we started what is going on now and probably will be going on for years to come this massive chaos, killing, death, starvation, states failing and so forth. Syria, Libya, Iraq, and possibly Lebanon, maybe Jordan. […] What we have is chaos and we produce that chaos. Just as sure as we produce the chaos, we produced ISIS. […] We produced all this by that really unwise decision in 2003 to invade Iraq. […] The campaign to convince the American people to support the war in Iraq which is quite effective and when you consider it was built on a house of lies, it was quite effective.
Lets not forget the NZ context of the time …. national all but calling helen clarke a traitor … ie
John Key : We need to get some guts …. and partake in three white eyes illegal invasion /war …. leading to millions dead …. and tens of millions refugees'
Wayne mapp: we could be missing out on trade deals …. if we don't partake in three white eyes illegal war / invasion …. leading to millions dead …. and tens of millions refugees'
fast forward 16 years
A masterstroke of dirty politics …. blame the victims of your actions …. gain votes from racist retards …
Getting two ticks support from racist white inbreeds to stupid to see the cause of their 'invasion'
It takes a seriously degenerative , dim witted, low grade form of supremacy …. to not see cause and effect.
… The usa alone had used 100,000 bombs and missiles on the people of Iraq and syria ….over the period of2014-2017 ….two or three years worth from memory
others can feel free to google search this 100,000 bombs and missiles count
I've been conservative … and our collective ignorance of it speaks to 5 white eyes lynch club mentality.
Indifference is a true barometer of our western racism … ie if you don’t give a fuck , what motivates that
we started what is going on now and probably will be going on for years to come this massive chaos, killing, death, starvation, states failing and so forth.
That's not only ignorant, it grossly overestimates the significance of your own culture. The peoples of the Middle East are as capable of slaughtering each other for ridiculous reasons as the people of Europe or any other region, and their history shows that quite clearly if you bother to look at it.
"We" as in western liberal democracies certainly bear some responsibility for conflicts that are happening at the moment, but let's not pretend locals have no agency over their own countries' affairs.
Thanks chris This is very important ….We should all take offense …. that much is obvious … ….ffs indeed
99 out of 100 real life white supremacist inbreeds …. would see PMs logo and go "Brother".
And having 99 out of a 100 racist inbreeds thinking he is one of them ….
Is out of PMs control.
Crass, crass ,crass ….. to even bring up that 99 out of 100 neo nazi fuckwits would identify PM as being one of them.
How could we blame PM for the stupidity of 99 out of 100 inbreed fascists.
TS members should educate these illiterate neo nazis … the moron white pride idiots who think they are 'european knights' …. spelt nights to some of them.
It shows the stupidity PM is up against ….. as they identify him … as one of their own.
Nazi bastards …
[Please do not use double spacing in your long comments; I have removed them in this comment. Please dial back the aggressive language and personal insults directed at commenters here – Incognito]
99 out of 100 real life white supremacist inbreeds …. would see PMs logo and go "Brother".
They would? I guess it must be true, because you've asserted it, right? Still, it's odd how no right-wingers who've seen my comments have felt like calling me "brother" afterwards – perhaps they actually read the comments…
99 out of 100 real life white supremacist inbreeds …. would see PMs logo and go "Brother".
But you're only saying that because of the assumption that you leapt to. So all your imaginary survey says is that you believe that 99% of fascist-adjacents would share your instinctive assumption in this regard.
The conflict in the middle East is entirely a creation of the Western powers, dating from the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and the subsequent division into States, with puppet rulers, subservient to Western oil interests.
Toppling the Democratic Government in Iran, in the 1950's, was just one of very many, ignorant and self serving interventions by the West.
To say that conflict was inevitable, without Western influence, shows a profound ignorance of history.
A united and peaceful middle East, with control over much of the worlds oil, has never been in Western interests.
All the Western economies are dependent on both cheap oil, controlled by Western oil companies, and arms sales to the perpetual wars.
Politically, the USA needs a WestAsia, or EastAsia. A perpetual enemy to prevent revolt, and keep the war driven economic stimulus, at home.
And the Empire didn't spend the thick end of 700 years putting entire populations to the sword and installing rulers, subservient to Ottoman interests?
To say that conflict was inevitable, without Western influence, shows a profound ignorance of history.
Oh right, a Sunni empire run by Turks would have just lived happily ever after, united and peaceful, if it hadn't been for those duplicitous westerners. Foolishly imagining that there are major ethnic, cultural and religious divisions between peoples in the Middle East shows a "profound ignorance of history." How could I have been so stupid?
See, there's another fine example. You pretend that "the West" deposed your beloved dictator Gaddafi, as though the people who rebelled against him had no agency and were mere dupes of the liberal democracies. It can be argued that western goverments shouldn't have helped the rebels, but if the rebels had lost there would have been a bloodbath afterwards, with resulting blood feuds to go down through the generations, pretty much like there have been since the rebels won. Sometimes it doesn't make any sense to try and make a good guys vs bad guys story out of real-world events.
Your telling of history is more self serving than wayne mapp ….
And do you think if you repeat a lie often enough it becomes true ??
Before the 2011 NATO bombing, on the other hand, Libya had been the wealthiest nation in Africa, with the highest life expectancy and GDP per capita. In his book "Perilous Interventions," former Indian representative to the U.N. Hardeep Singh Puri notes that, before the war, Libya had less of its population in poverty than the Netherlands. Libyans had access to free health care, education, electricity and interest-free loans, and women had great freedoms that had been applauded by the U.N. Human Rights Council in January 2011, on the eve of the war that destroyed the government.
Its becoming crystal clear you have as much care for the victims of our illegal wars based on bullshit …. as Alwyn does for the pike river miners.
Him blaming Andrew little for pike river … and your racist dishonest hand washing over our western and NATO slaughter wars …. tell us the truth about both your honesty ….. and how you really think.
I can believe you do feel better off ….
According to the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL; 2016), the majority of migrants that it interviewed in Libya were from the sub-Saharan African countries, namely, Eritrea, Somalia, Guinea, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Sudan. The migrants reported to UNSMIL that they had been regularly subjected to beatings, starvation, denial of food and water, gang rapes, and the renting out of women to armed men for sexual abuse.
Then Secretary of State Clinton understood in early 2011 what was happening concerning the rebel genocidal targeting of black Libyans and African migrants, yet pushed to arm the rebels and overthrow Gaddafi anyway.
International human rights groups documented countless incidents of targeted mass murders, incitements to violence, arson, sexual assaults, evictions and banishments against black Libyans and African immigrants.
a study by a U.N. panel of experts, which found the former Libyan government's weapons in Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Gaza, Mali, Niger, Tunisia and Syria. The U.N. panel noted that "arms originating from Libya have significantly reinforced the military capacity of terrorist groups operating in Algeria, Egypt, Mali and Tunisia."
Again, it's not clear who you think you're arguing with here or what it is that you're arguing. It seems to be addressed to be me, but not in any way that makes sense.
His education deconstructs a lot of PMs … 'english' history
Trustworthy information … and if some details are incorrect …. Its not through a lack of honesty
A hundred years ago, they reported back to Washington with a series of recommendations which would cast dark shadows for us, even today.
not a single American or European or Arab soul – not a remotely interested Muslim, not one Israeli – has remembered that this is the 100th anniversary of the most intensive western enquiry ever made into what the people who actually live in the Middle East want for their future. Isn’t this worth just a small commemoration in this grubby year of betrayal and danger in the Middle East?
vast number of Muslims, Maronite (Catholics), Druze and other Christian sects whose families had emigrated to America “were intensely loyal” to the US and thus had “made the people of Syria and Palestine trust America”. The existence of what is now the American University of Beirut added to the lustre of the US. Only the Zionist Jews, about a tenth of the population, favoured the establishment of the Jewish national home; the Arabs said they “owned … the land … the Arabs were there before the Jews came …
Was it all for nothing? There had come from the commission one other warning. “Not only you as president,” it told Wilson, “but the American people as a whole should realise that if the American government decided to support the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, they are committing the American people to the use of force in that area, since only by force can a Jewish state in Palestine be established or maintained.”
What makes no sense is some one like yourself claiming Arabs just like to blow things up … and 100,000 bombs and missiles dropped by the yanks on the people in Syria and Iraq ,,, and in only a small fraction of the time they have been destroying these people ….. stirs you …..to nothing
Wars built on lies ….. to you … mean nothing.
Libya
a 31 year old women's rights defender who wishes to remain
anonymous due to her fear of reprisal, told Amnesty International that she receives constant threats on Twitter. She said she abandoned Facebook because of the intensity ofthe abuse she experienced there. … On my social
media accounts, people send private messages [through fake accounts]: lots of threats saying things like, ‘If we get our hands on you, we will rape you, show you what women’s rights are, beat you.’”
Online threats of violence and smear campaigns have forced many women human rights defenders to keep a low profile
In 2013, Libya’s Supreme Court ruled to authorize polygamy without the first wife’s consent or a court’s authorization,
According to testimony by a Save the Children representative
in 2016, 50 percent of the unaccompanied children treated by the organization’s doctors in Italy presented with a sexually transmitted infection (STI), which the medical personnel attributed to sexual exploitation during transit.
40
And although you think Gaddafi getting a NATO lynch mob death was good stuff …. "better off " in your words … it was both symbolic, and the prelude to what was about to happen to their whole society.
Others can reflect on the children and other victims..,. while you make bullshit excuses…. and show your racist stripes.
A devious liar telling lies to justify wars based on lies … Any outrage over Assange by you …. shows huge hypocrisy … stretched so thin even a blind man could see through you
Reason you have put up a lot of thoughtful stuff about war, world politics etc. I hope you have noted the way that the moderator has tidied up your comments. The present program gives double spacing when Enter is used and your comments got really spaced-out. And at the end it tends to add lots of spacing so you need to come up to just after your last full stop to limit that. That should make it easier to follow your thinking without extra mod work.
100% reason 🙂 war crime after war crime after war crime. The Nuremburg declaration that hung the nazis for aggressive war doesn't apply to our WAR CRIMS.
Thanks, john. Whichever way, I'm looking forward to this news item, circa 2031…
AP/CNN. The former prime minister of Great Britain, Tony Blair, was hanged/hung in Baghdad at 5:30 this morning. His accomplices in the rape of Iraq, George W. Bush and John Howard, will be hanged/hung in the coming week.
Don't hang out for that news re Blair Morrissey. I wonder what will be happening in 2031 – how many years away – 12. Would you like to list present problems and where the solutions have got to?
I will ignore any wrong syntax? as I like people to express their ideas without having preachy or prosy others jumping in to raise diversions. A welcome distraction no doubt, but f..k annoying to people who want to see discussion on the immense and dramatic themes of the day. (I went to a Pop-up Globe production of Hamlet yesterday, couldn't hear or understand some of the language but kept watching and listening of course, and followed the story ok. It seemed very contemporary except for the clothing! Those famous speeches were powerful; What a piece of work is man, How noble his reason…)
To sleep perchance to dream. Hal asked if he would dream in Space Odyssey 2001. Perhaps the machines will be quoting our human Shakespeare to us, showing us the workings of their compassion circuits. (They were the basis of a SF short story I have read recently that has perverse results that the machine had not the imagination to comprehend. However that could be covered by better programming no doubt.) Sorry, I can't help thinking of the likely future when I look at the present posture.
Psycho Milt using the Crass logo as his avatar is a insult to their legacy and most of what they stood for..but then Milt wouldn't get that….it’s like when I am out riding and see fat guys wearing the Yellow jersey of the Tour de France…no respect.
I/we rarely delete (whole) comments unless they are obvious duplicates and technical or ‘thick finger’ glitches. Please leave to sockpoppet guesses to the moderators as it tends to distract and inflame.
The Great Noam Chomsky talks to Democracy now. The rise of fascism in the '30s and its echos with the rise of ultra nationalism now. Plus the positive popular movements against it.
Hmm, yes – mockery from the likes of us is one thing, mockery from other nationalist authoritarian leaders you'd like the approval of is quite another.
It was a rubbish parade, disjointed, lacklustre. And the music was worse. Then, the speech.
My Fellow Americans; in 1886 our indomitable navy and its nuclear submarines had managed to surround and subdue the evil Martian forces attempting a beachhead on the dark side of the moon…
Taihape's gumboot throwing competition had more excitement than Trumps parade.
It's sad to note that Taihape gumboot contest was on 23rd March this year. Next year let's be there and show the usa how a reverential day out for the masses can shine. Fred Dagg noted the importance of gumboots to the nation (and was on the nail with that). He was my hero and represented good people doing the mahi in an honest way, who will always eclipse town boys, out of condition, with hairpieces.
The deal was finalized in part thanks to the direct involvement of Jared Kushner, the President's son-in-law and senior adviser. He shocked a high-level Saudi delegation earlier this month when he personally called Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson and asked if she would cut the price of a sophisticated missile detection system, according to a source with knowledge of the call.
Pressured to finalize a massive $100-plus billion arms deal in the two weeks leading up to Trump's trip to Saudi Arabia, Kushner hoped to maneuver a discount on Lockheed's Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system during the Saudis' visit to the White House on May 1 — a request that Hewson said she would look into at the time.
The World Bank plans to announce Sunday at an event with Ivanka Trump, the U.S. president’s daughter and senior White House adviser, that Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates have pledged $100 million collectively toward a fund for women who own or want to start businesses, according to people familiar with the announcement.
But to be fair, the Russians have a long history of serious Russian military parades..some of them rightfully celebrating their pivotal role in defeating European fascism…
The quote from his speech gives sufficient context. “The Continental Army suffered a bitter winter of Valley Forge, found glory across the waters of the Delaware, and seized victory from Cornwallis of Yorktown. Our army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do."
The Trump regime is full of deniers, recruited by the denier-in-chief, but if they try to deny this evidence they will just destroy whatever reputation they have. Even conservatives will replay the video and prove it to themselves!
As I suggested last night, this will rapidly become a national security issue for the US administration, and a Wall St run can be expected promptly. Only fair to acknowledge that one swallow does not make a summer, so a pattern of such behaviour will have to be established before a team of experts confirms the diagnosis. However, rumour destroys a reputation real fast, and as soon as Trump + dementia achieves contagion in the US media it will be all over for him.
Pence will go into a crisis cabinet meeting in an extremely strong position, and the other key players will watch Trump's bluster in increasing scepticism. Then it's just a matter of time before they accept the inevitability of the transition…
They'll find it easier and safer to just do Weekend at Bernie's with him.
If they try to remove him by the 25th Amendment, Donny Dotard is sure to fight it. Then it goes to Congress, where a 2/3 supermajority in both the Senate and the House is needed to remove him. That ain't gonna happen.
It ain't gonna happen because I doubt I even need my second hand, let alone take my shoes off, to count up the total number of Repugs with enough spine to vote to remove Twitterfinger J. Tantrump. They'll be too scared to risk having him go Drumpfzilla on their asses and they'll get primaried by wrathful Drumpfkins. Or hell, spurned Drumpfkins might even be vengeful enough to vote for a Dem in the general election out of sheer spite towards anyone that acted against their fake-bronze idol.
He's only three weeks into the job of acting Secretary of Defense, but he's heartland establishment. "Esper was chief of staff at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, from 1996 to 1998."
"He was policy director for the House Armed Services Committee from 2001 to 2002. From 2002 to 2004, Esper served in the George W. Bush administration as deputy assistant secretary of defense for negotiations policy, where he was responsible for a broad range of nonproliferation, arms control, and international security issues. He was director for national security affairs for the U.S. Senate"… He served as the 23rd United States Secretary of the Army from 2017 to 2019. Prior to his current position, he served as Vice President of government relations at Raytheon, a major U.S. defense contractor."
But it will require a consensus of the Trump cabinet to control the president, and today they will be waking up to the new reality and wondering how to harness an increasingly loose cannon…
Seriously, how is this any different to him being a compulsive bullshitter? Symptomatically, they're identical.
For Dolt45's bullshit about airports to be a sign of dementia, facts would have to be relevant to his existance. They never have been. Not just in the last few years, but ever. He's cultivated an image of success while being incapable of running a casino. He called reporters pretending to be other people to be his own character reference. His claims of wealth were based on lies. Buildings and businesses paid to use his name when he had nothing to do with them.
For seventy years the fool has simply said whatever sounded good at the time. The only people who give a serious shit about this speech are people who think that facts have some shred of relevance to his behaviour.
His followers will remember it sounded good at the time, and explain it away as trolling liberal elites if people point out the absurdity of what he actually said.
What's symptomatically different about now compared to his lifelong history of bullshit is once upon a time he could string together complete sentences into paragraphs that were consistent with a coherent train of thought, even when the thought itself was objectively nonsense. He simply can't do that anymore. And even just during his time in office there's been a noticeable decline in what comes out of his mouth bearing any resemblance to trying to convey a coherent idea.
In interviews in the 1980s and '90s, according to Stat News, Trump "spoke articulately, used sophisticated vocabulary, inserted dependent clauses into his sentences without losing his train of thought, and strung together sentences into a polished paragraph, which — and this is no mean feat — would have scanned just fine in print."
Yeah, but assuming a decline, is that dementia or just the result of decades of putting as little as possible effort into bullshit?
When I was a bouncer, a colleague mentioned that before he'd started the work he'd been a chill and mellow dude, after five years he was a sour bastard. Having pushed a keyboard for ten years, that's shaped my personality in another way.
I just think that if you've never had to persuade anyone, engage with anyone, share yourself with anyone, remember anything about anyone, had anyone be critical about your conversation (or had to measure your speech with them), none of it for decades… that's gotta screw up your handle on reality.
I'm seeing a substantive difference. If it isn't early onset dementia, he can gloss it by saying he studied real estate at university, not history, but it's still an awful stretch for him. It's more the effect on the other key rightists that will be decisive. If the establishment decides that non-conformist rebellion has actually been replaced by irrational decision-making, they'll pull the plug. Too much at stake.
The examples made of Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, John McCain, Mark Sanford, Justin Amash and even Dean Heller are sufficient to ensure very few Repugs will ever significantly cross Tyrannosaurus Arse.
If you mean the top dog theory (dominance hierarchy) then I don't see it applying. Were you here when Muldoon was in charge? Sure as hell applied then. But you know all them checks & balances designed into the US political structure by the Constitution that we only have a semblance of. Add to that the immense array of powers behind the scenes in the US that we lack. I expect his cabinet to assume control at some point.
That said, I don't discount Trump's survival skills. It hinges on whether dementia is actually a happening thing…
Of course the the other possibility is that he's so totally out of his depth, he’s suffering from cerebral stress which he covers up with his over the top bouts of bullying and bravado.
What I mean is that Darth Hater has already demonstrated he will take an intense personal interest in trying to destroy the political career and personal reputation of anyone who demonstrates insufficient loyalty. And usually succeeds. Even when it's detrimental to his actual personal interests and his ability to impose his personal whim on the government.
Note that the cabinet and Pence do not have the ability to remove the genital-grabbing golem from from office if he chooses to fight it. Read up on the 25th Amendment for the process. It would be astonishing if he didn't fight it.
If he is actually successfully removed from office, he won't even have the notional restraint of needing to keep some support in the House and Senate. He would be completely unleashed to go on whatever kind of rampage he wanted on the asses of the Repugs from the House and Senate that voted against him. Even the Kraken would be impressed with the result.
Even in the unlikely event that they manage to fit him with an orange jumpsuit, he could still do an awful lot of damage from behind bars.
Hmm. If dementia is in onset mode, incidences of irrationality will gradually increase. Public concern will increase in proportion. Powers that be will already be seeking to act – yet if you're right they will realise they are confined by a constitutional strait-jacket. In that scenario, everyone ends up in uncharted territory.
National security is the bottom line. If Trump becomes a threat to it, congress/senate will have to agree to an amendment to the constitution to remove the threat, right? Can he veto it if it happens?
A constitutional amendment has to be passed by 2/3 supermajorities in both the House and the Senate, then it goes out to the states where 3/4 of the states have to ratify it before it comes into force. As far as I can tell, the president has no part in constitutional amendments. But the process takes years even for the fastest ones.
The lowest bar to clear for removing the president is impeachment – that only requires a simple majority in the House and 2/3 in the Senate. So if somehow Pence and the cabinet felt an immediate need to remove him, they could immediately get him out using the 25th, then as I understand it, they can keep him out for about a month until it has to go to a vote in the House and Senate. If it looked like they might get 2/3 in the Senate, but not in the House, they could use that month to ram through an emergency impeachment.
But 2/3 in the Senate means all Dems plus 20 Repugs to get to the 67 required. At the moment, the only Repugs that even look like possibles are Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Ben Sasse, Rand Paul. At a massive stretch you might get Joni Ernst, Rick Scott, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Rob Portman. Get all of those and it's still 9 short.
Okay, that seems workable. Think beyond the current reality. You know how the market is driven by greed & fear? Fear of Trump losing the plot will suffice to ebb the market once people absorb George Washington taking over the airports.
Then they start wondering what next. Loss of confidence is all it takes to send business into caution mode. Once Wall St shifts, politicians will realise they must follow. Can't make America great again if a premature geriatric is pretending to lead while dropping random irrationalities at times. Not a good look.
Beyond climate tipping points Greenhouse gas levels exceed the stability limit of the
Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets
by Andrew Glikson
The pace of global warming has been grossly underestimated. As the world keeps increasing its carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, rising in 2018 to a record 33.1 billion ton of CO₂ per year, the atmospheric greenhouse gas level has now exceeded 560 ppm (parts per million) CO₂-equivalent, namely when methane and nitrous oxide are included. This level surpasses the stability threshold of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. The term “climate change” is thus no longer appropriate, since what is happening in the atmosphere-ocean system, accelerating over the last 70 years or so, is an abrupt calamity on a geological dimension, threatening nature and human civilization. Ignoring what the science says, the powers-that-be are presiding over the sixth mass extinction of species, including humanity.
As conveyed by leading scientists “Climate change is now reaching the end-game, where very soon humanity must choose between taking unprecedented action, or accepting that it has been left too late and bear the consequences” (Prof. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber) …“We’ve reached a point where we have a crisis, an emergency, but people don’t know that … There’s a big gap between what’s understood about global warming by the scientific community and what is known by the public and policymakers” (Prof. James Hansen). http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/
Global greenhouse gases have reached a level exceeding the stability threshold of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, melting at an accelerated rate.
The current growth rate of atmospheric greenhouse gas of 3.42 ppm CO₂/year is the fastest recorded for the last 55 million years.
Allowing for the transient albedo enhancing effects of sulphur dioxide and other aerosols, mean global temperature has reached about 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures.
Due to hysteresis the large ice sheets outlast their melting temperatures.
Cold ice melt water flowing from the ice sheets at an accelerated rate will reduce the temperature of large ocean tracts in the North Atlantic and circum-Antarctic. Strong temperature contrasts between cold polar-derived air and water masses and tropical air and water masses would result in extreme weather events, retarding agriculture in large parts of the world.
Humans will survive in relatively favorable parts of Earth, such as sub-polar regions and sheltered mountain valleys, where hunting of surviving fauna may be possible.
In the wake of partial melting of the large ice sheets, the Earth climate would shift to polarized conditions including reduced polar ice sheets and tropical to super-tropical regions such as existed in the Miocene (5.3 – 23 million years ago) (Figure 5). http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/
"Looming crisis: nearly 500,000 unpaid carers and a rapid ageing population"
This afternoon the Government is expected to make an announcement about a disability law that has been described as a "shame on society" and overhaul its policy on paying families who care for their disabled loved ones. Health reporter Emma Russell looks at the reason for change.
Every morning Geoff Wales would wake at the crack of dawn – often distressed."
The rest is behind the paywall…and I'm disinclined to spend even a dollar on what is likely to be wispy and watered down policy that will confuse the issue taken to the Human Rights Review Tribunal and a ridiculous number of High and Appeal Courts who all decided that those of us providing a high level of care to disabled family members should be paid as any other carer providing the same supports.
Fingers crossed for you and all the caregivers and disabled subject to callous disregard. I've barely spoken on all this as I'm out of my depth. I do think you've been minimised and treated poorly and it is a sad indictment on NZ where our most vulnerable get a shit deal.
Fingers crossed on both hands, rabbits foot, four leaf clover…
What really concerns me is already the headlines are talking about 500,000 unpaid carers which is bullshit in the context of Ministry of Health Disability Support Services clients which the Family Carer cases were about. No time to dig right now but at the last count, MOH;DSS barely had 40,000 clients in total, for the whole country. Most of those with very high support needs are reciveing funding for their care. There are only a few who are entirely cared for by unpaid family carers.
This is the kind of alarmist crap that Ryall pumped out back in 2012/2013. The Herald can only have got wind of this announcement from…someone in government?
The concern from risk-averse government has always been the precedent broader than DSS budgets – the 500k total would be across all government portfolios and life situations. Still easy enough to address the scope and repeal this bullshit law, you'd think.
The neolib influenced government agencies were advised in the 1980’s that vulnerable people should be given less services designed specially to help them, and that they should be integrated into and supported by the community.
This would take the responsibility of providing funding for care and support being a charge on the taxation system which could then be reduced to allow the already wealthy and c-off to keep more of 'their well-earned money resulting from their hard work'. When they had problems themselves, they would be able to access help from the state and supplement it with spending to suit their own individual standards.
The rest who just wanted good basic help as needed for their particular condition could take part in a lolly scramble of grants to be applied for, and which would be available for a finite time and then stopped to ensure that the aid group did not develop 'institutional helplessness' Any help would be given on a temporary basis, even if the conditions and the problems arising from them were chronic, permanent.
The whole neolib idea is that people should not get too comfortable as that makes them lazy and dependent; everybody should be kept on their toes, striving and be made to feel that they are unworthy to expect more. Those who succeeded to have a good lifestyle had achieved that through working hard, and making good financial decisions. Those who aren't socially and financially upwardly mobile are lesser beings, and are a drag on society.
That is the viewpoint of this economic and social culture we now have. Once you understand this, you will also understand recent history, and why so many things negative to the citizens have been done, questioned as negative, but then repeated, or carried out in a different form.
If you want to change anything, you need to understand what you are up against and find a way to go around, get leverage into, the fortress mentality that is around the pump-houses for this neolib economy. To the denizens rewarded by the neo-lib economy the problems of the 'outsiders' are a bit remote, the mouthings of the street dwellers separated by thick glass windows from the warm interior with everything conducive to enjoyment. For many, our societal divide and the real problems of nearly 50% are similar to many computer games of aimless attacks and defence.
I think Rosemary would know all this, and it illuminates the background to her efforts and her feelings of anger at the refusal to respect her work and assist her when she and others in similar circumstances, need more practical support and funding to enable them to have a simple life that can be enjoyed.
You know what has been the saddest part of this GWS?
That honesty and transparency have been sacrificed by so many players. Back in 2013 when National/Maori/Act rushed through the Part 4 amendment I dived down a rabbit hole determined to find out the why and the how and the who of this sorry saga.
I already knew from reading decisions and sitting in Courtrooms that 'truth' was a variable concept and that the Ministry of Health Disability Support Services struggled with accurate descriptions of of what services they were funding and how they managed to meet the support needs of eligible disabled clients who required advanced personal cares that they, MOH DSS, were not funding the contracted providers enough $$$ to provide. They never once admitted that this was the case, and that for many the only option other than institutional care was care from a family member. This very probably accounts for some of the at least 244 family carers who were being paid. Through dodgy back door deals that the Ministry claimed no knowledge of.
Yet the contracted providers were happy to do these deals because if no one was paid to provide the care they didn't get to clip the ticket.
So I followed that stream of $$$.
Then I followed the $$$ that both Labour then National were more than happy for the Ministry of Health to send to 'advocacy' organisations, 'charities,' who purported to represent disabled people and family carers. $$$ that flowed providing they either kept quite about the Atkinson case, or in the case of Carers NZ actively spoke out against the policy that this Current Mob has promised today to initiate.
Prior to the legislative outrage that was the amendment to the Public Health and Disability Act (http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2013/0022/latest/whole.html) there was very little in the way of support from these MOH funded advocacy groups. These group were funded under the provisions in the 2000 PHDAct because that Act demanded consumer advisory groups. Helps enormously to push through shit policies if your 'advisors' are dependent on your largesse to survive.
All very messy and all very incestuous and I'll be closer to content if these deceptions and misrepresentations are admitted to and apologised for.
I fear I'll sit below contentment for some time yet.
It has been hard to follow your journey Rosemary for me reading it. Your dogged efforts have been much harder and I do hope you have received the assistance that you and other carers deserve. The prosy goings on of MPs going for a successful career rather than serving the people is sickening. And the contrast I read some years ago, between one well-known female's negative opinion of citizens medical needs and what she accepted as her right when her own child needed treatment because of neglecting her health regime, was startling.
It's amazing how people can just be chopped off the list if the list is too long. That is basically how government agencies manage their work. Not satisfactory when looking after a family member with limited mobility etc. My sister is doing some part-time teaching which the agency refuses to pay her for because she didn't tick the right box. She has decided to give that claim away but do it differently next time so it fits. You have to be nimble to keep up with the players in government these days, they never were perfect, but the old-style government didn't employ thousands of PR people to smooth out wrinkles.
Here is hoping for smooth unfolding of the proper system. I look forward to the fat lady singing; used to think that was sexist, now I think it is a declaration of strength and purpose.
SPC. Back in 2008 when the Atkinson "Family Carer Case" was being heard at the Human Rights Review Tribunal the Ministry of Health's expert numbers guy came up with a projected costing for paying family carers of between $17 to 593 million.
So the very big and scary numbers swirling around this issue are nothing new.
And bless him, the numbers guy for the plaintiffs, the family carers, put his estimated costs at $32-64 million.
Guess what this Government have budgeted to rectify this injustice?
Yes. I just heard that. Works out at about 9 hours care per week for someone with high/very/complex needs. Hmmmm….you trying to piss on our parade Sacha?
Yes. Big shout out to Catherine (we miss you in the Greens) Delahunty.
To say she was a staunch supporter would be an understatement. They broke the mould.
Paula Tesoriero stepped firmly into Paul Gibson's very large shoes and nailed how the insecurity of vital supports could easily provide disabled fodder for the EOLC Bill.
Yes! She has been very involved in this from the get go as you know. I was speaking to Catherine today. She is happy that they have finally got there. But she is happy to be writing and enjoying life at the moment. Still lots of advocacy work being done.
I’m very pleased for you, that this has finally come through, and I let Catherine know that you have been looking anxiously for something like this.
Parents and spouses will be paid up to $25.50 an hour to look after ill or disabled family members under new changes announced today by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
The changes will come into effect in 2020 once legislation has gone through a select committee process which will include public consultation.
…
They confirmed that the Government would repeal part 4A of the NZ Public Health and Disability Act…
Indeed. And I took great delight in thanking Jo for her work so far on these issues…she co authored the Spinal Cord Impairment Strategy Situation Analysis Paper back in 2012.
(I see it is still available via some weird Public Address thingy…I remember when it got totally lost and we had to Wayback it. Happens to some of the good stuff. )
Thanks Patricia…still a little suspicious (hey, its been 20years in the borning…I'm allowed a little cynicism ) but reading the links that Sacha has put up it does seem that this is something ALL the Current Mob agree on.
I'm asking why now, and why not even a hint at Budget time?
So this was inevitable. The decision would be over payment anount and budget inclusion – this would involve the who and consistency with other decisions (such as ending younger spouse qualifying).
Perhaps having to prove to Winston/et al the money is available? Or perhaps the legislation wasn't ready? Or they wanted to do it properly and keep control rather than Treasury or others? Time will tell.
You have every right to be cynical, but I'm more hopeful than any time in 20 years. I do believe they care and are trying to undo some pretty entrenched attitudes and bad legislation.
I just hope they get in again and continue with the work.
About 400 people currently claim funded family care and with the $32 million cash injection the government estimates another 640 families will take up the scheme.
It sounds very encouraging, and hopefully that is how it plays out for the assistance to all those impacted by such circumstances…
Do you know when the finer details might be available for someone such as yourself to assess and comment on?
From the stuff article linked to by Sacha (cheers), the high level reads as encouraging and positive…but that would need to be assessed against the present restrictions and inequalities such as you have regularly posted on at this site…
If you get the opportunity to comment on the details over time, that would be appreciated….
Hey One Two. No one will be searching and eventually scrutinising the finer details closer than myself when they are revealed.
It appears there will be Select Committee hearings and a chance to make submissions.
Even though we have thrown so much of ourselves over the years into this and have become almost permanently cynical about the whole issue, Peter and I will endeavour to participate in good faith in this process.
Good faith generally means to discuss with each other any matter which affects the delivery of the disability support services in an open way so that all matters are "on the table", to be active and constructive in establishing and maintaining a good relationship, being responsive, providing information, and not doing anything that might mislead or deceive each other .
Law changes, announced by the Government on Sunday, would also remove the requirement for an "employment relationship between a disabled person and their family member.
Associate Minister of Health Julie-Ann Genter said the Government would be considering "alternative options" for the employment arrangement…
Really pleased to see Carers Alliance stalwart John Forman at the do at Government House. Unlike the secretariat of Carers NZ, John was always outspoken about the need for better recognition of the work families do for those with very high support needs. He was positively spewing when the Part 4 amendment to the PHD Act was passed.
I was speaking with another family carer earlier and we were trying to guess at what the finer details might be.
Got to thinking that perhaps the way round the issue with some parent carers not happy being employees of their children might be to have the carers as employees of a contracted provider, who then accepts the contract to provide care for the client.
This was one of the mechanisms whereby the 244 family carers who were being paid a wage that the HRRT heard about in 2008 were able to be paid.
The other mechanism was through Individualised Funding.
What still sticks in my craw is that none of those contracted providers who were clipping the funding ticket by enabling the back door payment of a family carer ever fronted up in the submissions or the consultation workshops in 2012…and even worse the NZDSN came over all hand wringlingly concerned at the risk of having family carers paid….when their own professional staff were doing such a fine job.
Moreover none, and I repeat absolutely none, of the family carers who were being paid despite the discriminatory policy ever fronted up to either the media or in a publicly accessible submission before or after those arseholes in the National, Maori and Act parties rushed through that legislation.
Their reward was to have a sizable extension to the period set out in that legislation that they could continue to enjoy the financial benefits of having the dignity of paid work.
Shit.
So much of it has flowed from this issue over the years it will take more than happy clappy announcements. An inquiry? At least an apology from the Ministry of Health Disability Support Services?
Thanks Sacha for putting up those links. (We were out earlier and I can't do the link thing from my phone.)
This may be part of the trend to individualism in support – so those unable to work because of their care role, themselves receive support.
We can see steps to this, in PL, in continuing support for those with young children (including WFF).
There is only limited access to the JSB (old UB) for those with partners (heavily means tested) and unpaid “voluntary” workers are not yet entitled to the JSB (while they are unavailable to work).
The sort of smart targeted UI to those unable to be part of the paid workforce economy.
In that regard eventually focus will have to fall on the 90,000 on SLP and its amount adequacy – this is lower than Super and to people who may never own property and or develop private savings.
The 'Supported' Living Payment is a joke. An absolute insult and contemptuous of those who would work if they could work but they can't. It's as if its been set at a level that drives you so low you lose the will to live.
Living as a couple on the SLP was hard…year after year…and the final straw was having to remortgage our home to pay for vital repairs in 2010. Then having extra $$$ to pay per week from the same amount of benefit because we only borrowed the barest minimum and this was not enough to qualify for even a dollar of Accommodation Allowance.
When Peter graduated to the National Super and we went into the local office to sort it out, we were invited to sit in a special 'Seniors' waiting area….separate from the rank and file on the Jobseekers, SLP and DPB.
We said no thanks to their 'special' seats.
The few dollars extra per week on the Super made an enormous amount of difference and living most of the time in the Bus we could actually save a few $$$ per week.
Dershowitz trying to bury his misdeeds, again. Of course the vile Epstein gets a mention as does tRumps labour secretary, Alexander Acosta.
It’s a high-stakes war between two of the country’s most powerful lawyers. Their feud, simmering for years, involves accusations of extortion, surreptitious recordings, unethical conduct and underage sex trafficking.
Harvard lawyer Alan Dershowitz has filed four bar complaints in three states — all of which have been dismissed — in a quest to disqualify lawyer David Boies and one of his partners who represent a woman accusing Dershowitz of sexually abusing her when she was underage, newly filed court records show.
[…]
In the lawsuit, two of Epstein’s victims claimed that federal prosecutors in Florida had improperly brokered a non-prosecution agreement in 2008 with Epstein and his lawyers without informing them, as was required by law. The deal, negotiated by then-Miami U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta, was signed and sealed in secret, and by the time Epstein’s victims learned about the deal — months later — it was too late for them to object.
Epstein was allowed to plead guilty in state court to two prostitution charges and served 13 months in the Palm Beach County jail, where he was given liberal work release, including permission to use his own valet to pick him up at the jail every day and take him to his office in downtown Palm Beach.
Edwards and Cassell argued that the deal was illegal, and in February, a federal judge agreed, affirming that Acosta and other prosecutors violated the Crime Victims’ Rights Act by misleading Epstein’s victims into believing that prosecutors and the FBI were still investigating the case when they had quietly disposed of it.
Billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was arrested for allegedly sex trafficking dozens of minors in New York and Florida between 2002 and 2005, and will appear in court in New York on Monday, according to three law enforcement sources. The arrest, by the FBI-NYPD Crimes Against Children Task Force, comes about 12 years after the 66-year-old financier essentially got a slap on the wrist for allegedly molesting dozens of underage girls in Florida.
Well, NZ prisoners have a 70% recidivism rate within two years, so these imports are actually bucking the trend. Though, if the real figures of those committing crimes were known, they might compete handily with the 'locals'.
The campaign of Big Pharma to crack our effective Pharmac goes on, helped by Guyon Espiner's expose' of how cancer patients can't access every latest medicine at no matter what the cost. And there are numerous examples of people afflicted, who have families and good lives, and don't want to die. It wrenches the heart to think of them. Cancer takes so many these days, and it's not good enough. Everyone who dies from cancer is said to have battled with it in their death notices. The fact that cancer is so widespread and cuts into people's lives is a major disgrace, worse than rheumatoid arthritis in NZ children, rotting teeth etc.
The ailments that particularly affect the poor are not so well-publicised with fewer, less glamorous people giving anecdotes of their pain and suffering and need. The well-heeled provide the target ammunition of choice for Big Pharma to aim at us. Big Pharma have chosen cancer as the problem of the wealthy, and there is potential big money in selling NZ their wonder drugs, at as high profit as possible. (By the way I think NZ is the only other country besides the USA to allow medicines to be advertised on television.) The sufferers and their specialists, would like to win another year or so at the expense of the nation's sufferers of other diseases and ailments, maybe some of them will work. The idea seems to be 'Let us try them, we may be able to alleviate the symptoms.' Note, not cure them.
I think it would be most reasonable, that the people who wish to try these drugs should have tax relief on the payments they make. That would be fair. But hearing that one person lived for ten years, not the one-year which had been the reckon of the specialist, doesn't mean that the public system can or should shell out huge sums for those considering themselves deserving. We can't afford it. Please note that, and that we are about to be hit by tropical diseases, are being hit by stress diseases, stronger influenzas, resurgence of tricky tuberculosis and others not thought about much – ebola? Our government can't even fund proper, modern conditions for all women for childbirth, our time of life creation which requires real hard work for a number of people, plus facilities better than the fields, and huts of third world countries. Let's get real, treat sick and terminally ill people well, but don't allow the monolithic greed of Profit to take precedence.
Pharmac are not satisfied with the cost-effectiveness of most of the new drugs, but that doesn't count to the protesters because other countries have bowed to them like Australia, and the UK and no doubt the USA where all are rich and the government helps every citizen!? So why can't we be like those other countries and just follow foreign precedent like we usually do?
An unofficial information campaign as to how Kiwis can cross the Tasman and access their health care treatments for cancer would be a nice balance to their deportation policy.
It is the nature of modern media to thrive on a battle a day somewhat but..
From the outside, it seems the EU is using a representative democracy system, not first past the post or direct democracy, with it's proportioned parliament body of the citizen vote.
So it seems quite reasonable that the Who is the How, & the how is not direct but representational in what works ( & in this case the experts are respective govt. ministers which seems fair), that is in enabling a package that can incorporate a majority block in providing legitimacy of the citizen vote.
So there seems like a lot of common sense interest is built into the system to respect but work together with the differences resulting from the citizen vote(s), along with clear enough lines of accountability the EU citizen voter could follow in system negligence. Seems pretty good all things considered.
"Britain’s ambassador in the United States has described President Donald Trump and his administration as “inept” and “uniquely dysfunctional”, according to ‘leaked’ diplomatic memos published by the Mail on Sunday. Ambassador Kim Darroch reportedly said Trump’s presidency could “crash and burn” and “end in disgrace”, in the cache of secret cables and briefing notes sent back to Britain and seen by the newspaper."
Providing such advice to the British govt seems unusual for a tory diplomat. No rightist solidarity in sight. Things must be grim for him to be so blunt!
"Darroch is one of Britain’s most experienced diplomats whose posting in Washington DC began in January 2016, prior to Trump winning the presidency. The Mail on Sunday said the memos, likely leaked by someone within Britain’s sprawling civil service, cover a period beginning in 2017."
Yeah Trump's in bed with the whole Brexit Party sideshow. Carving up Britain for privatisation is the end goal. NHS firmly in their sights. The Tories would like to do that for themselves, not American upstarts.
joe90 linked to a map with all the ties: climate denial, big oil, PR companies, loads of journalists and industrialists, Trump and Boris smack bang in the middle of it.
A simultaneous siphoning of government (public) funds offshore also taking place through layers of shell companies, many of which trace back to this network of nincompoops. Which side which is on (Tory/Brexiteer) is likely all smoke and mirrors too.
Meanwhile, the NYT has despatches from the front in the American Revolutionary War (in Trump's alternate reality). Here's one from Philadelphia International Airport:
The Washington Post is featuring President Trump’s Revolutionary War quiz. "5. True or false?: When Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal,” he deliberately did not mention lesbian soccer stars, Muslim mayors of London or kneeling NFL players."
From a commenter: "More evidence, which people will only acknowledge in hindsight, that Trump has early stage dementia." Another: "Pence rushed back from NH because Trump went completely mental and he was needed to help talk him down from the ceiling, or take over as President if the strong anti-psychotics didn’t work."
Sorry, guys, I know the RNZ National listeners amongst you have already had an unpleasant up-close-and-personal with that nasty propagandist Simon Schama yesterday, but here's another right wing Labourite to ruin what's left of your Sunday. It's my duty to inform you that the ethical vacuum that is Gordon Brown has predictably joined the McCarthyite chorus.
Talk on LBC about possible thoughts of Queen on a proroguing parliament.
LBC is a talk-back radio which was called London Broadcast Company owned by Global (It is the owner of the largest commercial radio company in Europe having expanded through a number of historical acquisitions,). I just include that for people who don't talk in acronym language.
They're talking in the UK about trying to get May's November? agreement through as things get worse with the Conservatives so screwed up they can't find a suitable leader for their Party, never mind someone suitable to lead the country. The people in prominence seem oblivious to their responsibilities to the people, and the Irish agreements could fizzle away; the Brits seem to be like those who were irresponsible for the Potato Famine there. What a pigsmuddle, pigs are relatively clean, despite their brown noses, compared to the UK. Should we start organising food parcels to the people as in WW2?
Stephen Kinnock spells out the bottom line – no time for wishing-and-hoping and standing on soapboxes.
6 July 2019 In a move that further exposes bitter divisions between Labour MPs over Brexit, Stephen Kinnock says supporting the withdrawal agreement bill (WAB) is now the only realistic way out of the impasse for those who want to leave with a deal, while offering hope to those supporting another referendum….
Kinnock, the MP for Aberavon, says that with a Boris Johnson premiership looking increasingly likely, the country is “staring down the barrel” of a no-deal exit, which would harm fragile communities, compromise national security and endanger the Irish peace process.
He argues that because MPs have effectively run out of parliamentary options to prevent no deal, it is time for Labour to face reality and for Corbyn to order his MPs to get an admittedly imperfect but far from disastrous Brexit agreement through, in the national interest. The alternative, he warns, could be a general election before Brexit has been delivered that would be just as damaging to Labour as it would be to the Tories, and a gift to “single issue” parties including Nigel Farage’s Brexit party.
“The WAB is far from ideal. Yet because of concessions to demands made by Labour during cross-party talks it does provide the only feasible means of preventing no deal,” Kinnock says.
There seems to be a confusion between examining the suggestions and the basic situation, and whether the suggested move is to benefit the MP's electorate and its steel works. It is a pity that there is no ability to actually look at the scenarios that exist and choose the least hurtful one. Could we expect in supposed democracies that there would be set ways of making decisions where there are cross-arguments tripping up reasoned thinking??
Horse racing pundit, broadcaster and journalist John McCririck has passed away. A quintessentially English eccentric and all round loon, McCririck was as funny AF and always worth the watch.
Will Hutton at The Guardian considers that Labour has temporised for so long over Brexit and 'What to do? – Hold the line!' that tempus fugit has almost past the finishing line.
By refusing to take up arms, the Labour party has colluded with the Brexit right, created the opening for the Lib Dems and Greens and thus permitted the emergence of a new multi-party system. If Labour continues to temporise, the first past the post electoral system will fell it. The Lib Dems, unapologetic Remainers who are beginning to recognise that their Keynesian tradition offers better policies for the times than soft Thatcherism, have the opportunity to become the new anchor of British progressive politics – strengthened, if they are sufficiently strategic, by working closely with the Greens.
We know coal is bad for the climate but our jobs are at stake here.
We all have mortgages to pay.
If we didn't do it someone else would.
I know people are dying, but that’s somewhere else, not here.
I'm really with you Greenies, The pay is good, I just need the money. When I have saved enough, I am going to quit this coal mining job, buy a lifestyle block and go completely off grid live a sustainable lifestyle. See if I don't.
"Mizutori said the time for such arguments had ran out. “We talk about a climate emergency and a climate crisis, but if we cannot confront this [issue of adapting to the effects] we will not survive,” she told the Guardian. “We need to look at the risks of not investing in resilience.”
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
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we started what is going on now and probably will be going on for years to come this massive chaos, killing, death, starvation, states failing and so forth. Syria, Libya, Iraq, and possibly Lebanon, maybe Jordan. […] What we have is chaos and we produce that chaos. Just as sure as we produce the chaos, we produced ISIS. […] We produced all this by that really unwise decision in 2003 to invade Iraq. […] The campaign to convince the American people to support the war in Iraq which is quite effective and when you consider it was built on a house of lies, it was quite effective.
Lets not forget the NZ context of the time …. national all but calling helen clarke a traitor … ie
John Key : We need to get some guts …. and partake in three white eyes illegal invasion /war …. leading to millions dead …. and tens of millions refugees'
Wayne mapp: we could be missing out on trade deals …. if we don't partake in three white eyes illegal war / invasion …. leading to millions dead …. and tens of millions refugees'
fast forward 16 years
A masterstroke of dirty politics …. blame the victims of your actions …. gain votes from racist retards …
Getting two ticks support from racist white inbreeds to stupid to see the cause of their 'invasion'
It takes a seriously degenerative , dim witted, low grade form of supremacy …. to not see cause and effect.
… The usa alone had used 100,000 bombs and missiles on the people of Iraq and syria ….over the period of2014-2017 ….two or three years worth from memory
others can feel free to google search this 100,000 bombs and missiles count
I've been conservative … and our collective ignorance of it speaks to 5 white eyes lynch club mentality.
Indifference is a true barometer of our western racism … ie if you don’t give a fuck , what motivates that
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB3B-SSXKII
[Removed double spacing to improve readability]
we started what is going on now and probably will be going on for years to come this massive chaos, killing, death, starvation, states failing and so forth.
That's not only ignorant, it grossly overestimates the significance of your own culture. The peoples of the Middle East are as capable of slaughtering each other for ridiculous reasons as the people of Europe or any other region, and their history shows that quite clearly if you bother to look at it.
"We" as in western liberal democracies certainly bear some responsibility for conflicts that are happening at the moment, but let's not pretend locals have no agency over their own countries' affairs.
Wayne mapp asks if you will also clean his feet …. after washing his hands
I've noted your racist slurs about 'explosive' muslims before …. where your mouth and sterotype smears seemed to line up with your avatar…. https://www.adl.org/sites/default/files/styles/max_650x650/public/images/combating-hate/hate-on-display/c/ss-divisional-insignia-2.jpg?itok=H0isQ_UW
100,000 bombs and missiles rained down on Iraq and syrian people …. is a culture you couldn't give a fuck about PM … or so your comment appears.
But moving on ….. and in the interests of education…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8Bsxd4EMpo
[Removed double spacing to improve readability]
I see you're as ignorant of the meaning of my avatar as you are about the history of the Middle East.
+1000 Well said.
Was going to post this link – but decided it was better to just ignore such crass ignorance/incoherence.
https://theartofcrass.uk/
oh touche
How crass would be the misrepresentation of a dead three year old girl … as a Taliban fighter.
Although I appreciate it's not the sort of thing …. that offends you as much as bad manners ………..
Eliot Abrams shares your kindred views …. your rude and ridiculous is the important issue ….
For petty spankers lost without a moral compass ,,,,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm-DThEYyiE
[Removed double spacing to improve readability]
You completely missed why I used the word "Crass" and its connection to Psycho Milt's avatar, which is not a Nazi symbol – it is an anti-war symbol.
See 1.3 below.
Whoosh lol
The clue was in the link 😆
poooooh.
"I've noted your racist slurs about 'explosive' muslims before …. where your mouth and sterotype smears seemed to line up with your avatar…. https://www.adl.org/sites/default/files/styles/max_650x650/public/images/combating-hate/hate-on-display/c/ss-divisional-insignia-2.jpg?itok=H0isQ_UW "
WTF?
(Shakes head)
It is a symbol of an anti-war band and record label ffs
Thanks chris This is very important ….We should all take offense …. that much is obvious … ….ffs indeed
99 out of 100 real life white supremacist inbreeds …. would see PMs logo and go "Brother".
And having 99 out of a 100 racist inbreeds thinking he is one of them ….
Is out of PMs control.
Crass, crass ,crass ….. to even bring up that 99 out of 100 neo nazi fuckwits would identify PM as being one of them.
How could we blame PM for the stupidity of 99 out of 100 inbreed fascists.
TS members should educate these illiterate neo nazis … the moron white pride idiots who think they are 'european knights' …. spelt nights to some of them.
https://youtu.be/6dj71ywmuOY
It shows the stupidity PM is up against ….. as they identify him … as one of their own.
Nazi bastards …
[Please do not use double spacing in your long comments; I have removed them in this comment. Please dial back the aggressive language and personal insults directed at commenters here – Incognito]
99 out of 100 real life white supremacist inbreeds …. would see PMs logo and go "Brother".
They would? I guess it must be true, because you've asserted it, right? Still, it's odd how no right-wingers who've seen my comments have felt like calling me "brother" afterwards – perhaps they actually read the comments…
But you're only saying that because of the assumption that you leapt to. So all your imaginary survey says is that you believe that 99% of fascist-adjacents would share your instinctive assumption in this regard.
See my Moderation note @ 3:52 PM.
Tony Blair scoffs at the Iraqi people's "imaginary grievances."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_politics/4773124.stm
The conflict in the middle East is entirely a creation of the Western powers, dating from the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and the subsequent division into States, with puppet rulers, subservient to Western oil interests.
Toppling the Democratic Government in Iran, in the 1950's, was just one of very many, ignorant and self serving interventions by the West.
To say that conflict was inevitable, without Western influence, shows a profound ignorance of history.
A united and peaceful middle East, with control over much of the worlds oil, has never been in Western interests.
All the Western economies are dependent on both cheap oil, controlled by Western oil companies, and arms sales to the perpetual wars.
Politically, the USA needs a WestAsia, or EastAsia. A perpetual enemy to prevent revolt, and keep the war driven economic stimulus, at home.
And the Empire didn't spend the thick end of 700 years putting entire populations to the sword and installing rulers, subservient to Ottoman interests?
Of course.
"They did it too" is not a justification.
And all the despots, artificial borders, wars and "regime changes" since then have been imposed by first, the WW1 allies and later by the USA.
Fatalistic I know, but the waxing and waning of empire is the human condition. Everything is temporary.
https://ourworldindata.org/war-and-peace#global-war-deaths-between-1400-and-today-the-size-of-the-bubble-shows-the-percentage-of-world-population-killed-the-hague-centre-for-strategic-studiesref
To say that conflict was inevitable, without Western influence, shows a profound ignorance of history.
Oh right, a Sunni empire run by Turks would have just lived happily ever after, united and peaceful, if it hadn't been for those duplicitous westerners. Foolishly imagining that there are major ethnic, cultural and religious divisions between peoples in the Middle East shows a "profound ignorance of history." How could I have been so stupid?
Devious …. not stupid
don't sell yourself short PM
Why don't you sing your Libya is better off … thanks to NATO …song for me and TS again….
Better off you claimed ….
Which it is for slave traders , radical Isis type jihadists … war-lords and criminals .
Fuck the genocide treatment towards black libya citizens … with slavery and sex trafficking …
Fuck Libya women …. with their treatment under jihadi … welcome back child brides and servitude to men in the saudi style.
Fuck the citizens who have lost all the gains of a modern society …
According to PM they are all better off …. If we keep sight of the important issues
Which you can explain to us again …
It sounded like bullshit last time PM said it….but perhaps you'll vomit it up better this time …
Give us your white eyes twisted warmongers view of how the Libyan people are better off … forget about being Waynes little hand washer
Sing PM…. Wayne may provide organ grinder music …. because he's a great guy and knows your NATO song sheets inside out.
[Removed double spacing to improve readability]
See, there's another fine example. You pretend that "the West" deposed your beloved dictator Gaddafi, as though the people who rebelled against him had no agency and were mere dupes of the liberal democracies. It can be argued that western goverments shouldn't have helped the rebels, but if the rebels had lost there would have been a bloodbath afterwards, with resulting blood feuds to go down through the generations, pretty much like there have been since the rebels won. Sometimes it doesn't make any sense to try and make a good guys vs bad guys story out of real-world events.
Your telling of history is more self serving than wayne mapp ….
And do you think if you repeat a lie often enough it becomes true ??
Its becoming crystal clear you have as much care for the victims of our illegal wars based on bullshit …. as Alwyn does for the pike river miners.
Him blaming Andrew little for pike river … and your racist dishonest hand washing over our western and NATO slaughter wars …. tell us the truth about both your honesty ….. and how you really think.
I can believe you do feel better off ….
Again, it's not clear who you think you're arguing with here or what it is that you're arguing. It seems to be addressed to be me, but not in any way that makes sense.
100% KJT – read Robert Fisk's "Great War For Civilisation" and weep
Fisk is perhaps more relevant than ever ….
His education deconstructs a lot of PMs … 'english' history
Trustworthy information … and if some details are incorrect …. Its not through a lack of honesty
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jared-kushner-middle-east-peace-solution-deal-syria-trump-a8988136.html
And a video about culture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZM7-ICS90w
[Removed double spacing to improve readability]
[Also deleted duplicate video clip]
His education deconstructs a lot of PMs … 'english' history
It reads like "PM" is intended to be me, but in that case the comment makes no sense.
Wars built on lies ….. to you … mean nothing.
Libya
And although you think Gaddafi getting a NATO lynch mob death was good stuff …. "better off " in your words … it was both symbolic, and the prelude to what was about to happen to their whole society.
Others can reflect on the children and other victims..,. while you make bullshit excuses…. and show your racist stripes.
A devious liar telling lies to justify wars based on lies … Any outrage over Assange by you …. shows huge hypocrisy … stretched so thin even a blind man could see through you
https://www.womensrefugeecommission.org/images/zdocs/Libya-Italy-Report-03-2019.pdf
Reason you have put up a lot of thoughtful stuff about war, world politics etc. I hope you have noted the way that the moderator has tidied up your comments. The present program gives double spacing when Enter is used and your comments got really spaced-out. And at the end it tends to add lots of spacing so you need to come up to just after your last full stop to limit that. That should make it easier to follow your thinking without extra mod work.
100% reason 🙂 war crime after war crime after war crime. The Nuremburg declaration that hung the nazis for aggressive war doesn't apply to our WAR CRIMS.
The Nuremburg declaration that hung [sic] the nazis….
The word is "hanged."
Interesting! Morrissey. apparently both are legit usage.
Simple past
I
hanged; hung
you
hanged; hung
he/she/it
hanged; hung
we
hanged; hung
you
hanged; hung
they
hanged; hung
https://en.bab.la/conjugation/english/hang
Thanks, john. Whichever way, I'm looking forward to this news item, circa 2031…
Don't hang out for that news re Blair Morrissey. I wonder what will be happening in 2031 – how many years away – 12. Would you like to list present problems and where the solutions have got to?
I will ignore any wrong syntax? as I like people to express their ideas without having preachy or prosy others jumping in to raise diversions. A welcome distraction no doubt, but f..k annoying to people who want to see discussion on the immense and dramatic themes of the day. (I went to a Pop-up Globe production of Hamlet yesterday, couldn't hear or understand some of the language but kept watching and listening of course, and followed the story ok. It seemed very contemporary except for the clothing! Those famous speeches were powerful; What a piece of work is man, How noble his reason…)
To sleep perchance to dream. Hal asked if he would dream in Space Odyssey 2001. Perhaps the machines will be quoting our human Shakespeare to us, showing us the workings of their compassion circuits. (They were the basis of a SF short story I have read recently that has perverse results that the machine had not the imagination to comprehend. However that could be covered by better programming no doubt.) Sorry, I can't help thinking of the likely future when I look at the present posture.
Thank you Morrissey, I was taught that too.
Psycho Milt using the Crass logo as his avatar is a insult to their legacy and most of what they stood for..but then Milt wouldn't get that….it’s like when I am out riding and see fat guys wearing the Yellow jersey of the Tour de France…no respect.
No it isn't
yes it is…
No it isn't plus infinity and 1
Phil, can you please stop double-spacing your lines.
More than enough to read already.
Cheers.
@incognito – thank you. feel free to delete my comment.
I/we rarely delete (whole) comments unless they are obvious duplicates and technical or ‘thick finger’ glitches. Please leave to sockpoppet guesses to the moderators as it tends to distract and inflame.
Sorry, had a reply from that handle previously confirming identity but I take your point.
The Great Noam Chomsky talks to Democracy now. The rise of fascism in the '30s and its echos with the rise of ultra nationalism now. Plus the positive popular movements against it.
Oooooh, that's gonna sting. Rooskies are laughing at Grand Marshal Bonespurs "low energy" "weak" parade.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/07/russia-state-media-mocks-trump-july-4-parade.html?via=homepage_taps_top
To be fair, pretty much everything about the Trump presidency looks like a fat, slow-moving blimp to people seeking targets for mockery.
Yeah, but very little of it penetrates that awesome ego-shield the BLOTUS has around him. That one might do it, tho.
Yep Julius Prawnhead will be upside himself on this one. He'll be hurting alright. Weak and low energy are not what he wants to project.
Hmm, yes – mockery from the likes of us is one thing, mockery from other nationalist authoritarian leaders you'd like the approval of is quite another.
It was a rubbish parade, disjointed, lacklustre. And the music was worse. Then, the speech.
My Fellow Americans; in 1886 our indomitable navy and its nuclear submarines had managed to surround and subdue the evil Martian forces attempting a beachhead on the dark side of the moon…
Taihape's gumboot throwing competition had more excitement than Trumps parade.
It's sad to note that Taihape gumboot contest was on 23rd March this year. Next year let's be there and show the usa how a reverential day out for the masses can shine. Fred Dagg noted the importance of gumboots to the nation (and was on the nail with that). He was my hero and represented good people doing the mahi in an honest way, who will always eclipse town boys, out of condition, with hairpieces.
Nah, he won't mind a bit.
https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1147183957571702785
https://www.politicususa.com/2019/07/05/trump-used-millions-of-taxpayer-dollars-to-film-a-campaign-ad.html
And neither will Javanka Inc.
Over the weekend, Jared Kushner was credited with negotiating a $110 billion arms deal to the Saudis, the largest arms deal in U.S. history:
Coincidentally, the Saudis have also agreed to donate a whopping $100 million to the recently announced women's fund inspired by Jared Kushner’s wife, Ivanka Trump:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/5/21/1664578/-On-same-weekend-as-record-breaking-arms-deal-Saudis-announced-100-million-donation-to-Ivanka-fund
But to be fair, the Russians have a long history of serious Russian military parades..some of them rightfully celebrating their pivotal role in defeating European fascism…
like this one..
Looks like the Trump presidency is now dead in the water. As Joe90 suggested last night, seems he's provided evidence of dementia. Here's the proof: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-revolutionary-war-airports/
The quote from his speech gives sufficient context. “The Continental Army suffered a bitter winter of Valley Forge, found glory across the waters of the Delaware, and seized victory from Cornwallis of Yorktown. Our army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do."
The Trump regime is full of deniers, recruited by the denier-in-chief, but if they try to deny this evidence they will just destroy whatever reputation they have. Even conservatives will replay the video and prove it to themselves!
As I suggested last night, this will rapidly become a national security issue for the US administration, and a Wall St run can be expected promptly. Only fair to acknowledge that one swallow does not make a summer, so a pattern of such behaviour will have to be established before a team of experts confirms the diagnosis. However, rumour destroys a reputation real fast, and as soon as Trump + dementia achieves contagion in the US media it will be all over for him.
Pence will go into a crisis cabinet meeting in an extremely strong position, and the other key players will watch Trump's bluster in increasing scepticism. Then it's just a matter of time before they accept the inevitability of the transition…
What is also telling is that the 'world leader'? in technology can't work a teleprompter in the rain.
Geeez
Neither can he work an umbrella in the rain. It's an untenable position, but that's never stopped him before.
They'll find it easier and safer to just do Weekend at Bernie's with him.
If they try to remove him by the 25th Amendment, Donny Dotard is sure to fight it. Then it goes to Congress, where a 2/3 supermajority in both the Senate and the House is needed to remove him. That ain't gonna happen.
It ain't gonna happen because I doubt I even need my second hand, let alone take my shoes off, to count up the total number of Repugs with enough spine to vote to remove Twitterfinger J. Tantrump. They'll be too scared to risk having him go Drumpfzilla on their asses and they'll get primaried by wrathful Drumpfkins. Or hell, spurned Drumpfkins might even be vengeful enough to vote for a Dem in the general election out of sheer spite towards anyone that acted against their fake-bronze idol.
I'm hoping Dave turns up to save the day
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_(film)
Dave's too late. The Penguin is in the White House, unfortunately.
"Well, Commissioner, I think we should discard the theory about the Penguin going straight."—Batman.
Trump is safe, so long as he keeps giving millionaires their, tax cuts!
Whereas Pence & Pompeo will have primary leverage on the situation, watch what this guy says: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Esper
He's only three weeks into the job of acting Secretary of Defense, but he's heartland establishment. "Esper was chief of staff at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, from 1996 to 1998."
"He was policy director for the House Armed Services Committee from 2001 to 2002. From 2002 to 2004, Esper served in the George W. Bush administration as deputy assistant secretary of defense for negotiations policy, where he was responsible for a broad range of nonproliferation, arms control, and international security issues. He was director for national security affairs for the U.S. Senate"… He served as the 23rd United States Secretary of the Army from 2017 to 2019. Prior to his current position, he served as Vice President of government relations at Raytheon, a major U.S. defense contractor."
But it will require a consensus of the Trump cabinet to control the president, and today they will be waking up to the new reality and wondering how to harness an increasingly loose cannon…
Seriously, how is this any different to him being a compulsive bullshitter? Symptomatically, they're identical.
For Dolt45's bullshit about airports to be a sign of dementia, facts would have to be relevant to his existance. They never have been. Not just in the last few years, but ever. He's cultivated an image of success while being incapable of running a casino. He called reporters pretending to be other people to be his own character reference. His claims of wealth were based on lies. Buildings and businesses paid to use his name when he had nothing to do with them.
For seventy years the fool has simply said whatever sounded good at the time. The only people who give a serious shit about this speech are people who think that facts have some shred of relevance to his behaviour.
His followers will remember it sounded good at the time, and explain it away as trolling liberal elites if people point out the absurdity of what he actually said.
What's symptomatically different about now compared to his lifelong history of bullshit is once upon a time he could string together complete sentences into paragraphs that were consistent with a coherent train of thought, even when the thought itself was objectively nonsense. He simply can't do that anymore. And even just during his time in office there's been a noticeable decline in what comes out of his mouth bearing any resemblance to trying to convey a coherent idea.
and:
Yeah, but assuming a decline, is that dementia or just the result of decades of putting as little as possible effort into bullshit?
When I was a bouncer, a colleague mentioned that before he'd started the work he'd been a chill and mellow dude, after five years he was a sour bastard. Having pushed a keyboard for ten years, that's shaped my personality in another way.
I just think that if you've never had to persuade anyone, engage with anyone, share yourself with anyone, remember anything about anyone, had anyone be critical about your conversation (or had to measure your speech with them), none of it for decades… that's gotta screw up your handle on reality.
Yep – it's a dicey game calling reduced mental functionality – often one thing looks like another.
I'm seeing a substantive difference. If it isn't early onset dementia, he can gloss it by saying he studied real estate at university, not history, but it's still an awful stretch for him. It's more the effect on the other key rightists that will be decisive. If the establishment decides that non-conformist rebellion has actually been replaced by irrational decision-making, they'll pull the plug. Too much at stake.
The examples made of Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, John McCain, Mark Sanford, Justin Amash and even Dean Heller are sufficient to ensure very few Repugs will ever significantly cross Tyrannosaurus Arse.
If you mean the top dog theory (dominance hierarchy) then I don't see it applying. Were you here when Muldoon was in charge? Sure as hell applied then. But you know all them checks & balances designed into the US political structure by the Constitution that we only have a semblance of. Add to that the immense array of powers behind the scenes in the US that we lack. I expect his cabinet to assume control at some point.
That said, I don't discount Trump's survival skills. It hinges on whether dementia is actually a happening thing…
@ DF and Andre
Of course the the other possibility is that he's so totally out of his depth, he’s suffering from cerebral stress which he covers up with his over the top bouts of bullying and bravado.
Then again that might be a form of dementia too.
It might not be actual dementia, but from the outside it's functionally indistinguishable from dementia.
What I mean is that Darth Hater has already demonstrated he will take an intense personal interest in trying to destroy the political career and personal reputation of anyone who demonstrates insufficient loyalty. And usually succeeds. Even when it's detrimental to his actual personal interests and his ability to impose his personal whim on the government.
Note that the cabinet and Pence do not have the ability to remove the genital-grabbing golem from from office if he chooses to fight it. Read up on the 25th Amendment for the process. It would be astonishing if he didn't fight it.
If he is actually successfully removed from office, he won't even have the notional restraint of needing to keep some support in the House and Senate. He would be completely unleashed to go on whatever kind of rampage he wanted on the asses of the Repugs from the House and Senate that voted against him. Even the Kraken would be impressed with the result.
Even in the unlikely event that they manage to fit him with an orange jumpsuit, he could still do an awful lot of damage from behind bars.
A cheeseburger will take him out.
They've been sacrificing themselves by the thousands for decades and haven't succeeded yet.
'The final burger'
Its memory would be revered forever.
monuments erected, etc
Hmm. If dementia is in onset mode, incidences of irrationality will gradually increase. Public concern will increase in proportion. Powers that be will already be seeking to act – yet if you're right they will realise they are confined by a constitutional strait-jacket. In that scenario, everyone ends up in uncharted territory.
National security is the bottom line. If Trump becomes a threat to it, congress/senate will have to agree to an amendment to the constitution to remove the threat, right? Can he veto it if it happens?
A constitutional amendment has to be passed by 2/3 supermajorities in both the House and the Senate, then it goes out to the states where 3/4 of the states have to ratify it before it comes into force. As far as I can tell, the president has no part in constitutional amendments. But the process takes years even for the fastest ones.
The lowest bar to clear for removing the president is impeachment – that only requires a simple majority in the House and 2/3 in the Senate. So if somehow Pence and the cabinet felt an immediate need to remove him, they could immediately get him out using the 25th, then as I understand it, they can keep him out for about a month until it has to go to a vote in the House and Senate. If it looked like they might get 2/3 in the Senate, but not in the House, they could use that month to ram through an emergency impeachment.
But 2/3 in the Senate means all Dems plus 20 Repugs to get to the 67 required. At the moment, the only Repugs that even look like possibles are Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Ben Sasse, Rand Paul. At a massive stretch you might get Joni Ernst, Rick Scott, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Rob Portman. Get all of those and it's still 9 short.
Okay, that seems workable. Think beyond the current reality. You know how the market is driven by greed & fear? Fear of Trump losing the plot will suffice to ebb the market once people absorb George Washington taking over the airports.
Then they start wondering what next. Loss of confidence is all it takes to send business into caution mode. Once Wall St shifts, politicians will realise they must follow. Can't make America great again if a premature geriatric is pretending to lead while dropping random irrationalities at times. Not a good look.
A psychiatrist rings the bell about tRump lacking the capacity to make rational decisions.
https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1146537257463091201
https://www.salon.com/2019/06/14/yale-psychiatrist-bandy-lee-trumps-mental-health-is-now-a-national-and-global-emergency/
https://dangerouscase.org/
Donald Trump has a more than even chance of being re-elected President of the United States.
Yup. Of the last 7 sitting presidents going for another term, 4 of them got it.
Nancy, I'm worried, should a pre-teen girl like myself feel so disoriented?
(Secret serviceman dives on microphone)
Beyond climate tipping points
Greenhouse gas levels exceed the stability limit of the
Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets
by Andrew Glikson
The pace of global warming has been grossly underestimated. As the world keeps increasing its carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, rising in 2018 to a record 33.1 billion ton of CO₂ per year, the atmospheric greenhouse gas level has now exceeded 560 ppm (parts per million) CO₂-equivalent, namely when methane and nitrous oxide are included. This level surpasses the stability threshold of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. The term “climate change” is thus no longer appropriate, since what is happening in the atmosphere-ocean system, accelerating over the last 70 years or so, is an abrupt calamity on a geological dimension, threatening nature and human civilization. Ignoring what the science says, the powers-that-be are presiding over the sixth mass extinction of species, including humanity.
As conveyed by leading scientists “Climate change is now reaching the end-game, where very soon humanity must choose between taking unprecedented action, or accepting that it has been left too late and bear the consequences” (Prof. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber) … “We’ve reached a point where we have a crisis, an emergency, but people don’t know that … There’s a big gap between what’s understood about global warming by the scientific community and what is known by the public and policymakers” (Prof. James Hansen). http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/
Summary and conclusions
Don't worry.
The US Republican party says it is not happening!
And, our National party agrees it is happening, except when meeting with Fed farmers, but opposes bitterly, any attempt to do anything about it.
Labour will declare a climate emergency, but won't change the RMA, to require anthropogenic global warming to be a factor in decisions.
NZ first will oppose anything, which affects geriatric Queen Street capital gains tax farmers.
The Greens, do not have enough votes yet, to change anything, and our media will rubbish anything they do try.
KJT
Thank you and Goodnight!
Hapu trap Minister's motorcade on bridge, serve trespass notice in a WTF moment for security
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/07/02/tdb-exclusive-nz-spy-minister-motorcade-detained-on-bridge-and-served-trespass-notice-east-coast-maori-refuse-to-allow-crown-to-steal-land-the-way-they-are-stealing-babies/
Let's hope the necessary $10,000 worth of security doesn't become mandatory in NZ for every festival.
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/murwillumbah-banana-festival-forced-to-cancel-annual-street-parade-due-to-cost-of-anti-terror-rules/ar-AADqlcF?li=AAgfLCP
Well. This is going to be interesting.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12235325
"Looming crisis: nearly 500,000 unpaid carers and a rapid ageing population"
This afternoon the Government is expected to make an announcement about a disability law that has been described as a "shame on society" and overhaul its policy on paying families who care for their disabled loved ones. Health reporter Emma Russell looks at the reason for change.
Every morning Geoff Wales would wake at the crack of dawn – often distressed."
The rest is behind the paywall…and I'm disinclined to spend even a dollar on what is likely to be wispy and watered down policy that will confuse the issue taken to the Human Rights Review Tribunal and a ridiculous number of High and Appeal Courts who all decided that those of us providing a high level of care to disabled family members should be paid as any other carer providing the same supports.
Please god let me be proven wrong.
I hope they pay you and others for the support you all give to your loved ones. This just has to be fixed – it is a blight on our society.
Fingers crossed for you and all the caregivers and disabled subject to callous disregard. I've barely spoken on all this as I'm out of my depth. I do think you've been minimised and treated poorly and it is a sad indictment on NZ where our most vulnerable get a shit deal.
Fingers crossed on both hands, rabbits foot, four leaf clover…
Good Luck!
The support is appreciated, and I'd just like to say that is not only jaded and cynical moi that has few hopes the the kind of policy 900 of us discussed last year for this piece of work ( https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/publications/targeted_engagement_on_funded_family_care_and_paid_family_care_20_november_2018.pdf
will actually come to fruition.
What really concerns me is already the headlines are talking about 500,000 unpaid carers which is bullshit in the context of Ministry of Health Disability Support Services clients which the Family Carer cases were about. No time to dig right now but at the last count, MOH;DSS barely had 40,000 clients in total, for the whole country. Most of those with very high support needs are reciveing funding for their care. There are only a few who are entirely cared for by unpaid family carers.
This is the kind of alarmist crap that Ryall pumped out back in 2012/2013. The Herald can only have got wind of this announcement from…someone in government?
SSDD.
[Removed white space]
The concern from risk-averse government has always been the precedent broader than DSS budgets – the 500k total would be across all government portfolios and life situations. Still easy enough to address the scope and repeal this bullshit law, you'd think.
The neolib influenced government agencies were advised in the 1980’s that vulnerable people should be given less services designed specially to help them, and that they should be integrated into and supported by the community.
This would take the responsibility of providing funding for care and support being a charge on the taxation system which could then be reduced to allow the already wealthy and c-off to keep more of 'their well-earned money resulting from their hard work'. When they had problems themselves, they would be able to access help from the state and supplement it with spending to suit their own individual standards.
The rest who just wanted good basic help as needed for their particular condition could take part in a lolly scramble of grants to be applied for, and which would be available for a finite time and then stopped to ensure that the aid group did not develop 'institutional helplessness' Any help would be given on a temporary basis, even if the conditions and the problems arising from them were chronic, permanent.
The whole neolib idea is that people should not get too comfortable as that makes them lazy and dependent; everybody should be kept on their toes, striving and be made to feel that they are unworthy to expect more. Those who succeeded to have a good lifestyle had achieved that through working hard, and making good financial decisions. Those who aren't socially and financially upwardly mobile are lesser beings, and are a drag on society.
That is the viewpoint of this economic and social culture we now have. Once you understand this, you will also understand recent history, and why so many things negative to the citizens have been done, questioned as negative, but then repeated, or carried out in a different form.
If you want to change anything, you need to understand what you are up against and find a way to go around, get leverage into, the fortress mentality that is around the pump-houses for this neolib economy. To the denizens rewarded by the neo-lib economy the problems of the 'outsiders' are a bit remote, the mouthings of the street dwellers separated by thick glass windows from the warm interior with everything conducive to enjoyment. For many, our societal divide and the real problems of nearly 50% are similar to many computer games of aimless attacks and defence.
I think Rosemary would know all this, and it illuminates the background to her efforts and her feelings of anger at the refusal to respect her work and assist her when she and others in similar circumstances, need more practical support and funding to enable them to have a simple life that can be enjoyed.
You know what has been the saddest part of this GWS?
That honesty and transparency have been sacrificed by so many players. Back in 2013 when National/Maori/Act rushed through the Part 4 amendment I dived down a rabbit hole determined to find out the why and the how and the who of this sorry saga.
I already knew from reading decisions and sitting in Courtrooms that 'truth' was a variable concept and that the Ministry of Health Disability Support Services struggled with accurate descriptions of of what services they were funding and how they managed to meet the support needs of eligible disabled clients who required advanced personal cares that they, MOH DSS, were not funding the contracted providers enough $$$ to provide. They never once admitted that this was the case, and that for many the only option other than institutional care was care from a family member. This very probably accounts for some of the at least 244 family carers who were being paid. Through dodgy back door deals that the Ministry claimed no knowledge of.
Yet the contracted providers were happy to do these deals because if no one was paid to provide the care they didn't get to clip the ticket.
So I followed that stream of $$$.
Then I followed the $$$ that both Labour then National were more than happy for the Ministry of Health to send to 'advocacy' organisations, 'charities,' who purported to represent disabled people and family carers. $$$ that flowed providing they either kept quite about the Atkinson case, or in the case of Carers NZ actively spoke out against the policy that this Current Mob has promised today to initiate.
Prior to the legislative outrage that was the amendment to the Public Health and Disability Act (http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2013/0022/latest/whole.html) there was very little in the way of support from these MOH funded advocacy groups. These group were funded under the provisions in the 2000 PHDAct because that Act demanded consumer advisory groups. Helps enormously to push through shit policies if your 'advisors' are dependent on your largesse to survive.
All very messy and all very incestuous and I'll be closer to content if these deceptions and misrepresentations are admitted to and apologised for.
I fear I'll sit below contentment for some time yet.
It has been hard to follow your journey Rosemary for me reading it. Your dogged efforts have been much harder and I do hope you have received the assistance that you and other carers deserve. The prosy goings on of MPs going for a successful career rather than serving the people is sickening. And the contrast I read some years ago, between one well-known female's negative opinion of citizens medical needs and what she accepted as her right when her own child needed treatment because of neglecting her health regime, was startling.
It's amazing how people can just be chopped off the list if the list is too long. That is basically how government agencies manage their work. Not satisfactory when looking after a family member with limited mobility etc. My sister is doing some part-time teaching which the agency refuses to pay her for because she didn't tick the right box. She has decided to give that claim away but do it differently next time so it fits. You have to be nimble to keep up with the players in government these days, they never were perfect, but the old-style government didn't employ thousands of PR people to smooth out wrinkles.
Here is hoping for smooth unfolding of the proper system. I look forward to the fat lady singing; used to think that was sexist, now I think it is a declaration of strength and purpose.
500,000 carers would have to include (non working) mothers.
SPC. Back in 2008 when the Atkinson "Family Carer Case" was being heard at the Human Rights Review Tribunal the Ministry of Health's expert numbers guy came up with a projected costing for paying family carers of between $17 to 593 million.
So the very big and scary numbers swirling around this issue are nothing new.
And bless him, the numbers guy for the plaintiffs, the family carers, put his estimated costs at $32-64 million.
Guess what this Government have budgeted to rectify this injustice?
$32 million.
http://www.nzlii.org/nz/cases/NZHRRT/2010/1.html
Brian Easton still holds true.
And turns out it's only $32m over 4 years. Piffling.
Yes. I just heard that. Works out at about 9 hours care per week for someone with high/very/complex needs. Hmmmm….you trying to piss on our parade Sacha?
Here's me straining my Pollyanna muscle…
Some human responses on today's open mike: https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-08-07-2019/#comment-1635065
At last. I will be interested to hear why it has taken them so long to get this through. Where was the resistance this time?
From stalking JAG's diary, it would seem the NZDSN has had her ear on more than one occasion.
They teamed up with the PSA a few years ago in a negative PR drive against IF…by far the best existing mechanism for enabling full client choice.
The timing, the narrative of the 500000, all bodes badly
Associate-Minister Genter on twitter:
https://twitter.com/JulieAnneGenter/status/1147706188303228928
https://twitter.com/JulieAnneGenter/status/1147706189725048832
https://twitter.com/JulieAnneGenter/status/1147706191188881408
https://twitter.com/JulieAnneGenter/status/1147706192589754368
https://twitter.com/JulieAnneGenter/status/1147706194082926593
https://twitter.com/JulieAnneGenter/status/1147706195538432001
I have to thank @taraforde, @greencatherine, @PaulaTesoriero for their mahi and advocacy on this important issue.
Yes. Big shout out to Catherine (we miss you in the Greens) Delahunty.
To say she was a staunch supporter would be an understatement. They broke the mould.
Paula Tesoriero stepped firmly into Paul Gibson's very large shoes and nailed how the insecurity of vital supports could easily provide disabled fodder for the EOLC Bill.
Yes! She has been very involved in this from the get go as you know. I was speaking to Catherine today. She is happy that they have finally got there. But she is happy to be writing and enjoying life at the moment. Still lots of advocacy work being done.
I’m very pleased for you, that this has finally come through, and I let Catherine know that you have been looking anxiously for something like this.
I imagine Gordon is happy with this progress as well.
Yes and he got a big slice of my chocolate cake* to help celebrate. 🙂
*Baked for me by my daughter.
onya
Announced: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12247372
Well. Bugger me dead.
I'll be more than happy to eat crow if it unfolds as the article states. More than happy.
Another who will no doubt be smiling is Jo Esplin from Sapare who engineered and facilitated the Targeted Engagement…
https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/publications/targeted_engagement_on_funded_family_care_and_paid_family_care_20_november_2018.pdf
…when we spoke with her last year she indicated she would not be pleased if yet another bit of work was ignored by the Powers That Be.
There will be a party at ours when that shitty little piece of legislative work gets repealed.
Good work this Current Mob.
Good people at Sapere.
Good people at Sapere.
Indeed. And I took great delight in thanking Jo for her work so far on these issues…she co authored the Spinal Cord Impairment Strategy Situation Analysis Paper back in 2012.
https://d3nd7i493f0o21.cloudfront.net/assets/upload/354346/1298337631/SCI%20Strategy%20Situation%20Analysis%20Paper%2027%20Feb%202013%20%28FINAL%29.pdf
(I see it is still available via some weird Public Address thingy…I remember when it got totally lost and we had to Wayback it. Happens to some of the good stuff. )
So looking forward to the finer details.
Rosemary, well done to all those who went as witnesses to tell of their pain and troubles.
We hope this is all you and we asked for. Will be watching hopefully.
Thanks Patricia…still a little suspicious (hey, its been 20years in the borning…I'm allowed a little cynicism ) but reading the links that Sacha has put up it does seem that this is something ALL the Current Mob agree on.
I'm asking why now, and why not even a hint at Budget time?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12132665
So this was inevitable. The decision would be over payment anount and budget inclusion – this would involve the who and consistency with other decisions (such as ending younger spouse qualifying).
Perhaps having to prove to Winston/et al the money is available? Or perhaps the legislation wasn't ready? Or they wanted to do it properly and keep control rather than Treasury or others? Time will tell.
You have every right to be cynical, but I'm more hopeful than any time in 20 years. I do believe they care and are trying to undo some pretty entrenched attitudes and bad legislation.
I just hope they get in again and continue with the work.
This specific programme was always going to be affordable given the small number of qualifying recipients. From the RNZ story https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/393821/family-carers-to-be-paid-fairer-wage:
Hi Rosemary…
It sounds very encouraging, and hopefully that is how it plays out for the assistance to all those impacted by such circumstances…
Do you know when the finer details might be available for someone such as yourself to assess and comment on?
From the stuff article linked to by Sacha (cheers), the high level reads as encouraging and positive…but that would need to be assessed against the present restrictions and inequalities such as you have regularly posted on at this site…
If you get the opportunity to comment on the details over time, that would be appreciated….
Hey One Two. No one will be searching and eventually scrutinising the finer details closer than myself when they are revealed.
It appears there will be Select Committee hearings and a chance to make submissions.
Even though we have thrown so much of ourselves over the years into this and have become almost permanently cynical about the whole issue, Peter and I will endeavour to participate in good faith in this process.
Good faith generally means to discuss with each other any matter which affects the delivery of the disability support services in an open way so that all matters are "on the table", to be active and constructive in establishing and maintaining a good relationship, being responsive, providing information, and not doing anything that might mislead or deceive each other .
https://gazette.govt.nz/notice/id/2013-go6248
The Funded Family Care Notice 2013
Stuff story: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/114054666/caregiving-parents-and-partners-of-disabled-people-to-be-paid–govt
Govt media release: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1907/S00052/government-changes-funded-family-care-policy.htm
NZ First media release: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1907/S00053/greater-support-and-restoration-of-rights-for-family-carers.htm
Really pleased to see Carers Alliance stalwart John Forman at the do at Government House. Unlike the secretariat of Carers NZ, John was always outspoken about the need for better recognition of the work families do for those with very high support needs. He was positively spewing when the Part 4 amendment to the PHD Act was passed.
I was speaking with another family carer earlier and we were trying to guess at what the finer details might be.
Got to thinking that perhaps the way round the issue with some parent carers not happy being employees of their children might be to have the carers as employees of a contracted provider, who then accepts the contract to provide care for the client.
This was one of the mechanisms whereby the 244 family carers who were being paid a wage that the HRRT heard about in 2008 were able to be paid.
The other mechanism was through Individualised Funding.
What still sticks in my craw is that none of those contracted providers who were clipping the funding ticket by enabling the back door payment of a family carer ever fronted up in the submissions or the consultation workshops in 2012…and even worse the NZDSN came over all hand wringlingly concerned at the risk of having family carers paid….when their own professional staff were doing such a fine job.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/8712453/Abuse-claims-at-seriously-dysfunctional-care-home
Moreover none, and I repeat absolutely none, of the family carers who were being paid despite the discriminatory policy ever fronted up to either the media or in a publicly accessible submission before or after those arseholes in the National, Maori and Act parties rushed through that legislation.
Their reward was to have a sizable extension to the period set out in that legislation that they could continue to enjoy the financial benefits of having the dignity of paid work.
Shit.
So much of it has flowed from this issue over the years it will take more than happy clappy announcements. An inquiry? At least an apology from the Ministry of Health Disability Support Services?
Thanks Sacha for putting up those links. (We were out earlier and I can't do the link thing from my phone.)
This may be part of the trend to individualism in support – so those unable to work because of their care role, themselves receive support.
We can see steps to this, in PL, in continuing support for those with young children (including WFF).
There is only limited access to the JSB (old UB) for those with partners (heavily means tested) and unpaid “voluntary” workers are not yet entitled to the JSB (while they are unavailable to work).
The sort of smart targeted UI to those unable to be part of the paid workforce economy.
In that regard eventually focus will have to fall on the 90,000 on SLP and its amount adequacy – this is lower than Super and to people who may never own property and or develop private savings.
The 'Supported' Living Payment is a joke. An absolute insult and contemptuous of those who would work if they could work but they can't. It's as if its been set at a level that drives you so low you lose the will to live.
Living as a couple on the SLP was hard…year after year…and the final straw was having to remortgage our home to pay for vital repairs in 2010. Then having extra $$$ to pay per week from the same amount of benefit because we only borrowed the barest minimum and this was not enough to qualify for even a dollar of Accommodation Allowance.
When Peter graduated to the National Super and we went into the local office to sort it out, we were invited to sit in a special 'Seniors' waiting area….separate from the rank and file on the Jobseekers, SLP and DPB.
We said no thanks to their 'special' seats.
The few dollars extra per week on the Super made an enormous amount of difference and living most of the time in the Bus we could actually save a few $$$ per week.
Dershowitz trying to bury his misdeeds, again. Of course the vile Epstein gets a mention as does tRumps labour secretary, Alexander Acosta.
It’s a high-stakes war between two of the country’s most powerful lawyers. Their feud, simmering for years, involves accusations of extortion, surreptitious recordings, unethical conduct and underage sex trafficking.
Harvard lawyer Alan Dershowitz has filed four bar complaints in three states — all of which have been dismissed — in a quest to disqualify lawyer David Boies and one of his partners who represent a woman accusing Dershowitz of sexually abusing her when she was underage, newly filed court records show.
[…]
In the lawsuit, two of Epstein’s victims claimed that federal prosecutors in Florida had improperly brokered a non-prosecution agreement in 2008 with Epstein and his lawyers without informing them, as was required by law. The deal, negotiated by then-Miami U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta, was signed and sealed in secret, and by the time Epstein’s victims learned about the deal — months later — it was too late for them to object.
Epstein was allowed to plead guilty in state court to two prostitution charges and served 13 months in the Palm Beach County jail, where he was given liberal work release, including permission to use his own valet to pick him up at the jail every day and take him to his office in downtown Palm Beach.
Edwards and Cassell argued that the deal was illegal, and in February, a federal judge agreed, affirming that Acosta and other prosecutors violated the Crime Victims’ Rights Act by misleading Epstein’s victims into believing that prosecutors and the FBI were still investigating the case when they had quietly disposed of it.
https://amp.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article232312102.html
Wonder what's to come…
Billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was arrested for allegedly sex trafficking dozens of minors in New York and Florida between 2002 and 2005, and will appear in court in New York on Monday, according to three law enforcement sources. The arrest, by the FBI-NYPD Crimes Against Children Task Force, comes about 12 years after the 66-year-old financier essentially got a slap on the wrist for allegedly molesting dozens of underage girls in Florida.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/jeffrey-epstein-arrested-for-sex-trafficking-of-minors-source
I'm impressed by Phil Goff's blunt comments showing his understanding of likely criminal activity of deportees from Australian selective prejudice.
Goff notes they have no support and are not easily able to fit into NZ society and have been banished from their immediate family.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/393810/it-s-inevitable-deportees-will-turn-to-crime-goff
Of the nearly 1700 people sent from Australia since the start of 2015, more than 40 percent have been charged with an offence in New Zealand.
Well, NZ prisoners have a 70% recidivism rate within two years, so these imports are actually bucking the trend. Though, if the real figures of those committing crimes were known, they might compete handily with the 'locals'.
The campaign of Big Pharma to crack our effective Pharmac goes on, helped by Guyon Espiner's expose' of how cancer patients can't access every latest medicine at no matter what the cost. And there are numerous examples of people afflicted, who have families and good lives, and don't want to die. It wrenches the heart to think of them. Cancer takes so many these days, and it's not good enough. Everyone who dies from cancer is said to have battled with it in their death notices. The fact that cancer is so widespread and cuts into people's lives is a major disgrace, worse than rheumatoid arthritis in NZ children, rotting teeth etc.
The ailments that particularly affect the poor are not so well-publicised with fewer, less glamorous people giving anecdotes of their pain and suffering and need. The well-heeled provide the target ammunition of choice for Big Pharma to aim at us. Big Pharma have chosen cancer as the problem of the wealthy, and there is potential big money in selling NZ their wonder drugs, at as high profit as possible. (By the way I think NZ is the only other country besides the USA to allow medicines to be advertised on television.) The sufferers and their specialists, would like to win another year or so at the expense of the nation's sufferers of other diseases and ailments, maybe some of them will work. The idea seems to be 'Let us try them, we may be able to alleviate the symptoms.' Note, not cure them.
I think it would be most reasonable, that the people who wish to try these drugs should have tax relief on the payments they make. That would be fair. But hearing that one person lived for ten years, not the one-year which had been the reckon of the specialist, doesn't mean that the public system can or should shell out huge sums for those considering themselves deserving. We can't afford it. Please note that, and that we are about to be hit by tropical diseases, are being hit by stress diseases, stronger influenzas, resurgence of tricky tuberculosis and others not thought about much – ebola? Our government can't even fund proper, modern conditions for all women for childbirth, our time of life creation which requires real hard work for a number of people, plus facilities better than the fields, and huts of third world countries. Let's get real, treat sick and terminally ill people well, but don't allow the monolithic greed of Profit to take precedence.
Pharmac are not satisfied with the cost-effectiveness of most of the new drugs, but that doesn't count to the protesters because other countries have bowed to them like Australia, and the UK and no doubt the USA where all are rich and the government helps every citizen!? So why can't we be like those other countries and just follow foreign precedent like we usually do?
Media Watch put up a brief summary of the situation this morning. I thought it was informative. https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018702689/cancer-campaign-coverage-puts-heat-on-pharmac
An unofficial information campaign as to how Kiwis can cross the Tasman and access their health care treatments for cancer would be a nice balance to their deportation policy.
spc too right.
https://luxtimes.lu/european-union/37822-how-emmanuel-macron-won-the-battle-over-the-eu-s-top-jobs
It is the nature of modern media to thrive on a battle a day somewhat but..
From the outside, it seems the EU is using a representative democracy system, not first past the post or direct democracy, with it's proportioned parliament body of the citizen vote.
So it seems quite reasonable that the Who is the How, & the how is not direct but representational in what works ( & in this case the experts are respective govt. ministers which seems fair), that is in enabling a package that can incorporate a majority block in providing legitimacy of the citizen vote.
So there seems like a lot of common sense interest is built into the system to respect but work together with the differences resulting from the citizen vote(s), along with clear enough lines of accountability the EU citizen voter could follow in system negligence. Seems pretty good all things considered.
"Britain’s ambassador in the United States has described President Donald Trump and his administration as “inept” and “uniquely dysfunctional”, according to ‘leaked’ diplomatic memos published by the Mail on Sunday. Ambassador Kim Darroch reportedly said Trump’s presidency could “crash and burn” and “end in disgrace”, in the cache of secret cables and briefing notes sent back to Britain and seen by the newspaper."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/07/donald-trump-inept-and-dysfunctional-uk-ambassador-to-us-says
Providing such advice to the British govt seems unusual for a tory diplomat. No rightist solidarity in sight. Things must be grim for him to be so blunt!
"Darroch is one of Britain’s most experienced diplomats whose posting in Washington DC began in January 2016, prior to Trump winning the presidency. The Mail on Sunday said the memos, likely leaked by someone within Britain’s sprawling civil service, cover a period beginning in 2017."
Yeah Trump's in bed with the whole Brexit Party sideshow. Carving up Britain for privatisation is the end goal. NHS firmly in their sights. The Tories would like to do that for themselves, not American upstarts.
joe90 linked to a map with all the ties: climate denial, big oil, PR companies, loads of journalists and industrialists, Trump and Boris smack bang in the middle of it.
A simultaneous siphoning of government (public) funds offshore also taking place through layers of shell companies, many of which trace back to this network of nincompoops. Which side which is on (Tory/Brexiteer) is likely all smoke and mirrors too.
Meanwhile, the NYT has despatches from the front in the American Revolutionary War (in Trump's alternate reality). Here's one from Philadelphia International Airport:
“Washington and his men captured runways 27 Left, 27 Right, parts of Terminal F including the food court, baggage claim, and some bathrooms,” – quoted in The Redcoats Are in a Holding Pattern Over La Guardia: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/05/us/politics/trump-airports-revolutionary-war.html
The Washington Post is featuring President Trump’s Revolutionary War quiz. "5. True or false?: When Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal,” he deliberately did not mention lesbian soccer stars, Muslim mayors of London or kneeling NFL players."
From a commenter: "More evidence, which people will only acknowledge in hindsight, that Trump has early stage dementia." Another: "Pence rushed back from NH because Trump went completely mental and he was needed to help talk him down from the ceiling, or take over as President if the strong anti-psychotics didn’t work."
facebook poll says standardistas are fence sitting blatherers and irrelevant!
The social media they will say anything to get more clicks!
pacefook boll – a sort of weevil (Unreliable Word Pathologist)
That's the Combine at work Murph.
Kiwiblog is irrelevant now. ysb.co.nz is the new echo chamber for the right and hard-right.
Nice that someone has provided the beige badger's refugees with a sanctuary.
Mr. Brown's Ploys
Sorry, guys, I know the RNZ National listeners amongst you have already had an unpleasant up-close-and-personal with that nasty propagandist Simon Schama yesterday, but here's another right wing Labourite to ruin what's left of your Sunday. It's my duty to inform you that the ethical vacuum that is Gordon Brown has predictably joined the McCarthyite chorus.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-antisemitism-gordon-brown-expel-members-chris-williamson-jeremy-corbyn-a8990641.html
http://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/thread/1562426351.html
Talk on LBC about possible thoughts of Queen on a proroguing parliament.
LBC is a talk-back radio which was called London Broadcast Company owned by Global (It is the owner of the largest commercial radio company in Europe having expanded through a number of historical acquisitions,). I just include that for people who don't talk in acronym language.
Don't know what was said but I like the Queen's hat. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8NgTt8ZWBI
Scots feeling sick from being shafted by sick English hard-toffee-nosed toffs.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jul/06/top-tory-warns-johnson-no-deal-brexit-would-be-gift-to-snp
Scottish secretary warns Johnson: no-deal Brexit could split UK
David Mundell says Nicola Sturgeon would use October exit to push for independence
They're talking in the UK about trying to get May's November? agreement through as things get worse with the Conservatives so screwed up they can't find a suitable leader for their Party, never mind someone suitable to lead the country. The people in prominence seem oblivious to their responsibilities to the people, and the Irish agreements could fizzle away; the Brits seem to be like those who were irresponsible for the Potato Famine there. What a pigsmuddle, pigs are relatively clean, despite their brown noses, compared to the UK. Should we start organising food parcels to the people as in WW2?
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/06/kinnock-says-corbyn-should-order-labour-to-back-may-brexit-deal
Stephen Kinnock spells out the bottom line – no time for wishing-and-hoping and standing on soapboxes.
6 July 2019 In a move that further exposes bitter divisions between Labour MPs over Brexit, Stephen Kinnock says supporting the withdrawal agreement bill (WAB) is now the only realistic way out of the impasse for those who want to leave with a deal, while offering hope to those supporting another referendum….
Kinnock, the MP for Aberavon, says that with a Boris Johnson premiership looking increasingly likely, the country is “staring down the barrel” of a no-deal exit, which would harm fragile communities, compromise national security and endanger the Irish peace process.
He argues that because MPs have effectively run out of parliamentary options to prevent no deal, it is time for Labour to face reality and for Corbyn to order his MPs to get an admittedly imperfect but far from disastrous Brexit agreement through, in the national interest. The alternative, he warns, could be a general election before Brexit has been delivered that would be just as damaging to Labour as it would be to the Tories, and a gift to “single issue” parties including Nigel Farage’s Brexit party.
“The WAB is far from ideal. Yet because of concessions to demands made by Labour during cross-party talks it does provide the only feasible means of preventing no deal,” Kinnock says.
There seems to be a confusion between examining the suggestions and the basic situation, and whether the suggested move is to benefit the MP's electorate and its steel works. It is a pity that there is no ability to actually look at the scenarios that exist and choose the least hurtful one. Could we expect in supposed democracies that there would be set ways of making decisions where there are cross-arguments tripping up reasoned thinking??
Horse racing pundit, broadcaster and journalist John McCririck has passed away. A quintessentially English eccentric and all round loon, McCririck was as funny AF and always worth the watch.
https://twitter.com/CorneliusRacing/status/1147082414738595846
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/john-mccririck-dead-horse-racing-celebrity-big-brother-died-dies-tv-a8989541.html
Will Hutton at The Guardian considers that Labour has temporised for so long over Brexit and 'What to do? – Hold the line!' that tempus fugit has almost past the finishing line.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/07/labour-remainers-must-seize-control
7 July 2019
By refusing to take up arms, the Labour party has colluded with the Brexit right, created the opening for the Lib Dems and Greens and thus permitted the emergence of a new multi-party system. If Labour continues to temporise, the first past the post electoral system will fell it. The Lib Dems, unapologetic Remainers who are beginning to recognise that their Keynesian tradition offers better policies for the times than soft Thatcherism, have the opportunity to become the new anchor of British progressive politics – strengthened, if they are sufficiently strategic, by working closely with the Greens.
FFS!
https://twitter.com/mtlgazette/status/1147512254264422400
Obviously never taught by nuns. As I was. Never questioned the habit of the habit then. Why now?
Crimes people wouldn't commit if it wasn't their job.
Nothing personal, just business. Makes it so much easier for normal people to commit the worst crimes possiblessible
To the above crimes I would add climatacide.
It's just a job.
We know coal is bad for the climate but our jobs are at stake here.
We all have mortgages to pay.
If we didn't do it someone else would.
I know people are dying, but that’s somewhere else, not here.
I'm really with you Greenies, The pay is good, I just need the money. When I have saved enough, I am going to quit this coal mining job, buy a lifestyle block and go completely off grid live a sustainable lifestyle. See if I don't.
sorry – I know the buzz is planting trees and I'm into that AND we must chopping them down.
"Mizutori said the time for such arguments had ran out. “We talk about a climate emergency and a climate crisis, but if we cannot confront this [issue of adapting to the effects] we will not survive,” she told the Guardian. “We need to look at the risks of not investing in resilience.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/07/one-climate-crisis-disaster-happening-every-week-un-warns