” 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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Smiling And Waiving A Golden Opportunity: Chris Hipkins knew that the day at Ratana would be Jacinda’s day – her final opportunity to bask in the unalloyed love and support of her followers. He simply could not afford to be seen to overshadow this last chance for his former boss ...
Extremism Consumes Itself: The plot of “Act of Oblivion” concerns the relentless pursuit of the “regicides” Edward Whalley and William Goffe – two of the fifty-nine signatories to King Charles I’s death warrant. As with his many other works of historical fiction, Robert Harris’s novel brings to life a period ...
To challenge the Government’s promotion of co-governance, to share power between Maori and public authorities and agencies, is to invite accusations of racism. An example: this article by Martyn Bradbury on The Daily Blog headed Luxon’s race baiting hypocrisy at Ratana. The article was triggered by National leader Christopher Luxon, ...
A very informative video discussion: Are we getting the whole story about Ukraine? | Robert Wright & Ivan Katchanovski Getting objective information on the situation in Ukraine and the cause of this current war is not easy. There is the current censorship and blatant mainstream media bias – which ...
Yesterday the Herald ran an op-ed from Mayor Wayne Brown titled “The case for light rail is lighter than ever” and a few things stood out. However, it’s getting more and more tricky to make a strong economic case for spending up to $29 billion on a single route of ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Samantha Harrington Imagine it’s a cold February night and your furnace breaks. You want to replace it with an electric heat pump because you’ve heard that tax credits will help pay for the switch. And you know that heat pumps can reduce ...
In 2005, then-National Party leader based his entire election campaign on racism, with his infamous racist Orewa speech and racist iwi/kiwi billboards. Now, Christopher Luxon seems to want to do it all again: Fresh off using his platform at this week's Rātana celebrations to criticise the government's approach to ...
Inflation is showing little sign of slowing down, posing a problem for freshly minted PM Chris Hipkins. According to that old campaigner Richard Prebble, Hipkins should call a snap election. If he waits till October, he risks being swept away. The dilemma for the new leader is that fighting an election ...
Buzz from the Beehive A great deal has happened since January 19. Among other things, a new Prime Minister and deputy have been sworn in and our leaders (past, present and aspiring) have delivered speeches at Ratana. Newshub reported that politicians of all stripes had descended upon Rātana for the ...
It’s a big day for New Zealand; our 41st Prime Minister has taken office and the new, “Chippy” era of politics is underway. Or, on the other hand, the Labour Party continues to govern with an overall majority and much the same leadership team in place. Life goes on and ...
New Zealand has another Prime Minister who does not have a basic grasp of the three articles of the Treaty of Waitangi. THOMAS CRANMER writes: It is simply astonishing that New Zealand’s next Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, is unable to give even a brief explanation of the three articles ...
A statue of a semi-naked Nick Smith puts the misogyny debate into perspective. GRAHAM ADAMS writes … In the wake of Ardern’s abrupt resignation, the mainstream media are determined to convince us she was hounded from office mainly because she is a woman and had to fall on her sword ...
A Different Kind Of Vibe: In the days and weeks ahead, as the Hipkins ministry takes shape, the only question that matters is whether New Zealand’s new prime minister possesses both the wisdom and the courage to correct his party’s currently suicidal political course. If Chris “Chippy” Hipkins is ...
An editorial in the NZ Herald last week, titled “Nimbyism goes bananas as housing intensifies“, introduced Herald readers to a couple of acronyms that go along with the now-familiar NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard): “bananas” (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone) “cave” dwellers (citizens against virtually everything). The editorial ...
Back in the dark autumn of 2020, when the prospect of Covid was freaking the country out, Finance Minister Grant Robertson set himself and Treasury a series of questions about what a post-Covid economy might look like. Those were fearful days, and the questions in part reflected a series ...
Buzz from the Beehive Yet another day has passed without Ministers of the Crown posting something to show they are still working for us on the Beehive website. Nothing new has been posted since January 17. Perhaps the ministers are all engaged in the bemusing annual excursion ...
Incoming Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has already indicated he intends making the tax system “fairer”. That points to the route a government facing an election could take to tilt the odds towards winning in its favour, given Labour’s support in the last months of the Ardern era had been ...
NewsHub has a poll on the cost-of-living crisis, which has an interesting finding: the vast majority of kiwis prefer wage rises to tax cuts: When asked whether income has kept up with the cost of living, 54.8 percent of people surveyed said no and according to 58.6 percent of ...
Labour has begun 2023 with the centre-left bloc behind in the polls and losing ground. That being so, did his colleagues choose Chris Hipkins as the replacement for Jacinda Ardern because they think he has a realistic shot at leading them to victory this year, or because he‘s the best ...
Two Flags, Two Masters? Just as it required a full-scale military effort to destroy the first attempt at Māori self-government in the 1850s and 60s (an effort that divided Maoridom itself into supporters and opponents of the Crown) any second attempt to establish tino rangatiratanga, based on the confiscatory policies ...
The first of Kiwirail’s big network shutdowns to fix the foundations on our tracks is now well underway with the Southern Line closed between Otahuhu and Newmarket. This is following on from the network wide Christmas/New Year shutdown, during which Kiwirail say that nearly 1,300 people working across 69 different ...
This is a re-post from the Citizens' Climate Lobby blogIn last year’s passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Congress included about $20 billion earmarked for natural climate solutions. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is responsible for deciding how those funds should be allocated to meet the climate ...
You’ve really got to wonder at the introspection, or lack thereof, from much of the mainstream media post Jacinda Ardern stepping down. Some so-called journalists haven’t even taken a breath before once again putting the boot in, which clearly shows their inherent bias and lack of any misgivings about fueling ...
Over the weekend I was interviewed by a media outlet about the threats that Jacinda Ardern and her family have received while she has been PM and what can be expected now that she has resigned. I noted that the level of threat she has been exposed to is unprecedented ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes: The days of the Labour Government being associated with middle class social liberalism look to be numbered. Soon-to-be Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni are heralding a major shift in emphasis away from the constituencies and ideologies of liberal Grey ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to provide direct support to low-income households and to stop subsidising fossil fuels during a climate crisis. ...
The tools exist to help families with surging costs – and as costs continue to rise it is more urgent than ever that we use them, the Green Party says. ...
A new Government and industry strategy launched today has its sights on growing the value of New Zealand’s horticultural production to $12 billion by 2035, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said. “Our food and fibre exports are vital to New Zealand’s economic security. We’re focussed on long-term strategies that build on ...
25 cents per litre petrol excise duty cut extended to 30 June 2023 – reducing an average 60 litre tank of petrol by $17.25 Road User Charge discount will be re-introduced and continue through until 30 June Half price public transport fares extended to the end of June 2023 saving ...
The strong economy has attracted more people into the workforce, with a record number of New Zealanders in paid work and wages rising to help with cost of living pressures. “The Government’s economic plan is delivering on more better-paid jobs, growing wages and creating more opportunities for more New Zealanders,” ...
The Government is providing a further $1 million to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Auckland following flooding, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced today. “Cabinet today agreed that, given the severity of the event, a further $1 million contribution be made. Cabinet wishes to be proactive ...
The new Cabinet will be focused on core bread and butter issues like the cost of living, education, health, housing and keeping communities and businesses safe, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has announced. “We need a greater focus on what’s in front of New Zealanders right now. The new Cabinet line ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins will travel to Canberra next week for an in person meeting with Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. “The trans-Tasman relationship is New Zealand’s closest and most important, and it was crucial to me that my first overseas trip as Prime Minister was to Australia,” Chris Hipkins ...
The Government is providing establishment funding of $100,000 to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Auckland following flooding, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced. “We moved quickly to make available this funding to support Aucklanders while the full extent of the damage is being assessed,” Kieran McAnulty ...
As the Mayor of Auckland has announced a state of emergency, the Government, through NEMA, is able to step up support for those affected by flooding in Auckland. “I’d urge people to follow the advice of authorities and check Auckland Emergency Management for the latest information. As always, the Government ...
Ka papā te whatitiri, Hikohiko ana te uira, wāhi rua mai ana rā runga mai o Huruiki maunga Kua hinga te māreikura o te Nota, a Titewhai Harawira Nā reira, e te kahurangi, takoto, e moe Ka mōwai koa a Whakapara, kua uhia te Tai Tokerau e te kapua pōuri ...
Carmel Sepuloni, Minister for Social Development and Employment, has activated Enhanced Taskforce Green (ETFG) in response to flooding and damaged caused by Cyclone Hale in the Tairāwhiti region. Up to $500,000 will be made available to employ job seekers to support the clean-up. We are still investigating whether other parts ...
The 2023 General Election will be held on Saturday 14 October 2023, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. “Announcing the election date early in the year provides New Zealanders with certainty and has become the practice of this Government and the previous one, and I believe is best practice,” Jacinda ...
Jacinda Ardern has announced she will step down as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party. Her resignation will take effect on the appointment of a new Prime Minister. A caucus vote to elect a new Party Leader will occur in 3 days’ time on Sunday the 22nd of ...
The Government is maintaining its strong trade focus in 2023 with Trade and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor visiting Europe this week to discuss the role of agricultural trade in climate change and food security, WTO reform and New Zealand agricultural innovation. Damien O’Connor will travel tomorrow to Switzerland to attend the ...
The Government has extended its medium-scale classification of Cyclone Hale to the Wairarapa after assessing storm damage to the eastern coastline of the region. “We’re making up to $80,000 available to the East Coast Rural Support Trust to help farmers and growers recover from the significant damage in the region,” ...
The Government is making an initial contribution of $150,000 to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Tairāwhiti following ex-Tropical Cyclone Hale, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced. “While Cyclone Hale has caused widespread heavy rain, flooding and high winds across many parts of the North Island, Tairāwhiti ...
Rural Communities Minister Damien O’Connor has classified this week’s Cyclone Hale that caused significant flood damage across the Tairāwhiti/Gisborne District as a medium-scale adverse event, unlocking Government support for farmers and growers. “We’re making up to $100,000 available to help coordinate efforts as farmers and growers recover from the heavy ...
It’s the biggest week in Real Pod history! Jane made her debut in Treasure Island: Fans v Faves and we grill her all about the drama from week one. Why did she put up Micah? How brutal was the wrestling challenge IRL? And what were her concerns about joining Lance’s ...
Treasure Island is back, baby, and so are our power rankings. Tara Ward recaps all the big plays from the dramatic first week of Fans v Faves. Treasure Island: Fans v Faves has finally washed ashore, and after hoovering down the first three action-packed episodes, I’m fuller than a weatherman ...
By Felix Chaudhary in Suva New Zealand-based Fijian academic Professor Steven Ratuva says that if the coalition government is strong, resilient and lasts, “this will reflect well as a future model for coalitions in Fiji”. “It’s a learning process for a new government and a new democracy and we expect ...
By Finau Fonua, RNZ Pacific journalist Many Pasifika families affected by the flash floods and torrential rainfall that have lashed New Zealand’s North Island over the past few days were braced for more bad weather overnight. With four people dead and hundreds forced out of their homes over the weekend ...
RNZ Pacific A New Zealand-based professor in comparative politics says the Fiji constitution needs to clear up the role of the military. Dr Jon Fraenkel of Victoria University, formerly of the University of the South Pacific, says the 2013 constitution revived the provision that existed in the 1990 constitution which ...
By Repeka Nasiko in Lautoka Fiji’s Media Industry Development Act will soon be reviewed over the next few weeks. Speaking to The Fiji Times in Lautoka on Monday, Minister for Communications Manoa Kamikamica said the review was one of the main objectives of the coalition government when it came to ...
ANALYSIS:By Peter Wilson, political commentator for RNZ News Tuesday, February 7, at 2pm. That’s when New Zealand’s new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins’ parliamentary year begins and he faces National leader Christopher Luxon in the debating chamber for the first question time of 2023. He needs to “Win the House”, ...
Analysis - Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has had a dream start with polls showing Labour ahead of National, but now he has to prove himself in Parliament and quickly deliver on his promises. ...
Andrew Kirton has been appointed the prime minister’s staff by Chris Hipkins. He begins the role on February 8, replacing Raj Nahna, who has resigned. Nahna become Jacinda Ardern’s chief of staff after Mike Munro resigned for health reasons in 2019. A former Helen Clark staffer, Labour Party general secretary ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luciano Beheregaray, Matthew Flinders Professor of Biodiversity Genomics, Flinders University Shutterstock As the climate heats up rapidly, many species will struggle to avoid extinction. If they had time, they could evolve to the new environmental conditions. But they don’t. That’s ...
The Labour Party has selected Sarah Pallett as its candidate for the Ilam electorate in the 2023 general election. Sarah has been the MP for Ilam since the 2020 General Election. She currently sits on two Select Committees, is the Chair of the Labour ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Madison Williams-Hoffman, PhD Candidate in Environmental Radioactivity, Edith Cowan University WA Department of Fire and Emergency Services By now, you’ve probably heard about a tiny radioactive capsule that went missing from the back of a truck somewhere in Western Australia. ...
Auckland mayor Wayne Brown has welcomed the news that schools will be allowed to reopen from tomorrow morning. The Ministry of Education backtracked on its initial decision to keep schools closed until next week. In a statement, Brown also welcomed the blue sky that had replaced clouds across the super ...
Auckland Pride has quietly become one of the most culturally and economically important festivals in the country. Jade Winterburn writes about what it means to her as a queer Aucklander and her hopes for its future.It took some encouragement from a friend to get me out to see my ...
As Auckland begins a big dry following record rainfall and devastating floods, the official response from Mayor Wayne Brown and others has come under scrutiny. In The Spinoff’s politics podcast Gone By Lunchtime, Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Ben Thomas debate the deluge ...
How has Chris Hipkins performed in his first big tests as prime minister? Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Ben Thomas debate the deluge aftermath, as well as assessing Wayne Brown’s emergency response, and a pair of polls that show an election year in the balance. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan de Groot Heupner, Senior Research Fellow, Griffith University US Secretary of State Antony Blinken rushed to the Middle East this week to make yet another push for a negotiated settlement between Israel and the Palestinians following yet another dramatic escalation in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol Johnson, Emerita Professor, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Adelaide Mick Tsikas/AAP Treasurer Jim Chalmers begins his Monthly essay “Capitalism After the Crises” with a quote from the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus: “No man ever steps in ...
New Prime Minister Chris Hipkins followed up an announcement of new cost of living measures on Wednesday with a visit to a North Shore Marae The clouds parted and a tableau of brilliant blue rushed in to fill the void as the fledgling Prime Minister made his rounds of Auckland ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Strong, Associate professor, Music Industry, RMIT University In its new national cultural policy, the Australian government grapples with issues extending well beyond the creative arts. The policy document places issues like First Nations representation, work and wages, technological upheaval, discrimination ...
Morningside Live Blockparty will proceed this Sunday February 5 as scheduled, and at this point sunshine is forecast. Severe weather over the weekend and last night, however, has seen the location of The Spinoff Carpet Club stage (a basement below The Carpet Court) flooded and unusable for the event taking ...
Auckland schools will be able to open their doors to students from tomorrow. That’s despite the Ministry of Education announcing late on Monday afternoon that all learning facilities, including kura and universities, must close until after the Waitangi long weekend. Schools have been notified today that the blanket directive to ...
What are you going to be watching in February? We round up everything coming to streaming services this month, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, Neon and TVNZ+. The biggies You (season four, part one on Netflix from February 9) When we last left murder-curious hipster Joe Goldberg, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Grattan Institute Lukas Coch/AAP Nine months after the 2022 federal election, voters finally get a look at how much the parties spent and who funded their campaigns. Data released today reveal Australia’s political parties collectively ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has welcomed the decision to lift the Ministry of Education’s directive on Auckland schools and other learning facilities, which means schools can open from tomorrow at their discretion. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, ...
The head of the South Island’s Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency says the new Cabinet announced by Prime Minister Chris Hipkins yesterday is good news for Māori, with Peeni Henare retaining his spot as Minister of Whānau Ora, and Kiri Allan and Willie ...
The latest report from Aroturuki Tamariki, the Independent Children’s Monitor, on Experiences of Care in Aotearoa shows that there is not yet a significant improvement in outcomes for children in care, or their whānau and caregivers. Experiences of ...
The Children’s Commissioner, Judge Frances Eivers, said today that the latest Independent Child Monitor report into the performance of Oranga Tamariki, provides valuable insights, but its findings are of huge concern. Judge Eivers said, “In ...
Auckland’s deputy mayor has commented (via tweet) after this morning appearing to label her boss “part of the problem” in an interview about the flooding. On TVNZ’s Breakfast this morning, Desley Simpson was asked when the media will be able to speak with Wayne Brown, who has been particularly reluctant ...
Found a lost pet? Wondering how the animal shelters are going? The SPCA and the Auckland Council animal management team share some advice. Floods don’t just affect humans, they affect the furry members of the family too. It’s important to look out for animals following the Auckland floods, although it’s ...
An assessment of the impacts on an “inundated” City Rail Link project is under way following flooding in Auckland. Crews have pumped water from tunnels and stations sites and equipment was being salvaged and inspected, said the project chief executive Sean Sweeney. “At this stage there is no known structural ...
The government has announced another extension of its cost of living package – the fourth time it has pushed out the end date. The 25 cent cut to petrol excise duty, along with half price public transport fares, will be kept in place until June 30. These were initially set ...
It’s one of the most explosive moments in New Zealand’s political history. Now, director Tony Sutorius (Campaign) lifts the lid on the Jami-Lee Ross saga in Elements of Truth. After a fallout with National that threatens to bring the entire party down with it, Jami-Lee Ross seeks a return to ...
It was one of the most explosive moments in New Zealand’s political history. Now, a new documentary from director Tony Sutorius (Campaign) is lifting the lid on the Jami-Lee Ross saga.After a fallout with National that threatened to bring the entire party down with it, Jami-Lee Ross sought a ...
Transporting New Zealand has applauded the decision of the Government to reinstate the Transport Support Package, which includes the discount to road user charges (RUC). "On behalf of the transport industry and those who run diesel fuelled vehicles, ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins who is in Auckland today has confirmed the cut to the fuel excise tax and half-price public transport will be extended until June. ...
The Tree Council is experiencing first hand, along with everyone else, the worst ravages of the flooding, landslips, chaos and carnage currently engulfing Auckland. The record-breaking rainfall and its unprecedented intensity is a clear signal of ...
Low unemployment and strong wage growth in the December quarter 2022 Household Labour Force Survey are further evidence of New Zealand’s robust recovery from the pandemic, says the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions. NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff said ...
The Taxpayers’ Union – which has been campaigning for an extension to the diesel road-user charges and petrol excise reductions – has welcomed the Government’s announcement today that the fuel tax cuts will continue until 30 June. They have, ...
Unemployment has risen slightly to 3.4%, just a 0.1 point bump from the December quarter. “The unemployment rate… has remained at or near historic lows since the September 2021 quarter,” said Stats NZ’s work and wellbeing statistics senior manager Becky Collett. The underutilisation rate, which measures spare labour capacity, such ...
Maybe twice a year is too many times to visit the villa, writes Alex Casey. This is an excerpt from The Spinoff’s weekly pop culture and entertainment newsletter Rec Room – sign up here.Lana is a simple girl with simple needs. “I like the simple things in life,” she tells ...
The length of time someone has spent in Australia will soon be a “primary consideration” when determining whether a visa should be cancelled. It’s a major softening of the controversial 501 deportation scheme that has caused tensions between Australia and New Zealand. Jacinda Ardern fought for changes to the rules ...
If you’re an investor, or looking to become one in 2023, Dean Anderson from Kernel Wealth sheds some light on what that might look like after the highs and lows of last year.Following the dizzying highs of 2021 when stocks skyrocketed to record-setting gains, 2022 proved to be a ...
We are now accepting applications for The Next Page, a programme focusing on the development of early-career magazine editors, with participants receiving mentorship and taking part in three wānanga across the year. Nau mai, haere mai!Te kaupapaEditors play a vital role in our media landscape, yet very few ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins who is in Auckland today has confirmed the cut to the fuel excise tax and half-price public transport will be extended until June. ...
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.4 percent in the December 2022 quarter, compared with 3.3 percent last quarter, Stats NZ said today. “The unemployment rate, as measured by the Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS), has remained at or ...
Engaging seniors and young people through workshops, creating a series of kaupapa Māori events for kaumātua and kuia, and delivering retirement workshops are among the latest projects funded by the Age friendly fund. Office for Seniors Director, ...
A Newshub item discussing the alleged misuse of public funds for safety improvements at a greyhound racetrack was unbalanced and inaccurate, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. The Authority has upheld a complaint by Greyhound Racing New ...
It’s Wednesday, February 1 and welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates – continuing our ongoing coverage of the flooding in Auckland and its aftermath. I’m Stewart Sowman-Lund, you can reach me on [email protected] What you need to know Auckland remains in a local state of emergency after ...
Under-fire Auckland mayor Wayne Brown has doubled (tripled?) down on his criticism of the media, accusing reporters of ignoring the work he has done in the wake of last week’s floods. In a conversation with Herald reporter David Fisher, who was first leaked the now infamous “drongo” text, Brown said ...
Residents in the flood-hit suburb of Browns Bay were outraged to find Auckland Transport traffic wardens had been out ticketing parked vehicles. According to Stuff, about 22 infringement notices were issued to cars in the North Shore suburb – seemingly going against the Civil Defence advice to stay home and ...
No one warned me how badly grief can make you yearn for physical intimacy – or how much backlash I would get for wanting to talk about it.On January 19, 2003, I moved to Aotearoa as the wife of a very handsome, very charming, very kind man. Jason Hotere ...
Stuff’s Luke Malpass is reporting that prime minister Chris Hipkins will announce an extension to the 25-cent petrol tax cut and half-price public transport. Those were set to end by March 31, as announced by finance minister Grant Robertson in December. The announcement is likely to be made today when Hipkins ...
The top of the country has endured another wild night of heavy rain and wind, with flash flooding hitting areas still recovering from Friday’s deluge. Parts of Auckland were cut off earlier this morning as the northern motorway closed in both directions. Waka Kotahi said all lanes had now opened, ...
Former physician Ayesha Verrall and former principal Jan Tinetti pick up big portfolios while Auckland gets an advocate in an otherwise well-anticipated cabinet reshuffle, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. An ...
The Free Fares coalition welcomes news that the Government will extend half-price public transport. “Affordable public transport is helping to ease cost of living pressures,” said Free Fares spokesperson Kate Day. “Right now, half-price fares ...
While Auckland was being devastated by flooding last weekend, a potentially more serious threat to life was playing out off Wellington’s south coast. The interisland ferry Kaitaki had lost power and was drifting in heavy swells towards the coastline. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Sawyer, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Australian Catholic University Shutterstock Child abuse and neglect is, unfortunately, a far more common occurrence in Australia than many people realise. In Australia in 2020–21 (the most recent figures available), there were more than ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer Frost, Associate Professor, University of Auckland Paramount Pictures In his latest film, Babylon, director Damien Chazelle presents a very different vision of the home of America’s motion picture industry than he did in his Oscar-winning 2016 film, La La ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Roberts, Professor in Robotics, Queensland University of Technology frank60/Shutterstock With generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems such as ChatGPT and StableDiffusion being the talk of the town right now, it might feel like we’ve taken a giant leap closer to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vanessa Cobham, Professor of Clinical Psychology, The University of Queensland Shutterstock Many children come down with a case of the back-to-school blues as summer slips away. Having spent the holidays staying up late and having fun with friends and family, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Martijn Boersma, Associate Professor, University of Notre Dame Australia Ten years ago, the garment industry’s worst industrial accident – the Rana Plaza collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh – killed more than 1,100 workers and highlighted the travesty of conditions for millions of garment ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Shaw, Professor of Politics, Massey University New prime minister Chris Hipkins with deputy Carmel Sepuloni.Getty Images With a cabinet reshuffle just a day after two polls showing Labour ahead again – in which he promoted more Māori MPs to the ...
What to do once the water levels recede and you’re allowed to return home. Assess the damage If you’ve safely evacuated your home from floodwaters, you’ll need to wait for Civil Defence to give you the OK to return. When you do, wear protective gear like gloves, a mask and ...
As the country’s northernmost GP, and later as the MP for the country’s northernmost Māori electorate, Bruce Gregory was the ultimate community doctor.We’re not on a road, not even a dirt road. We’re crawling through a rutted gap between sand dunes in Bruce’s ancient Land Rover. It is, to ...
The wrong tree in the right place is an ongoing conundrum for Central Otago District Council with a long-awaited compromise plan seemingly decided yesterday stalled at the 11th hour Ken Churchill has been turning up at council meetings in Alexandra with regular monotony for the past 17 months in a ...
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://vimeo.com/181517859, 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….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flbzqFLrnoU
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