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.
It's 2020. Of course a river had to run red like blood.
An environmental catastrophe is unfolding right now in Russia, where 20,000 tons of oil has spilled in to the Arctic, turning rivers red and poisoning the land.
It is one of the worst spills in history.
"We've never seen anything like this in the Arctic."
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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TUESDAY JULY 14Yorkshire Airport (Prime, 7.30pm). Bloomin’ ’eck, behind the scenes at Leeds Bradford Airport. Apparently, there is plenty of “northern charm”, although reaction in the UK ranged from “brilliant” to “patronising”. It is narrated by Hugh Dennis, whose middle name might be “Arch”.WEDNESDAY JULY 15Queen: Live at Wembley (Prime, ...
Simon Bridges must be the unluckiest person in New Zealand politics. When he was elected as leader of the National party, he also became Leader of the Opposition – a position, he was entitled to assume, that would require him to “oppose”. But the government he set out to oppose ...
Check out Speak Up For Women’s new podcasts: Episode 3 In this episode Speak Up For Women spokeswoman Ani O’Brien (@aniobrien) is joined by Beth Johnson (@beth_nosnhoj) to discuss the proposal from Statistics NZ to change standard data collection policy to “gender by default” rather than sex. They discuss why the ...
During a recent public consultation on the future of Archives New Zealand, a key report was suppressed. The Ombudsman has ruled that the refusal was unjustified. Sadly, the consultation was over by the time of the the decision has been made. However, the law on the use of the ...
National MP - Michael WoodhouseUnbelievable! Michelle Boag also sent National’s Michael Woodhouse confidential emails about COVD-19 patients, and he continued to publicly attack the Government over these very same breaches of privacy.This is the biggest political self-own since the Act Party’s David Garrett admitted in Parliament that he used a ...
Transcript: National Party policy announcement on roads – 8 July, 2020 Muller: Good afternoon everybody. Thank you for coming. Reporter 1: Is Hamish Walker a racist? Muller: Hang on… you haven’t even said good afternoon to me yet. Reporter 1: Good afternoon Mr Muller. Is Hamish Walker a racist? ...
Back in April, I wrote about trials in Iran of a fixed-dose combination of two existing anti-viral drugs used to treat hepatitis C – sofosbuvir and daclatasvir – that could point to an effective treatment for Covid-19 symptoms.At the time, data from those trials was not available outside the hospitals ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Anja Mizdrak, Dr Jennifer Summers, Prof Michael BakerThe pandemic-related lockdown is possibly the most dramatic public health intervention in NZ history. It helped achieve the elimination of community transmission of the COVID-19 virus in NZ. But it was also associated with 548 fewer total ...
Reprehensible: There is much that could be said about Michael Woodhouse, but what would be the point? Any man who willingly involves himself in a situation as reprehensible as the one depicted in the above photograph has already vouchsafed all that decent people need to know about his character. That there have ...
As the debate over assisted dying rages in the run-up to the referendum at the election on September 19, a persistent problem continues to dog the discussions. That is to say, a prominent spokesperson for a particular group takes a strong public stand in opposition without acknowledging that they don’t ...
No Other Suspects? The mainstream news media was willing to print and broadcast harsh Opposition criticism of the Government, even though they knew that the source of the leaked information was a National Party MP. Even though, by pushing the story up towards the top of every news bulletin they were ...
Sacrificial Lamb: If the stories about Mr Taogaga and the unauthorised release of confidential medical data had been deliberately orchestrated by Labour’s political opponents, their deflection of the news media’s attention away from the Prime Minister’s address to the Labour Party Congress could hardly have been more successful.THE LABOUR PARTY ...
The East is Rent: The consequences of unleashing the young against the old; of elevating ideological rigor above reasoned debate; and of setting the present against the past; was a decade of unprecedented social stress and tension, interspersed with explosions of murderous mob violence and tragic material destruction. More than ...
The Green Party of Aotearoa-New Zealand could go from helping Jacinda Ardern run the country, to being turfed out of Parliament altogether in ten weeks. And that could see the end of Labour in government. Without them, Labour would likely have to do what no party has done since the ...
Remember the government's tyrannicalTerrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill? Remember how it was rammed through Parliament, with a four-day submission period and a select committee process that was a democratic fraud? At the time, the government gave the impression that there was an urgent need for this legislation, that a ...
Attack journalist - Tova O'BrienWe all know that much of the mainstream media in New Zealand is terribly biased. They are in effect another branch of the National Party, and can often be even more prejudiced than their right wing bosses.In fact many right wing politicians moonlight as journalists and ...
Former National Party President - Michelle BoagAfter the complete botch job Hamish Walker made of leaking the private details of COVID-19 patients to the mainstream media last week, the best-case scenario for Todd Muller and the National Party would be if the news cycle went quiet about their involvement.But unfortunately ...
One of the challenges of working on illegal wildlife markets, is you don’t really have scope to talk about your research into illegal wildlife markets. There is some stuff though that willbe coming out on Asiatic black bears in China, and before Covid19, I was delving more into rhinos. Which ...
Some are surprised at this sudden brain implosion on the part of both Michelle Boag, former National Party President, and the National Party in general, in exposing the private, confidential details of COVID patients. Others…? Let’s be blunt: not so much. Too many of that Party have long operated with ...
Michelle Boag - Former National Party PresidentWhen Todd Muller decided not to discipline Hamish Walker for his horribly racist press release last week, you had to wonder if his lack of proper leadership had something to do with a shared belief system? After all, the whiteness of the blue “team” ...
On Twitter today, lawyer Felix Geiringer asked a good question: why are MP's exempt from the Privacy Act? The Act imposes its obligations on "agencies", and s8 of the 2020 Act states that this term does not include... a member of Parliament in their official capacity The 1993 Act, ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzWhat was the climate and sea level like at times ...
So now we know, beyond all doubt. The National party has no interest in joining the “team of five million” in our fight against the pandemic but its priority is to take every opportunity it can to damage the government. The cynicism is breathtaking. It was prepared to leak the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters The massive dust storm that formed over the Sahara Desert in mid-June invaded the southeastern U.S. June 25-28, bringing dangerous levels of air pollution, low visibility, and colorful sunsets. The air pollution event over parts of Texas and the Gulf ...
In 1987, as a British Labour MP, I was elected to the Shadow Cabinet by my colleagues and was asked by the party leader to direct Labour’s campaign in the general election of that year. The election was to take place at the height of Mrs Thatcher’s dominance and we ...
National MP Nicola WillisHousing, which I would argue is a fundamental human right, has long been a problem in New Zealand. Not only do we have some of the most overpriced houses in the entire world, much of the housing stock is substandard and therefore affects not just people’s health ...
If the government has not lined up behind a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum the way some reformers would have liked, one entirely laudable thing it did do was commission some science around the public's choice.That science landed today, in the form of the report from an expert ...
Associate Professor Sara WaltonAt the heart of the discussion on opening up our borders is the dichotomy of health and the economy – both of which are actually intertwined, like many things with our economy, as this epidemic has shown.If we think about our country as a system, ...
This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Josh Gabbatiss This year will see the largest ever drop globally in both investment and consumer spending on energy as the coronavirus pandemic hits every major sector, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The crisis is accelerating the shutdown of older fossil-fuelled ...
A short opinion piece – Friday 26th June 2020 Whilst our Government has treated many financial victims of the current Covid-19 virus with appropriate generosity, the same cannot be said for those of the two earlier “epidemics” in NZ. The “Covid-84” virus (also called “Rogernomics”) spread systemic greed, with the ...
Everyone deserves a a decent life. We know this is possible with a fairer approach to income support and tax Read the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Poverty Action Plan here ...
After a long break, the government is back inserting secrecy clauses in legislation. This time its the Overseas Investment Amendment Bill (No 3), which in its clause allowing Ministers to exempt purchasers of farm land from the usual rules also allows them to exempt an exemption from the publication requirement: ...
Over the past two years the government has repeatedly delayed a scheme to put cameras on boats to monitor Mew Zealand's pervasively criminal fishing industry. But it turns out that the industry actually wants cameras: Three of the country's biggest seafood companies have broken ranks with the rest of the ...
Louise Delany (public health lawyer)Health and emergency laws have played a critical role in this country’s successful elimination of community transmission of the COVID-19 pandemic. This blog details key aspects of the legislation and comments on issues around testing, payments by incoming travellers for quarantine costs, and mask use. ...
I like Andrew Curry’s succinct and insightful futures blog The Next Wave. His most recent post is about social change. In particular, the decadal-long periods usually required for changes in values. He highlights a 2016 paper by Inglehart and Norris, who examined whether economic insecurity or a “cultural backlash” ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Stop making sense: why it's time to get emotional about climate changeThe science has been settled to the highest degree, so now ...
MONDAY JULY 6Washington (History, Sky 073, 7.30pm). The brilliant Doris Kearns Goodwin is the executive producer of this six-part series about America's first president. It combines interviews with live action and is narrated by Jeff Daniels. It's engaging, said Salon.TUESDAY JULY 7The ABC Murders (Prime, 8.30pm). Sarah Phelps has done incredible things with ...
I think we can all agree that the mainstream media in New Zealand has a very different set of rules for the right wing compared to the left. While Labour and Green Party politicians don’t seem to be able to fart without it becoming a sackable offence, National and Act ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, June 28 through Sat, July 4, 2020Editor's Choice'2040': A funny, entertaining, upbeat climate documentaryA timely Australian documentary takes a 'solutions' approach, with the filmmaker inspired by visions of ...
Racist National MP Hamish WalkerEven before Todd Muller's coup ousted Simon Bridges by a single vote, it was patently obvious that the National Party promotes and stands for white privilege. In fact they’ve always worked to ensure the discriminatory status quo in New Zealand doesn’t change.So it’s no surprise that ...
Dave HeatleyZero community transmission. Just a handful of active cases, all in quarantine. New Zealand is in an attractive situation, at least compared to much of the world. The situation could be robust and enduring – or it might be fragile, just one border incursion away from a “second ...
Is the consequence of the Simpson Report proposals for restructuring the health system poorer accountability to people? When in doubt, centralise‘ has been a persistent theme in New Zealand public policy throughout our history. The current government is no exception. Here are some examples. - The regional polytechs have been ...
I wrote earlier in the week about the Scientology front organisations Drug Free World and Drug Free Ambassadors and their quite prominent role in anti-cannabis reform "coalition" assembled by Family First and a newloca branch of the American prohibitionist organisation SAM.It turns out Family First aren't the only ones helping ...
Nik GreenMuch of the public debate about the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has focused on the extent to which government regulations have restricted personal and business activity.Oxford University Blavatnik School of Government Here in New Zealand, the question of when to change Alert Levels dominated the ...
James Higham, University of OtagoUnprecedented border closures and the domestic lockdown have paralysed New Zealand’s $40.9 billion a year tourism industry. In the process, the vulnerability of the sector to external shocks and the tenuous nature of tourism employment have been exposed. While New Zealand’s handling of the pandemic ...
Raising The Bar: Would that the Prime Minister and her colleagues would listen as intently to what the people – as opposed to the power elites – are saying as the Greens. Were they so disposed, the popular clamour for a transformational post-Covid reset would be loud in their ears. ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzDo you think the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown will slow or ...
A bit like a letter home. I have now been full-time at the University of Melbourne since 2019. Before that, I was 20 years at the University of Otago, Wellington. Indeed, I set up this very Public Health Expert Blog with Nick Wilson ten years ago. Now I am your ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections House Democrats have released a comprehensive report showing how – if they control the White House and both the Senate and the House of Representatives – they might move forward on climate change. Their “Climate Crisis Action Plan,” released June 30 by the ...
A ballot for three Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Electoral (Integrity Repeal) Amendment Bill (David Carter) Harmful Digital Communications (Unauthorised Posting of Intimate Visual Recording) Amendment Bill (Louisa wall) Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Bill (Judith ...
Not Ready: Todd Muller’s lack-lustre and self-contradictory performances offer conclusive proof that a political leader cannot be managed into competence. National’s new boss has Janet Wilson handling his media and Matthew Hooton writing his speeches. Both are highly professional political and public relations specialists, and Muller is lucky to have ...
Unfortunately, due to a medical emergency, I have landed in hospital so am not able to do a current update on the NZ blog statistics. Let’s hope I can get back to this in good time. ...
It started as a family story, about a step-father who went out one night to break into an embassy in Wadestown, Wellington. John Daniell wanted to understand what his family had been part of when his mother and then step-father work for New Zealand’s Security Intelligence. He wanted to know ...
The Greens have shaken up the election campaign with the announcement of their radical poverty and action plan to reform welfare provision and introduce a new wealth tax for millionaires. It’s a big-thinking, controversial policy and has generated a lot of disagreement over how radical it is, whether it could ...
My house is currently supplied electricity by Meridian. As soon as I can change I will because Meridian spilled water to hike electricity prices. They got consumers to spend an extra $80 million on power unnecessarily. Clever them. The Electricity Authority has called their behaviour an “undesirable trading situation”, or ...
When Jacinda Ardern unexpectedly became the Labour Party leader shortly before the 2017 general election, she promised to lead a government of transformation. After nearly three years occupying the Treasury benches, health professionals working in public hospitals have been keenly waiting for transformational progress, including in the capacity and quality ...
Last night, One News ran a follow-up story to its Colmar Brunton poll results on the cannabis referendum, headed here as Government accuses big American anti-cannabis group of interfering in NZ politics.In truth it wasn't just the government: Justice minister Andrew Little, National's Shane Reti and the Greens' Chloe Swarbrick ...
Mark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industry New Zealand First is supporting calls by hunters and the New Zealand Tahr Foundation (NZTF) to halt a large scale cull of Himalayan Tahr by the Department of Conservation in National Parks. The calls are supported by a 40,000 strong petition and the ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First leader Winston Peters today scoffed at suggestions that a team of six political operatives have been dispatched to New Zealand to assist his campaign. ‘As President Ronald Reagan once said, ‘there they go again.’ ‘The clickbait journos can’t ...
New Zealand First is pleased to announce Jenny Marcroft as the party’s election 2020 candidate for the Auckland Central electorate. Jenny spent years working in Auckland Central, having spent a vast proportion of her broadcasting career there. She says she, "knows the place and knows the people." Ms Marcroft says ...
New Zealanders deserve healthy rivers and lakes that are safe to swim in - but they have been getting worse for decades. That's why, with our latest announcement, we're investing in projects that will help clean up our rivers and lakes and restore them to health, within a generation. ...
This week we moved into the second half of 2020 - and our Government delivered another week of big changes and major progress for New Zealanders. Read below for a wrap of the key things moments from the week - from extending paid parental leave, to making major investments in ...
The Green Party has opposed the COVID-19 Recovery Fast-track Consenting Bill which shortcuts normal consenting processes under the Resource Management Act (RMA), reduces public participation and narrows environmental considerations. ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister of Regional Economic Development A regional freight hub for the lower North Island will be built just northeast of Palmerston North, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The Government is investing $40 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to designate and buy land and design ...
Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson is calling for the introduction of a Guaranteed Minimum Income to lift hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty and prevent more families entering into further debt with the Ministry of Social Development. ...
There has been renewed focus on New Zealand First acting as a handbrake on the Government after our decision to not support Auckland light rail. We are a handbrake for bad ideas, that istrue, but our track record since 2017 has seen New Zealand First constructively also serve as an ...
Mark Patterson MP, New Zealand First List MP New Zealand First’s Fair Residency for Superannuation Bill passed its First Reading in Parliament today. The Bill makes a significant change to NZ Super by raising the minimum residency requirement from 10 to 20 years, after age 20. “Currently, a migrant of ...
Darroch Ball MP, Spokesperson for Law and Order A New Zealand First member’s bill in the name of Darroch Ball introducing a six-month minimum prison sentence for assaults on first responders has passed its second reading in Parliament. The new offence of "injuring a first responder or corrections officer with ...
Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Deputy Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First welcomes the launch of the new Criminal Cases Review Commission, gifted with the name from Waikato-Tainui - Te Kāhui Tātari Ture, announced in Hamilton today by Justice Minister Andrew Little. “New Zealand First has long believed in and ...
The Green Party is celebrating over $800m in new funding for green projects, which will get people into jobs while solving New Zealand’s long-term challenges. ...
Mark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industries New Zealand First is appalled that Meridian seems to have been unnecessarily spilling water from its dams to drive up its profits."While New Zealanders have been coming together in some of our darkest hours, we don’t expect power gentailers to waste water and ...
We wrapped up the first half of 2020 with a busy month, taking additional steps to support New Zealanders as we continue with our economic recovery. We rolled out targeted packages to support key industries like tourism and construction, helped create jobs in the environmental and agriculture sectors, and set ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Infrastructure Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has welcomed the appointment of Maurice Davis and his deep infrastructure and construction experience to the board of the Infrastructure Commission. Mr Davis (Ngāti Maniapoto), is the seventh and final appointment to the board led by former Reserve Bank Governor ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand’s click bait journalism is taking a turn for the worse, with yet another example of sensationalist, wilful-misrepresentation of the facts. “New Zealand First has worked constructively with its Coalition partner on hundreds of pieces of legislation and policy, and ...
The Green Party is today unveiling its Poverty Action Plan, which includes a Guaranteed Minimum Income to ensure people have enough to live with dignity. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Rotorua Museum redevelopment and Whakarewarewa and Tokorangi Forest projects will be accelerated thanks to a $2.09 million Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) boost, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher ...
This week, we rolled out the next steps of our recovery plan, with new infrastructure investment, extra support for tourism operators, and a new programme to get Kiwis into agriculture careers. The global economic consequences of COVID-19 will continue to be a challenge, but we have a detailed plan to ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First welcomes the passage of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Bill through its final reading in Parliament today fulfilling a coalition agreement commitment. “This is an important step in saving the lives of New Zealanders and delivers a key coalition commitment ...
Whakatāne has been given a $2.5 million boost to speed up previously funded projects and create more than 450 jobs in the next decade. Of those, the equivalent of 160 full-time jobs could be delivered in the next six weeks. Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is in town to make ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $2.5 million to accelerate three infrastructure projects in Whakatāne, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “This package is about ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones is throwing his weight behind a bid by the Auckland Council to fast-track the more than doubling of the city's water allowance from the Waikato River. And he's coming out strongly against anyone who plans on getting in the way of this campaign. "It is my ...
The Green Party is thrilled to see changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that mean consents for large projects can be declined if they will have significant climate change implications that are inconsistent with the Zero Carbon Act and Aotearoa New Zealand’s Paris Agreement obligations. ...
Hon Ron Mark, Minister of Defence The Royal New Zealand Navy’s new ship, Aotearoa, set sail for New Zealand on 10 June from the Republic of Korea, and is due to arrive in Auckland tomorrow, announced Minister of Defence Ron Mark. “Aotearoa is the Royal New Zealand Navy’s new fleet ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Racing Racing Minister Winston Peters has today welcomed the Racing Industry Bill passing its third reading, creating the legislative framework for revitalising the racing industry while limiting the need for future government intervention. “For too long our domestic racing industry has ...
The Green Party has today put forward an amendment to the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill to ensure all people in prisons can vote in general elections. ...
The Green Party welcomes the decision to not proceed with Public Public Investment (PPI) delivery of Auckland’s light rail project and to instead run the process through the public service. ...
Hon Ron Mark, New Zealand First List MP based in the Wairarapa New Zealand First List MP Hon Ron Mark welcomes the announcement of Provincial Growth Funding investment of $1.4 million to help secure the Wairarapa’s water supply. The funding boost will allow the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC), and ...
New Zealand First list MP Mark Patterson has been selected to represent the party in the newly formed Taieri electorate at the upcoming election. Mr Patterson, his wife Jude and two daughters farm sheep and beef at Lawrence and Waitahuna. He previously stood in the Clutha-Southland electorate however boundary changes ...
Hon Shane Jones, Associate Minister for State Owned Enterprises A new ‘super depot’ to be built for NZ Post in Wellington will create around 350 jobs during construction, Associate Minister for State Owned Enterprises Shane Jones says. Shane Jones today attended a ground-breaking and blessing ceremony for the parcel-processing depot ...
Our strong economic management prior to COVID-19 - with surpluses, low debt and near-record-low unemployment - put us in a good position to weather the impact of the virus and start to rebuild our economy much earlier than many other countries.Now we're putting our plan to recover and rebuild ...
Darroch Ball MP, New Zealand First Spokesperson for Law and Order Recently released Police fleeing driver statistics have shown yet another increase in incidents with another record-high in the latest quarter. “This new quarterly record-high is the latest in a string of record-high numbers since 2014. The data shows incidents ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio is pleased to announce the inaugural launch of Kiribati Language Week as part of the 2020 Pacific language Weeks programme. “I am so pleased that this year we are able to provide resourcing support to the Kiribati community in Aotearoa which will ...
Wildlife institutions affected by a loss of visitor revenue during the COVID-19 lockdown are set to receive government support with nearly $15 million of funding available announced Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage. “Eco-sanctuaries, zoos, aquariums, wildlife parks, and wildlife rescue, hospital and rehabilitation facilities provide crucial support for the recovery ...
The Government is expanding and accelerating frontline mental health and wellbeing services at tertiary education institutes (TEI) to help students manage ongoing stresses related to COVID-19. “The lockdown has been hugely disruptive for students. Many of them have had to relocate and move to online learning, isolating them from their ...
The Minister of Police says a major operation against the Mongrel Mob in Waikato will make a big dent in drug harm and violent offending linked to organised crime networks. “Senior leadership of the Waikato Mongrel Mob has been taken out as a result of Operation Kingsville, which resulted in ...
The Government is extending the border exception criteria to enable some offshore victims and support people of the Christchurch mosque attacks to attend the sentencing of the accused beginning on 24 August2020, says Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway. “We want to support our valued Muslim brothers and sisters who were directly ...
A project to support volunteer efforts to look after streams and rivers is getting a boost thanks to support from DOC’s Community Conservation Fund announced Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage today. “The government is backing efforts to look after waterways with $199,400 for the Mountains to Sea Conservation Trust from ...
Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter today announced that funding for the COVID-19 Community Fund for women and girls will be doubled, as the first successful funding applications for the initial $1million were revealed. “Women and girls across the country have suffered because of the effects of COVID-19, and I ...
The Government’s books were better than forecast with a higher GST take as the economy got moving again after lockdown, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Crown Accounts for the 11 months to the end of May indicate the year end results for tax revenue will be stronger than forecast. ...
A plan to revitalise New Zealand’s strong wool sector and set it on a new, more sustainable and profitable path was unveiled today by Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. The newly-released report - Vision and Action for New Zealand’s Wool Sector - was developed by the Wool Industry Project Action Group ...
Community efforts to create a Predator Free Whangārei will receive a $6 million boost, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage announced today. The new funding, through Government company Predator Free 2050 Ltd, will create around 12 jobs while enabling the complete removal of possums over ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced that the New Zealand Government is reviewing the settings of its relationship with Hong Kong. “China’s decision to pass a new national security law for Hong Kong has fundamentally changed the environment for international engagement there,” Mr Peters said. “New Zealand remains deeply ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced details of a multimillion-dollar investment in Whangārei for infrastructure projects that will help it recover from the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 200 jobs are expected to be created through the $26 million investment from the Government’s rejuvenation package ...
Following a second incident in which a person escaped from a managed isolation facility, security is being enhanced, including more police presence onsite, Minister Megan Woods said. “The actions of some individuals who choose to break the very clear rules to stay within the facilities means that more resourcing is ...
Waste reduction and recycling programmes in Kaipara are set to get a boost with Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage today announcing a $361,447 grant from the Ministry for the Environment’s Waste Minimisation Fund (WMF) Sustainable Kaipara. “The new funding will allow Sustainable Kaipara to partner with local schools, kura, community ...
The Government will support the Southland economy in the wake of multinational mining company Rio Tinto’s decision to follow through with its long signalled closure of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. “This day has unfortunately been on the cards for some time now, but nevertheless the final decision is a ...
New tools being developed to help boost Aotearoa’s Predator Free 2050 effort were unveiled today by Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage and Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau. A new rat poison, a camera with predator recognition software to detect and report predators, a new predator lure and a ...
The Coalition Government has approved the purchase of a fleet of Bushmaster vehicles to replace the New Zealand Army’s armoured Pinzgauers, Defence Minister Ron Mark has announced today. The new fleet of 43 Australian-designed and built Bushmaster NZ5.5 will provide better protection for personnel and improved carrying capacity. “The age ...
The Government’s three prevention frameworks to reduce family violence in Aotearoa were launched this week by Associate Minister for Social Development Poto Williams. The frameworks were developed in partnership with communities around New Zealand, and build on the work the Government has already begun with its new family violence prevention ...
The Government is pleased to confirm funding for improvements to radiology and surgical services at Hawke's Bay DHB, Health Minister Chris Hipkins says. "The Minister of Finance the Hon Grant Robertson and former Health Minister Dr David Clark approved funding for Hawke's Bay DHB’s redevelopment of their radiology facilities ...
• New funding for four beds at Napier’s Springhill Residential Addiction Centre • A new managed withdrawal home and community service, and peer support before and after residential care at Tairāwhiti DHB • A co-ordinated network of withdrawal management services throughout the South Island • Peer support in Rotorua and ...
Introduction, seafarers and POAL Good morning everyone, I am delighted to be online with you all today. Before I begin, I have to acknowledge that COVID-19 has disrupted the maritime sector on an unprecedented scale. The work of seafarers and the maritime industry is keeping many economies around the world ...
A $13 million investment from Government will create jobs and improve the resilience of the rail connection between Christchurch and the West Coast, Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones and Regional Economic Development Under-Secretary Fletcher Tabuteau say. The funding comes from the tagged contingency set aside in Budget 2020 for infrastructure projects ...
The Government is investing $761 million to assist local government upgrade under-pressure water services across the country, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced today. The announcement was made at the site of the water bore that was found to be the source of the fatal ...
Recognised Seasonal Employers and migrant seasonal workers stranded in New Zealand will be able to continue working and supporting themselves with more flexible hours and roles, says Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway. The time-limited visa changes are: Stranded RSE workers will be able to work part-time (a minimum of 15 hours ...
The Government is making immediate short-term changes to visa settings to support temporary migrants already onshore in New Zealand and their employers, while also ensuring New Zealanders needing work are prioritised, Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. We are: Extending temporary work visas due to expire by the end of 2020 ...
Professor Peter Skelton CNZM has been appointed as Chief Freshwater Commissioner and Alternate Environment Court Judge Craig James Thompson as Deputy Chief Freshwater Commissioner for the newly established Freshwater Planning Process (FPP). Environment Minister David Parker today also announced the appointment of Chief Environment Court Judge Laurie Newhook as the ...
Auckland Queen’s Counsel Neil Campbell has been appointed a Judge of the High Court, Attorney‑General David Parker announced today. Justice Campbell graduated with a BCom and LLB (Hons) from the University of Auckland in 1992. He spent two years with Bell Gully Buddle Weir in Auckland before travelling to the United ...
The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal to better enable the development and operation of commercial film and video facilities in Christchurch. The Proposal, developed by Regenerate Christchurch in response to a request from Christchurch City Council, asks that powers under section ...
The Government has launched a bold plan to boost primary sector export earnings by $44 billion over the next decade, while protecting the environment and growing jobs. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today released Fit for a Better World – Accelerating our Economic Potential, a 10-year roadmap to unlock greater value ...
A new approach to prevent family harm that encourages greater collaboration across government and community groups is being celebrated at the opening of a new facility in Auckland. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today opened the Multi-Disciplinary Family Harm Prevention Hub Te Taanga Manawa in Lambie Road in Manukau. The facility ...
The Government has released a major new report on the options for relocating the Port of Auckland’s freight operations while deferring any decision on the issue. “That decision needs to be informed by policy analysis that is still to be completed. As a result it will be up to a ...
The history of Rāpaki is being restored through the inclusion of te reo in thirteen official place names on Te Pātaka-o-Rākaihautū / Banks Peninsula and around Lyttelton Harbour/Whakaraupō, the Minister for Land Information, Eugenie Sage, announced today. “I am pleased to approve the proposals from Te Hapū o Ngāti ...
Bookings for seats on Air New Zealand flights into New Zealand will be managed in the short term to ensure the Government is able to safely place New Zealanders arriving home into a managed isolation or quarantine facility, says Housing Minister Megan Woods. “Last week Air Commodore Darryn Webb and I ...
Grant Robertson has today announced the first major release of funding from the $265 million Sport Recovery Package announced at Budget 2020. “Today we’re setting out how $80 million will be invested, with $54 million of that over the 2020/2021 financial year for organisations from community level through to elite ...
The Government is maintaining current levy rates for the next 2 years, as part of a set of changes to help ease the financial pressures of COVID-19 providing certainty for businesses and New Zealanders, ACC Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. “New Zealanders and businesses are facing unprecedented financial pressures as a ...
Small businesses are getting greater certainty about access to finance with an extension to the interest-free cashflow loan scheme to the end of the year. The Small Business Cashflow Loan Scheme has already been extended once, to 24 July. Revenue and Small Business Minister Stuart Nash says it will be ...
A package of 23 projects across the country will clean up waterways and deliver over 2000 jobs Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Environment Minister David Parker announced today. The $162 million dollar package will see 22 water clean-up projects put forward by local councils receiving $62 million and the Kaipara ...
Tena koutou katoa Nga tangata whenua o tenei rohe o Pōneke, tena koutou Nau mai, haere mai ki te hui a tau mo te roopu reipa Ko tatou! Ko to tatou mana! Ko to tatou kaupapa kei te kokiri whakamua Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena tatou katoa Welcome. I ...
The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $1.5 million to ensure QE Health in Rotorua can proceed with its world class health service and save 75 existing jobs, Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development, Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. The PGF funding announced today is in addition to the $8 million ...
A new programme, which sets a firm course for the Building and Construction sector to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, has been announced by the Minister for Building and Construction Jenny Salesa. “A significant amount of New Zealand’s carbon emissions come from the building and construction sector. If we’re serious ...
It’s one of the most commonly used weedkillers in the world, but pressure to phase out use of the herbicide glyphosate could force us to come up with alternatives quickly. Listen to the full episode of Two Cents Worth below. Subscribe to Two Cents' Worth for free on Apple ...
The Covid-19 crisis has exposed gaps in the funding of early education that we should be bold in responding to, writes Sue Cherrington of Victoria University of Wellington Early childhood education has been in the media a great deal over recent weeks, initially with positive but increasingly with negative news reports. ...
It’s an economic theory that advocates tout as a solution to governments’ debt crises, but critics warn is a recipe for hyperinflation. Either way, modern monetary theory is getting a lot more attention in the era of Covid-19.Two big economic ideas have captured the popular imagination during the Covid-19 pandemic: ...
For one hour a week the supermarket lights are dimmed and the music stops. And it’s a kind of triumph, writes Michelle Langstone.I thought there’d been a power cut. The lights were out at the entrance, so you arrived into a kind of gloom. There was no music, and no ...
It’s no secret that New Zealand’s Covid-19 response was one of the world’s most effective. But to get an idea of how eagerly parts of our economy have rebounded post lockdown, take a look at our electricity demand data.Despite an impending wave of unemployment and looming fiscal challenges down the ...
In the second in the Spnioff’s Last on the list series, Dave King explains what inspired him to stand for the Act Party in Manurewa. At 20th spot on the list, if David Seymour’s party can win around 16% of the party vote, King is parliament bound.It wasn’t that long ...
Basketball is growing massively in popularity around the country, led by thousands of youngsters picking up the game every day. To The Line looks at what it’s like for New Zealand high school kids with hoop dreams.If there’s been a narrative rumbling away in the sports pages, it’s that of ...
Unbelievable. A first-rank world leader picks a needless fight with blameless allies, thus imperiling their unity. But that’s General de Gaulle for you.Impressive work, even by his standards. In 1967, Canada was to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge (their Gallipoli – except that they ...
From RNZ Saturday Morning Described by a Guardian reviewer as “superb hate-reading”, writer and columnist Anand Giridharadas‘s latest book Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World investigates the hypocrisy of billionaire “do-gooders”. He questions how and why we have become reliant on the philanthropy of the super-rich ...
The Professional Hunting Guides Association is welcoming the High Court decision on DoC’s controversial tahr campaign. The High Court in Wellington was asked on Wednesday by the Tahr Foundation for a judicial review of DoC’s plan to kill thousands ...
With the 2020 general election nearly three months away, a new campaign is asking voters to vote in line with the future. Vote Climate 2020 aims to highlight the opportunity to build momentum behind climate change, ensuring climate justice is a key election ...
“ACT will target the gangs by hitting them where it hurts – their pockets,” according to ACT Leader David Seymour and Firearms Spokesperson Nicole McKee. “New Zealanders deserve to be safe and secure, but violent gangs are a scourge on our ...
Waffles don’t need to be sweet – these cheese and onion numbers make an excellent savoury breakfast with an egg, or an equally tasty dinner with leftover mince.It’s easy to default to sweet breakfasts without thinking. At least that’s the case in our household, as porridge or bircher muesli is ...
The government is revitalising the wool sector, splashing out on freshwater restoration projects, relieving student stress and showing kindness to Muslims by extending the border exception criteria. It is also increasing its support (in announcements from two separate Green Party Ministers) for women and for wildlife institutions. And it is ...
People have called it for it be pulled from the service, but the escapist fantasy of 365 Days is nothing new, writes Alie Benge.To every generation, a bullish alpha-male psychopath is born, and is for someone reason considered a romantic hero. We’ve been through a lot this year, and instead ...
As Aucklanders reluctantly adjust to the inconvenient practice of water conservation, a drought-savvy Northlander shares the tips and temperament needed to get through the dry times.Auckland’s water shortage was recently reported on The Project, and viewers were earnestly exhorted to fill their dishwashers completely before turning them on. My husband ...
Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk A request by the Philippines’ biggest radio and TV network for a new franchise has been rejected by a congressional committee in a vote that will go down in history as a flagrant violation of the country’s constitution, says Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The Paris-based media ...
Hamish Walker's privacy leak debacle dominated the news this week, but it's not the first time a southern MP has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons, writes Daisy Hudson. ...
Let’s not allow the focus on big-budget infrastructure projects to detract from the vital role public transport will play in revitalising our cities in a post-Covid world, says Greg Pollock.The recent match between the Blues and the Hurricanes was one of the world’s first major post-lockdown sporting fixtures. It was ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level one – read about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. To support this ...
In the heart of Christchurch is a Designated Character high school. What makes it unique? And should there be more like it? Frank Film visits Hagley College Paddy Grant was a 27-year-old truck driver when he rocked up to Christchurch’s Hagley High School, as it was then known. It was ...
"After he calms down we share the pie and talk about how hard the years since the show have been for him": a short story by Wellington writer Jordan Hamel. Every morning it’s the same. Cling wrap on the toilet seat, a pop up snake in my can of breakfast ...
Childcare centre closures have left families and staff out in the cold. In some cases, they were given just three days’ notice, Laura Walters reports Staff and families of Auckland’s Discoveries Educare branches feel blindsided by the sudden closure of the early childhood education centres. The Ministry of Education has ...
Controversy and the America's Cup go hand-in-hand and the latest edition is no different with Emirates Team New Zealand at the centre of financial mismanagement allegations. Extra Time unpicks the debate and ponders what does the latest Cup drama mean? And should we care? A study has revealed racial bias ...
Over the decades, Mike Fox has witnessed the housing market progressively tilt towards larger, more expensive homes. Without a major overhaul of the current regulatory processes, he says, things will never change.It’s one of the biggest problems our country faces – we cannot produce the affordable housing that’s so desperately ...
So-called dirty deals have been roundly denounced over the years. Hayden Donnell argues that they need to be normalised, and even embraced, in September’s election.Just before the 2011 general election, Patrick Gower was confronted with a political act so stomach-churning, it forced him to abandon his trademark reserve. John Key ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Esterman, Professor of Biostatistics, University of South Australia Victoria has recorded 288 new COVID-19 cases since yesterday, the largest daily increase we’ve seen so far. This big jump must have the Victorian government and health authorities very concerned, especially since nearly ...
The controversial 101 East episode Locked Up in Malaysia’s Lockdown on 3 July 2020. Video: Al JazeeraPacific Media Watch Newsdesk Malaysian police summoned six Al Jazeera media workers today for questioning relating to an investigation for defamation and violation of Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA), reports IFJ Asia-Pacific. ...
Analysis - A National MP destroys his career, the government explains how someone with Covid-19 could walk around a supermarket and the closure of Tiwai Point aluminium smelter is announced. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Abrar Ahmad Chughtai, Epidemiologist, UNSW Australia’s chief medical officer Paul Kelly today recommended people in Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire wear masks when leaving the house: […] If people have symptoms and they need to go for a test, for example, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rochelle Wynne, Director, Western Sydney Nursing & Midwifery Research Centre, Western Sydney University Over the past week, we’ve seen a spike in the number of COVID-19 infections among health-care workers in Victoria. This includes a doctor at Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Hospital, one ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Paddy Nixon and Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan discuss the week in politics including the return to lockdown in Victoria, National Cabinet setting to slow the flow of Australian’s ...
We prefer our heroes untarnished. And few match the heroism of Winston Churchill. But a recent report in the Times reminds us of the inevitability of human frailty and the consequences of keeping it under wraps.During the second world war, Britain’s greatest single loss of life at sea was the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ou Yang, Research Fellow, University of Melbourne Donald Trump has ordered US federal agencies to bypass environmental protection laws and fast-track pipeline, highway and other infrastructure projects. Signing the executive order last month, the US president declared regulatory delays would hinder “our ...
SAFE CEO Debra Ashton says "The NZDIA has done the right thing, and we’re glad to see Bertram has been held to account over his actions. He should take this as an opportunity to right his wrongs and show that he takes animal welfare seriously." ...
Takuta Ferris, Te Tai Tonga candidate for the Māori Party, is urging government to place whānau first in the wake of announcements around Tiwai Point. “The declaration that one of the region's major employers the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter is closing ...
Dietary Requirements is The Spinoff’s monthly podcast in which we eat, drink and talk about it too, with special thanks to Freedom Farms. This month, we’re joined by The Spinoff’s managing editor, mall rat and self-confessed food philistine Duncan Greive.On this month’s Dietary Requirements, the gang’s back in the studio, and ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Chart 1: United States and Australia rising. Chart by Keith Rankin. These charts look at Covid19 incidence in China (the most important first-wave country, with a limited second wave), Italy (the lead second-wave country), and USA and Australia (second-wave countries – drawing their caseload from Europe ...
The Government must listen to the Muslim community to rectify its failure to act in the past, says the Human Rights Commission. The Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand (IWCNZ) submission to the Royal Commission of Inquiry was released this week. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, President, Australian Association for Professional & Applied Ethics. Senior Research Fellow, Moral philosophy, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Law Futures Centre., Griffith University Earlier this week, 150 high-profile authors, commentators and scholars signed an open letter in Harper’s magazine ...
You can’t keep a good woman down and Helen Clark is no exception. Her new appointment, as co-chair of a review of how the World Health Organisation handled the coronavirus pandemic, will test her formidable political skills. Sitting with her is Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former Liberian president, who handled the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Connor, Lecturer, James Cook University While many people may enjoy a game of backyard cricket, only a few go on to become elite professional batsmen in Australia. Cricket batting is example of what human skills can achieve. The fastest bowling delivery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee Baumgartner, Professor of Fisheries and River Management, Institute for Land, Water, and Society, Charles Sturt University This article is a preview of Flora, Fauna, Fire, a multimedia project launching on Monday July 13. The project tracks the recovery of Australia’s native ...
CEAC review of pre-election National’s “outline plan” just sent to us by Todd Muller 9/7/20 was actually his speech about his plan and was described as ‘an outline’. So in our review of National Party response to A Greener, Smarter Future; climate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Podger, Honorary Professor of Public Policy, Australian National University In Hidden Hand, China scholars Clive Hamilton and Marieke Ohlberg examine the Chinese Communist Party’s influence in Europe and North America in a similar way to how Hamilton dissected the CCP’s influence ...
“I can see why people are fed up, many are wondering how to clothe and feed their kids, or how they are going to pay their rent next week and still others are wondering what has happened to our beautiful Kiwi Way of Life. Well no party in parliament ...
Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk Sixty press freedom groups and civil society organisations, journalism institutions, filmmakers, and other supporters have formed a coalition in support of Maria Ressa and independent media in the Philippines, united around the call to #HoldTheLine. Today the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the International Center for ...
National MP Michael Woodhouse also received Covid-19 patient emails from Michelle Boag, and deleted them when he realised she was implicated in a separate email scandal. National Party leader Todd Muller says no further MPs in his party received confidential information from Michelle Boag, after revelations today that Michael Woodhouse also ...
The government is extending border exceptions to allow overseas victims of the Christchurch mosque attacks and their support people to attend the shooter's sentencing. ...
Ever wanted to be Iron Man? Sam Brooks prefers Pepper Potts, but he had a great time stepping into the iron suit anyway.The first few moments of Iron Man VR are where it plays its hand, confidently and assuredly. You hold your palms out in front of you, and Iron ...
SAP has released to the public a policy paper, “Helping Kiwis get back to work: How data and technology can drive a bigger, better, faster economic recovery.” ...
A new poem by Jordan Hamel.Mermaids When you lose grip and start to drift.The first thing you’re supposed to do issteer into it or steer away? Not all mermaids are royaltysomeone needs to audit the oceanprovide cashflow projectionssome mermaids are actuallymiddle-aged accountants named Stephendreaming of a land-view holiday home. I saw a ...
Want to work for The Spinoff? We’re looking for someone to fill an exciting new role based in our Auckland office. We’re looking for a video and podcast content manager: an experienced writer or sub-editor with a strong understanding of social media to manage our video and podcast content across various channels. ...
National Party leader Todd Muller says no further MPs in his party received confidential information from Michelle Boag, after revelations today that Michael Woodhouse also received four unsolicited emails. ...
By RNZ News Opposition National list MP Dr Jian Yang has announced his retirement from New Zealand politics and says he will not stand in the 2020 general election after three terms in the party caucus. He said politics was “demanding” and he wanted to spend more time with his ...
Bayer-Monsanto's June 24 announcement of a US$10.9 billion pay out (1) to people who have been harmed by Glyphosate, is effectively an admission of guilt. Spokesperson for The People’s Inquiry 2020 Asha Andersen says, “The Ministry of Health, The ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has filed a complaint with the Electoral Commission and the Parliamentary Speaker’s Office over Lawrence Yule’s new taxpayer funded billboards promoting Mr Yule as the ‘Voice in Tukituki’. Union spokesman, Louis Houlbrooke ...
Ten points, two plans. Which points are whose? With an election within spitting distance, Aotearoa’s two biggest political parties are all about the plans. “You don’t have a plan!” says one party to the other. “Yes we have a plan, or certainly a plan to have a plan, or a plan ...
Four months after he announced his re-selection, a National Party MP whose links to Chinese spy agencies attracted the interest of New Zealand’s Security Intelligence Service has announced he will not stand in the next election A three-term National Party MP who studied at an elite Chinese spy school before moving to ...
National list MP Dr Jian Yang announced his retirement from politics and said he would not stand in the 2020 general election after three terms in the party caucus. ...
A new political party, the New Zealand TEA Party, with headquarters in Auckland, has been established. The party aims to contest the queen- or kingmaker position to form a coalition with the largest parliamentary party as part of the general elections ...
A review has determined fish oils are non-hazardous and no longer require oversight by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA). We regulate pesticides, household chemicals and other dangerous goods and substances under the Hazardous Substances ...
New Conservative calls on the government to join with our Five Eyes allies and add New Zealand's signature to a joint statement condemning the continued removal of freedoms in Hong Kong. New Conservative also calls on the government to give safe-haven ...
Latest from the Beehive – Hard on the heels of the government promising help for the Southland economy in the wake of Rio Tinto’s decision to close the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter, it was announcing the delivery of more money to the North, at the other end of the country. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luciano Beheregaray, Professor in Biodiversity Genomics, Flinders University As the global climate shifts, it’s important to know which species have adaptations to survive. Our research published today in PNAS found it largely depends on where they evolved. We looked at the capacity ...
From eggplant emojis and twerking llamas to sweaty anthropomorphic butts, we present some of the most fascinating, hilarious and outrageous complaints dismissed by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) from 2019 to now.Avocadon’t (January 2019)The ad: In this ad from Specsavers, a man gets ready to join a cricket match, but ...
They might sound like the same thing, but light rail is quite different from light metro – the system that transport minister Phil Twyford now favours for Auckland. Katy Wakefield and Jessica Rose of Women in Urbanism explain why the metro option is a poor substitute for LRT. Transport is ...
Why isn't the Government spending $30m to extend Tiwai Point's 2,600 jobs until after the Covid-19 recession, after Manapouri's power can be transmitted elsewhere, and after there's a hydrogen plan for the smelter site, Bernard Hickey asks. The sense of shock and foreboding about the future was clear in Invercargill Mayor ...
Open mike 07/06/2020 
The Council of Disobedient Women There is a regular segment in the Speak Up For Women podcasts called “Absolutely Blasted Mad Moment of the Week”. Each podcast the speaker and the host discuss a recent event that is the most insane thing they have seen in the gender critical space ...13 hours ago
Todd Muller - Dishonest National Party leaderIt seems that dishonest Todd Muller is, like many right-wing politicians, entirely morally bankrupt. I mean just look at the National Party’s leaking omni-shambles over the last week or so. They’ve imploded in a spectacular display of backfiring dirty politics, the likes of which ...19 hours ago
TUESDAY JULY 14Yorkshire Airport (Prime, 7.30pm). Bloomin’ ’eck, behind the scenes at Leeds Bradford Airport. Apparently, there is plenty of “northern charm”, although reaction in the UK ranged from “brilliant” to “patronising”. It is narrated by Hugh Dennis, whose middle name might be “Arch”.WEDNESDAY JULY 15Queen: Live at Wembley (Prime, ...19 hours ago
Simon Bridges must be the unluckiest person in New Zealand politics. When he was elected as leader of the National party, he also became Leader of the Opposition – a position, he was entitled to assume, that would require him to “oppose”. But the government he set out to oppose ...21 hours ago
Check out Speak Up For Women’s new podcasts: Episode 3 In this episode Speak Up For Women spokeswoman Ani O’Brien (@aniobrien) is joined by Beth Johnson (@beth_nosnhoj) to discuss the proposal from Statistics NZ to change standard data collection policy to “gender by default” rather than sex. They discuss why the ...1 day ago
During a recent public consultation on the future of Archives New Zealand, a key report was suppressed. The Ombudsman has ruled that the refusal was unjustified. Sadly, the consultation was over by the time of the the decision has been made. However, the law on the use of the ...2 days ago
Everyone is paying attention today to the Supreme Court ruling that the President is not above the law and that Trump's tax returns can be given to a New York grand jury investigating him. But the Supreme Court decided another, far more important case yesterday, and effectively restored Native American ...2 days ago
Transcript: National Party policy announcement on roads – 8 July, 2020 Muller: Good afternoon everybody. Thank you for coming. Reporter 1: Is Hamish Walker a racist? Muller: Hang on… you haven’t even said good afternoon to me yet. Reporter 1: Good afternoon Mr Muller. Is Hamish Walker a racist? ...2 days ago
Today’s content Tiwai Point to close Hamish Rutherford (Herald): Government subsidising practically everything plays hardball with Rio Tinto (paywalled) Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Sudden closure of aluminium smelter worst outcome for jobs, consumers and the environment Brian Fallow (Herald): Tiwai closure sad news – and an opportunity for the environment (paywalled) Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): Rio ...2 days ago
Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Anja Mizdrak, Dr Jennifer Summers, Prof Michael Baker The pandemic-related lockdown is possibly the most dramatic public health intervention in NZ history. It helped achieve the elimination of community transmission of the COVID-19 virus in NZ. But it was also associated with 548 fewer total ...2 days ago
Reprehensible: There is much that could be said about Michael Woodhouse, but what would be the point? Any man who willingly involves himself in a situation as reprehensible as the one depicted in the above photograph has already vouchsafed all that decent people need to know about his character. That there have ...2 days ago
79 Articles Observations & observational methods of global warming & effects Six hundred years of South American tree rings reveal an increase in severe hydroclimatic events since mid-20th century (open access) Late summer temperature variability for the Southern Rocky Mountains (USA) since 1735 CE: applying blue light intensity to low-latitude ...4 days ago
Some are surprised at this sudden brain implosion on the part of both Michelle Boag, former National Party President, and the National Party in general, in exposing the private, confidential details of COVID patients. Others…? Let’s be blunt: not so much. Too many of that Party have long operated with ...4 days ago
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Mark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industry New Zealand First is supporting calls by hunters and the New Zealand Tahr Foundation (NZTF) to halt a large scale cull of Himalayan Tahr by the Department of Conservation in National Parks. The calls are supported by a 40,000 strong petition and the ...5 days ago
New Zealanders deserve healthy rivers and lakes that are safe to swim in - but they have been getting worse for decades. That's why, with our latest announcement, we're investing in projects that will help clean up our rivers and lakes and restore them to health, within a generation. ...7 days ago
The Green Party has opposed the COVID-19 Recovery Fast-track Consenting Bill which shortcuts normal consenting processes under the Resource Management Act (RMA), reduces public participation and narrows environmental considerations. ...1 week ago
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Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk A request by the Philippines’ biggest radio and TV network for a new franchise has been rejected by a congressional committee in a vote that will go down in history as a flagrant violation of the country’s constitution, says Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The Paris-based media ...20 hours ago
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Childcare centre closures have left families and staff out in the cold. In some cases, they were given just three days’ notice, Laura Walters reports Staff and families of Auckland’s Discoveries Educare branches feel blindsided by the sudden closure of the early childhood education centres. The Ministry of Education has ...1 day ago
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National MP Michael Woodhouse also received Covid-19 patient emails from Michelle Boag, and deleted them when he realised she was implicated in a separate email scandal. National Party leader Todd Muller says no further MPs in his party received confidential information from Michelle Boag, after revelations today that Michael Woodhouse also ...2 days ago
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Why isn't the Government spending $30m to extend Tiwai Point's 2,600 jobs until after the Covid-19 recession, after Manapouri's power can be transmitted elsewhere, and after there's a hydrogen plan for the smelter site, Bernard Hickey asks. The sense of shock and foreboding about the future was clear in Invercargill Mayor ...2 days ago
Where will New Zealand's heart lie in the new cold war with China?
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
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:
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
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/
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.
???!!??
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.
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://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?
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.
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
Not planning to disappear, in my view; perhaps "hidden in plain sight"
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