Neil Young has never hidden his contempt for Donald Trump, but now that he’s officially an American citizen, he’s raising his voice even louder. “You are a disgrace to my country,” Young writes in a long, scathing open letter to Trump on his Neil Young Archives website. “Your mindless destruction of our shared natural resources, our environment, and our relationships with friends around the world is unforgivable.
Somewhat ironically, Trump is a big fan of Young’s music. In 2008, Rolling Stone phoned up Trump after noticing him at three of Young’s concerts over the past couple of years. At one of them, a CSNY show at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, he sat next to Patti Smith and Salman Rushdie, and stayed for the entire show.
“He’s got something very special,” Trump told us. “I’ve listened to his music for years and I’ve seen him before that, but I went to the concert where they were honoring Bob Dylan years ago at Madison Square Garden [Bob Fest 10/16/92], and Neil got up and totally brought the house down. There was nobody close. He’s performed for me at my casinos over the years, and he just brings it down. I’ve met him on occasions and he’s a terrific guy.”
Trump and his propagandists want to convert disorder to his advantage.
That's obvious enough. But the true nature of it is often shrouded in euphemisms. But it gets much clearer in this speech.
Trump and his propagandists are actively trying to engineer violent civil conflict, by signaling to white Americans that they are under siege in a race war that they're losing.
The rub is that this signaling requires actually saying this in one form or another. Defending monolithic white patriarchy like he has done is making official his actual intended meanings when he does things like tweet out supporters yelling "white power."
Trump and his propagandists want a lot of white Americans to think they need to take sides in a race war. So in this context, these set of signals yesterday make the speech pretty important.
I find that short clip terrifying. The following clip looks very interesting and I intend to save it for a rainy afternoon. (could be today here in the south..!)
Tendencies toward masochism are alarming! Or is it just `know your enemy'? Forewarned is fore-armed? I just see a narcissist desperately trying to rally his deserting troops: much ado about nothing. He failed the character test and also failed the intelligence test, so he's on a slide into the dustbin of history.
It was clever to become president on his anti-establishment rebel stance, but holding it this long is too much of a gamble, I reckon. I'm anti-establishment, but there's a time to be careful and go with the flow. He ought to moderate fast!
It has long been my contention that should Trump lose the presidential election, there will be violence across America the like of what has never been seen before. And it will be the ethnic races who will bear the brunt.
I hope and pray he loses despite the consequences.
In Washington on 28 August there is going to be a march in Washington led by Rev Sharpton. This will be another moment in history which will be on par with Martin Luther King's speech "I have a dream." I am looking forward to hearing what Rev Sharpton's message is, I know it will be about injustice.
King knew that using violence was not the answer to change racism. African American's have the right to not have lethal violence used against them by law inforcement.
African American's have the right to not have lethal violence used against them by law inforcement.
In 2019 just 54 unarmed Americans were killed by the police. 19 of them were black. In a nation of 350m people a black man is more likely to be killed by lightening than by a policeman in egregious circumstances.
What's more the media has made certain you know many names of the black men killed … but absolute silence on the white men.
Without googling on it you cannot name one single white or hispanic man killed by the US police in the past decade. It's not because there are none; there are at least three times as many of them as black men.
All lives matter. One unarmed person being killed is one to many.
The general crime trend has been in the right direction for several decades, and the overall numbers of bad faith police killings has been reducing. This is good news BLM and the media will not tell you.
But demanding that the number of these tragic events be reduced to zero, and setting in motion demands for a totalitarian cultural revolution and massive disruption in response is utterly misdirected.
It's called the Perfection Fallacy, demanding all suffering must be eliminated, and then throwing a destructive tantrum because the world doesn't deliver.
Not suggesting Covid-19's racist, but something is going on. Systemic racism has a long 'tail'. The ripples of sickening acts of racial violence (such as the Tulsa race massacre), and systemic racism (such as the Jim Crow laws), are still spreading, even if some can't or won’t see them.
I would be pushing Ardern to get up on to the global podims (podia?) and remind the world of the strengths and virtues of tolerance, global co-operation, and effective public policy. The virtue card is hers to play if she wants to amplify our strengths to the world.
Meantime, if Trump is re-elected and a much stronger trade war occurs between the USA and China, my advice would be Janus-faced:
– Secure and expand your trade links with Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Japan and China. Accelerate RCEP real fast.
– Negotiate a much deeper defence agreement with Australia. For example basing more of our Navy and Army in Darwin.
Just an intensification of what we're doing already.
It would be more a case of securing its trade interests, given its disputes with the USA.
But politically there is America removing itself from the international stage. China with its one belt and road planning to be its replacement.
Which raises the issue, for how much longer will the USA maintain carrier groups to secure freedom for trade across the seas. Their global internet companies do not need it. They have oil companies, but are self-sufficient in oil.
It’s only the EU dependence and NATO’s continuance and possibly their evangelicals love of the prophecy of Israel that is keeping them active.
Without either, would there be a carrier group and defence offered to Oz/Japan? China plans on reducing the USA to the eastern half of the Pacifi – just the Americas. Russia wants the USA out of Europe and the end of NATO.
That's it. The mistake most people make when thinking about the USA is they fail to look at things from their point of view.
The US never really wanted an empire, it was founded in act of rebellion from one. It never really needed an empire, it's trade with the wider world outside of North America was always modest compared to it's GDP. It really only created the post-WW2 order to build a coalition against Stalin and the Soviets and once that was over, they never really considered deeply what might come next.
Well the answer, that should bring joy to all of you who're so reflexively anti-US, is that eventually they lost interest and are going home. And in that all of the essential geopolitical pre-conditions that have made the modern world we know possible go with them.
China with its one belt and road planning to be its replacement.
The intention behind the effort is understandable, and if the rhetoric promoting it is to be taken at face value it's a praiseworthy goal. But the hard realities are that China is never going to be in a position to replace the US.
Sticking closely to the remarks on his teleprompter for both sets of remarks, with none of the joking and sarcastic asides that pepper his rally remarks, Mr. Trump delivered his speeches in a grim monotone that he often employs when reading from a script. His address had little of the celebration and joyfulness that presidents typically try to convey on the Fourth of July,
The speeches were drafted for Mr. Trump by his regular team of writers in the West Wing, who are led by Stephen Miller. Campaign officials said Saturday that they thought the speeches struck the right note for the moment
The last comment in this article, “you just keep trying things and hope something sticks” could also be said of some people in our own little land.
The Great White Hopes – Donald Trump and Pieta Botha.
Botha Quotes On Leading South Africa
The free world wants to feed South Africa to the Red Crocodile [communism] to appease its hunger."
"The idea of an Afrikaner people as a cultural entity and religious group with a special language will be retained in South Africa as long as civilization stands."
"The white people who came here lived at a very much higher standard than the indigenous peoples and with a very rich tradition, which they brought with them from Europe."
"The security and happiness of all minority groups in South Africa depends on the Afrikaner."
"Most blacks are happy, except those who have had other ideas pushed into their ears."
"I am one of those who believe that there is no permanent home for even a section of the Bantu in the white area of South Africa, and the destiny of South Africa depends on this essential point. If the principle of permanent residence for the black man in the area of the white is accepted, then it is the beginning of the end of civilization as we know it in this country."
"The people who are opposing the policy of apartheid have not the courage of their convictions. They do not marry non-Europeans."
I've said many times that the word 'apartheid' means good neighborliness."
"I never have the nagging doubt of wondering whether perhaps I am wrong."
Trump's Mount Rushmore speech quotes
"Make no mistake: this left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution. In so doing, they would destroy the very civilization that rescued billions from poverty, disease, violence, and hunger, and that lifted humanity to new heights of achievement, discovery, and progress."
"Against every law of society and nature, our children are taught in school to hate their own country, and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes, but that were villains. The radical view of American history is a web of lies — all perspective is removed, every virtue is obscured, every motive is twisted, every fact is distorted, and every flaw is magnified until the history is purged and the record is disfigured beyond all recognition."
"Those who seek to erase our heritage want Americans to forget our pride and our great dignity, so that we can no longer understand ourselves or America's destiny. In toppling the heroes of 1776, they seek to dissolve the bonds of love and loyalty that we feel for our country, and that we feel for each other. Their goal is not a better America, their goal is the end of America."
"Americans are the people who pursued our Manifest Destiny across the ocean, into the uncharted wilderness, over the tallest mountains, and then into the skies and even into the stars."
"Uplifted by the titans of Mount Rushmore, we will find unity that no one expected; we will make strides that no one thought possible. This country will be everything that our citizens have hoped for, for so many years, and that our enemies fear — because we will never forget that American freedom exists for American greatness. And that's what we have: American greatness."
Non whites and the left are posed as a threat to the order of white man's rule, the natural order of their civilisation – apartheid and the American Revolutionary Republic.
Once upon a time the Russian serf was great because the Tsar's Russia was great (or today Putin). Today white men without college degrees are being asked to serve their nation by preserving the civilisation that led to the statues of such as Jefferson Davis, to cater to the vainglory of that strongman poseur Donald John Drumpf.
The true greatness of a revolutionary republic is that it allows the freedom enabling a democracy where all of its citizens have equal civil liberties to emerge and grow. And in its capacity to remove all tyrants and their tyranny.
It is the duty of every US-ian who opposes Trump to vote for Biden in November. Even if he is not the candidate they want or doesnt have the manifesto they wish for.
A better world can wait. Having another 4 years of Trump will pretty much lead to the USA reverting to what it was before the Civil War.
Trump and his propagandists are actively trying to engineer violent civil conflict, by signaling to white Americans that they are under siege in a race war that they're losing.
It was BLM who started this race war your are ranting about, and made skin colour all important. Now the consequences of this neo-Maoist uprising are coming home, you whine about the inevitable backlash.
The term "Four Old" first appeared on June 1, 1966, in Chen Boda's People's Daily editorial, "Sweep Away All Monsters and Demons", where the Old Things were described as anti-proletarian, "fostered by the exploiting classes, [and to] have poisoned the minds of the people for thousands of years". However, which customs, cultures, habits, and ideas specifically constituted the "Four Olds" were initially not clearly defined.
On August 8, the Central Committee used the term at its 8th National Congress. The term was endorsed on August 18 by Lin Biao at a mass rally, and from there it spread to Red Flag magazine, as well as to Red Guard publications.
Calls to destroy the "Four Olds" usually did not appear in isolation, but were contrasted with the hope of building the "Four News" (new customs, new culture, new habits, new ideas). The idea that Chinese culture was responsible for China's economic backwardness and needed to be reformed had some precedent in the May Fourth Movement
The Four Old's were held to be:
Old Ideas … tell people that everything they believe in and they way they do things is wrong, that the accumulated wisdom of the ancestors is oppressive
Old Customs …. pull apart the social fabric, the celebrations, the social glue and isolate people
Old Culture … remove the icons, the monuments, humiliate people for what they looked up to
Old Values … eradicate the religious and ethical foundations of society
The end result was of course a catastrophe; you should have a long conversation with someone Chinese who lived through it sometime.
I would say that Trump and his supporters are guilty of their own Cultural Revolution, in reverse, in that they wish to reimpose a patriarchial, puritan, racially homogenous, free market USA that was in existence before Civil Rights movement, the Sexual Revolution and the New Deal. Trump is a anti-Mao, and his supporters are the Red Gaurds.
Anyway, isnt it Trump's Christian Taliban who are trying to erase evolution from the high school curriculum.
Personally, I actually agree with China's Cultural Revolution. I think we need an equivalent in the west, and the churches need to be targets first.
BLM did not start this race war, what a cretinous thing to say. For blacks, this has been going on since they were forcibly removed from Africa, the Civil War, the Tulsa massacre, Jim Crow, Civil Rights, etc, just because white people have suddenly became aware and are supporting the movement doesn't mean this has started now.
For blacks, this has been going on since they were forcibly removed from Africa, the Civil War, the Tulsa massacre, Jim Crow, Civil Rights,
Not one single person alive participated in any of the these events. Arguably the USA is now one of the least racist places on earth, certainly large numbers of people of colour want to migrate there, and when they do, they often do very well.
The two migrant groups most interesting from this perspective are black Jamaican's and Nigerians. Both groups have completely different social outcomes from Black Americans, yet from an appearance point of view they are completely indistinguishable. If the US was irredeemably racist this would be an impossible outcome.
And your mention of the Civil War is ironic. The US is the only nation in history to have fought a war to end slavery.
Anyway, those two groups are very patriarchial and reactionary.
The secret is simple, they form stable families, they make sacrifices to gain an education, and they have the personal discipline to build careers and incomes.
In the Nigerian community the story goes that a teenager finishing high school is given a choice "Doctor, lawyer or engineer?"
Yes there is good reason to think that from time to time they experience forms of race based discrimination, but it's at the margins. It doesn't hold them back. It doesn't become the defining feature of their lives.
The secret is simple, they form stable families, they make sacrifices to gain an education, and they have the personal discipline to build careers and incomes.
In the Nigerian community the story goes that a teenager finishing high school is given a choice "Doctor, lawyer or engineer?"
Yes there is good reason to think that from time to time they experience forms of race based discrimination, but it's at the margins. It doesn't hold them back. It doesn't become the defining feature of their lives.
It's interesting that you bring up Nigerian-Americans and even more interesting that you assume their "success" is due to a "simple" secret sauce of stable families, sacrifices to gain education and personal discipline.
Nigerian family culture is one built on shame and authoritarian control where status is everything. Young Nigerians don't have choices beyond the three career options and what's more, if you don't succeed in gaining a Masters or Doctorate you're considered a disgrace to your family.
These young people aren't choosing to make sacrifices, they aren't exhibiting good self-control, they're in a continual state of fear where their connection to their community hangs by an academic thread. Their compliance is gained through violence (60% of all Nigerians experienced familial violence, domestic violence stands at around 43%, sexual abuse 36%) and shaming. Is this what you mean by "stable families"?
It's naive to suggest they are simply happy campers making the most of American opportunities. This pattern of status seeking via education is the very same as is seen in their native homeland. What's more, 3/4 of the Nigerian-American population are first generation immigrants which means they've not suffered the generational effects of systemic racism in a predominantly white country.
Given they foster a culture of silence where grievances are never air publicly it's not surprising that you won't hear them complain of abuse – either familial, social or institutional but that doesn't mean they aren't harmed by it. The consequences of life-long stress are felt later in life where health can no longer ameliorate the costs. Diabetes, heart disease, depression etc are well-document outcomes for highly stressed immigrants whose lives are framed by fear.
Consider this article and its counter perspective where driving success in kids is said to be best achieved by enforcing the ideas of superiority, insecurity, and impulse-control in the most extreme ways. Things such as threatening to burn your kids toys if they fail a test, banning frivolous activities such as sleepovers and play-dates whilst reminding your kids every day that your parental affection is earned, not freely given are considered necessary to induce sufficient fear of failure.
But you're right. It works. It works just like dread-gaming works on the wives of red-pilled men who want more sex in their relationships even if it means inducing PTSD in their partners.
You're cracked if you think the usa is one of the least racist places on earth, that no living people remember segregation or the Tulsa atrocities, and institutional racism doesn't occur on a daily basis by the state to black people and other minorities.
To me, this is like a climate change denier spreading falsehoods all over the standard, like a massive group troll. In that instance I think moderators would step in and at least order an end of that line of posting when they see it for what it is.
So, any chance this loony toons type of baiting can be reigned in?
I carefully did not say there is no racism … there is of course. But using events from many decades in the past to justify claims in the present is fundamentally flawed. From a race perspective the USA has changed dramatically in the past 40 odd years. The mere fact of Obama's Presidency, something unthinkable even in the 1960's is evidence of this.
and institutional racism doesn't occur on a daily basis by the state to black people and other minorities.
Please point to any current state legislation or policy that explicitly discriminates on the basis of race. (Well there are plenty of affirmative action policies, but for the sake of argument let's set them aside.) There are none of any significance, and if there were it would certain we would be hearing about them in the current climate.
This doesn't say that personal race bias does not exist; in-group preference is a normal human instinct, but most people realise it's something that can be controlled and minimised. There will of course be some people who are frank supremacists and bigots, but in modern America they are not common, and usually hold little power.
Again I’m not arguing for any kind of perfection, all nations, all people stand to make progress on racism. But to argue the USA is somehow uniquely, irredeemably sinful on this count and must undergo root and branch revolution does not withstand much rational scrutiny.
So, any chance this loony toons type of baiting can be reigned in?
Appealing to the moderator to silence an argument you don't like is a transparent ploy. You'll think it quite smart until the day arrives when someone else tries it on you.
It's not an appeal to prevent discussion to silence an argument I don't like, it's an appeal to act in a similar manner to how climate change deniers and flat earther trolls are dealt with here.
I'm confident I won't post lies like the usa is one of the least racist countries on the planet or black lives matter started the race war, so until then, I'm resting easy.
A quick scan of those resources show they all make the same methodological error. They start with the assumption that racism is the problem, and then attribute all disparities to this and this cause only.
It's the same error made when the left claimed that women were paid a number like 20% less than men, and attributed this solely to sexism.
When in fact when you do the multi-factorial analysis, and consider all the different choices men and women make in the workplace, even when they are paid at exactly the same rate for the same work, women will tend to earn somewhat less than men over a lifetime. There are lots of reasons for this. And yes the results also typically show some residual bias due to unjustified sexism … but it's not the whole cause of the discrepancy.
Again no-one is saying modern USA is free of racism, that would be an absurd claim. No nation is. But to attribute this entirely to the reason why Black American's continue to lag as a whole group, behind other ethnicities is highly reductionist and unhelpful. And especially dangerous when used as justification for a race based revolution.
This is my deep moral objection to the anti-racism brigade. They impose the ideologue's false binary, that you are either anti-racist or you are racist; the old you are 'either you are with us or against us' trope. Martin Luther King's dream of the non-racist brotherhood, the path where your skin colour doesn't matter, that what counts is your character has been taken off the table.
RL is neither a racism denier nor a troll. RL puts up long considered arguments that are sometimes complex on controversial topics. RL’s opinion is often perceived as controversial and antagonistic. It is not for the faint-hearted debating with RL. As a Moderator I watch those long threads that sometimes get rather heated and sometimes go close to the line but I rarely (have to) interfere or warn rather and can let robust debate take its course.
Moderators are not Troll Police; the commentariat is the main line of defence and pushback.
If you're okay (and other mods) with him posting black lives matter started the race war, the usa is one of the least racist countries on the planet, and other 'all lives matter' tropes, then who am I to argue against bollox lies?
TS has all sorts of authors, including one supposed lefty whose love of brutal dictatorships and whacko conspiracies theories always makes me cringe. And then there was CV, who was on a whole 'nother level.
RL is a racist, in my opinion. He just tries to intellectualise his right wing ramblings to make it feel reasonable in his own head. But hey, that's his problem, mostly. The rest of us are better than that.
Good on you for calling him out and please keep doing it. Or go to the movies instead (see the White Riot post!)
Sad to hear that and I hope you’ll change your mind 🙁
For the record, it is not my place to moderate genuine opinions when people go through considerable effort to explain and support them. I try to be an as good a Moderator as I can be and not a Censor.
As I said, it us up to other commenters to engage in debate. I fail to see how one commenter can spoil your experience on this site that you feel you have to leave. I think it was a bit uncalled for try make it my problem and tell me that I should up my game
Other Moderators may have a different view on RL and may comment on this thread.
Actually no. What you don't like is that I refuse to be made guilty for history I did not take part in, nor sins I did not commit.
This was a lesson sternly taught me by a very remarkable kaumatua in the early 80's. Ephraim Te Paa. There is a picture of him on this page.
Otherwise the same false binary, that if you don't agree with a radical anti-racism ideology that makes skin colour central to everything, then I must be a racist.
I appreciate your reply, but to expand upon it, it isn't about engaging in robust debate – which I like, it's about refuting racism and the lies that go with it (as outlined above). It's one thing to have an opinion, two to be able to voice it, but third not to have it shared amongst people who on the whole, reject, oppose and discredit it.
Replace racism, BLM and RL, with climate change denial (for example), and the usual response 9/10 times will result in the same consequences. At the very least a member will be warned not to carry on with the same line of bullshit.
It's not a them or me situation, and I don't want it viewed that way, so the simplest thing to do if RL isn't deemed to be in need of moderation in this instance, on this topic, rather than carry on a long and futile ream of claim and defensive counter claim posts and more racist justifications and clarifications, is to opt not to engage on a site where it's tolerated.
Thank you for your considered reply. To cut to the chase, I see it differently but I am but one Moderator here.
… but third not to have it [an opinion] shared amongst people who on the whole, reject, oppose and discredit it [an opinion].
Stating a different opinion and disagreeing is not the same as discrediting it although the disagreeing party might think so. Many heated debates here never get truly settled because neither party is looking for common ground let alone consensus (or a synthesis of thesis and anti-thesis). The general approach often seems to be adversarial, opposing & hostile (sometimes aggressively so), and antagonistic. The (sought) outcome is inevitably binary, e.g. right or wrong, racist or not racist (non-racist).
CC is a bad example IMO because it deals with complex physics and (mathematical) models. BLM is none of that, AFAIK. CC deniers are usually crap at arguing their point and comment like trolls, which they often are. Some anti-vaxxers can be quite good. Moderators don’t lead or steer the commentary. They only jump in when things tend to get out of control. The less you see of Moderators, the better.
You can opt not to engage with RL on this topic or you can opt not to engage with the site at all. The choice is yours and you can always change your mind. You have that luxury. I have made and renewed my commitment to the site, which I tend to do on a regular basis, and I will keep it until I change my mind. Quite recently, I had a gut’s full and almost walked away from TS. We all have to do what we think is the right thing to do under the present circumstances.
I do understand these discussions are controversial and I try to conduct them respectfully. Much of my argument actually comes from a range of American black voices who are speaking out against the BLM inspired anti-racist ideology.
I've made my case for the time being, I'll leave it there for today.
Your comments can be a bit much for some at times and they get riled by them. I get riled by other comments especially when I’m stressed and/or tired. When I’m in a better frame of mind they still rile me, because I think they largely are hot air, but at least I can deal with them better.
Your mistake RL is that you response is too intellectual. Run of the mill "choose a side" frame of minds do not allow for any analysis and reason. But to get it to a one liner: At the core is actually greed, hate and envy. And it does not matter what race or what century.
Much of my argument actually comes from a range of American black voices…
????
Would that "range of American black voices" include such penetrating thinkers as, oh, Ben Carson and Thomas Sowell and His Dishonor Clarence Thomas, I wonder?
My problem with them has nothing to do with their being black or not. These three are not smart enough and not rigorous enough and not honest enough for my liking.
Voices not deep enough? Spit it out if you have something constructive to add, on topic, or stay out of it.
My problem with Carson, Sowell, and Thomas is that they are extreme right wing ideologues—little different to white ideologues like Ben Shapiro, Sam Harris, and Sean Hannity.
RL is a racist, in my opinion … Actually, yes, yes you are. Your white privilege stinks.
Incognito
RL is neither a racism denier nor a troll. RL puts up long considered arguments that are sometimes complex on controversial topics.
Same old TRP … a bully & a coward … wielding characterassassination as a club to beat opponents. No need to deal with the substantive argument … just go straight for the jugular … hardcore reputational destruction … like an out-of-control Narcissist psychologically needing to win at all costs.
Tragically, despite the occasional performative soul-searching a few years back (I'll try to be a better Man) & frequent longterm banishment & exile …. he’s clearly never going to change. Always the Drunken Sailor throwing rapid-fire punches with wild abandon. Reminds me so much of Israeli apologists casting "anti-semitism" smears in all directions to take down as much of the opposition as possible.
Be interesting to know if he's lobbying against Red out in the back end of the Blog.
RL, what reasons do you believe some have to revisit these historical events (and their downstream effects)? Might it be more difficult for some to forgive the instigators; might it actually be important to some to remember?
I don't know of any serious wrong done to me, or any member of my family alive or dead. Do doubt some (historical) wrong-doing occurred, but my family probably gave at least as good as it got.
The Burning of Black Wall Street, Revisited
Nearly a century after the Tulsa Race Massacre, the search for the dead continues. "The helpless old black man who was shredded alive behind a fast-moving car would have been well known in Tulsa’s white downtown, where he supported himself by selling pencils and singing for coins. He was blind, had suffered amputations of both legs and wore baseball catcher’s mitts to protect his hands from the pavement as he scooted along on a wheeled wooden platform." https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/19/opinion/tulsa-race-riot-massacre-graves.html
There is a difference between learning history, understanding it … and making a fundamentalist catechism of it.
As appalling as that story from Tulsa is, it's not what the modern nation of 350m diverse people is. George Floyd's story, abominable as it is, is nonetheless an aberration. Yet when the media tells the story over and over, like going to hear the same fire and brimstone sermon every Sunday … it transforms from tragedy to ideology.
The overlooked fact is that many black people in the USA since roughly the 1970's have been slowly but certainly moving into the middle class. Many of the social indicators like graduate degrees, teenage birth, mental health, imprisonment have been improving. Treating all black Americans as if they all live highly deprived lives in the big city projects is highly misleading.
The Tulsa Race Massacre is "not what the modern nation of 350m diverse people is", but it is part of U.S. history, and racial prejudice still plays a significant role in U.S. society if recent BLM events are anything to go by.
Some of those "350m diverse people" still feel the downstream effects of the Tulsa race massacre, the Jim Crow laws et al. more deeply than others. I have more regard and sympathy for their opinions on matters of racism in the U.S. than I do for the opinions of those less affected.
"The overlooked fact is that many black people in the USA since roughly the 1970's have been slowly but certainly moving into the middle class. Many of the social indicators like graduate degrees, teenage birth, mental health, imprisonment have been improving. Treating all black Americans as if they all live highly deprived lives in the big city projects is highly misleading"
I dont think anyone is denying that, however, successive administrations have made an effort to dismantle the New Deal and Great Society programs that made it possible, not to mention the traditionally unionised sectors that the black workforce is a big part of, ie manufacturing, meat processing, the trades, etc.
Is it my imagination or does Jim Mora unconsciously (or otherwise) tend to favour Richard Harman over Linda Clark during their Sunday morning wrap up of political events?
An imagining, I suspect. Broadcasters get that `fair & balanced' training, eh? Mind you, that doesn't explain the hosk et al.
You could be right about the tacit effect of seniority however. RH was doing political reporting for our state telecaster during the Muldoon era. He's actually improved with age – no longer seems like an establishment stooge.
I like LC's description of the public service (re response to the pandemic) this morning: `pockets of excellence and pockets of incompetence'.
`pockets of excellence and pockets of incompetence'.
She just described not only the public service response, but all organisations public and private and humanity in general. No-one is perfect, no organisation is perfect, nobody ever gets it right all the time. I'll take what we've got though anytime.
Given NZ's comparatively excellent pandemic health outcomesso far, LC's description of the public service (re response to the pandemic) deserves an edit to reflect that reality: "pocketsan expanse of excellence and pockets of incompetence".
That's interesting. Yeah, I get that about the fine line between truth & opinion. Einstein, wielding the sword of truth, defeated the entire physics establishment from his lowly position in the Swiss patent office as the eventual result of his 1905 "four groundbreaking papers, on the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity, and the equivalence of mass and energy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein#Patent_office
But of course that's the verdict of history and scepticism prevailed, relegating his theories to opinion, until measurement of the transit of Mercury proved that the effect of relativity on planetary orbits was real.
I wonder if you find your field of expertise having much political relevance. Sometimes, rarely, or never? We are all organisms, and our interaction with Gaia (as parts to the whole) has a biochemical dimension.
RH was doing political reporting for our state telecaster during the Muldoon era. He's actually improved with age – no longer seems like an establishment stooge.
????
Harman participated in an Orwellian farce staged with brutal irony on "World Press Freedom Day" by the British High Commission in Wellington last year, just days after the British regime’s shocking and illegal state rendition of Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy. In an unintentionally hilarious bit of black comedy, Harman pompously lectured some human rights protestors: "I think Luke Harding has done quite a lot of work on this question of whether he is a journalist or not and has concluded that he is NOT."
Harman is the epitome of the establishment stooge. In 2010 he protected a right wing racist, Sean Plunket, from having to defend some ignorant and incendiary comments he had made about British politician George Galloway:
“I’m stunned that such a collection of inaccuracies and downright lies, larded by overt bias, can be broadcast in New Zealand,” responded Mr Galloway in a Kia Ora Gaza media release two days ago. “Instead of defaming me behind my back Plunket could have put these wild allegations to my face. I invite him to do that now in a TV interview if he has the stomach for it.”
But Mr Galloway’s request for a right of reply has fallen on deaf ears at The Nation programme.
The Nation is made for TV3 by Front Page Ltd, whose managing director and executive producer is Richard Harman.
In an email to Grant Morgan, co-organiser of Kia Ora Gaza, Mr Harman gave this curt dismissal: “Your email to TV3 has been passed to me. My company produces The Nation. I can see no point in interviewing Mr Gallaway [sic].”
Mr Galloway makes this reply to Mr Harman: “It says much for your journalistic accuracy that you can’t even spell my name correctly. Your presenter wasn’t just ill-informed but mendacious and utterly biased. Your refusal to allow any right of reply will be viewed as a tacit admission that you relish this.”
My take is that RH knew GG would run rings around anyone and chose to de-platform him (as if RH was woke). Who knows what he had going with Plunket 10 years ago anyway? People do change in a decade. But I agree with you to the extent that it reminds me of his old agenda – he was never much good as a producer of television from the perspective of the common interests of the people.
In fact, anyone with an I.Q. above room temperature would run rings around Plunket, especially when he is on as tenuous and as indefensible a position as he was on that occasion.
People do change in a decade.
I always thought Harman's low point was his humiliation at the hands of Bill Rowling on two separate occasions in the 1970s, when a bumbling and nervous Harman was stripped of all his dignity in front of an audience of Labour Party people—who had zero sympathy for him. But his windy pontificating in favour of the utterly discredited Luke Harding last May has plunged him even deeper into the pit of infamy. He'll need more than a decade to come back from that.
I heard them this morning. It is good to hear a discussion and not feel as though there needs to be an argument. I have observed arguing here on the TS to the point that a person will not cease until they agree with one parties point of view. Some people choose not to keep arguing and it can be perceived as not having a response to a person's point of view.
The other day on TS I was coming across as being uninformed and I had a discussion which did not turn into an argument. I also chose to ignore a different person's comment who then made another comment which was the aha moment for me.
Boring blog if I cannot give an opinion for fear of being upset.
No were I to become upset I can take myself away from the subject. People need to own their comments and recognise if they are distorting a person's opinion. Usually it is a one line smart arse comment and not looking at the whole comment.
Got it, thanks. Sometimes the focus on one part or a single word even is deliberate and sometimes it is accidental. Some try to debate in good faith and some come to make/have fun. I’ve done it all here (i.e. guilty as accused). As long as it doesn’t drive people away and off the site and as long as it doesn’t become pattern behaviour that negatively impacts the flow and contents of comments here it is tolerated. Your approach is sensible.
The KGB and more lately Putin have groomed Trump for decades for exactly this role, the destruction of American civil peace. How else could Trump end up with two Eastern European wives who were able to emigrate to the US when nobody else could even leave their respective countries for a weekend holiday. One a tennis player and the other a model and both were by no means particularly skilled in their field, and they both made a beeline for Trump.
Even the most toxic hawk John Bolton knows this and has tried to mitigate and then openly attack Trumps complicity.
Well they're getting a very poor return for their efforts
More sanctions, pullout from arms treaties, lethal weapons for Ukraine, total amnesia for the part Russia played in WW2 ,US/Russia relations worse than they've been since the cold war.
When will Pootee pull the trigger and get some material payback for the kompromat he has on Trump?
Time is running out.
Or have you all been had …again?
US intelligence can't even agree on the Russian bounty conspiracy theory
The Pentagon chief says there's no corroborating evidence for it
Those dastardly Russian masterminds! And those brilliant North Koreans! They control us, as the Clintonistas have been telling us for the last three and a half years.
Can anyone explain how the Taxpayers Union managed to get wage subsidies while conservation charities and St Johns Ambulance are reduced to laying off staff?
When President Trump took office in 2017, his team stopped work on new federal regulations that would have forced the health care industry to prepare for an airborne infectious disease pandemic such as COVID-19.That decision is documented in federal records reviewed by NPR.
"If that rule had gone into effect, then every hospital, every nursing home would essentially have to have a plan where they made sure they had enough respirators and they were prepared for this sort of pandemic," said David Michaels, who was head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration until January 2017.
Residents in Lopburi, Thailand, are hiding behind barricaded indoors as rival monkey gang fights create no-go zones for humans. The ancient Thai city has been overrun by a growing population of monkeys super-charged on junk food… Pointing to the overhead netting covering her terrace, Kuljira Taechawattanawanna said: “We live in a cage but the monkeys live outside.”
Footage of hundreds of them brawling over food in the streets went viral on social media in March. Their growing numbers – doubling in three years to 6,000 – have made an uneasy coexistence with their human peers almost intolerable.
Someone ought to call his reference to monkeys as "human peers" racist perhaps – unless anthropologists have agreed that Thai people and Thai monkeys are peers…
Bennett has her own theories on why that was: “There was that view of me as a traitor to my class….people think ‘you were a 17 year old solo mum that did it hard and you've turned into a heartless tory that's only out for the rich’. So there was that view that I’d turned my back on my past.”
I recently spoke with philosopher, public intellectual, activist, scholar and author Dr. Cornel West, who is professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard and a professor emeritus at Princeton. He is the author of several bestselling books, including "Democracy Matters," "Race Matters" and "Black Prophetic Fire."
The prof on the squeeze from both sides of the establishment:
There is Trump's personal desperation because he is a neofascist gangster but there is also an entire political system that knows it cannot reform itself. The American political system and the corporate-ocracy and the neoliberal gangster capitalists know that they cannot meet the people's escalating demands. So there is Trump's backlash to prepare for, but there is also the reaction from the neoliberal milquetoast Democrats, such as Nancy Pelosi and others in the Democratic Party leadership… The neoliberal Democrats have been in power for years while Black brothers and sisters have been getting shot and killed and otherwise abused by the police, but those same Democrats have pushed through crime bills and militarized America's police.
Interviewer: "Are we seeing a paradigm shift in America, with the George Floyd protests and people's uprising? Being in the middle of what feels like great change often robs one of larger context and perspective."
No. What we are seeing with the protests and people's uprising is not a paradigm shift. I wish it was. A paradigm shift would have to connect the critique of police murder and brutality with a critique of Wall Street and the Pentagon simultaneously. That's a paradigm shift. Right now, we are seeing an escalating type of consciousness, which is beautiful, about police brutality. But we are not seeing a paradigm shift in this country.
But the pitch for "radical democracy" remains insubstantial because he doesn't explain what it would mean in practice.
Hmm. Interesting, but you can see the problem with theoreticians, eh? Construction of theories as works of intellectual artistry. Focus on implementation almost entirely absent. Just a reference to problems of scale. Seeing consensus cited as a negative in democracy was new to me!
I am fast losing sympathy for these cretins coming back to NZ. Proscecute her, imprison her, like the guy in ChCh who was coughing on people during the lockdown.
What on earth went through her mind? And yes, it is shambolic (on face value). How did she manage to walk out? Although I guess she probably could have just walked out thumbing her nose at the security guards, as they would no doubt be charged with assualt if they tried to detain her.
We have only to look to Victoria as to how quickly things can be lost control of. Maybe there needs to be a Police person on duty at all times in a quarantine establishment, with the powers of arrest.
Not really like Victoria, unless she was having sex with a security guard.
No, it's not shambolic. She had already returned a negative test and had been in isolation for 8 days. Of course she should not have left the hotel, but people need to think about what that means in practice (hence my "taser" comment).
This whole process is headlines waiting to happen ("Woman wrestled to the ground, cries in pain, captured on phone, see exclusive footage at six!). Anything can be cast as either too tough (inhumane) or not tough enough (shambolic).
In reality, with the NZDF and police, it seems to be working very well – if belatedly.
Agree Observer, it does seem to be working very well now. But only needs one person to stuff it all up. Hope they do prosecute her to make an example.
And I know it is the job of the Opposition to highlight the failings of this (or any) government, but increasingly it seems opposition for oppositions sake. Muller squandering his opportunity.
People run red lights every day. That’s a failing too but one that’s ‘normalised’ and nobody pays any attention. One woman walks out of a hotel on foot, is arrested a couple of blocks away shortly after, and the Sky is falling.
Run a red light Incognito, might succeed in wiping out 2 or 3 people in a worse case scenario. Jump quarantine and you place the health and the freedom of 5 million people at risk, not to mention the economy and the career and economic future of those same 5 million.
So yes, the 'sky is falling' when scum like this women (who we now know jumped two fences to get out (one 6 feet high)), think that their freedom is more important than that of 5 million others. Prosceute the scum.
It's good that Megan Woods is so quickly onto it (with the detail about climbing the fence). Stories like this will always make the news, as will opposition claims, and if we have to wait 24 hours for a fuller picture, it's too late. Headlines shape opinion, facts added afterwards are way down the page.
I'm glad she's been given the job. It's the standard all Ministers should be meeting.
Apart from anything else I'd send her the bill and publicise the amount to deter others. . 5 cops off for 2 weeks plus unknown other people. Yep I too am over people who think their own needs are so great that they can do just what they like. If they are stressed out by the quarantine they have nurses and others keeping an eye on them and who must be able to refer to more specialised help. One good reason why towns may be reluctance to be quarantine hosts
Anyone else been listening/following "The Service"? and if so ….. wotcha opinions and reckons?
( I come from a position of having a 2 degrees removed member of whanau who was a spook till he died a decade ago – mainly because he was a complete pisshead – liver cancer et al resulting from his life's experiences )
My "reckons" are that it is pretty bloody damn good – although it could have been done without the theme music (wonder why they shoved that in it )
By the way, since you’ve provided the link that I should have done, how many people that post here do you think are going to take the time to listen to it.
My ‘reckons’ are that they’d much prefer to monitor the words of wisdom from a Trump
I probably exaggerated the presence of off-shore agencies during the period in question but they were certainly active in NZ. They were the ones who were putting pressure on the SIS to undertake these operations for them.
3 new arrivals from India, test positive for Covid. Quarantined at Chateau on the Park, Christchurch (very nice).
India … Christchurch … ooh, Hamish, they're getting closer!
And a reminder that it is still National's policy (yes, it's on their website) to bring in thousands of young students NOW and quarantine them somewhere – though obviously not in Auck Central (because Nat MP) or Rotorua (Nat MP) or Queenstown (Nat MP) or … you get the picture.
If New Zealand had been unlucky enough to have a National government during this pandemic, we'd be looking at a situation as disastrous as the one in Britain.
Clear, concise and very easy to listen to with snippets of humour thrown in.
I liked her praise for Damian O'Conner's digital education during their level 4 lockdown zoom cabinet meetings. He discovered the unmute button for the first time.
Indian community leader calls MP Hamish Walker's press release racist politicking.
"New Zealand Indian Central Association president Paul Patel said political leaders needed to hold their MPs accountable. He said it was National Party leader Todd Muller’s inability to condemn Walker’s focus on these Asian countries as racist, or apologise, that bothered him most"
"Patel said Walker should retract his remarks and apologise. The apology should come from Walker and the National Party.”
"Former race relations commissioner Gregory Fortuin said targetting certain ethnicities was a disgraceful dog whistle. Fortuin also condemned Muller’s inability to call out racist comments. It’s time that we strongly called out this bigoted behaviour when we have Kiwis returning from all quarters of the world, but he singled out the people not represented on his party's frontbench.”
In a civilised society, it should not to be to much to expect not to be gunned down when unarmed or have your airway blocked by those whose job it is to prevent crime.
It is unrealistic to expect all suffering to be eliminated. People in authority can always do better to address how they manage a situation which ignites the callous attitude of past inequality and suffering. 
Last time I looked, using a fake $20 note to buy a packet of smokes (or whatever) wasn't a crime punishable by summary execution.
Those that are protesting are sick and tired of having their lives excessively policed and regulated, you have to remember that these young people have gone through zero tolerance schooling, where you could be suspended for so much as yawning in class.
Shepherds Reign is a polynesian metal band from South Auckland. The song "Le Manu" features the Siva Tau war dance and is performed in the Samoan language.
Love how those right wing dicks at SkyNews Australia have had to do a switcheroo after they prematurely called the Eden-Monaro byelection for their preferred Liberal candidate at about 3am this morning only to have Labor’s Kristy McBain claim the win today after 2nd preference votes flowed her way. And the Newscorp press has spent the day furiously trying to spin McBain’s win as a big loss for Labor leader Albanese.
The woman who climbed the fence at the Auckland Pullman hotel led the news on both TV1 and TV3. So did Muller's knee-jerk response.
What didn't lead the news was any kind of joining the dots.
She arrived from Brisbane. Yes, it's in Queensland. Not virus-hit Victoria. And she had already returned a negative test, in Auckland.
So – and this is simply insane, but bear with me here – if you escape from a hotel after a week in isolation it's very bad, but if you arrive at the airport and don't have to be quarantined at all that's just fine. Hop on a bus, hire car, have fun. Spread whatever you want.
That's what bubble means, and a bubble with Queensland is what National and their cheerleaders think we should already have, and I honestly wonder if anybody in the media has a f***ing functioning brain to point this out.
Its up to the Federal Govt to determine when to open up the airways, the states have no control, so even if Queensland wanted a bubble with NZ, the Federal Govt will decide, at the moment, with high numbers of new cases over the last few days will probably dampen that likelihood
Is this image of Meghan and the Queen a bit of light-hearted falsity from the main media. Can they resist playing round with images jas they already do with the facts? Can they be trusted to present anything at all in a straight-forward depiction of what is the perceived truth, without a bit of 'roguish' fiddling? Will we eventually not know whether we are Arthur or Martha; a bone of contention already. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2020/07/02/will-queen-ever-see-archie/
Good to see the increase in comments. I don't know, maybe this happens every election year. They have the virtue of reactionaries over at Kiwiblog I suppose. The Left are all about their best idea of reality, which requires creative thought.
Read what? Sure , there is a Left reactionism. We are better at talk than the powers and worse at power. And I am as much a silly letter writer as most of us. How does that help? We lack the force of the 35ists. This decade is as imperative as 1939. Well, actually, you/we comfort-loaded fat-fatuous, 1000 times that. Our reaction to comfort prior to the cliff of annhilation is so much inferior to minor discomfort via a gentle slope to the relatively gentle punishment of this flu.
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
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Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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Slate offers seven reasons why Trump seems doomed: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/07/trump-biden-2020-polling-demographics-voters-enthusiasm.html?via=features
1. The white-collar realignment
2. The senior vote
3. The overrated Trump enthusiasm edge
4. Trump’s edge on the economy
5. Honesty
6. The white evangelical vote
7. White working-class women
The writer explains each of the seven quite well in a concise paragraph, and produces a persuasive view via his synthesis.
But if Neil Young was "Canadian" – he was already "American" – just like my Colombian whanau – of the "America's"
America is not a country.
Canadian rock veteran Neil Young has acquired American citizenship, and is using it to have a go at one of his fans: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/neil-young-letter-trump-954835/
"Canadian rock veteran Neil Young has acquired American citizenship"
Wrong – "American citizenship" does not exist. It is not something that anyone has or can aquire.
America is not a country.
[Fixed typo in e-mail address]
It's worth going through the full script of President Trump's speech at Mt Rushmore yesterday:
https://factba.se/transcript/donald-trump-speech-mount-rushmore-independence-day-july-3-2020
Here's some bits that need attention:
"Make no mistake: this left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution. In so doing, they would destroy the very civilization that rescued billions from poverty, disease, violence, and hunger, and that lifted humanity to new heights of achievement, discovery, and progress."
…
"Against every law of society and nature, our children are taught in school to hate their own country, and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes, but that were villains. The radical view of American history is a web of lies — all perspective is removed, every virtue is obscured, every motive is twisted, every fact is distorted, and every flaw is magnified until the history is purged and the record is disfigured beyond all recognition."
…
"Those who seek to erase our heritage want Americans to forget our pride and our great dignity, so that we can no longer understand ourselves or America's destiny. In toppling the heroes of 1776, they seek to dissolve the bonds of love and loyalty that we feel for our country, and that we feel for each other. Their goal is not a better America, their goal is the end of America."
…
"Americans are the people who pursued our Manifest Destiny across the ocean, into the uncharted wilderness, over the tallest mountains, and then into the skies and even into the stars."
…
"Uplifted by the titans of Mount Rushmore, we will find unity that no one expected; we will make strides that no one thought possible. This country will be everything that our citizens have hoped for, for so many years, and that our enemies fear — because we will never forget that American freedom exists for American greatness. And that's what we have: American greatness."
(yep, that's what he said. ahem)
Trump and his propagandists want to convert disorder to his advantage.
That's obvious enough. But the true nature of it is often shrouded in euphemisms. But it gets much clearer in this speech.
Trump and his propagandists are actively trying to engineer violent civil conflict, by signaling to white Americans that they are under siege in a race war that they're losing.
The rub is that this signaling requires actually saying this in one form or another. Defending monolithic white patriarchy like he has done is making official his actual intended meanings when he does things like tweet out supporters yelling "white power."
Trump and his propagandists want a lot of white Americans to think they need to take sides in a race war. So in this context, these set of signals yesterday make the speech pretty important.
Easily disposed of. Just point to the "heroic assumptions". Works real good. 😉
I watched the whole speech this morning.
It was like a re-run of The Man In The High Castle.
After al who needs Speer's Cathedral of light when the USA has had massive fascist rallies before:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq9yst4W-6c
I find that short clip terrifying. The following clip looks very interesting and I intend to save it for a rainy afternoon. (could be today here in the south..!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOPGpE-sXh0
I'm ten minutes in and its looking interesting so far. He's starting to address how leaders and politicians lie so as to control the narrative.
I watched the whole speech this morning
Tendencies toward masochism are alarming! Or is it just `know your enemy'? Forewarned is fore-armed? I just see a narcissist desperately trying to rally his deserting troops: much ado about nothing. He failed the character test and also failed the intelligence test, so he's on a slide into the dustbin of history.
It was clever to become president on his anti-establishment rebel stance, but holding it this long is too much of a gamble, I reckon. I'm anti-establishment, but there's a time to be careful and go with the flow. He ought to moderate fast!
IMO Trump can not moderate his behaviour or views. He has lived a life of excess and thinks that is normal.
Yes, I agree, but I think his re-election prospects depend on him getting himself under control and presenting as not a clown, and not so partisan.
It has long been my contention that should Trump lose the presidential election, there will be violence across America the like of what has never been seen before. And it will be the ethnic races who will bear the brunt.
I hope and pray he loses despite the consequences.
In Washington on 28 August there is going to be a march in Washington led by Rev Sharpton. This will be another moment in history which will be on par with Martin Luther King's speech "I have a dream." I am looking forward to hearing what Rev Sharpton's message is, I know it will be about injustice.
King knew that using violence was not the answer to change racism. African American's have the right to not have lethal violence used against them by law inforcement.
African American's have the right to not have lethal violence used against them by law inforcement.
In 2019 just 54 unarmed Americans were killed by the police. 19 of them were black. In a nation of 350m people a black man is more likely to be killed by lightening than by a policeman in egregious circumstances.
What's more the media has made certain you know many names of the black men killed … but absolute silence on the white men.
You have fallen for a moral panic.
All lives matter. One unarmed person being killed is one to many.
As for your stats of unarmed murders no one knows the actual tally.
oh for sure, this happens to us white guys all the time, (in all my 46 years of being alive, I haven't even had a cop look at me sideways) … https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jul/04/police-smash-car-window-ryan-colaco-tv-interview-racism
Without googling on it you cannot name one single white or hispanic man killed by the US police in the past decade. It's not because there are none; there are at least three times as many of them as black men.
Why do you think this is?
The quote in the link "Justice starts with uncovering the truth."
All lives matter. One unarmed person being killed is one to many.
The general crime trend has been in the right direction for several decades, and the overall numbers of bad faith police killings has been reducing. This is good news BLM and the media will not tell you.
But demanding that the number of these tragic events be reduced to zero, and setting in motion demands for a totalitarian cultural revolution and massive disruption in response is utterly misdirected.
It's called the Perfection Fallacy, demanding all suffering must be eliminated, and then throwing a destructive tantrum because the world doesn't deliver.
What do you mean lightening
Bleach gone wrong?
Unfortunate typo is my guess.
Unfortunate? Nope, revealing.
A Freudian slip often is just a typo.
And, in 2020, "For African Americans, the [Covid-19] mortality rate is at least 2-fold higher than any other racial group in the United States, and notably, mortality rates are lowest among Caucasian Americans."
https://www.targetedonc.com/view/covid-19-death-toll-in-nyc-calls-attention-to-racial-disparities
Not suggesting Covid-19's racist, but something is going on. Systemic racism has a long 'tail'. The ripples of sickening acts of racial violence (such as the Tulsa race massacre), and systemic racism (such as the Jim Crow laws), are still spreading, even if some can't or won’t see them.
do you know who would have written that speech? One mighty dogwhistle.
I agree, shit is on the verge of getting seriously ugly in the US. Your comment would make a good post.
what are the implications for NZ if this goes much further?
I would be pushing Ardern to get up on to the global podims (podia?) and remind the world of the strengths and virtues of tolerance, global co-operation, and effective public policy. The virtue card is hers to play if she wants to amplify our strengths to the world.
Meantime, if Trump is re-elected and a much stronger trade war occurs between the USA and China, my advice would be Janus-faced:
– Secure and expand your trade links with Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Japan and China. Accelerate RCEP real fast.
– Negotiate a much deeper defence agreement with Australia. For example basing more of our Navy and Army in Darwin.
Just an intensification of what we're doing already.
Re RCEP, China has recently changed tack and wants to join TPP.
The question there is the position of Canada, Japan and Oz to this.
Any problem with NZ belonging to both TPP and RCEP?
No. China wants RCEP but has issues with India, so TPP may now be easier – if Canada, Oz and Japan overlook their issues with China.
I wonder if China will be using TPP mainly as a forum to have a go at the US.
It would be more a case of securing its trade interests, given its disputes with the USA.
But politically there is America removing itself from the international stage. China with its one belt and road planning to be its replacement.
Which raises the issue, for how much longer will the USA maintain carrier groups to secure freedom for trade across the seas. Their global internet companies do not need it. They have oil companies, but are self-sufficient in oil.
It’s only the EU dependence and NATO’s continuance and possibly their evangelicals love of the prophecy of Israel that is keeping them active.
Without either, would there be a carrier group and defence offered to Oz/Japan? China plans on reducing the USA to the eastern half of the Pacifi – just the Americas. Russia wants the USA out of Europe and the end of NATO.
That's it. The mistake most people make when thinking about the USA is they fail to look at things from their point of view.
The US never really wanted an empire, it was founded in act of rebellion from one. It never really needed an empire, it's trade with the wider world outside of North America was always modest compared to it's GDP. It really only created the post-WW2 order to build a coalition against Stalin and the Soviets and once that was over, they never really considered deeply what might come next.
Well the answer, that should bring joy to all of you who're so reflexively anti-US, is that eventually they lost interest and are going home. And in that all of the essential geopolitical pre-conditions that have made the modern world we know possible go with them.
China with its one belt and road planning to be its replacement.
The intention behind the effort is understandable, and if the rhetoric promoting it is to be taken at face value it's a praiseworthy goal. But the hard realities are that China is never going to be in a position to replace the US.
Apart from the general issues with "Free trade agreements" and the extension of global corporate power. ..
Getting 'interesting' with the EU and UK agreements in the mix..
Stephen Miller & his team at the Presidential Ministry of Truth, also known to many, without the faintest shred of irony, as the White House.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/04/us/politics/trump-mt-rushmore.html
The last comment in this article, “you just keep trying things and hope something sticks” could also be said of some people in our own little land.
I’ve already made my response over there.
The Great White Hopes – Donald Trump and Pieta Botha.
Botha Quotes On Leading South Africa
Trump's Mount Rushmore speech quotes
Non whites and the left are posed as a threat to the order of white man's rule, the natural order of their civilisation – apartheid and the American Revolutionary Republic.
Once upon a time the Russian serf was great because the Tsar's Russia was great (or today Putin). Today white men without college degrees are being asked to serve their nation by preserving the civilisation that led to the statues of such as Jefferson Davis, to cater to the vainglory of that strongman poseur Donald John Drumpf.
The true greatness of a revolutionary republic is that it allows the freedom enabling a democracy where all of its citizens have equal civil liberties to emerge and grow. And in its capacity to remove all tyrants and their tyranny.
It is the duty of every US-ian who opposes Trump to vote for Biden in November. Even if he is not the candidate they want or doesnt have the manifesto they wish for.
A better world can wait. Having another 4 years of Trump will pretty much lead to the USA reverting to what it was before the Civil War.
Trump and his propagandists are actively trying to engineer violent civil conflict, by signaling to white Americans that they are under siege in a race war that they're losing.
It was BLM who started this race war your are ranting about, and made skin colour all important. Now the consequences of this neo-Maoist uprising are coming home, you whine about the inevitable backlash.
This revolution demands everything changes and positions itself firmly in race.
And in this it's functionally indistinguishable from the infamous Maoist attack on the 'Four Olds"
The Four Old's were held to be:
Old Ideas … tell people that everything they believe in and they way they do things is wrong, that the accumulated wisdom of the ancestors is oppressive
Old Customs …. pull apart the social fabric, the celebrations, the social glue and isolate people
Old Culture … remove the icons, the monuments, humiliate people for what they looked up to
Old Values … eradicate the religious and ethical foundations of society
The end result was of course a catastrophe; you should have a long conversation with someone Chinese who lived through it sometime.
I would say that Trump and his supporters are guilty of their own Cultural Revolution, in reverse, in that they wish to reimpose a patriarchial, puritan, racially homogenous, free market USA that was in existence before Civil Rights movement, the Sexual Revolution and the New Deal. Trump is a anti-Mao, and his supporters are the Red Gaurds.
Anyway, isnt it Trump's Christian Taliban who are trying to erase evolution from the high school curriculum.
Personally, I actually agree with China's Cultural Revolution. I think we need an equivalent in the west, and the churches need to be targets first.
Yes, it's long been clear to me that you most deeply wish for a catastrophe.
More of a reformat. Sort of like re-installing Windows.
BLM did not start this race war, what a cretinous thing to say. For blacks, this has been going on since they were forcibly removed from Africa, the Civil War, the Tulsa massacre, Jim Crow, Civil Rights, etc, just because white people have suddenly became aware and are supporting the movement doesn't mean this has started now.
For blacks, this has been going on since they were forcibly removed from Africa, the Civil War, the Tulsa massacre, Jim Crow, Civil Rights,
Not one single person alive participated in any of the these events. Arguably the USA is now one of the least racist places on earth, certainly large numbers of people of colour want to migrate there, and when they do, they often do very well.
The two migrant groups most interesting from this perspective are black Jamaican's and Nigerians. Both groups have completely different social outcomes from Black Americans, yet from an appearance point of view they are completely indistinguishable. If the US was irredeemably racist this would be an impossible outcome.
And your mention of the Civil War is ironic. The US is the only nation in history to have fought a war to end slavery.
I would say that Nigerians and Jamaicans are harrased by police also.
Anyway, those two groups are very patriarchial and reactionary.
LGBT and women in those communities fare a lot worse than then do in white communities, due to their strong puritan Christian beliefs.
Anyway, those two groups are very patriarchial and reactionary.
The secret is simple, they form stable families, they make sacrifices to gain an education, and they have the personal discipline to build careers and incomes.
In the Nigerian community the story goes that a teenager finishing high school is given a choice "Doctor, lawyer or engineer?"
Yes there is good reason to think that from time to time they experience forms of race based discrimination, but it's at the margins. It doesn't hold them back. It doesn't become the defining feature of their lives.
It's interesting that you bring up Nigerian-Americans and even more interesting that you assume their "success" is due to a "simple" secret sauce of stable families, sacrifices to gain education and personal discipline.
Nigerian family culture is one built on shame and authoritarian control where status is everything. Young Nigerians don't have choices beyond the three career options and what's more, if you don't succeed in gaining a Masters or Doctorate you're considered a disgrace to your family.
These young people aren't choosing to make sacrifices, they aren't exhibiting good self-control, they're in a continual state of fear where their connection to their community hangs by an academic thread. Their compliance is gained through violence (60% of all Nigerians experienced familial violence, domestic violence stands at around 43%, sexual abuse 36%) and shaming. Is this what you mean by "stable families"?
It's naive to suggest they are simply happy campers making the most of American opportunities. This pattern of status seeking via education is the very same as is seen in their native homeland. What's more, 3/4 of the Nigerian-American population are first generation immigrants which means they've not suffered the generational effects of systemic racism in a predominantly white country.
Given they foster a culture of silence where grievances are never air publicly it's not surprising that you won't hear them complain of abuse – either familial, social or institutional but that doesn't mean they aren't harmed by it. The consequences of life-long stress are felt later in life where health can no longer ameliorate the costs. Diabetes, heart disease, depression etc are well-document outcomes for highly stressed immigrants whose lives are framed by fear.
Consider this article and its counter perspective where driving success in kids is said to be best achieved by enforcing the ideas of superiority, insecurity, and impulse-control in the most extreme ways. Things such as threatening to burn your kids toys if they fail a test, banning frivolous activities such as sleepovers and play-dates whilst reminding your kids every day that your parental affection is earned, not freely given are considered necessary to induce sufficient fear of failure.
But you're right. It works. It works just like dread-gaming works on the wives of red-pilled men who want more sex in their relationships even if it means inducing PTSD in their partners.
You're cracked if you think the usa is one of the least racist places on earth, that no living people remember segregation or the Tulsa atrocities, and institutional racism doesn't occur on a daily basis by the state to black people and other minorities.
To me, this is like a climate change denier spreading falsehoods all over the standard, like a massive group troll. In that instance I think moderators would step in and at least order an end of that line of posting when they see it for what it is.
So, any chance this loony toons type of baiting can be reigned in?
I carefully did not say there is no racism … there is of course. But using events from many decades in the past to justify claims in the present is fundamentally flawed. From a race perspective the USA has changed dramatically in the past 40 odd years. The mere fact of Obama's Presidency, something unthinkable even in the 1960's is evidence of this.
and institutional racism doesn't occur on a daily basis by the state to black people and other minorities.
Please point to any current state legislation or policy that explicitly discriminates on the basis of race. (Well there are plenty of affirmative action policies, but for the sake of argument let's set them aside.) There are none of any significance, and if there were it would certain we would be hearing about them in the current climate.
This doesn't say that personal race bias does not exist; in-group preference is a normal human instinct, but most people realise it's something that can be controlled and minimised. There will of course be some people who are frank supremacists and bigots, but in modern America they are not common, and usually hold little power.
Again I’m not arguing for any kind of perfection, all nations, all people stand to make progress on racism. But to argue the USA is somehow uniquely, irredeemably sinful on this count and must undergo root and branch revolution does not withstand much rational scrutiny.
So, any chance this loony toons type of baiting can be reigned in?
Appealing to the moderator to silence an argument you don't like is a transparent ploy. You'll think it quite smart until the day arrives when someone else tries it on you.
It's not an appeal to prevent discussion to silence an argument I don't like, it's an appeal to act in a similar manner to how climate change deniers and flat earther trolls are dealt with here.
I'm confident I won't post lies like the usa is one of the least racist countries on the planet or black lives matter started the race war, so until then, I'm resting easy.
Even though you are neither
25 simple charts to show friends and family who aren't convinced racism is still a problem in America
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06/08/understanding-racism-inequality-america/?arc404=true
and
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/158-resources-understanding-systemic-racism-america-180975029/
A quick scan of those resources show they all make the same methodological error. They start with the assumption that racism is the problem, and then attribute all disparities to this and this cause only.
It's the same error made when the left claimed that women were paid a number like 20% less than men, and attributed this solely to sexism.
When in fact when you do the multi-factorial analysis, and consider all the different choices men and women make in the workplace, even when they are paid at exactly the same rate for the same work, women will tend to earn somewhat less than men over a lifetime. There are lots of reasons for this. And yes the results also typically show some residual bias due to unjustified sexism … but it's not the whole cause of the discrepancy.
Again no-one is saying modern USA is free of racism, that would be an absurd claim. No nation is. But to attribute this entirely to the reason why Black American's continue to lag as a whole group, behind other ethnicities is highly reductionist and unhelpful. And especially dangerous when used as justification for a race based revolution.
This is my deep moral objection to the anti-racism brigade. They impose the ideologue's false binary, that you are either anti-racist or you are racist; the old you are 'either you are with us or against us' trope. Martin Luther King's dream of the non-racist brotherhood, the path where your skin colour doesn't matter, that what counts is your character has been taken off the table.
Yeah, yeah. 🙄
“you are ‘either you are with us or against us’ ”
And it’s true. Well at least we can all see what side of the fence you’re whitewashing.
You are very much part of the problem.
The false binary live in action.
The ‘deep moral objection’, defensive, non racist 😆
Just saw this.
RL is neither a racism denier nor a troll. RL puts up long considered arguments that are sometimes complex on controversial topics. RL’s opinion is often perceived as controversial and antagonistic. It is not for the faint-hearted debating with RL. As a Moderator I watch those long threads that sometimes get rather heated and sometimes go close to the line but I rarely (have to) interfere or warn rather and can let robust debate take its course.
Moderators are not Troll Police; the commentariat is the main line of defence and pushback.
If you're okay (and other mods) with him posting black lives matter started the race war, the usa is one of the least racist countries on the planet, and other 'all lives matter' tropes, then who am I to argue against bollox lies?
Gone til you up your game.
Hey, bud. Walking away is not the answer.
TS has all sorts of authors, including one supposed lefty whose love of brutal dictatorships and whacko conspiracies theories always makes me cringe. And then there was CV, who was on a whole 'nother level.
RL is a racist, in my opinion. He just tries to intellectualise his right wing ramblings to make it feel reasonable in his own head. But hey, that's his problem, mostly. The rest of us are better than that.
Good on you for calling him out and please keep doing it. Or go to the movies instead (see the White Riot post!)
Cheers TRP
Sad to hear that and I hope you’ll change your mind 🙁
For the record, it is not my place to moderate genuine opinions when people go through considerable effort to explain and support them. I try to be an as good a Moderator as I can be and not a Censor.
As I said, it us up to other commenters to engage in debate. I fail to see how one commenter can spoil your experience on this site that you feel you have to leave. I think it was a bit uncalled for try make it my problem and tell me that I should up my game
Other Moderators may have a different view on RL and may comment on this thread.
RL is a racist, in my opinion.
Actually no. What you don't like is that I refuse to be made guilty for history I did not take part in, nor sins I did not commit.
This was a lesson sternly taught me by a very remarkable kaumatua in the early 80's. Ephraim Te Paa. There is a picture of him on this page.
Otherwise the same false binary, that if you don't agree with a radical anti-racism ideology that makes skin colour central to everything, then I must be a racist.
I appreciate your reply, but to expand upon it, it isn't about engaging in robust debate – which I like, it's about refuting racism and the lies that go with it (as outlined above). It's one thing to have an opinion, two to be able to voice it, but third not to have it shared amongst people who on the whole, reject, oppose and discredit it.
Replace racism, BLM and RL, with climate change denial (for example), and the usual response 9/10 times will result in the same consequences. At the very least a member will be warned not to carry on with the same line of bullshit.
It's not a them or me situation, and I don't want it viewed that way, so the simplest thing to do if RL isn't deemed to be in need of moderation in this instance, on this topic, rather than carry on a long and futile ream of claim and defensive counter claim posts and more racist justifications and clarifications, is to opt not to engage on a site where it's tolerated.
Thank you for your considered reply. To cut to the chase, I see it differently but I am but one Moderator here.
Stating a different opinion and disagreeing is not the same as discrediting it although the disagreeing party might think so. Many heated debates here never get truly settled because neither party is looking for common ground let alone consensus (or a synthesis of thesis and anti-thesis). The general approach often seems to be adversarial, opposing & hostile (sometimes aggressively so), and antagonistic. The (sought) outcome is inevitably binary, e.g. right or wrong, racist or not racist (non-racist).
CC is a bad example IMO because it deals with complex physics and (mathematical) models. BLM is none of that, AFAIK. CC deniers are usually crap at arguing their point and comment like trolls, which they often are. Some anti-vaxxers can be quite good. Moderators don’t lead or steer the commentary. They only jump in when things tend to get out of control. The less you see of Moderators, the better.
You can opt not to engage with RL on this topic or you can opt not to engage with the site at all. The choice is yours and you can always change your mind. You have that luxury. I have made and renewed my commitment to the site, which I tend to do on a regular basis, and I will keep it until I change my mind. Quite recently, I had a gut’s full and almost walked away from TS. We all have to do what we think is the right thing to do under the present circumstances.
Actually, yes, yes you are.
Your white privilege stinks. You don't get to delete uncomfortable history, cobber. That kind of colonialist thinking has had its day.
And 'my best friend is a maori' isn't the brilliant defence you think it is, you nimrod.
He passed away in 1990. I attended his tangi. He was never a friend, rather someone I admired a great deal.
These discussions are not new, and much of what I heard Ephraim say was highly prescient.
God, you're dim. Deep words, shallow thinking.
… including one supposed lefty whose love of brutal dictatorships and whacko conspiracies theories always makes me cringe. —te reo putake at 3:09 p.m.
That sounds intriguing. Could you provide us with some detail please?
No.
@ TRP 2020/07/05 at 7:58 pm:
Thank you!
RL reminds me a bit of this one-two from Hidden Figures:
I do understand these discussions are controversial and I try to conduct them respectfully. Much of my argument actually comes from a range of American black voices who are speaking out against the BLM inspired anti-racist ideology.
I've made my case for the time being, I'll leave it there for today.
Your comments can be a bit much for some at times and they get riled by them. I get riled by other comments especially when I’m stressed and/or tired. When I’m in a better frame of mind they still rile me, because I think they largely are hot air, but at least I can deal with them better.
Your mistake RL is that you response is too intellectual. Run of the mill "choose a side" frame of minds do not allow for any analysis and reason. But to get it to a one liner: At the core is actually greed, hate and envy. And it does not matter what race or what century.
Your case is unconvincing.
What do you imagine your commentary added?
Much of my argument actually comes from a range of American black voices…
????
Would that "range of American black voices" include such penetrating thinkers as, oh, Ben Carson and Thomas Sowell and His Dishonor Clarence Thomas, I wonder?
Not black enough for your liking? Voices not deep enough? Spit it out if you have something constructive to add, on topic, or stay out of it.
Not black enough for your liking?
My problem with them has nothing to do with their being black or not. These three are not smart enough and not rigorous enough and not honest enough for my liking.
Voices not deep enough? Spit it out if you have something constructive to add, on topic, or stay out of it.
My problem with Carson, Sowell, and Thomas is that they are extreme right wing ideologues—little different to white ideologues like Ben Shapiro, Sam Harris, and Sean Hannity.
TRP
Incognito
Same old TRP … a bully & a coward … wielding character assassination as a club to beat opponents. No need to deal with the substantive argument … just go straight for the jugular … hardcore reputational destruction … like an out-of-control Narcissist psychologically needing to win at all costs.
Tragically, despite the occasional performative soul-searching a few years back (I'll try to be a better Man) & frequent longterm banishment & exile …. he’s clearly never going to change. Always the Drunken Sailor throwing rapid-fire punches with wild abandon. Reminds me so much of Israeli apologists casting "anti-semitism" smears in all directions to take down as much of the opposition as possible.
Be interesting to know if he's lobbying against Red out in the back end of the Blog.
"The Tulsa massacre, Jim Crow" – "Not one single person alive participated in any of the these events."
The direct application of 'Jim Crow' laws persisted well into the 1950's.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws#Decline_and_removal
RL, what reasons do you believe some have to revisit these historical events (and their downstream effects)? Might it be more difficult for some to forgive the instigators; might it actually be important to some to remember?
I don't know of any serious wrong done to me, or any member of my family alive or dead. Do doubt some (historical) wrong-doing occurred, but my family probably gave at least as good as it got.
There is a difference between learning history, understanding it … and making a fundamentalist catechism of it.
As appalling as that story from Tulsa is, it's not what the modern nation of 350m diverse people is. George Floyd's story, abominable as it is, is nonetheless an aberration. Yet when the media tells the story over and over, like going to hear the same fire and brimstone sermon every Sunday … it transforms from tragedy to ideology.
The overlooked fact is that many black people in the USA since roughly the 1970's have been slowly but certainly moving into the middle class. Many of the social indicators like graduate degrees, teenage birth, mental health, imprisonment have been improving. Treating all black Americans as if they all live highly deprived lives in the big city projects is highly misleading.
The Tulsa Race Massacre is "not what the modern nation of 350m diverse people is", but it is part of U.S. history, and racial prejudice still plays a significant role in U.S. society if recent BLM events are anything to go by.
Some of those "350m diverse people" still feel the downstream effects of the Tulsa race massacre, the Jim Crow laws et al. more deeply than others. I have more regard and sympathy for their opinions on matters of racism in the U.S. than I do for the opinions of those less affected.
All those people motivated to protest must be wrong, eh.
"The overlooked fact is that many black people in the USA since roughly the 1970's have been slowly but certainly moving into the middle class. Many of the social indicators like graduate degrees, teenage birth, mental health, imprisonment have been improving. Treating all black Americans as if they all live highly deprived lives in the big city projects is highly misleading"
I dont think anyone is denying that, however, successive administrations have made an effort to dismantle the New Deal and Great Society programs that made it possible, not to mention the traditionally unionised sectors that the black workforce is a big part of, ie manufacturing, meat processing, the trades, etc.
So no single person alive participated in the civil rights movement of the 1960s? Bold claim.
Is it my imagination or does Jim Mora unconsciously (or otherwise) tend to favour Richard Harman over Linda Clark during their Sunday morning wrap up of political events?
An imagining, I suspect. Broadcasters get that `fair & balanced' training, eh? Mind you, that doesn't explain the hosk et al.
You could be right about the tacit effect of seniority however. RH was doing political reporting for our state telecaster during the Muldoon era. He's actually improved with age – no longer seems like an establishment stooge.
I like LC's description of the public service (re response to the pandemic) this morning: `pockets of excellence and pockets of incompetence'.
She just described not only the public service response, but all organisations public and private and humanity in general. No-one is perfect, no organisation is perfect, nobody ever gets it right all the time. I'll take what we've got though anytime.
Absolutely – and not only that, the excellence and the incompetence can come from the same people at different times.
Yes, I hate it when that happens.
Given NZ's comparatively excellent pandemic health outcomes so far, LC's description of the public service (re response to the pandemic) deserves an edit to reflect that reality: "
pocketsan expanse of excellence and pockets of incompetence".Yeah, fair enough. Hey, I was intrigued to learn that you're a retired scientist. In what specialised field?
Biochemistry – still a puzzle. Often had cause to mutter "Fooled the bastards for another day!"
That's interesting. Yeah, I get that about the fine line between truth & opinion. Einstein, wielding the sword of truth, defeated the entire physics establishment from his lowly position in the Swiss patent office as the eventual result of his 1905 "four groundbreaking papers, on the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity, and the equivalence of mass and energy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein#Patent_office
But of course that's the verdict of history and scepticism prevailed, relegating his theories to opinion, until measurement of the transit of Mercury proved that the effect of relativity on planetary orbits was real.
I wonder if you find your field of expertise having much political relevance. Sometimes, rarely, or never? We are all organisms, and our interaction with Gaia (as parts to the whole) has a biochemical dimension.
The further you get with the puzzle, the more pieces you find missing.
They don't even have to be missing…
https://www.savagechickens.com/2007/08/jigsaw.html
😀
RH was doing political reporting for our state telecaster during the Muldoon era. He's actually improved with age – no longer seems like an establishment stooge.
????
Harman participated in an Orwellian farce staged with brutal irony on "World Press Freedom Day" by the British High Commission in Wellington last year, just days after the British regime’s shocking and illegal state rendition of Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy. In an unintentionally hilarious bit of black comedy, Harman pompously lectured some human rights protestors: "I think Luke Harding has done quite a lot of work on this question of whether he is a journalist or not and has concluded that he is NOT."
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2019/05/these-people-are-representative-of-new.html
Harman is the epitome of the establishment stooge. In 2010 he protected a right wing racist, Sean Plunket, from having to defend some ignorant and incendiary comments he had made about British politician George Galloway:
My take is that RH knew GG would run rings around anyone and chose to de-platform him (as if RH was woke). Who knows what he had going with Plunket 10 years ago anyway? People do change in a decade. But I agree with you to the extent that it reminds me of his old agenda – he was never much good as a producer of television from the perspective of the common interests of the people.
RH knew GG would run rings around anyone
In fact, anyone with an I.Q. above room temperature would run rings around Plunket, especially when he is on as tenuous and as indefensible a position as he was on that occasion.
People do change in a decade.
I always thought Harman's low point was his humiliation at the hands of Bill Rowling on two separate occasions in the 1970s, when a bumbling and nervous Harman was stripped of all his dignity in front of an audience of Labour Party people—who had zero sympathy for him. But his windy pontificating in favour of the utterly discredited Luke Harding last May has plunged him even deeper into the pit of infamy. He'll need more than a decade to come back from that.
I heard them this morning. It is good to hear a discussion and not feel as though there needs to be an argument. I have observed arguing here on the TS to the point that a person will not cease until they agree with one parties point of view. Some people choose not to keep arguing and it can be perceived as not having a response to a person's point of view.
The other day on TS I was coming across as being uninformed and I had a discussion which did not turn into an argument. I also chose to ignore a different person's comment who then made another comment which was the aha moment for me.
Boring blog if I cannot give an opinion for fear of being upset.
Your entertainment is the priority here.
Inaccurate! Robust entertainment.
Won't settle for anything less than Arabica entertainment.
Fair enough, that has more mmmmm …
Boring blog if I cannot give an opinion for fear of being upset.
My opinion may differ from yours on a thread and it certainly does with your comment.
Your entertainment is the priority here.
I could throw back, do not use my comment for your entertainment.
The TS is not an entertainment blog to me.
Speech has consequences.
Sorry, but you’ve lost me. Exactly what is your problem with TS? Do you have a fear of being upset here?
No were I to become upset I can take myself away from the subject. People need to own their comments and recognise if they are distorting a person's opinion. Usually it is a one line smart arse comment and not looking at the whole comment.
Got it, thanks. Sometimes the focus on one part or a single word even is deliberate and sometimes it is accidental. Some try to debate in good faith and some come to make/have fun. I’ve done it all here (i.e. guilty as accused). As long as it doesn’t drive people away and off the site and as long as it doesn’t become pattern behaviour that negatively impacts the flow and contents of comments here it is tolerated. Your approach is sensible.
Your comment is helpful.
The KGB and more lately Putin have groomed Trump for decades for exactly this role, the destruction of American civil peace. How else could Trump end up with two Eastern European wives who were able to emigrate to the US when nobody else could even leave their respective countries for a weekend holiday. One a tennis player and the other a model and both were by no means particularly skilled in their field, and they both made a beeline for Trump.
Even the most toxic hawk John Bolton knows this and has tried to mitigate and then openly attack Trumps complicity.
Well they're getting a very poor return for their efforts
More sanctions, pullout from arms treaties, lethal weapons for Ukraine, total amnesia for the part Russia played in WW2 ,US/Russia relations worse than they've been since the cold war.
When will Pootee pull the trigger and get some material payback for the kompromat he has on Trump?
Time is running out.
Or have you all been had …again?
US intelligence can't even agree on the Russian bounty conspiracy theory
The Pentagon chief says there's no corroborating evidence for it
https://time.com/5861815/intelligence-agencies-disagree-russia-taliban/
Those dastardly Russian masterminds! And those brilliant North Koreans! They control us, as the Clintonistas have been telling us for the last three and a half years.
Those darned RUSSIANS.
https://i.imgur.com/UoVWnOc.gif
Can anyone explain how the Taxpayers Union managed to get wage subsidies while conservation charities and St Johns Ambulance are reduced to laying off staff?
The Taxpayers Union is an "essential industry"?
https://sayingimages.com/wp-content/uploads/just-kidding-meme.jpg
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCJymauFcM5/
Pants down, and all they can do is project.
https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1279142640055812096
When President Trump took office in 2017, his team stopped work on new federal regulations that would have forced the health care industry to prepare for an airborne infectious disease pandemic such as COVID-19. That decision is documented in federal records reviewed by NPR.
"If that rule had gone into effect, then every hospital, every nursing home would essentially have to have a plan where they made sure they had enough respirators and they were prepared for this sort of pandemic," said David Michaels, who was head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration until January 2017.
https://www.npr.org/2020/05/26/862018484/trump-team-killed-rule-designed-to-protect-health-workers-from-pandemic-like-cov
Gang warfare driven by fast food: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/24/we-live-in-a-cage-residents-hide-as-macaque-gangs-take-over-thai-city
Someone ought to call his reference to monkeys as "human peers" racist perhaps – unless anthropologists have agreed that Thai people and Thai monkeys are peers…
The beginning of the end.
https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1279407324399120385
The very clever and switched on Chloe Swarbrick is taking to task national's david bennett via the political panel on the wireless.
Very impressive, here's the link, the panel is on until midday.
https://www.magic.co.nz/home.player.talk.html
Another sympathetic article where the outgoing Nat MP just cannot quite admit why people hated her. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300049395/actually-i-think-my-timing-might-be-perfect-paula-bennett-talks-politics-and-what-comes-next
Gee, maybe it was something she did.
" people
thinkknow ‘you were a 17 year old solo mum that did it hard and you've turned into a heartless tory that's only out for the rich’ "Unexpected self-awareness from Paula there.
The worst ones are the likes of Paula. Those who have been there, and then turn on the very people who were just like her.
You think she would have some empathy, but oh no, none of that. Just benefit cuts and sanctions.
People I'm taking the rest of the week off for alpine tramping and resort spa care.
See you Sunday.
Have a good trip…
I'm very jealous. Lewis Pass area?
Enjoy Ad.
the kids are alright
https://twitter.com/TomthunkitsMind/status/1279513623078096896
Another academic pundit appraises the BLM/Trump thing: https://www.salon.com/2020/06/26/cornel-west-on-this-moment-of-escalating-consciousness-and-the-need-for-radical-democracy/
The prof on the squeeze from both sides of the establishment:
Interviewer: "Are we seeing a paradigm shift in America, with the George Floyd protests and people's uprising? Being in the middle of what feels like great change often robs one of larger context and perspective."
But the pitch for "radical democracy" remains insubstantial because he doesn't explain what it would mean in practice.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_democracy
Hmm. Interesting, but you can see the problem with theoreticians, eh? Construction of theories as works of intellectual artistry. Focus on implementation almost entirely absent. Just a reference to problems of scale. Seeing consensus cited as a negative in democracy was new to me!
I would have thought the headline should be: "Woman doesn't succeed in escaping".
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12345602
Awaiting response: "shambolic … why wasn't she tasered by hotel staff?" – National.
Oh come on, the woman was hungry and dinner was late again; it was meant to be served @ 6:00 PM.
I am fast losing sympathy for these cretins coming back to NZ. Proscecute her, imprison her, like the guy in ChCh who was coughing on people during the lockdown.
What on earth went through her mind? And yes, it is shambolic (on face value). How did she manage to walk out? Although I guess she probably could have just walked out thumbing her nose at the security guards, as they would no doubt be charged with assualt if they tried to detain her.
We have only to look to Victoria as to how quickly things can be lost control of. Maybe there needs to be a Police person on duty at all times in a quarantine establishment, with the powers of arrest.
Not really like Victoria, unless she was having sex with a security guard.
No, it's not shambolic. She had already returned a negative test and had been in isolation for 8 days. Of course she should not have left the hotel, but people need to think about what that means in practice (hence my "taser" comment).
This whole process is headlines waiting to happen ("Woman wrestled to the ground, cries in pain, captured on phone, see exclusive footage at six!). Anything can be cast as either too tough (inhumane) or not tough enough (shambolic).
In reality, with the NZDF and police, it seems to be working very well – if belatedly.
Agree Observer, it does seem to be working very well now. But only needs one person to stuff it all up. Hope they do prosecute her to make an example.
And I know it is the job of the Opposition to highlight the failings of this (or any) government, but increasingly it seems opposition for oppositions sake. Muller squandering his opportunity.
People run red lights every day. That’s a failing too but one that’s ‘normalised’ and nobody pays any attention. One woman walks out of a hotel on foot, is arrested a couple of blocks away shortly after, and the Sky is falling.
No surprise. High stakes for everyone around infection and quarantine. Election campaign with chosen focus on 'shambles' = every mistake publicised..
Run a red light Incognito, might succeed in wiping out 2 or 3 people in a worse case scenario. Jump quarantine and you place the health and the freedom of 5 million people at risk, not to mention the economy and the career and economic future of those same 5 million.
So yes, the 'sky is falling' when scum like this women (who we now know jumped two fences to get out (one 6 feet high)), think that their freedom is more important than that of 5 million others. Prosceute the scum.
It's good that Megan Woods is so quickly onto it (with the detail about climbing the fence). Stories like this will always make the news, as will opposition claims, and if we have to wait 24 hours for a fuller picture, it's too late. Headlines shape opinion, facts added afterwards are way down the page.
I'm glad she's been given the job. It's the standard all Ministers should be meeting.
Immediate deportation to her home country! We don’t need scum in our 100% pure country.
Totally agree, there should be a $10,000 fine.
Why should we pay for the scum to be in prison.
This time it was not a government fuck up.
"This whole process is headlines waiting to happen … anything can be cast as either too tough (inhumane) or not tough enough (shambolic)"
Sums up the last few weeks very nicely thanks.
Also – if the headline producer is motivated by malice, they'll play the "inhumane" and the "shambolic" cards simultaneously.
The woman who escaped from quarintine climbed over a 1.8 mtr high containment fence while in the smoking area.
Was she desperate to reach the nearest natsy MP to complain about lax security?
Apart from anything else I'd send her the bill and publicise the amount to deter others. . 5 cops off for 2 weeks plus unknown other people. Yep I too am over people who think their own needs are so great that they can do just what they like. If they are stressed out by the quarantine they have nurses and others keeping an eye on them and who must be able to refer to more specialised help. One good reason why towns may be reluctance to be quarantine hosts
EEEEEEEEEEEE OOP fellow The Standard townsfolk.
Anyone else been listening/following "The Service"? and if so ….. wotcha opinions and reckons?
( I come from a position of having a 2 degrees removed member of whanau who was a spook till he died a decade ago – mainly because he was a complete pisshead – liver cancer et al resulting from his life's experiences )
My "reckons" are that it is pretty bloody damn good – although it could have been done without the theme music (wonder why they shoved that in it )
There are these things called links.. https://shorthand.radionz.co.nz/the-service-podcast/index.html
Most humble apologies @ Sacha
By the way, since you’ve provided the link that I should have done, how many people that post here do you think are going to take the time to listen to it.
My ‘reckons’ are that they’d much prefer to monitor the words of wisdom from a Trump
All good. More likely to get informed responses..
FYI, 4 clicks on the link so far. You’d be surprised how many silent readers the site has 🙂
I commented on Mike Smith's post:
https://thestandard.org.nz/looking-the-wrong-way-the-sis-in-new-zealand/#comment-1724931
I probably exaggerated the presence of off-shore agencies during the period in question but they were certainly active in NZ. They were the ones who were putting pressure on the SIS to undertake these operations for them.
3 new arrivals from India, test positive for Covid. Quarantined at Chateau on the Park, Christchurch (very nice).
India … Christchurch … ooh, Hamish, they're getting closer!
And a reminder that it is still National's policy (yes, it's on their website) to bring in thousands of young students NOW and quarantine them somewhere – though obviously not in Auck Central (because Nat MP) or Rotorua (Nat MP) or Queenstown (Nat MP) or … you get the picture.
If New Zealand had been unlucky enough to have a National government during this pandemic, we'd be looking at a situation as disastrous as the one in Britain.
Most Kiwis would agree with you, they're not as stupid as Muller thinks they are.
Watching Ardern's Labour conference speech live:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122040285/prime-minster-jacinda-ardern-sets-scene-for-2020-election-campaign-announcing-jobs-for-nature-and-business-loan-scheme-extension
Clear, concise and very easy to listen to with snippets of humour thrown in.
I liked her praise for Damian O'Conner's digital education during their level 4 lockdown zoom cabinet meetings. He discovered the unmute button for the first time.
Bet nobody helped him. 🙂
I think they must have because he obviously couldn't hear what they were saying. 😉
Mute works the other way around on vidconf platforms. Blissful silence for everyone else.
Kneeling is Not Enough, though it probably is for Keir Starmer
The King of Nothing down on one knee….
https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/kneeling-is-not-enough/
Indian community leader calls MP Hamish Walker's press release racist politicking.
"New Zealand Indian Central Association president Paul Patel said political leaders needed to hold their MPs accountable. He said it was National Party leader Todd Muller’s inability to condemn Walker’s focus on these Asian countries as racist, or apologise, that bothered him most"
"Patel said Walker should retract his remarks and apologise. The apology should come from Walker and the National Party.”
"Former race relations commissioner Gregory Fortuin said targetting certain ethnicities was a disgraceful dog whistle. Fortuin also condemned Muller’s inability to call out racist comments. It’s time that we strongly called out this bigoted behaviour when we have Kiwis returning from all quarters of the world, but he singled out the people not represented on his party's frontbench.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/122037288/indian-leader-calls-out-mps-racist-politicking-by-targeting-ethnic-minorities
In a civilised society, it should not to be to much to expect not to be gunned down when unarmed or have your airway blocked by those whose job it is to prevent crime.
It is unrealistic to expect all suffering to be eliminated. People in authority can always do better to address how they manage a situation which ignites the callous attitude of past inequality and suffering. 
Comment for RL @ 3.1.1.1.2
Run out of time to collect the number 3.2.1.1.1.2
Why didn’t you use the Reply button @ 3.2.1.1.1.2?
First error I thought I did, then I had to find where the comment ended up and time ran out.
Arthritic fingers and some lost sensation does not help either and I can only reply on my cell phone.
Ok, understood. The reason I asked is that some appear to experience technical issues at the mo.
Exactly.
Last time I looked, using a fake $20 note to buy a packet of smokes (or whatever) wasn't a crime punishable by summary execution.
Those that are protesting are sick and tired of having their lives excessively policed and regulated, you have to remember that these young people have gone through zero tolerance schooling, where you could be suspended for so much as yawning in class.
Here's a song for headbangers.
Shepherds Reign is a polynesian metal band from South Auckland. The song "Le Manu" features the Siva Tau war dance and is performed in the Samoan language.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSNb1LXXk40
Cheers, I like this song.
Thanks, that was great. So much passion. Can't help wondering if they've been listening to Waipu's Alien Weaponry.
Poor old Deartho'Wits is more desperate than ever
One of Jeffrey Epstein's most insalubrious cronies is now setting his loathsome sights on Virginia Giuffre….
http://normanfinkelstein.com/2020/07/04/such-a-sad-end-to-such-an-undistinguished-career/
Love how those right wing dicks at SkyNews Australia have had to do a switcheroo after they prematurely called the Eden-Monaro byelection for their preferred Liberal candidate at about 3am this morning only to have Labor’s Kristy McBain claim the win today after 2nd preference votes flowed her way. And the Newscorp press has spent the day furiously trying to spin McBain’s win as a big loss for Labor leader Albanese.
It was a Labor held seat before the election, the previous candidate retired due to ill health, a win is still a win though.
The Murdoch press is the ONLY reason you see Scotty from marketing on the TV there every day.
The woman who climbed the fence at the Auckland Pullman hotel led the news on both TV1 and TV3. So did Muller's knee-jerk response.
What didn't lead the news was any kind of joining the dots.
She arrived from Brisbane. Yes, it's in Queensland. Not virus-hit Victoria. And she had already returned a negative test, in Auckland.
So – and this is simply insane, but bear with me here – if you escape from a hotel after a week in isolation it's very bad, but if you arrive at the airport and don't have to be quarantined at all that's just fine. Hop on a bus, hire car, have fun. Spread whatever you want.
That's what bubble means, and a bubble with Queensland is what National and their cheerleaders think we should already have, and I honestly wonder if anybody in the media has a f***ing functioning brain to point this out.
I wouldn't hold my breath.
Its up to the Federal Govt to determine when to open up the airways, the states have no control, so even if Queensland wanted a bubble with NZ, the Federal Govt will decide, at the moment, with high numbers of new cases over the last few days will probably dampen that likelihood
Is this image of Meghan and the Queen a bit of light-hearted falsity from the main media. Can they resist playing round with images jas they already do with the facts? Can they be trusted to present anything at all in a straight-forward depiction of what is the perceived truth, without a bit of 'roguish' fiddling? Will we eventually not know whether we are Arthur or Martha; a bone of contention already.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2020/07/02/will-queen-ever-see-archie/
Good to see the increase in comments. I don't know, maybe this happens every election year. They have the virtue of reactionaries over at Kiwiblog I suppose. The Left are all about their best idea of reality, which requires creative thought.
Did you read it? Not much creative thought going on…
Read what? Sure , there is a Left reactionism. We are better at talk than the powers and worse at power. And I am as much a silly letter writer as most of us. How does that help? We lack the force of the 35ists. This decade is as imperative as 1939. Well, actually, you/we comfort-loaded fat-fatuous, 1000 times that. Our reaction to comfort prior to the cliff of annhilation is so much inferior to minor discomfort via a gentle slope to the relatively gentle punishment of this flu.
Kia Ora
The Am Show.
It looks like Aotearoa economy is humming along our exporters need to take advantage of the position Aotearoa has.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora
Newshub.
Its a big problem in the big city's to.
That's cool the inflator ventilator hood Kiwi ingenuity.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora
Te Ao Maori Marama.
That's good a website educationing tangata on the importants of tangata whenua voting and the political systems.
I still think more Maori should run for local councils elections.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora
The Am Show.
The Electric cars are the way of the future.
Labeling were our food comes from is logical to support local businesses.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora
Newshub.
Spanner.
That's good that work visa are being extended by 6 months.
The primary sector is the backbone of Aotearoa.
They won't even be able to get in the country.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora
Te Ao Maori Marama.
Maori can boost productivity of our whenua to make a big contribution to the 48 billion dollar primary sector plans.
Rugby Park upgrade will be awesome.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora
The Am Show.
Its good to see there is strong demand for Aotearoa protein.
A couple of months ago you were holding them up as handling the virus issues better than Aotearoa any apologies boys.
Ka kite Ano.