Jamal and his sister escaped from Homs following the government led bombardment and many of his family members have been ‘disappeared’ by Asad al Bashar’s forces. They came to the UK for safety.
Assad apologists in New Zealand who continue to ignore and condone genocide.
Need to realise; Your support for fascism is contagious and infectious
Nazis like Assad because he has killed, and is killing, a lot of Muslims. This is essential to their view of the world. Anyone who sets out to murder Muslims and Arabs can be considered a friend. In this sense the far-right love affair with Assad can be considered almost tactical, a means to an end……
……Nazis across the world love Assad partly because it is transgressive to do so. Their governments, or most of them, acknowledge Assad’s crimes and so to downplay them or embrace them seems an exciting, daring act.
Huddersfield is the centre of far right activism typified by far right activist Tommy Robinson,. It appears that before the attack on Jamal the schoolboy who assaulted Jamal had been sharing Tommy Robinson’s posts on social media.
The suspect had shared numerous posts from Robinson’s Facebook account in recent months, as well as from Britain First and other far-right accounts.
Robinson’s page has more than one million followers and his posts on the Huddersfield incident have been viewed up to 900,000 times each.
In the aftermath of the attack on Jamal, Robinson spread a completely false allegation that Jamal had assaulted a ‘white girl’.
Jamal’s family are suing Robinson.
Robinson’s attack on Jamal is a typical Nazi tactic used very effectively in Germany in the ’30s. German propaganda of the time demonised Jews as pedophiles and deviants, and rapists ‘defiling the race’. Most people’s deep repugnance of sex crimes has a high emotional content that fascists play on to demonise minorities.. Jewish people have called this sort of Nazi propaganda “blood libel”
Jamal’s family are suing local racist and fascist Tommy Robinson for spreading this lie.
Syrians are not the only ones who have paid a price for soft peddling fascist apologia and lies. Which not only gives comfort to the Assad regime, but embolden fasscists and Islamophobic racists in the West.
Jo Cox was assassinated for her support of the Syrian people and for exposing Assad fascism and genocide.
The most notable aspect of Jo Cox’s tragically short parliamentary career was her outspoken stance for escalating war in support of the so-called ‘moderate rebels’ in Syria. From the Blairite wing of the Labour party, she worked with neoconservatives and other Conservative hawks to use claims of genocide to support taking humanitarian intervention on the side of the moderate rebels by establishing safe havens, the delivery of humanitarian aid to rebel areas and support for the White Helmets.
“National MP Maggie Barry has been twice investigated over bullying claims this year – including accusations she expected staff to do political party work on taxpayer time, which would be unlawful.
The Weekend Herald can reveal two employees in Barry’s four-person office have accused her of bullying since May – one in a personal grievance complaint, and the other during the investigation of that complaint.
The Weekend Herald has obtained documents which show that during its investigations in August this year, Parliamentary Service heard allegations that Barry:
• swore and yelled at staff;
• called an employee “stupid”;
• used derogatory terms about other elected officials, which made staff uncomfortable;
• referred to people with mental health issues using offensive terms like “nutter”;
• discussed her employees’ sexuality in the workplace;
• expected staff would do work for the National Party during office hours, which they felt unable to refuse while knowing it was wrong, because they were scared.
One staffer told investigators he believed there was a huge power imbalance and that Barry was “terrifying” and could “destroy my career”.
Beat me to it WTB.
If you are old enough to remember her garden show of a couple of decades back – there was a nice older guy with a quiet manner called Bill. Bill was actually the only one on the show who really knew much about plants or gardening. Maggie managed to deliver a constant stream of smirky put-downs of Bill.
yep.
…. but “doncha know who she is?”
I hear she’s an one of Nu Zull’s broadcast institutions, and high society in the bush. I wonder if she intends retiring to one of the colonies
maggie denying everything in a desperate ego fueled attempt to retain her position of power.
Expect to see/hear flat out denial from other nat mp’s as they get called out for the same. Their motto is probably deny, delude and distract.
That’s the difference between a bully and someone who is stressed out, a bully will deny everything, a stressed out person who has over-reacted will usually own up to any bad behaviour, apologise and try and put it right.
Thrilled Trevor has made the bullying investigation possible, sure he has been no angel in the past, but he’s improving life for many by making this investigation happen.
When Maggie Barry hosted Nine to Noon back in the eighties I enjoyed her show very much. Occasionally I watched the Garden Show in latter years. I was disappointed when I learnt that she had thrown in her lot with the Nats and, as I have listened to and read her occasional arrogant rants in the time she has been an MP I am not at all surprised to learn of these bullying disclosures. It is the result of arrogance developed over a long period of being in the public eye in media where she was universally admired. It has all lead to an overbearing sense of entitlement – the hall mark of so many National party members and their parliamentary representatives.
I have similar thoughts and experiences as you Marcus in regard to our dear Maggie. I have to say though that arrogance never arrives out of nothing. There’s no doubt that exposure to adulation over time can lead to an arrogance and feeling of entitlement in a person. However, it needs a core this to be present before someone can get as puffed with her own importance as Maggie is. There are plenty of people who are admired and lauded for their achievements, and who display none of the odious characteristics displayed by Ms Barry. John Campbell springs to mind, and Jacinda, of course, but there are a good number of others. National seems to attract people who love themselves and who consider they are a cut above.
🙂
Couldn’t have said all that better.
So what should we make of the pompous Woodhouse – another of that ilk.
The old guard must be rolling in their graves – or soon-to-be graves.
The party of ‘free enterprise’ and ‘opportunity’ does seem to be attracting a lot of rabble these days.
/sarc
Cinny there apparently there are tapes which refute Maggie’s denials. Perhaps this is one thing we can thank Todd Barclay for? Ie gathering irrefutable evidence
All allegations only at this point but interesting to note the bits Eddie missed out in his efforts to make it look as bad as possible.
“Barry concedes there were issues raised by former staff, but they were resolved “by mutual agreement” and “there was no finding that bullying or harassment had occurred”.
I’m guessing that she would be tough to work for but whoever took this to the media sounds like a complete snowflake.
How does it go…. the person who is nice to you, but not nice to their staff, is not a nice person.
Is mental health so wide spread in NZ in part because we’ve forgotten how to be nice and instead say things like ‘harden up’. Or use excuses such as a person who can’t handle being talked down to is a complete snowflake, to excuse bad behaviour?
The most important issue facing us today and every day.
Climate change.
Here is an interesting article that looks at why ‘we’re ignoring climate change.’
Ed, last night at the school festival we had a wash station for plates and cups, and recycle and compost stations for rubbish.
People were encouraged to bring their own crockery or use the schools, and were given a discount off food if they did so.
They’ve also adopted a nude food challenge, kids that don’t have their lunch wrapped in cling film, or use little packets (like prepackaged bags of crackers etc) everyday go in the draw to win a prize.
Trying hard to be a zero waste school, if we educate the kids, often they will go home and educate their parents.
We were discussing the Radionz article this morning with a friend.
We all agree that something radical needs to change beyond the small things we are all doing – composting, cycling to work, growing vegetables, reusable shopping bags etc but even so there was denial about air travel (need to keep in touch with family and children overseas “I’m not like those instagrammers fuelling tourism”), fossil fuelled vehicles (we have three!) , “my kids generation will sort it out”, “I really care about the birds but I bought my niece a kitten for Christmas and a collar with a bell”…….
Last night we had wine and nibbles before a plant based meal – self indulgent behaviour really from people who care and worry about the huge problems facing us!
If we who care can’t change our behaviour enough to solve it, who on earth will?
I really care about the birds but I bought my niece a kitten for Christmas and a collar with a bell”…….
but we need the space for the three car garage, so these trees and shrubs needs to go. Also, i want a low maintenance garden, so that lawn needs to go to. Instead i have a pot or three of some desert plants here.
I know from the Natz but would not be surprised if it is true. Also interesting that is sounds like Mum was involved in the import/export drugs findings… but failed to be convicted/prosecuted.
“Will another Sroubek be granted Ministerial favour?
Suggestions drug smuggler Karel Sroubek’s mother is seeking permanent residency raise more questions about what Special Directions might be granted by the Minister, National’s Immigration spokesperson Michael Woodhouse says.”
Immigration did not seem to have much issue declining this women who does not sound like a criminal and has money to support herself.
But again it sounds like a political move as her husband is ex CIA who sounds like was concerned about an assignment and reported it to the chief of staff? .
“Harmon Wilfred – The First U.S. Refugee?
Harmon Wilfred was an honourably discharged U.S. Military Veteran with a top secret security clearance. He turned CIA whistleblower in 1999 over serious concerns he had about an assignment as a “CIA Asset” involved in covert financial transactions in 1997 and 1998. Harmon appears to have created some extremely powerful political enemies when he submitted a report on his concerns to Michael Horowitz, then Chief of Staff of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.”
It’s a pity our immigration policy seems to now be a dysfunctional political tool to further neoliberalism and individualism and get the worst people here, while stopping people who might be good citizens from living here and instead joining in on international bullying on people who sound like they tried to do the right thing.
Years ago my mother (40) got a knock on the door, me watching. There in front of her was a woman she had never met who looked very similar to one of her sisters.
“Hello I’m your sister” the woman said.
This being in the generations that killed so many men in wars that many women couldn’t find partners and no contraception. She lived next door to a man for over a decade. Due to “religion” the man couldn’t leave his wife. My grandmother had 6 girls in this relationship. The first she could keep and suspect was why she lived next to the father for so long. The next 5 were taken by the state at birth and fostered or adopted out. My grandmother was a large lady so this managed to be a 100% secret to my mother, community and the family. She met my grandfather who had his 6 kids taken from him when the mother died, a full blooded Maori and my full blooded Pakeha grandfather. My grandmother 7 more kids with my grandfather and died young with cancer.
I think a lot about what the hell were we thinking to end up with all those outcomes in my grandparents generation. What are we doing wrong today that we think is good. That my grandchild will say WTF were they thinking.
As a side issue which is why I thought about that sister at the door.
She had a son who unbeknown to me was an hermaphradite. We became freinds over the few years I knew him. He suicided at 18. Didn’t see it coming at all.
The laws supposed to be providing guidelines and set standards have often in their cold and remorseless way have done bad and hurtful things. My idea now is if we test matters against a kindness and practicality criteria, we will be able to avoid some mistakes, and lessen those that are made.
Yes.
Two steps forward and one step back is better than not making any steps unless your lost.
Accepting we make mistakes, doing something top stop or lesson mistakes, understand things take time, learn about our progress. Accepting we make mistakes.
Positive thoughts, good intent, informed, and a good dose of realism.
OTD in 1939 the Soviet Red Army began its unprovoked invasion of Finland. The attack began with the bombing of civilian targets in Helsinki and 18 Red Army divisions crossed the 1300km long border.
So back on subject Ed, what is your opinion on the Soviet invasion of Finland? From Just having a quick look at the wiki it seems that Finland was very much stuck between a rock and a hard place trying to preserve their sovereignty after the Nazis traded them off to the Soviets.
Just a reminder soltka – to save you wasting your time sending me more messages.
After your continual stalking, trolling and abuse of me, I shall not be replying to your messages or engaging in discussions with you.
The same applies to James, Stuart Munro and a couple of others.
Communist, not bordering on Populist-Capitalism (I’m being kind) – not that there’s much difference when they both have totalitarian/populist leaders and the Russian leader seems intent on bringing back the Soviet borders.
I do like how the Russians got their assess handed to them in that war. It was only sheer numbers which meant they won in the end. This attacked effectively forced the Fin’s to then support Nazi Germany.
Have you noticed joe90, the bombing of Helsinki is a topic avoid by most history books. At best quickly glossed over. I saw some photos in a South African history book recently which shows the Soviet Air Force had smashed the civilian parts of the city.
Weird detail is that a number of Finnish people received Nazi decorations in their mutual fight against the Soviets – including a few Jews receiving the Iron Cross.
Was that before or after its joint invasion of Poland with Germany. I think Winston saw that the Russians with Stalin in charge were only one goose step better than the German dictatorship. Just as Trump has freinds that history will judge were not freinds at all. More the enemy of my enemy is my freind.
After. And because Nazi Blitzkrieg tactics were such a roaring success in the invasion of Poland, they tried to emulate them. Finnish terrain undid them.
Stalin’s 1930’s purges of the Red Army officer corp where over half the corp was replaced by unqualified loyalists and his political commissars neutering of tactical decisions didn’t help.
Yes I was just taking the piss about hypocrisy. We declared war to protect Poland but ignored the Russians.
I think it’s hard to imagine such a small part of the global map could halt overwhelming force. I guess when Stalin looked at the map the land looked like any other when your in a warm office. I guess it didn’t come with a warning. Enter here at your own risk. High likelihood of freezing to death when awake, guaranteed if you fall asleep.
” In particular, the researchers found that there was a strong correlation between counties that voted overwhelmingly for Trump and internet searches for topics related to masculine insecurity, including “erectile dysfunction,” “hair loss,” “how to get girls,” “penis enlargement,” “penis size,” “steroids,” “testosterone” and “Viagra.” ”
Your Feelings of Anger, Fear and Sadness are Entirely Valid: My paraphrased notes on a talk on Climate Change; ‘This Civilisation is Finished’ by Rupert Read. Cambridge, 07/11/18.
Dear young people. I’m so sorry. We have totally failed you. Our corporations, governments and institutions have all failed you. Many of you may not have the chance to grow old.
The Paris Agreement was absolutely not enough. Things have got worse. US is the largest polluter and they’ve dropped out. Our weather systems appear to be spinning out of control. Oceans are storing much more heat than we’d realised. Methane release also threatens runaway warming. Commitments made for Paris targets are in contradiction to what the Governments actual actions are (pro-growth, infrastructure for industry and transport).
The techs proposed to save us either don’t exist or are untested. They could cause further disasters exacerbating an already dire situation. The Paris Agreement is toast. The aims are not being achieved. Conditions have worsened, and climate change is already upon us.
There are three possible future scenarios.
I. A transformed civilisation.
The best scenario, although highly unlikely.
What do we need?
Industry and Governments immediately cease their obsession with growth to address climate change with all possible resources.
Unprecedented large-scale change. Radical alteration of energy, agriculture, transport and trade.
We mobilise our governments, armies, corporations and citizens. Everyone tightens their belts. Everyone pitches in. A war on climate change.
II. A successor civilisation.
Following partial collapse. Very likely the best scenario we can hope for.
III. Total collapse.
From just a few humans left to the end of all complex life. Runaway methane and heating or simply coastal inundation of nuclear sites could wipe us out entirely. Possible, and must be avoided at all cost.
So, what can we do?
1. Wake up.
If you have not had feelings of fear, sadness and anger, you have not been paying attention. If you have been listening you might be interested to know there is an entirely new branch of psychology emerging: Ecopsychology. We are hurt by our hurting planet. Your feelings are entirely valid, and you are most certainly not alone.
Climate change is terrifying, tragic, and it could have been avoided.
2. Talk about it.
Many think they are suffering alone, but that is not the case. Share the burden of your fears and concerns, come together in support. Understand others anger, sadness and fear as valid; and try not to shut them down, rather, hear them.
This IS scary stuff.
3. Think about it.
How do we preserve the values of civilisation through scenario II?
4. Build lifeboats.
‘Prepping’. Food storage. Building community. Seed banking. Permaculture. ‘Building lifeboats’ is a theme that will soon be rolled out here in articles/posts. Watch for the heading ‘How To Get There’.
5. Holding Actions.
Divesting from big oil and subsidiaries. Lobbying government. Voting Green.
6. Rebel!
This is an emergency. Demand direct action. Use non-violent direct action. Join extinction rebellion. Start your own revolution. Make it clear this is not a drill.
7. Stop.
Slow right down. Take this in. Think about it. Feel it. Talk about it.
Then do courageous dramatic things.
Use your abilities and intelligence to retrofit your: yard, business, farm, orchard, company, government, family, community, society.
The Standard has a vast resource of knowledge and experience. I greatly enjoy discussion of solution-oriented adaptation, and the plan to enlarge on this mostly positive theme here is encouraging.
However, at the same time it has become clear to me after this talk that acknowledging our feelings about climate change is a vital part of moving forward together.
So I wrote these notes.
And to all the Ed’s and Bill’s of the world. I apologise for thinking you go over the top. Thank you for shoving things in my face that I needed to hear till I heard them.
The news story that dwarves all others.
Here are some people doing something to force change.
‘Australian students skip school for mass protest
On Monday, Australian PM Scott Morrison rebuked their plans for “activism” during school hours and insisted his government was tackling climate change.
Many students said his remarks had bolstered their resolve to protest.
“We will be the ones suffering the consequences of the decisions they [politicians] make today,” protester Jagveer Singh, 17, told the BBC.
Organisers say they were inspired by Greta Thunberg, a 15-year-old girl in Sweden who has undertaken similar protests.
Australia has committed to reducing its emissions by 26-28% on 2005 levels by 2030, under the Paris climate agreement.”
15 year old Greta Thunberg’s speech to the UK Extinction Rebellion rally outside Houses of Parliament on Wednesday 31st October 2018. Her quiet voice encouraged her audience to repeat her words so everyone could get the message.
“Oh climate change (that bits [sic] to Ed)” – trying not to sound “like a complete snowflake“, James, but what do youmean?
“Anna urges us to do this in every situation, even suggesting bringing up the weather at a barbeque to make a subtle segue onto the topic of climate. Conversations like this could be monumental in changing how people think about climate change.”
James I am not sure what your problem is with someone asking a direct question of another commentator in this case “are you straight?” I think it’s ok to ask, and it was a relevant question to the thread on sexuality and gender. Of course people are free to decline to answer.
Now a request I have of you. I would really like it is you left Ed alone ie don’t comment about him. I appreciate it if you consider this. Cheers
By all means disagree with any commenter here about their opinions but leave the person out of it. I realize this might appear like I am singling you out, but I have decided to put out this message of don’t attack the person on this website on an on-going basis……….
Btw me wondering what you found difficult about a commenters asking if someone was straight wasn’t a criticism I just saw it differently, but happy to hear your views about it
Thanks, Ankerrawshark. I made a similar request a week or so ago for people to have a crack at arguments rather than people. It’s not hard to adjust the wording of a comment to say things like ‘I think your opinion is wrong and here’s why …’, rather than ‘you’re an idiot’.
However, one of the strengths of TS is that conversations here are in near real time and sometimes that does mean that debates occasionally resemble the kind of intellectual discourse normally associated with pub car parks at closing time.
If the usual suspects are reading this, please note that abusive single sentence retorts might be simply diverted into spam in future and that other, sterner, corrective methods may be employed to keep debates from degenerating.
I think a little bit of banter ok. For example I found James comment Anna. Must be boring as fuck slightly amusing as she is unlikely to read it and it is something most of us could defend with something like James prefers his guests to talk about Bitcoin cause money is so interesting.
It is the unrelenting brawls that get personal I find unhelpful and unhealthy
He illuminates the incentive motivating Winston: “while National’s internal polling has NZ First at 4 per cent, Labour’s has had them at 5 or above plenty of weeks recently. The Greens have consistently scored about 5 in both the public and private polls, and both major parties’ internal polling has Labour ahead of National right now.”
“This is streets away from the situation in the last two terms when NZ First was in Government. Between 2005 and 2008, it basically never made it above the 5 per cent mark in public polling – leading to its one and only term out of Parliament.”
He also reveals a behind-the-scenes coalition arm-wrestle. “On Tuesday this week a very rare thing found its way to journalist’s inboxes: a press release signed off by Labour, NZ First, and the Greens. The release confirmed the set of compromises made by Labour and the Greens to ensure NZ First would support the second reading of a long-fought bill to reform workplace laws.”
“NZ First had already won a major concession before the bill was even introduced. Despite the fact Labour as a party exists to protect the rights of workers, the first Labour-led government in a decade decided to let NZ First keep 90 day trials for any businesses with fewer than 20 employees.” Then more wrestling occurred.
“Eventually Labour rolled out Heather Simpson, Helen Clark’s old enforcer. It’s understood she met NZ First chief of staff Jon Johansson, and Johansson himself met the unions, and the deal we saw on Tuesday was hammered out.”
While only 4 percent of traditional public schools have student bodies that are 99 percent minority (2014-15 school year data), 17 percent of charter schools are 99 percent minority. Furthermore, of the 6,747 charter schools in the country, more than 1,000 had minority enrollment of at least 99 percent.
They were some interesting links and yes Yanks have seem to stop pretending when one considers the lead up towards the Mid Term election IRT the Black Americans and the America Indians trying to enroll for the Mid Terms.
A million on security alone? Must be replacing a system of 30 year old PIRs lol. Possibly also a sprinkler system and a guardhouse/monitoring room, too.
We have better environmentalists inside Greenpeace now!!!!
Inside the ‘well healed’ members of the urban members of Green Party No-where are we hearing them fight to ‘save the world’ from climate change,’ simply firstly by restoring rail to get that 90% freight now carried on trucks to only 6% running on rail presently, at least half of that 90% be put back on rail again.
I now see all freight of what was ‘traditional rail freight’ running on roads now such as fertiliser, milk, aggregates, fuel, and timber products.
A number of other waste and hazardous products were also carried on rail, when the ‘Hazardous substance Act’ was enacted, but the 2008 National Government dialed that act back to allow dangerous substances to be carried on roads.
Consider that trucks are using eight times the energy to move ‘each tonne each km’ around NZ.
Those trucks shed black cancer causing tyre dust onto our roads and then the rain washes that cancer causing chemical substance of Tyre dust straight into our rivers, lakes and sea!!!!!
Then that black Tyre dust containing 1,3,butadiene/styrene (both cancer and nervous system damage causing chemicals) are carried by our water runoff systems after entering the sea are just being carried to the both ice-caps then the black dust just attract the heat from the sun to melt both polar ice caps at an alarming rate!!!!!!
Then the sea level rises and will just wash those trucks and those roads into the sea.
Trucks are then single biggest destroyer of our environment and future extreme weather systems.
Wake up everyone as we are reaching the end of sustainability.
The truck might not agree. I’m thinking that humans have something to do with the problem.
I’m struggling with your 90% comment.
I would suggest that what you would like to be achieved which I think needs addressing would require government intervention.
Firstly rules about freight so it’s journey from location to location, so rail must be considered and used if it’s realistic to do so.
Upgrading infastructure.
A train arrives, a robot puts on and removes cargo. A truck arrives, a robot takes off its cargo, then puts on the correct cargo. Trucks are often chosen due to time delays in the network, and the costs of inefficient processes. The costs are more with the choice to use trains, or Buisiness would use trains if the finances worked. When factories like Fonterra use trains it’s because it’s in a process designed and integrated with rail. Easily out performing trucks as a option.
Increasing connectivity.
The more connected the rail network the more realistic minimising truck use becomes. Adding light rail connecting bigger non rail connected towns as a start. Underground light rail connected to suburb town centres, industrial areas, courier hubs, airports, ports, main rail hubs.
Full electrification of the network including battery powered trains.
Intercity buses could also be replaced with a standard and lite gauge using rail using EV buses.
Yes as a climate denier you would say that and you are off the mark sadly.
Firstly you have no concerns about the tyre pollution to humans and environment/ice cap melting do you?
That is disturbing.
And where did it say I advocated for connectivity and farm gate rail service?
Go look at the way transport/connectivity was structured in NZ in the l;ast 40 yrs.
Then you will see where your National party went the wrong way.
First they allowed the closure of many factories around NZ that was close to rail lines and “centralised the whole system for “efficiency” but they forgot that eventually without rail truck freight would eventually prove to expensive and now the Road Transport Form Ken Shirley is howling at the cost of taxes on truck freight.
Well if he had backed rail instead we would have a rail and local truck delivery and pickup like we had firstly again and the cost to freight would become cheaper while saving lives cost of road repairs and use far less carbon emissions so you cant fight that model that was always the ‘best practice’ used world wide now and before so the only thing you said right was ‘humans have something to do with the problem’ – yes indeed they are.
Cleangreen
Encouraging people groping their way to an understanding of how we can change to cope with our looming future, is the best way. It doesn’t do to crush the process and throw negatives around. It is so easy to poison a well, why would you do it?
Can we have more positives, with you inserting your further ideas. Each move of mind should result in a step-up for that person and all readers of the post, of which there may be many out in the wop-wops of the outer ether.
Clean green politics is pragmatic change is relative to support pick on those who don’t support the greens otherwise you are just sabotaging any progress.
I think we must now go and visit places we normally would go to, even if the conditions have changed. It is part of living in the real world with Climate Change, not expecting it to be similar to Disneyworld, which will show a fake version. Perhaps that will be the service of modern Disneyworlds, to show how the world used to be just a few decades ago.
But we never saw the pickpockets stealing our amazing planet out of our pockets while we bought, and bought, and played and sported and never counted the cost.
Publisher making two of Harry Leslie Smith’s books, including “Harry’s Last Stand” free to download via ebook services this weekend only – links for each provider (Amazon, Apple, Google, etc) in the tweets following this one: https://twitter.com/iconbooks/status/1068473889246887936
It may have been legal and it may even have been cool, but to lie about what you are doing to the American public is totally uncool.
Especially when one of the teasers for the project was the possibility of a $50m penthouse for one Vlad Putin! (june 2016).
This just before he is calling on Russia and Wikileaks (July 2016) to release the emails.
Meanwhile… for Cohen and possibly D Trump Jnr to lie to the Senate about it, is an indictable offence. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/richard-burr-reveals-senate-intel-has-referred-testimonies-to-special-counsel-robert-mueller
Furthermore, if, in his written answers to Mueller, he tells the same story as Cohen and possibly Manafort, and Jnr did to the Senate Committees, then he is in BIG trouble. https://www.vox.com/world/2018/11/30/18119670/michael-cohen-trump-tower-moscow-explained
Which may well explain why Trump has been in a foul mood after hearing the Cohen plea deal according to reports from the WH
It was a "third-rate burglary attempt. … Certain elements may try to stretch this beyond what it is.″ — White House spokesman Ronald Ziegler, June 19, 1972. https://t.co/3GQobUfOcU— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) November 30, 2018
There may still be people he listens to that might be able to convince him he needs to negotiate his pardon from Pence, then resign. To reduce the risk of an orange jumpsuit having a starring role in his future. And the conversation that brings that about is likely to end with “Now be sure to pardon all of us before you resign, OK daddy?”
You actually think he listens to anyone? 🙂
I gather the only one he listens to is his gut – and that seems to be rumbling quite a bit these days.
Trump: My gut tells me more than anybody’s brain.
Thinking about Prof Brady and Chinese reaction to fair comment and facts.
Read http://www.kiwipolitico.com/2018/11/left-compass-lost/ – …the independent minded expat Chinese community in NZ, who remain silent in the face of threats against them here as well as against their families and associates back on the mainland. It behooves readers to read, watch and listen to the Mandarin-language media here in NZ (even if needing translators) because the rhetoric employed by these outlets –which Brady has pointed out are with the exception of the Falun Gong mouthpiece Epoch Times all controlled by CCP-linked United Front organisations –is hostile to the point of threatening towards all those who do not toe the Party line
OK short and sweet Ad. But I was thinking about a list. I don’t find the leader or major political poseur of the UK, USA, China, Russia much chop.
Who do you like for the podium?
Yeah, I do a sporadic complaint about it now & then. I think the one a few months back mentioned we hadn’t had a top western leader being an authentic statesman since the post WWII era, or something like that. You know, Eisenhower’s warning the American public about the threat of his own military-industrial complex, Kennedy facing down Kruschev. At the non-top-level we got Havel & I do rate Mandela a genuine statesman. Always possible, regardless that power structures tend to deselect them.
Merkel has a track record as a competent manager. A statesman has a comprehensive overview at the top level, capacity to act on that basis, does so with appropriate effect, and earns a reputation above all other contenders on that basis. Within that mix there must also be moral guidance, which all involved recognise as being right (in the common interest).
And with Sanders he’s developed an appropriate action plan: “That is why DiEM25 and the Sanders Institute have launched the Progressive International movement: to mobilize people around the world to transform the global order and the institutions that shape it.” https://www.progressive-international.org/
“A reinvigorated United Nations, with a security council elected from a UN assembly comprising not just government appointees but also citizens from around the world, should forge binding commitments to swift ecological transition.”
However he hasn’t yet been able to persuade other key players to join his team. A statesman has the charisma and gravitas to make that happen. We’re not seeing evidence that he’s got what it takes. For instance, I haven’t noticed Corbyn endorsing the above prescription!
Service is one thing. His war service. His being a self made man. A long period of service in government. He as we are both aware, did some good things and bad things. Just like everybody else does. Overall he was a good man trying do good things for the people he represented and had the character of a gentleman in public and in private. I give some thanks for that as an example for any young person.
oh you mean Zapata, who was most likely a conduit for CIA money and operations. Or you mean being born into a privileged family of which Granpa almost was convicted for treason, going to super posh all boys school n such?
Bush the elder was no more selfmade then Trump. Both were born fairly well off, and then continued to make money the respectable way, inherited.
As for his war service, so did literally any man born into these times that were drafted to fight. I have more respect for those that refused to fight, cause that took guts, real guts.
Bush was not a ‘nice’ man. He was a company man, he was owned lock stock n barrel, as are his sons. None of them did this world any good in any which way.
– Negotiated NAFTA
– Pushed Saddan out of Kuwait with UN mandate and 30 member coalition and did not destroy Iraq
– Pushed out Noriega
– Spectacularly popular as a result of those wars
– Total Republican gentleman
But
– Total Nixon defender
– CIA to his fingernails, but given much stronger oversight by Ford’s directive 11905
– Ran the economy down, and spent all his popularity on not much of worth
– Given the ass after one term by Clinton
– Father to a generation of mediocre Bush politicians
Your Buts.
Nixon.
He had a public service role and that was to support the President. I believe he told Nixon to resign.
CIA Director.
He had a public service role. One that is probably extremely difficult with life and death decisions. His mistakes probably affected him, like it would if we had that job.
Economy.
Yes he wasn’t strong on that plus using opportunity of developement by wasting it on war.
Lost election.
After 12 years of a Republican President. Time for change.
Father.
160 million American males will never raise a child to become president. Just 4 since he ended his official public service. Sorry 3.
Bush led the Republican Party and was a staunch defender of a criminal President who resigned in disgrace.
Bush needed controlling as CIA Director, so the Ford directive again the entire intelligence comity put him in his place, as was totally appropriate.
Lost election despite 90% popularity during the Gulf War. Shit at being President.
Father of mediocre leadership. None of them generated goodness in the world. The world would have been better off if none of them had ever been elected to office at all. I’ve seen better public servants in the New Lynn library.
Would point out that Iraq had been involved in an 8 year war with Iran that had taken a huge toll on it’s military and economy. Saddam’s army was exhausted and the 1991 Gulf war was more of a massacre than anything else.
that generally Americans are not good at winning wars unless they get help, or the enemy is already on the ground. And for what its worth, the US and its spineless helpers should have never invaded Iraq at the time, and then should have never invaded Iraq the second time around.
For what its worth, bush the elder and bush the younger both got their invasion with all that jazz and jizz and non of them ever defeated the country. They created misery and mayhem, and they still have not won anything, nor created any lasting legacy.
they were both spectacular shitty presidents in a whole slew of shitty presidents.
So can any body tell me what would be wrong with me doing Buisiness deals in Russia. I can’t work out what’s wrong with it. Would any of Trumps deals he has done in other countries count, why not? are they not just the same things.
I don’t understand the paranoia. It’s not like Trumps smashing up hard drives.
Donald Trump needed to be aware of those from 2014 since he was auditioning in 2015 and 2016 to be the person who would represent those state positions.
Not only was Trump hoping to get Russian finance to build a tower opposite the Kremlin with his name on it – which was the only way that was going to happen, but part of the sweetener was to be a $50m penthouse for Vlad! Furthermore he still had skin in the game in June 2016 but Donald Jnr and others have told Congress that the deal had fallen through long before then. This was a lie and as such is an indictable offence.
“It’s a loud message to everybody that is interviewed by our committee, regardless of where that prosecution comes from: If you lie to us, we’re going to go after you. Our mandate is at the end of this to get as close to the clear truth as we possibly can, and we can’t do it on conjecture. We’ve got to do it on facts.”
In his plea deal, Cohen, President Trump’s former personal attorney, admitted that he lied about negotiations he had about building a Trump Tower in Moscow. Those discussions about the real estate project occurred well into the 2016 presidential campaign, while Cohen represented Trump in business dealings.
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Thursday that the committee had made multiple criminal referrals to Mueller, but added “we’re not going to talk about any individuals.”
Some of the key people interviewed by the committee include Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Jared Kushner, and Donald Trump Jr.
Why Michael Cohen’s Trump Tower Moscow revelation matters, in under 500 words
A small guide to a really big deal.
TLDR
This is bad for Trump. Cohen says he aimed to secure a lucrative business deal with Russians closely linked with Putin on Trump’s behalf during the 2016 presidential election — all while Trump was repeatedly championing better Washington-Moscow ties in campaign speeches.
What’s worse, it’s entirely possible Trump knew a close confidant willingly lied to Congress.
Most likely, but maybe a conspiracy theory.
His granpa, not him.
Rich kid yes but he leveraged that opportunity. He was a self made man, he created his own Buisiness. You need to look at the start of his adult life.
War has often not been an option for men. In fact women lurked the streets with feathers looking for cowards. Demanding they suffer, maim themselves, and die to protect them while lived in relative comfort. He was a volunteer putting his life on the line in the service of his country.
You are looking at this mans actions from one perspective. He did many good things, made many good decisions. He broke the ice with China, supported German reunification, events that led to profound change to all our lives. He did lots of charity work post being president.
He is not responsible for his sons actions. The deposing of Saddam was not his decision. He didn’t decide to invade Afganistan.
Sadam Hussain forced the company hand with Kuwait. Supported by most nations.
Things like global warming was hardly discussed in his era. He never got a Government report proving man made Climate Change. Judging the actions of people in the past shouldn’t be by today’s reality or understanding.
He has his record, that speaks for him. And no, he did not need to start a war for Oil, and his son did not have a valid reason to continue the war on Oil and on the Iraquis.
Essentially the man was bad, he was born to money – indisputable, grew up with all the white male privilege his time had to offer, never had to actually work for anything, and eventually ended up president, of which really he did not do a good job by any standard. If you want to see self made, i suggest you look to Oprah Winfrey. Now there you have self made. Every cent of it.
Supported t he German reunification? what was he to do? drop a bomb? Short of shooting people in the main squares on Monday nights during hte weekly protests, there was nothing the East Germans (SED, Volkspolizei) could do to prevent the unification. And no, Poppa Bush did nothing, absolutely nothing to bring that about. It was the women protesting the Afghan war in Russia, hiding their sons so that they would not be send to war, protesting every day anywhere in what was then the USSR and the people of East Germany, Hungary, Poland etc that brought down the iron Curtain, the Yanks did nothing. You might want to read up on these times in Europe, they were pretty interesting.
He is responsible for his sons actions, he raised his sons, he influenced his sons, and i am sure he advised them. Then there was also …..Saddam tried to kill my Daddy, never mind Rumsfeld delivering the weapons a decade earlier for Saddam to fight the Iranians.
China, as i recall it was his good friend Nixon who went there first, Poppa just followed in the footstep of an honest crook before him.
The man was rich trash, could not give a flying fuck about anyone not named Bush, inherited his lifestyle and earned his position thanks to his name, inheritance and family connections.
Still every man, every women who ever opposed a war, earned their own keep, did not lie, steal and plunder another country for oil has more honor in their little finger then this guy had in his whole body. Other then that, may he rest in peace.
An excerpt from an important article by Bomber.
It would be good to see more emphasis on climate change on this site, rather than conversations by the Woke Left on identity politics.
The future of humanity is a little more pressing!
“Climate change and its impacts are far more dangerous than currently acknowledged and only a radical populist response can unseat the vested corporate interests that create the current political and economic inertia. As more and more climate events occur at faster and faster rates, voters will turn on the current hegemony, the question is who will harvest that anger and fear, the Left or the Right?
…….Politically we need a radical Green Socialist Party. The Middle Class Woke Identity Politics vehicle we have with the current Green Party is a sad joke that alienates more than it recruits. While they bicker about reclaiming the word ‘cunt’ and deciding which pronoun to use for Trans gender rights, the planet melts. Building every Millennial micro-aggression into a war crime doesn’t do a fucking thing to combat climate change.
What few Green Party voters even recognise is that the current Green Party is built upon free market economics, so we need a new radical Green Socialism Party with one goal and one goal only – radical populist climate change adaption that utterly rejects neoliberalism.”
The article is here.
I’ll look at in more depth tomorrow
Kia ora R & R Clint I’m not getting into that debate but people can have there reality’s/ options change I did a good post on cambridge analytical that is a major threat artificial intelligence is were its at.
Voting online and compulsory voting is the way to go like Australia.
Land line polling is not accurate.
The Amercian election’s are distorted by election boundary’s being drawn by gop party who have lost the majority vote in the last 4 election cycles
The neo carbon barons want a pro carbon climate change deniers as a governments all around the world. Ka kite ano .trump lost power in the mid term elections now they can make him accountable for his cheating .True Kiwis are more polite than most
Kia ora The Hui when you have a goverment that has put money before there voters well being well we can see they have made a big mess we just had one person putting down our youth to justifie importing cheap labour.
Yes tamariki need love and hope .
Bullies are made by other bullys and that correct they the same love and hope .
I was the untidiest poorest kid at school other kids tried to bully me but it was like water of a rakiraki back why because my whano bullied me since I was nine. I was lucky I was given a strong back Honky nick was my name.
Ka kite ano
Kia ora Marare Ka pai to Maori Music I tau toko te tangata whenua O Aotearoa waita .
Lance I think I know the massage your are trying to get out there is.
Our health systems for Maori need to have a maori wairua the health system need to be revamped may be health centers for maori .
When one goes it the health system some staff are showing there discrimination just by the way they look at us and the way they talk to us so some people won’t seek help until there health problem has gotten close to life or death or very bad so some aliment that could have been treated with medicine ends up with hospitalization.
In my view we need to change thing’s an have the tangata whenua seek help as soon as the feel sick not weeks later as the cost on the persons health and the health system explodes .
Solution have maori treat maori when one goes into a health center a maori nurse check’s the person asap make us feel at easy if there is a problem the nurse can’t treat so be it if the doctor needs to see the person hopefully there is a understanding preferable one who understands maori culture person to treat the patient .
I think one has to look outside the square box to get maori health stats to improve dramatically.
Willy we know you have maori’s best interest at heart just .
Communication is needed if a patient is not at ease they will not communicate well and the treatment could be misdiagnosed Ka kite ano P.S better late than never Scotty 501
I see the sandflys payed for the LGBTI awards they paid for the top 2 awards sending money on there image instead of changing there culture it would cost a lot less.
The sandflys break my human rights every minute of the day and everyone can see this they have cost me $50 k in lost business I have had other business opportunity and the have poured there hate on those opportunity’s .There attitude is who cares you just a broke heaven maori . I there harresment of me they has caused 2 couples to break up.
They cry and blame Eco Maori because they are getting there our wai sprayed in there faces from tawhirimate the big picture is they started this bullshit cheating MAN HUNT and I’m not going to cower and hide because they are to thick to see the big picture they are the ones behaving in a criminal manna not thee I not Eco Maori so any bad wairua /karma they get well they should all take a good look in the mirror ANA TO KAI.
Ka kite ano P.S they have a lot of staff leaving and the people who don’t trust them is 40%
Kia ora Newshub there are some idiots out there who do dumb stuff the Bredon brother lies of his death muppets they new they would get heaps of hits.
Its sad that those people who lost there house in the floods. It would not have been so bad if we did not have a climate change denier in the lead for the last 9 years.
Condolences to Ex President Bush snr whano for there loss of him he.
The far right playing up in France again.
I say climate change is the main cause of all the Whales stranding life is a finely ballance force.
That math teacher looks like a national supporter.
Well I will never let a car drive me anywhere I know how easy they can be hacked I like the tweel tyrers on the cars.
Niki & Andrew it’s been a good weekend for Aotearoa sports Mana Wahine Ka kite ano
Eco Maori say that all the children around the World should strike for the futures.
And all teachers who know human caused climate change is a real threat should support them in there quest for a happy healthy future.
ka kite ano.
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 ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
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.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
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Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
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Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
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Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
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It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
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Fascism is infectious
Jamal and his sister escaped from Homs following the government led bombardment and many of his family members have been ‘disappeared’ by Asad al Bashar’s forces. They came to the UK for safety.
Assad apologists in New Zealand who continue to ignore and condone genocide.
Need to realise; Your support for fascism is contagious and infectious
Coming to a school and community near you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZvm5zj8pnM
Jamal’s sister has also been bullied at the same school
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6439263/New-video-shows-SISTER-Syrian-refugee-waterboarded-bullies-having-headscarf-pulled.html
Why Nazis from Charlottesville tp Europe love Bashar al-Assad
Huddersfield is the centre of far right activism typified by far right activist Tommy Robinson,. It appears that before the attack on Jamal the schoolboy who assaulted Jamal had been sharing Tommy Robinson’s posts on social media.
In the aftermath of the attack on Jamal, Robinson spread a completely false allegation that Jamal had assaulted a ‘white girl’.
Jamal’s family are suing Robinson.
Robinson’s attack on Jamal is a typical Nazi tactic used very effectively in Germany in the ’30s. German propaganda of the time demonised Jews as pedophiles and deviants, and rapists ‘defiling the race’. Most people’s deep repugnance of sex crimes has a high emotional content that fascists play on to demonise minorities.. Jewish people have called this sort of Nazi propaganda “blood libel”
Jamal’s family are suing local racist and fascist Tommy Robinson for spreading this lie.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/nov/29/bullied-syrian-refugee-huddersfield-school
Syrians are not the only ones who have paid a price for soft peddling fascist apologia and lies. Which not only gives comfort to the Assad regime, but embolden fasscists and Islamophobic racists in the West.
Jo Cox was assassinated for her support of the Syrian people and for exposing Assad fascism and genocide.
Maggie Barry accused of bullying behaviour.
“National MP Maggie Barry has been twice investigated over bullying claims this year – including accusations she expected staff to do political party work on taxpayer time, which would be unlawful.
The Weekend Herald can reveal two employees in Barry’s four-person office have accused her of bullying since May – one in a personal grievance complaint, and the other during the investigation of that complaint.
The Weekend Herald has obtained documents which show that during its investigations in August this year, Parliamentary Service heard allegations that Barry:
• swore and yelled at staff;
• called an employee “stupid”;
• used derogatory terms about other elected officials, which made staff uncomfortable;
• referred to people with mental health issues using offensive terms like “nutter”;
• discussed her employees’ sexuality in the workplace;
• expected staff would do work for the National Party during office hours, which they felt unable to refuse while knowing it was wrong, because they were scared.
One staffer told investigators he believed there was a huge power imbalance and that Barry was “terrifying” and could “destroy my career”.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12169084
Maggie’s been a nasty bully ever since her garden show where she was a demanding entitled asshat pretty much all the time.
It would be interesting to hear from people who worked for her then.
Beat me to it WTB.
If you are old enough to remember her garden show of a couple of decades back – there was a nice older guy with a quiet manner called Bill. Bill was actually the only one on the show who really knew much about plants or gardening. Maggie managed to deliver a constant stream of smirky put-downs of Bill.
I’ve had the pleasure of getting on the drink with Bill. Despite being a rabid tory, he’s an awfully nice bloke and a ton of fun.
Maggie Barry is a cringworthy nastty spicimen of right wing ideology person, and she would crush your skull if given the chance.
She is a very agressive woman.
yep.
…. but “doncha know who she is?”
I hear she’s an one of Nu Zull’s broadcast institutions, and high society in the bush. I wonder if she intends retiring to one of the colonies
(/sarc)
maggie denying everything in a desperate ego fueled attempt to retain her position of power.
Expect to see/hear flat out denial from other nat mp’s as they get called out for the same. Their motto is probably deny, delude and distract.
That’s the difference between a bully and someone who is stressed out, a bully will deny everything, a stressed out person who has over-reacted will usually own up to any bad behaviour, apologise and try and put it right.
Thrilled Trevor has made the bullying investigation possible, sure he has been no angel in the past, but he’s improving life for many by making this investigation happen.
When Maggie Barry hosted Nine to Noon back in the eighties I enjoyed her show very much. Occasionally I watched the Garden Show in latter years. I was disappointed when I learnt that she had thrown in her lot with the Nats and, as I have listened to and read her occasional arrogant rants in the time she has been an MP I am not at all surprised to learn of these bullying disclosures. It is the result of arrogance developed over a long period of being in the public eye in media where she was universally admired. It has all lead to an overbearing sense of entitlement – the hall mark of so many National party members and their parliamentary representatives.
I have similar thoughts and experiences as you Marcus in regard to our dear Maggie. I have to say though that arrogance never arrives out of nothing. There’s no doubt that exposure to adulation over time can lead to an arrogance and feeling of entitlement in a person. However, it needs a core this to be present before someone can get as puffed with her own importance as Maggie is. There are plenty of people who are admired and lauded for their achievements, and who display none of the odious characteristics displayed by Ms Barry. John Campbell springs to mind, and Jacinda, of course, but there are a good number of others. National seems to attract people who love themselves and who consider they are a cut above.
🙂
Couldn’t have said all that better.
So what should we make of the pompous Woodhouse – another of that ilk.
The old guard must be rolling in their graves – or soon-to-be graves.
The party of ‘free enterprise’ and ‘opportunity’ does seem to be attracting a lot of rabble these days.
/sarc
Cinny there apparently there are tapes which refute Maggie’s denials. Perhaps this is one thing we can thank Todd Barclay for? Ie gathering irrefutable evidence
All allegations only at this point but interesting to note the bits Eddie missed out in his efforts to make it look as bad as possible.
“Barry concedes there were issues raised by former staff, but they were resolved “by mutual agreement” and “there was no finding that bullying or harassment had occurred”.
I’m guessing that she would be tough to work for but whoever took this to the media sounds like a complete snowflake.
Umm James the herald has heard tapes that refute her denials
Yes terrible tapes of Maggie calling some one barking, oh the inhumanity
Actually agree bewildered. It’s not the crime of the century
How does it go…. the person who is nice to you, but not nice to their staff, is not a nice person.
Is mental health so wide spread in NZ in part because we’ve forgotten how to be nice and instead say things like ‘harden up’. Or use excuses such as a person who can’t handle being talked down to is a complete snowflake, to excuse bad behaviour?
James putting the ice_ing on the bullying cake.
‘there was no finding’ means ‘we made sure nothing got said on the record’ jimbo.
It’s quite funny watching people trying to highlight cases from the other side as if it makes their sides cases less bad.
Especially when the whole thing is being overseen by a bloke who punches people in the head at work.
I wonder if Erin Leigh will be asked her opinion
https://www.newshub.co.nz/opinion/duncan-garner/rennie-its-time-to-apologise-over-erin-leigh-2011092113
Benson Pope got pushed out of Labour he is an idiot/looks like his replacement is no better.
Good tennis player I hear, that been DBP,🤗
Why are you referring to yourself? Are you being ironic or hypocritical or …?
The most important issue facing us today and every day.
Climate change.
Here is an interesting article that looks at why ‘we’re ignoring climate change.’
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/in-depth/377074/why-we-re-ignoring-climate-change
Ed, last night at the school festival we had a wash station for plates and cups, and recycle and compost stations for rubbish.
People were encouraged to bring their own crockery or use the schools, and were given a discount off food if they did so.
They’ve also adopted a nude food challenge, kids that don’t have their lunch wrapped in cling film, or use little packets (like prepackaged bags of crackers etc) everyday go in the draw to win a prize.
Trying hard to be a zero waste school, if we educate the kids, often they will go home and educate their parents.
7.0 earthquake in Ancorage Alaska today.
Lots of liquefaction there today and broken roads.
Guess the “Ice road” will be damaged too now?
https://www.wsbradio.com/news/national/alaska-earthquake-magnitude-quake-rocks-anchorage/KlSaEo4OvsWrQPUNGM22wJ/
Woah !
The nude food challenge with a carrot (as opposed to a stick) as motivation is a great idea.
James, you even get your photo in the school newsletter 🙂
We were discussing the Radionz article this morning with a friend.
We all agree that something radical needs to change beyond the small things we are all doing – composting, cycling to work, growing vegetables, reusable shopping bags etc but even so there was denial about air travel (need to keep in touch with family and children overseas “I’m not like those instagrammers fuelling tourism”), fossil fuelled vehicles (we have three!) , “my kids generation will sort it out”, “I really care about the birds but I bought my niece a kitten for Christmas and a collar with a bell”…….
Last night we had wine and nibbles before a plant based meal – self indulgent behaviour really from people who care and worry about the huge problems facing us!
If we who care can’t change our behaviour enough to solve it, who on earth will?
This bit Matiri… “If we who care can’t change our behaviour enough to solve it, who on earth will?”
Very well said indeed.
I really care about the birds but I bought my niece a kitten for Christmas and a collar with a bell”…….
but we need the space for the three car garage, so these trees and shrubs needs to go. Also, i want a low maintenance garden, so that lawn needs to go to. Instead i have a pot or three of some desert plants here.
I know from the Natz but would not be surprised if it is true. Also interesting that is sounds like Mum was involved in the import/export drugs findings… but failed to be convicted/prosecuted.
“Will another Sroubek be granted Ministerial favour?
Suggestions drug smuggler Karel Sroubek’s mother is seeking permanent residency raise more questions about what Special Directions might be granted by the Minister, National’s Immigration spokesperson Michael Woodhouse says.”
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1811/S00273/will-another-sroubek-be-granted-ministerial-favour.htm
Immigration did not seem to have much issue declining this women who does not sound like a criminal and has money to support herself.
But again it sounds like a political move as her husband is ex CIA who sounds like was concerned about an assignment and reported it to the chief of staff? .
“Harmon Wilfred – The First U.S. Refugee?
Harmon Wilfred was an honourably discharged U.S. Military Veteran with a top secret security clearance. He turned CIA whistleblower in 1999 over serious concerns he had about an assignment as a “CIA Asset” involved in covert financial transactions in 1997 and 1998. Harmon appears to have created some extremely powerful political enemies when he submitted a report on his concerns to Michael Horowitz, then Chief of Staff of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.”
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1811/S00083/christchurch-investor-couple-separated-by-inz-for-3-years.htm
It’s a pity our immigration policy seems to now be a dysfunctional political tool to further neoliberalism and individualism and get the worst people here, while stopping people who might be good citizens from living here and instead joining in on international bullying on people who sound like they tried to do the right thing.
Years ago my mother (40) got a knock on the door, me watching. There in front of her was a woman she had never met who looked very similar to one of her sisters.
“Hello I’m your sister” the woman said.
This being in the generations that killed so many men in wars that many women couldn’t find partners and no contraception. She lived next door to a man for over a decade. Due to “religion” the man couldn’t leave his wife. My grandmother had 6 girls in this relationship. The first she could keep and suspect was why she lived next to the father for so long. The next 5 were taken by the state at birth and fostered or adopted out. My grandmother was a large lady so this managed to be a 100% secret to my mother, community and the family. She met my grandfather who had his 6 kids taken from him when the mother died, a full blooded Maori and my full blooded Pakeha grandfather. My grandmother 7 more kids with my grandfather and died young with cancer.
I think a lot about what the hell were we thinking to end up with all those outcomes in my grandparents generation. What are we doing wrong today that we think is good. That my grandchild will say WTF were they thinking.
As a side issue which is why I thought about that sister at the door.
She had a son who unbeknown to me was an hermaphradite. We became freinds over the few years I knew him. He suicided at 18. Didn’t see it coming at all.
..
The laws supposed to be providing guidelines and set standards have often in their cold and remorseless way have done bad and hurtful things. My idea now is if we test matters against a kindness and practicality criteria, we will be able to avoid some mistakes, and lessen those that are made.
Yes.
Two steps forward and one step back is better than not making any steps unless your lost.
Accepting we make mistakes, doing something top stop or lesson mistakes, understand things take time, learn about our progress. Accepting we make mistakes.
Positive thoughts, good intent, informed, and a good dose of realism.
OTD in 1939 the Soviet Red Army began its unprovoked invasion of Finland. The attack began with the bombing of civilian targets in Helsinki and 18 Red Army divisions crossed the 1300km long border.
We know you don’t like Russia.
You should enlist for the Ukranian army.
Along with other Fascists.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/aug/27/they-wanted-to-kill-us-masked-neo-fascists-strike-fear-into-ukraines-roma
https://www.thenation.com/article/americas-collusion-with-neo-nazis/
Ed you are a nasty troll.
Besties.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2018/nov/30/putin-and-saudi-crown-prince-high-five-at-g20-summit-video
Are you another cold war warrior who resides on this site?
Wow….
So back on subject Ed, what is your opinion on the Soviet invasion of Finland? From Just having a quick look at the wiki it seems that Finland was very much stuck between a rock and a hard place trying to preserve their sovereignty after the Nazis traded them off to the Soviets.
Just a reminder soltka – to save you wasting your time sending me more messages.
After your continual stalking, trolling and abuse of me, I shall not be replying to your messages or engaging in discussions with you.
The same applies to James, Stuart Munro and a couple of others.
OK, but i would have thought that a peace loving kind caring person might have had an opinion.
best not to reply Ed and show yourself up as a fool by not being able to answer a question.
Stick with reposting Rachael and Vegan propaganda.
Ed has no time for you James.
I’m thinking you and Ed are possibly the same person.
James you sound like a broken record all the time go and put a xmas tree up or something else, as we are bored with you.
I would like to see you prove that. What were you saying about tinfoil hats again?
You want me to prove what I’m thinking ?
I would prefer not to enter tinfoil hat wonderland right now thanks.
We are riddled with McCarthyists here Ed.
Riddled, nah.
Ed’s the only one making unsubstantiated allegations about other poster’s political leanings.
Oh Ed’s assessments are never far from truth.
Really?
I doubt the dopey prick could assess his way out of his own front door without an RT video to tell him how.
Ed can’t get out of his front door as Rachel Steward and George 🐈 Galloway nailed it
How odious.
You’re Eddie’s sock, aren’t you?
‘Sup, bro!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7_aQ3q1PuQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IkGISeRbU4&bpctr=1543617247
Ed Fascists vs Fascist =Trump vs Putin
The Soviets – not Russia
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Georgia
Ukraine
Belarus
and at the time led by Stalin, a Georgian.
Communist, not bordering on Populist-Capitalism (I’m being kind) – not that there’s much difference when they both have totalitarian/populist leaders and the Russian leader seems intent on bringing back the Soviet borders.
I do like how the Russians got their assess handed to them in that war. It was only sheer numbers which meant they won in the end. This attacked effectively forced the Fin’s to then support Nazi Germany.
Have you noticed joe90, the bombing of Helsinki is a topic avoid by most history books. At best quickly glossed over. I saw some photos in a South African history book recently which shows the Soviet Air Force had smashed the civilian parts of the city.
Weird detail is that a number of Finnish people received Nazi decorations in their mutual fight against the Soviets – including a few Jews receiving the Iron Cross.
Was that before or after its joint invasion of Poland with Germany. I think Winston saw that the Russians with Stalin in charge were only one goose step better than the German dictatorship. Just as Trump has freinds that history will judge were not freinds at all. More the enemy of my enemy is my freind.
After. And because Nazi Blitzkrieg tactics were such a roaring success in the invasion of Poland, they tried to emulate them. Finnish terrain undid them.
Stalin’s 1930’s purges of the Red Army officer corp where over half the corp was replaced by unqualified loyalists and his political commissars neutering of tactical decisions didn’t help.
Yes I was just taking the piss about hypocrisy. We declared war to protect Poland but ignored the Russians.
I think it’s hard to imagine such a small part of the global map could halt overwhelming force. I guess when Stalin looked at the map the land looked like any other when your in a warm office. I guess it didn’t come with a warning. Enter here at your own risk. High likelihood of freezing to death when awake, guaranteed if you fall asleep.
Ahem – the U.S.S.R. ceased to exist a long time ago
Not if the Chekist thug had his way.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-election-putin/putin-before-vote-says-hed-reverse-soviet-collapse-if-he-could-agencies-idUSKCN1GE2TF
Barfly It’s reemerging as a fascist state as is fascism. Just one Goose step backwards to steel DJ Wards words!
You know joey the more I hear about this Stalin fellow, the less I like him.
Heh.
” In particular, the researchers found that there was a strong correlation between counties that voted overwhelmingly for Trump and internet searches for topics related to masculine insecurity, including “erectile dysfunction,” “hair loss,” “how to get girls,” “penis enlargement,” “penis size,” “steroids,” “testosterone” and “Viagra.” ”
https://www.salon.com/2018/11/29/trump-appeals-to-men-who-suffer-from-fragile-masculinity_partner/
Powerless men support Trump
White men, specifically. Racial guilt and insecurity looms large in the US.
Bigus Dickus heil Trump seize her by the Pussy.
And women as well apparently Sachy.
Your Feelings of Anger, Fear and Sadness are Entirely Valid: My paraphrased notes on a talk on Climate Change; ‘This Civilisation is Finished’ by Rupert Read. Cambridge, 07/11/18.
Dear young people. I’m so sorry. We have totally failed you. Our corporations, governments and institutions have all failed you. Many of you may not have the chance to grow old.
The Paris Agreement was absolutely not enough. Things have got worse. US is the largest polluter and they’ve dropped out. Our weather systems appear to be spinning out of control. Oceans are storing much more heat than we’d realised. Methane release also threatens runaway warming. Commitments made for Paris targets are in contradiction to what the Governments actual actions are (pro-growth, infrastructure for industry and transport).
The techs proposed to save us either don’t exist or are untested. They could cause further disasters exacerbating an already dire situation. The Paris Agreement is toast. The aims are not being achieved. Conditions have worsened, and climate change is already upon us.
There are three possible future scenarios.
I. A transformed civilisation.
The best scenario, although highly unlikely.
What do we need?
Industry and Governments immediately cease their obsession with growth to address climate change with all possible resources.
Unprecedented large-scale change. Radical alteration of energy, agriculture, transport and trade.
We mobilise our governments, armies, corporations and citizens. Everyone tightens their belts. Everyone pitches in. A war on climate change.
II. A successor civilisation.
Following partial collapse. Very likely the best scenario we can hope for.
III. Total collapse.
From just a few humans left to the end of all complex life. Runaway methane and heating or simply coastal inundation of nuclear sites could wipe us out entirely. Possible, and must be avoided at all cost.
So, what can we do?
1. Wake up.
If you have not had feelings of fear, sadness and anger, you have not been paying attention. If you have been listening you might be interested to know there is an entirely new branch of psychology emerging: Ecopsychology. We are hurt by our hurting planet. Your feelings are entirely valid, and you are most certainly not alone.
Climate change is terrifying, tragic, and it could have been avoided.
2. Talk about it.
Many think they are suffering alone, but that is not the case. Share the burden of your fears and concerns, come together in support. Understand others anger, sadness and fear as valid; and try not to shut them down, rather, hear them.
This IS scary stuff.
3. Think about it.
How do we preserve the values of civilisation through scenario II?
4. Build lifeboats.
‘Prepping’. Food storage. Building community. Seed banking. Permaculture. ‘Building lifeboats’ is a theme that will soon be rolled out here in articles/posts. Watch for the heading ‘How To Get There’.
5. Holding Actions.
Divesting from big oil and subsidiaries. Lobbying government. Voting Green.
6. Rebel!
This is an emergency. Demand direct action. Use non-violent direct action. Join extinction rebellion. Start your own revolution. Make it clear this is not a drill.
7. Stop.
Slow right down. Take this in. Think about it. Feel it. Talk about it.
Then do courageous dramatic things.
Use your abilities and intelligence to retrofit your: yard, business, farm, orchard, company, government, family, community, society.
The Standard has a vast resource of knowledge and experience. I greatly enjoy discussion of solution-oriented adaptation, and the plan to enlarge on this mostly positive theme here is encouraging.
However, at the same time it has become clear to me after this talk that acknowledging our feelings about climate change is a vital part of moving forward together.
So I wrote these notes.
And to all the Ed’s and Bill’s of the world. I apologise for thinking you go over the top. Thank you for shoving things in my face that I needed to hear till I heard them.
Here is the talk itself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzCxFPzdO0Y
I posted Rupert Reid’s talk the other day.
It is very very good. And it does not mince words.
People need to confront this information.
And act
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hog6-sjmpCw
The news story that dwarves all others.
Here are some people doing something to force change.
‘Australian students skip school for mass protest
On Monday, Australian PM Scott Morrison rebuked their plans for “activism” during school hours and insisted his government was tackling climate change.
Many students said his remarks had bolstered their resolve to protest.
“We will be the ones suffering the consequences of the decisions they [politicians] make today,” protester Jagveer Singh, 17, told the BBC.
Organisers say they were inspired by Greta Thunberg, a 15-year-old girl in Sweden who has undertaken similar protests.
Australia has committed to reducing its emissions by 26-28% on 2005 levels by 2030, under the Paris climate agreement.”
Greta Thunberg is inspirational.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qHAhrsiuf8
15 year old Greta Thunberg’s speech to the UK Extinction Rebellion rally outside Houses of Parliament on Wednesday 31st October 2018. Her quiet voice encouraged her audience to repeat her words so everyone could get the message.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3YeSEhfJv0
I was reasing there TERF thread.
Really interesting to see a poster come out and directly ask the sexually of a commentator:
“Are you straight [name] girl?
What interested me is that not a single poster on here pulled the person up on it. (Surprise surprise)
I understand a lot would not have seen it – but a lot would have.
Seems to be part of the “we can treat people we disagree with worse” model that some on here subscribe to.
It’s either ok or not?
Oh climate change (that bits for Ed)
“Oh climate change (that bits [sic] to Ed)” – trying not to sound “like a complete snowflake“, James, but what do you mean?
She sounds boring as all fuck. I wouldn’t have her at one of my bbqs.
Reminds me of the joke- how do you know someone is vegan? Don’t worry – no matter what you are talking about they will tell you.
And what’s your thought on the subject of asking posters on here their sexually?
James, about one hour ago you wrote this (@11):
You then wrote this:
Honestly, I doubt Anna would be interested in your bbqs. Nor would she be so crass as to label you “boring as all fuck”.
if you can’t see the difference you prob need to work in your comprehension skills.
Nor would she be so crass as to label James “boring as all fuck”, although she might well think it.
Please consider the possibility that it’s your comprehension and communication skills that need (a lot of) work, and we can agree to disagree.
You prob need T go on probation wit your lack of skill James.
James if you came to a bbq at my place you would get fried.
James I am not sure what your problem is with someone asking a direct question of another commentator in this case “are you straight?” I think it’s ok to ask, and it was a relevant question to the thread on sexuality and gender. Of course people are free to decline to answer.
Now a request I have of you. I would really like it is you left Ed alone ie don’t comment about him. I appreciate it if you consider this. Cheers
But I like talking with Ed.
Perhaps if he replied in a reasonable fashion then the conversations wouldn’t deteriorate?
Me: post link from herald about anything not climate change
Ed: herald are paid propagandist
Ed: OMG you hate the planet – climate change is more important than whatever you wrote.
Ed: you are a troll
Ed: then post link from some guy with a tin foil hat eating banana leaves discussing Russia – OMG he nails it !!!!!!!
By all means disagree with any commenter here about their opinions but leave the person out of it. I realize this might appear like I am singling you out, but I have decided to put out this message of don’t attack the person on this website on an on-going basis……….
Btw me wondering what you found difficult about a commenters asking if someone was straight wasn’t a criticism I just saw it differently, but happy to hear your views about it
Thanks, Ankerrawshark. I made a similar request a week or so ago for people to have a crack at arguments rather than people. It’s not hard to adjust the wording of a comment to say things like ‘I think your opinion is wrong and here’s why …’, rather than ‘you’re an idiot’.
However, one of the strengths of TS is that conversations here are in near real time and sometimes that does mean that debates occasionally resemble the kind of intellectual discourse normally associated with pub car parks at closing time.
If the usual suspects are reading this, please note that abusive single sentence retorts might be simply diverted into spam in future and that other, sterner, corrective methods may be employed to keep debates from degenerating.
I think a little bit of banter ok. For example I found James comment Anna. Must be boring as fuck slightly amusing as she is unlikely to read it and it is something most of us could defend with something like James prefers his guests to talk about Bitcoin cause money is so interesting.
It is the unrelenting brawls that get personal I find unhelpful and unhealthy
I love the fact you think you know what I prefer people to talk about
(And btw – I think bitcoin is for idiots)
Money is not that interesting if you have some – what you do with it is way more interesting.
hi James no the bitcoin thing was just a wild stab in the dark. What would be an interesting topic for you.
I once worked with a woman who said it wasn’t the topic, but the delivery that made stuff interesting.
I agree. Don’t play the person, play the ball, or in this case, the topic at hand.
I’m as guilty as the next in being a bit of a dick, but we can at least try not to be.
That’s a euphemism, isn’t it?
Hear hear ankerawshark.
Well said thank you.
How realistic is a conservative coalition prospect after the next election? No prospect at all, currently. Henry Cooke examines coalition stability: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/108998180/the-coalition-is-showing-signs-of-maturity-but-labour-isnt-selling-it-very-well
He illuminates the incentive motivating Winston: “while National’s internal polling has NZ First at 4 per cent, Labour’s has had them at 5 or above plenty of weeks recently. The Greens have consistently scored about 5 in both the public and private polls, and both major parties’ internal polling has Labour ahead of National right now.”
“This is streets away from the situation in the last two terms when NZ First was in Government. Between 2005 and 2008, it basically never made it above the 5 per cent mark in public polling – leading to its one and only term out of Parliament.”
He also reveals a behind-the-scenes coalition arm-wrestle. “On Tuesday this week a very rare thing found its way to journalist’s inboxes: a press release signed off by Labour, NZ First, and the Greens. The release confirmed the set of compromises made by Labour and the Greens to ensure NZ First would support the second reading of a long-fought bill to reform workplace laws.”
“NZ First had already won a major concession before the bill was even introduced. Despite the fact Labour as a party exists to protect the rights of workers, the first Labour-led government in a decade decided to let NZ First keep 90 day trials for any businesses with fewer than 20 employees.” Then more wrestling occurred.
“Eventually Labour rolled out Heather Simpson, Helen Clark’s old enforcer. It’s understood she met NZ First chief of staff Jon Johansson, and Johansson himself met the unions, and the deal we saw on Tuesday was hammered out.”
Not expecting to see this on a lazy Saturday morning in the 21st century while having breakfast.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-01/baton-rouge-schools-new-segregation/10566428
I guess they’ve given up pretending.
In December 2017, the Associated Press conducted an analysis of charter school enrollment nationwide and found that the schools were among the most racially segregated in the nation.
While only 4 percent of traditional public schools have student bodies that are 99 percent minority (2014-15 school year data), 17 percent of charter schools are 99 percent minority. Furthermore, of the 6,747 charter schools in the country, more than 1,000 had minority enrollment of at least 99 percent.
http://neatoday.org/2018/05/04/racial-segregation-in-charter-schools/
They were some interesting links and yes Yanks have seem to stop pretending when one considers the lead up towards the Mid Term election IRT the Black Americans and the America Indians trying to enroll for the Mid Terms.
Canada’s indigenous governments to get responsibility for child welfare: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/tasker-ottawa-child-welfare-services-indigenous-1.4927104
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12166993
Bloddy annoying when comments come back to haunt you 🙂
(I’m not against the upgrade, just poking fun at Hipkins)
Yes it’s a very old house and it pays to keep up the maintenance else they end up costing you more.
She was doing one of her fb posts inside the property and I thought it looked shabby but maybe it was a backroom
Yeah its not a good look if the PMs residence is a bit shit
A million on security alone? Must be replacing a system of 30 year old PIRs lol. Possibly also a sprinkler system and a guardhouse/monitoring room, too.
Top, top thread! Careful you don’t spill your covfefe laughing.
https://twitter.com/RudyGiuliani/status/1068650461304102913
hehehehe love it!
The NZ Green Party is a fucking joke today!!!!!
We have better environmentalists inside Greenpeace now!!!!
Inside the ‘well healed’ members of the urban members of Green Party No-where are we hearing them fight to ‘save the world’ from climate change,’ simply firstly by restoring rail to get that 90% freight now carried on trucks to only 6% running on rail presently, at least half of that 90% be put back on rail again.
I now see all freight of what was ‘traditional rail freight’ running on roads now such as fertiliser, milk, aggregates, fuel, and timber products.
A number of other waste and hazardous products were also carried on rail, when the ‘Hazardous substance Act’ was enacted, but the 2008 National Government dialed that act back to allow dangerous substances to be carried on roads.
Consider that trucks are using eight times the energy to move ‘each tonne each km’ around NZ.
Those trucks shed black cancer causing tyre dust onto our roads and then the rain washes that cancer causing chemical substance of Tyre dust straight into our rivers, lakes and sea!!!!!
https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/butadiene/healtheffects.html
Then that black Tyre dust containing 1,3,butadiene/styrene (both cancer and nervous system damage causing chemicals) are carried by our water runoff systems after entering the sea are just being carried to the both ice-caps then the black dust just attract the heat from the sun to melt both polar ice caps at an alarming rate!!!!!!
Then the sea level rises and will just wash those trucks and those roads into the sea.
Trucks are then single biggest destroyer of our environment and future extreme weather systems.
Wake up everyone as we are reaching the end of sustainability.
The truck might not agree. I’m thinking that humans have something to do with the problem.
I’m struggling with your 90% comment.
I would suggest that what you would like to be achieved which I think needs addressing would require government intervention.
Firstly rules about freight so it’s journey from location to location, so rail must be considered and used if it’s realistic to do so.
Upgrading infastructure.
A train arrives, a robot puts on and removes cargo. A truck arrives, a robot takes off its cargo, then puts on the correct cargo. Trucks are often chosen due to time delays in the network, and the costs of inefficient processes. The costs are more with the choice to use trains, or Buisiness would use trains if the finances worked. When factories like Fonterra use trains it’s because it’s in a process designed and integrated with rail. Easily out performing trucks as a option.
Increasing connectivity.
The more connected the rail network the more realistic minimising truck use becomes. Adding light rail connecting bigger non rail connected towns as a start. Underground light rail connected to suburb town centres, industrial areas, courier hubs, airports, ports, main rail hubs.
Full electrification of the network including battery powered trains.
Intercity buses could also be replaced with a standard and lite gauge using rail using EV buses.
DJ Ward.
Yes as a climate denier you would say that and you are off the mark sadly.
Firstly you have no concerns about the tyre pollution to humans and environment/ice cap melting do you?
That is disturbing.
And where did it say I advocated for connectivity and farm gate rail service?
Go look at the way transport/connectivity was structured in NZ in the l;ast 40 yrs.
Then you will see where your National party went the wrong way.
First they allowed the closure of many factories around NZ that was close to rail lines and “centralised the whole system for “efficiency” but they forgot that eventually without rail truck freight would eventually prove to expensive and now the Road Transport Form Ken Shirley is howling at the cost of taxes on truck freight.
Well if he had backed rail instead we would have a rail and local truck delivery and pickup like we had firstly again and the cost to freight would become cheaper while saving lives cost of road repairs and use far less carbon emissions so you cant fight that model that was always the ‘best practice’ used world wide now and before so the only thing you said right was ‘humans have something to do with the problem’ – yes indeed they are.
Cleangreen
Encouraging people groping their way to an understanding of how we can change to cope with our looming future, is the best way. It doesn’t do to crush the process and throw negatives around. It is so easy to poison a well, why would you do it?
Can we have more positives, with you inserting your further ideas. Each move of mind should result in a step-up for that person and all readers of the post, of which there may be many out in the wop-wops of the outer ether.
Clean green politics is pragmatic change is relative to support pick on those who don’t support the greens otherwise you are just sabotaging any progress.
so what do we think about white Christmas? it is gonna be a happening thing?
Failing someone from the big smoke bearing gifts, nah.
https://www.accuweather.com/en/nz/christchurch/252473/december-weather/252473#
Probably not Sabine 🙁
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/lapland-no-snow-scli-intl/index.html
For anyone yet to be persuaded there’s not something seriously wrong with the climate.
I think we must now go and visit places we normally would go to, even if the conditions have changed. It is part of living in the real world with Climate Change, not expecting it to be similar to Disneyworld, which will show a fake version. Perhaps that will be the service of modern Disneyworlds, to show how the world used to be just a few decades ago.
But we never saw the pickpockets stealing our amazing planet out of our pockets while we bought, and bought, and played and sported and never counted the cost.
i forgot the sarcasm tag.
obviously.
but in saying that, any colder and we could almost pretend that we are in the winter season.
Publisher making two of Harry Leslie Smith’s books, including “Harry’s Last Stand” free to download via ebook services this weekend only – links for each provider (Amazon, Apple, Google, etc) in the tweets following this one: https://twitter.com/iconbooks/status/1068473889246887936
After spending the last 2+ years lying about it’s existence, tRrump defends his potential 2016 Russia deal as very legal & very cool.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/419051-trump-on-cohen-claims-my-business-was-very-legal-very-cool
It may have been legal and it may even have been cool, but to lie about what you are doing to the American public is totally uncool.
Especially when one of the teasers for the project was the possibility of a $50m penthouse for one Vlad Putin! (june 2016).
This just before he is calling on Russia and Wikileaks (July 2016) to release the emails.
Meanwhile… for Cohen and possibly D Trump Jnr to lie to the Senate about it, is an indictable offence.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/richard-burr-reveals-senate-intel-has-referred-testimonies-to-special-counsel-robert-mueller
Furthermore, if, in his written answers to Mueller, he tells the same story as Cohen and possibly Manafort, and Jnr did to the Senate Committees, then he is in BIG trouble.
https://www.vox.com/world/2018/11/30/18119670/michael-cohen-trump-tower-moscow-explained
Which may well explain why Trump has been in a foul mood after hearing the Cohen plea deal according to reports from the WH
It’s his I am not a crook moment.
Yeah – totally agree. But unlike Nixon he never was and never has been a politician’s arse; so the need for him to resign does not even register.
There may still be people he listens to that might be able to convince him he needs to negotiate his pardon from Pence, then resign. To reduce the risk of an orange jumpsuit having a starring role in his future. And the conversation that brings that about is likely to end with “Now be sure to pardon all of us before you resign, OK daddy?”
You actually think he listens to anyone? 🙂
I gather the only one he listens to is his gut – and that seems to be rumbling quite a bit these days.
Trump: My gut tells me more than anybody’s brain.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/28/opinions/trump-decision-making-gut-instinct-ghitis/index.html
I used lots of weasel words while raising the possibility he might listen to someone.
Thinking about Prof Brady and Chinese reaction to fair comment and facts.
Read http://www.kiwipolitico.com/2018/11/left-compass-lost/ –
…the independent minded expat Chinese community in NZ, who remain silent in the face of threats against them here as well as against their families and associates back on the mainland. It behooves readers to read, watch and listen to the Mandarin-language media here in NZ (even if needing translators) because the rhetoric employed by these outlets –which Brady has pointed out are with the exception of the Falun Gong mouthpiece Epoch Times all controlled by CCP-linked United Front organisations –is hostile to the point of threatening towards all those who do not toe the Party line
“A smiling Russian President Vladimir Putin was seen high-fiving Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the G-20 Summit. Source: AP” https://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/video.cfm?c_id=280&gal_cid=280&gallery_id=201356
Blecchh!!! Putin sends big signal to the watching world!! Anyone here still thinks the dude’s a good guy better think again!
They immediately sat down to what was no doubt a pleasant discussion. About their favourite journalists, perhaps.
Someone’s in schtuk.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DtRt-CuU8AAfz1Z.jpg
Nothing looks more like ‘I’m so disappointed in you, let me work out your punishment’ than that look.
Putin looks as if he is holding back amusement but it’s an effort.
Is Pooters standing on a box? He can’t be on a horse as he has a shirt on.
Show me your list of big power good guys Dennis Frank.
Some are better than others, irrespective of their “power”.
OK short and sweet Ad. But I was thinking about a list. I don’t find the leader or major political poseur of the UK, USA, China, Russia much chop.
Who do you like for the podium?
Don’t like any of them.
For just the four you named my least worst in order would be:
– May
– Trump
– Putin
– Xi
Yeah, I do a sporadic complaint about it now & then. I think the one a few months back mentioned we hadn’t had a top western leader being an authentic statesman since the post WWII era, or something like that. You know, Eisenhower’s warning the American public about the threat of his own military-industrial complex, Kennedy facing down Kruschev. At the non-top-level we got Havel & I do rate Mandela a genuine statesman. Always possible, regardless that power structures tend to deselect them.
Does Angela Merkel rate – she seems to have held Germany together and attempted to deal with overwhelming problems for some time?
I do like Yanis Varoufakis as offering some way out of the financial maze that the EU seems to be wedded to.
Merkel has a track record as a competent manager. A statesman has a comprehensive overview at the top level, capacity to act on that basis, does so with appropriate effect, and earns a reputation above all other contenders on that basis. Within that mix there must also be moral guidance, which all involved recognise as being right (in the common interest).
Varoufakis has the right global view: “To achieve progressive goals on a global scale, from worker rights to climate justice, we must reclaim the international institutions and deploy them to deliver an International Green New Deal.” https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/01/liberal-world-order-new-international-yanis-varoufakis-david-adler
And with Sanders he’s developed an appropriate action plan: “That is why DiEM25 and the Sanders Institute have launched the Progressive International movement: to mobilize people around the world to transform the global order and the institutions that shape it.” https://www.progressive-international.org/
“A reinvigorated United Nations, with a security council elected from a UN assembly comprising not just government appointees but also citizens from around the world, should forge binding commitments to swift ecological transition.”
However he hasn’t yet been able to persuade other key players to join his team. A statesman has the charisma and gravitas to make that happen. We’re not seeing evidence that he’s got what it takes. For instance, I haven’t noticed Corbyn endorsing the above prescription!
I bought some Bic pens and on the back is a promotion they are doing.
BicFightforyourWrite.com
‘Join BICs Mission to Save Handwriting!
That’s sense. People doing it for themselves needs to be a new catchcry.
RIP George H.W. Bush.
What will be his legacy? Desert Shield and that’s about it.
Bush junior and Jeb!
Snap!
George W. Bush
Lol. You guys are onto it!
Amazing what damage one man can do.
Service is one thing. His war service. His being a self made man. A long period of service in government. He as we are both aware, did some good things and bad things. Just like everybody else does. Overall he was a good man trying do good things for the people he represented and had the character of a gentleman in public and in private. I give some thanks for that as an example for any young person.
oh you mean Zapata, who was most likely a conduit for CIA money and operations. Or you mean being born into a privileged family of which Granpa almost was convicted for treason, going to super posh all boys school n such?
Bush the elder was no more selfmade then Trump. Both were born fairly well off, and then continued to make money the respectable way, inherited.
As for his war service, so did literally any man born into these times that were drafted to fight. I have more respect for those that refused to fight, cause that took guts, real guts.
a good diary here by DK writer Meteor Blades
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/30/1759582/-George-Herbert-Walker-Bush-dead-at-94#read-more
Bush was not a ‘nice’ man. He was a company man, he was owned lock stock n barrel, as are his sons. None of them did this world any good in any which way.
– Negotiated NAFTA
– Pushed Saddan out of Kuwait with UN mandate and 30 member coalition and did not destroy Iraq
– Pushed out Noriega
– Spectacularly popular as a result of those wars
– Total Republican gentleman
But
– Total Nixon defender
– CIA to his fingernails, but given much stronger oversight by Ford’s directive 11905
– Ran the economy down, and spent all his popularity on not much of worth
– Given the ass after one term by Clinton
– Father to a generation of mediocre Bush politicians
Your Buts.
Nixon.
He had a public service role and that was to support the President. I believe he told Nixon to resign.
CIA Director.
He had a public service role. One that is probably extremely difficult with life and death decisions. His mistakes probably affected him, like it would if we had that job.
Economy.
Yes he wasn’t strong on that plus using opportunity of developement by wasting it on war.
Lost election.
After 12 years of a Republican President. Time for change.
Father.
160 million American males will never raise a child to become president. Just 4 since he ended his official public service. Sorry 3.
Bush led the Republican Party and was a staunch defender of a criminal President who resigned in disgrace.
Bush needed controlling as CIA Director, so the Ford directive again the entire intelligence comity put him in his place, as was totally appropriate.
Lost election despite 90% popularity during the Gulf War. Shit at being President.
Father of mediocre leadership. None of them generated goodness in the world. The world would have been better off if none of them had ever been elected to office at all. I’ve seen better public servants in the New Lynn library.
Would point out that Iraq had been involved in an 8 year war with Iran that had taken a huge toll on it’s military and economy. Saddam’s army was exhausted and the 1991 Gulf war was more of a massacre than anything else.
How does that bear on evaluating BGH Bush’s presidential record on his death?
that generally Americans are not good at winning wars unless they get help, or the enemy is already on the ground. And for what its worth, the US and its spineless helpers should have never invaded Iraq at the time, and then should have never invaded Iraq the second time around.
For what its worth, bush the elder and bush the younger both got their invasion with all that jazz and jizz and non of them ever defeated the country. They created misery and mayhem, and they still have not won anything, nor created any lasting legacy.
they were both spectacular shitty presidents in a whole slew of shitty presidents.
They’re pretty good at winning conventional wars.
Just complete shit at counter-insurgency and empire maintenance.
Good article at The Intercept on Mueller’s investigation closing in around President Trump very quickly:
https://theintercept.com/2018/11/30/michael-cohen-trump-russia-mueller/
So can any body tell me what would be wrong with me doing Buisiness deals in Russia. I can’t work out what’s wrong with it. Would any of Trumps deals he has done in other countries count, why not? are they not just the same things.
I don’t understand the paranoia. It’s not like Trumps smashing up hard drives.
Hmmm.
Are you aware of the difference between being a businessman and being the President of the United States?
The United States has a specific set of rules known as sanctions – some mandated by Congress, some others by the UN – against Russia.
Here, this set of briefings from the US State Department will help you:
https://www.state.gov/e/eb/tfs/spi/ukrainerussia/
Donald Trump needed to be aware of those from 2014 since he was auditioning in 2015 and 2016 to be the person who would represent those state positions.
But he didn’t.
He just wanted to to keep cutting deals.
Not only was Trump hoping to get Russian finance to build a tower opposite the Kremlin with his name on it – which was the only way that was going to happen, but part of the sweetener was to be a $50m penthouse for Vlad! Furthermore he still had skin in the game in June 2016 but Donald Jnr and others have told Congress that the deal had fallen through long before then. This was a lie and as such is an indictable offence.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/richard-burr-reveals-senate-intel-has-referred-testimonies-to-special-counsel-robert-mueller
Why Michael Cohen’s Trump Tower Moscow revelation matters, in under 500 words
A small guide to a really big deal.
TLDR
https://www.vox.com/world/2018/11/30/18119670/michael-cohen-trump-tower-moscow-explained
They’re just using the hard drives because apparently it’s not an issue any more. Inexplicably dud4.
[Gabby, DJ isn’t Dad. TRP]
Most likely, but maybe a conspiracy theory.
His granpa, not him.
Rich kid yes but he leveraged that opportunity. He was a self made man, he created his own Buisiness. You need to look at the start of his adult life.
War has often not been an option for men. In fact women lurked the streets with feathers looking for cowards. Demanding they suffer, maim themselves, and die to protect them while lived in relative comfort. He was a volunteer putting his life on the line in the service of his country.
You are looking at this mans actions from one perspective. He did many good things, made many good decisions. He broke the ice with China, supported German reunification, events that led to profound change to all our lives. He did lots of charity work post being president.
He is not responsible for his sons actions. The deposing of Saddam was not his decision. He didn’t decide to invade Afganistan.
Sadam Hussain forced the company hand with Kuwait. Supported by most nations.
Things like global warming was hardly discussed in his era. He never got a Government report proving man made Climate Change. Judging the actions of people in the past shouldn’t be by today’s reality or understanding.
Sorry that was for Sabine 24 1 3 1
He has his record, that speaks for him. And no, he did not need to start a war for Oil, and his son did not have a valid reason to continue the war on Oil and on the Iraquis.
Essentially the man was bad, he was born to money – indisputable, grew up with all the white male privilege his time had to offer, never had to actually work for anything, and eventually ended up president, of which really he did not do a good job by any standard. If you want to see self made, i suggest you look to Oprah Winfrey. Now there you have self made. Every cent of it.
Supported t he German reunification? what was he to do? drop a bomb? Short of shooting people in the main squares on Monday nights during hte weekly protests, there was nothing the East Germans (SED, Volkspolizei) could do to prevent the unification. And no, Poppa Bush did nothing, absolutely nothing to bring that about. It was the women protesting the Afghan war in Russia, hiding their sons so that they would not be send to war, protesting every day anywhere in what was then the USSR and the people of East Germany, Hungary, Poland etc that brought down the iron Curtain, the Yanks did nothing. You might want to read up on these times in Europe, they were pretty interesting.
He is responsible for his sons actions, he raised his sons, he influenced his sons, and i am sure he advised them. Then there was also …..Saddam tried to kill my Daddy, never mind Rumsfeld delivering the weapons a decade earlier for Saddam to fight the Iranians.
China, as i recall it was his good friend Nixon who went there first, Poppa just followed in the footstep of an honest crook before him.
The man was rich trash, could not give a flying fuck about anyone not named Bush, inherited his lifestyle and earned his position thanks to his name, inheritance and family connections.
Still every man, every women who ever opposed a war, earned their own keep, did not lie, steal and plunder another country for oil has more honor in their little finger then this guy had in his whole body. Other then that, may he rest in peace.
Bomber Bradbury is right
We need a radical Green Socialist Party if we are to deal with climate change.
An excerpt from an important article by Bomber.
It would be good to see more emphasis on climate change on this site, rather than conversations by the Woke Left on identity politics.
The future of humanity is a little more pressing!
“Climate change and its impacts are far more dangerous than currently acknowledged and only a radical populist response can unseat the vested corporate interests that create the current political and economic inertia. As more and more climate events occur at faster and faster rates, voters will turn on the current hegemony, the question is who will harvest that anger and fear, the Left or the Right?
…….Politically we need a radical Green Socialist Party. The Middle Class Woke Identity Politics vehicle we have with the current Green Party is a sad joke that alienates more than it recruits. While they bicker about reclaiming the word ‘cunt’ and deciding which pronoun to use for Trans gender rights, the planet melts. Building every Millennial micro-aggression into a war crime doesn’t do a fucking thing to combat climate change.
What few Green Party voters even recognise is that the current Green Party is built upon free market economics, so we need a new radical Green Socialism Party with one goal and one goal only – radical populist climate change adaption that utterly rejects neoliberalism.”
The article is here.
I’ll look at in more depth tomorrow
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/12/01/a-new-political-movement-lets-just-be-honest-real-climate-change-will-require-a-political-social-economic-revolution/
OK. Might be a good thing to have.
So it needs:
a party structure,
500 members,
and 150,000 voters (although even 30,000 would scare the shit out of established parties and shift them more left and green).
Also preferably a decent fundraising infrastructure.
Anything else?
If anyone is still hanging around and wondering why the site keeps coming up and down, I’m fixing a problem in the OS update system.
Kia ora R & R Clint I’m not getting into that debate but people can have there reality’s/ options change I did a good post on cambridge analytical that is a major threat artificial intelligence is were its at.
Voting online and compulsory voting is the way to go like Australia.
Land line polling is not accurate.
The Amercian election’s are distorted by election boundary’s being drawn by gop party who have lost the majority vote in the last 4 election cycles
The neo carbon barons want a pro carbon climate change deniers as a governments all around the world. Ka kite ano .trump lost power in the mid term elections now they can make him accountable for his cheating .True Kiwis are more polite than most
Kia ora The Hui when you have a goverment that has put money before there voters well being well we can see they have made a big mess we just had one person putting down our youth to justifie importing cheap labour.
Yes tamariki need love and hope .
Bullies are made by other bullys and that correct they the same love and hope .
I was the untidiest poorest kid at school other kids tried to bully me but it was like water of a rakiraki back why because my whano bullied me since I was nine. I was lucky I was given a strong back Honky nick was my name.
Ka kite ano
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR1XV5qGMKk
Kia ora Marare Ka pai to Maori Music I tau toko te tangata whenua O Aotearoa waita .
Lance I think I know the massage your are trying to get out there is.
Our health systems for Maori need to have a maori wairua the health system need to be revamped may be health centers for maori .
When one goes it the health system some staff are showing there discrimination just by the way they look at us and the way they talk to us so some people won’t seek help until there health problem has gotten close to life or death or very bad so some aliment that could have been treated with medicine ends up with hospitalization.
In my view we need to change thing’s an have the tangata whenua seek help as soon as the feel sick not weeks later as the cost on the persons health and the health system explodes .
Solution have maori treat maori when one goes into a health center a maori nurse check’s the person asap make us feel at easy if there is a problem the nurse can’t treat so be it if the doctor needs to see the person hopefully there is a understanding preferable one who understands maori culture person to treat the patient .
I think one has to look outside the square box to get maori health stats to improve dramatically.
Willy we know you have maori’s best interest at heart just .
Communication is needed if a patient is not at ease they will not communicate well and the treatment could be misdiagnosed Ka kite ano P.S better late than never Scotty 501
I see the sandflys payed for the LGBTI awards they paid for the top 2 awards sending money on there image instead of changing there culture it would cost a lot less.
The sandflys break my human rights every minute of the day and everyone can see this they have cost me $50 k in lost business I have had other business opportunity and the have poured there hate on those opportunity’s .There attitude is who cares you just a broke heaven maori . I there harresment of me they has caused 2 couples to break up.
They cry and blame Eco Maori because they are getting there our wai sprayed in there faces from tawhirimate the big picture is they started this bullshit cheating MAN HUNT and I’m not going to cower and hide because they are to thick to see the big picture they are the ones behaving in a criminal manna not thee I not Eco Maori so any bad wairua /karma they get well they should all take a good look in the mirror ANA TO KAI.
Ka kite ano P.S they have a lot of staff leaving and the people who don’t trust them is 40%
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktvTqknDobU
Pukana
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAB6aXOfUmU
Kia ora Newshub there are some idiots out there who do dumb stuff the Bredon brother lies of his death muppets they new they would get heaps of hits.
Its sad that those people who lost there house in the floods. It would not have been so bad if we did not have a climate change denier in the lead for the last 9 years.
Condolences to Ex President Bush snr whano for there loss of him he.
The far right playing up in France again.
I say climate change is the main cause of all the Whales stranding life is a finely ballance force.
That math teacher looks like a national supporter.
Well I will never let a car drive me anywhere I know how easy they can be hacked I like the tweel tyrers on the cars.
Niki & Andrew it’s been a good weekend for Aotearoa sports Mana Wahine Ka kite ano
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XaS93WMRQQ
Eco Maori say that all the children around the World should strike for the futures.
And all teachers who know human caused climate change is a real threat should support them in there quest for a happy healthy future.
ka kite ano.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cknS23hRvIU