Capitalists have claimed responsibility for America’s past economic success. Let’s begin by setting the record straight. American success had little to do with capitalism. This is not to say that the US would have had more success with something like Soviet central planning.
Prior to 1900 when the frontier was closed, America’s success was a multi-century long success based on the plunder of a pristine environment and abundant natural resources. Individuals and companies were capitalized simply by occupying the land and using the resources present.
As the population grew and resources were depleted, the per capita resource endowment declined.
America got a second wind from World War I, which devastated European powers and permitted the emergence of the US as a budding world power. World War II finished off Europe and put economic and financial supremacy in Washington’s hands. The US dollar seized the world reserve currency role from the British pound, enabling the US to pay its bills by printing money. The world currency role of the dollar, more than nuclear weapons, has been the source of American power. Russia has equal or greater nuclear weapons power, but it is the dollar not the ruble that is the currency in which international payments are settled.
[Added quote marks. When quoting text verbatim you must include quote marks and a link and preferably an acknowledgment too. Similarly, when posting video clips you must include a reason and/or explanation what it is about and why they should watch it. You have warned before, e.g. /open-mike-28-06-2019/#comment-1632321, and this is your final warning before you go the same way as another commenter here who used to do similar things and who continued to do so after repeated warnings. To spell it out for you: you are inching closer to a permanent ban – Incognito]
American success had little to do with capitalism. Then you contradict yourself: "World War II finished off Europe and put economic and financial supremacy in Washington’s hands. The US dollar seized the world reserve currency role from the British pound, enabling the US to pay its bills by printing money. The world currency role of the dollar, more than nuclear weapons, has been the source of American power."
Arguable that the nuclear threat empowers the superpower less than their capitalist system. I think the success of the USA post-WWII is due to both equally. Why did the rest of the world choose the US dollar as world currency? Tacit psychology. Trust that it works better as a medium of exchange than any other contender…
'For the men who would later be mythologised as the “Founding Fathers”, conquest – the right of white settlers to seize whatever land they wanted – was from the start inseparable from liberty. Freedom, in the American sense of the word, was unimaginable without the frontier, limitless land for the taking just beyond the boundaries of the known.'
Intriguing and good to see they are taking the initiative with the coalition. I'm hoping we'll get more than navel-gazing out of the conference. They failed to give me any reason to attend, so I figured I've got plenty of better things to do. Wish them well tho..
In corporate-speak, Human Resources. Struck me as a clever joke (unless it means something else). I was obliged to interact with one or two of the TVNZ HR drones in the '90s due to my somewhat-stroppy attitude. One needs to be able to finesse their attempts to file people into typical categories…
He's an Ed. But at least Ed did serve up some reason to post his links – this guy has so much contempt for readers of TS that he is incapable of conceiving such courtesy. I see it as a combination of Jungian projection with a variant of virtue-signalling. He assumes readers share his desire to promote whatever virtue he perceives in the links. Classic narcissism: the subject's interior world totally displaces the world we share…
Ah, thought it rang a bell in the back of my mind. I did watch that years ago & agree it was worth the time spent (even though I had long been familiar with the back story).
Google finds 22.3 million web pages if you search health effects of 5g. Bit of a groundswell, but ignore the rabble. You'll be ok.
“The radio wave band – used for mobile phone networks – is non-ionising, “which means it lacks sufficient energy to break apart DNA and cause cellular damage,” says David Robert Grimes, physicist and cancer researcher. Higher up the electromagnetic spectrum, well beyond those frequencies used by mobile phones, there are clear health risks from extended exposure.” https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48616174
The report does suggest a serious risk to male rats, so some of the more rabid kiwibloggers may get eliminated…
"Google finds 22.3 million web pages if you search health effects of 5g"
Is that all? I tried "Trump is an alien" and got 328 million. Nearly 15 times as many. Surely that must be interpreted as meaning there aren't any health effects from 5g if hardly anyone seems to care?
How to use Google 101: if you include the quotation marks you’ll get about 113,000 results. This is because you search for this exact word or phrase. Have you ever used the Advanced Search settings? Very handy!
Sure. I read comments in the back-end and they are in reverse order without the context of the discussion thread. In fact, I read the all comments of all posts lumped together in reverse chronological order. In between, I write the odd comment myself, occasionally, but mostly I keep an eye on things as moderator – the two are almost mutually exclusive, to me at least.
Jesus! I am amazed that you can make any sense of anything. I certainly don't think I would be able to do it.
I now see, on the other hand, how you can respond to comments so quickly. I found it a real pain when I couldn't find, easily, my own recent comments so that I could see if a response should be given. Getting that back is wonderful. I only have to find my own comments though.
You put the finger on the pain point, which is that I cannot make much sense of anything unless I concentrate really hard and pay much attention – very tiring if not exhausting to combine with a demanding life outside or alongside TS. The back-end works well for moderation but not for commenting (the editor is different too). I find myself spending a lot of time and energy here and not nearly enjoying it as much as I used to when I was merely commenting and joining in the conversations. The technical aspect is only one factor; the other issue that it is almost impossible to disentangle oneself from being a ‘player’ in a ‘game’ to become the ‘referee/umpire’ and make fair and neutral decisions to protect the ‘game’. Maybe I’m taking it all too seriously; it wouldn’t be the first time. One thing that helps though is that I am anonymous and that lowers the personal involvement; I can turn off the device and walk away from it without a lingeringemotional connection, which is much harder to do in real life, for me at least.
You have to thank Lynn, of course, for the search function and the smooth running of the site. You know that you can click on Replies on the RH side to see whether anybody has replied to one of your comments, don’t you? It does not work when threads get too long because the nesting of comments only goes so deep before the reply button disappears.
A lot of starnge stuff around about 5G . Because the spectrum they will use in US is high frequency it wont provide much performance away from cell sites.
this part of the Niwa incorrect claim as the bands will be FR2. Im surprised they failed to check even wikipedia over this
I understand other countries will be using lower frequencies including this 2.5Ghz band in NZ. ( known in the jargon as FR1)
Im not sure of this but one of the reasons for 5G faster downloads is the 'broader bands' used for reception
.Perhaps it's time for the left to start investing in this strategy, too. Or we kill facebook.
The lobbying firm run by Boris Johnson’s close ally Sir Lynton Crosby has secretly built a network of unbranded “news” pages on Facebook for dozens of clients ranging from the Saudi government to major polluters, a Guardian investigation has found.
In the most complete account yet of CTF Partners’ outlook and strategy, current and former employees of the campaign consultancy have painted a picture of a business that appears to have professionalised online disinformation, taken on a series of controversial clients and faced incidents of misogynistic bullying in its headquarters.
Facebook said it shut down 265 fake accounts run by an Israeli social media company on Thursday for engaging in “coordinated inauthentic behavior” as it sought to affect politics in African, Latin American and Southeast Asian nations.
The move, while underscoring the increasingly global nature of social media disinformation campaigns, was unusual for singling out a company that appeared to profit from its publicized work to spread falsehoods online. Archimedes Group, the Israeli company, claims the ability to “use every tool and take every advantage available in order to change reality according to our client’s wishes.”
A pair of Toronto city councillors hired a scrappy political strategist to wage a multi-front PR campaign after CBC News ran stories examining their ties to local developers, with one of the councillors privately making threatening comments about a CBC reporter and compiling a "research" dossier on him and political foes, according to allegations in a lawsuit.
[…]
The PR campaign was to include complaints to CBC about its reporting, slipping "pertinent information" to competing media, arranging for letters to the editor to be signed by the councillors' friends and relatives, and the creation of "myriad" websites and social media accounts promoting the politicians and their message and attacking a past electoral rival.
Collins? Bennett? Mitchell? Luxton? Is the intersection of 'Bridges and his potential replacements' with 'people having a high level of personal integrity' an empty set?
This morning on Radionz (great piece on new discovery about treatment of one type of cancer) that the Malaghan Institute was founded by the owner of Tip Top (died 1967 of Hodgkin's disease).
The concept of a Wellington-based, independent medical research institute was first proposed in the early 1960s. At that time, relatively little medical research was carried out in New Zealand due to a lack of facilities and support by hospital boards.
Using funds from a trust established by the Wellington Medical Research Foundation and the Wellington Division of the Cancer Society, the Wellington Cancer and Medical Research Institute was opened on 26 July 1979, in rented premises in the Wellington School of Medicine.
In 1986, the name of the Institute was changed to the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research in recognition of the generous support by Len and Ann Malaghan. Two decades later, the Institute relocated to a purpose-built facility at Victoria University of Wellington.
History. In 1936 Albert Hayman and Len Malaghan opened their first ice cream parlour in Manners Street, Wellington, New Zealand followed in the same year by a second milk bar in Wellington, and one in Dunedin. Tip Top Ice Cream Company was registered as a manufacturing company in 1936…
In November 1962, Hayman and Malaghan opened the biggest and most technically advanced ice cream factory in the Southern Hemisphere, built at Mount Wellington, Auckland, New Zealand. The Tip Top factory included staff houses and 20 acres (81,000 m2) of farm land overlooking the Southern Motorway and cost NZ$700,000. Prime Minister Keith Holyoake attended the opening ceremony.
By 1964 the Company had expanded to such an extent that a parent company was formed, General Foods Corporation (NZ) Limited. It was rated as one of the soundest investments on the stock exchange and other companies were quick to note its potential.
In this link it shows how Tip Top changed hands six times from 1968 when Watties acquired control to the 2001 'mega-merger'.
June 2001 – The 'mega-merger' of Kiwi, NZ Co-op Dairy Co. and the NZ Dairy Board formed a huge new dairy company, Fonterra. Fonterra inherited the ice cream businesses and brands; Tip Top, New American and Peters (WA and NZ).
2019 Fonterra sold Tip Top to Froneri (the pureplay ice cream company.. I just love these terms that business invent.)
FRONERI is a global pureplay ice cream company. Froneri is widely diversified across the world, operating in 20 countries. Froneri offers the full suite of ice cream products, from dairy ice cream to water ice, sorbet and organic ice cream, and from tubs to sticks to cones to name a few.
We need to develop a co-operative system as they have in Spain – the Mondragon group. We are concentrating on making things for export and we have to pay world prices for things made or grown here. To strengthn the country we have to have a domestic market that prices for the domestic market and it seems to me the only way we will get that is starting a NZ co-operative belonging to NZs who look to buy product from the organisation, and possibly work in it. If we don't divorce ourselves from the wealthy and self-interested, we will continue to see our living standards decline – we will be forced to live simply because of a desire by the wealthy to refuse equality to the population inparticipating in the country's economy, and its jobs and wages, and distribution of the proceeds of trading and taxation in a fair manner.
Business has no long-term commitment to this country and growing our own strengths at all. The present system has enabled this white-anting of our enterprise and resources. Yet look at who are in the top wealth bracket in the world, the people who have worked as family, and kept hold of their stuff.
This morning Luxon of AirNZ commented on how costly it has been to get a presence in Argentina, an awareness of the country and the company. He mentioned being confused with shoe polish and some other product.
This is the result of a lack of prowess by NZ business leaders and politicians. When we lost our Kiwi name to the Kiwi polish we should have then bought it back and patented it, but no too timid and short-sighted. Perhaps we could wait for the crash and then leap out and buy our name for peanuts. Those who play the share market know you can get great leverage then.
From local Tip Top Ice Cream we have a valuable research institute looking into cancer, the Malaghan Institute. What of lasting benefit to the country's social infrastructure do we get from the baby boomers?
Corruption free government? Try that line with the householders ripped off by EQC and its subsidiaries. Look closely at any privatization of public assets and you'll find corruption, not service improvement is the driver. Prior to Rogergnomics we had low corruption, now the Panama Papers is the operating norm.
Yet you'd go to prison for many of the commonplaces of NZ corruption in some administrations – the insider trading Key performed with NZRail shares, the misappropriation of Hubbard's wealth, the theft of public assets like the electricity infrastructure and private ones like the fisheries quota management system. The revolving doors between former ministers and well paid sinecures, gross instances of graft like the appointment of unqualified directors like Jenny Shipley to the NZ funded Asian Infrastructure Bank, and the systematic and deliberate non-enforcement of immigration rules on unskilled labour and so forth.
NZ really has no cause to boast of its corruption status anymore, in fact it's due for a clean out.
Every one of your list is cracked Ad. They have been attempts to meet the standards of a modern first world society, yes. But there are huge numbers of people who are in poverty, no decent housing, no reliable jobs to look forward to with two days off in the weekend if they want them to be with family, join in community; this means that the benefits above arise from having reduced the benefits to those who have been designated unworthy. That is what the baby boomers have passed on to the young ones today, the degraded society that the early colonials sailed here to rise above, and the treatment that was meted out in the early 30's in Germany to those designated as unsuitable citizens.
Corruption-free government? You have to be joking. Ok, not as bad as many other countries but to say we are corruption free is ludicrous. I witnessed a few things during my many years in the Public Service and others will have too. For obvious reasons I cannot elaborate.
Well regulated and functioning society? It might have started off that way but in the past 30 years it has gone downhill.
Robertson and Ardern and company have yet to make their mark. Eighteen months in power is not long enough to produce anything concrete and permanent.
Corruption free compared to any other country on earth. Us and Denmark.
Boomers formed a well regulated society.
There's no pity in politics. Ardern and Robertson have got 8 more months before it all goes on the line again, and everyone can see they're dodging most of the hard stuff.
I vividly recall the Winebox years. By dint of a former association with a person who was close to the main culprits, I picked up on the nature of the dirty practices before it became generally known. I think I read every book and article written about the era and the level of corruption was mind boggling – at least for a country which had previously been free from such practices.
That the culprits (all filthy rich and powerful) were never prosecuted is an indictment on the establishment (including the police) of this country. Given the perpetrators stole millions of NZ taxpayers’ money that response in itself was worthy of an investigation.
And the huge irony… some of those involved were instrumental in setting up the "Association of Consumers and Tax Payers" – the ACT Party.
I consider that period set the scene for the introduction of the often corrupt practices that exist today (look at some of the antics of the previous Key government) and which are now accepted by many as normal.
As far as Ardern and Robertson are concerned… I agree they must have something solid to present to the public by the end of next year, but I'm optimistic it will happen even if their efforts are still in the process of being fully realised.
Rainy day, but a well spent hour watching The Great Hack on Netflix. Highly recommended.
It's quite clear from this outstanding doco that the deluge of anti-Hillary and pro-Brexit content sent out to groups of voters, based on the data mining (conducted primarily from Facebook) by Cambridge Analytica was the prime reason for the Trump and Brexit result. Not to mention the practise runs in a large number of other minor countries in the lead up.
Noam Chomksy et al would be correct in saying that any Russian 'meddling' would be inconsequential compared to that.
I've only watched the first 20 or so minutes. Did the Trump team hire in Google and FB staff to help them with that? There was a bit about where the Google/FB people sat in the room, but it wasn't explained in depth in that part.
The "Black lives matter" stuff was amazing, a way to divide the country. It made me think of the ChCh terror attack and how his intention was to divide and stir shit, it made me think Adern really did an amazing job of shutting that down compared to what went on in the U.S.
I don't think there was direct collusion between political candidates/parties but there was between parties and Cambridge Analytica (and it's parent company SCL*). It's well worth watching the full doco.
*SCL’s involvement in the political world has been primarily in the developing world where it has been used by the military and politicians to study and manipulate public opinion and political will. It uses what have been called “psy ops” to provide insight into the thinking of the target audience. SCL claimed to be able to help foment coups. According to its website, SCL has influenced elections in Italy, Latvia, Ukraine, Albania, Romania, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Mauritius, India, Indonesia, The Philippines,Thailand, Taiwan, Colombia, Antigua, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, St. Kitts & Nevis, and Trinidad & Tobago.vWhile the company initially got involved in elections in the United Kingdom, it ceased to do so after 1997 because staff members did not exhibit the same "aloof sensibility" as with projects abroad.SCL claims that its methodology has been approved or endorsed by agencies of the Government of the United Kingdom and the Federal government of the United States, among others.
The ‘black lives’ comments were interesting, but not really election related. The targeting of derogatory Clinton adverts to certain Facebook groups as a consequence of the data mining would rate as very directly affecting the election.
Condolences to Sir Brian Lachore whanau he was a awesome ambassador for Rugby and Aotearoa he was A True Kiwi humble but hard .
Its good for Wahine who want a abortion to get one without breaking the law that is stupid that being a criminal offense. Its Its their BODY Thanks to our Coalition Governments for putting up the new law to be voted on by our MPs .
A big heavy Snow Storm in the South Island of Aotearoa Te wai pounamu the tamariki and skiers will be happy the farmers not so happy .
12 new Radiation machines to help detect cancer earlier its good to detect cancer quickly to cure it and keep cancer at bay.
Jamie Shaw is a awesome Green Party Co leader like Marama .Ka kite ano
There is a reason Im not commenting on Ihumatao WHY because the police will try and blame some of the issues with the larger numbers of Tangata whenua being there on Eco Maori. What are they touting guns there for its a peaceful protest are they trying to stir up tangata whenua emotion.
More Ports on Waihike Island we need to protect our sea shore and sea environments.
Ka pai to our tangata whenua contemporary Artist the theme is the effects of colonialism I agree about it being oppressive and bad for the native people. I our tamariki mana will get the changes needed for JUSTICE.
I ,,, Eco Maori will go to Anglican Church for prayer I love it that the Church includes tangata whenua cultural as part of its Cultural ka pai.
Herds Eco Maori tau toko Herbs Im just to distract to have time to scan good Aotearoa Music and Musicians it will be a awesome Movie I will definitely watch it
Ka kite ano
P.S they thought I was bluffing yesterday Yea right
Wellington has the fittest people in Aotearoa that's cool.
What did national do to improve the treatment of cancer not very much actually .Not a problem for them they would all get private treatment if they had signs of cancer of cancer or any other ailment.
I agree with Doctor Jackson strong central leadership like you say the DHB act as individuals and not a collective they worry about their budgets so they put off buying expensive equipment.
Duncan David doesn't have a magical tool to make changes to OUR Health system happen over night Papatuanuku was not built in a day.
Snow on the beach in down South Island it is cooler in Hawksbay to .This extreme shifting in the weather dosen't go against Global Warming these events confirme Our Scientists predictions of the effects of Human Caused Climate Change.
Lydia rise in the Golfing Papatuanuku helped lift the profile of Wahine golf Papatuanuku wide she lifted a lot of young Wahine golfers as well Kia kaha lydia.
The Greens should not team up with national became they would just stuff them up like they did to the Maori Party
Its quite cold here in Eskmount we had a light dusting of Snow this morning.
Its good making that statement about abortion but it will be better when the law is changed.
People are using the Christchurch disaster as a excuses for people in power playing the racist CARD to bolster their public RATINGS with out no though about the people WHO are affected by their BULLSHIT words
Its was not good behavior of a middle aged man who rammed the young guys cars .
Don't worry Jacinda will find a solution to Ihumatao Whanau.
Abortion should be treated as a health issue it would be a very hard situation to deal with for Wahine when they could have other issues around their pregnancy its their BODYs.
Tama Iti is correct heaps of there whenua was taken by the crown the art work will become very valuable ma te wa.
The largest tukutuku panel in Papatuanuku is being conducted they are Tangata whenua O Aotearoa Tai taiwhiti ka pai
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When the Justice Committee reported back on the Administration of Justice (Reform of Contempt of Court) Bill, free speech advocates breathed a sigh of relief. As originally introduced, the Bill reitered the ancient offence of "scandalising the court" - basicly, a special sedition law protecting judges from criticism. The select ...
Eighteen months ago, the government promised to strengthen the Bill of Rights Act, by explicitly affirming the power of the courts to issue declarations of inconsistency and requiring Parliament to formally respond to them. Since then - crickets. Which raises the obvious question: are they actually going to do this, ...
Back in March, the Ministry of Justice conducted a public consultation exercise on whether to hold a review of the Official Information Act. 285 people submitted on it. Now, Stuff has trawled through those submissions, and the case for reform is strong:The Justice Ministry asked Kiwis what they thought was ...
National's prisoner voting ban has gone down as one of the worst laws in New Zealand history. Passed after a farcical debate (including this farcial speech from ACT MP Hilary Calvert), it has subsequently been found to be inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act by the High Court, Court ...
Divided Loyalties: Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be relied upon? That’s what the boys and girls at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon needed to be reassured about. Because, from the perspective of Washington, it’s looking more and more like Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party comrades are getting ready ...
This handy Queer Theory Glossary is from thetranswidow.com In case you’ve had trouble keeping up with the spate of new queer theory terms, here’s a handy glossary for your reference. Queer – A straight person with an interesting haircut. Non-binary/genderqueer – A chubby young female, typically 16-28, who has ...
by Daphna Whitmore US social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt spoke on 1 August in Auckland to a crowd of around one thousand people. He is best known for his bookThe Coddling of the American Mind which examines the new climate of trigger warnings and acute sensitivity of Gen Z. ...
What an extraordinarily depressing experience it is to be compelled to watch, at 12,000 miles distance, the contortions and machinations of the British political class as they set about their determined attempt to overturn the decision taken by the British people that they wish to leave the European Union. The ...
The winter grazing issue is becoming a highly sensitised one that I hope will not become so politicised that it delays solutions and results in the suicides of some very stressed farmers.Winter grazing has hit the headlines after a determined campaign, including the release of a video of some very ...
by Don Franks Way back when British guitar virtuoso Joe Brown was a beginning session guy he got to back a visiting American artist. Young Joe was an able technician but had yet to learn some points of professionalism. Part way through “Five foot high and rising” Joe tired of ...
Since scientists started studying climate change, they have warned that it will reduce food production. And now, its happening:The climate crisis is damaging the ability of the land to sustain humanity, with cascading risks becoming increasingly severe as global temperatures rise, according to a landmark UN report compiled by some ...
The Abortion Legislation Bill just passed its first reading, 94-23. Its a far bigger margin than I expected, even allowing for the Winston factor, and it reflects the overwhelming support there is in this country for reform. but that support isn't a new thing - it has existed for literally ...
The Justice Committee has called for submissions on the Referendums Framework Bill. The Bill does what it says on the label - establishes a framework for referenda. Things you may want to address in your submission: Whether the bill should apply only at the 2020 election, or whether it should ...
The Thompson and Clark / MBIE spying scandal continues to result in fallout, this time in the form of a report on the implementation of MBIE's "Operation Exploration", its internal operation to enforce the infamous Anadarko Amendment which criminalised protests against the oil industry. MBIE's enforcement operation was tainted by ...
So, Winston Peters is defending his last-minute demand for a referendum on abortion by claiming he was "blindsided" by the bill. Really? The bill is a government bill. It has been working through the cabinet approval process since December last year. As part of that process, NZ First was consulted, ...
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...
Last week, the ongoing democracy protests in Hong Kong saw a pro-Hong Kong student assaulted at the University of Auckland. The Chinese consulate in Auckland followed this up with a press release "express[ing] its appreciation to the students for their spontaneous patriotism" - effectively condoning the assault and inciting further ...
Only those who close their eyes and minds to the evidence can still be in any doubt that we are facing a climate change crisis. The evidence is conclusive that the world is not only getting inexorably hotter, but also that the rising temperatures are creating a number of other ...
Rural communities are wailing about forestry conversions "taking land out of production" and putting it into locking up carbon. Its driven purely by economics: there's more money and lower costs in carbon than in sheep or beef, and if carbon prices rise, there'll be more net money than dairy even. ...
This week, the government introduced its (underwhelming) Abortion Legislation Bill. And despite having negotiated the text of the bill through the coalition process, Winston Peters is now suggesting that he will demand a referendum on it:NZ First leader Winston Peters has hinted that his party may only support the Government's ...
Blowing-Up The House: Is Winston Peters planning to put himself at the head of all those New Zealanders who refuse to countenance the Coalition Government caving-in to the Ihumatao protesters? The most effective way of doing this would be to issue Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with an ultimatum. If she ...
Last night the police dramatically incresed their numbers at Ihumātao, shoving over protestors and threatening them with arrest. Despite police talk about the need to maintain "public order" and prevent a "breach of the peace", there appeared to be absolutely no justification for this: the protest camp is, was, and ...
Opportunities to dodge tax are shrinking with the completion of a new tax agreement with Switzerland, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Mr Nash and the Swiss Ambassador David Vogelsanger have today signed documents to update the double tax agreement (DTA). The previous DTA was signed in 1980. “Double tax ...
The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) is urging firearms owners to pass on information to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on Christchurch Mosques now that the period for submissions has been extended to 27 September. ...
An application was filed in the Employment Relations Authority in Wellington today, seeking an injunction to prevent the Board of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation from removing the President from office. ...
The Government’s commitment to support literacy and numeracy training in the workplace is a strong signal from Government on recognising the importance of upskilling, reskilling and increasing productivity alongside their commitment to address the challenges ...
“The infrastructure sector sees a major role for the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission/Te Waihanga in lifting the nation’s sagging infrastructure performance,” says Paul Blair, incoming CEO of Infrastructure NZ. ...
The AA is calling on the Government to bring forward critical highway projects while time is spent properly developing the plans for a rapid transit system in Auckland. ...
Between 2015/16 and 2017/18, DHBs spent $280 million treating patients due to adverse drug reactions, reveals the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union in its latest briefing paper on health productivity . ...
The Pay Equity Coalition Auckland (PECA) is pleased the gender pay gap has decreased slightly. Statistics released today show the gap is now 11.9%, nearly 2 percent less than last year. ...
The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) is urging firearms owners to make sure they pass on any information they have to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on Christchurch Mosques before submissions close tomorrow (Friday). ...
The big electricity companies consider solar energy “disruptive” and want pricing to suppress it. In contrast, advocates of local energy say that solar, energy efficiency, and other local energy solutions are the cheapest ways to reduce carbon emissions. ...
The Earthquake Commission and Shine Lawyers are delighted to announce that EQC has reached an agreement with the Gibling family, agreeing to cover the cost of repairs of remaining earthquake damage on their property. ...
Four months into the inquiry, the Royal Commission is gathering significant information and continues to receive valuable submissions from the public, from current and former State servants, experts and community groups. ...
While Fish & Game New Zealand is pleased to see Federated Farmers Environment Spokesperson Chris Allen say that 'we all want good, fresh water', he conveniently overlooks some key facts. ...
What: Wellington demo “Save the Amazon Forest/Salve a Amazônia!” When: Friday, 6 September 2019 from 12:30-13:30 Where: Embassy of Brazil in Wellingtona ...
Rt Hon Trevor Mallard, Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives, welcomes the visit of His Excellency Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, President of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal. ...
A cross political Mental Health and Addictions Wellbeing group will be launched on Wednesday 28 August hosted by Sir John Kirwan and Moe Milne (ONZM) who have both been at the forefront of our country’s often difficult conversations about mental ...
Confirmation that the government will be progressing an independent Parliamentary Budget Office is great news for democracy and transparency, Federated Farmers says. ...
At first glance, Simon Bridges’ strident opposition to the government’s proposal to establish an independent office to cost political parties’ election spending plans looks childish and petty. ...
Euthanasia-Free NZ is appalled that Parliament spent so little time debating Part 2 of the End of Life Choice Bill and voted to leave it full of holes. ...
Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance and its nationwide sister group the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is slamming Auckland Mayor Phil Goff for his comments today that John Tamihere would need the Government’s support to ...
A ‘one size fits all’, inflexible and punitive regulatory regime for water quality just gets backs - and costs - up and most importantly will not work, Federated Farmers says. ...
Mediation yesterday between secondary principals and the government has resulted in a deal that the principals' negotiating team is recommending to its members. ...
Clubs New Zealand welcomes the decision of Justice Minister Andrew Little to put forward a bill amending the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act to allow all licensed premises to remain open for Rugby World Cup matches. ...
The Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation has ordered a review looking at labelling of added sugars in food and drinks. An option under investigation is ‘a pictorial approach applied to sugary beverages / sugar-sweetened beverages’ ...
Labour market data released by Statistics New Zealand today indicates that a gender pay gap persists in New Zealand, despite improvement in some areas. ...
In the midst of the 6th Great Extinction Event the coalition, STOP Trashing Our Planet is urging voters to take full responsibility for the legacy we are leaving our children. ...
LGNZ will carefully consider the proposed National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD) to assess if it meets the Government’s aim of enabling urban development or simply adds more red tape to the planning process. ...
Statistics out today from the Government show that the gender wage imbalance, or gap, in the average wage is 11.9%, a strong 2 percentage point improvement from 13.9% last year. The gender pay imbalance in the median wage is 9.3%. ...
Newstalk ZB Drive host and Herald on Sunday columnist Heather du Plessis-Allan is taking on the challenge of keeping 2019 Auckland Mayoral contenders Phil Goff and John Tamihere in line and on point in tonight’s live NZ Herald Newstalk ZB debate. ...
After twenty years Napier residents have endured heavy sleep and health disruptive noise and air pollution from freight trucks gridlock operations to and from the Napier port and other regions. ...
The EMA says much is riding on the board and chief executive of the new National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) announced by Infrastructure Minister Hon Shane Jones today, with a difficult task ahead to deliver on its purpose. ...
The Public Service Association welcomes the introduction of workplace standards by the State Services Commission that make it clear public services should expect positive and safe workplaces. ...
The Financial Services Federation (FSF) - the voice of responsible lenders and leasing companies - and FinCap - working with consumers facing financial hardship - are signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) this Thursday 22 August in Auckland. It will ...
Wellington, 20 August 2019 — Lawyers for Vulnerable New Zealanders (LVNZ) has lent its support to the amendments proposed by MP Chris Penk to better protect vulnerable people from being coerced to end their lives under the End of Life Choice Bill, currently ...
The Government’s decision to establish and independent Parliamentary Budget Office, outside of Treasury, is a taxpayer victory and will improve democracy, says the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union . Taxpayers' Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “It's ...
The Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that the cost-benefit analysis prepared by Ministry of Transport and used to advise Ministers on the Government’s Clean Car Standard and ‘Feebate’ policies has serious flaws which undermine justifications for the ...
The Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW) welcomes new proposals for prison reform put forward by the Minister of Corrections and non-government organisations recently. ...
The New Zealand Maori Council has called on the nation to address all forms of racism and not to shy away from an honest conversation about where it’s taking hold. The call comes after the Nelson Club decided to keep a member after his comments became ...
Wellington (20 August 2019): The New Zealand Initiative enthusiastically welcomes the Coalition Government’s announcement of an Independent Parliamentary Budget Office. Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Associate Finance Minister James Shaw ...
Drs Say No agree with Chris Penk’s amendment to protect vulnerable patients from coercion, although the organisation still maintains that no safe euthanasia legislation can ever be drafted and continues to urge MPs to defeat the End of Life Choice Bill. ...
The Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier says the Northland Regional Corrections Facility is persisting with policies that are preventing it from achieving its full potential. ...
The second national hui in the Māori-led Inquiry into Oranga Tamariki concluded yesterday ahead of schedule after a capacity audience formally ratified the terms of reference that determines the scope and purpose of the independent investigation ...
Forest & Bird says WWF-NZ's plan for protecting Māui dolphins is based on testing unproven methods on a species that is almost extinct, and is urging the Government to reject the proposal. ...
National MP Nick Smith has lodged a serious accusation against Parliament's Speaker calling him "biased" after once again being booted out of the debating chamber. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling Last weekend, hundreds of thousands of people again took to the streets in Hong Kong to protest against the government – the 11th straight weekend of demonstrations that began in June over a proposed extradition bill. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scott Hamilton, Strategic Advisory Panel Member, Australian-German Energy Transition Hub, University of Melbourne Australia’s primary federal renewable energy target – to have 33 terawatts of renewable energy by 2020 – has essentially been achieved. There is much uncertainty as to what is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lewis Mitchell, Senior Lecturer in Applied Mathematics, University of Adelaide I swear by Hypatia, by Lovelace, by Turing, by Fisher (and/or Bayes), and by all the statisticians and data scientists, making them my witnesses, that I will carry out, according to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University Just when we thought Australia was getting serious about shifting priorities away from the Middle East to its own neighbourhood, the prime minister has announced another Middle East step up. Australia ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Keogh, ARC DECRA Fellow, Queensland University of Technology In the last three months, the Australian Classification Board has “refused classification” for at least four video games – effectively banning them in Australia. The latest is zombie-survival shooter DayZ. Despite being previously ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle The Heart Foundation now recommends full-fat milk, cheese and yoghurt or reduced-fat options as part of its updated dietary advice released yesterday. This moves away from earlier advice that recommended only reduced-fat ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Paris Georgia co-founders Paris Mitchell Temple and Georgia Cherrie.This week’s podcast features a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer, who has died aged 73 of cancer, leaves a political and personal legacy as a man of courage, conviction and congeniality. The support that Fischer as National Party leader ...
One part telenovela, one part family drama, one part addictive love story. Sam Brooks reviews Jane the Virgin, the great show with an unfortunate name that should be your next Netflix binge.The following piece contains very mild spoilers for Jane the Virgin.While watching the last season of Jane the Virgin, ...
Before Zumba, before Just Dance, before it was cool again to move in public group settings, there was Jump Jam. Madeleine Chapman reflects.Jump Jam entered the lives of New Zealand kids in 2001, a year filled with historic cultural movements. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was released in 2001; ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Jensz, Research associate professor, University of Münster Donald Trump is not the first US President to make an offer of buying Greenland from Denmark – but he might be the last. Home of some 56,000 people and around 80% covered by ...
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, Tara Ward taste-tests the best hot chips in the country. Everyone loves a hot chip because they’re a) hot, and b) a chip, but there’s nothing more disappointing than a bad chip experience. A ...
Sky Network Television has written down the value of large parts of its business and scrapped paying a dividend as it changes direction to counter falling pay TV subscribers. ...
Strict word limits for Māori translations of local body election candidate profiles is a form of "institutional racism" and should be changed, a candidate says. ...
ACT Party leader David Seymour's voluntary euthanasia bill has cleared another stage in Parliament with a suite of changes aimed at securing support. ...
A finalist for New Zealander of the Year for her work with Māori smokers is at war with academics because her research is funded by tobacco giant Philip Morris. Guyon Espiner reports. ...
Keith Rankin’s Chart Analysis Auckland Māori exodus after 2014The 2018 census has had such a low compliance rate, that it really acted as a large convenience sample (therefore a biased sample) of the New Zealand population. (See my Census Survey from March 2018.) Despite the assurances we are getting, ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Housing Bernard Hickey (Newsroom): Lecturing councils won’t work for Labour either Marc Daalder (Newsroom): ‘Nice pointers, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Prudence Flowers, Lecturer in US History, College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, Flinders University As the abortion decriminalisation bill gradually makes its way through the NSW parliament, opponents have been increasingly drawing on their long relationship with the right-to-life movement in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Hansen, Chief of Staff, The Conversation With the advent of online ancestry DNA testing, and advancements in genetic screening for various medical aliments, we’re able to know more than ever about the genes that make us who we are. But is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Linda Galligan, Associate professor, University of Southern Queensland If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au.How was maths discovered? Who made up the numbers and rules? – Bianca, age 12, Strathfield, Sydney. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Borroz, PhD candidate in international business and comparative political economy, University of Auckland India’s Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft has settled into lunar orbit, ahead of its scheduled Moon landing on September 7. If it succeeds India will join a very select club, now ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Twyford and Parker propose new urban development policy statement, Tamihere unveils transport plans, and Māori King issues challenge on child abuse.For a lead today, a nudge towards one of those deeply dense announcements that could end up having a huge ...
Just like its National predecessor, this Labour-led Government is trying to lecture councils into growing the 'right' kinds of cities without giving them the funding tools or help to do it. ...
Part three of our debate on the state of New Zealand fiction continues as Chris Else, whose opening essay was strongly rebutted last week by Catherine Robertson, returns to put the boot in once more. ...
This morning the five shortlisted songs for the 2019 Silver Scroll Award were announced. Here, exclusively for The Spinoff, the finalists discuss each other’s nominated songs.Tom Scott of Avantdale Bowling Club on ‘The Barrel’ by Aldous Hardingit’s such a beautiful stunt to witness. breaking just before the cliff edge. the ...
A group is currently holding seminars around NZ which appear to be based on misinformation about vaccines. Dr Helen Petousis-Harris fact checks some of their claims. ...
The Football Ferns are at a crossroads - they need to move on from simply being "competitive" to make a serious impression on the world football stage. ...
Countless stories from women who have a right to be safe on campus still go unanswered, writes Kate Hannah, deputy director equity and inclusion, Te Pūnaha MatatiniDespite the hashtags and the headlines, universities in New Zealand seem to have largely avoided facing up to their own “#MeToo moment”. It is ...
The government’s plan to avoid another ‘fiscal hole’ fiasco has an unlikely fan: the chief economist of the corporate think tank New Zealand Initiative. Eric Crampton explains what else it could do.Have you ever driven past one of those stores that mostly sells blinds but calls itself ‘Not Just Blinds’ ...
Over the course of the local elections period, The Spinoff will be publishing primers on some of the most interesting races around the country. Today, Alex Braae casts his eyes over the Otago Regional Council contest.The Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to The SpinoffMembers. For more about ...
By Michael Andrew Journalists across Papua New Guinea have spoken out in support of EMTV news director Neville Choi after his “unacceptable” termination from a role he had held for six years. A public statement released on Monday listed the reasons for his termination, one of which was his ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Camellia Webb-Gannon, Lecturer, University of Wollongong Last weekend, the Indonesian police took 43 West Papuan students into custody for allegedly disrespecting the Indonesian flag during an independence day celebration (an allegation the students deny). Police stormed the students’ dorm and used teargas ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Natalie Klein, Professor, UNSW Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed that Australia will lend military support to protect shipping in the Middle East. The commitment has been long expected, with Australia sending a frigate, an aircraft and some headquarters staff as part ...
Open mike 03/08/2019 
A new study claims to find that a mother’s exposure to fluoridated water during pregnancy may decrease the IQ of male children – but is it correct? (Photo: Getty Images) Anti-fluoride campaigners are promoting ... 24 mins ago
Donald Trump seems to be eager to start a war with Iran, and naturally Australia is yapping at its heels like a good little vassal. The UK also asked New Zealand to get involved, but fortunately, we had a good excuse: we simply didn't have the toys available:Britain asked New ...5 hours ago
Television advertising has a huge impact on our lives. Even if we don’t recognise that, we know it has to be true, since otherwise why would advertisers spend so much on it? Its significance, however, is greater than simply the influence it has on what we purchase and consume. It ...1 day ago
by Jan Rivers More than 30 years ago a Commission of Inquiry was held in New Zealand to investigate, amongst other things, whether women with cervical cancer were aware that they had been part of a research project and whether they were properly informed of the treatment options ...2 days ago
Everyone Wants To Be Fuhrer: When fascist groups are discussed, the image conjured-up in the minds of most New Zealanders is one of pathetic misfits. This negative impression is reinforced by the latter’s idiotic embrace of the swastika. Even in the second decade of the twenty-first century, the baleful legacy ...2 days ago
In the previous two posts, I laid out the context and set the theoretical framework to answer a question: whether indigenous economies should take the LEAP. This final part outlines ways to conceive of practicing mana motuhake within the existing legal system by carving out special jurisdictions that enable Indigenous ...4 days ago
Fully Informed? Labour’s 2017 promises raised expectations that were little short of revolutionary. Unfortunately, they were never adequately shaken through the fiscal sieve. The hard economic work was not done – and it shows. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s critics have long complained that her grasp of the way the New ...4 days ago
You cannot expect to pound communities into the ground day after day, year after year, decade after decade and just expect them to take it lying down. There’s a point at which the place will explode. And we’re faced with some very big ructions on both sides of the Atlantic ...6 days ago
6 days ago
Going Down? Once truth and propaganda become fused in the minds of one’s followers, debate and discussion become redundant. If one’s opponents are all outrageous liars, then engaging with them in any way is pointless. Rather than waste its time, a political party should, instead, target all its messages at ...6 days ago
We need to fundamentally reframe our systems settings to address the drivers causing and underpinning inequality; structural change in systems especially financial. The Equality Network Hui was held in Wellington on 27 June 2019. The hui covered important topics such as child poverty; a living wage; taxation; public health; mental ...1 week ago
The views-per-page for some of my recent postings:Depressing, isn't it? Provide thoughtful and wise commentary on the mainstream of British politics and no-one notices. Make a passing reference to Tommy DICKHEAD Robinson in a thread title and you get hundreds of views. Write something about anti-Semitism and you get another ...1 week ago
The government has announced plans to move the Treaty of Waitangi and other taonga to a new site. Great news! So where are they going? Right next to the old one:The new plan will see a new 22,000-square-metre archive built on the former site of Defence House - the former ...1 week ago
Back in June, StatsNZ went public about a project to track population data on an hourly level by using people's cellphones. It wasn't as bad as it initially looked - they were receiving no individual data, only counts by suburb - but there was still a huge consent problem, so ...1 week ago
I did an interview on the TVNZ Breakfast Show about the situation in Hong Kong. I tried to frame the issue as a collective action problem between two sides with very different end games. The video is here. Because of time constraints we could not discuss the fact that the ...1 week ago
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ... 1 week ago
Alone, Alone. All, All Alone: Will it be a good or a bad thing, when humanity’s bright blue spacecraft is stricken by the civilisation-destroying problem of Climate Change, that no Huston Control will be standing-by to rescue the crew?“WE HAVE A PROBLEM, HUSTON.” These were the words used by the ...1 week ago
Divided Loyalties: Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be relied upon? That’s what the boys and girls at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon needed to be reassured about. Because, from the perspective of Washington, it’s looking more and more like Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party comrades are getting ready ...1 week ago
This handy Queer Theory Glossary is from thetranswidow.com In case you’ve had trouble keeping up with the spate of new queer theory terms, here’s a handy glossary for your reference. Queer – A straight person with an interesting haircut. Non-binary/genderqueer – A chubby young female, typically 16-28, who has ...2 weeks ago
The winter grazing issue is becoming a highly sensitised one that I hope will not become so politicised that it delays solutions and results in the suicides of some very stressed farmers.Winter grazing has hit the headlines after a determined campaign, including the release of a video of some very ...2 weeks ago
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...2 weeks ago
Blowing-Up The House: Is Winston Peters planning to put himself at the head of all those New Zealanders who refuse to countenance the Coalition Government caving-in to the Ihumatao protesters? The most effective way of doing this would be to issue Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with an ultimatum. If she ...2 weeks ago
Opportunities to dodge tax are shrinking with the completion of a new tax agreement with Switzerland, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Mr Nash and the Swiss Ambassador David Vogelsanger have today signed documents to update the double tax agreement (DTA). The previous DTA was signed in 1980. “Double tax ...2 weeks ago
The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) is urging firearms owners to pass on information to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on Christchurch Mosques now that the period for submissions has been extended to 27 September. ...2 hours ago
National MP Nick Smith has lodged a serious accusation against Parliament's Speaker calling him "biased" after once again being booted out of the debating chamber. ...19 mins ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling Last weekend, hundreds of thousands of people again took to the streets in Hong Kong to protest against the government – the 11th straight weekend of demonstrations that began in June over a proposed extradition bill. ...27 mins ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scott Hamilton, Strategic Advisory Panel Member, Australian-German Energy Transition Hub, University of Melbourne Australia’s primary federal renewable energy target – to have 33 terawatts of renewable energy by 2020 – has essentially been achieved. There is much uncertainty as to what is ...2 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Keogh, ARC DECRA Fellow, Queensland University of Technology In the last three months, the Australian Classification Board has “refused classification” for at least four video games – effectively banning them in Australia. The latest is zombie-survival shooter DayZ. Despite being previously ...2 hours ago
Government agencies are taking an unconventional approach to family violence solutions. ...2 hours ago
Sky Network Television has bought the rights to put its name on Wellington's Westpac Stadium. ...4 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle The Heart Foundation now recommends full-fat milk, cheese and yoghurt or reduced-fat options as part of its updated dietary advice released yesterday. This moves away from earlier advice that recommended only reduced-fat ...4 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Libby Porter, Professor of Urban Planning, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University The Victorian government has announced it is seeking heritage listing for parts of the Eastern Freeway in Melbourne. We heard this news on Wednesday as we sat under a grandfather ...4 hours ago
A flood and a botched insurance job has left a Howick couple out of their home for almost two years. But it's a story with some strange twists. ...4 hours ago
One part telenovela, one part family drama, one part addictive love story. Sam Brooks reviews Jane the Virgin, the great show with an unfortunate name that should be your next Netflix binge.The following piece contains very mild spoilers for Jane the Virgin.While watching the last season of Jane the Virgin, ...6 hours ago
Before Zumba, before Just Dance, before it was cool again to move in public group settings, there was Jump Jam. Madeleine Chapman reflects.Jump Jam entered the lives of New Zealand kids in 2001, a year filled with historic cultural movements. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was released in 2001; ...7 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Jensz, Research associate professor, University of Münster Donald Trump is not the first US President to make an offer of buying Greenland from Denmark – but he might be the last. Home of some 56,000 people and around 80% covered by ...7 hours ago
Live updates: Around 150 are taking part in the hīkoi to the PM's electorate office from Ihumātao in a bid to get her to visit the site. ...7 hours ago
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, Tara Ward taste-tests the best hot chips in the country. Everyone loves a hot chip because they’re a) hot, and b) a chip, but there’s nothing more disappointing than a bad chip experience. A ...8 hours ago
Sky Network Television has written down the value of large parts of its business and scrapped paying a dividend as it changes direction to counter falling pay TV subscribers. ...8 hours ago
A finalist for New Zealander of the Year for her work with Māori smokers is at war with academics because her research is funded by tobacco giant Philip Morris. Guyon Espiner reports. ...10 hours ago
Air New Zealand's full-year profit has hit headwinds as higher fuel costs and slower passenger growth hit its earnings. ...10 hours ago
Keith Rankin’s Chart Analysis
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https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/08/01/americas-collapse-2-in-a-series/
[Added quote marks. When quoting text verbatim you must include quote marks and a link and preferably an acknowledgment too. Similarly, when posting video clips you must include a reason and/or explanation what it is about and why they should watch it. You have warned before, e.g. /open-mike-28-06-2019/#comment-1632321, and this is your final warning before you go the same way as another commenter here who used to do similar things and who continued to do so after repeated warnings. To spell it out for you: you are inching closer to a permanent ban – Incognito]
American success had little to do with capitalism. Then you contradict yourself: "World War II finished off Europe and put economic and financial supremacy in Washington’s hands. The US dollar seized the world reserve currency role from the British pound, enabling the US to pay its bills by printing money. The world currency role of the dollar, more than nuclear weapons, has been the source of American power."
Arguable that the nuclear threat empowers the superpower less than their capitalist system. I think the success of the USA post-WWII is due to both equally. Why did the rest of the world choose the US dollar as world currency? Tacit psychology. Trust that it works better as a medium of exchange than any other contender…
Why no quote marks? The text is a straight rip from the link.
See my Moderation note @ 7:10 AM.
This interesting book review from yesterday; standing further back from history can widen the field of vision. Of course the guy in the white house wants to go to Mars:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jul/31/the-end-of-the-myth-by-greg-grandin-review
'For the men who would later be mythologised as the “Founding Fathers”, conquest – the right of white settlers to seize whatever land they wanted – was from the start inseparable from liberty. Freedom, in the American sense of the word, was unimaginable without the frontier, limitless land for the taking just beyond the boundaries of the known.'
Climate Scientist Jason Box: “Our Economic System Is Crashing With Reality”
The Greens annual conference and AGM is being held this weekend. A Stuff reporter gets the gist from our co-leaders:
"The sinking of the Government's flagship KiwiBuild policy may also hold a silver lining for the Greens and its housing goal. The agreement lists a rent to own scheme or similar progressive ownership model to be developed and now KiwiBuild is being "reset" this could be a good opportunity. It is understood the Greens and Housing Minister Megan Woods are currently talking about this." https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/114721355/green-party-coleaders-set-to-tell-members-we-want-to-do-more-with-housing-inequality-and-climate-change
Intriguing and good to see they are taking the initiative with the coalition. I'm hoping we'll get more than navel-gazing out of the conference. They failed to give me any reason to attend, so I figured I've got plenty of better things to do. Wish them well tho..
I'm fairly sure the failure is on your part.
Could be. Expecting more from them than I'm getting. If you're going, how about giving us a report of your impressions, when you get back.
The whole ownership thing is dumb. Focus on decent rentals priced to undercut private landlords.
Four Horsemen – Feature Documentary – Official Version
That’s 1:38:53 long; what is it about and why is it worth watching?
That is a meaningless non-self-explanatory caption.
The third horseman was from HR.
https://www.biblica.com/bible/?osis=nasb:Revelation.6:5%E2%80%936:6
HR? Some people might not know.
In corporate-speak, Human Resources. Struck me as a clever joke (unless it means something else). I was obliged to interact with one or two of the TVNZ HR drones in the '90s due to my somewhat-stroppy attitude. One needs to be able to finesse their attempts to file people into typical categories…
He's an Ed. But at least Ed did serve up some reason to post his links – this guy has so much contempt for readers of TS that he is incapable of conceiving such courtesy. I see it as a combination of Jungian projection with a variant of virtue-signalling. He assumes readers share his desire to promote whatever virtue he perceives in the links. Classic narcissism: the subject's interior world totally displaces the world we share…
You might be interested to see my Moderation note I just left under the comment @ 1.
I am pleased to see that you didn’t bring up the sockpoppet allegation because my antibody titres against that are sky-high 😉
Great documentary movie.
Puts the banks, fractional reserve banking and politics under the microscope.
I thoroughly recommend it.
Ah, thought it rang a bell in the back of my mind. I did watch that years ago & agree it was worth the time spent (even though I had long been familiar with the back story).
NIWA wrong on 5G impact.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/08/niwa-apologises-for-5g-weather-confusion.html
Moving to Vodafone in anticipation.
Google finds 22.3 million web pages if you search health effects of 5g. Bit of a groundswell, but ignore the rabble. You'll be ok.
“The radio wave band – used for mobile phone networks – is non-ionising, “which means it lacks sufficient energy to break apart DNA and cause cellular damage,” says David Robert Grimes, physicist and cancer researcher. Higher up the electromagnetic spectrum, well beyond those frequencies used by mobile phones, there are clear health risks from extended exposure.” https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48616174
The report does suggest a serious risk to male rats, so some of the more rabid kiwibloggers may get eliminated…
"Google finds 22.3 million web pages if you search health effects of 5g"
Is that all? I tried "Trump is an alien" and got 328 million. Nearly 15 times as many. Surely that must be interpreted as meaning there aren't any health effects from 5g if hardly anyone seems to care?
""Trump is an alien"
So little you know about Google searches Alwrong.
You can see from the first page of those 328 mill things like :
Alien hunters at Area 51
Vanity Fair 'Please let it be Aliens and not Trumps Space Force'
learn how to use google, when you search for exact phrase "trump is an Alien" you only get 112,000 results.
But I was using the exact method that Dennis Frank used. Why do you not tell him that he should have enclosed his phrase in quotation marks?
After all, if I search for "health effects of 5g" I only get 34,300 hits. That is of course much less than the 20+ million that he quoted.
I was using exactly the same method that he was. What is wrong with that?
How to use Google 101: if you include the quotation marks you’ll get about 113,000 results. This is because you search for this exact word or phrase. Have you ever used the Advanced Search settings? Very handy!
Note my reply to Dukeofurl just above.
Sure. I read comments in the back-end and they are in reverse order without the context of the discussion thread. In fact, I read the all comments of all posts lumped together in reverse chronological order. In between, I write the odd comment myself, occasionally, but mostly I keep an eye on things as moderator – the two are almost mutually exclusive, to me at least.
Jesus! I am amazed that you can make any sense of anything. I certainly don't think I would be able to do it.
I now see, on the other hand, how you can respond to comments so quickly. I found it a real pain when I couldn't find, easily, my own recent comments so that I could see if a response should be given. Getting that back is wonderful. I only have to find my own comments though.
You put the finger on the pain point, which is that I cannot make much sense of anything unless I concentrate really hard and pay much attention – very tiring if not exhausting to combine with a demanding life outside or alongside TS. The back-end works well for moderation but not for commenting (the editor is different too). I find myself spending a lot of time and energy here and not nearly enjoying it as much as I used to when I was merely commenting and joining in the conversations. The technical aspect is only one factor; the other issue that it is almost impossible to disentangle oneself from being a ‘player’ in a ‘game’ to become the ‘referee/umpire’ and make fair and neutral decisions to protect the ‘game’. Maybe I’m taking it all too seriously; it wouldn’t be the first time. One thing that helps though is that I am anonymous and that lowers the personal involvement; I can turn off the device and walk away from it without a lingering emotional connection, which is much harder to do in real life, for me at least.
You have to thank Lynn, of course, for the search function and the smooth running of the site. You know that you can click on Replies on the RH side to see whether anybody has replied to one of your comments, don’t you? It does not work when threads get too long because the nesting of comments only goes so deep before the reply button disappears.
A lot of starnge stuff around about 5G . Because the spectrum they will use in US is high frequency it wont provide much performance away from cell sites.
this part of the Niwa incorrect claim as the bands will be FR2. Im surprised they failed to check even wikipedia over this
I understand other countries will be using lower frequencies including this 2.5Ghz band in NZ. ( known in the jargon as FR1)
Im not sure of this but one of the reasons for 5G faster downloads is the 'broader bands' used for reception
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G_NR_frequency_bands
.Perhaps it's time for the left to start investing in this strategy, too. Or we kill facebook.
The lobbying firm run by Boris Johnson’s close ally Sir Lynton Crosby has secretly built a network of unbranded “news” pages on Facebook for dozens of clients ranging from the Saudi government to major polluters, a Guardian investigation has found.
In the most complete account yet of CTF Partners’ outlook and strategy, current and former employees of the campaign consultancy have painted a picture of a business that appears to have professionalised online disinformation, taken on a series of controversial clients and faced incidents of misogynistic bullying in its headquarters.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/aug/01/revealed-johnson-allys-firm-secretly-ran-facebook-propaganda-network
Facebook said it shut down 265 fake accounts run by an Israeli social media company on Thursday for engaging in “coordinated inauthentic behavior” as it sought to affect politics in African, Latin American and Southeast Asian nations.
The move, while underscoring the increasingly global nature of social media disinformation campaigns, was unusual for singling out a company that appeared to profit from its publicized work to spread falsehoods online. Archimedes Group, the Israeli company, claims the ability to “use every tool and take every advantage available in order to change reality according to our client’s wishes.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/05/16/facebook-shuts-down-israel-based-disinformation-campaigns-election-manipulation-increasingly-goes-global/
A pair of Toronto city councillors hired a scrappy political strategist to wage a multi-front PR campaign after CBC News ran stories examining their ties to local developers, with one of the councillors privately making threatening comments about a CBC reporter and compiling a "research" dossier on him and political foes, according to allegations in a lawsuit.
[…]
The PR campaign was to include complaints to CBC about its reporting, slipping "pertinent information" to competing media, arranging for letters to the editor to be signed by the councillors' friends and relatives, and the creation of "myriad" websites and social media accounts promoting the politicians and their message and attacking a past electoral rival.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/di-ciano-grimes-kinsella-lawsuit-allegations-1.5183813
Or drag linty crobby and his ilk by their tails and drag them up onto the surface where people can watch them squirm.
I'd rather it by their heels on a gibbet, Gabs.
A healthy contrast to the pussyfooting so common in contemporary politics:
'Is working with National after the election next year off the table?'
James Shaw: "Yes, absolutely. I would never empower someone with as little personal integrity as Simon Bridges to become Prime Minister."
Delivered without the slightest hesitation, too. I guess it does not rule out working with a party head who has more integrity than Bridges.
Collins? Bennett? Mitchell? Luxton? Is the intersection of 'Bridges and his potential replacements' with 'people having a high level of personal integrity' an empty set?
Certainly can't include Collins. 🙂
This morning on Radionz (great piece on new discovery about treatment of one type of cancer) that the Malaghan Institute was founded by the owner of Tip Top (died 1967 of Hodgkin's disease).
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018707063/breakthrough-cancer-treatment-coming-to-new-zealand
Malaghan Institute: https://www.malaghan.org.nz/our-history/
The concept of a Wellington-based, independent medical research institute was first proposed in the early 1960s. At that time, relatively little medical research was carried out in New Zealand due to a lack of facilities and support by hospital boards.
Using funds from a trust established by the Wellington Medical Research Foundation and the Wellington Division of the Cancer Society, the Wellington Cancer and Medical Research Institute was opened on 26 July 1979, in rented premises in the Wellington School of Medicine.
In 1986, the name of the Institute was changed to the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research in recognition of the generous support by Len and Ann Malaghan. Two decades later, the Institute relocated to a purpose-built facility at Victoria University of Wellington.
The philanthropy of the Malaghan family has continued to benefit others over the years. https://www.malaghan.org.nz/news/celebrating-three-generations-of-philanthropy/
And the connection with cancer and the Malaghan Institute is Tip-Top Icecream. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tip_Top_(ice_cream)
History. In 1936 Albert Hayman and Len Malaghan opened their first ice cream parlour in Manners Street, Wellington, New Zealand followed in the same year by a second milk bar in Wellington, and one in Dunedin. Tip Top Ice Cream Company was registered as a manufacturing company in 1936…
In November 1962, Hayman and Malaghan opened the biggest and most technically advanced ice cream factory in the Southern Hemisphere, built at Mount Wellington, Auckland, New Zealand. The Tip Top factory included staff houses and 20 acres (81,000 m2) of farm land overlooking the Southern Motorway and cost NZ$700,000. Prime Minister Keith Holyoake attended the opening ceremony.
By 1964 the Company had expanded to such an extent that a parent company was formed, General Foods Corporation (NZ) Limited. It was rated as one of the soundest investments on the stock exchange and other companies were quick to note its potential.
https://www.nzicecream.org.nz/history-nz-trans-tasman.htm
In this link it shows how Tip Top changed hands six times from 1968 when Watties acquired control to the 2001 'mega-merger'.
June 2001 – The 'mega-merger' of Kiwi, NZ Co-op Dairy Co. and the NZ Dairy Board formed a huge new dairy company, Fonterra. Fonterra inherited the ice cream businesses and brands; Tip Top, New American and Peters (WA and NZ).
2019 Fonterra sold Tip Top to Froneri (the pureplay ice cream company.. I just love these terms that business invent.)
FRONERI is a global pureplay ice cream company. Froneri is widely diversified across the world, operating in 20 countries. Froneri offers the full suite of ice cream products, from dairy ice cream to water ice, sorbet and organic ice cream, and from tubs to sticks to cones to name a few.
We need to develop a co-operative system as they have in Spain – the Mondragon group. We are concentrating on making things for export and we have to pay world prices for things made or grown here. To strengthn the country we have to have a domestic market that prices for the domestic market and it seems to me the only way we will get that is starting a NZ co-operative belonging to NZs who look to buy product from the organisation, and possibly work in it. If we don't divorce ourselves from the wealthy and self-interested, we will continue to see our living standards decline – we will be forced to live simply because of a desire by the wealthy to refuse equality to the population inparticipating in the country's economy, and its jobs and wages, and distribution of the proceeds of trading and taxation in a fair manner.
Business has no long-term commitment to this country and growing our own strengths at all. The present system has enabled this white-anting of our enterprise and resources. Yet look at who are in the top wealth bracket in the world, the people who have worked as family, and kept hold of their stuff.
This morning Luxon of AirNZ commented on how costly it has been to get a presence in Argentina, an awareness of the country and the company. He mentioned being confused with shoe polish and some other product.
This is the result of a lack of prowess by NZ business leaders and politicians. When we lost our Kiwi name to the Kiwi polish we should have then bought it back and patented it, but no too timid and short-sighted. Perhaps we could wait for the crash and then leap out and buy our name for peanuts. Those who play the share market know you can get great leverage then.
From local Tip Top Ice Cream we have a valuable research institute looking into cancer, the Malaghan Institute. What of lasting benefit to the country's social infrastructure do we get from the baby boomers?
"What of lasting benefit to the country's social infrastructure do we get from the baby boomers?"
– Air New Zealand
– Kiwisaver
– Kiwibank
– Massive motorway system
– ACC, Pharmac
– Most electricity generators
– Fibre optic cable to most houses
– Modern health system
– Corruption-free government
– MMP
– Some earthquake rebuilds over 60 years
– Most national parks
– Well regulated and functioning society
Ask the same question about millenials, and you're getting to Robertson and Ardern and Shaw: different answer.
Corruption free government? Try that line with the householders ripped off by EQC and its subsidiaries. Look closely at any privatization of public assets and you'll find corruption, not service improvement is the driver. Prior to Rogergnomics we had low corruption, now the Panama Papers is the operating norm.
Us and Denmark: most corruption-free countries in the world, and have been for a while.
Boomers formed all the structures, and they broke some of them. We're still a well regulated and functioning society anyway.
It's a spurious statistic with no objective backing, hence the title CPI. https://www.transparency.org.nz/corruption-perceptions-index/
Yet you'd go to prison for many of the commonplaces of NZ corruption in some administrations – the insider trading Key performed with NZRail shares, the misappropriation of Hubbard's wealth, the theft of public assets like the electricity infrastructure and private ones like the fisheries quota management system. The revolving doors between former ministers and well paid sinecures, gross instances of graft like the appointment of unqualified directors like Jenny Shipley to the NZ funded Asian Infrastructure Bank, and the systematic and deliberate non-enforcement of immigration rules on unskilled labour and so forth.
NZ really has no cause to boast of its corruption status anymore, in fact it's due for a clean out.
Every one of your list is cracked Ad. They have been attempts to meet the standards of a modern first world society, yes. But there are huge numbers of people who are in poverty, no decent housing, no reliable jobs to look forward to with two days off in the weekend if they want them to be with family, join in community; this means that the benefits above arise from having reduced the benefits to those who have been designated unworthy. That is what the baby boomers have passed on to the young ones today, the degraded society that the early colonials sailed here to rise above, and the treatment that was meted out in the early 30's in Germany to those designated as unsuitable citizens.
Oh sure. Bad things as well. But that wasn't the question that was asked.
Corruption-free government? You have to be joking. Ok, not as bad as many other countries but to say we are corruption free is ludicrous. I witnessed a few things during my many years in the Public Service and others will have too. For obvious reasons I cannot elaborate.
Well regulated and functioning society? It might have started off that way but in the past 30 years it has gone downhill.
Robertson and Ardern and company have yet to make their mark. Eighteen months in power is not long enough to produce anything concrete and permanent.
For pity’s sake give them time!
Corruption free compared to any other country on earth. Us and Denmark.
Boomers formed a well regulated society.
There's no pity in politics. Ardern and Robertson have got 8 more months before it all goes on the line again, and everyone can see they're dodging most of the hard stuff.
I vividly recall the Winebox years. By dint of a former association with a person who was close to the main culprits, I picked up on the nature of the dirty practices before it became generally known. I think I read every book and article written about the era and the level of corruption was mind boggling – at least for a country which had previously been free from such practices.
That the culprits (all filthy rich and powerful) were never prosecuted is an indictment on the establishment (including the police) of this country. Given the perpetrators stole millions of NZ taxpayers’ money that response in itself was worthy of an investigation.
And the huge irony… some of those involved were instrumental in setting up the "Association of Consumers and Tax Payers" – the ACT Party.
I consider that period set the scene for the introduction of the often corrupt practices that exist today (look at some of the antics of the previous Key government) and which are now accepted by many as normal.
As far as Ardern and Robertson are concerned… I agree they must have something solid to present to the public by the end of next year, but I'm optimistic it will happen even if their efforts are still in the process of being fully realised.
yeah the National Parks just fell out of the air fully formed with no one in them yay thanks baby boomers lol
Ain't no new national parks generated by millennials. You can check thee years they were legislated.
I suspect marty is referring to people who predate the Boomers by quite a long time.
ad is just being his annoyingly ignorant self – part of his poke with a stick game – I'm sure he isn't as thick as he portrays but you never know
Some of those things were built by the previous generation, not the boomers who inherited them.
Which ones?
Rainy day, but a well spent hour watching The Great Hack on Netflix. Highly recommended.
It's quite clear from this outstanding doco that the deluge of anti-Hillary and pro-Brexit content sent out to groups of voters, based on the data mining (conducted primarily from Facebook) by Cambridge Analytica was the prime reason for the Trump and Brexit result. Not to mention the practise runs in a large number of other minor countries in the lead up.
Noam Chomksy et al would be correct in saying that any Russian 'meddling' would be inconsequential compared to that.
I've only watched the first 20 or so minutes. Did the Trump team hire in Google and FB staff to help them with that? There was a bit about where the Google/FB people sat in the room, but it wasn't explained in depth in that part.
The "Black lives matter" stuff was amazing, a way to divide the country. It made me think of the ChCh terror attack and how his intention was to divide and stir shit, it made me think Adern really did an amazing job of shutting that down compared to what went on in the U.S.
I don't think there was direct collusion between political candidates/parties but there was between parties and Cambridge Analytica (and it's parent company SCL*). It's well worth watching the full doco.
The ‘black lives’ comments were interesting, but not really election related. The targeting of derogatory Clinton adverts to certain Facebook groups as a consequence of the data mining would rate as very directly affecting the election.
Kia Ora Newshub.
Condolences to Sir Brian Lachore whanau he was a awesome ambassador for Rugby and Aotearoa he was A True Kiwi humble but hard .
Its good for Wahine who want a abortion to get one without breaking the law that is stupid that being a criminal offense. Its Its their BODY Thanks to our Coalition Governments for putting up the new law to be voted on by our MPs .
A big heavy Snow Storm in the South Island of Aotearoa Te wai pounamu the tamariki and skiers will be happy the farmers not so happy .
12 new Radiation machines to help detect cancer earlier its good to detect cancer quickly to cure it and keep cancer at bay.
Jamie Shaw is a awesome Green Party Co leader like Marama .Ka kite ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
There is a reason Im not commenting on Ihumatao WHY because the police will try and blame some of the issues with the larger numbers of Tangata whenua being there on Eco Maori. What are they touting guns there for its a peaceful protest are they trying to stir up tangata whenua emotion.
More Ports on Waihike Island we need to protect our sea shore and sea environments.
Ka pai to our tangata whenua contemporary Artist the theme is the effects of colonialism I agree about it being oppressive and bad for the native people. I our tamariki mana will get the changes needed for JUSTICE.
I ,,, Eco Maori will go to Anglican Church for prayer I love it that the Church includes tangata whenua cultural as part of its Cultural ka pai.
Herds Eco Maori tau toko Herbs Im just to distract to have time to scan good Aotearoa Music and Musicians it will be a awesome Movie I will definitely watch it
Ka kite ano
P.S they thought I was bluffing yesterday Yea right
Kia ora The Am Show
Wellington has the fittest people in Aotearoa that's cool.
What did national do to improve the treatment of cancer not very much actually .Not a problem for them they would all get private treatment if they had signs of cancer of cancer or any other ailment.
I agree with Doctor Jackson strong central leadership like you say the DHB act as individuals and not a collective they worry about their budgets so they put off buying expensive equipment.
Duncan David doesn't have a magical tool to make changes to OUR Health system happen over night Papatuanuku was not built in a day.
Snow on the beach in down South Island it is cooler in Hawksbay to .This extreme shifting in the weather dosen't go against Global Warming these events confirme Our Scientists predictions of the effects of Human Caused Climate Change.
Lydia rise in the Golfing Papatuanuku helped lift the profile of Wahine golf Papatuanuku wide she lifted a lot of young Wahine golfers as well Kia kaha lydia.
The Greens should not team up with national became they would just stuff them up like they did to the Maori Party
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
The Movie is being released soon for Herbs the Band in Aotearoa
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
Kia Ora Newshub.
Its quite cold here in Eskmount we had a light dusting of Snow this morning.
Its good making that statement about abortion but it will be better when the law is changed.
People are using the Christchurch disaster as a excuses for people in power playing the racist CARD to bolster their public RATINGS with out no though about the people WHO are affected by their BULLSHIT words
Its was not good behavior of a middle aged man who rammed the young guys cars .
Ka kite ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Everyone knows my opinion on Ihumatao.
I agree with Tama Iti kia kaha .
Don't worry Jacinda will find a solution to Ihumatao Whanau.
Abortion should be treated as a health issue it would be a very hard situation to deal with for Wahine when they could have other issues around their pregnancy its their BODYs.
Tama Iti is correct heaps of there whenua was taken by the crown the art work will become very valuable ma te wa.
The largest tukutuku panel in Papatuanuku is being conducted they are Tangata whenua O Aotearoa Tai taiwhiti ka pai
Ka kite ano