Heralds apparently spent some money on a proper opinion writer. One who writes an article in the style I quite like, sarcasm that is poignant and makes you think a little.
yep I like their new opinion writer, should add a little required balance that nanny had been so lacking for so long if she stays on this sort of mid ground tune.
Stewart said she accepted people would disagree with her or criticise her work, and she welcomed robust debate. However, responses of an overtly sexual or derogatory nature abusing individuals were offensive and unnecessary.
“No one has discussed the issues raised in the column at all – choosing instead to attack rather than engage.”
The other day I called trolls the venereal disease of the internet …..
I realised my diagnosis of them was wrong ……………… and they are clearly the ‘ dick pics’ of the internet …. as the trolls are always male …..
Spotty dicks … drippy dicks and most often limp dicks ………..
When a self posting dick pic leaves a smelly discharge in a thread, such as …. “Shes just another ranty hypocrite” …. see it as just what drippy dicks do …………
Oh dang, what a read, loved it. Thanks so much for posting the link. Looking forward to reading more from her in the future.
This part had me in stitches…
“Our own Prime Minister is pretty much off his rocker but, hey, let’s not labour the point. Unless, it’s all Labour’s fault. Which it probably is. It’s just got to be their fault he got in that cage and bent down and picked up the soap on command. Or that he’s overseen the new and unprecedented era of wadeable versus swimmable rivers. Or that children living in poverty are way harder to count than rodents. Even if they don’t move as fast. Even when you offer them $5000.”
Did they really have to put her photo at the head of the article?
I clicked on your link and the first thing I found was a photo that looked just like Donald Trump! Same eyes and hair tone.
Poor thing. She deserves sympathy.
Quite put me off my breakfast.
I made no comment at all about what I thought of the article.
Your imagination is therefore running completely out of control when you claim “Doesn’t like what the person said and so attacks her looks”
I neither said that I didn’t like what she said and I didn’t “attack” her. I sympathised with her.
And yes, if any other journalist’s photo reminded me so strongly of Trump I would have sympathised with them too.
Actually I have previously commented that one of the Wellington City Council candidates has a photo on his billboards that appears to have been copied from the John Key photo from the last election. I don’t know whether Simon Woolf is going to gain or lose from the resemblance.
I neither said that I didn’t like what she said and I didn’t “attack” her. I sympathised with her.
Why would you need to sympathise with how people look?
The answer is that you don’t, don’t even have to bring it up, and thus it was an attack on her and what she wrote and not sympathy.
When I saw her photo I was reminded of Donald Trump.
That man is so appalling that it would put anyone of their breakfast.
Do you seriously expect me to think kind thought about “The Donald” rather than be totally horrified by the man?
Oh Alwyn – so presumably when you look in the mirror there is a face looking back at you that is stunningly attractive, with a great hair style, wearing smart attire. So you have therefore given yourself the right to judge someone’s appearance who does not match your gorgeousness. How shallow.
I thought the column was brilliant and so refreshingly clever.
“looking back at you that is stunningly attractive, with a great hair style, wearing smart attire”.
Well no. I see someone who is getting distinctly old, wearing old clothes and looking like anyone else of my age.
The only thing I can claim is that I still have my hair, although it is now totally white.
I didn’t even say she was not gorgeous, did I? I merely commented that she reminded me very strongly of Donald Trump. Could it be that you don’t approve of The Donald’s looks? How judgemental of you.
Oh well, I assume in the future no one on this site will describe Cameron Slater as being fat and everyone will ignore Gerry Brownlie’s excessive weight.
Jesse Mulligan: “Sometimes when I read this stuff I get
the sense that Russia are L-L-L-LOOKIN’ for trouble…”
RNZ National, Tuesday 4 October 2016, 4:47 p.m.
Jesse Mulligan, James Nokise, Chris Wikaira
Incredibly, RNZ’s sorry light chat show The Panel just keeps getting worse. I’m sorry to have to say that in his occasional hosting stints, comedian Jesse Mulligan has shown himself to be as ill-informed and smug as the regular host Jim Mora. The following farcical exchange was horrible to listen to, not only because of Mulligan’s abysmal ignorance—it’s obvious he has read virtually no “stuff” on Syria—but also because of Professor Gillespie’s mealy-mouthed performance. It seems he’s more concerned with avoiding a browbeating from his notorious right wing Waikato colleagues Ron Smith and Dov Bing than he is with informing the audience. The end effect of five minutes of Al Gillespie is similar to sitting through five minutes of a Donal Trump speech—you feel you’ve wasted your time, and you actually feel stupider at the end of it…..
JESSE MULLIGAN: So let’s move on as well, and we’ll go international now, with a look at the world with Al Gillespie. The United States has suspended Syrian ceasefire talks with Russia, and they made the call after frustrations with Moscow and its ability to live up to a ceasefire agreement. That announcement comes two weeks after the most recent attempt at a ceasefire fell apart, when a humanitarian aid convoy trying to reach besieged areas of rebel-held Aleppo was destroyed by an air strike. Al Gillespie of the University of Waikato joins us now. Al, hullo there, how ARE you today?
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: Hey Jessie, I’m well. Thank you.
JESSE MULLIGAN:[extended intake of breath to convey how serious he is] Who do we believe: United States or Russia?
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: Well, there’s two sides to it. The Americans said they’ll only go back into the talks if the Russians stop bombing Aleppo, and the Russians say they can only stop bombing Aleppo if the Americans distinguish between the moderate rebels and Al Qaeda, which is a legitimate target.
JESSE MULLIGAN: Aaaaand is your understanding that the Russians have a POINT in that respect or do the United States deny it?
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: I, uh, I, …[baffled world-weary sigh]… there’s no-o-o-o-o black and white any more in, in Syria, especially in Aleppo. And often the sides, some of those that are moderate and not meant to be targeted, blend with the ILLEGITIMATE, more religious extremists which CAN be targeted. It’s pretty hard to get a clear dividing line.
JESSE MULLIGAN: How bad news IS this, that talks have broken down between the U.S. and Russia?
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: It’s very bad, I mean we can’t even get a ceasefire at the moment, so we can’t, you need a ceasefire before you can start talking about a peace plan. We need to be thinking that this conflict could go on for many years from here.
JESSE MULLIGAN: Why do ceasefires break down, Al, if uh, if no one enjoys war? [snickers nervously]
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: There’s no trust on the ground. No one believes that it’s safe to bring in aid, water, or food, and so unless you can get the most basic modicum of trust, you can’t build up.
JESSE MULLIGAN: So how do you CREATE it?
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: You get the teams, well you need two things. One, people have to get tired of fighting, and neither side has to believe that they can WIN. At the moment, there’s so much money, men, and ammunition going into the fight, both sides believe that they still have the upper hand. And then you need to have confidence-building measures, and right now they can’t even achieve THAT.
JESSE MULLIGAN:[speaking very slowly, to convey thoughtfulness] Sometimes when I read this stuff I get the sense that Russia are L-L-L-LOOKIN’ for trouble, are L-L-L-LOOKIN’ to create tension with the U.S. Is that fair?
….Long pause….
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE:[slowly, deliberately, to convey deep thinking] Ahhhhhmmm, partly, partly not. I mean, Russia’s there by a treaty it had with Syria from the early 1970s, a legitimate treaty for a defensive alliance, and Assad is still to a degree in power, so Russia’s doing what it was bound to do by treaty. The problem is, that at some point, as long as you’re propping up these sides the war will continue and you may have to, everyone just back out and see what the actual outcome is.
….Long pause…
JESSE MULLIGAN: Meanwhile, there’s this OTHER story around today, that Russia have walked away from the protocol on weapons-grade plutonium control. Can you give us a bit of background to that, Al?
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: Certainly. So the nuclear arms treaty’s like a collection of documents which regulate nuclear weapons. One of the protocols was about the reduction of plutonium, surplus plutonium, so it would not be diverted to create more nuclear warheads. The Russians have suspended their talks in this protocol exactly the same day as the Americans suspended their talks about the ceasefire in Syria. It’s a blow to nuclear arms control, it’s not MASSIVE, but it’s certainly starting to wobble the architecture.
…Long pause…
JESSE MULLIGAN: And once AGA-A-AIN, if we look at both parties, do both parties have some culpability here, or is it the Russians MAKING TROUBLE?
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: U-u-u-u-u-ummm, both parties have some —the Russians are saying that they can’t trust the Americans with the technology that they’re using to turn their plutonium into a safe form of nuclear material, and the Americans are saying that if they work together they can come to a compromise. So there’s good and bad on both sides.
JESSE MULLIGAN: Mmmm-kay. Finally today, the Colombian peace deal veto. You better give us some background to this as well, Al, it’ll be the first time a lot of people have HEARD about this….
…ad nauseam…
Anyone wishing to, unlike Jesse Mulligan, do some serious study of what is happening in Syria, should bypass the likes of Al Gillespie and read or listen to someone who knows what he’s talking about. There is no one better on this than Noam Chomsky…. http://www.democracynow.org/2016/5/17/noam_chomsky_on_syria_conflict_cut
Typical of the relentless dumbing down of National radio, it drives me fucking crazy.
I have emailed 9-noon a number of times the about pointlessness of having that private prison loving centrist Mike Williams on the voices from the right and left on Mondays, what a complete waste of time, he more often than not ends up agreeing tacitly with Hooten’s position, and why wouldn’t he, they are basically two sides of the same coin….don’t get me started.
Williams doesn’t “tacitly” agree with Hooton, Adrian, he makes a point of saying “I agree with Matthew” several times in every show, almost as often as he chortles along with Hooton whenever a politician like Jeremy Corbyn is mentioned.
Maybe he learned to ingratiate himself with superior personalities when he was a high school classmate of Paul Holmes.
I know I was trying to be diplomatic, I have also replied to quite a few of Williams opinion pieces in the Hawks Bay today, however our local newspaper isn’t that interested in community conversation so only publish comments spasmodically.
I can’t understand RNZ’s logic of not actually having a hard hitting left intellectual on the show to challenge Hooton, and spark real debate. Surely even from their own rating perspective that must make sense?
They have occasionally put decent opponents up against Hooton, much to his evident discomfort. Laila Harré never let him get away with anything, and Andrew Campbell stymied him regularly.
I’m sure the RNZ National management had a role in getting rid of those difficult people and replacing them with patsies like Williams.
Ratings aren’t important: conformity is all that matters.
I think it was a very opportune outage. It will have saved red faces all round.
The more devoted Andrew-philes would have been in a terrible dilemma if they had been able to comment yesterday morning.
After listening to Little’s repeated promises on Morning Report to pay all parents a $60/week benefit for the first year of a babies life there would have been paens of praise about what great leadership Labour were offering and that we now saw what a wonderful man Little was.
Then, about four hours later they would be stuck with having to explain how he had never said any such thing and that he was being grossly misinterpreted. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11722111
Even the Herald seems to have decided he had stuffed up again.
Only four hours from cock of the walk to a feather duster.
I must admit I was quite surprised how much I missed the presence of this site though. I think I need to take a holiday. Thanks for fixing my fix.
Little’s interview was way better than John Key’s pathetic effort. Little said it would take 2 terms-6 years- to make a real difference to child poverty, which is about right, and floated the old Labour $60 policy as one way of alleviating this. So at least he committed Labour to do something about this scandalous situation-nobody announces actual policies this far out.
Did we see a massive article in the Herald critisising Key’s pathetic do-nothing, the market will sort it out, what about the rodents, interview response? No.
ittle’s interview was way better than John Key’s pathetic effort. Little said it would take 2 terms-6 years- to make a real difference to child poverty, which is about right
Meanwhile, that poverty permanently damages the life prospects of 300,000-400,000 children, while the six figure types in Wellington fret around in the Koru Club.
How long does it really take to raise benefits by $30/week and make the first $5,000 earned in wages/salary exempt from income tax and WINZ calculations?
How long does it really take to raise benefits by $30/week and make the first $5,000 earned in wages/salary exempt from income tax and WINZ calculations?
And how long would it take for the capitalists to raise prices so that they could grab all the extra money for themselves thus ensuring that it would make no difference for the poor?
The two most interesting things about John key are….
His bailout and the amount of money he took from u.s.a pension funds …
2008: 2 Interests (such as shares and bonds)in companies and business entities
Little Nell – property investment
MerrillLynch – investment banking
JacksonMining – gold mining ……………………
And after then the bailout ………….
2009: 2 Interests (such as shares and bonds) in companies and business entities
Little Nell – property investment
Bank of America – banking
Jackson Mining – gold mining
The other interesting thing is how the media, wikipedia and his biography do not mention his good fortune and millions in charity ……..
The truth looks like a millionare taking millions in charity from ordinary citizens for his worthless investment in ponzi merrill lynch ( merrills share price had been climbing rapidly before imploding )
Key seems to support fraud both overseas and here in NZ ……….. “” a contentious exemption of professional services firms – mostly lawyers, accountants and real estate agents – from being covered by anti-money laundering laws passed in 2009.” http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11706741
lol…i can see you…you are a person of interest …and how do yu know who I am and what my real beliefs are?…I could work for the government and the secret service…i may not even be a Chooky
I think the difference is though that KDC was attempting to help National lose the election (like it seems Julian Assange is with Hilary Clinton) whereas National has been trying to win elections
On that score Assange seems to be as successful as KDC
yes well it is a gamble…but sometimes it pays to keep a little bit in storage as insurance just in case something happens to you …as Robert Fisk once said
You mean that completely unsourced and unverifiable claim from a single “news” source? The Clinton conspiracies get wilder by the day.
I wouldn’t be surprised if pretty soon someone claims she used HAARP to make Chemtrails rain GMO gluten seeds on Haiti.
Seriously, Clinton as a poor choice for president is obvious, there is no need to make shit up when her record speaks for itself.
Clinton has caused all the bad shit that has happened over the last THIRTY, I say again, THIRTY years. From fukashima, plastic gryes in the ocean, earthquakes, mountineers not making it, famines, reruns of pissweak UK shit series, all the way to mass murderers, drinking games that arent really games, the middle east and the west and east east too, racial and sexual intolerance, the mullet haircut putin having inappropriate liasons with that tiger. The list – endlist ///sarc
Not sure about Clinton wanting to drone Assange – but given that Assange is an enemy of the US security state that would seem likely.
Also you seem to have forgotten that Sec State Clinton was a leading figure in the Obama Administration’s record breaking use of illegal/extra-judicial drone assassinations – under Obama the US droned far more people than GW did.
The Tasman District Council are making it very difficult for me to cast a special vote. Apparently I have to drive to their HQ in Richmond (30mins on the open road) and cannot cast a special vote from their service centre in Motueka. I was wonder if any whom live over the hill in Golden Bay on the unpublished roll, and if they have to go all the way to Richmond to vote (an hour and a half drive on the open road), because they aren’t allowed to cast their special vote from the Golden Bay service centre, just like I’m experiencing.
To bad if people on the unpublished roll can’t get to Richmond to cast their special vote.
Are other councils making it difficult for those on the unpublished roll? I didn’t have this problem with the general election.
Essentially, if they just try to be fluffy tories, real tories do a better job of being tories and those they’ve abandoned for their Pt Chevalier dinner parties look to the far right or radical left. In order to keep either out of office, they find themselves directly complicit with the tories as junior partners. The problem for the radical left is that its still too fragmented and incoherent to achieve much effect in parliaments and finds itself blocked.
The problem for the radical left is that its still too fragmented and incoherent to achieve much effect in parliaments and finds itself blocked.
The deeper problem is that the right now have all the levers. The right, having persuaded populations that they would all end up as shareholders, and that unemployment etc. were just temporary pains, changed tack as soon as they had what they wanted (all the levers). This left the centre left parties, who had geared themselves toward making sure the shareholder society would be inclusive, with nowhere to go. One of two things has to happen. Either the right themselves will start to reconfigure their aims, fearing that being top dog in a fractured, disabled society makes one vulnerable to worse threats than mere trade unions, or the left will build up the numbers to give them a run for their money even without the levers. While the lack of levers keeps the left fragmented, things have come a long way from movements like “occupy” to Sanders, Corbyn, Podemos, etc.
Real Clear Politics has Clinton with a poll lead of 3.8% and a 322-216 lead on the state by state electoral vote map. Not quite a real clear lead but the trend is good.
“Documents reportedly hacked from the Clinton Foundation servers have identified major Democratic donors and troubling ties between TARP aid given to banks and their political contributions. One folder is outright labeled “Pay to Play.”
A Hacker calling himself “Guccifer 2.0,” who claimed responsibility for previous breaches of the Democratic National Committee and the congressional Democrats, published the documents on Tuesday afternoon ahead of the vice-presidential debates.
“I hacked the Clinton Foundation server and downloaded hundreds of thousands of docs and donors’ databases,” the hacker wrote on his blog. “Clinton and her staff don’t even bother about the information security.”
The Clinton Foundation has denied the hack, with president Donna Shalala saying that “none of the files or folders shown are ours.”…
Scroll through to 8 minutes for my presentation to the Auckland Council Governing Body Meeting of 24 February 2016.
This is where I outline why I think Auckland Council failed to follow lawful due process regarding the ‘out of scope evidence’ provided to the Independent Hearings Panel, and I defended the lawful rights of citizens from ‘the leafy suburbs’.
(This is one of the 27 Auckland Council Governing Body meetings to which I have presented since 1 November 2010).
“I defended the lawful rights of citizens from ‘the leafy suburbs”
Thank goodness someone is defending our coastal nimbys from their future. Imagine if they had to rely on their own meagre resources to hold back change. Will someone think of the lawyers?
Tony Veitch (not the partner-bashing 3rd rate broadcaster 13
“[Trump] hasn’t spent 30 years in the system, he hasn’t memorised the playbook, he’s not part of the status quo and therefore he is the disrupter that we need in the environment that we’re in today,”
“[Hillary] talked about a basket of deplorables, I think you really need to turn the tables, the basket of deplorables are the policies that she’s been associated with and her generation of leaders ever since the 1980s.”
So Key asserted the Government is committed to reducing the number of children in poverty (albeit without setting targets).
Therefore, if National are genuinely committed, will they be extending WFF to all low income children (as called for by Professor Susan St John)?
Will they adjust WFF for past inflation and index it annually to wages?
While Labour are committed to setting targets, unfortunately they’ve yet to commit to the WFF measures mentioned above. Therefore, we can’t expect Labour to apply political pressure on this one just yet (and perhaps not at all).
It’s a shame Labour haven’t got their policy together yet, it results in a weaker opposition.
I watched a fund raiser, was harangued about a new book and eventually trolled by an alleged rapist who revealed nothing new about Clinton, and he seemed to throw cold water on the notion that any revelations he had in store would destroy Clinton’s campaign.
Trump (the so-called anti-establishment presidential candidate) wants to slash the corporate tax rate by over 50% with no strings attached.
The reasoning for this is he hopes to attract businesses back to the States to help boost employment and stimulate the economy.
Unfortunately, Trump made no mention of stipulating criteria (living wage, employment expectations, etc) companies would have to meet to receive the tax cuts while ensuring his objectives are met.
Wonder how his anti-establishment supporters feel about that one?
Could only sign into the back end of the site. Every time I hit the front end, it appeared I was automatically signed out. Then I submitted a comment and I was suddenly signed in again. Sort of.
Still can’t access private posts on the front end. Can access them on the back end, but not to comment .
And depending on how I navigate around the front end, I appear to be variously signed out or signed in.
I was locked out so changed browser – This message:
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[lprent: That usually happens when you have too many calls to the site within too short a timeframe. It is there to prevent the site getting overwhelmed by bots masquerading as human. But I’ve been playing with the cache, and didn’t really have time to fine tune it last night. I’ll have a look at it after I get home and make some dinner. ]
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Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
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I am confused.
Key says hard to measure count the kids in poverty,
BUT YET
the moe can measure kids at risk for school funding!!!!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11722436
PS well done LPent
One is measured poorly, the other isn’t.
Yes. Thanks Lyn. Absence makes the heart grow fonder- or something. 🙂
I was going thru withdrawal symptoms!
My very heartfelt thanks LPrent.
National government strategy on CC resembles its plan on the Auckland housing crisis….a lot of spin and no action….”its complicated”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201818700/nz-ratifies-paris-agreement-to-fight-climate-change
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11722306
Heralds apparently spent some money on a proper opinion writer. One who writes an article in the style I quite like, sarcasm that is poignant and makes you think a little.
yep I like their new opinion writer, should add a little required balance that nanny had been so lacking for so long if she stays on this sort of mid ground tune.
Shes just another ranty hypocrite in my opinion but if you like her writing then its all good
Who’s literary musing do you salivate over PR, Hitlers, Mein Kampf? /joke
You can not like her PR I don’t care, but calling her a hypocrite smacks of immaturity, care too offer some reasoning behind your comment?
Ok, theres this:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/65378670/Police-investigate-threat-to-columnist-Rachel-Stewart
Stewart said she accepted people would disagree with her or criticise her work, and she welcomed robust debate. However, responses of an overtly sexual or derogatory nature abusing individuals were offensive and unnecessary.
“No one has discussed the issues raised in the column at all – choosing instead to attack rather than engage.”
then this:
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2016/09/fairfax_columnist_advocates_violence.html
I suppose one could make the claim she wasn’t serious but theres no real indication its a joke, likes there no emoticons used or anything
The other day I called trolls the venereal disease of the internet …..
I realised my diagnosis of them was wrong ……………… and they are clearly the ‘ dick pics’ of the internet …. as the trolls are always male …..
Spotty dicks … drippy dicks and most often limp dicks ………..
When a self posting dick pic leaves a smelly discharge in a thread, such as …. “Shes just another ranty hypocrite” …. see it as just what drippy dicks do …………
I used to think of Puck as like these guys http://ih1.redbubble.net/image.10660581.1630/flat,1000×1000,075,f.jpg …. which funnily enough also involved dicks… but expressing whose and how lead to a short and justified ban for me in the past …. so I wont go there again :0 …………
This seems more natural for him anyway …. https://www.scifinow.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Mason.jpg
https://kenpire.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/mason-verger-tear-martini.png?w=788&h=1000
https://fathersonholygore.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/img_1724.png
https://notnumber6.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/174598_105937692815114_903723_n.jpg
Oh dang, what a read, loved it. Thanks so much for posting the link. Looking forward to reading more from her in the future.
This part had me in stitches…
“Our own Prime Minister is pretty much off his rocker but, hey, let’s not labour the point. Unless, it’s all Labour’s fault. Which it probably is. It’s just got to be their fault he got in that cage and bent down and picked up the soap on command. Or that he’s overseen the new and unprecedented era of wadeable versus swimmable rivers. Or that children living in poverty are way harder to count than rodents. Even if they don’t move as fast. Even when you offer them $5000.”
It’s not really covert. We’ve just been conditioned to accept it, to worship those who are it and to chase being it…
…and that’s being rich.
We cannot afford rich people and chasing being ever richer is destroying society and the environment around us.
Did they really have to put her photo at the head of the article?
I clicked on your link and the first thing I found was a photo that looked just like Donald Trump! Same eyes and hair tone.
Poor thing. She deserves sympathy.
Quite put me off my breakfast.
Ah, a typical nasty RWNJ.
Doesn’t like what the person said and so attacks her looks.
Tell me, would have done that if the author had been a male?
I made no comment at all about what I thought of the article.
Your imagination is therefore running completely out of control when you claim “Doesn’t like what the person said and so attacks her looks”
I neither said that I didn’t like what she said and I didn’t “attack” her. I sympathised with her.
And yes, if any other journalist’s photo reminded me so strongly of Trump I would have sympathised with them too.
Actually I have previously commented that one of the Wellington City Council candidates has a photo on his billboards that appears to have been copied from the John Key photo from the last election. I don’t know whether Simon Woolf is going to gain or lose from the resemblance.
Why would you need to sympathise with how people look?
The answer is that you don’t, don’t even have to bring it up, and thus it was an attack on her and what she wrote and not sympathy.
I actually agree on this, you see this all the time (on the left and right) where people feel free to point out other people physical attributes
Its not right, its not helpful and its just plain wrong
When I saw her photo I was reminded of Donald Trump.
That man is so appalling that it would put anyone of their breakfast.
Do you seriously expect me to think kind thought about “The Donald” rather than be totally horrified by the man?
Call her up on her hypocrisy, call her up on her writing its all good but don’t go around belittling her on her looks
Its demeaning to her and to you
And you come across like this alwyn …… http://beatlephotoblog.com/photos/2010/09/53.jpg
But I suspect physically your a bit more of a broken down old cart horse …
you’re….
Not cool bro, not cool at all.
Can we all please stop making reference to what people look like and focus on what they say/do instead
Oh Alwyn – so presumably when you look in the mirror there is a face looking back at you that is stunningly attractive, with a great hair style, wearing smart attire. So you have therefore given yourself the right to judge someone’s appearance who does not match your gorgeousness. How shallow.
I thought the column was brilliant and so refreshingly clever.
“looking back at you that is stunningly attractive, with a great hair style, wearing smart attire”.
Well no. I see someone who is getting distinctly old, wearing old clothes and looking like anyone else of my age.
The only thing I can claim is that I still have my hair, although it is now totally white.
I didn’t even say she was not gorgeous, did I? I merely commented that she reminded me very strongly of Donald Trump. Could it be that you don’t approve of The Donald’s looks? How judgemental of you.
Oh well, I assume in the future no one on this site will describe Cameron Slater as being fat and everyone will ignore Gerry Brownlie’s excessive weight.
“I didn’t even say she was not gorgeous, did I?”
you definatelky implied it.
Just stop digging the hole and admit that it was a low blow
“you definatelky implied it”.
I do not consider I have any responsibility for the results of your fevered imagination.
FFS – what is wrong with you?
It’s a symptom of a wider malaise. Don’t waste your keystrokes. He’s too far gone to be saved.
Too ranty for me – kinda like Bomber. Much rant with little substance.
Also:
“Our own Prime Minister is pretty much off his rocker but, hey, let’s not labour the point. Unless, it’s all Labour’s fault.”
It should be ” let’s not belabour the point”. Grinds me gears!
ahhh but using the word labour instead of belabour ie sarcasm was deliberate do you not think?
Possibly, but could still have worked spelled correctly.
As a former journo and comms manager I am a self-confessed grammar Nazi
Jesse Mulligan: “Sometimes when I read this stuff I get
the sense that Russia are L-L-L-LOOKIN’ for trouble…”
RNZ National, Tuesday 4 October 2016, 4:47 p.m.
Jesse Mulligan, James Nokise, Chris Wikaira
Incredibly, RNZ’s sorry light chat show The Panel just keeps getting worse. I’m sorry to have to say that in his occasional hosting stints, comedian Jesse Mulligan has shown himself to be as ill-informed and smug as the regular host Jim Mora. The following farcical exchange was horrible to listen to, not only because of Mulligan’s abysmal ignorance—it’s obvious he has read virtually no “stuff” on Syria—but also because of Professor Gillespie’s mealy-mouthed performance. It seems he’s more concerned with avoiding a browbeating from his notorious right wing Waikato colleagues Ron Smith and Dov Bing than he is with informing the audience. The end effect of five minutes of Al Gillespie is similar to sitting through five minutes of a Donal Trump speech—you feel you’ve wasted your time, and you actually feel stupider at the end of it…..
JESSE MULLIGAN: So let’s move on as well, and we’ll go international now, with a look at the world with Al Gillespie. The United States has suspended Syrian ceasefire talks with Russia, and they made the call after frustrations with Moscow and its ability to live up to a ceasefire agreement. That announcement comes two weeks after the most recent attempt at a ceasefire fell apart, when a humanitarian aid convoy trying to reach besieged areas of rebel-held Aleppo was destroyed by an air strike. Al Gillespie of the University of Waikato joins us now. Al, hullo there, how ARE you today?
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: Hey Jessie, I’m well. Thank you.
JESSE MULLIGAN: [extended intake of breath to convey how serious he is] Who do we believe: United States or Russia?
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: Well, there’s two sides to it. The Americans said they’ll only go back into the talks if the Russians stop bombing Aleppo, and the Russians say they can only stop bombing Aleppo if the Americans distinguish between the moderate rebels and Al Qaeda, which is a legitimate target.
JESSE MULLIGAN: Aaaaand is your understanding that the Russians have a POINT in that respect or do the United States deny it?
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: I, uh, I, …[baffled world-weary sigh]… there’s no-o-o-o-o black and white any more in, in Syria, especially in Aleppo. And often the sides, some of those that are moderate and not meant to be targeted, blend with the ILLEGITIMATE, more religious extremists which CAN be targeted. It’s pretty hard to get a clear dividing line.
JESSE MULLIGAN: How bad news IS this, that talks have broken down between the U.S. and Russia?
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: It’s very bad, I mean we can’t even get a ceasefire at the moment, so we can’t, you need a ceasefire before you can start talking about a peace plan. We need to be thinking that this conflict could go on for many years from here.
JESSE MULLIGAN: Why do ceasefires break down, Al, if uh, if no one enjoys war? [snickers nervously]
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: There’s no trust on the ground. No one believes that it’s safe to bring in aid, water, or food, and so unless you can get the most basic modicum of trust, you can’t build up.
JESSE MULLIGAN: So how do you CREATE it?
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: You get the teams, well you need two things. One, people have to get tired of fighting, and neither side has to believe that they can WIN. At the moment, there’s so much money, men, and ammunition going into the fight, both sides believe that they still have the upper hand. And then you need to have confidence-building measures, and right now they can’t even achieve THAT.
JESSE MULLIGAN: [speaking very slowly, to convey thoughtfulness] Sometimes when I read this stuff I get the sense that Russia are L-L-L-LOOKIN’ for trouble, are L-L-L-LOOKIN’ to create tension with the U.S. Is that fair?
….Long pause….
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: [slowly, deliberately, to convey deep thinking] Ahhhhhmmm, partly, partly not. I mean, Russia’s there by a treaty it had with Syria from the early 1970s, a legitimate treaty for a defensive alliance, and Assad is still to a degree in power, so Russia’s doing what it was bound to do by treaty. The problem is, that at some point, as long as you’re propping up these sides the war will continue and you may have to, everyone just back out and see what the actual outcome is.
….Long pause…
JESSE MULLIGAN: Meanwhile, there’s this OTHER story around today, that Russia have walked away from the protocol on weapons-grade plutonium control. Can you give us a bit of background to that, Al?
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: Certainly. So the nuclear arms treaty’s like a collection of documents which regulate nuclear weapons. One of the protocols was about the reduction of plutonium, surplus plutonium, so it would not be diverted to create more nuclear warheads. The Russians have suspended their talks in this protocol exactly the same day as the Americans suspended their talks about the ceasefire in Syria. It’s a blow to nuclear arms control, it’s not MASSIVE, but it’s certainly starting to wobble the architecture.
…Long pause…
JESSE MULLIGAN: And once AGA-A-AIN, if we look at both parties, do both parties have some culpability here, or is it the Russians MAKING TROUBLE?
PROFESSOR AL GILLESPIE: U-u-u-u-u-ummm, both parties have some —the Russians are saying that they can’t trust the Americans with the technology that they’re using to turn their plutonium into a safe form of nuclear material, and the Americans are saying that if they work together they can come to a compromise. So there’s good and bad on both sides.
JESSE MULLIGAN: Mmmm-kay. Finally today, the Colombian peace deal veto. You better give us some background to this as well, Al, it’ll be the first time a lot of people have HEARD about this….
…ad nauseam…
Anyone wishing to, unlike Jesse Mulligan, do some serious study of what is happening in Syria, should bypass the likes of Al Gillespie and read or listen to someone who knows what he’s talking about. There is no one better on this than Noam Chomsky….
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/5/17/noam_chomsky_on_syria_conflict_cut
Typical of the relentless dumbing down of National radio, it drives me fucking crazy.
I have emailed 9-noon a number of times the about pointlessness of having that private prison loving centrist Mike Williams on the voices from the right and left on Mondays, what a complete waste of time, he more often than not ends up agreeing tacitly with Hooten’s position, and why wouldn’t he, they are basically two sides of the same coin….don’t get me started.
Williams doesn’t “tacitly” agree with Hooton, Adrian, he makes a point of saying “I agree with Matthew” several times in every show, almost as often as he chortles along with Hooton whenever a politician like Jeremy Corbyn is mentioned.
Maybe he learned to ingratiate himself with superior personalities when he was a high school classmate of Paul Holmes.
I know I was trying to be diplomatic, I have also replied to quite a few of Williams opinion pieces in the Hawks Bay today, however our local newspaper isn’t that interested in community conversation so only publish comments spasmodically.
I can’t understand RNZ’s logic of not actually having a hard hitting left intellectual on the show to challenge Hooton, and spark real debate. Surely even from their own rating perspective that must make sense?
They have occasionally put decent opponents up against Hooton, much to his evident discomfort. Laila Harré never let him get away with anything, and Andrew Campbell stymied him regularly.
I’m sure the RNZ National management had a role in getting rid of those difficult people and replacing them with patsies like Williams.
Ratings aren’t important: conformity is all that matters.
Thanks Adrian for sorting out thre ” 2 Adrians ” thing.
JESSE MULLIGAN: Why do ceasefires break down, Al, if uh, if no one enjoys war? [snickers nervously]
That alone should get him thrown out of a window. I mean, does he come to work drunk or something?
Thanks for getting the site back up and running, lprent.
+1
I think it was a very opportune outage. It will have saved red faces all round.
The more devoted Andrew-philes would have been in a terrible dilemma if they had been able to comment yesterday morning.
After listening to Little’s repeated promises on Morning Report to pay all parents a $60/week benefit for the first year of a babies life there would have been paens of praise about what great leadership Labour were offering and that we now saw what a wonderful man Little was.
Then, about four hours later they would be stuck with having to explain how he had never said any such thing and that he was being grossly misinterpreted.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11722111
Even the Herald seems to have decided he had stuffed up again.
Only four hours from cock of the walk to a feather duster.
I must admit I was quite surprised how much I missed the presence of this site though. I think I need to take a holiday. Thanks for fixing my fix.
Little’s interview was way better than John Key’s pathetic effort. Little said it would take 2 terms-6 years- to make a real difference to child poverty, which is about right, and floated the old Labour $60 policy as one way of alleviating this. So at least he committed Labour to do something about this scandalous situation-nobody announces actual policies this far out.
Did we see a massive article in the Herald critisising Key’s pathetic do-nothing, the market will sort it out, what about the rodents, interview response? No.
p.s Great to have TS back!
Meanwhile, that poverty permanently damages the life prospects of 300,000-400,000 children, while the six figure types in Wellington fret around in the Koru Club.
How long does it really take to raise benefits by $30/week and make the first $5,000 earned in wages/salary exempt from income tax and WINZ calculations?
And how long would it take for the capitalists to raise prices so that they could grab all the extra money for themselves thus ensuring that it would make no difference for the poor?
Yep Andrew Little reversed away faster from his earlier comments than a Italian tank driver in WW2 from the front line.
Little clarified the “policy” needs more work, as in who / how they were going to pay for it.
No no you don’t understand, John Key tells lies, whereas Andrew Little is the victim of the MSM reporting what he says
The two most interesting things about John key are….
His bailout and the amount of money he took from u.s.a pension funds …
2008: 2 Interests (such as shares and bonds)in companies and business entities
Little Nell – property investment
MerrillLynch – investment banking
JacksonMining – gold mining ……………………
And after then the bailout ………….
2009: 2 Interests (such as shares and bonds) in companies and business entities
Little Nell – property investment
Bank of America – banking
Jackson Mining – gold mining
The other interesting thing is how the media, wikipedia and his biography do not mention his good fortune and millions in charity ……..
The truth looks like a millionare taking millions in charity from ordinary citizens for his worthless investment in ponzi merrill lynch ( merrills share price had been climbing rapidly before imploding )
Key seems to support fraud both overseas and here in NZ ……….. “” a contentious exemption of professional services firms – mostly lawyers, accountants and real estate agents – from being covered by anti-money laundering laws passed in 2009.” http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11706741
“Yep Andrew Little reversed away faster from his earlier comments than an Italian tank driver in WW2 from the front line.”
I find that comment in very bad taste,
Have you heard or read anything about the Italian Frogman during the second would war? They would be some of the bravest people in the conflict
The Italian frogmen had the sense to stay well away from tanks. Well, not oxygen tanks. Or water tanks probably.
5 eyes just letting everyone know they’re lurking in the shadows and can strike at any time…
Pretty sure that they can crash the firmware on any piece of consumer technology and make it brick/wipe itself.
http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/74/74b761a4f7992b0114e491e0802a390f831e4537048ece830428d571cf1803ae.jpg
Time to stop hosting it in his sex dungeon and put it on something like aws, hell even digital ocean. Isn’t The Standard a charity?
+100%…but why do I always have to repeat my name and mail in the box every time?
So we can track you more easily…
lol…sqwark…it didnt know there were other Chooky imposters out there
We have eyes everywhere, we see everything…nice top you have on today, the colour suits your eyes and the pattern is quite fetching
obviously you can’t see me!
Maybe that’s what I want you to think, underestimate our true power…you’ll never see us coming 😉
lol…i can see you…you are a person of interest …and how do yu know who I am and what my real beliefs are?…I could work for the government and the secret service…i may not even be a Chooky
Oh I think your support for Penny bright suggests you are somewhat a chook
…You mean you hope I am just a chook (got you scared haven’t I?)
I’ve Got a Little List –
Chooky have you had an answer, it means no reply button above, cant see whos being giving cheek. Ha
has someone been giving me more cheek?…and yes I can’t see any reply button to the The Mikado’s Little List
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3821062/Is-moment-tank-Hillary-s-campaign-Julian-Assange-set-speak-WikiLeaks-conference-promising-release-damaging-information-Clinton.html
Sounds a bit like Kim Dot Cons moment of truth to me, all sizzle and not steak
Bit like English’s budgets then?
Or Murray McCully’s Saudi deal
Or the CHCH convention centre
etc
I think the difference is though that KDC was attempting to help National lose the election (like it seems Julian Assange is with Hilary Clinton) whereas National has been trying to win elections
On that score Assange seems to be as successful as KDC
Without media traction or faux outrage, no one gave a shit.
..,and just because the government and media didn’t take it on, doesn’t mean what they said wasn’t true.
What did KDC have? Some dodgy email that couldn’t be proven, wow
Ah, no, he had Edward Snowden and all of his facts to back up what he said and a couple of award winning journalists as well.
Ah yes “facts” (see what I did there?) and all those “facts”, all the money, all the hype and all the journalists and yet it was a big fat nothing
The truth will out and KDC got outed
Really – so what facts did he have to back up that fake email again?
What fake email?
As far as I know there was no fake emails in KDCs Moment of Truth.
Then it appears you do not know much.
You’re the one that can’t supply a reference.
diddums…I know it was a disappointment to you but Julian is not going away..despite Hillary’s drone threat
‘Assange: WikiLeaks will publish all US election docs by Nov. 8’
https://www.rt.com/usa/361533-assange-documents-elections-usa/
I’d actually prefer Trump over Clinton to win the presidency by the way
I think Clinton has more knowledge of how to cause damage then Trump does
I’m more ticked off that nothing was released, like KDCs moment. I want to see…something but all its been is one big let down
“We’ve got something and we’re going to show it, not today but soon”
and it never happens
yes …I know others who are disappointed…but maybe he has his reasons …sometimes a slow leak is more effective than a one off dump
….and who knows what the pressure he has been under at the Ecuadorian Embassy?
http://truepundit.com/under-intense-pressure-to-silence-wikileaks-secretary-of-state-hillary-clinton-proposed-drone-strike-on-julian-assange/
sometimes a slow leak is more effective than a one off dump
Ask Nicky Hager 🙂
yes well it is a gamble…but sometimes it pays to keep a little bit in storage as insurance just in case something happens to you …as Robert Fisk once said
Hillary’s drone threat?
You mean that completely unsourced and unverifiable claim from a single “news” source? The Clinton conspiracies get wilder by the day.
I wouldn’t be surprised if pretty soon someone claims she used HAARP to make Chemtrails rain GMO gluten seeds on Haiti.
Seriously, Clinton as a poor choice for president is obvious, there is no need to make shit up when her record speaks for itself.
Clinton has caused all the bad shit that has happened over the last THIRTY, I say again, THIRTY years. From fukashima, plastic gryes in the ocean, earthquakes, mountineers not making it, famines, reruns of pissweak UK shit series, all the way to mass murderers, drinking games that arent really games, the middle east and the west and east east too, racial and sexual intolerance, the mullet haircut putin having inappropriate liasons with that tiger. The list – endlist ///sarc
Wake up Clinton is everwhere – check out the video and change Elvis to Clinton –
https://youtu.be/mpb4ZAAP6Z4
Not sure about Clinton wanting to drone Assange – but given that Assange is an enemy of the US security state that would seem likely.
Also you seem to have forgotten that Sec State Clinton was a leading figure in the Obama Administration’s record breaking use of illegal/extra-judicial drone assassinations – under Obama the US droned far more people than GW did.
yeah she done it and 911 and built the pyramids
We wus trolled. (video inside)
Is anyone else on the unpublished electoral roll?
The Tasman District Council are making it very difficult for me to cast a special vote. Apparently I have to drive to their HQ in Richmond (30mins on the open road) and cannot cast a special vote from their service centre in Motueka. I was wonder if any whom live over the hill in Golden Bay on the unpublished roll, and if they have to go all the way to Richmond to vote (an hour and a half drive on the open road), because they aren’t allowed to cast their special vote from the Golden Bay service centre, just like I’m experiencing.
To bad if people on the unpublished roll can’t get to Richmond to cast their special vote.
Are other councils making it difficult for those on the unpublished roll? I didn’t have this problem with the general election.
And they wonder why voter turn out is low.
Did you apply to the local electorial officer at the local council to be issued with a special declaration vote?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/84972223/bps-uk-oil-field-clair-still-shut-following-leak-in-the-north-sea
How’s NZ for oil drilling? Still confident in the likes of BP?
On the crisis of relevance for the social-democratic beige left parties:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/03/europe-centre-left-spain-socialist-party-leader-coup
Essentially, if they just try to be fluffy tories, real tories do a better job of being tories and those they’ve abandoned for their Pt Chevalier dinner parties look to the far right or radical left. In order to keep either out of office, they find themselves directly complicit with the tories as junior partners. The problem for the radical left is that its still too fragmented and incoherent to achieve much effect in parliaments and finds itself blocked.
The problem for the radical left is that its still too fragmented and incoherent to achieve much effect in parliaments and finds itself blocked.
The deeper problem is that the right now have all the levers. The right, having persuaded populations that they would all end up as shareholders, and that unemployment etc. were just temporary pains, changed tack as soon as they had what they wanted (all the levers). This left the centre left parties, who had geared themselves toward making sure the shareholder society would be inclusive, with nowhere to go. One of two things has to happen. Either the right themselves will start to reconfigure their aims, fearing that being top dog in a fractured, disabled society makes one vulnerable to worse threats than mere trade unions, or the left will build up the numbers to give them a run for their money even without the levers. While the lack of levers keeps the left fragmented, things have come a long way from movements like “occupy” to Sanders, Corbyn, Podemos, etc.
Real Clear Politics has Clinton with a poll lead of 3.8% and a 322-216 lead on the state by state electoral vote map. Not quite a real clear lead but the trend is good.
A passing blip 🙂
hope so…hope Clinton goes down the gurgler
‘Hacked Clinton Foundation files show ‘pay to play’, bank ties’
https://www.rt.com/usa/361608-clinton-foundation-hacked-guccifer/
“Documents reportedly hacked from the Clinton Foundation servers have identified major Democratic donors and troubling ties between TARP aid given to banks and their political contributions. One folder is outright labeled “Pay to Play.”
A Hacker calling himself “Guccifer 2.0,” who claimed responsibility for previous breaches of the Democratic National Committee and the congressional Democrats, published the documents on Tuesday afternoon ahead of the vice-presidential debates.
“I hacked the Clinton Foundation server and downloaded hundreds of thousands of docs and donors’ databases,” the hacker wrote on his blog. “Clinton and her staff don’t even bother about the information security.”
The Clinton Foundation has denied the hack, with president Donna Shalala saying that “none of the files or folders shown are ours.”…
Taken a long time for it to pass…
Your future Auckland ‘Peoples’ Mayor – in action!
😉
http://councillive.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/video/240216-governing-body-meeting-part-3
Scroll through to 8 minutes for my presentation to the Auckland Council Governing Body Meeting of 24 February 2016.
This is where I outline why I think Auckland Council failed to follow lawful due process regarding the ‘out of scope evidence’ provided to the Independent Hearings Panel, and I defended the lawful rights of citizens from ‘the leafy suburbs’.
(This is one of the 27 Auckland Council Governing Body meetings to which I have presented since 1 November 2010).
Kind regards
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Penny…I wish I was in Auckland so I could vote for you!…you would be a brilliant democratic colourful people’s Mayor!
All chookys of Auckland unite to support Penny for Mayor!
…she would be much better than any of the boys …in the past
…she would sort Auckland out with style and flair and democracy
Penny,
Ill bet you your outstanding rates bill that you are not our next Mayor.
Penny, I only have a couple of words
alalalalalalalalallalalalalal
lolz, never seen anything so out there in my entire life as that video of the live university debate.
after that, no one could possible ever take local elections seriously again.
“I defended the lawful rights of citizens from ‘the leafy suburbs”
Thank goodness someone is defending our coastal nimbys from their future. Imagine if they had to rely on their own meagre resources to hold back change. Will someone think of the lawyers?
Clinton vs Trump . . . again!
Just watched Max Keiser – at about 10 minutes in, an interview with David Stockman, Ronald Regan’s budget advisor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evVewdUHcIg
A couple of quotes:
“[Trump] hasn’t spent 30 years in the system, he hasn’t memorised the playbook, he’s not part of the status quo and therefore he is the disrupter that we need in the environment that we’re in today,”
“[Hillary] talked about a basket of deplorables, I think you really need to turn the tables, the basket of deplorables are the policies that she’s been associated with and her generation of leaders ever since the 1980s.”
An intersting interview.
So Key asserted the Government is committed to reducing the number of children in poverty (albeit without setting targets).
Therefore, if National are genuinely committed, will they be extending WFF to all low income children (as called for by Professor Susan St John)?
Will they adjust WFF for past inflation and index it annually to wages?
While Labour are committed to setting targets, unfortunately they’ve yet to commit to the WFF measures mentioned above. Therefore, we can’t expect Labour to apply political pressure on this one just yet (and perhaps not at all).
It’s a shame Labour haven’t got their policy together yet, it results in a weaker opposition.
http://thehackernews.com/2016/10/wikileaks-google-election-leak.html
Wikileaks 10 year anniversary press conference with assange and others, Somewhat long winded but I learned some new stuff. Well worth it
Really?…..do tell…
watch and learn 🙂
I watched a fund raiser, was harangued about a new book and eventually trolled by an alleged rapist who revealed nothing new about Clinton, and he seemed to throw cold water on the notion that any revelations he had in store would destroy Clinton’s campaign.
You?.
Trump (the so-called anti-establishment presidential candidate) wants to slash the corporate tax rate by over 50% with no strings attached.
The reasoning for this is he hopes to attract businesses back to the States to help boost employment and stimulate the economy.
Unfortunately, Trump made no mention of stipulating criteria (living wage, employment expectations, etc) companies would have to meet to receive the tax cuts while ensuring his objectives are met.
Wonder how his anti-establishment supporters feel about that one?
fyi Lynn.
Could only sign into the back end of the site. Every time I hit the front end, it appeared I was automatically signed out. Then I submitted a comment and I was suddenly signed in again. Sort of.
Still can’t access private posts on the front end. Can access them on the back end, but not to comment .
And depending on how I navigate around the front end, I appear to be variously signed out or signed in.
windows 7 chrome
I’ve been hitting the “Exceeded the maximum global requests per minute for crawlers or humans” locked out warning all day.
Hilarys trying to shut you down!
Same here. If I’m allowed access to TS , comments also deleted. Except (hopefully) this one which I’ve sent via Firefox rather than google chrome.
I couldn’t access the site for a few days – till today. See if this goes through..
I was locked out so changed browser – This message:
Your access to this site has been limited
Your access to this service has been temporarily limited. Please try again in a few minutes. (HTTP response code 503)
Reason: Exceeded the maximum global requests per minute for crawlers or humans.
Important note for site admins: If you are the administrator of this website note that your access has been limited because you broke one of the Wordfence firewall rules. The reason your access was limited is: “Exceeded the maximum global requests per minute for crawlers or humans.”.
If this is a false positive, meaning that your access to your own site has been limited incorrectly, then you will need to regain access to your site, go to the Wordfence “options” page, go to the section for Rate Limiting Rules and disable the rule that caused you to be blocked. For example, if you were blocked because it was detected that you are a fake Google crawler, then disable the rule that blocks fake google crawlers. Or if you were blocked because you were accessing your site too quickly, then increase the number of accesses allowed per minute.
If you’re still having trouble, then simply disable the Wordfence firewall and you will still benefit from the other security features that Wordfence provides.
If you are a site administrator and have been accidentally locked out, please enter your email in the box below and click “Send”. If the email address you enter belongs to a known site administrator or someone set to receive Wordfence alerts, we will send you an email to help you regain access. Please read this FAQ entry if this does not work.
This response was generated by Wordfence.
[lprent: That usually happens when you have too many calls to the site within too short a timeframe. It is there to prevent the site getting overwhelmed by bots masquerading as human. But I’ve been playing with the cache, and didn’t really have time to fine tune it last night. I’ll have a look at it after I get home and make some dinner. ]
There was also a link to click and a box to put your email address – these are not showing on the c/p
The disclosure bill, which is now under review by select committee, has the singular feature that it arguably does not increase disclosure.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/world/85000994/john-key-keeps-lid-on-hidden-billions