FYI, for me too the NYT article requires an account to read it, which is not cool here on TS and along a similar vein as linking to NZH articles that are behind a pay-wall.
And do you know why Blazer, you have to trawl through Right Wing conspiracy websites, to try and find some sort of half-arsed confirmation your disgusting pro-war narrative?
Because…..
There Is No Left Position That Justifies Putin’s Attack on Ukraine
DAVID OST
April 2, 2022 by Foreign Policy In Focus
It is tough for leftists to be on the same side as the mainstream. We can easily feel at those times that we’re missing something, that we’re letting down the struggle, that by ganging up even on an admittedly bad actor we’re helping strengthen the nemesis at home, allowing it to appear as the good guy…..
….If we want to support the right of self-determination to America’s neighbors, we can’t deny the same to Russia’s. If we’re not able to recognize multiple imperialisms, we are guilty of the same kind of Americocentrism for which we castigate others.
…..A negotiated settlement should have been done by now.
In the so called peace negotiations the Russian negotiators' position was that Ukraine should surrender.
Russia even refused a temporary ceasefire during the negotiations.
The Ukrainian negotiators offered Russia an a agreement not to join Nato. Ukraine also offered their terms for a ceasefire, which were to allow Russian forces to fall back to the pre- February 25 2022 areas in the Donbas Ukrainian territories, held by Russian forces before that date. And an agreement to continue negotiations for a permanent settlement, acceptable to both sides.
Russia rejected Ukrainian peace terms and refused to stop their attack on Ukraine, or return to its pre-February lines.
Hitting a stone wall with the Putin regime negotiators, President Zylensky, went over their heads to put the same peace offer before the Russian people on the messaging platform Telegram.
The Putin regime made viewing the Telegram video of the President's peace offer a criminal offence inside Russia, under penalty of 15 years in prison for spreading fake news
So much for 'a negotiated settlement should have been done by now'.
When you say that there should have been a negotiated settlement by now. What you really mean Blazer, is that the Ukrainians should have surrendered by now.
I am afraid Blazer, that is never going to happen, no matter what the cost, Ukraine will not stop fighting until the Russian Federation is driven back to its internationally recognised legal borders.
The Latest press release from the Russian leader carried on the Russian government News Site RT, is that Putin says he is ready to talk peace.
Delivered under the usual bellicose headlines mixed with threats, it is possible that Putin is finally ready to take up Zelensky's terms.
Which are; a return to the pre-February areas of the Donbas occupied by Russia before that date, in return for a ceasefire.
Let's all hope so. And the killing stops.
.
RT
7 Jul, 2022 17:11
…..Russia is ready to engage in peace negotiations with Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin has said on Thursday, warning that those who reject such prospects should realize that prolonging the ongoing conflict would only make such talks more difficult.
What I find interesting in Putin's statement announcing his readiness for peace talks, is this line;
"Attempts to sow discord in Russia have failed"
The fact that they were mentioned means that they must have had some effect.
This must be the first time that the internet has proved its worth in being able to bypass state censorship to get Zelensky's peace terms to the Russian people.
Putin's new readiness to engage in peace negotiations, whether they result in a ceasefire or not, (and I hope they do), the underlying causes of imperialist wars have not gone away, and will inevitably emerge somewhere else.
The best we can hope for, is a new cold war.
If there is another outbreak of imperialist aggression, (the underlying economic pressures of growth economies that must either expand or die, means it is likely there will be).
Whichever side is the attacker in the next violent outbreak, the aggressor needs to be opposed and condemned by the united Left.
Unfortunately the pro-invasion orchestra seems to be enjoying an intermission and have gone quite for the moment.
No doubt the orchestra will strike up again following the next Russian Federation atrocity, singing from the same song-sheet and in tune, misdirecting and obfuscating, excusing and explaining, denying, lying and justifying.
If of course the hated satanic seppos had been conducting themselves like this – along with the insanely irresponsible threats to first strike nuke if they don't get their way by conventional means – everyone here would be all over them. Including me.
But for some unspecified reason Russia gets a free pass with these dupes.
I had considered appending this you tube video, of unarmed civilian Russian speakers in Ukraine confronting the invading Russian troops, because it skewer's Blazer's pro-war viewpoint without being personal.
So, you considered it and then decided to attach the YT clip anyway to re-emphasise your view of Blazer because of his comments rather than addressing the substance of his comments.
Blazer has already denied that he’s having a pro-war narrative. I can’t see it myself and very few would be genuinely pro-war as such. In other words, it is a bold accusation to make and that requires much heavier lifting that the feeble arguments you’ve made here so far.
This tends to get ugly rather quickly and I don’t want to have to moderate you or anybody else for that matter for this kind of commenting behaviour.
Let’s put it this way, if you have nothing nice to say, then stay silent and scroll on.
With buggerral criticism from the rest of the world, you and many others.
Which is why yet another fucking baby killer, civilian bombing dickhead, Putin, knows he will get away with it.
Because the Yanks and their puppet totalitarian Dictators, have “got away with it”, for decades, and right now. Ignoring the “rules based order” at whim, they keep pontificating about.
Has our intervention made things worse? Of course. That was eminently obvious and predictable when my partner and I marched down Lambton Quay in 2002 protesting GW Bush’s imminent invasion of Iraq.
If you are demanding a more contemporary condemnation of ill-advised US foreign policy – well Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Aghanistan all pre-date this site. Hell if The Standard had been around in the 1940s there would have been lots of lefties lining up to tell us how the horrid yankees should stay out of Europe, and let the Japanese have the Pacific in the interests of peace.
The two key differences are of course that Russia is invading Ukraine with the explicit intention of permanently expanding its territorial empire. Together with the blatant, repeated threats of first strike nuclear action, Putin has not just stepped over a line – but sprinted for the wilderness.
I wonder where you find your mythical, "Lefties". Haven't met many, if any that would meet your definition of "Left".
It was "leftie" workers, including a great many Yanks, who fought and died to defeat the Japanese and Nazis. Including a huge number of "leftie" Merchant seafarers
Your right wing US hero's didn't want to get involved, until they were forced to. Too many of them thought The Nazis were right to remove those pesky trade unionists and the rest.
I knew some "lefties" that were pacifists. It didn't stop them being in the thick of it, as aid workers, merchant seaman and medics.
“Russia is invading Ukraine with the explicit intention of permanently expanding its territorial empire. Together with the blatant, repeated threats of first strike nuclear action, Putin has not just stepped over a line – but sprinted for the wilderness”.
The US bombing civilians and starving populations into changing Governments is “fine” because they don’t explicitly, though it is implicite, threaten nuclear First strikes and their empire is corporate, not “territorial”. .
One bunch of baby killing bombers, is not morally superior to the other. There is no fucking difference.
And, I expect better from “our friends”.
Where the fuck do you think Putin got the idea he could get away with ignoring the “rules based World order” and the UN, from.
''It was "leftie" workers, including a great many Yanks, who fought and died to defeat the Japanese and Nazis. Including a huge number of "leftie" Merchant seafarers.''
Yeah, but on the Allied home front during WW2 some of those Leftie workers weren't too fussed about the war.
Quote:
''In 1943 there were two major stoppages, one was a strike of 12,000 bus drivers and conductors and the other of dockers in Liverpool and Birkenhead. Both were a considerable embarrassment to Bevin since they involved mainly TGWU members. 1944 marked the peak of wartime strike action with over two thousand stoppages involving the loss of 3,714,000 days' production. This led to the imposition of Defence Regulation 1AA, supported by the TUC, which now made incitement to strike unlawful.''
Boris Johnson's leadership in peril as two senior UK ministers resign from Cabinet
Sunak and Javid gone. This is like Grant Robertson and Andrew Little resigning.
Johnson has been hit by allegations he failed to come clean about a lawmaker who was appointed to a senior position despite claims of sexual misconduct.
…
Prime Minister Boris Johnson says that appointing Chris Pincher as deputy chief whip was a “mistake”, and denies that he lied to his colleagues about being briefed about Mr Pincher’s conduct.
That account did not sit well with Simon McDonald, the most senior civil servant at the UK Foreign Office from 2015 to 2020. In a highly unusual move, he said on Tuesday that the prime minister’s office still wasn’t telling the truth.
“The original No. 10 line is not true, and the modification is still not accurate,” McDonald wrote, referring to the prime minister's Downing Street office.
“Mr Johnson was briefed in person about the initiation and outcome of the investigation.”
Hours after McDonald's comments came out, Johnson's office changed its story again, saying the prime minister forgot he was told that Pincher was the subject of an official complaint.
Boris is now using the John Key defence!
However, Britain is an inherently conservative nation. Most voters are likely to ignore Johnson's appalling behaviour simply because he sticks it to the lefties.
Only his own Party has the ability to get rid of him. Let's see what they do.
I stumbled on Liz Cheney's speech at the Reagan Library 5 days ago. Terribly impressed with her content and delivery. If they must have a GOP President she would be great. Even to listen to a few minutes of her 40 minutes might impress. Starts after 1min. Scathing comments on Trump.
Like ianmac I was impressed with Cheney. But there's always another side. Her accusation… equating abortion rights with murdering killing new-born babies – which is effectively what she did in that clip – is dirty politics of the worst kind.
That's a leap. She's speaking (from 2019 I think?) about the protection of born alive abortion survivors protection. When she talks about 'the murder of babies', she is literally talking about new-born babies, born alive as the result of failed abortions. In fact she makes this comment "This is not about abortion, this is about killing babies after they are born". A living human being who has survived an abortion procedure surely has rights to some kind of protection?
The point to be made is: there is no way the Democrats were calling for the killing of live babies. That's a false equivalence to the right of a woman to choose to have an abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. In short, she was playing dirty to even suggest as much.
And 2019? That was only 3 years ago at the most ago so it is relevant.
I'm not sure what it is about the statement you think is incorrect.
The Bill sought to ensure the same level of care is applied to a baby surviving an attempted abortion as to any other baby born. The Bill also sought to prescribe sanctions against doctors who failed to provide that care.
That's a leap. She's speaking (from 2019 I think?) about the protection of born alive abortion survivors protection. When she talks about 'the murder of babies', she is literally talking about new-born babies, born alive as the result of failed abortions. In fact she makes this comment "This is not about abortion, this is about killing babies after they are born". A living human being who has survived an abortion procedure surely has rights to some kind of protection?
How about you put up some neutral and credible information about why those babies were being aborted, and what their prognosis is, and then we can debate what protection they have a right to.
I'm not aware of any study that combines those 2 data sets (why the abortion took place and what the babies prognosis was) in cases specifically of 'born alive abortion survivors'.
But I'm not sure either consideration is relevant in this case.
1. Once a child is born alive, the reason why the mother chose to have an abortion is irrelevant to the status of the right to life of that child. Indeed the law in the US recognises that right to life by defining the deliberate taking of that life as falling under the Federal murder law.
For the child to survive, the abortion would need to be very late stage indeed. Most countries have rather strict rules about late stage abortions, and doctors want no part of them except as medical necessities.
But late-term abortions are also very rare. In 2015, more than 400,000 abortions took place in the US. Of those, just 5,597 (or 1.3%) happened on or after 21 weeks of pregnancy, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The vast majority (91%) of abortions take place at or before 13 weeks of pregnancy.
There is precedent however, among disingenuous far right organisations like the US Republican party to try to create a narrative about baby killing. Here's an example from three years ago. Notably absent are actual instances of the crime they claim concerns them. Rather like yourself, with no links to support your alarming assertions.
Perhaps it slipped your mind, and you're not a mischief-maker peddling histrionic nonsense, and you'll link some evidence soon.
Your alarming assertion is that there are surviving children of late term abortions in need of legislative protection that are de facto being murdered.
Yes I stand guilty of claiming that human beings have rights.
"…that are de facto being murdered."
Here's where you went off track.
I specifically noted that any baby being 'murdered' would have the protections of Federal Law and fell outside of this discussion. My comments have focused on the 2019 Bill being about the provision of care. In my very first comment to Anne, I wrote this "A living human being who has survived an abortion procedure surely has rights to some kind of protection?" That has been my position throughout.
Whatever your motives, you have diverted this thread from Liz Cheney to something completely different and you’ve been sucking up a lot of oxygen here. You have also distorted and twisted the narratives around that US Bill that was voted down in 2019, as even a cursory read of the links that you provided show. Cheney’s motives to ‘not talk about abortion’ can be understood in the context of her Pro-Life stance (https://cheneyforwyoming.com/issue/protecting-life/). This was the gist of Anne’s comment @ 3.1.1 and about what Cheney did in that clip, not what Cheney actually said. Your motives can only be guessed at this stage.
As with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which Cheney praised, Cheney and GOP won’t give up and will keep chipping away at hard-fought women’s rights such as reproductive rights and the right to choose abortion. They will slowly erode these rights by thousands of little cuts if they cannot land an upper-cut or the KO-blow. This is an ongoing war about power and control to instil one set of moral values upon others. And this may easily turn into a ‘mission creep’ to other social norms and rights.
You are at pains insisting that these background contexts don’t matter, and to you they might not, but this is the act of a contortionist who’s denying the reality and views of others and who’s trying to get his own way. The irony is that this is similar to what Liz Cheney does as per Anne’s comment @ 3.1.1.
Your attempts to isolate an issue from its context and then fight it with trench warfare tactics is similar to commenters here who are not genuine because they have an [hidden] agenda and who therefore cannot be trusted to comment and debate in good faith. Such comments are never constructive but imposing and manipulative and tend to elicit the strong responses (i.e. push-back) on this site that they deserve.
I'm afraid your quibbling does nothing for your argument, which seems to be a dishonest construct along the lines of Pizzagate – "will nobody think of the children?"
"A living human being who has survived an abortion procedure surely has rights to some kind of protection?"
It is likely that a similar metric to end of life decisions reigns here – if that life is not self sustaining without the imposition of significant and likely futile technological intervention, medical staff are not obliged to provide it.
"It is likely that a similar metric to end of life decisions reigns here – if that life is not self sustaining without the imposition of significant and likely futile technological intervention, medical staff are not obliged to provide it."
I agree. Which is why I support the idea that the care provided to babies born from failed abortions should be the same as for all other babies. No more, no less. If the babies life is non-viable, then we should provide palliative care only.
I wasn't asking for a study that combined those two data sets. I was asking for informed debate. I have zero interest in looking at piece of legislation without knowing the facts of babies that survive abortion.
I felt quite uncomfortable listening to talk of patriotism and the greatest nation on earth that God had placed on earth. The listeners in the auditorium may have liked hearing that, but to us who live in this world outside of America not a source of pride but fear.
America was founded by the gun, it survives by the gun and it is in peril from the gun.
She spoke of freedom but America's people are not free and neither are the countries the US oppresses.
For freedom encompasses freedom of ideas, of speech, of liberty, but also human safety, human needs, and a whole gamut of 'freedoms from' ranging from fear, want, poverty, hatred, to more than I can suggest.
She did speak of finding common ground and standing up and being counted. And that's good.
But in my eighth decade I seem to look back and remember a cycle of fear and oppression that America had full responsibility for.
Missile crises, MAD and nuclear weaponry, invasions, coups, sanctions, pollution, economics, and then internally with racism, poverty, civil rights, consumption of resources…… again more than I can suggest.
Luckily I have American Studies, literature and history in my degree so I have some idea of the greatness that has come from America, too, and conversely of the applicability of these same criticisms to other countries.
The freedom she spoke of was limited and partial, and greatness is a concept to be conferred by others, not by oneself upon one's self.
Of that last Ms Cheney at least knew that was true of Trump. That awareness too was limited and partial. True of us all……….
Mac 1 "I felt quite uncomfortable listening to talk of patriotism and the greatest nation on earth that God had placed on earth."
Agreed but as US is a flag intense country that we are used to that, ho hum.
I didn't know about the abortion issue but to be expected from the GOP. However the appalling Trump rhetoric compared with that coming from Cheney and her delivery at the Jan 6 Committee, she seems to me to be the best of the possible GOP leaders. It is unlikely that Liz will survive the current election though?
She did give a huge condemnation of Trump but she got a very quiet audience at times and once or twice a big clap, especially IIRC when she spoke of the courage of the young women who were testifying against Trump. But I know nothing of the current contenders, so how any will go I don't know.
It's possibly the same in GB with all the Tory party resignations as to how they survive being the critics of their leader.
The TL,DR is that "…An inflation regime… …is one of sustained and general price increases. This cannot be a one-round affair. It requires successive price and wage adjustment. It can only happen if you have a wage-price spiral, with both price and wage setters driving up their demands…
…If this is what defines inflation, what anchors a low-inflation regime is a situation in which that reciprocal action cannot take hold. Either, neither price-setters (corporate capital) or workers have the power to set prices, or only one side does, so that you can have a first round price shock, but no second-round reaction…"
Tooze argues what has guaranteed low inflation for the past 40 years has been that one side of the above reciprocal actions – wages and salaries – have been successfully repressed through labour market "reforms" designed to defang the labour side of the wage-price spiral.
Tooze says: "…Our current condition does not actually meet the criteria of a sustained inflation. Why? Because the price surge is too one-sided. It has been driven by costs, demand pressure and mark ups. Real wages have fallen sharply. There is very little evidence of a sustainable wage price spiral in either the US or Europe. So there are first round effects, but no more than a muted second round reactions…"
So what has really got the neoliberal economists of our central banks (who have, in Tooze words, thematized the underlying regime of power "…In a remarkably unselfconscious way, the managers of the system articulate their preference for a particular configuration, or non-configuration of social forces…") worried are the signs that this is changing. What worries them is not just much higher inflation rates, but the signs that the price system is beginning to move, once again, as though it were a single system – and hence towards a wage price spiral. This means workers are beginning to re-unionise, and wage growth is starting to pick up driven by this and other factors like labour shortages.
My view is the forty plus year era of wage repression can no longer be sustained. It was only ever sustainable for this long because of price deflation driven by the move of manufacturing to China. Chinese made consumer goods are so much cheaper now in terms of relative value than they were forty years ago, and things like just in time supply chains and automation made the movement of goods ever more efficient and cheaper. As supply chain and labour supply issues bite, along with policies (tighter migration criteria, Fair Pay Agreements) that recognise that we can no longer continue down an ever downward wages path with out serious social unrest we need to come up with new ways of taming inflation. The problem is while the current labour government is at least dimly aware the wage/price crisis can't be solved by more austerity, lower wages and unchecked migration with a social catastrophe it is obvious the boss class – and the National party – are determined to go down fighting to defend their profits and their "regime of power".
That can't be true here because we have generally low wages that generally don't go up. And haven't for many years in part because unions were wiped out.
We only have strong unions covering about 10% of workers now, and it is they that are receiving the wage increases.
Of the remaining 90% , about 60% of NZ's remaining workers are getting the Minimum Wage hikes or close to it.
That seems to be what Tooze is describing. I don't understand any particular difference between his description of the state of the economy and yours, other maybe than the rate and time-span of inflation which you expect to result and characterize as an inflation.
Since immigration controls came in over the pandemic,every country that had high immigration has seen wage increases and benefit rises in the blue collar workforce.
The excessive immigration was the largest driver in household inflation (of which shelter is the largest component of cpi) We have now one of the lowest housing availability numbers in the OECD .
With the availability of cheap interest rates for lending,a housing inflation spiral enacted that increased demand over supply for existing stock,and new builds (where we have the highest building material costs in the OECD) The demand required the import of both materials and money,funded by debt,helped decrease the NZ $ ( risk to ca)creating further rises in inflation and so on.
Shelter and utilities are the largest costs in the lower income deciles,those are the areas where costs need to be rigorously examined(as do the causal mechanisms)
It seems less convincing when we consider the 2019 brief peak net immigration has fallen and is presently negative. Maybe with the right amount of lag you can correlate this with parts of the house price survey, though that doesn't seem to apply at earlier times of high net immigration.
Along with the regulator comes the code of conduct.Mbie in their briefing papers said overseas evidence from a code of conduct,results in additional compliance costs and price increases.
Diesel is a high cost for civil engineering (it is also for a agriculture,fishing and forestry.) Demand destruction ( around 6% by vol) and traders pricing in recession risk has seen prices of wti and brent decrease by around 10% in the last few days,.
The building material regulator may be an outcome from the CC investigation,if the CC lets FB buy Timu timbers,then the CC should be sacked.
New Zealand must be one of the most concentrated economies in the world, with oligopolies and near-monopolies in:
building materials, general insurance, health insurance, ports, airports, air travel, supermarkets, transport fuel, health, electricity generation, milk production, beef production, international shipping freight, roading materials, and bunches more.
Also over regulated in some areas,is part of the problem.Making a set of extended complex rules ,often too complex to readily understand,limits the ability for the lemonade stall in the driveway.
You can compare the regulatory reforms to the telecommunications sector that began in earnest in 2006, and see now how well prices have fallen over the decade. Compare that to the electricity industry and prices have just gone up and up and up.
Then there's building materials, in which two decades of leaky home wealth destruction and liability litigation have led to a wilfully conservative building products regulator. For which we are getting royally screwed.
Telecoms pricing decreased as the cost of equipment (in real terms) decreased.
In Japan as a right you can set up a business in your front room,and sell to the public with minimal regulation ( only registration) this allows a large group of pensioners to still be a part of the economy,and providing both fresh vegetables,and handmade quality goods at sustainable prices (japan inflation 0.2)
The RBNZ review identified the construction cost problem (which was problematic b4 Putin.covid et al)
World Bank data show that construction costs in New Zealand were 16% higher than in Australia and about double the OECD average in 2017. In 2012, the New Zealand Productivity Commission wrote a Housing Affordability Inquiry also showing that building costs were high here relative to other countries. Despite being high already, construction costs have also been increasing faster in New Zealand than in other countries since the GFC (Figure 8). This all strongly suggest that house building in New Zealand is an expensive business.There are no doubt many reasons why building costs are so high here. Part of the reason could be that the manufacture and distribution of building materials – which account for almost half of construction costs – take place in industries that are dominated by one or a small number of large firms
I blame the massive expansion of credit from the Australian banks (and laundered money from China), systemic failures of regulators, and fuckwit politicians who were happy to give the economy some crack cocaine to make themselves look good.
Tooze argues what has guaranteed low inflation for the past 40 years has been that one side of the above reciprocal actions – wages and salaries – have been successfully repressed through labour market "reforms" designed to defang the labour side of the wage-price spiral…..
Its not a wise strategy to blame the voters. It smacks of sour political grapes. Never a good look. If you really believe that I'm sure you can point to your active support for funding to address this 'misunderstanding'.
Axolotyls generally keep their heads down and barely have a skin. The Greens don't have the skin to take any criticism at all and tend not to rise above the surface.
It would just be great if James Shaw could show half the passion and enthusiasm of Chloe, or Jeanette, or Rod, or indeed anyone with a pulse. Does James Shaw exist?
Would James Shaw's work/achievements/potential, increase, his and The Green's influence be enhanced, by showing more passion and enthusiasm than he does presently?
I can't see that it would. The "big players" he has to negotiate/work with are off-put by "Chloe-style" passion and enthusiasm. Her manner works very well with many, but James has specific objectives and can't afford, and doesn't need, imo, to play to the crowd.
Grow bigger balls is my guess. He should have forced Labour to do better in climate. Apparently its his fault that we have a shitty climate policy because he didn't negotiate better.
Swarbrick has power that Shaw (and MD) doesn't, by dint of position. And vice versa. Trad left often fails to understand the nuance in the Greens.
I want the co-leaders to lead differently too, but I'd really like to see some serious analysis of what that might look like rather than just vague hand waving.
so abandon Ministerial responsibilities, and the GP agreement with Labour, and shift into advocacy/activist mode?
(it's not obvious what you mean, apart from you believe that CS is a very effective MP. I do too, one of the best. But she's not a Minister, and she is by agreement free to speak in ways that the other two aren't. This isn't absolute, I can see room to critique MD and JS. I just was hoping you would do some actually analysis).
ok, so you don't have any actual analysis beyond Chloe is great! why can't Marama and James be like her?!
I give my analysis of various things to do with the GP fairly often. In fact, I just did some in the comment above, pointing to why CS is freer to speak than the other two. Here’s the L/G agreement that sets out why.
Shaw and Davidson, from your own link, are perfectly able to critique from every single angle unconstrained by anything if it is outside Ministerial portfolios.
"The Green Party will determine its own position in relation to any policy or legislative matter not covered by the Ministerial portfolios and areas of cooperation set out in this agreement. Differences of position within such portfolios and areas of cooperation will be managed in accordance with this agreement."
Since you are clearly incapable of taking the start of the thread for the actual compliment to the Greens that it was, and also quite incapable of responding to any actual mild criticism of the Green Party leadership even while I was praising their Auckland MP, all you've done is show that it is actually Green Party supporters like yourself that hold them back from being the bold activists they should be.
Do you really think, Ad, that James Shaw is unconstrained by anything, if the issue is outside of Ministerial portfolios?
I suppose he could "passionately and enthusiastically" attack aspects that are dearly-held by other parties, but would that enhance his chances of succeeding in his Ministerial responsibilities; areas where real progress, actual change, can be negotiated and set into law?
Since you are clearly incapable of taking the start of the thread for the actual compliment to the Greens that it was, and also quite incapable of responding to any actual mild criticism of the Green Party leadership even while I was praising their Auckland MP, all you've done is show that it is actually Green Party supporters like yourself that hold them back from being the bold activists they should be.
Meanwhile, what I actually did:
asked you to share what you think courage would look like from the GP leaders
said I agree with you that CS is a very good MP
asked you to provide some analysis for your belief that the co-leaders could be like CS, ie the how.
pointed out that the leaders aren't as free as CS to speak out
provided a link the agreement which governs that.
said I think there is room to critique the GP leadership and that I wish they would speak out more.
You quite often slag off the Greens, I'm just pointing out a flaw in your politics. It's not personal, it's a feature of NZpol to say shit about the Greens but fail to explain how they could work differently in the system they are in. It's rare for people to explain how it could be.
I've written about the option for the Greens to stay out of a C/S agreement precisely so they can speak out, particularly on climate. Whether I'm right or wrong, I laid out some of the ways in which the Greens could be acting differently.
As Robert points to, much of what happens with the GP is based on relationship and the need to maintain those well. This applies to the agreement with Labour. I addressed that in the post too.
If Shaw were to take Swarbrick's approach on say climate eg invite the fight, he wouldn't be able to build the bridges across diverse politics and needs that he has. And it's hard to see how the relationship with Labour would remain strong.
The idea that he could have taken a warrior approach and forced NZ into a much stronger climate policy is just not real when we consider that it is Labour that has the more conservative policy, not the Greens. The Greens would have us far further ahead. Shaw works with what he has got, and makes change from within. It's not flashy, but there have been gains made.
I'm completely open to being wrong about the impact on the relationship, but someone would have to put up the actual argument.
My suggestion is that if people want a stronger GP, they should support them in practical terms and vote for them. The Greens on 20 MPs would indeed give them the power to speak out more.
Has anyone else read Kiwi blog lately? The anti Jax, anti vax, anti masks, sick chat was far worse than previous iterations. The anti vax groundswell far right and every other anti are there. A sewer of seething hatred.
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In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
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Russia continues its war strategy honed in Chechnya and Syria of targeting civilian infrastructure, a war crime under UN definition.
Russia says it does not target civilians and civilian deaths that occur are 'collateral damage'.
A quick search reveals numerous instances of Ukraine killing civilians as well.
'the first casualty of war..is truth'.
'
Citation Needed:
"A quick search reveals numerous instances of Ukraine killing civilians as well." Blazer
Very well Blazer. How about showing us the results of your ‘quick search’.
You don't even really sound like you're convincing yourself anymore
Nothing?
Why am I not surprised.
Blazer your 'quick search' is taking some considerable amount of time.
Maybe other supporters of Putin's bloody invasion and war, need to give you a hand.
Any takers?
Ukraine Targets&Kills Civilians, Says Russia Did It – U.S.&EU Press Report The Lie – OrientalReview.org
Ukrainian bombing of civilian areas of Donetsk June 13 killed 5 & caused massive fires | 6,724 views 14 Jun 2022 Fires still burning at a stationary warehouse and a nearby water bottling facility in Donetsk. Elsewhere in the city, Ukraine bombed a market, killing three civilians including a child. Ukraine pounded all over Donetsk this afternoon. *The number of civilians killed is now 5. *In April, I saw the aftermath | The Tea Party's Front Page. | Slowly, our freedoms are being chipped away with, "We know better…" justification as its hammer and chisel. (ussanews.com)
Four Killed After Explosions in a Russian City Near the Ukraine Border – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Watch: Ukrainian Citizens Say ‘Fascist’ Neo-Nazi Azov Brigade ‘Only Shoot Civilians’ – NewsWars
You would have to be very naive or biased to suggest that Ukraine has not killed civilians.
The mountain has laboured and given birth to a mouse.
A website that bills itself as the "Front Page of the Tea Party?
A New York Times pay for view article that I cannot open?
And Newswars, Infowars, Alex Jones?
Really?
Two Far Right conspiracy websites and one pay for view website I cannot read?!?
I gotta tell ya Blazer. It's not very convincing.
Surely you can do better than this?
-'The Tea Party movement is an American fiscally conservative political movement within the Republican Party.
-New York Times article is easily opened…maybe you just don't want to read it.
-it's not Info wars.
Surely you can ..do better.
When you 'get there' Jenny,I'm sure Forest Gump will be there to meet you wrapped in stars and…stripes.
FYI, for me too the NYT article requires an account to read it, which is not cool here on TS and along a similar vein as linking to NZH articles that are behind a pay-wall.
The "Tea Party" is the US equivalent of the "Tax Payers Union".
A bunch of right Wing “useful idiots” financed by heaps of dark money.
Hardly a credible source.
An interesting exercise tho. Wouldn't you agree Blazer.
Try harder next time.
And do you know why Blazer, you have to trawl through Right Wing conspiracy websites, to try and find some sort of half-arsed confirmation your disgusting pro-war narrative?
Because…..
I do not have a 'pro war 'narrative.
A negotiated settlement should have been done by now.
This conflict signals the end of U.S domination of the international finance system.
You seem to have a very simplistic view as to the situation,its catalyst and the geo political consequences.
Ost has his opinion,you yours and me my own.
If someone attacks you, you have to defend yourself.
The one who can stop the attack is the attacker not the defender.
If you support the attacker, you have a pro-war position.
In the so called peace negotiations the Russian negotiators' position was that Ukraine should surrender.
Russia even refused a temporary ceasefire during the negotiations.
The Ukrainian negotiators offered Russia an a agreement not to join Nato. Ukraine also offered their terms for a ceasefire, which were to allow Russian forces to fall back to the pre- February 25 2022 areas in the Donbas Ukrainian territories, held by Russian forces before that date. And an agreement to continue negotiations for a permanent settlement, acceptable to both sides.
Russia rejected Ukrainian peace terms and refused to stop their attack on Ukraine, or return to its pre-February lines.
Hitting a stone wall with the Putin regime negotiators, President Zylensky, went over their heads to put the same peace offer before the Russian people on the messaging platform Telegram.
The Putin regime made viewing the Telegram video of the President's peace offer a criminal offence inside Russia, under penalty of 15 years in prison for spreading fake news
So much for 'a negotiated settlement should have been done by now'.
When you say that there should have been a negotiated settlement by now. What you really mean Blazer, is that the Ukrainians should have surrendered by now.
I am afraid Blazer, that is never going to happen, no matter what the cost, Ukraine will not stop fighting until the Russian Federation is driven back to its internationally recognised legal borders.
‘
BREAKING NEWS;
The Latest press release from the Russian leader carried on the Russian government News Site RT, is that Putin says he is ready to talk peace.
Delivered under the usual bellicose headlines mixed with threats, it is possible that Putin is finally ready to take up Zelensky's terms.
Which are; a return to the pre-February areas of the Donbas occupied by Russia before that date, in return for a ceasefire.
Let's all hope so. And the killing stops.
Let us also hope that this is the very last time that the Russian Federation launches a foreign incursion across its borders.
P.S.
What I find interesting in Putin's statement announcing his readiness for peace talks, is this line;
"Attempts to sow discord in Russia have failed"
The fact that they were mentioned means that they must have had some effect.
This must be the first time that the internet has proved its worth in being able to bypass state censorship to get Zelensky's peace terms to the Russian people.
Putin's new readiness to engage in peace negotiations, whether they result in a ceasefire or not, (and I hope they do), the underlying causes of imperialist wars have not gone away, and will inevitably emerge somewhere else.
The best we can hope for, is a new cold war.
If there is another outbreak of imperialist aggression, (the underlying economic pressures of growth economies that must either expand or die, means it is likely there will be).
Whichever side is the attacker in the next violent outbreak, the aggressor needs to be opposed and condemned by the united Left.
Unfortunately the pro-invasion orchestra seems to be enjoying an intermission and have gone quite for the moment.
No doubt the orchestra will strike up again following the next Russian Federation atrocity, singing from the same song-sheet and in tune, misdirecting and obfuscating, excusing and explaining, denying, lying and justifying.
If of course the hated satanic seppos had been conducting themselves like this – along with the insanely irresponsible threats to first strike nuke if they don't get their way by conventional means – everyone here would be all over them. Including me.
But for some unspecified reason Russia gets a free pass with these dupes.
Putin has copied the U.S modus operandi-'military operation','collateral damage'.
He has never threatened to 'bomb them back to the..Stoneage'…or 'make the economy…scream'…however.
He has threatened to use nuclear weapons.
If any sort of weapons could bomb "them" (Ukrainians), back to the stone age it is nuclear weapons.
Blazer. Your blood thirsty pro-war partisan bias is showing through.
P.S. Anyone who supports Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is by definition pro-war.
Perhaps you could dial back a bit the personal stuff and concentrate more on debating the contents of Blazer’s comments, yes?
Yes of course. Why not.
I had considered appending this you tube video, of unarmed civilian Russian speakers in Ukraine confronting the invading Russian troops, because it skewer's Blazer's pro-war viewpoint without being personal.
'It’s You That's Fascist'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgmKygmkqSA
Meanwhile Russia' slaughter of civilians that Blazer tries to justify continues.
3 hours ago
https://kyivindependent.com/uncategorized/governor-3-civilians-killed-in-russias-recent-attack-on-kharkiv
So, you considered it and then decided to attach the YT clip anyway to re-emphasise your view of Blazer because of his comments rather than addressing the substance of his comments.
Blazer has already denied that he’s having a pro-war narrative. I can’t see it myself and very few would be genuinely pro-war as such. In other words, it is a bold accusation to make and that requires much heavier lifting that the feeble arguments you’ve made here so far.
This tends to get ugly rather quickly and I don’t want to have to moderate you or anybody else for that matter for this kind of commenting behaviour.
Let’s put it this way, if you have nothing nice to say, then stay silent and scroll on.
They have since WW2.
With buggerral criticism from the rest of the world, you and many others.
Which is why yet another fucking baby killer, civilian bombing dickhead, Putin, knows he will get away with it.
Because the Yanks and their puppet totalitarian Dictators, have “got away with it”, for decades, and right now. Ignoring the “rules based order” at whim, they keep pontificating about.
With buggerral criticism from the rest of the world, you and many others.
From 2014: :
And that is just one from a very narrow search.
If you are demanding a more contemporary condemnation of ill-advised US foreign policy – well Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Aghanistan all pre-date this site. Hell if The Standard had been around in the 1940s there would have been lots of lefties lining up to tell us how the horrid yankees should stay out of Europe, and let the Japanese have the Pacific in the interests of peace.
The two key differences are of course that Russia is invading Ukraine with the explicit intention of permanently expanding its territorial empire. Together with the blatant, repeated threats of first strike nuclear action, Putin has not just stepped over a line – but sprinted for the wilderness.
Straw Man again!
I wonder where you find your mythical, "Lefties". Haven't met many, if any that would meet your definition of "Left".
It was "leftie" workers, including a great many Yanks, who fought and died to defeat the Japanese and Nazis. Including a huge number of "leftie" Merchant seafarers
Your right wing US hero's didn't want to get involved, until they were forced to. Too many of them thought The Nazis were right to remove those pesky trade unionists and the rest.
I knew some "lefties" that were pacifists. It didn't stop them being in the thick of it, as aid workers, merchant seaman and medics.
“Russia is invading Ukraine with the explicit intention of permanently expanding its territorial empire. Together with the blatant, repeated threats of first strike nuclear action, Putin has not just stepped over a line – but sprinted for the wilderness”.
The US bombing civilians and starving populations into changing Governments is “fine” because they don’t explicitly, though it is implicite, threaten nuclear First strikes and their empire is corporate, not “territorial”. .
One bunch of baby killing bombers, is not morally superior to the other. There is no fucking difference.
And, I expect better from “our friends”.
Where the fuck do you think Putin got the idea he could get away with ignoring the “rules based World order” and the UN, from.
''It was "leftie" workers, including a great many Yanks, who fought and died to defeat the Japanese and Nazis. Including a huge number of "leftie" Merchant seafarers.''
Yeah, but on the Allied home front during WW2 some of those Leftie workers weren't too fussed about the war.
Quote:
''In 1943 there were two major stoppages, one was a strike of 12,000 bus drivers and conductors and the other of dockers in Liverpool and Birkenhead. Both were a considerable embarrassment to Bevin since they involved mainly TGWU members. 1944 marked the peak of wartime strike action with over two thousand stoppages involving the loss of 3,714,000 days' production. This led to the imposition of Defence Regulation 1AA, supported by the TUC, which now made incitement to strike unlawful.''
http://www.unionhistory.info/timeline/1939_1945.php
https://www.bls.gov/wsp/publications/annual-summaries/pdf/strikes-1942.pdf
I can't see a connection between what KJT said, and your comment, and the quote below it. What are you trying to say?
Wasn't "Lefties" marching against fighting in WW2.
When Nazis Took Manhattan : Code Switch : NPR
And. I marched against the Vietnam war. Why the hell were we fighting against Vietnams gaining independence from France, in the first place?
Boris Johnson's leadership in peril as two senior UK ministers resign from Cabinet
Sunak and Javid gone. This is like Grant Robertson and Andrew Little resigning.
Boris is now using the John Key defence!
However, Britain is an inherently conservative nation. Most voters are likely to ignore Johnson's appalling behaviour simply because he sticks it to the lefties.
Only his own Party has the ability to get rid of him. Let's see what they do.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/uk/300630286/boris-johnsons-leadership-in-peril-as-two-senior-uk-ministers-resign-from-cabinet
I stumbled on Liz Cheney's speech at the Reagan Library 5 days ago. Terribly impressed with her content and delivery. If they must have a GOP President she would be great. Even to listen to a few minutes of her 40 minutes might impress. Starts after 1min. Scathing comments on Trump.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XflGMvaLN0
Quite the choice, an incompetent fascist (Trump) or a competent fascist (Cheney)?
https://twitter.com/donwinslow/status/1544071921322430465
Thanks for that Joe 90.
Like ianmac I was impressed with Cheney. But there's always another side. Her accusation… equating abortion rights with
murderingkilling new-born babies – which is effectively what she did in that clip – is dirty politics of the worst kind.That's a leap. She's speaking (from 2019 I think?) about the protection of born alive abortion survivors protection. When she talks about 'the murder of babies', she is literally talking about new-born babies, born alive as the result of failed abortions. In fact she makes this comment "This is not about abortion, this is about killing babies after they are born". A living human being who has survived an abortion procedure surely has rights to some kind of protection?
The point to be made is: there is no way the Democrats were calling for the killing of live babies. That's a false equivalence to the right of a woman to choose to have an abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. In short, she was playing dirty to even suggest as much.
And 2019? That was only 3 years ago at the most ago so it is relevant.
"there is no way the Democrats were calling for the killing of live babies. "
This from CBS about the 2019 bill:
"The legislation — which fell seven votes short of the 60 it needed to move forward — would have required doctors to provide care to infants who "survive an abortion or attempted abortion."
The Dem's voted against providing care to surviving babies.
"That's a false equivalence to the right of a woman to choose to have an abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy."
She didn't make that connection at all. As I pointed out, she specifically said that her comments were NOT about abortion.
"That was only 3 years ago at the most ago so it is relevant."
The context is relevant. The context was about taking the life of a born alive baby.
"The Dem's voted against providing care to surviving babies.
That statement has got to be codswallop. Whoever made it is skewering whatever actually happened – presumably for political purposes.
I'm not sure what it is about the statement you think is incorrect.
The Bill sought to ensure the same level of care is applied to a baby surviving an attempted abortion as to any other baby born. The Bill also sought to prescribe sanctions against doctors who failed to provide that care.
42 out of 44 Dems voted against that Bill (according to this fact check site – "all of whom received funding from Planned Parenthood during their latest election cycle").
How about you put up some neutral and credible information about why those babies were being aborted, and what their prognosis is, and then we can debate what protection they have a right to.
I'm not aware of any study that combines those 2 data sets (why the abortion took place and what the babies prognosis was) in cases specifically of 'born alive abortion survivors'.
But I'm not sure either consideration is relevant in this case.
1. Once a child is born alive, the reason why the mother chose to have an abortion is irrelevant to the status of the right to life of that child. Indeed the law in the US recognises that right to life by defining the deliberate taking of that life as falling under the Federal murder law.
2. Regarding the prognosis of the child, the 2019 Bill was not calling for any rights for a child born as the result of a failed abortion than are afforded to any other child. The bills sponsor specifically stated that if "a botched abortion results in the live birth of an infant, health care practitioners must exercise the same degree of professional skill and care to protect the newborn as would be offered to any other child born alive at the same gestational age.”
For the child to survive, the abortion would need to be very late stage indeed. Most countries have rather strict rules about late stage abortions, and doctors want no part of them except as medical necessities.
As the Guardian notes:
But late-term abortions are also very rare. In 2015, more than 400,000 abortions took place in the US. Of those, just 5,597 (or 1.3%) happened on or after 21 weeks of pregnancy, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The vast majority (91%) of abortions take place at or before 13 weeks of pregnancy.
There is precedent however, among disingenuous far right organisations like the US Republican party to try to create a narrative about baby killing. Here's an example from three years ago. Notably absent are actual instances of the crime they claim concerns them. Rather like yourself, with no links to support your alarming assertions.
Perhaps it slipped your mind, and you're not a mischief-maker peddling histrionic nonsense, and you'll link some evidence soon.
We'll wait.
Late term abortions are indeed very rare. As is the rate of survival. I’m not sure either fact is relevant to this discussion, however.
"with no links to support your alarming assertions."
Can you provide an example of one of my 'alarming assertions'.
Your alarming assertion is that there are surviving children of late term abortions in need of legislative protection that are de facto being murdered.
Now, put up or shut up.
Ah, I see what you did there. You have combined a series of claims into one alleged assertion that I never made. So let me deconstruct.
"there are surviving children of late term abortions"
Guilty as charged. There is ample sources for this. Here's two, one from Australia, one from the US.
At least 27 babies survived late term abortions in Queensland last year and left to die | Daily Mail Online
The Facts on the Born-Alive Debate – FactCheck.org
"in need of legislative protection"
Yes I stand guilty of claiming that human beings have rights.
"…that are de facto being murdered."
Here's where you went off track.
I specifically noted that any baby being 'murdered' would have the protections of Federal Law and fell outside of this discussion. My comments have focused on the 2019 Bill being about the provision of care. In my very first comment to Anne, I wrote this "A living human being who has survived an abortion procedure surely has rights to some kind of protection?" That has been my position throughout.
Whatever your motives, you have diverted this thread from Liz Cheney to something completely different and you’ve been sucking up a lot of oxygen here. You have also distorted and twisted the narratives around that US Bill that was voted down in 2019, as even a cursory read of the links that you provided show. Cheney’s motives to ‘not talk about abortion’ can be understood in the context of her Pro-Life stance (https://cheneyforwyoming.com/issue/protecting-life/). This was the gist of Anne’s comment @ 3.1.1 and about what Cheney did in that clip, not what Cheney actually said. Your motives can only be guessed at this stage.
As with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which Cheney praised, Cheney and GOP won’t give up and will keep chipping away at hard-fought women’s rights such as reproductive rights and the right to choose abortion. They will slowly erode these rights by thousands of little cuts if they cannot land an upper-cut or the KO-blow. This is an ongoing war about power and control to instil one set of moral values upon others. And this may easily turn into a ‘mission creep’ to other social norms and rights.
You are at pains insisting that these background contexts don’t matter, and to you they might not, but this is the act of a contortionist who’s denying the reality and views of others and who’s trying to get his own way. The irony is that this is similar to what Liz Cheney does as per Anne’s comment @ 3.1.1.
Your attempts to isolate an issue from its context and then fight it with trench warfare tactics is similar to commenters here who are not genuine because they have an [hidden] agenda and who therefore cannot be trusted to comment and debate in good faith. Such comments are never constructive but imposing and manipulative and tend to elicit the strong responses (i.e. push-back) on this site that they deserve.
I'm afraid your quibbling does nothing for your argument, which seems to be a dishonest construct along the lines of Pizzagate – "will nobody think of the children?"
"A living human being who has survived an abortion procedure surely has rights to some kind of protection?"
It is likely that a similar metric to end of life decisions reigns here – if that life is not self sustaining without the imposition of significant and likely futile technological intervention, medical staff are not obliged to provide it.
"It is likely that a similar metric to end of life decisions reigns here – if that life is not self sustaining without the imposition of significant and likely futile technological intervention, medical staff are not obliged to provide it."
I agree. Which is why I support the idea that the care provided to babies born from failed abortions should be the same as for all other babies. No more, no less. If the babies life is non-viable, then we should provide palliative care only.
I wasn't asking for a study that combined those two data sets. I was asking for informed debate. I have zero interest in looking at piece of legislation without knowing the facts of babies that survive abortion.
"I wasn't asking for a study that combined those two data sets. "
Sorry, I thought you were.
So here goes:
On why women choose late term abortions:
"Abortions performed due to maternal and/or fetal indicators are a small percentage of the abortions done later in pregnancy."
(Jones RK, Finer LB. Who has second-trimester abortions in the United States? Contraception. 2012:85;544)
A more recent Guttmacher study focused on abortion after 20 weeks of gestation and similarly concluded that women seeking late-term abortions were not doing so for reasons of fetal anomaly or life endangerment.
Foster DG, Kimport K. Who seeks abortions at or after 20 weeks? Perspect Sex Reprod Health. 2013;45(4):210–218. doi:10.1363/4521013.
On their prognosis:
From what I can find, the data on this is sketchy.
I did find this:
The study looked at the cases of 4,987 infants “without congenital anomalies,” or birth defects, born before 27 weeks gestation. It found that 5.1 percent of babies born at 22 weeks gestational age survived and 3.4 percent survived “without severe impairment.” Several weeks further into gestation, at 26 weeks, 81.4 percent of babies survived, 75.6 percent without severe impairment. Abortions in such later stages of pregnancies (which typically are 38 to 42 weeks full term) could be performed because of congenital anomalies, but that study provides some sense of when a fetus without birth defects could be viable and when decisions on medical interventions could be made. "
"I have zero interest in looking at piece of legislation without knowing the facts of babies that survive abortion."
The only facts that matter are that the legislation sought to treat a baby who survives a failed abortion equally to any other new born baby.
I felt quite uncomfortable listening to talk of patriotism and the greatest nation on earth that God had placed on earth. The listeners in the auditorium may have liked hearing that, but to us who live in this world outside of America not a source of pride but fear.
America was founded by the gun, it survives by the gun and it is in peril from the gun.
She spoke of freedom but America's people are not free and neither are the countries the US oppresses.
For freedom encompasses freedom of ideas, of speech, of liberty, but also human safety, human needs, and a whole gamut of 'freedoms from' ranging from fear, want, poverty, hatred, to more than I can suggest.
She did speak of finding common ground and standing up and being counted. And that's good.
But in my eighth decade I seem to look back and remember a cycle of fear and oppression that America had full responsibility for.
Missile crises, MAD and nuclear weaponry, invasions, coups, sanctions, pollution, economics, and then internally with racism, poverty, civil rights, consumption of resources…… again more than I can suggest.
Luckily I have American Studies, literature and history in my degree so I have some idea of the greatness that has come from America, too, and conversely of the applicability of these same criticisms to other countries.
The freedom she spoke of was limited and partial, and greatness is a concept to be conferred by others, not by oneself upon one's self.
Of that last Ms Cheney at least knew that was true of Trump. That awareness too was limited and partial. True of us all……….
Agreed but as US is a flag intense country that we are used to that, ho hum.
I didn't know about the abortion issue but to be expected from the GOP. However the appalling Trump rhetoric compared with that coming from Cheney and her delivery at the Jan 6 Committee, she seems to me to be the best of the possible GOP leaders. It is unlikely that Liz will survive the current election though?
She did give a huge condemnation of Trump but she got a very quiet audience at times and once or twice a big clap, especially IIRC when she spoke of the courage of the young women who were testifying against Trump. But I know nothing of the current contenders, so how any will go I don't know.
It's possibly the same in GB with all the Tory party resignations as to how they survive being the critics of their leader.
More likely as a Democrat one would think. I doubt the Republican party can support her candidacy after her part in the January 6 hearings.
Adam Tooze has a fascinating take here on inflation. I'd urge you to subscribe, he is an incisive and brilliant historian.
The TL,DR is that "…An inflation regime… …is one of sustained and general price increases. This cannot be a one-round affair. It requires successive price and wage adjustment. It can only happen if you have a wage-price spiral, with both price and wage setters driving up their demands…
…If this is what defines inflation, what anchors a low-inflation regime is a situation in which that reciprocal action cannot take hold. Either, neither price-setters (corporate capital) or workers have the power to set prices, or only one side does, so that you can have a first round price shock, but no second-round reaction…"
Tooze argues what has guaranteed low inflation for the past 40 years has been that one side of the above reciprocal actions – wages and salaries – have been successfully repressed through labour market "reforms" designed to defang the labour side of the wage-price spiral.
Tooze says: "…Our current condition does not actually meet the criteria of a sustained inflation. Why? Because the price surge is too one-sided. It has been driven by costs, demand pressure and mark ups. Real wages have fallen sharply. There is very little evidence of a sustainable wage price spiral in either the US or Europe. So there are first round effects, but no more than a muted second round reactions…"
So what has really got the neoliberal economists of our central banks (who have, in Tooze words, thematized the underlying regime of power "…In a remarkably unselfconscious way, the managers of the system articulate their preference for a particular configuration, or non-configuration of social forces…") worried are the signs that this is changing. What worries them is not just much higher inflation rates, but the signs that the price system is beginning to move, once again, as though it were a single system – and hence towards a wage price spiral. This means workers are beginning to re-unionise, and wage growth is starting to pick up driven by this and other factors like labour shortages.
My view is the forty plus year era of wage repression can no longer be sustained. It was only ever sustainable for this long because of price deflation driven by the move of manufacturing to China. Chinese made consumer goods are so much cheaper now in terms of relative value than they were forty years ago, and things like just in time supply chains and automation made the movement of goods ever more efficient and cheaper. As supply chain and labour supply issues bite, along with policies (tighter migration criteria, Fair Pay Agreements) that recognise that we can no longer continue down an ever downward wages path with out serious social unrest we need to come up with new ways of taming inflation. The problem is while the current labour government is at least dimly aware the wage/price crisis can't be solved by more austerity, lower wages and unchecked migration with a social catastrophe it is obvious the boss class – and the National party – are determined to go down fighting to defend their profits and their "regime of power".
It requires successive price and wage adjustment.
That can't be true here because we have generally low wages that generally don't go up. And haven't for many years in part because unions were wiped out.
We only have strong unions covering about 10% of workers now, and it is they that are receiving the wage increases.
Of the remaining 90% , about 60% of NZ's remaining workers are getting the Minimum Wage hikes or close to it.
So his claim doesn't work.
Which claim doesn't work?
Your saying for Tooze ideas to be correct about NZ inflation should be hard locked to zero?
In the current century New Zealand doesn't have a correlation between wage increases and inflation. We are in nothing like a wage-price spiral.
That seems to be what Tooze is describing. I don't understand any particular difference between his description of the state of the economy and yours, other maybe than the rate and time-span of inflation which you expect to result and characterize as an inflation.
Since immigration controls came in over the pandemic,every country that had high immigration has seen wage increases and benefit rises in the blue collar workforce.
The excessive immigration was the largest driver in household inflation (of which shelter is the largest component of cpi) We have now one of the lowest housing availability numbers in the OECD .
With the availability of cheap interest rates for lending,a housing inflation spiral enacted that increased demand over supply for existing stock,and new builds (where we have the highest building material costs in the OECD) The demand required the import of both materials and money,funded by debt,helped decrease the NZ $ ( risk to ca)creating further rises in inflation and so on.
Shelter and utilities are the largest costs in the lower income deciles,those are the areas where costs need to be rigorously examined(as do the causal mechanisms)
Didn't we have border closures (e.g lower immigration) right at the same time as house prices took off (e.g end of lock-downs)?
Or your saying the immigration rates at that time were in practice higher due to NZers returning?
net gain of 80000 in 2019 (cumulative gain 300k under labour) when we were already under growth strain.
Thats a 108000 unit increase in housing just to add to immigration demand.
Housing availability had decreased since 2007 from 395 (per 1000) to 385 in 2017.
Is this the same net immigration statistic your describing?
https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/international-migration-february-2022
It seems less convincing when we consider the 2019 brief peak net immigration has fallen and is presently negative. Maybe with the right amount of lag you can correlate this with parts of the house price survey, though that doesn't seem to apply at earlier times of high net immigration.
The RBNZ uses the compliance certificate/new net electrical connection to ascertain the difference in net housing ( demolished houses vs new builds)
The housing availability had decreased since 2007 (gfc and earthquakes) to 2017 by 10 houses per 1000 pop.
The result of the present imbalance has seen the rental market correct slightly,more inventory,some price reduction.
An increase in housing stock of what is consented would still keep us well in the lower half of the OECD average.
The only reference I can find shows 2020 is indistinguishable from 2011.
https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/-/media/3a82b34177de41c493c9e278591abc7b.ashx
The range of values is 375-395 (per 1000) and appears to be more or less a constant since 1991.
2011 to 2020 is a difference of 10/1000 or 50000 housing units for 5m. pop
We're overdue for a Building Materials Price Regulator.
This government is today announcing the Supermarket regulator, but will it provide the RB with evidence of inflationary shopping prices?
Personally I blame diesel prices for about everything.
Along with the regulator comes the code of conduct.Mbie in their briefing papers said overseas evidence from a code of conduct,results in additional compliance costs and price increases.
Diesel is a high cost for civil engineering (it is also for a agriculture,fishing and forestry.) Demand destruction ( around 6% by vol) and traders pricing in recession risk has seen prices of wti and brent decrease by around 10% in the last few days,.
The building material regulator may be an outcome from the CC investigation,if the CC lets FB buy Timu timbers,then the CC should be sacked.
New Zealand must be one of the most concentrated economies in the world, with oligopolies and near-monopolies in:
building materials, general insurance, health insurance, ports, airports, air travel, supermarkets, transport fuel, health, electricity generation, milk production, beef production, international shipping freight, roading materials, and bunches more.
Also over regulated in some areas,is part of the problem.Making a set of extended complex rules ,often too complex to readily understand,limits the ability for the lemonade stall in the driveway.
You can compare the regulatory reforms to the telecommunications sector that began in earnest in 2006, and see now how well prices have fallen over the decade. Compare that to the electricity industry and prices have just gone up and up and up.
Then there's building materials, in which two decades of leaky home wealth destruction and liability litigation have led to a wilfully conservative building products regulator. For which we are getting royally screwed.
Sometimes lemons just can't be made palatable.
Telecoms pricing decreased as the cost of equipment (in real terms) decreased.
In Japan as a right you can set up a business in your front room,and sell to the public with minimal regulation ( only registration) this allows a large group of pensioners to still be a part of the economy,and providing both fresh vegetables,and handmade quality goods at sustainable prices (japan inflation 0.2)
The RBNZ review identified the construction cost problem (which was problematic b4 Putin.covid et al)
I blame the massive expansion of credit from the Australian banks (and laundered money from China), systemic failures of regulators, and fuckwit politicians who were happy to give the economy some crack cocaine to make themselves look good.
Heads should roll
Tooze argues what has guaranteed low inflation for the past 40 years has been that one side of the above reciprocal actions – wages and salaries – have been successfully repressed through labour market "reforms" designed to defang the labour side of the wage-price spiral…..
Wage-price spiral explained in eight words
Increased profits > Growth > Good!
Increased wages > Inflation > Bad!
If we had 10 Labour local MPs as good as Chloe Swarbrick …
The Front Page: Chloe Swarbrick's message to lobbyists as she readies next political fight – NZ Herald
And yet Labour won a majority in an MMP system at the last election…..how did that happen with such a star as CS opposing them?
Because most voters in New Zealand don't understand what they're voting for.
Its not a wise strategy to blame the voters. It smacks of sour political grapes. Never a good look. If you really believe that I'm sure you can point to your active support for funding to address this 'misunderstanding'.
I don't blame the voters. Reference to sour political grapes suggests your take on things is a little too simplistic.
You're not familiar with MMP clearly.
It started in 1993. Do catch up.
Just need Labour MPs prepared to put ego aside and work with her as partners.
Actually it would need her own party to show courage.
Which they can't because they are led by two of the weakest politicians in the country.
what would showing courage look like?
Chloe Swarbrick obviously.
Fantastically uninformative circular reasoning.
What we know is you think that the Green party is useless, yawn.
Actually I just praised a Green Party MP as a good and effective leader.
Asked then answered.
Of course you just sound like one of those tiresome Axolotyls who would rather keep the Green Party's head below water than grow an actual skin.
" those tiresome Axolotyls who would rather keep the Green Party's head below water than grow an actual skin."
As an axolotl-keeper, I'm intrigued by whatever it is you might mean by your statement 🙂
Also, I wonder what it is you are expecting James Shaw to do, other than what he has already done?
Axolotyls generally keep their heads down and barely have a skin. The Greens don't have the skin to take any criticism at all and tend not to rise above the surface.
It would just be great if James Shaw could show half the passion and enthusiasm of Chloe, or Jeanette, or Rod, or indeed anyone with a pulse. Does James Shaw exist?
Would James Shaw's work/achievements/potential, increase, his and The Green's influence be enhanced, by showing more passion and enthusiasm than he does presently?
I can't see that it would. The "big players" he has to negotiate/work with are off-put by "Chloe-style" passion and enthusiasm. Her manner works very well with many, but James has specific objectives and can't afford, and doesn't need, imo, to play to the crowd.
Grow bigger balls is my guess. He should have forced Labour to do better in climate. Apparently its his fault that we have a shitty climate policy because he didn't negotiate better.
Swarbrick has power that Shaw (and MD) doesn't, by dint of position. And vice versa. Trad left often fails to understand the nuance in the Greens.
I want the co-leaders to lead differently too, but I'd really like to see some serious analysis of what that might look like rather than just vague hand waving.
Go on then. Analyse the Green Party.
so abandon Ministerial responsibilities, and the GP agreement with Labour, and shift into advocacy/activist mode?
(it's not obvious what you mean, apart from you believe that CS is a very effective MP. I do too, one of the best. But she's not a Minister, and she is by agreement free to speak in ways that the other two aren't. This isn't absolute, I can see room to critique MD and JS. I just was hoping you would do some actually analysis).
Do your own analysis – you're the Green Party supporter.
Even within their portfolios they appear to have forgotten how to speak.
ok, so you don't have any actual analysis beyond Chloe is great! why can't Marama and James be like her?!
I give my analysis of various things to do with the GP fairly often. In fact, I just did some in the comment above, pointing to why CS is freer to speak than the other two. Here’s the L/G agreement that sets out why.
https://www.parliament.nz/media/7554/labour_greens_cooperation_agreement-1.pdf
Shaw and Davidson, from your own link, are perfectly able to critique from every single angle unconstrained by anything if it is outside Ministerial portfolios.
"The Green Party will determine its own position in relation to any policy or legislative matter not covered by the Ministerial portfolios and areas of cooperation set out in this agreement. Differences of position within such portfolios and areas of cooperation will be managed in accordance with this agreement."
Since you are clearly incapable of taking the start of the thread for the actual compliment to the Greens that it was, and also quite incapable of responding to any actual mild criticism of the Green Party leadership even while I was praising their Auckland MP, all you've done is show that it is actually Green Party supporters like yourself that hold them back from being the bold activists they should be.
Do you really think, Ad, that James Shaw is unconstrained by anything, if the issue is outside of Ministerial portfolios?
I suppose he could "passionately and enthusiastically" attack aspects that are dearly-held by other parties, but would that enhance his chances of succeeding in his Ministerial responsibilities; areas where real progress, actual change, can be negotiated and set into law?
Not feeling' it.
The coleaders =/= the party.
Meanwhile, what I actually did:
You quite often slag off the Greens, I'm just pointing out a flaw in your politics. It's not personal, it's a feature of NZpol to say shit about the Greens but fail to explain how they could work differently in the system they are in. It's rare for people to explain how it could be.
I've written about the option for the Greens to stay out of a C/S agreement precisely so they can speak out, particularly on climate. Whether I'm right or wrong, I laid out some of the ways in which the Greens could be acting differently.
https://thestandard.org.nz/is-it-time-for-the-greens-to-go-their-own-way/
As Robert points to, much of what happens with the GP is based on relationship and the need to maintain those well. This applies to the agreement with Labour. I addressed that in the post too.
If Shaw were to take Swarbrick's approach on say climate eg invite the fight, he wouldn't be able to build the bridges across diverse politics and needs that he has. And it's hard to see how the relationship with Labour would remain strong.
The idea that he could have taken a warrior approach and forced NZ into a much stronger climate policy is just not real when we consider that it is Labour that has the more conservative policy, not the Greens. The Greens would have us far further ahead. Shaw works with what he has got, and makes change from within. It's not flashy, but there have been gains made.
I'm completely open to being wrong about the impact on the relationship, but someone would have to put up the actual argument.
My suggestion is that if people want a stronger GP, they should support them in practical terms and vote for them. The Greens on 20 MPs would indeed give them the power to speak out more.
You're saying that the Green party are preventing Labour working with Chloe? Supporting evidence welcome.
I'm saying precisely that Chloe is a better MP than Davidson or Shaw.
Which does not answer my question – unless somehow you think the only people Labour can work with are party leaders.
Labour picks up some or whole parts of Private Members bills regularly.
Your question was simply a misguided understanding disguised as a rhetorical ploy, and you knew it.
I have no idea what you mean by that. Which does not bother me anymore.
Has anyone else read Kiwi blog lately? The anti Jax, anti vax, anti masks, sick chat was far worse than previous iterations. The anti vax groundswell far right and every other anti are there. A sewer of seething hatred.
Did you miss the entire set of political polls since the start of the year?
Kiwiblog are preparing to win.
It's the equivalent of throwing their toys out of their collective cots because they can't get what they want. Childish and pathetic.
Paragons, those Groundswellers!
Paragons!