent conspiracist, and a heartless Ayn Rand fanboy. One door closes, another gets slammed repeatedly in your face.It seems pretty ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    1 week ago

  • “Revolution” is the threat as the Māori Party smarts at coalition government’s Treaty directi...
    Buzz from the Beehive Having found no fresh announcements on the government’s official website, Point of Order turned today to Scoop’s Latest Parliament Headlines  for its buzz. This provided us with evidence that the Māori Party has been soured by the the coalition agreement announced yesterday by the new PM. “Soured” ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 week ago

  • The Good, the Bad, and the even Worse.
    Yesterday the trio that will lead our country unveiled their vision for New Zealand.Seymour looking surprisingly statesmanlike, refusing to rise to barbs about his previous comments on Winston Peters. Almost as if they had just been slapstick for the crowd.Winston was mostly focussed on settling scores with the media, making ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 week ago

  • When it Comes to Palestine – Free Speech is Under Threat
    Hi,Thanks for getting amongst Mister Organ on digital — thanks to you, we hit the #1 doc spot on iTunes this week. This response goes a long way to helping us break even.I feel good about that. Other things — not so much.New Zealand finally has a new government, and ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    1 week ago

  • Thank you Captain Luxon. Was that a landing, or were we shot down?
    Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.Also in More Than A FeildingFriday The unboxing And so this is Friday and what have we gone and done to ourselves?In the same way that a Christmas present can look lovely under the ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    1 week ago

  • Cans of Worms.
    “And there’ll be no shortage of ‘events’ to test Luxon’s political skills. David Seymour wants a referendum on the Treaty. Winston wants a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Labour’s handling of the Covid crisis. Talk about cans of worms!”LAURIE AND LES were very fond of their local. It was nothing ...
    Bowalley Road
    1 week ago

  • Disinformation campaigns are undermining democracy. Here’s how we can fight back
    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Misinformation is debated everywhere and has justifiably sparked concerns. It can polarise the public, reduce health-protective behaviours such as mask wearing and vaccination, and erode trust in science. Much of misinformation is spread not ...
    Skeptical Science
    1 week ago

  • New Zealand welcomes European Parliament vote on the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement
    A significant milestone in ratifying the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was reached last night, with 524 of the 705 member European Parliament voting in favour to approve the agreement. “I’m delighted to hear of the successful vote to approve the NZ-EU FTA in the European Parliament overnight. This is ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Further humanitarian support for Gaza, the West Bank and Israel
    The Government is contributing a further $5 million to support the response to urgent humanitarian needs in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel, bringing New Zealand’s total contribution to the humanitarian response so far to $10 million. “New Zealand is deeply saddened by the loss of civilian life and the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

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