Editorial cartoonist who was a journo in Australia is not amused by Act’s antics.
2/ In the last 25 yrs no one has attempted to repeal those gun laws except Pauline Hanson – who was caught seeking funding assistance from the NRA. It’s been barely a year and a half since ChCh and here we are with a party campaigning on repealing our laws. I'm stunned…
Interesting question, whether there's an NRA backdoor to ACT. But maybe the NRA's current troubles are severe enough they haven't the time, money, or energy for that kind of fuckery.
One thing the buy back has done is to point out who the nut cases are to the sane and responsible firearm owners. There's quite a stark division there now and the nutters aren't really listened to. And oddly, most of the 'Fuck 1080" bumper stickers and banners have disappeared. Often the same people.
From my small circle who surrendered their semi autos, it was the purchase, or deposit on something much better, and more appropriate for the sort of hunting they do. In all cases no regrets and are wondering why / how they came to buy the semi autos in the first place.
Also know someone who qualifies, and is going down the path of being able to legitimately own them.
I am struggling to find and policy regarding immigration, there has been a lot of noise regarding shortfalls in our workforce. Last election we were told of a reduction in immigration by all. Yet we achieved records growth.80,000 pa net inflows. Or for both National and Labour will it be open our boarders to all and sundry and then fix any resulting problems?
It would be nice to see them just enforcing the law we have.
Fruit pickers, liquor store checkout operators, or dairy shedhands are not and never have been skilled, and as such never have qualifed for working visas.
And, the statutory declaration "I could not find any suitable New Zealanders for the position" needs to be challenged in such instances. Most employers seeking these kinds of staff have perjured themselves, and should be prosecuted for it.
This systematic lawbreaking, often beginning under National, but shamelessly continued under Labour, is a major contributor to entrenched poverty and poor employment practices in NZ.
My suggestion – no industry can import any labour unless they can't get staff with reasonable working conditions on offer and $35/hr pay. And pay /conditions on offer (including to imported labour) must remain at this level or better the entire time imported labour is used.
RSE essentially tightened up immigration controls in the horticulture industry as it reduced significantly the use of illegal labour and all the associated problems that went with that – people not returning home, orchardists undercutting each other, no PAYE paid to IRD. It also became part of the aid package to the Pacific.
To some extent John Key opened up the rorting again with allowing students to work full-time while in NZ – English language schools that were fronts for residence and seasonal work.
Orchard rorts still continue but much reduced from twenty years ago e.g. the slavery case over in Hawkes Bay. Who was the orchardist in the media reports paying him in bags of cash for the last 10 years? Why isn't their name public?
There is a mis-match between where the supply is and where the work is and sharp peaks. In apples the peak is in picking, in kiwifruit in packing. One is definitely more attractive than the other hence when COVID hit many people jumped to the packhouses.
We also need to be careful about talking about labour supply that we are not being racist in demanding people work there. NZ Europeans have left the picking of fruit for other better paid, less physically difficult work for years and increasingly those left to pick have been Maori and PI. One hopes that Maori aspire to do more than pick fruit and if we are going to pressure New Zealanders to do this work that that pressure isn't just applied to Maori and PI.
If you think RSE tightened up controls it seems that you are mistaken. Segregated accommodation for married couples, harsh lessons in 'not bucking the boss', denied access to migration based on race and background – these are the epiphenomena of a deeply flawed system.
It's like the government sublet their morality to Treasury. If you only look at the numbers it doesn't matter who picks or prunes, but in terms of the local economy RSE workers don't have much of a spending profile – their portion of GDP is a loss, and Treasury should count it as such – then they might not be quite so keen on end runs around labour laws.
I'm sure at the time Treasury were more concerned with people coming from overseas, setting themselves up as contractors, then disappearing with all the PAYE and student loan money.
In this day and age I still don't get why the employer can't be required to simply pay it to IRD each payday – it's not their money – it's the employees.
That would save hundreds of millions each year in crook employers. My wife went through years of hassle because her employer didn't make the payments deducted out of her pay. Just as well she kept her payslips.
So we're left with a structure an accountant would call a C minus, and a citizen an F. And exercising structural prejudice against hiring New Zealanders – it should be utterly destroyed.
Meanwhile, governments express concern about declining regional economies – as if they hadn't just pulled out much of the cashflow.
Part of the result of economics as practised in NZ is that if a company can't get the workers then it must be uneconomical and closes down. Its not supposed to go whinging to the government for assistance and get an effective subsidy..
Or for both National and Labour will it be open our boarders to all and sundry and then fix any resulting problems?
NO.
If you had been keeping up with campaign news you would know that both major parties (Labour definitely and I'm sure I heard Collins say something similar) have indicated they are not planning to use immigration as an election issue because there is too much uncertainty around Covid 19 and its aftermath – words to that effect.
Wise and sensible while our borders are largely closed. In the meantime, I expect the ‘experts’ are quietly modelling new laws on future immigration policy for the next government to consider as we speak.
Whether it will be sufficient to solve some of the current problems remains to be seen.
The function of the Accident Compensation Corporation as a “top tier” alternative health and welfare system demonstrates the rampant and continuing success of a neoliberal agenda in Aotearoa. If we are going to move anything, we need to move this.
…
But let us not forget, this crisis, like the Global Financial Crisis before is working to the advantage of the already wealthy. Neoliberals never let a good crisis go to waste. And sadly, we are all neoliberals now. Even those who yell helplessly into the void, faced with the tyranny of a state-run system that pits my brain injured child against yours because yours was “lucky” enough to be in a car crash, as opposed to a birth crash.
…
This pandemic will do one thing for sure: exacerbate. Will it exacerbate inequality, as we are seeing? Or exacerbate our drive for a fairer future?
I have no problem with illness being extended to a higher rate and treated like ACC but we could do this in several ways:
1. Have an illness levy like an ACC levy
2. Increase benefits at least to the NZS rate like they used to be
3. Properly fund the health system
Replicating he ACC model for illness might not be the right solution.
Be interested in who you think should pay the levies – employer, worker – what about non-workers? What happens when ACC boot you off for illness if we no longer have a sickness benefit?
ACC needs to be done away with. It was good when it was first put in place but has been truly broken with the neo-liberal tweaks that its suffered under.
Simple fact of the matter is that health should be free no matter how you ended up in the system.
Then there needs to be a base benefit that's enough to live on with needs based increases.
Put more people through training as medical professionals, build more hospitals and clinics around the country and pay them well.
I feel for the whanau who have lost everything in the McKenzie Basin fires. Big ups to the firefighters and helicopter pilots.
But what the fuck are we doing farming in that area in the first place. Dry tussock hill country is not suitable for arable farming. Unless heavily watered, which it is.
As an area of unbelievable natural beauty it should be left that way.
As an area of unbelievable natural beauty it should be left that way.
I'm not disagreeing with you. Fly over that basin really brings home the lunacy of dairy farming in the basin.
RNZ this morning, a farmer said the problem was the land around his farm had been 'locked away' and this 'was just waiting to happen'. Not a lot of thought in that comment.
I'd be quite interested in how the fire started.
Thus it is, the divide between developers and environmentalists will always endure
Fires from arcing powerlines are very common in Waitaki / Central Otago. Central in particular is afflicted by a notoriously tight arsed lines company and the lines aren't maintained properly, stretch in the wind and then start arcing. I've caught one that happened right in front of me driving down the road, fortunately the wind was blowing the right way and a couple of other people turned up and we got it out, could have been very different very easily. And there was nothing 'ungrazed' about this one, but a lot of rural residential carved off to keep the farmers afloat, and a lot of wilding conifers, because 'they look nice' and cost the land owners to control.
There's certainly land management issues, but they go both ways. The confrontational attitude that lines companies take in managing vegetation, and the resulting minimalist, or non holistic, pruning that results doesn't help. The way the legislation works the land owner ens up with a minimal trim to the regulated limits, but no assistance, in either labour or planning, to manage the vegetation long term.
Then there's lines that shouldn't be where they are, or are that poorly engineered or managed that arcing and fires are inevitable. A lot of the networks have grown in an ad hoc way with each extension done to the minimum extent in the cheapest way. So you end up with something that wanders all over the place and is quite different to what you'd have if it was rebuilt from scratch. Long established rural areas with multiple phases of rural residential subdivision are terrible for this, above and below ground. Lines and cables everywhere, often not recorded properly or at all.
The defensive attitude of the lines company here has me wondering if the situation in Ohau wasn't that different to the network around here.
There will certainly be some of that but power lines should be run underground by now which is the other part of the problem. Everyone in the industry knows that overhead power-lines are dangerous but its expensive to put them underground.
"tight arsed lines company" is part of our dysfunctional power industry by design.
The annual rebate on consumer bills is a political tool of the lines trusts club members. Max Bradfords regionally based gravy train for the old power boards.
Network strengthening and resilience likely sit back in the queue as they can always blame the weather, which they mostly do.
The otago one is a slightly different issue – the city council that owns it dragged out dividends that really should have been spent on lines maintenance, and then they got pinged by a whistleblower when the power poles 30 years past their replacement date started falling over.
Sounds exactly like the others McFlock, all a question of priorities as dividends/rebates on accounts etc should come after all the maintenance is up to scratch.
If you looked at the wooden pole issue across NZ lines companies you'd likely find 'consistency' in this approach with Mother Nature now driving the work reactively.
fair enough. Wasn't sure about the "lines trusts". I'm often a bit hazy on precisely the way the world is fucked up, but I know a good stink when I smell it, lol
Part of the council's thing was to stop central government glomming the whole asset (as they did with Rangiora High School's properties) – so they created a nicely indebted structure to make it unpalatable – good accounting, but they needed a couple of engineers on board to explain infrastructure lifetimes.
Goes back a bit before that – but the stadium was certainly a fine model of the third world infrastructure project that needlessly indebts citizens. If not for the Christchurch earthquakes it would have lost even more money. Just have to hope their harbourside monstrosity doesn't go through.
Just to make it a bit weirder…. maureen pugh wasn't at Meet the Candidates in Golden Bay during the weekend.
She has a cold and as a result is self isolating just in case of Covid.
Recent days have seen Judith Collins making an unmistakable play for votes from people who might have gravitated towards other smaller parties. A sudden run of references to her Christian faith, and a visit to an Anglican church, look like a medium-term play to solidify support in caucus, but also an invitation back to the mothership to the 1.4% of the electorate planning to vote New Conservative, according to the last Colmar Brunton / TVNZ poll.
There have also been policy embraces of the racing industry – hello the remaining NZ First loyalists (1.4%)! Pronouncements on gun reform in the second debate round off a busy time of pitching the big tent on the right.
Bit of a stretch, right? His reasoning is weakest when he doesn't explain what would shift centrists away from Labour now. The fact that the Nat leader isn't courting them – is trying to herd neanderthals instead – is a tacit admission of defeat, I reckon.
But the best bit is his screenshot from ONE News of the TVNZ political editor modelling the 1950s housewife style. Frump, with flowers on. My daughter has been telling me for years that retro styles are huge in younger generations, but I hadn't realised things have gotten that bad.
Normal commentary style here. Trump's orange hair continued to feature persistently long after he blonded it several years ago. When in Rome, do as the Romans do…
the difference is that the president of the US isn't a class subjected to oppression. Women are routinely subjected to put downs, body shaming, ageism, classism and so on on the basis of their sex class, and additionally that plays into other real world effects of institutional sexism. If we devalue frumpy old women we don't have to pay them as much.
The young and 1950's retro … possibly derived from the United States of Tara, that or Mad Men or channelling dead grandparents before their children (it's a form of rebellion).
As for Tara, Gone with the Wind and Trump's hair, its less a change in colouring as looking different when sprayed on a ligher base, graying hair.
You seem to be getting caught up in detail here and confusing commentary for 'mocking'. What is acceptable discourse is a function of time, so our ages are relevant. The smell of Old Spice and Brylcreem reminds me of RSAs on rare visits as a kid. May not mean much to younger readers. Maybe more to older ones than me?
In this particular case, for years Jessica Mutch's hips were kept out of shot on screen, probably to avoid the sort of erudite rejoinders we saw upthread.
Can we all agree that the least interesting thing about the story cited is what she wore, then move on with our days?
Sacha Old Spice is still on sale at supermarkets. The makers have found that the OTT scents of modern product don't appeal as much to the sense of the olders. As you say let's keep on with the main story, and not be deflected to run after the smell of red herrings.
Oh come on weka. Don't be so uptight. Let us make rude remarks about each other sometimes. As long as it is give and take. Fr'instance men calling each other 'old bastard' doesn't mean they don't like each other or are calling their mothers' out.
I think you have been indoctrinated by some university course, or prolonged reflection and navel gazing one – similar to those I have attended myself, but have shed some of the strictures! I realise to many they are sacred, and everything that is said in them must be written in stone, and objectors bashed on the head with it. Feel free. But please can I be only attacked by one person, not a gang.
You know that you are intellectually overreaching when you use labels to generalise ordinary decent citizens as Neanderthals, which is not even stereotypically accurate, don’t you?
You also know that JC is fighting a rear-guard battle to stem imminent losses of MPs without any medium-term vision or strategy, don’t you?
And you should also know that it is the camera angle and studio lighting that might make that dress look less flattering, yes?
Toby Manhire is right. If the Greens fall below 5% Judith may well be PM.
Auckland Central Labour voters should split their vote, giving Chloe Swarbrick the candidate vote and Labour the party vote. This will ensure the Green vote is not wasted so that they can join Labour in coalition.
In other constituencies a party vote for the Greens is a vote for a more progressive Jacinda government.
For the Greens to drop below 5% would require its previous voters switching to Labour or staying home. The latter seems unlikely this year. The former counters any fantasies about a Judith victory celebration.
Yes the ‘paths to victory’ theorised by Manhire and others require major shifts between blocs, not just between parties. It requires National’s vote to rise significantly to c 40% without taking any of those votes off Act, and for the Greens to dip under 5% without those votes going to Labour.
His figures propose Nats 37.5% and Act 8%. The latter is the highest Act have been in any poll in the last few years. I don’t see they’d stay there if Nats climb over the 28-33% they’ve been in recent polls.
Or enough extra voters coming out in force without voting for the Greens that they drop below 5% (very unlikely, but thought I'd mention the slight possibility).
Powerful forces are at work. JC prays to God and even Sir John is back in the house as if he never left. Fortunately, ponytails are relatively safe due to social distancing rules.
Anecdotal stuff here, but I heard the voting places around Otago university are pumping, apparently the referendum is getting a lot of young ppl voting, could be interesting if it really is a trend.
Yes many people who have never voted are coming out to vote for the first time in years or ever for weed.
I keep getting asked by people if they can leave their party and candidate vote blank and just vote for the referendum (I think that's a an incomplete ballot? Though should be an option) so I expect much of that to go to the greens and top and there will be a bunch of people who just vote for some random parties with no chance (like TOP or legalize marijuana or even soc cred) still if it gets weed passed, good.
When they first suggested holding two referendums at the General Election I thought it could be too much, overloading people, and putting them off voting altogether. I’ll be gladly proven wrong 🙂
I suspect one of the reasons turnout is so low in the US is it's such a pain. Most places you're voting for an order of magnitude more candidates than even Auckland local government. Feels like everybody is on the ballot down to third assistant dog-catcher.
If it's paper ballots, it's a stack like a magazine, or in Pennsylvania the voting booth had a machine with more levers to turn than a nuclear power station control room.
Agreed, make it as simple as possible, which is necessary but not sufficient for high voter turnout. In other words, it is not good enough for people to have no excuse not to vote, but they have to have an actual reason to vote. Merely ticking boxes of a Candidate and a Party is barely enough, it seems, and for some it is not even enough. I hope my writing is improving because I know Morrissey is reading 😉
I suspect one of the reasons turnout is so low in the US is it's such a pain. Most places you're voting for an order of magnitude more candidates than even Auckland local government. Feels like everybody is on the ballot down to third assistant dog-catcher.
Exactly.
This is called "democracy". Except the right, and opportunity to vote is being eroded day by day – State Law by State Law – county by county and district by district.
More than 1 in 10 North Carolina ballots returned so far have been rejected. North Carolinians can track the status of their ballots here https://t.co/ShoDJ3wcD8https://t.co/PQTm2HXJ00
Not sure Corey, you get 3 separate pieces of paper for voting, one for election, and 2 for each referendum, I would think you can vote for all 3, or just one? I'm not sure of course but just the fact it's all separate I assumed that? For what it's worth I voted Green Party, Labour candidate, and Yes & Yes for referenda. Walked in, stated my name, and voted. So easy, we got a lot to be thankful for in this country.
yes, think the fact there are two important referendum along with general election, and covid fallout, will lead to a high voter turnout. usually not good news for conservative parties.
Who knows, maybe in a few years erudite experts on popular culture will explain how the pandemic lockdowns and loss of female employment exacerbated existing trends towards delivery of food then cooked and prepared for dinner parties. As women reclaimed the home as their dominion for meaningful work and identity.
All while men resumed dominance of life in the wider world in a way not seen since the Greeks first made up democracy and western civilisation.
Of course New Zealand under an Ardern government would have to be ostracised as a socialist outlier …
SPC What action oriented women wanted was choice. The ability to get out and do things in society, not be embedded at home and treated as a 'drawing' on the household budget, and remaining in men's minds at about the age of 18, just over the age of consent and no more.
Unfortunately the male-oriented capitalistic culture always willing to pick out religious strictures about where women belong in society chose to elevate male’s true interest, that of making money, over the building of a good and fair society of strong characters. Women's work is dismissed, child rearing also, socialisation and building character and skills also, and women are forced into level entry jobs that teenagers preparing for their work life should be able to access.
That is the background to the present situation of many women. They aren't better than men, but are certainly are worthy of a lot more respect and attention to their ideas and smarts than now happens. And they would like to be at home more and able to carry out their child-raising duties adequately. But most would not want to be stuck there, instead enabled to get part-time work with school holidays off while the children are young. Later to move further into the enterprise and trading society, not objects of charity or dependency for life.
TBH the cat walking across my keyboard, wanting pats, rubbing up against the monitor, meowing loudly on calls and pinching my seat as soon as I get up are bigger problems than the children that frequent the house.
The dog at least just pokes his head in the door says "Oh you're still there" and wanders off again!
Right now, we have budgie sitting while family are off on a holiday annoying grandparents. I think that I’d prefer the squabbling kids.
Having the choice, I have retreated back to the workplace. In a 55 square metre apartment, I have decided that there isn’t really room for budgies.
The cat was ok – you just provide a unused laptop with its builtin heater and keyboard where they can supervise. Then use the 10 foot throw so they have to think about landing on their feet as entertainment when you have to remove them from place that are your spaces. They learn fast. Just not fast enough about motorway off-ramps – damnit.
SPC Job-sharing – perhaps. But women getting out into the wider world from the home and family is also good. Helps to enable full adult and social growth and understanding, (getting towards Maslow's ideas of self-realisation).
However to digress, I forecast that there will be more small family-owned businesses making small profits but being regularly in work, employing children etc – back to medieval approach. The march of the large corps(es) have and will continue to kill off many of our previous jobs.
The only way for society and community to survive is to practise circular trade with each other, so circulating money and enabling each other. This will provide the well-known multiplier effect, and build lively and busy towns, with lots of social contact, while big business tries to put spokes in everyone's wheels. The wealthy class and leaders might start taxing wheels as a good flat tax! The money-magnets will always be looking for ways to get their fingers in the pie. A tax on windows once, when glass was scarce.
Once again Vernon Tava gets it wrong. Timed his run too late, then shot himself in the foot.
The Sustainable New Zealand Party has admitted that a woman featured in one of its online video advertisements is not a small business owner named Jill, but is the partner of the party's leader.
However, a senior lecturer for marketing at Auckland University said there was a chance the ad breached advertising standards. "I think that portraying her as a small business owner, not disclosing the fact that she is an actor and is in fact his partner, I think that most people would see that as not quite telling the full truth," Dr Bodo Lang said.
Lang pointed to the second principle in the Advertising Standards Code called 'Truthful Presentation'. The section states that ads must not mislead, or be likely to mislead, deceive or confuse consumers or exploit their lack of knowledge. "This includes by implication, inaccuracy, ambiguity, exaggeration, unrealistic claim, omission, false representation or otherwise."
He’s found the past few years to be a “very disturbing time.” “Overall, as somebody who was a born populist,” he says, “I’ve got a little less faith in my neighbors than I had four years ago.”
Many on the left — including Springsteen’s friend Tom Morello — see Trump as more of a symptom of larger problems, I point out. “I’m probably not as left as Tom,” says Springsteen. “But look, if we want to have the America that we envision, it’s going to need some pretty serious systemic changes moving leftward.”
As for the leading politician on the left: “I like Bernie Sanders a lot,” Springsteen says. “I don’t know if he was my main choice, my first choice. I like Elizabeth Warren, I like Bernie.” For the moment, though, he is fully on board with the centrist Democratic nominee. “The power of the American idea has been abandoned,” Springsteen says.
“It’s a terrible shame, and we need somebody who can bring that to life again.… I think if we get Joe Biden, it’s gonna go a long way towards helping us regain our status around the world. The country as the shining light of democracy has been trashed by the administration. We abandoned friends, we befriended dictators, we denied climate science.”
Doubt it. Normally comes across as sensible. I always get a sense that he inherited leftism from his working-class dad. See the song Factory, for instance.
End of the day, factory whistle cries
Men walk through these gates with death in their eyes
Bruce's never done a hard days manual labour work or been in a factory, he admits that as most think that's his past based on the music.
10 years of solid gigging with the East Street band are his dues prior to ‘fame’ he's simply one of the best songwriters about able to convey emotion in a tune.
"Sensible"? Really? Then who's this singing out for Barack Obama in 2012? Not in the “hope and change” year of 2008, mind you, but after four years of signing off on drone killings (all of them illegal), shaking hands with and being lionized by human rights abusers, continuing the war against democratic governments in Central and South America, and persecuting and imprisoning U.S. and Australian journalists.
Folks who lead a busy life often don't keep up with politics, nor pay much other than scant attention to headline news stories. You tend to see black & white all the time. Others see shades of grey, some pale, some dark, some in between…
Folks who lead a busy life often don't keep up with politics, nor pay much other than scant attention to headline news stories.
Bruce Springsteen is certainly busy. Too busy to think or care about the implications of backing a war criminal. In fact, three war criminals in successive elections.
You tend to see black & white all the time.
Actually, as you will admit when you cool down, my thinking is a lot more sophisticated and subtle than that. But when it comes to people who order the killing of civilians, the destruction of democracy, and the persecution of journalists, yes, I do see such criminality in "black & white."
Others see shades of grey, some pale, some dark, some in between…
There's a way to finesse the killing of civilians and the undermining and/or destruction of democratic governments in Central and South America?
everyone is supposed to realize that the House should accept its own futility because it is run by Democrats now. It’s the Circle of Derp.
almost by the hour, the need for a new Voting Rights Act—for example, one sensitive to 21st-century international ratfcking—becomes more and more obvious.
Being fully on board with Biden is one strong indicator.
He was an unequivocal Hillary supporter in '16, instead of ranting about how Dems and Repugs are equally bad and Bernie wuz robbed and how he would vote for Stein or not at all.
AFAIK he's never suggested the likes of Tucker Carlson 'get it' or tried to smear movements such as BLM by calling them marxist or indulged in other white-supremacist-adjacent behaviour.
Nor has he ever shown any other behaviour associated with convergence moonbats, to my knowledge.
Being fully on board with Biden is one strong indicator.
Yikes! “The Boss” has spent far too much time singing hoarsely, not enough time reading and thinking.
He was an unequivocal Hillary supporter in '16….
AFAIK he's never suggested the likes of Tucker Carlson 'get it' or tried to smear movements such as BLM by calling them marxist or indulged in other white-supremacist-adjacent behaviour.
If he’s such a progressive and tolerant person, then why is he supporting Biden? And why was he an "unequivocal Hillary supporter" in 2016? Clinton?
…you've apparently never read anything significant in your life. Explains all the third rate attempts at stenography, tho.
Well that little effort was not as colorful as your ever-inventive cascade of abuse for the Orange Shit-Gibbon, or whatever witty putdown you're about to employ for the Fanta Fascist. Just as lame, however.
Keep trying, my friend. By the way, what's the state of progress in the search for that missing bit of evidence proving that Drumpf is a Russian puppet?
Not sure that applies to writing songs/music in the same way as, say, writing literature. Neither does storytelling rely on reading necessarily and many cultures, including Māori, of course, have a long and rich oral tradition in storytelling. I think living with open eyes and an open mind, observing, creating experiences, and meeting other people and travelling, for example, are probably more important for writing well than reading other people’s words.
When something pernicious is reframed by Judith as an employment scheme to give the 'dodgy' lot a chance..you know( you know that lot)…. then sack them.
" Collins said she backed 90-day trials.
"They give businesses confidence to give people a go, when … maybe there's something with that person – maybe there's something in their background, maybe they're not quite qualified enough, maybe they're not that experienced, maybe they don't know them that well.
Maybe they're a different ethnicity – you know, this is about actually giving people a chance "
Someone should ask Michael Barnett or Phil O'Reilly a direct question about whether they agree with Judith Collins that small employers need 90 days to overcome their fear of employing someone of a different ethnicity.
Judith is loved by the base because she says the quiet bits out loud. Having to keep the quiet bits quiet feels like oppression, like being 'told what to think'. By saying it out loud Judith breaks the shackles of this 'oppression' and champions 'freedom of speech'. Undoubtedly God agrees, because he/she/it speaks through Judith.
Instead of addressing underlying issues such as causes of people having 'backgrounds' , worker exploitation, non-livable wages or the sacking of workers for unseemly profit margins, it's Judith's innuendo (" the quiet bit" ) that it's okay that innate prejudice exists, that there is a boss with 'superior' knowledge and ethnicity …
Hey Judith while you're playing to the base secret supremacist, say it out loud…
Subjectively, One is only, you know, " a different ethnicity " when you Judith are looking in the mirror.
There'll be though that 1/10 grateful lepers out there for 90 days, dismissed on a whim, who's then on a WINZ stand down.
The Weekend at Bernie's similarities just keep coming. Now they've propped him up in a car to wheel him around for a few minutes in front of adoring Drumpfkins.
Come to think of it, how do we know it was really him? Could have been a crisis actor.
Weekend at Bernies! – USA politics isn't that good is it? Hollywood must be after all the footage of this incumbent/recumbent it can get – or is that frottage?
That long-running Russiagate joke was not so funny. I note they haven't been pushing it with quite the brio they used to do before the Clintonistas' three and a half years of fantasizing was sunk in the most embarrassing manner possible.
Of course: the criminal Trump regime is full of criminals. Who claimed Trump and his gang were “innocent”?
But as Greenwald and other real journalists have pointed out, all the deranged shouting by Rachel Maddow and her imitators in the media and by the absurd Jerrold Nadler and his hapless cronies in Congress have produced no evidence of the mythical "Russian collusion."
Nope, he’s a Russian agent made in North Korea with Japanese components, trained by the Chinese, and running on Taiwanese batteries. This explains his poor spelling and random Tweets because of conflicts in the firmware. Please keep up.
Narcissist in Chief was desperate to go drivies so he could wave to his gawking cult followers and fuck the help.
That Presidential SUV is not only bulletproof, but hermetically sealed against chemical attack. The risk of COVID19 transmission inside is as high as it gets outside of medical procedures. The irresponsibility is astounding. My thoughts are with the Secret Service forced to play.
A while ago the Secret Service actually looked like they were going to have staffing problems because of how many were getting covid. So maybe they're putting recovered agents around the Coronamoron-in Chief, and hoping like hell the immunity actually lasts.
I looked at an old Punch and came across Edwina Currie – she was done on Spitting Image. This is a small break from The Election and the buskers involved – so out of tune many of them aren't they!
Currie came across as a lively speaker in Punch so I looked her up and here she is being interviewed in 2012. This gives an interesting example to compare with our women pollies or how they are presented anyway. Currie was in the Conservatives. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/edwina-currie
The NZ covid song was pretty funny, up until they did the "island with small population" bullshit. Fuck that excuse is getting old. If our PM was a dickhead we'd have covid through the roof just like they do.
Spitting Image fired their gun at a sensitive spot though. We are trying to stop people firing guns, not spot them. Bad people at spitting image, they don't know what's truly funny in the UK, their tastebuds have become coarsened with indulgence in jeremymandering, our rosebuds are still blooming, just.
Refining NZ have this morning confirmed that around 100 jobs will be cut as the first part of its Strategic Review concludes, but FIRST Union says that it isn’t too late to save more jobs, assets and infrastructure while transitioning to cleaner and greener operations if the Government are serious about a Just Transition for Marsden Point….
He hosted a super-spreader event to honor a justice who would have the government control your body but refuse the duty to care for it, and when the virus he helped go around came around, he availed of the healthcare he would deny others, financed by the taxes he refuses to pay. pic.twitter.com/Oi0rwMG2Xo
Just this morning I was musing to myself on the hypocrisy of Trump being cared for by a team of doctors and nurses and contributing hardly a cent to the public expense of such care being lavished upon him. And, at the same time doing his utmost to deprive millions of his fellow Americans, even the bare minimum of the treatment that he was receiving.
It also astounds me that the woman he has nominated for the Supreme Court; having had the way to the position she currently holds, paved for her by the tenacity of RBG, should now be even considering pulling up the ladder which she has climbed. Much like Pulla Benefit did to the women of NZ.
No insurance involved. As Commander-in-Chief, the military medical system looks after his medical needs and wants. There's even the dedicated Presidential Suite at the local military hospital.
When the stakes in games become so serious — when everybody's life is at stake — they ought not to be played at all, and the taxpayers should not support them. But the taxpayers do support them, and that is why we cannot halt these activities.
And later:
I have said that it was difficult to understand, in what we call our free world, how it can come about that a scientist who has been working on CBR [Chemical, Biological and Radiological weapons] but is dubious about the morality of what he is doing should not find it in his power to resign. But how free are we citizens of this free world to resign from the gigantic and demented undertakings to which our government has got us committed?
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 10, 2021 through Sat, Jan 16, 2021Editor's ChoiceNASA says 2020 tied for hottest year on record — here’s what you can do to helpPhoto by Michael Held on Unsplash ...
Health authorities in Norway are reporting some concerns about deaths in frail elderly after receiving their COVID-19 vaccine. Is this causally related to the vaccine? Probably not but here are the things to consider. According to the news there have been 23 deaths in Norway shortly after vaccine administration and ...
Happy New Year! No, experts are not concerned that “…one of New Zealand’s COIVD-1( vaccines will fail to protect the country” Here is why. But first I wish to issue an expletive about this journalism (First in Australia and then in NZ). It exhibits utter failure to actually truly consult ...
All nations have shadows; some acknowledge them. For others they shape their image in uncomfortable ways.The staunch Labour supporter was in despair at what her Rogernomics Government was doing. But she finished ‘at least, we got rid of Muldoon’, a response which tells us that then, and today, one’s views ...
Grigori GuitchountsIn November, Springer Nature, one of the world’s largest publishers of scientific journals, made an attention-grabbing announcement: More than 30 of its most prestigious journals, including the flagship Nature, will now allow authors to pay a fee of US$11,390 to make their papers freely available for anyone to read ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gary Yohe, Henry Jacoby, Richard Richels, and Benjamin Santer Imagine a major climate change law passing the U.S. Congress unanimously? Don’t bother. It turns out that you don’t need to imagine it. Get this: The Global Change Research Act of 1990 was passed ...
“They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”WHO CAN FORGET the penultimate scene of the 1956 movie classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The wild-eyed doctor, stumbling down the highway, trying desperately to warn his fellow citizens: “They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”Ostensibly science-fiction, the movie ...
TheOneRing.Net has got its paws on the official synopsis of the upcoming Amazon Tolkien TV series. It’s a development that brings to mind the line about Sauron deliberately releasing Gollum from the dungeons of Barad-dûr. Amazon knew exactly what they were doing here, in terms of drumming up publicity: ...
Since Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953, US presidents have joined an informal club intended to provide support - and occasionally rivalry - between those few who have been ‘leaders of the free world’. Donald Trump, elected on a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ and a constant mocker of his predecessors, ...
For over a decade commentators have noted the rise of a new brand of explicitly ideological politics throughout the world. By this they usually refer to the re-emergence of national populism and avowedly illiberal approaches to governance throughout the “advanced” democratic community, but they also extend the thought to the ...
The US House of Representatives has just impeached Donald Trump, giving him the dubious honour of being the only US President to be impeached twice. Ten Republicans voted for impeachement, making it the most bipartisan impeachment ever. The question now is whether the Senate will rise to the occasion, and ...
Kieren Mitchell; Alice Mouton, Université de Liège; Angela Perri, Durham University, and Laurent Frantz, Ludwig Maximilian University of MunichThanks to the hit television series Game of Thrones, the dire wolf has gained a near-mythical status. But it was a real animal that roamed the Americas for at least 250,000 ...
Tide of tidal data rises Having cast our own fate to include rising sea level, there's a degree of urgency in learning the history of mean sea level in any given spot, beyond idle curiosity. Sea level rise (SLR) isn't equal from one place to another and even at a particular ...
Well, some of those chickens sure came home bigly, didn’t they… and proceeded to shit all over the nice carpet in the Capitol. What we were seeing here are societal forces that have long had difficulty trying to reconcile people to the “idea” of America and the reality of ...
In the wake of Donald Trump's incitement of an assault on the US capitol, Twitter finally enforced its terms of service and suspended his account. They've since followed that up with action against prominent QAnon accounts and Trumpers, including in New Zealand. I'm not unhappy with this: Trump regularly violated ...
Peter S. Ross, University of British ColumbiaThe Arctic has long proven to be a barometer of the health of our planet. This remote part of the world faces unprecedented environmental assaults, as climate change and industrial chemicals threaten a way of life for Inuit and other Indigenous and northern ...
Susan St John makes the case for taxing a deemed rate of return on excessive real estate holdings (after a family home exemption), to redirect scarce housing resources to where they are needed most. Read the full article here ...
I’m less than convinced by arguments that platforms like Twitter should be subject to common carrier regulation preventing them from being able to decide who to keep on as clients of their free services, and who they would not like to serve. It’s much easier to create competition for the ...
The hypocritical actions of political leaders throughout the global Covid pandemic have damaged public faith in institutions and governance. Liam Hehir chronicles the way in which contemporary politicians have let down the public, and explains how real leadership means walking the talk. During the Blitz, when German bombs were ...
Over the years, we've published many rebuttals, blog posts and graphics which came about due to direct interactions with the scientists actually carrying out the underlying research or being knowledgable about a topic in general. We'll highlight some of these interactions in this blog post. We'll start with two memorable ...
Yesterday we had the unseemly sight of a landleech threatening to keep his houses empty in response to better tenancy laws. Meanwhile in Catalonia they have a solution for that: nationalisation: Barcelona is deploying a new weapon in its quest to increase the city’s available rental housing: the power ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters, PhD The 2020 global wildfire season brought extreme fire activity to the western U.S., Australia, the Arctic, and Brazil, making it the fifth most expensive year for wildfire losses on record. The year began with an unprecedented fire event ...
NOTE: This is an excerpt from a digital story – read the full story here.Tess TuxfordKo te Kauri Ko Au, Ko te Au ko Kauri I am the kauri, the kauri is me Te Roroa proverb In Waipoua Forest, at the top of the North Island, New ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Coming attraction: IPCC's upcoming major climate assessmentLook for more emphasis on 'solutions,' efforts by cities, climate equity ... and outlook for emissions cuts in ...
Ringing A Clear Historical Bell: The extraordinary images captured in and around the US Capitol Building on 6 January 2021 mirror some of the worst images of America's past.THERE IS A SCENE in the 1982 movie Missing which has remained with me for nearly 40 years. Directed by the Greek-French ...
To impact or not to impeach? I understand why some of those who are justifiably aghast at Trump’s behaviour over recent days might still counsel against impeaching him for a second time. To impeach him, they argue, would run the risk of making him a martyr in the eyes of ...
The Capitol Building, Washington DC, Wednesday, 6 January 2021. Oh come, my little one, come.The day is almost done.Be at my side, behold the sightOf evening on the land.The life, my love, is hardAnd heavy is my heart.How should I live if you should leaveAnd we should be apart?Come, let me ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 3, 2021 through Sat, Jan 9, 2021Editor's ChoiceAfter the Insurrection: Accountability, Reform, and the Science of Democracy The poisonous lies and enablers of sedition--including Senator Hawley, pictured ...
This article, guest authored by Prof. Angela Gallego-Sala & Dr. Julie Loisel, was originally published on the Carbon Brief website on Dec 21, 2020. It is reposted below in its entirety. Click here to access the original article and comments. Peatlands Peatlands are ecosystems unlike any other. Perpetually saturated, their ...
The assault on the US Capitol and constitutional crisis that it has caused was telegraphed, predictable and yet unexpected and confusing. There are several subplots involved: whether the occupation of the Michigan State House in May was a trial run for the attacks on Congress; whether people involved in the ...
On Christmas Eve, child number 1 spotted a crack in a window. It’s a double-glazed window, and inspection showed that the small, horizontal crack was in the outermost pane. It was perpendicular to the frame, about three-quarters of the way up one side. The origins are a mystery. It MIGHT ...
Anne-Marie Broudehoux, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Will the COVID-19 pandemic prompt a shift to healthier cities that focus on wellness rather than functional and economic concerns? This is a hypothesis that seems to be supported by several researchers around the world. In many ways, containment and physical distancing ...
Does the US need to strike a grand bargain with like-minded countries to pool their efforts? What does this tell us about today’s global politics? Perhaps the most remarkable editorial of last year was the cover leader of the London Economist on 19 November 2020. Shortly after Joe Biden was ...
Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato and Valmaine Toki, University of WaikatoAotearoa New Zealand likes to think it punches above its weight internationally, but there is one area where we are conspicuously falling behind — the number of sites recognised by the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Globally, there are 1,121 ...
An event organised by the Auckland PhilippinesSolidarity group Have a three-course lunch at Nanam Eatery with us! Help support the organic farming of our Lumad communities through the Mindanao Community School Agricultural Foundation. Each ticket is $50. Food will be served on shared plates. To purchase, please email phsolidarity@gmail.com or ...
"Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here." Prisons are places of unceasing emotional and physical violence, unrelieved despair and unforgivable human waste.IT WAS NATIONAL’S Bill English who accurately described New Zealand’s prisons as “fiscal and moral failures”. On the same subject, Labour’s Dr Martyn Findlay memorably suggested that no prison ...
This is a re-post from Inside Climate News by Ilana Cohen. Inside Climate News is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. Whether or not people accept the science on Covid-19 and climate change, both global crises will have lasting impacts on health and ...
. . American Burlesque As I write this (Wednesday evening, 6 January), the US Presidential election is all but resolved, confirming Joe Biden as the next President of the (Dis-)United State of America. Trump’s turbulent political career has lasted just four years – one of the few single-term US presidents ...
The session started off so well. Annalax – suitably chastised – spent a pleasant morning with his new girlfriend (he would say paramour, of course, but for our purposes, girlfriend is easier*). He told her about Waking World Drow, and their worship of Her Ladyship. And he started ...
In a recent column I wrote for local newspapers, I ventured to suggest that Donald Trump – in addition to being a liar and a cheat, and sexist and racist – was a fascist in the making and would probably try, if he were to lose the election, to defy ...
When I was preparing for my School C English exam I knew I needed some quotes to splash through my essays. But remembering lines was never my strong point, so I tended to look for the low-hanging fruit. We’d studied Shakespeare’s King Lear that year and perhaps the lowest hanging ...
When I went to bed last night, I was expecting today to be eventful. A lot of pouting in Congress as last-ditch Trumpers staged bad-faith "objections" to a democratic election, maybe some rioting on the streets of Washington DC from angry Trump supporters. But I wasn't expecting anything like an ...
Melted ice of the past answers question today? Kate Ashley and a large crew of coauthors wind back the clock to look at Antarctic sea ice behavior in times gone by, in Mid-Holocene Antarctic sea-ice increase driven by marine ice sheet retreat. For armchair scientists following the Antarctic sea ice situation, something jumps out in ...
Christina SzalinskiWhen Martha Field became pregnant in 2005, a singular fear weighed on her mind. Not long before, as a Cornell University graduate student researching how genes and nutrients interact to cause disease, she had seen images of unborn mouse pups smaller than her pinkie nail, some with ...
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidates for President and Vice President respectively for the US 2020 Election, may have dispensed with the erstwhile nemesis, Trump the candidate – but there are numerous critical openings through which much, much worse many out there may yet see fit to ...
I don’t know Taupō well. Even though I stop off there from time to time, I’m always on the way to somewhere else. Usually Taupō means making a hot water puddle in the gritty sand followed by a swim in the lake, noticing with bemusement and resignation the traffic, the ...
Frances Williams, King’s College LondonFor most people, infection with SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – leads to mild, short-term symptoms, acute respiratory illness, or possibly no symptoms at all. But some people have long-lasting symptoms after their infection – this has been dubbed “long COVID”. Scientists are ...
Last night, a British court ruled that Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the US. Unfortunately, its not because all he is "guilty" of is journalism, or because the offence the US wants to charge him with - espionage - is of an inherently political nature; instead the judge accepted ...
Is the Gender Identity Movement a movement for human liberation, or is it a regressive movement which undermines women’s liberation and promotes sexist stereotypes? Should biological males be allowed to play in women’s sport, use women-only spaces (public toilets, changing rooms, other facilities), be able to have access to everything ...
Ian Whittaker, Nottingham Trent University and Gareth Dorrian, University of BirminghamSpace exploration achieved several notable firsts in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, including commercial human spaceflight and returning samples of an asteroid to Earth. The coming year is shaping up to be just as interesting. Here are some of ...
Michael Head, University of SouthamptonThe UK has become the first country to authorise the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for public use, with roll-out to start in the first week of 2021. This vaccine is the second to be authorised in the UK – following the Pfizer vaccine. The British government ...
So, Boris Johnson has been footering about in hospitals again. We should be grateful, perhaps, that on this occasion the Clown-in-Chief is only (probably) getting in the way and causing distractions, rather than taking up a bed, vital equipment and resources and adding more strain and danger to exhausted staff.Look at ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... SkS in the News... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Many Scientists Now Say Global Warming Could Stop Relatively Quickly After Emissions Go to ZeroThat’s one of several recent ...
The situation in the UK is looking catastrophic.Cases: over *70,000* people who were tested in England on 29th December tested positive. This is *not* because there were more tests on that day. It *is* 4 days after Christmas though, around when people who caught Covid on Christmas Day might start ...
by Don Franks For five days over New Year weekend, sixteen prisoners in the archaic pre WW1 block of Waikeria Prison defied authorities by setting fires and occupying the building’s roof. They eventually agreed to surrender after intervention from Maori party co-leader Rawiri Waititi. A message from the protesting men had stated: ...
Lost Opportunity: The powerful political metaphor of the Maori Party leading the despised and marginalised from danger to safety, is one Labour could have pre-empted by taking the uprising at Waikeria Prison much more seriously. AS WORD OF Rawiri Waititi’s successful intervention in the Waikeria Prison stand-off spreads, the Maori ...
Dear friends, it’s been a covidious year,A testing time for all of us here—Citizens of an island nationIn a state of managed isolation,A team (someone said) five million strong,Making it up as we went along:Somehow in typical Kiwi fashion,Without any wild excess ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Dec 27, 2020 through Sat, Jan 2, 2021Editor's Choice7 Graphics That Show Why the Arctic Is in Trouble Arctic Sea Ice: NSIDC It’s no secret that the Arctic is ...
One of the books I read in 2020 was She, by H. Rider Haggard (1887). I thoroughly enjoyed it, as being an exemplar of a good old-fashioned adventure story. I also noted with amusement ...
Scottish doctor Malcolm Kendrick looks at the pandemic and the responses to it 30th December 2020 I have not written much about COVID19 recently. What can be said? In my opinion the world has simply gone bonkers. The best description can be found in Dante’s Inferno, written many hundreds of ...
As we welcome in the new year, our focus is on continuing to keep New Zealanders safe and moving forward with our economic recovery. There’s a lot to get on with, but before we say a final goodbye to 2020, here’s a quick look back at some of the milestones ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan. “The Battle at Te Ruapekapeka Pā, which took ...
Babies born with tongue-tie will be assessed and treated consistently under new guidelines released by the Ministry of Health, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Around 5% to 10% of babies are born with a tongue-tie, or ankyloglossia, in New Zealand each year. At least half can ...
The prisoner disorder event at Waikeria Prison is over, with all remaining prisoners now safely and securely detained, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says. The majority of those involved in the event are members of the Mongols and Comancheros. Five of the men are deportees from Australia, with three subject to ...
Travellers from the United Kingdom or the United States bound for New Zealand will be required to get a negative test result for COVID-19 before departing, and work is underway to extend the requirement to other long haul flights to New Zealand, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today. “The new PCR test requirement, foreshadowed last ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has added her warm congratulations to the New Zealanders recognised for their contributions to their communities and the country in the New Year 2021 Honours List. “The past year has been one that few of us could have imagined. In spite of all the things that ...
Attorney-General and Minister for the Environment David Parker has congratulated two retired judges who have had their contributions to the country and their communities recognised in the New Year 2021 Honours list. The Hon Tony Randerson QC has been appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the New Year’s Honours List 2021 highlights again the outstanding contribution made by Pacific people across Aotearoa. “We are acknowledging the work of 13 Pacific leaders in the New Year’s Honours, representing a number of sectors including health, education, community, sports, the ...
The Government’s investment in digital literacy training for seniors has led to more than 250 people participating so far, helping them stay connected. “COVID-19 has meant older New Zealanders are showing more interest in learning how to use technology like Zoom and Skype so they can to keep in touch ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tuffley, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & CyberSecurity, Griffith University It could be argued artificial intelligence (AI) is already the indispensable tool of the 21st century. From helping doctors diagnose and treat patients to rapidly advancing new drug discoveries, it’s our ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Kenny, Professor, Australian Studies Institute, Australian National University Through recent natural disasters, global upheavals and a pandemic, Australia’s political centre has largely held. Australians may have disagreed at times, but they have also kept faith with governmental norms, eschewing the false ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Holly Seale, Associate professor, UNSW Health workers are at higher risk of COVID infection and illness. They can also act as extremely efficient transmitters of viruses to others in medical and aged care facilities. That’s why health workers have been prioritised to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jim Orchard, Adjunct Lecturer, Monash University Last week, somewhat overshadowed by the events in Washington, the Democrats took control of the US Senate. The Democrats now hold a small majority in both the House and the Senate until 2022, giving President-elect Joe ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mittul Vahanvati, Lecturer, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University Heatwaves, floods, bushfires: disaster season is upon us again. We can’t prevent hazards or climate change-related extreme weather events but we can prepare for them — not just as individuals ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mandie Shean, Lecturer, School of Education, Edith Cowan University Starting school is an important event for children and a positive experience can set the tone for the rest of their school experience. Some children are excited to attend school for the first ...
Some families in emergency housing are reporting their children are becoming emotionally distressed because of their living conditions. Demand for emergency accommodation has escalated this past year with the number of emergency housing grants increasing by half. Data showed nearly 10,000 people were given an Emergency Housing Special Needs Grant between ...
Summer reissue: Michèle A’Court, Alex Casey and Leonie Hayden are back for a second season of On the Rag, and where better to start than with the mysterious, exhausting world of wellness?First published June 23, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is ...
With few Covid-19 infections and negiligible natural immunity, New Zealand faces being a victim of its own success when it is left till last to get the vaccines, argues Dr Parmjeet Parmar. ...
Steve Braunias reports on a literary cancelling. The Corrections department has refused to allow Jared Savage's best-selling book Gangland inside prison on the grounds that it "promotes violence and drug use". An inmate at Otago Corrections Facility in Dunedin was sent a copy of the book – but it was ...
New data from the CTU’s annual work life survey shows a snapshot of working people’s experiences and outlook heading out of 2020 and into the new year. Concerningly 42% of respondents cite workplace bullying as an issue in their workplace - a number ...
An international player, selector and self-confessed cricket stats nerd, Penny Kinsella has now played a hand in recording the rich history of the women's game in New Zealand. Penny Kinsella’s cricketing career was perched on the cusp of change for the White Ferns. “My first tour to Australia, we ...
The dramatic capsize of American Magic brought out the best in the America's Cup sailing fraternity. But, Suzanne McFadden asks, what does it mean to the crippled New York Yacht Club campaign and to the Prada Cup? It was a scene as unreal as it was calamitous. Right at the moment the ...
The current number of members of parliament is starting to get too low for the job we expect them to do, argues Alex Braae. As a general rule, with the possible exception of their families, nobody likes backbench MPs. But it’s nevertheless time we accepted that parliament should have more of ...
The experience in the Brazilian city of Manaus reveals how mistaken, and dangerous, the herd-immunity-by-infection theory really is. As families around the world mourn more than two million people dead from Covid-19, the Plan B academics and their PR industry collaborator continue to argue that the New Zealand government should stop ...
As New Zealand gears up to fight climate change, experts warn that we need to actually reduce emissions, not just plant trees to offset our greenhouse gases. ...
A nationwide poll has found majority support for the government to continue to closely monitor abortions in New Zealand and the reasons for it, despite the Ministry of Health recently suggesting that there is not a use for collecting much of this information. ...
The out-of-control growth in gangs, gun crime, and violent gang activity is exposing our communities to dangerous levels of violence that will inevitably end in tragedy, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. “The recent incidents of people being shot and ...
Successive governments have paid lip service to our productivity challenge but have failed to deliver. It's time to establish a Productivity Council charged with prioritising efforts. ...
Understanding the connection between chronic fatigue syndrome and ‘long Covid’ might be helpful in treating symptoms that doctors will find all too easy to dismiss.When people began to report signs of “long Covid”, characterised by a lack of full recovery from the virus and debilitating fatigue, I recognised their stories. ...
Nadine Anne Hura, who never considered herself an artist, reflects on what art and making has taught her.I couldn’t clean or cook or wash the clothes, but I could sew. That’s a lie, I’m a terrible sewer, but I left work early to fossick around in the $1 bin of ...
Summer reissue: In the final episode of this season of Bad News, Alice is joined by Billy T award winner Kura Forrester to look at how well we’re honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 2020.First published September 3, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The ...
Lucy Revill’s The Residents is a blog about daily life in Wellington that has morphed into a stylish, low-key coffee-table book featuring interviews and photographic portraits of 38 Wellingtonians. In this extract, Revill profiles Eboni Waitere, owner and executive director of Huia Publishers. The Residents features names like Monique Fiso ...
Pacific Media Watch correspondent The pro-independence conflict in West Papua with a missionary plane reportedly being shot down at Intan Jaya has stirred contrasting responses from the TNI/POLRI state sources, church leaders and an independence leader. A shooting caused a plane to catch fire on 6 January 2021 in the ...
“Last year ACT warned that rewarding protestors at Ihumātao with taxpayer money would promote further squatting. We just didn’t think it would happen as quickly as it is in Shelly Bay” says ACT Leader David Seymour. “The prosperity of all ...
Our kindly PM registered her return to work as leader of the nation with yet another statement on the Beehive website, the second in two days (following her appointment of Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council on Wednesday). It’s great to know we don’t have to check with ...
A Pūhoi pub is refusing to remove a piece of memorabilia bearing the n-word from its walls. Dr Lachy Paterson looks at the history of the word here, and New Zealand’s complicity in Britain’s shameful slave trading past.Content warning: This article contains racist language and images.On a pub wall in ...
Supermarket shoppers looking for citrus are seeing a sour trend at the moment – some stores are entirely tapped out of lemons. But why? Batches of homemade lemonade will be taking a hit this summer, with life not giving New Zealand shoppers lemons. Prices are high at supermarkets and grocers that ...
You’re born either a cheery soul or a gloomy one, reckons Linda Burgess – but what happens when gene pools from opposite ends of the spectrum collide?In our shoeboxes of photos that we have to sort out before we die or get demented – because who IS that kid on ...
Summer reissue: Prisoner voting rights are something that few in government seem particularly motivated to do anything about. Could a catchy charity single help draw attention to the issue?First published September 1, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is funded by its ...
Hundreds more Cook Islanders are expected to begin criss-crossing the Pacific, Air NZ will triple the number of flights to Rarotonga next week, and about 300 managed isolation places will be freed up for Kiwis returning from other parts of the world. When Thomas Tarurongo Wynne took a job in Wellington at ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Ena Manuireva in Auckland It seems a long time ago – some 124 days – since Mā’ohi Nui deplored its first covid-19 related deaths of an elderly woman on 11 September 2020 followed by her husband just hours later, both over the age of 80. The local ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Turnbull, Postdoctoral research associate, UNSW A global coalition of more than 50 countries have this week pledged to protect over 30% of the planet’s lands and seas by the end of this decade. Their reasoning is clear: we need greater protection ...
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Gun owners a voting bloc? https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/427557/gun-owners-advised-not-to-vote-labour-greens-nz-first
Editorial cartoonist who was a journo in Australia is not amused by Act’s antics.
Interesting question, whether there's an NRA backdoor to ACT. But maybe the NRA's current troubles are severe enough they haven't the time, money, or energy for that kind of fuckery.
Might be support from other US orgs backed by Koch money etc?
We've got a big enough firearms industry in New Zealand to play silly buggers without needing overseas help, most of it in one operator.
Someone a few months ago also mentioned that NZ's post-massacre buyback scheme had left many owners flush and motivated to contribute.
One thing the buy back has done is to point out who the nut cases are to the sane and responsible firearm owners. There's quite a stark division there now and the nutters aren't really listened to. And oddly, most of the 'Fuck 1080" bumper stickers and banners have disappeared. Often the same people.
Yep – Over $100 Millions paid out to firearms owners …. if just 1% of that heads in ACT's direction that is a quite large war chest ………
Unintended Consequences.
Who knows what the other $99 Millions has been spent on?
From my small circle who surrendered their semi autos, it was the purchase, or deposit on something much better, and more appropriate for the sort of hunting they do. In all cases no regrets and are wondering why / how they came to buy the semi autos in the first place.
Also know someone who qualifies, and is going down the path of being able to legitimately own them.
dont forget act have form for this behaviour. three strikes prison was pushed by senseless sentencing trust, with david garret as bagman.
I am struggling to find and policy regarding immigration, there has been a lot of noise regarding shortfalls in our workforce. Last election we were told of a reduction in immigration by all. Yet we achieved records growth.80,000 pa net inflows. Or for both National and Labour will it be open our boarders to all and sundry and then fix any resulting problems?
https://www.labour.org.nz/policy
It would be nice to see them just enforcing the law we have.
Fruit pickers, liquor store checkout operators, or dairy shedhands are not and never have been skilled, and as such never have qualifed for working visas.
And, the statutory declaration "I could not find any suitable New Zealanders for the position" needs to be challenged in such instances. Most employers seeking these kinds of staff have perjured themselves, and should be prosecuted for it.
This systematic lawbreaking, often beginning under National, but shamelessly continued under Labour, is a major contributor to entrenched poverty and poor employment practices in NZ.
My suggestion – no industry can import any labour unless they can't get staff with reasonable working conditions on offer and $35/hr pay. And pay /conditions on offer (including to imported labour) must remain at this level or better the entire time imported labour is used.
Often NZ industries suffer from a wages shortage, not a labour shortage.
RSE essentially tightened up immigration controls in the horticulture industry as it reduced significantly the use of illegal labour and all the associated problems that went with that – people not returning home, orchardists undercutting each other, no PAYE paid to IRD. It also became part of the aid package to the Pacific.
To some extent John Key opened up the rorting again with allowing students to work full-time while in NZ – English language schools that were fronts for residence and seasonal work.
Orchard rorts still continue but much reduced from twenty years ago e.g. the slavery case over in Hawkes Bay. Who was the orchardist in the media reports paying him in bags of cash for the last 10 years? Why isn't their name public?
There is a mis-match between where the supply is and where the work is and sharp peaks. In apples the peak is in picking, in kiwifruit in packing. One is definitely more attractive than the other hence when COVID hit many people jumped to the packhouses.
We also need to be careful about talking about labour supply that we are not being racist in demanding people work there. NZ Europeans have left the picking of fruit for other better paid, less physically difficult work for years and increasingly those left to pick have been Maori and PI. One hopes that Maori aspire to do more than pick fruit and if we are going to pressure New Zealanders to do this work that that pressure isn't just applied to Maori and PI.
If you think RSE tightened up controls it seems that you are mistaken. Segregated accommodation for married couples, harsh lessons in 'not bucking the boss', denied access to migration based on race and background – these are the epiphenomena of a deeply flawed system.
It was definitely worse before that. I never said it fixed all the problems in the industry.
Like a lot of the neo-liberal reforms over time the "good employers" got driven out as they couldn't compete with the crappy ones who paid low wages.
It did get rid of lots of dodgy contractors for instance.
It's like the government sublet their morality to Treasury. If you only look at the numbers it doesn't matter who picks or prunes, but in terms of the local economy RSE workers don't have much of a spending profile – their portion of GDP is a loss, and Treasury should count it as such – then they might not be quite so keen on end runs around labour laws.
I'm sure at the time Treasury were more concerned with people coming from overseas, setting themselves up as contractors, then disappearing with all the PAYE and student loan money.
In this day and age I still don't get why the employer can't be required to simply pay it to IRD each payday – it's not their money – it's the employees.
That would save hundreds of millions each year in crook employers. My wife went through years of hassle because her employer didn't make the payments deducted out of her pay. Just as well she kept her payslips.
So we're left with a structure an accountant would call a C minus, and a citizen an F. And exercising structural prejudice against hiring New Zealanders – it should be utterly destroyed.
Meanwhile, governments express concern about declining regional economies – as if they hadn't just pulled out much of the cashflow.
Aye things like the benefit cuts have cost regions hundreds of millions over the years as has the centralisation of public services to main centres.
Part of the result of economics as practised in NZ is that if a company can't get the workers then it must be uneconomical and closes down. Its not supposed to go whinging to the government for assistance and get an effective subsidy..
NO.
If you had been keeping up with campaign news you would know that both major parties (Labour definitely and I'm sure I heard Collins say something similar) have indicated they are not planning to use immigration as an election issue because there is too much uncertainty around Covid 19 and its aftermath – words to that effect.
Wise and sensible while our borders are largely closed. In the meantime, I expect the ‘experts’ are quietly modelling new laws on future immigration policy for the next government to consider as we speak.
Whether it will be sufficient to solve some of the current problems remains to be seen.
Concise article by a Massey academic and parent on the discrepancy between ACC and our other health and income support options. https://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/opinion/300123342/the-accident-compensation-corporation-a-neoliberal-fairy-tale
I have no problem with illness being extended to a higher rate and treated like ACC but we could do this in several ways:
1. Have an illness levy like an ACC levy
2. Increase benefits at least to the NZS rate like they used to be
3. Properly fund the health system
Replicating he ACC model for illness might not be the right solution.
Be interested in who you think should pay the levies – employer, worker – what about non-workers? What happens when ACC boot you off for illness if we no longer have a sickness benefit?
ACC needs to be done away with. It was good when it was first put in place but has been truly broken with the neo-liberal tweaks that its suffered under.
Simple fact of the matter is that health should be free no matter how you ended up in the system.
Then there needs to be a base benefit that's enough to live on with needs based increases.
Put more people through training as medical professionals, build more hospitals and clinics around the country and pay them well.
And, yes, we can afford it as government spending actually boosts the rest of the economy. Need to stop subsidising uneconomic businesses though.
I feel for the whanau who have lost everything in the McKenzie Basin fires. Big ups to the firefighters and helicopter pilots.
But what the fuck are we doing farming in that area in the first place. Dry tussock hill country is not suitable for arable farming. Unless heavily watered, which it is.
As an area of unbelievable natural beauty it should be left that way.
We sure know how to fuck up a landscape.
I'm not disagreeing with you. Fly over that basin really brings home the lunacy of dairy farming in the basin.
RNZ this morning, a farmer said the problem was the land around his farm had been 'locked away' and this 'was just waiting to happen'. Not a lot of thought in that comment.
I'd be quite interested in how the fire started.
Thus it is, the divide between developers and environmentalists will always endure
Early report were that it had started from power lines arcing in the wind. The local lines company is frantically trying to hose that down because then it's on the lines company's insurance.
Fires from arcing powerlines are very common in Waitaki / Central Otago. Central in particular is afflicted by a notoriously tight arsed lines company and the lines aren't maintained properly, stretch in the wind and then start arcing. I've caught one that happened right in front of me driving down the road, fortunately the wind was blowing the right way and a couple of other people turned up and we got it out, could have been very different very easily. And there was nothing 'ungrazed' about this one, but a lot of rural residential carved off to keep the farmers afloat, and a lot of wilding conifers, because 'they look nice' and cost the land owners to control.
How much of this is about inappropriate land management where power lines run?
There's certainly land management issues, but they go both ways. The confrontational attitude that lines companies take in managing vegetation, and the resulting minimalist, or non holistic, pruning that results doesn't help. The way the legislation works the land owner ens up with a minimal trim to the regulated limits, but no assistance, in either labour or planning, to manage the vegetation long term.
Then there's lines that shouldn't be where they are, or are that poorly engineered or managed that arcing and fires are inevitable. A lot of the networks have grown in an ad hoc way with each extension done to the minimum extent in the cheapest way. So you end up with something that wanders all over the place and is quite different to what you'd have if it was rebuilt from scratch. Long established rural areas with multiple phases of rural residential subdivision are terrible for this, above and below ground. Lines and cables everywhere, often not recorded properly or at all.
The defensive attitude of the lines company here has me wondering if the situation in Ohau wasn't that different to the network around here.
There will certainly be some of that but power lines should be run underground by now which is the other part of the problem. Everyone in the industry knows that overhead power-lines are dangerous but its expensive to put them underground.
"tight arsed lines company" is part of our dysfunctional power industry by design.
The annual rebate on consumer bills is a political tool of the lines trusts club members. Max Bradfords regionally based gravy train for the old power boards.
Network strengthening and resilience likely sit back in the queue as they can always blame the weather, which they mostly do.
The otago one is a slightly different issue – the city council that owns it dragged out dividends that really should have been spent on lines maintenance, and then they got pinged by a whistleblower when the power poles 30 years past their replacement date started falling over.
Sounds exactly like the others McFlock, all a question of priorities as dividends/rebates on accounts etc should come after all the maintenance is up to scratch.
If you looked at the wooden pole issue across NZ lines companies you'd likely find 'consistency' in this approach with Mother Nature now driving the work reactively.
fair enough. Wasn't sure about the "lines trusts". I'm often a bit hazy on precisely the way the world is fucked up, but I know a good stink when I smell it, lol
Part of the council's thing was to stop central government glomming the whole asset (as they did with Rangiora High School's properties) – so they created a nicely indebted structure to make it unpalatable – good accounting, but they needed a couple of engineers on board to explain infrastructure lifetimes.
This would be the same council that fire-sold the generator pre-reforms.
But the main reason it needed the dividends was the fecking stadium.
Goes back a bit before that – but the stadium was certainly a fine model of the third world infrastructure project that needlessly indebts citizens. If not for the Christchurch earthquakes it would have lost even more money. Just have to hope their harbourside monstrosity doesn't go through.
That denunciation of Proud Boys that was just too hard for the Fourth Dorkman of the Apocalypse to get out? It might be forthcoming now …
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/10/4/1983433/-Gay-men-overwhelm-Twitter-taking-back-ProudBoys-and-it-is-glorious
Or not, since it seems they might be doing a Weekend at Bernie's with him:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12370238
Those gay men trumped the Proud Boys elegantly!
That Twitter feed is such an uplifting moment for the start of the week.
Trump's in hospital, and so's Farrar!
It just got beyond weird (hand-clasped, be-pewed Collin's was freaky enough – now this startling coincidence – OR IS IT???)
You mean Covid can spread by morphic resonance? Now we're really in trouble!
Just to make it a bit weirder…. maureen pugh wasn't at Meet the Candidates in Golden Bay during the weekend.
She has a cold and as a result is self isolating just in case of Covid.
Toby Manhire makes the case for why it might happen: https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/05-10-2020/how-judith-collins-and-national-win-the-2020-election/
Bit of a stretch, right? His reasoning is weakest when he doesn't explain what would shift centrists away from Labour now. The fact that the Nat leader isn't courting them – is trying to herd neanderthals instead – is a tacit admission of defeat, I reckon.
But the best bit is his screenshot from ONE News of the TVNZ political editor modelling the 1950s housewife style. Frump, with flowers on. My daughter has been telling me for years that retro styles are huge in younger generations, but I hadn't realised things have gotten that bad.
Aren't comments about someone's attire just channelling your inner Judith? Or worse, your inner Bowron, musty with talcum. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/122961639/policy-on-the-hoof-reflected-in-hooves
Normal commentary style here. Trump's orange hair continued to feature persistently long after he blonded it several years ago. When in Rome, do as the Romans do…
Perhaps you are just showing your age.
the difference is that the president of the US isn't a class subjected to oppression. Women are routinely subjected to put downs, body shaming, ageism, classism and so on on the basis of their sex class, and additionally that plays into other real world effects of institutional sexism. If we devalue frumpy old women we don't have to pay them as much.
The young and 1950's retro … possibly derived from the United States of Tara, that or Mad Men or channelling dead grandparents before their children (it's a form of rebellion).
As for Tara, Gone with the Wind and Trump's hair, its less a change in colouring as looking different when sprayed on a ligher base, graying hair.
Old Spice and Brylcreem?
Eu de RSA.
how is ageism a good response to sexism?
Standards change over time. Overconfident old men are not a class subjected to oppression.
what's the relevance of old? Are you saying that returned servicemen are overconfident as a class?
Saying that Dennis deserves to be mocked because he's not part of a class subjected to oppression fails in at least two ways.
1. old people are a class subjected to oppression
2. if we say it's ok to mock some people on the basis of age as a class, then why not some people on the basis of body shape/size, or sex and so on?
You seem to be getting caught up in detail here and confusing commentary for 'mocking'. What is acceptable discourse is a function of time, so our ages are relevant. The smell of Old Spice and Brylcreem reminds me of RSAs on rare visits as a kid. May not mean much to younger readers. Maybe more to older ones than me?
In this particular case, for years Jessica Mutch's hips were kept out of shot on screen, probably to avoid the sort of erudite rejoinders we saw upthread.
Can we all agree that the least interesting thing about the story cited is what she wore, then move on with our days?
yes, way too much outrage. I realise that is default setting for many on here, but is bloody tiresome!
if you weren't mocking, I definitely misunderstood. It appears Incog was though.
Yup
Sacha Old Spice is still on sale at supermarkets. The makers have found that the OTT scents of modern product don't appeal as much to the sense of the olders. As you say let's keep on with the main story, and not be deflected to run after the smell of red herrings.
Sometimes a flashback is just that.
Dennis is in and of a class of his own and mocking him could be called Dennism 😉
The term is Denisovan.
Definitely, a dying
breedclass.Oh come on weka. Don't be so uptight. Let us make rude remarks about each other sometimes. As long as it is give and take. Fr'instance men calling each other 'old bastard' doesn't mean they don't like each other or are calling their mothers' out.
I think you have been indoctrinated by some university course, or prolonged reflection and navel gazing one – similar to those I have attended myself, but have shed some of the strictures! I realise to many they are sacred, and everything that is said in them must be written in stone, and objectors bashed on the head with it. Feel free. But please can I be only attacked by one person, not a gang.
For me, weka was and is not the issue that sparked this thread and we seem to be getting off tangent.
Get back to me when you can take class analysis into your account.
😀
Brut and Blue Stratos? Hehehe
4711, because I’m good with numbers and because I’m worth it.
Now you are talking 🙂 🙂
You know that you are intellectually overreaching when you use labels to generalise ordinary decent citizens as Neanderthals, which is not even stereotypically accurate, don’t you?
You also know that JC is fighting a rear-guard battle to stem imminent losses of MPs without any medium-term vision or strategy, don’t you?
And you should also know that it is the camera angle and studio lighting that might make that dress look less flattering, yes?
Toby Manhire is right. If the Greens fall below 5% Judith may well be PM.
Auckland Central Labour voters should split their vote, giving Chloe Swarbrick the candidate vote and Labour the party vote. This will ensure the Green vote is not wasted so that they can join Labour in coalition.
In other constituencies a party vote for the Greens is a vote for a more progressive Jacinda government.
For the Greens to drop below 5% would require its previous voters switching to Labour or staying home. The latter seems unlikely this year. The former counters any fantasies about a Judith victory celebration.
Yes the ‘paths to victory’ theorised by Manhire and others require major shifts between blocs, not just between parties. It requires National’s vote to rise significantly to c 40% without taking any of those votes off Act, and for the Greens to dip under 5% without those votes going to Labour.
Wrong Uncle-read the article again.
His figures propose Nats 37.5% and Act 8%. The latter is the highest Act have been in any poll in the last few years. I don’t see they’d stay there if Nats climb over the 28-33% they’ve been in recent polls.
Sacha-Imagine waking up on Oct 18 to PM Crusher per the Toby Manhire article.
How would you feel?
In that case, I’d wait until 6 Nov and pray like hell

Go the special votes, usually the nat's lose a seat and the Greens gain one.
Not going to happen. Sleep easy.
Or enough extra voters coming out in force without voting for the Greens that they drop below 5% (very unlikely, but thought I'd mention the slight possibility).
Powerful forces are at work. JC prays to God and even Sir John is back in the house as if he never left. Fortunately, ponytails are relatively safe due to social distancing rules.
Anecdotal stuff here, but I heard the voting places around Otago university are pumping, apparently the referendum is getting a lot of young ppl voting, could be interesting if it really is a trend.
You think it is due to just the one referendum? Even that would be good news!
I think younger people have many reasons as to why they should engage and vote but apathy has ruled for years and not just voter apathy.
Yes many people who have never voted are coming out to vote for the first time in years or ever for weed.
I keep getting asked by people if they can leave their party and candidate vote blank and just vote for the referendum (I think that's a an incomplete ballot? Though should be an option) so I expect much of that to go to the greens and top and there will be a bunch of people who just vote for some random parties with no chance (like TOP or legalize marijuana or even soc cred) still if it gets weed passed, good.
When they first suggested holding two referendums at the General Election I thought it could be too much, overloading people, and putting them off voting altogether. I’ll be gladly proven wrong 🙂
I suspect one of the reasons turnout is so low in the US is it's such a pain. Most places you're voting for an order of magnitude more candidates than even Auckland local government. Feels like everybody is on the ballot down to third assistant dog-catcher.
If it's paper ballots, it's a stack like a magazine, or in Pennsylvania the voting booth had a machine with more levers to turn than a nuclear power station control room.
So a mere four ticks to think about – dead easy.
Agreed, make it as simple as possible, which is necessary but not sufficient for high voter turnout. In other words, it is not good enough for people to have no excuse not to vote, but they have to have an actual reason to vote. Merely ticking boxes of a Candidate and a Party is barely enough, it seems, and for some it is not even enough. I hope my writing is improving because I know Morrissey is reading 😉
If comprehension is absent, is it still reading?
I’ll have to ask my cat because he’s an avid reader of my comments when he plops on my laptop while I’m trying to write well.
Give him a good rub behind the ears from me.
He says “purrrrr”.
Exactly.
This is called "democracy". Except the right, and opportunity to vote is being eroded day by day – State Law by State Law – county by county and district by district.
Not sure Corey, you get 3 separate pieces of paper for voting, one for election, and 2 for each referendum, I would think you can vote for all 3, or just one? I'm not sure of course but just the fact it's all separate I assumed that? For what it's worth I voted Green Party, Labour candidate, and Yes & Yes for referenda. Walked in, stated my name, and voted. So easy, we got a lot to be thankful for in this country.
Do I have to vote in both referendums and the General Election?
At this year's General Election, New Zealanders can vote in:
Eligible voters can choose to vote in all, some, or none of these.
https://www.referendums.govt.nz/faq.html
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-05-10-2020/#comment-1756758
yes, think the fact there are two important referendum along with general election, and covid fallout, will lead to a high voter turnout. usually not good news for conservative parties.
Who knows, maybe in a few years erudite experts on popular culture will explain how the pandemic lockdowns and loss of female employment exacerbated existing trends towards delivery of food then cooked and prepared for dinner parties. As women reclaimed the home as their dominion for meaningful work and identity.
All while men resumed dominance of life in the wider world in a way not seen since the Greeks first made up democracy and western civilisation.
Of course New Zealand under an Ardern government would have to be ostracised as a socialist outlier …
SPC What action oriented women wanted was choice. The ability to get out and do things in society, not be embedded at home and treated as a 'drawing' on the household budget, and remaining in men's minds at about the age of 18, just over the age of consent and no more.
Unfortunately the male-oriented capitalistic culture always willing to pick out religious strictures about where women belong in society chose to elevate male’s true interest, that of making money, over the building of a good and fair society of strong characters. Women's work is dismissed, child rearing also, socialisation and building character and skills also, and women are forced into level entry jobs that teenagers preparing for their work life should be able to access.
That is the background to the present situation of many women. They aren't better than men, but are certainly are worthy of a lot more respect and attention to their ideas and smarts than now happens. And they would like to be at home more and able to carry out their child-raising duties adequately. But most would not want to be stuck there, instead enabled to get part-time work with school holidays off while the children are young. Later to move further into the enterprise and trading society, not objects of charity or dependency for life.
Job sharing would work, but men would have to learn how to use Zoom (as well as a car) and multi-task if there were children about.
TBH the cat walking across my keyboard, wanting pats, rubbing up against the monitor, meowing loudly on calls and pinching my seat as soon as I get up are bigger problems than the children that frequent the house.
The dog at least just pokes his head in the door says "Oh you're still there" and wanders off again!
Right now, we have budgie sitting while family are off on a holiday annoying grandparents. I think that I’d prefer the squabbling kids.
Having the choice, I have retreated back to the workplace. In a 55 square metre apartment, I have decided that there isn’t really room for budgies.
The cat was ok – you just provide a unused laptop with its builtin heater and keyboard where they can supervise. Then use the 10 foot throw so they have to think about landing on their feet as entertainment when you have to remove them from place that are your spaces. They learn fast. Just not fast enough about motorway off-ramps – damnit.
I'm sure a quick ad in the very local suburb news will produce some children in exchange for the budgie.
Walks off whistling "you don't know how lucky you are……"
Yeah! You gotta watch those pussy cats!
https://media1.giphy.com/media/unQ3IJU2RG7DO/giphy.gif
SPC Job-sharing – perhaps. But women getting out into the wider world from the home and family is also good. Helps to enable full adult and social growth and understanding, (getting towards Maslow's ideas of self-realisation).
However to digress, I forecast that there will be more small family-owned businesses making small profits but being regularly in work, employing children etc – back to medieval approach. The march of the large corps(es) have and will continue to kill off many of our previous jobs.
The only way for society and community to survive is to practise circular trade with each other, so circulating money and enabling each other. This will provide the well-known multiplier effect, and build lively and busy towns, with lots of social contact, while big business tries to put spokes in everyone's wheels. The wealthy class and leaders might start taxing wheels as a good flat tax! The money-magnets will always be looking for ways to get their fingers in the pie. A tax on windows once, when glass was scarce.
https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195396584/obo-9780195396584-0236.xml
Family Life in the Middle Ages Jacqueline Murray
http://www.localhistories.org/middleageswomen.html
https://rosaliegilbert.com/employment.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_household#Rural
https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_workweek.html – Pre-industrial workers had a shorter workweek than today's
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26289459 – What medieval Europe did with its teenagers
google keywords for further info: – medieval women at work in family business
Once again Vernon Tava gets it wrong. Timed his run too late, then shot himself in the foot.
Poor Vernon. Obviously, the ad was not only misleading – it was designed to mislead! What part of authenticity doesn't he get? Every part.
Bruce, on being a leftist:
Is Bruce a covergence moon bat?
Doubt it. Normally comes across as sensible. I always get a sense that he inherited leftism from his working-class dad. See the song Factory, for instance.
End of the day, factory whistle cries
Men walk through these gates with death in their eyes
Bruce's never done a hard days manual labour work or been in a factory, he admits that as most think that's his past based on the music.
10 years of solid gigging with the East Street band are his dues prior to ‘fame’ he's simply one of the best songwriters about able to convey emotion in a tune.
"Normally comes across as sensible."
?????????
"Sensible"? Really? Then who's this singing out for Barack Obama in 2012? Not in the “hope and change” year of 2008, mind you, but after four years of signing off on drone killings (all of them illegal), shaking hands with and being lionized by human rights abusers, continuing the war against democratic governments in Central and South America, and persecuting and imprisoning U.S. and Australian journalists.
Folks who lead a busy life often don't keep up with politics, nor pay much other than scant attention to headline news stories. You tend to see black & white all the time. Others see shades of grey, some pale, some dark, some in between…
Folks who lead a busy life often don't keep up with politics, nor pay much other than scant attention to headline news stories.
Bruce Springsteen is certainly busy. Too busy to think or care about the implications of backing a war criminal. In fact, three war criminals in successive elections.
You tend to see black & white all the time.
Actually, as you will admit when you cool down, my thinking is a lot more sophisticated and subtle than that. But when it comes to people who order the killing of civilians, the destruction of democracy, and the persecution of journalists, yes, I do see such criminality in "black & white."
Others see shades of grey, some pale, some dark, some in between…
There's a way to finesse the killing of civilians and the undermining and/or destruction of democratic governments in Central and South America?
…
https://me.me/i/moonbat-wingnut-convergence-moonbats-wingnuts-lef-wingthe-circle-of-derright-wing-democrats-republicans-25749fa6303748b6a61f2b3d82440c20
Life mimics art:
How anyone can call America a democracy these days:
The Supreme Court will hear a case that could destroy what remains of the Voting Rights Act
Is Bruce [Springsteen] a covergence moon bat?
Almost certainly not.
Being fully on board with Biden is one strong indicator.
He was an unequivocal Hillary supporter in '16, instead of ranting about how Dems and Repugs are equally bad and Bernie wuz robbed and how he would vote for Stein or not at all.
AFAIK he's never suggested the likes of Tucker Carlson 'get it' or tried to smear movements such as BLM by calling them marxist or indulged in other white-supremacist-adjacent behaviour.
Nor has he ever shown any other behaviour associated with convergence moonbats, to my knowledge.
Being fully on board with Biden is one strong indicator.
He was an unequivocal Hillary supporter in '16….
AFAIK he's never suggested the likes of Tucker Carlson 'get it' or tried to smear movements such as BLM by calling them marxist or indulged in other white-supremacist-adjacent behaviour.
If he’s such a progressive and tolerant person, then why is he supporting Biden? And why was he an "unequivocal Hillary supporter" in 2016? Clinton?
Maybe The Boss is not familiar with your oeuvre, Mr Breen, the illiterate uncultured heathen he is.
You're probably right. I doubt he reads much at all.
You're probably right. I doubt he has much time at all, in between the writing. In any case, why read when you can write?
To write well, you have to read. That explains why, for instance, Jeffrey Archer is such an appalling writer. And Cameron "Whaleoil" Slater.
By that standard, you've apparently never read anything significant in your life.
Explains all the third rate attempts at stenography, tho.
…you've apparently never read anything significant in your life. Explains all the third rate attempts at stenography, tho.
Well that little effort was not as colorful as your ever-inventive cascade of abuse for the Orange Shit-Gibbon, or whatever witty putdown you're about to employ for the Fanta Fascist. Just as lame, however.
Keep trying, my friend. By the way, what's the state of progress in the search for that missing bit of evidence proving that Drumpf is a Russian puppet?
Not sure that applies to writing songs/music in the same way as, say, writing literature. Neither does storytelling rely on reading necessarily and many cultures, including Māori, of course, have a long and rich oral tradition in storytelling. I think living with open eyes and an open mind, observing, creating experiences, and meeting other people and travelling, for example, are probably more important for writing well than reading other people’s words.
Agreed! You're onto it, Mr Cognito!
Collins: 90-day trials give businesses confidence to hire 'different ethnicity'
Geez
When something pernicious is reframed by Judith as an employment scheme to give the 'dodgy' lot a chance..you know( you know that lot)…. then sack them.
" Collins said she backed 90-day trials.
"They give businesses confidence to give people a go, when … maybe there's something with that person – maybe there's something in their background, maybe they're not quite qualified enough, maybe they're not that experienced, maybe they don't know them that well.
Maybe they're a different ethnicity – you know, this is about actually giving people a chance "
So Judith thinks the employers of this country are all pretty much racist? Oh dear – these employers need state support to overcome their racism??
Someone should ask Michael Barnett or Phil O'Reilly a direct question about whether they agree with Judith Collins that small employers need 90 days to overcome their fear of employing someone of a different ethnicity.
I'd love to see them squirm in response……
Oh god she's horrible.
It's never ever occurred to her that the employer employee relationship should be reciprocal. An equal partnership.
'give people a go'
fuksake
Judith is loved by the base because she says the quiet bits out loud. Having to keep the quiet bits quiet feels like oppression, like being 'told what to think'. By saying it out loud Judith breaks the shackles of this 'oppression' and champions 'freedom of speech'. Undoubtedly God agrees, because he/she/it speaks through Judith.
" the quiet bit"
Instead of addressing underlying issues such as causes of people having 'backgrounds' , worker exploitation, non-livable wages or the sacking of workers for unseemly profit margins, it's Judith's innuendo (" the quiet bit" ) that it's okay that innate prejudice exists, that there is a boss with 'superior' knowledge and ethnicity …
Hey Judith while you're playing to the base secret supremacist, say it out loud…
Subjectively, One is only, you know, " a different ethnicity " when you Judith are looking in the mirror.
There'll be though that 1/10 grateful lepers out there for 90 days, dismissed on a whim, who's then on a WINZ stand down.
The Weekend at Bernie's similarities just keep coming. Now they've propped him up in a car to wheel him around for a few minutes in front of adoring Drumpfkins.
Come to think of it, how do we know it was really him? Could have been a crisis actor.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/04/politics/donald-trump-coronavirus-alternate-reality/index.html
Spitting Image?
Weekend at Bernies! – USA politics isn't that good is it? Hollywood must be after all the footage of this incumbent/recumbent it can get – or is that frottage?
Love it – that was such a good film. Can stand being watched every couple of years I think my time is due.
hired from the same agency that supplies nth korea with phony kims. be a hoot if they got sent to the wrong job!!!
Would anyone notice?
AAA batteries included?
They're both low-energy. So yeah, sure.
I prefer the wind-up models.
Inserting the key in the correct location is a bit ewww.
The older models only had one hole.
No! That's where they are shinning the powerful light right now.
So he's a North Korean asset as well as a Russian agent. Keep those conspiracy theories coming!
Keep shinning, you can't imagine how this production ends but it's bound to be a blast!
Don't get high on your own supply, dude.
Jokes aren't conspiracy theories, but conspiracy theories can be jokes…
That long-running Russiagate joke was not so funny. I note they haven't been pushing it with quite the brio they used to do before the Clintonistas' three and a half years of fantasizing was sunk in the most embarrassing manner possible.
https://theintercept.com/2019/04/18/robert-mueller-did-not-merely-reject-the-trumprussia-conspiracy-theories-he-obliterated-them/
Blinkers are funny things. So many people charged and convicted in such an innocent campaign…
Of course: the criminal Trump regime is full of criminals. Who claimed Trump and his gang were “innocent”?
But as Greenwald and other real journalists have pointed out, all the deranged shouting by Rachel Maddow and her imitators in the media and by the absurd Jerrold Nadler and his hapless cronies in Congress have produced no evidence of the mythical "Russian collusion."
That's not quite what Mueller's report said, even according to your link.
There's a lot of difference between "produced no evidence" and "did not find evidence likely to prove beyond reasonable doubt", for example.
The eleven counts of suspected obstruction of justice by POTUS might have helped there minimise evidence actually gathered.
Nope, he’s a Russian agent made in North Korea with Japanese components, trained by the Chinese, and running on Taiwanese batteries. This explains his poor spelling and random Tweets because of conflicts in the firmware. Please keep up.
Thanks Mr Cognito. I knew you'd explain it perfectly.
Here on TS we look after our most vulnerable commenters and transport them to MIQ when necessary.
Love you all and appreciate you going the extra mile for the likes of moi.
https://media1.tenor.com/images/2b6138c8abd50d00965e784d948a88df/tenor.gif?itemid=4733491
I see you’re having to dig deep into your GIF collection again. Time for a better hobby?
Is there a better one?
Yes, there is! But we will miss you.
Ouch! Ya got me, and ya got me good.
https://www.offset.com/photos/downcast-man-in-pea-coat-in-field-168528
Narcissist in Chief was desperate to go drivies so he could wave to his gawking cult followers and fuck the help.
A while ago the Secret Service actually looked like they were going to have staffing problems because of how many were getting covid. So maybe they're putting recovered agents around the Coronamoron-in Chief, and hoping like hell the immunity actually lasts.
https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200831/secret-service-faces-covid-19-concerns
Level 1
I looked at an old Punch and came across Edwina Currie – she was done on Spitting Image. This is a small break from The Election and the buskers involved – so out of tune many of them aren't they!
Currie came across as a lively speaker in Punch so I looked her up and here she is being interviewed in 2012. This gives an interesting example to compare with our women pollies or how they are presented anyway. Currie was in the Conservatives. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/edwina-currie
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j4D9iU4nac
Today's Spitting Image.
Here she is in full flow at the Oxford Union. Topic: We are not all feminists. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cSrX2FJ-Q8
The NZ covid song was pretty funny, up until they did the "island with small population" bullshit. Fuck that excuse is getting old. If our PM was a dickhead we'd have covid through the roof just like they do.
And to celebrate Jacinda bringing Auckland back down to Level 1, let's all sing along to the Spitting Image song
SuperKiwiSocialisticExtraGoodJacinda
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=12370354
Spitting Image fired their gun at a sensitive spot though. We are trying to stop people firing guns, not spot them. Bad people at spitting image, they don't know what's truly funny in the UK, their tastebuds have become coarsened with indulgence in jeremymandering, our rosebuds are still blooming, just.
Amazing. Who would have predicted that with the rugby in a post…….
This sounds intersting – something for those with election malaise to have a look at
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU2010/S00063/its-not-too-late-govt-can-save-marsden-point-by-partnering-on-a-just-transition.htm
Refining NZ have this morning confirmed that around 100 jobs will be cut as the first part of its Strategic Review concludes, but FIRST Union says that it isn’t too late to save more jobs, assets and infrastructure while transitioning to cleaner and greener operations if the Government are serious about a Just Transition for Marsden Point….
Poll today?
Where is the report on voting progress.?????
165,000 on Saturday and Sunday.
https://elections.nz/stats-and-research/2020-general-election-advance-voting-statistics/
Admirably concise.
My thoughts entirely!
Just this morning I was musing to myself on the hypocrisy of Trump being cared for by a team of doctors and nurses and contributing hardly a cent to the public expense of such care being lavished upon him. And, at the same time doing his utmost to deprive millions of his fellow Americans, even the bare minimum of the treatment that he was receiving.
It also astounds me that the woman he has nominated for the Supreme Court; having had the way to the position she currently holds, paved for her by the tenacity of RBG, should now be even considering pulling up the ladder which she has climbed. Much like Pulla Benefit did to the women of NZ.
Trump's care would be a "Around about @#0000000$$$$$" bargaining with an insurance claim!! not much in the way of State care.
No insurance involved. As Commander-in-Chief, the military medical system looks after his medical needs and wants. There's even the dedicated Presidential Suite at the local military hospital.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Reed_National_Military_Medical_Center#Presidential_facilities
This USA commentator was concerned about loss of USA civil liberties and democracy mid last century – Edmund Wilson.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Wilson#Cold_War
In his book The Cold War and the Income Tax: A Protest (1963), Wilson argued that as a result of competitive militarization against the Soviet Union, the civil liberties of Americans were being paradoxically infringed under the guise of defense from Communism. For those reasons, Wilson also opposed involvement in the Vietnam War. …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cold_War_and_the_Income_Tax
He's shocked and alarmed at the sums spent to fuel the arms race with the Soviet Union, and upset also at how enthusiastically his government pursues chemical, biological and nuclear weapons technology — what now gets lumped under the "Weapons of Mass Destruction" banner. He determines, finally, that:
And later: