Silly me. For years I’ve taken Margaret Thatcher’s claim – “there is no such thing as society” – as a mark of her moral corruption. No no no ! All the time it was a beautiful “tapestry” of which she spoke.
morena everyone,
here is an idea for those who will be at waitangi.
to simply demonstrate your disapproval of mr key and his governments’ action/inaction on:
inequality,
child poverty,
the environment,
the economy,
sending troops to someone elses war,
housing etc.
when he speaks, quietly turn your back.
when his vehicle goes past, turn your back.
i have to leave the laptop shortly and in case this idea gets questions asked of it, there is this.
youtube.com/watch?v=koC04cuCc3E
You’re counseling spitting to register effective protest then are you PG ?
So that you can clutch your fucking pearls all weekend thereafter ?
As though it were you got it in the eye ?
Yeah I know you’re not counseling spitting.
You’d rather there were no protest.
Protest challenges YourGodKey.
And the Settled Order – Hue George.
Quibble as much as you like.
That’s your truth.
Snap! Yesterday I began a comment suggesting this but the day got away on me… thank goodness for like minds.
– A Mexican wave of turning backs as the cavalcade passes
– Simple to do, action without violence, or speaking (impossible?)
– Visual gold for the cameras if enough people do it
– as good as a wave of laughing and pointing…
Yes, people must turn their backs on the prying and lying twit.
Do it not just for the cameras but for the country, our increasingly unequal society, our environment, our families, our squeezed communities, and our future generations. And most importantly, do it for ourselves for willing to make a stand on ethics, integrity and the public (not corporate, bankster or casino) interest.
hi kiwiri and jo and others,
the most important aspect of this, imo, is the power it gives to those in the group who turn their backs.
they dont see the news, they dont know what mr key thinks…
they get the feeling of being a part of a community and experience what happens when we cooperate.
i am not a twitterer nor a face booker but anyone is welcome to run with this.
there is no logic, no morality, no credibility to be seen
the US created this mess, let them sort it out. let them remain the targets of their own creation.
you know who should be arming themselves and going – the Bush family.
Get the f$#^&g Bush family to deal with it, not our children in whanganui, te kaha, kerikeri, gore, seddon and masterton – we have nothing to do with it
If NZ must be forced to be involved by dear leader’s subservience to the yanks, how about bringing back conscription; the pool to consist solely of males aged 45–65 years, residing in Parnell and Remuera, Auckland.
They would come down here but not because of us. They would come down here for the strategic geographical position close to Antartica and Australia and for our natural resources.
And who they fuck are they helping to defend us from? Is Fiji looking to invade NZ? Honestly we sit in the bottom of the pacific with so many nations between us and any conceivable threat that any attack that might reach us is going to have to go through the US or Australia anyway. If it did come to us being under attack then the US, AUS, and all those pretty allies are already gone. We probably would have lost our defence force fighting with them long before the threat reached NZ.
The problem is that the hypothetical is the exact reason used be people trying to push us into war. i.e if we want them to be there for us when we are under attack we have to be there for them when they are attacking. It is just unbelievable.
NZ needs to have its own independent highly capable area defence forces, as well as the ability to project military power into the nearby Pacific and southern oceans.
Actually North, if you think about it my view is completely patriotic and it is those like yourself who are unpatriotic whores..(but I suspect you’re pulling my tit)
You may wish to consider a further view I have, from yesterdays “Now its family?” thread….
“Is this the same “family” that refused to stand by us when the French committed an act of terrorism in Auckland in the 1980’s?… yet demanded we stand by it over Salman Rushdie?
Is this the same “family” that sent us to our certain deaths at Gallipoli in WWI?
Is this the same “family” that refused to provide support for us in WWII?
Is this the same “family” that has been an imperial and occupying and invading army in the middle east for god knows how long, causing misery and destruction and death?
Is this the same “family” that nuked the shit out of our part of the world in the 1950s and later?
Is this the same “family” that has totally shat on Te Tiriti and its partner thereof?
Is this the same “family” that has completely shat on my own true family in parts of the world in recent centuries? To such an extent we were driven out?
Is this fuckwit for real?
FUCK OFF BRITISH WANKERS… don’t you realise some of us came here to escape you cunts. Piss off
You got it right in the last few words of your first paragraph VTO – your tit should be stinging like hell ! Well and passisonately said the rest of your comment – “family” indeed !
Justice Lowell Goddard (NZ JUdge) has been appointed to head an inquiry into sex abuse claims in the UK ahead of 149 other candidates.
If their equivalent of their Justice Minister doesn’t like what she concludes will he/she just publicly rubbish hers like our former Justice Minister did with Canadian Judge Binnie? Would “we” be outraged?
Over 100,000 survivors, the inquiry will go on for years. I have also heard in the media that a paedophile ring operated within the government in the 1980’s. This week there were mass sackings within the Birmingham City Council (over the last 4 years sackings as well) due to failing to protect children who were sexually assaulted.
The structure in Britain appears to be different as social workers work for the city council.
I want justice and recognition for historical sexual assault/abuse survivors. This will help current cases, by not making the inexcusable errors made in the past.
Thanks for the additional information I will read it.
See Judge Lowell answered British MPs questions overnight our time. The inquiry is expected to last 4 years and will recommence in April, (not sure if a restart).
On Monday 9 February just after the 9am news on NZ National Radio, Judge Henwood (head of the panel into hearing the accounts of those abused while in welfare state care during childhood), Garth Young (in charge of management of claims for MSD) and Sonya Cooper (has hundreds of cases to settle) were interviewed by Kathryn Ryan.
Justice is too slow for many claimants, some with major health problems settled for less, the hearing panel will wind up in June 2015, not sure of the date when it happened but the hearing panel had to turn people away, obtaining historical records has been differcult…
Other countries e.g. Canada and Australia have a Royal Commission going or a tribunal. I do not like the way that MSD has dragged their heels and that they are investigating themselves (formerly being Social Welfare).
The government has millions for Sky City, but not to settle historical sexual assault claims while being a ward of the state. Some of these children have lived with PTSD for decades, the perpetrator/s were not stopped or charged. A government disgrace of many decades.
Other nations relying on oil such as Norway and Saudi Arabia aren’t suffering as badly. The question is also why is Venezuela so heavily dependent on a single industry (more so now than before the Chavist regime took over)? Surely the Socialist revolution would have unleashed to potential of the poor and downtrodden and they can make their own toilet paper and medicines and not rely on imports. Instead they are more dependent on importing essentials now than ever. That suggests a serious failure of economic management.
Why is New Zealand so reliant on the dairy industry? Surely this capitalist nation should have allowed compition to unlock high tech high value markets.
New Zealand does not rely on Dairying for 95% of export income. It is well under 40%.
New Zealand’s Dairy industry increased production during the Dairying boom. Venezuela’s oil production was static during the boom over the past 5 or 6 years.
Are you saying that if there was a crash in the dairy market it would have no major negative effect on our economy? If the answer to that is no then you other two points in no way counter what I said. If the answer to that is yes you are delusional.
It would have an impact it is true. Indeed we are seeing that recently as the price of Milk has dropped by around the same percentage as the price of oil. I don’t notice a shortage of toilet paper and condoms in NZ though.
Venezuela is able to trade with nations other than the US. It is also not prohibited from trading with the US.
Your link was about targeted sanctions on certain individuals not on trade between the two nations generally. I also note it has yet to be signed in to law.
BTW Zimbabwe blamed their economic collapse on the same thing back in the early 2000’s
The problem in venezuala is actually corruption. Not socialism, not capitilism, not the US. The government is a corrupt cabal of cronies who enrich themselves at the expense of wider society. They wrap themselves in the language of socialism but are no different to the politiciians who run every failed or failing state around the world. Corrupt.
Depends on how you define corruption. The issue with shortages in the Venezuelan economy is to do with an official exchange rate that does not reflect market reality and price controls.
The Venezuelan currency is seriously overpriced and as such it makes sense to use it to buy USD if you are lucky enough to get the official rate. This leads to a shortage of USD for people who need them like importers. As such they then have to buy their items using the unofficial rate (i.e. black market rate). The items are sold in Venezuela using the usual mark up values but if you converted them to USD at official rates they look prohibitively expensive.
Price controls mean that suppliers stop stocking items that have little of no margin for profit. That is why staples tend to disappear far faster than luxury items as they are the items governments slap price controls on. Also items that can be purchased at the controlled price and can be easily transported tend to disappear out of the country and appear in neighbouring countries next door or on the black market where the price cannot be controlled by the government.
In both those countries laws are being broken and therefore it could be argued corruption is taking place. However the laws themselves are at odds with economic reality so it is corruption born of wrong headed leftist policies.
The issue with shortages in the Venezuelan economy is to do with an official exchange rate that does not reflect market reality and price controls.
Despite or because of the ruling classes nothing has really changed in the seventy years since John Gunther wrote about shortages, costs and inflation in Venezuela.
crashcart: the entire NZ agriculture, forestry and fishing industry contributes 5.6% to NZ GDP. We aren’t as reliant on dairy as popular misconceptions would have you believe.
Right so when the trade price drops and we see the governments much vaunted surplus dissapear it is in no way a reflection upon how reliant we have become on dairy.
You bought selective facts as did I. GDP is made up af all transactions within an economy. So yes in terms of GDP it may be low. Here is where you left it. As a percentage of exports it is high. Even if it is just under 40% that is still a large amount. An amount that if reduced would have a very negative effect on our terms of trade as well as the amount of liquidity in our economy. Of course I am just going on feeling so thanks for the education.
I don’t want to further confuse you crashcart, but in 2014 dairy made up 29% of merchandise exports. So add in non-merchandise exports (tourism, services etc) and you can see that dairy makes up a surprisingly low amount of exports.
Sorry to keep on giving you unhelpful facts. I’d just ignore them and focus on your gut feelings.
Sorry my % was missinformed as I was going of what Gossman put up. No one to blame for that but myself.
Of course it was double the nearest export sector and nearly 4 times that of the third in 2013. I wasn’t able to pull up the figures for 2014 so won’t speculate on what they were. Although by your figures it is increasing. I guess you are right and it is not a major influencer of our export sector.
I actually stated it was well below 40% of total exports. I was aware of the 29% figure but wanted to give some leeway and still show that NZ is far less dependent on a single export item than Venezuela.
Love the way you spend so much time trying to find anything wrong with what you think is the left wings socialist dream. Perhaps everytime you come up with one of these people should bring up a link to an issue in a capatilist nation.
More their attitude to gun control. Hardly reflective of their economic system.
Does your comment mean you don’t think the Venezuelan government is attempting to implement a Socialist set of policies? Interesting if you do think that because it is seemingly at odds with other leftists who support the Chavista regime and what they are attempting to do.
Your link provided no direct causation between the price of condoms and the socialist governmetns policies. It ignored the fact that external factors have actively worked to undermine the country and this could just as easily be a result of that. In the same way mine provided no causation.
I am glad you have solved the US issues of gun violence by putting it down to their attitude to gun control. Of course it ignores Canada who are just as liberal on their gun control laws and have even higher gun ownership rates. Do feel free to let the US administration know that all you have the answer to their gun violence and it has nothing to do with inequality bought on by their capatalist system.
China manufacturers Condoms. What possible reason would China have not selling to Venezuela? In fact Venezuela has oil that China desperately wants so it would be extremely beneficial to trade.
A recent survey in the US states with the highest gun ownership a least gun controls,have the highest murder rates and highest gun violence rates.
Gossamer making a dick of himself again.
Ummm… are you stating high gun ownership and lack of strong gun control laws lead to increased gun violence? If so, then you are agreeing with my position.
No he was stating that it is a contributor. Yes I think he thought you were arguing against gun control as that is the normal RWNJ stance. However as usual the fact that there may be multiple influences to a hugely difficult social issue seems to be beyond you.
These have been steadily getting worse over the time the Chavista regime has been in power. Curiously income inequality in the country has fallen sharply over that period as well which is at odds with what many leftists think should happen.
I think you missed the point that you can go and find something wrong with every country. You however seem to spend an inordinant amount of time trying to prove that Venezuela is flawed and that this means that socialisim does not work.
Well here is where you little crusade becomes stupid:
1) Venezuela is not in a little planet of its own. It has to operate with countries who have an active interest in ensureing it fails. When the US doesn’t want a country so close to work then that country will not work. So to point to them and say “look socialisim doesn’t work I has proofs” whilst completeing ignoring the influence that Capitalist nations have on their performance is ignorance at its worst.
2) I don’t think I have every seen any one here hold Venezuela up as their idea of a socialist utopia. So you are trying to use a classic straw man. It would be like me turning around and pointing to Somalia that tried to operate as a 0 tax small govenment and use that as an example of why capitalisim doesn’t work. That of course would be ignoring a huge number of factors that also contribute to the shit hole it is.
How can the US impact the cost of Condoms in Venezuela?
I choose to highlight the failures of Venezuela because it is interesting to note the responses of many leftists to a situation which seemingly shows that adopting a far left set of policies leads to economic ruin. What I find is many just can’t accept this unpleasant fact and blame the issues on anything but the Venezuelan government.
How would the US Condom maker cause the price of their Condoms to be as high as $750 USD? Why wouldn’t the Venezuelan importer of the product not just buy cheaper brands from other nations if they did? Why don’t they just reimport it from neighbouring countries where I suspect it is not the equivalent of $750 USD?
Perhaps the manufacturer has contracts with their suppliers that prevents them onselling them to Venezuela. Its not like you just send someone across the border to buy a few boxes of Joey’s and that will solve the issue of their cost.
Let me get this clear. You are stating the Us manufacturer of Trojan Condoms has decided that it will sell the item for the equivalent of $750 USD in the Venezuelan market (less mark up from the distributors) and has also stopped neighbouring nations from on-selling in to the Venezuelan market- Is that correct?
Here’s an alternative for you. The price of the Condoms aren’t really the equivalent of $750 USD. Indeed they are much less if you use the black market rate. The problem for the distributor in Venezuela is they can’t access the USD to buy them at the official rate so they have to use black market sourced US dollars to get them in.
Nope. The price in equivalent USD is using official rates. The point is the supplier is unlikely to be using the official rate to purchase the stock so hence why the value is high using that measure. Using the unofficial rate it is still high but more affordable (at least to those with cash).
Come on Gossy – lets not complain about condoms – lets encourage other forms of sex apart from penetration.
I can think of heaps of Adult playtime things to do in the bedroom which don’t require condoms. Massage, whips, chains, cream and the like. The world does not need to fret about condoms Gossy – and neither do you.
Gossamer nothing to do with the trade sanctions or the fact very few countries have advanced petrochemical industries.
Any country that has opposing economic or political ideas to the US become targeted especially if they have oil.
A country that has oil reserves is 100× more likely to suffer foriegn intervention.
If Venezuela didn’t have oil it would be
left alone.
And Gossamer wouldn’t have to be a propaganda tool making a dick of himself!
Venezuela is still able to trade with the US and pretty much any other nation it chooses on the planet. Trade sanctions are not the cause of the economic difficulties in that country.
Venezuela is still able to trade with the US and pretty much any other nation it chooses on the planet. Trade sanctions are not the cause of the economic difficulties in that country.
ROFL
Sure, it’s even possible that trade sanctions by the US are designed to HELP the Venezuelan people, right?
Interesting that the Zanu-PF government in Zimbabwe used the same excuse for their economic collapse. The very limited sanctions imposed on certain individuals was the cause of hyperinflation and shortages of goods apparently and not the fact they destroyed their productive sector, slapped price controls on and printed money to fund their excessive government spending. Similar to what is happening in Venezuela.
I do have a simple question for you. Please show me one product that has been unable to be brought by Venezuela as a result of any trade sanctions imposed? Just one would suffice.
LOL the Zimbabwe example, out of 170 countries in the world, more idiocy. Venezuela is a full democracy which once again, the USA is trying its hardest to destabilise.
Who are the players denying Venezuela access to foreign capital?
Why would a nation like China (which has plenty of US currency in reserve) deny Venezuela access to US currency?
Where did all of Venezuela’s currency reserves go considering they had tens of billions not so many years ago?
BTW once again the argument you put forward is exactly the same as that put forward by Zanu-PF to explain their problems. I find it especially funny considering the respective governments of Venezuela and Zimbabwe spend much of their time banging on about how evil the foreign financiers are then complain that all their woes are caused by them not lending them any money.
Fuck off with teh Zimbabwe example it’s utterly irrelevant. Venezuela is a thriving democracy where people have been empowered not driven off their land. The US wants to see Venezuela fail, and wants to put in a regime which will allow them to take their oil for free.
You are free to ignore my comparisons to Zimbabwe. It would be useful to answer my questions in regard to these terrible restrictions and financial capital strike Venezuela is subject to.
How is this financial capital strike manifested exactly and why doesn’t Venezuela circumvent it via use of foreign currency from other sources?
That is for the people who choose voluntarily to take out the debt to answer. I presume they do so for a reason and I also presume they are aware they need to pay interest on the money they are leant. If they aren’t aware then they are either stupid or have been lied to and therefore have a good case not to pay back the money or at least the interest component of the debt. Either way why should I care?
Venezuela is a full* democracy** that enables the government to intimidate, censor and prosecute critics, use arbitrary detention, subjugate the judiciary, aggressively close down alternative media sources, revoke licences of internet providers that allow the publication of criticism of the government, allow and encourage extra-judicial killings by security forces, fire public workers who do not vote for the incumbent, and of course vote against the recent UN human rights report on North Korea.
* Full may contain nothing
** democracy may not mean actual democracy
Can you help me understand what “Full Democracy” means again CR? Unless of course Human Rights Watch is a front for the CIA.
Old friends getting together for a pre Waitangi party.
Yes there beeming live into homes nationwide were former Labour leaders Phil Goff & David Shearer partying the night away with former wannabe Labour leader & MP Shane Jones. Shearer putting in a cameo performance as front man singing and strumming his guitar.
While my partner snarled and said “that’s it with Labour.” I started laughing saying Shane Jones is just abiding by his employment contract with his employer the National Government.
When they crossed back later in the show I could have sworn Goff & Shearer were milling around Murray McCully signing some paperwork.
Just wondering if Matt Mc Carten is drafting up some paperwork for them to sign today?
Loved it! Jones still can’t speak without using 40 words when four would do, but it was great to see Shearer and Billy TK Jnr jamming. Overall, a pretty positive piece. Labour: Good Times!
Hone hinted at Shane Jones running in the by election this morning and the reporter asked him for which party , that would be a twist if jones ran for the nats.
I was hoping Shearer and Goff would hold up a slab of marlin each that Jones was blowing his arse about having caught. We all know what happened last time Shearer held up fish. Gone by lunch time!
But Dr Morgan’s latest adopted cause is different, he has come around to a modern reading of the Treaty of Waitangi. He admits he is a latecomer to the idea of bicultural nationhood but that has not inhibited his willingness to antagonise any Pakeha who have not reached his stage of enlightenment.
Why be antagonised ?
Few Maori or Pakeha enthusiasts for the Treaty would dare speak of its modern meaning as definitively as Dr Morgan does. It is an idea that is constantly developing and open to experiment from both sides. The Maori Party has been one such experiment. It arose from resentment of the previous Labour Government’s response to the foreshore and seabed claim but when their independent party went into a National-led Government, it was too much for the most radical Maori. They formed the Mana Party with left-wing Pakeha, demonstrating that class politics was more important than a separate identity after all.
That last line is a doozy
instead Maori voters have largely returned to a mainstream party, puts their identity in perspective. Biculturalism does not seem to need independent political expression. It needs recognition and consultation by a party in power.
identity in perspective – NZH editor following a very well known line there.
For me I welcome Gareth Morgan working to educate Pākehā – some may move their ideas. I also like that he is talking to Pākehā from both marae and RSA Hall (or wherever it was). The editorial is entitled – “Biculturalism doesn’t need late convert” – I think it does.
Bloody great that someone stood up and gave a significant response to Don Brash’s divisive Orewa diatribe. It’s a shame that it had to be someone outside politics.
Wasn’t it Key’s position, several years ago now, that it isn’t the government’s role to create jobs, but that of business? This was back when he was being blasted for an increase in unemployment. I can’t seem to find the original quote anywhere, only references to it, but I imagine someone here will have a link.
Can’t have it both ways, Key. You’re either responsible for (un)employment levels, or you’re not.
We all knew this is on the agenda…
***ALERT – LEAKED DOCUMENTS***
TISA – Leaked document reveals secret talks to privatize and raise health costs
The following release contains a paper discussed in the framework of the secretive Trade in Services Agreement (TISA). Up to 23 countries plus all EU members are participating in the negotiations, which aim to deregulate up to 70% of world trade in services. Until now, what little is known about TISA has been through leaked information.
The proposal titled ‘A concept paper on health care services within TISA Negotiations’ states there is ‘huge untapped potential for the globalisation of healthcare services’ mainly because ‘health care services is (sic) funded and provided by state or welfare organisations and is of virtually no interest for foreign competitors due to lack of market-orientated scope for activity’.
I had a good sleep last night, the first in ages – so today I was very early for work – So I took the opportunity to ride under every bridge in New Lynn – West Auckland.
And as I has though, every bridge in New Lynn had people sleeping under it – even the rail bridge. (This is the very noisy one) And not just one or two but under one – at least 6 or 7 all huddled together.
So if Mr Key and co, think they have a good country and they are doing their best – then I call them liar’s and deceivers. They are oblivious, to the reality of the suffering their poor economic choices causes.
Liberalism is not economic common sense – it is a vicious nasty ideology.
I’ve taken my daily constitutional around Wellington too Adam in the early morning. A similar situation exists here!
And that doesn’t take account of those living in the town belt.
I remember in the early 2000’s I lived in central Auckland, I use to see the homeless wake up in around where I lived, and that was a substantial number then.
It seems to me that the homes migrating towards the centre of the city towards to social services is a thing of the past.
I see soup kitchens all over Auckland now – this economy has falling apart for many – no matter how much these Muppet’s try to spin everything is fine and dandy.
She’s lifting her game sometimes – must be all that generous leave entitlement she seems to have negotiated.
She’s even dropping the affectations a lot more recently.
No more ” I halve ” ( I have ) etc. ….. in order not to sound too tupicle Koiwoi
That is 100% evidence of US economic ideology failing its society.
fail fail fail
I see gosman hanging around like a bad smell today – maybe gosman would like to explain how this phenomenon is indicative of success ……. look forward to today’s great and amazing hair-split trick.
classic Mr Meech – “Recent research has emerged that a bunch of discarded old stones found in the corner of a field near Hokianga are conclusive proof that Polynesians were once ruled by a Celtic master race. There is no conceivable way in which ancient Polynesians, renowned for world class feats of sea navigation, warfare and oral mastery, could possibly have randomly put stones on top of one another”.
Do you know how to sumit to the standard as a guest post? It’s a worthy read.
Look putting it bluntly Maori just need to buck up. Like their friendly British-based real estate franchisees and colonial roastbusters, they need to formulate wordy European-type verbal and ideological constructs which launch far up and away into the air soaring high and right over (and barely recognising or relating to) the relevant facts or detail pertaining to the historical issues of our time.
So let’s just bloody well build a bridge and get over it.
Short Guardian column about compulsive liars .. Lance Armstrong is the main character … but many key points, so to speak ….
“Habits can become addictions. There is a thrill in deceiving others – it underlines your superiority as you managed to fool them. And you might get hooked on that thrill. But, like all addictions, it can go wrong as it traps and entangles you.”
and this key comment below the article … an awful truth for us in NZ …
“He only sees things through the black and white prism of “Winning” and “Losing”. To admit to any weakness/mistake/fallacy is losing. The value that the rest of us apply to being truthful or having integrity is irrelevant to him – lying is merely a tool he uses to get what he wants and “win” which he will do at any cost. I think that he believes that people who tell the truth and admit their mistakes are fools.”
and those around them dare not contemplate the reality because it amounts to an admission they have been fooled and made fools of. That is one reason many do not want to confront the PMs deceit, both in media and the public, because of what it reveals about themselves. Others go further and devise excuses, rationalisations and justifications for his behaviour to keep them from acknowledging their foolishness.
Israeli intransigence seems to be increasingly undermining those supporting a two-state ‘solution’ to the Palestinian liberation struggle.
However, there are also differences among those who oppose the existence of Israel. One of the most interesting debates has been between two Marxists in Britain with long records of organising in support of the Palestinian cause and against the Israeli state: Moshe Machover, a veteran Israeli Marxist and a founder of the Israeli Socialist Organisation (ISO) in the early 1960s, and Tony Greenstein, a longtime solidarity activist and veteran working class fighter.
We’ve run some of the material from this (fairly comradely) ongoing debate on Redline.
John Key’s speech at Waitangi is going down really well at the marae. He is winning hearts and minds and I presume votes with his candour and sense. A masterful delivery with minimal fuss. Great to see.
you’ve still got a wee speck of his cum on the corner of your mouth
[lprent: That is getting close to the edge of toleration. Both in terms of “pointless abuse” and causing to make me laugh out loud in the middle of the workroom. However it could get tiresome fast. Be warned. ]
🙂
Thank Christ you’re edgy and that edginess is still tolerated. Has P.G. got an opinion? I wonder what Jamie Lee would think of such a comment McFlock.
OOOOOO u r awful! But I like you
But it is a service that would not be performed on someone so blatantly undeserving of my affection as a prime minister who can’t even monitor a department, or indeed what goes on in his own office.
Well, he did have to eschew secret service oversight cos it was beyond his capabilities. That’s a big admission, even if the media failed to understand it as such.
“We are a country that stands for human rights and I don’t know about you but when people are being burned with petrol I find it difficult to look the other way.”
I don’t know about you Key, but when we trade with a country with an appalling history of human rights abuses, and that country is one of our biggest traders, I find it difficult to look the other way.
I don’t know about you Key, but when we stand by and watch as one country tortures and kills the children living in another country in an occupied land, with outlawed white phosphorous, I find it difficult to look the other away.
I don’t know about you Key, but when we turn a blind eye to our Pacific neighbours in Kiribas as their land drowns because of rising sea levels, because we along with other western nations refuse to address climate change, I find it difficult to look the other way.
I could go on, and on, and on.
What a fucking hypocrite. There is so much fucking snake oil work going on that somebody had better put the “danger wet floor” sign out, so no has an accident and slides over.
Yep, feel free to add to the wall of hypocrisy. There’s plenty of examples. (Boko Haram anyone?), Usually ones that don’t involve the Club, or The Family
The Guardian forecasts that the SNP would win 54 out of the 59 seats in Scotland. The Lib Dems would retain one, Labour four. The Tories would lose their one and only seat. Labour won 41 in 2010.
Meanwhile Alex Salmond has been compared in Westminster by Bill Cash (loony end of the Tory Party) to Charles Stewart Parnell, the great Irish Home Rule Leader. It was intended to frighten the English voters! As commentators have said: Liberal Prime Minister Asquith described Parnell as “one of the three or four greatest men of the 19th century”, while Lord Haldane described him as” the strongest man the House of Commons had seen in 150 years” William Gladstone described Parnell as “the most remarkable person” he had ever met.
They just lost a referendum on independence. It is unlikely they will have another go so soon. If they do they will be justifiably criticised for attempting to achieve independence regardless of peoples views.
The Polls are also showing that many people who voted NO did so on the basis of the last minute “Vow” of home rule and near federalism promised by George Brown on behalf of the Tories/Labour NO campaign.
What has materialised in draft legislation that give Scotland contol over only 30% of revenue and 15% if welfare. Cameron and Hague have announced that Scottish MPs will be reduced to 2nd class statue in Westminster.
These people are now disgusted and will now never forgive Labour for siding with Thatcher’s party. The majority are now saying that they want Independence.
IMHO this is the last UK General Election.
Sadly the GB Labour crowd went hand in hand with the Tories in the IndyRef.
They said things and behaved in ways which crossed a line: there is no going back to Labour for a huge number of people.
Making Jim Murphy Leader was the final nail in the coffin. Fill internment will take place on the 7th May.
R.I.P. Labour in Scotland
No flowers at the internment service, please. Nobody from Labour’s Scottish Branch Office will be around to accept.
ISIL Beheading, burning alive, throwing a gay man off a 7 story building and then on surviving being stoned to death and also crucifying.
We should do nothing for fear of reprisal. Really???????
When the decision to send troops is announced I await the torrent of hand wringing do nothing defeatism typical of the Left. And you wonder why the Left is unelectable.
I wouldn’t overdose on Fox News fisiani. There are varied opinions on the “Left” as I’m sure you know.
The actions of ISIL are despicable, but we should not rush into another war (and likely quagmire) without UN mandate at least. The US/UK aren’t exactly trustworthy partners in Middle East military adventures.
Thank you for your concern, especially for homosexuals who your leader can never quite decide if he supported or not and who previous right wing leaders criminalised for so many years.
As for ISIS, why do we need to reprise when Jordan is executing ISIS prisoners at will now?
I agree with your sentiments against NZ troops heading off to war, but feel uncomfortable with the occasional cries regarding John Key’s son.
He is not responsible for the misguided and inexcusable actions of his father, and did not ask to be the son of the worst PM we have had. That is punishment enough, and any fans of John Key will fixate on the “terrible calls for his son to enlist” and miss again the point.
I didn’t notice TheGaucheKey being terribly sensitive about Phillip Smith’s (living) victim and his family when he actually fucking giggled to foreign television about Smith’s escape to South America. Some shit about who’s not invited to dinner or some such.
I didn’t notice any cautions from the sensitive folk that it might be unwise and too hard on the boy for TheSelfieDaddyKey to contrive the plastering of selfies of senior and junior in a targa top in Hawaii all over regular and social media.
I didn’t notice any particular sensitivity from the GodKey about young woman Tania Billingsley.
I didn’t notice any wish not to play the game when SpawnOfTheDaddyKey howlingly photoshopped himself with a financial gangster man.
I do notice that it would be meet were the TheLittleChurchillKey to look past other peoples’ sons and offer his own when rushing to join “the family”.
Meanwhile, I am not Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey and I will not be clutching my pearls aghast. I note Molly that in any event your concerns seem not to be principally for junior.
You are right, I’m not concerned for Max. He is not relevant.
John Key has not the integrity, knowledge, or even competency to be the one making the decision about where our troops go.
Even if he had a child that was in our Defence Force, the decision to enter a conflict zone should be made critically and with understanding of the likely outcomes of that deployment.
However, John Key doesn’t make independent choices, he pays “club fees”.
I don’t need to speculate about unlikely events concerning his children.
I consider this decision to be bad enough to be criticised on it’s own merit.
Yes, if you stay logged in.
Which is what most people do.
If you read the end user agreement – it says whilst you are logged into Google, they will keep track of what you do. A cloud service. Easy done though, if you have a gmail account – use youtube or google+ bookmarks etc..
“What I am able to reveal from my visit to the library is that I left without any sense of reassurance either that the process of negotiating this trade deal is democratic, or that the negotiators are operating on behalf of citizens.”
All we can do is add this to the ever growing pile of stern concern being expressed around the world. Week after week there are warnings from people who have seen the details, saying the same thing that our own Tim Groser refuses to.
These ‘agreements’ are nothing more than corporate entities devouring global resources with no regard to the individuals, sovereignties or democracies that will be consumed by the avarice required to formulate such plans and eventually assimilated by the processes that drive them.
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) , The Trade in Services Agreement (TISA), The Comprehensive Trade and Economic Agreement (CETA) and of course The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement are all the same thing. Very bad news.
The thing that newsagents sell that makes people suddenly want to vote Tory is lottery tickets. Labour voters who suddenly win the lottery are likely to change their political opinions and become Conservative voters. This is known as “Sudden Wealth Syndrome”
Lotto and lottery’s in general are vulgar, and puissant thrills which bring out the worst in people. We should not have them, bit like slot machine machines – destructive and vulgar. Burn them all.
Eula Bliss is being interviewed by Kim Hill on Sat. Here’s a Q and A from last year on Gawker, after the release of her book On Immunity, about vaccination and, well, a whole bunch of social and political complexities.
You have, with this book, intervened in that public debate in a pretty anti-pundit way, though.
In this area, I feel really strongly that’s what we need. More and more, it seems like both sides are getting really reductive, and ironing out the nuances of the conversation. There seems to be a proliferation of pundits.
Obviously on what I’m just gonna call the Jenny McCarthy side, the reduction is a lack of attention to the science. What about the other side?
On the pro-vaccine side — and not everyone does this but I saw it enough for it to make me really uncomfortable — is a tendency to accuse people who are wary of vaccination of being stupid and not understanding science. For most people who are hesitant about vaccination, a lot more is going on. I talked to lots of people who are vaccine-hesitant, and I actually was one myself until I got further into this project, and most of them actually are in my demographic: so well-educated people with advanced degrees, who are upper middle-class and have read quite a bit on the subject.
So not only is it reductive, I think it’s also wrong. I think if we’re really concerned about stopping falling vaccination rates, we also need to be concerned about the actual reasons why those rates are falling, and not just write it off to stupidity.
Because I enjoy your balanced and thoughtful comments and would like to hear where the interest exists for you on the subject matter of the book you linked to
There are a number of angles of interest which could be possible
Examples
1. The author and or the subject matter
2. The writing style of the author and approach taken to the discussion around the subject
3. The book and why it attracted critical acclaim
4. The interview approach which Kim Hill employs
etc
You mentioned social and political complexities and this is where I have interest in hearing perspectives of balanced commentators
The subject comes up from time to time and has frequently of late with abuse and derogatory comments the usual responses that I have questioned in recent days
By your comments here I would anticipate that you could elucidate a neutral balanced opinion regardless of your preference
That is the style of comment I would like to hear on the subject should you like to share
You don’t actually know what I need, but I’m suspecting that it’s not possible to have a conversation with you about it irrespective of whether I listen or not.
Sharing my thoughts before you have listened to the interview would prevent you from having an original experience of your own
When I said ” you need ” I was pointing out what should be abundantly clear regarding having your own experience without my thoughts involved
If you would like to back out of your own suggested approach to how we were to discuss the link you posted that is your prerogative but don’t do so using unconvincing tactics of transference and deflection
translation a) I totes have an opinion on it, but can’t tell you because spoilers.
translation b) I’m so awesome that if I tell you my opinion first, you’ll just agree with me rather than me educating you with a pseudo-Socratic dialogue that I’m not good enough to maintain so it turns into an interminable series of pointless questions to which I offer no answers. Besides, you’ve only read up to book four and don’t even know that dragon glass can kill the White Walkers.
“Sharing my thoughts before you have listened to the interview would prevent you from having an original experience of your own”
I’ve already read a Q and A with the author, so I’m not a clean slate. But even if what you imply is true, why would that matter if I hear your thoughts before the interview and thus don’t have an ‘original experience’?
“When I said ” you need ” I was pointing out what should be abundantly clear regarding having your own experience without my thoughts involved”
It sounds like you have a need to have me engage in a certain way. Or you want to control me. Either way, it’s not about my needs, it’s about yours.
“If you would like to back out of your own suggested approach to how we were to discuss the link you posted that is your prerogative but don’t do so using unconvincing tactics of transference and deflection”
I’m not backing out. There is nothing in my suggestion that commits us to not talking before we’ve both listened to the interview, and we can still talk after I’ve heard it. I haven’t had time to listen yet, so I’m suggesting that you start the ball rolling. This is a normal enough thing for me to do, no deflection or transference or amateur psychology needed.
I’ve already read a Q and A with the author, so I’m not a clean slate. But even if what you imply is true, why would that matter if I hear your thoughts before the interview and thus don’t have an ‘original experience’?
Q. Did you find fault with your own suggestion ?
Perhaps it matters perhaps it won’t but we’re not on the same field which is why I’m happy to go with your suggestion of waiting until we have both listened to the interview as it made sense
It sounds like you have a need to have me engage in a certain way. Or you want to control me. Either way, it’s not about my needs, it’s about yours.
Q. Are you deliberately forgetting I ‘m requesting to keep to your suggested approach ?
It was your suggestion which I am requesting to adhere to ergo it can’t be about anyone’s needs or control other than your own so the term for that comment is projection
There is nothing in my suggestion that commits us to not talking before we’ve both listened to the interview
You could say that but it’s lurching deep into the realms of making things up shifting goal posts and unbalanced
I haven’t had time to listen yet, so I’m suggesting that you start the ball rolling. This is a normal enough thing for me to do, no deflection or transference or amateur psychology needed
Q. Is it normal for you to change the conditions of your own suggestions ?
No worries take your time or not at all there is no compulsion to listen to the interview you linked to and highlighted
Should you choose to listen to the interview and comment on it I shall look forward to reading your thoughts and will be happy to keep to your suggestion by sharing mine
I still haven’t listened to it. I’m curious though, how you expect the conversation to go when you are dictating the terms of the conversation. It’s one thing to say, nah I’d rather wait. It’s another thing to try and use my suggestion to bind me into something which I clearly don’t consider to be binding. Or to make out that you know more about my intentions in the suggestion than I do. I’ll take that as a reasonable sign of bad faith.
Q. Why do you so intensely wish to project such odious interpretations onto my comments ?
I have been saying “nah I’d rather wait” and have not indicated I expect anything through my comments
That you appear to have become offended (?) in my position of appreciating your suggestion and perceived balance and thoughtfulness via twisting my comments is on you
I acknowledge and accept my error of judgement in your ability to be balanced or thoughtful and that is on me
I acknowledge and accept my error of judgement in your ability to be balanced or thoughtful and that is on me
lol
Your error in judgement was to assume that you could get away with not presenting an opinion of your own for an indefinite period of time.
Why so coy about presenting your own opinion? Do you really think you are so awesome that expressing your own thoughts would skew everyone else’s opinion?
BTW I read the link and listened to the interview.
Sunday morning on RNZ looking interesting too, including this,
7:08 Current Affairs – Call to Keep the Coal in the Hole
Christophe McGlade from University College London talks to Wallace about his study, recently published in the journal Nature, which says much of the world’s fossil fuels must be left in the ground in order to keep the global temperature rise under the 2-degree safety limit agreed by the world’s nations.
Aaron Packard, Oceania region co-ordinator for 350.org will talk about the grassroots global climate movement’s Global Divestment Days Feb 13 and 14, encouraging investors to pull out of fossil fuel companies.
Then Wallace speaks to Chris Baker, the chief executive of Straterra, an organisation that represents the NZ minerals and mining sector, about how the industry is meeting these challenges.
Finally, Simon Bridges, Minister of Energy and Resources and Associate Minister for Climate Change Issues talks about New Zealand’s response to the competing demands to both extract fossil fuels – and tackle global warming.
Joyce in UNACT newsletter : Average wages are also showing healthy growth, lifting 2.6 per cent over the year – well ahead of the 0.8 per cent inflation rate – and New Zealand continues to fare better than most of the OECD.
The other striking element of the new data is the record high participation in the labour market, of 69.7 per cent. This increase means unemployment rises slightly to 5.7 per cent despite the strong job growth.
Some questions Joyce might like to attempt a factual answer to:
1 0.8% inflation sounds like deflation. Is it only housing providing significant rising prices and revenues..
2 What are median wages at present?
3 And what was % the rise on them over the year?4
Is the OECD comparison useful? Can we have an actual concrete comparison as to which country are we compatible with – slightly above Nigeria and Tibet and Greece? Which?
4 What is the equivalent full time job percentage of total employment?
5 What are the % of four divisions of employment, full time (old style 40 hrs per week),
Full time (new style 30 hours per week), between 10-30 hours and under 10 hours per week.
6 What number of workers have less than 10 hours work per week.
7 How many workers are working into the old classification of anti-social hours, say outside of 8.00 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Housing is not included in the CPI, so no, housing is not providing significant rising prices to the CPI. Raw materials used in building new houses are included, but not house or land prices.
4. You should compare with countries that are similar to us, but everyone defines similar differently. Perhaps similar PPP GDP per capita? On this ranking (yay #46!) we are just below Saudi Arabia (Uneployment rate 11.7%) and Faroe islands (cant find it but Denmark 4.0%), just above Spain (23.7%) and UAE (4.2%). Or this ranking (GDP Per Capita) we are #26 just below France (8.0%) and UK (5.8%), just above Japan (3.5%) and Brunei (2.7%).
4 again. See 5 below – answer is there. The Full time Equivalent stat is a bit dicey. It is arbitrarily calculate as # full time jobs + 0.5 part time jobs. The calculation below I think makes more sense.
5. I think what you really trying to find is the number of under-employed i.e., those currently working but available for more work: 112,800 out of total workforce 2,518,000 = 4.5%
Part time employees- these are those happy to be part time, not looking for extra work: 534,200 /2,518,000= 22.3%
Unemployed = 143,000/2,518,000 = 5.7%
So employed full time = 1,585,000/2,518,000 =62.9% of workforce.
6. Don’t think they gather stats by “< 10 hours". But the better measure anyway would be currently working but looking for more work. That is 112,800 people or 4.5% of workforce.
7. That's tougher to find data on, but also a bit misleading. Many people choose to work those hours i.e., restaurant and bar staff, police, some industrial workers, nurses etc. Again what I think you're looking for is people working anti-social hours who are forced to. Not sure where to find that but I think the number would be relatively low.
There you go – wasn't hard to find. Took me 10 minutes. Next time don't be lazy and do it yourself.
@ nadis
Thank you for the info. And no thank you for the homily and sneer at the end.
I actually have never found it easy to find the info that i wanted for stats and spent hours fiddling round. And even you with all your expertise could not find some that I think is important and should be stated. So save dumping your shit on me.
Just ignore my comments in future- I don’t want someone so superior to feel they must put themselves out. Do it gladly, politely or not at all.
Lets have ago THE BISHOP and there are alot of old kiwi slang terms and objects that tell the truth about that
Brian Tamaki or Temi or Tero Tero excuse me if my spelling is wrong if you know what they are ,arch right winger from the land of “God Home Mother and Apple Pie” to quote Dave Crosby (The Byrds) where homosexuals, kids can be beaten to death by law, blacks and any other coloured people are pegged as religiously destitute in need of spiritual enlightenment of the type that went with the conquistadors
His fascist stance a few years ago marching down Queen St I believe, here he is now with a gun in one hand pig hunting ,and probably a bible in the other, a cover for his belief in the afore mentioned surely he could be taxed out of existence if we had some sort of morality in the value of these sort of people to actually expand the understanding of human spirituality but I fear only to the size of a pigs brain
The rest is thought of your own
He said nothing while his friend spewed anti-Māori invective for years;
Mike Hosking is the LAST person who should talk about “acrimony”.
Television One, Thursday 5 February 2015
On Seven Sharp tonight, host Mike Hosking gurned sardonically at the camera and burbled how there was far less “acrimony” at Waitangi this year.
What unbelievable cheek this fellow has. What unmitigated gall. What brass-plated, industrial-grade hypocrisy from this poseur, this imposter, this fawning toady to the powerful and the wealthy, this corrupt and cynical booster of casinos, this contemptible and vacuous lightweight of lightweights in the pathetic, anxious sea of lightweights that constitutes Television One’s dire and ever-diminishing “talent pool”.
Waitangi Day has (rightly) been the focus of serious political protest for decades now. But any acrimony has come almost entirely from the extreme right wing—and one person stands out in particular.
One of the vilest, most acrimonious racist harangues in living memory was unleashed on readers of the Herald three years ago by Paul Holmes—- one of Hosking’s friends and colleagues at NewstalkZB. Holmes raved insanely for 21 hate-filled paragraphs. Here’s a taster, if you can bear it….
…hateful, hate-fuelled weirdos who seem to exist in a perfect world of benefit provision… irrational Maori ghastliness with spitting, smugness, self-righteousness and the usual neurotic Maori politics… it’s a bullshit day, Waitangi… It is loony Maori fringe self-denial day…. it’s all the Pakeha’s fault. It’s all about hating whitey… Forget it. It is too awful and nasty and common. It is no more New Zealand day than Halloween…. Nor would I take my Uncle Ken who died in a Wellington bomber, then try and tell him Waitangi Day was anything but filth…. Let them go and raid a bit more kai moana than they need for the big, and feed themselves silly, speak of the injustices heaped upon them by the greedy Pakeha and work out new ways of bamboozling the Pakeha to come up with a few more millions….
Holmes then veers off into another mad frenzy, this one directed at “the breast feeding fascists” and then he has an obscene—and ignorant—spray about Syria. But what really excites his fevered brain is the bloody end of Mrs Assad…
He’s married to a very beautiful British woman, Bashir, a real English rose. One report suggested she and her family had tried to leave Syria last week but the convoy had been seen and turned back. She must know what’s coming. Armageddon is what’s coming. One dreads to imagine what they’ll do to her pretty face.
Mike Hosking never said a word about that download of acrimonious filth from his friend and colleague, who was beyond doubt one of this country’s more notorious racists.
Nobody with any sense takes Mike Hosking seriously on any topic, of course; to give any credence to what he has to say on race relations one would need to have one’s head examined.
Now Holmes was a vile little man. His behaviour towards family after Aramoana, was bestial – it was then I realised, the right wing in this country are a bunch of self serving, nasty, little creeps. He sat like king muck telling us what was going to happen, when we’d had family and friends die. His fake pathos made everyone in the room sick – he was not invited back – he got no interview. And no one in that room watched, or listened to him again.
You declaim very eloquently Morrissey…….I am a relatively vulgar. Hosking, the skinny jeans, the boy-hairdo, the mutton-dressed-up-as-lamb, the ‘poseur’ (thank you Morrissey), the archetypal Cafe Society git though self-elevated above that prosaic , bought and paid for by SkyCity – Hosking the up-himself big fish in a small pond. Such a pity really. He’s endowed intellectually but oh how he abuses that in favour of narcissism and cheap vanity. And Parnell BBQ tickets. Does his wife get a look-in ?
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Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 9 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 3Politics: New Zealand Government cabinet meeting usually held early afternoon with post-cabinet news conference possible at 4 pm, although they have not been ...
Trump being Trump, it won’t come as a shock to find that he regards a strong US currency (bolstered by high tariffs on everything made by foreigners) as a sign of America’s virility, and its ability to kick sand in the face of the world. Reality is a tad more ...
A listing of 24 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, January 26, 2025 thru Sat, February 1, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
What seems to be the common theme in the US, NZ, Argentina and places like Italy under their respective rightwing governments is what I think of as “the politics of cruelty.” Hate-mongering, callous indifference in social policy-making, corporate toadying, political bullying, intimidation and punching down on the most vulnerable with ...
If you are confused, check with the sunCarry a compass to help you alongYour feet are going to be on the groundYour head is there to move you aroundSo, stand in the place where you liveSongwriters: Bill Berry / Michael Mills / Michael Stipe / Peter Buck.Hot in the CityYesterday, ...
Shane Jones announced today he would be contracting out his thinking to a smarter younger person.Reclining on his chaise longue with a mouth full of oysters and Kina he told reporters:Clearly I have become a has-been, a palimpsest, an epigone, a bloviating fossil. I find myself saying such things as: ...
Warning: This post contains references to sexual assaultOn Saturday, I spent far too long editing a video on Tim Jago, the ACT Party President and criminal, who has given up his fight for name suppression after 2 years. He voluntarily gave up just in time for what will be a ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is global warming ...
Our low-investment, low-wage, migration-led and housing-market-driven political economy has delivered poorer productivity growth than the rest of the OECD, and our performance since Covid has been particularly poor. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty this ...
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.As far as major government announcements go, a Three Ministers Event is Big. It can signify a major policy development or something has gone Very Well, or an absolute Clusterf**k. When Three Ministers assemble ...
One of those blasts from the past. Peter Dunne – originally neoliberal Labour, then leader of various parties that sought to work with both big parties (generally National) – has taken to calling ...
Completed reads for January: I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson The Black Spider, by Jeremias Gotthelf The Spider and the Fly (poem), by Mary Howitt A Noiseless Patient Spider (poem), by Walt Whitman August Heat, by W.F. Harvey Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White The Shrinking Man, by Richard Matheson ...
Do its Property Right Provisions Make Sense?Last week I pointed out that it is uninformed to argue that the New Zealand’s apparently poor economic performance can be traced only to poor regulations. Even were there evidence they had some impact, there are other factors. Of course, we should seek to ...
Richard Wagstaff It was incredibly jarring to hear the hubris from the Prime Minister during his recent state of the nation address. I had just spent close to a week working though the stories and thoughts shared with us by nearly 2000 working people as part of our annual Mood ...
Odd fact about the Broadcasting Standards Authority: for the last few years, they’ve only been upholding about 5% of complaints. Why? I think there’s a range of reasons. Generally responsible broadcasters. Dumb complaints. Complaints brought under the wrong standard. Greater adherence to broadcasters’ rights to freedom of expression in the ...
And I said, "Mama, mama, mama, why am I so alone"'Cause I can't go outside, I'm scared I might not make it homeWell I'm alive, I'm alive, but I'm sinking inIf there's anyone at home at your place, darlingWhy don't you invite me in?Don't try to feed me'Cause I've been ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ star is on the rise, having just added the Energy, Local Government and Revenue portfolios to his responsibilities - but there is nothing ambitious about the Government’s new climate targets. Photo: SuppliedLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
It may have been a short week but there’s been no shortage of things that caught our attention. Here is some of the most interesting. This week in Greater Auckland On Tuesday Matt took a look at public transport ridership in 2024 On Thursday Connor asked some questions ...
The East Is Red: Journalists and commentators are referring to the sudden and disruptive arrival of DeepSeek as a second “Sputnik moment”. (Sputnik being the name given by the godless communists of the Soviet Union to the world’s first artificial satellite which, to the consternation and dismay of the Americans, ...
Hi,Back on inauguration day we launched a ridiculous RFK Jr. “brain worms” tee on the Webworm store, and I told you I’d be throwing my profits over to Mutual Aid LA and Rainbow Youth New Zealand. Just to show I am not full of shit, here are the receipts. I ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump over Gaza and Ukraine.Health expert and author David Galler ...
In an uncompromising paper Treasury has basically told the Government that its plan for a third medical school at Waikato University is a waste of money. Furthermore, the country cannot afford it. That advice was released this week by the Treasury under the Official Information Act. And it comes as ...
Back in November, He Pou a Rangi provided the government with formal advice on the domestic contribution to our next Paris target. Not what the target should be, but what we could realistically achieve, by domestic action alone, without resorting to offshore mitigation. Their answer was startling: depending on exactly ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guest David Patman and ...
I don't like to spend all my time complaining about our government, so let me complain about the media first.Senior journalistic Herald person Thomas Coughlan reported that Treasury replied yeah nah, wrong bro to Luxon's claim that our benighted little country has been in recession for three years.His excitement rose ...
Back in 2022, when the government was consulting internally about proactive release of cabinet papers, the SIS opposed it. The basis of their opposition was the "mosaic effect" - people being able to piece together individual pieces of innocuous public information in a way which supposedly harms "national security" (effectively: ...
With The Stroke Of A Pen:Populism, especially right-wing populism, invests all the power of an electoral/parliamentary majority in a single political leader because it no longer trusts the bona fides of the sprawling political class among whom power is traditionally dispersed. Populism eschews traditional politics, because, among populists, traditional politics ...
I’ve spent the last week writing a fairly substantial review of a recent book (“Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism: How we crushed the curve but lost the race”) by a couple of Australian academic economists on Australia’s pandemic policies and experiences. For all its limitations, there isn’t anything similar in New Zealand. ...
Mr Mojo Rising: Economic growth is possible, Christopher Luxon reassures us, but only under a government that is willing to get out of the way and let those with drive and ambition get on with it.ABOUT TWELVE KILOMETRES from the farm on the North Otago coast where I grew up stands ...
You're nearly a good laughAlmost a jokerWith your head down in the pig binSaying, 'Keep on digging.'Pig stain on your fat chinWhat do you hope to findDown in the pig mine?You're nearly a laughYou're nearly a laughBut you're really a crySongwriter: Roger Waters.NZ First - Kiwi Battlers.Say what you like ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s move to increase speed limits substantially on dozens of stretches of rural and often undivided highways will result in more serious harm. ...
In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis chose to loosen restrictions for digital nomads from other countries, rather than focus on everyday Kiwis. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to stand firm and work with allies to progress climate action as Donald Trump signals his intent to pull out of the Paris Climate Accords once again. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
A new monthly podiatry clinic has been launched today in Wairoa and will bring a much-needed service closer to home for the Wairoa community, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Health New Zealand has been successful in securing a podiatrist until the end of June this year to meet the needs of ...
The Judicial Conduct Commissioner has recommended a Judicial Conduct Panel be established to inquire into and report on the alleged conduct of acting District Court Judge Ema Aitken in an incident last November, Attorney-General Judith Collins said today. “I referred the matter of Judge Aitken’s alleged conduct during an incident ...
Students who need extra help with maths are set to benefit from a targeted acceleration programme that will give them more confidence in the classroom, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Last year, significant numbers of students did not meet the foundational literacy and numeracy level required to gain NCEA. To ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced three new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ...
Ki te kahore he whakakitenga, ka ngaro te Iwi – without a vision, the people will perish. The Government has achieved its target to reduce the number of households in emergency housing motels by 75 per cent five years early, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The number of households ...
The opening of Palmerston North’s biggest social housing development will have a significant impact for whānau in need of safe, warm, dry housing, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The minister visited the development today at North Street where a total of 50 two, three, and four-bedroom homes plus a ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced the new membership of the Public Advisory Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control (PACDAC), who will serve for a three-year term. “The Committee brings together wide-ranging expertise relevant to disarmament. We have made six new appointments to the Committee and reappointed two existing members ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora, good morning, talofa, malo e lelei, bula vinaka, da jia hao, namaste, sat sri akal, assalamu alaikum. It’s so great to be here and I’m ready and pumped for 2025. Can I start by acknowledging: Simon Bridges – CEO of the Auckland ...
The Government has unveiled a bold new initiative to position New Zealand as a premier destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) that will create higher paying jobs and grow the economy. “Invest New Zealand will streamline the investment process and provide tailored support to foreign investors, to increase capital investment ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins today announced the largest reset of the New Zealand science system in more than 30 years with reforms which will boost the economy and benefit the sector. “The reforms will maximise the value of the $1.2 billion in government funding that goes into ...
Turbocharging New Zealand’s economic growth is the key to brighter days ahead for all Kiwis, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. In the Prime Minister’s State of the Nation Speech in Auckland today, Christopher Luxon laid out the path to the prosperity that will affect all aspects of New Zealanders’ lives. ...
The latest set of accounts show the Government has successfully checked the runaway growth of public spending, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. “In the previous government’s final five months in office, public spending was almost 10 per cent higher than for the same period the previous year. “That is completely ...
The Government’s welfare reforms are delivering results with the number of people moving off benefits into work increasing year-on-year for six straight months. “There are positive signs that our welfare reset and the return consequences for job seekers who don't fulfil their obligations to prepare for or find a job ...
Jon Kroll and Aimee McCammon have been appointed to the New Zealand Film Commission Board, Arts Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “I am delighted to appoint these two new board members who will bring a wealth of industry, governance, and commercial experience to the Film Commission. “Jon Kroll has been an ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has hailed a drop in the domestic component of inflation, saying it increases the prospect of mortgage rate reductions and a lower cost of living for Kiwi households. Stats NZ reported today that inflation was 2.2 per cent in the year to December, the second consecutive ...
Two new appointed members and one reappointed member of the Employment Relations Authority have been announced by Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden today. “I’m pleased to announce the new appointed members Helen van Druten and Matthew Piper to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) and welcome them to ...
A long time ago, Brian Turner wrote a poem in which, among the mountains, as he slept on a river flat … My speechless ancestors played like mice among my dreamsand he woke to the river running over my bed of stone. I have come to know that where a ...
Pacific Media Watch President Donald Trump has frozen billions of dollars around the world in aid projects, including more than $268 million allocated by Congress to support independent media and the free flow of information. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has denounced this decision, which has plunged NGOs, media outlets, and ...
Otago University professor of international relations Robert Patman says New Zealand should provide a robust response to Donald Trump's Gaza plan, and also "should stop tip-toeing" around Trump. ...
The new minister of transport has opened the door for public consultation on at least some of the speed limit changes the government said would be automatic. ...
Officially, they’re called ‘memecoins,’ but Kōura Wealth founder Rupert Carlyon says the crypto world has another name for them: ‘shitcoins’.In digital finance, that phrase is used for tokens that have no true value – in essence, a money-grab.A few days before his inauguration, US President Donald Trump launched his own ...
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was. Guy Williams has made a whole show off the joke that he is a “volunteer” journalist. So getting publicly owned by David Seymour while trying to act as a journalist is a good and timely reminder not to underestimate the nuance and ...
Many of Sāmoa’s beloved dishes are the result of cultural collaboration, writes Madeleine Chapman. All photos by Jin FelletIf you ever find yourself at a barbecue in a Sāmoan home, there’s 99% chance that sapasui (chop suey) will be on the table. For the past century, sapasui has ...
The funnyman takes us through his life in television, including Jono and Ben mayhem, live Telethon flubs, and funnelling all those experiences into his new comedy Vince. There’s an inciting incident in Three’s new comedy Vince where morning television presenter Vince Walters (Jono Pryor) is visiting sick kids in hospital ...
People often claim they just want Waitangi Day to be a celebration. At Waitangi, away from the headlined political acrimony and the marae ātea, celebrating is what most people are doing. The Spinoff Essay showcases the best essayists in Aotearoa, on topics big and small. Made possible by the generous ...
Is there anything more fashionable than a Māori get together? One of the best things about Northland is that nobody cares what they look like — probably because they’re all naturally more stylish than the rest of us, famously. Māori from the Far North, especially. In 27 degree heat, wearing ...
I’ve been in love with him since last July, but it’s only now in this tepid hotel room that I find myself wondering why. The first thing he does when we arrive is smoke a cone in the bathroom – he emerges, hacking up a lung, fists thrust into his ...
MONDAY“Name,” barked a representative of the lower orders.I regarded him with a look of stern disapproval, and told him from up high, “May I remind you that I have name suppression. I shall also thank you to ask with more respect as befits a former president of the Act Party, ...
Books of Mana: 180 Māori-Authored Books of Significance, edited by Jacinta Ruru, Angela Wanhalla and Jeanette Wikaira has just been released by Otago University Press. In this essay, Books are Taonga, Jeanette Wikaira explores her personal relationship to books and their value.For me, books are taonga. The knowledge ...
Get to know Tara, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Tara’s human for their support! Dog name: Tara Age: Two Breed: Mostly Border Collie and a little bit Catahoula Leopard dog If dog ...
Health NZ's CEO has resigned, but frontline healthworkers are sceptical that installing new leadership will make any difference to a system grappling with problems. ...
Health NZ's CEO has resigned, but frontline healthworkers are sceptical that installing new leadership will make any difference to a system grappling with problems. ...
Gail Duncan, Chairperson of the St Peter’s on Willis Social Justice Group, one of the organisations invited to submit on the Bill, says the Government’s actions are unprecedented. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amani Kasherwa, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, The University of Queensland In late January, a rebel group that has long caused mayhem in the sprawling African nation of Democratic Republic of Congo took control of Goma, a major city of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yee-Fui Ng, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Monash University An ad falsely depicting independent candidate Alex Dyson as a Greens member.ABC News/Supplied The highly pertinent case of a little-known independent candidate in the Victorian seat of Wannon has exposed a gaping ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lauren Ball, Professor of Community Health and Wellbeing, The University of Queensland Nik/Unsplash You might have heard that eating too many eggs will cause high cholesterol levels, leading to poor health. Researchers have examined the science behind this myth again, and ...
Everything you missed from the third day of the Treaty principles bill hearings, when the Justice Committee heard four hours of oral submission. Read our recaps of day one of the hearings here, and day two here. Parliament was quiet on Friday for the third day of hearings on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thomas Jeffries, Senior Lecturer in Microbiology, Western Sydney University Tijana Simic/Shutterstock The news last week that three people in Sydney were hospitalised with botulism after receiving botox injections has raised questions about the regulation of the cosmetic injectables industry. The ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jens Blotevogel, Principal Research Scientist and Team Leader for Remediation Technologies, CSIRO Mino Surkala, Shutterstock Lithium-ion batteries are part of everyday life. They power small rechargeable devices such as mobile phones and laptops. They enable electric vehicles. And larger versions store ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Edith Jennifer Hill, Associate Lecturer, Learning & Teaching Innovation, Flinders University Netflix Netflix’s new limited series, Apple Cider Vinegar, tells the story of the elaborate cancer con orchestrated by Australian blogger Annabelle (Belle) Gibson. The first episode opens with Gibson’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dee Ninis, Earthquake Scientist, Monash University Greece’s government has just declared a state of emergency on the island of Santorini, as earthquakes shake the island multiple times a day and sometimes only minutes apart. The “earthquake swarm” is also affecting other ...
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 The Western Australian state election will be held on March 8. A Newspoll, conducted January 29 to February 4 from a sample ...
She’s back behind the wheel, and this time, she wants to find out what it is that makes us tick. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. After a prolific career on stage and screen, 83-year-old Miriam Margolyes is on the road again. ...
A new poem by Jordan Hamel. Real Poet Every word earned its place and so did he, so should you. Real poet lives in the capital but writes himself into the Mackenzie country golden hour, man of the paper land, he neglects to mention his pollen ...
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 Understanding Te Tiriti by Roimata Smail (Wai Ako Press, $25) No better time to get ...
The committee has published this list to inform the public about its work, and to give clarity to submitters who have contacted the committee asking if they will be invited to make an oral submission. ...
Alex Casey and Gabi Lardies dissect their Laneway 2025 experience. Gabi Lardies: Hi Alex :))))))) Congratulations on not getting sunburnt. Everyone I talked to at Laneway yesterday was braving the sun for one thing. Charli XCX. How was your brat experience?Alex Casey: We will talk about the rest of ...
The US President's suggestion, which sparked enormous debate globally, has been labelled as a threat, not a proposal, by the Federation of Islamic Associations. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine McCarthy, Senior Lecturer in Interior Architecture, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Interior of Auckland South Men’s Prison.Getty Images Prisons are not colourful places. Typically, they are grey or some variation of a monochrome colour scheme. But increasingly, ...
FICTION1Tree of Nourishment (Kāwai 2) by Monty Soutar (David Bateman, $39.99)Interesting to note that the author of the biggest-selling New Zealand novel in Waitangi Week is Māori (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tai, and Ngāti Kahungunu).2 Kāwai: For Such a Time as This (Kāwai 1) by Monty Soutar (David ...
Remembering the renowned New Zealand writer, who died on February 5, 2025. The Stopover When the trout rise like compassion It is worth watching when the hinds come down from the hills with a new message it will be as well to listen. – Brian Turner Poet, environmentalist, sportsman, journalist, ...
Survivors can choose to have former High Court judge Paul Davison assess their individual claims to tailor payments to their personal circumstances. ...
Silly me. For years I’ve taken Margaret Thatcher’s claim – “there is no such thing as society” – as a mark of her moral corruption. No no no ! All the time it was a beautiful “tapestry” of which she spoke.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/08/context-for-margaret-thatcher-s-there-is-no-such-thing-as-society-remarks.html#
I guess her close insider Sir Peter Morrison and the toff-shy police force of the day reflected that beautiful tapestry.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11323146/Thatcher-confidant-raped-boy-and-police-covered-crime-up.html
And what a howler the lashings of exhortation to personal responsibility !
morena everyone,
here is an idea for those who will be at waitangi.
to simply demonstrate your disapproval of mr key and his governments’ action/inaction on:
inequality,
child poverty,
the environment,
the economy,
sending troops to someone elses war,
housing etc.
when he speaks, quietly turn your back.
when his vehicle goes past, turn your back.
i have to leave the laptop shortly and in case this idea gets questions asked of it, there is this.
youtube.com/watch?v=koC04cuCc3E
A reasonable approach to protest but reasonable does not usually equal results.
a) Key is unlikely to care if he happens to notice
b) The media are unlikely to care and they dictate what gets attention.
‘Ten people turned their backs’ is far less likely to attract interest than ‘one person spat’. A sad fact of media dominated politics.
Nearly lost the New York Mayor his job.
And it is exceedingly televisual, which is all that counts in Waitangi.
Nearly lost the New York Mayor his job.
The only reaction I saw in the media was “fuck those disrespectful fucks and fuck whatever it is they’re complaining about”
You’re counseling spitting to register effective protest then are you PG ?
So that you can clutch your fucking pearls all weekend thereafter ?
As though it were you got it in the eye ?
Yeah I know you’re not counseling spitting.
You’d rather there were no protest.
Protest challenges YourGodKey.
And the Settled Order – Hue George.
Quibble as much as you like.
That’s your truth.
“That’s your truth.”
That’s kinda funny when all you’ve done is make things up.
🙄
You and everyone else know full well what I mean PG. Not cute.
“..‘Ten people turned their backs’ is far less likely to attract interest than ‘one person spat’. ..”
fact one:..there are far more than ten people..
fact two:..a mass turning of backs as a means of non-violent protest..
..is powerful both practically and visually…
..and one the media/cameras wd record/report on..
..as usual..p.g..u.r. full of shit..
…yes, group back turning is strongly symbolic; as was Journalist Muntadar al-Zeidi’s shoe throwing at Dubya Bush in 2008…
and for an attention hua like key it would actually rattle him IMO
🙄
What would you recommend? Chat to their local MP at Waitangi?
It’s a good idea Gsays – the beige parrot has no more clue about effective politics than he does of effective fact checking.
I’m starting to think that describing PG as beige is an insult to beige.
It is a good idea and needs to go out via ttwitter amongst other things. I don’t DO twitter so cannot help in this regard.
Even if the media dont catch it in time they will simply get the people to re create the moment for them to film.
+1
What a brilliant idea.
Effective, simple, and very Martin Luther King.
and it utterly neuters any “violent bloody maaaris!” whines
I believe Maori have a more demonstrative way of turning their backs on people they dislike.
took me a while – but i got there in the end 🙂
Snap! Yesterday I began a comment suggesting this but the day got away on me… thank goodness for like minds.
– A Mexican wave of turning backs as the cavalcade passes
– Simple to do, action without violence, or speaking (impossible?)
– Visual gold for the cameras if enough people do it
– as good as a wave of laughing and pointing…
Yes, people must turn their backs on the prying and lying twit.
Do it not just for the cameras but for the country, our increasingly unequal society, our environment, our families, our squeezed communities, and our future generations. And most importantly, do it for ourselves for willing to make a stand on ethics, integrity and the public (not corporate, bankster or casino) interest.
hi kiwiri and jo and others,
the most important aspect of this, imo, is the power it gives to those in the group who turn their backs.
they dont see the news, they dont know what mr key thinks…
they get the feeling of being a part of a community and experience what happens when we cooperate.
i am not a twitterer nor a face booker but anyone is welcome to run with this.
the one aspect of this handwringing/we must go to help them! drive to war..
..is that these countries’ neighbours are oil-rich/armed to the teeth..
..why do we have to go and fight there ‘to protect them’..?
..are you fucken kidding me..?
..they have the means/arms to help themselves..to sort out their own problem.
..and if we were in some strife down here..
..would they come down here to help us…?
..we all know the answer to that is:..’no’…
..so i repeat..
..why the fuck is there this (supposed) imperative for us to make those financial/human-sacrifices..
..we are going to fight to protect oil-rich/human-rights-abusing dictators..
..for why..?
hi phil, it’s time for anyone in favour of this move to have nicky hager’s other people’s wars read to them.
read to them
😆
+ 1..’heh!’..
hi..
..i wd really like someone in the mainstream/corporate-media to ask those questions..
..those why the fuck are we going to fight to ‘protect’ oil-rich/armed-to-the-teeth/human-rights-abusing dictators-questions..
..they are big/ugly/armed-up enough to take care of their own business..
..but i’m not holding my breath..waiting for those questions from our m.s.m./corporate-media shills..
..they just seem to nod-along to the war-mongering spin/bullshit being fed them by key..
..unthinking/unquestioning-fools/corporate-tools…that most of them are..
mushrooms phil mushrooms
being kept in the dark and fed bullshit
everyone has been on mushrooms
there is no logic, no morality, no credibility to be seen
the US created this mess, let them sort it out. let them remain the targets of their own creation.
you know who should be arming themselves and going – the Bush family.
Get the f$#^&g Bush family to deal with it, not our children in whanganui, te kaha, kerikeri, gore, seddon and masterton – we have nothing to do with it
If NZ must be forced to be involved by dear leader’s subservience to the yanks, how about bringing back conscription; the pool to consist solely of males aged 45–65 years, residing in Parnell and Remuera, Auckland.
@ t.m..
..+ 1..
..heh..!
..aye..!
“..would they come down here to help us…?”
Be interesting to make a list of countries that would.
US
Australia
UK
Canada
PI Nations
SIngapore (small maybe)
Malaysia (big maybe)
?
China
i think you are being very optimistic there..nadis..
..even when we were in that military-treaty thing with the u.s..
..there were no guarantees in that treaty that america wd automatically come to help us were we facing some danger..
..it was carefully worded to avoid committing america to that..
..i think the only/main factor to drive america to move..
..wd be to protect their scummy five-eyes kit/infrastructure..
..their guantanamo bay here..
..and certainly not to just ‘help’ us because of any moral/historical-imperatives..
..anyone who believes counter to that – is deluding themselves..
They would come down here but not because of us. They would come down here for the strategic geographical position close to Antartica and Australia and for our natural resources.
That
is
all
strategic geographical position close to Antartica
My geologist friend said something similar.
NZ is very strategically important to influence or control because it is the stepping stone to the resources of Antarctica.
Yep exactly. And colonial rawshark below has it right about the importance of us having the right sort of defence / protection capabilities ……..
The bottom of the world is rapidly increasing in value to humanity
And who they fuck are they helping to defend us from? Is Fiji looking to invade NZ? Honestly we sit in the bottom of the pacific with so many nations between us and any conceivable threat that any attack that might reach us is going to have to go through the US or Australia anyway. If it did come to us being under attack then the US, AUS, and all those pretty allies are already gone. We probably would have lost our defence force fighting with them long before the threat reached NZ.
er…. it was a hypothetical. sorry to get you so worked up.
The problem is that the hypothetical is the exact reason used be people trying to push us into war. i.e if we want them to be there for us when we are under attack we have to be there for them when they are attacking. It is just unbelievable.
NZ needs to have its own independent highly capable area defence forces, as well as the ability to project military power into the nearby Pacific and southern oceans.
that’s ok nadis..
..you did well in helping expose that rent in the official war-story…
..a special (involuntary)-assistant-award will be couriered to you..
..(you should treasure it..nadis..it is rare for rightwingers to get these..
..one to keep/show the grandkids..eh..?..)
..keep up the good work..!
I don’t even know what you are talking about. Not sure if it is the lack of grammatical structure or the pot. Could be both.
You’re an unpatriotic hua VTO. I say let’s exercise some personal responsibility and give it the Max.
Actually North, if you think about it my view is completely patriotic and it is those like yourself who are unpatriotic whores..(but I suspect you’re pulling my tit)
You may wish to consider a further view I have, from yesterdays “Now its family?” thread….
“Is this the same “family” that refused to stand by us when the French committed an act of terrorism in Auckland in the 1980’s?… yet demanded we stand by it over Salman Rushdie?
Is this the same “family” that sent us to our certain deaths at Gallipoli in WWI?
Is this the same “family” that refused to provide support for us in WWII?
Is this the same “family” that has been an imperial and occupying and invading army in the middle east for god knows how long, causing misery and destruction and death?
Is this the same “family” that nuked the shit out of our part of the world in the 1950s and later?
Is this the same “family” that has totally shat on Te Tiriti and its partner thereof?
Is this the same “family” that has completely shat on my own true family in parts of the world in recent centuries? To such an extent we were driven out?
Is this fuckwit for real?
FUCK OFF BRITISH WANKERS… don’t you realise some of us came here to escape you cunts. Piss off
I offer you NOTHING ….
Stephanie Rogers suggests its about time we told the “family” to get off our backs !
https://bootstheory.wordpress.com/2015/02/04/a-reader-asks-how-do-i-tell-my-pushy-colonial-parents-no/
@ vto..
..+1..
..well/sturdily-said/put..
You got it right in the last few words of your first paragraph VTO – your tit should be stinging like hell ! Well and passisonately said the rest of your comment – “family” indeed !
Justice Lowell Goddard (NZ JUdge) has been appointed to head an inquiry into sex abuse claims in the UK ahead of 149 other candidates.
If their equivalent of their Justice Minister doesn’t like what she concludes will he/she just publicly rubbish hers like our former Justice Minister did with Canadian Judge Binnie? Would “we” be outraged?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/65805093/nzs-justice-lowell-goddard-to-head-uk-sex-abuse-inquiry
Over 100,000 survivors, the inquiry will go on for years. I have also heard in the media that a paedophile ring operated within the government in the 1980’s. This week there were mass sackings within the Birmingham City Council (over the last 4 years sackings as well) due to failing to protect children who were sexually assaulted.
The structure in Britain appears to be different as social workers work for the city council.
I want justice and recognition for historical sexual assault/abuse survivors. This will help current cases, by not making the inexcusable errors made in the past.
New Zealand judge Lowell Goddard to lead abuse inquiry
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-31130805
> I have also heard in the media that a paedophile ring operated within the government in the 1980’s
It is also thought that a number of British government figures are connected to the murdering of children:
http://exaronews.com/articles/5409/operation-midland-investigates-tory-mp-over-boy-s-murder
And it’s not just the British government; it’s the British/NZ monarchy, too:
http://exaronews.com/articles/5419/buckingham-palace-drawn-into-scandal-over-paedophile-ring
https://www.scribd.com/doc/246043736/Paedophiles-and-the-Palace-56-reasons-why-the-Royal-Family-must-answer-urgent-questions-for-the-UK-s-Inquiry-into-Child-Sexual-Abuse
Thanks for the additional information I will read it.
See Judge Lowell answered British MPs questions overnight our time. The inquiry is expected to last 4 years and will recommence in April, (not sure if a restart).
On Monday 9 February just after the 9am news on NZ National Radio, Judge Henwood (head of the panel into hearing the accounts of those abused while in welfare state care during childhood), Garth Young (in charge of management of claims for MSD) and Sonya Cooper (has hundreds of cases to settle) were interviewed by Kathryn Ryan.
Justice is too slow for many claimants, some with major health problems settled for less, the hearing panel will wind up in June 2015, not sure of the date when it happened but the hearing panel had to turn people away, obtaining historical records has been differcult…
Other countries e.g. Canada and Australia have a Royal Commission going or a tribunal. I do not like the way that MSD has dragged their heels and that they are investigating themselves (formerly being Social Welfare).
The government has millions for Sky City, but not to settle historical sexual assault claims while being a ward of the state. Some of these children have lived with PTSD for decades, the perpetrator/s were not stopped or charged. A government disgrace of many decades.
Socialist policies contributing to unsafe sex.
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/condoms-cost-750-in-venezuela-2015-2
gossman being a predictable time waster and cherry picker
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-05022015/#comment-963552
All to do with the price of oil Gosman and nothing to do with the quality of the Government.
Other nations relying on oil such as Norway and Saudi Arabia aren’t suffering as badly. The question is also why is Venezuela so heavily dependent on a single industry (more so now than before the Chavist regime took over)? Surely the Socialist revolution would have unleashed to potential of the poor and downtrodden and they can make their own toilet paper and medicines and not rely on imports. Instead they are more dependent on importing essentials now than ever. That suggests a serious failure of economic management.
Why is New Zealand so reliant on the dairy industry? Surely this capitalist nation should have allowed compition to unlock high tech high value markets.
Two points.
New Zealand does not rely on Dairying for 95% of export income. It is well under 40%.
New Zealand’s Dairy industry increased production during the Dairying boom. Venezuela’s oil production was static during the boom over the past 5 or 6 years.
Are you saying that if there was a crash in the dairy market it would have no major negative effect on our economy? If the answer to that is no then you other two points in no way counter what I said. If the answer to that is yes you are delusional.
It would have an impact it is true. Indeed we are seeing that recently as the price of Milk has dropped by around the same percentage as the price of oil. I don’t notice a shortage of toilet paper and condoms in NZ though.
Nothing to do with trade sanctions by the USA to punish Venezuela for electing a dreaded socialist?
Venezuela is able to trade with nations other than the US. It is also not prohibited from trading with the US.
Your link was about targeted sanctions on certain individuals not on trade between the two nations generally. I also note it has yet to be signed in to law.
BTW Zimbabwe blamed their economic collapse on the same thing back in the early 2000’s
The problem in venezuala is actually corruption. Not socialism, not capitilism, not the US. The government is a corrupt cabal of cronies who enrich themselves at the expense of wider society. They wrap themselves in the language of socialism but are no different to the politiciians who run every failed or failing state around the world. Corrupt.
http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21583252-evidence-huge-rip-offs-heart-bolivarian-revolution-has-unleashed-political
http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/09/26/inenglish/1380217098_793793.html
https://news.vice.com/article/venezuelas-drug-running-generals-may-be-who-finally-ousts-maduro
Depends on how you define corruption. The issue with shortages in the Venezuelan economy is to do with an official exchange rate that does not reflect market reality and price controls.
The Venezuelan currency is seriously overpriced and as such it makes sense to use it to buy USD if you are lucky enough to get the official rate. This leads to a shortage of USD for people who need them like importers. As such they then have to buy their items using the unofficial rate (i.e. black market rate). The items are sold in Venezuela using the usual mark up values but if you converted them to USD at official rates they look prohibitively expensive.
Price controls mean that suppliers stop stocking items that have little of no margin for profit. That is why staples tend to disappear far faster than luxury items as they are the items governments slap price controls on. Also items that can be purchased at the controlled price and can be easily transported tend to disappear out of the country and appear in neighbouring countries next door or on the black market where the price cannot be controlled by the government.
In both those countries laws are being broken and therefore it could be argued corruption is taking place. However the laws themselves are at odds with economic reality so it is corruption born of wrong headed leftist policies.
Despite or because of the ruling classes nothing has really changed in the seventy years since John Gunther wrote about shortages, costs and inflation in Venezuela.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/1860766?zoomLevel=1
crashcart: the entire NZ agriculture, forestry and fishing industry contributes 5.6% to NZ GDP. We aren’t as reliant on dairy as popular misconceptions would have you believe.
Right so when the trade price drops and we see the governments much vaunted surplus dissapear it is in no way a reflection upon how reliant we have become on dairy.
just giving you some hard facts, but if you’d prefer to rely on your feelings then fine.
You bought selective facts as did I. GDP is made up af all transactions within an economy. So yes in terms of GDP it may be low. Here is where you left it. As a percentage of exports it is high. Even if it is just under 40% that is still a large amount. An amount that if reduced would have a very negative effect on our terms of trade as well as the amount of liquidity in our economy. Of course I am just going on feeling so thanks for the education.
I don’t want to further confuse you crashcart, but in 2014 dairy made up 29% of merchandise exports. So add in non-merchandise exports (tourism, services etc) and you can see that dairy makes up a surprisingly low amount of exports.
Sorry to keep on giving you unhelpful facts. I’d just ignore them and focus on your gut feelings.
Sorry my % was missinformed as I was going of what Gossman put up. No one to blame for that but myself.
Of course it was double the nearest export sector and nearly 4 times that of the third in 2013. I wasn’t able to pull up the figures for 2014 so won’t speculate on what they were. Although by your figures it is increasing. I guess you are right and it is not a major influencer of our export sector.
I actually stated it was well below 40% of total exports. I was aware of the 29% figure but wanted to give some leeway and still show that NZ is far less dependent on a single export item than Venezuela.
I was wondering Mickysavage – if it was more to do with Gossey needing to get laid. And laid well.
Love the way you spend so much time trying to find anything wrong with what you think is the left wings socialist dream. Perhaps everytime you come up with one of these people should bring up a link to an issue in a capatilist nation.
Allow me to be the first. Capatalist policies contributing to the murder of children in schools
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States
More their attitude to gun control. Hardly reflective of their economic system.
Does your comment mean you don’t think the Venezuelan government is attempting to implement a Socialist set of policies? Interesting if you do think that because it is seemingly at odds with other leftists who support the Chavista regime and what they are attempting to do.
Your link provided no direct causation between the price of condoms and the socialist governmetns policies. It ignored the fact that external factors have actively worked to undermine the country and this could just as easily be a result of that. In the same way mine provided no causation.
I am glad you have solved the US issues of gun violence by putting it down to their attitude to gun control. Of course it ignores Canada who are just as liberal on their gun control laws and have even higher gun ownership rates. Do feel free to let the US administration know that all you have the answer to their gun violence and it has nothing to do with inequality bought on by their capatalist system.
Care to explain why external factors cause the price of a packet of 36 Condoms to cost the equivalent of $750 USD on the official rate?
Condoms are made out of petroleum byproducts are they not? What is the one resource that Venezuela has an abundance of?
Condoms are imported there from capatalist countries. Care to tell me how that is not an external factor that would have an effect upon their price.
China manufacturers Condoms. What possible reason would China have not selling to Venezuela? In fact Venezuela has oil that China desperately wants so it would be extremely beneficial to trade.
Most condoms are latex, which is made of (natural) rubber. Trojan FAQs
Some are made from polyurethane, but those are mainly for people with latex allergies.
Don’t try and bring facts to an argument with Gossy.
Fair enough. I stand corrected on that point.
A recent survey in the US states with the highest gun ownership a least gun controls,have the highest murder rates and highest gun violence rates.
Gossamer making a dick of himself again.
Ummm… are you stating high gun ownership and lack of strong gun control laws lead to increased gun violence? If so, then you are agreeing with my position.
Who is making the dick out of them self again?
No he was stating that it is a contributor. Yes I think he thought you were arguing against gun control as that is the normal RWNJ stance. However as usual the fact that there may be multiple influences to a hugely difficult social issue seems to be beyond you.
Since you mentioned Violent crime and murder here are some interesting statistics about Venezuela
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/30/venezuela-homocide-rate-2014_n_6395960.html
These have been steadily getting worse over the time the Chavista regime has been in power. Curiously income inequality in the country has fallen sharply over that period as well which is at odds with what many leftists think should happen.
Since you mentioned condoms.
http://www.livescience.com/48100-sexually-transmitted-infections-50-states-map.html
I think you missed the point that you can go and find something wrong with every country. You however seem to spend an inordinant amount of time trying to prove that Venezuela is flawed and that this means that socialisim does not work.
Well here is where you little crusade becomes stupid:
1) Venezuela is not in a little planet of its own. It has to operate with countries who have an active interest in ensureing it fails. When the US doesn’t want a country so close to work then that country will not work. So to point to them and say “look socialisim doesn’t work I has proofs” whilst completeing ignoring the influence that Capitalist nations have on their performance is ignorance at its worst.
2) I don’t think I have every seen any one here hold Venezuela up as their idea of a socialist utopia. So you are trying to use a classic straw man. It would be like me turning around and pointing to Somalia that tried to operate as a 0 tax small govenment and use that as an example of why capitalisim doesn’t work. That of course would be ignoring a huge number of factors that also contribute to the shit hole it is.
How can the US impact the cost of Condoms in Venezuela?
I choose to highlight the failures of Venezuela because it is interesting to note the responses of many leftists to a situation which seemingly shows that adopting a far left set of policies leads to economic ruin. What I find is many just can’t accept this unpleasant fact and blame the issues on anything but the Venezuelan government.
The brand of Condom in your original link is Trojan a US brand. Of course they can effect the price are you being deliberately dumb on this point.
So you admit that you use Venezuela as a straw man to attack. Like I said I could say the same about Somalia, or Mexico, or Honduras, or Nigeria.
To your above point about China. I don’t know why China are not supporting Venezuela … oh wait they are you are full of shit again.
http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-12-12/with-oil-prices-falling-venezuela-needs-china-more-than-ever
How would the US Condom maker cause the price of their Condoms to be as high as $750 USD? Why wouldn’t the Venezuelan importer of the product not just buy cheaper brands from other nations if they did? Why don’t they just reimport it from neighbouring countries where I suspect it is not the equivalent of $750 USD?
Perhaps the manufacturer has contracts with their suppliers that prevents them onselling them to Venezuela. Its not like you just send someone across the border to buy a few boxes of Joey’s and that will solve the issue of their cost.
Let me get this clear. You are stating the Us manufacturer of Trojan Condoms has decided that it will sell the item for the equivalent of $750 USD in the Venezuelan market (less mark up from the distributors) and has also stopped neighbouring nations from on-selling in to the Venezuelan market- Is that correct?
Here’s an alternative for you. The price of the Condoms aren’t really the equivalent of $750 USD. Indeed they are much less if you use the black market rate. The problem for the distributor in Venezuela is they can’t access the USD to buy them at the official rate so they have to use black market sourced US dollars to get them in.
Actually Gos I suspect that they aren’t importing any at all, so the price has risen to reflect the value of their remaining limited stock.
Although in this case I seriously doubt anyone would see value in a condom at that price.
Nope. The price in equivalent USD is using official rates. The point is the supplier is unlikely to be using the official rate to purchase the stock so hence why the value is high using that measure. Using the unofficial rate it is still high but more affordable (at least to those with cash).
Come on Gossy – lets not complain about condoms – lets encourage other forms of sex apart from penetration.
I can think of heaps of Adult playtime things to do in the bedroom which don’t require condoms. Massage, whips, chains, cream and the like. The world does not need to fret about condoms Gossy – and neither do you.
Gossamer nothing to do with the trade sanctions or the fact very few countries have advanced petrochemical industries.
Any country that has opposing economic or political ideas to the US become targeted especially if they have oil.
A country that has oil reserves is 100× more likely to suffer foriegn intervention.
If Venezuela didn’t have oil it would be
left alone.
And Gossamer wouldn’t have to be a propaganda tool making a dick of himself!
Venezuela is still able to trade with the US and pretty much any other nation it chooses on the planet. Trade sanctions are not the cause of the economic difficulties in that country.
Goss said it so it must be true.
So Gossamer their has been no retaliation to the nationalization of the Oil industry!
You are a tool of the propaganda machine Gossamer!
ROFL
Sure, it’s even possible that trade sanctions by the US are designed to HELP the Venezuelan people, right?
Moronic.
Interesting that the Zanu-PF government in Zimbabwe used the same excuse for their economic collapse. The very limited sanctions imposed on certain individuals was the cause of hyperinflation and shortages of goods apparently and not the fact they destroyed their productive sector, slapped price controls on and printed money to fund their excessive government spending. Similar to what is happening in Venezuela.
I do have a simple question for you. Please show me one product that has been unable to be brought by Venezuela as a result of any trade sanctions imposed? Just one would suffice.
LOL the Zimbabwe example, out of 170 countries in the world, more idiocy. Venezuela is a full democracy which once again, the USA is trying its hardest to destabilise.
I will ask you once again,
Please show me one product that has been unable to be brought by Venezuela as a result of any trade sanctions imposed?
FFS do you not understand the problem? Which is Venezuela is being deprived of hard foreign currency through a financial capital strike.
How is this financial capital strike playing out?
Who are the players denying Venezuela access to foreign capital?
Why would a nation like China (which has plenty of US currency in reserve) deny Venezuela access to US currency?
Where did all of Venezuela’s currency reserves go considering they had tens of billions not so many years ago?
BTW once again the argument you put forward is exactly the same as that put forward by Zanu-PF to explain their problems. I find it especially funny considering the respective governments of Venezuela and Zimbabwe spend much of their time banging on about how evil the foreign financiers are then complain that all their woes are caused by them not lending them any money.
Fuck off with teh Zimbabwe example it’s utterly irrelevant. Venezuela is a thriving democracy where people have been empowered not driven off their land. The US wants to see Venezuela fail, and wants to put in a regime which will allow them to take their oil for free.
You are free to ignore my comparisons to Zimbabwe. It would be useful to answer my questions in regard to these terrible restrictions and financial capital strike Venezuela is subject to.
How is this financial capital strike manifested exactly and why doesn’t Venezuela circumvent it via use of foreign currency from other sources?
hey mr gosman, speaking of capital where does the money come from to pay the interest on the ever-increasing pile of debt in the world?
That is for the people who choose voluntarily to take out the debt to answer. I presume they do so for a reason and I also presume they are aware they need to pay interest on the money they are leant. If they aren’t aware then they are either stupid or have been lied to and therefore have a good case not to pay back the money or at least the interest component of the debt. Either way why should I care?
Venezuela is a full democracy
LOL!
Let me re-write that sentence for you CR:
Venezuela is a full* democracy** that enables the government to intimidate, censor and prosecute critics, use arbitrary detention, subjugate the judiciary, aggressively close down alternative media sources, revoke licences of internet providers that allow the publication of criticism of the government, allow and encourage extra-judicial killings by security forces, fire public workers who do not vote for the incumbent, and of course vote against the recent UN human rights report on North Korea.
* Full may contain nothing
** democracy may not mean actual democracy
Can you help me understand what “Full Democracy” means again CR? Unless of course Human Rights Watch is a front for the CIA.
http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2014/country-chapters/venezuela
http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/venezuela/report-2012
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/apr/16/children-clothing-survey-bikini-heels
Capitalism corporatism materialism consumerism creates oversexualised children
Who watched Campbell last night?
Old friends getting together for a pre Waitangi party.
Yes there beeming live into homes nationwide were former Labour leaders Phil Goff & David Shearer partying the night away with former wannabe Labour leader & MP Shane Jones. Shearer putting in a cameo performance as front man singing and strumming his guitar.
While my partner snarled and said “that’s it with Labour.” I started laughing saying Shane Jones is just abiding by his employment contract with his employer the National Government.
When they crossed back later in the show I could have sworn Goff & Shearer were milling around Murray McCully signing some paperwork.
Just wondering if Matt Mc Carten is drafting up some paperwork for them to sign today?
Loved it! Jones still can’t speak without using 40 words when four would do, but it was great to see Shearer and Billy TK Jnr jamming. Overall, a pretty positive piece. Labour: Good Times!
http://www.3news.co.nz/tvshows/campbelllive/pre-waitangi-day-party-at-shane-jones-2015020420#axzz3QoE9NMRf
Oh gawd welcome to the free market imperial wing of the Labour Party. No wonder they signed that bloody surveillance bill.
Hone hinted at Shane Jones running in the by election this morning and the reporter asked him for which party , that would be a twist if jones ran for the nats.
Disregard that one Jones counted him self out
going to the seychelles this man of the people…
That’s a great description of them. I liked Alf’s Imperial Army better.
Oh gawd welcome to the free market imperial wing of the Labour Party. No wonder they signed that bloody surveillance bill.
When shall we be rid of this loathsome toad? Jones’ dissembling doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.
I was hoping Shearer and Goff would hold up a slab of marlin each that Jones was blowing his arse about having caught. We all know what happened last time Shearer held up fish. Gone by lunch time!
NZH editor not happy with Gareth Morgan
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11396761
Why be antagonised ?
That last line is a doozy
identity in perspective – NZH editor following a very well known line there.
For me I welcome Gareth Morgan working to educate Pākehā – some may move their ideas. I also like that he is talking to Pākehā from both marae and RSA Hall (or wherever it was). The editorial is entitled – “Biculturalism doesn’t need late convert” – I think it does.
yes..the whole premise of that editorial is total racist-bullshit..
Bloody great that someone stood up and gave a significant response to Don Brash’s divisive Orewa diatribe. It’s a shame that it had to be someone outside politics.
In the Otago Daily Times today, “The Government highlighted that it had continued “to crank out strong job growth”…’
Wasn’t it Key’s position, several years ago now, that it isn’t the government’s role to create jobs, but that of business? This was back when he was being blasted for an increase in unemployment. I can’t seem to find the original quote anywhere, only references to it, but I imagine someone here will have a link.
Can’t have it both ways, Key. You’re either responsible for (un)employment levels, or you’re not.
A new British play about working in a job centre sounds eerily familiar. Brownie points for cruelty could be a Paula Bennett motivational mantra.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/04/jobcentre-adviser-play-benefit-sanctions-angela-neville
“..U.S. Surgeon General Says Marijuana ‘Can Be Helpful’ For Some Medical Conditions..
..Dr. Vivek Murthy – the nation’s newest surgeon general-
– says that marijuana ‘can be helpful’ for some medical conditions –
– and wants science to dictate policy on the federally banned substance..”
(cont..)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/04/vivek-murthy-marijuana_n_6614226.html?ref=topbar
“..Colorado is making so much money from cannabis – it’s having to give some back to citizens..
..Colorado’s marijuana experiment has been an empirically rousing success thus far –
– with crime down and tourism up –
– and now the state has collected so much money in tax from sales of pot –
– that it might be legally obliged to give some back.
The state constitution puts a cap on the amount of tax money that can be taken in before some has to be returned-
– meaning Coloradans could see a share of the $50 million generated by sales of recreational cannabis..”
(cont..)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/colorado-is-making-so-much-money-from-cannabis-its-having-to-give-some-back-to-citizens-10020466.html
“..Why smoking pot feels so good: New neuroscience explains marijuana and the brain..
..Might marijuana actually prevent age-related memory loss?
New science suggests we have lots to learn about pot..”
(cont..)
http://www.salon.com/2015/02/01/why_smoking_pot_feels_so_good_new_neuroscience_explains_marijuana_and_the_brain/
We all knew this is on the agenda…
***ALERT – LEAKED DOCUMENTS***
TISA – Leaked document reveals secret talks to privatize and raise health costs
The following release contains a paper discussed in the framework of the secretive Trade in Services Agreement (TISA). Up to 23 countries plus all EU members are participating in the negotiations, which aim to deregulate up to 70% of world trade in services. Until now, what little is known about TISA has been through leaked information.
The proposal titled ‘A concept paper on health care services within TISA Negotiations’ states there is ‘huge untapped potential for the globalisation of healthcare services’ mainly because ‘health care services is (sic) funded and provided by state or welfare organisations and is of virtually no interest for foreign competitors due to lack of market-orientated scope for activity’.
https://data.awp.is/international/2015/02/04/22.html
The other reason that the far right love to send other people to war, is that they then get to get to sneak through their other main agendas …..
Cartoons on
Everything You Should, But Don’t, Know About “Free Trade”
http://www.exposingtruth.com/everything-dont-know-free-trade/
Could be a good one for the politicians out there….
A nice easy to follow graphic of the timeline relating to sabin
http://mananews.co.nz/wp/?p=2345
Good articles coming from Mana News – I wonder if they could be added to the feeds for TS
I thought Sabin got made chair of the select committee after the election?
“After the election, Mr Sabin was made chairman of the law and order select committee over more senior MPs – a sign he could have been on the way to the ministerial benches”.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11394367
I had a good sleep last night, the first in ages – so today I was very early for work – So I took the opportunity to ride under every bridge in New Lynn – West Auckland.
And as I has though, every bridge in New Lynn had people sleeping under it – even the rail bridge. (This is the very noisy one) And not just one or two but under one – at least 6 or 7 all huddled together.
So if Mr Key and co, think they have a good country and they are doing their best – then I call them liar’s and deceivers. They are oblivious, to the reality of the suffering their poor economic choices causes.
Liberalism is not economic common sense – it is a vicious nasty ideology.
thanks adam.
I’ve taken my daily constitutional around Wellington too Adam in the early morning. A similar situation exists here!
And that doesn’t take account of those living in the town belt.
I remember in the early 2000’s I lived in central Auckland, I use to see the homeless wake up in around where I lived, and that was a substantial number then.
It seems to me that the homes migrating towards the centre of the city towards to social services is a thing of the past.
I see soup kitchens all over Auckland now – this economy has falling apart for many – no matter how much these Muppet’s try to spin everything is fine and dandy.
Very interesting and skilled interviews by Kathryn Ryan this morning:
…on Isis ( resolving Syria’s problems is the key to a solution)
….and quad bike accidents ( interview with farmer Andrew Fleming….author of
‘Change the Chanel’
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon
this is very good too from Kathryn Ryan
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/20166151/travel-writer-pico-iyer-on-how-to-stay-still
She’s lifting her game sometimes – must be all that generous leave entitlement she seems to have negotiated.
She’s even dropping the affectations a lot more recently.
No more ” I halve ” ( I have ) etc. ….. in order not to sound too tupicle Koiwoi
NYC empty $100M apartments with low rates – and more than 60,000 homeless
No wonder the city is creating new police units with military assault weapons.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-04/face-oligarch-recovery-luxury-skyscrapers-empty-nyc-homeless-population-hits-record-
That is 100% evidence of US economic ideology failing its society.
fail fail fail
I see gosman hanging around like a bad smell today – maybe gosman would like to explain how this phenomenon is indicative of success ……. look forward to today’s great and amazing hair-split trick.
This is my take on Waitangi day attitudes. No-one will publish it, so in the spirit of liberte d’expression I’m sticking it here. Buggar.
http://jafacentral.com/2015/01/28/hello-world/
[Well put. Do you want/consent to it being a guest post? – MS]
+100 …thanks interesting!…much good tongue- in- cheek, ribbing fodder there…. for bickering about over the Waitangi Day picnic rug on the beach
…everyone loves Waitangi Day!
classic Mr Meech – “Recent research has emerged that a bunch of discarded old stones found in the corner of a field near Hokianga are conclusive proof that Polynesians were once ruled by a Celtic master race. There is no conceivable way in which ancient Polynesians, renowned for world class feats of sea navigation, warfare and oral mastery, could possibly have randomly put stones on top of one another”.
http://jafacentral.com/2015/01/28/hello-world/
Do you know how to sumit to the standard as a guest post? It’s a worthy read.
Look putting it bluntly Maori just need to buck up. Like their friendly British-based real estate franchisees and colonial roastbusters, they need to formulate wordy European-type verbal and ideological constructs which launch far up and away into the air soaring high and right over (and barely recognising or relating to) the relevant facts or detail pertaining to the historical issues of our time.
So let’s just bloody well build a bridge and get over it.
FYI folks – seeking and distributing information which should help to SINK the proposed Wellington ‘Supercity’ …
http://infocouncil.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/Open/2015/02/COU_20150203_MAT_5665.PDF
Date: Tuesday 3 February 2015
Time: 9.00am
Meeting Room: Level 26
Venue: 135 Albert Street
Council Controlled Organisations Governance and Monitoring Committee
OPEN MINUTE ITEM ATTACHMENTS
5.1 Public Input – Penny Bright – Cost Effectiveness of the Auckland Super City Amalgamation
A. 3 February 2015, CCO Governance & Monitoring Committee, Item 5.1 –
Penny Bright Tabled Information 3
…………..
______________________________________________________________________________________
Kind regards
Penny Bright
http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz
Keep up the good work Penny! As an Aucklander I am doing everything I can to convince my Wellington friends to say NO to their supercity.
Thanks Penny – Good to see your web page too.
+100 Penny is a real activist for good…I do so hope my beloved Wellington does not follow in the corrupt footsteps of Auckland ‘Supercity’ NOT
Short Guardian column about compulsive liars .. Lance Armstrong is the main character … but many key points, so to speak ….
“Habits can become addictions. There is a thrill in deceiving others – it underlines your superiority as you managed to fool them. And you might get hooked on that thrill. But, like all addictions, it can go wrong as it traps and entangles you.”
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/04/lance-armstrong-liar-no-other-way
and this key comment below the article … an awful truth for us in NZ …
“He only sees things through the black and white prism of “Winning” and “Losing”. To admit to any weakness/mistake/fallacy is losing. The value that the rest of us apply to being truthful or having integrity is irrelevant to him – lying is merely a tool he uses to get what he wants and “win” which he will do at any cost. I think that he believes that people who tell the truth and admit their mistakes are fools.”
scarey how some people think…and operate
and those around them dare not contemplate the reality because it amounts to an admission they have been fooled and made fools of. That is one reason many do not want to confront the PMs deceit, both in media and the public, because of what it reveals about themselves. Others go further and devise excuses, rationalisations and justifications for his behaviour to keep them from acknowledging their foolishness.
Israeli intransigence seems to be increasingly undermining those supporting a two-state ‘solution’ to the Palestinian liberation struggle.
However, there are also differences among those who oppose the existence of Israel. One of the most interesting debates has been between two Marxists in Britain with long records of organising in support of the Palestinian cause and against the Israeli state: Moshe Machover, a veteran Israeli Marxist and a founder of the Israeli Socialist Organisation (ISO) in the early 1960s, and Tony Greenstein, a longtime solidarity activist and veteran working class fighter.
We’ve run some of the material from this (fairly comradely) ongoing debate on Redline.
Here’s Tony’s main piece (I admire Moshe but I happen to agree more with Tony): Israel, Palestine: the one-state solution and the issue of Israeli-Jewish nationhood https://rdln.wordpress.com/2011/07/08/israel-palestine-the-one-state-solution-and-the-issue-of-israeli-jewish-nationhood/
Here’s a couple of interesting pieces by Moshe about the problems Zionism is having:
Zionism’s ongoing quest for legitimacy https://rdln.wordpress.com/2014/09/29/zionisms-ongoing-quest-for-legitimacy/
Does Israel have a future? https://rdln.wordpress.com/2013/01/25/does-israel-have-a-future/
We also have a much larger selection of articles on Palestine at https://rdln.wordpress.com/category/palestine/
and a substantial number of articles on the PFLP: https://rdln.wordpress.com/category/pflp/
(Obviously many articles turn up in our Israel, Palestine and PFLP categories)
Phil
John Key’s speech at Waitangi is going down really well at the marae. He is winning hearts and minds and I presume votes with his candour and sense. A masterful delivery with minimal fuss. Great to see.
you’ve still got a wee speck of his cum on the corner of your mouth
[lprent: That is getting close to the edge of toleration. Both in terms of “pointless abuse” and causing to make me laugh out loud in the middle of the workroom. However it could get tiresome fast. Be warned. ]
🙂
Thank Christ you’re edgy and that edginess is still tolerated. Has P.G. got an opinion? I wonder what Jamie Lee would think of such a comment McFlock.
OOOOOO u r awful! But I like you
🙂
Fisi’s unabashed idolatry for dunnokeyo is so extreme very few alternative comparisons come to mind, as it were.
LimpCock always swallows all the evidence
’tis the courteous thing to do.
But it is a service that would not be performed on someone so blatantly undeserving of my affection as a prime minister who can’t even monitor a department, or indeed what goes on in his own office.
Well, he did have to eschew secret service oversight cos it was beyond his capabilities. That’s a big admission, even if the media failed to understand it as such.
thanks for proving you know SFA about marae protocols and behaviour
you must go through a lot of paper towels and hand lotion
Always impressive to see you engaging your razor-sharp critical skills, Fisi. Certainly no one could ever accuse you of being a mindless cheerleader,
Or, to put it another way: “you’ve still got a wee speck of his cum on the corner of your mouth”
charismatic ideologue appeals to mass psychosis, promotes war and lebensraum for his followers
Fizzer. You mean this bit?
“We are a country that stands for human rights and I don’t know about you but when people are being burned with petrol I find it difficult to look the other way.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/65824443/prime-minister-lets-help-iraq
I don’t know about you Key, but when we trade with a country with an appalling history of human rights abuses, and that country is one of our biggest traders, I find it difficult to look the other way.
I don’t know about you Key, but when we stand by and watch as one country tortures and kills the children living in another country in an occupied land, with outlawed white phosphorous, I find it difficult to look the other away.
I don’t know about you Key, but when we turn a blind eye to our Pacific neighbours in Kiribas as their land drowns because of rising sea levels, because we along with other western nations refuse to address climate change, I find it difficult to look the other way.
I could go on, and on, and on.
What a fucking hypocrite. There is so much fucking snake oil work going on that somebody had better put the “danger wet floor” sign out, so no has an accident and slides over.
The illegal torture of prisoners by the USA could be added to the list of things keys turned a blind eye to.
Yep, feel free to add to the wall of hypocrisy. There’s plenty of examples. (Boko Haram anyone?), Usually ones that don’t involve the Club, or The Family
The Guardian forecasts that the SNP would win 54 out of the 59 seats in Scotland. The Lib Dems would retain one, Labour four. The Tories would lose their one and only seat. Labour won 41 in 2010.
Ashcroft Polling has done a 16,000 phone call survey of the 14 electorates in which Labour won with the highest margins five years ago – and the swing in these is even greater than the one implied in Scotland-wide polls.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/datablog/2015/feb/04/scotland-poll-shows-a-nation-on-the-verge-of-abandoning-labour
Meanwhile Alex Salmond has been compared in Westminster by Bill Cash (loony end of the Tory Party) to Charles Stewart Parnell, the great Irish Home Rule Leader. It was intended to frighten the English voters! As commentators have said: Liberal Prime Minister Asquith described Parnell as “one of the three or four greatest men of the 19th century”, while Lord Haldane described him as” the strongest man the House of Commons had seen in 150 years” William Gladstone described Parnell as “the most remarkable person” he had ever met.
Scotland is blessed with a great leadership team in the SNP at present. Sturgeon, Hosie, Swinney, Robertson, Murrell and Salmond are the team that can successfully lead Scotland into early Independence. The SNP are a truly Social Democratic Party.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/wider-political-news/tory-mp-compares-alex-salmond-to-maverick-irish-nationalist.117786091
They just lost a referendum on independence. It is unlikely they will have another go so soon. If they do they will be justifiably criticised for attempting to achieve independence regardless of peoples views.
The Polls are also showing that many people who voted NO did so on the basis of the last minute “Vow” of home rule and near federalism promised by George Brown on behalf of the Tories/Labour NO campaign.
What has materialised in draft legislation that give Scotland contol over only 30% of revenue and 15% if welfare. Cameron and Hague have announced that Scottish MPs will be reduced to 2nd class statue in Westminster.
These people are now disgusted and will now never forgive Labour for siding with Thatcher’s party. The majority are now saying that they want Independence.
IMHO this is the last UK General Election.
Shurely you meant Gordon Brown, the great Blairite, rather than George Brown, the great piss-head.
the tories and others lied to voters? Say it isnt so.
Tory scum know no other way Tracy, they know no other way.
Sadly the GB Labour crowd went hand in hand with the Tories in the IndyRef.
They said things and behaved in ways which crossed a line: there is no going back to Labour for a huge number of people.
Making Jim Murphy Leader was the final nail in the coffin. Fill internment will take place on the 7th May.
R.I.P. Labour in Scotland
No flowers at the internment service, please. Nobody from Labour’s Scottish Branch Office will be around to accept.
Ben Ambridge: 10 myths about psychology: Debunked
The bit about people detecting lies near the end is certainly applicable to NZ ATM.
(one for (fellow) ‘the dude’ fans..)
“..Jeff Bridges releases sleep album – to help the world’s stressed-out dudes gets some shut-eye..
..I went to bed with The Dude last night.
And you can too.
I should make it clear that Jeff Bridges hasn’t fallen on hard times – and gone all Midnight Cowboy on us.
The Oscar-winning actor has simply released an album designed for you to play while you snooze.
Well more precisely – it is actually meant to send you to sleep –
– his deep, rich mutterings the vehicle that will deliver you to the land of nod..”
(cont..)
(ed:..heh..!..didn’t see that one coming..)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/jeff-bridges-releases-sleep-album-to-help-the-worlds-stressedout-dudes-gets-some-shuteye-10024338.html
ISIL Beheading, burning alive, throwing a gay man off a 7 story building and then on surviving being stoned to death and also crucifying.
We should do nothing for fear of reprisal. Really???????
When the decision to send troops is announced I await the torrent of hand wringing do nothing defeatism typical of the Left. And you wonder why the Left is unelectable.
I wouldn’t overdose on Fox News fisiani. There are varied opinions on the “Left” as I’m sure you know.
The actions of ISIL are despicable, but we should not rush into another war (and likely quagmire) without UN mandate at least. The US/UK aren’t exactly trustworthy partners in Middle East military adventures.
their neighbours should take care of it..
..are you aware of the state-be-headings – in retaliation..?
..are you aware there have been over 116 air-strikes on isis..?
..get some context/nuance..eh..?
..yes..they are barbaric/evil-shits..
..then again so are most of the leaders/regimes in the region..
..(especially americas’ ‘friends’..eh..?
..y’know..!..saudi arabia beheading women..and all that stuff..?..)
..so we should pick a less ‘evil/barbaric’-side..and wade in there..eh..boots and all..eh..?
..we should rush to war..
..as i said..calm yr hysterics..
…and get some context/nuance..eh..?
..and as far as context 4 u is concerned..
..you would have wanted clark to sign us up for the bush-led invasion of iraq..eh..?
..so why the fuck should we listed to a word you say..?..
..eh..?
or we could just sit around and misrepresent the entire argument on the internet
your being a troll fisti – a very boring troll
@ fisi..
‘defeatism’..eh..?
..gonna be breaking out the white-feathers soon..then..?
Thank you for your concern, especially for homosexuals who your leader can never quite decide if he supported or not and who previous right wing leaders criminalised for so many years.
As for ISIS, why do we need to reprise when Jordan is executing ISIS prisoners at will now?
When the decision to send troops is announced, I await the sight of you Fisiani, signing up along with Max Key!
I agree with your sentiments against NZ troops heading off to war, but feel uncomfortable with the occasional cries regarding John Key’s son.
He is not responsible for the misguided and inexcusable actions of his father, and did not ask to be the son of the worst PM we have had. That is punishment enough, and any fans of John Key will fixate on the “terrible calls for his son to enlist” and miss again the point.
I didn’t notice TheGaucheKey being terribly sensitive about Phillip Smith’s (living) victim and his family when he actually fucking giggled to foreign television about Smith’s escape to South America. Some shit about who’s not invited to dinner or some such.
I didn’t notice any cautions from the sensitive folk that it might be unwise and too hard on the boy for TheSelfieDaddyKey to contrive the plastering of selfies of senior and junior in a targa top in Hawaii all over regular and social media.
I didn’t notice any particular sensitivity from the GodKey about young woman Tania Billingsley.
I didn’t notice any wish not to play the game when SpawnOfTheDaddyKey howlingly photoshopped himself with a financial gangster man.
I do notice that it would be meet were the TheLittleChurchillKey to look past other peoples’ sons and offer his own when rushing to join “the family”.
Meanwhile, I am not Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey and I will not be clutching my pearls aghast. I note Molly that in any event your concerns seem not to be principally for junior.
Hi North,
You are right, I’m not concerned for Max. He is not relevant.
John Key has not the integrity, knowledge, or even competency to be the one making the decision about where our troops go.
Even if he had a child that was in our Defence Force, the decision to enter a conflict zone should be made critically and with understanding of the likely outcomes of that deployment.
However, John Key doesn’t make independent choices, he pays “club fees”.
I don’t need to speculate about unlikely events concerning his children.
I consider this decision to be bad enough to be criticised on it’s own merit.
You should volunteer,as you seem so keen for others to fight.
(do you know what facebook has signed all of its’ users up to..?…
..you (i am presuming you are all on facebook..?..)..have now agreed to letting them track you even when you are not on facebook..
..choice..!..eh..?..who knew..?..)
“..Facebook signs users up to privacy policy – that allows it to track you everywhere on the internet..
..A new Facebook privacy policy allows the site to track your activity even after you’ve left it —
– and all users have automatically signed up to it.
The change enables it to gather data from activity across the internet –
– as well as the normal data it gathers on information you and your friends have added to the site.
It also allows the site to pass on that information with its other branches – including Instagram.
The company said in November that the change would come into effect – when it mentioned that it would be implemented on January 30.
Facebook says that it showed notifications to users – and sent them emails – informing them that the change was coming into effect..”
(cont..)
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/facebook-signs-users-up-to-privacy-policy-that-allows-it-to-track-you-everywhere-on-the-internet-10022530.html
I wouldn’t trust facebook as far as I could kick them, yet some people get all bent out of shape over the GCSB.
Glad I’m not on fb. One of the many reason is security, and well, here’s proof of those fears.
Use chrome, and go incognito. Facebook canny follow. Use a proxy server. Or just log out of facebook, and don’t stay logged in all the time…
Doesn’t using chrome just hand everything over to google?
Yes, if you stay logged in.
Which is what most people do.
If you read the end user agreement – it says whilst you are logged into Google, they will keep track of what you do. A cloud service. Easy done though, if you have a gmail account – use youtube or google+ bookmarks etc..
I had a do not follow thingy on Firefox for while, but disabled it as it made my computer do weird things.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/04/secrets-ttip-corporations-not-citizens-transatlantic-trade-deal?CMP=twt_gu
“What I am able to reveal from my visit to the library is that I left without any sense of reassurance either that the process of negotiating this trade deal is democratic, or that the negotiators are operating on behalf of citizens.”
All we can do is add this to the ever growing pile of stern concern being expressed around the world. Week after week there are warnings from people who have seen the details, saying the same thing that our own Tim Groser refuses to.
These ‘agreements’ are nothing more than corporate entities devouring global resources with no regard to the individuals, sovereignties or democracies that will be consumed by the avarice required to formulate such plans and eventually assimilated by the processes that drive them.
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) , The Trade in Services Agreement (TISA), The Comprehensive Trade and Economic Agreement (CETA) and of course The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement are all the same thing. Very bad news.
Being an avid watcher of QI (arise Lord Stephen Fry!) this seemed pertinent and amusing (sorry couldn’t find it on youtube)
http://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/tv/qi/episodes/12/13/
The thing that newsagents sell that makes people suddenly want to vote Tory is lottery tickets. Labour voters who suddenly win the lottery are likely to change their political opinions and become Conservative voters. This is known as “Sudden Wealth Syndrome”
http://theconversation.com/lottery-wins-make-people-more-likely-to-vote-conservative-22909
Lotto and lottery’s in general are vulgar, and puissant thrills which bring out the worst in people. We should not have them, bit like slot machine machines – destructive and vulgar. Burn them all.
(what many suspected was happening..is confirmed as happening..
..no..you are not paranoid..)
“..Editor Of Major Newspaper Says He Planted Stories For CIA..
..Dr. Udo Ulfkotte – the editor of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung – one of Germany’s largest newspapers –
– said in an interview that he accepted news stories written and given to him by the CIA –
– and published them under his own name.
Ulfkotte said the aim of much of the deception –
– was to drive nations toward war.
Dr. Ulfkotte says the corruption of journalists and major news outlets by the CIA is routine – accepted – and widespread in the western media –
– and that journalists who do not comply either cannot get jobs at any news organization –
– or find their careers cut short..”
(cont..)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40886.htm
Yes, this was covered in the Guardian recently as well. Mainstream ‘news’ has long been a tool of the state, but especially in times of war.
Eula Bliss is being interviewed by Kim Hill on Sat. Here’s a Q and A from last year on Gawker, after the release of her book On Immunity, about vaccination and, well, a whole bunch of social and political complexities.
http://review.gawker.com/are-anti-vaccinators-stupid-or-disingenuous-a-q-a-with-1640375068
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/20150207
Q. Would you be seeking to learn anything from Eula ?
yes.
Q. Can you share what that might be ?
why?
Don’t bother, weka. Furphey’s from the PG school of pointless questions.
Are you spoiling my fun, TRP?
LOL, sorry! (Pictures kitten with rubber mouse)
Because I enjoy your balanced and thoughtful comments and would like to hear where the interest exists for you on the subject matter of the book you linked to
I think my interest is pretty obvious from my original comment. Can you tell what it is?
There are a number of angles of interest which could be possible
Examples
1. The author and or the subject matter
2. The writing style of the author and approach taken to the discussion around the subject
3. The book and why it attracted critical acclaim
4. The interview approach which Kim Hill employs
etc
You mentioned social and political complexities and this is where I have interest in hearing perspectives of balanced commentators
The subject comes up from time to time and has frequently of late with abuse and derogatory comments the usual responses that I have questioned in recent days
By your comments here I would anticipate that you could elucidate a neutral balanced opinion regardless of your preference
That is the style of comment I would like to hear on the subject should you like to share
How about we both listen to the interview and have a conversation afterwards?
Or you could read the Q and A and we could have a conversation afterwards.
1. The author and or the subject matter
2. The writing style of the author and approach taken to the discussion around the subject
3. The book and why it attracted critical acclaim
4. The interview approach which Kim Hill employs
That might be true if I’d just dropped a link, but why would I quote that particular part of the Q and A?
That’s not possible for me to know Weka there are any number of factors you may well be interested in other than the focal point of your original post
I have read the Q and A but won’t be able to listen to the interview on the day
Would be happy to hear your perspective and to share thoughts next week if you’re interested
Q. Have you listened to the interview Weka ?
not yet. Have you?
Yes
What did you think?
Q. How about once we have both listened to the interview we have a conversation about it ?
I haven’t listened to it yet, so we can’t do that. I”m asking you what you think having listened to it now.
You need to have your own experience listening to the interview
Let me know once you have listened to it and we can go from there
You don’t actually know what I need, but I’m suspecting that it’s not possible to have a conversation with you about it irrespective of whether I listen or not.
Sharing my thoughts before you have listened to the interview would prevent you from having an original experience of your own
When I said ” you need ” I was pointing out what should be abundantly clear regarding having your own experience without my thoughts involved
If you would like to back out of your own suggested approach to how we were to discuss the link you posted that is your prerogative but don’t do so using unconvincing tactics of transference and deflection
translation a) I totes have an opinion on it, but can’t tell you because spoilers.
translation b) I’m so awesome that if I tell you my opinion first, you’ll just agree with me rather than me educating you with a pseudo-Socratic dialogue that I’m not good enough to maintain so it turns into an interminable series of pointless questions to which I offer no answers. Besides, you’ve only read up to book four and don’t even know that dragon glass can kill the White Walkers.
“Sharing my thoughts before you have listened to the interview would prevent you from having an original experience of your own”
I’ve already read a Q and A with the author, so I’m not a clean slate. But even if what you imply is true, why would that matter if I hear your thoughts before the interview and thus don’t have an ‘original experience’?
“When I said ” you need ” I was pointing out what should be abundantly clear regarding having your own experience without my thoughts involved”
It sounds like you have a need to have me engage in a certain way. Or you want to control me. Either way, it’s not about my needs, it’s about yours.
“If you would like to back out of your own suggested approach to how we were to discuss the link you posted that is your prerogative but don’t do so using unconvincing tactics of transference and deflection”
I’m not backing out. There is nothing in my suggestion that commits us to not talking before we’ve both listened to the interview, and we can still talk after I’ve heard it. I haven’t had time to listen yet, so I’m suggesting that you start the ball rolling. This is a normal enough thing for me to do, no deflection or transference or amateur psychology needed.
@ McFlock 😛
I’ve already read a Q and A with the author, so I’m not a clean slate. But even if what you imply is true, why would that matter if I hear your thoughts before the interview and thus don’t have an ‘original experience’?
Q. Did you find fault with your own suggestion ?
Perhaps it matters perhaps it won’t but we’re not on the same field which is why I’m happy to go with your suggestion of waiting until we have both listened to the interview as it made sense
It sounds like you have a need to have me engage in a certain way. Or you want to control me. Either way, it’s not about my needs, it’s about yours.
Q. Are you deliberately forgetting I ‘m requesting to keep to your suggested approach ?
It was your suggestion which I am requesting to adhere to ergo it can’t be about anyone’s needs or control other than your own so the term for that comment is projection
There is nothing in my suggestion that commits us to not talking before we’ve both listened to the interview
You could say that but it’s lurching deep into the realms of making things up shifting goal posts and unbalanced
I haven’t had time to listen yet, so I’m suggesting that you start the ball rolling. This is a normal enough thing for me to do, no deflection or transference or amateur psychology needed
Q. Is it normal for you to change the conditions of your own suggestions ?
No worries take your time or not at all there is no compulsion to listen to the interview you linked to and highlighted
Should you choose to listen to the interview and comment on it I shall look forward to reading your thoughts and will be happy to keep to your suggestion by sharing mine
Lolz.
I still haven’t listened to it. I’m curious though, how you expect the conversation to go when you are dictating the terms of the conversation. It’s one thing to say, nah I’d rather wait. It’s another thing to try and use my suggestion to bind me into something which I clearly don’t consider to be binding. Or to make out that you know more about my intentions in the suggestion than I do. I’ll take that as a reasonable sign of bad faith.
Q. Why do you so intensely wish to project such odious interpretations onto my comments ?
I have been saying “nah I’d rather wait” and have not indicated I expect anything through my comments
That you appear to have become offended (?) in my position of appreciating your suggestion and perceived balance and thoughtfulness via twisting my comments is on you
I acknowledge and accept my error of judgement in your ability to be balanced or thoughtful and that is on me
Chok Dee
lol
Your error in judgement was to assume that you could get away with not presenting an opinion of your own for an indefinite period of time.
Why so coy about presenting your own opinion? Do you really think you are so awesome that expressing your own thoughts would skew everyone else’s opinion?
BTW I read the link and listened to the interview.
dammit McFlock, I hadn’t seen that reply.
Hey, ho, it was getting tedious anway.
Sunday morning on RNZ looking interesting too, including this,
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/20150208
Not sure Bridges will be interesting.
I thought it might be interesting to hear him after all the others, for context. Probably can’t bring myself to actually do that though.
Tova O’Brien has been pushing the national can’t lose bullshit regarding the by election twice today why can’t reporters just fucken report .
Because they are bought and compromised sock puppets.
Joyce in UNACT newsletter :
Average wages are also showing healthy growth, lifting 2.6 per cent over the year – well ahead of the 0.8 per cent inflation rate – and New Zealand continues to fare better than most of the OECD.
The other striking element of the new data is the record high participation in the labour market, of 69.7 per cent. This increase means unemployment rises slightly to 5.7 per cent despite the strong job growth.
Some questions Joyce might like to attempt a factual answer to:
1 0.8% inflation sounds like deflation. Is it only housing providing significant rising prices and revenues..
2 What are median wages at present?
3 And what was % the rise on them over the year?4
Is the OECD comparison useful? Can we have an actual concrete comparison as to which country are we compatible with – slightly above Nigeria and Tibet and Greece? Which?
4 What is the equivalent full time job percentage of total employment?
5 What are the % of four divisions of employment, full time (old style 40 hrs per week),
Full time (new style 30 hours per week), between 10-30 hours and under 10 hours per week.
6 What number of workers have less than 10 hours work per week.
7 How many workers are working into the old classification of anti-social hours, say outside of 8.00 a.m. and 5 p.m.
I can help with some answers:
1. 0.8% inflation is not deflation. Deflation needs to have one of these “-” in front of the number.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deflation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_number
Housing is not included in the CPI, so no, housing is not providing significant rising prices to the CPI. Raw materials used in building new houses are included, but not house or land prices.
2. In Dec 2014, $1101 per week.
http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/income-and-work/employment_and_unemployment/LabourMarketStatistics_HOTPDec14qtr.aspx
3. Up 2.3% yoy
http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/income-and-work/employment_and_unemployment/LabourMarketStatistics_HOTPDec14qtr.aspx (all the data below can be found here)
4. You should compare with countries that are similar to us, but everyone defines similar differently. Perhaps similar PPP GDP per capita? On this ranking (yay #46!) we are just below Saudi Arabia (Uneployment rate 11.7%) and Faroe islands (cant find it but Denmark 4.0%), just above Spain (23.7%) and UAE (4.2%). Or this ranking (GDP Per Capita) we are #26 just below France (8.0%) and UK (5.8%), just above Japan (3.5%) and Brunei (2.7%).
4 again. See 5 below – answer is there. The Full time Equivalent stat is a bit dicey. It is arbitrarily calculate as # full time jobs + 0.5 part time jobs. The calculation below I think makes more sense.
5. I think what you really trying to find is the number of under-employed i.e., those currently working but available for more work: 112,800 out of total workforce 2,518,000 = 4.5%
Part time employees- these are those happy to be part time, not looking for extra work: 534,200 /2,518,000= 22.3%
Unemployed = 143,000/2,518,000 = 5.7%
So employed full time = 1,585,000/2,518,000 =62.9% of workforce.
6. Don’t think they gather stats by “< 10 hours". But the better measure anyway would be currently working but looking for more work. That is 112,800 people or 4.5% of workforce.
7. That's tougher to find data on, but also a bit misleading. Many people choose to work those hours i.e., restaurant and bar staff, police, some industrial workers, nurses etc. Again what I think you're looking for is people working anti-social hours who are forced to. Not sure where to find that but I think the number would be relatively low.
There you go – wasn't hard to find. Took me 10 minutes. Next time don't be lazy and do it yourself.
@ nadis
Thank you for the info. And no thank you for the homily and sneer at the end.
I actually have never found it easy to find the info that i wanted for stats and spent hours fiddling round. And even you with all your expertise could not find some that I think is important and should be stated. So save dumping your shit on me.
Just ignore my comments in future- I don’t want someone so superior to feel they must put themselves out. Do it gladly, politely or not at all.
Lets have ago THE BISHOP and there are alot of old kiwi slang terms and objects that tell the truth about that
Brian Tamaki or Temi or Tero Tero excuse me if my spelling is wrong if you know what they are ,arch right winger from the land of “God Home Mother and Apple Pie” to quote Dave Crosby (The Byrds) where homosexuals, kids can be beaten to death by law, blacks and any other coloured people are pegged as religiously destitute in need of spiritual enlightenment of the type that went with the conquistadors
His fascist stance a few years ago marching down Queen St I believe, here he is now with a gun in one hand pig hunting ,and probably a bible in the other, a cover for his belief in the afore mentioned surely he could be taxed out of existence if we had some sort of morality in the value of these sort of people to actually expand the understanding of human spirituality but I fear only to the size of a pigs brain
The rest is thought of your own
Bishop?
hasn’t he had himself ordained pope yet?
Or I suspect he’ll just skip that step and declare himself the god of hair grease.
He said nothing while his friend spewed anti-Māori invective for years;
Mike Hosking is the LAST person who should talk about “acrimony”.
Television One, Thursday 5 February 2015
On Seven Sharp tonight, host Mike Hosking gurned sardonically at the camera and burbled how there was far less “acrimony” at Waitangi this year.
What unbelievable cheek this fellow has. What unmitigated gall. What brass-plated, industrial-grade hypocrisy from this poseur, this imposter, this fawning toady to the powerful and the wealthy, this corrupt and cynical booster of casinos, this contemptible and vacuous lightweight of lightweights in the pathetic, anxious sea of lightweights that constitutes Television One’s dire and ever-diminishing “talent pool”.
Waitangi Day has (rightly) been the focus of serious political protest for decades now. But any acrimony has come almost entirely from the extreme right wing—and one person stands out in particular.
One of the vilest, most acrimonious racist harangues in living memory was unleashed on readers of the Herald three years ago by Paul Holmes—- one of Hosking’s friends and colleagues at NewstalkZB. Holmes raved insanely for 21 hate-filled paragraphs. Here’s a taster, if you can bear it….
Holmes then veers off into another mad frenzy, this one directed at “the breast feeding fascists” and then he has an obscene—and ignorant—spray about Syria. But what really excites his fevered brain is the bloody end of Mrs Assad…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10784735
Mike Hosking never said a word about that download of acrimonious filth from his friend and colleague, who was beyond doubt one of this country’s more notorious racists.
Nobody with any sense takes Mike Hosking seriously on any topic, of course; to give any credence to what he has to say on race relations one would need to have one’s head examined.
A sock puppet.
A very irritating sock puppet. The most annoying sock puppet since this guy….
http://jam.canoe.ca/Television/TV_Shows/C/Citytv/2008/06/25/pf-5978941.html
Now Holmes was a vile little man. His behaviour towards family after Aramoana, was bestial – it was then I realised, the right wing in this country are a bunch of self serving, nasty, little creeps. He sat like king muck telling us what was going to happen, when we’d had family and friends die. His fake pathos made everyone in the room sick – he was not invited back – he got no interview. And no one in that room watched, or listened to him again.
You declaim very eloquently Morrissey…….I am a relatively vulgar. Hosking, the skinny jeans, the boy-hairdo, the mutton-dressed-up-as-lamb, the ‘poseur’ (thank you Morrissey), the archetypal Cafe Society git though self-elevated above that prosaic , bought and paid for by SkyCity – Hosking the up-himself big fish in a small pond. Such a pity really. He’s endowed intellectually but oh how he abuses that in favour of narcissism and cheap vanity. And Parnell BBQ tickets. Does his wife get a look-in ?
Anyone else feeling the cold?
http://earth.nullschool.net/#2015/02/05/0900Z/wind/surface/level/orthographic=175.07,-50.75,512
cool site.
heater on for first time in weeks 🙂
I’ve got the fire going.
double duvet time in the bay
not in auckland…
Another blanket tonight.
High Temperature 21.4 °C at 13:00
Low Temperature 13.9 °C at 20:47
http://wiritoawoolshed.netai.net/today.php
that’s a cool site too.
Will you get this big polar blast coming through tonight? Snow in the Alps down to 600m.
The forecast from a station about half way between here and Wiritoa.
Tomorrow we expect plus 15—16 °C, rain, moderate breeze. The day after tomorrow plus 12—18 °C, without precipitation, light breeze.
http://rp5.co.nz/Weather_in_Gonville