” The death of a bull at a Wairarapa rodeo on Friday night will add fuel to the fire in the debate on whether the sport should be banned.
….rodeo-type activities would not be tolerated on a farm or when inflicted on a pet, but they are allowed “in the name of fun” for a cruel and outdated form of entertainment.
The difference with rodeo is that the events pit humans against distressed animals in an arena with the expectation that the human will come out on top. Is this really how we want to have fun in a supposedly civilised country in the 21st century?”
I remember going to a bull fight in Spain in the late 1960’s – it was supposedly the “done thing” if you went to Spain. In a way bullfighting is a more extreme form of rodeo – it goads and angers the bull by injuring it and the entire event was very distressing for me personally. Nothing sporting about it – rodeo is the same, nothing sporting about it, legging the animals when they haven’t a chance of escape, pissing the bulls and horses of with the aggravating strap around its belly – what chance is that for the animals.
Do away with it – its enough we kill thousands of the beasts each year just for our pleasure of eating them – give them respect at least until then.
I really hope Bill stays on as National ‘s leader.
“ ‘In the middle of a historic five-day stint at Waitangi, Prime Minister Jacinda
Ardern will lead a large contingent of Labour MPs at Monday’s official welcome.
National’s Steven Joyce will be among 11 National Party MPs at the powhiri with leader Bill English elsewhere in the country.”
Russell Brown lacks the energy to do his job any more. Time to give up?
past it(informal) too old to be of any use or any good at anything. synonyms: past one’s prime, not as young as one was, not as young as one used to be
After the death of Nelson Mandela in late 2013, Russell Brown suffered the indignity of having his blog hijacked by the cynical National Party provocateur Matthew Hooton, who had the effrontery to claim that Mandela was similar to Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. The thread naturally dissolved into chaos after that, and by the end of the day Brown was at the end of his tether. I satirized the imbroglio here…
Brown clearly has no stomach for robust discussions any more. After the recent attempt to smear Lorde, he wrote a thoughtful piece about the whole shameful affair, but then at the end, where the discussion should have been,we find this sad little note….
Hi folks. Normally, I’d welcome comments here, but I honestly don’t have the energy during the holiday period to oversee a discussion that would undoubtedly need pretty much constant watching. Sorry, but comments are off.
[I personally feel uncomfortable with you using The Standard comments section to smear another left wing blogger because of a long running grudge you hold towards him. I haven’t talked to the other authors about this, but given you have a history of posting misleading comments I am just going to put some boundaries in place.
If you want to reference a conversation at Public Address, you now need to link directly to the conversation *each time*. If the comments section is pages long, you need to link to the specific part of the conversation you are referring to. This is so that people reading your comment can make up their own mind by seeing the conversation itself and in context. *You need to do the work of linking.
Putting you into moderation until you supply a link for the above comment.
Others have dealt with your views on Brown’s suspending commenting – weka]
Shame on Russell Brown for wanting a little peace and quiet during the holiday period. Doesn’t he realise it’s his job, nay duty, to supervise frothing toddlers bickering on the internet 24/7? The audacity of the man!
When you set up and run a blog that lots of people find interesting and choose to spend time debating on, you too can spend your holiday time monitoring and moderating said blog.
Sorry, weka, but you have provided not one bit of evidence of my posting even one “misleading comment.”
[I count inaccurate transcripts that are presented as transcripts as ‘misleading’. And in that conversation I linked to, you appeared to accept that. – weka]
You are willfully misconstruing my rush transcripts—unlike my present ones, they weren’t always perfect, but they were far from “inaccurate”—as though I was deliberately misleading my readers. I did not do that; if I was of that cast of mind I’d be working for the National or Labour Party propaganda units, or for something even worse, like the three “news” team.
[sigh. read the links in the link. We’ve been over this ad nauseam, and the links show the inaccuracy because people went and linked to the actual audio and demonstrated the mistakes. I haven’t said it was intentional on your part, I’ve said you have a history of misleading comments – weka]
Morning Breakfast people its good that you are keeping the debate on weed going it was a good article you ran with MR Cameron that name is quite strong in
Te Taiwarhiti .
I had one quip with the article that is that know mention of all the people who get a criminal record because of the way these ancient laws are forced on us .
I will wait for the correct time for me to have more input on the subject of weed in Aotearoa there are some issues that I stay out of so as to not have a negative effect against the good cause I.E rally the neolibrals against it . I think Fair GO is a show that fights for the common peoples causes to be treated fairly Like the wealthy are one should not have to have heaps of money to expect to be treated humanly by our society but that’s the way it is .
May be I should approach Fair Go to help me fight the NZ justice system for the facial way they are treating a broke brown person/human like ECO MAORI .
Yeah Right the sandfly will shine there hypnotic object and spin anything to stop that.
You see people the follow me everywhere I go trying to break my WAIRUA but know I have to much MANA for that to ever happen. P.S ITs good to see you all Eco likes the good kiwi Karma you good people on Breakfast are displaying Ka pai.
Ka kite ano
He was a major fundraiser for the Democratic Party.
With the Republicans in the ascendancy he isn’t quite as popular anymore.
Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren, among others could probably tell you all about him although I expect they have probably developed very convenient selective amnesia.
Time to move on though. Nothing to see here. https://www.businessinsider.com.au/harvey-weinstein-political-donations-2017-10?r=US&IR=T
Like the time I ended pretending to be married in an attempt to put an end to the ongoing sexual harassment from my then employer. It worked due to his culture.
In reflection I should have spoken out as my actions did nada to prevent the same happening to any other women he may have employed after I eventually quit, I feel bad about that now, but young and naive I was.
Yeah, but unlike the RNC’s finance chief Steve Wynn, Weinstein wasn’t a party functionary.
And unlike the their call for Weinstein’s donations to be returned tout suite, the RNC hypocrites are touting due process before they even think about returning any of Wynn’s donations.
RNC chairwoman on Fox says RNC won’t yet return Wynn $: “Steve has denied these allegations. There is an investigation that is going to take place. He should be allowed due process. If he is found guilty of any wrongdoing, we will absolutely return 100% of the money."— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) January 30, 2018
In an interview with CNN from October, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel praised Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer for returning donations from Weinstein, but added: “The DNC should do the same thing. They’re keeping 90 percent of his donations. I don’t understand. If you stand for treating women well and you stand for the respect of women, you shouldn’t take money from somebody who treated women with the absolute highest level of disrespect.”
But in January 2018, the GOP is singing a very different tune after a Wall Street Journal investigation found that Steve Wynn, casino magnate and finance chair of the RNC, allegedly sexually harassed and assaulted dozens of women over the past two decades. The party accepted Wynn’s resignation as finance chair.
But it isn’t isn’t looking to return his donations anytime soon. “He should be allowed due process,” McDaniel said on Fox on Tuesday morning.
[…]
You don’t need “due process” or a criminal investigation to fire a private employee or return an alleged harasser’s political donations. Weinstein wasn’t investigated by the New York Police Department (at first) — he was investigated by Ronan Farrow at the New Yorker and by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey at the New York Times.
Former Today show host Matt Lauer was fired by NBC — without investigation by police. And, of course, conservatives — and the GOP — have long noted a number of allegations of harassment and sexual assault against former President Bill Clinton that never reached the courts.
That makes it alright then.
The Republican Party also has skeletons in its closet.
What is that phrase? We can ignore it. They did it too.
As I said. Nothing to see here. Time to move on.
It’s quite clear, liberals have acted decisively and removed harassers and conservative hypocrites have routinely labelled accusers liars, hidden behind due process and trotted out apologists like Sarah “Sen. Franken has admitted wrongdoing and the president hasn’t” Huckabooboo.
You know what’s so hard case Rock people it’s when I drive past a road work site the workers are looking at the ground or star gazeing. What was Jen talking about when she pulled her calf mussels that would be good to know now there is someone at a business I mowed when they are never there anther play by the sandflys Ka kite ano
The main reason workers pause when cars are going past or trains are going past, is because it’s good not to be run over and killed. So they step out of the way.
Note also: for every one person on the end of a shovel, you also have to have other people “standing around”:
– health and safety
– site engineers
– site supervisors
– client
– subcontractors waiting for another part of the job to complete
– traffic staff
– machine operators eg cranes, trucks, hi-ab, all of which wait for other epople to do their jobs
So before you do the usual thing again thinking: why is only one person working and the rest of them standing around, the simple answer is:
they are not your personal performing monkeys who jump up and down just because you and yours rolled up in a car.
Morning Jim how’s the new Moko there must be some in the water at The Rock radio station all those new mokos well all the best to you all.
Road workers what eco meant was the sandflys are going ahead of me and telling you people not to notice me they bull you people and say that they have a court order to stop any publicly for me you people on the ground work hard and all deserve a pay rise. Ka kite ano
Man can not even have a private conversations with his Whano and the sandflys spinn it up to use what I say in private as a weapon thatssssss right a poor Brown man has no rights I forgot that is accepterable in OUR society. Eco is not impressed with the talent and leadership of our Maori leaders over the last 50 years .
My problem is they let crown con them that the justice system is humane and fair mean while the jails are over flowing with Maori. They throw there hands up in the air and say we don’t know what’s wrong with the system. They have let MSM publish all the bad stories about Maori and say it ok it’s true what about all the positive thing Maori achieve .There are many things that the powerful Maori have just let happen they were just looking after there own.It’ got that bad that everyone looks down there noses look at US never give us the respect and trust . We are all tared with that same brush that is published on MSM that the neolibrels instergated ECO MAORI is going to change that disrespectful view of all MAORI like I’m doing NOW KA PAI
P.S. Many thanks for that positive article on Maori in KOREA Kimberly Downs.
ANA TO kai
Eco Maori is backing your show Hillary and Jeremy we just have to interactive a bit and your ratings will rise sharply Eco has been waiting patiently for this new show on TVNZ ON 1 at SEVEN Pm Ka kite ano
I not impressed with the Maori leaders we got now either . They know how this system works and chose to say nothing to WARN OUR Mokos It’s algood Eco Maori has told all the people about this corrupt justice systems of the western society. And crime is dropping 2 reasons 1 being informed about the bullshit systems 2 they have a swarm following me around all the time the sandflys don’t have the time to harass OUR Mokos Ka pai I can handle the sandflys heat.lol Ana to kai.
ECO MAORI has been reassing his views on Barack Obama he is m8 with shonky key who I know is a racist bigot who main goal was to destroy MAORI Mana and full his pockets and his m8 how many billions did he spend down South irragation schemes bailing out that finance company giving our money to people who are already rich WTF .
So Big No to Obama coming to Aotearoa at OUR expense just to lift AMERICA IMAGE .Shonky key would get some positive publicity out of that visit to after what key has done to Aotearoa no fucken way .ANA TO KAI
Eco Maori knows that Hillary Barry and Jeremy wells won’t caste a subliminal message to all the people of Aotearoa that it’s OK to drive a million dollar car own a million dollar’ house talk about all the bags his wife has when they go on holiday to America and kiss shonky ass whenever he can and ridicule OUR poorest people who have slipped on there ladder of life. Then give his m8 dairy dack dune a pat on the back while his son m8 is poisoning OUR people for a profit heres a person form that party he likes on this link bellow ka pai Hillary & Jeremy
Ka kite ano
Heard her speak about problems for Māori, poverty and inequality, poor housing, rangatahi suicide rate and mental health. Major, major issues that the Government plays a large part in.
You have to wonder how many times Māori have heard a politician promising change, and many of these things won’t be able to be turned around quickly either. She appears genuine, but who knows if the rest of the Labour caucus is.
Yes Ad, a speech I’m proud to listen to. A P.M. we can be proud of.
Her call for the people of the Marae and else where to hold her and the government to account each year, with face to face meetings, to discuss progress during Waitangi Week.
We can do this. We can change lives working together.
I’m thinking back, and I can’t remember an occasion where the spouse/partner of a Prime Minister played such a central role at Waitangi as it seems the Current Incumbent’s is.
Even to picking up the wero…a task that should more appropriately gone to a male colleague rather than a partner.
That was Labour giving the PM’s spouse an honour – maybe so he wouldn’t be feeling “left out” of all the proceedings. Maybe it was as simple a gesture as that.
Get over it Rosemary. It was a nice thing for him to be able to do.
Researchers at Stanford University have developed a compound that when injected into a tumor destroys it along with all the other cancerous masses present in the body.
The combination of two agents that stimulate the immune system sparked a body-wide reaction in mice, destroying cancer cells both near and very far from the initial injection point. The success of the treatment, which worked for different types of cancer, means that human trials will be starting soon.
Geez Puckish, I thought your filter was better than that. The memo doesn’t stand scrutiny, let alone the wild allegations and conclusions being spouted about it.
Meanwhile here in New Zealand, you heard of a book called Dirty Politics by Nicky Hager? It’s got all sorts of interesting bits, including stuff about the office of the incumbent head of government misusing the nation’s spy services to smear the opposition.
What, you mean we don’t have the overseas mega-wealthy with possible foreign government connections paying visits to politicians in order to acquire favourable treatment?
Good to know.
On a different note, have they repealed the hobbit employment law yet?
I love the fact the Trump wing of the Republican party still think Obama is president and Clinton is some sort of shadow president pulling the strings. Or something – it’s hard to make sense of what the fuck they actually think or are trying to infer.
Well if true, and thats still a big if, it means Trump was spied on illegally and it was endorsed by the highest office in the land so they probably think its a big deal
It said nothing about Trump, it was about Carter Page. Even leading Republicans such as Trey Gowdy say it has nothing to do with the investigation into the Trump campaign.
If the name Trey Gowdy vaguely rings a bell, it was he who decided 8 investigations into Hillary and Benghazi weren’t enough and conducted a ninth. And came up with nothing that could even be spun as culpability on Hillary’s part.
edit: although, to give him his due, that investigation did highlight the issue of her server.
Just in case you’re interested, here’s a reminder of Nunes’ previous clusterfuck of an attempt to blow a smokescreen for Hair Fuhrer to hide behind and claim vindication. He’s got form for embarrassingly inept stunts like this.
Half a dozen close members of the Trump campaign have either been indicted or disclosed their own emails detailing activities they believed to be on behalf of the Russians. The nunes memo is an attempt to poison one of the initial warrants that exposed this poisonous tree, because the one commonality all of these people have is Trump.
I doubt they have enough to nuke the investigation via court appeals – the FISA warrants against page don’t cover Flynn, for example – but they’re looking for enough PR shielding to excuse interfering in the investigation.
fuck off. Claiming to know nothing aids and abets all of the world’s ills. Better to take a stand (and be wrong once in a while) than to exercise Cartesian doubt as a dodge from moral culpability.
Oh bullshit. You’re just too much of a coward to form a reasoned belief on the world around you. If you actually believed something, you might one day actually have to commit to it.
The other thing that pisses me off about the “oh no, it’s impossible to know anything” approach is that not only are you helping corruption run rampant, you try and pretend like you’re better than people who do actually engage with their surroundings. Fuck you. People like you are part of the reason people don’t vote, which favours tories and demogogues. You are actively trying to keep the corrupt in office.
It’s ironic that the only thing you pretend to have a firm opinion on is your intellectual superiority.
And yes, the proposition that sowing apathy and encouraging political disengagement does indeed provide fertaile soil for corruption is logical:
Corruption multiplies most when out of the public view;
Saying that we can never know the truth instead of looking for it and exposing it keeps the truth out of the public view;
therefore:
Saying that we can never know the truth instead of looking for it and exposing it provides the most ideal environment for corruption to multiply.
Logical enough for you, fucko?
One thing I don’t know is why you bother commenting here – surely your extreme epistemological skepticim means that you must have overwhelmig doubt that your computer even exists? Your desire for attention betrays your arguments as a fraud: if your doubt were genuinely that extreme, there could well be no attention to be gained and any effort commenting here would be wasted.
Your pretension creates a paradox that exposes itself. You’ve been hoist by your own canard.
That’s a handy excuse that no-one will understand for me to give out when I have come out with something off the wall – sorry didn’t want to waffle with Cartesian doubt so posited that.
McFlock I enjoyed that but will try to keep out of the way when you let fly.
I was thinking the other day about people who won’t have children because they don’t want to bring little ones into such a bad world. That seems cowardly too, though I think China was trying to do the right thing, limiting to two would be best.
Funnily enough, I don’t recall ever having been irked by your comments in the slightest, so you needn’t fear me going off the handle.
I think some people are overly pessimistic about the world – especially those people who are in a position to choose their fertility based on bets about what will happen in thirty years.
The kids who really suffer will be born to parents who had no choice because healthcare wasn’t available.
China was/is in a major demographic bind, but its solution has had some unforseen negatives, like a hefty gender imbalance.
“Morgan Stanley reports having 210 subsidiaries in offshore tax havens. ”
“Citigroup reported operating 427 tax haven subsidiaries in 2008 but disclosed only 41 in 2014. Over that time period, Citigroup nearly doubled the amount of cash it reported holding offshore. ”
“Bank of America reported operating 264 tax haven subsidiaries in 2013 but disclosed only 22 in 2014. ”
If the Russians did hack the U.s elections …. It was by calling all their diplomats home on the eve of the election …. giving the impression of a war footing preparation for a Clinton win.
Whether this induced any u.s voters, specifically those afraid of nuclear war with russia ….to give their vote to Trump instead of Clinton….. is unknown and unexplored to the best of my knowledge.
I’m not that invested in the continuation of criminality that both Trump and Clinton represent ….
I think it would be good if Trump was arrested over his profiteering from criminal russian money laundering …… criminal oligarchs stealing from the poor should be prosecuted … just like war criminals should….Convictions for either are like rocking horse shit.
I’d be very surprised if ‘creative’ business structures do not provide Trump with Wayne Mapp / Bill English standards of legal plausible deniability…. and then he could quote John Key ” We observe the law”….. ” every thing is above board ” ….. ” Its all a political smear”.
I can’t recognise Disaster Capitalism and pay attention to the FBI’s investigation at the same time, eh, because I’m inattentive and stupid, and don’t know how.
Well, he did hire someone intelligence services were interested in because of their connections to Russia, so he can’t really bleat about turning up in incidental collection.
NEW: I just found this video of Carter Page in Moscow, Russia speaking in support of Vladimir Putin, while working on the Trump campaign. He calls the American international affairs strategy "hostile," then goes on to talk about the "failure of US analysts & leaders" #TrumpRussiapic.twitter.com/LE2T6mMrcC— Scott Dworkin (@funder) February 5, 2018
Carter Page, the energy industry consultant who was linked last year to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, is the unnamed man identified in a federal complaint as having met with a Russian intelligence agent four years ago, Page himself revealed on Monday.
Page confirmed his role in the 2013 FBI investigation to NBC News after ABC News and Buzzfeed identified him as a subject called “Male 1” in a criminal complaint filed in 2015 against Evgeny Buryakov, an undercover agent posing as a Russian bank executive in New York.
The GOP supported a sexual predator, Trump. an accused child sex offender, Moore, and now with a former head of American Nazi Party, white supremacist and Holocaust denier running unopposed as nominee for Congress, dollars to donuts Republicans will go for the threefer and vote for him.
“Mr. Trump may have said some bad words, but Bill Clinton raped me, and Hillary Clinton threatened me,” Broaddrick added. “I don’t think there’s any comparison.”
What they don’t say though, is that part of the problem is that there are some very wealthy people who make a lot of money from ultra-processed products. These wealthy groups fund some very good lobbyists who actively oppose laws designed to reduce the impact these non-foods
It’s how we get op-ed pieces in our major media publications extolling the virtues of individual choice & downplaying the role of obesegenic environments. These pieces work to drowning out the actual research and minimise long-term health implications on population groups
It has been a subject of conjecture for a long time – the secretive Freemasons, who must be a body of conservatives that have had antipathy to lefties over centuries and interested in protecting the status quo when it rewards them satisfactorily. A very solid union or group of self-protecting business or professional people.
The disclosure that both political journalists and politicians are Freemasons comes after the outgoing chair of the Police Federation alleged that Freemasons were blocking reforms in policing and thwarting the progress of women and officers from black and minority ethnic communities.
After three years as the chair of the Police Federation, Steve White said: “I found that there were people who were fundamentally against any kind of change and any kind of progress, and they always happened to be Freemasons.”
The charge brought an angry denial from the UGLE. In a letter to the press, Staples said: “We are quietly proud that throughout history, when people have suffered discrimination both in public and social life, Freemasonry has welcomed them into our lodges as equals.” He added that many Freemasons chose to keep their membership secret in order to avoid being discriminated against.
Sorry tracey. I just saw that item about there being three different lodges in the Commons, I think. And then that other bit with the images but hadn’t got any further.
Then I wondered about the possibility of them forming a defensive circle when one of their number got into trouble (I see that it didn’t help Oscar Wilde). I wondered about such cases as the CTV in Christchurch where inexplicably it seemed, that no fault could be found and no atonement ordered. Anne Perry who likes Victorian crime themes has written of a powerful elite group exerting authority called the Inner Circle in her books and shows them prepared to wreck people’s reputations if thwarted. Fiction, but I think she has delved into the times fairly thoroughly.
Women were not allowed to be members till lately I think. There was supposed to be a group of blokes who were in good standing in the community, and who belonged to different work sectors and could keep secrets. As women were all, well women, what else to say about them, and everyone knew they couldn’t keep secrets, I think entry for the femmes would be fairly late in the piece.
Better put sarc/ for protection.
I wonder if the inability to get satisfactory action against the engineers involved with the CTV building collapse and deaths of 115 people in the Christchurch earthquake in 2011 could be as a result of a cover-up by the ‘old boys club’.
The failures of proper procedure compound as time went on with this building. This is one paragraph about it. In 1990, major design defects were first brought to light. Holmes Consulting conducted a review of the existing structural system for a potential tenant looking to evaluate the safety of the building. They found that there was inadequate strength in the connection between the floor slab and shear walls, especially the walls at the north shear wall core. When alerted to the issue, Reay took 21 months to implement a fix. During the retrofit process, however, permit applications were never filled and the local building council was not alerted to the structural renovation that was being done. The lack of disclosure to the council prevented their involvement in the consultation and review process (Macfie, 2014).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CTV_Building The Royal Commission of Inquiry heard evidence into why the CTV Building collapsed during the 2011 earthquake from 25 June 2012, and was scheduled to run for eight weeks.[35]
Witnesses before the Commission debated whether the building was code-compliant when it was built, and whether the engineers designing and approving the building had adequate experience. Consulting firm head Alan Reay stated that the building did not meet his own standards, and he thought the engineer he employed for the design, David Harding, had adequate experience.[36] Harding had not designed buildings of more than two floors before. He said he relied on Reay for guidance, and that the developers wanted a minimum-cost design to (just) meet the code; no extra reinforcing was to be added or you “got your hand smacked”.[37]
Witness Arthur O’Leary, a structural engineer, said that a “critical eye” should have been cast over the building design.[38] The “pioneering” structural design could have been beyond the experience of council staff to evaluate, though the “pioneering” design meant that non-compliant elements in the building columns were not obvious. Panel member Barry Davidson also disagreed with an “opportunistic and legalistic” interpretation of the code that found they were compliant.[39]
The commission’s findings were released on 10 December 2012. The report found the building’s design was deficient and should not have been approved. The building’s engineer, David Harding, of Alan Reay Consultants Ltd, was found to have no experience in designing multi-storey buildings and was “working beyond his competence.” His supervisor, Alan Reay, left Harding unsupervised then pressured city officials to approve the building design even though several members had reservations about the design.[40]
The police say that current law prevents them from prosecuting the designers after 1 year of the design being complete. Even the Consumer Guarantees Act is better than that.
Lobby the new Govt to bring in restrospective legislation and stop the buck passing between designers/contractors/council/police. Fuck sometimes the NZ number 8 wire approach is shit.
Underlying that is a deeper fear that dust swept under the carpet in an effort to tidy up the balance of sheets of financial institutions in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis could resurface……
…..Greene said the proportion of New Zealand shares that were foreign-owned had increased over the past few years, so if US investors did cash in equities and switch to bonds that might have more of an impact than it once would.”
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by Daphna Whitmore A third of the world is under lockdown and a clear assessment of this measure to curb the spread of COVID-19 is urgently needed. With any high-stakes decisions it has to be asked what are we dealing with here? Are the measures warranted? Will they achieve their ...
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The swan politicians may be gliding on the water, occasionally snapping at one another. Meanwhile, as the Covid19 crisis illustrates, the officials are desperately paddling below providing the real locomotion. One of the most fatuous recent grandstanding comments (of about a week ago), adding to the public’s anxieties, was ...
Much has been written about the importance of discretion in an emergency situation, and the concerns raised by the potential for it to be exercised arbitrarily. Given the quality of the discussion, there seemed little point in adding to it at any length. In particular, I point to the evidence ...
Today has felt surreal. I was all set to touch base online with my science communication students when a colleague shared the news that Bauer Media would be shutting down its publications immediately. The first link I saw implied it was Woman’s Weekly affected, and even that shocked me. But ...
Bogeymen, Real And Imagined: Is the number of psychopathic and sociopathic individuals in any given society truly as vanishingly small as we like to tell ourselves? Isn’t it more likely that the mass-shooters and serial-killers filling the headlines represent only the tip of a much, much larger iceberg of frightfulness? ...
Outgoing Police Commissioner Mike Bush appeared before the Epidemic Response Committee today, who asked him for the rules police are using to enforce the lockdown. He refused:Police Commissioner Mike Bush has admitted the advice given to Kiwis about what they're able to do during the lockdown hasn't been clear enough. ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of my cat, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a pretty flower. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 1: Day seven of living in lock-down… This morning I had a brief chat with one of my neighbours, “D” (social distance between us, a good three or four metres). I learned he had resigned from his previous job and had been hired by another company – ...
Funnily enough, my thought as I start this post is whether it will be well written enough. Or should that be well enough written? Because so much of what I know about good writing came from my two stints at The Listener, which this morning was shut down due to ...
With normal democratic procedures in abeyance, there were two ways to go. First, it was open for the government to dissolve itself and invite the National Party to join a ministry of national salvation. That would have lessened the democratic deficit of the times by having a team of rivals without ...
Dr Kirsty Ross Children and young people can respond differently in times of distress. This also varies by age and developmental stage, with younger children having more magical and imaginative thinking, and older children having more awareness and knowledge of the issues our communities are facing (which brings up ...
Hungary has been a virtual dictatorship for a decade now, as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has gradually eroded its democracy. But now, its official, with the passage of an indefinite emergency law allowing rule by decree:Hungary’s parliament has passed a new set of coronavirus measures that includes jail terms for ...
While the economy is on pause under lockdown, the government is beginning to plan how to cope with the post-lockdown, post-tourism, post-export education world we will eventually find ourselves in. They're planning a lot of infrastructure spending as economic stimulus, and have asked for proposals which can start the moment ...
It's my distraction, setting up tiny scenes to photograph. I've got stuck on the Babushka dolls for now. Something about their bubble shape. Something about their never changing, smiling features, suggesting persistent equanimity. Can we get through everything that is being thrown at us and keep at least a tiny ...
. . March 31: Day six of living in lock-down… This time I managed to sleep a little longer and the alarm woke me at the pre-set time: 6.55am. Then remembered I was working a later shift and could’ve slept in. Oh well, there are things to do at home. ...
Image credit:Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ...
Yesterday's Horizon poll showing support for a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum sliding into the majority for the first time in a year looked like good news for reformers – and it probably is. But the result warrants some scrutiny.The poll is the fifth in a series commissioned ...
For almost a week now, every one of us who isn’t an essential worker has been confined to their bubble. We are allowed to go shopping for groceries, to visit the doctor, and to get a bit of exercise if we stay local. The reason we are doing this is ...
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...
In the absence of a vaccine or a cure for a deadly disease, staying home in your bubble is what you do, the concept is not new. To the best of my knowledge last time we did this in NZ was for polio, in the years before a vaccine came ...
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...
This has been a terrible summer for Hector’s dolphins. The first indication was very low numbers of dolphin sightings during late spring and early summer. The Otago University Marine Mammal Research Team has carried out routine dolphin surveys at Banks Peninsula for more than 30 years. In all that time, ...
On March 17, Finance Minister Grant Robertson was quick out of the blocks with an economic rescue package to help businesses through the inevitable recession resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. Robertson had pulled together a scheme in short order that so far seems to have saved many jobs. In his ...
The purpose of the lockdown is to save lives, by reducing the spread of covid-19. We won't know if its really working for another week, but given the devastation that will result if it doesn't - 14,000 dead is the optimistic scenario - its definitely worth trying. But pausing the ...
. . March 30: Day five of living in lock-down… Woke up still in darkness. Alarm hadn’t gone off. Turn to radio clock; it’s a few minutes after 6am… I lie there in the dark, waiting to drift off to sleep… but it ain’t happening. Clock ticks over to 6.55 ...
The story of Les Gray, the public sector psychologist who told the truth about his use of cannabis and set off a storm, has a special place in the lore of cannabis reform in New Zealand.When Paul Shannon interviewed Gray for the 'Dope and Hope' issue of Planet magazine in ...
by Phil Duncan For Marxists, a key concern about social trends is their context – not just their causes, but why they happen when they do. Events and phenomena have causes, but they also are time or period-specific. While much of the left have capitulated recently to postmodernism, most notably ...
Since the lockdown began, we've all suddenly been reminded who the actually essential workers in our society are: not the people at the top who pay themselves the big bucks and rort the perks, but the people at the bottom they screw over and squeeze: cleaners, warehouse staff, truck drivers ...
Kia ora! As I've watched nearly all my remaining work vanish over the past couple of days, it has occured to me that one good way to keep me away from arguing with fools on Twitter all the time (in the knowledge that all we're really doing is processing our ...
Aotearoa New Zealand has committed to trying to extirpate the virus that causes COVID-19 from its shores. To do that, as a society we’ve moved to “Level 4”. That means adapting to unprecedented restrictions on our personal freedoms, particularly to our rights to move freely and associate with friends and ...
When the Prime Minister declared a state of emergency last week, she handed the police powers to enforce it. And almost immediately, we started hearing about heavy-handed, arbitrary "enforcement" by police who (at best) cared more about order than law, or (more likely) had no idea what the rules were ...
. . Lock Down: Day 4 – A photo essay with observations . March 29: Usual wake up routine as RNZ snaps on my radio-clock. Jim Mora’s voice slowly enters my conciousness; there’s talk of a second wave of covid19 taking hold in South Korea; the week in Parliament – ...
Yesterday, New Zealand recorded its first Covid-19 related death on the West Coast. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the only fatality, with the virus now being found in every region of the country.However despite the significant danger, people are still unfortunately breaching lockdown rules.There’s really only one main very ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... ‘Misinformation kills’: The link between coronavirus conspiracies and climate denialGrist / Rob Kim / Stringer / CSA Images Scientific ...
The kids did surprisingly well today – meltdown count was about 3, and mostly fairly short ones. (And a fourth while I was writing.) Game-wise I had a go at Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark. It’s a fairly standard RPG with turn-based combat and what they call a “mature storyline” (it ...
by Don Franks Hi David, Nice hearing from you, I’m glad to hear you’re getting by okay in these grim times. You asked how’s it going for us back here in New Zealand. You would have heard that the whole country is locked down and with breaks for exercise and ...
. . Lock Down: Day 3 – A photo essay with observations . March 28: First day of the first weekend in Lock Down. It feels like it’s been weeks since only Level 3 was declared last Tuesday, only four days ago. Woke up this morning to RNZ; coffee; toast, ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Mar 22, 2020 through Sat, Mar 28, 2020Articles Linked to on FacebookSun, Mar 22, 2020In Just 10 Years, Warming Has Increased the Odds of Disasters by Chelsea Harvey, ...
I’m here in lockdown with my flatmate and her two girls (6 and 2) and it. is. a time. They’re usually really active so to start with the only boardgame in the house is the copy of Guess Who that the 6 year old got for her birthday. Flatmate commented ...
The CV-19 (COVID) pandemic has seen the imposition of a government ordered national quarantine and the promulgation of a series of measures designed to spread the burden of pain and soften the economic blow on the most strategically important and most vulnerable sectors of society. The national narrative is framed ...
. . Lock Down: Day 2 – A photo essay with observations . March 27 – Day 2 of our Strange New World. The Park and Ride near my suburb, usually filled with hundreds of vehicles, had just… four; . . Another drive into Wellington City on a highway nearly ...
Fortune's Children: Under extraordinary pressure, the leader of the Government and the leader of the Opposition will each show us what they are made of. Have they been blessed with intelligence, grace, wit, poise, toughness, empathy and humour – and in what measure? More importantly, to what extent have they ...
If you’ve ever had the misfortune of having to rent a property on the open market in New Zealand, which is one of the most expensive in the entire world, you’ll likely be keenly aware of just how arrogant and entitled landlords and their real estate agents can be.Unfortunately for ...
Society-wise, aside from the specific morbidity shall we say of the medically-oriented aspects of this COVID-19 crisis, what is unfolding before the world is in more than one way an instructive study of humanity and reactions to a high intensity, high stress environment in real time. Friends, we are at ...
Right now low waged and insecure workers are feeling the economic brunt of the looming #Covid19 Recession. In response legal advocate Toby Cooper* and hospitality and worker’s rights advocate Chloe Ann-King, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights:In this legal blog we outline some ...
by Equipo Jurídico Pueblos and Gearóid Ó Loingsigh (25/03/2020) An escape plan in question On the night of March 21st and the early morning of the 22nd, the forces of the Colombian state stormed into the Modelo prison in Bogotá, murdering 23 prisoners and injuring 83, in response to the ...
When the government banned semi-automatic weapons in response to a terrorist atrocity, gun-nuts were outraged. Mired in toxic American gun culture, they thought owning weapons whose sole purpose was killing people was some sort of "constitutional right", a necessity for "defending themselves" against the government. Now, the Court of Appeal ...
Just before midnight on Wednesday March 25, Aotearoa New Zealand entered a countrywide alert level four lockdown. For at least the next four weeks, everyone who isn’t an essential worker is confined to their bubble. We are doing this to stop the explosive growth in people contracting and dying from ...
. . Lock Down: Day 1 – A photo essay with observations . Day one of the Level 4 nationwide lock-down (or, DefCon 4 as I sometimes cheekily call it) started at 11.59PM on 25 March. For a moment, most of the nation held it’s collective breath. In that brief ...
Broad, Sunlit Uplands: How those words fired my young imagination! Or, perhaps, it is more accurate to say: how those words fused, in my young mind, with the image printed on every packet of Fielder’s Cornflour. Always fascinated by history, especially modern history, I cannot hear Churchill’s wonderfully evocative words, even ...
. . 24 March 2020 9.46AM Number of covid19 cases in Aotearoa New Zealand: 102 . As of 11.59 on Thursday, most of New Zealand will go into “lock down”. People will be expected not to travel to work; not to socialise; and to stay home. I will not be ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections A respected research group, Project Drawdown, finds that deploying solutions consistent with meeting the Paris climate targets would cost tens of trillions of dollars globally. But crucially, those outlays would also yield long-term savings many times larger than the up-front costs. The new 2020 Drawdown ...
It will pass. What happens next? Not immediately, but longer term. There are many opinions, fewer certainties. Will it “change everything!” as many confidently, and contradictorily predict? In this post I look at how foresight can help bound some of the uncertainties so you can more objectively consider the future. ...
We’ve been meaning t write something on Cuba and the coronavirus but have just discovered a very good article on the subject in the US left publication Jacobin. The article looks at how Cuba, a poor country but one where capitalism has been done away with, is leading the way ...
In 2018, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey - two British citizens who had purportedly been stripped of their citizenship by the British government - were captured while fighting for Isis in Syria. The British government then conspired to hand them over to the US, and agreed to provide evidence ...
Transformers: The disaster of the Great Depression was transformed into a new and fairer society by the democratic socialism of the First Labour Government. The disaster of the Covid-19 Pandemic offers a similar transformative possibility to the Labour-NZ First-Green Government. Seize the time, Jacinda! You will never have a better ...
Tamper with The System? Well, we already are. But there's a difference between accidentally trickling sand into a precision gearbox versus formulating a plan to alter it on the fly with improvements in mind. One action is more or less innocently unscrupulous, the other amenable to earning an easy ...
Associate Prof George Thomson, Louise Delany, Prof Nick WilsonWhile it is possible that New Zealand can use intense public health controls to eradicate COVID-19 from the country – we must also plan for other scenarios where thousands of New Zealanders are sick – including many urgently hospitalised.1 Better resilience ...
Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or being ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world".Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...
The domestic travel ban has been lifted for stranded foreign tourists trying to get to international airports to fly home, after the Coalition Government announced a plan to help the tens of thousands of foreigners stranded here. Foreign Minister Rt. Hon. Winston Peters spoke with RNZ's Susie Ferguson said foreign ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters believes the country is rediscovering its resilience and self-reliance through its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.He says he is heartened that the mass majority of New Zealanders are following lockdown rules and that the government looking at the future, including paying to keep much ...
New Zealand can emulate the success of the US after the Great Depression by exploiting our own resources to turn the economy around quickly, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says. Mr. Peters told Magic Talk that New Zealand has an opportunity to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic a "superior, ...
All 45 New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel are either on their way back to New Zealand, or already in the country, according to Defence Minister Ron Mark."Twenty-eight personnel arrived back in New Zealand last week and are in isolation at the Royal New Zealand Air Force base in ...
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...
We know people are feeling anxious about COVID-19. While the situation is serious, New Zealand has a world-class health system and we’re well-prepared to keep New Zealanders safe. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging New Zealanders overseas to stay where they are amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "We are reaching a point where the best option for most New Zealanders offshore is to shelter in place, by preparing to safely stay where they are.” "This includes following the instructions ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging the tens of thousands of New Zealanders travelling overseas to consider sheltering in place, in light of COVID-19. “Since 18 March, we have been warning New Zealanders offshore that the window for flying ...
Ground-breaking law has passed that will decriminalise abortion and ensure women and pregnant people seeking abortions have compassionate healthcare. ...
The Green Party says that the measures announced by the Government today will help families and businesses to prioritise our collective health and wellbeing in the response to COVID-19. ...
As New Zealanders brace for a global downturn due to Covid-19, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says his Coalition Government’s rescue package "more significant" than any other he's seen around the world. The Coalition is to reveal a multi-billion-dollar stimulus plan on Tuesday afternoon designed to cushion the economic blow ...
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...
The Government’s plan to cushion the blow of COVID-19 by supporting incomes, jobs and businesses, and position the economy to recover has been backed by another international report. International credit rating agency Moody’s today reaffirmed its highest Aaa credit rating on New Zealand, saying the economy is expected to remain ...
National sports organisations have been given certainty of funding to ensure they can remain viable through the COVID-19 pandemic, Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “The global spread of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on sport and recreation in New Zealand, including the cancellation or postponement of ...
Changes have been made to allow butchers to process pork, only for supply to supermarkets or other processors or retailers that are open, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has announced. “We carefully weighed the risk of allowing butchers to open their shops for retail customers, but the risk of spreading COVID-19 ...
Essential workers who take leave from work to comply with public health guidance are being supported with a leave scheme to ensure they will continue to receive income, say the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Iain Lees-Galloway and Minister for Social Development, Carmel Sepuloni. A number of essential businesses ...
A Government WhatsApp channel has been launched to help make information more easily accessible and shareable in the fight against COVID-19. Govt.NZ, which is free to use on any mobile device, will carry information and news for the public, businesses, healthcare providers, not for profits and local government. It can ...
The Government has announced a plan to enable the safe, orderly exit of tens of thousands of stranded foreign nationals from New Zealand during the current COVID-19 Alert Level 4 restrictions, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said. “When we moved into lockdown a week ago, the ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says the Government is delivering on its commitment to support general practice doctors and nurses, and pharmacies on the front-line of our fight against COVID-19. "For us to overcome COVID-19, we need community health services such as general practice and community pharmacy to step up ...
Justice Susan Thomas has been appointed Chief High Court Judge, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. She replaces Justice Geoffrey Venning who has resigned from the position. David Parker paid tribute to Justice Venning, who he said had stewarded the High Court very capably over the last five years. “On behalf ...
Businesses can start applying to their banks for loans under the Business Finance Guarantee Scheme set up to support the New Zealand economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re moving quickly to protect New Zealand businesses, jobs and the economy during this unprecedented global economic shock,” Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. ...
Work is underway looking at measures to speed up consents for development and infrastructure projects during the recovery from COVID 19, to provide jobs and stimulate our economy. Environment Minister David Parker said the COVID-19 pandemic is a serious global crisis that will have a wide ranging and lasting impact ...
Advance payments will be made to transport construction industry contractors to retain the workforce and ensure it is ready to quickly gear up to build projects which will be vital to New Zealand’s COVID-19 economic recovery, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. He said keeping the workforce required to build ...
The Government has tasked a group of industry leaders to seek out infrastructure projects that are ready to start as soon as the construction industry returns to normal to reduce the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones say. The Infrastructure ...
Work to scale up the health system in preparation for COVID-19 was today outlined by Health Minister David Clark, as he reported back to the new Epidemic Response Committee. “We are well placed to contain the spread of COVID-19. We have taken early and decisive action at our borders, and ...
The Government is refining its COVID-19 essential business guidance to include the distribution of news publications for communities which are hard to reach. The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, Kris Faafoi, said the move was in recognition of the importance for New Zealanders who might be harder to ...
The Government is ensuring supermarkets can open on Easter Sunday so we can buy groceries, but stay closed on Good Friday allowing workers to take a break. This provides a balanced approach and ensures we avoid large queues that two days closure may cause. “Supermarkets will be able to open ...
Following the successful conclusion of the Building Partner Capacity (BPC) mission at Taji, New Zealand defence personnel are returning to New Zealand from Iraq, in accordance with the Cabinet decision made in June 2019, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “New Zealand is very ...
The State of National Emergency to help stop the spread of COVID-19 has been extended for a further seven days, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare said. The initial declaration on March 25 lasted seven days and can be extended as many times as necessary. “Since we went into isolation ...
New Zealand’s ability to go hard and go early in the fight against COVID-19 has been underpinned by strong Government finances and the growing economy heading into this global pandemic, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Treasury today released the Crown financial statements for the eight months to the end ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says 36 new intensive care beds at Christchurch Hospital’s new Hagley building are being fast tracked so they are available for treatment of COVID-19 patients. The Ministry of Health is working with contractor CPB and Canterbury DHB to enable access to the hospital’s ICU, ...
The Government has fast-tracked up to $1 million to help Air New Zealand move urgent freight to and from New Zealand, with the first flight to Shanghai leaving tonight, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says it’s crucial that trade in vital goods such as medical supplies and ...
New Zealand will temporarily remove tariffs on all medical and hygiene imports needed for the COVID-19 response. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi said today that the New Zealand Customs Service will apply tariff concessions to all diagnostic reagents and testing ...
Minister of Finance Grant Robertson has clarified that the changes to the wage subsidy scheme announced yesterday mean that employers should be passing on the full subsidy to workers, except in the case where the person’s normal income is less than the level of the subsidy. “We still want employers ...
Medical face masks from the national reserve supply are now being distributed to District Health Boards, while at the same time local production is being ramped up. Yesterday more than 640,000 masks were sent to DHBS – that is an immediate two week supply, with more to follow in coming ...
The Government has made modifications to the wage subsidy scheme to ensure people don’t lose their jobs during the national lockdown. These changes will soften the impact of COVID-19 on workers, families and businesses, and position them to exit the lockdown and look to recovery, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. ...
Farmers whose herds were culled in response to the outbreak of Mycoplasma bovis will be able to minimise the tax treatment of their income in some circumstances. Revenue Minister Stuart Nash says Cabinet has agreed to change the law. It means farmers may be eligible to spread their income over ...
A $27 million dollar package, effective immediately, is being provided to social sector services and community groups to ensure they can continue to provide essential support to communities as we stay at home as a nation to stop the spread of COVID-19, Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni announced. “At ...
“The guilty plea today will provide some relief to the many people whose lives were shattered by what happened on March 15,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. “These guilty pleas and conviction bring accountability for what happened and also save the families who lost loved ones, those who were injured, ...
The Prime Minister is holding daily press conferences to update New Zealanders on the Government's response to COVID-19. Links to videos and transcripts of these updates below. These transcripts also include All of Government press conferences led by Director Ministry of Health's Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield. 25 March: Live update from the Prime ...
Frontline Police numbers have broken through the 10,000 mark for the first time in history as officers step forward to keep the community safe during the COVID19 lockdown. “Two Police graduations in Auckland and Wellington in the past week have been conducted in unprecedented circumstances,” Police Minister Stuart Nash said. ...
Urgent legislation has been passed to support the package of economic and social measures needed to recover from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. “The COVID-19 Response (Taxation and Social Assistance Urgent Measures) Bill will cushion New Zealanders from the worst economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak,” said Revenue Minister ...
From tomorrow, Government support for farmers and growers affected by drought will be expanded and extended across the country, with access to Rural Assistance Payments (RAPS) available throughout the North Island, parts of the South Island and the Chatham Islands, Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced. “These challenging conditions have ...
Parliament has passed amendments to legislation that give the Secretary of Education stronger powers to act in the fight to limit the spread of COVID-19, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “They are part of a suite of changes passed under the COVID-19 Response (Urgent Management Measures) Legislation Bill,” Chris ...
Canada, Australia, Chile, Brunei and Myanmar have joined forces with New Zealand and Singapore by committing to keep supply chains open and remove any existing trade restrictive measures on essential goods, especially medical supplies, in the face of the Covid-19 crisis. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker today welcomed ...
Immediate freeze on rent increases Tenancies will not be terminated during the lock-down period, unless the parties agree, or in limited circumstances Tenants who had previously given notice can stay in their if they need to stay in the tenancy during the lock-down period Tenants will still be able to ...
As New Zealand unites to lock-down in the fight against COVID-19, the Finance Minister is urging all businesses and workers to stay connected over the next four weeks. “We understand the extreme pressure many businesses are under right now. I know most business owners think of their workers as family ...
A State of National Emergency has been declared across the country as the Government pulls out all the stops to curtail the spread of COVID-19. “Today we put in place our country’s second ever State of National Emergency as we fight a global pandemic, save New Zealanders’ lives and prevent ...
Mr Speaker I wish to make a Ministerial Statement under Standing Order 347 in relation to the recent declaration of a State of National Emergency. Having considered the advice of the Director Civil Defence Emergency Management, the Minister of Civil Defence declared a State of National Emergency for the whole of ...
People needing to travel on domestic flights, trains and Cook Strait ferries to get home before the country moves into level 4 lock-down tomorrow night will be able to continue using the passenger services until midnight on Friday, Transport Minister Phil Twyford said today. Domestic passenger services, particularly ferries, have ...
The Government, retail banks and the Reserve Bank are today announcing a major financial support package for home owners and businesses affected by the economic impacts of COVID-19. The package will include a six month principal and interest payment holiday for mortgage holders and SME customers whose incomes have been ...
Like countless New Zealanders stranded overseas, Wellingtonian Rosie O’Hagan will be braving authorities, airlines, airports and uncertainty to make it back from the other side of the world, writes Jim Kayes.Rosie O’Hagan hadn’t stepped outside for three weeks.When she finally did – around midnight on Friday ...
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY:By David Robie A rather beautiful Guåhan legend is rather poignant in these stressed pandemic times. It is one about survival and cooperation. In ancient times, goes the story, a giant fish was eating great chunks out of this western Pacific island. The men used muscle ...
Simon Wren-Lewis, Emeritus Professor of Economics and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford, raises good questions about Britain’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Some of them seem germane to this country’s response. Wren-Lewis posted his critique on his Mainly Macro blog under the heading Following the Science or a ...
Alex Casey speaks to a dream expert about why so many people are suddenly remembering their vivid and often horrible dreams. As the days begin to blur together and the only thing we get between sleeps is unimaginably horrible news and an embarrassing tootle around the block, it’s no surprise ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet of ...
Medical centres across the country are condensing services, moving online, and ushering in pandemic plans. Josie Adams assesses what it’s like to access and provide essential medical care under alert level four.On Monday, Sandra Russell woke up before dawn and drove to Milford to get her blood tested. She has ...
In our new series The Lockdown Letters, some of New Zealand’s best writers tell us what they’ve been up to in the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, writer and doctor Glenn Colquhoun, with the second of his Letters to Hone Tūwhare and his Travelling Band of Constant Companions. ...
ANALYSIS:By Haiqing Yu of RMIT University and Michael Keane of Curtin University China has gradually emerged out of its shadow of despair as the epicentre where the coronavirus pandemic started. Now, there is face saving required – as well as agenda-setting in the global power play. China played ...
Tech giant Google has released a giant global data set which shows how different countries are locking down, and which NZ regions are most compliant with its lockdown.A giant set of reports released by Google, created using its anonymised cellphone location data reveals the scale of human behaviour change the ...
Comedian Penny Ashton writes on the necessity of the arts, especially during lockdown.On March 22, everyone’s favourite fiscal bloodhounds, the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union, sent out a tweet in response to Creative New Zealand’s announcement that it will dedicate an emergency response package to helping New Zealand’s artists, in the ...
Wellington writer Philippa Swan’s new novel TheNight of All Souls is an homage to Pulitzer-winning and all-round fabulous American writer Edith Wharton. Wharton died in 1937 but, Swan writes, she’s very much of the moment. Nobody does social distancing like Wharton did. While Wharton was still comparatively young, she created the ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...
Normally heaving year-round, Queenstown has ground to an eerie halt as Covid-19 cases rise and tourism income plummets, reports Paul Taylor. On a hill behind Queenstown's coronavirus Covid-19 community testing centre, the resort's iconic Skyline gondola sits motionless. More than 17 million people are estimated to have ridden the gondola ...
Are we drinking more in the lockdown? Hard to know, writes David Slack, but we’re certainly having to get creative about it. Almost every phone call I’ve answered this week has begun the same way: “You still off the drink, then?” Fair question. What a time to be not drinking. ...
Kiwi clinical psychologist Desiree Dickerson is stuck with her family in Spain and has written a guide in Nature: "Seven tips to manage your mental health and well-being during the Covid-19 outbreak." It’s Day 17 of the Covid-19 lockdown in Spain. In a small village on the Mediterranean coast, about ...
"Will our ills be cured? Will our feet carry us? For how long?": a short story set in Henderson by West Auckland writer Serie Barford.I learned to drive a tractor when I was a kid feeding out hay with my cousins on a dairy farm down the line. I ...
Without active testing in the community our Covid-19 picture isn’t complete, an epidemiologist says. David Williams reports. There are worse places to be self-isolating than Whakatāne, in the Bay of Plenty, says Bridget Robson, who lives on a two-acre block and keeps chickens. “We live in a beautiful part of ...
How do you hold a funeral service with the country in lockdown? Where there’s a will – and a tech-savvy uncle – there’s a way, Erin Kavanagh-Hall discovered.I was floating somewhere in the Cook Strait when I heard my grandfather’s funeral had been cancelled.I should elaborate. It was a Monday, ...
‘Stay in your bubble’ didn’t exist 100 years ago, but our ancestors would want us to know how essential it is to do so, says Jai Breitnauer.It was a warm but slightly grey January day in 2019 when I pulled the car over to the side of SH1, just south ...
David Clark’s misadventure in mountain biking was a stupid, but ultimately forgivable offence. The bigger problem is the continued uncertainty around what is and isn’t appropriate activity in lockdown, as Sam Sachdeva writes. Given the pressure he and his Cabinet colleagues are under, it is little surprise Health Minister David ...
Assessing the economic impact of Covid-19 requires a new approach to a problem economists have not encountered in modern times, writes Dr Kirdan Lees Covid-19 has presented quite a problem for economists. Containment policies that seek to flatten the Covid-19 curve or eliminate the virus, restrict economic activity. All governments ...
Every day at 1pm New Zealand’s Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield announces precise figures on the number of confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 in the country. He is working on the best information available, and during this week the level of community transmission was put at around ...
Most of New Zealand's MPs are in lockdown just like the rest of us, confined to their neighbourhoods and stuck in their bubbles. Checkpoint called a few to ask them what they're doing. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Deery, Lecturer in Early Childhood Education, University of Melbourne “Stupid coronavirus!” I heard my six-year-old mumble while talking in her sleep. Earlier that day her swimming and basketball lessons were cancelled, a birthday party postponed, and she had to race with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tuffley, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & CyberSecurity, Griffith University “Zoombombing” in case you haven’t heard, is the unsavoury practice of posting distressing comments, pictures or videos after gatecrashing virtual meetings hosted by the videoconferencing app Zoom. With hundreds of millions ...
Analysis - A leading epidemiologist says health authorities 'really have no idea' of the extent of community spread, Parliament's Epidemic Response Committee gets its teeth into what's going on during the lockdown and the horrendous economic imp ...
The fifth in our new series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall, covering the Covid-19 epidemic within New Zealand. We’ll publish the latest set each day on The Spinoff.This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff MembersInformation about confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 ...
The Finance Minister says struggling companies will be able to put some debt into hibernation, under new legislation unveiled today. Watch the latest government update here. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Lund, Commissioning Editor, The Conversation Editor’s note: The following is current as at April 3, 2020. Things are changing quickly so best to keep an eye on the latest information from WA Health, as well as the federal government.This article ...
During the challenges associated with lockdown, the Māori Party are congratulating Ngāti Ruanui and South Taranaki on the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling What does the COVID-19 pandemic sound like? For this episode, Dallas Rogers – a senior lecturer in the School of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney – asked academic colleagues from all over ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sven Gallasch, Lecturer in Law, Swinburne University of Technology “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion,” wrote Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations (published in 1776), “but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the ...
Environment Minister David Parker has directed officials to find ways to fast-track consents for infrastructure and development projects. He says his goal is to help create a pipeline of projects so that some can start immediately once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted “so people can get back into work as fast ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin Spain and Switzerland top cases, countries converging. Chart by Keith Rankin.Spain and Switzerland top cases, countries converging. Chart by Keith Rankin.Of the larger European countries, Italy is now in third place for known cases per person in the population. Spain has overtaken Switzerland for ...
Contact tracing is a crucial part of the Covid-19 puzzle and technology might prove essential to scaling up New Zealand's tracing capacity, Marc Daalder reports With the lockdown reducing physical contact between members of the public and testing ramping up, the only missing piece of the Covid-19 puzzle is contact tracing. ...
Insolvency laws will be temporarily changed to allow troubled companies to trade while technically insolvent Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced changes to the Companies Act to allow companies to put their debts into "hibernation". Robertson said companies facing liquidity problems would have "safe harbour" from their normal insolvency duties ...
Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui and Te Kaahui o Rauru are celebrating the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South Taranaki Bight. The Court of Appeal found that there ...
Bernard Hickey talks to Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr about a massive spike in US jobless claims, and they talk about an inspiring Kiwi app to fight Covid-19 globally. Guest, Pie Funds chief executive Mike Taylor also joins them to talk about the massive market swings and hopes for recovery. Bernard zooms out ...
Political commentators from the left and right sides of the political divide are questioning the powers being exercised by police during the nation-wide “lockdown”. The Asian Invasion 2019 blog draws attention to the warning sounded by former UK Supreme Court Justice Jonathan Sumption when he challenged Covid-19 actions by British ...
Pacific Media Watch The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) has strongly condemned the shoot-to-kill order by President Rodrigo Duterte this week as a ‘dangerous’ opening to target and kill anyone in a public space. “We are raising the alarm in the international community on President ...
The Reserve Bank looks set to start buying council bonds as well as Government bonds to unfreeze financial markets and allow councils to defer rates and jointly invest in infrastructure with the central Government, Dileepa Fonseka reports In what would be another unprecedented move to calm financial markets and help ...
Four PhD students engaged a clinical psychologist to help them navigate an uncertain time in their studies. They share their findings here.As four PhD students from Massey University’s Joint Centre for Disaster Research we, like many others, can’t stop reading and talking about the unfolding events that have gripped our ...
The SpinoffBy Ashleigh Rushton, Lisa McLaren, Marion Tan & Sara Harrison
Covid-19 testing of the wider population is on the cards as World Health Organisation research shows people are most contagious within their first few days of being infected Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says Covid-19 carriers are highly infectious when they show few signs of carrying the virus. People were ...
Z Energy is the latest company to cut its dividend payout and start talking to its banks about strengthening its finances. Chief executive Mike Bennetts said the company, the largest fuel retailer in the country, had been battered by a range of issues over the past 18 months, and was ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Kang, Associate professor, University of Technology Sydney Young people in Australia are among the fastest-growing group to contract COVID19. According to the Department of Health, there are now more cases in Australia among people aged 20 – 29 years than any ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassandra Pattinson, Research Fellow, The University of Queensland Getting a good night’s sleep can be difficult at the best of times. But it can be even harder when you’re anxious or have something on your mind – a global pandemic, for example. ...
Journalist and Great Barrier Island resident Lindsay Wright reflects on outer gulf pandemic preparedness. Hardy locals can tough it out but Auckland bach owners and boaties should keep their distance. Aotea Great Barrier, the easternmost island in the Hauraki Gulf, are undergoing a Covid-19-inspired population flood. Great Barrier has scenery that makes ...
The Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand is delighted that the government has moved quickly to provide an initial financial support package for pharmacy. The $15 million package was paid this week to pharmacy contract holders. Pharmaceutical Society president ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference and are "as of 9am" of the day. There were 71 new cases of Covid-19 in ...
A new poem by Wellington poet and bookseller Ash Davida Jane. washed up! it gets tiring pushing the fire alarm every nightbut things keep catching on fireor sometimes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Foster, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Sydney Our earliest vertebrate (animals with backbones) ancestors laid eggs, but over millions of years of evolution, some species began to give birth to live young. There is a traditional dichotomy in vertebrate reproduction: species ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Foster, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Sydney Our earliest vertebrate (animals with backbones) ancestors laid eggs, but over millions of years of evolution, some species began to give birth to live young. There is a traditional dichotomy in vertebrate reproduction: species ...
Welcome to the second edition of our lockdown Top 10s. A reminder that this chart has nothing to do with sales or launches or the publishing cycle; these are just books the Unity team love – and this week it’s westerns, full of big skies and long rides and showdowns.AUCKLANDAll ...
Wellington Mayor Andy Foster’s plan to cover revenue shortfalls through borrowing without cutting low priority spending is immoral, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . “Businesses and households across the country are meeting financial challenges ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kevin John Brophy, Emeritus Professor of Creative writing, University of Melbourne “Katrina, I had in mind a prayer, but only this came,” Bruce Dawe wrote to his infant daughter, new-born, in intensive care, her life in the balance, declaring as poets must ...
The shock closure of Bauer NZ – and with it all of the country’s current affairs magazines – is a stark reminder of the fragile state of local media, writes Mel Bunce, the author of a book on the subject.It is a dark week for journalism in New Zealand, with ...
Join Leonie Hayden as she works through the first four weeks of Scotty Morrison’s Māori Made Easy.Rāmere/FridayWe made it to the end of week one e te whānau. It wasn’t that hard! In fact it was… Māori made easy.To end our week of pronunciation practice we’re going to revisit everything we ...
India faces more challenges battling Covid-19 than any other country in the world. With 1.3 billion inhabitants, hundreds of different languages spoken, and an estimated 80% of the workforce daily wage earners currently without jobs, it could be a recipe for disaster.I’ve been living in India for more than three ...
By Sri Krishnamurthi of Pacific Media Watch The Vanuatu government is using the Covid-19 to impose draconian measures and authoritarian rule by end of last month. Wholesale censorship of all Covid-19 related content has been instituted. Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) took the extraordinary step to ...
People with lower credit scores increased their borrowing upon news of the lockdown, while those with higher scores dropped away. March data from the credit-reporting agency Centrix, which runs credit checks on behalf of banks, finance companies, online lenders, and buy now pay later schemes, showed credit inquiries dropped sharply ...
Small business owners say commercial rent relief is desperately needed if they are to survive past the Covid-19 disruptions. While the wage subsidy helped with staff costs, there is currently no government assistance for commercial rent - which typically accounts for 40 percent of a firm's fixed costs. Landlords and ...
SkyCity is making 200 staff redundant as part of cost cutting because of the Covid-19 virus. The casino operator said it had no choice but to cut the size of the workforce given that once business resumes it will be at much reduced level. Chief executive Graeme Stephens said it's ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Glikson, Earth and paleo-climate scientist, Australian National University At several points in the history of our planet, increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have caused extreme global warming, prompting the majority of species on Earth to die out. In ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand. Today’s contentMedia Henry Cooke (Stuff): There’s no easy way for Government to save media drowning. But a fast fix is ...
Just after midday a cyclist was killed on a straight road on a clear day, after being hit by a van in North Canterbury. Lucinda Rees from NZ School Speeds is asking for the mandatory cyclist/vulnerable road user passing gap, which is in consultation, ...
By Indra Singh in Suva Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama says that if Fijians continue to disregard the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic directives from authorities, a nationwide 24-hour curfew could be imposed. His comments come as Fiji yesterday recorded its two latest coronavirus cases, taking the total to seven. Bainimarama said ...
In our new series The Lockdown Letters, some of New Zealand’s best writers tell us what they’ve been up to in the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, Ōtaki author Renée.Yes, a few cyclists out and about. I remember my first bike bought from Farmers around 1942, five shillings a ...
Internal memos from NZ’s biggest magazine company, which announced its sudden closure yesterday, state they were lobbying to change a ban on publication. But the minister responsible, Kris Faafoi, has doubled down on rejecting that position, calling those internal communications ‘contradictory’ to what they said to him directly.Magazine publishing giant ...
Up to 100,000 foreigners could be seeking to leave the country in coming weeks, now the Government has relaxed domestic travel restrictions for them. ...
The loss of a loved one can be difficult in the best of times. But it’s even more painful when the planes are grounded.Late on Saturday night, three days into New Zealand’s level four lockdown, Harish got a call from his sister in India telling him that his father had ...
Health Minister David Clark has flouted the Government's advice to exercise locally after confirming he drove to a park to go mountain biking on Thursday. ...
Open Mike 05/02/2018 
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the nation today about the decline in daylight New Zealand has been experiencing over the previous few months. She said “As many of you will notice, our attempts to stem the dwindling of the daylight over the last few months have been completely ...7 hours ago
Redline received this article from the KOE a Marxist party in Greece Our friends in the KOE describe here the mounting crisis in Greece and tensions on the Turkish border. As desperate people flee from their homelands which have been ruined after decades of imperialist wars and interventions the people ...10 hours ago
As the first week of Level Four lockdown unfolded, mounting questions grew as to just what was (and was not) allowed under its “rules”. Partly these were driven by some apparently contradictory messages from different authority figures and explanations carried in the media. Partly they reflected a somewhat sketchy legal basis ...13 hours ago
. . April 3: Day 9 of living in lock-down… Another late-start to my work day. Everything is temporarily upended as clients are shuffled around so we can minimise our “bubble” by reducing the number of people we help. One of my colleagues has been removed from his clients; his ...16 hours ago
We must root out the traitors among us! ...1 day ago
In order to meet our 2050 carbon target and do our bit to avoid making the Earth uninhabitable, New Zealand needs to decarbonise our economy, replacing fossil fuels with electricity in the energy, industrial and transport sectors. The good news is that it will mean cheaper power for all of ...2 days ago
As Aotearoa enters week two of lockdown, it’s clear we’re all still working out what our “bubbles” look like and how to stay in them to stop the spread of Covid-19. New to the government’s Covid-19 website is some good guidance for people living in apartment blocks. Recent decades have ...2 days ago
Resuming Normal Service: The Republican Party's nominee for in 1920, Warren Harding, promised the American people: “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration”. If she wishes to remain our prime minister, then Jacinda Ardern will offer New Zealanders the same.HOW EDUCATED AMERICA snickered when the ...2 days ago
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...2 days ago
Much has been written about the importance of discretion in an emergency situation, and the concerns raised by the potential for it to be exercised arbitrarily. Given the quality of the discussion, there seemed little point in adding to it at any length. In particular, I point to the evidence ...2 days ago
46 Articles Physical science of global warming & effects Global response of evapotranspiration ratio to climate conditions and watershed characteristics in a changing environment Greenhouse effect: the relative contributions of emission height and total absorption Observations & observational methods of global warming & effects Climate change induced a ...3 days ago
Image credit: Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ... 4 days ago
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...4 days ago
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...4 days ago
Yesterday, New Zealand recorded its first Covid-19 related death on the West Coast. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the only fatality, with the virus now being found in every region of the country.However despite the significant danger, people are still unfortunately breaching lockdown rules.There’s really only one main very ...6 days ago
The CV-19 (COVID) pandemic has seen the imposition of a government ordered national quarantine and the promulgation of a series of measures designed to spread the burden of pain and soften the economic blow on the most strategically important and most vulnerable sectors of society. The national narrative is framed ...1 week ago
Society-wise, aside from the specific morbidity shall we say of the medically-oriented aspects of this COVID-19 crisis, what is unfolding before the world is in more than one way an instructive study of humanity and reactions to a high intensity, high stress environment in real time. Friends, we are at ...1 week ago
Right now low waged and insecure workers are feeling the economic brunt of the looming #Covid19 Recession. In response legal advocate Toby Cooper* and hospitality and worker’s rights advocate Chloe Ann-King, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights: In this legal blog we outline some ...1 week ago
Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or being ...2 weeks ago
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world". Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...2 days ago
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...1 week ago
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The scale of what we face right now is unlike anything we have ever seen before. Overcoming it is our common purpose. ...2 weeks ago
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...2 days ago
Like countless New Zealanders stranded overseas, Wellingtonian Rosie O’Hagan will be braving authorities, airlines, airports and uncertainty to make it back from the other side of the world, writes Jim Kayes. Rosie O’Hagan hadn’t stepped outside for three weeks. When she finally did – around midnight on Friday ...11 hours ago
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY: By David Robie A rather beautiful Guåhan legend is rather poignant in these stressed pandemic times. It is one about survival and cooperation. In ancient times, goes the story, a giant fish was eating great chunks out of this western Pacific island. The men used muscle ...11 hours ago
Simon Wren-Lewis, Emeritus Professor of Economics and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford, raises good questions about Britain’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Some of them seem germane to this country’s response. Wren-Lewis posted his critique on his Mainly Macro blog under the heading Following the Science or a ...12 hours ago
Alex Casey speaks to a dream expert about why so many people are suddenly remembering their vivid and often horrible dreams. As the days begin to blur together and the only thing we get between sleeps is unimaginably horrible news and an embarrassing tootle around the block, it’s no surprise ...13 hours ago
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet of ...14 hours ago
Normally heaving year-round, Queenstown has ground to an eerie halt as Covid-19 cases rise and tourism income plummets, reports Paul Taylor. On a hill behind Queenstown's coronavirus Covid-19 community testing centre, the resort's iconic Skyline gondola sits motionless. More than 17 million people are estimated to have ridden the gondola ...21 hours ago
Are we drinking more in the lockdown? Hard to know, writes David Slack, but we’re certainly having to get creative about it. Almost every phone call I’ve answered this week has begun the same way: “You still off the drink, then?” Fair question. What a time to be not drinking. ...22 hours ago
Kiwi clinical psychologist Desiree Dickerson is stuck with her family in Spain and has written a guide in Nature: "Seven tips to manage your mental health and well-being during the Covid-19 outbreak." It’s Day 17 of the Covid-19 lockdown in Spain. In a small village on the Mediterranean coast, about ...22 hours ago
"Will our ills be cured? Will our feet carry us? For how long?": a short story set in Henderson by West Auckland writer Serie Barford. I learned to drive a tractor when I was a kid feeding out hay with my cousins on a dairy farm down the line. I ...22 hours ago
Without active testing in the community our Covid-19 picture isn’t complete, an epidemiologist says. David Williams reports. There are worse places to be self-isolating than Whakatāne, in the Bay of Plenty, says Bridget Robson, who lives on a two-acre block and keeps chickens. “We live in a beautiful part of ...22 hours ago
David Clark’s misadventure in mountain biking was a stupid, but ultimately forgivable offence. The bigger problem is the continued uncertainty around what is and isn’t appropriate activity in lockdown, as Sam Sachdeva writes. Given the pressure he and his Cabinet colleagues are under, it is little surprise Health Minister David ...23 hours ago
Assessing the economic impact of Covid-19 requires a new approach to a problem economists have not encountered in modern times, writes Dr Kirdan Lees Covid-19 has presented quite a problem for economists. Containment policies that seek to flatten the Covid-19 curve or eliminate the virus, restrict economic activity. All governments ...1 day ago
Most of New Zealand's MPs are in lockdown just like the rest of us, confined to their neighbourhoods and stuck in their bubbles. Checkpoint called a few to ask them what they're doing. ...1 day ago
During the challenges associated with lockdown, the Māori Party are congratulating Ngāti Ruanui and South Taranaki on the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South ...1 day ago
Environment Minister David Parker has directed officials to find ways to fast-track consents for infrastructure and development projects. He says his goal is to help create a pipeline of projects so that some can start immediately once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted “so people can get back into work as fast ...1 day ago
Contact tracing is a crucial part of the Covid-19 puzzle and technology might prove essential to scaling up New Zealand's tracing capacity, Marc Daalder reports With the lockdown reducing physical contact between members of the public and testing ramping up, the only missing piece of the Covid-19 puzzle is contact tracing. ...1 day ago
Insolvency laws will be temporarily changed to allow troubled companies to trade while technically insolvent Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced changes to the Companies Act to allow companies to put their debts into "hibernation". Robertson said companies facing liquidity problems would have "safe harbour" from their normal insolvency duties ...2 days ago
Bernard Hickey talks to Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr about a massive spike in US jobless claims, and they talk about an inspiring Kiwi app to fight Covid-19 globally. Guest, Pie Funds chief executive Mike Taylor also joins them to talk about the massive market swings and hopes for recovery. Bernard zooms out ...2 days ago
The Reserve Bank looks set to start buying council bonds as well as Government bonds to unfreeze financial markets and allow councils to defer rates and jointly invest in infrastructure with the central Government, Dileepa Fonseka reports In what would be another unprecedented move to calm financial markets and help ...2 days ago
Covid-19 testing of the wider population is on the cards as World Health Organisation research shows people are most contagious within their first few days of being infected Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says Covid-19 carriers are highly infectious when they show few signs of carrying the virus. People were ...2 days ago
Z Energy is the latest company to cut its dividend payout and start talking to its banks about strengthening its finances. Chief executive Mike Bennetts said the company, the largest fuel retailer in the country, had been battered by a range of issues over the past 18 months, and was ...2 days ago
Journalist and Great Barrier Island resident Lindsay Wright reflects on outer gulf pandemic preparedness. Hardy locals can tough it out but Auckland bach owners and boaties should keep their distance. Aotea Great Barrier, the easternmost island in the Hauraki Gulf, are undergoing a Covid-19-inspired population flood. Great Barrier has scenery that makes ...2 days ago
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference and are "as of 9am" of the day. There were 71 new cases of Covid-19 in ...2 days ago
Vodafone says its continuing to see significant increases in calls and data on its networks after the first week of level 4 lockdown. ...2 days ago
People with lower credit scores increased their borrowing upon news of the lockdown, while those with higher scores dropped away. March data from the credit-reporting agency Centrix, which runs credit checks on behalf of banks, finance companies, online lenders, and buy now pay later schemes, showed credit inquiries dropped sharply ...2 days ago
Small business owners say commercial rent relief is desperately needed if they are to survive past the Covid-19 disruptions. While the wage subsidy helped with staff costs, there is currently no government assistance for commercial rent - which typically accounts for 40 percent of a firm's fixed costs. Landlords and ...2 days ago
SkyCity is making 200 staff redundant as part of cost cutting because of the Covid-19 virus. The casino operator said it had no choice but to cut the size of the workforce given that once business resumes it will be at much reduced level. Chief executive Graeme Stephens said it's ...2 days ago
Up to 100,000 foreigners could be seeking to leave the country in coming weeks, now the Government has relaxed domestic travel restrictions for them. ...2 days ago
Health Minister David Clark has flouted the Government's advice to exercise locally after confirming he drove to a park to go mountain biking on Thursday. ...2 days ago
Rodeo has no place in a civilised country.
” The death of a bull at a Wairarapa rodeo on Friday night will add fuel to the fire in the debate on whether the sport should be banned.
….rodeo-type activities would not be tolerated on a farm or when inflicted on a pet, but they are allowed “in the name of fun” for a cruel and outdated form of entertainment.
The difference with rodeo is that the events pit humans against distressed animals in an arena with the expectation that the human will come out on top. Is this really how we want to have fun in a supposedly civilised country in the 21st century?”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/101161365/rodeo-pitting-humans-versus-animals-belongs-to-the-past
I remember going to a bull fight in Spain in the late 1960’s – it was supposedly the “done thing” if you went to Spain. In a way bullfighting is a more extreme form of rodeo – it goads and angers the bull by injuring it and the entire event was very distressing for me personally. Nothing sporting about it – rodeo is the same, nothing sporting about it, legging the animals when they haven’t a chance of escape, pissing the bulls and horses of with the aggravating strap around its belly – what chance is that for the animals.
Do away with it – its enough we kill thousands of the beasts each year just for our pleasure of eating them – give them respect at least until then.
I remember going to a bull fight in Spain in the late 1960’s – it was supposedly the “done thing” if you went to Spain.
Been there done that – lasted less than 15 minutes. Wholeheartedly concur with your sentiments.
Jacinda 5 days at Waitangi
Bill. ‘elsewhere in the country.’
One historic
One elsewhere
Bomber writes well on this on the Daily Blog.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/02/05/waitangi-day-2018-the-joy-of-a-leader-who-understands-the-treaty-maori-will-vote-jacinda-forever-how-iwi-leaders-have-to-acknowledge-the-political-rise-of-urban-maori/
I really hope Bill stays on as National ‘s leader.
“ ‘In the middle of a historic five-day stint at Waitangi, Prime Minister Jacinda
Ardern will lead a large contingent of Labour MPs at Monday’s official welcome.
National’s Steven Joyce will be among 11 National Party MPs at the powhiri with leader Bill English elsewhere in the country.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11988199
Russell Brown lacks the energy to do his job any more. Time to give up?
past it (informal) too old to be of any use or any good at anything.
synonyms: past one’s prime, not as young as one was, not as young as one used to be
After the death of Nelson Mandela in late 2013, Russell Brown suffered the indignity of having his blog hijacked by the cynical National Party provocateur Matthew Hooton, who had the effrontery to claim that Mandela was similar to Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. The thread naturally dissolved into chaos after that, and by the end of the day Brown was at the end of his tether. I satirized the imbroglio here…
Brown clearly has no stomach for robust discussions any more. After the recent attempt to smear Lorde, he wrote a thoughtful piece about the whole shameful affair, but then at the end, where the discussion should have been,we find this sad little note….
https://publicaddress.net/hardnews/lordes-call/
[I personally feel uncomfortable with you using The Standard comments section to smear another left wing blogger because of a long running grudge you hold towards him. I haven’t talked to the other authors about this, but given you have a history of posting misleading comments I am just going to put some boundaries in place.
If you want to reference a conversation at Public Address, you now need to link directly to the conversation *each time*. If the comments section is pages long, you need to link to the specific part of the conversation you are referring to. This is so that people reading your comment can make up their own mind by seeing the conversation itself and in context. *You need to do the work of linking.
Putting you into moderation until you supply a link for the above comment.
Others have dealt with your views on Brown’s suspending commenting – weka]
Russel Brown is an excellent commentator.
Note it was a public holiday.
Which is where people are entitled by law not to work.
Shame on Russell Brown for wanting a little peace and quiet during the holiday period. Doesn’t he realise it’s his job, nay duty, to supervise frothing toddlers bickering on the internet 24/7? The audacity of the man!
When you set up and run a blog that lots of people find interesting and choose to spend time debating on, you too can spend your holiday time monitoring and moderating said blog.
Or not.
+1
+2.
It should be noted Russell Brown was a close friend of musician Grant Fell, who died last week.
The post that had its comments closed was from Jan 3rd.
I know, I was just noting he might have other things on his mind than posting new stuff right now.
oh right, that makes sense.
weka, the direct link to the conversation is here….
https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-mandela/?i=200#replies
…you have a history of posting misleading comments…
Really? Could you support that claim with at least one example, please?
[thanks. And sure, try this /open-mike-14112017/#comment-1414280 (which funnily enough also involves your beef with Russell Brown) – weka
Sorry, weka, but you have provided not one bit of evidence of my posting even one “misleading comment.”
[I count inaccurate transcripts that are presented as transcripts as ‘misleading’. And in that conversation I linked to, you appeared to accept that. – weka]
You are willfully misconstruing my rush transcripts—unlike my present ones, they weren’t always perfect, but they were far from “inaccurate”—as though I was deliberately misleading my readers. I did not do that; if I was of that cast of mind I’d be working for the National or Labour Party propaganda units, or for something even worse, like the three “news” team.
[sigh. read the links in the link. We’ve been over this ad nauseam, and the links show the inaccuracy because people went and linked to the actual audio and demonstrated the mistakes. I haven’t said it was intentional on your part, I’ve said you have a history of misleading comments – weka]
Morning Breakfast people its good that you are keeping the debate on weed going it was a good article you ran with MR Cameron that name is quite strong in
Te Taiwarhiti .
I had one quip with the article that is that know mention of all the people who get a criminal record because of the way these ancient laws are forced on us .
I will wait for the correct time for me to have more input on the subject of weed in Aotearoa there are some issues that I stay out of so as to not have a negative effect against the good cause I.E rally the neolibrals against it . I think Fair GO is a show that fights for the common peoples causes to be treated fairly Like the wealthy are one should not have to have heaps of money to expect to be treated humanly by our society but that’s the way it is .
May be I should approach Fair Go to help me fight the NZ justice system for the facial way they are treating a broke brown person/human like ECO MAORI .
Yeah Right the sandfly will shine there hypnotic object and spin anything to stop that.
You see people the follow me everywhere I go trying to break my WAIRUA but know I have to much MANA for that to ever happen. P.S ITs good to see you all Eco likes the good kiwi Karma you good people on Breakfast are displaying Ka pai.
Ka kite ano
Morning Rock radio people give us a sore face please Ka pai
Who is this Harvey Weinstein everyone keeps talking about ?
He was a major fundraiser for the Democratic Party.
With the Republicans in the ascendancy he isn’t quite as popular anymore.
Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren, among others could probably tell you all about him although I expect they have probably developed very convenient selective amnesia.
Time to move on though. Nothing to see here.
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/harvey-weinstein-political-donations-2017-10?r=US&IR=T
Heard of METO alwyn?
Many Democrats are now giving their ‘harvey’ donations to charities since the sexual harassment stories broke. At least they are trying to right a wrong.
METO?
Like the time I ended pretending to be married in an attempt to put an end to the ongoing sexual harassment from my then employer. It worked due to his culture.
In reflection I should have spoken out as my actions did nada to prevent the same happening to any other women he may have employed after I eventually quit, I feel bad about that now, but young and naive I was.
And Cinny, not supported by the “mores” of the day.
You were fighting back on the only terms they would respond to. Very understandable … don’t beat yourself.
🙂
Yeah, but unlike the RNC’s finance chief Steve Wynn, Weinstein wasn’t a party functionary.
And unlike the their call for Weinstein’s donations to be returned tout suite, the RNC hypocrites are touting due process before they even think about returning any of Wynn’s donations.
In an interview with CNN from October, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel praised Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer for returning donations from Weinstein, but added: “The DNC should do the same thing. They’re keeping 90 percent of his donations. I don’t understand. If you stand for treating women well and you stand for the respect of women, you shouldn’t take money from somebody who treated women with the absolute highest level of disrespect.”
But in January 2018, the GOP is singing a very different tune after a Wall Street Journal investigation found that Steve Wynn, casino magnate and finance chair of the RNC, allegedly sexually harassed and assaulted dozens of women over the past two decades. The party accepted Wynn’s resignation as finance chair.
But it isn’t isn’t looking to return his donations anytime soon. “He should be allowed due process,” McDaniel said on Fox on Tuesday morning.
[…]
You don’t need “due process” or a criminal investigation to fire a private employee or return an alleged harasser’s political donations. Weinstein wasn’t investigated by the New York Police Department (at first) — he was investigated by Ronan Farrow at the New Yorker and by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey at the New York Times.
Former Today show host Matt Lauer was fired by NBC — without investigation by police. And, of course, conservatives — and the GOP — have long noted a number of allegations of harassment and sexual assault against former President Bill Clinton that never reached the courts.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/30/16950296/rnc-steve-wynn-donations
That makes it alright then.
The Republican Party also has skeletons in its closet.
What is that phrase? We can ignore it. They did it too.
As I said. Nothing to see here. Time to move on.
It’s quite clear, liberals have acted decisively and removed harassers and conservative hypocrites have routinely labelled accusers liars, hidden behind due process and trotted out apologists like Sarah “Sen. Franken has admitted wrongdoing and the president hasn’t” Huckabooboo.
Cheers for the links and info Joe
How does it go…. want to know what people are really like, wait until money is involved.
Alwyn re 6.1.2.1 Well said, Alwyn, well said.
You know what’s so hard case Rock people it’s when I drive past a road work site the workers are looking at the ground or star gazeing. What was Jen talking about when she pulled her calf mussels that would be good to know now there is someone at a business I mowed when they are never there anther play by the sandflys Ka kite ano
The main reason workers pause when cars are going past or trains are going past, is because it’s good not to be run over and killed. So they step out of the way.
Note also: for every one person on the end of a shovel, you also have to have other people “standing around”:
– health and safety
– site engineers
– site supervisors
– client
– subcontractors waiting for another part of the job to complete
– traffic staff
– machine operators eg cranes, trucks, hi-ab, all of which wait for other epople to do their jobs
So before you do the usual thing again thinking: why is only one person working and the rest of them standing around, the simple answer is:
they are not your personal performing monkeys who jump up and down just because you and yours rolled up in a car.
They are a team.
Morning Jim how’s the new Moko there must be some in the water at The Rock radio station all those new mokos well all the best to you all.
Road workers what eco meant was the sandflys are going ahead of me and telling you people not to notice me they bull you people and say that they have a court order to stop any publicly for me you people on the ground work hard and all deserve a pay rise. Ka kite ano
Man can not even have a private conversations with his Whano and the sandflys spinn it up to use what I say in private as a weapon thatssssss right a poor Brown man has no rights I forgot that is accepterable in OUR society. Eco is not impressed with the talent and leadership of our Maori leaders over the last 50 years .
My problem is they let crown con them that the justice system is humane and fair mean while the jails are over flowing with Maori. They throw there hands up in the air and say we don’t know what’s wrong with the system. They have let MSM publish all the bad stories about Maori and say it ok it’s true what about all the positive thing Maori achieve .There are many things that the powerful Maori have just let happen they were just looking after there own.It’ got that bad that everyone looks down there noses look at US never give us the respect and trust . We are all tared with that same brush that is published on MSM that the neolibrels instergated ECO MAORI is going to change that disrespectful view of all MAORI like I’m doing NOW KA PAI
P.S. Many thanks for that positive article on Maori in KOREA Kimberly Downs.
ANA TO kai
Eco Maori is backing your show Hillary and Jeremy we just have to interactive a bit and your ratings will rise sharply Eco has been waiting patiently for this new show on TVNZ ON 1 at SEVEN Pm Ka kite ano
I not impressed with the Maori leaders we got now either . They know how this system works and chose to say nothing to WARN OUR Mokos It’s algood Eco Maori has told all the people about this corrupt justice systems of the western society. And crime is dropping 2 reasons 1 being informed about the bullshit systems 2 they have a swarm following me around all the time the sandflys don’t have the time to harass OUR Mokos Ka pai I can handle the sandflys heat.lol Ana to kai.
ECO MAORI has been reassing his views on Barack Obama he is m8 with shonky key who I know is a racist bigot who main goal was to destroy MAORI Mana and full his pockets and his m8 how many billions did he spend down South irragation schemes bailing out that finance company giving our money to people who are already rich WTF .
So Big No to Obama coming to Aotearoa at OUR expense just to lift AMERICA IMAGE .Shonky key would get some positive publicity out of that visit to after what key has done to Aotearoa no fucken way .ANA TO KAI
Eco Maori knows that Hillary Barry and Jeremy wells won’t caste a subliminal message to all the people of Aotearoa that it’s OK to drive a million dollar car own a million dollar’ house talk about all the bags his wife has when they go on holiday to America and kiss shonky ass whenever he can and ridicule OUR poorest people who have slipped on there ladder of life. Then give his m8 dairy dack dune a pat on the back while his son m8 is poisoning OUR people for a profit heres a person form that party he likes on this link bellow ka pai Hillary & Jeremy
Ka kite ano
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/04/paul-ryan-tweet-school-secretary-tax-bill
Seriously outstanding coverage for Prime Minister Ardern coming through TV1 news from Waitangi:
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news
Great to see her rise to this – a real Big Norm moment.
Heard her speak about problems for Māori, poverty and inequality, poor housing, rangatahi suicide rate and mental health. Major, major issues that the Government plays a large part in.
You have to wonder how many times Māori have heard a politician promising change, and many of these things won’t be able to be turned around quickly either. She appears genuine, but who knows if the rest of the Labour caucus is.
Well at Waitangi just now she told them to hold her to account when she comes back next year. You can bet they will do just that.
Yes Ad, a speech I’m proud to listen to. A P.M. we can be proud of.
Her call for the people of the Marae and else where to hold her and the government to account each year, with face to face meetings, to discuss progress during Waitangi Week.
We can do this. We can change lives working together.
I’m thinking back, and I can’t remember an occasion where the spouse/partner of a Prime Minister played such a central role at Waitangi as it seems the Current Incumbent’s is.
Even to picking up the wero…a task that should more appropriately gone to a male colleague rather than a partner.
Do you know something we don’t? You are obviously exercised about this because it is the second time you have mentioned it!
That was Labour giving the PM’s spouse an honour – maybe so he wouldn’t be feeling “left out” of all the proceedings. Maybe it was as simple a gesture as that.
Get over it Rosemary. It was a nice thing for him to be able to do.
Cancer “Vaccine” That Wipes out Tumors Ready for Human Trial
Sounds promising.
Here is hoping for this to be a breakthrough, and it is priced right!!
Thanks; interesting. Fingers crossed.
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03410901
Makes me glad i live in NZ however whether its true or not its damn interesting…as long as it happens in someone elses country
https://www.truthrevolt.org/commentary/greenfield-memo-reveals-coup-against-america
Geez Puckish, I thought your filter was better than that. The memo doesn’t stand scrutiny, let alone the wild allegations and conclusions being spouted about it.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/02/02/the-nunes-memo-makes-no-sense-216928
Meanwhile here in New Zealand, you heard of a book called Dirty Politics by Nicky Hager? It’s got all sorts of interesting bits, including stuff about the office of the incumbent head of government misusing the nation’s spy services to smear the opposition.
My take on it is that both sides are probably right in some respects and both sides are probably wrong in others
Its more I’m glad we don;t have anything like that going on here and we’re all the better for it
What, you mean we don’t have the overseas mega-wealthy with possible foreign government connections paying visits to politicians in order to acquire favourable treatment?
Good to know.
On a different note, have they repealed the hobbit employment law yet?
We don’t have anything like that, to the degree that the USA has 🙂
I agree it’s to a lesser degree here: the National Party just doesn’t cost that much.
Rick Blaine: I don’t mind a parasite. I object to a cut-rate one.
I love the fact the Trump wing of the Republican party still think Obama is president and Clinton is some sort of shadow president pulling the strings. Or something – it’s hard to make sense of what the fuck they actually think or are trying to infer.
Well if true, and thats still a big if, it means Trump was spied on illegally and it was endorsed by the highest office in the land so they probably think its a big deal
It said nothing about Trump, it was about Carter Page. Even leading Republicans such as Trey Gowdy say it has nothing to do with the investigation into the Trump campaign.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/03/trey-gowdy-nunes-memo-russia-probe-389083
If the name Trey Gowdy vaguely rings a bell, it was he who decided 8 investigations into Hillary and Benghazi weren’t enough and conducted a ninth. And came up with nothing that could even be spun as culpability on Hillary’s part.
edit: although, to give him his due, that investigation did highlight the issue of her server.
The issue has been that muddied that I don’t think anyone can honestly (or truthfully) state what did or didn’t happen
🙄
Wouldn’t that be convenient for your white supremacist leader.
Hes as much your leader as he is mine
…and yet you’re the one trying (and failing) to make excuses for him.
Nope sorry you’re wrong
Just in case you’re interested, here’s a reminder of Nunes’ previous clusterfuck of an attempt to blow a smokescreen for Hair Fuhrer to hide behind and claim vindication. He’s got form for embarrassingly inept stunts like this.
https://www.wired.com/2017/04/devin-nunes-white-house-trump-surveillance/
Bullshit.
It’s not muddy at all.
Half a dozen close members of the Trump campaign have either been indicted or disclosed their own emails detailing activities they believed to be on behalf of the Russians. The nunes memo is an attempt to poison one of the initial warrants that exposed this poisonous tree, because the one commonality all of these people have is Trump.
I doubt they have enough to nuke the investigation via court appeals – the FISA warrants against page don’t cover Flynn, for example – but they’re looking for enough PR shielding to excuse interfering in the investigation.
“Not muddy at all”
None of those who comment on this have a clue what’s actually going on or why…
The propaganda behind ‘russiagate’ is outrageously blatant…trying to decifer it is a waste of time…
Claiming to understand what’s going on or taking a position….Schoolboy mistake…
fuck off. Claiming to know nothing aids and abets all of the world’s ills. Better to take a stand (and be wrong once in a while) than to exercise Cartesian doubt as a dodge from moral culpability.
Taking a stand…
Against what, exactly…
Wrong once and a while = 100% of the time with the volume of propaganda and deceit involved
I get that folks like to feel they have some understanding of what’s going on…they need to feel involved…empowered…
But that’s not realistic…
Oh bullshit. You’re just too much of a coward to form a reasoned belief on the world around you. If you actually believed something, you might one day actually have to commit to it.
The other thing that pisses me off about the “oh no, it’s impossible to know anything” approach is that not only are you helping corruption run rampant, you try and pretend like you’re better than people who do actually engage with their surroundings. Fuck you. People like you are part of the reason people don’t vote, which favours tories and demogogues. You are actively trying to keep the corrupt in office.
That you can’t read my ‘opinions’ in my comments is your limitation…
So you reach for the abusive comments…how very base…
Picking ‘a side’ by believing your opinion is somehow ‘preventing/fighting’ corruption is the purest form of illogical and irrational…
Your opinions, energy and position are part of the problem…you can’t be part of the solution…
Not with that primitive level of ‘thinking’…
It’s ironic that the only thing you pretend to have a firm opinion on is your intellectual superiority.
And yes, the proposition that sowing apathy and encouraging political disengagement does indeed provide fertaile soil for corruption is logical:
Corruption multiplies most when out of the public view;
Saying that we can never know the truth instead of looking for it and exposing it keeps the truth out of the public view;
therefore:
Saying that we can never know the truth instead of looking for it and exposing it provides the most ideal environment for corruption to multiply.
Logical enough for you, fucko?
One thing I don’t know is why you bother commenting here – surely your extreme epistemological skepticim means that you must have overwhelmig doubt that your computer even exists? Your desire for attention betrays your arguments as a fraud: if your doubt were genuinely that extreme, there could well be no attention to be gained and any effort commenting here would be wasted.
Your pretension creates a paradox that exposes itself. You’ve been hoist by your own canard.
That’s a handy excuse that no-one will understand for me to give out when I have come out with something off the wall – sorry didn’t want to waffle with Cartesian doubt so posited that.
McFlock I enjoyed that but will try to keep out of the way when you let fly.
I was thinking the other day about people who won’t have children because they don’t want to bring little ones into such a bad world. That seems cowardly too, though I think China was trying to do the right thing, limiting to two would be best.
Funnily enough, I don’t recall ever having been irked by your comments in the slightest, so you needn’t fear me going off the handle.
I think some people are overly pessimistic about the world – especially those people who are in a position to choose their fertility based on bets about what will happen in thirty years.
The kids who really suffer will be born to parents who had no choice because healthcare wasn’t available.
China was/is in a major demographic bind, but its solution has had some unforseen negatives, like a hefty gender imbalance.
I doubt they will go after Trump on dodgy Russian money flows …. Given the extent of involvement by u.s.a firms in the world wide laundry business ….https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-probe-of-malaysian-fund-looks-at-rap-stars-political-donations-1511951401
Glass houses every where …..
“Morgan Stanley reports having 210 subsidiaries in offshore tax havens. ”
“Citigroup reported operating 427 tax haven subsidiaries in 2008 but disclosed only 41 in 2014. Over that time period, Citigroup nearly doubled the amount of cash it reported holding offshore. ”
“Bank of America reported operating 264 tax haven subsidiaries in 2013 but disclosed only 22 in 2014. ”
If the Russians did hack the U.s elections …. It was by calling all their diplomats home on the eve of the election …. giving the impression of a war footing preparation for a Clinton win.
Whether this induced any u.s voters, specifically those afraid of nuclear war with russia ….to give their vote to Trump instead of Clinton….. is unknown and unexplored to the best of my knowledge.
There are more obvious reasons she lost …
The Trump investigation has nothing to do with But But But Hillary. Nor Morgan Stanley, nor Citigroup, nor anyone else who might have “done it too”.
And if money laundering isn’t an issue, why have formal charges of money laundering been laid?
Please try and live up to your handle.
I’m not that invested in the continuation of criminality that both Trump and Clinton represent ….
I think it would be good if Trump was arrested over his profiteering from criminal russian money laundering …… criminal oligarchs stealing from the poor should be prosecuted … just like war criminals should….Convictions for either are like rocking horse shit.
I’d be very surprised if ‘creative’ business structures do not provide Trump with Wayne Mapp / Bill English standards of legal plausible deniability…. and then he could quote John Key ” We observe the law”….. ” every thing is above board ” ….. ” Its all a political smear”.
When watching an American circus you’d be silly to spend all your time on the russian clowns …. you’ll miss the main events https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w44lApffH30
you’ll miss the main events
I can’t recognise Disaster Capitalism and pay attention to the FBI’s investigation at the same time, eh, because I’m inattentive and stupid, and don’t know how.
Thanks for clearing that up.
Good for you OAB …..
You’ll no doubt be aware of the NZ shell company connections to the russian laundromat …. if not just ask cathy odgers … https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/08/new-zealand-companies-offices-612mn-money-laundering-snooze.html
Given that your up with the play …… what fraction of influence over u.s politics do you think the russians wield …..compared to Israel ??
Israel own u.s politics ….. Hacked it with money.
Well, he did hire someone intelligence services were interested in because of their connections to Russia, so he can’t really bleat about turning up in incidental collection.
Carter Page, the energy industry consultant who was linked last year to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, is the unnamed man identified in a federal complaint as having met with a Russian intelligence agent four years ago, Page himself revealed on Monday.
Page confirmed his role in the 2013 FBI investigation to NBC News after ABC News and Buzzfeed identified him as a subject called “Male 1” in a criminal complaint filed in 2015 against Evgeny Buryakov, an undercover agent posing as a Russian bank executive in New York.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-campaign-associate-carter-page-revealed-target-russian-spies-n742356
I s’pose calling yourself an adviser to the Kremlin might spark a wee bit of curiosity from intelligence agencies.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/02/carter-page-reportedly-bragged-about-being-an-informal-adviser-to-the-kremlin-in-2013.html
The GOP supported a sexual predator, Trump. an accused child sex offender, Moore, and now with a former head of American Nazi Party, white supremacist and Holocaust denier running unopposed as nominee for Congress, dollars to donuts Republicans will go for the threefer and vote for him.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/holocaust-denier-arthur-jones-republican-3rd-congressional-district-lipinski-newman/#.Wnd7_R4X1CI.twitter
Just for a bit of balance:
http://www.newsweek.com/did-hillary-clinton-help-bill-clinton-intimidate-and-discredit-his-accusers-714636
“Mr. Trump may have said some bad words, but Bill Clinton raped me, and Hillary Clinton threatened me,” Broaddrick added. “I don’t think there’s any comparison.”
Appalling behaviour which only makes me ask again…
Why oh why didnt the Dems nominate bernie sanders
Interesting Twitter thread by @BexGraham:
It has been a subject of conjecture for a long time – the secretive Freemasons, who must be a body of conservatives that have had antipathy to lefties over centuries and interested in protecting the status quo when it rewards them satisfactorily. A very solid union or group of self-protecting business or professional people.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/feb/04/two-freemasons-lodges-operating-secretly-at-westminster
The disclosure that both political journalists and politicians are Freemasons comes after the outgoing chair of the Police Federation alleged that Freemasons were blocking reforms in policing and thwarting the progress of women and officers from black and minority ethnic communities.
After three years as the chair of the Police Federation, Steve White said: “I found that there were people who were fundamentally against any kind of change and any kind of progress, and they always happened to be Freemasons.”
The charge brought an angry denial from the UGLE. In a letter to the press, Staples said: “We are quietly proud that throughout history, when people have suffered discrimination both in public and social life, Freemasonry has welcomed them into our lodges as equals.” He added that many Freemasons chose to keep their membership secret in order to avoid being discriminated against.
This Mirror article below is interesting as it lists many famous men and has photo portraits of those who have been just names in history books.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/how-secret-group-freemasons-kept-6886802
” when people have suffered discrimination both in public and social life, Freemasonry has welcomed them into our lodges as equals.”
Grey do you know when they began admitting women to their lodges?
Sorry tracey. I just saw that item about there being three different lodges in the Commons, I think. And then that other bit with the images but hadn’t got any further.
Then I wondered about the possibility of them forming a defensive circle when one of their number got into trouble (I see that it didn’t help Oscar Wilde). I wondered about such cases as the CTV in Christchurch where inexplicably it seemed, that no fault could be found and no atonement ordered. Anne Perry who likes Victorian crime themes has written of a powerful elite group exerting authority called the Inner Circle in her books and shows them prepared to wreck people’s reputations if thwarted. Fiction, but I think she has delved into the times fairly thoroughly.
Women were not allowed to be members till lately I think. There was supposed to be a group of blokes who were in good standing in the community, and who belonged to different work sectors and could keep secrets. As women were all, well women, what else to say about them, and everyone knew they couldn’t keep secrets, I think entry for the femmes would be fairly late in the piece.
Better put sarc/ for protection.
tracey
I think you saw something ironic in that quote hah!
Yeah. Finally the Eagles won the Superbowl. Can’t wait to hear what Adolf Twitler has to say about his buds Tom Brady and Bill Belichick being losers.
I am sure this information is interesting to many around the world.
However you appear to be posting the information in the wrong place.
This is New Zealand.
This not a sports blog.
Don’t be so rude.
This is Open Mike, we even get veganism fanatics trying to convert others posting here!
Climate change is the number 1 political issue facing the world.
Sports isn’t even a political issue.
There is quite a difference.
Oh OK Ed, I missed the announcement from LPrent that this is now Climate Mike.
Obviously you haven’t a clue how obnoxious many of your comments are.
yeah dude, sport isn’t political. Go “take a knee” while Ed arbitrates what other topics are worthy enough to discuss 😉
LOL
“Adolf Twitler” 😂
Cracker fumble by wee Tommy.
Maybe if his diet included a bit more easily digestible protein, iron and B12, he might have been able to hang on to the ball.
This expert doctor disagrees with you.
A vegan doctor believes a vegan diet is all good. In any other context you’d be decrying his “Big Pharma” conflict of interest.
I suggest you watch the documentary “Alphago”.
I wonder if the inability to get satisfactory action against the engineers involved with the CTV building collapse and deaths of 115 people in the Christchurch earthquake in 2011 could be as a result of a cover-up by the ‘old boys club’.
This article is very thorough and contains information on the CTV building that appears more solid than the structure itself for those who are interested in the background!
https://failures.wikispaces.com/CTV+Building+Collapse+%E2%80%93+Christchurch+NZ+Earthquake
The failures of proper procedure compound as time went on with this building. This is one paragraph about it.
In 1990, major design defects were first brought to light. Holmes Consulting conducted a review of the existing structural system for a potential tenant looking to evaluate the safety of the building. They found that there was inadequate strength in the connection between the floor slab and shear walls, especially the walls at the north shear wall core. When alerted to the issue, Reay took 21 months to implement a fix. During the retrofit process, however, permit applications were never filled and the local building council was not alerted to the structural renovation that was being done. The lack of disclosure to the council prevented their involvement in the consultation and review process (Macfie, 2014).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CTV_Building
The Royal Commission of Inquiry heard evidence into why the CTV Building collapsed during the 2011 earthquake from 25 June 2012, and was scheduled to run for eight weeks.[35]
Witnesses before the Commission debated whether the building was code-compliant when it was built, and whether the engineers designing and approving the building had adequate experience. Consulting firm head Alan Reay stated that the building did not meet his own standards, and he thought the engineer he employed for the design, David Harding, had adequate experience.[36] Harding had not designed buildings of more than two floors before. He said he relied on Reay for guidance, and that the developers wanted a minimum-cost design to (just) meet the code; no extra reinforcing was to be added or you “got your hand smacked”.[37]
Witness Arthur O’Leary, a structural engineer, said that a “critical eye” should have been cast over the building design.[38] The “pioneering” structural design could have been beyond the experience of council staff to evaluate, though the “pioneering” design meant that non-compliant elements in the building columns were not obvious. Panel member Barry Davidson also disagreed with an “opportunistic and legalistic” interpretation of the code that found they were compliant.[39]
The commission’s findings were released on 10 December 2012. The report found the building’s design was deficient and should not have been approved. The building’s engineer, David Harding, of Alan Reay Consultants Ltd, was found to have no experience in designing multi-storey buildings and was “working beyond his competence.” His supervisor, Alan Reay, left Harding unsupervised then pressured city officials to approve the building design even though several members had reservations about the design.[40]
We are a cowboy country without laws to protect us and without regulators with decent teeth
Alan Reay and his litigious arse should be nailed to the wall. http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/9590396/Stigma-behind-CTV-firms-rebrand-father
The police say that current law prevents them from prosecuting the designers after 1 year of the design being complete. Even the Consumer Guarantees Act is better than that.
Lobby the new Govt to bring in restrospective legislation and stop the buck passing between designers/contractors/council/police. Fuck sometimes the NZ number 8 wire approach is shit.
Add your voice to those opposed to the CP-TPP before its too late:
https://our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/open-letter-to-jacinda-ardern-put-people-before-planet-in-tppa11?bucket
Global economic crisis on its way.
“Sharemarket declines in sympathy with US nerves.
Underlying that is a deeper fear that dust swept under the carpet in an effort to tidy up the balance of sheets of financial institutions in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis could resurface……
…..Greene said the proportion of New Zealand shares that were foreign-owned had increased over the past few years, so if US investors did cash in equities and switch to bonds that might have more of an impact than it once would.”
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/101171629/sharemarket-declines-in-sympathy-with-us-nerves
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/101064349/crash-warnings-intensify-heres-what-you-should-do-when-it-happens
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/world/100831022/it-is-frankly-scary-world-financial-system-as-stretched-as-before-2008-crash
Here is what trumps getting up to
http://www.euronews.com/2018/02/03/how-the-us-plans-make-nuclear-weapons-easier-to-use