Two questions. First, how much of Peter Leitch’s and that old trout Micelle Boags comments to Lara Bridger were simple, old fashioned class based snobbery? From Maori TV:
“…Lara Wharepapa Bridger, 23, says she was at a vineyard on Waiheke Island earlier this week with her mother. Leitch, famously known as The Mad Butcher, approached the group about not drinking and driving. He doubted that they were locals, which sparked Bridger to tell him she was born on the island. This promoted Leitch to make the comment – which he describes as light hearted banter but Bridger took as a racist taunt…”
Leitch doubted they were local because they were not white on a white mans island, and we all understand the nexus between race and class in New Zealand. Here was a rich white man, who noticed a brown woman inside his gate. He was nonplussed at her reply, did she not know how God had ordered their estate?
My second question is would pointing out the primacy of his snobbery, rather than falling back on the reflexive identity politics of race, been the better way of attacking a National party establishment figure like Leitch? Which would resonate better with Joe Sixpack?
2016 saw elite identity politics discredited as an elite scam. Time for the left to change tactics and the angle of attack, methinks.
What the hell are you blathering on about now? Let me guess, you are clinging to the wreckage of identity politics because that is your safe place?
I asked two questions, you addressed neither of them and then went off on a complete tangent.
BTW, I don’t want this discussion to be derailed by identity politics trolls. If it were, it would be the perfect ironic demonstration of what a cancer identity politics is to the left, but that is about all.
I did address your points, but your focus on your own agenda seems to have resulted in you missing my points. You seem to want to fit the incident into your own particular political agenda, which dismisses anything that doesn’t directly address class as the primary focus.
The incident clearly was about ‘race’ – and yes there maybe a class element in it, as I indicated by referring to the context as a recently gentrified island.
As you also say Sir Mad noticed her as a “brown woman”, possibly there was a gender element. Would a rich white guy be so willing to approach a group of brown men to make such statements?
The nexus of ‘race’, class and gender, doesn’t mean somehow class has primacy – that is fitting it into your own political agenda. It’s only your perception that (so-called) “identity politics” has been discredited as an elite scam. There seems to be a few guys around lately banging that drum – it doesn’t make it so generally.
You seem to be wanting to use the incident to attack Sir Mad for being rich. This is not the incident for that. ‘Race’ was at the front and centre of the incident.
I have had conversations with Māori people who talk about the deep pain felt by the dispossession of their land. It is something beyond the comprehension, or not even on the radar of many Pākehā. Consequently, it is so painful, many Māori find it difficult to talk about. It is totally insensitive to want to fit the incident into your own political agenda.
The core incident was a woman saying she was tangata whenua, and Sir Mad replying that it was a “white man’s island”.
Let’s not be consumed by this storm in a tea cup…. it’s playing right into the hands of our dimwit Media. This “off the cuff” stuff will always be with us. To put it mildly there are far greater issues around than this.
Light hearted banter…..taken out of context……misquoted….I misspoke (a shonky personal fav if caught out)…..etc etc
Easy work to dog whistle in this country and never get called on it when the MSM is chock full of sympathetic hacks and commentators like Boag, Henry, Hoskings, Trevitt, Watkins etc etc
Move on people and leave the racist snobs who inhabit the likes of waiheke, pauanui etc to their white world view.
Yeah, I am struck how the entire establishment is busy issuing statements to support Leitch – Boag, the Warriors, race relations commissioner, establishment media figures…
Amazing to see the establishment swing into action to protect its own. The toffs and their apologists are obvious when they take the velvet gloves off.
Nearly fell of my bar stool, What with boags mugshot and so called off the record comment actually mentioned in the herald –let alone splashed across the front page I’m wondering if maybe /just maybe .– Is the worm turning?
Sanctuary – it was an unthinking, ignorant comment to make on the part of Sir Mad Butcher which amounted to racism – not identity politics – and possibly prompted by his own self-importance as a rich white man – one of the many who have taken over Maori land and see that as an okay thing to do. Racism comes in many forms – even in so-called light-hearted banter. And Ms Awful Boag added to it. Hers is a shocking comment – superior, dismissive, nasty, and also racist.
Does Dame Susan Devoy include herself in this appraisal of racistness of Sir Peter Leitch? If so, I think it’s time to install Leitch himself as Race Relations commissioner. After all we want the very least racist person in that position, don’t we?
Race Relations commissioner Dame Susan Devoy has labelled Sir Peter Leitch “the least racist person I know”.
MPI’s fishing quota system has failed. Catch volumes routinely falsified. Actual catch 2.7 times the “official” stats. MPI observer fired for stating the truth. Slave labour fishing fleets taking half of the NZ catch, and plundering the South Pacific.
A succinct summary ropata. Neoliberalism’s status as a formula for colonisation shows up if you consider the likely response to a small nation overtly privileging the public good over the so-called free market and individual responsibility, and adapting the idea of efficiency to improving the lives of citizens rather than reducing the burden on corporations. That country would not be seen as simply following a regular democratic process, but as too provocative to be let get away with it.
I think that the mania for ensuring that the public good never again gets a foothold will be the thing that brings neoliberalism down in the end. Weakened, divided societies, made up of people who cannot do much apart from administrate and consume, or else subsist as outcasts, are vulnerable societies.
Now the power elite has moved on to more insidious methods and goals.
I am not as politically educated as you are so I might well be wrong, but I think that the current methods and goals depend upon the same core values, with the focus on making them even more difficult to dislodge.
Ford cancels US$1.6B Mexico plant; plans $700M Michigan expansion instead.
Indeed. But Trump is doing it. After three decades of all major political parties ‘kowtowing to the free market’, he’s doing it. He is expressing the politics of sovereignty, economic strength, and national interest.
Which is simply to say – if the top 5% of a society want a thing to happen, it will happen.
(This is not to ignore that other parts of his promised programme eg charter schools, more fossil fuel exploitation etc. are highly problematic)
Bernie Sanders has the right idea: rather than shrinking from Trump and treating him like the stuff of nightmares, he plans to support things like keeping jobs in the US, and fiercely oppose things like cutting cutting social services. He will not win them all, but he ought to win some, especially where Trump looks to be going against his own promises.
Olwyn
Stopping jobs being shifted to Mexico, stopping desperate Mexicans entering the USA, spells problems of its own.
Trump needs all his marbles and cunning strategy to see that this is a bad recipe. He needs to help Mexicans invest in themselves employing Mexicans, offer Mexico investment some policy carrots, so there are other industries apart from tourism and drugs.
The free market and unbridled capitalism distorts our stable world till it becomes the vision seen through warped mirrors, a chamber of horrors. Break the mirrors so you can’t see or think about it is no answer, it is just a free pass for worse and a disgrace to us all for being aware and letting it happen. Something has to be done beyond band-aids.
He needs to help Mexicans invest in themselves employing Mexicans, offer Mexico investment some policy carrots, so there are other industries apart from tourism and drugs.
And that can only be done by stopping the present delusional ideology of free-trade.
The really interesting thing that is that three new car lines to serve the US market will give only 700 direct jobs.
Trump can intorduce all the tarriffs and threats he wants (while his own products are made overseas or with overseas materials). The fact is that automation is the real threat to production: if Ford’s new self-driving car works autonomously and cost-effectively, a quarter of a million cabbies are out of work. Stick that in your “700 jobs”.
Even if ford thought he had a fair chance of getting 35% tarriffs and screwing up nafta past congress and this impacted their decision, and he fails in his promise to cancel the F35 (which claims to provide 2600 jobs in Michigan alone), the manufacturing jobs are still fucked by automation.
“The national unemployment rate in November was 4.4 percent, not seasonally adjusted, down from 4.8 percent
a year earlier.” https://www.bls.gov/news.release/metro.nr0.htm
Yeah Obama is F**kin useless!
That’s better than National here BTW.
You’re more naive than I thought if you believe the statistics. Instead of peoples lived experiences in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Because voters in those states got tired of people like you saying THINGS ARE BETTER UNDER OBAMA when their every day experience with their families and their communities showed that you were full of shit.
BTW don’t forget to look for the near record low workforce participation rate under Obama. They use that to hide unemployed people they no longer want to count.
Hey cv. Don’t be fooled just because I don’t constantly say everything is doomed and culture change is impossible. I care about a lot of things even without feeling the need to shit on everyone who actually does practical things to achieve change. Well other than voting in fascist demagogues.
So before you pretend to know what I care about or why, go fuck yourself.
The Middle East is critical to the third worlds supply of energy including New Zealand, and will remain so until we’ve eliminated poverty. The Middle East is described as the source of stupendous wealth. It’s clear who is the beneficiary of those resources and it’s not the third world. The Middle East has to be under excessive US control, only those acceptable to US power and leadership have moral or legal rights to conduct programmes in the Middle East but the main concern is the profits have to flow to the US and secondarily to its jr partner the British foreign state. Internal documents from 1945 revealed a conversation between both foreign secretaries and said, profits must be taken from behind the Arab facade meaning British rule, they’re still around and called the Arab facade and there’s a recent documentary called The Killings of Tony Blair.
That’s a basic structure of the system, naturally it engenders conflict because the region doesn’t understand why they can’t be the beneficiaries of the resources from that region. We are backwards that way and it causes internal problems of radical nationalism and economic nationalism and so on. For the general public they use different terms like international terrorism or a clash of civilisation and other fancy terms but its economic nationalism which is a strange idea that the resources of a region should benefit the people of that region, and the strange idea there should be policy designed to bring about a broader distribution of wealth and raise the standard of living for the masses.
While that goes on things are likely to get worse if you believe 99% of climate scientists. It’s generally said that low energy prices are a fad and there is an oil shortage because we are doubling consumption of oil. Half of the known untapped oil is in the Middle East so they’ll be looming issues in efforts to control the world. They’re is a lot of hype about US domestic production but that was fainted to fake US support for European Union to organises efforts against Russia for a failed US Kew against Ukraine, because Ukraine buys 100% of there gas from Russia. This is also an effort to form an alliance between Europe and America against Iran. Those are prospect that are expected which means the Middle East will be a major centre of conflict, there are new alignments you should keep eyes on between Turkey and Israel which is supposed to keep control of the Palestinians. But these three alignments design has an effect of maintaining the flow profits from New Zealand to America.
Was reading an article the other day (Think I linked to it) which said that the highest reported job in 28 US states was truck driver. If autonomous vehicles work, and they will, then we’re not talking hundreds of thousands of people out of work but millions – and that’s just in the US. The loss of truck driver in NZ will hit thousands.
The real problem is capitalism and private ownership. The owners of those autonomous vehicles will make a nice, passive income while the people who used to do the jobs will be struck further into poverty under the present system.
I just realised I didn’t respond to your claim that Trump is moving away from the neoliberal model. He does seem to be, but it is still very early days. Moreover, New Zealand seems to have put itself in a position that makes moving on hard, with an economy that is now largely dependent on house prices and immigration. I like the idea of rebuilding local manufacturing to a level that would be necessary to get through a disaster, but I don’t know how well supported or even possible that would be. It would have the advantages of starting to move investment away from housing toward productivity, and if successful should give us a bit more leverage as a country.
Moreover, New Zealand seems to have put itself in a position that makes moving on hard, with an economy that is now largely dependent on house prices and immigration.
The economy isn’t – the financial system is.
We could crash the financial system and repair the economy at the same time. Would require a lot of work so I doubt if there’d be any unemployment for quite a few years.
I think that the mania for ensuring that the public good never again gets a foothold will be the thing that brings neoliberalism down in the end. Weakened, divided societies, made up of people who cannot do much apart from administrate and consume, or else subsist as outcasts, are vulnerable societies.
Thanks for the link Draco. I am not sure I agree that everyone who is rich should be denigrated as a thief (what about great entertainers and such?) but I do think that a society that follows the lines ours does breeds people who are made useless by self-indulgence one one side and by privation on the other. We all need to grapple with the world in some way to gain judgement, which requires both basic materials and surmountable challenges. A medieval castle says, “don’t mess with me. I am able to defend my land and my people”. A modern mansion too often says, “I am, in some inane way, superior and important”. The former comes with a broader social demand, the latter not so much.
I am not sure I agree that everyone who is rich should be denigrated as a thief (what about great entertainers and such?)…
Do great entertainers really work hard enough to warrant multi-million dollar incomes?
Do their investments available to them from that income justify them having an even higher income?
High incomes always come from a lot of people paying what appears to be a small amount. But what would happen if all the hundreds of millions who watch Tom Cruise got together and decided that they’d pay him $100k per annum to star in movies? And did that across the board and refused to pay shareholders at all. How many more movies could be made? How many more actors could become stars?
OK. I seem to remember Ivan Illich saying that limiting the maximum income was more effective than raising the minimum. His ideal was a “convivial” society, and he thought that ever-rising incomes, with everyone trying to catch up, went against that.
“Collapse can be avoided and population can reach equilibrium if the per capita rate of depletion of nature is reduced to a sustainable level, and if resources are distributed in a reasonably equitable fashion.”
only question is how it is determined this is to be achieved.?..that is if it is determined at all.
Indeed. You need to slow the card down *before* you leave the cliff.
Because after you have left the cliff, no amount of stabbing the pedals, flailing with the steering wheel, beeping the horn and changing the radio station makes the slightest bit of difference.
I was wondering more if certain sections hadn’t already decided to let the impending disaster create the new equilibrium for them as opposed to attempting any meaningful change.
Outrageous that Michelle Boag should dare to bleat about the dissemination given her “barely coffee coloured” observation to a journalist re the young woman on Waiheke Island. “I was being flippant……”. “I didn’t know I was talking to a (journalist)journalist.” http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11776797
Huh ! Imagine the distress of the young woman repeatedly assaulted by John Key when she realised that Key’s pal the wannabe Rachel Glucina was not in fact a journalist but an undercover operative from Planet Key. All set to do a media hatchet job on her as the victim.
Leitch racist ? I find that a long bow to draw frankly. His comment misinterpreted ? Possibly. Certainly however Leitch’s “white mans’ island” comment is emblematic of the gentrification of Waiheke and the subliminal racism which of course attends that gentrification. Leitch has bought into that even if unwittingly.
Accepting Boag’s rationalisation in her “barely coffee coloured” comment is to give kudos to the canard – ‘merely saying what everyone else (allegedly) is thinking’. Hmmm. OK. Let me say that ever since Leitch’s “This Is Your Life” with Paul Holmes I think it was, this is what I’ve been thinking – Leitch presents as a fairly unabashed lickspittle to the rich and powerful in New Zealand.
Why do I think that ? Because of the stunned looks on the faces of particularly Kiwi Adam Blair but also other Kiwis/Warriors present. As they, Leitch having done his ‘turn’ with them, were put aside for excruciatingly slavish dancing with Holmes and Key.
Oh well…….good on you Sir Peter, your good works etc. But to hell with you Michelle Boag for your racist elitisim. Some PR person you turned out to be !
Oh well…….good on you Sir Peter, your good works etc.
It always seems to me that the Peter Leitchs of this world are really only playing to their own vanity when they ‘reflect’ loudly on their good works. The true philanthropists never talk about their philanthropy. It gets done quietly behind the scenes without any fuss.
Al Capone gave millions of dollars to charity. So does that scourge of public education, Bill Gates. So does that gruesome old, racist, sexist, violent boor “Sir” Robert Jones.
Yep. I tend to the view that rich people going on about their giving to charity is try to hide the unethical actions that they’ve had to do to become rich.
Yeah thanks Anne, Morrissey, Maui. I’d always entertained that my acknowledged ‘indulgence’ amounted to nothing more than over-commitment to substances and physically attractive people. But no, clearly. Many thanks for ‘saying what I was always thinking’ ! When it comes to snobs/poor boys made ‘good’, bootstraps, licking John Key’s arse, etc etc etc, I’m taking on the hues of the zealous martinet. For the rest of 2017.
Poor Old Butcher. He really fucked it up when he got the Boagy Lady on the job. Wonder what she charged him ? Conscience should command her to pay it all back. Conscience ? Well of course that’s fucking weird in connection with that entitled crone.
Actually North, Leitch has been “fucking up” for years. He was a loud defender of Graham Lowe’s crude and ignorant outbursts about the Warriors having too many Polynesians, and he’s been one of John Key’s most avid supporters.
He deserves every bit of opprobrium that’s been heaped on his horrible head.
Then there’s the time he backed up Murray Deakers use of the N word. He’s racist alright, he can’t hide behind his multicultural support of the Warriors.
I would expect those kind of words possibly from a World War 2 vet, when words like hori and nip were used, not from someone Leitchs age. Hes only had like 60 years to grow out of it! As an ambassador for Pacific sport too there’s no excuse for him I believe.
But that’s just the thing. Despite the noise from all parts of the political spectrum, I am almost certain that Leitch doesn’t give a damn about having an excuse for this or that. He’s just who he is and he just does what he does.
You seem to enjoy particular felicity with the horrible bastards CV……we know what Leitch thinks and we don’t need you to tell us. Especially not with the applause you reserve for the horrible bastards. Supreme, unequalled leftie, disaster you.
I know, why doesn’t someone start a petition to strip Leitch of his knighthood. Or some other equally pointless and unpopular bullshit. Then you can sign it to signal to everyone how outraged you are about how deplorable and irredeemable Leitch is.
Well, he’s an old white guy with residual attitudes and terminology common and left over from a certain generation.
Nonsense. My grandfather was older than Leitch, and I never heard him use derogatory language about Maori, either in earnest or in “jest”. Nor did I hear his friends ever talk like that.
Leitch’s words are disgusting, no matter what the context in which he uttered them.
Sounds like you don’t understand the society that your grandfather grew up in. Clue: NZ still had a poll tax against Chinese at the time, and was actively trying to stomp out Maori culture.
But you know all these things, so why pretend you don’t?
Yes, all those terrible things happened, just as terrible things are happening today. It’s not the Chinese that are being discriminated against now, it’s people from the Middle East. And, as the ugly Don Brash phenomenon of 2004 illustrated, there is still a filthy war being orchestrated against Maori.
Do you think I should assume that you reflexively mouth the racist bilge that fills our airwaves, just because you happen to be living now? Do you attack women and vituperate black people simply because you are living in the Age of Trump?
I’m telling you for a fact that my grandfather was NOT a racist, and he never said an unkind word—either seriously or jokingly—about Maori. And neither did my grandmother. Nor did my parents.
It was politicians who brought in the Chinese poll tax, just as it’s politicians bringing about the iniquities of the present day.
You wrote the following highly contentious statement to explain Leitch’s ugly behaviour:
he’s an old white guy with residual attitudes and terminology common and left over from a certain generation.
To refute that, I pointed out to you that many other—probably MOST other—“old white guys” were not racist, and I used my grandfather as an example. I was refuting a spurious excuse for Leitch’s racism that you brought up, not making it a conversation about my grandfather as you choose to misconstrue it.
Too true CV – the one thing that this blog is really good at is Outrage. We all need a bit of rage to fuel us up for changes for the better. Pity it gets let out just to cast aspersions, dildos and rotten eggs.
Keep it for fuel I suggest and feed it though your mind in measured doses, enough to go out and support arguments for better policies, earnest discussions with practical outcomes, support for people grappling with need such as foodbanks and free clothing etc.
en you can take your muscles and your trailers and make yourself available to shift people, things, for those who are permanently footloose and resource-poor because of our venal economic society. Women could try being less fault-finding, middle class and po-faced and look for helpful ways to promote peoples welfare, having a regular school clinic for nits, encouraging health camps to be set up, taking families for doctor’s visits, paying for people’s prescriptions, helping kids and parents to read better.
Actually do something, let others know you are doing something to encourage more doing-somethings of a worthwhile nature. Don’t be afraid to air it so as you can claim to be better than a rich guy flaunting his good deeds, just tell others, start a ‘doing, being helpful’ movement which is working away with number of people already but more is needed. The theme hasn’t got enough push to become the in thing in society yet.
There are parts of your comment I agree with greyrawshark (there’s a hell of a lot of outrage on this site…). Having said that, ironically, I find myself pretty pissed off at the sexism embedded in your assumption that men should lift and carry things for people, and women should look after families and such. Plus, why single out women for being “po-faced”? (And BTW, “middle class” applies to men as well as women (duh!). And you seem to assume that women can’t be working class, or bosses, or business owners.)
Stuff your PCness and sexist filter on comments. It is time to talk frankly about reality not tiptoe around, worrying if some brainwashed people are unable to hear what is said because they have to check that it doesn’t offend somebody’s sensibilities.
I’m talking about things I know about and describe needs accurately. And by the way men tend to have bigger muscles than women, ever looked at the average woman’s arms, and will usually be welcomed by organisations shifting furniture, books, carting cartons of clothes for opportunity shops etc.
Men like driving as a rule. So they will also be welcomed if they are of good repute, to deliver meals on wheels etc.
How dare you suggest that there might sometimes be real differences between men and women, and that we should not be afraid to recognise that fact! /sarc
“I’M LITERALLY SHAKING” You don’t give a fuck CV and that’s hardly a good basis on which to enter comment. Be different were there any ‘Sino’ attached of course. That’s racist as all fuck to start.
Ms Boag says she didn’t know until after making the “coffee coloured” comment that she was on speaker phone to a number of other people (insert: SHIT HOT MEDIA PR SPECIALIST BOAG IN ACTION).
On Stuff:
“Hours after the Race Relations Commissioner called Sir Peter Leitch “the least racist person” she knew, she has condemned his comments as “casual racism”.”
About face?
The most painful aspect of this uproar is to realise how many people (even the apparently well-intentioned) have such a limited understanding of how racism,or sexism, or class discrimination plays out.
Full text and analysis of Syrian cease fire agreement between Syria, Iran and Russia; excludes US involvement
– Political process for working with agreeable non-extremist rebels outlined
– US irrelevant
– Turkish agreement critical as jihadists cannot be resupplied without Turkish co-operation
– Can Erdogan be trusted (probably not)
– Kurdish aspirations the meat in the sandwich again
– Russia gets what it has always wanted: a separation of “moderate” rebels from Wahhabi jihadists, allowing latter to be annihilated and former co-opted into a peaceful political process.
Whilst it was these fictional negotiations between Lavrov and Kerry which continued to hold the limelight, the real negotiations were going on behind the scenes between the militaries of Russia and Turkey, without the US being consulted or involved.
Moreover it is now clear from Shoigu’s words that the Turks made a political decision to come to a settlement with the Russians over Syria by October at the latest, so that the discussions which took place during November and December were of an essentially technical nature: determining what territories the groups that would be covered by the ceasefire actually controlled, getting the groups to sign up to the ceasefire plan, and agreeing the technicalities of monitoring the ceasefire and enforcing it.
Most of the ceasefire plan, the text of which I have provided above, sets out the monitoring and enforcement procedures, and confirms that Turkey has agreed to guarantee the compliance of the seven groups who have signed up to it.
On Susan Devoy, she really isn’t suited to the job at all. Casual, clumsy, and unable to differentiate the personal from the professional. We’ve seen her get into hot water several times.
Yes she was – really good idea wasn’t it, to give an appointment like that to someone who was good at hitting a ball at a wall!
By the way, someone on facebook just stated the blindingly obvious that if Leitch was an ok person there’s no way he’d have someone like Boag speaking for him. Indeed – birds of a feather, and all that!
Yeah, appointed over the back fence. Talking to next-door-neighbour the super-family-values-super-hypocrite-super-something else-in-fact, guy. What was his name ? The sartorial scream, former lawyer, former Minister of Health.
Thanks for that, Sacha. Someone should read these words out on the radio….
I was one of Bill’s three kids always sitting in the back of the old-beat-up-car or hiding under the stands at Carlaw, one of the kids you barely noticed as you said what you liked about who, what and when you liked. A kind of self-appointed-King in Auckland’s rugby league circles. Monied and mouthy and filthy rich. People generally knew not to mess with the Butcher. Because if they did, there was generally something to lose.
That’s because you are known for your ‘generosity’. You are known for being the guy who cultivates friendship and favour by making big donations, whether in cash or kind to the cause. And you and I both know that when my dad’s compulsive gambling habit had taken over his life (to the point where when he had no job and his second “coconut” wife had left him – yes I remember you calling her that – and he was bankrupt, again), you were one of the few people that gave him a job. Selling meat out of the back of his car for you. I remember that. I remember traipsing around Auckland with dad in his bomb and him pulling over to sell frozen meat to people. Hoping they might buy some so he could pay you back. I don’t know if the arrangement was under the table, but I suspect it was.
Yup, that was 1990s Auckland – and in league circles no one blinked an eye at Bill doing a bit of work on the side for the Butcher. Cause the thing is you were the King. And your generosity had another name. A name I’ve come to appreciate in my adult years as I’ve encountered more and more people in positions of influence and power. It’s called Patronage. Looking after people so long as they look after you.
More Zero Hedge “fake news”: Russia sends naval ships to Philippines for joint exercises
I wonder how the USN stationed in and around the Philippines feels about this. That CIA wet team must be looking at sorting out Filipino President Duterte any month now so the USA can return common sense to the nation.
Possibly. There are people throughout the governmental structures of the Philippines who are part of the nascent narco state. As their survival becomes more at stake, the more extreme the measures they will take against Duterte.
And the regime change experts from the USA will actively assist them.
Race Relations Commissioner Susan Devoy defends Donald Trump:
“I know he’s the least racist person I know in the world.”
In a statement released this morning, Dame Susan has condemned casual racism.
“Many of us have said or done things that are hurtful to others without really realising what we were saying is offensive: but that’s not the end of the story. The important thing is being able to recognise when we’ve offended someone, to work to resolve it with mana and to make sure we never do it again.
“The thing about so-called casual racism is that it doesn’t feel very casual if it happens to you or your family as some of our friends of the darker persuasion have shown us.”
She said she knew Mr Trump and thought he was a “very good person at heart”, but his actions were offensive to some touchy negroid people and it “needed to be fixed up”.
Earlier, Dame Susan told RNZ News it was unlikely his comments were meant to offend.
“I know he’s the least racist person I know in the world and yet what he said was obviously taken as offence by all those young women. But I wasn’t there and I wasn’t part of the conversation. It’s grown real legs, hasn’t it?”
Dame Susan said Mr Trump often used light-hearted locker-room banter, which could be misinterpreted.
“The last thing he would have wanted in the world was to offend someone, I know that. Let’s not forget he’s done a lot of great work in terms of race relations in the United States – providing opportunity and building bridges between different cultures.
“I think it’s generational and culturally different these days and he’s probably licking his wounds today.”
Dame Susan said what was acceptable 40 years ago was not now.
“We at the Commission launched a campaign about casual racism, getting people to stand up and address it.
“The thing to remind ourselves is it’s good to have conversations about these issues but also to remind ourselves that we have to reasonable and rational in our discussions about it too.
“Everyone’s entitled to have an opinion, but respect each other when you’re doing that.”
“Another side to Peter Leitch”. Thank you Sacha. Compelling. Absolutely compelling. My heart goes out to you Leilani Tamu, and your dad. Good on you Leilani ! Come to think about it……..Leitch is so John Key. The rich, clay feet, bullshitter. Fuck him !
What might not appeal Sir Peter is the ‘intelligence’ on Waiheke that you and yours are just slightly, you know…….nouveau riche, gauche, flashy, wannabes. Not “our” kind of people but tolerated because you’re seriously wedged up.
The funny thing about Martyn is he will probably write at least 6 pieces on how this isn’t a story. Just like he obsessed about not caring about Real Housewives of Auckland. He talked about that show so much I almost thought I should watch an episode. Luckily good taste intervened.
The fact that consumerism and materialism was destroying both the fabric of society and the fabric of the environment came to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s.
Not only are we now 50 years further down this destructive path, I can’t see any new proposals from the Left to do anything more effective to change course.
Wait until the 500 million new middle class peeps in India and China want their new car.
[sorry CV, but you are not welcome to comment on my posts at this time. Anyone wants to discuss that, take it to OM – weka]
More dismal disinformation posing as news tonight.
TV1 News, Thursday 5 January 2017
Yet another nasty little propaganda nugget masquerading as a news report tonight on TV1—this time from one of the Clinton-friendly U.S. networks. After accurately reporting how Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has scotched the absurd Democratic Party lie about Russian hacking, the “reporter” wheeled out some floppy-fringed “intelligence analyst” who sneeringly claimed that Assange did not have a clue what he was talking about and the Russians were indeed masterminding everything that happened in the U.S.
Then the “reporter” intoned ominously:
“Many people believe Julian Assange is an enemy of the state.”
The propaganda exercise concluded with a shot of the absurd New York Senator Charles Schumer uttering a dark warning to Trump about crossing the intelligence establishment.
By the way, anyone interested in shaking off these sleazy servants of the state and finding out something truthful about Assange should have a look at the following….
Far out anything to discredit Julian after his insightful interview with Fox muppet Hannity (whose wana be charade of innocence on some topics cracked me up). Sounds like ABC and TVNZ desperately trying to tone it down, wankers.
Will have a listen to Noam laters, ty so much for the link Morrissey.
Not so long ago Trump said Assange should be in jail, seems to have changed his tune of late.
Julian Assange is a very intelligent human, computer security expert and a sharer of reliable information, he is not a criminal, rather a helpful man whom is educating so many on the realities of the world.
I ran across a recent essay from The Brothers Krynn, which attempts to map common horror monsters onto the Seven Deadly Sins: https://canadianculturecorner.substack.com/p/horror-monsters-and-vice My interest, however, is not in the meat of the piece, but rather the opening paragraph: It is an interesting fact that in recent decades, Vampires have ...
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
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Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
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The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
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Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
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The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
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New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
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Donald Trump, greatest American President since Reagan, delivering American jobs to American workers. And he’s not even in office yet!
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/816354639859871745
What’s the deal, d’you reckon? Nice wee tax break come February?
Two questions. First, how much of Peter Leitch’s and that old trout Micelle Boags comments to Lara Bridger were simple, old fashioned class based snobbery? From Maori TV:
“…Lara Wharepapa Bridger, 23, says she was at a vineyard on Waiheke Island earlier this week with her mother. Leitch, famously known as The Mad Butcher, approached the group about not drinking and driving. He doubted that they were locals, which sparked Bridger to tell him she was born on the island. This promoted Leitch to make the comment – which he describes as light hearted banter but Bridger took as a racist taunt…”
Leitch doubted they were local because they were not white on a white mans island, and we all understand the nexus between race and class in New Zealand. Here was a rich white man, who noticed a brown woman inside his gate. He was nonplussed at her reply, did she not know how God had ordered their estate?
My second question is would pointing out the primacy of his snobbery, rather than falling back on the reflexive identity politics of race, been the better way of attacking a National party establishment figure like Leitch? Which would resonate better with Joe Sixpack?
2016 saw elite identity politics discredited as an elite scam. Time for the left to change tactics and the angle of attack, methinks.
Was the group Leitch approached all women? I’ve not heard of any mention of a man in that group.
The response should fit the action, not be fabricated to fit a particular political agenda.
I do think the gentrification of Waiheke is part of the context of the action.
What the hell are you blathering on about now? Let me guess, you are clinging to the wreckage of identity politics because that is your safe place?
I asked two questions, you addressed neither of them and then went off on a complete tangent.
BTW, I don’t want this discussion to be derailed by identity politics trolls. If it were, it would be the perfect ironic demonstration of what a cancer identity politics is to the left, but that is about all.
I did address your points, but your focus on your own agenda seems to have resulted in you missing my points. You seem to want to fit the incident into your own particular political agenda, which dismisses anything that doesn’t directly address class as the primary focus.
The incident clearly was about ‘race’ – and yes there maybe a class element in it, as I indicated by referring to the context as a recently gentrified island.
As you also say Sir Mad noticed her as a “brown woman”, possibly there was a gender element. Would a rich white guy be so willing to approach a group of brown men to make such statements?
The nexus of ‘race’, class and gender, doesn’t mean somehow class has primacy – that is fitting it into your own political agenda. It’s only your perception that (so-called) “identity politics” has been discredited as an elite scam. There seems to be a few guys around lately banging that drum – it doesn’t make it so generally.
You seem to be wanting to use the incident to attack Sir Mad for being rich. This is not the incident for that. ‘Race’ was at the front and centre of the incident.
I have had conversations with Māori people who talk about the deep pain felt by the dispossession of their land. It is something beyond the comprehension, or not even on the radar of many Pākehā. Consequently, it is so painful, many Māori find it difficult to talk about. It is totally insensitive to want to fit the incident into your own political agenda.
The core incident was a woman saying she was tangata whenua, and Sir Mad replying that it was a “white man’s island”.
See this explanation by one who can talk about it.
Let’s not be consumed by this storm in a tea cup…. it’s playing right into the hands of our dimwit Media. This “off the cuff” stuff will always be with us. To put it mildly there are far greater issues around than this.
Light hearted banter…..taken out of context……misquoted….I misspoke (a shonky personal fav if caught out)…..etc etc
Easy work to dog whistle in this country and never get called on it when the MSM is chock full of sympathetic hacks and commentators like Boag, Henry, Hoskings, Trevitt, Watkins etc etc
Move on people and leave the racist snobs who inhabit the likes of waiheke, pauanui etc to their white world view.
Yeah, I am struck how the entire establishment is busy issuing statements to support Leitch – Boag, the Warriors, race relations commissioner, establishment media figures…
Amazing to see the establishment swing into action to protect its own. The toffs and their apologists are obvious when they take the velvet gloves off.
national have done a superb job of stacking these bodies with helpers to support their subtle and overt messages and themes.
You only have to look at Weldon’s mediawonks efforts in neutering their already limited news offerings and removing Campbell.
Or they actually know him and are basing their comments of personal knowledge as opposed to a one sided Facebook rant.
Nearly fell of my bar stool, What with boags mugshot and so called off the record comment actually mentioned in the herald –let alone splashed across the front page I’m wondering if maybe /just maybe .– Is the worm turning?
Sanctuary – it was an unthinking, ignorant comment to make on the part of Sir Mad Butcher which amounted to racism – not identity politics – and possibly prompted by his own self-importance as a rich white man – one of the many who have taken over Maori land and see that as an okay thing to do. Racism comes in many forms – even in so-called light-hearted banter. And Ms Awful Boag added to it. Hers is a shocking comment – superior, dismissive, nasty, and also racist.
“Hers is a shocking comment – superior, dismissive, nasty, and also racist.”
And really, really stupid.
I know she’s not overburdened with political intelligence and sensitivity, but this is extreme…even for her.
Its almost as if she gave serious thought to how she could exacerbate the situation. Deliberately poured fuel on a smoldering fire.
I’m having a Hanlon moment here.
Meh, not Pete’s fault the silly bint doesn’t have a sense of humour.
what do you mean no sense of humour?….so far she’s made fools of Leitch, Boag , and Devoy….and counting.
Hilarious!
Tactics? Are you suggesting the situation was set up?
Leitch media spokesperson and ‘renter’ Boag now requires media spokesperson…lol
Lol. You know the PR person has screwed up when they need a PR person. Same thing happened to Henry’s PR person, and Key’s PR person (Upston).
Does Dame Susan Devoy include herself in this appraisal of racistness of Sir Peter Leitch? If so, I think it’s time to install Leitch himself as Race Relations commissioner. After all we want the very least racist person in that position, don’t we?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11776975
Do any of us really know ourselves? Reeeally?
another storm in a teacup for the summer season with the poli’s on holiday.
MPI’s fishing quota system has failed. Catch volumes routinely falsified. Actual catch 2.7 times the “official” stats. MPI observer fired for stating the truth. Slave labour fishing fleets taking half of the NZ catch, and plundering the South Pacific.
http://thespinoff.co.nz/society/16-05-2016/revealed-new-zealands-enormous-60-year-25-million-tonne-illegal-fishing-operation/
Chinese longlining fishing tracks for 2016. Cook Islanders wonder why there are no fish left.pic.twitter.com/Dmgy3GdxVv
http://thespinoff.co.nz/society/30-03-2016/how-chinas-illegal-fishing-armada-is-plundering-the-south-pacific/
Aw, this is nice, I didn’t understand the UK Snoopers’ Charter until Theresa May and David Cameron sang it so nicely
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2fSXp6N-vs
A succinct summary ropata. Neoliberalism’s status as a formula for colonisation shows up if you consider the likely response to a small nation overtly privileging the public good over the so-called free market and individual responsibility, and adapting the idea of efficiency to improving the lives of citizens rather than reducing the burden on corporations. That country would not be seen as simply following a regular democratic process, but as too provocative to be let get away with it.
I think that the mania for ensuring that the public good never again gets a foothold will be the thing that brings neoliberalism down in the end. Weakened, divided societies, made up of people who cannot do much apart from administrate and consume, or else subsist as outcasts, are vulnerable societies.
Here is a man who unabashedly believes in the public good over the market, and who also knows how to make a political play: http://gizmodo.com/bernie-just-printed-a-gigantic-trump-tweet-and-brought-1790767297?utm_campaign=socialflow_gizmodo_twitter&utm_source=gizmodo_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow
All true but neoliberalism was the fight to have in the 1980s and 1990s. Now the power elite has moved on to more insidious methods and goals.
Now the power elite has moved on to more insidious methods and goals.
I am not as politically educated as you are so I might well be wrong, but I think that the current methods and goals depend upon the same core values, with the focus on making them even more difficult to dislodge.
Ford cancels US$1.6B Mexico plant; plans $700M Michigan expansion instead.
Indeed. But Trump is doing it. After three decades of all major political parties ‘kowtowing to the free market’, he’s doing it. He is expressing the politics of sovereignty, economic strength, and national interest.
Which is simply to say – if the top 5% of a society want a thing to happen, it will happen.
(This is not to ignore that other parts of his promised programme eg charter schools, more fossil fuel exploitation etc. are highly problematic)
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/03/ford-canceling-plans-for-16-billion-plant-in-mexico-investing-700-million-in-michigan-expansion-instead.html
Yes, and he also stopped a carrier company in Indiana from moving jobs to Mexico. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-announces-celebrates-carrier-deal-in-indiana/
Bernie Sanders has the right idea: rather than shrinking from Trump and treating him like the stuff of nightmares, he plans to support things like keeping jobs in the US, and fiercely oppose things like cutting cutting social services. He will not win them all, but he ought to win some, especially where Trump looks to be going against his own promises.
Bernie just printed out a gigantic Trump tweet
http://gizmodo.com/bernie-just-printed-a-gigantic-trump-tweet-and-brought-1790767297?utm_campaign=socialflow_gizmodo_twitter&utm_source=gizmodo_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow
Yes, I attached it to my first comment. Way to go Bernie.
Doh, that’s where I got the link from originally, Olwyn. I’m such a clutz. Thanks.
😆
Olwyn
Stopping jobs being shifted to Mexico, stopping desperate Mexicans entering the USA, spells problems of its own.
Trump needs all his marbles and cunning strategy to see that this is a bad recipe. He needs to help Mexicans invest in themselves employing Mexicans, offer Mexico investment some policy carrots, so there are other industries apart from tourism and drugs.
The free market and unbridled capitalism distorts our stable world till it becomes the vision seen through warped mirrors, a chamber of horrors. Break the mirrors so you can’t see or think about it is no answer, it is just a free pass for worse and a disgrace to us all for being aware and letting it happen. Something has to be done beyond band-aids.
And that can only be done by stopping the present delusional ideology of free-trade.
The really interesting thing that is that three new car lines to serve the US market will give only 700 direct jobs.
Trump can intorduce all the tarriffs and threats he wants (while his own products are made overseas or with overseas materials). The fact is that automation is the real threat to production: if Ford’s new self-driving car works autonomously and cost-effectively, a quarter of a million cabbies are out of work. Stick that in your “700 jobs”.
700 more new well paid manufacturing jobs than free market adherent Obama could manage.
Plus securing all the other thousands of jobs already at the plant.
No wonder the Democrats lost the working class white vote in Michigan in 2016. And in 2020 too, my bet, if Trump keeps performing like this.
And he isn’t even President yet.
Nah.
Even if ford thought he had a fair chance of getting 35% tarriffs and screwing up nafta past congress and this impacted their decision, and he fails in his promise to cancel the F35 (which claims to provide 2600 jobs in Michigan alone), the manufacturing jobs are still fucked by automation.
Even if they don’t know it.
“The national unemployment rate in November was 4.4 percent, not seasonally adjusted, down from 4.8 percent
a year earlier.”
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/metro.nr0.htm
Yeah Obama is F**kin useless!
That’s better than National here BTW.
Hi McFlock, don’t feel the need to give a damn about working class manufacturing jobs suddenly.
Hey Macro,
You’re more naive than I thought if you believe the statistics. Instead of peoples lived experiences in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Because voters in those states got tired of people like you saying THINGS ARE BETTER UNDER OBAMA when their every day experience with their families and their communities showed that you were full of shit.
BTW don’t forget to look for the near record low workforce participation rate under Obama. They use that to hide unemployed people they no longer want to count.
Mexican news paper El Universal says Trump has already cost 3,600 jobs which were due to move from the US to Mexico
Talk about delivering for his rustbelt working class supporters. And Trump isn’t even President yet.
http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-spooked-by-trumps-leverage-in-keeping-jobs-in-the-us-after-fords-pivot-2017-1?IR=T
Hey cv. Don’t be fooled just because I don’t constantly say everything is doomed and culture change is impossible. I care about a lot of things even without feeling the need to shit on everyone who actually does practical things to achieve change. Well other than voting in fascist demagogues.
So before you pretend to know what I care about or why, go fuck yourself.
The Middle East is critical to the third worlds supply of energy including New Zealand, and will remain so until we’ve eliminated poverty. The Middle East is described as the source of stupendous wealth. It’s clear who is the beneficiary of those resources and it’s not the third world. The Middle East has to be under excessive US control, only those acceptable to US power and leadership have moral or legal rights to conduct programmes in the Middle East but the main concern is the profits have to flow to the US and secondarily to its jr partner the British foreign state. Internal documents from 1945 revealed a conversation between both foreign secretaries and said, profits must be taken from behind the Arab facade meaning British rule, they’re still around and called the Arab facade and there’s a recent documentary called The Killings of Tony Blair.
That’s a basic structure of the system, naturally it engenders conflict because the region doesn’t understand why they can’t be the beneficiaries of the resources from that region. We are backwards that way and it causes internal problems of radical nationalism and economic nationalism and so on. For the general public they use different terms like international terrorism or a clash of civilisation and other fancy terms but its economic nationalism which is a strange idea that the resources of a region should benefit the people of that region, and the strange idea there should be policy designed to bring about a broader distribution of wealth and raise the standard of living for the masses.
While that goes on things are likely to get worse if you believe 99% of climate scientists. It’s generally said that low energy prices are a fad and there is an oil shortage because we are doubling consumption of oil. Half of the known untapped oil is in the Middle East so they’ll be looming issues in efforts to control the world. They’re is a lot of hype about US domestic production but that was fainted to fake US support for European Union to organises efforts against Russia for a failed US Kew against Ukraine, because Ukraine buys 100% of there gas from Russia. This is also an effort to form an alliance between Europe and America against Iran. Those are prospect that are expected which means the Middle East will be a major centre of conflict, there are new alignments you should keep eyes on between Turkey and Israel which is supposed to keep control of the Palestinians. But these three alignments design has an effect of maintaining the flow profits from New Zealand to America.
Was reading an article the other day (Think I linked to it) which said that the highest reported job in 28 US states was truck driver. If autonomous vehicles work, and they will, then we’re not talking hundreds of thousands of people out of work but millions – and that’s just in the US. The loss of truck driver in NZ will hit thousands.
The real problem is capitalism and private ownership. The owners of those autonomous vehicles will make a nice, passive income while the people who used to do the jobs will be struck further into poverty under the present system.
And then – there is the problem of road rage!
😈
No worries McF Trump has it all sorted!
Thinking along much the same lines as you are, Stephen Hawking has said, If communities and economies cannot cope with current levels of migration, we must do more to encourage global development, as that is the only way that the migratory millions will be persuaded to seek their future at home. I agree. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/01/stephen-hawking-dangerous-time-planet-inequality?CMP=fb_gu
I just realised I didn’t respond to your claim that Trump is moving away from the neoliberal model. He does seem to be, but it is still very early days. Moreover, New Zealand seems to have put itself in a position that makes moving on hard, with an economy that is now largely dependent on house prices and immigration. I like the idea of rebuilding local manufacturing to a level that would be necessary to get through a disaster, but I don’t know how well supported or even possible that would be. It would have the advantages of starting to move investment away from housing toward productivity, and if successful should give us a bit more leverage as a country.
The economy isn’t – the financial system is.
We could crash the financial system and repair the economy at the same time. Would require a lot of work so I doubt if there’d be any unemployment for quite a few years.
Which is what makes capitalism an oligarchy which is simply wrong as that which needs to be done to support the masses isn’t done.
I wonder how much those jobs pay…It has to be pointed out that Trump is more or less anti-union.
Nasa-funded study: industrial civilisation headed for ‘irreversible collapse’?
When you celebrate a few people being rich rather than denigrate them as the thieves that they are then society will inevitably collapse.
Thanks for the link Draco. I am not sure I agree that everyone who is rich should be denigrated as a thief (what about great entertainers and such?) but I do think that a society that follows the lines ours does breeds people who are made useless by self-indulgence one one side and by privation on the other. We all need to grapple with the world in some way to gain judgement, which requires both basic materials and surmountable challenges. A medieval castle says, “don’t mess with me. I am able to defend my land and my people”. A modern mansion too often says, “I am, in some inane way, superior and important”. The former comes with a broader social demand, the latter not so much.
Do great entertainers really work hard enough to warrant multi-million dollar incomes?
Do their investments available to them from that income justify them having an even higher income?
High incomes always come from a lot of people paying what appears to be a small amount. But what would happen if all the hundreds of millions who watch Tom Cruise got together and decided that they’d pay him $100k per annum to star in movies? And did that across the board and refused to pay shareholders at all. How many more movies could be made? How many more actors could become stars?
How many more hospitals could society afford?
OK. I seem to remember Ivan Illich saying that limiting the maximum income was more effective than raising the minimum. His ideal was a “convivial” society, and he thought that ever-rising incomes, with everyone trying to catch up, went against that.
Limit personal incomes to $250,000 p.a. after tax – anything over that and you have to spend it on approved charities and causes or you forfeit it.
That’s pretty much the view I hold but I have both a minimum and a maximum income – A UBI and a 100% tax rate at $100k.
“Collapse can be avoided and population can reach equilibrium if the per capita rate of depletion of nature is reduced to a sustainable level, and if resources are distributed in a reasonably equitable fashion.”
only question is how it is determined this is to be achieved.?..that is if it is determined at all.
Indeed. You need to slow the card down *before* you leave the cliff.
Because after you have left the cliff, no amount of stabbing the pedals, flailing with the steering wheel, beeping the horn and changing the radio station makes the slightest bit of difference.
I was wondering more if certain sections hadn’t already decided to let the impending disaster create the new equilibrium for them as opposed to attempting any meaningful change.
Indeed. There’s a reason why the global hundred millionaire class considers NZ a top five “bolthole” for when “SHTF” back home.
Well, the free-market isn’t doing it. In fact, I doubt any sort of monetary system can.
If I’m correct then we’re going to need some sort of way to democratically distributing the nations resources.
and if my suspicion is correct the distribution will be anything but democratic
Outrageous that Michelle Boag should dare to bleat about the dissemination given her “barely coffee coloured” observation to a journalist re the young woman on Waiheke Island. “I was being flippant……”. “I didn’t know I was talking to a (journalist)journalist.” http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11776797
Huh ! Imagine the distress of the young woman repeatedly assaulted by John Key when she realised that Key’s pal the wannabe Rachel Glucina was not in fact a journalist but an undercover operative from Planet Key. All set to do a media hatchet job on her as the victim.
Leitch racist ? I find that a long bow to draw frankly. His comment misinterpreted ? Possibly. Certainly however Leitch’s “white mans’ island” comment is emblematic of the gentrification of Waiheke and the subliminal racism which of course attends that gentrification. Leitch has bought into that even if unwittingly.
Accepting Boag’s rationalisation in her “barely coffee coloured” comment is to give kudos to the canard – ‘merely saying what everyone else (allegedly) is thinking’. Hmmm. OK. Let me say that ever since Leitch’s “This Is Your Life” with Paul Holmes I think it was, this is what I’ve been thinking – Leitch presents as a fairly unabashed lickspittle to the rich and powerful in New Zealand.
Why do I think that ? Because of the stunned looks on the faces of particularly Kiwi Adam Blair but also other Kiwis/Warriors present. As they, Leitch having done his ‘turn’ with them, were put aside for excruciatingly slavish dancing with Holmes and Key.
Oh well…….good on you Sir Peter, your good works etc. But to hell with you Michelle Boag for your racist elitisim. Some PR person you turned out to be !
– Boag
Quite. ‘Get off my island!’, being the thrust of it.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2017/01/michelle-boag-regrets-coffee-coloured-skin-comment.html
Boag has been the subject of much loathing on this forum and many others. All of it deserved….
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-26072015/#comment-1050007
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/nz.general/0aZOu-zSrNk
Seem like two old whites engaging mouth before brain.q
Oh well…….good on you Sir Peter, your good works etc.
It always seems to me that the Peter Leitchs of this world are really only playing to their own vanity when they ‘reflect’ loudly on their good works. The true philanthropists never talk about their philanthropy. It gets done quietly behind the scenes without any fuss.
Al Capone gave millions of dollars to charity. So does that scourge of public education, Bill Gates. So does that gruesome old, racist, sexist, violent boor “Sir” Robert Jones.
Don’t forget Pablo Escobar.
Yep. I tend to the view that rich people going on about their giving to charity is try to hide the unethical actions that they’ve had to do to become rich.
Leitch racist ? I find that a long bow to draw frankly. His comment misinterpreted ? Possibly.
He’s not a racist but he tells a Maori woman that Waiheke belongs to white people. You’re extremely indulgent, North.
Yeah thanks Anne, Morrissey, Maui. I’d always entertained that my acknowledged ‘indulgence’ amounted to nothing more than over-commitment to substances and physically attractive people. But no, clearly. Many thanks for ‘saying what I was always thinking’ ! When it comes to snobs/poor boys made ‘good’, bootstraps, licking John Key’s arse, etc etc etc, I’m taking on the hues of the zealous martinet. For the rest of 2017.
Poor Old Butcher. He really fucked it up when he got the Boagy Lady on the job. Wonder what she charged him ? Conscience should command her to pay it all back. Conscience ? Well of course that’s fucking weird in connection with that entitled crone.
Actually North, Leitch has been “fucking up” for years. He was a loud defender of Graham Lowe’s crude and ignorant outbursts about the Warriors having too many Polynesians, and he’s been one of John Key’s most avid supporters.
He deserves every bit of opprobrium that’s been heaped on his horrible head.
He’s not racist but… another time he tells Mark Hunt and Ray Sefo they’re….
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/did-he-get-knighted-mma-fighter-mark-hunt-says-mad-butcher-used-term-coconut-samoans
Then there’s the time he backed up Murray Deakers use of the N word. He’s racist alright, he can’t hide behind his multicultural support of the Warriors.
Well, he’s an old white guy with residual attitudes and terminology common and left over from a certain generation.
Is everyone really going to act all surprised and outraged? Shall we enter a round of competitive virtue signalling? I’M LITERALLY SHAKING
I would expect those kind of words possibly from a World War 2 vet, when words like hori and nip were used, not from someone Leitchs age. Hes only had like 60 years to grow out of it! As an ambassador for Pacific sport too there’s no excuse for him I believe.
But that’s just the thing. Despite the noise from all parts of the political spectrum, I am almost certain that Leitch doesn’t give a damn about having an excuse for this or that. He’s just who he is and he just does what he does.
You seem to enjoy particular felicity with the horrible bastards CV……we know what Leitch thinks and we don’t need you to tell us. Especially not with the applause you reserve for the horrible bastards. Supreme, unequalled leftie, disaster you.
I know, why doesn’t someone start a petition to strip Leitch of his knighthood. Or some other equally pointless and unpopular bullshit. Then you can sign it to signal to everyone how outraged you are about how deplorable and irredeemable Leitch is.
That petition notion came from you dickhead, not me.
Well, he’s an old white guy with residual attitudes and terminology common and left over from a certain generation.
Nonsense. My grandfather was older than Leitch, and I never heard him use derogatory language about Maori, either in earnest or in “jest”. Nor did I hear his friends ever talk like that.
Leitch’s words are disgusting, no matter what the context in which he uttered them.
Sounds like you don’t understand the society that your grandfather grew up in. Clue: NZ still had a poll tax against Chinese at the time, and was actively trying to stomp out Maori culture.
But you know all these things, so why pretend you don’t?
Yes, all those terrible things happened, just as terrible things are happening today. It’s not the Chinese that are being discriminated against now, it’s people from the Middle East. And, as the ugly Don Brash phenomenon of 2004 illustrated, there is still a filthy war being orchestrated against Maori.
Do you think I should assume that you reflexively mouth the racist bilge that fills our airwaves, just because you happen to be living now? Do you attack women and vituperate black people simply because you are living in the Age of Trump?
I’m telling you for a fact that my grandfather was NOT a racist, and he never said an unkind word—either seriously or jokingly—about Maori. And neither did my grandmother. Nor did my parents.
It was politicians who brought in the Chinese poll tax, just as it’s politicians bringing about the iniquities of the present day.
This conversation wasn’t about your grandfather until you decided to make it that way.
You wrote the following highly contentious statement to explain Leitch’s ugly behaviour:
To refute that, I pointed out to you that many other—probably MOST other—“old white guys” were not racist, and I used my grandfather as an example. I was refuting a spurious excuse for Leitch’s racism that you brought up, not making it a conversation about my grandfather as you choose to misconstrue it.
Too true CV – the one thing that this blog is really good at is Outrage. We all need a bit of rage to fuel us up for changes for the better. Pity it gets let out just to cast aspersions, dildos and rotten eggs.
Keep it for fuel I suggest and feed it though your mind in measured doses, enough to go out and support arguments for better policies, earnest discussions with practical outcomes, support for people grappling with need such as foodbanks and free clothing etc.
en you can take your muscles and your trailers and make yourself available to shift people, things, for those who are permanently footloose and resource-poor because of our venal economic society. Women could try being less fault-finding, middle class and po-faced and look for helpful ways to promote peoples welfare, having a regular school clinic for nits, encouraging health camps to be set up, taking families for doctor’s visits, paying for people’s prescriptions, helping kids and parents to read better.
Actually do something, let others know you are doing something to encourage more doing-somethings of a worthwhile nature. Don’t be afraid to air it so as you can claim to be better than a rich guy flaunting his good deeds, just tell others, start a ‘doing, being helpful’ movement which is working away with number of people already but more is needed. The theme hasn’t got enough push to become the in thing in society yet.
There are parts of your comment I agree with greyrawshark (there’s a hell of a lot of outrage on this site…). Having said that, ironically, I find myself pretty pissed off at the sexism embedded in your assumption that men should lift and carry things for people, and women should look after families and such. Plus, why single out women for being “po-faced”? (And BTW, “middle class” applies to men as well as women (duh!). And you seem to assume that women can’t be working class, or bosses, or business owners.)
Just an observation.
Stuff your PCness and sexist filter on comments. It is time to talk frankly about reality not tiptoe around, worrying if some brainwashed people are unable to hear what is said because they have to check that it doesn’t offend somebody’s sensibilities.
I’m talking about things I know about and describe needs accurately. And by the way men tend to have bigger muscles than women, ever looked at the average woman’s arms, and will usually be welcomed by organisations shifting furniture, books, carting cartons of clothes for opportunity shops etc.
Men like driving as a rule. So they will also be welcomed if they are of good repute, to deliver meals on wheels etc.
How dare you suggest that there might sometimes be real differences between men and women, and that we should not be afraid to recognise that fact! /sarc
“I’M LITERALLY SHAKING” You don’t give a fuck CV and that’s hardly a good basis on which to enter comment. Be different were there any ‘Sino’ attached of course. That’s racist as all fuck to start.
You sound like a white man trying to tell me what racism is, and is not. Keep going, I like to be amused.
Ms Boag says she didn’t know until after making the “coffee coloured” comment that she was on speaker phone to a number of other people (insert: SHIT HOT MEDIA PR SPECIALIST BOAG IN ACTION).
On Stuff:
“Hours after the Race Relations Commissioner called Sir Peter Leitch “the least racist person” she knew, she has condemned his comments as “casual racism”.”
About face?
Bridger should have really told Butcher Boy to just fuck off. That is really the only way to deal with people like him.
I think she did Millsy , in her own way and I think thats why Butcher got pissed and stood over her.
Conan O’Brien told this monster: “You’ve got nothing to be ashamed of…”
What do YOU think?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiVDtNjORbY
The most painful aspect of this uproar is to realise how many people (even the apparently well-intentioned) have such a limited understanding of how racism,or sexism, or class discrimination plays out.
I think it’s very important that somebody leaps forward to educate the benighted proles.
Full text and analysis of Syrian cease fire agreement between Syria, Iran and Russia; excludes US involvement
– Political process for working with agreeable non-extremist rebels outlined
– US irrelevant
– Turkish agreement critical as jihadists cannot be resupplied without Turkish co-operation
– Can Erdogan be trusted (probably not)
– Kurdish aspirations the meat in the sandwich again
– Russia gets what it has always wanted: a separation of “moderate” rebels from Wahhabi jihadists, allowing latter to be annihilated and former co-opted into a peaceful political process.
http://thesaker.is/russian-turkish-ceasefire-plan-for-syria-official-text-and-analysis/
Another side to Peter Leitch: https://leilanitamu.com/2017/01/04/my-beef-with-the-mad-butcher/
Wow, that is pretty damning.
On Susan Devoy, she really isn’t suited to the job at all. Casual, clumsy, and unable to differentiate the personal from the professional. We’ve seen her get into hot water several times.
National Party appointment, wasn’t she?
Yes she was – really good idea wasn’t it, to give an appointment like that to someone who was good at hitting a ball at a wall!
By the way, someone on facebook just stated the blindingly obvious that if Leitch was an ok person there’s no way he’d have someone like Boag speaking for him. Indeed – birds of a feather, and all that!
Leach shills for this national govt so he gets the use of their awesome PR machine in the shape of helicopter boag.
Yeah, appointed over the back fence. Talking to next-door-neighbour the super-family-values-super-hypocrite-super-something else-in-fact, guy. What was his name ? The sartorial scream, former lawyer, former Minister of Health.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Ryall
Thanks for that, Sacha. Someone should read these words out on the radio….
More Zero Hedge “fake news”: Russia sends naval ships to Philippines for joint exercises
I wonder how the USN stationed in and around the Philippines feels about this. That CIA wet team must be looking at sorting out Filipino President Duterte any month now so the USA can return common sense to the nation.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-04/russia-sends-two-warships-philippines-joint-naval-drills
Come ON, Doody Turdy will eventually be knocked off his chopper by some drug dealer who gets sick of paying him off.
Possibly. There are people throughout the governmental structures of the Philippines who are part of the nascent narco state. As their survival becomes more at stake, the more extreme the measures they will take against Duterte.
And the regime change experts from the USA will actively assist them.
Race Relations Commissioner Susan Devoy defends Donald Trump:
“I know he’s the least racist person I know in the world.”
In a statement released this morning, Dame Susan has condemned casual racism.
“Many of us have said or done things that are hurtful to others without really realising what we were saying is offensive: but that’s not the end of the story. The important thing is being able to recognise when we’ve offended someone, to work to resolve it with mana and to make sure we never do it again.
“The thing about so-called casual racism is that it doesn’t feel very casual if it happens to you or your family as some of our friends of the darker persuasion have shown us.”
She said she knew Mr Trump and thought he was a “very good person at heart”, but his actions were offensive to some touchy negroid people and it “needed to be fixed up”.
Earlier, Dame Susan told RNZ News it was unlikely his comments were meant to offend.
“I know he’s the least racist person I know in the world and yet what he said was obviously taken as offence by all those young women. But I wasn’t there and I wasn’t part of the conversation. It’s grown real legs, hasn’t it?”
Dame Susan said Mr Trump often used light-hearted locker-room banter, which could be misinterpreted.
“The last thing he would have wanted in the world was to offend someone, I know that. Let’s not forget he’s done a lot of great work in terms of race relations in the United States – providing opportunity and building bridges between different cultures.
“I think it’s generational and culturally different these days and he’s probably licking his wounds today.”
Dame Susan said what was acceptable 40 years ago was not now.
“We at the Commission launched a campaign about casual racism, getting people to stand up and address it.
“The thing to remind ourselves is it’s good to have conversations about these issues but also to remind ourselves that we have to reasonable and rational in our discussions about it too.
“Everyone’s entitled to have an opinion, but respect each other when you’re doing that.”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/321774/'it-doesn-t-feel-very-casual-if-it-happens-to-you'-devoy
Very clever 🙂
Worth the snake joke, that said this trump cabinet is looking worse and worse as the days go on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktYdU45K7-8&mc_cid=22060622f4&mc_eid=524e48683c
Well, the least frightening appointment is an ex-general who earned the nickname “Mad Dog”…
Coming from the political side who put in ineffective shills like Hillary Clinton and John Kerry into the office.
“Another side to Peter Leitch”. Thank you Sacha. Compelling. Absolutely compelling. My heart goes out to you Leilani Tamu, and your dad. Good on you Leilani ! Come to think about it……..Leitch is so John Key. The rich, clay feet, bullshitter. Fuck him !
What might not appeal Sir Peter is the ‘intelligence’ on Waiheke that you and yours are just slightly, you know…….nouveau riche, gauche, flashy, wannabes. Not “our” kind of people but tolerated because you’re seriously wedged up.
Best daily blog post ever
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/01/04/a-young-middle-class-maori-woman-bumps-into-an-old-white-working-class-millionaire-at-a-snobby-winery-on-the-republic-of-waiheke-shit-im-not-caring-about-today/
the follow-up is quite good as well
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/01/05/will-peak-leitch-see-tag-team-celebrity-death-match-between-monty-betham-and-ruben-wiki-vs-ufc-fighter-mark-hunt/
The funny thing about Martyn is he will probably write at least 6 pieces on how this isn’t a story. Just like he obsessed about not caring about Real Housewives of Auckland. He talked about that show so much I almost thought I should watch an episode. Luckily good taste intervened.
The fact that consumerism and materialism was destroying both the fabric of society and the fabric of the environment came to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s.
Not only are we now 50 years further down this destructive path, I can’t see any new proposals from the Left to do anything more effective to change course.
Wait until the 500 million new middle class peeps in India and China want their new car.
[sorry CV, but you are not welcome to comment on my posts at this time. Anyone wants to discuss that, take it to OM – weka]
Simply telling the truth like it is.
More dismal disinformation posing as news tonight.
TV1 News, Thursday 5 January 2017
Yet another nasty little propaganda nugget masquerading as a news report tonight on TV1—this time from one of the Clinton-friendly U.S. networks. After accurately reporting how Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has scotched the absurd Democratic Party lie about Russian hacking, the “reporter” wheeled out some floppy-fringed “intelligence analyst” who sneeringly claimed that Assange did not have a clue what he was talking about and the Russians were indeed masterminding everything that happened in the U.S.
Then the “reporter” intoned ominously:
The propaganda exercise concluded with a shot of the absurd New York Senator Charles Schumer uttering a dark warning to Trump about crossing the intelligence establishment.
By the way, anyone interested in shaking off these sleazy servants of the state and finding out something truthful about Assange should have a look at the following….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxLa6jtF01g
The U.S. network was ABC. The egregious “report” can be found here…..
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/world/hacked-democratic-emails-trump-raises-pressure-intelligence-agancies-prove-russia
Far out anything to discredit Julian after his insightful interview with Fox muppet Hannity (whose wana be charade of innocence on some topics cracked me up). Sounds like ABC and TVNZ desperately trying to tone it down, wankers.
Will have a listen to Noam laters, ty so much for the link Morrissey.
Not so long ago Trump said Assange should be in jail, seems to have changed his tune of late.
Julian Assange is a very intelligent human, computer security expert and a sharer of reliable information, he is not a criminal, rather a helpful man whom is educating so many on the realities of the world.