You made a claim that he had a handler. Now you clarify saying it is 'a judgement, so I presume no evidence.
I have no reason to believe you have a handler. Nor anyone else here.
It is common to try to discredit people commenting in social media by suggesting they are paid by or employed by someone. It's happened to me. I may well have done it in the past.
Without any evidence I think it's a questionable practice.
It’s not unlike trying to ‘guess’ someone’s identity or connections, as has happened below. I thought that was frowned on here.
By it's very nature there never going to be any direct information of what is going on in the background with these handles, so your attempt to demand I provide an impossible standard of evidence is rejected.
At the same time we know the CCP runs a huge number of these types all over the internet for certain. Therefore you cannot say for certain this 'Josh' is operating in good faith.
Here’s the issue. A “handler” does not need to be taken literally, as that would be naive and you, Pete, have been around the block enough to know better. Through media people are constantly influenced and manipulated and this blog, which is not “just a blog”, is not immune to ‘subversive elements’ trying to use this free forum for their nefarious goals. When people are manipulated without realising it, their strings are pulled by their ‘handler’ unbeknownst to them, often perceiving them “in good faith”. Even you, Pete, may have one or more handlers without knowing it 😉
Without any evidence I think it's a questionable practice.
It’s not unlike trying to ‘guess’ someone’s identity or connections, as has happened below. I thought that was frowned on here.
Why don’t you leave it with this site’s Moderators, Pete? They can see things that you can’t.
And I think making suggestions or attempting connections is particularly questionable when the person has made such abhorrent suggestions like dumping people out of planes.
Looking at their list of followers, including an MP, and ex party leader, an ex part general secretary and someone prominent here at TS (none of whom are responsible for the comment) I'm not sure that's an accurate assumption.
Four out of every five dollars donated to big parties in secret, sparking new push for transparency
Smaller parties like the Greens publicly disclose who provided most of their funding, but the big parties are secretive. 83 per cent ($8.7m over six years) of the money donated to National is from anonymous donors, and 80 per cent ($2.8m) of that donated to Labour.
The worst offender is NZ First: Most years, it allows every single one of its donors to remain secret.
The Labour Party is hiding tens of thousands of dollars in donations behind over-inflated art auctions – and naming the artists as donors instead of the secret individuals handing over the big bucks.
The artists had no idea the party was naming them as the donors – they never saw a cent of the money. They say their works are auctioned off at well above market value to wealthy benefactors who want to keep their support for the party secret.
Labour says the practice complies with electoral rules.
That was in 2017. NZ First donations are under increased scrutiny and are currently being investigated by the SFO. Jami-Lee Ross is being prosecuted, Lianne Dalziel, Phil Goff are under SFO investigation over donations.
Andrea Vance writes:
Politicians write the rules they so blatantly flout. The parties manage their own accounts and the cash that flows into them.
Now it's pretty obvious they can't be trusted, it's time to take away that power and ban them from accepting donations directly.
The only way to transparency is for an independent body to handle and process the donations, which would not be disclosed publicly or to the party.
That way the donor maintains their anonymity and privacy – and the law-makers cannot be in anyone's pocket.
The perception of influence and corruption would also be removed.
If donations remain allowed then this is one way of tidying things up a bit, but it wouldn't prevent what NZ First appear to have done, having donations paid into a separate NZ First Foundation and paying party expenses directly from the Foundation.
Would chanelling donations through an independent body (the Electoral Commission has been one suggestion) mean that limiting the size of donations wouldn't be necessary?
An independent handler would impact on all parties (especially the Greens) using donations drives as a part of member recruitment and communications.
It wouldn't stop donors advising parties they had donated certain amounts to the party via the independent handler.
I don't think there are any simple solutions to this.
The Electoral Commission and the SFO actually investigating and prosecuting will help, electoral rule had appeared to have been broken with impunity in the past.
We can't trust parties to set their own rules on this, they have proven to be too self-interested.
But I think there should still be some sort of independent review of how donations are handled. Perhaps by an independent panel of experts, but this could be informed by some sort of 'people's panel'.
I'm just a member of the Labour Party, but it seems pretty clear from the LEC meetings that this year that any officially Labour fundraiser donations will be declared correctly, including any auctions above market value.
But I think there should still be some sort of independent review of how donations are handled. Perhaps by an independent panel of experts, but this could be informed by some sort of 'people's panel'. [my italics]
Good to see that your thinking about this has evolved in just a few days.
Vance is in dreamland if she thinks that would prevent beholdenness. There are ways of making clear to the pollie you've bought, just who owns him/her.
Recently there have been snide comments at our PM gracing the covers of women’s magazines and Time. Well, what will those same critics say at Paula Bennett being on the cover of a couple of recent magazines. Hmm, there will be silence I suspect. The latest PB cover has her grinning maniacally and saying she is proud of her body. Classy?
Paula Bennett is performing as one would expect for someone of her ilk. The right have always used the mass media to sprinkle glitter on their turds. To deflect and to distract. To shamelessly self promote when credit is undeserved.
Not read and won't read the article, but I guess there's a lot of "effort" and "discipline " and "sacrifice"…..?
I have a loathing of the 'cult of celebrity' type crap that so called Leaders have recently embraced. Even Helen Clark resisted the glamour shots …until she shamefully buckled.
Maybe this is the reality of politics today. Don't examine actual achievements and pre- election promises kept, as long as the cover shot looks great all's good.
The latest PB cover has her grinning maniacally and saying she is proud of her body.
Seriously? She had gastric bypass surgery – if anyone gets to be proud of the result, surely it's the surgeon? In any case, "I'm proud of my body" is code for "I look so much better than you losers," and narcissism isn't one of the features a voter should look for in a politician.
“Bravo, pedophilia!” Adèle Haenel, star of Portrait of a Lady on Fire, and the film’s director Céline Sciamma walking out after child rapist Roman #Polanski won the best director award at the Césars, #France’s equivalent to the Oscars. h/t @alucarda
and I was intrigued to see that most blogs that I have bookmarked are not listed. This does not seem to be new – previous rankings are also given, and I see they haven't included some of the "majors"for quite a while.
Can anyone comment on the reason for the change? Are measurements now essentially irrelevant where they can be so easily manipulated?
Thanks for that. From below that FAQ, I looked at results for August 2012. At that time the highest ranking blogs were Whale oil beef hooked, Kiwiblog, The Standard, Throng New Zealand, NewZeal.
I suspect the first three of those disappeared from the rankings some time ago, but at lest Kiwiblog and The Standard still exist. I have not seen why – the FAQ indicates technical reasons why some may not be included, but both Kiwiblog and The Standard appear to be well managed technically; I may have missed the reason for deciding not to have the traffic information available for ranking purposes.
When you get tens of thousands of pageviews per day, everything counts. From memory I disabled statcounter in April 2017 because it was slowing the pages at the client side. After I removed it the perceived render time increased by about 25% because the statcounter server was running slowly – and we were running on a paid account. The page would load on the client side but not fully render the css while it tried to update statcounter.
I actually turned on the free statcounter again in December for evaluation. They have shifted to an async counter (like google analytics) which causes less of the client side page loading problems. They also appear to have fixed up their server side issues.
Waiting for a larger traffic day so I can see what the performance is like.
We certainly have pretty good subsidies for the old and the young here.
But fully free done in New Zealand would be reasonably well targeted as it will mostly benefit the less-well-off, the students, and the unemployed. The ones with really nice cars who prefer their own stereo and freedom can continue along as they were.
Hopefully MoT policy teams are watching this one.
Because at the moment we are putting a lot more into large capital projects, rather than massive operational subsidies on the Luxembourg scale
Not just operational spending. They already have a PT system capable of delivering those free trips. NZ will not until we have made up for decades of roads-first spending. Yet we are still funding the wrong capital projects.
Making more and more things 'public goods' that are free at the point of use and funded collectively based on the ability to contribute, is an obvious way forward. Public luxury and private sufficiency' -as Monbiot (I think) described it. The obstacles to it are political rather than financial .
However you do need an infrastructure capable of supporting it – and in the case of PT it would likely result in overwhelmed and under-performing services that give the whole concept a bad reputation as a result.
Luxembourg is the second richest country in the world with an average GDP per capita of $79,593,91. The high figure is partly due to the large number of people working in the tiny landlocked nation while living in surrounding France, Germany and Belgium. Those salaries bump up the total on which the GDP per capita calculation is based on, but since they do not live in the country, they are not part of the number by which it divided.
In Luxembourg, the average household net wealth is estimated at USD 769 053, higher than the OECD average of USD 409 880.
Hopefully Biden's showing is good enough that Bloomberg realises his chances of becoming prez have just become zero so he drops out too. That would take one of the worst possible primary outcomes off the table.
Biden hasn't campaigned in Super Tuesday states and has run next to no advertising in those states either. Now sure, no doubt CNN and MSNBC et al will suggest that S. Carolina is really the first state that actually means very much and give Biden wall to wall positive coverage over the next three days. Enough to give him unprecedented bumps all across Super Tuesday states in these days of increasingly popular internet alternatives to "official" news channels? I'd doubt it, but we'll see.
Any idea what the under 40s split was in S. Carolina btw? 😉
Not the first piece of possible fuckery this primary season, and probably not the last.
Apart from closing and moving polling stations at the last minute, South Carolina is 100% electronic voting, and the capacity for monkey-wrenching those voting machines and their computer generated "paper trail" is kinda jaw dropping.
To anoint Biden as "the comeback kid", he had to get a margin of around 20%. But people will also have to not remember he had a 50% margin in South Carolina a few short months back 😉
Jacinda was the opposition spokesperson for what isn't flash for kids and families.
The stats haven't moved much. The opposition's silence on matters of this nature leads me to wonder if they're preparing.
When attacking an opponent, no matter if in the ring, on the track or in politics, we aim for the weak spots. The escalating demand for state housing by qualified applicants, it's accelerating fast. Demand for rentals is so strong landlords choose from a selection of applicants that will adminster the wear and tear of someone with no arms or legs.
The prime things a left govt were going to fix. Roof, food, health for all.
Why aren't National punching at Labour's bloody eye?
In Te Tairawhiti a lot of land that should have been left to drystock farming was planted in pine trees now that move is affecting Te Tairawhiti negatively.
Isn't it Ironic.
I can see why Shane Jones is being defensive especially if some in the Indian community are attacking Te treaty of Waitangi validity.
Sea level rising of course its happening our polar ice caps are melting our Glaciers are melting cause Global warming.
Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.The recent leadership change in the governing Labour party resulted in a very strange response from National’s (current) leader, Christopher Luxon. Mr Luxon berated Labour for it’s change of leader, citing no actual change.As ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 22, 2023 thru Sat, Jan 28, 2023. Story of the Week New Study Reveals Arctic Ice, Tracked Both Above and Below, Is Freezing LaterClimate change is affecting the timing of both ...
Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.It was another ‘SHOCK! HORROR!’ headline from a media increasingly venturing into tabloid-style journalism:Andrea Vance’s article seemed to focus on the "million dollar sums from the Government as the country grapples with a housing ...
Dr Brian Easton writes: It’s the summer break. Everyone settles down with family, books, the sun and some fishing. But the Prime Minister has a pile of briefing papers prepared just before Christmas, which have to be worked through. I haven’t seen them. Here is my guess at some ...
What Was the Prime Minister Reading in the Runup to Election Year?It’s the summer break. Everyone settles down with family, books, the sun and some fishing. But the Prime Minister has a pile of briefing papers prepared just before Christmas, which have to be worked through. I haven’t seen them. ...
In case you hadn't noticed, FYI, the public OIA request site, has been used to conduct a significant excavation into New Zealand's intelligence agencies, with requests made for assorted policies and procedures. Yesterday in response to one of these requests the GCSB released its policy on New Zealand Purpose and ...
Farming leaders are watching closely whether Damien O’Connor keeps the key portfolios of Agriculture and Trade when Prime Minister Chris Hipkins restructures his Cabinet. O’Connor has been one of the few ministers during Labour’s term in office who has won broad support for what he has done ...
South Islands farmers are whining about another drought, the third in three years. If only we knew what was causing this! If only someone had warned them that they faced a drying climate! But we do know what is causing it: climate change. And they have been warned, repeatedly, for ...
Ok, there’s good news and bad news in this week’s inflation figures, but bad > good. Our inflation rate held steady but hey, at a level below the inflation rate in Australia. The main reason for the so/so result here? A fall in petrol prices of 7.2% offset the really ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes: Since her shock resignation announcement, Jacinda Ardern has been at pains to point out that she isn’t leaving because of the toxicity directed at her on social media and elsewhere, rebutting journalists who suggested misogyny and hate may have driven her from office. Yet ...
Since her shock resignation announcement, Jacinda Ardern has been at pains to point out that she isn’t leaving because of the toxicity directed at her on social media and elsewhere, rebutting journalists who suggested misogyny and hate may have driven her from office. Yet there have been dozens of columns ...
The Clinical Magus: Of particular relevance to New Zealanders struggling to come to terms with the sudden departure of their prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, is Jung’s concept of the anima. Much more than what others have called the feminine principle, the anima is what the human male has made out ...
The Select Committee, considering the proposed RNZ-TVNZ merger, has come back with a report conceding many of the criticisms that were made of the original legislation. In what is one of the most comprehensive demolitions of a Bill submitted to a Select Committee, the Economic Development, Science and Innovation ...
Such are the 2020s, the age when no-one, it seems, actually respects the basic underpinnings of democracy. Even in New Zealand. This week, I stumbled across a pair of lengthy and genuinely serious articles, that basically argue that Something is Rotten in the state of New Zealand democracy. One ...
Buzz from the Beehive Hurrah. Today we found something fresh on the Beehive website, Beehive.govt.nz, which claims to be the best place to find Government initiatives, policies and Ministerial information. It wasn’t from Finance Minister Grant Robertson, whose reaction to the latest inflation figures would have been appreciated. So, too, ...
Smiling And Waiving A Golden Opportunity: Chris Hipkins knew that the day at Ratana would be Jacinda’s day – her final opportunity to bask in the unalloyed love and support of her followers. He simply could not afford to be seen to overshadow this last chance for his former boss ...
Extremism Consumes Itself: The plot of “Act of Oblivion” concerns the relentless pursuit of the “regicides” Edward Whalley and William Goffe – two of the fifty-nine signatories to King Charles I’s death warrant. As with his many other works of historical fiction, Robert Harris’s novel brings to life a period ...
To challenge the Government’s promotion of co-governance, to share power between Maori and public authorities and agencies, is to invite accusations of racism. An example: this article by Martyn Bradbury on The Daily Blog headed Luxon’s race baiting hypocrisy at Ratana. The article was triggered by National leader Christopher Luxon, ...
A very informative video discussion: Are we getting the whole story about Ukraine? | Robert Wright & Ivan Katchanovski Getting objective information on the situation in Ukraine and the cause of this current war is not easy. There is the current censorship and blatant mainstream media bias – which ...
Yesterday the Herald ran an op-ed from Mayor Wayne Brown titled “The case for light rail is lighter than ever” and a few things stood out. However, it’s getting more and more tricky to make a strong economic case for spending up to $29 billion on a single route of ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Samantha Harrington Imagine it’s a cold February night and your furnace breaks. You want to replace it with an electric heat pump because you’ve heard that tax credits will help pay for the switch. And you know that heat pumps can reduce ...
In 2005, then-National Party leader based his entire election campaign on racism, with his infamous racist Orewa speech and racist iwi/kiwi billboards. Now, Christopher Luxon seems to want to do it all again: Fresh off using his platform at this week's Rātana celebrations to criticise the government's approach to ...
Inflation is showing little sign of slowing down, posing a problem for freshly minted PM Chris Hipkins. According to that old campaigner Richard Prebble, Hipkins should call a snap election. If he waits till October, he risks being swept away. The dilemma for the new leader is that fighting an election ...
Buzz from the Beehive A great deal has happened since January 19. Among other things, a new Prime Minister and deputy have been sworn in and our leaders (past, present and aspiring) have delivered speeches at Ratana. Newshub reported that politicians of all stripes had descended upon Rātana for the ...
It’s a big day for New Zealand; our 41st Prime Minister has taken office and the new, “Chippy” era of politics is underway. Or, on the other hand, the Labour Party continues to govern with an overall majority and much the same leadership team in place. Life goes on and ...
New Zealand has another Prime Minister who does not have a basic grasp of the three articles of the Treaty of Waitangi. THOMAS CRANMER writes: It is simply astonishing that New Zealand’s next Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, is unable to give even a brief explanation of the three articles ...
A statue of a semi-naked Nick Smith puts the misogyny debate into perspective. GRAHAM ADAMS writes … In the wake of Ardern’s abrupt resignation, the mainstream media are determined to convince us she was hounded from office mainly because she is a woman and had to fall on her sword ...
A Different Kind Of Vibe: In the days and weeks ahead, as the Hipkins ministry takes shape, the only question that matters is whether New Zealand’s new prime minister possesses both the wisdom and the courage to correct his party’s currently suicidal political course. If Chris “Chippy” Hipkins is ...
An editorial in the NZ Herald last week, titled “Nimbyism goes bananas as housing intensifies“, introduced Herald readers to a couple of acronyms that go along with the now-familiar NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard): “bananas” (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone) “cave” dwellers (citizens against virtually everything). The editorial ...
Back in the dark autumn of 2020, when the prospect of Covid was freaking the country out, Finance Minister Grant Robertson set himself and Treasury a series of questions about what a post-Covid economy might look like. Those were fearful days, and the questions in part reflected a series ...
Buzz from the Beehive Yet another day has passed without Ministers of the Crown posting something to show they are still working for us on the Beehive website. Nothing new has been posted since January 17. Perhaps the ministers are all engaged in the bemusing annual excursion ...
Incoming Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has already indicated he intends making the tax system “fairer”. That points to the route a government facing an election could take to tilt the odds towards winning in its favour, given Labour’s support in the last months of the Ardern era had been ...
NewsHub has a poll on the cost-of-living crisis, which has an interesting finding: the vast majority of kiwis prefer wage rises to tax cuts: When asked whether income has kept up with the cost of living, 54.8 percent of people surveyed said no and according to 58.6 percent of ...
Labour has begun 2023 with the centre-left bloc behind in the polls and losing ground. That being so, did his colleagues choose Chris Hipkins as the replacement for Jacinda Ardern because they think he has a realistic shot at leading them to victory this year, or because he‘s the best ...
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The first of Kiwirail’s big network shutdowns to fix the foundations on our tracks is now well underway with the Southern Line closed between Otahuhu and Newmarket. This is following on from the network wide Christmas/New Year shutdown, during which Kiwirail say that nearly 1,300 people working across 69 different ...
This is a re-post from the Citizens' Climate Lobby blogIn last year’s passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Congress included about $20 billion earmarked for natural climate solutions. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is responsible for deciding how those funds should be allocated to meet the climate ...
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Dr Bryce Edwards writes: The days of the Labour Government being associated with middle class social liberalism look to be numbered. Soon-to-be Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni are heralding a major shift in emphasis away from the constituencies and ideologies of liberal Grey ...
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The days of the Labour Government being associated with middle class social liberalism look to be numbered. Soon-to-be Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni are heralding a major shift in emphasis away from the constituencies and ideologies of liberal Grey Lynn and Wellington Central towards the ...
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Dr Bryce Edwards writes: Should New Zealand have a snap election? That’s one of the questions arising out of the chaos of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s shock resignation. There’s an increased realisation that everything has changed, and the old plans and assumptions for election year have suddenly evaporated. ...
Should New Zealand have a snap election? That’s one of the questions arising out of the chaos of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s shock resignation. There’s an increased realisation that everything has changed, and the old plans and assumptions for election year have suddenly evaporated. So, although Ardern has named an ...
I warned about the trap of virtue signaling in my article Virtue signaling over Ukraine. This video is still relevant – but have we moved on since then? The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was universally condemned at the time. Or was it? Certainly, the political atmosphere ...
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As the Mayor of Auckland has announced a state of emergency, the Government, through NEMA, is able to step up support for those affected by flooding in Auckland. “I’d urge people to follow the advice of authorities and check Auckland Emergency Management for the latest information. As always, the Government ...
Ka papā te whatitiri, Hikohiko ana te uira, wāhi rua mai ana rā runga mai o Huruiki maunga Kua hinga te māreikura o te Nota, a Titewhai Harawira Nā reira, e te kahurangi, takoto, e moe Ka mōwai koa a Whakapara, kua uhia te Tai Tokerau e te kapua pōuri ...
Carmel Sepuloni, Minister for Social Development and Employment, has activated Enhanced Taskforce Green (ETFG) in response to flooding and damaged caused by Cyclone Hale in the Tairāwhiti region. Up to $500,000 will be made available to employ job seekers to support the clean-up. We are still investigating whether other parts ...
The 2023 General Election will be held on Saturday 14 October 2023, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. “Announcing the election date early in the year provides New Zealanders with certainty and has become the practice of this Government and the previous one, and I believe is best practice,” Jacinda ...
Jacinda Ardern has announced she will step down as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party. Her resignation will take effect on the appointment of a new Prime Minister. A caucus vote to elect a new Party Leader will occur in 3 days’ time on Sunday the 22nd of ...
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The Government has extended its medium-scale classification of Cyclone Hale to the Wairarapa after assessing storm damage to the eastern coastline of the region. “We’re making up to $80,000 available to the East Coast Rural Support Trust to help farmers and growers recover from the significant damage in the region,” ...
The Government is making an initial contribution of $150,000 to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Tairāwhiti following ex-Tropical Cyclone Hale, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced. “While Cyclone Hale has caused widespread heavy rain, flooding and high winds across many parts of the North Island, Tairāwhiti ...
Rural Communities Minister Damien O’Connor has classified this week’s Cyclone Hale that caused significant flood damage across the Tairāwhiti/Gisborne District as a medium-scale adverse event, unlocking Government support for farmers and growers. “We’re making up to $100,000 available to help coordinate efforts as farmers and growers recover from the heavy ...
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Auckland's mayor says lessons have been learned following the region's highest ever rainfall over 24 hours, which left four people dead and forced hundreds of people out of their homes. ...
Oceans are at their warmest state ever and that has consequences, Kevin Trenberth writes I am a climate scientist who has been around watching the climate crisis grow from one of little concern to one where enough extremes of weather have grabbed the attention of the public. It is now ...
The deputy prime minister, Carmel Sepuloni, and transport minister Michael Woods spoke Sunday afternoon and updated on the government’s response to the state of local emergency in Auckland. Today there will be 70-80 case managers supporting those calling the MSD helpline for assistance. Sepuloni encouraged anyone needing any assistance (food, ...
Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni says it has been "incredibly heartening" to see the way Aucklanders had helped each other out over the past few days. Sepuloni and Transport Minister Michael Wood have provided today's government update on the ongoing state of emergency in Auckland. Sepuloni thanked the many organisations ...
The deputy prime minister says it has been "incredibly heartening" to see the way Aucklanders had helped each other out over the past few days. Watch the latest government update here. ...
The deputy prime minister and the transport minister are providing today's government update on the ongoing state of emergency in Auckland. Watch it live here. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Welch, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, University of Auckland Getty Images We’ve built our cities to be vulnerable to – and exacerbate – major weather events such as the one we saw in Auckland on Friday. While almost no ...
If you’ve managed to secure some eggs, here’s a tasty dish from the Parsi cuisine which essentially revolves around eggs… Even if they were an acquired taste for Perzen Patel. I’ve always been mentally allergic to eggs. I’ll eat cakes that have eggs and dishes where I can’t see or ...
PNG Post-Courier Papua New Guinea’s Service Improvement Programme worth more than K1 billion (NZ$440 million) has become a major cash cow for “irresponsible” leaders, says the monitoring agency. In the past decade, the Provincial and District Services Improvement Programme has delivered much but has not achieved what it set out ...
Twice a week, church bells ring out through Auckland’s CBD. Sam Brooks meets the people who make it happen.If you happen to be on the Victoria Park side of the CBD on a Tuesday night or a Sunday morning, you’ll hear the sound of eight bells ringing clear as, ...
An excerpt from a keynote speech delivered in November last year to mark Ben Brown’s time as Te Awhi Rito New Zealand Reading Ambassador.We imagine ourselves into existence and a universe comes with us. This is the first and most important function of language, revealed to us ideally ...
Or if he did, it might read something like thisVexed, defensive, shouty, Mayor Brown the Second wore the countenance of a man who had just discovered, to his irritation and horror, that he is, you know, the mayor of Auckland. At Saturday’s press conference in response to the record-breaking, ...
When you consider their remote location, perilous terrain and dark, sometimes ugly history, it seems incredible that anyone still lives on Pitcairn Island. But almost 50 people do and, as Graeme Lay discovers, they live very well. The supply ship Claymore II stands off the north coast of Pitcairn Island. ...
Heavy rain has hit Bay of Plenty and Coromandel overnight and there's more rain on the way for Auckland, but people are beginning to take stock of the damage. A home has collapsed in Tauranga and residents have been evacuated. There are a number of road closures mainly in the ...
In the second of a three-part series on Labour's leadership transition, Elliot Crossan focuses on how Labour's economic handling of the Covid crisis created an explosion in inequality. Read part one here.Opinion: In her emotional resignation speech, Jacinda Ardern described how she no longer had “enough in the tank to do ...
ANALYSIS:By James Renwick, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington The extraordinary flood event Auckland experienced on the night of January 27, the eve of the city’s anniversary weekend, was caused by rainfall that was literally off the chart. Over 24 hours, 249mm of rain fell — well ...
RNZ News Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has acknowledged the way Aucklanders have come together and opened their homes to those in need, with the New Zealand government focused on providing the resources needed to get the city back up and running. The new prime minister — just four days into ...
RNZ News Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty has asked for communication on support after the severe thunderstorm in Auckland to be stepped up. It comes after a Civil Defence warning text failed to be sent out, and Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown told RNZ they will be reviewing the response, ...
RNZ News Three people are dead and at least one person is missing following the flooding overnight in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city. About 1000 people were still stranded today after Auckland Airport was closed last night because of flooding of the arrival and departure foyers. Flights were cancelled for ...
Wayne Brown has doubled down on his decision last night to shun the media until close to midnight and only order a state of emergency at 9.30pm. In a defensive display to the media this afternoon, the Auckland mayor was questioned on comments other councillors made last night, including some ...
Prime minister Chris Hipkins has confirmed there are three deaths linked to the extreme weather event in Auckland over the past 24 hours. There is also at least one person missing. Speaking at a press conference in Auckland, Hipkins said the priority was to make sure Aucklanders were safe, housed ...
*This story was first published on The Conversation and is republished with permission*Until New Zealand's stormwater drain system adapts to our rising climate, it will never be able to cope with the level of flooding seen in Auckland on Friday night, writes James Renwick The extraordinary flood event Auckland experienced ...
Chris Hipkins has experienced his first major event as prime minister, just days into his tenure. He’s spent the day in Auckland alongside emergency services, surveying the damage and assessing next steps. He’s due to speak at 3.15pm alongside Auckland mayor Wayne Brown. Thanks to Stuff, here is a livestream. ...
Due to the “unprecedented weather event” in Auckland, organisers have confirmed the “heartbreaking decision” to cancel this year’s Laneway Festival. “We were so excited to deliver this show to our biggest crowd ever in New Zealand, our team has been working around the clock to do everything they can to ...
With the rain easing for a moment, many will be beginning the arduous task of cleaning out their flooded property. Auckland council has release advice for cleaning up after a flood. Cleaning up after a flood It is important to clean and dry your house and everything in it. Floodwater ...
Air New Zealand Chief Operational Integrity and Safety Officer Captain David Morgan says the airline’s domestic flights in and out of Auckland resumed from 12pm today as Auckland Airport re-opens. But he said with a backlog of flights and customers, the priority is those who need to travel urgently. “Those ...
Festival-goers holding on hope for Laneway, set to take place at Western Springs on Monday, will have to wait a bit longer for an official update. A brief post on Facebook this afternoon stated: “Safety is Laneway Festival’s number one priority. With the large weather event Auckland is currently experiencing, ...
Wayne Brown has defended the timing of a declaration of a state of emergency last night following record rainfall in Auckland. “The state of emergency is a prescribed process, it’s quite formal, and I had to wait until I had the official request from the emergency management centre. The moment ...
After the 11th hour cancellation last night, Elton John has cancelled the second concert of his farewell tour at Mt Smart, which had been scheduled for this evening. In a statement, John said: “Following the instruction of the emergency services, we have no option but to cancel tonight’s show in ...
The member of parliament for Mt Albert, Jacinda Ardern, has posted a message on Facebook following the flooding in Auckland. “I’m very conscious that it’s been a while since I posted, and there have been a few big things happening. But today the most important thing is everyone’s wellbeing and ...
Flooding of the runway, the check-in and arrivals areas on the ground floor and surrounding roads has disrupted operations at Auckland International, halting all departures until at least 5pm today, with no arrivals before 4:30am tomorrow. “People are asked not to come to the International Terminal at this time for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Renwick, Professor, Physical Geography (climate science), Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Victoria Park near the Auckland CBD on January 27.Getty Images The extraordinary flood event Auckland experienced on the night of January 27, the eve of the ...
New Zealand’s largest insurance group, IAG, says it is on track to receive more than 1,100 claims from Aucklanders by lunchtime after the city was deluged in the wettest day on record. Those claims, said the group which includes AMI, State and NZI Insurance, span property damage to homes and ...
The rampant flooding in Auckland didn’t just detonate its provincial public holiday weekend – it coincided with the biggest weekend of the year to date for live events. A pair of Elton John concerts at Mt Smart stadium had a combined capacity of over 80,000, while both Laneway at Western ...
Auckland is beginning a clean-up after its wettest day since records began. “Auckland was clobbered on Friday,” said emergency management duty controller Andrew Clark. “We won’t start to get a good idea of numbers affected until later today and, even then, this will take time, with information still coming in ...
The prime minister, Chris Hipkins, is travelling to Auckland after devastating floods hit the city overnight. With the airport out of operation until at least midday, he is landing at Whenuapai air base on a New Zealand Defence Force Hercules aircraft from Wellington. ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has arrived in Auckland for a daylong visit to the city following its catastrophic flood on Friday night. Flying in an Air Force Hercules to Whenuapai, Hipkins will spend roughly three hours on the ground assessing flood damage in the city before returning. He will receive ...
A quirk of timing left all Auckland’s institutions on the back foot. But social media, particularly TikTok, graphically showed just how bad the situation was. Late afternoon on a Friday is known as time to quietly drop bad news. You have the plausible deniability of it happening during work hours, ...
It’s a common sight during summer. It’s also a recipe for disaster.I recently drove with my family from New Plymouth to Tāmaki Makaurau and, just like how I lost count of how many cows I saw on the way, I lost count of how many cars had a passenger ...
Opinion - Election year has begun with a bang, and already the punditry and speculation are ramping up, but Grant Duncan warns not to treat polls as gospel. ...
New Zealand’s new prime minister, Chris Hipkins, is formally facing down an emergency just a few days after being sworn in, summoning the National Crisis Management Centre to the Beehive. The Beehive Bunker is being stood up to help with coordination of the emergency response in Auckland. I’ve asked ...
Analysis - Jacinda Ardern is one of New Zealand's most historically significant leaders. But she did not achieve the grand vision for Aotearoa her outsized rhetoric promised. ...
"They want the Māoris out": provincial life in NZShe hadn’t learned to shut her mouth. Howard was tired of Councillor Kemp harping on and on and on. He pushed himself deeper into the boardroom chair and leaned back as far as he could force it. This woman had ranted ...
Brits abroad can be an asset to Aotearoa - but only if we make an effort to engage with te ao Māori, writes Scottish expat Fran Barclay Earlier this week, the UK High Commissioner signalled a promising intention to address the barriers facing young Māori and Pasifika who aspire to ...
Positive affirmation quotes often aren’t helpful for tāngata whai ora. But taking the piss out of them can be. Early in January, on the first day of what would be a week of staying in bed with the curtains pulled, I put a disappointingaffirmations Instagram post up on my stories. ...
Ellen Rykers visits Mahakirau Forest Estate, ‘a crown jewel in the Coromandel Range’, where pest control is serious business.This is an excerpt from our weekly environment newsletter Future Proof – sign up here. The Mahakirau Forest Estate is not your average subdivision. Enter through its tall ...
As Auckland tackles severe floods and the city’s airport emerges from a deluge on both the runway and in terminals, Air New Zealand has confirmed that no flights will leave or arrive before noon on Saturday at the earliest. In a statement, the airline said anyone booked for a flight ...
RNZ News Mayor Wayne Brown has shut down criticism that he was too slow in declaring a state of emergency after severe flooding in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city. In a media stand-up late on Friday evening, Brown said he was following advice from experts and as soon as they ...
The Prime Minister has gone down to the Beehive bunker to help coordinate the emergency response, as the Insurance Council warns some Aucklanders whose homes and business are flooded face very hard times ahead. Jonathan Milne reports.Comment: Standing by the south-western motorway, I watched in dismay as hundreds of cars ...
A state of emergency has been declared in Auckland as severe weather causes major flooding across much of the city. It’s expected the rain will continue into the morning. This post will be updated as more information is shared.What does a state of emergency mean? A state of emergency ...
Auckland’s mayor Wayne Brown said he declared an emergency in Auckland as soon as he possibly could – and he made the decision without listening to the “clamour” of the public. There has been some criticism of the mayor for his relative silence today throughout the deadly flooding that’s hit ...
Welcome to a special late night edition of The Spinoff’s live updates as Auckland enters a state of emergency. Stewart Sowman-Lund is on deck, with help from our news team.The top linesAuckland is in a state of emergency. It will remain in place for seven ...
Prime minister Chris Hipkins is pleased the call was made to declare a state of emergency in Auckland. All government agencies were working “flat out” to help in what was an “extraordinary set of circumstances”, Hipkins said in a tweet. “The emergency response is underway and the government is ready ...
Auckland’s mayor Wayne Brown has released a statement following the decision to declare a state of emergency in Auckland. Brown has faced criticism this evening for his relative silence throughout today’s major flooding, with the first public pronouncement of the state of emergency coming from his deputy. Brown said the ...
Christopher Luxon has criticised the time it took for the state of emergency in Auckland to be declared. The National Party leader is currently in Southland, but told Today FM he intends to get back to Auckland as soon as possible. Earlier in the night, Luxon sent a tweet “urging” ...
Here is, verbatim, that latest information we have from Civil Defence on tonight’s state of emergency in Auckland: Auckland Emergency Management has opened a Civil Defence Centre to assist those that have been displaced or need assistance following today’s severe weather. The centre is open now and is based at ...
Severe flooding has ravaged Auckland today but the mayor of the city is barely visible. As I write, the airport has flooded, check-in areas looking like a public pool. Motorways are overflowing and cars have been seen floating down streets like a river. A person has died in floodwaters in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Treasurer Jim Chalmers has laid out an economic blueprint for pursuing “values-based capitalism”, involving public-private co-investment and collaboration and the renovation of key economic institutions and markets. In a 6000-word essay in The Monthly ...
This is live coverage of the developing situation in Auckland. We will continue to update this with photos and information as it comes to hand. After a day of torrential rain, and new reports of at least one death in the flood water, a state of emergency has been declared ...
Fans are describing Auckland Transport's plans to help them get to and from Elton John's concerts in the supercity this weekend as a fiasco with tonight's concert now cancelled due to the weather. Two concerts were due at Mt Smart Stadium before tonight's concert was called off in the face ...
A state of emergency has been declared in Auckland due to severe flooding that has caused people to evacuate their homes. It was officially declared at 9.54pm. Meanwhile, Auckland Airport has closed its international terminal check-in due to flooding inside the building. The airport says it is sincerely sorry to ...
RNZ News Residents in flood-prone areas of West Auckland are being asked to prepare to evacuate as bad weather causes power cuts and car crashes across Tāmaki Makaurau, with a severe thunderstorm watch in place for the north of Aotearoa New Zealand. Auckland Emergency Management said the severe weather across ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Ward, Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of Queensland Five years ago, bulldozers with chains cleared forests and woodlands almost triple the size of the Australian Capital Territory in a single year. Brazil? Indonesia? No – much closer: Queensland. In 2018-19, ...
Auckland Transport has apologised for confusing messaging that suggested attendees of tonight’s Elton John concert should drive. In a post on Facebook last night, AT said “driving to the concert is recommended” – a suggestion that prompted backlash due to the lack of parking options near the stadium. The announcement ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Tingay, John Curtin Distinguished Professor (Radio Astronomy), Curtin University Asteroid 20223 BU’s path in red, with green showing the orbit of geosynchronous satellites.NASA/JPL-Caltech There are hundreds of millions of asteroids in our Solar System, which means new asteroids are discovered ...
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More water than anything else, the cucumber is the perfect counter to intense and fiery flavours. Cucumber is without a doubt the most refreshing vegetable*, the antidote to hot summer days. At 95% water, a cucumber is basically an edible, crunchy, waste-free water bottle. Beside water, the cucumber has almost ...
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The yellow brick road to Mt Smart stadium looks to be packed this weekend as thousands travel to dual Elton John concerts In the words of pop royal Elton John, “I think it’s going to be a long, long time” - in this case for the 40,000 odd concert-goers driving ...
Who is his 'handler'?
Do you have a handler?
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
50 Cent Party. Or maybe this guy comes cheaper, who knows. It's a judgement call.
As for me having a handler … do you really think so?
You made a claim that he had a handler. Now you clarify saying it is 'a judgement, so I presume no evidence.
I have no reason to believe you have a handler. Nor anyone else here.
It is common to try to discredit people commenting in social media by suggesting they are paid by or employed by someone. It's happened to me. I may well have done it in the past.
Without any evidence I think it's a questionable practice.
It’s not unlike trying to ‘guess’ someone’s identity or connections, as has happened below. I thought that was frowned on here.
By it's very nature there never going to be any direct information of what is going on in the background with these handles, so your attempt to demand I provide an impossible standard of evidence is rejected.
At the same time we know the CCP runs a huge number of these types all over the internet for certain. Therefore you cannot say for certain this 'Josh' is operating in good faith.
But in my experience all the clues are there.
Here’s the issue. A “handler” does not need to be taken literally, as that would be naive and you, Pete, have been around the block enough to know better. Through media people are constantly influenced and manipulated and this blog, which is not “just a blog”, is not immune to ‘subversive elements’ trying to use this free forum for their nefarious goals. When people are manipulated without realising it, their strings are pulled by their ‘handler’ unbeknownst to them, often perceiving them “in good faith”. Even you, Pete, may have one or more handlers without knowing it 😉
Why don’t you leave it with this site’s Moderators, Pete? They can see things that you can’t.
And I think making suggestions or attempting connections is particularly questionable when the person has made such abhorrent suggestions like dumping people out of planes.
This shithead is reflecting precisely the 'human rights' record of the CCP.
Who do you judge this person may be reflecting?
https://twitter.com/FireMonty/status/1233682778077589504
Another marxist shithead, they come in all shapes and sizes. (It's also why I don't grovel about in that cesspit called Twitter.)
Looking at their list of followers, including an MP, and ex party leader, an ex part general secretary and someone prominent here at TS (none of whom are responsible for the comment) I'm not sure that's an accurate assumption.
Do I look like I care? I'm not responsible for explaining every stupid thing everyone says on the internet … no matter who they are.
Otherwise your attempt at re-directing attention from the issue at hand is noted.
"A real person living in Northland. I've spent 40+ years keeping Kiwi's safe, also a volunteer firefighter."
Are you pointing out the irony in " I've spent 40+ years keeping Kiwi's safe"?
Everyone's handler is their Mum. When they die, by default, it passes to an uncomfortable with the role Dad….sometimes an older sister steps in.
More on party donations.
Four out of every five dollars donated to big parties in secret, sparking new push for transparency
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/95945991/new-push-for-transparency-with-four-out-of-every-five-dollars-donated-to-big-parties-given-secretly
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/95891686/artworks-used-to-funnel-secret-donors-contributions-to-the-labour-party
That was in 2017. NZ First donations are under increased scrutiny and are currently being investigated by the SFO. Jami-Lee Ross is being prosecuted, Lianne Dalziel, Phil Goff are under SFO investigation over donations.
Andrea Vance writes:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/119899039/keep-politicians-in-the-dark-over-election-donations
If donations remain allowed then this is one way of tidying things up a bit, but it wouldn't prevent what NZ First appear to have done, having donations paid into a separate NZ First Foundation and paying party expenses directly from the Foundation.
Would chanelling donations through an independent body (the Electoral Commission has been one suggestion) mean that limiting the size of donations wouldn't be necessary?
An independent handler would impact on all parties (especially the Greens) using donations drives as a part of member recruitment and communications.
It wouldn't stop donors advising parties they had donated certain amounts to the party via the independent handler.
I don't think there are any simple solutions to this.
The Electoral Commission and the SFO actually investigating and prosecuting will help, electoral rule had appeared to have been broken with impunity in the past.
We can't trust parties to set their own rules on this, they have proven to be too self-interested.
But I think there should still be some sort of independent review of how donations are handled. Perhaps by an independent panel of experts, but this could be informed by some sort of 'people's panel'.
I'm just a member of the Labour Party, but it seems pretty clear from the LEC meetings that this year that any officially Labour fundraiser donations will be declared correctly, including any auctions above market value.
That's a good sign.
Good to see that your thinking about this has evolved in just a few days.
Vance is in dreamland if she thinks that would prevent beholdenness. There are ways of making clear to the pollie you've bought, just who owns him/her.
Recently there have been snide comments at our PM gracing the covers of women’s magazines and Time. Well, what will those same critics say at Paula Bennett being on the cover of a couple of recent magazines. Hmm, there will be silence I suspect. The latest PB cover has her grinning maniacally and saying she is proud of her body. Classy?
OK. As one of the guilty, I'll bite.
Paula Bennett is performing as one would expect for someone of her ilk. The right have always used the mass media to sprinkle glitter on their turds. To deflect and to distract. To shamelessly self promote when credit is undeserved.
Not read and won't read the article, but I guess there's a lot of "effort" and "discipline " and "sacrifice"…..?
I have a loathing of the 'cult of celebrity' type crap that so called Leaders have recently embraced. Even Helen Clark resisted the glamour shots …until she shamefully buckled.
Maybe this is the reality of politics today. Don't examine actual achievements and pre- election promises kept, as long as the cover shot looks great all's good.
They're all cast in the same mold.
The latest PB cover has her grinning maniacally and saying she is proud of her body.
Seriously? She had gastric bypass surgery – if anyone gets to be proud of the result, surely it's the surgeon? In any case, "I'm proud of my body" is code for "I look so much better than you losers," and narcissism isn't one of the features a voter should look for in a politician.
The coat ladies' faces.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a dam fine film, loved it.
I noticed a post in "Feeds" that led me to https://openparachute.wordpress.com/2020/03/01/february-20-nz-blogs-sitemeter-ranking/
and I was intrigued to see that most blogs that I have bookmarked are not listed. This does not seem to be new – previous rankings are also given, and I see they haven't included some of the "majors"for quite a while.
Can anyone comment on the reason for the change? Are measurements now essentially irrelevant where they can be so easily manipulated?
https://openparachute.wordpress.com/2012/07/31/nz-blog-rankings-faq/
Thanks for that. From below that FAQ, I looked at results for August 2012. At that time the highest ranking blogs were Whale oil beef hooked, Kiwiblog, The Standard, Throng New Zealand, NewZeal.
I suspect the first three of those disappeared from the rankings some time ago, but at lest Kiwiblog and The Standard still exist. I have not seen why – the FAQ indicates technical reasons why some may not be included, but both Kiwiblog and The Standard appear to be well managed technically; I may have missed the reason for deciding not to have the traffic information available for ranking purposes.
Lynn (TS sysop lprent) has commented on this from time to time in the past. It's a technical issue.
https://openparachute.wordpress.com/2019/05/01/april-19-nz-blogs-sitemeter-ranking/#comment-129119
When you get tens of thousands of pageviews per day, everything counts. From memory I disabled statcounter in April 2017 because it was slowing the pages at the client side. After I removed it the perceived render time increased by about 25% because the statcounter server was running slowly – and we were running on a paid account. The page would load on the client side but not fully render the css while it tried to update statcounter.
I actually turned on the free statcounter again in December for evaluation. They have shifted to an async counter (like google analytics) which causes less of the client side page loading problems. They also appear to have fixed up their server side issues.
Waiting for a larger traffic day so I can see what the performance is like.
Luxembourg is the first country in the world to make public transport free.
https://www.dw.com/en/luxembourg-makes-public-transport-free/a-52582998
We certainly have pretty good subsidies for the old and the young here.
But fully free done in New Zealand would be reasonably well targeted as it will mostly benefit the less-well-off, the students, and the unemployed. The ones with really nice cars who prefer their own stereo and freedom can continue along as they were.
Hopefully MoT policy teams are watching this one.
Because at the moment we are putting a lot more into large capital projects, rather than massive operational subsidies on the Luxembourg scale
Not just operational spending. They already have a PT system capable of delivering those free trips. NZ will not until we have made up for decades of roads-first spending. Yet we are still funding the wrong capital projects.
Making more and more things 'public goods' that are free at the point of use and funded collectively based on the ability to contribute, is an obvious way forward. Public luxury and private sufficiency' -as Monbiot (I think) described it. The obstacles to it are political rather than financial .
However you do need an infrastructure capable of supporting it – and in the case of PT it would likely result in overwhelmed and under-performing services that give the whole concept a bad reputation as a result.
Luxembourg is quite wealthy. That's an understatement. It's got about 5km of roads. I'd imagine it's pretty cheap to get around.
LOL
Luxembourg is 82km by 57km ie c 2586 sq km – compared to NZ at 268, 838 sq km.
NZ is 104 times bigger than Luxembourg and their population is also much less at about 600,000
https://www.mylifeelsewhere.com/country-size-comparison/new-zealand/luxembourg
It's easy though, we'll all just pay a wee bit more. It'll be fine.
Luxembourg is the second richest country in the world with an average GDP per capita of $79,593,91. The high figure is partly due to the large number of people working in the tiny landlocked nation while living in surrounding France, Germany and Belgium. Those salaries bump up the total on which the GDP per capita calculation is based on, but since they do not live in the country, they are not part of the number by which it divided.
In Luxembourg, the average household net wealth is estimated at USD 769 053, higher than the OECD average of USD 409 880.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/07/which-are-the-richest-countries-in-the-world/
So I guess it's no wonder they can afford to shell out a bit on free Public Transport.
Again, exactly. Very different situation to NZ.
Biden's back.
With around 30% of the vote counted, Biden has around 52% of the vote share and Bernie around 18%. All others well below 15%.
If that vote share stays about the same, that would give Biden 40 of the 54 pledged delegates and Sanders the remaining 14.
A very good showing for Biden and the first State primary victory of his political career. This will keep the race interesting.
Steyer is apparently dropping out …
https://www.npr.org/2020/02/29/801952931/tom-steyer-to-drop-out-of-2020-presidential-race
Hopefully Biden's showing is good enough that Bloomberg realises his chances of becoming prez have just become zero so he drops out too. That would take one of the worst possible primary outcomes off the table.
Biden hasn't campaigned in Super Tuesday states and has run next to no advertising in those states either. Now sure, no doubt CNN and MSNBC et al will suggest that S. Carolina is really the first state that actually means very much and give Biden wall to wall positive coverage over the next three days. Enough to give him unprecedented bumps all across Super Tuesday states in these days of increasingly popular internet alternatives to "official" news channels? I'd doubt it, but we'll see.
Any idea what the under 40s split was in S. Carolina btw? 😉
Race/age split.
http://archive.li/qHD0C#selection-1389.0-1393.288
Cheers Joe.
If you can't win fare – cheat.
https://prospect.org/politics/south-carolina-closing-poll-stations-without-notice/
Not the first piece of possible fuckery this primary season, and probably not the last.
Apart from closing and moving polling stations at the last minute, South Carolina is 100% electronic voting, and the capacity for monkey-wrenching those voting machines and their computer generated "paper trail" is kinda jaw dropping.
To anoint Biden as "the comeback kid", he had to get a margin of around 20%. But people will also have to not remember he had a 50% margin in South Carolina a few short months back 😉
You reckon.
/
Jacinda was the opposition spokesperson for what isn't flash for kids and families.
The stats haven't moved much. The opposition's silence on matters of this nature leads me to wonder if they're preparing.
When attacking an opponent, no matter if in the ring, on the track or in politics, we aim for the weak spots. The escalating demand for state housing by qualified applicants, it's accelerating fast. Demand for rentals is so strong landlords choose from a selection of applicants that will adminster the wear and tear of someone with no arms or legs.
The prime things a left govt were going to fix. Roof, food, health for all.
Why aren't National punching at Labour's bloody eye?
Unless you follow dark PR gurus Goebbels or Karl Rove who advocated attacking their strengths.
Kia Ora The Am Show.
That's good that the comunity payment is made available for the people affected by the North land droughts.
All of my Offspring have been vaxcernated.
Aotearoa needs to use smart solutions to our traffic jam problems.
The longer summer weather tells a big story 3 weeks longer.????.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News the sis sandflys are stuffing with my devices.
Kia Ora The Am Show.
Good to see our government investing money into Christchurch the City needs all the help it can get.
Children learn to bully from bulling happening in their home.
No need to be scared of God's little creature in Aotearoa. I just put them outside spiders and insects in the whare
Wow those Whare in Americas Lake Erie look like Ice sculpture.
That's it treat people the way you want to be treated or like you treat your own.
The Ion age is here and now new 5G phones E money Electric Cars.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Newshub.
In Te Tairawhiti a lot of land that should have been left to drystock farming was planted in pine trees now that move is affecting Te Tairawhiti negatively.
Isn't it Ironic.
I can see why Shane Jones is being defensive especially if some in the Indian community are attacking Te treaty of Waitangi validity.
Sea level rising of course its happening our polar ice caps are melting our Glaciers are melting cause Global warming.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
I think if the virus problem gets worse our government will step up.
Six emergency whare is good but tangata whenua o Aotearoa need many more emergency whare.
Timothy's travels will be a good story.
Ka kite Ano.