"The obvious explanation for wealth growing during the pandemic is that we are simply seeing the effect of businesses and consumers buying into the central banks’ confidence trick.
Monetary easing has inflated the value of house prices, shares and pension schemes beyond their fundamentals, making us collectively better off on paper – but not in actuality."
A lot of it will be the effects of the border being closed to tourism. The money we would have spent travelling the world has been spent in New Zealand, with multiplier effects as that moves around the economy, or saved. So individually and collectively we get richer.
I wouldn't be surprised if one of the 'learnings' once the washup is done of our Covid experience is that tourism, both outbound and inbound was a major net negative to our economy.
The 'fundamentals' he references is essentially productivity .
Productivity is essentially more efficient use of energy.
EROI is decreasing so productivity must decrease.
And yet we waste that energy on consumerism.
Having said I agree that we may belatedly realise that our 'biggest export earner' was in fact simply a swap to enable the few to live the life of Riley
yes, many in my circle of aquantainances have spent up large on toys(boats, motorcycles,cars, spa pools etc) with $$$ that would otherwise be taken offshore. too many of our local tourism ventures are overseas owned and many busloads of asian tourists spend there money in asian owned facilities, so NZ really only benefits from gst, not the whole pie.I think you are on point graeme.
Pot calling the kettle black just nibbles at the edges of this one, an outright disinformation tool of the expansionist kremlin calling anyone else a propaganda tool.
How about we recognise that all the major nation's use soft power projection? And media channels which selectively distort and misinform are just part of this game? And that relying on any one of them to try and gain an objective sense of reality is just going to disappoint.
And at the same time there is still a remarkable amount of usable information out there, most sources don't make up shit all of the time, they cannot entirely disconnect from reality. Even uncritical people notice that.
Right now the media world is in a tough place, with reliable professionalism under siege from multiple directions. It's very difficult for any individual in the system to write fearlessly on all topics. But most of the time they do their best, and if in sum the ‘media’ falls short of our ideals, we can be grateful that we have literally at our fingertips a torrent of information that was unimaginable even just 30 years ago.
And it's a wild torrent that demands some effort if you want to swim in it.
It's also a torrent that is impossible to navigate without some structural understanding of how the world works. That this understanding can harden into ideology doesn't mean that we don't need it. The proliferation of lunacy we see everywhere parallels the proliferation of information.
It's also why I've shifted my attention away from ideologies and toward the geopolitical and demographic realities that determine the fate of nations in the long run.
And one of the few good things about getting older is that I can look back and observe the things I used to believe, which have turned out to be not so true. And then contemplate that a fair chunk of what I believe now will likely have the same fate.
We all need some kind of belief and values system as a framework to conceive, grow, and store and share our hopes, dreams, and aspirations for and about the world and ourselves. This will give is a relatively safe haven to anchor and moor without which we will be pounded and pummelled by the waves and tidal currents of time and smashed on the rocks of reality. However, from time to time, we have to lift the anchor and leave the familiar small surroundings and seek other new places before they turn into a bay of boredom and we lose our mobility and become stale and fixated. After all, we are all sailors on an ocean of possibilities and fishermen of the sea.
Bit unclear as to what the mod meant by "you two".
Gabby definitely one, replying to RL, but there also seemed to be a comment that didn't get past premod or got deleted? but then Adrian has also been commenting today.
Very few comments never make it through to the front-end. This can happen when a ‘new’ commenter does not get past the Pre-Mod filter, e.g. when it is spam, utter vile crap, or an existing user trying to bypass a ban. Sometimes, commenters are put in Pre-Mod for a specific reason, but this always comes with a warning.
We never delete a comment from an existing user after it has actually appeared in the front-end without telling; it’ll show up as [deleted] and often is self-explanatory to the commenter and/or comes with a brief explanation – all this takes up Moderator time.
I’d like to think that Moderators here act with honesty and integrity and we can get a bit shitty when we’re accused of ‘censorship’ in all its gory forms.
Well, Gabby and the Easter bunny did get it. So, obviously, it was obvious enough to them; your miscomprehension is irrelevant regardless unless you thought that RL was or should have been banned, which is also misplaced and irrelevant regardless.
Neither McFlock nor myself 'got it' so, yeah. Part of the problem for commenters is cryptic moderation notes.
[Part of the problem for Moderators is that you keep on creating problems here and that you don’t take a hint. In other words, stubborn obnoxious recidivist behaviour that is wasting time. I’m not going to waste my time repeating what I’ve written to you in recent comments and Moderation notes, one of which was a particularly clear Moderation note (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-30-03-2021/#comment-1785916). Stop digging a hole or meet that molehill that you seem to be seeking so desperately; the signpost is clearly labelled: molehill or freedom to comment here. This is your warning – Incognito]
First time I've seen that "particularly clear" moderation note.
You didn't follow my comment very closely if you think I labelled RL's comment "woke-left". My entire position was that the use of the term right wing was for some reason frowned upon yet RL uses the pejorative "woke-left" on a daily basis in order to wind up commenters here.
[The onus is on you to read the replies to your comments and the alerts to Moderation notes.
You’re still trying to manipulate me into taking sides in your personal vendetta against RL. In fact, I’m starting to think that you’re trying to deliberately wind up RL and me as well.
You’re still ignoring the fact that you’re being moderated for your behaviour and conduct here on this site.
Stop wasting my time; this is your final warning – Incognito]
I can look back and observe the things I used to believe, which have turned out to be not so true. And then contemplate that a fair chunk of what I believe now…
It's a by product of getting old RL.
Another way of saying;
If only I knew then what I know now things might have been different. 😉
The proliferation of lunacy has less to do with the proliferation of information, but more to do with the proliferation of misinformation and disinformation.
To take the favourite example of the convergence moonbats trying to discredit mainstream media, the Iraq WMD lies (disinformation), the mainstream media were correctly and reporting the (evidence free) assertions of the Shrub and Blair administrations as assertions, and the misinformation reports originating from Ahmed Chalabi via Chris Hedges and Judith Miller and others, they were also reporting the (valid information as it turned out) leaks from the intelligence communities that those claims were a crock of crap, and also reporting the valid information that Hans Blix and his team of UN inspectors were finding nothing of significance that might justify an invasion.
Sorting the valid information from the crap is the difficult bit. It becomes a bit easier when you just don't give those in the habit of flooding the zone with shit an entry into your news stream.
And then there are those in the habit of not telling you that which they don't want you to know. That's a lot harder to detect if you only pay attention to a few 'good' channels that you happen to like. The absence of something is always much less apparent.
Thing is, on the rare (very rare) occasions Sputnik and RT have some sort of actual connection with reality, it's because reality just happens to align with what the Kremlin wants others to think.
The rarity of those occasions in the zone that's otherwise flooded with shit disinformation makes it a waste of time trying to filter through it, unless one has a particular interest in trying to sift through the sewage to glean what might be current Kremlin motivations.
It's a shame, because in the first couple of years, before the state agenda began to dominate reporting, they really were a breathe [sic] of fresh air.
You're correct to note the heavy bias of RT. I'm really appalled by the way they routinely use the most extreme right wing British and American talk radio boofheads to comment on British and American politics. Peter Lavelle's Crosstalk often threatens to be an interesting and informative program but is frequently derailed by the host himself unleashing some crazed extreme right wing opinions that ruin the rest of the program. On the plus side, however, RT regularly features real journalists and academics of unimpeachable integrity, such as Chris Hedges, Norman Finkelstein, and Noam Chomsky.
So does that description imply to you a primary editorial inclination towards truth, a primary editorial inclination towards clickbait, or a primary editorial inclination towards supporting internal criticism within the US and "West"?
Or some other primary editorial inclination?
Because it seems to me that their main role in regards to international affairs is to confuse reporting of Russian actions and motives while providing handy links and "evidence" for americans and western europeans to sow discontent within america and western europe. And any similarity with real people or events is purely coincidental.
Thing is, on the rare (very rare) occasions Sputnik and RT have some sort of actual connection with reality, it's because reality just happens to align with what the Kremlin wants others to think.
A mirror image, then, of the British state broadcaster, the BBC.
Nope, not a mirror image. The BBC frequently reports things that the UK government of the day would prefer were left unaired.
The bias in the BBC is merely consistent with its decision makers having the UK's best interests at heart, which is quite different to the way RT and Sputnik act as propaganda organisations promoting whatever disinformation the Kremlin is pushing at that moment.
The BBC frequently reports things that the UK government of the day would prefer were left unaired.
That was the case briefly at the beginning of this century. That period of independence came to a brutal end in 2003, after Andrew Gilligan plainly stated live on radio that the intelligence used to justify the attack on Iraq was "sexed up", i.e. manipulated and untrustworthy. Blair's chief enforcer, Alistair Campbell, instigated a jihad against the BBC, ensuring that the insubordinate and awkward director-general Greg Dyke—he believed his duty was to serve the public, not the Blair regime—was forced out and replaced by the compliant and reliable functionary Mark Thompson. The rest is gloomy and infuriating history.
Yes, the BBC publishes articles containing critique of the UK government, it's actions and policies. I've asked before from those spouting the editorial 'independence' of RT etc. to link to stories criticising Putin or what he does in a negative light, but no joy as yet.
Today on the BBC UK politics page there are pieces on the outcry against the governments plan for covid passports for pubs and the Tory reception of the racial disparity report.
Not to mention TV programs like Panorama, which regularly put the boot in to the annoyance of number 10.
TBH, I don't pay much attention to the UK. It's just that there's been a bunch of times some topic has caught my eye and I've followed a BBC link for more info, and thought 'ooh, [prominent UK government figure] isn't going to like that getting out'.
The BBC is in a spot of bother if the documentary about the famous Princess Diana interview some 25 plus years the other night on TV1 is to be believed.
Its shaping up to be a story full of lies, deceit and dirty tricks followed by the inevitable cover-up by management.
Well the police have decided to rule out a criminal investigation into Bashir, the interviewer, over allegations from the Spencer family about the alleged use of false documentation to get HRH to do the sit down, so looks like bother gone.
Though if it were true, surely it would be a case of the Beeb going against the establishment and, not doing it's bidding, which is the opposite of what some people are saying.
With regards to the BBC making content against the government's party lines, I'd suggest you seek out the Panorama episode about their mismanagement of ppe supplies from last year. Shockingly on target.
The BBC then came under fire for using ‘labour activists’ to push the message in the program.
The BBC then came under fire for using ‘labour activists’ to push the message in the program.
So, if they had been 'tory activists' pushing a line then I presume they would not come under fire – at least not to the same extent.
If 'the state' decrees there is to be no investigation then the police will not investigate. Wouldn't be the first time that has happened and it won't be the last.
You'll have to put it in context with what's been written above.
The notion being that the BBC is a total shill for the British government. Using the examples I've given, that is very much open to debate. It certainly isn't an organisation in any way equivalent to those pushing Russian propaganda.
The BBC World service is most certainly a propaganda tool of the UK government..
" BBC World Service is not regulated by Ofcom. Instead the BBC is responsible for setting its overall strategic direction, the budget and guarding its editorial independence for World Service. It must set and publish a Licence for the World Service, which defines its remit, scope, annual budget and main commitments, as well as "objectives, targets and priorities" which are agreed with the Foreign Secretary."
But as I mentioned only yesterday on OP, there are a bunch of regular commentors here on TS whom, as it turns out have a world view that aligns up with the UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and his UK conservative party like a hand in a glove…go figure, yet for some reason only known to them, they insist on thinking themselves Left or Left leaning, when in reality they are more like some sort of post modernist colonialist hybrid, who also it seems, have a very distinct attraction to western authoritarianism (as long as it if coated in liberal sensibilities).
"….. as I mentioned only yesterday on OP, there are a bunch of regular commentors here on TS whom, as it turns out have a world view that aligns up with the UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and his UK conservative party like a hand in a glove…go figure, yet for some reason only known to them, they insist on thinking themselves Left or Left leaning, when in reality they are more like some sort of post modernist colonialist hybrid, who also it seems, have a very distinct attraction to western authoritarianism (as long as it if coated in liberal sensibilities)."
Adrian Thornton
It is a fear of engaging in open debate with someone who actually has experience of Syria, that is a noticable defining feature of supporters of the Assad regime at this website.
Back in 2017 I also wrote this:
"In my opinion it can be reasonably argued that the failure of the Liberal Centre Left to show solidarity with the Syrian people, and instead side with the regime that is oppressing and murdering them, has helped prolong this war on the Syrian people by the Assad regime and its foreign allies, and helped fuel islamaphobia here."
Jenny
March 15 is the globally recognised anniversary date of the start of the Syrian revolution. Two years after I made the above observation, in March 2019, as Syrian refugees from the Assad regime and their supporters were preparing to mark this anniversary, the anti-Islamic terrorist chose this date to launch his murderous attack in Christchurch.
Don't support fascism. It really shouldn't have to be said.
No, because as usual you seem to intentionally not address the outrageous western Weaponizing of the OCPW….which is what I have been posting about. I can’t believe I have to go over this again FFS..I have never uttered one word of support for Assad…but you people seem to think that all of a sudden the CIA and the western military industrial complex are the friends of the Left, and freedom fighters around the world (WTF!)…it is actually people like you who through your blinkered support for a legitimate uprisings, have wilfully allowed yourselves to be turned into useful idiots to western military/corporate hegemony..well done.
You hit the nail on the head.." Don't support fascism. It really shouldn't have to be said."…quite right, maybe you should stop doing it then.
Perhaps you should explain this particularly gross misrepresentation, Adrian. You have one or possibly two very marginal instances of possible OPCW error, out of hundreds of events. The OPCW moreover went to considerable lengths to try to satisfy the complainants, but was obliged to face the fact that ultimately their sole objective was to discredit the organization and the mission.
The Russian media have beaten it up to the skies, and dupes like you parrot that incessantly – but essentially the OPCW is on the ground to clean up the chemical weapons made by Russia and accumulated by the Assad regime. Just as they spent some years in Russia at US & UN expense cleaning up multiple soviet era chemical weapon sites.
The only outrageous weaponising of the OPCW is by you and your fellow dupes.
There you go again Adrian, actively ignoring/denying genocide.
Genocide denial, like Holocaust denial, is an expression of support for fascism.
Let me repeat that; 'Genocide denial is support for fascism'.
That the Assad regime has been committing genocide against its own people is an absolute fact that you refuse to face.
Instead of addressing this fact you choose to throw up dust around the gas attacks.
I put up a link to a video which goes in depth to expose the conspiracy theories around the gas attacks being spread about by the Assad regime and Russia and their useful idiots, that variously claim, (a) the gas attacks didn't happen at all or, (b). were the work of the opposition who gassed their own supporters to discredit your fascist hero.
But I am not going to debate with you the various weaknesses of fascist propaganda around the sarin and chlorine gas attacks against Syrian civilians, that most definitely did happen.
Instead I put up a video of the destruction of the revolutionary city of Homs by the Assad regime.
Every single one of the genocide deniers and pro-Assad apologists on this site, have to date repeatedly refused to answer the simple question I have posed. Every single one.
Maybe you are different Adrian, maybe you might have enough conscience to look into the abyss and admit that you are playing a game of interference in support of a genocidal fascist style regime.
I am not going to keep on going around in circles with you, this is a pointless and a waste of time, you and Stuart Munro are just too far gone to have any kind of rational debate with…well too far gone.
Rationally and reasonably, you would then stop reading their comments and stop replying to them. But you don’t and you won’t. You’re a walking card-carrying self-contradiction and don’t want to see it and/or admit it.
Thanks for your insightful phycology lesson there Incognito, maybe you would do well to turn that lens on yourself and see what it is inside of you that makes you compulsively want to control all those in your orbit..now that would be something interesting to get to the bottom of, don’t you think?
BTW every human being on this planet is a “walking card-carrying self-contradiction” and so as you have obviously never been self-aware enough to have ever acknowledge that about yourself…welcome to the club, I think we will get along just fine LOL!!!
[RL: The role of moderators is essential. Their purpose is to put limits on people’s behaviour and attempt to instill a culture of constructive conversation. The deal is that if you want to continue to comment here, you respect that role.
Having done it intensively for a number of years here I’m vividly aware of how much goes into good moderation, and how much everyone else benefits from it. The two primary mods we have here at present, weka and Incognito, are doing a way better job of it than I ever did. While it’s a job that can never make everyone happy, I’m fed up seeing this kind of casual undermining. It’s not a game worth playing.
Get this through your head – no-one, but no-one ever enjoyed being moderated, and you are certainly not the first. But it’s a fact of life and you either suck it up like a big boy or sulk off elsewhere.]
Something we should all be aware of and try and guard against and take notice of and continually check ourselves on.
'Confirmation Bias'
Adrian it's disapointing that you refuse to answer the question, and instead run away from the debate. But, I've come to expect it. The reason you, and others like you will not answer the question, is because it challenges your preconceived black and white assumptions.
Reading up on the fixed views of conservatives like Ted Cruz, I came across the following quote.
"It’s part of human nature to want to resist information that contradicts with the way we see the world. Psychologists call the practice confirmation bias, and define it as the tendency to interpret information in ways that support our preconceptions."
A few people read my debates with Assad apologists here, the feedback I get is how can be so tolerant as to engage with people who excuse genocide?
The answer is; I could be where you are, that is if I had not had the life changing privilege to be in the Middle East at the time to be witness to the first stirrings of the Arab Spring.
From comments found under a piece by Novara Media concerning the bbc a quite choice quote by Arundhati Roy : on national flags " First they use them as shrinkwrap for your brain ,then as ceremonial shrouds for their war dead "
Great quote, plenty of people on this site have never seen a western regime change war that hasn't got them all juiced up….these free market liberals are just as jingoistic, ruthless and bloodthirsty as any right wing conservative as it turns out….guess that's why they line up with the UK conservatives so well….a perfect fit.
The funny thing is, Michele Bachmann turned out to be a very focused, hardworking member—even though she spent a few months later in 2011 on a short-lived campaign for president. She showed up to the committee, did her homework, and ended up winning over her fellow members with her dedication. Mike Rogers was impressed—and I have to admit, so was I. The whole situation ended up working out well for everyone. As one of those old Boehnerisms goes, “Get the right people on the bus, and help them find the right seat.”
An exercise in getting a loose cannon pointed in a less dangerous direction, actually turned out quite well. It's why I tend to think of at least 95% of people as pretty decent really, with the potential to be great in the right circumstances.
'Zero Covid' strategy far better for economy, European think-tank concludes
Pursuing a “zero Covid” strategy is best for health outcomes and the economy.
Everyone in NZ except for the National Party and David Seymour knew this to be true. Multiple studies, including this one, have confirmed that the New Zealand government's Covid strategy (with fast financial support) is better for both health and economic outcomes.
But more countries need to commit to the programme for the leaders to get the full benefit, a European think-tank has concluded.
Recovery in zero-Covid countries was to some extent at the mercy of policies in countries where that was not the goal, the institute suggested.
“The recovery is limited only by the failure of other countries to achieve this goal and this should motivate better global collaboration for achieving a shared end.”
This is now the concern. Conservative countries which are bizarrely wedded to 'freedom at any cost' will continue to drag the chain and jeopardise not only their own populations but the world as a whole. Their disastrous Covid-19 response damages those who have done well.
But the Easter Bunny came along and looked up at Boris and said – Que? (it was Manuel’s pet). And so Boris has had to buckle down and face off his mates while he sets another lockdown to end all lockdowns
Que is the most common word in Spanish, according to one study I read. It’s most often used as a conjunction and/or relative pronoun, then (with tilde) as interrogative “What” (Qué). It has many uses, and like a chameleon, can change its meaning to suit the context of the sentence. https://www.spanishdict.com/answers/181220/so-much-trouble-understanding-when-que-is-used-
As I understand it, the word que in latin means and. As in senatus populusque romanus (the senate and the roman people). I'm not how this differs from the word et. Perhaps this word is used in the sense of also as in et te Brute, (You too, Brutus?)
"…. more countries need to commit to the programme for the leaders to get the full benefit, a European think-tank has concluded."
One country that won't commit to the program is Australia, which has an official policy of 'suppression' rather than 'elimination', New Zealand's policy.
New Zealand is preparing to open a quarantine free travel bubble with Australia, unless Australia agrees to adopt New Zealand's policy of elimination, (which Scott Morrison has said Australia will never do), New Zealand will be defacto adopting Australia's policy of suppression.
Their disastrous Covid-19 response damages those who have done well.
One of the big stories over the next 12-18 months will be whether or not these nations will bite the bullet or let the pandemic run through, hoping vaccines do the work for them. Which they may not.
All lively lads and lasses who work in ways and places that NZ needs, that earns its own money from graft not grift, and who appreciate having a life and a society with standards and fairness; a country to be proud of living in for ordinary people as well as the 'swells'. I suggest that a few of you who are motivated with these sorts of ideas do this. Start a facebook page, capture a domain name, and the rights to the name wherever you have to apply to legally acquire it. And become a centre for go-ahead people who are trying to downsize consumption, buy local, get out of 4WDs and large people movers not needed, be into conservation and conversation, a helping hand for others and all families and children, and practical kindness.
You need to get together – in the old saying 'Birds of a feather flock together' – seen the starling images when they fly off? I will put my idea for a name for you on this blog on Tuesday night after seven after you have had Easter to think about this idea. If the active amongst you haven't thought of better, I suggest that someone with the vitals grab it and run with it as I have suggested. I think a lot of us are into 'rolling up our sleeves and doing' – we've all heard, read, done enough talking, chewing the cud! Things have to be moved with people power or what we want won't happen at all, and machines will fill the slack with empty promises and hype that fools people into thinking the answer is going to come from the tech direction.
I see that projections are for Auckland to inflate to 2 million from present 1.7m by early 2030s. Why wait till then, stacks on the mill, as the kids' game used to chant. An extra 1900 people a month appears somewhere in the item in Stuff p.12 Apr.1/21.
It was short and didn't have room to state guesses on when gridlock will be reached, or when police will start evicting people from favelas along motorways and under bridges. (They have already closed down a caravan park in the last decades because some criminals lived there.)
And will people in Auckland fund a charity hospital as they do in Christchurch for the large number of uncared for people? It may be that the Aucklanders will have no money left over after paying for their houses if they have managed to get their fingertips on one, and won a loan in the Australian bank's monthly lottery which they will probably set up soon.
I had a look at the on-line link incognito. It is really upsetting to read the way this article is slanted – that growth in population is automatically good, and the bigger the better. Despite a small mention of problems.
...The medium projection is considered suitable for assessing future population changes, and this week’s release contained the usual gloom about a higher proportion of older people and a declining percentage of children…
(Anyone who is aware knows that NZ is no longer a good place to bring up children as was once proclaimed. In fact it seems that the government finds them a burden with all their needs from start to adulthood. It's more efficient to bring in families from overseas where they have been educated at the family's expense or of that country.)
But beyond that, the cities of Hamilton and Tauranga – the other two hubs in the golden triangle – are expected to grow at the same rate as Auckland.
…By 2033, the projected population for the three regions is put at 2.93m – 51.7 per cent of the national total of 5.68m. For 2048, the figure is 3.32m – 53.4 per cent of the New Zealand population of 6.21m.
Further south, Christchurch, when combined with the adjacent districts where much of the area’s new housing is going – is thought likely to stay close to the leading bunch.
(Sounds like a racing commentary. Listen to Spike Jones' one – 'and Banana is coming through the bunch!').
Christchurch City had a 2018 population of 383,800, and on its own has an unspectacular annual growth projection of 0.6 per cent.
But the South Island’s main centre has a more robust look to it when the Waimakariri District – projected average annual growth 1 per cent – and Selwyn District -1.7 per cent – are added. Combined, the three territorial authorities had a population of 508,400 in 2018 – 10.4 per cent of the national total.
(Like a faster growing population makes a place More Robust! Weak minds repeating weak ideas here.)
And at the bottom, a message from Stuff: …'Why? Because with the pandemic situation constantly changing, it’s easy for misinformation and rumours to take hold. You can rely on Stuff’s journalists to question the decision-makers, interview experts, and use eyewitness reporting to answer your key questions with facts and context.'
It certainly is hard to keep on top of the tide of information, checking for tainted facts and what environment they arise from.
The Mayor announced some years after the quakes that she had a target of increasing (greater) Christchurch's population to one million within (if I recall correctly) 20 years……she never mentioned it again.
What a horrible projection. Now I understand the property investor who commented yesterday that the prices of houses would not be coming down (in fact not for the forseeable future, the changes in his opinion would only temporarily slow things). How depressing.
edit
The experiment of government central and local contracting business carry out its services should now draw to a close. It was an expensive one in the long term, and while it did lead to some improvements it appears that it cannot cope with the constant ramifications that arise in the fast-changing social and physical environment. While tied down to tight contracts and a business case that forces it to answer to shareholders requirements for profit, it cannot meet needs when presenting in reality which can multiply daily.
(Paragraph from a yet-to-be presented report from someone who has a bigger brain than the average bear.)
Opinion from Metlink
Passengers travelling on Metlink services operated by NZ Bus experienced almost 70 last-minute cancellations on Wednesday. Metlink General Manager Scott Gallacher said the recent service from NZ Bus simply wasn’t good enough.
Wow. Instead of being visited by a Dr, @navalny was visited by a team from RT, led by MARIA BUTINA (yes, the same woman convicted in the US of being a Russian agent). She shouted this was the best prison. Navalny then called her a parasite and a servant of the power of thieves. https://t.co/CaFTKHIz1F
RT “reporter” Maria Butina in a confrontational exchange with @navalny (notable he is off camera He’s lost 17 lbs, suffering leg and back pain). While he describes the prison as tortuous, she is shocked. “This is torture? This is better than some rural Russian hotels.” 👀 https://t.co/GLa2QGt1qh
Oh do you mean the racist nationalist Alexey Navalny that Amnesty International dropped because of his known racist rhetoric…the Navalny who was funded by the US backed National Endowment for Democracy (a known funding route for the CIA) in his Russian election run?…(isn't that kind of like election interference? and here I was thinking you guys hated it when countries meddled in other peoples elections, guess you don't give a shit about that after all)
Oh – you mean Putin is not nationalist? Or racist?
Lacking decades of exposure to a reforming activist base, Russia is as racist as it gets – hence the war of extermination in Chechnya.
To feed your own nonsense back at you: since Russia doesn't give a flying finangle about racism, and is cheerfully nationalist, shouldn't they love Navalny?
But Navalny has committed the unforgiveable crime of revealing the truth about Putin's republic of thieves – something RT will never do.
Have you no shame though, as a professed lefty, supporting this murderous kleptocrat? What would Putin have to do to disabuse you of your infatuation? He's already a genocide, an autocrat, a rigger of elections and a poisoner of political alternatives. Does he have to eat babies live onscreen, or would that too be America's fault?
FFS man "Oh – you mean Putin is not nationalist? Or racist?"…I know Putin is a probably a racist and is definitely a nationalist…but he is not the man that the west and you guys are spouting as some sort of Russian arch angle ready to free the Russian people from their evil overlord… maybe you should check out Putin's popularity stats in his own country once and while to get a grip on the reality over there…but I can tell you this for sure, any politician so obviously backed by the USA is never going to get any real in traction in Russia…sort of like your man Guaido in Venezuela.
If the Russians are ever going to break free from Putin, it will be from an organic rising from within Russia, supported by the Russian people…and not some Western backed Instagram sensation, that would be like you backing a politician in NZ that you knew was backed by Xi Jinping and funded by the MSS. https://www.statista.com/statistics/896181/putin-approval-rating-russia/
The funny thing is I never (or if so, rarely) saw any of you 'lefties' utter a murmur when an actual Left wing leader, Lula was outrageously imprisoned by an outright right wing authoritarian..in fact now I think about it, I don’t believe I have ever (or very rarely if so) seen any of you so called lefties show even the slightest sign of support for any actual Left Wing project around the world, or voice your concern when they are regularly threatened….
It really has become quite apparent to me over the previous few days, that you, Mcflock, Joe90, Al1en and a couple of others on TS are in fact, in your geopolitical beliefs (the ones you express on TS anyway) for want of a better description, are some sort of postmodern (liberal) imperialists. It was always obvious that you guys had some pretty seriously flawed world views, but when I saw recently, exactly how closely nearly all your geopolitical standpoints matched with the UK Conservative parties own positions…I guess the penny dropped…holy crap…I mean did you even realize yourself how far right you had drifted?
in the meantime I am committing the music to red haired boy to memory. at slow speed it is like this scottish lament but brightens up when played fast. stroke of luck I have this country instrumental compilation by NASHVILLE session pickers with this tune and old joe clark on it. nifty stuff. And the music by Steve Carr on bluegrassguitar.com and dude you are swinging . yee hahhh
@ Eco Maori , thanks for that. I really love that Folkways stuff, have been collecting it for many years.,,haven't got that one though, strangely I haven't even seen it in NZ, and I have been a record collector since I was a young man….just found one on Ebay, going to fill that hole in my collection.
Great record too, listening to it now on youtube..thanks again.
Here is a good interview on the history of Folkways that might interest you…
'Worlds Of Sound' A Tribute To Folkways
"Sixty years ago, Moses Asch set out with the lofty ambition to record "all the sound of the world." He established Folkways Records — "the little label that could" — and in the decades that followed, Folkways recorded everything from folk singers, to jazz greats, to sounds of the natural world."
Humans are hard-wired to classify, categorise and compare, or in other words, to taxonomize. We may be born tabula rasa but quickly are taught that the world is divided into types of things, subtypes of those and assorted other categories. The operative term is “taught” rather than “realise.” Taxonomies are ...
The Labour Government received plaudits this week for its historic announcement that it will ban the live export of animals by sea. It’s said to be a world first. The decision comes after years of pressure, which increased after last year’s tragedy when the ship Gulf Livestock 1 left New ...
As one does on a Friday evening, I yesterday made a point of heading along to the Dunedin Public Library’s event, Mystery in the Library. This was a panel of local crime-fiction writers, and a follow-up to a similar one in April 2019 (no prizes for guessing why ...
Now is about the time that the Government is getting its Budget Strategy togetherIn the week before the budget – the 2021 one is to be delivered on Thursday 20 May – there is a strange ritual in which all the commentariat and lobbyists (who are not necessarily distinct from ...
Climate Change Minister James Shaw has admitted that the government is not doing enough on climate change: Appearing on Breakfast alongside Greenpeace director and former Green Party leader Russel Norman, the current Greens co-leader was asked: “Are you as Government living up to promise of delivery implicit in those ...
We can all agree that a free press (and free media more generally) are important factors in a well-functioning democracy. But I am beginning to wonder if they provide us with an unalloyed benefit. I am an avid consumer of daily news – whether delivered by the press or by ...
Yes They Can - So Why Don't They? In matters relating to child poverty, homelessness, mental health, climate change and, of course, Covid-19, the answers are right in front of the Government's collective nose - often in the form of reports it has specifically commissioned. Why can’t Jacinda and her ...
Richard Edwards, Janet Hoek, Anaru Waa, George Thomson, Nick Wilson (author details*) We congratulate the NZ Government on its proposed Action Plan for the Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 goal. Here we examine the evidence for three key ideas outlined in the plan: permitting tobacco products to be sold in only ...
Punished, But Not Prevented: Though bitterly contested by those firmly convinced that the Christchurch Mosque Shootings represent something more than the crime of a Lone Wolf terrorist, the Royal Commission’s finding that no state agency could have prevented Brenton Tarrant from carrying out his deadly intent – except by chance ...
The Government has announced it intends making sex self-identification possible this year, as a priority. That would mean anyone could change the sex documented on their birth certificate by a simple declaration that they “identify” as the opposite sex. Speak Up For Women have launched a campaign encouraging New Zealanders ...
The travel bubble with Australia has not brought room for others to come into the MIQ system from overseas. Instead, spaces are being decommissioned. Why? The system is leaky. The government cannot afford to let riskier people into those spaces, because the system can’t handle them. My column in Insights ...
A Second Term Labour-led Government in New Zealand,a new Biden-led Administration in the US, a continuance of the Johnson Government in the UK: different approaches to major issues, same global problems – and discontent rising. Some warranted, some unwarranted, but as each emerges from the Covid pandemic, what ...
I will update this post as new information comes to handWhat has happened? Recently the vaccine safety watch dogs in Europe noted reports of unusual types of blood clots in people vaccinated with the AstraZeneca (AZ) COVID-19 vaccine. This prompted investigations across many countries to ascertain what, why, and ...
Alex Ford, University of Portsmouth and Gary Hutchison, Edinburgh Napier UniversityWithin just a few generations, human sperm counts may decline to levels below those considered adequate for fertility. That’s the alarming claim made in epidemiologist Shanna Swan’s new book, “Countdown”, which assembles a raft of evidence to show that ...
Just like last year, this year's General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) will happen virtually instead of in person in Vienna. Contrary to last year, the organizers decided early on to hold their conference online and planned for it accordingly (quite a difference to last year's scramble where they switched ...
Time for a strange rant. A very strange rant. But bear with me, because this is serious business. A True Story, by Lucian of Samosata is not Science-Fiction. What on earth am I talking about? Well, it was one of those Wikipedia rabbit holes. I was reading ...
By Kate Evans for UndarkOne of New Zealand’s most spectacular fossil sites originated 23.2 million years ago. It was formed in a valley dotted with small volcanoes, when rising magma deep below the Earth’s surface came into contact with groundwater. Lava and water don’t mix — they explode. The ...
A Thorn In Their Side: As Chair of the Auckland Regional Council, Mike Lee made sure Auckland’s municipal resources remained in Aucklanders’ hands. Not surprisingly the neoliberal powers-that-be (in both their centre-left and centre-right incarnations) hated this last truly effective standard-bearer for democratic-socialist values and policies.MIKE LEE is the closest ...
It’s always something of a shock to come across a page run by a health-focused business that contains substantial misinformation. This one left me gobsmacked, given the sheer number of statements that are demonstrably untrue. And while a fair bit of the content is prefaced by the statement that it’s ...
Previously (9 February) I wrote about how business consultants Ernst & Young were used to do a hatchet job on the former senior management team at Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB). While this hatchet job was planned in 2019 its gestation was much longer. Its underlying causes involved differences in ...
Flying beneath the radar of guilt Fight or Flight: How Advertising for Air Travel Triggers Moral Disengagement(open access) by Stubenvoll & Neureiter not only takes an interesting approach to decomposing the effects of airline travel advertisements but also helps us to understand the general psychological landscape of our often conflicted ...
Yesterday I got told to “do some research” &, by extension, to think critically. The biologist in me cringed a little when I read it (and not because of the advice about doing research). Biology teachers I know suggested that perhaps everyone should take the NCEA standard that ...
Lis Ku, De Montfort University Since the onset of the pandemic, everyone from newspaper columnists to Twitter users has advanced the now idea that extroverts and introverts are handling the crisis differently. Many claim that introverts adapt to social distancing and isolation better than extroverts, with some even suggesting that ...
A friend of mine pointed me in the direction of this blog post by New Zealand’s “Plan B” group. While initially this group opposed the government’s use of lockdowns to manage covid19 outbreaks in this country, they seem to have since moved on to opposing the rollout of vaccines against ...
Twenty years after it invaded, the US is finally leaving Afghanistan. What's surprising is that it took them so long - its been clear for over a decade that their presence there was pointless and just pissing people off. But imperial pride leads to exactly this sort of stupidity. Their ...
The government has announced that it will ban the export of livestock by sea. Huzzah! A vile, cruel and unconscionable trade will be ended! But there's a catch: the ban won't kick in until 2023, giving farmers two ful years to continue to profit from extreme animal cruelty. But why ...
Today is unexpectedly a Member's Day - the Business Committee granted it early in the year, to make up for time list to government business. First up is a two-hour debate on the budget policy statement, with questions to Ministers, replacing the general debate. Then its the second reading of ...
. . Two stories which appeared almost side-by-side on RNZ’s website. Parent, Miranda Cross, was quoted as saying; “I think the expectations are that we can at least send our kids to school where they will receive an education.” An American parent would probably demand; “I think the expectations are ...
Time for reviewing something a bit different. Move over Tolkien adaptations, hello Japanese splatter movie. Specifically, a certain 2009 movie called Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl. I watched this one a few days ago with some acquaintances, never having seen it before, and not being familiar with the manga ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters, PhD An above-average Atlantic hurricane season is likely in 2021, the Colorado State University (CSU) hurricane forecasting team says in its latest seasonal forecast issued April 8. Led by Dr. Phil Klotzbach, with coauthors Dr. Michael Bell and Jhordanne Jones, the CSU ...
How seriously does the Māori Party take issues of corruption and the untoward influence of big money in politics? Not very, based on how it’s handling a political finance scandal in which three large donations were kept hidden from the public. The party is currently making excuses, and largely failing ...
The annual inventory report [PDF] of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing a significant increase in emissions: (Note that this is UNFCCC accounting, not the weird fudged figures the Climate Change Commission is using). Emissions increased by almost 2 million tons in 2019, from 80.6 MT ...
The melody from the classic movie Wizard of Oz echoes as Jacinta Ruru explains what inspired her to attend university, and her ambition to help create a more just society in Aotearoa. Jacinta, who affiliates to Raukawa and Ngāti Ranginui, specialises in the research areas of indigenous peoples and the law. ...
Stuff reports that National is refusing to back the Climate Change Commission's recommendations, which is apparently a Bad Thing: The National Party says it can’t support the Climate Change Commission’s draft plan to cut New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions unless changes are made. If National maintains this position when ...
Driven, accountable, unafraid to test limits and connected to the communities she serves are traits that come to mind when thinking about Dr Anne-Marie Jackson. (Ngāti Whātua, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu o Whangaroa, Ngāti Wai) She specialises in Māori physical education and health research disciplines while incorporating tikanga Māori and Te ...
This is my first post for a while. I have been a bit overwhelmed by other work in the last several weeks, with teaching and other commitments, and the blog has sadly suffered. But I’m still here. This morning, while sitting in a car in the permanent traffic jam through ...
Predatory Morality: Is geopolitical consultant, Paul Buchanan, right? Does the rest of the world truly monitor New Zealand’s miniscule contribution to the international arms trade so closely? Are foreign chancelleries truly so insensitive to their own governments’ complicity in the world’s horrors that they expect all other sovereign states to ...
Anna Källén, Stockholm University and Daniel Strand, Uppsala University A middle-aged white man raises his sword to the skies and roars to the gods. The results of his genetic ancestry test have just arrived in his suburban mailbox. His eyes fill with tears as he learns that he is “0.012% ...
March 2021 The housing crisis right now in New Zealand is one of our biggest contributors to income and wealth inequality. “With the explosive increase in sales and prices, those with houses have their income and/or wealth rapidly increasing, and those who are not on the property ladder are falling ...
Samoans went to the polls on Friday, and delivered a stinging blow to Prime Minister Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi one-party state. Pre-election Malielegaoi's Human Rights Protection Party had controlled 44 of 49 seats in Parliament, while using restrictive standing orders to prevent there from even being a recognised opposition in ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Jennifer Summers, Prof Michael BakerIn this blog we briefly consider a new Report from a European think tank that aims to identify an optimal COVID-19 response strategy. It considers mortality data, GDP impacts, and mobility data and suggests that COVID-19 elimination appears to be superior ...
Something I missed on Friday: the Māori Party has been referred to police over failure to disclose donations over $30,000. Looking at the updated return of large donations, this is about $320,000 donated to them by three donors - John Tamihere, the National Urban Māori Authority, and Aotearoa Te Kahu ...
Stormy Seas: Will Jacinda Ardern's Labour Government stand behind the revolutionary proposals contained in He Puapua – the 20-year plan devised by a government appointed working group to realise the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Aotearoa/New Zealand?“GETTING AHEAD of the story” is one of the most ...
We have not been fans of the Climate Change Commission’s draft report. New Zealand has an Emissions Trading Scheme with a binding cap, and a declining path for net emissions in the covered sector. Measures taken within the covered sector cannot reduce net emissions. NZU not purchased by one sector get ...
For several decades under Labour and National-led governments New Zealand has claimed to have an independent (and sometimes autonomous) foreign policy. This foreign policy independence is said to be gained by having a “principled but pragmatic” approach to international relations: principled when possible, pragmatic when necessary. More recently NZ foreign ...
This video produced in Seattle looks at the gender identity curriculum used in schools in the US. A thin veneer of pseudoscience is being used to indoctrinate children with an ideology based on scientific and medical inaccuracies. ...
For once, I have written my submission on a bill with enough time to spare to both enocurage any of you who wants to make a submission to do so as well, and to give you time to spot the typos in mine.Louisa Wall's Harmful Digital Communications (Unauthorised Posting of Intimate ...
A friend found a concerning FB post (see below – this is a public post & so I have not redacted the name) & – as you do – immediately queried it with Southern Cross Life & Health Insurance as well as sending the screenshot to me¹. We both read ...
Judith Collins’ National Party leadership is under more scrutiny, with increased talk in the media of her being replaced by brand new MP Christopher Luxon. For many commentators it’s just a question of “when” rather than “if” Collins is replaced. While others ponder whether Luxon really has what it takes ...
‘Tis the season for unearthing the rarest gems in Tolkien adaptation – which, considering that the fandom has been dominated by Peter Jackson for nigh on two decades, is a positively heart-warming development. It is why I have devoted so much blog space to the obscure and weirdly wonderful ...
Whatever the damage, especially to the British economy, Brexit has done us a service by illustrating the complexity of trade.Brexit is the only example we have of two closely integrated sophisticated economies severing trading ties. The European Union and Britain still do not have tariffs or import quotas between them ...
The Palmerston North City Council has voted for Māori wards: Palmerston North Māori will be guaranteed one or two seats on the city council from 2022, and this time, there is nothing opponents can do about it. The council decided by an 11-5 vote at its monthly meeting this ...
Kids are striking for the climate today, demanding a decent, liveable future. Meanwhile, the National Party, the reliable servant of the farm lobby and other polluting businesses, is calling for action to be delayed: National has written to Climate Change Minister James Shaw calling for him to extend the ...
Today tens of thousands of schoolkids have walked out of school to strike for a future free from climate change. And tens of thousands of older New Zealanders have joined them. Their demands are clear: eliminate fossil fuels, implement 100% renewable energy with a just transition, and support our Pacific ...
The Gods That Failed.We studied the dialecticRead the whole of ‘Capital’So we could follow youSo we could follow youHow we shoutedHow we scrawledPainted slogans on city wallsOn prison wallsProof we had followed youBut, we still didn’t find what we’re looking forAnd we still haven’t found what we’re looking forWhen they ...
Conventional Wisdom? The Republican Right is convinced that to “go woke” is to “go broke”. It simply does not believe sufficient Americans feel strongly enough about social justice to make any kind of boycott remotely effective. Clearly, the Boards of Directors of more and more American corporations disagree. RECENT MOVES by ...
On November 25, 2020 Skeptical Science Inc. became a registered nonprofit organization and on March 17, 2021 our application to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service for 501(c)(3) status was approved. In this blog post, we’ll explain why we went down this path and what will come next. Since its ...
Blowing Hot And Cold: Mike Hosking’s bosses should, perhaps, ask themselves what message Newstalk-ZB (and NZME) is sending to the people of New Zealand if Mike Hosking, their self-appointed “People’s Prosecutor”, is accorded bragging rights for “cancelling” the democratically-elected Prime Minister of New Zealand. Especially when said Prime Minister’s only ...
Ali Boyle, University of CambridgeIf you ask people to list the most intelligent animals, they’ll name a few usual suspects. Chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants are often mentioned, as are crows, dogs and occasionally pigs. Horses don’t usually get a look in. So it might come as a surprise that ...
Selwyn Manning and I dedicated this week’s video podcast to the potential emergence of rival blocs within the transitional process involved in the move from a unipolar to a multipolar international system currently underway. However one characterises the phenomenon–autocracies versus democracies, East versus West, colonial versus post-colonial–the global order is ...
With the rediscovery of the lost Soviet Lord of the Rings, the time has come for the important things in life. Specifically, compiling the Tom Bombadil scenes from the three known screen adaptations that feature him: This is a collection of scenes from:– Sagan om Ringen (1971: ...
Back in February the Climate Change Commission recommended a ban on new coal-fired boilers, and a phase out of existing ones by 2037. And today, the government has said they will implement that policy, and backed it up with funding to help transition some of our large pollution sources: ...
A ballot for three members bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Income Tax (Adjustment of Taxable Income Ranges) Amendment Bill (Simon Bridges) Regulatory Standards Bill (David Seymour) Human Rights (Disability Assist Dogs Non-Discrimination) Amendment Bill (Ricardo Menéndez March) The first two ...
Back in 2014, the police raided and searched journalist Nicky Hager's home over his book Dirty Politics, seizing his journalistic work in an effort to identify his sources to please their political masters in the National party. The raid - and much of the police's related investigative work - was ...
By Professor Tony Blakely, Dr Tim Wilson, Luke Thorburn and Professor Nathan Grills, University of MelbourneA new web tool, COVID-19 Pandemic Trade-offs, allows people to weigh the costs and benefits of different policy responses as Australia rolls out vaccines and considers opening borders.See here for an associated explanatory ...
The Greens welcome $6.6 million from the Government’s $455 million programme to increase access to mental health and addiction services for our Pasifika communities in Auckland and Wellington. ...
The Green Party is putting a Member’s Bill into the ballot today which will be a significant step towards overhauling the Social Security Act by embedding a tikanga Māori framework into the welfare system. ...
The Green Party have reaffirmed their strong commitment to the union movement in Aotearoa New Zealand by renewing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with E Tū. ...
Soon, more kids in Aotearoa will have access to the in-school mental health support that has boosted the resilience of tamariki and whānau in Canterbury. ...
The Green Party supports the open letter released today by a cross-sector coalition calling for the Government to treat all drug use as a health issue, to repeal and replace the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975. ...
Small businesses are not only the heart of our economy – they’re also the heart of our communities. They provide important goods and services, as well as great employment opportunities. They know and love their locals. And after a tough year, they need our support! ...
Green Party spokesperson for Pacific Peoples Teanau Tuiono MP, supports the demand from Pasifika communities fighting for climate action as their homelands are more at risk in the Pacific region. ...
The Green Party supports the six demands for climate action put forward by School Strike for Climate NZ, who are striking across the country today. ...
The Ministry of Justice Māori victimisation report, released today, reinforces what we already know about the impact of systemic racism in Aotearoa and that urgent action is needed. ...
Ricardo Menéndez March’s Members Bill to ensure that disabled New Zealanders do not face discrimination for having a disability assist dog was today pulled from the biscuit tin to be debated in Parliament. ...
More than one million people will be better off from today, thanks to our Government’s changes to the minimum wage, main benefits and superannuation. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to do more for New Zealanders who continue to miss out, as main benefits are set to rise by less than $8 a week tomorrow, Thursday 1 April (at the start of the financial year). ...
Sunday 28th March 70 Rongomaiwahine descendants welcomed members of the Green Party’s Māori Caucus, Te Mātāwaka, Dr Elizabeth Kerekere and Teanau Tuiono, to discuss concerns about RocketLab’s operations on the Mahia Peninsula. ...
New Zealand is providing further support to Timor-Leste following severe flooding and the recent surge in COVID-19 cases, Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced today. “Our thoughts are with the people of Timor-Leste who have been impacted by the severe flooding and landslides at a time when the country is ...
A ceremony has been held today in Gisborne where the unclaimed medals of 28 (Māori) Battalion C Company soldiers were presented to their families. After the Second World War, returning service personnel needed to apply for their medals and then they would be posted out to them. While most medals ...
New Zealand has today added its voice to the international condemnation of the malicious compromise and exploitation of the SolarWinds Orion platform. The Minister Responsible for the Government Communications Security Bureau, Andrew Little, says that New Zealand's international partners have analysed the compromise of the SolarWinds Orion platform and attributed ...
An expert consenting panel has approved the Queenstown Arterials Project, which will significantly improve transport links and reduce congestion for locals and visitors in the tourism hotspot. Environment Minister David Parker welcomed the approval for the project that will construct, operate and maintain a new urban road around Queenstown’s town ...
Economic and Regional Development Minister Stuart Nash says a landmark deal has been agreed with Amazon for The Lord of the Rings TV series, currently being filmed in New Zealand. Mr Nash says the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) secures multi-year economic and tourism benefits to New Zealand, outside the screen ...
The Government welcomes the findings from a rapid review into the health system response to lead contamination in Waikouaiti’s drinking water supply. Sample results from the town’s drinking-water supply showed intermittent spikes in lead levels above the maximum acceptable value. The source of the contamination is still under investigation by ...
Transport Minister Michael Wood today marked the start of construction on the New Zealand Upgrade Programme’s Papakura to Drury South project on Auckland’s Southern Motorway, which will create hundreds of jobs and support Auckland’s economic recovery. The SH1 Papakura to Drury South project will give more transport choices by providing ...
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā karanga maha o te wa, tēnā koutou, tēna koutou, tēna tātou katoa. Ki ngā mana whenua, ko Ngāi Tahu, ko Waitaha, ko Kāti Māmoe anō nei aku mihi ki a koutou. Nōku te hōnore kia haere mai ki te ...
Transport Minister Michael Wood today marked the completion of upgrades to State Highway 20B which will give Aucklanders quick electric bus trips to and from the airport. The State Highway 20B Early Improvements project has added new lanes in each direction between Pukaki Creek Bridge and SH20 for buses and ...
The Government is putting in place a review of the work being done on animal welfare and safety in the greyhound racing industry, Grant Robertson announced today. “While Greyhound Racing NZ has reported some progress in implementing the recommendations of the Hansen Report, recent incidents show the industry still has ...
The infringement fee for using a mobile phone while driving will increase from $80 to $150 from 30 April 2021 to encourage safer driving, Transport Minister Michael Wood announced today. Michael Wood said too many people are still picking up the phone while driving. “Police issued over 40,000 infringement notices ...
Pacific people in New Zealand will be better supported with new mental health and addiction services rolling out across the Auckland and Wellington regions, says Aupito William Sio. “One size does not fit all when it comes to supporting the mental wellbeing of our Pacific peoples. We need a by ...
New measures are being proposed to accelerate progress towards becoming a smokefree nation by 2025, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced. “Smoking or exposure to second-hand smoke kills around 12 people a day in New Zealand. Recent data tells us New Zealand’s smoking rates continue to decrease, but ...
More children will be able to access mental wellbeing support with the Government expansion of Mana Ake services to five new District Health Board areas, Health Minister Andrew Little says. The Health Minister made the announcement while visiting Homai School in Counties Manukau alongside Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate ...
The Government’s COVID-19 response has meant a record number of people moved off a Benefit and into employment in the March Quarter, with 32,880 moving into work in the first three months of 2021. “More people moved into work last quarter than any time since the Ministry of Social Development ...
A stocktake undertaken by France and New Zealand shows significant global progress under the Christchurch Call towards its goal to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. The findings of the report released today reinforce the importance of a multi-stakeholder approach, with countries, companies and civil society working together to ...
Racing Minister Grant Robertson has announced he is appointing Elizabeth Dawson (Liz) as the Chair of the interim TAB NZ Board. Liz Dawson is an existing Board Director of the interim TAB NZ Board and Chair of the TAB NZ Board Selection Panel and will continue in her role as ...
The Government has announced that the export of livestock by sea will cease following a transition period of up to two years, said Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. “At the heart of our decision is upholding New Zealand’s reputation for high standards of animal welfare. We must stay ahead of the ...
WORKSHOP ON LETHAL AUTONOMOUS WEAPONS SYSTEMS Wednesday 14 April 2021 MINISTER FOR DISARMAMENT AND ARMS CONTROL OPENING REMARKS Good morning, I am so pleased to be able to join you for part of this workshop, which I’m confident will help us along the path to developing New Zealand’s national policy on ...
For the first time, all 18 prisons in New Zealand will be invited to participate in an inter-prison kapa haka competition, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. The 2021 Hōkai Rangi Whakataetae Kapa Haka will see groups prepare and perform kapa haka for experienced judges who visit each prison and ...
The Government has introduced the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Bill, designed to boost New Zealand's ability to respond to a wider range of terrorist activities. The Bill strengthens New Zealand’s counter-terrorism legislation and ensures that the right legislative tools are available to intervene early and prevent harm. “This is the Government’s first ...
Coal boiler replacements at a further ten schools, saving an estimated 7,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide over the next ten years Fossil fuel boiler replacements at Southern Institute of Technology and Taranaki DHB, saving nearly 14,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide over the next ten years Projects to achieve a total ...
Attorney-General David Parker today announced the appointment of Cassie Nicholson as Chief Parliamentary Counsel for a term of five years. The Chief Parliamentary Counsel is the principal advisor and Chief Executive of the Parliamentary Counsel Office (PCO). She is responsible for ensuring PCO, which drafts most of New Zealand’s legislation, provides ...
Every part of Government will need to take urgent action to bring down emissions, the Minister for Climate Change, James Shaw said today in response to the recent rise in New Zealand’s greenhouse emissions. The latest annual inventory of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions shows that both gross and net ...
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister David Clark says Aotearoa New Zealand has become the first country in the world to introduce a law that requires the financial sector to disclose the impacts of climate change on their business and explain how they will manage climate-related risks and opportunities. The Financial ...
Exceptional employment practices in the primary industries have been celebrated at the Good Employer Awards, held this evening at Parliament. “Tonight’s awards provided the opportunity to celebrate and thank those employers in the food and fibres sector who have gone beyond business-as-usual in creating productive, safe, supportive, and healthy work ...
Applications are now invited from all councils for a slice of government funding aimed at improving tourism infrastructure, especially in areas under pressure given the size of their rating bases. Tourism Minister Stuart Nash has already signalled that five South Island regions will be given priority to reflect that jobs ...
Tēnā koutou e ngā maata waka Tenā koutou te hau kāinga ngā iwi o Te Whanganui ā TaraTēnā koutou i runga i te kaupapa o te Rā. No reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tatou katoa. It is a pleasure to be here tonight. Thank you Graeme (Peters, ENA Chief ...
The Construction Skills Action Plan has delivered early on its overall target of supporting an additional 4,000 people into construction-related education and employment, says Minister for Building and Construction Poto Williams. Since the Plan was launched in 2018, more than 9,300 people have taken up education or employment opportunities in ...
An innovative new Youth Justice residence designed in partnership with Māori will provide prevention, healing, and rehabilitation services for both young people and their whānau, Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. Whakatakapokai is located in South Auckland and will provide care and support for up to 15 rangatahi remanded or ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today expressed New Zealand’s sorrow at the death of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. “Our thoughts are with Her Majesty The Queen at this profoundly sad time. On behalf of the New Zealand people and the Government, I would like to express ...
We, the Home Affairs, Interior, Security and Immigration Ministers of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America (the ‘Five Countries’) met via video conference on 7/8 April 2021, just over a year after the outbreak of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Guided by our shared ...
Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Carmel Sepuloni has today announced the opening of the first round of Ngā Puninga Toi ā-Ahurea me ngā Kaupapa Cultural Installations and Events. “Creating jobs and helping the arts sector rebuild and recover continues to be a key part of the Government’s COVID-19 response,” Carmel ...
Interim legislation that is already proving to keep people safer from drugs will be made permanent, Health Minister Andrew Little says. Research by Victoria University, on behalf of the Ministry of Health, shows that the Government’s decision in December to make it legal for drug-checking services to operate at festivals ...
Public consultation launched on ways to improve behaviour and reduce damage Tighter rules proposed for either camping vehicles or camping locations Increased penalties proposed, such as $1,000 fines or vehicle confiscation Rental companies may be required to collect fines from campers who hire vehicles Public feedback is sought on proposals ...
The Government is continuing to support Air New Zealand while aviation markets stabilise and the world moves towards more normal border operations. The Crown loan facility made available to Air New Zealand in March 2020 has been extended to a debt facility of up to $1.5 billion (an additional $600 ...
Christchurch’s Richmond suburb will soon have a new community hub, following the gifting of a red-zoned property by Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) to the Richmond Community Gardens Trust. The Minister for Land Information, Damien O’Connor said that LINZ, on behalf of the Crown, will gift a Vogel Street house ...
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"The obvious explanation for wealth growing during the pandemic is that we are simply seeing the effect of businesses and consumers buying into the central banks’ confidence trick.
Monetary easing has inflated the value of house prices, shares and pension schemes beyond their fundamentals, making us collectively better off on paper – but not in actuality."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/124468085/covid-seems-to-have-left-us-wealthier-but-less-productive-and-that-cant-add-up
And the million dollar question is will widespread realisation be sudden or gradual?…..I’d suggest the former.
A lot of it will be the effects of the border being closed to tourism. The money we would have spent travelling the world has been spent in New Zealand, with multiplier effects as that moves around the economy, or saved. So individually and collectively we get richer.
I wouldn't be surprised if one of the 'learnings' once the washup is done of our Covid experience is that tourism, both outbound and inbound was a major net negative to our economy.
Ahem. Correct management-speak is 'learnings going forwud'.
The multiplier effect works in both directions.
The 'fundamentals' he references is essentially productivity .
Productivity is essentially more efficient use of energy.
EROI is decreasing so productivity must decrease.
And yet we waste that energy on consumerism.
Having said I agree that we may belatedly realise that our 'biggest export earner' was in fact simply a swap to enable the few to live the life of Riley
yes, many in my circle of aquantainances have spent up large on toys(boats, motorcycles,cars, spa pools etc) with $$$ that would otherwise be taken offshore. too many of our local tourism ventures are overseas owned and many busloads of asian tourists spend there money in asian owned facilities, so NZ really only benefits from gst, not the whole pie.I think you are on point graeme.
https://sptnkne.ws/FP7Z
A comment on the BBC.
British tax payers compulsory funding of this Imperialist propaganda tool.
Buwaaaahaha!
Pot calling the kettle black just nibbles at the edges of this one, an outright disinformation tool of the expansionist kremlin calling anyone else a propaganda tool.
How about we recognise that all the major nation's use soft power projection? And media channels which selectively distort and misinform are just part of this game? And that relying on any one of them to try and gain an objective sense of reality is just going to disappoint.
And at the same time there is still a remarkable amount of usable information out there, most sources don't make up shit all of the time, they cannot entirely disconnect from reality. Even uncritical people notice that.
Right now the media world is in a tough place, with reliable professionalism under siege from multiple directions. It's very difficult for any individual in the system to write fearlessly on all topics. But most of the time they do their best, and if in sum the ‘media’ falls short of our ideals, we can be grateful that we have literally at our fingertips a torrent of information that was unimaginable even just 30 years ago.
And it's a wild torrent that demands some effort if you want to swim in it.
It's also a torrent that is impossible to navigate without some structural understanding of how the world works. That this understanding can harden into ideology doesn't mean that we don't need it. The proliferation of lunacy we see everywhere parallels the proliferation of information.
Yes that's a really good way of putting it.

It's also why I've shifted my attention away from ideologies and toward the geopolitical and demographic realities that determine the fate of nations in the long run.
And one of the few good things about getting older is that I can look back and observe the things I used to believe, which have turned out to be not so true. And then contemplate that a fair chunk of what I believe now will likely have the same fate.
We all need some kind of belief and values system as a framework to conceive, grow, and store and share our hopes, dreams, and aspirations for and about the world and ourselves. This will give is a relatively safe haven to anchor and moor without which we will be pounded and pummelled by the waves and tidal currents of time and smashed on the rocks of reality. However, from time to time, we have to lift the anchor and leave the familiar small surroundings and seek other new places before they turn into a bay of boredom and we lose our mobility and become stale and fixated. After all, we are all sailors on an ocean of possibilities and fishermen of the sea.
A very apt metaphor.
This is weird. I thought you were banned for abuse until after Easter. How is it you are still able to comment here today?
Bit unclear as to what the mod meant by "you two".
Gabby definitely one, replying to RL, but there also seemed to be a comment that didn't get past premod or got deleted? but then Adrian has also been commenting today.
FYI
Very few comments never make it through to the front-end. This can happen when a ‘new’ commenter does not get past the Pre-Mod filter, e.g. when it is spam, utter vile crap, or an existing user trying to bypass a ban. Sometimes, commenters are put in Pre-Mod for a specific reason, but this always comes with a warning.
We never delete a comment from an existing user after it has actually appeared in the front-end without telling; it’ll show up as [deleted] and often is self-explanatory to the commenter and/or comes with a brief explanation – all this takes up Moderator time.
I’d like to think that Moderators here act with honesty and integrity and we can get a bit shitty when we’re accused of ‘censorship’ in all its gory forms.
HTH
A textbook example of wishful thinking AKA believing is seeing 😀
When I said “you two”, I obviously referred to Gabby and the Easter bunny. Doh!
It wasn't obvious at all.
Silly of me to expect that particular moderator to be held to the same standard as we mortals.
Well, Gabby and the Easter bunny did get it. So, obviously, it was obvious enough to them; your miscomprehension is irrelevant regardless unless you thought that RL was or should have been banned, which is also misplaced and irrelevant regardless.
Stop digging a hole for yourself.
Neither McFlock nor myself 'got it' so, yeah. Part of the problem for commenters is cryptic moderation notes.
[Part of the problem for Moderators is that you keep on creating problems here and that you don’t take a hint. In other words, stubborn obnoxious recidivist behaviour that is wasting time. I’m not going to waste my time repeating what I’ve written to you in recent comments and Moderation notes, one of which was a particularly clear Moderation note (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-30-03-2021/#comment-1785916). Stop digging a hole or meet that molehill that you seem to be seeking so desperately; the signpost is clearly labelled: molehill or freedom to comment here. This is your warning – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 4:04 PM.
First time I've seen that "particularly clear" moderation note.
You didn't follow my comment very closely if you think I labelled RL's comment "woke-left". My entire position was that the use of the term right wing was for some reason frowned upon yet RL uses the pejorative "woke-left" on a daily basis in order to wind up commenters here.
[The onus is on you to read the replies to your comments and the alerts to Moderation notes.
You’re still trying to manipulate me into taking sides in your personal vendetta against RL. In fact, I’m starting to think that you’re trying to deliberately wind up RL and me as well.
You’re still ignoring the fact that you’re being moderated for your behaviour and conduct here on this site.
Stop wasting my time; this is your final warning – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 6:36 pm.
It's a by product of getting old RL.
Another way of saying;
If only I knew then what I know now things might have been different. 😉
The proliferation of lunacy has less to do with the proliferation of information, but more to do with the proliferation of misinformation and disinformation.
To take the favourite example of the convergence moonbats trying to discredit mainstream media, the Iraq WMD lies (disinformation), the mainstream media were correctly and reporting the (evidence free) assertions of the Shrub and Blair administrations as assertions, and the misinformation reports originating from Ahmed Chalabi via Chris Hedges and Judith Miller and others, they were also reporting the (valid information as it turned out) leaks from the intelligence communities that those claims were a crock of crap, and also reporting the valid information that Hans Blix and his team of UN inspectors were finding nothing of significance that might justify an invasion.
Sorting the valid information from the crap is the difficult bit. It becomes a bit easier when you just don't give those in the habit of flooding the zone with shit an entry into your news stream.
And then there are those in the habit of not telling you that which they don't want you to know. That's a lot harder to detect if you only pay attention to a few 'good' channels that you happen to like. The absence of something is always much less apparent.
Thing is, on the rare (very rare) occasions Sputnik and RT have some sort of actual connection with reality, it's because reality just happens to align with what the Kremlin wants others to think.
The rarity of those occasions in the zone that's otherwise flooded with shit disinformation makes it a waste of time trying to filter through it, unless one has a particular interest in trying to sift through the sewage to glean what might be current Kremlin motivations.
It's a shame, because in the first couple of years, before the state agenda began to dominate reporting, they really were a breathe of fresh air.
It's a shame, because in the first couple of years, before the state agenda began to dominate reporting, they really were a breathe [sic] of fresh air.
You're correct to note the heavy bias of RT. I'm really appalled by the way they routinely use the most extreme right wing British and American talk radio boofheads to comment on British and American politics. Peter Lavelle's Crosstalk often threatens to be an interesting and informative program but is frequently derailed by the host himself unleashing some crazed extreme right wing opinions that ruin the rest of the program. On the plus side, however, RT regularly features real journalists and academics of unimpeachable integrity, such as Chris Hedges, Norman Finkelstein, and Noam Chomsky.
So does that description imply to you a primary editorial inclination towards truth, a primary editorial inclination towards clickbait, or a primary editorial inclination towards supporting internal criticism within the US and "West"?
Or some other primary editorial inclination?
Because it seems to me that their main role in regards to international affairs is to confuse reporting of Russian actions and motives while providing handy links and "evidence" for americans and western europeans to sow discontent within america and western europe. And any similarity with real people or events is purely coincidental.
Thing is, on the rare (very rare) occasions Sputnik and RT have some sort of actual connection with reality, it's because reality just happens to align with what the Kremlin wants others to think.
A mirror image, then, of the British state broadcaster, the BBC.
Nope, not a mirror image. The BBC frequently reports things that the UK government of the day would prefer were left unaired.
The bias in the BBC is merely consistent with its decision makers having the UK's best interests at heart, which is quite different to the way RT and Sputnik act as propaganda organisations promoting whatever disinformation the Kremlin is pushing at that moment.
The BBC frequently reports things that the UK government of the day would prefer were left unaired.
That was the case briefly at the beginning of this century. That period of independence came to a brutal end in 2003, after Andrew Gilligan plainly stated live on radio that the intelligence used to justify the attack on Iraq was "sexed up", i.e. manipulated and untrustworthy. Blair's chief enforcer, Alistair Campbell, instigated a jihad against the BBC, ensuring that the insubordinate and awkward director-general Greg Dyke—he believed his duty was to serve the public, not the Blair regime—was forced out and replaced by the compliant and reliable functionary Mark Thompson. The rest is gloomy and infuriating history.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/mar/02/bbc-defends-distinctive-programmes-against-government-criticism
Yes, the BBC publishes articles containing critique of the UK government, it's actions and policies. I've asked before from those spouting the editorial 'independence' of RT etc. to link to stories criticising Putin or what he does in a negative light, but no joy as yet.
Today on the BBC UK politics page there are pieces on the outcry against the governments plan for covid passports for pubs and the Tory reception of the racial disparity report.
Not to mention TV programs like Panorama, which regularly put the boot in to the annoyance of number 10.
TBH, I don't pay much attention to the UK. It's just that there's been a bunch of times some topic has caught my eye and I've followed a BBC link for more info, and thought 'ooh, [prominent UK government figure] isn't going to like that getting out'.
The BBC is in a spot of bother if the documentary about the famous Princess Diana interview some 25 plus years the other night on TV1 is to be believed.
Its shaping up to be a story full of lies, deceit and dirty tricks followed by the inevitable cover-up by management.
Well the police have decided to rule out a criminal investigation into Bashir, the interviewer, over allegations from the Spencer family about the alleged use of false documentation to get HRH to do the sit down, so looks like bother gone.
Though if it were true, surely it would be a case of the Beeb going against the establishment and, not doing it's bidding, which is the opposite of what some people are saying.
With regards to the BBC making content against the government's party lines, I'd suggest you seek out the Panorama episode about their mismanagement of ppe supplies from last year. Shockingly on target.
The BBC then came under fire for using ‘labour activists’ to push the message in the program.
So, if they had been 'tory activists' pushing a line then I presume they would not come under fire – at least not to the same extent.
If 'the state' decrees there is to be no investigation then the police will not investigate. Wouldn't be the first time that has happened and it won't be the last.
You'll have to put it in context with what's been written above.
The notion being that the BBC is a total shill for the British government. Using the examples I've given, that is very much open to debate. It certainly isn't an organisation in any way equivalent to those pushing Russian propaganda.
That is all.
The BBC World service is most certainly a propaganda tool of the UK government..
" BBC World Service is not regulated by Ofcom. Instead the BBC is responsible for setting its overall strategic direction, the budget and guarding its editorial independence for World Service. It must set and publish a Licence for the World Service, which defines its remit, scope, annual budget and main commitments, as well as "objectives, targets and priorities" which are agreed with the Foreign Secretary."
https://www.bbc.com/aboutthebbc/governance/regulation
But as I mentioned only yesterday on OP, there are a bunch of regular commentors here on TS whom, as it turns out have a world view that aligns up with the UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and his UK conservative party like a hand in a glove…go figure, yet for some reason only known to them, they insist on thinking themselves Left or Left leaning, when in reality they are more like some sort of post modernist colonialist hybrid, who also it seems, have a very distinct attraction to western authoritarianism (as long as it if coated in liberal sensibilities).
"
"….. as I mentioned only yesterday on OP, there are a bunch of regular commentors here on TS whom, as it turns out have a world view that aligns up with the UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and his UK conservative party like a hand in a glove…go figure, yet for some reason only known to them, they insist on thinking themselves Left or Left leaning, when in reality they are more like some sort of post modernist colonialist hybrid, who also it seems, have a very distinct attraction to western authoritarianism (as long as it if coated in liberal sensibilities)."
Adrian Thornton
3 April 2021 at 12:42 pm
I admit I could be wrong, but I am guessing, that you are referring here Adrian, to my and others comments yesterday.
Instead of replying to my comments and debating directly, you have slunk away from open debate and resorted to making sly digs in other threads.
As I said in reply to Bill's accusation that I am guilty of not "engaging or debating".
"it is you and the other supporters of the Syrian regime who refuse to engage or debate"
Jenny
14 February 2017 at 5:36 am
It is a fear of engaging in open debate with someone who actually has experience of Syria, that is a noticable defining feature of supporters of the Assad regime at this website.
Back in 2017 I also wrote this:
"In my opinion it can be reasonably argued that the failure of the Liberal Centre Left to show solidarity with the Syrian people, and instead side with the regime that is oppressing and murdering them, has helped prolong this war on the Syrian people by the Assad regime and its foreign allies, and helped fuel islamaphobia here."
Jenny
14 February 2017 at 5:20 am
March 15 is the globally recognised anniversary date of the start of the Syrian revolution. Two years after I made the above observation, in March 2019, as Syrian refugees from the Assad regime and their supporters were preparing to mark this anniversary, the anti-Islamic terrorist chose this date to launch his murderous attack in Christchurch.
Don't support fascism. It really shouldn't have to be said.
No, because as usual you seem to intentionally not address the outrageous western Weaponizing of the OCPW….which is what I have been posting about. I can’t believe I have to go over this again FFS..I have never uttered one word of support for Assad…but you people seem to think that all of a sudden the CIA and the western military industrial complex are the friends of the Left, and freedom fighters around the world (WTF!)…it is actually people like you who through your blinkered support for a legitimate uprisings, have wilfully allowed yourselves to be turned into useful idiots to western military/corporate hegemony..well done.
You hit the nail on the head.." Don't support fascism. It really shouldn't have to be said."…quite right, maybe you should stop doing it then.
the outrageous western Weaponizing of the OCPW….
Perhaps you should explain this particularly gross misrepresentation, Adrian. You have one or possibly two very marginal instances of possible OPCW error, out of hundreds of events. The OPCW moreover went to considerable lengths to try to satisfy the complainants, but was obliged to face the fact that ultimately their sole objective was to discredit the organization and the mission.
The Russian media have beaten it up to the skies, and dupes like you parrot that incessantly – but essentially the OPCW is on the ground to clean up the chemical weapons made by Russia and accumulated by the Assad regime. Just as they spent some years in Russia at US & UN expense cleaning up multiple soviet era chemical weapon sites.
The only outrageous weaponising of the OPCW is by you and your fellow dupes.
There you go again Adrian, actively ignoring/denying genocide.
Genocide denial, like Holocaust denial, is an expression of support for fascism.
Let me repeat that; 'Genocide denial is support for fascism'.
That the Assad regime has been committing genocide against its own people is an absolute fact that you refuse to face.
Instead of addressing this fact you choose to throw up dust around the gas attacks.
I put up a link to a video which goes in depth to expose the conspiracy theories around the gas attacks being spread about by the Assad regime and Russia and their useful idiots, that variously claim, (a) the gas attacks didn't happen at all or, (b). were the work of the opposition who gassed their own supporters to discredit your fascist hero.
But I am not going to debate with you the various weaknesses of fascist propaganda around the sarin and chlorine gas attacks against Syrian civilians, that most definitely did happen.
Instead I put up a video of the destruction of the revolutionary city of Homs by the Assad regime.
Every single one of the genocide deniers and pro-Assad apologists on this site, have to date repeatedly refused to answer the simple question I have posed. Every single one.
Maybe you are different Adrian, maybe you might have enough conscience to look into the abyss and admit that you are playing a game of interference in support of a genocidal fascist style regime.
So I will pose the question again,
Who did this?
And is it not evidence of genocide?
I am not going to keep on going around in circles with you, this is a pointless and a waste of time, you and Stuart Munro are just too far gone to have any kind of rational debate with…well too far gone.
Rationally and reasonably, you would then stop reading their comments and stop replying to them. But you don’t and you won’t. You’re a walking card-carrying self-contradiction and don’t want to see it and/or admit it.
Thanks for your insightful phycology lesson there Incognito, maybe you would do well to turn that lens on yourself and see what it is inside of you that makes you compulsively want to control all those in your orbit..now that would be something interesting to get to the bottom of, don’t you think?
BTW every human being on this planet is a “walking card-carrying self-contradiction” and so as you have obviously never been self-aware enough to have ever acknowledge that about yourself…welcome to the club, I think we will get along just fine LOL!!!
[RL: The role of moderators is essential. Their purpose is to put limits on people’s behaviour and attempt to instill a culture of constructive conversation. The deal is that if you want to continue to comment here, you respect that role.
Having done it intensively for a number of years here I’m vividly aware of how much goes into good moderation, and how much everyone else benefits from it. The two primary mods we have here at present, weka and Incognito, are doing a way better job of it than I ever did. While it’s a job that can never make everyone happy, I’m fed up seeing this kind of casual undermining. It’s not a game worth playing.
Get this through your head – no-one, but no-one ever enjoyed being moderated, and you are certainly not the first. But it’s a fact of life and you either suck it up like a big boy or sulk off elsewhere.]
I hate rock snot.
What makes you think Adrian hasn't stopped? I think he just indicated he's walking away from this one.
Oh dear, you go me there
Au revoir Adrian,
As you depart the scene.
Something we should all be aware of and try and guard against and take notice of and continually check ourselves on.
'Confirmation Bias'
Adrian it's disapointing that you refuse to answer the question, and instead run away from the debate. But, I've come to expect it. The reason you, and others like you will not answer the question, is because it challenges your preconceived black and white assumptions.
Reading up on the fixed views of conservatives like Ted Cruz, I came across the following quote.
"It’s part of human nature to want to resist information that contradicts with the way we see the world. Psychologists call the practice confirmation bias, and define it as the tendency to interpret information in ways that support our preconceptions."
https://www.salon.com/2015/04/07/ted_cruz_is_dangerous_why_liberals_scoff_at_his_campaign_at_their_peril_partner/
A few people read my debates with Assad apologists here, the feedback I get is how can be so tolerant as to engage with people who excuse genocide?
The answer is; I could be where you are, that is if I had not had the life changing privilege to be in the Middle East at the time to be witness to the first stirrings of the Arab Spring.
I wish I had stayed.
From comments found under a piece by Novara Media concerning the bbc a quite choice quote by Arundhati Roy : on national flags " First they use them as shrinkwrap for your brain ,then as ceremonial shrouds for their war dead "
Great quote, plenty of people on this site have never seen a western regime change war that hasn't got them all juiced up….these free market liberals are just as jingoistic, ruthless and bloodthirsty as any right wing conservative as it turns out….guess that's why they line up with the UK conservatives so well….a perfect fit.
Former Repug Speaker of the House John Boehner has his say on the crazies of the past decade and Faux News' part in fomenting the crazy.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/04/02/john-boehner-book-memoir-excerpt-478506
An interesting quote from that link:
An exercise in getting a loose cannon pointed in a less dangerous direction, actually turned out quite well. It's why I tend to think of at least 95% of people as pretty decent really, with the potential to be great in the right circumstances.
Everyone in NZ except for the National Party and David Seymour knew this to be true. Multiple studies, including this one, have confirmed that the New Zealand government's Covid strategy (with fast financial support) is better for both health and economic outcomes.
This is now the concern. Conservative countries which are bizarrely wedded to 'freedom at any cost' will continue to drag the chain and jeopardise not only their own populations but the world as a whole. Their disastrous Covid-19 response damages those who have done well.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/124739946/zero-covid-strategy-far-better-for-economy-european-thinktank-concludes
edit
UK goes its own way at its peril, and that of its hapless population. People in UK need more 'hap' before they can get happy.
At the Covid 19 start. Easy-peasy will do it suggests Boris.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2021/03/16/report-boris-johnson-said-uk-should-ignore-covid-19-at-the-start-of-the-pandemic/?sh=56542f144285
(Bill Bailey talked about Johnson as being a mobile haystack! So good.)
Boorish hasn't improved. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/27/data-still-supports-lifting-covid-19-restrictions-insists-boris-johnson
But the Easter Bunny came along and looked up at Boris and said – Que? (it was Manuel’s pet). And so Boris has had to buckle down and face off his mates while he sets another lockdown to end all lockdowns
Que is the most common word in Spanish, according to one study I read. It’s most often used as a conjunction and/or relative pronoun, then (with tilde) as interrogative “What” (Qué). It has many uses, and like a chameleon, can change its meaning to suit the context of the sentence.
https://www.spanishdict.com/answers/181220/so-much-trouble-understanding-when-que-is-used-
As I understand it, the word que in latin means and. As in senatus populusque romanus (the senate and the roman people). I'm not how this differs from the word et. Perhaps this word is used in the sense of also as in et te Brute, (You too, Brutus?)
I looked up google and it gave me Manuel (Fawlty Towers) meaning. Sorry I'm just one of the hoi polloi with language, learning as I go.
Zero Covid seems unlikely.
It's 'Zero Covid strategy', KSays. Read and understand the link please.
"…. more countries need to commit to the programme for the leaders to get the full benefit, a European think-tank has concluded."
One country that won't commit to the program is Australia, which has an official policy of 'suppression' rather than 'elimination', New Zealand's policy.
New Zealand is preparing to open a quarantine free travel bubble with Australia, unless Australia agrees to adopt New Zealand's policy of elimination, (which Scott Morrison has said Australia will never do), New Zealand will be defacto adopting Australia's policy of suppression.
Private Wealth vs. Public Health
Suppression not elimination
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6836358/elimination-risky-and-illusory-scott-morrison/
Elimination not suppression
http://isocracy.org/content/elimination-not-suppression
One of the big stories over the next 12-18 months will be whether or not these nations will bite the bullet or let the pandemic run through, hoping vaccines do the work for them. Which they may not.
You need to get together – in the old saying 'Birds of a feather flock together' – seen the starling images when they fly off? I will put my idea for a name for you on this blog on Tuesday night after seven after you have had Easter to think about this idea. If the active amongst you haven't thought of better, I suggest that someone with the vitals grab it and run with it as I have suggested. I think a lot of us are into 'rolling up our sleeves and doing' – we've all heard, read, done enough talking, chewing the cud! Things have to be moved with people power or what we want won't happen at all, and machines will fill the slack with empty promises and hype that fools people into thinking the answer is going to come from the tech direction.
Saying 'There is no time like the present'!
I see that projections are for Auckland to inflate to 2 million from present 1.7m by early 2030s. Why wait till then, stacks on the mill, as the kids' game used to chant. An extra 1900 people a month appears somewhere in the item in Stuff p.12 Apr.1/21.
It was short and didn't have room to state guesses on when gridlock will be reached, or when police will start evicting people from favelas along motorways and under bridges. (They have already closed down a caravan park in the last decades because some criminals lived there.)
And will people in Auckland fund a charity hospital as they do in Christchurch for the large number of uncared for people? It may be that the Aucklanders will have no money left over after paying for their houses if they have managed to get their fingertips on one, and won a loan in the Australian bank's monthly lottery which they will probably set up soon.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/124732205/new-population-projections-show-growing-upper-north-island-dominance-with-solid-showing-from-christchurch
I had a look at the on-line link incognito. It is really upsetting to read the way this article is slanted – that growth in population is automatically good, and the bigger the better. Despite a small mention of problems.
...The medium projection is considered suitable for assessing future population changes, and this week’s release contained the usual gloom about a higher proportion of older people and a declining percentage of children…
(Anyone who is aware knows that NZ is no longer a good place to bring up children as was once proclaimed. In fact it seems that the government finds them a burden with all their needs from start to adulthood. It's more efficient to bring in families from overseas where they have been educated at the family's expense or of that country.)
But beyond that, the cities of Hamilton and Tauranga – the other two hubs in the golden triangle – are expected to grow at the same rate as Auckland.
…By 2033, the projected population for the three regions is put at 2.93m – 51.7 per cent of the national total of 5.68m. For 2048, the figure is 3.32m – 53.4 per cent of the New Zealand population of 6.21m.
Further south, Christchurch, when combined with the adjacent districts where much of the area’s new housing is going – is thought likely to stay close to the leading bunch.
(Sounds like a racing commentary. Listen to Spike Jones' one – 'and Banana is coming through the bunch!').
Christchurch City had a 2018 population of 383,800, and on its own has an unspectacular annual growth projection of 0.6 per cent.
But the South Island’s main centre has a more robust look to it when the Waimakariri District – projected average annual growth 1 per cent – and Selwyn District -1.7 per cent – are added. Combined, the three territorial authorities had a population of 508,400 in 2018 – 10.4 per cent of the national total.
(Like a faster growing population makes a place More Robust! Weak minds repeating weak ideas here.)
And at the bottom, a message from Stuff: …'Why? Because with the pandemic situation constantly changing, it’s easy for misinformation and rumours to take hold. You can rely on Stuff’s journalists to question the decision-makers, interview experts, and use eyewitness reporting to answer your key questions with facts and context.'
It certainly is hard to keep on top of the tide of information, checking for tainted facts and what environment they arise from.
The Mayor announced some years after the quakes that she had a target of increasing (greater) Christchurch's population to one million within (if I recall correctly) 20 years……she never mentioned it again.
What a horrible projection. Now I understand the property investor who commented yesterday that the prices of houses would not be coming down (in fact not for the forseeable future, the changes in his opinion would only temporarily slow things). How depressing.
edit
The experiment of government central and local contracting business carry out its services should now draw to a close. It was an expensive one in the long term, and while it did lead to some improvements it appears that it cannot cope with the constant ramifications that arise in the fast-changing social and physical environment. While tied down to tight contracts and a business case that forces it to answer to shareholders requirements for profit, it cannot meet needs when presenting in reality which can multiply daily.
(Paragraph from a yet-to-be presented report from someone who has a bigger brain than the average bear.)
http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=135195
70 NZ Bus Cancellations "Not Good Enough"
Opinion from Metlink
Passengers travelling on Metlink services operated by NZ Bus experienced almost 70 last-minute cancellations on Wednesday. Metlink General Manager Scott Gallacher said the recent service from NZ Bus simply wasn’t good enough.
The GOP's favourite Russian.
Oh do you mean the racist nationalist Alexey Navalny that Amnesty International dropped because of his known racist rhetoric…the Navalny who was funded by the US backed National Endowment for Democracy (a known funding route for the CIA) in his Russian election run?…(isn't that kind of like election interference? and here I was thinking you guys hated it when countries meddled in other peoples elections, guess you don't give a shit about that after all)
The US government and the Russian election
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/12/27/pers-d27.html
That was pretty good, thanks…reminded me of Samurai Jack (one of my favourite modern animated series).
Oh – you mean Putin is not nationalist? Or racist?
Lacking decades of exposure to a reforming activist base, Russia is as racist as it gets – hence the war of extermination in Chechnya.
To feed your own nonsense back at you: since Russia doesn't give a flying finangle about racism, and is cheerfully nationalist, shouldn't they love Navalny?
But Navalny has committed the unforgiveable crime of revealing the truth about Putin's republic of thieves – something RT will never do.
Have you no shame though, as a professed lefty, supporting this murderous kleptocrat? What would Putin have to do to disabuse you of your infatuation? He's already a genocide, an autocrat, a rigger of elections and a poisoner of political alternatives. Does he have to eat babies live onscreen, or would that too be America's fault?
FFS man "Oh – you mean Putin is not nationalist? Or racist?"…I know Putin is a probably a racist and is definitely a nationalist…but he is not the man that the west and you guys are spouting as some sort of Russian arch angle ready to free the Russian people from their evil overlord… maybe you should check out Putin's popularity stats in his own country once and while to get a grip on the reality over there…but I can tell you this for sure, any politician so obviously backed by the USA is never going to get any real in traction in Russia…sort of like your man Guaido in Venezuela.
If the Russians are ever going to break free from Putin, it will be from an organic rising from within Russia, supported by the Russian people…and not some Western backed Instagram sensation, that would be like you backing a politician in NZ that you knew was backed by Xi Jinping and funded by the MSS.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/896181/putin-approval-rating-russia/
The funny thing is I never (or if so, rarely) saw any of you 'lefties' utter a murmur when an actual Left wing leader, Lula was outrageously imprisoned by an outright right wing authoritarian..in fact now I think about it, I don’t believe I have ever (or very rarely if so) seen any of you so called lefties show even the slightest sign of support for any actual Left Wing project around the world, or voice your concern when they are regularly threatened….
It really has become quite apparent to me over the previous few days, that you, Mcflock, Joe90, Al1en and a couple of others on TS are in fact, in your geopolitical beliefs (the ones you express on TS anyway) for want of a better description, are some sort of postmodern (liberal) imperialists. It was always obvious that you guys had some pretty seriously flawed world views, but when I saw recently, exactly how closely nearly all your geopolitical standpoints matched with the UK Conservative parties own positions…I guess the penny dropped…holy crap…I mean did you even realize yourself how far right you had drifted?
Quite – it's all our fault that Putin poisons people.
Look what we made him do.
easter holiday.
3 day ban from fb
hehehe
offended someone by telling them to shut up and that they were a male chauvinist pig.
snapchat that!
happy easter
in the meantime I am committing the music to red haired boy to memory. at slow speed it is like this scottish lament but brightens up when played fast. stroke of luck I have this country instrumental compilation by NASHVILLE session pickers with this tune and old joe clark on it. nifty stuff. And the music by Steve Carr on bluegrassguitar.com and dude you are swinging . yee hahhh
Apt analogy for today’s discussion topics.
https://youtu.be/P4NT1UUCZV4
@ Eco Maori , thanks for that. I really love that Folkways stuff, have been collecting it for many years.,,haven't got that one though, strangely I haven't even seen it in NZ, and I have been a record collector since I was a young man….just found one on Ebay, going to fill that hole in my collection.
Great record too, listening to it now on youtube..thanks again.
Here is a good interview on the history of Folkways that might interest you…
'Worlds Of Sound' A Tribute To Folkways
"Sixty years ago, Moses Asch set out with the lofty ambition to record "all the sound of the world." He established Folkways Records — "the little label that could" — and in the decades that followed, Folkways recorded everything from folk singers, to jazz greats, to sounds of the natural world."
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96820123