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.
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Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has hosted members of the Green Party Caucus at Tuurangawaewae Marae in Ngaaruawahia. The audience follows the King’s Hui-aa-Motu on 20 January, where more than 10,000 people gathered to discuss national ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Rachael Potter, Research Associate and Lecturer in Work and Organisational Psychology, University of South Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Pregnant women and workers with children are often unfairly treated by their bosses and colleagues, despite laws to protect against workplace discrimination ...
Reacting to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s refusal to rule out introducing new taxes at the budget, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said: “Today’s refusal to rule out new taxes suggests the Government is nothing more ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne Aila Images/Shutterstock Aged-care workers will receive a significant pay increase after the Fair Work Commission ruled they ...
He’s bringing ‘Sophie’ back, yeah. Goodshirt’s ‘Sophie’ music video is one of the most instantly recognisable New Zealand music videos of all time. Featuring a woman listening to the song on headphones while her entire house is burgled behind her, the video won the New Zealand music award for Best ...
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
"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
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WisZM9CMlTo
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDO2kHGEoY0
Bernie ahead in New Hampshire.
What dirty tricks will be used in the next primary vote ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-WK7t-fGEY
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
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
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDO2kHGEoY0
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.
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.
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvm3xeO1lA0
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.
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/