Yet despite the best efforts of ideological warriors in Beijing and Washington, the uncomfortable truth is that China and the United States are both likely to emerge from this crisis significantly diminished. Neither a new Pax Sinica nor a renewed Pax Americana will rise from the ruins. Rather, both powers will be weakened, at home and abroad. And the result will be a continued slow but steady drift toward international anarchy across everything from international security to trade to pandemic management. With nobody directing traffic, various forms of rampant nationalism are taking the place of order and cooperation. The chaotic nature of national and global responses to the pandemic thus stands as a warning of what could come on an even broader scale.
"As the world looked for American leadership in responding to what was becoming a global crisis, both in public health and in the economy, that American leadership was not forthcoming."
Rudd said America was effectively withdrawing from leading international bodies, including the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Human Rights Council and the World Health Organisation.
"You could list the other institutions from which the Americans are absenting themselves," he said.
"The response in Beijing is hip hip hooray! There hasn't even been a fight at the O.K. Corral. Instead, the Americans have simply said, 'we're not here anymore.'"
Which is something I've been saying for a while now. The entire post WW2 global order has been based on an implicit US security of trade guarantee; and now the Yanks are going home. I realise the rabid anti-US left will think this is good news, but fail completely to imagine anything replacing it.
The entire post WW2 global order has been based on an implicit US security of trade guarantee; and now the Yanks are going home. I realise the rabid anti-US left will think this is good news, but fail completely to imagine anything replacing it.
Well as someone relatively uninformed in matters to do with Foreign Affairs, may I start the ball rolling:
Is it perhaps time to bury the chequered past and build cordial relations with Russia – Putin not withstanding? They are a resilient nation with an incredible cultural past who, despite their tendencies towards authoritarian rule, seem to be considerably more stable than their American counterparts.
For example if America chooses to isolate itself from the rest of the world and under the Trump regime that is going to the outcome… then maybe other alliances need to be explored for future world stability.
Which reminds me:
A series of podcasts entitled "The Service" concerning NZ responses to the Cold War years begins this coming Monday (8th June) on RNZ. It promises to reveal for the first time a major operation which took place in 1986 around the time of the anti-nuclear legislation passed by the Lange government. Sounds like it could be very interesting – especially for those of us who were impacted during the 70s and 80s for our anti-nuclear beliefs.
There is no obvious opportunity between Russia and NZ. Much more valuable would be an unprecedented rapport between Germany and Russia … that would be a massive game changer for both nations.
I was distracted from my line of thought by an outside source. 🙂
Hence I forgot to add the necessary proviso of a close link with a strong Europe. Germany is the obvious choice. Has the advantage of balancing the negative forces currently emanating from America with the more positive vibes from a relatively stable Europe.
In 2014 a trade delegation was practically on the plane to Russia for a FTA when Crimea happened ,so had to pull back
Meanwhile Fonterra went quietly on trading
Then in 2018 Winston was once more making noises about resuming the FTA with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan when the schemoozle in Salisbury happened
I remember the British Ambassador being quite strident about a unified stand against Russia .Winston folded, but I think his idea had been to lessen our dependence on China
Thanks for that link. I was probably too dismissive of our trade relationship with Russia; it has value and when opportunities arise they should be taken.
But geo-politically the ability of NZ and Russia to trade is largely predicated on secure shipping between Vladivostok and Auckland, and long thin trans-shipment across Siberia by rail. It's a less than ideal route in an unstable world, one that neither nation would necessarily be able to defend.
And the idea of setting up a trade deal with Russia goes back to the 1970s. Dr. William Sutch was attempting to set in motion a trade deal with the Soviets when he was pinged by the SIS as a KGB agent. In those days paranoia was so rampant, a person only needed to look at a Soviet Official and he/she was deemed to be a spy. 🙄
Poor old Sutch. It killed him in the end and his crime? He was years ahead of his time.
Is it perhaps time to bury the chequered past and build cordial relations with Russia
Would be one of my dearest wishes too. I whole-heartedly agree with your view of the Russian people.
I'm very ambivalent about Putin; on the scale of authoritarian threat he's nowhere near as dangerous Xi Xinping. He's a remarkably intelligent and strategic thinker, and has the interests of his people at heart. He stands head, shoulders and a fair bit of the torso above any other Russian leader of the past 200 years.
Yet Russia is not a liberal country, and it has almost no democratic tradition of accountability that we would recognise, much of their most senior political leadership is drawn from the intelligence community (and very thin in numbers) and facing intractable defense challenges, Putin is probably the best kind of leader you could hope for in such an environment. And someone the West has betrayed numerous times, much to our long term detriment.
then maybe other alliances need to be explored for future world stability.
From the perspective of NZ, the obvious immediate option is as SE Asian alliance pulling together Japan, Korea, Taiwan (as a fully independent nation), Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and of course Australia.
If I was running MFAT I'd have my professionals working their peer contacts in these nations as hard as, exploring possibilities and laying the ground work for a full on trade and defense alliance in the SE Asian region. I'd be very optimistic the time is now right for this.
Russia has had circumstances but I won't hear of her being not up to democracy. Which is to say, the principle of fairness which all humans are, by definition, up to.
You need to read more carefully; my point is that Russia has very little history democracy, and given the way the democratic West so grossly betrayed the Russians in the 90's you can hardly blame them for not being keen on repeating the experiment.
Of course you are right, there is no reason why with time and the right circumstances a more robust Russian democracy may well emerge.
I educated myself on Turgenev, and, most of all, Chekhov — that's the specific basis of my belief Russia deserves democracy. That they spoke to me via human ideals. Read all the Russian novelists. Preferred them.
Dugin’s ideas have attracted allies in the West to the pursuit of a new anti-liberal world order based on a rejection of individual freedoms and human rights in favour of traditional cultural hierarchies. As a leader of Russia’s National Bolshevik Party, Dugin fostered a broad alliance of reactionary radicals with a goal of “leftist fascism and rightist communism.” His philosophy has been adopted in service of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s political project to resurrect a Russian-led empire in Europe and Asia. He has enjoyed so much influence that the magazine Foreign Affairs dubbed him “Putin’s Brain.”
Dr. Michael Millerman gave a fascinating talk about Dugin's ideas and stinging critique of the liberal democratic order, and how Western ideals are viewed in Russia (available somewhere on YT). I doubt Russian democracy would look anything like what we have in Europe
Putin is a shit. Sure, our democracies don't mostly include the heart of people's rule. It at least requires a commanding attitude, where NZ fell through. It mostly requires a party devoted to the rule of the people, like Scandinavia. Democracy always looks similar, why I've found America suspect.
Until we collectively build a global institution that takes the place of, and improves on the US led order, then it will be a fair bit of both.
On the active anarchy side of the question we will see the three traditional areas of the world prone to hot conflict re-emerge.
China is already under considerable internal stress and the death-throes of the CCP cannot help but be ugly.
Once all the major players in the Middle East realise the US is no longer interested in imposing a political reality in the region, it will be 'burn it all down' time. Oil shipments in particular will become deeply insecure.
Europe faces a choice of either dramatically reforming the EU to become a full federal integrating the divergent interests of Northern and Southern Europe, or collapsing into the very tribal hot wars that were the reason it was formed in the first place. Again without the US imposing a military reality in the region, it will default to the old ones.
Mass migrations, especially out of sub-Saharan Africa, will continue to stress Europe's ability to economically and socially integrate. Nigeria remains one of the few large nations struggling with both mass absolute poverty and very high population growth. (The two are always closely correlated.)
On the entropy side the collapse of the trade order means the prosperity building of the post WW2 era comes to an end in many places. Climate change and environmental degradation will continue to erode our natural capital, and COVID 19 will not the last pandemic.
In human terms we are much more sensitive to the prospect of losing what we have, than the possibility of getting something we don't yet have. As both anarchy and entropy continue to accelerate we will see populations everywhere react badly. Populists and autocrats will gain more power, liberal democracy will be on the retreat everywhere it cannot or is not defended.
I see Rudd proving once again proving he is the enemy of the left.
Have to say redlogix your lack of imagination on this issue is a bit disappointing. Anarchy is always preferable to a one world government. Seriously, the lead players in that racket are racist, misogynistic, empire building, elitist dogfuckers.
Anarchy is always preferable to a one world government.
One world government, or more probably a global federation of all the nations, is absolutely inevitable. It is the direction history has been heading in for at least 10,000 years or more. A progressive model of history, one built on the idea of increasing capacity for of larger and more complex societies, and broader more inclusive moral horizons is supported by all the evidence.
By contrast anarchy, however you care to define it, has absolutely no track record other than abject failure by comparison.
Setting aside any subjective judgement on the two models, it seems the one you are backing has been firmly rejected by evolution if nothing else.
Judging by the postures of current superpowers, the only form of global unity they seek is at gunpoint; one global empire imposing its will on everyone else.
Geography, the end of cheap oil, and human nature makes a global government very unlikely, and I don't want to be around to see it.
According to apocalyptic literature, Armageddon has to occur before we get 1000 years of peace.
Have you read this?! The pitchforks are coming for us plutocrats
"Revolutions, like bankruptcies, come gradually, and then suddenly. One day, somebody sets himself on fire, then thousands of people are in the streets, and before you know it, the country is burning. And then there’s no time for us to get to the airport and jump on our Gulfstream Vs and fly to New Zealand. That’s the way it always happens. If inequality keeps rising as it has been, eventually it will happen. We will not be able to predict when, and it will be terrible—for everybody. But especially for us."
Really interesting Robert , but note not one word about climate catastrophe and the folly of perpetual growth , or the hazards of a culture mired in endless consumerism.
Just, if plutocrats are to survive we need to cut the commoners a bit of slack so they can afford to buy our useless crap
Consume more locally grown food, craft items and locally owned and staffed factory produced goods made to last and be repairable and recyclable. Somehow direct the yearning for brand new status symbol cars, houses, clothes, boats to items that condense individual wealth, like art works, jewellery and accessories. Grand old houses, old boats and old cars in posh parts of Auckland show that recycled goods actually enhance status.
Yes, francesca, you are quite right. His thinking still bound by his culture but he's stirring that up from within and that's encouraging. He's ripe, I think, for an epiphany that shifts the location of his awareness from his cranium to his chest 🙂
He's still pushing on the problems caused by inequity and the unrestrained pursuit and accumulation of wealth. He still appears to be fundamentally a capitalist, but wants the capitalism in a mixed economy to be much better managed and regulated, as well as getting the wealthy and highly-paid to contribute much more back to maintaining the society that enabled their wealth and high pay.
He's definitely on to it and being a trillionaire has a far better chance of communicating those ideas to his peers than anyone else further down the food chain
Revolutions, like bankruptcies, come gradually, and then suddenly. One day, somebody sets himself on fire, then thousands of people are in the streets, and before you know it, the country is burning. And then there’s no time for us to get to the airport and jump on our Gulfstream Vs and fly to New Zealand. That’s the way it always happens. If inequality keeps rising as it has been, eventually it will happen.
Or perhaps something about the harm Facebook is doing to political discourse and why everyone should delete Facebook from their devices and their lives, and especially should never ever ever click on a Facebook-mediated link.
Extra cruft makes it harder to identify the destination whether the link is visible in full or only when hovering. It’s a tax on attention, and for what benefit.
I find that having to take extra action to see where a link goes makes it less likely I will actually bother with it. And I have yet to bother to find out the equivalent of hovering on the other devices I use.
Because of that, I'll embed a link when it's just backup for a point, or further info a particularly interested reader may find interesting. But if directing a reader to the link is the main point of the comment, then having the link right out in the open works better for me.
The problem isn't just FB, anyone with a pulse or a skerrick of decency would stop using it after the Chch murders.
There seems to be a deep, almost primal need to be 'connected', whether it is extreme FOMO, the pain of not knowing something when google is right there or some other driver.
I have had a few conversations lately where someone else's phone/internet/device habits are having a profoundly negative effect on a relationship.
I suppose what I am getting at is FB etc, are merely tools, the problem is we are misusing the tools.
Instead of berating those who can't quite bring themselves to vote for a tired old white plutocrat with a penchant for pawing small children and uninvited sniffing of female hair, why not attempt to understand?
Insulting them as purists and morons doesn't work
Here's a fairly robust statement from Caitlin Johnstone in a longer opinion piece
"And that is exactly what a US president’s real job is. Not to end police brutality and systemic racism, not to make changes which benefit the American people, and certainly not to make the world a less violent and murderous place, but to say pretty words which lull the public into a pleasant propaganda-induced coma while the sociopathic oligarchs who really run things rob them blind."
And a much longer and considered article by Jonathan Cook
excerpt
"If the US has a cynical political system, deeply corrupted by money, younger voters wonder whether adding to that cynicism – with the left always voting for one of two evil candidates – can actually ever change the system or simply reinforces it. The older left has failed politically. But might one of the reasons be that for decades it has acted so cynically? Younger voters want to break with cynical politics. If the left is ever going to start looking more attractive, they argue, it needs to stop engaging cynically with a cynical system."
… can't quite bring themselves to vote for a tired old white plutocrat with a penchant for pawing small children and uninvited sniffing of female hair…
That is not the reason why he's a terrible person and a terrible candidate. Nor is it his notorious habit of lying. Nor is it his cretinous decision to plagiarize from, of all people, Neil Kinnock. What makes Biden unacceptable to millions of people with a conscience is the fact that he has been on the wrong side of nearly every major moral and political issue during his career in politics.
At this point in the political cycle, it doesn't matter whether the motivation is moronism or actual malice, the net effect of whining about Biden's flaws without mention of the Fanta Fascist's vastly worse heinousness on every topic is to functionally act as another soldier in the army of Drumpfkins. So stick it up your ass back where it came from.
At this stage Blumenthal and Greenwald have definitely reached useful idiot status (or worse), despite what bright spots they may have in their previous work. Or whatever rare lucid good points they may still make.
TBH, I haven't paid much attention to Scahill. But publishing that piece on March 10 after the primary was effectively decided, rather than earlier when the facts and arguments could have made a difference, strongly suggests Scahill has also attained useful idiot status (or worse).
Just to be clear Andre – are you requiring that people simply not mention Biden's obvious flaws in case that contributes in some way to Trump's re-election? And if everyone goes obediently silent in this manner, will they be allowed to resume saying these things when Biden becomes President? Or will that also be disallowed as undermining Biden's presidency and contributing to the possible victory of whatever Republican monster follows Trump?
Just wondering, that if we voluntarily suspend truth-telling, under what circumstances we get it back.
I expect those that present themselves as some sort of journalists to occasionally pay some attention to the monstrosities committed by the incumbent in between bagging the much milder failings of the alternative (that does not hold power). Greenwald in particular has conspicuously failed to do this.
Sure, when anyone is in power, hold them to account. But I do expect to see a sense of proportion and consideration of the big picture before I'll consider someone to be worth paying attention to. The likes of Johnstone, Blumenthal, Mate and others apparently held in high regard by convergence moonbats fail badly on that score
There is a properly nuanced position somewhere in all this. I thought in this interview with Marianne Williamson she got close to it. At one point saying something like, "I don't want to say anything that will further increase cynicism about the Democratic nominee" but at the same time she stressed the need for "radical truth-telling". I had previously thought she was a bit nutty, so was wrong on that.
It is the wonderful political strategy of – "Vote for sleepy joe or else.."
Close, Ainsley, close. It may not be wonderful, but It's the only likely strategy to avoid the 'or else'.
Unless a third party candidate emerges and starts polling over 30%, and splits all states to a three way fight, if Usians don't vote for Biden, that means they're okay with Trump for another four years. It's that simple.
Just wondering, that if we voluntarily suspend truth-telling, under what circumstances we get it back.
Indeed, very well put. This 'lesser of two evils' race to the bottom has no exit lane. Trump in my view is a high functioning psychopath, but the reason why so many Americans feel they have no political choice can be summed up in two words … Clinton, Biden.
Many Americans seem to have voted against Clinton. She really was a terrible choice probably worse than the 2020 presumptive nominee.
The problem is that Biden will be so vulnerable during term that objectivity will at earliest be established after he is done. For some reason Andre seems against both pressure to move left on policy and an examination of weaknesses of the candidate both of which Trump will be attacking. Its hard to understand why he wants the democrats to run such a weak candidate. My best guess is that he is enjoying the politics as name calling.
@ Andre, Do you realize that every time someone critiques Biden you come on here all frothing at the mouth and the first thing you say is that they are whining, every damn time…so OK we all get it, we all know you are a lap dog of the liberal status quo, so unless you have anything new or relevant to bring t the debate, why don't you go and yap yap yap somewhere else.
plutocrat with a penchant for pawing small children
That accusation is simply a disgusting smear that has been perpetuated by sick people who have an unworthy political agenda. The accusation is based upon a photo take out of context and when the truth is revealed shows just how despicable the accusation is.
The photo has not been edited, but it has been cropped and taken out of context. The image shows Joe Biden and his grandson Robert Hunter Biden II at Beau Biden’s funeral on June 6, 2015. Robert is one of the two children the late Beau Biden had with his wife Hallie Biden. Footage of the exact moment in which the picture was taken shows that Joe was comforting his grandson Robert, who had just lost his father.
The original, uncropped photograph was taken by the AP ( here ).
Video showing the photographed moment gives us context. It shows Biden comforting Robert before entering St. Anthony of Padua church in Wilmington, Delaware, where the service was held ( here ). Biden can be seen touching his grandson’s head, before pulling him toward him and appearing to kiss his cheek. He then pats Robert’s back.
If you make a statement such as that you either prove it or shut up.
“MUCH ADO ABOUT THAT FORUM: Vivi, the 10-year-old girl who asked Biden a question at Tuesday’s AFT forum, is “proud” of her interaction with him, according to a new statement from her teacher, even if social media seized on it as another “creepy Biden” moment.
— The teacher, Lucia Moreno, a Houston Federation of Teachers member, released a statement through her union after receiving several media calls on Wednesday about the moment. After Biden answered Vivi’s question, he told her, “I’ll bet you’re as bright as you are good-looking.” When she told him her favorite subject is journalism, he led her to the back to meet the press corps and stood behind her with his hands on her shoulders.
— Pictures of the moment made the rounds on Twitter, with some calling it “creepy.” Just before entering the race, Biden weathered allegations that his handsy style made some women uncomfortable.
— Moreno, who runs an after-school journalism program, gave this statement: “I took two of my students to the AFT Votes Town Hall with Vice President Biden yesterday to show them the power of journalism, activism and politics, and I was deeply proud that Vivi — who is the daughter of a Salvadoran immigrant — was able to ask the Vice President a question and interact with him directly. After the event when I spoke to her mother, she told me she would treasure the experience of her daughter meeting a politician who believes in family values and understands the experiences of immigrants. Today, when we returned to the classroom, Vivi was equally proud of the moment and excited to tell the entire school about the learning experience she had.”
Well said, Macro. The death of Beau Biden was well documented at the time. His brother can be seen comforting the boy Robert earlier in the video. Only very sick minds would think of using a still photo in such a way.
The man's gotta live to the lifestyle he's accustomed to, and after all, prostitution is legal – in fact it's almost become fashionable among those that don't have to rely on it.
To be fair that's not the only contribution Sturgess makes
He runs a very generous community fund and has helped out local not for profit organizations heaps
He runs his farms well,treats his workers well,stayed away from the easy profits of dairy and bought up businesses that are all about production and jobs
More groveling towards the bludgers this morning, from the usual suspects RNZ National, Sunday 7 June 2020, 9:48 a.m.
JIM MORA: Are the people of Los Angeles still charmed by Harry and Meghan?
RUSSELL MYERS:[speaking slowly and deliberately to convey gravitas] I think L.A. is charmed by Harry and Meghan… [skip several minutes of blather]…. I think they've played an absolute BLINDER during the coronavirus crisis.
JIM MORA: All right, and finally Prince Andrew. Gone, and never coming back, Russell?
RUSSELL MYERS: I don't think there's any way back for Andrew, and probably that's a good thing overall. ….
9:44 Prince Harry's Los Angeles plans 'in tatters'
Having provoked a crisis in the monarchy and furor in the media when he and wife Meghan Markle asked the Queen to step down as senior royals in January, Prince Harry's Los Angeles dream is turning into something of a nightmare due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Daily Mirror Royal Editor Russell Myers joins the show with all the latest. https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday
The Unions have been part of the Republican alliance for some time now. The Democrats abandoned their class interests in favour of identity politics. Most union members are in highly diverse ethnically and the movement as a whole voted with their feet.
As for the Police Unions, maybe we need to understand these are ordinary working class people doing a tough, shitty and essential job.
Progressives are quick to (correctly) note that the roots of crime are socially and culturally constructed. But they are more reluctant to accept the reality that one reason for the prevalence of police brutality may be that police are operating in brutal environments. Rates of post-traumatic stress disorder among police officers are much higher than among the general population; around one in four police officers has suicidal thoughts.
In the New Yorkerprofile of Darren Wilson—the police officer who killed the African American teenager Michael Brown in the city of Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, setting off the Black Lives Matter movement—what struck me the most was how much violence Wilson had encountered before he ever met Brown. At one stop, he was met with the bodies of two dead women and a two-year-old child covered in blood crawling between them. It is possible that the anti-social or violent behavior by both common criminals and the police is influenced by the environments they live and work in as well.
In other words: If we want to reduce police shootings, we have to reduce violent crime. “The strongest implication from our data is if we can reduce those crime rates, we are going to decrease the number of people who are fatally shot by police,” Johnson said.
Yet even such reactionary organisations such as the Charles Koch Institute finds that practices such as the militarisation of police are really unhelpful for police doing the job the community expects from them and disengages the police from the community.
What about the Second Ammendment militarisation of the population? A nation that permits open carry ensures a literal arms race between the population and the police.
Yet if the US can avoid burning down the White House in the next week or so, I'm very hopeful for their long term prospects.
Race is of course one element of this event; but it's not the only one. The destruction of good US manufacturing jobs is directly responsible for the deprivation and alienation of minority working class. The good news is that these jobs are going to be re-shored from China over the next few years.
The US will trend very successfully toward an autarky. No matter how hard it tries to fuck it up, it has all the regional security and resources necessary, combined with it's uniquely benign and productive geography. If these protests succeed in triggering serious political reform they will have been entirely justified.
It's notable which protests drew the militarised response: it was the unarmed protests with large proportions of people of colour. When the almost exclusively white gun nutters showed up with their weapons they got the softly softly kid gloves response. That difference will have been well noted.
What is also noted is that the left whole-heartedly approves of strong military responses to white protesters, while silently standing by on the looting and violence enabled under the cover the broader, mostly peaceful, BLM protests.
Let's be clear on what we agree on: George Floyd's death … fucked up; protest bad policing and economic insecurity … fine. Looting, arson and beating up shopkeepers protecting their livelihoods … fucked up. 95% of everyone left and right, lines up to tick these boxes.
Unless of course your real goal is to 'burn it all down'. In which case a full metal jacket military response is the only option.
No argument about what's fucked up. But take a good look at who's falsely conflating the peaceful unarmed protests with the looting and arson perpetrated by unrelated opportunists. And what the political motive for that false conflating might be.
So sly you could pin a tail on it and call it a Dennis.
[Two birds with one stone, this time! Well done! You still haven’t learned that your ‘witty’ one-liners are nothing but flaming insults and putdowns of other commenters. I guess we’ll just have to up the dose. Banned for one week. At this rate, you’ll be gone for a long time soon, unless you change your behaviour – Incognito]
It'll be a hard job, if it can be done at all in these increasingly stressful times. UK writer and TV producer G F Newman has more than once aired the notion that criminals and police often come from similar backgrounds, have similar mentalities, and that it can simply be chance – ill or otherwise – that decides which side of the fence they end up on. He also reckons 90% of police are corrupt in greater or lesser degree. Very likely the situation is little different in the US.
Clement Blair Peach (25 March 1946 – 24 April 1979) was a New Zealand teacher who died after an anti-racism demonstration in Southall, Middlesex, England
As far as I can find within our lifetime,We in NZ have been so fortunate that protesting has not led to the highest price to be paid,
Link-spamming when not in the context of the comment thread. We have advertisers who pay to hire our space to pay for the servers. Link-spammer do not contribute, so why should we allow you to advertise here? You can link to your own site provided it isn’t excessive, explains why you think it should be read (so people can decide not to go there without clicking into it), is short, and you either do it in OpenMike or within the context of the post or surrounding comments.
The unresonable ineffectiveness of mathematics in social science.
Hundreds of researchers attempted to predict six life outcomes, such as a child’s grade point average and whether a family would be evicted from their home. These researchers used machine-learning methods optimized for prediction, and they drew on a vast dataset that was painstakingly collected by social scientists over 15 y. However, no one made very accurate predictions. For policymakers considering using predictive models in settings such as criminal justice and child-protective services, these results raise a number of concerns. Additionally, researchers must reconcile the idea that they understand life trajectories with the fact that none of the predictions were very accurate.
Just heard on AJ TV that a mink farm in the Netherlands has transmission from mink animals to humans. China imports a lot of mink fur from the Netherlands.
The trust has gone in the USA between the police and the Afro American community. Until trust is restored the marches will continue. It is obvious why there is no trust as police officers are breaking the law.
I feel that the numbers participating in the marches would be higher were there no Covid-19. It is good to see a representation of cultures. I was very impressed with what Rev Sharpton said at Floyd's funeral.
But he only went two and a half times. I'm still trying to work out how you can half go someplace . Did he put a foot inside the bunker and a foot outside and therefore he was half in and half out?
I see this tune is getting a lot of downloads in the states over the past week or so….still some of the smoothest rappers around IMO.well apart from Chuck D maybe?
Given Dr Dre and Ice T now have a combined worth of a billion dollars and live in mansions no where near anywhere with dodgy cops, the song has kind of lost it's impact for me personally.
So are you saying that anything one does artistically should be judged on the actions taken though out the rest of their lives?…I personally think that is a very naive and unrealistic position to take,
For Afro Americans sure they got wealth. But they still get pulled over and deal with the same shit by police, like all the other Afro Americans. I'd suggest you talk to some wealthy or middle class Afro Americans Chris T, because you just talking shit at the moment. Because in American one thing money don't buy you if your Afro American, is a pass on the shit you get from the police.
"The report cites a senior UK government source who said the Skripals had been given new identities and support to start a new life."
So these people who were facing such a diabolical existential threat from the Russians, they couldn't be interviewed to describe what happened to them or where they were in those missing morning hours in March 2018 are now outed as being in NZ
If we are to believe this , and frankly I find it difficult, who's providing the extreme security they'd need
If this is correct and it may well be then the british government is being it's usual arrogant self. IIRC there was a proposal made quite some time back – where the British were going to resettle here under a new name, an individual who had been convicted as a minor of a crime but the outcry stopped it. So nothing new I'm afraid.
The latest focus of the moment, the race riots in America. We getting het up about it.
And the unwillingness of the middle class politically interested to address our vicious war on Maori since 1984 (yes, I know the benefit cuts came in 1991). You all leave it on the floor, unprepared to pick it up.
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This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
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Where will New Zealand's heart lie in the new cold war with China?
https://youtu.be/taAHtUDo18Q
An informed view from Kevin Rudd.
Or a similar article published locally:
Which is something I've been saying for a while now. The entire post WW2 global order has been based on an implicit US security of trade guarantee; and now the Yanks are going home. I realise the rabid anti-US left will think this is good news, but fail completely to imagine anything replacing it.
Well as someone relatively uninformed in matters to do with Foreign Affairs, may I start the ball rolling:
Is it perhaps time to bury the chequered past and build cordial relations with Russia – Putin not withstanding? They are a resilient nation with an incredible cultural past who, despite their tendencies towards authoritarian rule, seem to be considerably more stable than their American counterparts.
For example if America chooses to isolate itself from the rest of the world and under the Trump regime that is going to the outcome… then maybe other alliances need to be explored for future world stability.
Which reminds me:
A series of podcasts entitled "The Service" concerning NZ responses to the Cold War years begins this coming Monday (8th June) on RNZ. It promises to reveal for the first time a major operation which took place in 1986 around the time of the anti-nuclear legislation passed by the Lange government. Sounds like it could be very interesting – especially for those of us who were impacted during the 70s and 80s for our anti-nuclear beliefs.
Sure. Let's swap milk powder for Ladas. The Niva is still in production, and there's even a five-door model now!
There is no obvious opportunity between Russia and NZ. Much more valuable would be an unprecedented rapport between Germany and Russia … that would be a massive game changer for both nations.
Maybe we can swap milk powder for nukes? No?
I was distracted from my line of thought by an outside source. 🙂
Hence I forgot to add the necessary proviso of a close link with a strong Europe. Germany is the obvious choice. Has the advantage of balancing the negative forces currently emanating from America with the more positive vibes from a relatively stable Europe.
In 2014 a trade delegation was practically on the plane to Russia for a FTA when Crimea happened ,so had to pull back
Meanwhile Fonterra went quietly on trading
Then in 2018 Winston was once more making noises about resuming the FTA with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan when the schemoozle in Salisbury happened
I remember the British Ambassador being quite strident about a unified stand against Russia .Winston folded, but I think his idea had been to lessen our dependence on China
https://www.mfat.govt.nz/en/countries-and-regions/europe/russia/#:~:text=On%209%20November%202010%2C%20New,following%20events%20in%20the%20Ukraine.
Thanks for that link. I was probably too dismissive of our trade relationship with Russia; it has value and when opportunities arise they should be taken.
But geo-politically the ability of NZ and Russia to trade is largely predicated on secure shipping between Vladivostok and Auckland, and long thin trans-shipment across Siberia by rail. It's a less than ideal route in an unstable world, one that neither nation would necessarily be able to defend.
And the idea of setting up a trade deal with Russia goes back to the 1970s. Dr. William Sutch was attempting to set in motion a trade deal with the Soviets when he was pinged by the SIS as a KGB agent. In those days paranoia was so rampant, a person only needed to look at a Soviet Official and he/she was deemed to be a spy. 🙄
Poor old Sutch. It killed him in the end and his crime? He was years ahead of his time.
Is it perhaps time to bury the chequered past and build cordial relations with Russia
Would be one of my dearest wishes too. I whole-heartedly agree with your view of the Russian people.
I'm very ambivalent about Putin; on the scale of authoritarian threat he's nowhere near as dangerous Xi Xinping. He's a remarkably intelligent and strategic thinker, and has the interests of his people at heart. He stands head, shoulders and a fair bit of the torso above any other Russian leader of the past 200 years.
Yet Russia is not a liberal country, and it has almost no democratic tradition of accountability that we would recognise, much of their most senior political leadership is drawn from the intelligence community (and very thin in numbers) and facing intractable defense challenges, Putin is probably the best kind of leader you could hope for in such an environment. And someone the West has betrayed numerous times, much to our long term detriment.
then maybe other alliances need to be explored for future world stability.
From the perspective of NZ, the obvious immediate option is as SE Asian alliance pulling together Japan, Korea, Taiwan (as a fully independent nation), Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and of course Australia.
If I was running MFAT I'd have my professionals working their peer contacts in these nations as hard as, exploring possibilities and laying the ground work for a full on trade and defense alliance in the SE Asian region. I'd be very optimistic the time is now right for this.
In total agreement including the torso bit. 😉
I must confess that torso allusion was entirely accidental![blush blush](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/embarrassed_smile.png)
Russia has had circumstances but I won't hear of her being not up to democracy. Which is to say, the principle of fairness which all humans are, by definition, up to.
You need to read more carefully; my point is that Russia has very little history democracy, and given the way the democratic West so grossly betrayed the Russians in the 90's you can hardly blame them for not being keen on repeating the experiment.
Of course you are right, there is no reason why with time and the right circumstances a more robust Russian democracy may well emerge.
I educated myself on Turgenev, and, most of all, Chekhov — that's the specific basis of my belief Russia deserves democracy. That they spoke to me via human ideals. Read all the Russian novelists. Preferred them.
Heard of Aleksandr Dugin?
Dr. Michael Millerman gave a fascinating talk about Dugin's ideas and stinging critique of the liberal democratic order, and how Western ideals are viewed in Russia (available somewhere on YT). I doubt Russian democracy would look anything like what we have in Europe
Putin is a shit. Sure, our democracies don't mostly include the heart of people's rule. It at least requires a commanding attitude, where NZ fell through. It mostly requires a party devoted to the rule of the people, like Scandinavia. Democracy always looks similar, why I've found America suspect.
Anarchy or entropy?
..come together in perfect harmony
Until we collectively build a global institution that takes the place of, and improves on the US led order, then it will be a fair bit of both.
On the active anarchy side of the question we will see the three traditional areas of the world prone to hot conflict re-emerge.
China is already under considerable internal stress and the death-throes of the CCP cannot help but be ugly.
Once all the major players in the Middle East realise the US is no longer interested in imposing a political reality in the region, it will be 'burn it all down' time. Oil shipments in particular will become deeply insecure.
Europe faces a choice of either dramatically reforming the EU to become a full federal integrating the divergent interests of Northern and Southern Europe, or collapsing into the very tribal hot wars that were the reason it was formed in the first place. Again without the US imposing a military reality in the region, it will default to the old ones.
Mass migrations, especially out of sub-Saharan Africa, will continue to stress Europe's ability to economically and socially integrate. Nigeria remains one of the few large nations struggling with both mass absolute poverty and very high population growth. (The two are always closely correlated.)
On the entropy side the collapse of the trade order means the prosperity building of the post WW2 era comes to an end in many places. Climate change and environmental degradation will continue to erode our natural capital, and COVID 19 will not the last pandemic.
In human terms we are much more sensitive to the prospect of losing what we have, than the possibility of getting something we don't yet have. As both anarchy and entropy continue to accelerate we will see populations everywhere react badly. Populists and autocrats will gain more power, liberal democracy will be on the retreat everywhere it cannot or is not defended.
Sobering; it doesn’t bode well.
I see Rudd proving once again proving he is the enemy of the left.
Have to say redlogix your lack of imagination on this issue is a bit disappointing. Anarchy is always preferable to a one world government. Seriously, the lead players in that racket are racist, misogynistic, empire building, elitist dogfuckers.
Anarchy is always preferable to a one world government.
One world government, or more probably a global federation of all the nations, is absolutely inevitable. It is the direction history has been heading in for at least 10,000 years or more. A progressive model of history, one built on the idea of increasing capacity for of larger and more complex societies, and broader more inclusive moral horizons is supported by all the evidence.
By contrast anarchy, however you care to define it, has absolutely no track record other than abject failure by comparison.
Setting aside any subjective judgement on the two models, it seems the one you are backing has been firmly rejected by evolution if nothing else.
So your going with racist, misogynistic, empire building, elitist dogfuckers then.
A fine contribution to robust debate.
Total class mate, total class.
Hard to have a debate when all I'm reading is liberal gobshit.
Fair enough but why then pile on more shit?
Judging by the postures of current superpowers, the only form of global unity they seek is at gunpoint; one global empire imposing its will on everyone else.
Geography, the end of cheap oil, and human nature makes a global government very unlikely, and I don't want to be around to see it.
According to apocalyptic literature, Armageddon has to occur before we get 1000 years of peace.
Maybe hold off leaning either way until after January 21 next year.
Have you read this?! The pitchforks are coming for us plutocrats
"Revolutions, like bankruptcies, come gradually, and then suddenly. One day, somebody sets himself on fire, then thousands of people are in the streets, and before you know it, the country is burning. And then there’s no time for us to get to the airport and jump on our Gulfstream Vs and fly to New Zealand. That’s the way it always happens. If inequality keeps rising as it has been, eventually it will happen. We will not be able to predict when, and it will be terrible—for everybody. But especially for us."
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014?fbclid=IwAR2XYIAwEYVR7bqZbKwX0ooFVJGrf9Q4KeNpOkYfr8_xm8Zfjny_aDW6ySU
Sigh. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014
Sorry. I did it again. Enthusiasm over-rode memory. Plus, early morning.
Really interesting Robert , but note not one word about climate catastrophe and the folly of perpetual growth , or the hazards of a culture mired in endless consumerism.
Just, if plutocrats are to survive we need to cut the commoners a bit of slack so they can afford to buy our useless crap
The guy has balls all the same
'Stop hoarding wealth because climate change' is a much harder sell. He knows who he needs to convince and it's not us.
Consume more locally grown food, craft items and locally owned and staffed factory produced goods made to last and be repairable and recyclable. Somehow direct the yearning for brand new status symbol cars, houses, clothes, boats to items that condense individual wealth, like art works, jewellery and accessories. Grand old houses, old boats and old cars in posh parts of Auckland show that recycled goods actually enhance status.
Yes, francesca, you are quite right. His thinking still bound by his culture but he's stirring that up from within and that's encouraging. He's ripe, I think, for an epiphany that shifts the location of his awareness from his cranium to his chest 🙂
Hanauer has had 6 years since it was published. Wonder where his thinking is at now?
Googling Hanauer turns up plenty.
He's still pushing on the problems caused by inequity and the unrestrained pursuit and accumulation of wealth. He still appears to be fundamentally a capitalist, but wants the capitalism in a mixed economy to be much better managed and regulated, as well as getting the wealthy and highly-paid to contribute much more back to maintaining the society that enabled their wealth and high pay.
Ought we to snuff out signs of intelligent life when they arrive only partly-formed?
He's definitely on to it and being a trillionaire has a far better chance of communicating those ideas to his peers than anyone else further down the food chain
We even get a mention:
Time to disabuse these guys of the belief that they have the option to come here.
The same guy, Nick Hanauer did a Ted Talk way back when about how rich people don't create jobs:
https://youtu.be/CKCvf8E7V1g
A friend visited a rural home recently and they were sweeping up broken glass
Behind the door was a narrow tall display case with a notice inside
"IN CASE OF TYRANNY BREAK GLASS"
There were two empty pegs near the top …
and the outline of a …..
PITCH FORK
Yes. Some of the 0.1% are awake.
Sacha, you need to run a post on putting an internet link onto text![enlightened enlightened](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/lightbulb.png)
Not at all – I hardly do that myself.
Or perhaps something about the harm Facebook is doing to political discourse and why everyone should delete Facebook from their devices and their lives, and especially should never ever ever click on a Facebook-mediated link.
I'm mainly concerned about the 'readability' of the link for other people. Makes it harder to decide whether to click or not.
That's true, although you can rest you mouse over a hyperlink and check the destination.
Extra cruft makes it harder to identify the destination whether the link is visible in full or only when hovering. It’s a tax on attention, and for what benefit.
I find that having to take extra action to see where a link goes makes it less likely I will actually bother with it. And I have yet to bother to find out the equivalent of hovering on the other devices I use.
Because of that, I'll embed a link when it's just backup for a point, or further info a particularly interested reader may find interesting. But if directing a reader to the link is the main point of the comment, then having the link right out in the open works better for me.
The problem isn't just FB, anyone with a pulse or a skerrick of decency would stop using it after the Chch murders.
There seems to be a deep, almost primal need to be 'connected', whether it is extreme FOMO, the pain of not knowing something when google is right there or some other driver.
I have had a few conversations lately where someone else's phone/internet/device habits are having a profoundly negative effect on a relationship.
I suppose what I am getting at is FB etc, are merely tools, the problem is we are misusing the tools.
Sometimes tools are fine and the problem is indeed users are misusing them.
Sometimes there is something fundamentally problematic with the actual tools.
Sometimes the tool supplier is fundamentally problematic.
Instead of berating those who can't quite bring themselves to vote for a tired old white plutocrat with a penchant for pawing small children and uninvited sniffing of female hair, why not attempt to understand?
Insulting them as purists and morons doesn't work
Here's a fairly robust statement from Caitlin Johnstone in a longer opinion piece
"And that is exactly what a US president’s real job is. Not to end police brutality and systemic racism, not to make changes which benefit the American people, and certainly not to make the world a less violent and murderous place, but to say pretty words which lull the public into a pleasant propaganda-induced coma while the sociopathic oligarchs who really run things rob them blind."
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/55184.htm
And a much longer and considered article by Jonathan Cook
excerpt
"If the US has a cynical political system, deeply corrupted by money, younger voters wonder whether adding to that cynicism – with the left always voting for one of two evil candidates – can actually ever change the system or simply reinforces it. The older left has failed politically. But might one of the reasons be that for decades it has acted so cynically? Younger voters want to break with cynical politics. If the left is ever going to start looking more attractive, they argue, it needs to stop engaging cynically with a cynical system."
https://braveneweurope.com/jonathan-cook-why-the-lefts-case-for-lesser-evil-sounds-hollow
Not wanting to distract from the above pieces, Bill Hicks said this over 25 years ago.
That's the thing with truth, it does not change.
Edit: Contains the odd ‘f-bomb’.
… can't quite bring themselves to vote for a tired old white plutocrat with a penchant for pawing small children and uninvited sniffing of female hair…
That is not the reason why he's a terrible person and a terrible candidate. Nor is it his notorious habit of lying. Nor is it his cretinous decision to plagiarize from, of all people, Neil Kinnock. What makes Biden unacceptable to millions of people with a conscience is the fact that he has been on the wrong side of nearly every major moral and political issue during his career in politics.
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/07/31/how-joe-biden-fueled-the-latin-american-migration-crisis/
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/jeremy-scahill-makes-the-definitive-case-against-joe-biden/
https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1239358590013620224?lang=en
Useful idiots gonna useful idiot.
At this point in the political cycle, it doesn't matter whether the motivation is moronism or actual malice, the net effect of whining about Biden's flaws without mention of the Fanta Fascist's vastly worse heinousness on every topic is to functionally act as another soldier in the army of Drumpfkins. So stick it up your ass back where it came from.
https://arcdigital.media/why-are-internet-radicals-helping-putins-russia-6ff2978b172e
Glenn Greenwald, Max Blumenthal, and Jeremy Scahill are "useful idiots"? That's a lot funnier than your lame "Fanta Fascist" and "Drumpfkin" quips.
At this stage Blumenthal and Greenwald have definitely reached useful idiot status (or worse), despite what bright spots they may have in their previous work. Or whatever rare lucid good points they may still make.
TBH, I haven't paid much attention to Scahill. But publishing that piece on March 10 after the primary was effectively decided, rather than earlier when the facts and arguments could have made a difference, strongly suggests Scahill has also attained useful idiot status (or worse).
Just to be clear Andre – are you requiring that people simply not mention Biden's obvious flaws in case that contributes in some way to Trump's re-election? And if everyone goes obediently silent in this manner, will they be allowed to resume saying these things when Biden becomes President? Or will that also be disallowed as undermining Biden's presidency and contributing to the possible victory of whatever Republican monster follows Trump?
Just wondering, that if we voluntarily suspend truth-telling, under what circumstances we get it back.
I expect those that present themselves as some sort of journalists to occasionally pay some attention to the monstrosities committed by the incumbent in between bagging the much milder failings of the alternative (that does not hold power). Greenwald in particular has conspicuously failed to do this.
Sure, when anyone is in power, hold them to account. But I do expect to see a sense of proportion and consideration of the big picture before I'll consider someone to be worth paying attention to. The likes of Johnstone, Blumenthal, Mate and others apparently held in high regard by convergence moonbats fail badly on that score
Sure, because the only good independent journalism is when it sings from the same mainstream song sheet.
There is a properly nuanced position somewhere in all this. I thought in this interview with Marianne Williamson she got close to it. At one point saying something like, "I don't want to say anything that will further increase cynicism about the Democratic nominee" but at the same time she stressed the need for "radical truth-telling". I had previously thought she was a bit nutty, so was wrong on that.
It is the wonderful political strategy of – "Vote for sleepy joe or else.."
Close, Ainsley, close. It may not be wonderful, but It's the only likely strategy to avoid the 'or else'.
Unless a third party candidate emerges and starts polling over 30%, and splits all states to a three way fight, if Usians don't vote for Biden, that means they're okay with Trump for another four years. It's that simple.
And the "or else" is now pretty fucking obviously terrible.
The "or else" of working people will catch onto the con of the eliets and dogfucker politicans who support their oppression.
Ok.. thanks for wading in and showing the strategy in action.
What's your strategy?
Whinge about biden and hope he still wins? Or whinge about Biden in the hope dolt45 gets re-elected and things get even worse?
Just wondering, that if we voluntarily suspend truth-telling, under what circumstances we get it back.
Indeed, very well put. This 'lesser of two evils' race to the bottom has no exit lane. Trump in my view is a high functioning psychopath, but the reason why so many Americans feel they have no political choice can be summed up in two words … Clinton, Biden.
Many Americans seem to have voted against Clinton. She really was a terrible choice probably worse than the 2020 presumptive nominee.
The problem is that Biden will be so vulnerable during term that objectivity will at earliest be established after he is done. For some reason Andre seems against both pressure to move left on policy and an examination of weaknesses of the candidate both of which Trump will be attacking. Its hard to understand why he wants the democrats to run such a weak candidate. My best guess is that he is enjoying the politics as name calling.
They've got what they've got now.
Both sides are quibbling about their own, but it's just distraction.
It's Biden or Trump – there's no pretending anything else.
Their weaknesses and strengths are best considered at head-to-head time.
Or, yankistan suffers from collective psychpathy and sees nothing wrong with the liar Chump.
@ Andre, Do you realize that every time someone critiques Biden you come on here all frothing at the mouth and the first thing you say is that they are whining, every damn time…so OK we all get it, we all know you are a lap dog of the liberal status quo, so unless you have anything new or relevant to bring t the debate, why don't you go and yap yap yap somewhere else.
Who is the US Green Party Presidential candidate?
Don't think they've fixed on one yet
Jill Stein is still there , and Ralph Nader, there may even be some congress type person
Exactly.
The actual voter desire for an alternative to Trump or Biden is near-zero.
So much so that the hard left (and indeed the Libertarians) have yet to even propose one.
Oh ahhh right wing slurs "Useful idiots"
Why not throw in "Putin Puppet" or "reds under the bed" or some other horse shit anti left slur whilst your at it Andre.
Total class mate, total class.
That accusation is simply a disgusting smear that has been perpetuated by sick people who have an unworthy political agenda. The accusation is based upon a photo take out of context and when the truth is revealed shows just how despicable the accusation is.
If a grandfather cannot comfort his grandson at the funeral of his father it's a pretty sick world.
There are others Macro .I personally had not ever heard of the grandson thing and don't think it has been widely published .
The ones I refer to are young girls
If you make a statement such as that you either prove it or shut up.
“MUCH ADO ABOUT THAT FORUM: Vivi, the 10-year-old girl who asked Biden a question at Tuesday’s AFT forum, is “proud” of her interaction with him, according to a new statement from her teacher, even if social media seized on it as another “creepy Biden” moment.
— The teacher, Lucia Moreno, a Houston Federation of Teachers member, released a statement through her union after receiving several media calls on Wednesday about the moment. After Biden answered Vivi’s question, he told her, “I’ll bet you’re as bright as you are good-looking.” When she told him her favorite subject is journalism, he led her to the back to meet the press corps and stood behind her with his hands on her shoulders.
— Pictures of the moment made the rounds on Twitter, with some calling it “creepy.” Just before entering the race, Biden weathered allegations that his handsy style made some women uncomfortable.
— Moreno, who runs an after-school journalism program, gave this statement: “I took two of my students to the AFT Votes Town Hall with Vice President Biden yesterday to show them the power of journalism, activism and politics, and I was deeply proud that Vivi — who is the daughter of a Salvadoran immigrant — was able to ask the Vice President a question and interact with him directly. After the event when I spoke to her mother, she told me she would treasure the experience of her daughter meeting a politician who believes in family values and understands the experiences of immigrants. Today, when we returned to the classroom, Vivi was equally proud of the moment and excited to tell the entire school about the learning experience she had.”
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-education/2019/05/30/two-2020-contenders-argue-school-meals-should-be-free-for-all-students-441900
Well said, Macro. The death of Beau Biden was well documented at the time. His brother can be seen comforting the boy Robert earlier in the video. Only very sick minds would think of using a still photo in such a way.
Hamish Price comes to my mind.
Yes it seems we have just as sick smear mongering here as overseas. The misuse of a photo of Jacinda and Olivia Madgwick is a very sad example.
https://www.vox.com/2019/6/13/18663399/joe-biden-10-year-old-hyde-women
https://twitter.com/i/events/930120742422716416?lang=en
The guy's a creep
Hooton confirmed on the payroll: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12337682
The man's gotta live to the lifestyle he's accustomed to, and after all, prostitution is legal – in fact it's almost become fashionable among those that don't have to rely on it.
(See your 8 below – case in point)
Super rich guy Tom Sturgess makes donation of $100k to eco-sanctuary, headline news. What wonderful generosity etc.
Tom Sturgess wealth according to NBR rich list 2014: $280m (donation = 0.04% of that, $1 for every $2500 he has)
Median net wealth of NZers: $340k. Equivalent donation = $122
Instead of handing all the power to the rich people, tax them and fund things that we all support with public spending.
Wealth tax!
To be fair that's not the only contribution Sturgess makes
He runs a very generous community fund and has helped out local not for profit organizations heaps
He runs his farms well,treats his workers well,stayed away from the easy profits of dairy and bought up businesses that are all about production and jobs
He doesn't strip and sack
He,s Rich ok but he hasn't cut and run
Been a citizen for over 20 years
The eco sanctuary is the better for his input
Time to collect on the pork-barrelling: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300029052/election-decider-shane-jones-confirmed-as-nz-firsts-northland-candidate
More groveling towards the bludgers this morning, from the usual suspects RNZ National, Sunday 7 June 2020, 9:48 a.m.
JIM MORA: Are the people of Los Angeles still charmed by Harry and Meghan?
RUSSELL MYERS: [speaking slowly and deliberately to convey gravitas] I think L.A. is charmed by Harry and Meghan… [skip several minutes of blather]…. I think they've played an absolute BLINDER during the coronavirus crisis.
JIM MORA: All right, and finally Prince Andrew. Gone, and never coming back, Russell?
RUSSELL MYERS: I don't think there's any way back for Andrew, and probably that's a good thing overall. ….
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/dont-mention-hookers-or-cocaine.html
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/05/murdering-rich-bastard-condemned-around.html
Jim Mora stays at the shallow end of the pool.
The shallow, nasty end of the pool, where the reptiles gather.
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/principled-broadcasters-cogitate-about.html
A good read on the really uncomfortable relationship between the broader union movement and police unions.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-labor-movement-faces-a-reckoning-over-police-unions_n_5eda9958c5b640424ef70cd2
The Unions have been part of the Republican alliance for some time now. The Democrats abandoned their class interests in favour of identity politics. Most union members are in highly diverse ethnically and the movement as a whole voted with their feet.
As for the Police Unions, maybe we need to understand these are ordinary working class people doing a tough, shitty and essential job.
Yet even such reactionary organisations such as the Charles Koch Institute finds that practices such as the militarisation of police are really unhelpful for police doing the job the community expects from them and disengages the police from the community.
https://www.charleskochinstitute.org/issue-areas/criminal-justice-policing-reform/militarization-of-police/
What about the Second Ammendment militarisation of the population? A nation that permits open carry ensures a literal arms race between the population and the police.
Yet if the US can avoid burning down the White House in the next week or so, I'm very hopeful for their long term prospects.
Race is of course one element of this event; but it's not the only one. The destruction of good US manufacturing jobs is directly responsible for the deprivation and alienation of minority working class. The good news is that these jobs are going to be re-shored from China over the next few years.
The US will trend very successfully toward an autarky. No matter how hard it tries to fuck it up, it has all the regional security and resources necessary, combined with it's uniquely benign and productive geography. If these protests succeed in triggering serious political reform they will have been entirely justified.
Even before the pandemic, and well before the George Floyd horror, Andrew Yang was saying that vast numbers of ordinary Americans no longer believe their political system serves their needs. The pandemic has of course only served to increase inequality, already at record highs.
It's notable which protests drew the militarised response: it was the unarmed protests with large proportions of people of colour. When the almost exclusively white gun nutters showed up with their weapons they got the softly softly kid gloves response. That difference will have been well noted.
What is also noted is that the left whole-heartedly approves of strong military responses to white protesters, while silently standing by on the looting and violence enabled under the cover the broader, mostly peaceful, BLM protests.
Let's be clear on what we agree on: George Floyd's death … fucked up; protest bad policing and economic insecurity … fine. Looting, arson and beating up shopkeepers protecting their livelihoods … fucked up. 95% of everyone left and right, lines up to tick these boxes.
Unless of course your real goal is to 'burn it all down'. In which case a full metal jacket military response is the only option.
No argument about what's fucked up. But take a good look at who's falsely conflating the peaceful unarmed protests with the looting and arson perpetrated by unrelated opportunists. And what the political motive for that false conflating might be.
Neither of those things is noted. Where'd you summon that up from?
Bizarre 1st para @10.1.1.1.1.1 – RL trying to 'fit' reality to his world view.
So sly you could pin a tail on it and call it a Dennis.
[Two birds with one stone, this time! Well done! You still haven’t learned that your ‘witty’ one-liners are nothing but flaming insults and putdowns of other commenters. I guess we’ll just have to up the dose. Banned for one week. At this rate, you’ll be gone for a long time soon, unless you change your behaviour – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 4:51 PM.
It'll be a hard job, if it can be done at all in these increasingly stressful times. UK writer and TV producer G F Newman has more than once aired the notion that criminals and police often come from similar backgrounds, have similar mentalities, and that it can simply be chance – ill or otherwise – that decides which side of the fence they end up on. He also reckons 90% of police are corrupt in greater or lesser degree. Very likely the situation is little different in the US.
Clement Blair Peach (25 March 1946 – 24 April 1979) was a New Zealand teacher who died after an anti-racism demonstration in Southall, Middlesex, England
As far as I can find within our lifetime,We in NZ have been so fortunate that protesting has not led to the highest price to be paid,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Blair_Peach#:~:text=Clement%20Blair%20Peach%20(25%20March,in%20Southall%2C%20Middlesex%2C%20England.
Bit embarrassing, but I had never heard of him.
That is quite atrocious.
In that wiki article, there is link to a quite good tribute song to him from 1980.
That tune is better than quite good my friend, it is a serious classic cut from a pivotal protest record…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forces_of_Victory
Bit embarrassing, but I had never heard of him.
???!!??![sad sad](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/sad_smile.png)
Have you ever considered a job at RNZ National?
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/more-evidence-of-jesse-mulligans.html
Link-spamming when not in the context of the comment thread. We have advertisers who pay to hire our space to pay for the servers. Link-spammer do not contribute, so why should we allow you to advertise here? You can link to your own site provided it isn’t excessive, explains why you think it should be read (so people can decide not to go there without clicking into it), is short, and you either do it in OpenMike or within the context of the post or surrounding comments.
https://thestandard.org.nz/policy/#banning
Four links today. No or insufficient explanation provided. Becoming tedious, again 🙁
Sorry about that. Bit more self-discipline needed in Chez Breen, methinks.
N.B. No hyperlink in this post.![laugh laugh](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/teeth_smile.png)
Ta
You’re a quick learner, Mr Breen!
The unresonable ineffectiveness of mathematics in social science.
Hundreds of researchers attempted to predict six life outcomes, such as a child’s grade point average and whether a family would be evicted from their home. These researchers used machine-learning methods optimized for prediction, and they drew on a vast dataset that was painstakingly collected by social scientists over 15 y. However, no one made very accurate predictions. For policymakers considering using predictive models in settings such as criminal justice and child-protective services, these results raise a number of concerns. Additionally, researchers must reconcile the idea that they understand life trajectories with the fact that none of the predictions were very accurate.
https://www.pnas.org/content/117/15/8398
The problem with diophantine sets.
Great to hear we are still currently more than fractals and algorhythms.
We do it better here.
https://dunedinstudy.otago.ac.nz/publications
… algorhythms … is that music composed by an AI?
Sorry. I'll leave now.
Very interesting and not all too surprising IMHO.
https://data.govt.nz/use-data/analyse-data/government-algorithm-transparency-and-accountability/draft-algorithm-charter/
I assume this has stalled somewhat due to the pandemic.
Is the mink coat a source of Covid-19?
Just heard on AJ TV that a mink farm in the Netherlands has transmission from mink animals to humans. China imports a lot of mink fur from the Netherlands.
Unlikely via fur IMO.
Fur is generally tanned & I doubt virus would survive that (given that much less harsh plain old soap & water works).
How did the minks get the virus? From Batman?
5G
Of course, the missing link. Duh!!
AJ TV did not say how the minks got the virus.
And unlikely from Batman.
As for the Duh see what happens.
From Ozzy Osbourne? Has he been touring the Netherlands in the last year?
Fortunately the swedish navy can track the minks.
https://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/12/world/sweden-says-those-russian-subs-were-minks.html
I’ve always suspected there was a Russian connection that would surface sooner or later.
The trust has gone in the USA between the police and the Afro American community. Until trust is restored the marches will continue. It is obvious why there is no trust as police officers are breaking the law.
I feel that the numbers participating in the marches would be higher were there no Covid-19. It is good to see a representation of cultures. I was very impressed with what Rev Sharpton said at Floyd's funeral.
It's 2020. Of course a river had to run red like blood.
https://twitter.com/EdClowes/status/1268809489454706688
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1268809489454706688.html
https://www.space.com/oil-spill-arctic-circle-satellite-photos.html
@ Observer Tokoroa:
I did see the slight name change and thought it was a typo.
I don’t know what happened but your last couple of comments came through unchanged so I suspect it happened at your (the client) end.
Let’s wait and see what happens when your ban ends, thanks.
1601
How to bunker
But he only went two and a half times. I'm still trying to work out how you can half go someplace . Did he put a foot inside the bunker and a foot outside and therefore he was half in and half out?
I see this tune is getting a lot of downloads in the states over the past week or so….still some of the smoothest rappers around IMO.well apart from Chuck D maybe?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7-TTWgiYL4
Given Dr Dre and Ice T now have a combined worth of a billion dollars and live in mansions no where near anywhere with dodgy cops, the song has kind of lost it's impact for me personally.
So are you saying that anything one does artistically should be judged on the actions taken though out the rest of their lives?…I personally think that is a very naive and unrealistic position to take,
No it is still a good song.
I just think they would look a bit silly if they tried to do it live again.
Huh? Dre & Cube are still black.
And very privileged
For Afro Americans sure they got wealth. But they still get pulled over and deal with the same shit by police, like all the other Afro Americans. I'd suggest you talk to some wealthy or middle class Afro Americans Chris T, because you just talking shit at the moment. Because in American one thing money don't buy you if your Afro American, is a pass on the shit you get from the police.
Unlike you not to be impressed by wealth. They're Wealth Creators Driving the Market Economy ennathaday.
I have never been impressed by wealth.
But thanks for inventing things
Sure you haven't.
All you have to do is quote me doing it or admit you are talking shit.
It can't be that hard if you are not talking shit.
I'm a plant-guy. This guy's a plant-guy.
https://www.facebook.com/CaliforniaNativePlantSociety/videos/289482348749147/
Really good to watch
good guy in a field of healing echinacea
Do newspapers just get to make shit up ?
Apparently the Skripals are in NZ.
"The report cites a senior UK government source who said the Skripals had been given new identities and support to start a new life."
So these people who were facing such a diabolical existential threat from the Russians, they couldn't be interviewed to describe what happened to them or where they were in those missing morning hours in March 2018 are now outed as being in NZ
If we are to believe this , and frankly I find it difficult, who's providing the extreme security they'd need
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300029359/exrussian-spy-sergei-skripal-and-daughter-yulia-start-over-in-nz-after-poisonings–report
NZ is seen as some mythical place at the bottom of the world where anyone can disappear
In actual fact we're all pretty connected and blab like anything so its the last place to come and disappear.
francesca![yes yes](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/thumbs_up.png)
Not planning to disappear, in my view; perhaps "hidden in plain sight"![smiley smiley](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png)
They’ll have to have full on elocution lessons!
And what about Sergei’s special buckwheat.
Gonna grow it for him Robert?
If this is correct and it may well be then the british government is being it's usual arrogant self. IIRC there was a proposal made quite some time back – where the British were going to resettle here under a new name, an individual who had been convicted as a minor of a crime but the outcry stopped it. So nothing new I'm afraid.
Is it just me or has Ardern's promised 20% ministerial pay cut seemed to have disappeared under the radar?
Unless I have missed a story.
Inform yoursel'.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/personal-finance/news/article.cfm?c_id=12&objectid=12332277
I googled “ministerial cuts NZ” and got this.
Thanks!
The Bill has been passed.
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/bills-and-laws/bills-proposed-laws/document/BILL_97813/remuneration-authority-covid-19-measures-amendment-bill
AFAIK, the determinations are not in place yet but cannot be changed after 30 June 2020.
Do you know how to do a search yourself?
The latest focus of the moment, the race riots in America. We getting het up about it.
And the unwillingness of the middle class politically interested to address our vicious war on Maori since 1984 (yes, I know the benefit cuts came in 1991). You all leave it on the floor, unprepared to pick it up.
Disgusting.
Arms Race?
800,000 mostly urban Police
80 MILLION gun nut rednecks mostly in the rural food producing regions
That race was lost long ago in the US