” the White Helmets in Syria have been filmed on numerous occasions working alongside terrorist groups and that members of the White Helmets have participated in executions, torture, driving vehicles for terrorists, providing propaganda for jihadist groups, conducting false flags and brandishing weapons in combat.”
“Two young Sunni Syrian soldiers from Aleppo were beaten and executed by Jaish Al Fattah rebels in Aleppo. Jaish Fattah, a coalition of US backed rebel groups and al-Qaeda (Jabhat al- Nusra). The video of the soldiers being humiliated was posted by a member of the White Helmets, which the US supplied $23 million dollars to through the USAID program, as stated by US State Department spokesperson John Kirby”.
The u.s.a has a long long history of training and working with the most brutal & perverse killers and death squads in modern history ….. “The UN Truth Commission found that the units guilty of the worst atrocities, like the Atlacatl Battalion which conducted the infamous El Mozote massacre, were precisely the ones most closely supervised by American advisers. The American role in this campaign of state terrorism is now hailed by senior U.S. military officers as a model ….”
This documentary shows how the savagery they cultivated in South America was brought down on the poor people of Iraq …. Death squads and torture, fueling hatred and helping Isis recruitment https://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=BxHEI603bF4
This doco shows the u.s.a war effort in Afghanistan includes very evil stuff …..such as protecting Local police units which rape and murder young boys, kidnap and rob from civilians, and get off their faces on Heroin while firing machine and other weapons blindly in the direction of children …. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja5Q75hf6QI ……
On a slightly more positive note here’s a shorter doco on foreign fighters who have come to help the Kurds in their battle for survival against Isis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoqds4LV9RI ….. I do hope the Kurds do not get shafted when peace finally comes …….as they were the first fighters to start inflicting defeats and rolling back Isis.
Horrible powerful Foreign leaders prepared to extend the fighting until the last Syrian is dead are now the biggest problem in stopping the killing …………
Syria needs a huge effort for peace and justice ………. not death squads and surface to air missiles in the hands of terrorists ….
The u.s.a has a long long history of training and working with the most brutal & perverse killers and death squads in modern history …
Funny you should mention that, as the USA’s appalling activities in central America in the early 1980s were an exact match with CV’s position:
I support the rule of international law therefore I recognise the Assad led government as the legitimate sovereign government of Syria, and I recognise that the foreign (US/Saudi/Qatar/Turkey) sponsored proxy war against that government as totally illegal.
Those governments the USA was helping in central America were the “legitimate, sovereign governments” of those countries and the foreign (Soviet Union and China) sponsored proxy wars against those governments were totally illegal. Funnily enough, history isn’t on the side of the USA’s “assistance” of those “legitimate, sovereign governments,” any more than it will be on the side of Russia and Iran’s assistance of the Assad regime.
Have you been hitting yourself in the head with a big thick stupid stick Psycho ? …. are you seriously saying u.s.a sponsored coups make legitimate governments ? ????
Afghanistan: In the 1980s, the U.S. worked with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to overthrow Afghanistan’s socialist government.
Argentina: … soon after the military junta seized power in Argentina. Kissinger explicitly approved the junta’s “dirty war,” in which it eventually killed up to 30,000, most of them young people, and stole 400 children from the families of their murdered parents …
Brazil: …In 1964, General Castelo Branco led a coup that sparked 20 years of brutal military dictatorship……. Like other victims of U.S.-backed coups in Latin America, the elected President Joao Goulart was a wealthy landowner, not a communist,
Cambodia:….. When President Nixon ordered the secret and illegal bombing of Cambodia in 1969, American pilots were ordered to falsify their logs to conceal their crimes. They killed at least half a million Cambodians, …. the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency provided the Khmer Rouge with satellite intelligence, while U.S. and British special forces trained them to lay millions of land mines across Western Cambodia which still kill or maim hundreds of people every year.
Chile: …. After General Pinochet seized power, the CIA kept Chilean officials on its payroll and worked closely with Chile’s DINA intelligence agency as the military government killed thousands of people and jailed and tortured tens of thousands more.
El Salvador: … “During the morning, they proceeded to interrogate, torture, and execute the men in several locations.[8] Around noon, they began taking the women and older girls in groups, separating them from their children and machinegunning them after raping them.[9] Girls as young as 10 were raped, with soldiers reportedly heard bragging how they especially liked the 12-year-old girls.[10] Finally, they killed the children at first by slitting their throats, then by hanging them from trees, with one child as young as two years old.[11] After killing the entire population, the soldiers set fire to the buildings…….The American role in this campaign of state terrorism is now hailed by senior U.S. military officers as a model for “counter-insurgency” in Colombia and elsewhere as the U.S. war on terror spreads its violence and chaos across the world.
El Salvador is very closely linked to Iraq …. and the u.s.a trained murder/rape/torture squads almost necessitated a Isis like organization to protect the Sunni population …
I notice you do not mention anything about possible peace solutions in your reply …. which makes me think you do not really give a stuff about the poor people of Syria …. or Iraq …. or Libya
Have you been hitting yourself in the head with a big thick stupid stick Psycho ? …. are you seriously saying u.s.a sponsored coups make legitimate governments ? ????
If you try actually reading the comment, it referred to Colonial Viper’s claim that he recognises the Assad regime as the “legitimate, sovereign government” of Syria because international law says it is. International law says a lot of very unpleasant dictatorships have been legitimate, sovereign governments, so if you don’t like CV recognising and supporting them all, take it up with him.
“I support the rule of international law therefore I recognise the Assad led government as the legitimate sovereign government of Syria,…..”
Colonial Viper
National Socialists think the sanctity of the nation is sacrosanct.
International Socialists think the idea of nations is a social construct and of little value.
National Socialists believe that nation and race are imutable.
International Socialists believe that concepts like nation and race are fluid and changeable.
National socialists advocate war to protect the interests of a nation from its (internal, and external) enemies.
International Socialists advocate the abolition of the nation state, and the end of war.
John Lennon sang: “Imagine there is no countries” “Nothing to kill or die for”
But what does all this idealistic theory mean in practice in the real world we live in, where nation states are a political reality?
Firstly; it means that socialists oppose all wars of imperial invasion and aggression, (like the invasion of Iraq by the US and its allies, for instance).
Secondly, it means that socialists support all people attempting to libererate themselves from oppression from their own nation state, and support their right to overthrow that state. And also support their right to work with whoever they choose to help them achieve that end.
The example of Roger Casement comes to mind. Roger Casement was an Irishman who worked for the British Empire in the Foreign Civil Service mainly in Africa for twenty years and even gained a British Knighthood for his work. But over this long period witnessing the affects of imperialism first hand he slowly grew to hate and despise it.
On returning to his homeland Casement used his diplomatic contacts to get the German Empire, which was at war with the British Empire, to supply the Irish rebels with 20 thousand rifles. Unfortunately in attempting to land these vitally needed arms in Ireland, Casement was captured by the RIC and handed over to the British and was hanged for treason.
British propaganda depicted Casement as an agent of the Germans. A charge Casement strongly denied in his trial for treason against “The British Crown”.
The other case that comes to mind is that of the Russian Bolshevik leader VI Lenin. When the 1917 revolt first broke out, Lenin was still in exile in Europe, prevented from traveling to Russia by the French and British allies of the Russian Empire, Lenin made a deal with the Germans, who agreed to transport Lenin through German lines and into Russia. The German interest was to weaken the British and Russian Empires from within. The trade off for Lenin in particular was that he was accused just like Casement was of being a German agent. Lenin was able to stare down these accusations and gained the trust of the Russian people and successfully led the Revolution to its victory over the Russian Tsarist, Lenin;s first move was to pull Russia out of the war, which helped bring that Imperialist conflict to conclusion.
There was echoes of this propaganda back here in New Zealand. Princess Te Puea was leading her Tainui people in a campaign against conscription for same Imperialist conflict. Te Puea was also accused of being a German agent, on the flimsy evidence that her grandfather was a German. Even though her Granfather had died when Te Puea was still a child.
So what has all this got to do with Syria and Colonial Viper, which is what I was leading up to?
CV is comfortable and accepts the fact that the regime of Bashar Assad detains and tortures and kills (in his own words) “scores of Syrians a year”. CV also supports the aerial genocide being carried out by the regime against the Syrian people because he alleges (with little proof) that the regime is the victim of US and NATO invasion and regime change.
CV condemns and attacks the rebels for accepting money and weapons from some of the funda mentalist Arab States like Saudi Arabia which is allied with the US.
Singled out by CV and other Assadists for their particular hate, and marked for death, is the volunteer search and rescue organisation known as the White Helmets, because the White Helmets receive funding from US sources.
This is why I determine Colonial Viper to be a National Socialist or fascist.
But really he makes this determination for himself.
More Godwinism.
No doubt there are many good reasons for criticizing Trump, but his apparent intention of establishing a good relationship with Putin is probably worthy of praise.
Two rightwing strongmen cosying up is hardly worthy of praise. Thinking about Trump’s rapprochement with Putin, it is certainly potentially the death of NATO. NATO, as a German friend of mine put it, is a three leg stool about “…keeping the Germans down, the Americans in and the Russians out”.
Angela Merkel (who is popular now but will be very harshly judged by history IMHO) wrecked the first leg with her rigid neoliberalism and the turning of the common currency into a giant Ponzi scheme with Germany at the top, in the process destablising the EU (the beginning of the roll for Brexit was the shock amongst both conservative and liberal intellectuals in the UK at the ruthless German crushing of the Greeks. The British have a long romantic attachment to the Greeks and the Aegean from Shelley to Churchill, and being an island they have a long, bloody minded history of not taking orders from continentals) which has made Germany much richer but has badly weakened the EU and therefore NATO as collateral damage. The result of Merkel’s economic policies may be Germany having to confront the Russians alone.
The election of Trump has at least called the second leg into question. Trump is probably right to question the extension of the US-NATO nuclear guarantee to the Balts and the unstable ex-Warsaw pact countries. Estonia or Bulgaria or Slovakia are not so important to US security as to trigger a nuclear war if attacked by Russia. That has been common sense real politik since Yalta. The Swedes, at least, have worked this out and are reintroducing conscription from 2018. NATO should NEVER have expanded east.
So all that is left is keeping the Russians out. That is what makes the Baltic countries such a flash point. If Russia can over run those countries Crimea style (About a third of the population of Estonia and half of Latvias is ethnic Russians) with just an ineffectual NATO response, NATO’s credibility will collapse. So if the Americans under Trump won’t defend the Balts, that means the Germans will have to – I see in the 2016 budget they have increased defense spending by 15% and set aside 10 billion Euros for new weapons and another 10 billion for arming neighbours. 4,000 NATO troops are already in Estonia.
My pick is before the end of the decade is Putin will try in on in a Baltic country, probably Latvia, and the Russians will be easily defeated by the Germans, Germany will form a Nordic alliance (Germany, Denmark, Norway, Finland the Balts and possibly Poland and the Dutch and French) outside NATO and NATO will become a relic.
Why is an assumption that present day Russia covets “the Baltic” states embedded in your comment Sanctuary? Any, even circumstantial evidence to underpin that?
btw – I don’t think you can reasonably throw Crimea into the mix (if you were going to) any more than you can throw the US’s major naval base in Bahrain into the mix if looking at US territorial designs. My point being that the US and EU turned a blind eye to a swift military incursion by Saudi Arabia into Bahrain to quell that country’s ‘Arab Spring back in 2011… (whereas Russia didn’t have a proxy to use in Crimea)
Well, first you should acquaint yourself with a map of the Baltic. Once equipped with this handy tool, I suggest you take a look at how Russia might obtain access to the Baltic sea (let alone further afield), should the entire fucking coastline of it’s near abroad be controlled by it’s rivals.
Why, pray tell, do you think Putin invaded the Crimea? Because he likes the wine? Or because he wanted to get back the huge ex-Soviet naval base at Sevastopol? What, do you think, is behind Russia playing footsies with the hardline regime in Turkey? I’ll give you a hint: it is wet, salty and runs past Istanbul all the way to the Mediterranean.
Putin saw the fall of the USSR from the KGB HQ in Dresden, and he drew all the wrong lessons. He is an old school Russian expansionist who has gone back to the autocratic, democracy hating, reactionary Tsarist ways of the past. He wants a new Russian Empire.
Via both Baltiysk (ice free) and Kronshtadt offer access.
Crimea was to secure access to the Med just as, from a US perspective, the ‘green lighting’ of Saudi Arabia’s invasion of Bahrain was to secure the 5th Fleet’s base.
If Russia is to be condemned for ‘playing footsie’ with Turkey, what then of the EU’s courting and what of the fact Turkey’s a NATO member state? The motivations and what not behind those things somehow to be judged differently? If so, why?
And again, what evidence is there to suggest present day Russia is seeking empire? Is there a shopping list of expansionist invasion and military adventurism I’m not familiar with?
You, my friend, are a naive fool. This isn’t a zero sum game of equally bad people. Unlike you, I visited Eastern Europe when the Soviet Union controlled it. Trust me, you’ll prefer western liberal democracy and that means supporting those countries that practice it against kleptocrats, thugs and dictators like Putin, Duerte, Erdoğan, Xi Jinping and all the rest of them.
Did I voice some preference or hankering to live in a reincarnated USSR?
The rest of your comment looks to be wandering towards an intellectual and moral morass. And on another day I’d have ventured, but not today. Gotta be off.
you’ll prefer western liberal democracy and that means supporting those countries that practice it against klepotcrats, thugs and dictators like Putin
The problem being that the countries that are against Putin happen to be controlled by kleptocrats, dictators, and thugs. That’s what Western democracy pretty much means now.
Even Ceaser was popular to some degree because the loot that his armies stole from the periphery was reasonably well distributed out in the centre. It’s how empires have always worked and how the US Empire works now.
Why is an assumption that present day Russia covets “the Baltic” states embedded in your comment Sanctuary? Any, even circumstantial evidence to underpin that?
Er, the last few centuries? The fact that it’s invaded those states twice now to re-incorporate them into the empire? The fact that it colonised them with ethnic Russians to try and overcome the ethnic basis for their independence? The fact that it’s attacked Estonia as recently as 2007? Those seem like pretty strong bases for that assumption to me.
There was no military ‘attack’ by Russia on Estonia in 2007. And as for equating Tzarsist Russia with the USSR with present day Russia when the comment only referred to current day Russia…as per usual you show yourself up to be an intellectually scoured and deflated sad sac that was only ever full of shit back in your good old days.
The 2007 attack was a cyber one, not a military one.
You seem to be claiming that the fact that both Tsarist Russia and Soviet Russia found the Baltic states to be assets worth having has no bearing on how present-day Russia regards those states. Well, the reasons for wanting them in earlier times still apply now, so historical precedent very much has a bearing on the present-day outlook for those states. The people who live there certainly know it, even if you don’t.
Sanctuary, Bill has it right. Why would Russia want to add the resource poor, economically backward and European mindset infested elite of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to the responsibilities and problems that they currently have internally?
Russia already has the management problems of 11 time zones and dozens of ethnic groups. Why would Russia want to bother with more.
Actually. Now that I have your attention…remember that stoush over Duterte sanctioning the ‘knocking off’ of drug dealers in the Philippines?
I came across this interesting and provocative piece by Andre Vltchek. If you’ve never heard of him, he’s no slouch and well regarded if a little bloody angry.
I highly recommend it for anyone looking to get a handle on both the internal politics of the Philippines and the country’s position on the US, China and Russia.
That was some impressive article…read through all of it.
Social progress is evident in the city of Davao, where Duterte served for 22 years as a mayor. Once a crime-ridden hellhole with collapsed social structure, Davao now is a modern and forward looking city, with relatively good social services and improving infrastructure, as well as new public parks and green areas.
“So many things got better for the poor people here”, explains the driver, taking me from the Municipality to my hotel. “In just two decades, the city became unrecognizable. We are now proud to be living here.”
But but but According to WaPo, the NYT, and the Guardian, Duterte is just a MURDEROUS THUG!!! REEEEEEEE!!!
A long and thoughtful piece from a highly regarded source is linked, that in part, speaks directly to that kind of reporting and you throw up…did you even read the article?
The sooner you figure out that the 21st century is the Eurasian Century, the better I think.
The deeply hypocritical transnational corporate Anglo-US empire, will of course remain a *very* powerful player on the international stage.
But it can no longer sustain the degree of economic, financial and military power deferential relative to other nations needed to sustain unquestioned hegemonic dominance. (The goal of the New American Century types).
It will have to slowly relearn the art of diplomacy and negotiation once again, as opposed to relying on demanding, demeaning, accusatory rhetoric and undemocratic and illegal covert/overt programmes of regime change.
The sooner you figure out that the 21st century is the Eurasian Century, the better I think.
Meh. We saw off totalitarianism in the 20th Century and we’ll see off its bastard children this century, no matter how much you’d prefer to see nationalist authoritarianism become the new normal.
Asia is turning (has turned, it’s done) towards Asia, and quickly demoting relations with the war mongering, exploiting colonial nations to the basement, where they will remain indefinately
I hold no position of authority to speak for anyone. However, I do have a nationality (x two), an ethnicity and a philosophy, all of which are shared by many others I’m entitled to refer to as “we.” I get that authoritarian nationalism is appealing to the loonier fringes of both the right and the left in western democracies, but it’s not appealing to the great majority of us and we’d rather see liberal democracy succeed than be superseded by totalitarian dictatorships like the People’s Republic of China or mafia states like the Russian Federation.
Asia is turning (has turned, it’s done) towards Asia, and quickly demoting relations with the war mongering, exploiting colonial nations to the basement, where they will remain indefinately
What does that even mean? There are warmongering, exploiting colonial nations in Asia and have been for as long as anyone’s been in a position to write down what’s happening. And which Asia is turning towards Asia? Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea are effectively western democracies themselves, and most of the south-east Asian countries have a well-justified lack of trust in China. Wishful thinking doesn’t actually get you anywhere.
Actually, taking out people like Duerte is what the CIA exists for. I’d rather have a Western aligned dictator who professed some adherence to norms of decent behaviour in Manila than some crazy old dude who boasts about how many people he has murdered and cuddles up to the equally murderous Xi Jinping. Why? Because having a western aligned dictator in Manila (and Suva, for that matter) keeps the murderous Chinese regime contained that much further away from us.
Colonial, anti-democratic illiberal liberals make me puke.
Let’s treat a nation of 100 million Asians like a vassal state colony which exists primarily for our own privileged security and convenience. Fuck their sovereignty and agency.
Because, left wing liberal values.
Guess what mate, coloured people all over the world have cottoned on to your game.
keeps the murderous Chinese regime contained that much further away from us.
Tell me, how many poor brown coloured foreigners and Muslims has the Chinese regime murdered over the last 20 years, compared to the deaths caused by the morally precious US-Anglo empire directly and via its proxies?
Shall we do a body count? You know, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, the list goes on and on.
They will probably try and launch a people’s revolution and install neo-liberal hatchet man Fidel Ramos as leader or a provisional ‘unity coalition’ to restore order until fresh elections are called with suitably screened elitist candidates.
Not mentioned in the media is the fact that Duterte wasnts to emulate the Cuban healthcare system, give out free contraceptives, strengthen LGBT rights, opposes mining, etc.
And let’s face it, if someone in NZ promised to send the army into South Auckland or Murupara and execute every P dealer and gang kingpin I guarantee you they will win election after election.
The whitewashing of the sudden increase in deaths of suspects was pretty vile: a combination of “can’t prove nuffin'”, “what about their victims”, and “the ends justify the means”.
Nowhere was there actually a denial that murder was now government policy.
I don’t think that “establishing a good relationship” is quite the same as the more perjoritive term “cosying up”. And ” strongmen” also seems somewhat loaded.
And the downside of this over-priced market, is people not being able to afford places to live. Rents for safe, secure, affordable housing are above many people’s financial capabilities.
Last night TV1 News had an item about a man in his 80s leaving a sub-standard rental in Auckland. Video and print report here.
I suspect it was Phil Twyford who went to the media on this as he features in the story.
Frederick Shimmen has left his rental of six months in the city’s west fearing for his own safety.
“Health wise, safety wise, it’s not acceptable not in this day and age in this country,” says Mr Shimmen.
Mr Shimmen, a navy veteran, was paying $120 per week for a room which is part of a shed containing cooking, toilet and washing facilities for those also living in two buses and a caravan on the site.
He decided to leave this week, increasingly worried by the recent arrival of even more tenants.
“The set up for the lighting of the buses, all just extension cords, holes in the floors, an outdoor toilet. When the wind blows and the rain, it would all come in,” says Mr Shimmen.
Local MP and Labour’s Housing spokesperson Phil Twyford says Mr Shimmen’s situation is not out of the ordinary.
“There are thousands of people in this situation find themselves living in the most appalling slum conditions. It just shouldn’t be allowed to happen,” he says.
“WELL is this ever an exercise in self promotion / sensationalism , I was most interested to read the words on her scoop post
“The targeting of Ms Dawson led to serious threats against and endangerment of her life and those of her children.”
suddenly I connected the two and indeed in early 2013 I had had dealings with one and the same Ms Dawson when she published defamatory and blatantly incorrect material about me and I simply asked her to remove it from her blog and when I was ignored served a notice on her as required by the act.
I had phoned her as first point of contact and her daughter had answered the phone, I asked for Suzie Dawson and when she got on the phone she hurled a barrage of abuse at me and a claim that I was stalking her.
Eventually she did remove the material from her post but it wold appear that she also made a false complaint that I was stalking her.
Knowing what I know about Suzie Dawson and having interacted with her, I do hope that she gets asylum in Russia and may her stay be a lengthy one.
I personally would not believe a thing she says as to me ,on the evidence I have, I can conclude that she is prone to gross exaggeration and paranoia.
She calls herself a journalist but she is not one.
If she is one of the 88 new Zealanders the government is looking at then the government is wasting tax payers funds, it is my opinion that she does nothing more than regurgitates information which she finds on the web and publishes as her own.
[deleted, content is in link supplied by Sacha below]
[learn how to attribute properly and how to make it clear what are your words and what are a quote. Your comment was a nightmare to read on a phone. Count this as a warning – weka]
Have you been following the recent investigative articles in the NBR about corruption in the NZ roading industry?
You may find them interesting.
Also – the 225 page Judgment of Justice Sally Fitzgerald in the recent bribery and corruption conviction of two (former) Auckland Transport officials and one corrupt contractor, is a fascinating read, in my opinion.
The website seems somewhat feverish at first glance. And no, I do not have a subscription to NBR.
From my reading of the full judgement so far, the successful prosecution hinged on properly maintained public records (falsely-completed Conflict of Interest forms).
It is pretty typical over the end of the holiday period and even more so when coming into an election year. It always get a bit crazy and I start doing more moderation to stop the bad behaviors on the site from going exponential..
(counts on his fingers – 2008, 2011, 2014, and 2017 yep… The site went public in August 2007)
This is my 9th new year on the site and 4th time coming into an election. I’m getting pretty familiar with the patterns now.
You know what I am like and what the policy states. If it is about this site (or is ambiguous about which site), then the sysop (me) is likely to notice it and sometimes answer.
@Penny Bright Why do you insist on dragging this sad story onto today’s open mike?
Please refrain from having us endure any more of this very tragic non news.
And if you can’t control your urge to bang on about it, why not at least use the post that was actually about it….
Funny thing, i had never heard of suzie until yesterdays post, I followed up the links and watched her person of interest video, I found it all interesting but was feeling that perhaps she was maby slightly over egging it,….. then penny and others started in with the organised character assisination and i realised she was not. Penny your posts yesterday and today have convinced me that suzie is genuine and you are a bitter old piece of ….
This whole business regarding Suzie Dawson is crazy conspiracy theory stuff peddled by societies fringe merchants and the left does itself no favours by entertaining any sort of debate on their innuendos and paranoid insinuations. We need to be focussing on the main enemy, triumphant neo-fascism, not faffing around with the delusions of the activist far fringe.
The left’s mission in 2017 is to ensure it rebrands itself well away from the elitist scam that is liberal identity politics and establishes a persuasive narrative that offers a clear alternative to right wing populism. The left devoting its time to the various conspiratorial combinations of the likes of Bradbury, Dawson or Penny Bright is simply to indulge in a distraction from the fringes that it can ill afford to concern itself with and definitely cannot afford to allow itself to be associated with if it wants to be taken seriously.
If “2TB of explosive data” exists, release it and let it be judged. Otherwise, i don’t see any need for the left to bother itself any further with this ridiculous diversion.
“rebranding” is the language and MO of neoliberalism and superficial marketing exercises.
The left needs to regroup and re-build with a strong focus on both the current context and the past histories of the left and society – and by left, I mean the flax roots left, and not something led from above by political parties.
For me, this means engaging with and listening to the flax roots groups; aiming for a collaborative approach between groups within the broader left; acknowledging and discussing differences, while embracing things/actions on which we agree.
Poor old Carolyn trying to para phrase a hipster anarchist, out with old hierarchy in with horizontal decision making and society, meaningless, do nothing, talkfest clap trap, everyone at cross purposes, reason occupy movement lasted all of one summer
Ah, not really. I had in mind something in between anarchism, and a totally autocratic left where some group with the most political power on the left dictates what the left stands for.
The latter has been the case of Labour parties internationally during the neoliberal era.
The future direction of the left, IMO, needs to come from the people – and there does need to be more collaboration between left groups. But that doesn’t mean each group will be into leaderless structures – some will be, but others will have a more formal structure. Some will be trade unions, some will be green campaigners – with some ideas arising out of actions. So not just a talk-fest, either.
Some examples: the Glenn Innes state house campaign, Pike River protests, campaigns by unions for a living wage, Green Peace protests against fossil fuel companies’ activities, etc – basically a broad left where people on the ground generate ideas, some of it coming through action.
“The left’s mission in 2017 is to ensure it rebrands itself well away from the elitist scam that is liberal identity politics and establishes a persuasive narrative that offers a clear alternative to right wing populism.”
Short version: FFS stop the craziness and come up with something that works.
Someone should tell Chris Trotter to stop posting before the prozac kicks in, his latest bit of depressed nonsense shows an aging man completely out of touch with anyone on the political left who doesn’t still brood about the Douglas era. Seriously, the left ought to tell him it is over having a Greek chorus of crusty old defeatist Cassandras wailing about what awful fate awaits us.
Chris needs to get out there and meet someone on the active left under 30, it’ll do his dreary old heart the world of good. Why, he might even open the curtains and clean up some cobwebs in his intellectual world view.
Mental health issues like depression are serious and impact the lives of many. It shouldn’t be used as an insult or false claim in reply to someone who writes something you disagree with.
As someone who is had a family member with depression and some other issues – it’s something I’ve always taken seriously- so not a concerned troll on this matter. And hey – if you think it’s ok to joke about it – then that says more about you than anything else.
Kind of misses the point that if 2016 delivered us the spectacle of liberalism squirming and screaming, then 2017 might (hopefully from my perspective) deliver us its death rattle.
Apart from that ‘mere detail’, his musings on NZ positioning regards US and China aren’t so unreasonable. The myopia on display with regards the machinations of various dull NZ political actors is kind of dim. But like I say, he assumes a continuation of this somewhat discredited and untrusted status quo that many of us, it has to be said, are now merely enduring.
Most often these annual predictions say more about the predictors than about what will actually happen.
I do think he is right, though, that the current NZ government will face a conflict between their commercial/financial support for China and intelligence/military allegiance to the US.
I think there is a possibility of a Nat-NZF-Mp coalition alliance forming the next government – but that is one of the possibilities. Trotter seems to be one of those uncritically praising Zoe Swarbrick.
Do folks not ‘get’ just how vulnerable this National Government is on the issue of corruption?
Do folks not get how potentially HUGE the issue of corruption is going to be over these next two months?
31 January 2017
Transparency International 2016 ‘Corruption Perception Index’ is published.
In my considered opinion, New Zealand will continue to slide down this scale.
22 February 2017, the corrupt ‘public official’ and corrupt contractor will be sentenced in the Auckland High Court.
I predict that both these ‘white collar’ criminals will receive ‘blue collar’ sentences, and both will be sentenced to jail for at least 2 years.
25 February 2017 – the date of the Mt Albert by-election.
In between – I predict more publicity on corruption, as more ‘whistle-blowers’ come forward, and more politically ‘dynamite’ OIA information is revealed regarding corrupt ‘conflicts of interest’.
In between – I shall be addressing the Auckland Transport Board, where I hope to encourage them to comply with their statutory duties arising from the Public Records Act 2005, and provide the details of ALL awarded contracts, including all those sub-contracted, and those worth less than $50,000.
Once AT provide that information – there will be no excuse for Auckland Council, or other Council-Controlled Organisations (CCOs) to equally provide this information.
There will be other Auckland Council meetings at which these issues will be raised.
The sooner other political parties ‘pick up the ball’ on this issue – the better.
Why?
Because the contracting out (privatisation) of public services formerly provided ‘in house’ has been proven to be TWICE as expensive.
It isn’t a possibility, it is the most likely outcome. Everyone is going to get a shock at NZ First’s support in the provinces next election. National have used massed immigration to juke the GDP figures, a policy they neither campaigned on or consulted the public on. As in Europe and the USA, the use of a globalised Labour market to repress the pay of the local wage class will become an election issue (albeit framed through a lens of anti-immigration) that will totally blindside the insulated liberal elites of the media establishment, and mark the beginning of the end of neoliberalism in its current form.
So what will happen here will be the same political outcome as the UK after Brexit. The right wing ruling class that dominate the establishment right wing political vehicle (here, the National party) with use the populist right as an excuse to pivot harder to the right while using populist anti-foreign sentiment as a smoke screen. In the short term, this will shore up the wealth and power grab of the local 1% elites but the long term result will be much more political polarisation and political destabilisation.
” Trotter seems to be one of those uncritically praising Zoe Swarbrick.”
Trotter lazily continues the assumption that people who voted Chloe for Mayor were young. He’s not “praising” her, just presuming her base and mistaking quite how many are put off by mouthy old men with moustaches and leather jackets.
Thanks for the link – I particularly liked this part:
“It is, however, highly doubtful that sufficient young people will participate in the 2017 general election to significantly offset the emotionally powerful appeal of an unabashedly nationalistic, Sinophobic and pro-American coalition of National, NZ First and the Maori Party. Neither conservative fish nor progressive fowl, Labour is likely to see its party vote plummet into the teens – and with it any hope of reclaiming major party status. The baton of progressive politics will pass to the Greens. Real political power, however, will remain with the National Party and its allies.”
NZ First with National – which I have said several times. and Labour plummeting – although he sees it being worse (for them) than I expect – I do hope he is right.
This could be the year that the Greens really start looking like the main party of the left.
I pick Little will not look back on the MOU fondly.
‘Blowing the whistle’ against privatisation via Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs) and corruption, is not an easy task 🙂
But imagine the HARD questions I’ll be able to ask in the House, if electors in the Mt Albert electorate ‘seize the moment’ and give this Government a message against against corruption, and for transparency in the spending of public monies, that simply can’t be ignored?
(Upon which none of the other ‘declared’ candidates have (yet) made a stand?)
The foul spirit of “Sir” Paul Holmes lives on:
Is the Mad Butcher going to run for ACT this year?
If you can force yourself to the end of this article, you’ll find the old fool says:
“The irony is that I was with my own granddaughter, who is herself of Ngapuhi heritage.”
That’s exactly the same argument that Cameron Slater wheels out whenever he is nailed as a racist: how can I be racist, he whines, when I was born in Fiji and my father is dating a woman from the Philippines?
Mad Butcher Sir Peter Leitch says Waiheke Island comments weren’t racist but ‘misinterpreted’ after woman’s video goes viral New Zealand Herald, Wednesday 4 January 2017
Sir Peter Leitch says a woman “misinterpreted some light-hearted banter” after she claimed he made racist remarks yesterday.
Auckland woman Lara Bridger posted a video on social media this afternoon claiming Sir Peter – the Mad Butcher – told her Waiheke Island was a “white man’s island”.
She last night took down the video, saying “people were going a bit overboard with threats and racist comments” at Sir Peter in response to her post.
The 23-year-old Maori woman said she was wine tasting with her mother and sister at Stonyridge Vineyard when they spotted Sir Peter eating lunch with his family.
The group waved to him before heading outside, she said.
She says Sir Peter came out and approached them and began making conversation.
Bridger said Sir Peter had warned the group not to drink and drive before going on to say they must not be local.
“I go ‘Yeah, I’m actually born here’. That’s when he said ‘Well this is a white man’s island and you should acknowledge that’,” she said. ….
Before rushing to judgement, it would pay to look a little deeper than a single Herald article. There are other accounts that paint a very different picture to the one in the Herald.
My point is – do you know what both parties actually said? I have heard reports she said she was ‘Tangata Whenua’ in response to his question about their drinking and driving. If that is the case, his response is entirely appropriate. In fact she’s playing the race card by claiming exemption from the law for being Maori.
I have also heard reports that she approached him, not the other way around.
Also, have you seen the full version of her video? I have, and frankly it paints her as pathetic. No wonder she took it down.
Both parties agree that the “white man’s island” comments were said. They disagree on the “tangata whenua” ones. But I wouldn’t pick you to try and provide an honest depiction of events.
1. I didn’t say the ‘white man’s island’ comment was denied by PL.
2. For the record, she HAS admitted the Tangata Whenua remark:
“Record straight I did NOT say ‘I could do what I like’ he came at us with a whole you’re not a local in which I responded “yeah I’m tangata whenua born here mate 23 years ago”.
If you look at her video (since deleted as she probably woke up with a hangover and was mortified), it is clear for all to see that she is hammered and having a crack for the sake of having a crack.
Silly little girl. Why the Herald has to chase this sort of nonsense is completely beyond me.
It’s a pretty weak defense to say that calling Waiheke (such a Pākehā name?) Island a “white man’s island” was a joke – light hearted banter.
This morning on Summer Report, Mihingarangi Forbes ‘ report on it included a clip from the original FB video Forbes ended by adding some context: basically, there’s many Māori and Pākehā feeling pushed off the island because of increased gentrification. I can see how that would cause some ill-feeling towards some of the wealthy incomers.
Actually, it was a pretty balanced report. If you listen, she says both sides give a different description of what happened. She is trying to get an interview with Leitch, and is hopeful of one this afternoon.
The assertion that he said Waiheke was a ‘white man’s Island’ is disputed. SPL claims he said white man’s law applied to Waiheke after she claimed she was ‘Tangata Whenua’ (the implication being she was above the law).
The one she posted on Facebook and has since been removed (I wonder why). Where she says “fuck” 20 times in the first three minutes of her rant. Potty mouth. “Victim blaming”. Whatever.
BOOOM. Who the frak cares what a possibly out of touch 0.1%’er “Sir Peter” might or might not have said. Just another instance of the Herald distracting from the real issues facing the people of Waiheke. But, certain types have to get wound up over someone’s supposed a-hole comments.
Carolyn_nth got it by commenting on the underlying context by Forbes:
basically, there’s many Māori and Pākehā feeling pushed off the island because of increased gentrification. I can see how that would cause some ill-feeling towards some of the wealthy incomers.
It has gentrified pretty quickly in the past 20 or so years.
In 1999-2000 I was penpals (yes they were still a thing that recently) with a young lady who lived there. She was pretty much an average kiwi who had an average upbrining like myself, and from what she told me, her mates were all the same.
Nowadays, I cannot help but thinking all the 19-20 year olds up there are all rich kids.
I watched the video and didn’t consider her to be “hammered” at all. She was upset yes, not sure why you have jumped to the conclusion she was drunk. She has explained the reason why she removed the video, her explanation is vastly different from your factually devoid assumption. I also didn’t see a “silly little girl” as you have patronisingly labeled her. Maybe it’s just you having a crack for the sake of having a crack.
The Herald chasing that sort of nonsense is completely beyond you? They will be disappointed it wasn’t an All Black and the exchange wasn’t in a toilet for the disabled.
And everyone has consent, through freedom to comment, on what happened, what was said and make conclusions.
The only ones who know exactly what was said were those who were there. They also are the only ones who know the order of what was said, by whom, the tones of voices and the postures and other body language. All of those are pertinent to the interaction. All of those are part of the conversation not just the words.
And the people there, minutes afterwards, undoubtedly would not have been able to give exact accounts of what happened. The basis of points of views in the wider world then becomes supposition, suspicion, and motivation. And ignorance.
Which ends in a neat and tidy “an old fool making racist remarks.”
My comment was about the Herald only being interested in the incident for its potential to be sensational. Its potential to be sensationalised is based on there bits of information, different perspectives of the incident, emotion and jumping to conclusions.
For all the complaints about the Herald they deserve credit for knowing what the market is. (I look at their site. I most definitely refused to play their game by clicking on that story.)
Also, while reading about this unfortunate incident I couldn’t help being reminded of the similarity between this defence, and Upston’s defence of John Key’s sexual harassment of a cafe worker.
Sir Peter said he was “extremely disappointed that a young woman had misinterpreted some light-hearted banter”.
As the Prime Minister has said his actions were intended to be light-hearted. It was never his intention to make her feel uncomfortable.
A racist is a racist – here are some comments from brown-buttabean on how he as a person has been treated by Leitch – actions speak louder than someone moaning on factbook:
“As i said last night on Facebook @sirmadbutcher has done a lot for me and others . I’ve been busy organising wedding and I’ve missed all this mad butcher stuff. All I will say is he’s always been good to me and has supported a lot of south Auckland Polynesian and Maori athletes and league clubs since I was a young in . These are not the actions of a racists person . I might piss some people off but that’s how I feel . I train his grand son and am friends with his daughter and son in law . They have even let us use their house as part of our wedding . I’ll leave you all with a couple of verses to reflect on – Proverbs 10:12English Standard Version (ESV) 12 Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses. Romans 3:23 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Stay safe team and God bless #teambuttabean”
isnt it terrible how this “racist” does a lot for people – regardless of their colour. supports Polynesian and Maori athletes, and lends his house to someone who is brown for part of their wedding.
No you are right – someone posted something on facebook – lets hang him. /sarc
“A racist is a racist” – true, but obviously not recognised as such by some of us. Patronising jokes ( the sexist equivalent is Key’s ponytail incident) designed, perhaps subconsciously, to humiliate in order to feel superior are a part of what I’d call ‘casual racism’. It is common for people to offer charity to those they see as inherently inferior.
There is also (and probably always was) some sexism creeping into this argument. The victim blaming thing that’s going on is the old ‘she asked for it’ argument that is too often a feature of rape trials and the like.
‘Victim blaming’ is a label designed to stop any questioning of the alleged victim. This lady has made some serious accusations. Her story has been told in a very visceral and public manner. That was her choice. Now her story, and her credibility with it, needs to be questioned so we can know the truth.
It’s designed to stop investigation of the incident and destroy the person reporting it. It may be used in a valid way to tease out the truth, but is more often misused as power play. In this case there is no need, as there seems to be ample evidence
Evidence of what? The evidence seems to me to be of two slightly differing accounts of a brief conversation that one party has decided to publish via social media.
Many on this forum seek outrage and offence to simply justify the world as they see it, not what it is The mad butcher in context of his life is clearly not a racist and to justify as such on the testimony of a silly little hyper sensitive and slightly thick snow flake says more about Milsy and company than Peter Leitch
Leitch’s most grievous error is having a shrieking loon like Michelle Boag as his PR person. I mean, of all the possible candidates… Boag? It’s like Pope Francis selecting as his spokesperson the reanimated corpse of Tomas de Torquemada.
Maori/Polys are OK as long as they stay in South Auckland where they belong, and not venture over to the white mans paradise of Waiheke Island.
I think that was what Sir Mad Butcher was inferring. Though I have the feeling he should have just said ‘rich man’s island’. Would have saved him a lot of bother.
I think Te Ururoa Flavell has nailed this rather well (from Stuff)
“Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell said he respected Leitch for the work he has done benefiting Maori and Pacific Island communities.
But he said he also respected Bridger for speaking out on what she believed was offensive.
“What this incident highlights is that despite there being no intention to cause offence, it has,” he said.
“The lesson here is no matter how you dress it up, making comments directed at someone else because of their ethnicity is racist and you’ll be called on it.
“For that, we respect the actions of the young woman and her whanau, who have made their point and who now wish to move on.”
Bollocks you don’t have the right to slander somebody on a public medium that 100000 people read because you choose to be offended Leitch should sue her for every thing she has if not to just to put the snow flake generation in thier place what you can and can’t say on line Can you imagine if the herald or TV one made such and accusation. This should have been dealt with privately been a private conversation and obviously the two groups miss communicating with no malice at least on the side of one party
Really Jan, can I suggest you engage your little wee brain a bit deeper beyond the immediate topic and ask yourself if some one posted and accusation in a public forum (face book) about you that you felt slandered your good name that 100000 people read , you don’t think you would have a civil case for slander
I don’t think there’s a law about slander in NZ. It’s defamation.
But one element that needs to be proved is that the statement was untrue. Leitch has agreed he said Waiheke is a “white man’s island”. The two people differ as to the intent of the statement.
A defense against being charged with defamation is that the person stated something as an “honest opinion”. That does seem to be the case with respect to the woman.
The lesson from all this is that it is impossible for someone to do good things AND sometimes do stupid things. You are either a perfect saint or a filthy sinner, there is no middle ground to be a human.
🙄
“Uh, Matt, I’m not going to get into colloquy on this one.”
The U.S. has been mocking democracy long before Trump oozed into power.
Contrary to what you might think, there ARE some intelligent and ethical reporters in the United States. One of the best is the indomitable Matt Lee of the Associated Press….
“…Colonial, anti-democratic illiberal liberals make me puke…”
Well then CV you picked a pretty stupid country to live in then, didn’t you. Perhaps you ought to consider relocating to somewhere more aligned to your tastes?
And for someone who professes to prefer the bracing honesty of dictators and thugs to the politics of hypocritical neo-colonial liberal democracies, you sure quickly turn into a quivering blancmange of outraged emotional crisis when the bracing honesty comes the other way.
Norightturn points out Bill English’s Achilles heel – an incompetent Nick Smith who instead of sacking, he goes on holiday with. If I were a Labour MP, I would spend my entire time imaging Nick Smith with a giant bullseye stick to his arse. A juicy, juicy target in election year!
Generally speaking, politicians and big business love things that are deeply unethical, but technically legal. For them, it’s the latter that really matters. Usually, there’s only an apology and an attempt to makes amends when they realise the catastrophic public relations meltdown that will inevitably result once their indiscretions are publicised.
They don’t genuinely feel guilt or shame about what they’re doing. It’s all about reelection and returns to shareholders.
English’s Achilles heel is the same as most of us – his arrogance. He’s become obsessed with this investment approach to social issues and it’s already driven him to fiscal foolishness with more to come.
IMO when (if ) the general public get to hear what price he really sold the Tauranga State houses for he can start packing his bags. National can spin and swing asset sales to a long suffering public, what they can’t get away with is selling public assets for only a fraction of their worth.
Unfortunately, in 2014 National showed it can get away with anything. This will continue to happen as long as we have the “opposition” party led by someone who called Nicky Hager’s revelations “a distraction.”
In the news; Authorities in the occupied territories are on the search for a suspected Palestinian man who stormed into a Synagogue in Jerusalem and started whipping the worthshippers. Witnesses interviewed later, reported that the man was heard loudly shouting, accusing them of being money changers.
Before storming off, the man was heard to mutter something about going to start his own religion.
Other witnesses of the events said that it they could get hold of the man they felt like crucifying him.
Oops. Sorry I picked up the wrong piece of paper, that was the story of Jesus driving the money changers from the temple. Mathew 21:12-13
And in other news; Kim Dotcom says that he is planning a release of 2 terabytes of data, two days before the next election, iImplicating departing PM John Key and the Nationa….
I don’t think any Jewish people would write it, Israeli or non-Israeli, unless they were teenagers on the piss. It smells of people trying to ratchet up tensions/get sympathy for the National party.
You might be thinking of the Law Of Return, under which Israel grants most Jews worldwide the right to move to Israel and then become citizens after a short period of residency.
Sadly, not all Israelis are people of the moral fibre of Gideon Levy, Amira Hass, Jeff Halpin or Ilan Pappé. Israel is probably the most paranoid and heavily propagandized country in the world. It’s not “teenagers on the piss” who have destroyed the lives of Palestinians for the last 68 years, and are still destroying them. The culprits are middle-aged, sober desk murderers like these….
Yeah… McCully et al should’ve seen that coming. The northern parts of the Shore is home to a few wacky religions, South Africans and extreme right wingers – and Colin Craig. Having said that, there are still normal people living there too. I know because I’ve met them – including Sth Africans. 😈
Edit: OMG, I’m not accusing CC of being the culprit. Given his taste for litigation… 😯
This should be an election issue for the Labour/Green government in waiting. Our rivers are dying before our eyes at the hands of farmers and it’s something ordinary rural people know because it’s happening within even a child’s memory.
Someone here suggested the other day that the election should be fought on housing an climate change. I agree with housing but climate change is too inaccessible an issue and is global. Non Green voters won’t be moved by climate change campaigning, but the state of our rivers is an environmental topic, and a disaster, and a really good way to get ordinary people to think about environmental issues.
I have said the same thing a few times, climate change is too macro, the greens, especially need to focus on more of this sort of stuff, this is where hay can be made.
But it’s got to be pitched in a helping positive way, not a punishing way.
I realise that sort of thinking rubs the left wings fur the wrong way, but it’s the most effective approach to getting people on board and enthusiastic about what you’re saying.
Anyone else breaking the law would have the book thrown at them but not farmers. Massive breaches of already weak environmental protections are occurring and the consequences are light to non-existent.
I propose the actual enforcement of very heavy fines for breaches of local and national protections on discharge and irrigation along with further encouragement/regulation for farmers to both remove stock from nearby waterways and to plant near waterways. Perhaps local youth could be employed in the planting scheme to be jointly paid for by landowners and the taxpayer. If the farmers can’t comply – tough shit, sell up and get out.
Why should respect for our environment be sugar-coated, when disrespect never is? I do not care whether corporate dairying interests are ‘enthusiastic’. They’ve had their lazy time in the sun under this feckless government. Time to pull their socks up and behave like respectful citizens again.
We could play a fun game out of Nationals poisoning of our rivers…..
Called “right direction”, it involves drinking Nationals river-water …. wearing a blindfold ……….. and finding the toilet with the help of team mates who call out instructions.
It’s an educational game on the danger of cowboys in charge …….
The Green party have consistently campaigned for many years on clean rivers rather than climate change. Many New Zealand voters can remember swimming in and drinking from our streams, rivers and lakes without the slightest hesitation.
+1. I would have thought being on the wrong side of One Nation is a good thing. It’s probably the only good thing the current government has done in eight years.
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Back in the Kyoto era, the international climate change regime included a Clean Development Mechanism to fund emissions reduction projects in developing nations. Essentially someone would certify that a project - e.g. building a windfarm, or installing energy-efficient lightbulbs - would reduce emissions over and above "business-as-usual". The project would ...
Claire Breen, University of WaikatoWith COVID-19 vaccine developers reporting promising results, it is probable we will one day face a major public health question: can the government compel New Zealanders to be vaccinated? Just as inevitably, some people will refuse a vaccine. As we have seen overseas with debates ...
As the classic MMP cartoon goes, just look at who is against it. Yesterday, the Hamilton City Council voted to use STV for its next two local body elections. The move was initially opposed by deputy mayor Geoff Taylor. The reason? Because a voting system which provided accurate representation and ...
On Wednesday evening (which in Parliament’s weird world technically was still Tuesday because urgency had been taken and so time stood still), MPs united to remove a pretty terrible piece of law from our statute books. No real fanfare or fireworks accompanied this action. Indeed, I didn’t even know about it ...
By Geoffrey Miller Prominent refugee advocate Murdoch Stephens says he is disappointed by Judith Collins’ reaction to Immigration New Zealand’s decision to grant refugee status to Kurdish-Iranian writer Behrouz Boochani. Judith Collins told media last month that “there’s a lot of concern in New Zealand about what they see as ...
Hello all. Judith here to talk about how National are going to take the election in September. The National Party prides itself its unity and cohesion. We are working together to deliver for New Zealanders. First of all, ee are a strong team. We are a very strong team. Our ...
Parliament has just begun the adjournment debate, signalling the effective end of this Parliament. So it seems like an appropriate time to assess Labour's term in office. Unfortunately, its a pretty dismal assessment. Labour campaigned on one thing: change. Not just a change in who got the top jobs and ...
Our climate change policies are insufficient to achieve our goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, according to independent assessor Climate Action Tracker: New Zealand won’t be carbon neutral by 2050 without much stronger policies, says an independent analysis by Climate Action Tracker. The non-profit highlighted a lack of active ...
That was clearly a huge explosion. Just after the explosion, we see a cloud of ‘fog’ moving outwards at high speed. This is a shockwave, rather similar to that which causes a sonic boom. The ‘fog’ is caused by water condensing from the atmosphere in areas of intense low pressure ...
Can we postpone this year’s election? Quite frankly, the political parties don’t seem ready for it, and aren’t about to offer voters the necessary policy choices for the unprecedented times we’re in. We’ve ended up with a campaign focused on scandal, personality and leadership, with a policy void that’s worse ...
It is the last sitting day of Parliament, and the last question time before the House is dissolved. So, are there any questions about the damning findings of the Hit and Run inquiry, and how the government plans to bring the military back under democratic control? Of course not. ...
Property speculator - John KeyThe National Party must be in dire straits to have to rely on John Key to campaign on their behalf. Not only has the former PM been in the news claiming the recently released unemployment figures aren’t accurate, the fool has also been promoting the opening ...
Nothing Too Drastic: Few would dispute that the Left, today, are few in number. Is their failure to make the public aware of and act upon the manifest failures of the present system attributable to their lack of active energy and intelligence? Or, is it simply because the Left’s ideas ...
by Don Franks This talk was given to the Wellington Anti Capitalist Alliance, fifteen years ago. The ultimate weapons of mass destruction so far seen on this planet have been used just twice, 60 years ago this month. August 6 and August 9 1945 witnessed the US atomic bombing ...
After I noticed that my name had been taken yet again in vain by my friendly antagonist Tom Hunter over at No Minister, I went over to see what the fuss was about. Nothing much, but then I discovered a post about the Operation Burnham Inquiry by Psycho Milt. I ...
The COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020 was extended today, until December 1st or the tenth sitting day following the resumption of Parliament after the election. It seems like a necessary extension. While we currently have eradicated the virus in New Zealand, it is still banging at the door, and ...
One of the government's key policies - extracted by NZ First as part of its coalition agreement - is the "Provincial Growth Fund": $1 billion a year spent on creating jobs in rural New Zealand. Yesterday the Auditor-General issued a report on the fund, finding that it lacks transparency, and ...
The Warehouse, one of New Zealand's biggest retailers, has decided to stop selling coal. Good. Coal is a dirty, polluting fossil fuel, and the less of it we have out there, the better. Retailers choosing not to sell it sends a clear message that this is not a fuel we ...
The labour market statistics have been released, and they show that unemployment actually dropped last quarter. All told, there are 111,000 unemployed - 15,000 fewer than when the government took office. But before anyone thinks that the pandemic hasn't put people out of work, remember that this is for ...
Judy KavanaghI’m OK with wearing a CovidCard. But are you? There’s no point me doing it alone.The author modelling a (fake) CovidCard. I didn’t know much about the CovidCard proposal until I read Dave’s latest blog post. You would wear the card visibly on your person. It ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzWhy can’t I use the battery from my electric car ...
As many good things come in threes (as the saying goes), we are happy to announce a third partnership between Skeptical Science and other websites. Fakebook.eco in Brazil is joining Klimafakten.de in Germany and Nauka o Klimacie in Poland to leverage translated rebuttal material and to make the information readily available in other ...
This interview on RNZ with Ross Tucker, the scientist who headed a review of transgender athletes playing in women’s rugby, discusses the findings of the review and what it means for women in sports. The review that World Rugby undertook had a broad range of independent experts and included a ...
Siouxsie WilesThe restrictions in place for metropolitan Melbourne now are in some ways stricter than those that were in force during New Zealand’s COVID-19 lockdown. A curfew is in place and most people have to wear masks when they leave their home – neither of which happened in New ...
On Friday the Hit and Run inquiry delivered a devastating report which found that NZDF had systematically misled Ministers over civilian deaths. The report called into question civilian control of the military (and indeed, military control of the military), a fundamental principle of our democracy. So you'd expect our politicians ...
Let's Do This Again: What else can Jacinda do in a political environment so bereft of imagination and courage but seek a continuance? If she trades upon the extraordinary personal qualities that she has, miraculously, carried with her into the office of Prime Minister, then I, for one, will offer ...
How corrupt are the New Zealand Police? This corrupt: On 10 February 2019, Police attended a family harm incident. The suspect attempted to run the attending officers over in a driveway with his car, narrowly missing them, before fleeing the scene. A short pursuit followed, ending when the suspect stopped ...
The Auckland region moved to Alert Level 3 on 12 noon on Wednesday 12 August. The rest of New Zealand moved to Alert Level 2. Visit covid19.govt.nz for the latest information on alert levels, including an overview of restrictions in your area. ...
It's campaign time! The official countdown to Election Day is underway, with Labour supporters crowding into Auckland's Town Hall for our 2020 Campaign Launch. We recap some of the highlights below ...
It's campaign time! The official countdown to Election Day is underway, with Labour supporters crowding into Auckland's Town Hall for our 2020 Campaign Launch. We recap some of the highlights below ...
We've announced that we will expand the Flexi-wage programme to support up to 40,000 more people into work, or to help them start their own business. It's yet another way we're helping keep our economy moving by getting people into work and training. Read on to find out more ...
Business subsidy of on average $7500, and up to $22,000, to hire unemployed New ZealandersUp to 40,000 jobs to be supported by $311 million investment in keeping New Zealanders off the unemployment benefitRing-fenced fund to help unemployed start their own business ...
This week was the last of the 52nd Parliament: a major milestone for our Government and a great opportunity to look back at all the progress we've made for New Zealanders. This week, we increased support for businesses to take on apprentices, improved access to hospital care in Northland, and ...
Kia orana and kia ora koutou katoa. It is a privilege to be able to speak in this adjournment debate and to mark and acknowledge the fact that we are now two years and 10 months into the conclusion of a parliamentary term that has been extraordinary in so many ...
On 1 August, we marked the anniversary of Jacinda Ardern becoming the Leader of the Labour Party. On that day in 2017, Leader Andrew Little nominated Jacinda Ardern to succeed him and lead the party to victory.Now, three years on, we look back at some of the key moments ...
With the June 2020 quarter showing underemployment increasing, the Green Party is calling for a Guaranteed Minimum Income and an increase to the abatement threshold to ensure everyone has a dignified income. ...
We went hard and we went early in our health response to COVID-19, and we did everything we could to cushion the economic impact too. In fact, we can fill every letter of the alphabet with the steps we took to fight COVID-19 and ensure we were in a position ...
Investing in our people, backing businesses, and upgrading infrastructure and housing throughout the country - it's been another week of progress for New Zealanders as we deliver our plan to recover and rebuild. ...
July was another busy month, packed with key investments aimed at progressing our economic recovery as we rebuild New Zealand. We extended support for businesses, helped create jobs through local infrastructure projects, and kept working to clean up our waterways so Kiwis can access safe clean water. Check out the ...
The Green Party is calling for the Defence Force Chiefs in place between 2010-2017 to front up and explain how dishonesty, process and policy failures within the Defence Force led to ‘a series of incorrect statements in briefings to ministers and public releases’ regarding alleged breaches of international torture prevention ...
Thanks to our strong health response, New Zealand’s economy is more open than many other countries. But as COVID continues to surge around the world, the economic consequences of the virus will continue to be a challenge, which is why we have a detailed plan to help New Zealand bounce ...
Thanks to our strong health response, New Zealand’s economy is more open than many other countries. But as COVID continues to surge around the world, the economic consequences of the virus will continue to be a challenge, which is why we have a detailed plan to help New Zealand bounce ...
The Government is stepping up action to deal with environmentally harmful products – including plastic packaging, tyres and e-waste – before they become waste. ...
The Green Party are ensuring that New Zealanders who were overseas when COVID-19 hit will not be charged for the cost of isolation or quarantine if they return home to live. ...
It's been another week of creating jobs, supporting local businesses, and investing in infrastructure up and down the country - all of which are helping to keep our economy moving post-COVID-19. ...
Following the success of the phase out of single-use plastic shopping bags, the Government now has plans to phase out more single-use and problem plastics to reduce waste and protect the environment announced Associate Minister for the Environment Eugenie Sage. The proposals are to phase-out: some hard-to-recycle PVC and polystyrene ...
After 102 days we have our first cases of Covid-19 outside of a Managed Isolation or Quarantine facility in New Zealand. Shortly I will ask Dr Bloomfield to set out the details of the case. While we have all worked incredibly hard to prevent this scenario, we have also planned ...
An iwi-Crown approach programme to restore the Raukūmara forest on the East Coast of the North Island and boost employment opportunities for whānau, particularly rangatahi/young people, will receive $34 million funding, Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage has announced. “Raukūmara Pae Maunga is a partnership with Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, Ngāti Porou, and ...
Government agencies and partners are working closer together to provide more Māori Housing through the Te MAIHI o te Whare Māori – the Māori and Iwi Housing Innovation Framework for Action (MAIHI). MAIHI is a kaupapa Māori approach that drives a system change to give effect and impact on Māori ...
Site work is soon to begin on Te Ahu a Turanga: Manawatū Tararua Highway, the project to replace the former SH3 route through the Manawatū Gorge, Transport Minister Phil Twyford said today. Phil Twyford was today in Woodville at the signing of a formal agreement by members of the Alliance ...
The Pacific Islands Forum Economic Ministers Meeting (FEMM) begins today and will focus on the major economic and social impacts of COVID-19 on the Pacific. FEMM is an important congregation of Economic Ministers and senior officials from around the region, and for the first time, the annual meeting will be ...
Cabinet has approved a formal apology and ex gratia payment to former soldier George Nepata, announced Defence Minister Ron Mark. This payment is to recognise the New Zealand Defence Force’s failure to provide Mr Nepata with a safe system of work in April 1989 when, as a result of an ...
A report undertaken by Ministerial Services into Iain Lees-Galloway’s ministerial expenditure has found no evidence of any inappropriate transactions or spending. Ministerial Services undertook a line by line review of all his expenditure, including staff and spouse expenses for the period 1 January 2019 to 30 June 2020. “I commissioned ...
Managed isolation charges for returnees will come into force from 12.01am Tuesday 11th August, after they passed their last cabinet milestone today, Housing Minister Megan Woods said. “The new charging system balances the rights of New Zealanders to return home and helps reduce pressure on the managed isolation and quarantine ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Henry Puna have welcomed the completion of phase one in the establishment of a travel bubble between New Zealand and the Cook Island. Negotiations on the text of an ‘Arrangement to Facilitate Quarantine-Free Travel ...
The Government has launched a new online, phone and onsite service to help New Zealanders connect to a range of employment support and products for workers and businesses affected by COVID-19, announced Minister of Education Chris Hipkins and Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni. Connected.govt.nz is a one-stop-shop for jobseekers, ...
Security guards contracted to the Ministry of Social Development will be paid at least the Living Wage from next month supporting the Government’s commitment towards fair pay and employment conditions, announced Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni. “MSD was among the first government agencies to pay its employees the living ...
The Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage today launched Te Mana o te Taiao, the Aotearoa New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy - a way forward that envisions Aotearoa New Zealand as a place where ecosystems are healthy and resilient, and people embrace the natural world. “Many of New Zealand’s plants and wildlife species ...
“Pacific languages, cultures and identity are essential to the health, wellbeing and lifetime success of our Pacific peoples and their communities in Aotearoa. The strength and resilience of Pacific Aotearoa is not only vital to their own prosperity but integral to the prosperity of all New Zealanders, and is particularly ...
· $38 million to help schools cover unexpected costs related to COVID-19 · $69 million upgrade for online learning · $107 million contingency funding to support school construction suppliers facing additional costs due to the lockdown. The Government is releasing $214 million from the COVID-19 response and recovery fund to ...
Despite the Government installing safety upgrades around the country, people should still take care around rail crossings, said Transport Minister Phil Twyford launching Rail Safety Week. Phil Twyford said installing safety infrastructure is crucial, but we are encouraging people to be more careful around trains too. “We’re making good progress ...
The Government is providing a cash injection to help Palmerston North City Council complete a programme to provide 78 social housing units for vulnerable tenants. The $4.7 million to build 28 units in the Papaioea Place redevelopment comes from the $3 billion set aside for infrastructure in the Government’s COVID-19 ...
A pest free Banks Peninsula/Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū is one step closer with a $5.11 million boost to accelerate this project and create jobs, announced Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage in Canterbury today. “This is a game changer for this ambitious project to restore the native wildlife and plants on Ōtautahi/Christchurch’s doorstep ...
A Government grant of $6.4 million will expand the Pettigrew Arena in Taradale with new indoor courts of national standard. “The project is likely to take 18 months with approximately 300 people employed through the process,” Grant Robertson said. “The expansion will increase the indoor court space up to 11 ...
The Far North tourist destination of Mangonui is to receive Government funding to improve waterfront infrastructure, open up access to the harbour and improve water quality, Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has announced. A total of $6.5 million from the $3 billion set aside in the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund ...
The Government has re-affirmed its commitment to supporting the hosting of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup, which the ICC has delayed from 2021 to 2022. “This is obviously a disappointing decision for cricket players and fans around the world and for the White Ferns and their supporters here at ...
Cyclists and walkers will now have a safer way to get around Taupō, Tūrangi, and between Hamilton and Cambridge, with funding for shared paths and Te Awa River Ride, Associate Minister of Transport Julie Anne Genter announced today. “The Te Awa River Ride is the latest part of massive growth ...
Six major cycle routes will be completed in Christchurch thanks to funding from the Government’s investment in shovel-ready infrastructure as part of the COVID-19 recovery Associate Minister of Transport Julie Anne Genter announced today. $125 million will be invested to kick-start construction and fund the completion of the following cycleway ...
Plans are underway for a brand new state-of-the-art hub for Whanganui’s justice and social agencies, following confirmation the ageing Whanganui Central Police Station is to be replaced. Police Minister Stuart Nash has announced $25 million in new infrastructure spending to improve facilities for the wider community, and for staff who ...
An adjustment payment has been made to Waikato-Tainui and Ngāi Tahu under the relativity mechanisms in their 1995 and 1997 Treaty of Waitangi settlements, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little announced today. The latest payments to Waikato-Tainui and Ngāi Tahu are $2,700,000 and $2,600,000 respectively to ensure the ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Transport Minister Phil Twyford today kicked off the start of the Auckland NZ Upgrade Programme rail projects which will support over 400 jobs and help unlock our biggest city. Both ministers marked the start of enabling works on the third main rail line project ...
The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) investment of $3.78 million in Wairoa will create much needed economic stimulus and jobs, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. PGF projects announced today include: $200,000 loan to Nuhaka Kiwifruit Holdings Ltd (operated by Pine Valley Orchard Ltd) to increase the productivity ...
Tenants in public and Māori housing may be benefiting from their own affordable renewable energy in future – a fund to trial renewable energy technology for public and Māori housing has today been announced by Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods and Associate Minister for Housing (Māori Housing) Nanaia Mahuta. ...
Hokianga will receive $2.7 million to redevelop four of its wharves and upgrade its water supply, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. Far North District Council will receive $1.8 million from the Provincial Growth Fund for the work on the wharves. “The work will include the construction of ...
A $350 million Residential Development Response Fund is being established to support the residential construction sector and to minimise the economic impact from COVID-19, the Housing Minister Dr Megan Woods has announced. “The Residential Development Response Fund will help to progress stalled or at-risk developments that support our broader housing ...
As part of a broader plan to divert waste from landfill, the Government today announced $10.67 million for new infrastructure as part of the Resource Recovery Network across the Auckland region. “This key investment in Auckland’s community recycling network is part of the Government’s Infrastructure Reference Group ‘shovel ready’ projects ...
The Government is investing $45 million in the first stage of an ambitious urban development project for Tauranga that will employ up to 250 people and help the region grow, Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says the funding has been allocated out of the $3 billion ...
Getting low-emission trucks on the road is a step closer with investment in infrastructure to support hydrogen vehicles, the Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods has announced. The Infrastructure Reference Group has provisionally approved $20 million for New Plymouth company Hiringa Energy to establish a nationwide network of hydrogen-fuelling stations. ...
A new trades training centre to upskill the local workforce will be built in the South Waikato town of Tokoroa through funding from the Government’s COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund, Education Minister Chris Hipkins and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones have announced. The Government will contribute $10.84 million from ...
The Government has agreed to repeal part of the Oranga Tamariki Act subsequent children provisions, Minister for Children Tracey Martin announced today. “There are times when children need to go into care for their safety – the safety and care of children must always be paramount,” Minister Martin said. “But ...
A $1.5 million boost to grow primary mental health and addiction services for Pacific peoples in Auckland, Hamilton and Canterbury will lead to better outcomes for Pacific communities, Associate Health Minister Jenny Salesa says. Pasifika Futures has received funding to expand services through The Fono, Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest by ...
Twenty-two projects to boost the sustainability and climate resilience of New Zealand’s food and fibres sector have been announced today by Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. The $18m funding will deliver practical knowledge to help farmers and growers use their land more sustainably, meet environmental targets, remain prosperous, and better understand ...
Employment Minister Willie Jackson welcomes an initiative that assists employers to get mature workers into New Zealand small businesses. The disadvantages that older people face in the workplace was highlighted in the whole of Government Employment Strategy. In order to address this, a Mature Workers Toolkit has been developed and ...
New Zealand and Australia reaffirmed today the need for the closest possible collaboration as they tackle a global environment shaped by COVID-19, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said. “In these challenging times, our close collaboration with Australia is more vital than ever,” said Mr Peters. Mr Peters and his Australian ...
The recovery and forensic examination of the loader driven by survivor Russell Smith means the underground team are now moving into an area of the Pike River Mine that has not been seen since the explosion, Minister Responsible for Pike River Re-entry Andrew Little said. “The fifth and last robot ...
Epidemiologist Simon Thornley says the new virus outbreaks and lockdown responses are proof that New Zealand must, as the WHO has recently said, learn to live with the virus. “An outbreak was inevitable, and therefore lockdowns were never a viable ...
The return to lockdowns is devastating news, on a variety of fronts. From the health perspective there must now be the deep worry that despite all the steps taken during the earlier lockdowns and the border restrictions and quarantines, there is community ...
Coronavirus is back in our community, bringing with it anxiety, fear and uncertainty. If you’re feeling like you can’t face going through it all over again, here are some coping strategies. Aucklanders are once again being asked to dig deep, emotionally speaking, in preparation for another lockdown and the accompanying uncertainty. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Turney, Professor, Earth Science and Climate Change, UNSW Geological and archaeological records offer important insights into what seems to be an increasingly uncertain future. The better we understand what conditions Earth has already experienced, the better we can predict (and potentially ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grant Duncan, Associate Professor for the School of People, Environment and Planning, Massey University If we can do our grocery shopping under lockdown, we can vote under lockdown too. As much as supermarkets and pharmacies, the general election is an essential service ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Lindsey, Malcolm Smith Professor of Asian Law and Director of the Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society, University of Melbourne Indonesia is still struggling to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. Its fatalities are the worst in Southeast Asia, but so far ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Marschner, Professor of Biostatistics, NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, University of Sydney It’s hard to recall a time when we didn’t nervously await the announcement of Victoria’s daily COVID-19 case numbers each morning. It was certainly disconcerting when the state recorded more ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Marshall, Academic, Landscape Architecture and Urban Ecology, University of Melbourne Volcanic plains stretching from Melbourne’s west to the South Australian border were once home to native grasslands strewn with wildflowers and a vast diversity of animals. Today, this grassland ecosystem is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sally Larsen, PhD candidate, Education & Psychology, University of New England Whether to hold a child back from starting school when they are first eligible is a question faced by many parents in Australia each year. If you start a child at ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Morris, Professor, Institute of Public Policy and Governance, University of Technology Sydney Many international students in private rental housing in Sydney and Melbourne were struggling before COVID-19 hit. Our surveys of these students before and during the pandemic show it has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dallas Rogers, School of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sydney Public housing estate redevelopments that displace residents to other suburbs are highly disruptive whereas projects that allow them to remain are suggested to be better. We tested this assumption through two ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Bell, Executive Director, The Conexus Institute; Associate Investigator, CEPAR, UNSW The past financial year has been one of the most volatile on record for stock markets, yet almost every Australian super fund has delivered similar returns. This not only demonstrates that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thomas Suddendorf, Professor, School of Psychology, The University of Queensland Today, bags are everywhere — from cheap canvas ones at the supermarket to designer handbags costing up to US$2,000,000. But archaeological evidence shows we have been using mobile containers — bags and ...
Overly cautious politicians and bankers are forcing the Reserve Bank to look at even more extreme ways to stimulate our Covid-hit economy and revive inflation ...
Ardern: Newsroom social. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's warm and informal use of Facebook Live has helped convey vital COVID-19 messages in a clear and relatable way, according to a new academic study. Communication experts claim the honesty and ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for August 13, bringing you the latest on New Zealand news and Covid-19 as it returns to the community. Auckland is now in alert level three and the rest of NZ level two. More details here. Official information here. Get ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Collins calls for a delay in the election, an update on community transmission and testing, and businesses fearing the fallout of another lockdown.At this stage, the election is still scheduled to take place on September 19. But with the country’s largest ...
More than 50 people are in managed isolation at New Zealand's border facilities so they can attend the sentencing of the Christchurch gunman in person. ...
It looks like the dream finale of the Super Rugby Aotearoa season before a sellout Eden Park crowd will be off-limits for fans this Sunday, leaving Jim Kayes unfulfilled. It’s not the news a bunch of middle aged, success-starved Blues fans were hoping for. “Hi Richard,” began the note from the ...
Criticism of the Government's Covid-19 response is far from new, and has often had merit. But the new National leadership's dark mutterings of a cover-up are taking New Zealand politics in a dangerous direction, Sam Sachdeva writes."We are all sufferers from history, but the paranoid is a double sufferer, ...
Legendary press gallery doyen Ian Templeton assesses two new studies of former Prime Ministers Jim Bolger and Mike Moore As the 2020 election looms, Fridays with Jim by Wellington writer David Cohen is a timely book. Three-time Prime Minister Jim Bolger's reflections on leadership are insightful. More controversial may be those ...
An announcement on wage subsidies might be needed to avoid job losses - but not everybody agrees the Government should signal its intentions sooner rather than later, writes Dileepa Fonseka Crowds of people spilled out onto the street in Mangere East as the midday deadline for Auckland's entry into Level 3 ...
What’s the science behind the changed position on mask use? Farah Hancock reports. Auckland’s Level 3 lockdown will look different to the last lockdown. This time there will be masks. They’re mandatory for people on domestic flights leaving Auckland and “strongly urged” for everyone else when in public. The Government ...
In the first of a series on Muslim girls and women in sport in New Zealand, Ashley Stanley speaks to Noha Nasef, an ocean swimmer comfortable competing under full cover, who wants women wearing a hijab to be a normal sight in sport. Noha Nasef chose to take up open water swimming because ...
The health workers and contact tracers are out on the front lines, but in the backrooms teams of mathematicians are running scenarios to figure out exactly what needs to be done, and how bad things could get. In big picture terms, fighting a pandemic is a numbers game, but with real ...
Yesterday’s announcement by the Reserve Bank that it will increase its money creation by an extra $40 billion dollars up to $100 billion over the next two years to buy government IOU’s off banks and rich investors sets an all-time record for money ...
The peerless Policy tool returns for its third edition, and it’s better than ever – fully geared to easily compare both parties and candidates across all the important issues.Campaigning might have been suspended for the rest of the week, along with much of normal life, but don’t let that stop ...
The novel coronavirus mutates as it travels between people and around the world. By sequencing the genome, we can try to work out which case is linked with another.As Aotearoa confronted its first cases of Covid-19 community transmission in more than 100 days, the director general of health, Ashley Bloomfield, ...
Ambiguity, uncertainty and unpredictability are three key indicators for stress, and Aucklanders in particular are going through all of those right now The late-night announcement by the Prime Minister was a blow to the pit of the stomach of many. We thought we had this, and maybe some of ...
Wellington company EightyOne has been banned from Twitter for its 'Trumbers' campaign criticising Donald Trump. To date more than 600,000 people have viewed 'Trumbers' on Twitter and it has been shared with the Republican Party and Donald Trump. As ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Royal Commission into Aged Care put the Secretary of the Federal Health Department, Brendan Murphy, firmly in his place when he tried to make an opening statement to attack claims by the senior counsel ...
“Your post goes against our community standards on nudity or sexual activity” was the terse message that Professor David Robie, director of the Auckland-based Pacific Media Centre, RSF’s Oceania partner, received from Facebook whenever he tried to share an article about press freedom in Melanesia, especially the Indonesian provinces of ...
And is he about to launch a coup against Judith Collins? Just asking questions here.Jacindamania was meek by comparison. Just as Ardern captured a nation from the role of deputy leader of the opposition in 2017, so it is with Gerry Brownlee in 2020. Relentless grouchy, Gerrymania is in full ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kylie Quinn, Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow, School of Health and Biomedical Sciences, RMIT University On Tuesday, Vladimir Putin announced Russia was the first country to register a vaccine offering “sustainable immunity” against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Developed by the Gamaleya Research ...
Power Play - Warnings another outbreak was bound to happen were not enough to prepare New Zealanders for the shock of seeing the country's largest city put back into level 3 lockdown. ...
Power Play - Warnings another outbreak was bound to happen were not enough to prepare New Zealanders for the shock of seeing the country's largest city put back into level 3 lockdown. ...
At lunchtime yesterday, Jacinda Ardern was easing into full campaign mode on the main street of Whanganui. Just a few hours later, news from Auckland turned her plans, and an election campaign, on its head. Justin Giovannetti reports from Whanganui and Wellington.Jacinda Ardern’s first day on the campaign trail outside ...
One bright spot amid the grimness of the Covid resurgence: the return of our series of charts, graphics and data visualisations of the pandemic by Chris McDowall.Over one hundred days, Covid-19 slowly slipped from my attention. I was aware of new cases reaching Aotearoa’s border, managed isolation breaches, relapses in ...
By RNZ News QR app codes are now mandatory for businesses and services, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield have revealed, as they announced new covid-19 cases in New Zealand. Dr Bloomfield said there was just one new confirmed case in managed isolation recorded today, ...
Justin Latif takes the temperature of his community in South Auckland, ground zero for the latest Covid-19 outbreak.Following the prime minister’s announcement on Tuesday evening, my messenger app began pinging with pictures and videos of people at the supermarket. But it wasn’t panic buying that I was seeing, rather there ...
Odessa To’o on Selina Tusitala Marsh’s picture book Mophead, which was just named the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year. I almost didn’t read this book because of the title. Mophead. Instantly recognisable as an insult for anyone with big hair, even though I’ve never been called it myself. The kids ...
Announcing the winners of the 2020 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. The supreme prize of the night, the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award, goes to Selina Tusitala Marsh for her super-personal picture book, Mophead.Mophead is memoir and clapback and wild doodle; it’s the story of ...
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk Human rights activist and lawyer Veronica Koman says the Indonesian government has asked her to return scholarship money amounting to 773 million rupiah (about US$70,000) which she received to undergo her master’s degree in Australia in 2016, reports CNN Indonesia. According to Vero – as she ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By C Raina MacIntyre, Professor of Global Biosecurity, NHMRC Principal Research Fellow, Head, Biosecurity Program, Kirby Institute, UNSW With mask wearing in public compulsory in Victoria and recommended in New South Wales, many Australians are buying, wearing or making face masks for the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bruce Webber, Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO Scientists have been interested in the flora of New Guinea since the 17th century, but formal knowledge of the tropical island’s diversity has remained limited. To solve this mystery, our global team of 99 scientists from ...
Photographers John Sefton, in Auckland, and Lynn Grieveson in Wellington watched the return of Level 3 lockdown and Level 2 restrictions on Wednesday, a day of masks, businesses shutting or setting themselves up for limited access, supermarket queues and people exercising their relative freedoms. As the clock ticked down, Bunnings ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Taylor, Teaching Fellow, Bond University The Melbourne International Film Festival is currently running online, but one movie announced at their program launch won’t be streaming. At the end of July, Sandra Wollner’s The Trouble With Being Born was withdrawn after the ...
Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says the Government will sequence the genomes of yesterday's four Covid-19 cases to help identify how the outbreak started. What does that mean? New Zealand has found itself suddenly plunged into a dire situation: Four new cases of Covid-19 in the community with no obvious link ...
Several of National's sitting MPs have been allocated list rankings from which it will be difficult or near impossible for them to gain re-election. ...
Are you trying to wander the world with your government recommended mask while wearing glasses, but can’t stop them from fogging up? Don’t worry, we’re here to help.Today, Jacinda Ardern said that Aucklanders should wear a mask (or a face covering of some kind) when they leave the house. But ...
Responding to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s decision to expand its Large Scale Asset Purchase programme from $60 billion to $100 billion, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union Economic Advisor Karan Menon says: “ The Reserve Bank has just announced ...
As New Zealand braces for a return to lockdown, and parts of Australia wrestle with a recent surge in case numbers, a new study shows how we can do better in the COVID-enforced work from home (EWFH) experience. The study, by researchers at Auckland University ...
Last night Jacinda Ardern and Ashley Bloomfield announced four cases of Covid-19 in the community. Within hours the online community transmission of dumb takes was going like wildfire. It didn’t take long did it? Before the anti-Covid God squad shit the bed and started screeching about how they’ll never wear a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Geddis, Professor of Law, University of Otago The return of COVID-19 community transmission, with Auckland back in a level 3 lockdown and the rest of New Zealand at level 2, raises real questions about New Zealand’s upcoming general election. Polling day ...
Along with heightened alert levels, New Zealand has a new advisory on masks: Aucklanders should wear a face covering when outside the home, and the rest of us have been advised to wear one when in a confined public space, such as on public transport. But what kind of mask ...
As the Government mulls how the latest Covid-19 cases might affect the September 19 election, party leaders are stepping forward with their own opinions about how the news changes the campaign Political leaders have sparred over the impact of new Covid-19 community cases on the upcoming election, with claims Prime ...
The House - The dissolution of Parliament has been postponed following the discovery of Covid-19 cases in the community. What is dissolution and why is it important? ...
The Council of Trade Unions is reminding employers of their responsibilities to employees as we return to alert levels 2 and 3. "Employers need to remember that they must act in good faith with employees and their unions. Most employers ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Norberg, Associate Professor in Psychology, Macquarie University As COVID-19 quarantines and lockdowns drive up psychological distress, many people have increased their screen time, including online shopping, to cope. Like alcohol use — or overeating, watching TV or surfing the internet — ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Bastin, Associate Professor of English, Flinders University Finding Freedom was published on August 11.HarperCollins Publishers A new book about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex is generating sensational headlines about their private life, defiance of Queen Elizabeth and how Prince ...
By The Bougainvillean Bougainville is heading to the polls today amid its first case of the covid-19 in thefourth general election of Papua New Guinea’s autonomous region since 2001. While this election is critically important in the region’s push for independence from mainland PNG, it comes at a time when ...
This week, Taranaki locals stumbled across a pit full of dead dairy calves, dumped on public land nearby a waterway. Graphic images of the scene were shared with SAFE. SAFE CEO Debra Ashton says the horrific images are the reality of the dairy industry. ...
The Health Quality & Safety Commission is the latest signatory of the government Accessibility Charter - a commitment to providing accessible information and online tools to all disabled people. The charter, launched by the Ministry of Social Development ...
As Alert Level 3 restrictions come in place, please keep in mind those people who can’t leave their homes to shop or who might need help with their shopping. Do you have a neighbour you could check in with and drop items off to? Can you free ...
Tēnā koutou katoa, welcome all. The Monetary Policy Committee agreed to expand the Large Scale Asset Purchase (LSAP) programme up to $100 billion so as to further lower retail interest rates in order to achieve its remit. The eligible assets remain ...
“Today’s announcement by Associate Minister for the Environment, Eugenie Sage, to ban seven single-use plastic items is an important step in addressing plastic pollution,” says Donna Peterson, Chair of the WasteMINZ Behaviour Change Sector ...
Our Seas Our Future welcomes today’s Government’s announcement by Minister Sage of a plan to phase out more single-use and problem plastics to reduce waste and protect the environment. Our Seas Our Future Founder, Noel Jhinku, says, ...
Auckland is now at alert level three and the rest of New Zealand has moved to level two. Here’s what you need to know about what’s happened so far. Last night, the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, and the deputy general of health, Ashley Bloomfield, announced that four people in one ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bryan Cranston, Academic Teacher, Swinburne University of Technology Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has announced Kamala Harris as his running mate for the 2020 election — the first woman of colour to appear on a major party ticket. On the 100th anniversary ...
Open Mike 04/01/2017 
The novel coronavirus mutates as it travels between people and around the world. By sequencing the genome, we can try to work out which case is linked with another. As Aotearoa confronted its first cases of Covid-19 community transmission in more than 100 days, the director general of health, Ashley ...18 mins ago
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What's National's first move under lockdown? Call for elections to be delayed: National leader Judith Collins is demanding Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern delay the September election after the discovery of Covid-19 community transmission cases in Auckland. A clearly frustrated Collins on Wednesday afternoon said she was directly asking Ardern ...17 hours ago
Respecting the journal editorial process Each week we scan between 450 and 650 articles for relevance to Skeptical Science's remit: communication of the science of climate change itself the many affected branches of scientific inquiry by climate change. The 100+ journals we cover encompass a galaxy of expertise we cannot ...17 hours ago
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In the musical Wicked, a re-imagining of The Wizard of Oz, the hit song Defying Gravity comes at the end of the first act and talks of how one woman (who would become the Wicked Witch of the West) breaks from what’s expected to strike off on her own path. ...2 days ago
Accused - Jami-Lee RossNobody would think poorly of you if you wrote former National Party MP Jami-Lee Ross off as just another crackpot! After all, now that he’s hitched his Advance NZ wagon to Billy Te Kahika’s crazy Public Party, there’s little chance of him ever redeeming himself or recovering ...2 days ago
What to do to improve the public perception of the newly elected National party leader, when her performance so far has no doubt disappointed the expectations of her supporters? The answer is to get a National-supporting newspaper (the Herald) to organise a poll that could be guaranteed to provide an ...2 days ago
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From some quarters, incessant scaremongering. From others, it’s a full-on tilt into touching the alarmist buttons a little too readily (uncertain times make for very captive audiences with this angle of attack). The (so-called) Opposition (and merely regarding them as that seems to be a far looser term now ...5 days ago
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by Don Franks This talk was given to the Wellington Anti Capitalist Alliance, fifteen years ago. The ultimate weapons of mass destruction so far seen on this planet have been used just twice, 60 years ago this month. August 6 and August 9 1945 witnessed the US atomic bombing ...1 week ago
The Green Party is calling for a renewed commitment to trust medical science, following community transmission of COVID-19. ...1 hour ago
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Following the success of the phase out of single-use plastic shopping bags, the Government now has plans to phase out more single-use and problem plastics to reduce waste and protect the environment announced Associate Minister for the Environment Eugenie Sage. The proposals are to phase-out: some hard-to-recycle PVC and polystyrene ...1 day ago
Epidemiologist Simon Thornley says the new virus outbreaks and lockdown responses are proof that New Zealand must, as the WHO has recently said, learn to live with the virus. “An outbreak was inevitable, and therefore lockdowns were never a viable ...21 mins ago
Coronavirus is back in our community, bringing with it anxiety, fear and uncertainty. If you’re feeling like you can’t face going through it all over again, here are some coping strategies. Aucklanders are once again being asked to dig deep, emotionally speaking, in preparation for another lockdown and the accompanying uncertainty. ...38 mins ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Turney, Professor, Earth Science and Climate Change, UNSW Geological and archaeological records offer important insights into what seems to be an increasingly uncertain future. The better we understand what conditions Earth has already experienced, the better we can predict (and potentially ...1 hour ago
Overly cautious politicians and bankers are forcing the Reserve Bank to look at even more extreme ways to stimulate our Covid-hit economy and revive inflation ...1 hour ago
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It looks like the dream finale of the Super Rugby Aotearoa season before a sellout Eden Park crowd will be off-limits for fans this Sunday, leaving Jim Kayes unfulfilled. It’s not the news a bunch of middle aged, success-starved Blues fans were hoping for. “Hi Richard,” began the note from the ...4 hours ago
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Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says the Government will sequence the genomes of yesterday's four Covid-19 cases to help identify how the outbreak started. What does that mean? New Zealand has found itself suddenly plunged into a dire situation: Four new cases of Covid-19 in the community with no obvious link ...17 hours ago
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And there in, lies the difference between a National Socialist, and an International Socialist.
Never have a couple of syllables held such portent.
There’s nothing like a spot of Godwinism to settle an argument , eh.
” the White Helmets in Syria have been filmed on numerous occasions working alongside terrorist groups and that members of the White Helmets have participated in executions, torture, driving vehicles for terrorists, providing propaganda for jihadist groups, conducting false flags and brandishing weapons in combat.”
“Two young Sunni Syrian soldiers from Aleppo were beaten and executed by Jaish Al Fattah rebels in Aleppo. Jaish Fattah, a coalition of US backed rebel groups and al-Qaeda (Jabhat al- Nusra). The video of the soldiers being humiliated was posted by a member of the White Helmets, which the US supplied $23 million dollars to through the USAID program, as stated by US State Department spokesperson John Kirby”.
” In the video a White Helmet member can be seen wearing a White Helmet shirt while conducting operations ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with al-Zinki terrorists. This is the same group that beheaded a 12 year old Palestinian boy in the back of a truck in July 2016. The White Helmet member is visible at the 2:27 mark. http://jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/huge-video-and-data-cache-on-the-fake-ngo-syrian-white-helmet-jihadists/
The u.s.a has a long long history of training and working with the most brutal & perverse killers and death squads in modern history ….. “The UN Truth Commission found that the units guilty of the worst atrocities, like the Atlacatl Battalion which conducted the infamous El Mozote massacre, were precisely the ones most closely supervised by American advisers. The American role in this campaign of state terrorism is now hailed by senior U.S. military officers as a model ….”
This documentary shows how the savagery they cultivated in South America was brought down on the poor people of Iraq …. Death squads and torture, fueling hatred and helping Isis recruitment https://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=BxHEI603bF4
This doco shows the u.s.a war effort in Afghanistan includes very evil stuff …..such as protecting Local police units which rape and murder young boys, kidnap and rob from civilians, and get off their faces on Heroin while firing machine and other weapons blindly in the direction of children …. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja5Q75hf6QI ……
On a slightly more positive note here’s a shorter doco on foreign fighters who have come to help the Kurds in their battle for survival against Isis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoqds4LV9RI ….. I do hope the Kurds do not get shafted when peace finally comes …….as they were the first fighters to start inflicting defeats and rolling back Isis.
Horrible powerful Foreign leaders prepared to extend the fighting until the last Syrian is dead are now the biggest problem in stopping the killing …………
Syria needs a huge effort for peace and justice ………. not death squads and surface to air missiles in the hands of terrorists ….
Reconstruction not destruction ….
The u.s.a has a long long history of training and working with the most brutal & perverse killers and death squads in modern history …
Funny you should mention that, as the USA’s appalling activities in central America in the early 1980s were an exact match with CV’s position:
I support the rule of international law therefore I recognise the Assad led government as the legitimate sovereign government of Syria, and I recognise that the foreign (US/Saudi/Qatar/Turkey) sponsored proxy war against that government as totally illegal.
Those governments the USA was helping in central America were the “legitimate, sovereign governments” of those countries and the foreign (Soviet Union and China) sponsored proxy wars against those governments were totally illegal. Funnily enough, history isn’t on the side of the USA’s “assistance” of those “legitimate, sovereign governments,” any more than it will be on the side of Russia and Iran’s assistance of the Assad regime.
Have you been hitting yourself in the head with a big thick stupid stick Psycho ? …. are you seriously saying u.s.a sponsored coups make legitimate governments ? ????
Afghanistan: In the 1980s, the U.S. worked with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to overthrow Afghanistan’s socialist government.
Argentina: … soon after the military junta seized power in Argentina. Kissinger explicitly approved the junta’s “dirty war,” in which it eventually killed up to 30,000, most of them young people, and stole 400 children from the families of their murdered parents …
Brazil: …In 1964, General Castelo Branco led a coup that sparked 20 years of brutal military dictatorship……. Like other victims of U.S.-backed coups in Latin America, the elected President Joao Goulart was a wealthy landowner, not a communist,
Cambodia:….. When President Nixon ordered the secret and illegal bombing of Cambodia in 1969, American pilots were ordered to falsify their logs to conceal their crimes. They killed at least half a million Cambodians, …. the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency provided the Khmer Rouge with satellite intelligence, while U.S. and British special forces trained them to lay millions of land mines across Western Cambodia which still kill or maim hundreds of people every year.
Chile: …. After General Pinochet seized power, the CIA kept Chilean officials on its payroll and worked closely with Chile’s DINA intelligence agency as the military government killed thousands of people and jailed and tortured tens of thousands more.
El Salvador: … “During the morning, they proceeded to interrogate, torture, and execute the men in several locations.[8] Around noon, they began taking the women and older girls in groups, separating them from their children and machinegunning them after raping them.[9] Girls as young as 10 were raped, with soldiers reportedly heard bragging how they especially liked the 12-year-old girls.[10] Finally, they killed the children at first by slitting their throats, then by hanging them from trees, with one child as young as two years old.[11] After killing the entire population, the soldiers set fire to the buildings…….The American role in this campaign of state terrorism is now hailed by senior U.S. military officers as a model for “counter-insurgency” in Colombia and elsewhere as the U.S. war on terror spreads its violence and chaos across the world.
El Salvador is very closely linked to Iraq …. and the u.s.a trained murder/rape/torture squads almost necessitated a Isis like organization to protect the Sunni population …
I notice you do not mention anything about possible peace solutions in your reply …. which makes me think you do not really give a stuff about the poor people of Syria …. or Iraq …. or Libya
War pigs give me the shits ……………
You could negotiate a Wayne Mapp style trade deal …… This is what he offers from NZ as bargaining chips https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8veOzd39VWI
Have you been hitting yourself in the head with a big thick stupid stick Psycho ? …. are you seriously saying u.s.a sponsored coups make legitimate governments ? ????
If you try actually reading the comment, it referred to Colonial Viper’s claim that he recognises the Assad regime as the “legitimate, sovereign government” of Syria because international law says it is. International law says a lot of very unpleasant dictatorships have been legitimate, sovereign governments, so if you don’t like CV recognising and supporting them all, take it up with him.
National Socialists think the sanctity of the nation is sacrosanct.
International Socialists think the idea of nations is a social construct and of little value.
National Socialists believe that nation and race are imutable.
International Socialists believe that concepts like nation and race are fluid and changeable.
National socialists advocate war to protect the interests of a nation from its (internal, and external) enemies.
International Socialists advocate the abolition of the nation state, and the end of war.
John Lennon sang: “Imagine there is no countries” “Nothing to kill or die for”
But what does all this idealistic theory mean in practice in the real world we live in, where nation states are a political reality?
Firstly; it means that socialists oppose all wars of imperial invasion and aggression, (like the invasion of Iraq by the US and its allies, for instance).
Secondly, it means that socialists support all people attempting to libererate themselves from oppression from their own nation state, and support their right to overthrow that state. And also support their right to work with whoever they choose to help them achieve that end.
The example of Roger Casement comes to mind. Roger Casement was an Irishman who worked for the British Empire in the Foreign Civil Service mainly in Africa for twenty years and even gained a British Knighthood for his work. But over this long period witnessing the affects of imperialism first hand he slowly grew to hate and despise it.
On returning to his homeland Casement used his diplomatic contacts to get the German Empire, which was at war with the British Empire, to supply the Irish rebels with 20 thousand rifles. Unfortunately in attempting to land these vitally needed arms in Ireland, Casement was captured by the RIC and handed over to the British and was hanged for treason.
British propaganda depicted Casement as an agent of the Germans. A charge Casement strongly denied in his trial for treason against “The British Crown”.
The other case that comes to mind is that of the Russian Bolshevik leader VI Lenin. When the 1917 revolt first broke out, Lenin was still in exile in Europe, prevented from traveling to Russia by the French and British allies of the Russian Empire, Lenin made a deal with the Germans, who agreed to transport Lenin through German lines and into Russia. The German interest was to weaken the British and Russian Empires from within. The trade off for Lenin in particular was that he was accused just like Casement was of being a German agent. Lenin was able to stare down these accusations and gained the trust of the Russian people and successfully led the Revolution to its victory over the Russian Tsarist, Lenin;s first move was to pull Russia out of the war, which helped bring that Imperialist conflict to conclusion.
There was echoes of this propaganda back here in New Zealand. Princess Te Puea was leading her Tainui people in a campaign against conscription for same Imperialist conflict. Te Puea was also accused of being a German agent, on the flimsy evidence that her grandfather was a German. Even though her Granfather had died when Te Puea was still a child.
So what has all this got to do with Syria and Colonial Viper, which is what I was leading up to?
CV is comfortable and accepts the fact that the regime of Bashar Assad detains and tortures and kills (in his own words) “scores of Syrians a year”. CV also supports the aerial genocide being carried out by the regime against the Syrian people because he alleges (with little proof) that the regime is the victim of US and NATO invasion and regime change.
CV condemns and attacks the rebels for accepting money and weapons from some of the funda mentalist Arab States like Saudi Arabia which is allied with the US.
Singled out by CV and other Assadists for their particular hate, and marked for death, is the volunteer search and rescue organisation known as the White Helmets, because the White Helmets receive funding from US sources.
This is why I determine Colonial Viper to be a National Socialist or fascist.
But really he makes this determination for himself.
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=roger+casement+song&&view=detail&mid=8161BACE9A7A1FFD4ACE8161BACE9A7A1FFD4ACE&rvsmid=63D2E6337448E4D97C9C63D2E6337448E4D97C9C&fsscr=0&FORM=VDQVAP
Heil Trump
http://bipartisanreport.com/2017/01/01/incoming-white-house-press-secretary-thinks-americans-need-to-start-praising-donald-trump/
One nation, one people, one leader.
More Godwinism.
No doubt there are many good reasons for criticizing Trump, but his apparent intention of establishing a good relationship with Putin is probably worthy of praise.
Two rightwing strongmen cosying up is hardly worthy of praise. Thinking about Trump’s rapprochement with Putin, it is certainly potentially the death of NATO. NATO, as a German friend of mine put it, is a three leg stool about “…keeping the Germans down, the Americans in and the Russians out”.
Angela Merkel (who is popular now but will be very harshly judged by history IMHO) wrecked the first leg with her rigid neoliberalism and the turning of the common currency into a giant Ponzi scheme with Germany at the top, in the process destablising the EU (the beginning of the roll for Brexit was the shock amongst both conservative and liberal intellectuals in the UK at the ruthless German crushing of the Greeks. The British have a long romantic attachment to the Greeks and the Aegean from Shelley to Churchill, and being an island they have a long, bloody minded history of not taking orders from continentals) which has made Germany much richer but has badly weakened the EU and therefore NATO as collateral damage. The result of Merkel’s economic policies may be Germany having to confront the Russians alone.
The election of Trump has at least called the second leg into question. Trump is probably right to question the extension of the US-NATO nuclear guarantee to the Balts and the unstable ex-Warsaw pact countries. Estonia or Bulgaria or Slovakia are not so important to US security as to trigger a nuclear war if attacked by Russia. That has been common sense real politik since Yalta. The Swedes, at least, have worked this out and are reintroducing conscription from 2018. NATO should NEVER have expanded east.
So all that is left is keeping the Russians out. That is what makes the Baltic countries such a flash point. If Russia can over run those countries Crimea style (About a third of the population of Estonia and half of Latvias is ethnic Russians) with just an ineffectual NATO response, NATO’s credibility will collapse. So if the Americans under Trump won’t defend the Balts, that means the Germans will have to – I see in the 2016 budget they have increased defense spending by 15% and set aside 10 billion Euros for new weapons and another 10 billion for arming neighbours. 4,000 NATO troops are already in Estonia.
My pick is before the end of the decade is Putin will try in on in a Baltic country, probably Latvia, and the Russians will be easily defeated by the Germans, Germany will form a Nordic alliance (Germany, Denmark, Norway, Finland the Balts and possibly Poland and the Dutch and French) outside NATO and NATO will become a relic.
Why is an assumption that present day Russia covets “the Baltic” states embedded in your comment Sanctuary? Any, even circumstantial evidence to underpin that?
btw – I don’t think you can reasonably throw Crimea into the mix (if you were going to) any more than you can throw the US’s major naval base in Bahrain into the mix if looking at US territorial designs. My point being that the US and EU turned a blind eye to a swift military incursion by Saudi Arabia into Bahrain to quell that country’s ‘Arab Spring back in 2011… (whereas Russia didn’t have a proxy to use in Crimea)
Well, first you should acquaint yourself with a map of the Baltic. Once equipped with this handy tool, I suggest you take a look at how Russia might obtain access to the Baltic sea (let alone further afield), should the entire fucking coastline of it’s near abroad be controlled by it’s rivals.
Why, pray tell, do you think Putin invaded the Crimea? Because he likes the wine? Or because he wanted to get back the huge ex-Soviet naval base at Sevastopol? What, do you think, is behind Russia playing footsies with the hardline regime in Turkey? I’ll give you a hint: it is wet, salty and runs past Istanbul all the way to the Mediterranean.
Putin saw the fall of the USSR from the KGB HQ in Dresden, and he drew all the wrong lessons. He is an old school Russian expansionist who has gone back to the autocratic, democracy hating, reactionary Tsarist ways of the past. He wants a new Russian Empire.
Via both Baltiysk (ice free) and Kronshtadt offer access.
Crimea was to secure access to the Med just as, from a US perspective, the ‘green lighting’ of Saudi Arabia’s invasion of Bahrain was to secure the 5th Fleet’s base.
If Russia is to be condemned for ‘playing footsie’ with Turkey, what then of the EU’s courting and what of the fact Turkey’s a NATO member state? The motivations and what not behind those things somehow to be judged differently? If so, why?
And again, what evidence is there to suggest present day Russia is seeking empire? Is there a shopping list of expansionist invasion and military adventurism I’m not familiar with?
You, my friend, are a naive fool. This isn’t a zero sum game of equally bad people. Unlike you, I visited Eastern Europe when the Soviet Union controlled it. Trust me, you’ll prefer western liberal democracy and that means supporting those countries that practice it against kleptocrats, thugs and dictators like Putin, Duerte, Erdoğan, Xi Jinping and all the rest of them.
Did I voice some preference or hankering to live in a reincarnated USSR?
The rest of your comment looks to be wandering towards an intellectual and moral morass. And on another day I’d have ventured, but not today. Gotta be off.
Have a good one.
The problem being that the countries that are against Putin happen to be controlled by kleptocrats, dictators, and thugs. That’s what Western democracy pretty much means now.
Even Ceaser was popular to some degree because the loot that his armies stole from the periphery was reasonably well distributed out in the centre. It’s how empires have always worked and how the US Empire works now.
The insult says you are a speculator, a slogger of personal opinion without the confidence
Evidence:” Unlike you I visited Eastern Europe….”
Trust you or your insult laced opinion?
That would be foolishly naive!
Why is an assumption that present day Russia covets “the Baltic” states embedded in your comment Sanctuary? Any, even circumstantial evidence to underpin that?
Er, the last few centuries? The fact that it’s invaded those states twice now to re-incorporate them into the empire? The fact that it colonised them with ethnic Russians to try and overcome the ethnic basis for their independence? The fact that it’s attacked Estonia as recently as 2007? Those seem like pretty strong bases for that assumption to me.
There was no military ‘attack’ by Russia on Estonia in 2007. And as for equating Tzarsist Russia with the USSR with present day Russia when the comment only referred to current day Russia…as per usual you show yourself up to be an intellectually scoured and deflated sad sac that was only ever full of shit back in your good old days.
The 2007 attack was a cyber one, not a military one.
You seem to be claiming that the fact that both Tsarist Russia and Soviet Russia found the Baltic states to be assets worth having has no bearing on how present-day Russia regards those states. Well, the reasons for wanting them in earlier times still apply now, so historical precedent very much has a bearing on the present-day outlook for those states. The people who live there certainly know it, even if you don’t.
An interesting piece, albeit from the NYT, from 2001 making predictions about Russia and its relations with the ‘near abroad’.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/25/weekinreview/the-world-learning-to-fear-putin-s-gaze.html
Sanctuary, Bill has it right. Why would Russia want to add the resource poor, economically backward and European mindset infested elite of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to the responsibilities and problems that they currently have internally?
Russia already has the management problems of 11 time zones and dozens of ethnic groups. Why would Russia want to bother with more.
Sanctuary, Bill has it right
Well. As ever CV…as ever 😉
Actually. Now that I have your attention…remember that stoush over Duterte sanctioning the ‘knocking off’ of drug dealers in the Philippines?
I came across this interesting and provocative piece by Andre Vltchek. If you’ve never heard of him, he’s no slouch and well regarded if a little bloody angry.
I highly recommend it for anyone looking to get a handle on both the internal politics of the Philippines and the country’s position on the US, China and Russia.
https://off-guardian.org/2016/12/28/president-duterte-of-the-philippines-for-dummies/
That was some impressive article…read through all of it.
But but but According to WaPo, the NYT, and the Guardian, Duterte is just a MURDEROUS THUG!!! REEEEEEEE!!!
It is fine to personally throw people out of a helicopter, as long as it isn’t you being thrown, eh CV?
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/12/rodrigo-duterte-helicopter-161229062349259.html
Oh the irony.
A long and thoughtful piece from a highly regarded source is linked, that in part, speaks directly to that kind of reporting and you throw up…did you even read the article?
He doesn’t give a damn what some cozy soft in the middle, middle class westerners think about his outrageous mutterings. That’s what I am fine with.
Meanwhile a CIA wet team has probably already reconned how they would take him and his lieutenants out.
Do you hear that sound? The PR drum beat of western regime change has just ratcheted up tempo.
You must be so unhappy.
The sooner you figure out that the 21st century is the Eurasian Century, the better I think.
The deeply hypocritical transnational corporate Anglo-US empire, will of course remain a *very* powerful player on the international stage.
But it can no longer sustain the degree of economic, financial and military power deferential relative to other nations needed to sustain unquestioned hegemonic dominance. (The goal of the New American Century types).
It will have to slowly relearn the art of diplomacy and negotiation once again, as opposed to relying on demanding, demeaning, accusatory rhetoric and undemocratic and illegal covert/overt programmes of regime change.
The sooner you figure out that the 21st century is the Eurasian Century, the better I think.
Meh. We saw off totalitarianism in the 20th Century and we’ll see off its bastard children this century, no matter how much you’d prefer to see nationalist authoritarianism become the new normal.
We, we’ll?
Who or what are you speaking for?
And in case I’m right about your obvious issues…
Asia is turning (has turned, it’s done) towards Asia, and quickly demoting relations with the war mongering, exploiting colonial nations to the basement, where they will remain indefinately
Will your ‘issues’ allow you to deal with that?
Who or what are you speaking for?
I hold no position of authority to speak for anyone. However, I do have a nationality (x two), an ethnicity and a philosophy, all of which are shared by many others I’m entitled to refer to as “we.” I get that authoritarian nationalism is appealing to the loonier fringes of both the right and the left in western democracies, but it’s not appealing to the great majority of us and we’d rather see liberal democracy succeed than be superseded by totalitarian dictatorships like the People’s Republic of China or mafia states like the Russian Federation.
Asia is turning (has turned, it’s done) towards Asia, and quickly demoting relations with the war mongering, exploiting colonial nations to the basement, where they will remain indefinately
What does that even mean? There are warmongering, exploiting colonial nations in Asia and have been for as long as anyone’s been in a position to write down what’s happening. And which Asia is turning towards Asia? Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea are effectively western democracies themselves, and most of the south-east Asian countries have a well-justified lack of trust in China. Wishful thinking doesn’t actually get you anywhere.
Actually, taking out people like Duerte is what the CIA exists for. I’d rather have a Western aligned dictator who professed some adherence to norms of decent behaviour in Manila than some crazy old dude who boasts about how many people he has murdered and cuddles up to the equally murderous Xi Jinping. Why? Because having a western aligned dictator in Manila (and Suva, for that matter) keeps the murderous Chinese regime contained that much further away from us.
Colonial, anti-democratic illiberal liberals make me puke.
Let’s treat a nation of 100 million Asians like a vassal state colony which exists primarily for our own privileged security and convenience. Fuck their sovereignty and agency.
Because, left wing liberal values.
Guess what mate, coloured people all over the world have cottoned on to your game.
Tell me, how many poor brown coloured foreigners and Muslims has the Chinese regime murdered over the last 20 years, compared to the deaths caused by the morally precious US-Anglo empire directly and via its proxies?
Shall we do a body count? You know, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, the list goes on and on.
The fucking reeking moral hypocrisy.
“I’d rather have a Western aligned dictator who professed some adherence to norms of decent behaviour in Manila
Marcos more your preference on behalf of the people in [another]country you don’t live in, and know little to nothing about?
It’s not about you or your flacid opinions, Sanctuary
They count for nothing, but they do expose you!
They will probably try and launch a people’s revolution and install neo-liberal hatchet man Fidel Ramos as leader or a provisional ‘unity coalition’ to restore order until fresh elections are called with suitably screened elitist candidates.
Not mentioned in the media is the fact that Duterte wasnts to emulate the Cuban healthcare system, give out free contraceptives, strengthen LGBT rights, opposes mining, etc.
And let’s face it, if someone in NZ promised to send the army into South Auckland or Murupara and execute every P dealer and gang kingpin I guarantee you they will win election after election.
Got halfway through that article.
The whitewashing of the sudden increase in deaths of suspects was pretty vile: a combination of “can’t prove nuffin'”, “what about their victims”, and “the ends justify the means”.
Nowhere was there actually a denial that murder was now government policy.
Seems that the reason that the West is attacking Duterte is because he’s actually bringing prosperity to the people by displacing the rich.
Or, he’s murdering people.
So’s our own government by putting in place policies that increase suicide but we don’t see the MSM attacking them for it.
Yes, he is not a good little neo-liberal technocrat like Fidel Ramos.
Draco – tyrants have no place in governance no matter who or what they are doing. Duterte is a tyrant by any definition and he needs to go. There are some brave persons in the Philippines already trying to impeach this self confessed murderer – their lives are in danger and he has already seen to one of his accusers.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/22/philippines-journalist-killed-after-criticising-officials-over-illegal-drug-lab
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/20/un-rights-chief-calls-for-investigation-into-duterte-claims
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/14/philippines-president-rodrigo-duterte-personally-killed-criminals
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/852731/impeach-duterte-aguirre-asks-what-trust-did-the-president-betray
Correct.
But how do we remove them?
Because it’s obvious that representative democracy doesn’t.
And as much as we don’t like it the people of the Philippines do because the majority of them are better off.
I don’t think that “establishing a good relationship” is quite the same as the more perjoritive term “cosying up”. And ” strongmen” also seems somewhat loaded.
More (though not) ‘Goldstein’ than Godwin I’d have thought. 😉
Donald Trump, greatest American president since Reagan, puts North Korea on notice:
take a look at this chart from the telegraph nz tops the list for most expensive houses
http://www.telegraph.co
take a look at this chart from the telegraph nz tops the list for most expensive houses
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/01/02/fears-massive-global-property-price-crash-amid-dangerous-conditions/
And the downside of this over-priced market, is people not being able to afford places to live. Rents for safe, secure, affordable housing are above many people’s financial capabilities.
Last night TV1 News had an item about a man in his 80s leaving a sub-standard rental in Auckland. Video and print report here.
I suspect it was Phil Twyford who went to the media on this as he features in the story.
There is another side to the story about the alleged harassment of Suzette Maree Dawson.
Have you seen this?
http://www.transparency.net.nz/
dawson-seeks-asylum
“WELL is this ever an exercise in self promotion / sensationalism , I was most interested to read the words on her scoop post
“The targeting of Ms Dawson led to serious threats against and endangerment of her life and those of her children.”
suddenly I connected the two and indeed in early 2013 I had had dealings with one and the same Ms Dawson when she published defamatory and blatantly incorrect material about me and I simply asked her to remove it from her blog and when I was ignored served a notice on her as required by the act.
I had phoned her as first point of contact and her daughter had answered the phone, I asked for Suzie Dawson and when she got on the phone she hurled a barrage of abuse at me and a claim that I was stalking her.
Eventually she did remove the material from her post but it wold appear that she also made a false complaint that I was stalking her.
Knowing what I know about Suzie Dawson and having interacted with her, I do hope that she gets asylum in Russia and may her stay be a lengthy one.
I personally would not believe a thing she says as to me ,on the evidence I have, I can conclude that she is prone to gross exaggeration and paranoia.
She calls herself a journalist but she is not one.
If she is one of the 88 new Zealanders the government is looking at then the government is wasting tax payers funds, it is my opinion that she does nothing more than regurgitates information which she finds on the web and publishes as her own.
Please don’t give her money , in doing so you will be supporting a potential fraud. her web sites are https://twitter.com/HelpSuzi3D , https://twitter.com/Suzi3D, contraspin.co.nz,www. endarken.co.nz, http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sp9co7, suziedawson.co.nz, spinbin.co.nz, occupysavvy.wordpress.com ,
https://winstonclose.me/2016/06/19/the-oppression-of-the-internet-is-global-by-suzie-dawson/, https://twitter.com/ redstar309z, @endarken
[deleted, content is in link supplied by Sacha below]
[learn how to attribute properly and how to make it clear what are your words and what are a quote. Your comment was a nightmare to read on a phone. Count this as a warning – weka]
Copy and paste of an entire blogpost from here: http://www.transparency.net.nz/2016/11/29/suzie-dawson-a-blast-from-the-past-may-she-fare-well-in-russia/
I note that the site has no relationship with the recognised organisation Transparency International New Zealand.
Exactly right Sacha.
THIS website actually helps expose corruption.
Have you been following the recent investigative articles in the NBR about corruption in the NZ roading industry?
You may find them interesting.
Also – the 225 page Judgment of Justice Sally Fitzgerald in the recent bribery and corruption conviction of two (former) Auckland Transport officials and one corrupt contractor, is a fascinating read, in my opinion.
Kind regards
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption campaigner’
2017 Mt Albert by-election Independent candidate.
The website seems somewhat feverish at first glance. And no, I do not have a subscription to NBR.
From my reading of the full judgement so far, the successful prosecution hinged on properly maintained public records (falsely-completed Conflict of Interest forms).
It is pretty typical over the end of the holiday period and even more so when coming into an election year. It always get a bit crazy and I start doing more moderation to stop the bad behaviors on the site from going exponential..
(counts on his fingers – 2008, 2011, 2014, and 2017 yep… The site went public in August 2007)
This is my 9th new year on the site and 4th time coming into an election. I’m getting pretty familiar with the patterns now.
I was talking about the site Penny pasted a post from. 🙂
You know what I am like and what the policy states. If it is about this site (or is ambiguous about which site), then the sysop (me) is likely to notice it and sometimes answer.
@Penny Bright Why do you insist on dragging this sad story onto today’s open mike?
Please refrain from having us endure any more of this very tragic non news.
And if you can’t control your urge to bang on about it, why not at least use the post that was actually about it….
Anyone who might be interested in train wrecks can then follow it there.
if it helps penny – I’m sure just as many people trust and believe Suzie as they do yourself.
Hopefully those who can think and research for themselves will not be sucked in by, in my view, the phoney Suzette Maree Dawson?
In my view – I’d think very carefully before sending Suzette Maree Dawson any money.
Up to you.
Kind regards
Penny Bright
@James ….although more believe Penny than you James.
Funny thing, i had never heard of suzie until yesterdays post, I followed up the links and watched her person of interest video, I found it all interesting but was feeling that perhaps she was maby slightly over egging it,….. then penny and others started in with the organised character assisination and i realised she was not. Penny your posts yesterday and today have convinced me that suzie is genuine and you are a bitter old piece of ….
Silly you?
This whole business regarding Suzie Dawson is crazy conspiracy theory stuff peddled by societies fringe merchants and the left does itself no favours by entertaining any sort of debate on their innuendos and paranoid insinuations. We need to be focussing on the main enemy, triumphant neo-fascism, not faffing around with the delusions of the activist far fringe.
The left’s mission in 2017 is to ensure it rebrands itself well away from the elitist scam that is liberal identity politics and establishes a persuasive narrative that offers a clear alternative to right wing populism. The left devoting its time to the various conspiratorial combinations of the likes of Bradbury, Dawson or Penny Bright is simply to indulge in a distraction from the fringes that it can ill afford to concern itself with and definitely cannot afford to allow itself to be associated with if it wants to be taken seriously.
If “2TB of explosive data” exists, release it and let it be judged. Otherwise, i don’t see any need for the left to bother itself any further with this ridiculous diversion.
“rebranding” is the language and MO of neoliberalism and superficial marketing exercises.
The left needs to regroup and re-build with a strong focus on both the current context and the past histories of the left and society – and by left, I mean the flax roots left, and not something led from above by political parties.
For me, this means engaging with and listening to the flax roots groups; aiming for a collaborative approach between groups within the broader left; acknowledging and discussing differences, while embracing things/actions on which we agree.
Please, spare me your nit picking rubbish.
Poor old Carolyn trying to para phrase a hipster anarchist, out with old hierarchy in with horizontal decision making and society, meaningless, do nothing, talkfest clap trap, everyone at cross purposes, reason occupy movement lasted all of one summer
Ah, not really. I had in mind something in between anarchism, and a totally autocratic left where some group with the most political power on the left dictates what the left stands for.
The latter has been the case of Labour parties internationally during the neoliberal era.
The future direction of the left, IMO, needs to come from the people – and there does need to be more collaboration between left groups. But that doesn’t mean each group will be into leaderless structures – some will be, but others will have a more formal structure. Some will be trade unions, some will be green campaigners – with some ideas arising out of actions. So not just a talk-fest, either.
Some examples: the Glenn Innes state house campaign, Pike River protests, campaigns by unions for a living wage, Green Peace protests against fossil fuel companies’ activities, etc – basically a broad left where people on the ground generate ideas, some of it coming through action.
All good to the productive side of society tell them to take a running jump or these is nothing left to redistribute
“The left’s mission in 2017 is to ensure it rebrands itself well away from the elitist scam that is liberal identity politics and establishes a persuasive narrative that offers a clear alternative to right wing populism.”
Short version: FFS stop the craziness and come up with something that works.
Someone should tell Chris Trotter to stop posting before the prozac kicks in, his latest bit of depressed nonsense shows an aging man completely out of touch with anyone on the political left who doesn’t still brood about the Douglas era. Seriously, the left ought to tell him it is over having a Greek chorus of crusty old defeatist Cassandras wailing about what awful fate awaits us.
Chris needs to get out there and meet someone on the active left under 30, it’ll do his dreary old heart the world of good. Why, he might even open the curtains and clean up some cobwebs in his intellectual world view.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/87999450/chris-trotter-2017-in-the-shadow-of-trump
Mental health issues like depression are serious and impact the lives of many. It shouldn’t be used as an insult or false claim in reply to someone who writes something you disagree with.
PC trolling and attempted derailing fail.
As someone who is had a family member with depression and some other issues – it’s something I’ve always taken seriously- so not a concerned troll on this matter. And hey – if you think it’s ok to joke about it – then that says more about you than anything else.
What do you think of the current government’s underfunding and running down of mental health services?
Kind of misses the point that if 2016 delivered us the spectacle of liberalism squirming and screaming, then 2017 might (hopefully from my perspective) deliver us its death rattle.
Apart from that ‘mere detail’, his musings on NZ positioning regards US and China aren’t so unreasonable. The myopia on display with regards the machinations of various dull NZ political actors is kind of dim. But like I say, he assumes a continuation of this somewhat discredited and untrusted status quo that many of us, it has to be said, are now merely enduring.
Most often these annual predictions say more about the predictors than about what will actually happen.
I do think he is right, though, that the current NZ government will face a conflict between their commercial/financial support for China and intelligence/military allegiance to the US.
Yes – he appears absolutely fixated, doesn’t he – and his attitude to Andrew Little is so negative you’d have to start suspecting it’s personal!
I’m picking Andrew Little didn’t fall over in his haste to kiss Trotter’s anointed feet at some point in time…
I think there is a possibility of a Nat-NZF-Mp coalition alliance forming the next government – but that is one of the possibilities. Trotter seems to be one of those uncritically praising Zoe Swarbrick.
It’s Chloe Swarbrick.
Who supports privatisation via Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs).
Since when has it been ‘left’ to support privatisation via PPPs?
Is this now Green Party policy?
Penny Bright
Who has actively opposed privatisation via PPPs for years.
2017 Mt Albert by-election Independent candidate.
[lprent: Didn’t I see an identical comment yesterday? Use your brain Penny. Do that too often and I will ban you for being a parrot trolling. ]
Do folks not ‘get’ just how vulnerable this National Government is on the issue of corruption?
Do folks not get how potentially HUGE the issue of corruption is going to be over these next two months?
31 January 2017
Transparency International 2016 ‘Corruption Perception Index’ is published.
In my considered opinion, New Zealand will continue to slide down this scale.
22 February 2017, the corrupt ‘public official’ and corrupt contractor will be sentenced in the Auckland High Court.
I predict that both these ‘white collar’ criminals will receive ‘blue collar’ sentences, and both will be sentenced to jail for at least 2 years.
25 February 2017 – the date of the Mt Albert by-election.
In between – I predict more publicity on corruption, as more ‘whistle-blowers’ come forward, and more politically ‘dynamite’ OIA information is revealed regarding corrupt ‘conflicts of interest’.
In between – I shall be addressing the Auckland Transport Board, where I hope to encourage them to comply with their statutory duties arising from the Public Records Act 2005, and provide the details of ALL awarded contracts, including all those sub-contracted, and those worth less than $50,000.
Once AT provide that information – there will be no excuse for Auckland Council, or other Council-Controlled Organisations (CCOs) to equally provide this information.
There will be other Auckland Council meetings at which these issues will be raised.
The sooner other political parties ‘pick up the ball’ on this issue – the better.
Why?
Because the contracting out (privatisation) of public services formerly provided ‘in house’ has been proven to be TWICE as expensive.
http://www.pogo.org/our-work/reports/2011/co-gp-20110913.html
“Bad Business: Billions of Taxpayer Dollars Wasted on Hiring Contractors”
Not to mention to have helped ‘breed’ corruption, as has been categorically proven in the above-mentioned recent High Court decision.
Penny Bright
2017 Mt Albert by-election Independent candidate.
It isn’t a possibility, it is the most likely outcome. Everyone is going to get a shock at NZ First’s support in the provinces next election. National have used massed immigration to juke the GDP figures, a policy they neither campaigned on or consulted the public on. As in Europe and the USA, the use of a globalised Labour market to repress the pay of the local wage class will become an election issue (albeit framed through a lens of anti-immigration) that will totally blindside the insulated liberal elites of the media establishment, and mark the beginning of the end of neoliberalism in its current form.
So what will happen here will be the same political outcome as the UK after Brexit. The right wing ruling class that dominate the establishment right wing political vehicle (here, the National party) with use the populist right as an excuse to pivot harder to the right while using populist anti-foreign sentiment as a smoke screen. In the short term, this will shore up the wealth and power grab of the local 1% elites but the long term result will be much more political polarisation and political destabilisation.
” Trotter seems to be one of those uncritically praising Zoe Swarbrick.”
Trotter lazily continues the assumption that people who voted Chloe for Mayor were young. He’s not “praising” her, just presuming her base and mistaking quite how many are put off by mouthy old men with moustaches and leather jackets.
“… mistaking quite how many are put off by mouthy old men with moustaches and leather jackets….”
Ah, the quote of the day.
He might think Andy is an actual uncouth grubby-fingernailed worker-type person.
Thanks for the link – I particularly liked this part:
“It is, however, highly doubtful that sufficient young people will participate in the 2017 general election to significantly offset the emotionally powerful appeal of an unabashedly nationalistic, Sinophobic and pro-American coalition of National, NZ First and the Maori Party. Neither conservative fish nor progressive fowl, Labour is likely to see its party vote plummet into the teens – and with it any hope of reclaiming major party status. The baton of progressive politics will pass to the Greens. Real political power, however, will remain with the National Party and its allies.”
NZ First with National – which I have said several times. and Labour plummeting – although he sees it being worse (for them) than I expect – I do hope he is right.
This could be the year that the Greens really start looking like the main party of the left.
I pick Little will not look back on the MOU fondly.
Totally agree with Chris, I think Labour lost its heart in 1984
and has never found it’s way back.
Sheesh!
‘Blowing the whistle’ against privatisation via Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs) and corruption, is not an easy task 🙂
But imagine the HARD questions I’ll be able to ask in the House, if electors in the Mt Albert electorate ‘seize the moment’ and give this Government a message against against corruption, and for transparency in the spending of public monies, that simply can’t be ignored?
(Upon which none of the other ‘declared’ candidates have (yet) made a stand?)
Kind regards
Penny Bright
2017 Mt Albert by-election Independent candidate.
The foul spirit of “Sir” Paul Holmes lives on:
Is the Mad Butcher going to run for ACT this year?
If you can force yourself to the end of this article, you’ll find the old fool says:
That’s exactly the same argument that Cameron Slater wheels out whenever he is nailed as a racist: how can I be racist, he whines, when I was born in Fiji and my father is dating a woman from the Philippines?
Mad Butcher Sir Peter Leitch says Waiheke Island comments weren’t racist but ‘misinterpreted’ after woman’s video goes viral
New Zealand Herald, Wednesday 4 January 2017
Sir Peter Leitch says a woman “misinterpreted some light-hearted banter” after she claimed he made racist remarks yesterday.
Auckland woman Lara Bridger posted a video on social media this afternoon claiming Sir Peter – the Mad Butcher – told her Waiheke Island was a “white man’s island”.
She last night took down the video, saying “people were going a bit overboard with threats and racist comments” at Sir Peter in response to her post.
The 23-year-old Maori woman said she was wine tasting with her mother and sister at Stonyridge Vineyard when they spotted Sir Peter eating lunch with his family.
The group waved to him before heading outside, she said.
She says Sir Peter came out and approached them and began making conversation.
Bridger said Sir Peter had warned the group not to drink and drive before going on to say they must not be local.
“I go ‘Yeah, I’m actually born here’. That’s when he said ‘Well this is a white man’s island and you should acknowledge that’,” she said. ….
Read more about this sad old racist if you can bear it….
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11776258
Before rushing to judgement, it would pay to look a little deeper than a single Herald article. There are other accounts that paint a very different picture to the one in the Herald.
but he is a successful, rich, white male – of course hes racist and lives off the blood of others. /sarc.
Hes the perfect target – apart from the fact he’s about as far from racist as you can get (imo) – Ive bet the guy a dozen or so times.
So he didn’t make a racist jibe to a family that he knew were Māori?
I think that the context impacts on this – and that is being completely overlooked by people who want it to be racist.
I’m struggling to think of an appropriate context for his comments..
My point is – do you know what both parties actually said? I have heard reports she said she was ‘Tangata Whenua’ in response to his question about their drinking and driving. If that is the case, his response is entirely appropriate. In fact she’s playing the race card by claiming exemption from the law for being Maori.
I have also heard reports that she approached him, not the other way around.
Also, have you seen the full version of her video? I have, and frankly it paints her as pathetic. No wonder she took it down.
Both parties agree that the “white man’s island” comments were said. They disagree on the “tangata whenua” ones. But I wouldn’t pick you to try and provide an honest depiction of events.
1. I didn’t say the ‘white man’s island’ comment was denied by PL.
2. For the record, she HAS admitted the Tangata Whenua remark:
“Record straight I did NOT say ‘I could do what I like’ he came at us with a whole you’re not a local in which I responded “yeah I’m tangata whenua born here mate 23 years ago”.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11776531
Another patronising old git doing his ‘born to rule’ thing 🙁
Another clown on social media jumping to unfounded conclusions.🙁
another SJW doing her “im a victim” thing – Fixed it for you.
What an absolute load of shit this is.
If you look at her video (since deleted as she probably woke up with a hangover and was mortified), it is clear for all to see that she is hammered and having a crack for the sake of having a crack.
Silly little girl. Why the Herald has to chase this sort of nonsense is completely beyond me.
It got a lot of attention on twitter and facebook last night. I was waiting to hear what Mr Leitch had to say before jumping to conclusions.
Several MSM outlets covered it, including RNZ.
It’s a pretty weak defense to say that calling Waiheke (such a Pākehā name?) Island a “white man’s island” was a joke – light hearted banter.
This morning on Summer Report, Mihingarangi Forbes ‘ report on it included a clip from the original FB video Forbes ended by adding some context: basically, there’s many Māori and Pākehā feeling pushed off the island because of increased gentrification. I can see how that would cause some ill-feeling towards some of the wealthy incomers.
Yeah, Mihi Forbes is really objective when it comes to Maori issues. She’s perpetually offended, poor mite.
Actually, it was a pretty balanced report. If you listen, she says both sides give a different description of what happened. She is trying to get an interview with Leitch, and is hopeful of one this afternoon.
If you had the slightest knowledge of this country’s past, you’d be perpetually offended, too.
Could I suggest you lay off the internet and set aside a few days for reading—serious reading, not the Herald—instead?
There’s a good fellow.
The assertion that he said Waiheke was a ‘white man’s Island’ is disputed. SPL claims he said white man’s law applied to Waiheke after she claimed she was ‘Tangata Whenua’ (the implication being she was above the law).
What video were you watching?? Nice victim blaming there.
The one she posted on Facebook and has since been removed (I wonder why). Where she says “fuck” 20 times in the first three minutes of her rant. Potty mouth. “Victim blaming”. Whatever.
So she isnt allowed to say ‘fuck’? But Sir Meat Chopper is allowed to tell her and her mother to get off ‘his’ island.
Is that what “Sir Meat Chopper” is said to have said/said to the silly little girl? No, not even close. Stop making shit up.
There was a heavy dose of implication in what he said.
Implied on your part.
No, it was implied in the sinister overtones of the words used by that silly old man.
Were you there were you? No, I thought not.
“stop making shit up” lol, says the person who made up shit like implying the woman was drunk on the video and is a “silly little girl”.
That is a lie – pure and simply.
It’s what they do these days. In lieu of real journalism.
BOOOM. Who the frak cares what a possibly out of touch 0.1%’er “Sir Peter” might or might not have said. Just another instance of the Herald distracting from the real issues facing the people of Waiheke. But, certain types have to get wound up over someone’s supposed a-hole comments.
Carolyn_nth got it by commenting on the underlying context by Forbes:
It has gentrified pretty quickly in the past 20 or so years.
In 1999-2000 I was penpals (yes they were still a thing that recently) with a young lady who lived there. She was pretty much an average kiwi who had an average upbrining like myself, and from what she told me, her mates were all the same.
Nowadays, I cannot help but thinking all the 19-20 year olds up there are all rich kids.
I watched the video and didn’t consider her to be “hammered” at all. She was upset yes, not sure why you have jumped to the conclusion she was drunk. She has explained the reason why she removed the video, her explanation is vastly different from your factually devoid assumption. I also didn’t see a “silly little girl” as you have patronisingly labeled her. Maybe it’s just you having a crack for the sake of having a crack.
The Herald chasing that sort of nonsense is completely beyond you? They will be disappointed it wasn’t an All Black and the exchange wasn’t in a toilet for the disabled.
Aaron Smith’s ridiculous little peccadillo was consensual. In stark contrast to that, no one gave this old fool consent to make racist remarks.
And everyone has consent, through freedom to comment, on what happened, what was said and make conclusions.
The only ones who know exactly what was said were those who were there. They also are the only ones who know the order of what was said, by whom, the tones of voices and the postures and other body language. All of those are pertinent to the interaction. All of those are part of the conversation not just the words.
And the people there, minutes afterwards, undoubtedly would not have been able to give exact accounts of what happened. The basis of points of views in the wider world then becomes supposition, suspicion, and motivation. And ignorance.
Which ends in a neat and tidy “an old fool making racist remarks.”
My comment was about the Herald only being interested in the incident for its potential to be sensational. Its potential to be sensationalised is based on there bits of information, different perspectives of the incident, emotion and jumping to conclusions.
For all the complaints about the Herald they deserve credit for knowing what the market is. (I look at their site. I most definitely refused to play their game by clicking on that story.)
..”She says Sir Peter came out and approached them and began making conversation.
Bridger said Sir Peter had warned the group not to drink and drive before going on to say they must not be local.
“I go ‘Yeah, I’m actually born here’. That’s when he said ‘Well this is a white man’s island and you should acknowledge that’,” she said. ….”
If this comment doesn’t have a sinister tone to it, then I do not know what is.
“She says.”
If that comment doesn’t have a sinister tone to it, then I do not know what is.
Noted National Party stalwart Michelle Boag reckons Leitch can’t have been racist because Bridger is, “barely coffee coloured”.
Now that is racist.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/01/04/thank-you-michelle-boag-now-thats-what-i-call-racism-we-will-get-72-hours-out-of-this/
Haha. Boag has done a terrible job of being Leitch’s PR person. The “barely coffee coloured” meme has now hit the mainstream.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11776797
Also, while reading about this unfortunate incident I couldn’t help being reminded of the similarity between this defence, and Upston’s defence of John Key’s sexual harassment of a cafe worker.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/67981595/minister-for-women-standing-by-prime-minister-after-ponytail-incident
Light hearted banter is all very well until it turns to shit.
Lesson for middle aged men. Do not approach young women and attempt humour. You will fail.
A racist is a racist – here are some comments from brown-buttabean on how he as a person has been treated by Leitch – actions speak louder than someone moaning on factbook:
“As i said last night on Facebook @sirmadbutcher has done a lot for me and others . I’ve been busy organising wedding and I’ve missed all this mad butcher stuff. All I will say is he’s always been good to me and has supported a lot of south Auckland Polynesian and Maori athletes and league clubs since I was a young in . These are not the actions of a racists person . I might piss some people off but that’s how I feel . I train his grand son and am friends with his daughter and son in law . They have even let us use their house as part of our wedding . I’ll leave you all with a couple of verses to reflect on – Proverbs 10:12English Standard Version (ESV) 12 Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses. Romans 3:23 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Stay safe team and God bless #teambuttabean”
isnt it terrible how this “racist” does a lot for people – regardless of their colour. supports Polynesian and Maori athletes, and lends his house to someone who is brown for part of their wedding.
No you are right – someone posted something on facebook – lets hang him. /sarc
“A racist is a racist” – true, but obviously not recognised as such by some of us. Patronising jokes ( the sexist equivalent is Key’s ponytail incident) designed, perhaps subconsciously, to humiliate in order to feel superior are a part of what I’d call ‘casual racism’. It is common for people to offer charity to those they see as inherently inferior.
There is also (and probably always was) some sexism creeping into this argument. The victim blaming thing that’s going on is the old ‘she asked for it’ argument that is too often a feature of rape trials and the like.
‘Victim blaming’ is a label designed to stop any questioning of the alleged victim. This lady has made some serious accusations. Her story has been told in a very visceral and public manner. That was her choice. Now her story, and her credibility with it, needs to be questioned so we can know the truth.
You’re not interested in the truth.
Read my response to your previous post. You clearly aren’t even looking for the truth here.
It’s designed to stop investigation of the incident and destroy the person reporting it. It may be used in a valid way to tease out the truth, but is more often misused as power play. In this case there is no need, as there seems to be ample evidence
Evidence of what? The evidence seems to me to be of two slightly differing accounts of a brief conversation that one party has decided to publish via social media.
This is not the first time Leitch has angered people on this forum….
Many on this forum seek outrage and offence to simply justify the world as they see it, not what it is The mad butcher in context of his life is clearly not a racist and to justify as such on the testimony of a silly little hyper sensitive and slightly thick snow flake says more about Milsy and company than Peter Leitch
Many on this forum seek outrage and offence to simply justify the world as they see it, not what it is
??? What does that MEAN?
The mad butcher in context of his life is clearly not a racist…
So why did he do his Paul Holmes impression on Waiheke Island?
Leitch’s most grievous error is having a shrieking loon like Michelle Boag as his PR person. I mean, of all the possible candidates… Boag? It’s like Pope Francis selecting as his spokesperson the reanimated corpse of Tomas de Torquemada.
Maori/Polys are OK as long as they stay in South Auckland where they belong, and not venture over to the white mans paradise of Waiheke Island.
I think that was what Sir Mad Butcher was inferring. Though I have the feeling he should have just said ‘rich man’s island’. Would have saved him a lot of bother.
I think Te Ururoa Flavell has nailed this rather well (from Stuff)
“Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell said he respected Leitch for the work he has done benefiting Maori and Pacific Island communities.
But he said he also respected Bridger for speaking out on what she believed was offensive.
“What this incident highlights is that despite there being no intention to cause offence, it has,” he said.
“The lesson here is no matter how you dress it up, making comments directed at someone else because of their ethnicity is racist and you’ll be called on it.
“For that, we respect the actions of the young woman and her whanau, who have made their point and who now wish to move on.”
Bollocks you don’t have the right to slander somebody on a public medium that 100000 people read because you choose to be offended Leitch should sue her for every thing she has if not to just to put the snow flake generation in thier place what you can and can’t say on line Can you imagine if the herald or TV one made such and accusation. This should have been dealt with privately been a private conversation and obviously the two groups miss communicating with no malice at least on the side of one party
Sadly, Red, I don’t think you have the faintest idea what you’re talking about
Really Jan, can I suggest you engage your little wee brain a bit deeper beyond the immediate topic and ask yourself if some one posted and accusation in a public forum (face book) about you that you felt slandered your good name that 100000 people read , you don’t think you would have a civil case for slander
I don’t think there’s a law about slander in NZ. It’s defamation.
But one element that needs to be proved is that the statement was untrue. Leitch has agreed he said Waiheke is a “white man’s island”. The two people differ as to the intent of the statement.
A defense against being charged with defamation is that the person stated something as an “honest opinion”. That does seem to be the case with respect to the woman.
exactly !!
Hear, hear.
Brown Buttabean is, as his fatuous nickname suggests, a bit of an idiot.
Do you disagree with his comments – most of them are easily provable facts.
Shutting down someone you disagree with by calling him an idiot just shows you as someone with a bias and a chip on their shoulder.
The lesson from all this is that it is impossible for someone to do good things AND sometimes do stupid things. You are either a perfect saint or a filthy sinner, there is no middle ground to be a human.
🙄
What a stupid piece of clickbait
Jesus wept – we finally agree on something.
http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/03/news/economy/ford-700-jobs-trump/index.html
A vote of confidence in Trump by Ford.
That’s odd; a business man who knows how to talk to business. Who wudda thunk.
How much will that end up costing taxpayers? Deals done.
“Uh, Matt, I’m not going to get into colloquy on this one.”
The U.S. has been mocking democracy long before Trump oozed into power.
Contrary to what you might think, there ARE some intelligent and ethical reporters in the United States. One of the best is the indomitable Matt Lee of the Associated Press….
Thinking back to a happier time, when Jenny and the rest of us
were all on the same page. Four long years ago….
“…Colonial, anti-democratic illiberal liberals make me puke…”
Well then CV you picked a pretty stupid country to live in then, didn’t you. Perhaps you ought to consider relocating to somewhere more aligned to your tastes?
And for someone who professes to prefer the bracing honesty of dictators and thugs to the politics of hypocritical neo-colonial liberal democracies, you sure quickly turn into a quivering blancmange of outraged emotional crisis when the bracing honesty comes the other way.
Norightturn points out Bill English’s Achilles heel – an incompetent Nick Smith who instead of sacking, he goes on holiday with. If I were a Labour MP, I would spend my entire time imaging Nick Smith with a giant bullseye stick to his arse. A juicy, juicy target in election year!
http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2017/01/nick-smith-strikes-again.html
Bill English’s double-dipping (i.e., fraud) scandal means he is just as much the Achilles heel of Nick Smith and the National Party….
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/2711246/Bill-English-defends-taxpayer-cash-for-house
Where is the fraud ?
You say it like it’s a fact. But he’s within the rules, and it’s perfectly legal.
Referring to it as fraud when it so obviously isn’t makes you look like a Tin foil hat wearer.
Where is the fraud ?
You’re joking, surely?
You say it like it’s a fact.
It is a fact, and English apologised for defrauding the taxpayer. Sadly, that little exercise of pride-swallowing was his only punishment.
But he’s within the rules, and it’s perfectly legal.
Then why did he pay back the money?
Generally speaking, politicians and big business love things that are deeply unethical, but technically legal. For them, it’s the latter that really matters. Usually, there’s only an apology and an attempt to makes amends when they realise the catastrophic public relations meltdown that will inevitably result once their indiscretions are publicised.
They don’t genuinely feel guilt or shame about what they’re doing. It’s all about reelection and returns to shareholders.
I’ll tell you what – you post a link where English “apologised for defrauding the taxpayer” – I’ll apologize
You make the claim he apologizes for “defrauding” – now back it up?
English’s Achilles heel is the same as most of us – his arrogance. He’s become obsessed with this investment approach to social issues and it’s already driven him to fiscal foolishness with more to come.
IMO when (if ) the general public get to hear what price he really sold the Tauranga State houses for he can start packing his bags. National can spin and swing asset sales to a long suffering public, what they can’t get away with is selling public assets for only a fraction of their worth.
Unfortunately, in 2014 National showed it can get away with anything. This will continue to happen as long as we have the “opposition” party led by someone who called Nicky Hager’s revelations “a distraction.”
In the news; Authorities in the occupied territories are on the search for a suspected Palestinian man who stormed into a Synagogue in Jerusalem and started whipping the worthshippers. Witnesses interviewed later, reported that the man was heard loudly shouting, accusing them of being money changers.
Before storming off, the man was heard to mutter something about going to start his own religion.
Other witnesses of the events said that it they could get hold of the man they felt like crucifying him.
Oops. Sorry I picked up the wrong piece of paper, that was the story of Jesus driving the money changers from the temple. Mathew 21:12-13
And in other news; Kim Dotcom says that he is planning a release of 2 terabytes of data, two days before the next election, iImplicating departing PM John Key and the Nationa….
Jenny those two items are related. It was later reported that one of those being whipped was a certain John Key.
The Jews are going off the deep end on the North Shore. They want their settlements!
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/321760/foreign-minister's-electorate-office-vandalised
Israel is an outlaw state, condemned by the civilized world. Israel is not “the Jews”.
I’m pretty sure Israelis didn’t write it.
I don’t think any Jewish people would write it, Israeli or non-Israeli, unless they were teenagers on the piss. It smells of people trying to ratchet up tensions/get sympathy for the National party.
Aren’t all Jews Israeli citizens?
You might be thinking of the Law Of Return, under which Israel grants most Jews worldwide the right to move to Israel and then become citizens after a short period of residency.
Sadly, not all Israelis are people of the moral fibre of Gideon Levy, Amira Hass, Jeff Halpin or Ilan Pappé. Israel is probably the most paranoid and heavily propagandized country in the world. It’s not “teenagers on the piss” who have destroyed the lives of Palestinians for the last 68 years, and are still destroying them. The culprits are middle-aged, sober desk murderers like these….
http://embassies.gov.il/hanoi-vi/Hanoipicture/1528099007.jpg
It was probably some fundie calling himself/herself “Steadfast” a few days ago… can’t find the exact comment as search is borken 🙁
Yeah… McCully et al should’ve seen that coming. The northern parts of the Shore is home to a few wacky religions, South Africans and extreme right wingers – and Colin Craig. Having said that, there are still normal people living there too. I know because I’ve met them – including Sth Africans. 😈
Edit: OMG, I’m not accusing CC of being the culprit. Given his taste for litigation… 😯
Having met and taught with many immigrant south african and zimbabwean teachers I have found them all to be outstanding additions to the country.
The thugs who vandalized that office are supporters of Israel. They quite possibly are extreme Christians, and not Jews.
Yes, from what I know of them I think that’s quite likely
It smells of being a false flag op. There’s just no precedent for it.
Tell you what though. That resolution censuring Israel was the only half decent thing this government has done.
And it was done immediately after Key had run off…
…coincidence?
This should be an election issue for the Labour/Green government in waiting. Our rivers are dying before our eyes at the hands of farmers and it’s something ordinary rural people know because it’s happening within even a child’s memory.
Someone here suggested the other day that the election should be fought on housing an climate change. I agree with housing but climate change is too inaccessible an issue and is global. Non Green voters won’t be moved by climate change campaigning, but the state of our rivers is an environmental topic, and a disaster, and a really good way to get ordinary people to think about environmental issues.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2017/01/the-selwyn-river-s-unbelievable-decline.html
I have said the same thing a few times, climate change is too macro, the greens, especially need to focus on more of this sort of stuff, this is where hay can be made.
But it’s got to be pitched in a helping positive way, not a punishing way.
I realise that sort of thinking rubs the left wings fur the wrong way, but it’s the most effective approach to getting people on board and enthusiastic about what you’re saying.
And how do you propose that is done?
This is what is happening right now…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11774246
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/81191467/Millions-of-litres-of-water-illegally-taken-Is-ECan-doing-enough
Anyone else breaking the law would have the book thrown at them but not farmers. Massive breaches of already weak environmental protections are occurring and the consequences are light to non-existent.
I propose the actual enforcement of very heavy fines for breaches of local and national protections on discharge and irrigation along with further encouragement/regulation for farmers to both remove stock from nearby waterways and to plant near waterways. Perhaps local youth could be employed in the planting scheme to be jointly paid for by landowners and the taxpayer. If the farmers can’t comply – tough shit, sell up and get out.
That’s a stick and carrot approach.
You need to get Fonterra and all the other milk companies on board.
There’s too much animosity between the left wing and the farming sector, there has to be a go-between to get any sort of scheme to fly.
Get the profit makers to do something about the damage they do in making that profit?
Now there’s a thought.
you make it sound as if no one in NZ other then the ‘left wing’ has an issue with water pollution.
so at a minimum it would be good to define the ‘left wing’.
You’re glossing over the discomfort of genuine conservatives who tend to vote right and also treasure our environment.
Why should respect for our environment be sugar-coated, when disrespect never is? I do not care whether corporate dairying interests are ‘enthusiastic’. They’ve had their lazy time in the sun under this feckless government. Time to pull their socks up and behave like respectful citizens again.
We could play a fun game out of Nationals poisoning of our rivers…..
Called “right direction”, it involves drinking Nationals river-water …. wearing a blindfold ……….. and finding the toilet with the help of team mates who call out instructions.
It’s an educational game on the danger of cowboys in charge …….
White disco pants optional ………….. 🙂
The Green party have consistently campaigned for many years on clean rivers rather than climate change. Many New Zealand voters can remember swimming in and drinking from our streams, rivers and lakes without the slightest hesitation.
When are we going to ban some One Nation politicians from entering NZ. For some reason they are offended by probably the best action by a National government.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/appalled-one-nation-senator-malcolm-roberts-seeks-punitive-stance-against-kiwi-settlements-in-australia-20170104-gtlskt.html
+1. I would have thought being on the wrong side of One Nation is a good thing. It’s probably the only good thing the current government has done in eight years.
Is that waste of space “Sir” Geoffrey Palmer now working for the Myanmar government?
This is the most farcical “report” since the beyond-farcical Palmer-Uribe “report”….
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38505228