I thought it mighty clever of the weather to turn to Winter overnight. Sitting pretty here in a house of brick. It wasn't always so easy.
Let's hear it for a budget tackling homelessness, let's hear it for a government trying to address mental health.
Sleep.
I spent parts of winter sleeping half at night, half in the day. This was in order to cope with the cold. From cars to windowless squats, beneath bridges and basements abandoned; the houses of homelessness are cold.
To sleep it helped to be inebriated so one's body (and head) would allow you some sleep. I'd curl up in a foetal position with covers over my head to recirculate the warm air, and hands tucked between my legs to try get them warm. It was enough for a while and I'd drift off, but by around 4 a.m. either my reserves or the temperature had dropped sufficiently that it woke me.
There were several hours till dawn and though many preferred to stay down, shivering as temperatures bottomed out, I had to move.
Morning calisthenics. 4 a.m. drills for the idle unemployed. Press ups, squats, burpees. Soon I'd be warm enough to stop shivering, warm enough that the ringing in my ears would subside, warm enough to roll a smoke without tearing the paper in half. The burning coal of a cigarette cupped in the palms of my hands.
I'd march. Off to the parks, to the coast and the dunes. Under lupins and round the river mouths. In the places fungi grew in abundance. Magical fungi, munchable fungi. From the city to the fields and back again.
We ate fungi, watercress, seafood, rustled sheep, pilfered fruit, garden raids, dumpster diving and homeless handouts. We never thought about how we were homeless, we were surviving. Mental health, abuse, alcoholism, addiction, abandonment. It was all there, and it was all intertwined. We absolved ourselves with three Fuck You's and a bottle of grog.
A portion of us were typically in prison. This was normal. Some were locked up for stealing liquor, others robbing chemists; I for picking mushrooms and growing weed. Whatever it takes means different things to different people, and survival trumped law in most cases. As society had done to us the things that were done to us, then fuck society. We would look after ourselves.
We were divided in attitudes between those of us who wanted to change the world, and those who wanted to burn it all down. There's too much time to think when you are homeless. To feel purpose it helps if one can move purposefully. To live amongst the hopeless it requires a special kind of strength to even dare to dream. We were young and we still dared, but for many it was a dream.
Overdose, car accident, murder, life. Slowly they vanished as if they'd never existed. Long forgotten by those purported to love them. Dead.
The eulogies I wrote were prosaic and deep. It was tragedy and tragedy then tragedy again. Absentee parents wailed soulfully upon the caskets of those they held dear. Too little and too late they'd turn up in their cars. Countenance grave; soft words finally spoken.
Thanks for sharing that. Such insights into our collective reality are essential, and a helpful antidote to the economic/political spin around the budget, reminding us what it's all about really. And resilience contains emotional intelligence as a social necessity…
Same as Dennis and HS; you've hinted at this before so it's not a surprise. But I am moved by the intensity of it. And not only have you journeyed through that dark, damp land … but you found the path out of it.
I for one await more of the story, if and when it's time to tell it.
I echo all of the sentiments by the rest on here WTB. A wonderful piece, and thank you for sharing. There are a few favourite places here in our town for some to find a bit of shelter. A convenient nook in an alleyway just off the main street makes an ideal spot. It's covered over and reasonably secluded, but it would be a bugger in a westerly! Behind the church is good too and just over the road from the pub. It's also sheltered from the wind and has soft grass. We have around 15 to 20 sleeping really rough here, and are about to get expanded accommodation for those nights when it really is too bad to be unsheltered.
WOW! A brilliant piece of writing WTB (1) … I'd like to say it was a great story. However, the story you told wasn't/isn't so great for far too many Kiwis.
Thanks for taking the time to share such a raw, gritty expose` of homelessness in NZ, through personal experience.
Lived experience speaks with an authentic voice. Thank you WTB for sharing, for keeping your sense of hope and for recognising the efforts made to change the way budgets are formed. May you enjoy your brick house and the winter warmth your home offers you for the rest of your days. Please write more.
"In Portugal and Spain, the incumbent governments of the centre-left were rewarded by voters. In Spain, voters rejected the far right populist party Vox, which collapsed back to 6% from the 10% high it achieved only a fortnight ago in the Spanish general elections."
"On the radical left, Podemos saw its support decline to 10%, a sharp fall from the 18% they’d scored in the last European Parliament elections. The decline of Podemos holds a cautionary message for the Green Party in New Zealand. Now that Podemos is no longer an outsider party but is actively propping up the Socialist government of Pedro Sanchez, much of its support has been bleeding back to Sanchez and his PSOE party, which has long been Spain’s neo-liberal Third Way party of the centre-left. In a further blow, radical left mayors in major cities (including the high profile administration of Ada Colau in Barcelona) lost their fights for re-election. In Spain as whole, the radical left is being marginalised by regional parties, and by the Establishment left."
As a life-long radical, I've always found the radical left amusing. I share their striving to attain an ideal world, while remaining baffled at their reluctance to learn from political experience. It makes no sense for the Greens to marginalise themselves on the extreme left. Too few voters support such idiocy.
Usually radical leftists reject centrism in favour of ideological purity. They refuse to admit that support for the underdog is more politically potent when it comes from a party that controls the political centre and selects governments. As Winston has proven. The GP needs leaders who are capable of learning the lesson.
Nuance. I made no blanket statement re the Greens, just advised against any leftist extremism. There's a ginger group (mainly idealistic youngsters) within the party which formed several years ago to lobby for such positioning. I've seen their spokespeople being explicit in calling for that partisan stance and alignment at our conferences. They are open, honest, and forthright in doing so.
Add to that is the unending nauseating way media professionals keep depicting the Greens as `to the left of Labour'. Hardly surprising that a popular view of the Greens being wild-eyed radicals has gained currency. Hopelessly unrealistic…
You fail to point out that since the emergence of centrist liberalisim as the dominating force in western left wing politics from the late 1970's, what was once just left is now framed as extreme or radical left.
The reason cenerism should and is being rejected is because it has failed to work, or work for the many and not just the few..or haven't you noticed.
Go and read WeTheBleeple’s piece at the beginning of today’s open mike, and think about the homeless families living in cars all over NZ, all the working poor in NZ who spend over half their wages on rent, that is free market centerism in action for you.
Green suit-wearers will be careerists, of course, but doesn't mean inability to grasp the big picture. Here we have the Values schism to teach us that the centrists are essential to the political success of the Green left (if they were able to learn the lesson) whereas in Germany the thirty years war between fundies & realos seems to have been resolved.
"A surge of support, helped by the Fridays for Future protest movement, propelled Germany's Greens to second place in Sunday's European Parliament elections, at the expense of the mainstream parties. Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right CDU/CSU bloc and their ailing junior coalition partners the Social Democrats (SPD) both suffered historic losses after being caught flat-footed on environmental policy."
The thing with all of this thinking, within multiple contexts/systems:
The edge is where the action occurs. New ideas, new genes, new philosophies.
The center is where most of the energy resides, but this is mostly used to maintain the status quo, broken or not. There is an illusion in the center, being the 'holders of power', that everything held in check belongs to the center and is of the center's doing.
But it came from an edge. The refusal to listen to the fringe is everyone's limitation.
I understand your position in trying to help more fringe lefties gain some ideas for relative longevity and a platform for their positions: but the center swallows the edge, it's very nature being conformity to the center.
Much better that we allow fringe political players to be their own entities (within reason and civility) as a think-tank for the center – as it has always been, but let's be honest about who's doing all the thinking.
The people with real problems to solve – or the well to do?
…who's doing all the thinking. The people with real problems to solve – or the well to do?
I don't find thinking and questioning and willingness to consider other less-materially-successful peoples viewpoint among the well to do. Not as a rule.
You have to step aside and view things objectively, wonder about how it is for others, listen to their tales and then wonder about what led them there. The amount of wondering that people do, of the different ways that people react to the same events and treatment, all helps to get a depth to relating to others. Most well to do are too busy managing their resources, and choosing ways to observe things or do things important to their group to sit and wonder.
Running in marathons is a perfect example. A totally unimportant activity, a personal challenge to skite about, and very much about self and proving yourself not lazy and meeting some herd convention. Why don't people raise to merit the groups going out to cut down old mans beard suffocating forest for instance. That requires all the fitness put into a marathon; that would be the wondering herd in action, not the stampeding herd off on some psychological desire to prove themselves as good as the old pioneers.
"Running marathons is a perfect example" greywarshark, the same idiocy is involved in climbing the same mountain 10 times.
Feck, the airfares the costs and the energy could have built several tiny homes.
Climbers are held up to us as heroes. Edmund Hillary was, because he followed up with meaningful humanitarian efforts. Now it is a mighty money churn and less than edifying.
Many who are well off do not see their wealth, because they "Don't have a ……." (put a toy in there).
The edge is where the action occurs. New ideas, new genes, new philosophies.
Agreed. But keep in mind that only a small fraction of new ideas turn out to be good ideas. Radicals always risk going too far in their search.
The center is where most of the energy resides, but this is mostly used to maintain the status quo, broken or not.
Again agreed, yet keep in mind that while the status quo is always flawed and imperfect, we still depend on it for our daily survival. Yet as you say when it refuses to listen, the centre stagnates and becomes tyrannical.
The edge is represents the new, the unknown and the unstable, while the centre is the opposite. While both domains have their natural inhabitants, they also both need each other. They need to trade.
When you're mixing ingredients preparing to cook something, you keep adding and blending, repeating that till the mix is in right proportions needed for a good outcome. We need better chefs, cooks and kitchen hands following better practices if we want to lift our standards and then share out the buns fairly. That way we wouldn't get egg on our own faces or want to decorate the faces of supposed smart leaders.
Difference between a chef and a cook is a chef knows how to shop better. Asians by far have a far superior cultural tradition of low end deliciousness because across the Asian continent food has been far more democratised than in the west. In Asia cooks don't have to make difficult choices because the produce is so cheap to source and buy. In Asia it is possible to pick up a delicious hot sit down meal for 50 cents served to your table. In the west the well housed and well fed have a far greater cultural tradition of deciding who gets to eat and who doesn't.
In the 80's jokes was the currency of the work place smoko room. In the 90's not so much and in the naughties the lunch room turned into a sour affair as work breaks became less and less and productivity up and up. No one has the instincts to tell a joke any more. The people that make up The Labour Party flow in and out of ministerial offices, they are no longer selected from the people who know something about society so Labour lacks those democtratic instincts and must rely on committee groups to come up with ideas and working groups to hold there hands as they run the country.
Even though Labour are after higher wages and higher health they recognise the injustice of what Māori went through because they still have a beating heart. That kind of Labour Party will serve New Zealand particularly well. If MPs can teach themselves the big things then they'll have the instincts to know how things are run and then those smarties won't need pollsters. Although we can't whined the economy back to the 80's we've got a changing industrial relationship and every one doesn't wear the old high school knock around shoes anymore. We do have a different economy today. The same instincts are around and we've got to have more of that in The Labour Party and we've missed doing that in the last 15-20 years.
Yes, I fully agree with your reasoning & analysis. I'm still on the edge, in respect of investigating new thinking continuously, but I plonked one foot in the establishment at the start of '75, to have a career, and ended up straddling both realms, uneasily.
I've always found most Greens too mainstream in their thinking, for instance. Yet to get consensus, I had to work constructively with them. Overcoming my natural distaste for compromising essential principles was always hard, yet the sustained effort got us into parliament, and the compromises our reps in parliament have had to make are similar to mine in those respects.
So nowadays I advocate a consensus praxis to overcome partisan divides, and am pleased that we finally have a government actually doing that. Still, we must keep pushing for more innovative thinking around governance. The world needs that, not just us here in Aotearoa!
The launch this week of the book Whale Oil understandably put Cameron Slater and his dirty blogging at the centre of attention. But he has been in some cases paid and aided, abetted and used by a number of accomplices.
Someone who has been closely associated with Slater in his sustained attacks on Matt Blomfield is an ex-business associate of Blomfield’s, Marc Spring. If anything he has done more for longer than Slater.
One way Spring has kept attacks going against Blomfield) is his use of many identities in his online activities.
How many identities? That’s hard to quantify, but it’s many. my guess is well over a hundred identities, if not many more.
I identified over 40 in an eight month period on just one blog.
There have probably been some here.
Use of multiple pseudonyms is deceptive, and is bad for the many people who legitimately and reasonably use a pseudonym, as id discredits the use of pseudonyms generally.
That is very informative and insightful pete george. Thank you. We do have to keep watch for the evil people that are round, sort of have sensitive traps in our minds that register particular types of thought and action; a bit like traps for insects and predators that can be so deadly for our food sources.
Having seen of some of his antics over the years your description sounds pretty right. You could have used the word 'multiple' in front of obsessive.
It's interesting describing the behaviour and the personality in proper scientific, psychological terms. The easiest thing would be to say things like 'dirty, lowdown, scumbag piece of shit."
Here are Marc Spring identities that have been used on various blogs and media comments forums.
ThreeMonkeys
SHAFT
The Ape
NOT MIKE
4077th
Gweg pwesland
pimp
phillip
DaveG
slicedcheesesandwich
Justice4Matt
BLOMFIELDS EX BIZ PARTNER
Harry ‘Gold Star’ Stottle
Harry Stottle
to HELL in a handbasket
The Assasin
David Jessop
CHEEKY DARKY
the MONKEYS RAINCOAT
Elton
Samantha Hays
The Barber
They Walk, they talk, they harm
THE PRIEST
Hannibal Lecters Psychologist
Inspector Clouseau
Rod
I HAVE THE HARD DRIVE
MARC NEVER FORGETS CUNT
I AM OWED TOO
THE WORST NIGHTMARE
When dies Bankrupt = Businessman
Jean
Bus Driver
LORD DONKEY
Harvey Specter
TYRANT/THE TYRANT
HUSTLER
BUCK WIT
Shagger
Gimp of Greenhithe
Spiderman wants his mask back
RAMBONE OF RAMBONIA
Reaper Crew
Gay Mo
Rolf Harris
Bill Brown
Reaper Crew
The last one is one of I believe a number he has used at LF.
Isn’t that one of those psychological word-association tests to unearth deep psychological trauma, damaged or stalled identity development, and psychopathic tendencies?
I suppose this has already been noted here. Amy Adams of National accusing Labour Coalition of playing 'petty politics' in changes to the convention of the pre-Budget practices. WTF when Simon B does it, it is okay – he is just testing the government by breaking reasonable agreements.
I should think that Labour Coalition was actually trying to prevent National doing more of their petty measures and turning what was a serious financial presentation into a Punch and Judy show.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1905/S00287/government-playing-petty-politics-with-budget-day-process.htm
National’s Finance spokesperson Amy Adams says. 29 May 2019 “While media and other parties are given three and a half hours to examine the Government’s accounts before they are released, National is only allowed 60 minutes. Because of this we need a wide range of subject matter experts to review their areas. Last year we had 16 of our team present and to have this arbitrarily halved this year is unreasonable and petty, particularly when we are told this year’s Budget will look very different to previous years.
Ah but that can be played out as part of a Conspiracy against National.
And perhaps the room was further from the toilets – another form of harassment. Gnats are really sick in the mind, and it says something too about the people who keep voting them in, keep supporting them, keep listening to the diatribe from the bellicose broadcasters providing them with a comforting blanket of words for the day that the Right Crowd can repeat to prevent any uncomfortable thoughts from filtering through the Matrix.
I notice a lot of Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘If’ is pertinent. If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
And even that wording can be bent and used against you by the RW and some from the Left as well. And that is dealt with in those lines also. A meaningful poem. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46473/if—
Fascinating in-depth documentary on the influence of cannabis in the Bible. It seems the word cannabis was Scythian in origin and it was they who traded and spread it throughout Eurasia. The Greeks called it by the same name while the Jews called it Kaneh Bosm, each culture giving the plant a variation of the Scythian name. Like others, the Jews valued its ability to get high (restricted to the high priests, prophets and kings), nutritional value and use for hemp clothing.
Thanks for this john. I've been following this sad development and watching the entire fiasco unravel on every front. I used some strong language a few days back, and the light of this I don't resile from it one jot.
All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.
I think what could help Assange is if someone from the RW speaks up who has perceptions of being decent and also concerned about USA keeping an appearance of having standards of behaviour that bear scrutiny. That person would suggest that it is a bad idea to not enable Assange's health so he can stand trial and not in the USA's best interests to allow Assange to fall seriously ill or worse.
The USA must try to keep its image alive of being a fair nation that behaves in a superior way to others and acts to keep the Peace in the World. So – something should be said and acted on in this manner and the UK can encourage that and show they have blood in their veins.
This?
'Though USA is very unhappy about the revelations of secrets that WikiLeaks supplied, it does not wish to harm the individual responsible as other lesser civilised countries would do. And so it is transferring Assange (to Australia, to a facility where he can recover his strength with wellbeing) until he is ready to face trial.'
That sort of thing. The USA won't have a high horse to look down from if they don't make an effort to repair their fraying image.
“They made him very ill by refusing him ANY access to life sustaining fresh air, exercise, sun/VitD or proper medical care for 6 YEARS of illegal Embassy detention
Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks' editor-in-chief, wrote that "Julian's case is of major historic significance. It will be remembered as the worst attack on press freedom in our lifetime. The People need to voice their condemnation; it is their politicians, their courts, their police and their prisons that are being abused in order to leave this black stain on history. Please act now to avert this shame".
Unfortunately the mass campaign to vilify Assange has done its work.
Even on this supposedly progressive site, the attack lines are relentlessly repeated
"Melzer went on:
“In the course of the past nine years, Mr. Assange has been exposed to persistent, progressively severe abuse ranging from systematic judicial persecution and arbitrary confinement in the Ecuadorian embassy, to his oppressive isolation, harassment and surveillance inside the embassy, and from deliberate collective ridicule, insults and humiliation, to open instigation of violence and even repeated calls for his assassination.”
Trigger alert : sensitive souls may note this comes from Consortium News and includes information that may be contrary to dearly held beliefs
I looked at the letter writing to Assange at Belsem? Prison campaign, it advises to put in a plain sheet of paper and self addressed envelope with UK stamps for reply – of course he woud need a pen or pencil. I have not been able to find NZPost information about how to deal with pre-paid mail in other country's currency. At present I have a question placed yesterday about this but have received no email reply.
I asked about stamps or an international coupon which I imagine there should be available but who knows it seems to me that NZ Post is just managing down the business. If I could buy a pre-paid envelope rather than stamps – that would be practical. I thought they might have replied by now.
…deliberate collective ridicule, insults and humiliation… We have seen that on this site frequently and from people who one would expect to have been on the side of exposing the secrets of powerful people and countries willing to destroy others for their purposes.
For good people to do nothing…. Have I got time to be good, what with all the other things I give my time to, as well as my own living tasks for me, my family, friends and community? These sort of unworthy thoughts about my lack of action are I think echoed by quite a number.
We should be out in the streets for Assange, but the attention now is on climate change and receiving a living wage for those who are trying to hold society together and retain the advances that were gained by exhaustive social interaction last century.
Got to keep trying to do it all or the golden bulldozer driven by a robot with such a cheeky, lovable grin in such a cute hat, will scoop us all up. Ever looked at the photos of naked bodies being thrown into burial pits in Holocaust archives? That sort of thing has happened multiple times in even near history. Those images should be in everyone's minds; the reality of what we can do when we have our mind setting on the mark of Cold, Hard, Unfeeling, Uncaring, Unrespecting, Unloving, and Choose your level of Evil – Eager, Sometimes, Neutral, Not sure, Wrestling against it every day.
I'm sorry – I do go on. I understand if its tl:dr. But laying it out occasionally, how someone is feeling I think helps to understand what's going on in society for some people.
The problem is that life presently is so depressing – the constant flow of viciousness, unfairness, violence and the imbalance with meanness high and easy generosity so low; how to create a bright spot, some hope, some comfort takes mental energy, even requires mental exercises. And under austerity with a religious wash, joy is not allowed, unless it is preachy Joy in the Lord.
I am sure the Great Spirit-Creator would be satisfied to see us being just great humans showing respect and receiving it in return; trying to get on together and building a feeling of solidarity and strength to face off the nastiness. That's hard even when the basics of life are under control. I see this blog as a living personification? of what those here with goodwill are reaching for. That's why I get upset at repeat vicious put-downs and faux concerns that have a thorn in them. I can stand argy bargy from those who are trying like me to establish a buzzy beehive of ideas and co-operation to make up for the failings of the one in Wellington at present. I don't think though we will ever see a united group of all parties working for the good of NZ in Wellington. So I see it as important to keep talking about good things, and then doing something so that I don't end up feeling helpless and life a wet noodle. So will soon shut up and go and do something useful for me and have done something else already this morning so that's a tick for me.
We have to keep our eye on civility, honesty, kindness and practicality as these are needed in relationships all round the world. In NZ too many have been vaccinated with poisonous ideas, some sanctimonious, many adopting misanthropy and so finding it exciting to embrace robots (and possibly one day literally as well as figuratively).
On the contrary. I'd wager that every argument you've made this past 8 years that Assange's problems are 'self inflicted' is authoritatively debunked here:
Given that he starts with the "no charges" bullshit that is a mi-statement of the "no proceedings" argument that the british courts threw out of his original extradition hearings, that's a bold wager.
One of the hounds that pollute this site has unloaded another of his complacent, vicious, obscenity-larded tirades. The following captures his motivation just about perfectly…..
Abstaining from the witchhunt would have classed the dissenter as an enemy. Stalin was supported by fanatics, cynics, sadists and moral cowards.
—-Donald Rayfield, Stalin and His Hangmen: An Authoritative Portrait of a Tyrant and Those Who Served Him (Viking, 2004)
yeah the only reason I said anything was because it was just a matter of time before some self-important jerk wrote that people who have the unmitigated gall to suggest that people to be extradited for sexual assault proceedings shouldn't jump bail are "strangely silent".
So no, it changes nothing. He chose to abscond, that's his choice, he wears the consequences. If you're going to do that, copy Biggs or Papillon instead.
Ignoring the role Julian Assange has played in exposing America's misdeeds for some fantasy that Julian committed sexual assault probably has more evidence than the evidence against Julian Assange.
So you are still in denial about the bogus charges against Assange. We've got the rise in denial of routine law. A rise in denial about science, a rise in religious denial, and I'm talking about you, McFlock (lol) the amount of denial. The greater the denial> the greater the darkness.
You think the sexual assault investigation is bogus? Is that because you have any connection to the case, or just because google and confirmation bias have an unhealthy relationship in your mind?
It's because you excel at pointing at flaws in Julian Assanges arguments and are very quiet and deceptive about the flaws in the prosecutions arguments.
You are still only telling half of the truth. Consent laws was brought into Sweden so to charge adults with raping minors, not adults raping adults. If consent laws was punished as you would prescribe, McFlock 🙂 then the legal age of consent would be 30 or how ever old the victims you allege was raped by Julian Assange. That's it.
Because if your scenario has anything at all to do with Assange, my previous answer is sufficient. Otherwise there was no relevance to your comment at all and I incorrectly inferred the opposite.
In that case of course woman can say no condom no sex. What is unacceptable is a law intended for protecting minors against sex with out a condom because under Swedish law there had to be signs of physical harm, is then used to prosecute a crime from 7 years ago. And the definitions don't even fit current law.
You'd have to at least prove that your hypothetical occurred after the 2018 consent law changes. The rape allegations have already been thrown out of EU court once, woke lefties are just pleaing for them to be thrown out of a Swedish court a secound time.
I love Mezler's response to Jeremy Hunt's assertion that Assange had always been free to leave the Embassy.
After finding that Julian Assange displayed symptoms of “prolonged psychological torture,” UN Special Rapporteur Nils Melzer has traded barbs with the UK’s Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt over the WikiLeaks founder’s persecution.
This is wrong. Assange chose to hide in the embassy and was always free to leave and face justice. The UN Special Rapporteur should allow British courts to make their judgements without his interference or inflammatory accusations.
“The UN Special Rapporteur should allow British courts to make their judgments without his interference or inflammatory accusations,” Hunt added.
Melzer quickly fired back in a rather creative fashion, saying: “With all due respect, Sir: Mr Assange was about as ‘free to leave’ as someone sitting on a rubber boat in a sharkpool.” He also reiterated comments that the British justice system had failed to show the “impartiality and objectivity required by the rule of law.”
I'm equally sure that people here will still think his work with wikileaks should give him a free pass, even if they accept the verdict, if he's found guilty.
The charges are fantasy charges. The women with whom he had consensual sex were inveigled and bullied into this obscene travesty by the Swedish prosecutor, who was herself under duress from U.S. "diplomats."
If there were any credible charges against him, that would be another matter entirely. Your abuse of those who support this political dissenter and journalist is invalid.
Political asylum is a thing McFlock.Its not granted to avoid being charged with a crime.Unless there is strong suspicion the charges are politically motivated
They were criminals. Assange is a journalist, an exposer of and dissenter from official lies. Which makes him, of course, an extreme threat and a target for destruction.
He's a guy who jumped bail to avoid extradition to face allegations of criminal activity. Any journalism he might also have undertaken is irrelevant to that.
A bullshit argument that omits the crucial context. It's like blaming someone for breaking their leg jumping out of a third floor window and not mentioning the building was on fire.
Well, not mentioning that he claimed the building was on fire after the home-owners arrived home early and there were questions about whether he was legally permitted to be inside the room from which he jumped. Oh, and that so far the only fire discovered is in the fireplace, well-contained according to fire code standards.
By ambiguity I mean the woke have called Assage a rapist so such with out a conviction of rape that it's prejudiced any trail he may have. It's impossible for Assange to receive a fair trial now.
A bullshit argument that omits the crucial context.
I didn't mention the specific allegations or their context, but they're not exactly crucial to the point that he's a guy who jumped bail to avoid extradition to face allegations of criminal activity. Whatever claims Assange or anyone else has about the allegations being part of a dastardly if somewhat illogical conspiracy, they're just claims, and evidence-free ones at that.
Whatever claims Assange or anyone else has about the allegations being part of a dastardly if somewhat illogical conspiracy, they're just claims, and evidence-free ones at that.
So now you are claiming the Americans are only pretending to be making an extradition case against him?
The alleged conspiracy is that the Swedish extradition request was part of a plot to extradite Assange to the US. There's no evidence of such a plot, and it would have been a pointless plot anyway, as the US could have just requested his extradition from the UK – as it's now done.
Adrian, if you encountered someone so disgusting on the street, you'd probably ignore him. Don't expect a thoughtful or serious answer to your question.
Yes I know, but it can be amusing to try and follow their mental gymnastics in their convoluted answers sometimes, I guess I am saying they can some times be good for a cheap laugh….only if you are in the mood that is, otherwise they are just annoying and distasteful.
Kamenev and Smirnov walked to the execution chamber stoically. But Zinoviev clung to the boots of his guards and was taken down by stretcher. This was re-enacted several times at supper in Stalin’s dacha, the bodyguard Karl Pauker playing the part of Zinoviev—begging for Stalin to be fetched and then crying out “Hear, o Israel”—until even Stalin found the charade distasteful.
— Donald Rayfield Stalin and His Hangmen (Viking, 2004) page 270
Russian versions of McFlock, meanwhile, tut-tutted and said "Zinoviev inflicted it on himself."
Mprrissey better not to make the argument more distressing. This goes direct to a sensitive nerve of McFlock's and coughing up Stalin who was a mega maniac with a matching power complex is not helpful in the situation. Just disagree will you and not feed the fire. It upsets me my friend.
The point of comparison is the behaviour of Stalin’s henchmen. McFlock and several others on this forum are analogues of Karl Pauker, Lavrenty Beria and the other ghouls who delighted in the suffering of officially designated enemies.
Except that adding in "Russian versions of McFlock, meanwhile […]" shows that there is no "analogue" of me in the actual quote.
I get that you were trying to be a dick and compare Assange's self-chosen Ecuadorean Escapade with the deaths of twenty-odd million people in a totalitarian state run by a tyrant, but the English language (like the rest of reality) didn't quite fit your narrative.
Assange might have chosen most of his "Ecuadorean Escapade", but I doubt that he chose the ending, let alone subsequent events – these were imposed, and perhaps more difficult to foresee than the consequences of having "jumped off the bridge".
How the fuck did he think it was going to finish? Do cops stop chasing robbers once they reach "safe", all is forgiven? Would he get into a literal "diplomatic bag" and be put on a slow boat to Ecuador?
He had literal months to figure out his absconding plan, and that's what he came up with? No helicopter out to an Ecuadorian freighter 20 miles off shore? No yacht trip? No disguise, false identity, or escape tunnel from the embassy? No, let's take a car ride into the middle of London and stay there.
As well as repeatedly firing the word “rape” around, despite its complete inappropriateness, this tick "McFlock" keeps trying to associate a journalist and political dissident with robbers—yesterday he used the examples of Ronald Biggs and Papillon, for pity's sake.
I guess when you've chosen your line, no matter how wrongheaded and demonstrably false it is, you're committed to it. George W. Bush was like that. And his deputy Tony Bliar. And “Honest John” Howard.
Nah … rape is the bogus charge that was cooked up for political purposes. Every sane reading of the events around his association with the two Swedish women, both before and after, and during the initial interviews … absolutely do not suggest coercion or assault. The first investigator concluded 'no crime of any kind'.
It was only after he left Sweden that someone had the bright idea that what happened could be twisted into this disgusting charade.
Any sane reading suggests that the facts as reported indicate he was at the very least reckless as to whether either of his partners were consenting to him not using a condom.
But you know that's all bogus, so fucking yay, I guess courts are unnecessary, with such omniscient beings amongst us.
It's my impression the vast majority of people, including me, who support Assange have always said that ideally the allegations should be tested in Court.
But everything about this case tells us nothing is ideal, nothing is normal about how this case has been laid and prosecuted. If this was really about Assange's 'recklessness' … and nothing else … he would have done exactly what he said he has stated all along, and traveled back to Sweden to clear his name at Court.
And Steve Jobs should have gone for recognised medical treatments sooner.
People react oddly to things, and in different ways. Sometimes it's panic, or ego, or denial/avoidance. Sometimes people say stuff for so long that they end up believing their own hype.
Could be any of those, could be that a mole in the FBI/CIA secretly emailed him the full outline of a plot to use these allegations to gitmo him, and he panicked and ran to the embassy. Or maybe that was the plan – send him an invented plot so he does something stupid like jumping bail.
Bullshit. For years you've been deflecting from the obvious, that the USA would use any opportunity to extradite him if possible. Assange could not know in advance exactly how, but he had every good reason to suspect that these 'rape' allegations were bogus and a ploy to get him into a legal jurisdiction more amenable to American pressure.
For years you pretended this was just a paranoid fabrication to avoid facing trial in Sweden … yet now the Americans have indeed played their hand openly and you have been proven factually wrong.
For years I've been saying that if he genuinely believed it was all a US plot, why flee from Sweden into the jurisdiction of America's closest ally?
And yes, they showed their hand – in UK courts.
And it's one thing to pretend Sweden is more "amenable" to extradtition to the US than the UK (which is an arguable point full of opinions and maybes), it's another thing entirely to say the Swedes are "amenable" to fabricating rape proceedings in order to be in a position to extradite to the US.
And if it's a genuine sex crime investigation, then he needs to face it.
look at the ones where the asylum seekers were seeking asylum from the country the embassy was in.
The happy endings lower drastically in proportion.
And that's if you call the Mariel Boatlift a happy ending.
Not sure the Cardinal’s experience was too happy, either. Got there in the end, but after how long? He must have not had a cat.
Your “cat” reference lends credence to Brigid’s comment @8.3.2.
Your ‘but’ negated your previous word and displayed your faux concern.
Enough with your disingenuous utterances.
The linked page lists seven examples where "asylum seekers were seeking asylum from the country the embassy was in." All the asylum seekers apparently got what they asked for, some sooner than others. You believe this applies to Assange – lol, “sad“.
2012: "He left after six days, and subsequently was allowed to go to New York with his wife and two children."
1989: "Noriega surrendered 10 days later after being assured he would not face the death penalty in the United States." A one-time useful ally of the US.
1989: "They lived in the embassy for 13 months before being allowed to go to the United States."
1986: Howard 'escaped' to Russia via their Finnish embassy.
1980: From the information given, it seems likely that the six Cubans granted asylum in Peru's Havana embassy 'got out'.
1966: "She returned to the Soviet Union in 1984, saying she wanted to reunite with her family. Her Soviet citizenship was restored but she left a year later to go back to the U.S. following a family feud."
1956: "lived in the U.S. Embassy in Budapest from 1956 until 1971, when he was allowed to leave for Vienna." The only example in that list of an asylum that lasted (much) longer than Assange's. The US honoured that request for asylum until he was allow to leave.
I think you need to look up Noriega, and what happened to him, and relations with the US before they invaded Panama.
Howard ditched his tail in the US and went to Helsinki, where he claimed asylum in the Soviet Embassy there. He didn't go from the Soviets' Washington embassy. The Finns didn't want him, the yanks did. Similarly, Stalin went to the US embassy in New Delhi. The Indians didn't want here, the Soviets did.
Cuba was happy to get rid of them, and everyone else. And some occupants of its jail cells and mental asylums. Mariel Boatlift.
And the US had skin in the game to protect the Cardinal. He was a PR bonus. He could easily have been abandoned if the chips had fallen the other way.
Assange was fleeing the UK, so went to the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK.
I.e. the location of the embassy and the country being fled were the same country.
That applies to the two Chinese instances (diplomatic horse-trading likely involved), the Cardinal (same), and the Cubans (which Cuba used to clear the country of dissidents and prisoners).
You cited those seven examples in response to my question:
Once granted, how do cases of asylum typically end?Sadly?
In those seven examples, no asylum seeker was forcibly removed from the embassy that granted asylum. Only Noriega was subsequently incarcerated, after extracting a guarantee and surrendering voluntarily.
If those historical cases are anything to go by then it seems to me that the way Assange's ayslum ended, and his subsequent treatment, are atypical – I'm happy for readers to draw their own conclusions.
Like, outside my work, there's a pigeon that got hit by a car in the street and is now a flat streak of feathery grease. I'm not cut up about it or anything, but as I drive over it there is a sombre reflection on all that we are and become. There's no glee that a disease-encrusted rat of the sky is no more. It was a thing, and now it is a dead thing.
That sort of level of sad, I guess. Where you do that sort of inward "tch" sound, maybe slightly shake your head, and then get on with your day.
"Treasury hacking: The time I hacked WINZ – Keith Ng."
Remember the fuss when Keith discovered the "hole" in WINZ? He did the right thing by informing WINZ about the "hole." Bridges didn't did he?
Imagine if you only saw the last part of the process. Imagine you didn't see the first 200,000 times where the security system blocked access, and you just saw the 200,001st attempt. You would simply see the hacker walk in and succeed at accessing the information. You might think there was no security at all.
ANZ New Zealand tries to fob it off as a minor error that occurred. Maybe they can find an ‘emotional junior staffer’ to take the blame. It most certainly wasn’t the Board.
The point is made that this is a fundamental issue of incompetence:
"In my view … this failure indicates that the board was/is not competent and also raises serious questions about the bank's management and reinforces my concern with the competence of the boards of the banks generally," McDonald wrote.
"It indicates a lack of knowledge, capability and responsibility in relation to the bank's risk parameters, which must be at the core of any banks competence."
…
"In my opinion, reflecting the false attestations alone, the chairman and chief executive of the bank should resign or be removed from role, as well as heads of risk, legal and compliance and at least two other directors should be 'retired' as part of a board 'refresh' to improve the overall competence of the board," he said.
The RBNZ is working in a plan to force the banks in NZ to hold more capital as a bulwark against future financial shocks. The banks have embarked on a campaign of fear-mongering claiming that the RBNZ’s plan would act like “a handbrake” on our economy and ultimately lead to higher (borrowing) costs for customers.
The New Zealand Bankers Association's (NZBA) had commissioned a report by research organisation Sapere to counter the RBNZ’s plans.
The NZBA-commissioned report by Sapere said that the Reserve Bank's proposals focused on credit crisis, when generally in New Zealand when central authorities needed to step in to help the banking system, it tended to be because of poor management or governance, not an external shock. [my bold]
It seems to me that ANZ New Zealand is trying to have it both ways.
IRONY ALERT! Noelle McCarthy, who laughs at the suffering of political prisoners and sneers at human rights protestors, interviewed someone about "assholes" this morning.
RNZ National, Saturday 1 June 2019
After the 9 a.m. news the breathy, chirpy, Cork-accented Noelle McCarthy interviewed one John Walker, a Canadian who has made a documentary entitled Assholes: A Theory. According to his own publicity material, the film is "a direct response to psychology professor Aaron James' witty bestseller about why some people are assholes and how to deal with them – in an age when the trait seems to be on the rise."
The interview itself turned out to be neither particularly amusing nor insightful. At one point Noelle McCarthy chortled knowingly when he said: "Imagine the situation when one of these assholes is actually running your country!" Perhaps she was thinking of the situation in New Zealand from 2008 to December 2016.
The discussion was interesting, though, for what it left out: a sub-species of asshole who delights in the suffering of others. I sent the laughing hostess the following email….
You forgot the most disgusting assholes of all
Dear Noelle,
In your interview about "assholes" with John Walker this morning, neither of you mentioned a particularly noxious and heinous example of the genus, viz., those unspeakable individuals who laugh at the suffering of political prisoners.
Here's an especially repellent example of that kind of thing:
"Heh, heh, heh. Well someone else with not such a good view is Edward Snowden. [snicker] Looks like he’s STILL in the airport! … Y-y-y-y-yeeeeeessss, …. [snort] ….he he he! He’s still in hiding. He he he! …. He he he he he! Yes he is still in that terminal! …[snort]… He he he he he he! ….[snort]…. He’s got a choice! Venezuela, Bolivia or Ecuador! …. Bolivia would be hard with the altitude! …. "
Hopefully you can interview John Walker another time, and add that kind of vicious asshole to his list.
Thumbs down to Radionz for settling on ironic and cynical themes for one, and not promoting some of regular NZ journalists to the role of supporting workers which Noelle seems to be part of. Can we hear NZ voices more please, not all these British and other 5 Eyes imports who are lovely people except for one failing, they are taking a NZ place in their own country's media, and we must have better balance – aim for 80/20 perhaps.
"Political prisoner and outspoken critic of Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin, Yulije Asanjey has been locked up in one of Russia's worst prisons for many years and may now face death through deliberate neglect of his medical condition
Asanjey became famous in the 2000's through exposing Russian aggression and covert spy activities over several years
Initially imprisoned for what many regard as trumped up charges,Asanjey has been declared the victim of torture by leading UN rapporteurs and experts on torture.
Russia's notorious prison system has long had a deliberate policy of breaking down prisoners so that they either die or are rendered incapable of conducting an effective defence. Denial of access or very limited access to lawyers and medical attention is a common ploy
Journalists from all over the world have expressed their support of Asanjey.
Amnesty International , Human Rights Watch and press freedom campaigners have joined under the common banner Free Asanjey!
The US has applied far reaching economic sanctions on Russia, for its continued flouting of UN rulings and increasing crack down on the free press"
Aha got it. But it sounded so true, and is with a reversal of approach. I still think I should support Amnesty I but sometimes the way things are done is surprising. Is Amnesty British – they could pop up to No.10 and sort everything out quite quickly, no, now I think of it they are tied up in knots, choose your own version, over Brexit and also who will be the next Clown Jester for PM.
Here are some knots and how to tie them. This might be the most useful information that arises from the blog today.
Hi Jenny How. Another time that you rush off before telling us what it's about. I’ll set it up under a keyword presumed explanation but it’s discombobulated in it original transition to the post here.
Indeed, many a commenter here seems to think that TS is their personal playground in which they can play by themselves or have one-on-one fun & games. At the same time, they seem to be oblivious to the fact that they are being watched, so to speak, by many silent readers of the site.
Do Nations have the Right to protect their Citizens, their Laws, their Trade and their Freedoms. ?
Or do they have to put up with illegal and weird Hackers, and Uninvited camera men rumaging for so called "scandal reports" and free feeds day and night.
I think it is proper for a Nation to clean up its own numerous flaws, before pronouncing the wickedness of others.
One must say they are consistent though mustn't one! And apparently those with the 3 B's – Beach and bach, BMW and Boat – are quite happy to live in a sort of rotten borough.
I wouldn't be surprised if this has been up before but it sounds good., Stephen Fry on Brexit. Called Brexit: The End Game – The Hidden Money. It starts off with the info that Europe doesn't decide on how to spend UKs money.
He says "Britain can't take back control from the EU; because we never lost it. 99% of UK public expenditure is determined by the UK government." Immigration is different but Britain controls the major amount of immigration which is from outside the EU; 248,000 net migration compared to EU – 74,000 net migration.
We are embarrassingly unaware of how divided our societies are, and Brexit grew out of a deep, unexamined divide between those that fear globalization and those that embrace it, says social scientist Alexander Betts.
How do we now address that fear as well as growing disillusionment with the political establishment, while refusing to give in to xenophobia and nationalism? Join Betts as he discusses four post-Brexit steps toward a more inclusive world.
If anyone still believes there are adequate protections for people with disabilities within the End Of Life Choices Bill you really need to read Chris Ford's piece posted in Newsroom.
I know that this will put me in the same column as Christian conservatives who also oppose the legislation for moral reasons. Personally, this makes me feel very uneasy given that I hold otherwise progressively social liberal views on issues such as abortion and reproductive rights, LGBTI rights, women’s issues and indigenous issues, etc. Yet, I want to outline from a socialist, progressive and disability rights perspective as to why I have swung my support to the anti-euthanasia camp.
The turning point for me came about a month ago. I saw the report of a meeting hosted by disabled people’s organisation, People First (a group run by and for people with learning/intellectual disabilities) in the Central North Island. At that meeting, access to health care was discussed, as this is a key issue – particularly for people within this segment of the disability community – for whom find it difficult accessing care for many reasons, including attitudinal issues on the part of some medical professionals. This was exemplified by the stories shared at the meeting where some people – who had gone to hospital for treatment – had discovered upon reading their files that they had ‘no resuscitation’ orders attached to them. More problematically, these orders had not been requested by any of the disabled people or their families.
Rosemary, I'm sure your realize that there is no comparison between a decision not to prolong the artificial extension of a person's life and a decision to actively kill a patient.
I'm not sure the likes of David Seymour and Michael Laws appreciate the difference, which is a grave concern.
This passive euthanasia is happening at an ED near you.
My partner was bailed up by an ED supervising doctor with a clipboard a few weeks ago and was told in no uncertain terms that opting for the DNR option made perfectly good sense because, like, 'you know we'd probably break your ribs doing CPR, and you'd end up with pneumonia and its doubtful that ICU would take someone with your co-morbidities any way…' Sign here…
He had rather dramatically passed out. He was confused upon coming round. Yet two hours later and after a battery of health and cognitive function tests he was adjudged to be in tip- top health. They even noted that his leukaemia was so far in remission that heamatology considered him 'cured'. The only 'off' thing was strangely fluctuating blood pressure, which is so common as to be considered normal… for a C5 tetraplegic.
And it was the tetraplegia that tipped him into the 'we'd rather not bother resuscitating your sorry arse' category.
My man, by this time, had resumed normal function and proceeded to 'negotiate' with the clipboard carrying ED doctor with his sheaf of DNR forms that he expected them to try active resuscitation for at least 15-20 minutes.
Fashion needs to give way to having clothing and other goods to last decades and not mare minutes in in reality. I can remember when a new pear of jeans last 2 months and then split up the backside.
I say buying secondhand is were the NEW fashion trend needs to go it is all read happening in some Nordic Countries very cool trend that will help preserve our mokopuna futures.
I say making sure that the things we buy are made humanely and environmentally friendly ways that's is the way OUR future has to GO.
I say less is best we have heaps of consumer goods that we don't need that's bad for our future and environment juses blenders pie maker pancakes maker and many other goods that we actually do need.
The mental health and the health of our tamariki is of utmost importance.
I agree strongly with Mike's statement that thinking is taking to yourself.
I'm constantly examining past events finding the TRUTH of what occurred and why things occurred.
I agree that we need to give our tamariki confidence to nurture them tell them you love them every day and treating them with love also .I say disciplining correctly is giving them love if you can see tamariki making mistakes doing things wrong you must discipline them so they learn not to do dumb Shit and tell them you love them afterwards. conferdince is giving with aroha
Whanau Eco Maori did not like the way shonky was ruining Aotearoa I could see it a mile away his underarm plays.
This story proves it he is a cheat the 00.1 % cheat all the time as they know that a fraction of there money that they gain from cheating will buy them impunity
ANZ's board, led by the former leader of our country, had been signing off on an operational risk model (which works out how much capital the bank needs in case of a shock or economic downturn) that had actually been dumped in
The ANZ board is stocked with people who you might assume would know a thing or three about bank capital.
How did this come about? The Reserve Bank "had encouraged" ANZ to review its attestation process, through which bank directors assess whether the bank is complying with the conditions of its regulations. It was only after this nudge that ANZ discovered the problem.
But before you get hot about it, it's cool. The Reserve Bank made it hold more money in case of a rainy day rather than lend it out in profitable ways like mortgages.
When the Reserve Bank found out, it stripped ANZ of its right to calculate how much risk capital it will hold. Yes, it used to be able to decide this itself.
This means our biggest bank is required to hold a further $277 million, taking it to a total of about $760m in case of bad news.
Kerry McDonald was chairman of BNZ for 12 years until 2008 and also sat on the board of its owners, National Australia Bank from 2005 to 2008.
Ouchie.
Now, ANZ won't like this one bit. This ruling increases the minimum capital ANZ must hold by around 60 per cent.
As Simplicity founder Sam Stubbs has pointed out, one reason profits are so high here is the Australian owned banks have to provide less capital than locally owned banks to support their lending.
So this will hurt ANZ in the wallet. But with the chunky-profits these Aussie banks make here, I think ANZ (who earned a record profit a sniff under $2 billion in the last financial year just in New Zealand) will cope.
Unlike former BNZ chairmanKerry McDonald, who wrote to Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr to call for heads to roll, I am neither amazed, nor surprised, at the penalty imposed on the bank. Thanks Dad.
He argues that Key, chief executive David Hisco, the highest paid bank executive in New Zealand who is currently off on sick leave, and several others, at ANZ should resign.
The bank's board had been signing this off for years, apparently without noticing if you give them the benefit of the doubt.
And it has to be said, Sir John Key wasn't there in 2014, 2015 or 2016 – joining the bank with his shiny new title smartly after leaving Parliament in 2017.
The board is stocked with people who you might assume would know a thing or three about banking. Ka kite ano p.s I smelt a korori
I agree with Sadiq Khan trump and his alt right m8 are shorting the world political they will make a big mess of our Papatuanuku and take human rights back a hundred years if the leftys don’t get up and stop them
Donald Trump is like a 20th-century fascist, says Sadiq Khan
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has compared the language used by Donald Trump to rally his supporters to that of “the fascists of the 20th century” in an explosive intervention before the US president’s state visit to London that begins on Monday.
Writing in the Observer, Khan condemned the red-carpet treatment being afforded to Trump who, with his wife Melania, will be a guest of the Queen during his three-day stay, which is expected to provoke massive protests in the capital on Tuesday
Khan said: “President Donald Trump is just one of the most egregious examples of a growing global threat. The far right is on the rise around the world, threatening our hard-won rights and freedoms and the values that have defined our liberal, democratic societies for more than 70 years.
It’s un-British to roll out the red carpet for Donald Trump
Read more
“Viktor Orbán in Hungary, Matteo Salvini in Italy, Marine Le Pen in France and Nigel Farage here in the UK are using the same divisive tropes of the fascists of the 20th century to garner support, but with new sinister methods to deliver their message. And they are gaining ground and winning power and influence in places that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago
Donald Trump is a populist and a nationalist of the largest economy and still most powerful country on earth. Khan is the current Mayor of one city, and an outsider within his own Labour Party.
Trump is not a Nazi, despite all the protestations of Madeline Albright et al. He's just a self-interested thug making bank for his family for a few years before he's turfed next year.
The hard right had their chance in the EU elections last week, and they showed they didn't have what it takes to storm the castle and start dismantling.
The Youth Rainbow community needs to be shown respect as all people do.
I say that the airline should be included in the plan to mitigate climate change this will make them chase alternatives powers for planes.
trump has to remember that every word he says bounces around the world media I sort of know what that is like.
The foxglacia council should have cleaned up the dump mess I say that they have had enough money to clean it up.
It's a hard task getting whare at the minute I would not like to try and rent a whare with tamariki these days you would need to no the owner or have a wand.
That's the way Julain championing the poverty of the Ugandan people and tamariki is bad ka pai M8.
Eco Maori say those people who have thrown darts at the Rainbow community are only thinking about their public profiles and not the damage they have done to the people of the Rainbow community.
Te Whare tu is helping keep tangata whenua O Aotearoa cultural going strong ka pai I get a sore face knowing that OUR culture is getting te mana back.
I totally agree us Maori men are portrayed as violent thefting thugs that really PISSs Eco Maori off thanks for making films that show Maori men in a cleaner light.
Cool I tau toko you for encouraging Maori to seek a higher education .
These are the people who rule our Papatuanuku I hope they can see that most people want a better future for there tamariki and NOW is the time to embrace the change if they don't jump on the Climate Mitigation Waka they will be left in OUR dust time to dump CARBON.
Security at the wharf was drum tight. Amid a sea of secret service personnel, Pompeo was accompanied by the US ambassador to Switzerland, Ed McMullen. The pair looked keen to continue the geopolitical strategizing over canapés.
The secretary general of Nato, Jens Stoltenberg, was flanked by heavily armed bodyguards as he strode along the jetty. He has attended the last three Bilderberg meetings, turning up for “informal discussions” with a watchful squad of security and staff
Bilderberg has a keen and growing interest in high-tech and AI. Schmidt’s fellow Bilderberg insider Peter Thiel, the billionaire founder of PayPal and a director of Facebook, was seen arriving with the Swedish physicist and AI expert Sara Mazur ka kite ano link below.
Its thanks to people like Blomfield who have the mana to stand up to people like Slater and don't let Slaters intimidating tactics scare them into staying silent.
If it wasn't for people like Blomfield we would not have found out about the $40.000 double dip by a well known MP.
People like Blomfield are few and far between quite rear so Eco Maori is asking everyone to tau toko Blomfield and BUY HIS BOOK he deserves the leftys tau toko.
The case was never about defamation. It has been a way that Blomfield could force his tormenter to verify the fantasies being presented as fact on his now disgraced blog. Slater failed and was finally impaled by a harpoon that he had unleashed, ultimately on himself
As the stories dragged on and I got to know Blomfield better, I told him not to worry. The lies told about him were not as appalling as the truth frequently told about me. But the lies were having a toll and this unwanted fight with a cyber thug with connections to the highest offices in the land was taxing what was an otherwise irrepressible spirit.
Blomfield, it needs to be said, and I am pleased to say it, isn't a man to be dissuaded by slander, intimidation or a gunman discharging a shotgun in his face. For seven years he took Slater and his cohort of degenerates through the long and painful process of a defamation trial.
The case was never about defamation. It has been a way that Blomfield could force his tormenter to verify the fantasies being presented as fact on his now disgraced blog. Slater failed and was finally impaled by a harpoon that he had ka kite ano link below.
Ka pai Pio for championing tiny houses and sustainable live off the land + clean energy solar power we need more tangata like you to champion the cause.
Our Mokopuna futures depend on people like us never giving up the cause.
TV personality Pio Terei is hatching a tiny house plan.
It was a plan that needed some research first. So he hopped on his electric bike and headed off to seek out some of the country's most innovative home owners; Kiwis who've chucked caution and convention to the wind to live sustainably and build the life of their dreams on their own terms. And boy, did he find them, dwelling in everything from teepees to whare uke, from container houses to earth ships.
Those encounters became Off The Grid,an eight episode TV series from Māori Television that aims to inspire viewers to give sustainable living a go. There's the sharing of practical advice and a few laughs along the way. Talking to him a couple of months before the show is set to air, it seems to have the actor, singer and comedian all fired up for a tiny house of his own
Ka kite ano links below P.S I know what you're name means kia ora
Kia kaha to the Youth climate activist it is your futures WE are fighting for go hard it makes me happy to see that the climate is taking center stage now after all the Strikes you have staged.
Youth climate activists set for nationwide rallies ahead of landmark case
Students in Austin, Texas, want you to veg out. Kids in Westport, Connecticut will screen a film. And in rural North Carolina, activists will draw on a toxic spill to commemorate the environmental justice movement. The slogan refers to the landmark court case in Oregon in which 21 youths are suing the United States government over climate change.
Named for Kelsey Juliana, a 23-year-old activist and college student, the case was filed in 2015 and is headed back to court on Tuesday. The campaign to raise its profile – dubbed #IAmJuliana or #AllEyesOnJuliana – is the brainchild of Our Children’s Trust, the organization behind the lawsuit, and Future Coalition, the not-for-profit network forged to empower youth after the Parkland shooting.
A youth activist on the climate crisis: politicians won't step up.
What’s unique about the campaign is what it signals: the infrastructure behind the youth climate movement is growing, decentralizing, and gaining momentum, all while activists set sights on the 2020 election
All of these rallies will be part of an international campaign on Saturday to spotlight environmental issues. Their message: Ka kite ano link below
Its cool to see more Wahine receiving houners congrats Grame you deserve your tohu houner I remember when the Kiwi players of old going hard At the Sea Eagles Billaria.
The Aviation industry has to change to green fuels or everyone will just use skipe for business meetings they will save money and carbon being burned to protect their children futures.
Its not on that the Richmonds have to fight for custody of their mokopuna from the man who killed their daughter.
Its good that Ken got his houner for his mahi of looking after men who have been abused .
Kia ora Patsy's for your honorable recognition of your services to he tangata.
I agree the tabaco taxs are hurting Maori in the hip pocket but the amount of people at the hospital with respiratory problems has dropped dramatically we need programs to help our people quit smoking.
Redcross needs more donations to help cope with the huge numbers needing their good help dig deep Whanau you can find the Red Cross site online.
Ka kite ano P.S I will put up a link to Redcross site
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
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 ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
The allure of sport transcends age, culture, and geographical boundaries. It captivates hearts, ignites passions, and provides unparalleled entertainment. Behind the spectacle, however, lies a fascinating world of financial investment and expenditure. Among the vast array of competitive pursuits, one question looms large: which sport carries the hefty title of ...
Introduction Pickleball, a rapidly growing paddle sport, has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions around the world. Its blend of tennis, badminton, and table tennis elements has made it a favorite among players of all ages and skill levels. As the sport’s popularity continues to surge, the question on ...
Abstract: Soccer, the global phenomenon captivating millions worldwide, has a rich history that spans centuries. Its origins trace back to ancient civilizations, but the modern version we know and love emerged through a complex interplay of cultural influences and innovations. This article delves into the fascinating journey of soccer’s evolution, ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
Until this month, Auckland swimmer Hazel Ouwehand had never met a qualifying time in an Olympic event for a New Zealand team, even as a junior. Now she’s very likely off to the Paris Olympics after swimming well under the qualifying standard in the 100m butterfly twice – both in ...
While Anzac Day has experienced a resurgence in recent years, our other day of remembrance has slowly faded from view.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Original illustrations by Hope McConnell.First published in 2022.The high school’s head girl and ...
Australian and New Zealand volunteers fought together in the Waikato War, yet still its place in the Anzac tradition is unacknowledged by our defence forces or Returned Services Association.First published in 2018.When I was a boy cub I attended Anzac Day services in the South Auckland suburb of ...
A poem by Wellington writer Tayi Tibble.Hoki Mai She kisses him goodbye with her eyes still wet and alight from their last swim in the Awatere river. At the train station celebration, she leads the Kapa Haka but her voice keeps breaking under and over itself like waves. ...
A poem from Bill Manhire’s 2017 book of verse Some Things to Place in a Coffin.My World War I Poem Inside each trench, the sound of prayer. Inside each prayer, the sound of digging. Image courtesy of Auckland War Memorial Museum. ...
There are three books I have wolfed down in one sitting over the last two years. Colleen Maria Lenihan’s gorgeous and sad debut Kōhine, Noelle McCarthy’s memoir Grand about becoming her mother and then unbecoming her, and now Hine Toa, a staunch yet gentle self-portrait by living legend Ngāhuia te ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Thursday 25 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Asia Pacific Report Students and activist staff at Australia’s University of Sydney (USyd) have set up a Gaza solidarity encampment in support of Palestinians and similar student-led protests in the United States. The camp was pitched as mass graves, crippled hospitals, thousands of civilian deaths and the near-total destruction of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James B. Dorey, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong Australian teddy bear bees are cute and fluffy, but get a look at that massive (unbarbed) stinger! James Dorey Photography Most of us have been stung by a bee and we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Roberts, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong Aussie~mobs/FlickrVictor Farr, a private in the 1st Infantry Battalion, was among the first to land at Anzac Cove just before dawn on April 25 1915. Victor Farr ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Gregory Moore I had the good fortune to care for the sugar gum at The University of Melbourne’s Burnley Gardens in Victoria where I worked for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University Just when we think the price of rentals could not get any worse, this week’s Rental Affordability Snapshot by Anglicare has revealed low-income Australians are facing a housing crisis like ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracey Holmes, Professorial Fellow in Sport, University of Canberra When the news broke last weekend that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive to a banned drug in early 2021 and were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games six months later ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cally Jetta, Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead; College for First Nations, University of Southern Queensland Australian War MemorialAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people, as well as sensitive historical information ...
RNZ News Melissa Lee has been ousted from New Zealand’s coalition cabinet and stripped of the Media portfolio, and Penny Simmonds has lost the Disability Issues portfolio in a reshuffle. Climate Change and Revenue Minister Simon Watts will take Lee’s spot in cabinet. Simmonds was a minister outside of cabinet. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lindenmayer, Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University laurello/Shutterstock Some reports and popular books, such as Bill Gammage’s Biggest Estate on Earth, have argued that extensive areas of Australia’s forests were kept open through frequent burning by ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon framing the demotion of two ministers as the portfolios getting "too complex" is a charitable way of saying they weren't up to the job. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With Jim Chalmers’s third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief – beyond the tax cuts – although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As ...
Analysis: Melissa Lee has lost the media portfolio and her spot in Cabinet after multiple failed attempts to find solutions for a media industry in crisis. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister announced Lee would be losing her spot in Cabinet along with her media and communications ministerial portfolio. The job ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Wilmot, Senior Lecturer, Film, Deakin University Among the many Australian who served during the second world war, there is a small group of people whose stories remain largely untold. These are the Muslim men and women who, while small in number, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kelly Saunders, PhD Candidate, University of Canberra There has been much analysis and praise of Justice Michael Lee’s recent judgement in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Channel Ten. Many people were openly relieved to read Lee’s “forensic” and “nuanced” application of law ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathy Gibbs, Program Director for the Bachelor of Education, Griffith University zEdward_Indy/Shutterstock Around one in 20 people has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It’s one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood and often continues into adulthood. ADHD is diagnosed ...
The Fairer Future coalition of anti-poverty groups say Whaikaha must be properly funded going forward, and that to argue that poor financial management of the new Ministry is a red herring by the Prime Minister. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is today congratulating Hon. Paul Goldsmith on his appointment as Minister for Media and Communications and urges him to rule out state intervention in the private media sector. ...
Asia Pacific Report The West Papuan resistance OPM leader has condemned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden, accusing their countries of “six decades of treachery” over Papuan independence. The open letter was released today by OPM chairman Jeffrey P Bomanak on the eve of ANZAC Day ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits and quirks of New Zealanders at large. This week: writer and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024, Lauren Groff.The book I wish I’d writtenIf I wish I’d written a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Fechner, Research Fellow, Social Marketing, Griffith University mavo/Shutterstock Imagine having dinner at a restaurant. The menu offers plant-based meat alternatives made mostly from vegetables, mushrooms, legumes and wheat that mimic meat in taste, texture and smell. Despite being given that ...
“Three Strikes is a dead-end policy proposed by a dead-end government. The Three Strikes law ignores the causes of crime, instead just brutalising people already crushed by the cost of living.” ...
By Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific senior journalist An Australian-born judge in Kiribati could well face deportation later this week after a tribunal ruling that he should be removed from his post. The tribunal’s report has just been tabled in the Kiribati Parliament and is due to be debated by MPs ...
With its clear mandate for police use, political nuances, and nuanced public trust, Denmark's insights provide valuable considerations for Australia and New Zealand. ...
Books editor Claire Mabey reviews poet Louise Wallace’s debut novel. A famous poet once said to me that he’s always suspicious when a poet publishes a novel. I never really understood why but maybe it’s something to do with cheating on your first form. Louise Wallace is a poet. She’s ...
For a few months at the turn of the millennium, TrueBliss burned bright as the biggest pop stars in the country. Alex Casey chats to two superfans who still hold the flame. During a humble backyard wedding in Nelson, 1999, one of the cordially invited guests had to excuse themselves ...
How will the recent wave of job cuts impact ethnic diversity in the media? In November last year, I was working a very busy day in the newsroom of a large online news site, interviewing whānau about their concerns over the imminent closure of one of the few puna reo ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruth Knight, Researcher, Queensland University of Technology Have you ever felt sick at work? Perhaps you had food poisoning or the flu. Your belly hurt, or you felt tired, making it hard to concentrate and be productive. How likely would you be ...
Despite heavy criticism and an ongoing select committee process, the Police Minister says the Government will forge ahead with a ban on gang patches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Whiting, Lecturer – Creative Industries, University of South Australia Shutterstock Everyone has a favourite band, or a favourite composer, or a favourite song. There is some music which speaks to you, deeply; and other music which might be the current ...
A new survey says ‘outlook not great’ for those charged with building infrastructure, while RMA changes delight farmers and depress environmentalists, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. First RMA changes announced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olli Hellmann, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Waikato Getty Images When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also ...
A leaked document shows the Canterbury/Waitaha arm of health agency Te Whatu Ora is scurrying to save $13.3 million by July. The “financial sustainability target”, which was “allocated” to Waitaha, is consistent with what’s happening in other districts, says Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists. ...
A look at the state of the previous government’s affordable housing scheme, and what could come next.Remind me: What’s KiwiBuild again?First announced in 2012, KiwiBuild was a flagship policy of the Labour Party heading into both its 2014 and 2017 election campaigns. With Jacinda Ardern as prime minister, ...
Labour in opposition will be shocked to learn which party had six years in power but squandered any chance to make real change. Grant Robertson’s valedictory speech was a predictably entertaining trip down memory lane. The acid-tongued incoming Otago University chancellor administered a sick burn to the coalition government. He ...
Opinion: It has been announced that nine percent of roles at Oranga Tamariki will be disestablished, presumably to help fund the tax cuts promised by the coalition Government. I am reminded of the graphics used to illustrate pandemic events, where five thousand people are standing in a field and then ...
After more than two sleepless days, running through savage terrain, Greig Hamilton didn’t know if he was going to finish one of the most gruelling psychological assaults in sport. He was metres away from the finish line, a yellow gate made famous in a Netflix documentary; a race he’d dreamed ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Wednesday 24 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
The following interview with former Green Party MP Sue Kedgley came about because she features in the new memoir Hine Toa by activist Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku; the two knew each other at the University of Auckland in the early 70s, when they were both took on leadership roles in the ...
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry is seen some as its ‘silicon shield’ against invasion – but how will overseas expansion affect that protection? The post The state of Taiwan’s silicon shield appeared first on Newsroom. ...
There’s relief for building owners bending under the weight of earthquake strengthening rules – and costs – that came into force seven years ago. Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk has announced a scheduled 2027 review of the earthquake-prone building regulations will now start this year. Owners will also get ...
COMMENTARY:By Murray Horton New Zealand needs to get tough with Israel. It’s not as if we haven’t done so before. When NZ authorities busted a Mossad operation in Auckland 20 years ago, the government didn’t say: “Oh well, Israel has the right to defend itself.” No, it arrested, prosecuted, ...
NEWSMAKERS:By Vijay Narayan, news director of FijiVillage Blessed to be part of the University of Fiji (UniFiji) faculty to continue to teach and mentor those who want to join our noble profession, and to stand for truth and justice for the people of the country. I was privileged to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Three weeks from now, some of us will be presented with a mountain of budget papers, and just about all of us will get to hear about them on radio, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Lowry, Ice Sheet & Climate Modeller, GNS Science Hugh Chittock/Antarctica New Zealand, CC BY-SA As the climate warms and Antarctica’s glaciers and ice sheets melt, the resulting rise in sea level has the potential to displace hundreds of millions of ...
I thought it mighty clever of the weather to turn to Winter overnight. Sitting pretty here in a house of brick. It wasn't always so easy.
Let's hear it for a budget tackling homelessness, let's hear it for a government trying to address mental health.
Sleep.
I spent parts of winter sleeping half at night, half in the day. This was in order to cope with the cold. From cars to windowless squats, beneath bridges and basements abandoned; the houses of homelessness are cold.
To sleep it helped to be inebriated so one's body (and head) would allow you some sleep. I'd curl up in a foetal position with covers over my head to recirculate the warm air, and hands tucked between my legs to try get them warm. It was enough for a while and I'd drift off, but by around 4 a.m. either my reserves or the temperature had dropped sufficiently that it woke me.
There were several hours till dawn and though many preferred to stay down, shivering as temperatures bottomed out, I had to move.
Morning calisthenics. 4 a.m. drills for the idle unemployed. Press ups, squats, burpees. Soon I'd be warm enough to stop shivering, warm enough that the ringing in my ears would subside, warm enough to roll a smoke without tearing the paper in half. The burning coal of a cigarette cupped in the palms of my hands.
I'd march. Off to the parks, to the coast and the dunes. Under lupins and round the river mouths. In the places fungi grew in abundance. Magical fungi, munchable fungi. From the city to the fields and back again.
We ate fungi, watercress, seafood, rustled sheep, pilfered fruit, garden raids, dumpster diving and homeless handouts. We never thought about how we were homeless, we were surviving. Mental health, abuse, alcoholism, addiction, abandonment. It was all there, and it was all intertwined. We absolved ourselves with three Fuck You's and a bottle of grog.
A portion of us were typically in prison. This was normal. Some were locked up for stealing liquor, others robbing chemists; I for picking mushrooms and growing weed. Whatever it takes means different things to different people, and survival trumped law in most cases. As society had done to us the things that were done to us, then fuck society. We would look after ourselves.
We were divided in attitudes between those of us who wanted to change the world, and those who wanted to burn it all down. There's too much time to think when you are homeless. To feel purpose it helps if one can move purposefully. To live amongst the hopeless it requires a special kind of strength to even dare to dream. We were young and we still dared, but for many it was a dream.
Overdose, car accident, murder, life. Slowly they vanished as if they'd never existed. Long forgotten by those purported to love them. Dead.
The eulogies I wrote were prosaic and deep. It was tragedy and tragedy then tragedy again. Absentee parents wailed soulfully upon the caskets of those they held dear. Too little and too late they'd turn up in their cars. Countenance grave; soft words finally spoken.
Thanks for sharing that. Such insights into our collective reality are essential, and a helpful antidote to the economic/political spin around the budget, reminding us what it's all about really. And resilience contains emotional intelligence as a social necessity…
That's a stunning piece WTB, thank you for sharing.
Amazing writing. The lampooning of absentee parents is exquisite.
National are absentee parents. Wailing over the graves they create.
Same as Dennis and HS; you've hinted at this before so it's not a surprise. But I am moved by the intensity of it. And not only have you journeyed through that dark, damp land … but you found the path out of it.
I for one await more of the story, if and when it's time to tell it.
Wonderful writing BLP
And I want to hear more of this wonderful life
Ditto francesca (1.5)
Nice work there.
Gives your thoughts context.
I echo all of the sentiments by the rest on here WTB. A wonderful piece, and thank you for sharing. There are a few favourite places here in our town for some to find a bit of shelter. A convenient nook in an alleyway just off the main street makes an ideal spot. It's covered over and reasonably secluded, but it would be a bugger in a westerly! Behind the church is good too and just over the road from the pub. It's also sheltered from the wind and has soft grass. We have around 15 to 20 sleeping really rough here, and are about to get expanded accommodation for those nights when it really is too bad to be unsheltered.
WTB if TS don't make you an author, go to TDB. You owe it to all of us.
Thank you.
WOW! A brilliant piece of writing WTB (1) … I'd like to say it was a great story. However, the story you told wasn't/isn't so great for far too many Kiwis.
Thanks for taking the time to share such a raw, gritty expose` of homelessness in NZ, through personal experience.
Lived experience speaks with an authentic voice. Thank you WTB for sharing, for keeping your sense of hope and for recognising the efforts made to change the way budgets are formed. May you enjoy your brick house and the winter warmth your home offers you for the rest of your days. Please write more.
Gordon Campbell analyses the European election outcome (http://werewolf.co.nz/2019/05/gordon-campbell-on-europes-non-surrender-to-far-right-extremism/)and here's an interesting section:
"In Portugal and Spain, the incumbent governments of the centre-left were rewarded by voters. In Spain, voters rejected the far right populist party Vox, which collapsed back to 6% from the 10% high it achieved only a fortnight ago in the Spanish general elections."
"On the radical left, Podemos saw its support decline to 10%, a sharp fall from the 18% they’d scored in the last European Parliament elections. The decline of Podemos holds a cautionary message for the Green Party in New Zealand. Now that Podemos is no longer an outsider party but is actively propping up the Socialist government of Pedro Sanchez, much of its support has been bleeding back to Sanchez and his PSOE party, which has long been Spain’s neo-liberal Third Way party of the centre-left. In a further blow, radical left mayors in major cities (including the high profile administration of Ada Colau in Barcelona) lost their fights for re-election. In Spain as whole, the radical left is being marginalised by regional parties, and by the Establishment left."
As a life-long radical, I've always found the radical left amusing. I share their striving to attain an ideal world, while remaining baffled at their reluctance to learn from political experience. It makes no sense for the Greens to marginalise themselves on the extreme left. Too few voters support such idiocy.
Usually radical leftists reject centrism in favour of ideological purity. They refuse to admit that support for the underdog is more politically potent when it comes from a party that controls the political centre and selects governments. As Winston has proven. The GP needs leaders who are capable of learning the lesson.
while remaining baffled at their reluctance to learn from political experience.
It's less baffling if you contemplate their probable motives, the ones they never speak to directly.
Nonsense. The Greens are about as "Left" as Holyoak.
Extreme only in your dreams.
The extremists are those who think business as usual is even possible.
Nuance. I made no blanket statement re the Greens, just advised against any leftist extremism. There's a ginger group (mainly idealistic youngsters) within the party which formed several years ago to lobby for such positioning. I've seen their spokespeople being explicit in calling for that partisan stance and alignment at our conferences. They are open, honest, and forthright in doing so.
Add to that is the unending nauseating way media professionals keep depicting the Greens as `to the left of Labour'. Hardly surprising that a popular view of the Greens being wild-eyed radicals has gained currency. Hopelessly unrealistic…
@KJT +1 “The extremists are those who think business as usual is even possible.”
You fail to point out that since the emergence of centrist liberalisim as the dominating force in western left wing politics from the late 1970's, what was once just left is now framed as extreme or radical left.
The reason cenerism should and is being rejected is because it has failed to work, or work for the many and not just the few..or haven't you noticed.
Go and read WeTheBleeple’s piece at the beginning of today’s open mike, and think about the homeless families living in cars all over NZ, all the working poor in NZ who spend over half their wages on rent, that is free market centerism in action for you.
Turn Labour Left!
Cameron to get a software upgrade:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/may/31/david-cameron-takes-job-with-us-artificial-intelligence-firm?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Green suit-wearers will be careerists, of course, but doesn't mean inability to grasp the big picture. Here we have the Values schism to teach us that the centrists are essential to the political success of the Green left (if they were able to learn the lesson) whereas in Germany the thirty years war between fundies & realos seems to have been resolved.
"A surge of support, helped by the Fridays for Future protest movement, propelled Germany's Greens to second place in Sunday's European Parliament elections, at the expense of the mainstream parties. Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right CDU/CSU bloc and their ailing junior coalition partners the Social Democrats (SPD) both suffered historic losses after being caught flat-footed on environmental policy."
https://www.thelocal.de/20190527/the-perfect-storm-germany-feels-heat-of-climate-vote?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=onsite&utm_campaign=71&tpcc=de-just-rhs
The thing with all of this thinking, within multiple contexts/systems:
The edge is where the action occurs. New ideas, new genes, new philosophies.
The center is where most of the energy resides, but this is mostly used to maintain the status quo, broken or not. There is an illusion in the center, being the 'holders of power', that everything held in check belongs to the center and is of the center's doing.
But it came from an edge. The refusal to listen to the fringe is everyone's limitation.
I understand your position in trying to help more fringe lefties gain some ideas for relative longevity and a platform for their positions: but the center swallows the edge, it's very nature being conformity to the center.
Much better that we allow fringe political players to be their own entities (within reason and civility) as a think-tank for the center – as it has always been, but let's be honest about who's doing all the thinking.
The people with real problems to solve – or the well to do?
…who's doing all the thinking. The people with real problems to solve – or the well to do?
I don't find thinking and questioning and willingness to consider other less-materially-successful peoples viewpoint among the well to do. Not as a rule.
You have to step aside and view things objectively, wonder about how it is for others, listen to their tales and then wonder about what led them there. The amount of wondering that people do, of the different ways that people react to the same events and treatment, all helps to get a depth to relating to others. Most well to do are too busy managing their resources, and choosing ways to observe things or do things important to their group to sit and wonder.
Running in marathons is a perfect example. A totally unimportant activity, a personal challenge to skite about, and very much about self and proving yourself not lazy and meeting some herd convention. Why don't people raise to merit the groups going out to cut down old mans beard suffocating forest for instance. That requires all the fitness put into a marathon; that would be the wondering herd in action, not the stampeding herd off on some psychological desire to prove themselves as good as the old pioneers.
"Running marathons is a perfect example" greywarshark, the same idiocy is involved in climbing the same mountain 10 times.
Feck, the airfares the costs and the energy could have built several tiny homes.
Climbers are held up to us as heroes. Edmund Hillary was, because he followed up with meaningful humanitarian efforts. Now it is a mighty money churn and less than edifying.
Many who are well off do not see their wealth, because they "Don't have a ……." (put a toy in there).
It get's cold at night so the mountaineers have to hold each other. It's still debatable to this day: who was on top first, Hillary, or Tensing. – Me.
Harry Holland's life confirms your analysis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Holland
Cripes Jenny How – a second great Australian in the early Labour party, Holland Savage.
And I always sniggered at Muldoon's quip:
New Zealanders who leave for Australia raise the IQ of both countries · Robert Muldoon.
Now I'm laughing on the other side of my face.
Of course, then there was the Premier of Queensland.
Yes – but Queenslander's voted for him!
The edge is where the action occurs. New ideas, new genes, new philosophies.
Agreed. But keep in mind that only a small fraction of new ideas turn out to be good ideas. Radicals always risk going too far in their search.
The center is where most of the energy resides, but this is mostly used to maintain the status quo, broken or not.
Again agreed, yet keep in mind that while the status quo is always flawed and imperfect, we still depend on it for our daily survival. Yet as you say when it refuses to listen, the centre stagnates and becomes tyrannical.
The edge is represents the new, the unknown and the unstable, while the centre is the opposite. While both domains have their natural inhabitants, they also both need each other. They need to trade.
When you're mixing ingredients preparing to cook something, you keep adding and blending, repeating that till the mix is in right proportions needed for a good outcome. We need better chefs, cooks and kitchen hands following better practices if we want to lift our standards and then share out the buns fairly. That way we wouldn't get egg on our own faces or want to decorate the faces of supposed smart leaders.
Difference between a chef and a cook is a chef knows how to shop better. Asians by far have a far superior cultural tradition of low end deliciousness because across the Asian continent food has been far more democratised than in the west. In Asia cooks don't have to make difficult choices because the produce is so cheap to source and buy. In Asia it is possible to pick up a delicious hot sit down meal for 50 cents served to your table. In the west the well housed and well fed have a far greater cultural tradition of deciding who gets to eat and who doesn't.
In the 80's jokes was the currency of the work place smoko room. In the 90's not so much and in the naughties the lunch room turned into a sour affair as work breaks became less and less and productivity up and up. No one has the instincts to tell a joke any more. The people that make up The Labour Party flow in and out of ministerial offices, they are no longer selected from the people who know something about society so Labour lacks those democtratic instincts and must rely on committee groups to come up with ideas and working groups to hold there hands as they run the country.
Even though Labour are after higher wages and higher health they recognise the injustice of what Māori went through because they still have a beating heart. That kind of Labour Party will serve New Zealand particularly well. If MPs can teach themselves the big things then they'll have the instincts to know how things are run and then those smarties won't need pollsters. Although we can't whined the economy back to the 80's we've got a changing industrial relationship and every one doesn't wear the old high school knock around shoes anymore. We do have a different economy today. The same instincts are around and we've got to have more of that in The Labour Party and we've missed doing that in the last 15-20 years.
Yes, I fully agree with your reasoning & analysis. I'm still on the edge, in respect of investigating new thinking continuously, but I plonked one foot in the establishment at the start of '75, to have a career, and ended up straddling both realms, uneasily.
I've always found most Greens too mainstream in their thinking, for instance. Yet to get consensus, I had to work constructively with them. Overcoming my natural distaste for compromising essential principles was always hard, yet the sustained effort got us into parliament, and the compromises our reps in parliament have had to make are similar to mine in those respects.
So nowadays I advocate a consensus praxis to overcome partisan divides, and am pleased that we finally have a government actually doing that. Still, we must keep pushing for more innovative thinking around governance. The world needs that, not just us here in Aotearoa!
The launch this week of the book Whale Oil understandably put Cameron Slater and his dirty blogging at the centre of attention. But he has been in some cases paid and aided, abetted and used by a number of accomplices.
Someone who has been closely associated with Slater in his sustained attacks on Matt Blomfield is an ex-business associate of Blomfield’s, Marc Spring. If anything he has done more for longer than Slater.
One way Spring has kept attacks going against Blomfield) is his use of many identities in his online activities.
How many identities? That’s hard to quantify, but it’s many. my guess is well over a hundred identities, if not many more.
I identified over 40 in an eight month period on just one blog.
There have probably been some here.
Use of multiple pseudonyms is deceptive, and is bad for the many people who legitimately and reasonably use a pseudonym, as id discredits the use of pseudonyms generally.
The many identities of Marc Spring
It sounds to me like this man Spring is a pyschopath with obsessive disorders. Has he been investigated? He sounds dangerous.
That is very informative and insightful pete george. Thank you. We do have to keep watch for the evil people that are round, sort of have sensitive traps in our minds that register particular types of thought and action; a bit like traps for insects and predators that can be so deadly for our food sources.
Having seen of some of his antics over the years your description sounds pretty right. You could have used the word 'multiple' in front of obsessive.
It's interesting describing the behaviour and the personality in proper scientific, psychological terms. The easiest thing would be to say things like 'dirty, lowdown, scumbag piece of shit."
Be good to know his aliases here
Here are Marc Spring identities that have been used on various blogs and media comments forums.
ThreeMonkeys
SHAFT
The Ape
NOT MIKE
4077th
Gweg pwesland
pimp
phillip
DaveG
slicedcheesesandwich
Justice4Matt
BLOMFIELDS EX BIZ PARTNER
Harry ‘Gold Star’ Stottle
Harry Stottle
to HELL in a handbasket
The Assasin
David Jessop
CHEEKY DARKY
the MONKEYS RAINCOAT
Elton
Samantha Hays
The Barber
They Walk, they talk, they harm
THE PRIEST
Hannibal Lecters Psychologist
Inspector Clouseau
Rod
I HAVE THE HARD DRIVE
MARC NEVER FORGETS CUNT
I AM OWED TOO
THE WORST NIGHTMARE
When dies Bankrupt = Businessman
Jean
Bus Driver
LORD DONKEY
Harvey Specter
TYRANT/THE TYRANT
HUSTLER
BUCK WIT
Shagger
Gimp of Greenhithe
Spiderman wants his mask back
RAMBONE OF RAMBONIA
Reaper Crew
Gay Mo
Rolf Harris
Bill Brown
Reaper Crew
The last one is one of I believe a number he has used at LF.
https://yournz.org/2019/06/01/the-many-identities-of-marc-spring-include/
Isn’t that one of those psychological word-association tests to unearth deep psychological trauma, damaged or stalled identity development, and psychopathic tendencies?
Mad as a meat-axe . Threemonkeys and Rod ring a bell for me. Never frequented Whale Oil or Kiwiblog so suspect he used them here in times past.
I suppose this has already been noted here. Amy Adams of National accusing Labour Coalition of playing 'petty politics' in changes to the convention of the pre-Budget practices. WTF when Simon B does it, it is okay – he is just testing the government by breaking reasonable agreements.
I should think that Labour Coalition was actually trying to prevent National doing more of their petty measures and turning what was a serious financial presentation into a Punch and Judy show.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1905/S00287/government-playing-petty-politics-with-budget-day-process.htm
National’s Finance spokesperson Amy Adams says. 29 May 2019
“While media and other parties are given three and a half hours to examine the Government’s accounts before they are released, National is only allowed 60 minutes. Because of this we need a wide range of subject matter experts to review their areas. Last year we had 16 of our team present and to have this arbitrarily halved this year is unreasonable and petty, particularly when we are told this year’s Budget will look very different to previous years.
From what I read in te newspaper, they had to move the whole lock-up process to a smaller room this year. That's all.
Ah but that can be played out as part of a Conspiracy against National.
And perhaps the room was further from the toilets – another form of harassment. Gnats are really sick in the mind, and it says something too about the people who keep voting them in, keep supporting them, keep listening to the diatribe from the bellicose broadcasters providing them with a comforting blanket of words for the day that the Right Crowd can repeat to prevent any uncomfortable thoughts from filtering through the Matrix.
I notice a lot of Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘If’ is pertinent.
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
And even that wording can be bent and used against you by the RW and some from the Left as well. And that is dealt with in those lines also. A meaningful poem.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46473/if—
Fascinating in-depth documentary on the influence of cannabis in the Bible. It seems the word cannabis was Scythian in origin and it was they who traded and spread it throughout Eurasia. The Greeks called it by the same name while the Jews called it Kaneh Bosm, each culture giving the plant a variation of the Scythian name. Like others, the Jews valued its ability to get high (restricted to the high priests, prophets and kings), nutritional value and use for hemp clothing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0bH6Z_OSp8
Assange showing symptoms of 'psychological torture': UN
Statement accuses the US, UK, Sweden and Ecuador of "ganging up" on Assange to "isolate, demonise and abuse" him.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/assange-showing-symptoms-psychological-torture-190531135445284.html
John Pilger: US Charges Against Julian Assange are RIDICULOUS!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pJIsTatG_A
Thanks for this john. I've been following this sad development and watching the entire fiasco unravel on every front. I used some strong language a few days back, and the light of this I don't resile from it one jot.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/05/the-unrelenting-state/
WH Auden says it for Assange:'
I think what could help Assange is if someone from the RW speaks up who has perceptions of being decent and also concerned about USA keeping an appearance of having standards of behaviour that bear scrutiny. That person would suggest that it is a bad idea to not enable Assange's health so he can stand trial and not in the USA's best interests to allow Assange to fall seriously ill or worse.
The USA must try to keep its image alive of being a fair nation that behaves in a superior way to others and acts to keep the Peace in the World. So – something should be said and acted on in this manner and the UK can encourage that and show they have blood in their veins.
This?
'Though USA is very unhappy about the revelations of secrets that WikiLeaks supplied, it does not wish to harm the individual responsible as other lesser civilised countries would do. And so it is transferring Assange (to Australia, to a facility where he can recover his strength with wellbeing) until he is ready to face trial.'
That sort of thing. The USA won't have a high horse to look down from if they don't make an effort to repair their fraying image.
Julian Assange's mother condemns UK government for 'unlawfully slowly killing my son'
https://www.sott.net/article/414092-Julian-Assanges-mother-condemns-UK-government-for-unlawfully-slowly-killing-my-son?fbclid=IwAR0XS8Rm9JF-AaKNcjDTszhn9l7B14NGM7auC1QlT-1FfFVRt1dVvkxJVa8
“They made him very ill by refusing him ANY access to life sustaining fresh air, exercise, sun/VitD or proper medical care for 6 YEARS of illegal Embassy detention
Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks' editor-in-chief, wrote that "Julian's case is of major historic significance. It will be remembered as the worst attack on press freedom in our lifetime. The People need to voice their condemnation; it is their politicians, their courts, their police and their prisons that are being abused in order to leave this black stain on history. Please act now to avert this shame".
Unfortunately the mass campaign to vilify Assange has done its work.
Even on this supposedly progressive site, the attack lines are relentlessly repeated
"Melzer went on:
I looked at the letter writing to Assange at Belsem? Prison campaign, it advises to put in a plain sheet of paper and self addressed envelope with UK stamps for reply – of course he woud need a pen or pencil. I have not been able to find NZPost information about how to deal with pre-paid mail in other country's currency. At present I have a question placed yesterday about this but have received no email reply.
I asked about stamps or an international coupon which I imagine there should be available but who knows it seems to me that NZ Post is just managing down the business. If I could buy a pre-paid envelope rather than stamps – that would be practical. I thought they might have replied by now.
"Abstaining from the witchhunt would have classed the dissenter as an enemy. Stalin was supported by fanatics, cynics, sadists and moral cowards."
—-Donald Rayfield, Stalin and His Hangmen: An Authoritative Portrait of a Tyrant and Those Who Served Him (Viking, 2004)
…deliberate collective ridicule, insults and humiliation… We have seen that on this site frequently and from people who one would expect to have been on the side of exposing the secrets of powerful people and countries willing to destroy others for their purposes.
For good people to do nothing…. Have I got time to be good, what with all the other things I give my time to, as well as my own living tasks for me, my family, friends and community? These sort of unworthy thoughts about my lack of action are I think echoed by quite a number.
We should be out in the streets for Assange, but the attention now is on climate change and receiving a living wage for those who are trying to hold society together and retain the advances that were gained by exhaustive social interaction last century.
Got to keep trying to do it all or the golden bulldozer driven by a robot with such a cheeky, lovable grin in such a cute hat, will scoop us all up. Ever looked at the photos of naked bodies being thrown into burial pits in Holocaust archives? That sort of thing has happened multiple times in even near history. Those images should be in everyone's minds; the reality of what we can do when we have our mind setting on the mark of Cold, Hard, Unfeeling, Uncaring, Unrespecting, Unloving, and Choose your level of Evil – Eager, Sometimes, Neutral, Not sure, Wrestling against it every day.
You're right Grey
Just the sheer numbing pressure of being under the hammer , the struggle to provide a roof and food, and pay the bills is all many can cope with
I'm sorry – I do go on. I understand if its tl:dr. But laying it out occasionally, how someone is feeling I think helps to understand what's going on in society for some people.
The problem is that life presently is so depressing – the constant flow of viciousness, unfairness, violence and the imbalance with meanness high and easy generosity so low; how to create a bright spot, some hope, some comfort takes mental energy, even requires mental exercises. And under austerity with a religious wash, joy is not allowed, unless it is preachy Joy in the Lord.
I am sure the Great Spirit-Creator would be satisfied to see us being just great humans showing respect and receiving it in return; trying to get on together and building a feeling of solidarity and strength to face off the nastiness. That's hard even when the basics of life are under control. I see this blog as a living personification? of what those here with goodwill are reaching for. That's why I get upset at repeat vicious put-downs and faux concerns that have a thorn in them. I can stand argy bargy from those who are trying like me to establish a buzzy beehive of ideas and co-operation to make up for the failings of the one in Wellington at present. I don't think though we will ever see a united group of all parties working for the good of NZ in Wellington. So I see it as important to keep talking about good things, and then doing something so that I don't end up feeling helpless and life a wet noodle. So will soon shut up and go and do something useful for me and have done something else already this morning so that's a tick for me.
We have to keep our eye on civility, honesty, kindness and practicality as these are needed in relationships all round the world. In NZ too many have been vaccinated with poisonous ideas, some sanctimonious, many adopting misanthropy and so finding it exciting to embrace robots (and possibly one day literally as well as figuratively).
They are trying to kill Julian Assange
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-SFYvy5CQQ
Martha S. 1 day ago
The so-called journalists of the msm are presstitutes, they write what is expected from them. They sold their soul.
That Mike Who? is one of the best paid presstitutes infesting NZ airways and press.
Chris Marsden demands freedom for Julian Assange
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ltfm-7FQh4
Sad, but self-inflicted.
On the contrary. I'd wager that every argument you've made this past 8 years that Assange's problems are 'self inflicted' is authoritatively debunked here:
https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2019-05-27/abuses-show-assange-case-was-never-about-law/
Given that he starts with the "no charges" bullshit that is a mi-statement of the "no proceedings" argument that the british courts threw out of his original extradition hearings, that's a bold wager.
One of the hounds that pollute this site has unloaded another of his complacent, vicious, obscenity-larded tirades. The following captures his motivation just about perfectly…..
yeah the only reason I said anything was because it was just a matter of time before some self-important jerk wrote that people who have the unmitigated gall to suggest that people to be extradited for sexual assault proceedings shouldn't jump bail are "strangely silent".
So no, it changes nothing. He chose to abscond, that's his choice, he wears the consequences. If you're going to do that, copy Biggs or Papillon instead.
Ignoring the role Julian Assange has played in exposing America's misdeeds for some fantasy that Julian committed sexual assault probably has more evidence than the evidence against Julian Assange.
Swedish prosecutors and british courts disagree.
So you are still in denial about the bogus charges against Assange. We've got the rise in denial of routine law. A rise in denial about science, a rise in religious denial, and I'm talking about you, McFlock (lol) the amount of denial. The greater the denial> the greater the darkness.
You think the sexual assault investigation is bogus? Is that because you have any connection to the case, or just because google and confirmation bias have an unhealthy relationship in your mind?
It's because you excel at pointing at flaws in Julian Assanges arguments and are very quiet and deceptive about the flaws in the prosecutions arguments.
What flaws are those?
Sex without consent = rape.
Removing the condom when the condom was requested negates previous consent.
Therefore, if the facts of the case are correct, there's at lease a case to make that rape occurred.
You are still only telling half of the truth. Consent laws was brought into Sweden so to charge adults with raping minors, not adults raping adults. If consent laws was punished as you would prescribe, McFlock 🙂 then the legal age of consent would be 30 or how ever old the victims you allege was raped by Julian Assange. That's it.
Are you arguing that rape is legal in Sweden as long as the person being raped is over a certain age?
I'm saying you can't come up with an argument why I couldn't or even shouldn’t mount a fertile red blooded woman laying next to me bareback.
Because she doesn't want you to.
That sentence only makes sense if I replace "she" with "McFlock."
Keep telling yourself that.
What makes you so sure that I would have violated a law in the situation that I outlined above?
Because if your scenario has anything at all to do with Assange, my previous answer is sufficient. Otherwise there was no relevance to your comment at all and I incorrectly inferred the opposite.
Either case is possible.
In that case of course woman can say no condom no sex. What is unacceptable is a law intended for protecting minors against sex with out a condom because under Swedish law there had to be signs of physical harm, is then used to prosecute a crime from 7 years ago. And the definitions don't even fit current law.
So if she did say "no condom, no sex", and he slying removes the condom or doesn't wear one, is that rape?
You'd have to at least prove that your hypothetical occurred after the 2018 consent law changes. The rape allegations have already been thrown out of EU court once, woke lefties are just pleaing for them to be thrown out of a Swedish court a secound time.
lol you might want to look at the original extradition case again. Well before 2018.
Good one
I love Mezler's response to Jeremy Hunt's assertion that Assange had always been free to leave the Embassy.
After finding that Julian Assange displayed symptoms of “prolonged psychological torture,” UN Special Rapporteur Nils Melzer has traded barbs with the UK’s Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt over the WikiLeaks founder’s persecution.
“The UN Special Rapporteur should allow British courts to make their judgments without his interference or inflammatory accusations,” Hunt added.
Melzer quickly fired back in a rather creative fashion, saying: “With all due respect, Sir: Mr Assange was about as ‘free to leave’ as someone sitting on a rubber boat in a sharkpool.” He also reiterated comments that the British justice system had failed to show the “impartiality and objectivity required by the rule of law.”
@McFlock I'm sure he'll get more support once he's faced and beaten the rape charges in a court of law.
If that happens.
I'm equally sure that people here will still think his work with wikileaks should give him a free pass, even if they accept the verdict, if he's found guilty.
It certainly seems that way.
The charges are fantasy charges. The women with whom he had consensual sex were inveigled and bullied into this obscene travesty by the Swedish prosecutor, who was herself under duress from U.S. "diplomats."
If there were any credible charges against him, that would be another matter entirely. Your abuse of those who support this political dissenter and journalist is invalid.
If there were and credible evidence of what you claim, the extradition bid would have failed in 2012.
It's that sort of baseless but categorical claim of Assange's innocence that brings forth the description "rape apologist".
We don't know he's guilty, but nor do we know he is innocent. That is what the courts are for.
Political asylum is a thing McFlock.Its not granted to avoid being charged with a crime.Unless there is strong suspicion the charges are politically motivated
Prominent people asking for asylum are political pawns. Bargaining chips.
... copy Biggs or Papillon instead.
????
They were criminals. Assange is a journalist, an exposer of and dissenter from official lies. Which makes him, of course, an extreme threat and a target for destruction.
He's a guy who jumped bail to avoid extradition to face allegations of criminal activity. Any journalism he might also have undertaken is irrelevant to that.
A bullshit argument that omits the crucial context. It's like blaming someone for breaking their leg jumping out of a third floor window and not mentioning the building was on fire.
Well, not mentioning that he claimed the building was on fire after the home-owners arrived home early and there were questions about whether he was legally permitted to be inside the room from which he jumped. Oh, and that so far the only fire discovered is in the fireplace, well-contained according to fire code standards.
Nope, there's enough ambiguity in your argument to call bulshit. Assanges rape allegations was just a tool for the U.S. to persecute Assange.
Or he's a rapist.
Or every possible permutation, interpretation, or misunderstanding, in between.
By ambiguity I mean the woke have called Assage a rapist so such with out a conviction of rape that it's prejudiced any trail he may have. It's impossible for Assange to receive a fair trial now.
I'm sure his legal team will make that argument, and the courts will consider it.
A bullshit argument that omits the crucial context.
I didn't mention the specific allegations or their context, but they're not exactly crucial to the point that he's a guy who jumped bail to avoid extradition to face allegations of criminal activity. Whatever claims Assange or anyone else has about the allegations being part of a dastardly if somewhat illogical conspiracy, they're just claims, and evidence-free ones at that.
Whatever claims Assange or anyone else has about the allegations being part of a dastardly if somewhat illogical conspiracy, they're just claims, and evidence-free ones at that.
So now you are claiming the Americans are only pretending to be making an extradition case against him?
The alleged conspiracy is that the Swedish extradition request was part of a plot to extradite Assange to the US. There's no evidence of such a plot, and it would have been a pointless plot anyway, as the US could have just requested his extradition from the UK – as it's now done.
Your 'but' negated your previous word and displayed your faux concern.
Enough with your disingenuous utterances.
http://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/msg/1559337637.html
A “sad” case of “self-inflicted” psychological torture?
What could Assange do now to minimise further “self-inflicted” psychological torture?
Not much. How do you change your mind after you jumped off the bridge?
"One little push, and over he went – he made quite a 'splash'." Sad indeed.
@ McFlock , 'self-inflicted'…really how so?
He chose to be a political pawn for Ecuador. Should have jumped on a yacht.
Adrian, if you encountered someone so disgusting on the street, you'd probably ignore him. Don't expect a thoughtful or serious answer to your question.
Yes I know, but it can be amusing to try and follow their mental gymnastics in their convoluted answers sometimes, I guess I am saying they can some times be good for a cheap laugh….only if you are in the mood that is, otherwise they are just annoying and distasteful.
Still hanging on brother. Trump is trying to shake you off and you are still hanging on.
Russian versions of McFlock, meanwhile, tut-tutted and said "Zinoviev inflicted it on himself."
Mprrissey better not to make the argument more distressing. This goes direct to a sensitive nerve of McFlock's and coughing up Stalin who was a mega maniac with a matching power complex is not helpful in the situation. Just disagree will you and not feed the fire. It upsets me my friend.
The point of comparison is the behaviour of Stalin’s henchmen. McFlock and several others on this forum are analogues of Karl Pauker, Lavrenty Beria and the other ghouls who delighted in the suffering of officially designated enemies.
Yeah i just think your exagerrated point might be dropped being a regular here and knowing a bit about the site commenters.
Except that adding in "Russian versions of McFlock, meanwhile […]" shows that there is no "analogue" of me in the actual quote.
I get that you were trying to be a dick and compare Assange's self-chosen Ecuadorean Escapade with the deaths of twenty-odd million people in a totalitarian state run by a tyrant, but the English language (like the rest of reality) didn't quite fit your narrative.
And my gulags will be safe with you around brother. Extra portions of cabbage soup for you.
See, now you're the one claiming to be a totalitarian. Which is the opposite of what mozza was claiming. Try to keep up, Sam, there's a good lad.
No cabbage soup for you is a naughty boy.
Assange might have chosen most of his "Ecuadorean Escapade", but I doubt that he chose the ending, let alone subsequent events – these were imposed, and perhaps more difficult to foresee than the consequences of having "jumped off the bridge".
Still “sad“.
How the fuck did he think it was going to finish? Do cops stop chasing robbers once they reach "safe", all is forgiven? Would he get into a literal "diplomatic bag" and be put on a slow boat to Ecuador?
He had literal months to figure out his absconding plan, and that's what he came up with? No helicopter out to an Ecuadorian freighter 20 miles off shore? No yacht trip? No disguise, false identity, or escape tunnel from the embassy? No, let's take a car ride into the middle of London and stay there.
As well as repeatedly firing the word “rape” around, despite its complete inappropriateness, this tick "McFlock" keeps trying to associate a journalist and political dissident with robbers—yesterday he used the examples of Ronald Biggs and Papillon, for pity's sake.
I guess when you've chosen your line, no matter how wrongheaded and demonstrably false it is, you're committed to it. George W. Bush was like that. And his deputy Tony Bliar. And “Honest John” Howard.
And our friend Wayne.
Rape is what he remains accused of.
Other escaped criminals are resonable "analogues" for someone who absconded from bail for the better part of a decade.
Nah … rape is the bogus charge that was cooked up for political purposes. Every sane reading of the events around his association with the two Swedish women, both before and after, and during the initial interviews … absolutely do not suggest coercion or assault. The first investigator concluded 'no crime of any kind'.
It was only after he left Sweden that someone had the bright idea that what happened could be twisted into this disgusting charade.
Any sane reading suggests that the facts as reported indicate he was at the very least reckless as to whether either of his partners were consenting to him not using a condom.
But you know that's all bogus, so fucking yay, I guess courts are unnecessary, with such omniscient beings amongst us.
It's my impression the vast majority of people, including me, who support Assange have always said that ideally the allegations should be tested in Court.
But everything about this case tells us nothing is ideal, nothing is normal about how this case has been laid and prosecuted. If this was really about Assange's 'recklessness' … and nothing else … he would have done exactly what he said he has stated all along, and traveled back to Sweden to clear his name at Court.
And Steve Jobs should have gone for recognised medical treatments sooner.
People react oddly to things, and in different ways. Sometimes it's panic, or ego, or denial/avoidance. Sometimes people say stuff for so long that they end up believing their own hype.
Could be any of those, could be that a mole in the FBI/CIA secretly emailed him the full outline of a plot to use these allegations to gitmo him, and he panicked and ran to the embassy. Or maybe that was the plan – send him an invented plot so he does something stupid like jumping bail.
Bullshit. For years you've been deflecting from the obvious, that the USA would use any opportunity to extradite him if possible. Assange could not know in advance exactly how, but he had every good reason to suspect that these 'rape' allegations were bogus and a ploy to get him into a legal jurisdiction more amenable to American pressure.
For years you pretended this was just a paranoid fabrication to avoid facing trial in Sweden … yet now the Americans have indeed played their hand openly and you have been proven factually wrong.
For years I've been saying that if he genuinely believed it was all a US plot, why flee from Sweden into the jurisdiction of America's closest ally?
And yes, they showed their hand – in UK courts.
And it's one thing to pretend Sweden is more "amenable" to extradtition to the US than the UK (which is an arguable point full of opinions and maybes), it's another thing entirely to say the Swedes are "amenable" to fabricating rape proceedings in order to be in a position to extradite to the US.
And if it's a genuine sex crime investigation, then he needs to face it.
"How the fuck did he think it was going to finish?" – you sound upset.
Once granted, how do cases of asylum typically end? Sadly?
Normally, people requesting asylum do so after they are in the country in question, or walk into the embassy of the save haven in a third country.
Fleeing into an embassy in the country you are fleeing from seems to have very mixed results.
IMHO the 7 examples in that 2012 list all had 'happy' endings for the asylum seekers. Most of the examples are at least 30 years old.
Assange’s "Escapade" seems an outlier wrt duration and outcome.
“Sad“.
look at the ones where the asylum seekers were seeking asylum from the country the embassy was in.
The happy endings lower drastically in proportion.
And that's if you call the Mariel Boatlift a happy ending.
Not sure the Cardinal’s experience was too happy, either. Got there in the end, but after how long? He must have not had a cat.
Your “cat” reference lends credence to Brigid’s comment @8.3.2.
The linked page lists seven examples where "asylum seekers were seeking asylum from the country the embassy was in." All the asylum seekers apparently got what they asked for, some sooner than others. You believe this applies to Assange – lol, “sad“.
2012: "He left after six days, and subsequently was allowed to go to New York with his wife and two children."
1989: "Noriega surrendered 10 days later after being assured he would not face the death penalty in the United States." A one-time useful ally of the US.
1989: "They lived in the embassy for 13 months before being allowed to go to the United States."
1986: Howard 'escaped' to Russia via their Finnish embassy.
1980: From the information given, it seems likely that the six Cubans granted asylum in Peru's Havana embassy 'got out'.
1966: "She returned to the Soviet Union in 1984, saying she wanted to reunite with her family. Her Soviet citizenship was restored but she left a year later to go back to the U.S. following a family feud."
1956: "lived in the U.S. Embassy in Budapest from 1956 until 1971, when he was allowed to leave for Vienna." The only example in that list of an asylum that lasted (much) longer than Assange's. The US honoured that request for asylum until he was allow to leave.
I think you need to look up Noriega, and what happened to him, and relations with the US before they invaded Panama.
Howard ditched his tail in the US and went to Helsinki, where he claimed asylum in the Soviet Embassy there. He didn't go from the Soviets' Washington embassy. The Finns didn't want him, the yanks did. Similarly, Stalin went to the US embassy in New Delhi. The Indians didn't want here, the Soviets did.
Cuba was happy to get rid of them, and everyone else. And some occupants of its jail cells and mental asylums. Mariel Boatlift.
And the US had skin in the game to protect the Cardinal. He was a PR bonus. He could easily have been abandoned if the chips had fallen the other way.
BTW, I misphrased it.
Assange was fleeing the UK, so went to the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK.
I.e. the location of the embassy and the country being fled were the same country.
That applies to the two Chinese instances (diplomatic horse-trading likely involved), the Cardinal (same), and the Cubans (which Cuba used to clear the country of dissidents and prisoners).
You cited those seven examples in response to my question:
In those seven examples, no asylum seeker was forcibly removed from the embassy that granted asylum. Only Noriega was subsequently incarcerated, after extracting a guarantee and surrendering voluntarily.
If those historical cases are anything to go by then it seems to me that the way Assange's ayslum ended, and his subsequent treatment, are atypical – I'm happy for readers to draw their own conclusions.
Even 14% is not an unexpected return. It happens.
Would you agree that ‘forcible removal’ was unprecedented, and could therefore be regarded as atypical?
No idea.
Maybe if he’d considered his diplomatic worth versus an IMF loan after a change in president, he’d have avoided the embassy in the first place.
"Sad"
It is sad.
Like, outside my work, there's a pigeon that got hit by a car in the street and is now a flat streak of feathery grease. I'm not cut up about it or anything, but as I drive over it there is a sombre reflection on all that we are and become. There's no glee that a disease-encrusted rat of the sky is no more. It was a thing, and now it is a dead thing.
That sort of level of sad, I guess. Where you do that sort of inward "tch" sound, maybe slightly shake your head, and then get on with your day.
Got it – let 'justice' take its course, nothing to see here, just one more “disease-encrusted rat of the sky“, etc.
“Oh dear, how sad, never mind.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnHoCYq8bUA
"right".
"Treasury hacking: The time I hacked WINZ – Keith Ng."
Remember the fuss when Keith discovered the "hole" in WINZ? He did the right thing by informing WINZ about the "hole." Bridges didn't did he?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12236128
Report on clever hacking from African sources this time, not Russian! Through email phishing.
Nelson family nearly lose home deposit to African hackers
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/113115596/nelson-family-nearly-lose-home-deposit-to-african-hackers
I https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/113169105/former-bnz-chair-calls-for-sir-john-key-to-be-forced-to-resign-from-anz
Hmmm.
ANZ New Zealand tries to fob it off as a minor error that occurred. Maybe they can find an ‘emotional junior staffer’ to take the blame. It most certainly wasn’t the Board.
The point is made that this is a fundamental issue of incompetence:
The RBNZ is working in a plan to force the banks in NZ to hold more capital as a bulwark against future financial shocks. The banks have embarked on a campaign of fear-mongering claiming that the RBNZ’s plan would act like “a handbrake” on our economy and ultimately lead to higher (borrowing) costs for customers.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/112832162/reserve-bank–plan-has-significant-negative-consequences-for-our-country-banks?rm=m
The New Zealand Bankers Association's (NZBA) had commissioned a report by research organisation Sapere to counter the RBNZ’s plans.
It seems to me that ANZ New Zealand is trying to have it both ways.
IRONY ALERT! Noelle McCarthy, who laughs at the suffering of political prisoners and sneers at human rights protestors, interviewed someone about "assholes" this morning.
RNZ National, Saturday 1 June 2019
After the 9 a.m. news the breathy, chirpy, Cork-accented Noelle McCarthy interviewed one John Walker, a Canadian who has made a documentary entitled Assholes: A Theory. According to his own publicity material, the film is "a direct response to psychology professor Aaron James' witty bestseller about why some people are assholes and how to deal with them – in an age when the trait seems to be on the rise."
The interview itself turned out to be neither particularly amusing nor insightful. At one point Noelle McCarthy chortled knowingly when he said: "Imagine the situation when one of these assholes is actually running your country!" Perhaps she was thinking of the situation in New Zealand from 2008 to December 2016.
The discussion was interesting, though, for what it left out: a sub-species of asshole who delights in the suffering of others. I sent the laughing hostess the following email….
You forgot the most disgusting assholes of all
Dear Noelle,
In your interview about "assholes" with John Walker this morning, neither of you mentioned a particularly noxious and heinous example of the genus, viz., those unspeakable individuals who laugh at the suffering of political prisoners.
Here's an especially repellent example of that kind of thing:
Hopefully you can interview John Walker another time, and add that kind of vicious asshole to his list.
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/chris-trotter-reckons-zimmerman-jury.html
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/08/noelle-mccarthy-is-doggedly-reigning-in.html
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2017/12/possibly-most-repellent-panel-pre-show.html
Thumbs down to Radionz for settling on ironic and cynical themes for one, and not promoting some of regular NZ journalists to the role of supporting workers which Noelle seems to be part of. Can we hear NZ voices more please, not all these British and other 5 Eyes imports who are lovely people except for one failing, they are taking a NZ place in their own country's media, and we must have better balance – aim for 80/20 perhaps.
Remembering Flanders and Swann in reverse:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vh-wEXvdW8
"Political prisoner and outspoken critic of Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin, Yulije Asanjey has been locked up in one of Russia's worst prisons for many years and may now face death through deliberate neglect of his medical condition
Asanjey became famous in the 2000's through exposing Russian aggression and covert spy activities over several years
Initially imprisoned for what many regard as trumped up charges,Asanjey has been declared the victim of torture by leading UN rapporteurs and experts on torture.
Russia's notorious prison system has long had a deliberate policy of breaking down prisoners so that they either die or are rendered incapable of conducting an effective defence. Denial of access or very limited access to lawyers and medical attention is a common ploy
Journalists from all over the world have expressed their support of Asanjey.
Amnesty International , Human Rights Watch and press freedom campaigners have joined under the common banner Free Asanjey!
The US has applied far reaching economic sanctions on Russia, for its continued flouting of UN rulings and increasing crack down on the free press"
Oh those wicked Russians!
Thank god we're not like that!
Thanks fransesca I have just thought again about doing something through Amnesty International. So will help with Free Asaney.
Have they a continuing campaign for Assange?
Amnesty International Get Involved
No.
Amnesty's only support of Assange has been this
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2012/09/sweden-should-issue-assurance-it-won-t-extradite-assange-usa/
Thats why my inclusion of them in the mock news report is ironic
Aha got it. But it sounded so true, and is with a reversal of approach. I still think I should support Amnesty I but sometimes the way things are done is surprising. Is Amnesty British – they could pop up to No.10 and sort everything out quite quickly, no, now I think of it they are tied up in knots, choose your own version, over Brexit and also who will be the next Clown Jester for PM.
Here are some knots and how to tie them. This might be the most useful information that arises from the blog today.
https://www.outdoorlife.com/photos/gallery/hunting/2012/02/essential-knots-how-tie-20-knots-will-keep-you-alive#page-4
useful link!
Another useful link:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/05/31/us-figure-casualties-iraq-and-syria-hides-true-devastating-scale-civilian-deaths?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=US%20Figure%20of%20Casualties%20in%20Iraq%20and%20Syria%20Hides%20True%2C%20%27Devastating%20Scale%27%20of%20Civilian%20Deaths%2C%20Says%20Amnesty&utm_campaign=Ocasio-Cortez%20and%20Ted%20Cruz%20Agree%20%7C%20News%20%2526%20Views&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&cm_mmc=Act-On%20Software-_-email-_-Ocasio-Cortez%20and%20Ted%20Cruz%20Agree%20%7C%20News%20%2526%20Views-_-US%20Figure%20of%20Casualties%20in%20Iraq%20and%20Syria%20Hides%20True%2C%20%27Devastating%20Scale%27%20of%20Civilian%20Deaths%2C%20Says%20Amnesty
Hi Jenny How. Another time that you rush off before telling us what it's about. I’ll set it up under a keyword presumed explanation but it’s discombobulated in it original transition to the post here.
Jenny’s Mystery Link is Something to do with Amnesty
Indeed, many a commenter here seems to think that TS is their personal playground in which they can play by themselves or have one-on-one fun & games. At the same time, they seem to be oblivious to the fact that they are being watched, so to speak, by many silent readers of the site.
Indeed. Many dozens for each of us who speak. All part of the community.
Jenny, as a general rule you can cut off anything after the question mark: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/05/31/us-figure-casualties-iraq-and-syria-hides-true-devastating-scale-civilian-deaths
Shamnesty, you mean.
https://professorsblogg.com/2014/05/11/swedish-amnesty-international-voted-for-reject-support-to-human-right-issues-on-assange-snowden-and-guantanamo-prisoners/?fbclid=IwAR3oHLkw9dNCUPUPQ339vP93fFLwjtM1t1VzmynLOVefkU28mRneTz5oWg8
In 1969, Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In predicted that the Berlin Wall would be torn down in 1989, and that Reagan would be President in 1988.
Starts at the 4:30 mark….
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEK8vZlzR1tPg2WOlZ59r8w
Click the following link to see another outlandish prediction that came true….
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/who-will-be-lead-mourner-at-obamas.html
Sovereign Nations
Do Nations have the Right to protect their Citizens, their Laws, their Trade and their Freedoms. ?
Or do they have to put up with illegal and weird Hackers, and Uninvited camera men rumaging for so called "scandal reports" and free feeds day and night.
I think it is proper for a Nation to clean up its own numerous flaws, before pronouncing the wickedness of others.
Can't seem to find this on The Standard:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12236522
BUSINESS
Former bank director calls for Sir John Key to be forced to resign from ANZ
1 Jun, 2019 12:44pm
Here: https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-01-06-2019/#comment-1623499
And here: https://thestandard.org.nz/bene-bashing/#comment-1623572
Thank you Incognito; I should have known it would be.
Yup. The Nats' current leader is flat-out dodgy, and their four previous were crooked too:
Shipley Corrupt dealings resulting in the collapse of Mainzeal – in court for $6M.
Brash The Hollow Man – had the Exclusive Brethren campaign for him. Also probably a white supremacist.
Key Where the hell do you start???
English Paid his mates $1.7B in the dead of the night.
Bridges Cash for list seats, and now data thief.
What about the next one..?
Collins Happily used Slater to intimidate public servants, ffs.
A shit-show since 1997.
One must say they are consistent though mustn't one! And apparently those with the 3 B's – Beach and bach, BMW and Boat – are quite happy to live in a sort of rotten borough.
I wouldn't be surprised if this has been up before but it sounds good., Stephen Fry on Brexit. Called Brexit: The End Game – The Hidden Money. It starts off with the info that Europe doesn't decide on how to spend UKs money.
He says "Britain can't take back control from the EU; because we never lost it. 99% of UK public expenditure is determined by the UK government." Immigration is different but Britain controls the major amount of immigration which is from outside the EU; 248,000 net migration compared to EU – 74,000 net migration.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HDFegpX5gI
Edit:
And TED talk from 2016 – Why Brexit Happened.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcwuBo4PvE0
Alexander Betts (British!) 18 mins
We are embarrassingly unaware of how divided our societies are, and Brexit grew out of a deep, unexamined divide between those that fear globalization and those that embrace it, says social scientist Alexander Betts.
How do we now address that fear as well as growing disillusionment with the political establishment, while refusing to give in to xenophobia and nationalism? Join Betts as he discusses four post-Brexit steps toward a more inclusive world.
That's very good. It’s always ‘follow the money’
Onya, girls.
https://twitter.com/influencer_com_/status/1133140922022023168
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/5/31/1861668/–These-School-Girls-Just-Aren-t-To-Take-It-Anymore-Jail-The-Molester?
If anyone still believes there are adequate protections for people with disabilities within the End Of Life Choices Bill you really need to read Chris Ford's piece posted in Newsroom.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/05/27/602948/why-i-changed-my-mind-on-euthanasia#
I know that this will put me in the same column as Christian conservatives who also oppose the legislation for moral reasons. Personally, this makes me feel very uneasy given that I hold otherwise progressively social liberal views on issues such as abortion and reproductive rights, LGBTI rights, women’s issues and indigenous issues, etc. Yet, I want to outline from a socialist, progressive and disability rights perspective as to why I have swung my support to the anti-euthanasia camp.
The turning point for me came about a month ago. I saw the report of a meeting hosted by disabled people’s organisation, People First (a group run by and for people with learning/intellectual disabilities) in the Central North Island. At that meeting, access to health care was discussed, as this is a key issue – particularly for people within this segment of the disability community – for whom find it difficult accessing care for many reasons, including attitudinal issues on the part of some medical professionals. This was exemplified by the stories shared at the meeting where some people – who had gone to hospital for treatment – had discovered upon reading their files that they had ‘no resuscitation’ orders attached to them. More problematically, these orders had not been requested by any of the disabled people or their families.
Rosemary, I'm sure your realize that there is no comparison between a decision not to prolong the artificial extension of a person's life and a decision to actively kill a patient.
I'm not sure the likes of David Seymour and Michael Laws appreciate the difference, which is a grave concern.
This passive euthanasia is happening at an ED near you.
My partner was bailed up by an ED supervising doctor with a clipboard a few weeks ago and was told in no uncertain terms that opting for the DNR option made perfectly good sense because, like, 'you know we'd probably break your ribs doing CPR, and you'd end up with pneumonia and its doubtful that ICU would take someone with your co-morbidities any way…' Sign here…
He had rather dramatically passed out. He was confused upon coming round. Yet two hours later and after a battery of health and cognitive function tests he was adjudged to be in tip- top health. They even noted that his leukaemia was so far in remission that heamatology considered him 'cured'. The only 'off' thing was strangely fluctuating blood pressure, which is so common as to be considered normal… for a C5 tetraplegic.
And it was the tetraplegia that tipped him into the 'we'd rather not bother resuscitating your sorry arse' category.
My man, by this time, had resumed normal function and proceeded to 'negotiate' with the clipboard carrying ED doctor with his sheaf of DNR forms that he expected them to try active resuscitation for at least 15-20 minutes.
The 'Slippery Slope' arguments in practice, real life.
Peter Singer and the rest of the Utilitarian ethicists would feel so proud.
Kia ora R&R.
Fashion needs to give way to having clothing and other goods to last decades and not mare minutes in in reality. I can remember when a new pear of jeans last 2 months and then split up the backside.
I say buying secondhand is were the NEW fashion trend needs to go it is all read happening in some Nordic Countries very cool trend that will help preserve our mokopuna futures.
I say making sure that the things we buy are made humanely and environmentally friendly ways that's is the way OUR future has to GO.
I say less is best we have heaps of consumer goods that we don't need that's bad for our future and environment juses blenders pie maker pancakes maker and many other goods that we actually do need.
Ka kite ano
Kia ora hui.
The mental health and the health of our tamariki is of utmost importance.
I agree strongly with Mike's statement that thinking is taking to yourself.
I'm constantly examining past events finding the TRUTH of what occurred and why things occurred.
I agree that we need to give our tamariki confidence to nurture them tell them you love them every day and treating them with love also .I say disciplining correctly is giving them love if you can see tamariki making mistakes doing things wrong you must discipline them so they learn not to do dumb Shit and tell them you love them afterwards. conferdince is giving with aroha
Ka kite ano
https://youtu.be/qQfetkoGrpU
Whanau Eco Maori did not like the way shonky was ruining Aotearoa I could see it a mile away his underarm plays.
This story proves it he is a cheat the 00.1 % cheat all the time as they know that a fraction of there money that they gain from cheating will buy them impunity
A sense of unfairness, and wanting to see power held to account, I think has contributed to the explosion of interest in the call for former prime minister Sir John Key, chairman of our biggest bank, to resign.
ANZ's board, led by the former leader of our country, had been signing off on an operational risk model (which works out how much capital the bank needs in case of a shock or economic downturn) that had actually been dumped in
The ANZ board is stocked with people who you might assume would know a thing or three about bank capital.
How did this come about? The Reserve Bank "had encouraged" ANZ to review its attestation process, through which bank directors assess whether the bank is complying with the conditions of its regulations. It was only after this nudge that ANZ discovered the problem.
But before you get hot about it, it's cool. The Reserve Bank made it hold more money in case of a rainy day rather than lend it out in profitable ways like mortgages.
When the Reserve Bank found out, it stripped ANZ of its right to calculate how much risk capital it will hold. Yes, it used to be able to decide this itself.
This means our biggest bank is required to hold a further $277 million, taking it to a total of about $760m in case of bad news.
Kerry McDonald was chairman of BNZ for 12 years until 2008 and also sat on the board of its owners, National Australia Bank from 2005 to 2008.
Ouchie.
Now, ANZ won't like this one bit. This ruling increases the minimum capital ANZ must hold by around 60 per cent.
As Simplicity founder Sam Stubbs has pointed out, one reason profits are so high here is the Australian owned banks have to provide less capital than locally owned banks to support their lending.
So this will hurt ANZ in the wallet. But with the chunky-profits these Aussie banks make here, I think ANZ (who earned a record profit a sniff under $2 billion in the last financial year just in New Zealand) will cope.
MORE FROM
REBECCA STEVENSON • NATIONAL BUSINESS EDITOR
rebecca.stevenson@stuff.co.nz
But no-one has been held to account.
Unlike former BNZ chairman Kerry McDonald, who wrote to Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr to call for heads to roll, I am neither amazed, nor surprised, at the penalty imposed on the bank. Thanks Dad.
He argues that Key, chief executive David Hisco, the highest paid bank executive in New Zealand who is currently off on sick leave, and several others, at ANZ should resign.
The bank's board had been signing this off for years, apparently without noticing if you give them the benefit of the doubt.
And it has to be said, Sir John Key wasn't there in 2014, 2015 or 2016 – joining the bank with his shiny new title smartly after leaving Parliament in 2017.
The board is stocked with people who you might assume would know a thing or three about banking. Ka kite ano p.s I smelt a korori
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/113182741/when-rules-are-merely-suggestions-youre-probably-rich-or-powerful
I agree with Sadiq Khan trump and his alt right m8 are shorting the world political they will make a big mess of our Papatuanuku and take human rights back a hundred years if the leftys don’t get up and stop them
Donald Trump is like a 20th-century fascist, says Sadiq Khan
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has compared the language used by Donald Trump to rally his supporters to that of “the fascists of the 20th century” in an explosive intervention before the US president’s state visit to London that begins on Monday.
Writing in the Observer, Khan condemned the red-carpet treatment being afforded to Trump who, with his wife Melania, will be a guest of the Queen during his three-day stay, which is expected to provoke massive protests in the capital on Tuesday
Khan said: “President Donald Trump is just one of the most egregious examples of a growing global threat. The far right is on the rise around the world, threatening our hard-won rights and freedoms and the values that have defined our liberal, democratic societies for more than 70 years.
It’s un-British to roll out the red carpet for Donald Trump
Read more
“Viktor Orbán in Hungary, Matteo Salvini in Italy, Marine Le Pen in France and Nigel Farage here in the UK are using the same divisive tropes of the fascists of the 20th century to garner support, but with new sinister methods to deliver their message. And they are gaining ground and winning power and influence in places that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/01/donald-trump-like-20th-century-fascist-says-sadiq-khan
Donald Trump is a populist and a nationalist of the largest economy and still most powerful country on earth. Khan is the current Mayor of one city, and an outsider within his own Labour Party.
Trump is not a Nazi, despite all the protestations of Madeline Albright et al. He's just a self-interested thug making bank for his family for a few years before he's turfed next year.
The hard right had their chance in the EU elections last week, and they showed they didn't have what it takes to storm the castle and start dismantling.
Kia Newshub.
The Youth Rainbow community needs to be shown respect as all people do.
I say that the airline should be included in the plan to mitigate climate change this will make them chase alternatives powers for planes.
trump has to remember that every word he says bounces around the world media I sort of know what that is like.
The foxglacia council should have cleaned up the dump mess I say that they have had enough money to clean it up.
It's a hard task getting whare at the minute I would not like to try and rent a whare with tamariki these days you would need to no the owner or have a wand.
That's the way Julain championing the poverty of the Ugandan people and tamariki is bad ka pai M8.
Ka kite ano
Kia ora te ao Maori news.
Eco Maori say those people who have thrown darts at the Rainbow community are only thinking about their public profiles and not the damage they have done to the people of the Rainbow community.
Te Whare tu is helping keep tangata whenua O Aotearoa cultural going strong ka pai I get a sore face knowing that OUR culture is getting te mana back.
I totally agree us Maori men are portrayed as violent thefting thugs that really PISSs Eco Maori off thanks for making films that show Maori men in a cleaner light.
Cool I tau toko you for encouraging Maori to seek a higher education .
Ka kite ano
These are the people who rule our Papatuanuku I hope they can see that most people want a better future for there tamariki and NOW is the time to embrace the change if they don't jump on the Climate Mitigation Waka they will be left in OUR dust time to dump CARBON.
Security at the wharf was drum tight. Amid a sea of secret service personnel, Pompeo was accompanied by the US ambassador to Switzerland, Ed McMullen. The pair looked keen to continue the geopolitical strategizing over canapés.
The secretary general of Nato, Jens Stoltenberg, was flanked by heavily armed bodyguards as he strode along the jetty. He has attended the last three Bilderberg meetings, turning up for “informal discussions” with a watchful squad of security and staff
Bilderberg has a keen and growing interest in high-tech and AI. Schmidt’s fellow Bilderberg insider Peter Thiel, the billionaire founder of PayPal and a director of Facebook, was seen arriving with the Swedish physicist and AI expert Sara Mazur ka kite ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/02/bilderberg-pompeo-kushner-nato-stoltenberg
Its thanks to people like Blomfield who have the mana to stand up to people like Slater and don't let Slaters intimidating tactics scare them into staying silent.
If it wasn't for people like Blomfield we would not have found out about the $40.000 double dip by a well known MP.
People like Blomfield are few and far between quite rear so Eco Maori is asking everyone to tau toko Blomfield and BUY HIS BOOK he deserves the leftys tau toko.
The case was never about defamation. It has been a way that Blomfield could force his tormenter to verify the fantasies being presented as fact on his now disgraced blog. Slater failed and was finally impaled by a harpoon that he had unleashed, ultimately on himself
As the stories dragged on and I got to know Blomfield better, I told him not to worry. The lies told about him were not as appalling as the truth frequently told about me. But the lies were having a toll and this unwanted fight with a cyber thug with connections to the highest offices in the land was taxing what was an otherwise irrepressible spirit.
Blomfield, it needs to be said, and I am pleased to say it, isn't a man to be dissuaded by slander, intimidation or a gunman discharging a shotgun in his face. For seven years he took Slater and his cohort of degenerates through the long and painful process of a defamation trial.
The case was never about defamation. It has been a way that Blomfield could force his tormenter to verify the fantasies being presented as fact on his now disgraced blog. Slater failed and was finally impaled by a harpoon that he had ka kite ano link below.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/opinion/113082451/cameron-slaters-thuggish-ways-stymied-after-long-and-painful-defamation-case
Ka pai Pio for championing tiny houses and sustainable live off the land + clean energy solar power we need more tangata like you to champion the cause.
Our Mokopuna futures depend on people like us never giving up the cause.
TV personality Pio Terei is hatching a tiny house plan.
It was a plan that needed some research first. So he hopped on his electric bike and headed off to seek out some of the country's most innovative home owners; Kiwis who've chucked caution and convention to the wind to live sustainably and build the life of their dreams on their own terms. And boy, did he find them, dwelling in everything from teepees to whare uke, from container houses to earth ships.
Those encounters became Off The Grid,an eight episode TV series from Māori Television that aims to inspire viewers to give sustainable living a go. There's the sharing of practical advice and a few laughs along the way. Talking to him a couple of months before the show is set to air, it seems to have the actor, singer and comedian all fired up for a tiny house of his own
Ka kite ano links below P.S I know what you're name means kia ora
https://i.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/celebrity-homes/113111219/off-the-grid-pio-tereis-building-a-tiny-house-and-reckons-you-should-too
https://e-tangata.co.nz/korero/pio-terei-im-meant-to-be-here-bro/
Kia kaha to the Youth climate activist it is your futures WE are fighting for go hard it makes me happy to see that the climate is taking center stage now after all the Strikes you have staged.
Youth climate activists set for nationwide rallies ahead of landmark case
Students in Austin, Texas, want you to veg out. Kids in Westport, Connecticut will screen a film. And in rural North Carolina, activists will draw on a toxic spill to commemorate the environmental justice movement. The slogan refers to the landmark court case in Oregon in which 21 youths are suing the United States government over climate change.
Named for Kelsey Juliana, a 23-year-old activist and college student, the case was filed in 2015 and is headed back to court on Tuesday. The campaign to raise its profile – dubbed #IAmJuliana or #AllEyesOnJuliana – is the brainchild of Our Children’s Trust, the organization behind the lawsuit, and Future Coalition, the not-for-profit network forged to empower youth after the Parkland shooting.
A youth activist on the climate crisis: politicians won't step up.
What’s unique about the campaign is what it signals: the infrastructure behind the youth climate movement is growing, decentralizing, and gaining momentum, all while activists set sights on the 2020 election
All of these rallies will be part of an international campaign on Saturday to spotlight environmental issues. Their message: Ka kite ano link below
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/31/i-am-juliana-climate-protests-youth-activism
Kia ora Newshub.
Its cool to see more Wahine receiving houners congrats Grame you deserve your tohu houner I remember when the Kiwi players of old going hard At the Sea Eagles Billaria.
The Aviation industry has to change to green fuels or everyone will just use skipe for business meetings they will save money and carbon being burned to protect their children futures.
Its not on that the Richmonds have to fight for custody of their mokopuna from the man who killed their daughter.
Its good that Ken got his houner for his mahi of looking after men who have been abused .
Alex I think there's snow on te monga
Ka kite ano
Kia ora te ao Maori News.
Congratulations for your win in the Netball.
Kia ora Patsy's for your honorable recognition of your services to he tangata.
I agree the tabaco taxs are hurting Maori in the hip pocket but the amount of people at the hospital with respiratory problems has dropped dramatically we need programs to help our people quit smoking.
Redcross needs more donations to help cope with the huge numbers needing their good help dig deep Whanau you can find the Red Cross site online.
Ka kite ano P.S I will put up a link to Redcross site