Iowa is still only around 71% of the precincts reporting. Buttigieg and Sanders still neck and neck with around 25% each.
For Sanders, that's about half the vote share he got in 2016. Which tells us his remarkable numbers in 2016 weren't indicative of a strong movement or actual support for him. It simply showed the large numbers of "anyone but Hillary" that had no other plausible outlet to express that view.
"Iowan Democratic Party chairs started telling media that the unspecified ‘issues’ we’d heard about earlier on in the evening, were to do with the app refusing to send proper numbers on down the chain to the Party HQ; and, when they’d resorted to the old-fashioned means and mechanisms of calling up HQ to manually report their results, they were being hung up on. Or facing spiraling delays. Or both." https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/02/06/chaos-in-the-caucuses-iowa-democrats-corn-app-a-real-bad-dud/
"In a manner similar to how the gabion [a rock-filled wire-mesh cage placed on shorelines as a countermeasure to erosion] disrupts the force of the onrushing wave by dissipating it off up into the small stones, rather than letting it pound forth at the cliff face behind directly … so, too, will the sweeping spray of Sanders find itself diffused amidst all the swirling detritus that’s been distributed via this sudden storm."
Yep, definitely the most elegant expression of the DNC mastermind thesis thus far! "Another way you could look at it, I suppose, would be observing the rapidly intensifying Bern, and then attempting to douse it with a smothering spurt of foam, drastically reducing its inflow of oxygen, even if only temporarily. Gives you time to rally other resources to do a more comprehensive job later on down the line, and tries to prevent it going into any further contests any bigger and Bern-ier than it already is. If nothing else, it gives you more time to work out how to spin the actual results coming out of Iowa, while everybody waits for the official count to be released". How many days we bin waiting already? I've lost count…
"Terry Pratchett once sagely observed that in Politics, “transparency” has two meanings – like a window, as in you can see right through it … or like the air, as in you can’t see it at all). Instead, the whole thing’s kinda occluded. Almost as if there were some sort of “Shadow” looming large across our visionary skein." https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/02/06/chaos-in-the-caucuses-iowa-democrats-corn-app-a-real-bad-dud/
"That “Shadow”, of course, isn’t just one sub-standard tech-outfit (no matter how earnest it’s been about providing “a permanent advantage for progressive campaigns and causes through technology.”); nor, for that matter, is it the absolute greaseberg of hairy ‘rough optics’ connections tying said app and its developers/owners back to Buttigieg, or even to Hillary Clinton herself; all laid out on company or personal websites and twitter profiles for any and all to see."
"What it is, is a pervasive and sweeping sense of malaise. That “we’ve been down this road before”, as … entails a steady dwindling of hope at prospects for the future – a gradual drawing down of not just ‘activist’, but ‘mass’ enthusiasm for the concept that Change [possibly accompanied by Hope] is even possible."
Establishment must defend itself against invading barbarians by whatever means are available. Fair or foul, doesn't matter.
Wow, that's brought out a whole lot of conspiracy-mongering to divert from the original point: Sanders' support level this time around is about half what it was last time.
What we're seeing now is probably a much better indication of the actual level of support for Sanders and his proposals, compared to last time around, where he was wildly inflated by dislike of the only alternative.
Andre, you like to style yourself as an intelligent guy and yet here you are claiming candidates should gather the same amount of votes in two different elections with different numbers of candidates participating and supporting different policy proposals.
Opportunities Party leader Geoff Simmons: "capitalism definitely needs an overhaul, but we shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Here are ten reasons why."
1. We don’t have a viable alternative
5. We can make capitalism work better
6. We need to offer a hopeful future
7. We need innovation and new technologies
10. Returning to the land is nonsense
The others weren't interesting enough to cite. "I believe we should focus on pushing for cultural – some might call it spiritual – change. The changes needed to save our environment and enable a just transition are entirely possible with a few rational reforms to our existing system. The real challenge is to get society to truly embrace them." https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/06-02-2020/scrapping-capitalism-to-save-the-environment-heres-why-that-wont-work/
Well, to be fair, he offers a pointer or two. "We need a new kind of capitalism that focuses our creative capacity on doing more with less." "One of the best ways to do that is through incentives."
He's right that protesting has failed. I've often made that point here too. Sad to see the photo of the young marxist doing exactly what I saw when I was at uni. Progress in the half-century since = zero.
However his reform agenda does come across as rather lame. There's no real difference between it and what the Greens have been promoting for an entire generation! In fact our prescription still goes further than his. His chosen role seems to be that of a sheepdog who directs sheep by barking gently at them.
First up an apology for one of my comments to you last week. I made my case with unnecessary force and that was a mistake.
I strongly believe that we will save nature by not using it. This is already an obvious pattern, those parts of the world that do remain as wilderness are the mountains, deserts and marginal lands that we have not been able to put to economic use.
Yet at the same time we do highly value them for aesthetic and spiritual reasons. We protect the most spectacular of them as parks, and we're slowly getting better at protecting non-human species for their own sake. While deforestation remains a problem in some parts of the world, in others where agriculture has become more efficient, much land is now regenerating back to wilderness.
Humans will never entirely sever their connection with nature, indeed the more we live in cities, the more our relationship with the wild world shifts from exploitation, to appreciation. (On a personal note, it always struck me that the keenest trampers I knew were mostly city people. Their daily immersion in the metropolis only intensified their desire to visit the hills.)
I fully accept you are bringing a non-technological viewpoint to this discussion … it's my strong desire to find constructive interplay between what we are both saying. A yin-yang interdependence if you wish.
Accepted, RedLogix, and I readily acknowledge the perils of commenting on blogs on issues that are nuanced. Recently, I've been reading and listening to Natasha Meyers, Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at York University, director of the Plant Studies Collaboratory, convener of the Politics of Evidence Working Group, co-founder of Toronto’sTechnoscience Salon, and the Write2Know Project. She's talking about issues that are consuming my attention at present and it might be that her ideas and research interest you also. You talk about photosynthesis a lot, as does she, only your views are "somewhat at odds" – I find myself cheering her on, though she seems not to need encouragement. I have in fact, begun corresponding with her, via email, about her findings and sharing my own"forest garden" based learnings also. At the core of my belief and behaviour is the idea that, to rephrase your, "we will save nature by not using it", she will save us if we listen to her
He speaks a language I understand . And top doesn't come with that underlying antipathy towards rural nz that I feel from labour and the greens . (Not all lefties are anti but its there)
Southland is no longer isolated with an access route between Invercargill and Dunedin open for light traffic.
While several roads around Mataura remain closed, an available route can be accessed from SH1 north of Edendale for light vehicles only. Follow Pioneer Highway to Brydone-Glencoe Road and then Te Tipua School Road to Te Tipua before turning left onto Waimumu Road and taking it through to Gore. Travelers can then connect with SH1 from Gore to Dunedin.
This detour is not available for heavy traffic, in particular HPMV.
News of the route opening will be met with relief after flooding throughout the region left many stranded, including motorcyclists venturing south for the annual Burt Munro Challenge and southerners attending the Elton John concert in Dunedin last night.
Police advise motorists to proceed with caution and not travel unless it is necessary. Roads will be monitored and could potentially close again if the conditions change.
Creative thinking lessens impact on Wyndham
Some creative thinking by engineers in the early 1980s may have helped lessen the impact on Wyndham and other rural settlements along the flooded Mataura River today.
Peaks downstream from Mataura had been predicted to peak at 2740 cumecs at Wyndham at 3.20pm today, equating to roughly 4.2 metres above the river’s normal level, and 1.8 metres above the level of the 2.4-metre floodbanks.
However, in reality the peak flow never rose higher than the floodbanks, rising to 2370 cumecs and 3.9m above normal at 2.50pm.
Cumecs recorded at other sites on the Mataura River were 2500 at Gore at 12.50pm and 2774 at Mataura at 1.20pm.
We believe the peaks have gone past but a full assessment of the river and surrounding areas needs to be completed in the morning. Residents need to stay safe where they are until alerted by Emergency Mangement Southland tomorrow that the cordon has been lifted.
Local marae to assist those stranded
Local marae have opened their doors to people misplaced by the Southland floodwaters.
Murihiku Marae and Nga Hauewha Marae are providing emergency shelter and food for anyone who needs a place to stay.
Numerous roads throughout the Southland region remain closed.
Motorists heading south to Invercargill from Queenstown are advised to remain in Winton as SH6 at Makarewa Junction is closed due to flooding. The Presbyterian Church is open for shelter, information and tea/coffee.
ENDS
This release has been issued by Louise Pagan, Duty Public Information Manager on the authority of the Southland Civil Defence Emergency Management Group Controller Mark Crowe.
Contact Louise Pagan, Duty Public Information Manager, ph 03 2115442
Jacinda Arderns government has given a political master in the past few weeks. At Waitangi she has utterly wiped the floor with angry Soymon from accounts. Any hope National had of the Maori party becoming a force in the next election have been destroyed. Bridge’s sole political strategy appears to be to use a deluge of Topsham Geurin style fake news and dirty politics to somehow engineer an election outcome where National can govern alone on 45% of the vote.
It is almost as if his enemies inside the National caucus are sitting back and letting him commit political suicide.
I reckon at least a couple of them reckon they can be the 11th-hour leadership change that miracles national to victory, like Ardern did replacing Little. But none of them represent the change in energy thast Ardern had from Little and English (not even the gender thing – they were both steady-talking, considered, careful campaigners with little energy, Ardern mixed it up a notch).
Trump gives power to the people! Indirectly: "The Trump administration is relocating large parts of the federal government away from Washington DC, and they’re not going elsewhere in the bicoastal bubble of privilege—they’re moving to flyover country."
"Two of the main bureaus of the Department of Agriculture, for example, will soon be moving to the Kansas City area, while the Bureau of Land Management is heading for Grand Junction, Colorado. That’s fiscally prudent—office space costs a lot less in Kansas City and Grand Junction than it does in Washington DC—and it also makes much more sense to put the Department of Agriculture in the middle of farm country and the Bureau of Land Management out west, where most federal lands are located."
"Yet the political implications are lost on no one inside the Beltway. When the eager young people who show up for their first day of work at the Department of Agriculture come from farm-belt schools rather than the Ivy League, a tectonic shift in the landscape of American power will have been accomplished." https://www.ecosophia.net/the-end-of-the-dream/
John Greer is just another crackpot (he styles himself an occult druid of some sort) that comes from what seems to be an endless production line in the USA, generated by the American style of paranoia. A right winger with a vague chip on his shoulder and who thinks their is some sort of elite conspiracy going on to rob ordinary Joes of their due. Any opinion he offers has to be taken with an enormous pinch of salt.
"Shadow is a subsidiary of ACRONYM, a non-profit with lots of connections to the Democratic consultancy, including veterans of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and David Plouffe, the Obama campaign manager who sits on the ACRONYM board. MSNBC’s Chris Hayes asked Plouffe on a late-night panel about his participation, and as he swiveled in his chair uncomfortably he disclaimed any knowledge of Shadow or the app."
"Similarly, ACRONYM issued a statement positioning themselves as a mere investor in Shadow, without knowledge of their inner workings. But last year, ACRONYM announced they were “launching” Shadow, as part of an effort to help Democrats “win” the Internet and run better campaigns. The head of ACRONYM, Tara McGowan, is married to a Pete Buttigieg strategist."
"All this doublespeak is a hallmark of the bullshit economy. Your mind doesn’t have to travel to the nether regions of conspiracy, but you can hardly blame people for doing so. This is reflective of the rolling incompetence covered by confidence within the modern economy, especially when you sprinkle on the labor-saving promise of techtopia. When the bullshit economy fails, it robs people's belief in the basic bargain of commerce, the idea that you get what you pay for, that companies operate in good faith to provide quality service. But when placed in contact with politics, it just demolishes faith in the system. The bullshit economy spurs distrust."
Crickey, mitt romney intends to cross the floor, here's hoping more follow.
Democrats praise Romney
Moments after Republican Senator Mitt Romney made the surprise announcement that he would break from party ranks and vote to convict the president on the abuse of power article of impeachment, Democrats took to Twitter in praise of the move.
That vote makes Romney the first senator ever to vote for convicting a president from their own party.
In Clinton's trial, 10 Repugs voted not guilty for perjury, and 5 voted not guilty for obstruction.
It's also a little bit surprising no Dems cracked and voted not guilty, the likes of Jones and Manchin would have had really difficult calculations determining which way was best for their electoral prospects.
And when it comes to profiles in hypocrisy, there's 28 sitting senators that were in Congress for Clinton's impeachment. Here's a brief then-and-now for them all:
All the upcoming primaries are by ballot not caucuses. So it is about who has the best campaign and most appealing message.
Can Biden recover? Probably not.
The momentum is all with Buttigieg. Can he beat Trump. Probably. I think the US is tired of the bitter partisanship. Buttigieg, unlike Sanders, offers a more appealing message for voters, just like Obama did.
I reckon it will come down to either Buttigieg or Warren.
Yanks are too conservative for a gay president. Did you see the tv news interview of that woman who voted for him? When told he was gay she demanded her vote back!
Biden was always counting on getting a big push in South Carolina from his support in the black community to make up for weak showings in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.
Here's a fairly concise backgrounder on Ukraine corruption and how Manafort, Burisma, Hunter Biden and others moved amongst the thoroughly rotten Ukrainians at the top.
"Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican, found the President guilty of abuse of power, becoming the first senator in US history to vote to remove from office a president from the same party."
“Romney was the sole Republican to vote to convict the President on the first article of impeachment, abuse of power, joining with all Senate Democrats in a 52-48 not guilty vote. Romney voted with Republicans against the obstruction of Congress charge, which fell along straight party lines, 53-47 for acquittal. The acquittal verdict was the final act of a four-month impeachment”
One thing I'm really enjoying about Waitangi Day of late is the increased goodwill among the many, and the decreased voice of the disruptors, both from lone activists and from the lone National Party.
The Prime Minister is doing what a leader should do in bringing people together and I detect a significant drowning out and ridicule of the usual anti-Maori right wing of New Zealand.
However, as the crucible of gammon rage grows ever smaller it grows ever hotter. Witness the red-faced impotent shrieks from the nut jobs that the PM would include her family in what should be a family occasion.
The commenters on right wing blogs. They believe she's parading her family around for political purposes at Waitangi, and at any time she is with her family at an event.
It appears the only thing which will satisfy them is if Jacinda Ardern completely separates herself from her family when in public.
I suspect they think she is getting an unfair advantage with the voting public because she has a toddler.
And what is more: by bringing her toddler to Waitangi and have her be part of the celebrations there, is a subtle message to maoridom that there special place in NZ society will always be upheld by her and her government.
UK moves forward the extinction date for sales of new fossil fuel powered cars to 2035. Pure electric only after then (unless somehow the green hydrogen unicorn becomes a reality).
Hopefully this will induce our government to choke down a cup of cement, harden up, and implement the same policy that it considered and wimped out on.
How does the average age of a vehicle fleet affect whether sales of new vehicles will be all pure electric by 2035? Regardless of whether that is by regulation or simple technological superiority and lower cost.
I reckon there will be a quick drop-off, though, as petrol stations start becoming misnomers. They might continue as fast-charging stations or convenience stores, but tanks will start being pulled if demand halves
assume you mean new sales of ICE?….I would imagine so, though not necessarily for cars/light commercial, I would expect those to have ceased in the main.
Once a new technology becomes significantly better and/or cheaper then it replaces the existing one much faster than most people appreciate.
Over one hundred years ago, the first generation of ICE cars substantially replaced horse drawn vehicles in many major western cities in the relatively short decade from 1900 – 1910. By late 1920's horses were pretty much confined to rural areas.
Fairly quickly we will reach the point where the infrastructure needed to support ICE vehicles, both in terms of fuel and service, will suffer declining volumes and rapidly increasing marginal costs. Exactly what that will happen is impossible to tie down to an exact date … but I'd bet on it being sooner than anyone expects.
Interesting read here on what was once thought indispensable industry.
Whaling shows how attitudes to an established industry can change.
Today, even the whalers themselves, once revered as heroes and charged with slaying the slow swimming ocean mammals, said their memories were tinged with regret.
In many ways, the whale oil industry of a past age was akin to the thirst for mineral oil in this day – both "extractive industries", both a natural resource.
Yup. A good article that underlines the argument that improving and evolving technology usually pushes us in the direction of less exploitation of nature.
Well, yes, even with the genuine problems from lithium mining, it's still way better than fossil fuels. Cobalt is probably a bigger concern, but even adding up all the negatives from the worst batteries in EVs, they are still way better than using dino-juice.
But there's also ongoing work on alternative chemistries. Potassium and sodium are very similar chemically to lithium, and much more abundant and easier to extract.
let me put it this way, i can starve you by feeding you a little bit every day or i can starve you by feeding you not at all. Which way is better?
And keep in mind that at the end you still end up dead.
But then i guess for those that can't conceive of giving up private transport polluting the world by mining this other fossil fuel lithium for batteries and by mining everything else one way or another to generate the electricity you need to drive your SUV (or what ever toy your lifestyle depends on) its 'better'.
This blocked the (Communist) Left (over 30) were the largest party AFD and CD second and third (over 20) – the last time the extreme right was involved in keeping the left out of power was well …
It's probably just a reflection of the populist rise against the leftist elite – the one that Karl du Fresne writes about ad nauseam in his Stuff/MSM columns – presumably until we are brainwashed into this new paridigm.
That is a well-written populist propaganda piece. Right at the start, it carefully constructs the binary framework by defining the good or positive and the bad or negative ones. The bad ones are:
The elites – often referred to as the metropolitan or inner-city elites – are Leftist idealists who prefer to describe themselves as "progressive".
The good ones are “ordinary people” with the sub-text ‘people like you and me’.
Even the corporate sector cops it from the elites.
It takes a swipe at MMP, of course, as “a dodgy electoral system” and compares it with the US, Australia, and the UK. A more apt comparison would be Germany particularly given the AfD making it into State Government.
It redefines populism:
But a populist politician, by definition, is one who seeks the support of, or holds the same views as, ordinary people. Isn't that what democracy is supposed to be about?
There is a difference between popular and populist but that doesn’t suit the narrative.
For example, tax cuts are popular; anti-immigrant, anti-farmer or bene-bashing are populist.
It contains other little propaganda gemstones too.
The ending is anti-climactic and I don’t want to spoil it by giving it away; you’ll have to read the whole piece from the beginning to end (don’t cheat!).
No place for centrists in a binary frame. Since the tertiary tribe have produced most election outcomes in western countries throughout our lives, only someone whose political frame comes from a bygone era would discount them. Mental disabilities are terrible afflictions!
So the author struggles with the conceptual reframe of populist Winston into centrist Winston. Learning from history is immensely difficult for some: Winston struggled to win via populism, but centrism proved continually reliable. Obviously! Not to an ideological zealot though – they only see what they believe.
If you look carefully at that photo of Hilary that the Stuff editor included with his headline, you can tell she'd had one toke too many. I hope it eases her path into obscurity.
It was the populist vote that got Donald Trump elected in the US in 2016 and Scott Morrison in Australia last year. Both results came as a profound shock to the elite media commentariats, isolated in their self-absorbed metropolitan bubbles and unable to see past their noses.
Taleb in a Post script to intellectual yet idiot notes.
The election of Trump was so absurd to them and didn’t fit their worldview by such a large margin that they failed to find instructions in their textbook on how to react. It was exactly as on Candid Camera, imagine the characteristic look on someone’s face after they pull a trick on him, and the person is at a loss about how to react.
I stand corrected; Karl du Fresne is a brilliant satirist.
Taleb’s piece, OTOH, is not satire but a anti-intellectual’s and anti-snob’s parody of clichés and stereotypes à la (oops, that’s too much French) Monty Python. I have to confess that I’ve found myself nodding in agreement in places, which probably (oops, bad use of probability theory) proves (!) that I’m an IYI without realising it. We need more of this stuff; it is opium for the brain.
A group of partisan hacks chose to close their eyes and ears to evidence and their constitutional obligations to shield their cult leader from accountability for his high crimes and misdemeanours. Thereby contributing to the likely functional death of actual democracy of the US.
Well, I did report that here before 11am (#11). Just like I reported the Gallup Poll yesterday which showed that impeachment had boosted his polling to the highest point of his presidency so far. And I did predict his re-election last year.
I agreed with Andre that evidence of his witholding US aid to Ukraine illegally deserved impeachment. But opinions about laws usually do vary, so no surprise if he thought that law was an ass and ought to be ignored. If the Dems can't produce an impressive candidate then they don't deserve to win anyway…
Just outta curiosity, James, have you read Romney's explanation of his vote to convict? Y'know, the guy who was the 2012 Republican candidate for president?
This verdict is ours to render. The people will judge us for how well and faithfully we fulfilled our duty. The grave question the Constitution tasks senators to answer is whether the President committed an act so extreme and egregious that it rises to the level of a “high crime and misdemeanor.”
Yes, he did.
The President asked a foreign government to investigate his political rival.
The President withheld vital military funds from that government to press it to do so.
The President delayed funds for an American ally at war with Russian invaders.
The President’s purpose was personal and political.
Accordingly, the President is guilty of an appalling abuse of the public trust.
That’s one guys view – but he was acquitted despite Romney.
that’s like asking the single juror who has a different view then the other 11 and holding them up as the right answer because that’s what you want it to be.
President Donald Trump is rewarding senators who have his back on impeachment — and sending a message to those who don't to get on board.
Trump is tapping his vast fundraising network for a handful of loyal senators facing tough reelection bids in 2020. Each of them has signed onto a Republican-backed resolution condemning the inquiry as “unprecedented and undemocratic.”
I think by refusing to see evidence and hear witnesses, this time has been an extra level of bullshit.
And that's if one regards the accusations as being of equal merit in the first place. Clinton lied about getting a blowjob. This one used congressionally-mandated funds to try to blackmail a foreign nation to produce dirt against one of his political opponents.
So now we're debating the ethics of international military aid? Who said it was a good thing? Who says it's a bad thing? How is it even relevant to impeachment – is a thief who steals from a drug dealer any less of a thief?
From self promoting unordained Apostle Bishop Brian Tamaki sermon at Waitangi today …
"… But by 1975, Maori had lost 97 per cent of our land. God had prepared the land so everyone could live well, healthy and long. But when we see the deprivation and poverty now, people not living in that land, not living with dignity…"
Give me strength. I have heard some hypocritical statements in my time. But this one from an extremely wealthy man, who has made his money out of preaching hell and damnation, condemning lifestyles of others, through his self established church to a vulnerable tithing congregation, while promoting himself, would have to be up there with the best of them! I find it gobsmacking to say the least.
Perhaps the Apostle Bishop and his wife should put their money where their mouths are and consider distributing some of their wealth to help NZs impoverished and deprived!
Fivethirtyeight have just revised their Dem primary odds. Their odds for reaching the convention with a majority of pledged delegates are:
Sanders 37%
Nobody 27%
Biden 21%
Warren 10%
Buttigieg 6%
Compared to before Iowa, that's a small jump up for Sanders, a smaller tick up for Warren and Buttigieg, a big jump up for Nobody, and a BASE jump for Biden.
In my own workplace which is comprised of an international workforce the offshore managers asked about us working Waitangi Day and the local manager told them it would cost triple time.
Lobbying outfits run by former tRump transition staffers raked in record revenues using their connections with former colleagues in the Administration Those lobbying outfits then donated millions to tRump's re-election committees.
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
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 Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
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 ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
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 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
It’s the deadliest fictional town in the country, but which death has been the most bonkers? Alex Casey looks back at 10 seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries to find out. Warning: The following ranking story contains famous New Zealand actors appearing to be dead (not alive). The Spinoff has been ...
Water cremation is the biggest thing to happen to the death industry in the last 100 years. Alex Casey meets the people trying to bring it to Aotearoa. Through a set of mirrored doors down the industrial end of Christchurch’s St Asaph Street, death is getting a new lease on ...
The tabling of the final report from the Royal Commission on Abuse in Care is a watershed moment for New Zealand. This comprehensive document lays bare the pervasive abuse and neglect experienced by children, young people, and adults in state and faith-based care from 1950 to 1999, and beyond. Among ...
Iowa is still only around 71% of the precincts reporting. Buttigieg and Sanders still neck and neck with around 25% each.
For Sanders, that's about half the vote share he got in 2016. Which tells us his remarkable numbers in 2016 weren't indicative of a strong movement or actual support for him. It simply showed the large numbers of "anyone but Hillary" that had no other plausible outlet to express that view.
The Good News…
Noam Chomsky: 'The Neoliberal Order Is Visibly Collapsing'
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/noam-chomsky-the-neoliberal-order-is-visibly-collapsing/
DNC Loses Public Trust in Primary Process on Very First Day
It doesn’t actually matter anymore who really won Iowa at this point; the damage is already done, writes Caitlin Johnstone.
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/02/05/dnc-loses-public-trust-in-primary-process-on-very-first-day/
"Iowan Democratic Party chairs started telling media that the unspecified ‘issues’ we’d heard about earlier on in the evening, were to do with the app refusing to send proper numbers on down the chain to the Party HQ; and, when they’d resorted to the old-fashioned means and mechanisms of calling up HQ to manually report their results, they were being hung up on. Or facing spiraling delays. Or both." https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/02/06/chaos-in-the-caucuses-iowa-democrats-corn-app-a-real-bad-dud/
"In a manner similar to how the gabion [a rock-filled wire-mesh cage placed on shorelines as a countermeasure to erosion] disrupts the force of the onrushing wave by dissipating it off up into the small stones, rather than letting it pound forth at the cliff face behind directly … so, too, will the sweeping spray of Sanders find itself diffused amidst all the swirling detritus that’s been distributed via this sudden storm."
Yep, definitely the most elegant expression of the DNC mastermind thesis thus far! "Another way you could look at it, I suppose, would be observing the rapidly intensifying Bern, and then attempting to douse it with a smothering spurt of foam, drastically reducing its inflow of oxygen, even if only temporarily. Gives you time to rally other resources to do a more comprehensive job later on down the line, and tries to prevent it going into any further contests any bigger and Bern-ier than it already is. If nothing else, it gives you more time to work out how to spin the actual results coming out of Iowa, while everybody waits for the official count to be released". How many days we bin waiting already? I've lost count…
@ Dennis Frank, Well put +1
"Terry Pratchett once sagely observed that in Politics, “transparency” has two meanings – like a window, as in you can see right through it … or like the air, as in you can’t see it at all). Instead, the whole thing’s kinda occluded. Almost as if there were some sort of “Shadow” looming large across our visionary skein." https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/02/06/chaos-in-the-caucuses-iowa-democrats-corn-app-a-real-bad-dud/
"That “Shadow”, of course, isn’t just one sub-standard tech-outfit (no matter how earnest it’s been about providing “a permanent advantage for progressive campaigns and causes through technology.”); nor, for that matter, is it the absolute greaseberg of hairy ‘rough optics’ connections tying said app and its developers/owners back to Buttigieg, or even to Hillary Clinton herself; all laid out on company or personal websites and twitter profiles for any and all to see."
"What it is, is a pervasive and sweeping sense of malaise. That “we’ve been down this road before”, as … entails a steady dwindling of hope at prospects for the future – a gradual drawing down of not just ‘activist’, but ‘mass’ enthusiasm for the concept that Change [possibly accompanied by Hope] is even possible."
Establishment must defend itself against invading barbarians by whatever means are available. Fair or foul, doesn't matter.
Wow, that's brought out a whole lot of conspiracy-mongering to divert from the original point: Sanders' support level this time around is about half what it was last time.
What we're seeing now is probably a much better indication of the actual level of support for Sanders and his proposals, compared to last time around, where he was wildly inflated by dislike of the only alternative.
Andre, you like to style yourself as an intelligent guy and yet here you are claiming candidates should gather the same amount of votes in two different elections with different numbers of candidates participating and supporting different policy proposals.
In 2016 it was him split with HRC, no further candidates.
In 2020 there are five candidates, and he got over a quarter of the vote and leads the pack.
Opportunities Party leader Geoff Simmons: "capitalism definitely needs an overhaul, but we shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Here are ten reasons why."
1. We don’t have a viable alternative
5. We can make capitalism work better
6. We need to offer a hopeful future
7. We need innovation and new technologies
10. Returning to the land is nonsense
The others weren't interesting enough to cite. "I believe we should focus on pushing for cultural – some might call it spiritual – change. The changes needed to save our environment and enable a just transition are entirely possible with a few rational reforms to our existing system. The real challenge is to get society to truly embrace them." https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/06-02-2020/scrapping-capitalism-to-save-the-environment-heres-why-that-wont-work/
"Opportunities Party leader Geoff Simmons: "capitalism definitely needs an overhaul, but let's not do it"
fify
Well, to be fair, he offers a pointer or two. "We need a new kind of capitalism that focuses our creative capacity on doing more with less." "One of the best ways to do that is through incentives."
He's right that protesting has failed. I've often made that point here too. Sad to see the photo of the young marxist doing exactly what I saw when I was at uni. Progress in the half-century since = zero.
However his reform agenda does come across as rather lame. There's no real difference between it and what the Greens have been promoting for an entire generation! In fact our prescription still goes further than his. His chosen role seems to be that of a sheepdog who directs sheep by barking gently at them.
whiff whiff
@Robert
First up an apology for one of my comments to you last week. I made my case with unnecessary force and that was a mistake.
I strongly believe that we will save nature by not using it. This is already an obvious pattern, those parts of the world that do remain as wilderness are the mountains, deserts and marginal lands that we have not been able to put to economic use.
Yet at the same time we do highly value them for aesthetic and spiritual reasons. We protect the most spectacular of them as parks, and we're slowly getting better at protecting non-human species for their own sake. While deforestation remains a problem in some parts of the world, in others where agriculture has become more efficient, much land is now regenerating back to wilderness.
Humans will never entirely sever their connection with nature, indeed the more we live in cities, the more our relationship with the wild world shifts from exploitation, to appreciation. (On a personal note, it always struck me that the keenest trampers I knew were mostly city people. Their daily immersion in the metropolis only intensified their desire to visit the hills.)
I fully accept you are bringing a non-technological viewpoint to this discussion … it's my strong desire to find constructive interplay between what we are both saying. A yin-yang interdependence if you wish.
Accepted, RedLogix, and I readily acknowledge the perils of commenting on blogs on issues that are nuanced. Recently, I've been reading and listening to Natasha Meyers, Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at York University, director of the Plant Studies Collaboratory, convener of the Politics of Evidence Working Group, co-founder of Toronto’s Technoscience Salon, and the Write2Know Project. She's talking about issues that are consuming my attention at present and it might be that her ideas and research interest you also. You talk about photosynthesis a lot, as does she, only your views are "somewhat at odds" – I find myself cheering her on, though she seems not to need encouragement. I have in fact, begun corresponding with her, via email, about her findings and sharing my own"forest garden" based learnings also. At the core of my belief and behaviour is the idea that, to rephrase your, "we will save nature by not using it", she will save us if we listen to her![smiley smiley](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png)
"Opportunities Party" lol
He speaks a language I understand . And top doesn't come with that underlying antipathy towards rural nz that I feel from labour and the greens . (Not all lefties are anti but its there)
Pays not to confuse dairy farmers resisting change with 'rural NZ'.
Route open from Invercargill to Dunedin
Southland is no longer isolated with an access route between Invercargill and Dunedin open for light traffic.
While several roads around Mataura remain closed, an available route can be accessed from SH1 north of Edendale for light vehicles only. Follow Pioneer Highway to Brydone-Glencoe Road and then Te Tipua School Road to Te Tipua before turning left onto Waimumu Road and taking it through to Gore. Travelers can then connect with SH1 from Gore to Dunedin.
This detour is not available for heavy traffic, in particular HPMV.
News of the route opening will be met with relief after flooding throughout the region left many stranded, including motorcyclists venturing south for the annual Burt Munro Challenge and southerners attending the Elton John concert in Dunedin last night.
Police advise motorists to proceed with caution and not travel unless it is necessary. Roads will be monitored and could potentially close again if the conditions change.
Creative thinking lessens impact on Wyndham
Some creative thinking by engineers in the early 1980s may have helped lessen the impact on Wyndham and other rural settlements along the flooded Mataura River today.
Peaks downstream from Mataura had been predicted to peak at 2740 cumecs at Wyndham at 3.20pm today, equating to roughly 4.2 metres above the river’s normal level, and 1.8 metres above the level of the 2.4-metre floodbanks.
However, in reality the peak flow never rose higher than the floodbanks, rising to 2370 cumecs and 3.9m above normal at 2.50pm.
Cumecs recorded at other sites on the Mataura River were 2500 at Gore at 12.50pm and 2774 at Mataura at 1.20pm.
We believe the peaks have gone past but a full assessment of the river and surrounding areas needs to be completed in the morning. Residents need to stay safe where they are until alerted by Emergency Mangement Southland tomorrow that the cordon has been lifted.
Local marae to assist those stranded
Local marae have opened their doors to people misplaced by the Southland floodwaters.
Murihiku Marae and Nga Hauewha Marae are providing emergency shelter and food for anyone who needs a place to stay.
Numerous roads throughout the Southland region remain closed.
Motorists heading south to Invercargill from Queenstown are advised to remain in Winton as SH6 at Makarewa Junction is closed due to flooding. The Presbyterian Church is open for shelter, information and tea/coffee.
ENDS
This release has been issued by Louise Pagan, Duty Public Information Manager on the authority of the Southland Civil Defence Emergency Management Group Controller Mark Crowe.
Contact Louise Pagan, Duty Public Information Manager, ph 03 2115442
Website: http://www.cdsouthland.nz
Jacinda Arderns government has given a political master in the past few weeks. At Waitangi she has utterly wiped the floor with angry Soymon from accounts. Any hope National had of the Maori party becoming a force in the next election have been destroyed. Bridge’s sole political strategy appears to be to use a deluge of Topsham Geurin style fake news and dirty politics to somehow engineer an election outcome where National can govern alone on 45% of the vote.
It is almost as if his enemies inside the National caucus are sitting back and letting him commit political suicide.
What unites them is their desperate desire to win back power. I reckon Bridges will be toast if they don’t get to form/lead the next Government.
I reckon at least a couple of them reckon they can be the 11th-hour leadership change that miracles national to victory, like Ardern did replacing Little. But none of them represent the change in energy thast Ardern had from Little and English (not even the gender thing – they were both steady-talking, considered, careful campaigners with little energy, Ardern mixed it up a notch).
They will have to make their move by mid-to-late-July and it’ll be poll driven.
Added to which they will be up against Ardern herself.
A doubly impossible task.
Trump gives power to the people! Indirectly: "The Trump administration is relocating large parts of the federal government away from Washington DC, and they’re not going elsewhere in the bicoastal bubble of privilege—they’re moving to flyover country."
"Two of the main bureaus of the Department of Agriculture, for example, will soon be moving to the Kansas City area, while the Bureau of Land Management is heading for Grand Junction, Colorado. That’s fiscally prudent—office space costs a lot less in Kansas City and Grand Junction than it does in Washington DC—and it also makes much more sense to put the Department of Agriculture in the middle of farm country and the Bureau of Land Management out west, where most federal lands are located."
"Yet the political implications are lost on no one inside the Beltway. When the eager young people who show up for their first day of work at the Department of Agriculture come from farm-belt schools rather than the Ivy League, a tectonic shift in the landscape of American power will have been accomplished." https://www.ecosophia.net/the-end-of-the-dream/
John Greer is just another crackpot (he styles himself an occult druid of some sort) that comes from what seems to be an endless production line in the USA, generated by the American style of paranoia. A right winger with a vague chip on his shoulder and who thinks their is some sort of elite conspiracy going on to rob ordinary Joes of their due. Any opinion he offers has to be taken with an enormous pinch of salt.
Again unwilling to address the comment you attack the messenger. This and a florid turn of rant seem to be most of what you have these days.
Liberals are the masters of the bullshit economy – the Clintons merely function as cheerleaders. https://prospect.org/politics/bullshit-economy-iowa-caucus-disaster/
"Shadow is a subsidiary of ACRONYM, a non-profit with lots of connections to the Democratic consultancy, including veterans of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and David Plouffe, the Obama campaign manager who sits on the ACRONYM board. MSNBC’s Chris Hayes asked Plouffe on a late-night panel about his participation, and as he swiveled in his chair uncomfortably he disclaimed any knowledge of Shadow or the app."
"Similarly, ACRONYM issued a statement positioning themselves as a mere investor in Shadow, without knowledge of their inner workings. But last year, ACRONYM announced they were “launching” Shadow, as part of an effort to help Democrats “win” the Internet and run better campaigns. The head of ACRONYM, Tara McGowan, is married to a Pete Buttigieg strategist."
"All this doublespeak is a hallmark of the bullshit economy. Your mind doesn’t have to travel to the nether regions of conspiracy, but you can hardly blame people for doing so. This is reflective of the rolling incompetence covered by confidence within the modern economy, especially when you sprinkle on the labor-saving promise of techtopia. When the bullshit economy fails, it robs people's belief in the basic bargain of commerce, the idea that you get what you pay for, that companies operate in good faith to provide quality service. But when placed in contact with politics, it just demolishes faith in the system. The bullshit economy spurs distrust."
🙄
Let's hope Jacinda's day at Waitangi isn't her last as PM.
She’ll still be the PM tomorrow.
Crickey, mitt romney intends to cross the floor, here's hoping more follow.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/trump-impeachment-trial-day-13-latest-updates-200204183046952.html
Al Jazeera is currently streaming the impeachment
That vote makes Romney the first senator ever to vote for convicting a president from their own party.
In Clinton's trial, 10 Repugs voted not guilty for perjury, and 5 voted not guilty for obstruction.
It's also a little bit surprising no Dems cracked and voted not guilty, the likes of Jones and Manchin would have had really difficult calculations determining which way was best for their electoral prospects.
And when it comes to profiles in hypocrisy, there's 28 sitting senators that were in Congress for Clinton's impeachment. Here's a brief then-and-now for them all:
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/current-senators-who-were-at-clinton-impeachment-2020-1?r=US&IR=T
Thanks for the link Andre.
The Iowa caucus vote was rigged The Hill.
Bernie ahead in New Hampshire.
What dirty tricks will be used in the next primary vote ?
All the upcoming primaries are by ballot not caucuses. So it is about who has the best campaign and most appealing message.
Can Biden recover? Probably not.
The momentum is all with Buttigieg. Can he beat Trump. Probably. I think the US is tired of the bitter partisanship. Buttigieg, unlike Sanders, offers a more appealing message for voters, just like Obama did.
I reckon it will come down to either Buttigieg or Warren.
Yanks are too conservative for a gay president. Did you see the tv news interview of that woman who voted for him? When told he was gay she demanded her vote back!
““Are you saying that he has the same-sex partner? Are you kidding?” the voter asks, before adding, “I don’t want anybody like that in the White House.”” https://www.huffpost.com/entry/iowa-caucus-voter-pete-buttigieg-same-sex-marriage_n_5e39d27fc5b6f083412065c5
Hmm, maybe you are right. Perhaps we need to assess in the states beyond New Hampshire.
Biden was always counting on getting a big push in South Carolina from his support in the black community to make up for weak showings in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.
The momentum is all with Buttigieg. Can he beat Trump? Probably.
You're delusional.
Here's a fairly concise backgrounder on Ukraine corruption and how Manafort, Burisma, Hunter Biden and others moved amongst the thoroughly rotten Ukrainians at the top.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/02/ukraine-impeachment-trump-journalism-yanukovych/
Trump acquittal: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/05/politics/senate-impeachment-trial-vote-acquittal/index.html
"Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican, found the President guilty of abuse of power, becoming the first senator in US history to vote to remove from office a president from the same party."
“Romney was the sole Republican to vote to convict the President on the first article of impeachment, abuse of power, joining with all Senate Democrats in a 52-48 not guilty vote. Romney voted with Republicans against the obstruction of Congress charge, which fell along straight party lines, 53-47 for acquittal. The acquittal verdict was the final act of a four-month impeachment”
One thing I'm really enjoying about Waitangi Day of late is the increased goodwill among the many, and the decreased voice of the disruptors, both from lone activists and from the lone National Party.
The Prime Minister is doing what a leader should do in bringing people together and I detect a significant drowning out and ridicule of the usual anti-Maori right wing of New Zealand.
However, as the crucible of gammon rage grows ever smaller it grows ever hotter. Witness the red-faced impotent shrieks from the nut jobs that the PM would include her family in what should be a family occasion.
Good times ahead.
crucible of gammon rage
Enough with the blatant racism. It's unacceptable and makes you look like a hypocritical fool.
who is shrieking about the PM and her family?
Nut jobs, I've heard![smiley smiley](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png)
Chest(beating)nuts?
The commenters on right wing blogs. They believe she's parading her family around for political purposes at Waitangi, and at any time she is with her family at an event.
It appears the only thing which will satisfy them is if Jacinda Ardern completely separates herself from her family when in public.
I suspect they think she is getting an unfair advantage with the voting public because she has a toddler.
Crazy stuff.
who is shrieking about the PM and her family?
A lot of people on Twitter whom you probably don't follow. Check out #pimpmybaby, if you have a strong stomach.
Kids love helping and playing with boxes.
This is a beautiful image, little Neve helping out at Waitangi, a family occasion![heart heart](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/heart.png)
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/119314921/pm-jacinda-arderns-daughter-neve-packs-away-boxes-at-waitangi?rm=a
And what is more: by bringing her toddler to Waitangi and have her be part of the celebrations there, is a subtle message to maoridom that there special place in NZ society will always be upheld by her and her government.
Meanwhile, Simon gives Waitangi the middle finger and tweets a family photo from Mount Maunganui.
https://www.twitter.com/simonjbridges/status/1225213012455260160
Pushing it to see anything wrong with him doing this.
PM Helen Clark didn't go for years after…. the thing
Something about pimping the family, in context.
UK moves forward the extinction date for sales of new fossil fuel powered cars to 2035. Pure electric only after then (unless somehow the green hydrogen unicorn becomes a reality).
https://cleantechnica.com/2020/02/04/uk-will-move-internal-combustion-ban-ahead-5-years-to-2035/
Hopefully this will induce our government to choke down a cup of cement, harden up, and implement the same policy that it considered and wimped out on.
I'm predicting ICE's will be functionally extinct well before then. The 2035 date is a pretty safe bet from the UK govt's perspective.
Probably. It's still a worthwhile marker to put down, and that line in the sand may just be an extra little nudge that makes it happen.
I doubt that will happen – ICE cars will be going for a long time past 2035.
Indeed…esp given the average age of the NZ fleet is 14.3 years and 2035 is less than 15 years away.
Did you miss the "… sales of new …" bit?
not at all…did you miss the functionally extinct bit?
How does the average age of a vehicle fleet affect whether sales of new vehicles will be all pure electric by 2035? Regardless of whether that is by regulation or simple technological superiority and lower cost.
13.1
13.1.2
13.1.2.1
Ok. Sales will go well past 2035 ?
Used ones will do a zombie shuffle for quite a while afterwards, yes.
I reckon there will be a quick drop-off, though, as petrol stations start becoming misnomers. They might continue as fast-charging stations or convenience stores, but tanks will start being pulled if demand halves
assume you mean new sales of ICE?….I would imagine so, though not necessarily for cars/light commercial, I would expect those to have ceased in the main.
Once a new technology becomes significantly better and/or cheaper then it replaces the existing one much faster than most people appreciate.
Over one hundred years ago, the first generation of ICE cars substantially replaced horse drawn vehicles in many major western cities in the relatively short decade from 1900 – 1910. By late 1920's horses were pretty much confined to rural areas.
Fairly quickly we will reach the point where the infrastructure needed to support ICE vehicles, both in terms of fuel and service, will suffer declining volumes and rapidly increasing marginal costs. Exactly what that will happen is impossible to tie down to an exact date … but I'd bet on it being sooner than anyone expects.
Interesting read here on what was once thought indispensable industry.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/118617754/cautionary-tale-of-whale-oil-a-pointer-to-fossil-fuel-legacy
Yup. A good article that underlines the argument that improving and evolving technology usually pushes us in the direction of less exploitation of nature.
Ordinary people will be unable to afford the fuel for individual vehicles.
If that's the case, why the panic over our own government stopping drilling permits after 2050?
yeah, cause lithium mining is so much greener.
Oh boy, the delusion runs deep.
Well, yes, even with the genuine problems from lithium mining, it's still way better than fossil fuels. Cobalt is probably a bigger concern, but even adding up all the negatives from the worst batteries in EVs, they are still way better than using dino-juice.
But there's also ongoing work on alternative chemistries. Potassium and sodium are very similar chemically to lithium, and much more abundant and easier to extract.
no it is not better.
let me put it this way, i can starve you by feeding you a little bit every day or i can starve you by feeding you not at all. Which way is better?
And keep in mind that at the end you still end up dead.
But then i guess for those that can't conceive of giving up private transport polluting the world by mining this other fossil fuel lithium for batteries and by mining everything else one way or another to generate the electricity you need to drive your SUV (or what ever toy your lifestyle depends on) its 'better'.
Yeah, right Tui.
Killing us softly instead of hard.
"…She went on to say that Johnson admitted to her in conversation that he did not understand climate change."
I suspect thats true of many of our own politicians so wouldnt hold out too much hope
that he did not understand climate change."
Actually most people don't. I know that the more I found out about it, the more I realised how complex the topic can be.
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it"
Upton Sinclair
The German AFD select the Premier of Thuringa (majority with CD and FD).
The first state majority involving AFD. This ends the period in which major parties refused to accept the votes of AFD.
The centrist FD leader is the Premier (his party won 5% of the vote).
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51384615
This blocked the (Communist) Left (over 30) were the largest party AFD and CD second and third (over 20) – the last time the extreme right was involved in keeping the left out of power was well …
It's probably just a reflection of the populist rise against the leftist elite – the one that Karl du Fresne writes about ad nauseam in his Stuff/MSM columns – presumably until we are brainwashed into this new paridigm.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/columnists/119262432/elites-cant-dictate-what-people-think-or-how-they-vote
Of course when he was younger they just called its Robs mob, those easily triggered to hate anyone/anything progressive.
KDF still wants an elite to control the people. He just wants his kind of elite.
i.e those who belive in free markets, social conservatism and patriarchy.
That is a well-written populist propaganda piece. Right at the start, it carefully constructs the binary framework by defining the good or positive and the bad or negative ones. The bad ones are:
The good ones are “ordinary people” with the sub-text ‘people like you and me’.
Even the corporate sector cops it from the elites.
It takes a swipe at MMP, of course, as “a dodgy electoral system” and compares it with the US, Australia, and the UK. A more apt comparison would be Germany particularly given the AfD making it into State Government.
It redefines populism:
There is a difference between popular and populist but that doesn’t suit the narrative.
For example, tax cuts are popular; anti-immigrant, anti-farmer or bene-bashing are populist.
It contains other little propaganda gemstones too.
The ending is anti-climactic and I don’t want to spoil it by giving it away; you’ll have to read the whole piece from the beginning to end (don’t cheat!).
No place for centrists in a binary frame. Since the tertiary tribe have produced most election outcomes in western countries throughout our lives, only someone whose political frame comes from a bygone era would discount them. Mental disabilities are terrible afflictions!
So the author struggles with the conceptual reframe of populist Winston into centrist Winston. Learning from history is immensely difficult for some: Winston struggled to win via populism, but centrism proved continually reliable. Obviously! Not to an ideological zealot though – they only see what they believe.
If you look carefully at that photo of Hilary that the Stuff editor included with his headline, you can tell she'd had one toke too many. I hope it eases her path into obscurity.
It was the populist vote that got Donald Trump elected in the US in 2016 and Scott Morrison in Australia last year. Both results came as a profound shock to the elite media commentariats, isolated in their self-absorbed metropolitan bubbles and unable to see past their noses.
Taleb in a Post script to intellectual yet idiot notes.
The election of Trump was so absurd to them and didn’t fit their worldview by such a large margin that they failed to find instructions in their textbook on how to react. It was exactly as on Candid Camera, imagine the characteristic look on someone’s face after they pull a trick on him, and the person is at a loss about how to react.
https://medium.com/incerto/the-intellectual-yet-idiot-13211e2d0577
I stand corrected; Karl du Fresne is a brilliant satirist.
Taleb’s piece, OTOH, is not satire but a anti-intellectual’s and anti-snob’s parody of clichés and stereotypes à la (oops, that’s too much French) Monty Python. I have to confess that I’ve found myself nodding in agreement in places, which probably (oops, bad use of probability theory) proves (!) that I’m an IYI without realising it. We need more of this stuff; it is opium for the brain.
https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-impeachment-trial-02-05-20/index.html
trump acquitted- so the appropriate court of the land has found him innocent.
Trump 2020 is looking good for re-election
A group of partisan hacks chose to close their eyes and ears to evidence and their constitutional obligations to shield their cult leader from accountability for his high crimes and misdemeanours. Thereby contributing to the likely functional death of actual democracy of the US.
https://www.vox.com/2020/2/5/21115539/trump-impeachment-acquittal-vote-democracy
Well, I did report that here before 11am (#11). Just like I reported the Gallup Poll yesterday which showed that impeachment had boosted his polling to the highest point of his presidency so far. And I did predict his re-election last year.
I agreed with Andre that evidence of his witholding US aid to Ukraine illegally deserved impeachment. But opinions about laws usually do vary, so no surprise if he thought that law was an ass and ought to be ignored. If the Dems can't produce an impressive candidate then they don't deserve to win anyway…
Trump 2024!
Just outta curiosity, James, have you read Romney's explanation of his vote to convict? Y'know, the guy who was the 2012 Republican candidate for president?
That’s one guys view – but he was acquitted despite Romney.
that’s like asking the single juror who has a different view then the other 11 and holding them up as the right answer because that’s what you want it to be.
trump was acquitted and that’s the legal outcome.
Did the dems with senate aspirations no end of good.
The stench of corruption around repug incumbents won’t wash off.
Trouble is: the Democrats, exactly like the Repugnants, are "led" by some of the most corrupt people on the planet.
Funny "rigging" when Sanders seems to have actually won.
He would have won in 2016 but for the rigging by the DNC.
That doesn't seem to be what the clip was about.
Not a trial by impartial jury though, is it?
So your analogy is completely ridiculous.
They are the legal officials and the discharged their duties as required by law.
He won – they lost.
So funny – and his approvals are up !
Trump 2020
You have significantly edited your comment having realised how dumb it was. You basically deleted it and started again.
A sure sign of someone who is unsure of their convictions.
I edited it to remove the insult out of respect to those who spend time here as moderators.
if they want – they can repost.
People with integrity stand by what they say.
Or apologise.
Or they modify their language for those who it causes work.
which I did.
I edited it to remove the insult out of fear the moderators would cut short the time I spend here,
FIFY.![smiley smiley](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png)
Ahh it’s Anne – she’s always happy to call others names.
The best acquittal money can buy.
President Donald Trump is rewarding senators who have his back on impeachment — and sending a message to those who don't to get on board.
Trump is tapping his vast fundraising network for a handful of loyal senators facing tough reelection bids in 2020. Each of them has signed onto a Republican-backed resolution condemning the inquiry as “unprecedented and undemocratic.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/31/trump-impeachment-senators-donor-062084
Colbert gives props to the sole republican who discharged his duties as required by law.
The only impeached President ever to have a member of his own party vote to convict and remove.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/us/politics/trump-acquitted-impeachment.html
Has everyone forgotten Bill so soon?
So no members of his own party voted to "convict and remove", although some voted to begin proceedings.
True enough. But I was probably over cryptic … my point is, hyperpartisan impeachment proceedings are not exactly new thing are they?
I think by refusing to see evidence and hear witnesses, this time has been an extra level of bullshit.
And that's if one regards the accusations as being of equal merit in the first place. Clinton lied about getting a blowjob. This one used congressionally-mandated funds to try to blackmail a foreign nation to produce dirt against one of his political opponents.
Clinton lied about getting a blowjob.![surprise surprise](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/omg_smile.png)
Imagine if any politician attempted the same defense these days …
This one used congressionally-mandated funds to try to blackmail a foreign nation to produce dirt against one of his political opponents.
And hopefully this will be the last time the left holds up an instance of the USA blatantly meddling in the affairs of other nations, as a good thing.
Imagine for instance if Russia was to start funding armament sales to say Cuban revolutionaries …. oh wait.
So now we're debating the ethics of international military aid? Who said it was a good thing? Who says it's a bad thing? How is it even relevant to impeachment – is a thief who steals from a drug dealer any less of a thief?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12306439
From self promoting unordained Apostle Bishop Brian Tamaki sermon at Waitangi today …
"… But by 1975, Maori had lost 97 per cent of our land. God had prepared the land so everyone could live well, healthy and long. But when we see the deprivation and poverty now, people not living in that land, not living with dignity…"
Give me strength. I have heard some hypocritical statements in my time. But this one from an extremely wealthy man, who has made his money out of preaching hell and damnation, condemning lifestyles of others, through his self established church to a vulnerable tithing congregation, while promoting himself, would have to be up there with the best of them! I find it gobsmacking to say the least.
Perhaps the Apostle Bishop and his wife should put their money where their mouths are and consider distributing some of their wealth to help NZs impoverished and deprived!
heh
https://twitter.com/MoBill/status/1225106407290064897
ROFL !!!
Fivethirtyeight have just revised their Dem primary odds. Their odds for reaching the convention with a majority of pledged delegates are:
Sanders 37%
Nobody 27%
Biden 21%
Warren 10%
Buttigieg 6%
Compared to before Iowa, that's a small jump up for Sanders, a smaller tick up for Warren and Buttigieg, a big jump up for Nobody, and a BASE jump for Biden.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-primary-forecast/?ex_cid=rrpromo
Bye bye Buttigieg and Biden. And good riddance.
A piece of satire so brilliant it gives you hope.
disclaimer, i liked Sherrod Brown as Presnit of the USofA.
I agree wholeheartedly with his opinion about 'the fear' of the republican party – and i would add that that fear is spreading.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/opinion/trump-senate-acquittal-impeachment.html
Obviously fell on his own knife, repeatedly.
/
(CNN)French police are investigating the murder of a Chechen blogger, who was a vocal critic of President Ramzan Kadyrov, in a hotel room in Lille.
The victim, identified to CNN as Imran Aliev, ran a YouTube channel criticizing the Chechen regime backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
French officials said Aliev, 44, "suffered a violent death."
Investigators believe he knew his killer, a source close to the investigation told CNN Tuesday.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/05/europe/chechen-blogger-imran-aliev-murdered-lille-france-intl/index.html
private cities. a libertarian dream come true
https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2020/01/31/inside-the-rise-of-private-cities-priority-of-management-is-profit-not-the-needs-of-citizens/?fbclid=IwAR2BNdKLGroCd0TTAFXmGLPSFE2T2cHkVHylVhPlJu0rCXGjpLcuZcNWSCE#78010867c9c2
https://twitter.com/patrickgaley/status/1225078810288193536
This is an interesting one.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12306548
In my own workplace which is comprised of an international workforce the offshore managers asked about us working Waitangi Day and the local manager told them it would cost triple time.
Everyone had the day off, Kiwi citizen or not.![wink wink](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/wink_smile.png)
Lobbying outfits run by former tRump transition staffers raked in record revenues using their connections with former colleagues in the Administration Those lobbying outfits then donated millions to tRump's re-election committees.
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/02/republican-party-raking-in-millions-from-trump-tied-foreign-agents/