Some links to docos you might enjoy CV ….. although you may have seen them before …….. others could enjoy or learn from them …..
When I’m reading an article on the net and a name or operation I know nothing about is mentioned …. I ‘right click’ and search to see where the information leads and how it ties into things … it can end up very informative sometimes. …
Doug Valentine is a investigative journalist who after 4 years of research and interviews with C.I.A agents wrote a book “The Phoenix Program ” which ran during the Vietnam war …. “,…. it’s described as “A shocking exposé of
the covert CIA program of widespread torture, rape, and murder of civilians during America’s war in Vietnam,” …..
In this radio interview Doug Valentine describes his upbringing with a WWII vet father and how he got onto the phoenix program which was unknown to the public and had been a secret for 20 odd years https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkPUqUAhBg8 ……..
A lot of the doco explains specific propaganda and manipulation used to gain support for mass murder ( war )…………… He also gives a review of how he thinks Trump will operate… which is both critical and hopeful … Its a pack of murderers Trump will have to deal with and they certainly will not want to stop their sadistic blood democracy
But of course Vietnam and The Phoenix Program was just a continuation of using the worst psychopathic killers to suppress real democracy , murder political rivals, start wars, starve innocent civilians ….. and misinform us about it the whole time ….
“Operation Gladio” involved the C.I.As predecessor O.S.S and was specifically about the recruitment of Nazis,ultra-fascists and extreme right wingers after WWII was over………….. they were hidden militias/terrorist
The Govt sponsered nazis Killed many many innocent people …. which was then most often blamed on communists/socialist … using the resulting public outrage to kill or persecute them.
Which all leads me to ask ……. why do we …. as in New Zealand ….have a trade embargo against Russia for protecting ethnic russians and others from a proto fascist govt installed after destabilization and a violent coup ????….
“The International Criminal Court prosecutes individuals who have committed genocide and other major war crimes. Over 120 countries support it, but the United States is not one of them ……. ”
It all seems very disrespectful to WWII vets …. democracy u.s.a style ……….supporting Nazis
At least by not having a real air-force we did not become part of the ISIS aerial fighting wing like the Aussies and yanks did ….
Which all leads me to ask ……. why do we …. as in New Zealand ….have a trade embargo against Russia for protecting ethnic russians and others from a proto fascist govt installed after destabilization and a violent coup ????….
It certainly would be highly questionable, if the situation you describe reflected reality rather than fiction.
Thank you reason. The USA utterly destroyed its credibility with its actions in Vietnam, and has never come to terms with how appalling they really are(still).
Cheers garibaldi ………. one of the truly evil deeds done at the end of WWII was when the Brits reinstated the Fascist Nazi collaborators as police and Government in Greece ….. while waging war on the anti Nazi Greek partisan fighters who had liberated their country shortly before the Brits arrived …
….” as the December Battle of Athens had begun – known in Greece as the Dekemvriana – fought not between the British and the Nazis, but the British alongside supporters of the Nazis against the partisans. ” ……
“And thereafter Greece’s descent into catastrophic civil war: a cruel and bloody episode in British as well as Greek history which every Greek knows to their core”
” In France or Italy, if you fought the Nazis, you were respected in society after the war, regardless of ideology; they were heroes. In Greece, you found yourself fighting – or imprisoned and tortured by – the people who had collaborated with the Nazis, on British orders. There has never been a reckoning with that crime,” …. https://libcom.org/history/british-perfidy-greece-story-worth-remembering-ed-vulliamy-helena-smith
Those other Docos I posted up for Puckish were probably a bit long for Puckish …….. Here’s a 6 minute music one which has a simple message for him https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5yYjcxnpCs
thank you reason. It seems that we have to educate some privileged citizens of the US-Anglo empire what their own recent history is. I bet some still think that the Contras were the “popularly supported freedom fighters”
My sister made some purchases in Briscoes yesterday. The salesman produced a plastic bag which she said she didn’t want. We were told they had to either give us a bag or put a ‘sold’ sticker on every item. Grrr!!
Once they’re paid for they belong to you and you can do whatever you like with them, including deciding you don’t want extra stickers. Plus what Ffloyd said.
They’d probably then insist on stickering or bagging them before the transaction was completed. There’s probably something politically creative to do with the bag or stickers at that point 😈
when this happen, accept the bag, go to the next rubbish bin outside of the shop and put any surplus packaging, plastic bags, plastic wrappings etc in said rubbish bin.
If someone from the Mall asks why you do that you simply state that you did not want the plastic bag/packaging/plastic wrapping and thus you leave it behind to let the store deal with the rubbish.
IF/when enough people do that and the shops/mall have ot empty their rubbish containers several times more a day some businesses will stop using any extra packaging.
I do that often at the Supermarket/Paknslave with plastic wrappers around boxes around bottles and the likes. Not gonna schlepp that stuff home.
it will be a company policy. Their bags are branded and while you walk around with your briscoes bag, your pak n slave bags etc etc you are a walking talking advertisement for the company and in many cases you have to pay 10 cents for the privelege.
Kick a fuss with the company and then start leaving all the surpluss packaging behind in the shops and let them deal with the rubbish.
Why would you a. schlepp that stuff home and b. pay for having it removed as rubbish?
When I’m reading an article on the net and a name or operation I know nothing about is mentioned I ‘right click’ and search to see where
the information leads and how it ties into things …
Doug Valentine is a investigative journalist who after 4 years of research and interviews with C.I.A agents wrote a book “The Phoenix Program ” which ran during the Vietnam war …. “,…. it’s described as “A shocking exposé of
the covert CIA program of widespread torture, rape, and murder of civilians during America’s war in Vietnam,” …..
In this radio interview he describes his upbringing with a WWII vet father and how he got onto the phoenix program which was unknown to the public and had been a secret for 20 odd years https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkPUqUAhBg8 ……..
A lot of the doco explains specific propaganda and manipulation used to gain support for mass murder ( war )…………… He also gives a review of how he thinks Trump will operate… which is both critical and hopeful … Its a pack of murderers Trump will have to deal with and they certainly will not want to stop.
But of course Vietnam and The Phoenix Program was just a continuation of using the worst psychopathic killers to suppress real democracy , murder political rivals, start wars, starve innocent civilians ….. and misinform us about it the whole time ….
“Operation Gladio” involved the C.I.As predecessor O.S.S and was specifically about the recruitment of Nazis,ultra-fascists and extreme right wingers after WWII was over………….. they were hidden militias/terrorist
The Govt sponsered nazis Killed many many innocent people …. which was then most often blamed on communists/socialist … using the resulting public outrage to kill or persecute them.
Which all leads me to ask ……. why do we …. as in New Zealand ….have a trade embargo against Russia for protecting ethnic russians and others from a proto fascist govt installed after destabilization and a violent coup ????….
“The International Criminal Court prosecutes individuals who have committed genocide and other major war crimes. Over 120 countries support it, but the United States is not one of them ……. ”
Its mainly our farmers who are paying for NZs support of fascism at the moment .. ….. good to see National party supporters paying for their policy
At least by not having a real air-force we did not become part of the ISIS aerial fighting wing like the Aussies and yanks did ….
Like our building industry where we sell raw materials for peanuts to buy back for a fortune, we can now give our water away to buy back in plastic bottles for $3. Bad for the environment, bad for the economy, but obviously a great profit for those getting the resource consents being dished out like lollies.
Yup, water should only be free if you harvest it off your roof or your own ponds, if you start taking from National parks, lakes, aquifers then you should have to pay per cubic meter for the water to the government and a levy to the local community and ONLY if it will have a minimal environmental effects.
The resource consents should be able to be modified or nulled if there are any negative effects and the consents should only be for 5 – 10 year periods not forever, so that if there is a drought or what have you – the consents can be modified.
It is crazy how the council and government are just giving away our public resources. Wonder who the company is and who they know in government and council?
Not sure where you live BM but many of us on town water seemed to be already charged for water, therefore why should a small group of people be able to take out millions of litres of water for their business from NZer’s without also paying for their useage?
If you want to avoid water charges collect from your roof or ponds for farms. Not some individuals diverting and taking water from everyone for their own benefit and selling if off shore while many locals are forced to pay for it.
Na mate, they are the first step in sorting out wasteful, entitled bludgers who think they can use as much water as they like and not have to pay for it. Bonus effect in allowing reticulation managers to get a handle on location and quantity of losses from their reticulation. So the result of metering is lower costs to most water users, apart from the wasteful entitled bludgers, who get to pay for their usage.
It’s the political clout of the wasteful entitled bludgers that keeps our water supplies un-metered, and uncontrolled.
The councils seem to be giving away the rate payers water that’s what I am objecting to, by giving private companies resource consent to harvest water for nothing.
It’s one of those things about economics that most people simply do not understand: We need to measure how much of a resource we have, how much of it can be used sustainably per year and how much and where is actually being used.
For some strange reason we’ve developed this idea that we can just take it all without worrying about it.
So, yes, every house, farm and business needs to have a water metre. And if we keep a market system then everyone needs to be charged for each unit that they use.
Like water is so scarce on the West Coast that there is not nearly enough to export.
Seriously, get real here. Why wouldn’t you export water from the West Coast? Standardnistas are always going on about the lack of jobs, especially in the regions, but obviously when they are created you are against them. Go figure.
One of the problems many have with this issue Wayne is the resource belongs to all New Zealanders, yet it will be a privately owned venture that is going to directly profit from this.
If we are going to bulk export water it should be done through Government and for the benefit of all New Zealanders.
I think that if you harvest from your own roof for residential use it should be free or if you irrigate stock from your own pond it should be free. What I object to, is that some locals paying a fortune for water, while other councils are giving it away for export (probably to cronies). Where is the fairness in that?
The point is that our present economic system mistakes money for wealth. Exporting resources actually makes us poorer even though a few people will have more money in the bank.
The Chump says he’s saving jobs in the US. A few hundred at a time. By individually bullying companies (into doing things they were going to do anyway, but the Chump and the company both get good press from bullshitting about it). But he’s promised to trash clean energy, which is one of the fastest growing and high value segments of the US economy. Meanwhile China is creating millions of jobs by getting serious about clean energy.
Trump is into good business and good deals. If “clean energy” can demonstrate its place in the US economy, it’ll have a very good run under Trump.
Meanwhile China is creating millions of jobs by getting serious about clean energy.
NB China is still opening up new thermal plants every month.
The Chump says he’s saving jobs in the US. A few hundred at a time. By individually bullying companies
It’s good to see that we finally have a US President who understands how business makes decisions and doesn’t believe in the free market mumbo jumbo of the Clintons and the Obamas.
Mexican press already complaining that Trump has cost Mexico at least 3600 jobs which were due to move from the US to Mexico.
@ Colonial Viper, Are you seriously saying that you believe Trump ( himself in the1% class) will operate outside his own class ideology, and help workers achieve better more stable conditions/pay over other (1% ers) industrialists/corporatists profit motives, and that he doesn’t believe in a totally free market?
What has he ever done in his own business ventures to have you believe those things?
He’s already doing those things. And it’s not just about Mexico – he’s just fired shots at the Toyota Corporation telling them if they do not build their next plant in the USA, they will face a 35% tariff at the border.
BTW you need to realise that the “elites” are not a monolithic block. History shows us that the “elites” often have conflicting or competing agendas. We can see this quite clearly with the deep state attempting to take the Trump Administration down before it even gets in.
Trump has expressed support for so-called right-to-work legislation, which allows workers to avoid paying union dues. Republican leaders in Congress have consistently sought such a change at the national level. Labor unions say such laws are aimed at undermining collective bargaining and workers’ rights.
It’s ok though, because a shithead propagandist says water is dry.
Trump is making the USA more attractive for business. He’ll threaten businesses who want to move jobs out of the USA. But he’ll also give them lower taxes and more compliant workforce conditions if they stay.
It’s a classic business-like carrot and stick approach.
Obama was just letting Detroit jobs walk away to Mexico – destroying US worker unions that way.
That’s the way of it. Trump can deliver some things, but given the political establishment he is up against, he won’t be able to deliver everything by himself.
You’ll have to point out where I said that. Indeed, I said above that elites often have conflicting or competing interests and that can be seen in how the Deep State is attempting to take Trump and his Administration down. (Implicitly suggesting that Trump is indeed part of the elite).
If anything, saying that Trump is part of the 1% is not wholly accurate. He is more correctly thought of as part of the 1% of the 1%.
Trump’s fellow elitists have long known that they cannot control him like they could control Reagan, Bush, Clinton and (they were hoping), Rodham Clinton.
OK, so just to be clear, are you saying that you believe that American workers, American civil rights, and freedom of speech will all improve overall under a Trump Presidency?
Also what historical episode are you alluding to where ‘elites’ ( a word I loath to use for the leeching class) have turned on their own class for the benefit of workers in a long term and substantive way?
OK, so just to be clear, are you saying that you believe that American workers, American civil rights, and freedom of speech will all improve overall under a Trump Presidency?
They’ll deteriorate at an equal or slower rate than under President Obama’s time.
I can almost guarantee that Trump will prosecute FEWER whistleblowers than the record breaking Orwellian Obama.
Recently, two U.S. coal companies, Peabody Energy Corporation and Arch Coal, filed for bankruptcy amid tumbling coal prices. These companies had invested significantly to acquire coal mines and were particularly hurt by low consumption in China.
Indications are that it will be lower from coal fired generation. So that would indicate that it does matter that China is going to add even more gigawatts of renewable power generation.
Krugman on the Chump’s phony jobs policy and how he’s playing the media with his “saving jobs” schtick.
“In other words, it may have sounded as if Mr. Trump was doing something substantive by intervening with Carrier, but he wasn’t. This was fake policy — a show intended to impress the rubes, not to achieve real results.”
Clinton Camper Krugman is just pissed that he didn’t get the White House position Hillary promised him, and has been losing his mind for the last two months over it.
If Krugman was really interested in policies which make a substantial difference to the US jobs market he should not have been dead-set against Gerald Friedmans estimates of the US economys future under Bernie Sanders economic policy.
Friedman was discussing policies which might actually make a dent in the 75,000 odd churn of the jobs market each day in the US.
The main point is, (as Krugman says), that “Friedman is implicitly assuming that the U.S. economy is (and will continue to be for a long time) dramatically below its productive capacity.” which he disputes. But given that Krugman is saying there that the US is actually much closer to full capacity utilization when dealing with Friedman (which means almost all of the 75,000 turnover will find other jobs quickly) why does he also claim some re-shoring is insignificant because many will languish without jobs for many many years, when dealing with Trump. Of course its because Krugman thinks he can have it both ways on this issue.
Also, despite claiming its fake policy, Krugman does nothing to actually show that the policy doesn’t do exactly what it says it does. e.g the headline of Krugmans piece is based on a lie! (most probably by the editor).
Society and civilisation is already collapsing for the bottom one to two billion in the world.
The stuck up ignorant intellectual-yet-idiots in first class don’t think anything is wrong with the Titanic, but those in steerage have noticed that the water is up to their knees and rising fast.
Even the wealthy locations around the world are experiencing weird, severe weather events year on year. But don’t worry we’re this close to self driving cars and drone courier deliveries which will of course solve all our problems.. not.
Alex Jones and Max Keiser (mid Dec): the Trump effect, death of the MSM, the rise of alternative media, RT as “fake news”, creating jobs in America, Vladimir Putin
I’m putting this in the reply because you mentioned the magic words “fake news”.
Check out this bizzare story of a dating site (yes really) attacking Assange.
There is a link in the article that goes to another story where Wikileaks threatening to sue CNN (the king of all fake news sites IMHO) for labeling Assange as a pedocrim.
thanks for the link. Mildly amazed it made it to mcclatchy as being newsworthy. US Gov has influence over tonnes of front people and front organisations to do this kind of nonsense with, not to mention offsiders like Soros etc funding NGOs who do similar under direction.
Cantabrians, is this an actual issue? Bubbling under the radar or out there in public? Or do people accept the destruction of public good for private profit as just capitalism NZ style in action?
Pretty good piece by Owen Jones here, maybe some on the left could actually now start expend some of their energy on T May, rather than bagging Corbyn for a change, you know divided we fall and all that….I know many free market liberals despise and fear a real socialist Left Wing voice..but maybe 2017 is time for them to wake up and understand that the neo liberal freemarket project as has been vigorously promoted by various ‘centre left’ western political parties is over, exposed as nothing more than a economic ponzi scheme.
“Theresa May backing Donald Trump over Israel is a disgrace”
Thanks for that, Adrian. It’s worth remembering though, that not all Labour Party MPs are moral reprobates, cowards and chickenhawks like Hilary Benn, Tony Blair and Ed Miliband….
I agree, just wish we could get back to having a real Left Labour in New Zealand, one that we could all really fight for, but no, just the same old centrist bullshit.
Who wants to fight for that…nobody that’s who, the best Labour can hope for in 2017 is people voting for them because they are either sick of National, or don’t feel they have any other choice…but certainly not because they are passionate and inspired about Labour as a vehicle of real and needed economic/political change.
Turn Labour Left.
Sorry to pop the hot air balloon – but in my considered opinion, New Zealand is a corrupt, polluted tax haven.
The tip of the giant New Zealand corruption iceberg has been revealed in the ‘Reasons for the Verdict’ of Justice Sally Fitzgerald dated 9 December 2016.
(International ‘Anti-Corruption Day’ – as it happens!)
CRI-2015-044-001286
[2016] NZHC 2970
THE QUEEN v
STEPHEN JAMES BORLASE
MURRAY JOHN NOONE
225 pages – which I have spent DAYS studying.)
The bribes paid by just ONE corrupt private contractor to just ONE corrupt ‘public official’ totalled $1.2 million over 7 years.
How many thousands of ‘public officials’ and thousands of private contractors are there in New Zealand, perceived’ for so many years to be ‘the least corrupt country in the world’ – (according to the, in my view, the effectively bogus and completely meaningless Transparency International ‘Corruption Perception Index’?)
How is it either proper, or lawful, for ‘public officials’ to simultaneously be ‘private consultants’?
(Which has been proven to be the mechanism for the corrupt payment of bribes in the above-mentioned Judgment.)
How is it proper or lawful to have a policy of ‘collaboration’ and
‘co-operation’ between public officials and private consultants and contractors?
In my view, this policy of ‘collaboration’ and ‘co-operation’ between public officials and private consultants/ contractors has now been proven to breed corruption.
How widespread is this policy of ‘collaboration’ and ‘co-operation’ across local and central government?
Anyone else asking – or checking?
How much of this now proven to be fundamentally flawed, policy of ‘collaboration’ and ‘co-operation’ between public officials and private consultants/contractors has come about because of the, in my view, infestation of public official roles with private sector businesspeople?
And the commercialisation of public services, locally, nationally and internationally?
The NZ National Business Review (NBR) has led the charge and published two in-depth investigative articles revealing corruption in the NZ roading industry.
(16 and 23 December 2016
SPECIAL Investigation – Investigative journalist Karyn Scherer).
As a proven anti-corruption campaigner, who has attended five international
anti-corruption conferences, and ‘blown the whistle’ against corruption and the lack of transparency in the spending of public spending on private consultants and contractors for the last ten years – I now feel absolutely vindicated.
I’m standing as an Independent ‘anti-corruption’ candidate in the upcoming Mt Albert by-Election, and look forward to being able to ask some stinking hard questions about corruption in the House under Parliamentary privilege.
The strongest message, in my view, that can be given to this Government that decent New Zealanders want a STOP to corruption is to vote a proven anti-corruption ‘Public Watchdog’ into Parliament.
THAT will send a message that cannot be ignored – locally, nationally and internationally.
SEIZE THE MOMENT!
Penny Bright.
2017 Independent candidate in the Mt Albert by-election.
Attendee: 2010 Transparency International Conference -Bangkok.
Attendee: 2009, 2013, 2015 Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conferences.
“How is it either proper, or lawful, for ‘public officials’ to simultaneously be ‘private consultants’?”
It often isn’t. The public sector routinely uses Conflict of Interest processes to manage potentially competing interests including private business dealings.
It is impossible to prevent immoral arseholes like the primary convict in this case from lying on official COI forms and to successive managers, as revealed in the judgement notes. Yet they were still caught because colleagues had the moral fibre to pursue matters and the public records and testimony convinced the judge to find guilt. Result.
English Grammar
The NZ Herald must be finding it hard to find reporters that have any idea of writing an article and obviously do not proof read.
Refer Split in Trump’s Team.
I always thought that a person’s name was in capital letters and also the name of a organisation. Apparently the US is us. Have also noticed the “word” if that is what you call gotten is creeping in with some.
From the Financial Times: in the UK inherited wealth reinforces/increases wealth inequalities – according to the report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, an economic research organisation.
Basically, it’s increasingly hard for younger generations to build up their own wealth, if they don’t have wealthy parents. The wealthiest among older generations are likely to leave a sizeable sum to their children.
PM May says she aims to decrease inequalities, but her party’s promise to reduce inheritance taxes will work against this.
The amount of wealth held by elderly households has increased rapidly during the past decade because of rising home ownership and higher house prices. The average wealth of households where all members are aged 80 or older rose from £160,000 in 2002 to £230,000 in 2012, the most recent year for which data are available. Owner-occupied housing made up 70 per cent of this in 2012.
This rise has been accompanied by an increase in the share of elderly households expecting to leave a bequest.
…
But the wealth of elderly households is not equally distributed — the richest half hold 90 per cent of the wealth. “Hence a ‘lucky half’ of younger households look likely to get the vast majority of the inherited wealth,” said the authors of the report.
That “lucky half” are likely to already be well-off in their own right. Among people born in the 1970s, nearly 87 per cent of those in the highest income fifth expect to receive some form of inheritance or have already received one. This compares with 58 per cent of those in the lowest income fifth.
So, the housing bubble is feeding into growing wealth inequalities.
The hysterical anti-Russian lies being whipped up by the bitter and thoroughly discredited leadership of the Democratic Party have been mindlessly repeated in this country, with RNZ National and other major outlets leading every bulletin yesterday (Friday 6 January) with the (completely unsupported) allegations made by the notorious perjurer James Clapper….
One of the targets of the Clintonistas’ wrath has been Glenn Greenwald, the outstanding scholar and journalist who in 2014 was labeled “a loser” by our former prime minister John “Quitter” Key. He writes about it at the end of this typically excellent article….
The Washington Post Is Richly Rewarded for False News
About Russia Threat While Public Is Deceived
by GLENN GREENWALD, The Intercept, January 5 2017
….That Russia is a Grave Menace attacking the U.S. has — for obvious reasons — become a critical narrative for Democrats and other Trump opponents who dominate elite media circles on social media and elsewhere. They reward and herald anyone who bolsters that narrative, while viciously attacking anyone who questions it.
Indeed, in my 10-plus years of writing about politics on an endless number of polarizing issues — including the Snowden reporting — nothing remotely compares to the smear campaign that has been launched as a result of the work I’ve done questioning and challenging claims about Russian hacking and the threat posed by that country generally. This is being engineered not by random, fringe accounts, but by the most prominent Democratic pundits with the largest media followings.
I’ve been transformed, overnight, into an early adherent of alt-right ideology, an avid fan of Breitbart, an enthusiastic Trump supporter, and — needless to say — a Kremlin operative. That’s literally the explicit script they’re now using, often with outright fabrications of what I say (see here for one particularly glaring example).
They, of course, know all of this is false. A primary focus of the last 10 years of my journalism has been a defense of the civil liberties of Muslims. I wrote an entire book on the racism and inequality inherent in the U.S. justice system. My legal career involved numerous representations of victims of racial discrimination. I was one of the first journalists to condemn the misleadingly “neutral” approach to reporting on Trump and to call for more explicit condemnations of his extremism and lies. I was one of the few to defend Jorge Ramos from widespread media attacks when he challenged Trump’s immigration extremism. Along with many others, I tried to warn Democrats that nominating a candidate as unpopular as Hillary Clinton risked a Trump victory. And as someone who is very publicly in a same-sex, inter-racial marriage — with someone just elected to public office as a socialist — I make for a very unlikely alt-right leader, to put that mildly.
The malice of this campaign is exceeded only by its blatant stupidity. Even having to dignify it with a defense is depressing, though once it becomes this widespread, one has little choice.
But this is the climate Democrats have successfully cultivated — where anyone dissenting or even expressing skepticism about their deeply self-serving Russia narrative is the target of coordinated and potent smears; where, as The Nation’s James Carden documented yesterday, skepticism is literally equated with treason. And the converse is equally true: Those who disseminate claims and stories that bolster this narrative — no matter how divorced from reason and evidence they are — receive an array of benefits and rewards.
That the story ends up being completely discredited matters little. The damage is done, and the benefits received. Fake News in the narrow sense of that term is certainly something worth worrying about. But whatever one wants to call this type of behavior from the Post, it is a much greater menace given how far the reach is of the institutions that engage in it.
Good one Morrissey.
There are many on this site falling hook, line and sinker for the ‘Democrat’ propaganda maelstrom. It’s a pity the Democrats still can’t come to terms with the fact they ran a poor campaign with an unsuitable candidate.
None of all this bullshit Presidency of Trump would have happened if the DNC hadn’t had their heads up their arses and had had enough nous to see the need for change.
Their pathetic attempts to blame everyone else but themselves just shows what total disarray their Party is in. Shame on them.
You do get that it’s possible for senior Democrats to be trashing Glenn Greenwald and for Russian intelligence services to have hacked the DNC emails, right? The two are not mutually exclusive.
You don’t seem to understand how this stuff works. The source of the allegations isn’t Clapper, it’s the US intelligence services – which, however much we might not like them, do actually have a job to do and to some extent at least they actually do it. Your thoughts on the credibility of the results are no doubt of importance to you, but there’s no reason they should be important to anyone else. What counts is what US government officials think of it, and so far they’re taking it seriously.
The source of the allegations isn’t Clapper, it’s the US intelligence services
Plenty of bullshit allegations and assertions, zero fucking proof. Bill Binney, Ray McGovern, John Kiriakou, Murray Craig, Julian Assange have all been very clear on this.
On the other side of the equation the “intelligence services” keep releasing pointless shit reports like the recent FBI/DHS one and the declassified version of the ODNI report which don’t say a fucking thing except for providing more evidence-free assertions and conclusions.
As usual, you declare claims you don’t like to be “bullshit” “evidence-free assertions,” while those you do like are accepted at face value as “very clear” self-evident truth. That can be funny in a sit-com character, but is simply irritating in a live human.
1. The reports have no credibility.
2. Members of the US Congress and Senate take them seriously, meaning that…
3. We have a problem. A fucking huge one given that it’s all revolving around cranking up tensions with Russia.
The fight against the privatisation of State housing – for which there was never an electoral mandate.
FYI.
As an Independent candidate in the upcoming Mt Albert by-election, I absolutely support the brave stand by Niki Rauiti as a directly-affected State tenant who is fighting the privatisation of State housing by refusing to be evicted.
I will be coming on the march to help defend Niki and State housing on 17 January 2017, and supporting the proceeding occupation.
Let’s help make this a key Mt Albert by-election issue and put a HUGE spotlight on the housing issue that CANNOT be ignored!
Who’s coming with us?
Who else can help get this message out?
THANKS!
Penny Bright
‘Anti-privatisation / anti-corruption Public Watchdog.
2017 Independent candidate
Mt Albert by-election.
______________________________
Tēnā koutou,
We are writing requesting support for Ioela ‘Niki’ Rauti, a long-term tenant who is being evicted from her home at 14 Taniwha Road, Glen Innes.
Niki is to be evicted so that private houses for the wealthy can be built on former Housing New Zealand land.
Niki intends to resist this eviction but requires support in order to be successful.
We will be holding two marches in support of Niki on the 17 January 2017, starting at 6:00pm.
There will be two starting points, the first will be Glen Innes Library, and the second will be the corner of Line Road and West Tāmaki Drive.
Both marches will meet at Niki’s home at 14 Taniwha.
If either the government or the redevelopment company, the Tāmaki Redevelopment Company, have not by this stage halted the eviction, an occupation of the surrounding land will be set up to act as a barrier of defense for Niki.
Niki is an elderly tenant who is also suffering from illness.
Niki is making a stand for the elderly, sick, disabled and for all tenants facing discrimination and eviction due to housing reform and profit-driven redevelopment.
We believe that the ‘housing crisis’ is not addressed through evictions, selling state housing and gentrifying communities.
This eviction is part of nationwide reforms that have led to eviction, displacement, increased homelessness, and transiency.
This fight for Niki is a fight for all tenants facing eviction and displacement.
We are making a call out for support for Niki to try and keep her home, and to make a stand against the Government’s housing policy.
A few suggestions are listed below:
Joining the March on 17 January 2017 as well as the proceeding occupation.
Public support for Niki on your Facebook, through a press release etc.
Sending out details about the occupation to your email lists.
Donating resources such as tents, full list available on the facebook page.
Sending donations to the Tāmaki Housing Group 38-9014-0147012-00
Most importantly we ask for your presence during Niki’s occupation of her home.
Human beings (en masse) are stupid so perhaps as a species we will indeed cease to exist in the not too distant future. We repeat the same mistakes and patterns time after time.
Consider ….diminishing resources+ resurgent eugenics+ Trump…. and be very afraid.
Cold War rhetoric isnt worth repeating because it’s so transparent. Every American intervention from Greece in 1947 to Syria today features a mythical Russian threat.
One thing has changed since 1947, the speed at which finance can travel the globe has increased dramatically transforming the great game from chess (Atrittion) to Go. Ask any Go master why they make a move, they reply, because it feels right.
So The United States doesn”t like overseas interference in their elections. Get over it you guys. The UK and New Zealand have been getting it for years, it’s called, CrosbyTextor.
Two smart home assistants hold a conversation than never sticks to the point and evades any evidence to support outrageous claims. It also includes allegations of lying, assertions of what was said and subsequent denials, and apparently at least one claim to be a god…
Bolivia proving that Socialism works and is profitable.
“Since 2006, Bolivia has been run by socialists every bit as militant as Venezuela’s. The country has experienced a spectacular run of economic growth and poverty reduction with no hint of the chaos that has plagued Venezuela. While inflation spirals toward the 1000 per cent mark in Venezuela, in Bolivia it runs below 4 per cent a year. Shortages of basic consumption goods – rampant in Caracas – are unheard of in La Paz………..
……. Bolivia was running budget surpluses every year between 2006 and 2014. This allowed it to draw down the public sector’s debt, which fell from 83 per cent of GDP in 2003 to just 26 per cent in 2014, even as Bolivia built up its international reserves dramatically, from US$1.7b in 2005 to US$15.1b at the end of the boom in 2014.
Ok Bolivia is resource rich but compared to Venezuela (and some other countries) The Washington Post is applauding the way Socialism and careful management is working there.
In a recent interview with RNZ (14th of January), NZ Council of Civil Liberties Chair Thomas Beagle, in response to Simon Bridges condemnation of the post-Trump Twitter purge of local far Right and other accounts, said the following: “Cos the thing about freedom of expression is that it’s not just ...
Let’s be clear: if Trump is not politically killed off once and for all, he will become a MAGA Dracula, rising from the dead to haunt US politics for years to come and giving inspiration to his wretched family of grifters and thousands of deplorables well into the next decade. ...
Since its demise as an imperial power, and especially its deindustrialisation under Thatcher, the UK's primary economic engine has been its role as a money laundry, using its network of overseas territories as tax havens to enable rich people around the world to steal from the societies they live in. ...
Last month OMV quit the Great South Basin and surrendered its offshore exploration permits outside of Taranaki. This month, Australian-owned Beach Energy has done the same: Beach Energy Resources New Zealand has decided to abandon all of its oil and gas exploration permits off the South Island coast, including ...
The new Northland case has been linked to the South African strain of Covid-19, one of a number of new, more contagious Covid variants. Here’s how they emerge and why. Let’s start with the basics. The genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for Covid-19 is a strand of RNA ...
MARVIN HUBBARD, US citizen by birth, New Zealand citizen by choice, Quaker and left-wing activist, has been broadcasting his show, "Community or Chaos", on Otago Access Radio for the best part of 30 years. On 24 November last year, I spoke with him about the outcome of the 2020 General ...
This is a guest blog post by Daniel Tamberg, Potsdam, co-founder and director of SCIARA GmbH. The non-profit organisation SCIARA is developing and operating a flexible software platform for scientific simulation games that allows thousands of players to explore, design and understand possible climate futures together. Decision-makers in politics, business, ...
Yesterday's Gone: Cold shivers are running up and down the spines of conservatives everywhere. Donald Trump may have gone, but all the signs point to there being something much more momentous in the wind-shift than a simple return to the status quo ante. A change is gonna come. ONE COULD ...
Is it possible to live and let live in the post-Trump era? The online campaign to vilify Christopher Liddell, ex-White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Assistant to Trump, makes for an interesting case study. Liddell is a New Zealander whose illustrious career in corporate America once earned him plaudits ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 17, 2021 through Sat, Jan 23, 2021Editor's Choice12 new books explore fresh approaches to act on climate changeAuthors explore scientific, economic, and political avenues for climate action ...
This discussion is from a Twitter thread by Martin Kulldorff on 20 December 2020. He is a Professor at Harvard Medical School specialising in disease surveillance methods, infectious disease outbreaks and vaccine safety. His Twitter handle is @MartinKulldorff #1 Public health is about all health outcomes, not just a single ...
The Treasury forecasts suggest the economy is doing better than expected after the Covid Shock. John Kenneth Galbraith was wont to say that economic forecasting was designed to make astrology look good. Unfair, but it raises the question of the purpose of economic forecasts. Certainly the public may treat them ...
Q: Will the COVID-19 vaccines prevent the transmission of the coronavirus and bring about community immunity (aka herd immunity)? A: Jury not in yet but vaccines do not have to be perfect to thwart the spread of infection. While vaccines induce protection against illness, they do not always stop actual ...
Joe Biden seems to be everything that Donald Trump was not – decent, straightforward, considerate of others, mindful of his responsibilities – but none of that means that he has an easy path ahead of him. The pandemic still rages, American standing in the world is grievously low, and the ...
Keana VirmaniFrom healthcare robots to data privacy, to sea level rise and Antarctica under the ice: in the four years since its establishment, the Aotearoa New Zealand Science Journalism Fund has supported over 30 projects.Rebecca Priestley, receiving the PM Science Communication Prize (Photo by Mark Tantrum) Associate Professor ...
Nothing more from me today - I'm off to Wellington, to participate in the city's annual roleplaying convention (which has also eaten my time for the whole week, limiting blogging despite there being interesting things happening). Normal bloggage will resume Tuesday. ...
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weaponscame into force today, making the development, possession, use or threat of use of nuclear weapons illegal in international law. Every nuclear-armed state is now a criminal regime. The corporations and scientists who design, build and maintain their illegal weapons are now ...
"Come The Revolution!" The key objective of Bernard Hickey’s revolutionary solution to the housing crisis is a 50 percent reduction in the price of the average family home. This will be achieved by the introduction of Capital Gains, Land, and Wealth taxes, and by the opening up of currently RMA-protected ...
by Daphna Whitmore Twitter and Facebook shutting down Trump’s accounts after his supporters stormed Capitol Hill is old news now but the debates continue over whether the actions against Trump are a good thing or not. Those in favour of banning Trump say Twitter and Facebook are private companies and ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Democrats now control the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives for the first time in a decade, albeit with razor thin Congressional majorities. The last time, in the 111th Congress (2009-2011), House Democrats passed a carbon cap and trade bill, but it died ...
Session thirty-three was highly abbreviated, via having to move house in a short space of time. Oh well. The party decided to ignore the tree-monster and continue the attack on the Giant Troll. Tarsin – flying on a giant summoned bat – dumped some high-grade oil over the ...
Last night I stayed up till 3am just to see then-President Donald Trump leave the White House, get on a plane, and fly off to Florida, hopefully never to return. And when I woke up this morning, America was different. Not perfect, because it never was. Probably not even good, ...
Watching today’s inauguration of Joe Biden as the United States’ 46th president, there’s not a lot in common with the inauguration of Donald Trump just four destructive years ago. Where Trump warned of carnage, Biden dared to hope for unity and decency. But the one place they converge is that ...
Dan FalkBritons who switched on their TVs to “Good Morning Britain” on the morning of Sept. 15, 2020, were greeted by news not from our own troubled world, but from neighboring Venus. Piers Morgan, one of the hosts, was talking about a major science story that had surfaced the ...
Sara LutermanGrowing up autistic in a non-autistic world can be very isolating. We are often strange and out of sync with peers, despite our best efforts. Autistic adults have, until very recently, been largely absent from media and the public sphere. Finding role models is difficult. Finding useful advice ...
Doug JohnsonThe alien-like blooms and putrid stench of Amorphophallus titanum, better known as the corpse flower, draw big crowds and media coverage to botanical gardens each year. In 2015, for instance, around 75,000 people visited the Chicago Botanic Garden to see one of their corpse flowers bloom. More than ...
Getting to Browser Tab Zero so I can reboot the computer is awfully hard when the one open tab is a Table of Contents for the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, and every issue has more stuff I want to read. A few highlights: Gugler et al demonstrating ...
Timothy Ford, University of Massachusetts Lowell and Charles M. Schweik, University of Massachusetts AmherstTo mitigate health inequities and promote social justice, coronavirus vaccines need to get to underserved populations and hard-to-reach communities. There are few places in the U.S. that are unreachable by road, but other factors – many ...
Israel chose to pay a bit over the odds for the Pfizer vaccine to get earlier access. Here’s The Times of Israel from 16 November. American government will be charged $39 for each two-shot dose, and the European bloc even less, but Jerusalem said to agree to pay $56. Israel ...
Orla is a gender critical Marxist in Ireland. She gave a presentation on 15 January 2021 on the connection between postmodern/transgender identity politics and the current attacks on democratic and free speech rights. Orla has been active previously in the Irish Socialist Workers Party and the People Before Profit electoral ...
. . America: The Empire Strikes Back (at itself) Further to my comments in the first part of 2020: The History That Was, the following should be considered regarding the current state of the US. They most likely will be by future historians pondering the critical decades of ...
Nathaniel ScharpingIn March, as the Covid-19 pandemic began to shut down major cities in the U.S., researchers were thinking about blood. In particular, they were worried about the U.S. blood supply — the millions of donations every year that help keep hospital patients alive when they need a transfusion. ...
Sarah L Caddy, University of CambridgeVaccines are a marvel of medicine. Few interventions can claim to have saved as many lives. But it may surprise you to know that not all vaccines provide the same level of protection. Some vaccines stop you getting symptomatic disease, but others stop you ...
Back in 2016, the Portuguese government announced plans to stop burning coal by 2030. But progress has come much quicker, and they're now scheduled to close their last coal plant by the end of this year: The Sines coal plant in Portugal went offline at midnight yesterday evening (14 ...
The Sincerest Form Of Flattery: As anybody with the intestinal fortitude to brave the commentary threads of local news-sites, large and small, will attest, the number of Trump-supporting New Zealanders is really quite astounding. IT’S SO DIFFICULT to resist the temptation to be smug. From the distant perspective of New Zealand, ...
RNZ reports on continued arbitrariness on decisions at the border. British comedian Russell Howard is about to tour New Zealand and other acts allowed in through managed isolation this summer include drag queen RuPaul and musicians at Northern Bass in Mangawhai and the Bay Dreams festival. The vice-president of the ...
As families around the world mourn more than two million people dead from Covid-19, the Plan B academics and their PR industry collaborator continue to argue that the New Zealand government should stop focusing on our managed isolation and quarantine system and instead protect the elderly so that they can ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 10, 2021 through Sat, Jan 16, 2021Editor's ChoiceNASA says 2020 tied for hottest year on record — here’s what you can do to helpPhoto by Michael Held on Unsplash ...
Health authorities in Norway are reporting some concerns about deaths in frail elderly after receiving their COVID-19 vaccine. Is this causally related to the vaccine? Probably not but here are the things to consider. According to the news there have been 23 deaths in Norway shortly after vaccine administration and ...
Happy New Year! No, experts are not concerned that “…one of New Zealand’s COIVD-1( vaccines will fail to protect the country” Here is why. But first I wish to issue an expletive about this journalism (First in Australia and then in NZ). It exhibits utter failure to actually truly consult ...
All nations have shadows; some acknowledge them. For others they shape their image in uncomfortable ways.The staunch Labour supporter was in despair at what her Rogernomics Government was doing. But she finished ‘at least, we got rid of Muldoon’, a response which tells us that then, and today, one’s views ...
Grigori GuitchountsIn November, Springer Nature, one of the world’s largest publishers of scientific journals, made an attention-grabbing announcement: More than 30 of its most prestigious journals, including the flagship Nature, will now allow authors to pay a fee of US$11,390 to make their papers freely available for anyone to read ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gary Yohe, Henry Jacoby, Richard Richels, and Benjamin Santer Imagine a major climate change law passing the U.S. Congress unanimously? Don’t bother. It turns out that you don’t need to imagine it. Get this: The Global Change Research Act of 1990 was passed ...
“They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”WHO CAN FORGET the penultimate scene of the 1956 movie classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The wild-eyed doctor, stumbling down the highway, trying desperately to warn his fellow citizens: “They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”Ostensibly science-fiction, the movie ...
TheOneRing.Net has got its paws on the official synopsis of the upcoming Amazon Tolkien TV series. It’s a development that brings to mind the line about Sauron deliberately releasing Gollum from the dungeons of Barad-dûr. Amazon knew exactly what they were doing here, in terms of drumming up publicity: ...
Since Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953, US presidents have joined an informal club intended to provide support - and occasionally rivalry - between those few who have been ‘leaders of the free world’. Donald Trump, elected on a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ and a constant mocker of his predecessors, ...
For over a decade commentators have noted the rise of a new brand of explicitly ideological politics throughout the world. By this they usually refer to the re-emergence of national populism and avowedly illiberal approaches to governance throughout the “advanced” democratic community, but they also extend the thought to the ...
The US House of Representatives has just impeached Donald Trump, giving him the dubious honour of being the only US President to be impeached twice. Ten Republicans voted for impeachement, making it the most bipartisan impeachment ever. The question now is whether the Senate will rise to the occasion, and ...
Kieren Mitchell; Alice Mouton, Université de Liège; Angela Perri, Durham University, and Laurent Frantz, Ludwig Maximilian University of MunichThanks to the hit television series Game of Thrones, the dire wolf has gained a near-mythical status. But it was a real animal that roamed the Americas for at least 250,000 ...
Tide of tidal data rises Having cast our own fate to include rising sea level, there's a degree of urgency in learning the history of mean sea level in any given spot, beyond idle curiosity. Sea level rise (SLR) isn't equal from one place to another and even at a particular ...
Well, some of those chickens sure came home bigly, didn’t they… and proceeded to shit all over the nice carpet in the Capitol. What we were seeing here are societal forces that have long had difficulty trying to reconcile people to the “idea” of America and the reality of ...
In the wake of Donald Trump's incitement of an assault on the US capitol, Twitter finally enforced its terms of service and suspended his account. They've since followed that up with action against prominent QAnon accounts and Trumpers, including in New Zealand. I'm not unhappy with this: Trump regularly violated ...
Peter S. Ross, University of British ColumbiaThe Arctic has long proven to be a barometer of the health of our planet. This remote part of the world faces unprecedented environmental assaults, as climate change and industrial chemicals threaten a way of life for Inuit and other Indigenous and northern ...
Susan St John makes the case for taxing a deemed rate of return on excessive real estate holdings (after a family home exemption), to redirect scarce housing resources to where they are needed most. Read the full article here ...
I’m less than convinced by arguments that platforms like Twitter should be subject to common carrier regulation preventing them from being able to decide who to keep on as clients of their free services, and who they would not like to serve. It’s much easier to create competition for the ...
The hypocritical actions of political leaders throughout the global Covid pandemic have damaged public faith in institutions and governance. Liam Hehir chronicles the way in which contemporary politicians have let down the public, and explains how real leadership means walking the talk. During the Blitz, when German bombs were ...
Over the years, we've published many rebuttals, blog posts and graphics which came about due to direct interactions with the scientists actually carrying out the underlying research or being knowledgable about a topic in general. We'll highlight some of these interactions in this blog post. We'll start with two memorable ...
Yesterday we had the unseemly sight of a landleech threatening to keep his houses empty in response to better tenancy laws. Meanwhile in Catalonia they have a solution for that: nationalisation: Barcelona is deploying a new weapon in its quest to increase the city’s available rental housing: the power ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters, PhD The 2020 global wildfire season brought extreme fire activity to the western U.S., Australia, the Arctic, and Brazil, making it the fifth most expensive year for wildfire losses on record. The year began with an unprecedented fire event ...
A growing public housing waiting list and continued increase of house prices must be urgently addressed by Government, Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson said today. ...
The green light for New Zealand’s first COVID-19 vaccine could be granted in just over a week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said today. “We’re making swift progress towards vaccinating New Zealanders against the virus, but we’re also absolutely committed to ensuring the vaccines are safe and effective,” Jacinda Ardern said. ...
The Minister for ACC is pleased to announce the appointment of three new members to join the Board of ACC on 1 February 2021. “All three bring diverse skills and experience to provide strong governance oversight to lead the direction of ACC” said Hon Carmel Sepuloni. Bella Takiari-Brame from Hamilton ...
The Government is investing $9 million to upgrade a significant community facility in Invercargill, creating economic stimulus and jobs, Infrastructure Minister Grant Robertson and Te Tai Tonga MP Rino Tirikatene have announced. The grant for Waihōpai Rūnaka Inc to make improvements to Murihiku Marae comes from the $3 billion set ...
[Opening comments, welcome and thank you to Auckland University etc] It is a great pleasure to be here this afternoon to celebrate such an historic occasion - the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This is a moment many feared would never come, but ...
The Government is providing $3 million in one-off seed funding to help disabled people around New Zealand stay connected and access support in their communities, Minister for Disability Issues, Carmel Sepuloni announced today. The funding will allow disability service providers to develop digital and community-based solutions over the next two ...
Border workers in quarantine facilities will be offered voluntary daily COVID-19 saliva tests in addition to their regular weekly testing, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. This additional option will be rolled out at the Jet Park Quarantine facility in Auckland starting on Monday 25 January, and then to ...
The next steps in the Government’s ambitious firearms reform programme to include a three-month buy-back have been announced by Police Minister Poto Williams today. “The last buy-back and amnesty was unprecedented for New Zealand and was successful in collecting 60,297 firearms, modifying a further 5,630 firearms, and collecting 299,837 prohibited ...
Upscaling work already underway to restore two iconic ecosystems will deliver jobs and a lasting legacy, Conservation Minister Kiri Allan says. “The Jobs for Nature programme provides $1.25 billion over four years to offer employment opportunities for people whose livelihoods have been impacted by the COVID-19 recession. “Two new projects ...
The Government has released its Public Housing Plan 2021-2024 which outlines the intention of where 8,000 additional public and transitional housing places announced in Budget 2020, will go. “The Government is committed to continuing its public house build programme at pace and scale. The extra 8,000 homes – 6000 public ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has congratulated President Joe Biden on his inauguration as the 46th President of the United States of America. “I look forward to building a close relationship with President Biden and working with him on issues that matter to both our countries,” Jacinda Ardern said. “New Zealand ...
A major investment to tackle wilding pines in Mt Richmond will create jobs and help protect the area’s unique ecosystems, Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor says. The Mt Richmond Forest Park has unique ecosystems developed on mineral-rich geology, including taonga plant species found nowhere else in the country. “These special plant ...
To further protect New Zealand from COVID-19, the Government is extending pre-departure testing to all passengers to New Zealand except from Australia, Antarctica and most Pacific Islands, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “The change will come into force for all flights arriving in New Zealand after 11:59pm (NZT) on Monday ...
Bay Conservation Cadets launched with first intake Supported with $3.5 million grant Part of $1.245b Jobs for Nature programme to accelerate recover from Covid Cadets will learn skills to protect and enhance environment Environment Minister David Parker today welcomed the first intake of cadets at the launch of the Bay ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan. “The Battle at Te Ruapekapeka Pā, which took ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Véronique Duché, A.R. Chisholm Professor of French, University of Melbourne In this series, writers pay tribute to fictional detectives on the page and on screen. When I first heard that Rowan Atkinson was to put on Maigret’s velvet-collared overcoat, I wondered ...
Auckland writer Olivia Hayfield* explains how she resurrected 16th-century playwright Christopher Marlowe to star in her new novel, Sister to Sister. Olivia Hayfield is a pen name. Real name: Sue Copsey. When I’m planning my modern retellings of historical tales, I read widely on the characters and see who leaps out at ...
The Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine could be approved as early as next week, Marc Daalder reports Medsafe will be asked to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine against Covid-19 on February 2, the Government has announced. The Medicines Assessment Advisory Committee (MAAC) is an independent panel that provides advice on some medicine approvals in ...
COMMENT:By Bryan Kramer, PNG’s Minister of Police who has defended Commissioner Manning’s appointment today in The National My last article, announcing that I intend to make a submission to the National Executive Council (NEC) to amend the Public Service regulation to no longer require the Commissioner of Police to ...
The Point of Order Trough Monitor was triggered today by the announcement of a $9 million handout for Southlanders – sorry, some Southlanders. The news came from the office of Grant Robertson who, as Minister of Finance, prefers to invest public money rather than give it away – especially when ...
Few people outside of her campaign team gave Chlöe Swarbrick any chance of winning in Auckland Central this year – but the Green Party MP was too busy to listen. Here’s how they turned the electorate green.First published November 12, 2020.Three Ticks Chlöe is part of Frame, a series of short ...
Interactions between parents and healthcare providers could have a big impact on the wellbeing of our children, according to new research. The way parents and healthcare providers interact has lasting implications for children’s health, new research has found – and that includes immunisation uptake.Released today, the report is based on research ...
The Opposition starts the political year calling for emergency, temporary legislation to free up house building National leader Judith Collins has set five priorities for her party over the next three years - but excluded climate change, education and Crown-Māori relations. Giving her first 'state of the nation' speech as party ...
One of the biggest challenges facing the Ardern government is in public health. New Zealand may have escaped the pressures heaped on other health systems by the Covid-19 pandemic but its health service has had its problems, not least those exposed in the first report from Heather Simpson and her ...
New Zealand’s Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins has revealed that 14 close contacts of the Northland community case have returned negative test results. Yesterday he announced two close contacts – her husband and hair dresser – were negative. In his tweet, Hipkins described the news as “encouraging”. However, New ...
Pacific Media Watch newsdesk Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned the arbitrary and opaque experiments that Google is conducting with its search engine in Australia, with the consequence that many national news websites are no longer appearing in the search results seen by some users. The Australian, ABC, Australian Financial ...
Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta says councils can take stronger action against companies dumping contaminated waste water, even though they have identified loopholes in the law on fines. ...
Drag Race Down Under, part of the popular RuPaul’s Drag Race franchise, is filming in New Zealand. In their own words, local drag talent share what drag means to them and how it might be impacted by the show.RuPaul’s Drag Race is, quite simply, a television phenomenon. Love it or ...
For a long time, weighted blankets were considered a specialist device. Now they’re popular with even the most normal sleepers.Growing up, Temple Grandin spent time on her aunt’s cattle ranch in America, watching cow after stressed cow enter a squeeze chute and come out calm as the dead sea. She ...
Increased provisional tax thresholds, immediate low-value asset write offs and allowing the deferral of tax payments and use of money interest (UOMI) write offs were the most popular tax measures introduced by the Government to help businesses survive ...
The latest fleeing driver statistics show the numbers of incidents sky-rocketing out of control through 2020 with Police deciding the only tactic is to give up on chasing altogether, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. “The inconvenient truth is ...
With new revelations of the appalling racism behind Israel’s refusal to provide Covid-19 vaccines to 4.5 million Palestinians under its occupation and control, PSNA has renewed our call for the government to speak out alongside the United Nations ...
The Youth of NZ will be standing up for climate action once again, on January 26th outside of Parliament for School Strike 4 Climate NZ’s 100 Days 4 Action campaign rally. “COVID-19 may have stopped us in our tracks in the past. However, I tend ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Parwinder Kaur, Associate Professor | Director, DNA Zoo Australia, University of Western Australia Koalas are unique in the animal kingdom, living on a eucalyptus diet that would kill other creatures and drinking so little their name comes from the Dharug word gula, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By S. Anna Florin, Research fellow, University of Wollongong Archaeological research provides a long-term perspective on how humans survived various environmental conditions over tens of thousands of years. In a paper published today in Nature Ecology and Evolution, we’ve tracked rainfall in northern ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Binoy Kampmark, Senior Lecturer in Global Studies, Social Science & Planning, RMIT University Since 2005, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has been one of the most stable and enduring of political forces, both in Europe and on the global stage. During her 16 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Véronique Duché, A.R. Chisholm Professor of French, University of Melbourne In this series, writers pay tribute to fictional detectives on the page and on screen. When I first heard that Rowan Atkinson was to put on Maigret’s velvet-collared overcoat, I wondered ...
*This article first appeared on RNZ and is republished with permission. Experts are calling for hotels with sub-par ventilation systems to no longer be used as managed isolation facilities as health officials investigate how a Northland woman became infected with Covid-19 while staying at the Pullman hotel, Rowan Quinn reports. ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for January 26, keeping you up to date with the latest local and international news. Reach me on stewart@thespinoff.co.nzOur Members make The Spinoff happen! Every dollar contributed directly funds our editorial team – click here to learn more about how you can support us ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Questions to be answered about case in the community, major companies flagrantly breaching wastewater consents, and Tenancy Tribunal decisions harming abuse survivors.As of this morning, we’re still waiting on some crucial information about the situation in Northland, after a person travelled ...
With democracy what now separates the US from its adversaries, Wellington can bet on more continuity than change in Washington’s hardline view of China. ...
We continue our week-long examination of writer Roderick Finlayson. Today: his daughter Kate on his doomed love for Poti Mita, whose family inspired him to write short stories about Māori life in the 1930s We all knew of Poti Mita and how important Pukehina was to Dad. He wanted ...
Sleepyhead is chopping and changing its ambitious plan to build a super-factory and a community of 1100 medium density houses on a block of farmland in the north Waikato. Sydney Turner set his grandsons Craig and Graeme to work on the factory floor, building mattresses. Now Craig and Graeme Turner own ...
Helen Petousis-Harris looks at the potential complications of vaccinating older New Zealanders - and how we should prepare Two weeks ago health authorities in Norway reported some concerns about deaths in frail elderly after receiving their Covid-19 vaccine. Are these deaths related to the vaccine? Probably not but here are ...
A change of plans for round-the-world single-handed sailor Elana Connor means she's helping Kiwi kids in foster care to go sailing - as she also seeks to 'demystify' the sport for women. Elana Connor wears a silver necklace engraved with the word “Fearlessness”. As she sails solo around the globe, it reminds her that ...
New Zealand rose to the occasion in its response to Covid-19. Will it do the same for climate change? Jack Santa Barbara looks ahead to the Climate Change Commission report. New Zealand’s management of the Covid pandemic clearly demonstrated the benefits of paying attention to the science and prioritising human wellbeing ...
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with some capabilities to ensure increased NZ self sufficiency in a deglobalising world.
[I”ve asked you to stay out of commenting on my posts, please don’t do it again – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Colonial Viper
Don’t know what that’s about CV and don’t want to know but I agree with your comment.
It is a practical and necessary path to follow.
Cheers GWS.
Some links to docos you might enjoy CV ….. although you may have seen them before …….. others could enjoy or learn from them …..
When I’m reading an article on the net and a name or operation I know nothing about is mentioned …. I ‘right click’ and search to see where the information leads and how it ties into things … it can end up very informative sometimes. …
It was while watching a doco about Kissinger and his huge crimes against humanity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLMf-E9VRxc
http://www.globalresearch.ca/reliving-agent-orange-rethinking-the-cost-of-vietnam-war/5566106 …. that lead
me to Douglas Valentine …. http://www.douglasvalentine.com/bio.htm
Doug Valentine is a investigative journalist who after 4 years of research and interviews with C.I.A agents wrote a book “The Phoenix Program ” which ran during the Vietnam war …. “,…. it’s described as “A shocking exposé of
the covert CIA program of widespread torture, rape, and murder of civilians during America’s war in Vietnam,” …..
In this radio interview Doug Valentine describes his upbringing with a WWII vet father and how he got onto the phoenix program which was unknown to the public and had been a secret for 20 odd years https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkPUqUAhBg8 ……..
A lot of the doco explains specific propaganda and manipulation used to gain support for mass murder ( war )…………… He also gives a review of how he thinks Trump will operate… which is both critical and hopeful … Its a pack of murderers Trump will have to deal with and they certainly will not want to stop their sadistic blood democracy
But of course Vietnam and The Phoenix Program was just a continuation of using the worst psychopathic killers to suppress real democracy , murder political rivals, start wars, starve innocent civilians ….. and misinform us about it the whole time ….
“Operation Gladio” involved the C.I.As predecessor O.S.S and was specifically about the recruitment of Nazis,ultra-fascists and extreme right wingers after WWII was over………….. they were hidden militias/terrorist
Put in place to fight, kill and suppress democratic movements or governments …calling them socialists/communists …. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trGfQREzScY …
The Govt sponsered nazis Killed many many innocent people …. which was then most often blamed on communists/socialist … using the resulting public outrage to kill or persecute them.
Which all leads me to ask ……. why do we …. as in New Zealand ….have a trade embargo against Russia for protecting ethnic russians and others from a proto fascist govt installed after destabilization and a violent coup ????….
http://nsnbc.me/2014/05/10/odessa-massacre-detail-investigation/
These nazi fascist scum are what the russians lost over 20 million citizens fighting against in WWII ………
Its mainly our farmers who are paying for NZs support of fascism at the moment .. ….. good to see National party supporters paying for their fascist support policy http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2016/11/united-states-votes-anti-nazi-un-resolution/
“The International Criminal Court prosecutes individuals who have committed genocide and other major war crimes. Over 120 countries support it, but the United States is not one of them ……. ”
It all seems very disrespectful to WWII vets …. democracy u.s.a style ……….supporting Nazis
At least by not having a real air-force we did not become part of the ISIS aerial fighting wing like the Aussies and yanks did ….
Which all leads me to ask ……. why do we …. as in New Zealand ….have a trade embargo against Russia for protecting ethnic russians and others from a proto fascist govt installed after destabilization and a violent coup ????….
It certainly would be highly questionable, if the situation you describe reflected reality rather than fiction.
Thank you reason. The USA utterly destroyed its credibility with its actions in Vietnam, and has never come to terms with how appalling they really are(still).
Cheers garibaldi ………. one of the truly evil deeds done at the end of WWII was when the Brits reinstated the Fascist Nazi collaborators as police and Government in Greece ….. while waging war on the anti Nazi Greek partisan fighters who had liberated their country shortly before the Brits arrived …
….” as the December Battle of Athens had begun – known in Greece as the Dekemvriana – fought not between the British and the Nazis, but the British alongside supporters of the Nazis against the partisans. ” ……
“And thereafter Greece’s descent into catastrophic civil war: a cruel and bloody episode in British as well as Greek history which every Greek knows to their core”
” In France or Italy, if you fought the Nazis, you were respected in society after the war, regardless of ideology; they were heroes. In Greece, you found yourself fighting – or imprisoned and tortured by – the people who had collaborated with the Nazis, on British orders. There has never been a reckoning with that crime,” …. https://libcom.org/history/british-perfidy-greece-story-worth-remembering-ed-vulliamy-helena-smith
True Heroes and decent people were killed and slaughtered and its quite bloody tragic ………. “Greek politician, physician, track and field athlete, pacifist……. ” …….. http://2013.100daysproject.co.nz/project/day/80/2013/118
Those other Docos I posted up for Puckish were probably a bit long for Puckish …….. Here’s a 6 minute music one which has a simple message for him https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5yYjcxnpCs
He might learn a new language …………..:)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_casualties_in_World_War_II
thank you reason. It seems that we have to educate some privileged citizens of the US-Anglo empire what their own recent history is. I bet some still think that the Contras were the “popularly supported freedom fighters”
My sister made some purchases in Briscoes yesterday. The salesman produced a plastic bag which she said she didn’t want. We were told they had to either give us a bag or put a ‘sold’ sticker on every item. Grrr!!
I would have thought that a till receipt gives you all the proof of purchase you need.
Exactly – and when every other company is ( or says it is) trying to cut back on plastic waste, what does this Australian company think it’s up to?
Once they’re paid for they belong to you and you can do whatever you like with them, including deciding you don’t want extra stickers. Plus what Ffloyd said.
They’d probably then insist on stickering or bagging them before the transaction was completed. There’s probably something politically creative to do with the bag or stickers at that point 😈
Indeed that was what happened.
Hi weka, I would cynically suggest, insisting on a bag is no more than an advertising initiative.
when this happen, accept the bag, go to the next rubbish bin outside of the shop and put any surplus packaging, plastic bags, plastic wrappings etc in said rubbish bin.
If someone from the Mall asks why you do that you simply state that you did not want the plastic bag/packaging/plastic wrapping and thus you leave it behind to let the store deal with the rubbish.
IF/when enough people do that and the shops/mall have ot empty their rubbish containers several times more a day some businesses will stop using any extra packaging.
I do that often at the Supermarket/Paknslave with plastic wrappers around boxes around bottles and the likes. Not gonna schlepp that stuff home.
Not a bad idea, but if this is a company policy I think I need to kick up a public fuss as well
it will be a company policy. Their bags are branded and while you walk around with your briscoes bag, your pak n slave bags etc etc you are a walking talking advertisement for the company and in many cases you have to pay 10 cents for the privelege.
Kick a fuss with the company and then start leaving all the surpluss packaging behind in the shops and let them deal with the rubbish.
Why would you a. schlepp that stuff home and b. pay for having it removed as rubbish?
Thank you Polly.
Predatory health professionals should be put in prison IMHO. Instead the system continues protects them.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11694042
When I’m reading an article on the net and a name or operation I know nothing about is mentioned I ‘right click’ and search to see where
the information leads and how it ties into things …
It was while watching a doco about Kissinger and his huge crimes against humanity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLMf-E9VRxc
http://www.globalresearch.ca/reliving-agent-orange-rethinking-the-cost-of-vietnam-war/5566106 …. that lead
me to Douglas Valentine …. http://www.douglasvalentine.com/bio.htm
Doug Valentine is a investigative journalist who after 4 years of research and interviews with C.I.A agents wrote a book “The Phoenix Program ” which ran during the Vietnam war …. “,…. it’s described as “A shocking exposé of
the covert CIA program of widespread torture, rape, and murder of civilians during America’s war in Vietnam,” …..
In this radio interview he describes his upbringing with a WWII vet father and how he got onto the phoenix program which was unknown to the public and had been a secret for 20 odd years https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkPUqUAhBg8 ……..
A lot of the doco explains specific propaganda and manipulation used to gain support for mass murder ( war )…………… He also gives a review of how he thinks Trump will operate… which is both critical and hopeful … Its a pack of murderers Trump will have to deal with and they certainly will not want to stop.
But of course Vietnam and The Phoenix Program was just a continuation of using the worst psychopathic killers to suppress real democracy , murder political rivals, start wars, starve innocent civilians ….. and misinform us about it the whole time ….
“Operation Gladio” involved the C.I.As predecessor O.S.S and was specifically about the recruitment of Nazis,ultra-fascists and extreme right wingers after WWII was over………….. they were hidden militias/terrorist
Put in place to fight, kill and suppress democratic movements or governments …calling them socialists/communists …. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trGfQREzScY …
The Govt sponsered nazis Killed many many innocent people …. which was then most often blamed on communists/socialist … using the resulting public outrage to kill or persecute them.
Which all leads me to ask ……. why do we …. as in New Zealand ….have a trade embargo against Russia for protecting ethnic russians and others from a proto fascist govt installed after destabilization and a violent coup ????….
http://nsnbc.me/2014/05/10/odessa-massacre-detail-investigation/
These nazi fascist scum are what the russians lost over 20 million citizens fighting against in WWII ………
Yet here we are ……http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2016/11/united-states-votes-anti-nazi-un-resolution/
“The International Criminal Court prosecutes individuals who have committed genocide and other major war crimes. Over 120 countries support it, but the United States is not one of them ……. ”
Its mainly our farmers who are paying for NZs support of fascism at the moment .. ….. good to see National party supporters paying for their policy
At least by not having a real air-force we did not become part of the ISIS aerial fighting wing like the Aussies and yanks did ….
A wealthy Nigerian Prince has died and left his entire £12 million fortune to his cat.
He was quoted as saying, “I’ve tried to give it away on numerous occasions over the years but no one ever responded to my e-mails”
Haha Macro.
From national park to overseas: Plan to export billions of litres of West Coast water
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/88099749/from-national-park-to-overseas-plan-to-export-billions-of-litres-of-west-coast-water
– Great to see that we just give our natural resources away to anyone who puts in a resource consent. sarc.
It comes in two flavours: norovirus and campylobacter.
Wot? They’ve dropped giardia from the lineup?
Silly billies, the buggy water is saved for Kiwis.
Like our building industry where we sell raw materials for peanuts to buy back for a fortune, we can now give our water away to buy back in plastic bottles for $3. Bad for the environment, bad for the economy, but obviously a great profit for those getting the resource consents being dished out like lollies.
Some political party should revoke all these fucking water exporting rights. Labour, get on to it
Yup, water should only be free if you harvest it off your roof or your own ponds, if you start taking from National parks, lakes, aquifers then you should have to pay per cubic meter for the water to the government and a levy to the local community and ONLY if it will have a minimal environmental effects.
The resource consents should be able to be modified or nulled if there are any negative effects and the consents should only be for 5 – 10 year periods not forever, so that if there is a drought or what have you – the consents can be modified.
It is crazy how the council and government are just giving away our public resources. Wonder who the company is and who they know in government and council?
So, water meters for all residential properties.?
Not really too excited about that one.
Not sure where you live BM but many of us on town water seemed to be already charged for water, therefore why should a small group of people be able to take out millions of litres of water for their business from NZer’s without also paying for their useage?
If you want to avoid water charges collect from your roof or ponds for farms. Not some individuals diverting and taking water from everyone for their own benefit and selling if off shore while many locals are forced to pay for it.
Water meters are the first step in privatisation.
I don’t want our water supply sold off to a multinational, I’d prefer the city and rate payers stay in control of the water supply.
Wow, BM. That’s very socialist of you.
That seems to be a major disconnect from what’s actually happening.
The private companies are getting hold of our water and are exporting it with minimal controls and they’re not paying for it either.
Na mate, they are the first step in sorting out wasteful, entitled bludgers who think they can use as much water as they like and not have to pay for it. Bonus effect in allowing reticulation managers to get a handle on location and quantity of losses from their reticulation. So the result of metering is lower costs to most water users, apart from the wasteful entitled bludgers, who get to pay for their usage.
It’s the political clout of the wasteful entitled bludgers that keeps our water supplies un-metered, and uncontrolled.
+111
The councils seem to be giving away the rate payers water that’s what I am objecting to, by giving private companies resource consent to harvest water for nothing.
Traitor to the right!
Auckland has had them for at least 40 years.
It’s one of those things about economics that most people simply do not understand: We need to measure how much of a resource we have, how much of it can be used sustainably per year and how much and where is actually being used.
For some strange reason we’ve developed this idea that we can just take it all without worrying about it.
So, yes, every house, farm and business needs to have a water metre. And if we keep a market system then everyone needs to be charged for each unit that they use.
Strongly agree.
CV,
Like water is so scarce on the West Coast that there is not nearly enough to export.
Seriously, get real here. Why wouldn’t you export water from the West Coast? Standardnistas are always going on about the lack of jobs, especially in the regions, but obviously when they are created you are against them. Go figure.
Go and ask Damian O’Connor what he thinks.
That’s not a good argument for tax evasion, Wayne!
One of the problems many have with this issue Wayne is the resource belongs to all New Zealanders, yet it will be a privately owned venture that is going to directly profit from this.
If we are going to bulk export water it should be done through Government and for the benefit of all New Zealanders.
Yes, correct.
Why do you RWNJs always think that resources are unlimited?
How to make a country poor: Export all its resources for money
I think that if you harvest from your own roof for residential use it should be free or if you irrigate stock from your own pond it should be free. What I object to, is that some locals paying a fortune for water, while other councils are giving it away for export (probably to cronies). Where is the fairness in that?
The point is that our present economic system mistakes money for wealth. Exporting resources actually makes us poorer even though a few people will have more money in the bank.
The Chump says he’s saving jobs in the US. A few hundred at a time. By individually bullying companies (into doing things they were going to do anyway, but the Chump and the company both get good press from bullshitting about it). But he’s promised to trash clean energy, which is one of the fastest growing and high value segments of the US economy. Meanwhile China is creating millions of jobs by getting serious about clean energy.
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-to-abandon-millions-of-high-wage-jobs-to-china-3554a04796b1#.qyh3a1owu
Trump is into good business and good deals. If “clean energy” can demonstrate its place in the US economy, it’ll have a very good run under Trump.
NB China is still opening up new thermal plants every month.
It’s good to see that we finally have a US President who understands how business makes decisions and doesn’t believe in the free market mumbo jumbo of the Clintons and the Obamas.
Mexican press already complaining that Trump has cost Mexico at least 3600 jobs which were due to move from the US to Mexico.
@ Colonial Viper, Are you seriously saying that you believe Trump ( himself in the1% class) will operate outside his own class ideology, and help workers achieve better more stable conditions/pay over other (1% ers) industrialists/corporatists profit motives, and that he doesn’t believe in a totally free market?
What has he ever done in his own business ventures to have you believe those things?
He’s already doing those things. And it’s not just about Mexico – he’s just fired shots at the Toyota Corporation telling them if they do not build their next plant in the USA, they will face a 35% tariff at the border.
BTW you need to realise that the “elites” are not a monolithic block. History shows us that the “elites” often have conflicting or competing agendas. We can see this quite clearly with the deep state attempting to take the Trump Administration down before it even gets in.
Meanwhile, on Earth:
It’s ok though, because a shithead propagandist says water is dry.
Trump is making the USA more attractive for business. He’ll threaten businesses who want to move jobs out of the USA. But he’ll also give them lower taxes and more compliant workforce conditions if they stay.
It’s a classic business-like carrot and stick approach.
Obama was just letting Detroit jobs walk away to Mexico – destroying US worker unions that way.
“…more compliant workforce conditions…”
TRANSLATION: Few if any workers’ rights, no overtime pay, little or no safety regulations, instant dismissal at the whim of the boss….
That’s the way of it. Trump can deliver some things, but given the political establishment he is up against, he won’t be able to deliver everything by himself.
” … less tax for the worker, more money in workers’ pockets, more spending power …”
You’re welcome.
“…dead at the bottom of a mineshaft…”
You’re welcome.
Why do you not think that Trump is an elite?
You’ll have to point out where I said that. Indeed, I said above that elites often have conflicting or competing interests and that can be seen in how the Deep State is attempting to take Trump and his Administration down. (Implicitly suggesting that Trump is indeed part of the elite).
If anything, saying that Trump is part of the 1% is not wholly accurate. He is more correctly thought of as part of the 1% of the 1%.
Trump’s fellow elitists have long known that they cannot control him like they could control Reagan, Bush, Clinton and (they were hoping), Rodham Clinton.
BINGO – you got it, millsy.
OK, so just to be clear, are you saying that you believe that American workers, American civil rights, and freedom of speech will all improve overall under a Trump Presidency?
Also what historical episode are you alluding to where ‘elites’ ( a word I loath to use for the leeching class) have turned on their own class for the benefit of workers in a long term and substantive way?
They’ll deteriorate at an equal or slower rate than under President Obama’s time.
I can almost guarantee that Trump will prosecute FEWER whistleblowers than the record breaking Orwellian Obama.
@Adrian: Yes, CV really is that special kind of stupid.
China Bans New Coal-fired Power Plants
from the link
No worries…
The Chump will reopen the US mines and bring back heaps of jobs!
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/20/world/americas/alienated-and-angry-coal-miners-see-donald-trump-as-their-only-choice.html?_r=0
Oh Wait! That’s from the NY Times – purveyors of Fake News!
Oh Wait! No matter what Trump says – Mining jobs are not returning to W Virginia
CV response in … 1, 2, 3,….
A temporary ban/slow down on new thermal units due to overcapacity and falling profitability, not due to environmental concerns
http://www.powermag.com/despite-policy-shifts-china-faces-huge-coal-fired-overcapacity/
And yet they’re also pushing massive investment in renewable energy.
Let’s get down to brass tacks, Draco. Is China’s CO2 emissions in 2017 going to be higher or lower than in 2015 and 2016?
Because if it’s higher then it doesn’t matter a rat’s arse if China adds a million square kilometres of solar panels.
Indications are that it will be lower from coal fired generation. So that would indicate that it does matter that China is going to add even more gigawatts of renewable power generation.
Krugman on the Chump’s phony jobs policy and how he’s playing the media with his “saving jobs” schtick.
“In other words, it may have sounded as if Mr. Trump was doing something substantive by intervening with Carrier, but he wasn’t. This was fake policy — a show intended to impress the rubes, not to achieve real results.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/opinion/the-age-of-fake-policy.html?ref=opinion&_r=0
Clinton Camper Krugman is just pissed that he didn’t get the White House position Hillary promised him, and has been losing his mind for the last two months over it.
A bit like you and the Labour Party, eh.
Explain? The Labour Party has no money to pay people with. It relies on free work done for it at no cost to keep functioning.
lol now you’re parroting Pauline Hanson, but without the courtesy of a “please”.
Perhaps you can explain then? Please?
Only if you clearly explain your obsession with pizza parlours. Maybe you should “self investigate”.
If Krugman was really interested in policies which make a substantial difference to the US jobs market he should not have been dead-set against Gerald Friedmans estimates of the US economys future under Bernie Sanders economic policy.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/02/26/romer-and-romer-on-friedman/
Friedman was discussing policies which might actually make a dent in the 75,000 odd churn of the jobs market each day in the US.
The main point is, (as Krugman says), that “Friedman is implicitly assuming that the U.S. economy is (and will continue to be for a long time) dramatically below its productive capacity.” which he disputes. But given that Krugman is saying there that the US is actually much closer to full capacity utilization when dealing with Friedman (which means almost all of the 75,000 turnover will find other jobs quickly) why does he also claim some re-shoring is insignificant because many will languish without jobs for many many years, when dealing with Trump. Of course its because Krugman thinks he can have it both ways on this issue.
Also, despite claiming its fake policy, Krugman does nothing to actually show that the policy doesn’t do exactly what it says it does. e.g the headline of Krugmans piece is based on a lie! (most probably by the editor).
Indeed. Krugman is Killarys handbag, like Podesta, aka one job, all they had to do was say yes.
Heh. More Chump job creation. Nervous companies hire more PR people for rapid response to 3am tweets.
http://www.salon.com/2017/01/06/donald-trumps-early-morning-tweetstorms-are-creating-jobs-for-nervous-pr-people/
Interesting science prediction. There will be a red nova sometime around 2022 from a binary star finally collapsing into itself.
http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/1/6/14184094/scientists-predict-stars-colliding
Joke science prediction: society will collapse within 10 years! It’s real! It’s based on actual math and social science and stuff!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/peter-turchin-cliodynamics-society-collapse_us_586f1e22e4b02b5f85882988?section=us_science
(Sorry if this excites the “We’re doomed Dooooomed I tells ya” crowd)
Society and civilisation is already collapsing for the bottom one to two billion in the world.
The stuck up ignorant intellectual-yet-idiots in first class don’t think anything is wrong with the Titanic, but those in steerage have noticed that the water is up to their knees and rising fast.
Even the wealthy locations around the world are experiencing weird, severe weather events year on year. But don’t worry we’re this close to self driving cars and drone courier deliveries which will of course solve all our problems.. not.
Alex Jones and Max Keiser (mid Dec): the Trump effect, death of the MSM, the rise of alternative media, RT as “fake news”, creating jobs in America, Vladimir Putin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUAadLdfShw
I’m putting this in the reply because you mentioned the magic words “fake news”.
Check out this bizzare story of a dating site (yes really) attacking Assange.
There is a link in the article that goes to another story where Wikileaks threatening to sue CNN (the king of all fake news sites IMHO) for labeling Assange as a pedocrim.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article110904727.html
thanks for the link. Mildly amazed it made it to mcclatchy as being newsworthy. US Gov has influence over tonnes of front people and front organisations to do this kind of nonsense with, not to mention offsiders like Soros etc funding NGOs who do similar under direction.
I don’t think AI is quite ready to go Terminator on us. Bizarrely hilarious.
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2017/01/thousands-of-people-are-watching-two-google-homes-argue-with-each-other-on-twitch/
Cantabrians, is this an actual issue? Bubbling under the radar or out there in public? Or do people accept the destruction of public good for private profit as just capitalism NZ style in action?
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2017/01/the-selwyn-river-s-unbelievable-decline.html
Pretty good piece by Owen Jones here, maybe some on the left could actually now start expend some of their energy on T May, rather than bagging Corbyn for a change, you know divided we fall and all that….I know many free market liberals despise and fear a real socialist Left Wing voice..but maybe 2017 is time for them to wake up and understand that the neo liberal freemarket project as has been vigorously promoted by various ‘centre left’ western political parties is over, exposed as nothing more than a economic ponzi scheme.
“Theresa May backing Donald Trump over Israel is a disgrace”
Thanks for that, Adrian. It’s worth remembering though, that not all Labour Party MPs are moral reprobates, cowards and chickenhawks like Hilary Benn, Tony Blair and Ed Miliband….
I agree, just wish we could get back to having a real Left Labour in New Zealand, one that we could all really fight for, but no, just the same old centrist bullshit.
Who wants to fight for that…nobody that’s who, the best Labour can hope for in 2017 is people voting for them because they are either sick of National, or don’t feel they have any other choice…but certainly not because they are passionate and inspired about Labour as a vehicle of real and needed economic/political change.
Turn Labour Left.
Who wants our ‘clean, green’ New Zealand back?
Sorry to pop the hot air balloon – but in my considered opinion, New Zealand is a corrupt, polluted tax haven.
The tip of the giant New Zealand corruption iceberg has been revealed in the ‘Reasons for the Verdict’ of Justice Sally Fitzgerald dated 9 December 2016.
(International ‘Anti-Corruption Day’ – as it happens!)
CRI-2015-044-001286
[2016] NZHC 2970
THE QUEEN v
STEPHEN JAMES BORLASE
MURRAY JOHN NOONE
225 pages – which I have spent DAYS studying.)
The bribes paid by just ONE corrupt private contractor to just ONE corrupt ‘public official’ totalled $1.2 million over 7 years.
How many thousands of ‘public officials’ and thousands of private contractors are there in New Zealand, perceived’ for so many years to be ‘the least corrupt country in the world’ – (according to the, in my view, the effectively bogus and completely meaningless Transparency International ‘Corruption Perception Index’?)
How is it either proper, or lawful, for ‘public officials’ to simultaneously be ‘private consultants’?
(Which has been proven to be the mechanism for the corrupt payment of bribes in the above-mentioned Judgment.)
How is it proper or lawful to have a policy of ‘collaboration’ and
‘co-operation’ between public officials and private consultants and contractors?
In my view, this policy of ‘collaboration’ and ‘co-operation’ between public officials and private consultants/ contractors has now been proven to breed corruption.
How widespread is this policy of ‘collaboration’ and ‘co-operation’ across local and central government?
Anyone else asking – or checking?
How much of this now proven to be fundamentally flawed, policy of ‘collaboration’ and ‘co-operation’ between public officials and private consultants/contractors has come about because of the, in my view, infestation of public official roles with private sector businesspeople?
And the commercialisation of public services, locally, nationally and internationally?
The NZ National Business Review (NBR) has led the charge and published two in-depth investigative articles revealing corruption in the NZ roading industry.
(16 and 23 December 2016
SPECIAL Investigation – Investigative journalist Karyn Scherer).
As a proven anti-corruption campaigner, who has attended five international
anti-corruption conferences, and ‘blown the whistle’ against corruption and the lack of transparency in the spending of public spending on private consultants and contractors for the last ten years – I now feel absolutely vindicated.
I’m standing as an Independent ‘anti-corruption’ candidate in the upcoming Mt Albert by-Election, and look forward to being able to ask some stinking hard questions about corruption in the House under Parliamentary privilege.
The strongest message, in my view, that can be given to this Government that decent New Zealanders want a STOP to corruption is to vote a proven anti-corruption ‘Public Watchdog’ into Parliament.
THAT will send a message that cannot be ignored – locally, nationally and internationally.
SEIZE THE MOMENT!
Penny Bright.
2017 Independent candidate in the Mt Albert by-election.
Attendee: 2010 Transparency International Conference -Bangkok.
Attendee: 2009, 2013, 2015 Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conferences.
Attendee: 2014 G20 Anti-Corruption Conference.
I’m sure that is just the tip of the Iceberg, Penny.
Indeed it is …..
“How is it either proper, or lawful, for ‘public officials’ to simultaneously be ‘private consultants’?”
It often isn’t. The public sector routinely uses Conflict of Interest processes to manage potentially competing interests including private business dealings.
It is impossible to prevent immoral arseholes like the primary convict in this case from lying on official COI forms and to successive managers, as revealed in the judgement notes. Yet they were still caught because colleagues had the moral fibre to pursue matters and the public records and testimony convinced the judge to find guilt. Result.
English Grammar
The NZ Herald must be finding it hard to find reporters that have any idea of writing an article and obviously do not proof read.
Refer Split in Trump’s Team.
I always thought that a person’s name was in capital letters and also the name of a organisation. Apparently the US is us. Have also noticed the “word” if that is what you call gotten is creeping in with some.
From the Financial Times: in the UK inherited wealth reinforces/increases wealth inequalities – according to the report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, an economic research organisation.
Basically, it’s increasingly hard for younger generations to build up their own wealth, if they don’t have wealthy parents. The wealthiest among older generations are likely to leave a sizeable sum to their children.
PM May says she aims to decrease inequalities, but her party’s promise to reduce inheritance taxes will work against this.
So, the housing bubble is feeding into growing wealth inequalities.
The hysterical anti-Russian lies being whipped up by the bitter and thoroughly discredited leadership of the Democratic Party have been mindlessly repeated in this country, with RNZ National and other major outlets leading every bulletin yesterday (Friday 6 January) with the (completely unsupported) allegations made by the notorious perjurer James Clapper….
One of the targets of the Clintonistas’ wrath has been Glenn Greenwald, the outstanding scholar and journalist who in 2014 was labeled “a loser” by our former prime minister John “Quitter” Key. He writes about it at the end of this typically excellent article….
The Washington Post Is Richly Rewarded for False News
About Russia Threat While Public Is Deceived
by GLENN GREENWALD, The Intercept, January 5 2017
Read more….
https://theintercept.com/2017/01/04/washpost-is-richly-rewarded-for-false-news-about-russia-threat-while-public-is-deceived/
Good one Morrissey.
There are many on this site falling hook, line and sinker for the ‘Democrat’ propaganda maelstrom. It’s a pity the Democrats still can’t come to terms with the fact they ran a poor campaign with an unsuitable candidate.
None of all this bullshit Presidency of Trump would have happened if the DNC hadn’t had their heads up their arses and had had enough nous to see the need for change.
Their pathetic attempts to blame everyone else but themselves just shows what total disarray their Party is in. Shame on them.
+1 garibaldi
@Morrissey +1
You do get that it’s possible for senior Democrats to be trashing Glenn Greenwald and for Russian intelligence services to have hacked the DNC emails, right? The two are not mutually exclusive.
Sure I do, Milt. There’s just the slight problem of credibility, however, when the source of these allegations is the world’s most notorious perjurer.
You don’t seem to understand how this stuff works. The source of the allegations isn’t Clapper, it’s the US intelligence services – which, however much we might not like them, do actually have a job to do and to some extent at least they actually do it. Your thoughts on the credibility of the results are no doubt of importance to you, but there’s no reason they should be important to anyone else. What counts is what US government officials think of it, and so far they’re taking it seriously.
Plenty of bullshit allegations and assertions, zero fucking proof. Bill Binney, Ray McGovern, John Kiriakou, Murray Craig, Julian Assange have all been very clear on this.
On the other side of the equation the “intelligence services” keep releasing pointless shit reports like the recent FBI/DHS one and the declassified version of the ODNI report which don’t say a fucking thing except for providing more evidence-free assertions and conclusions.
As usual, you declare claims you don’t like to be “bullshit” “evidence-free assertions,” while those you do like are accepted at face value as “very clear” self-evident truth. That can be funny in a sit-com character, but is simply irritating in a live human.
1. The reports have no credibility.
2. Members of the US Congress and Senate take them seriously, meaning that…
3. We have a problem. A fucking huge one given that it’s all revolving around cranking up tensions with Russia.
STOP Niki’ eviction!
The fight against the privatisation of State housing – for which there was never an electoral mandate.
FYI.
As an Independent candidate in the upcoming Mt Albert by-election, I absolutely support the brave stand by Niki Rauiti as a directly-affected State tenant who is fighting the privatisation of State housing by refusing to be evicted.
I will be coming on the march to help defend Niki and State housing on 17 January 2017, and supporting the proceeding occupation.
Let’s help make this a key Mt Albert by-election issue and put a HUGE spotlight on the housing issue that CANNOT be ignored!
Who’s coming with us?
Who else can help get this message out?
THANKS!
Penny Bright
‘Anti-privatisation / anti-corruption Public Watchdog.
2017 Independent candidate
Mt Albert by-election.
______________________________
Tēnā koutou,
We are writing requesting support for Ioela ‘Niki’ Rauti, a long-term tenant who is being evicted from her home at 14 Taniwha Road, Glen Innes.
Niki is to be evicted so that private houses for the wealthy can be built on former Housing New Zealand land.
Niki intends to resist this eviction but requires support in order to be successful.
We will be holding two marches in support of Niki on the 17 January 2017, starting at 6:00pm.
There will be two starting points, the first will be Glen Innes Library, and the second will be the corner of Line Road and West Tāmaki Drive.
Both marches will meet at Niki’s home at 14 Taniwha.
If either the government or the redevelopment company, the Tāmaki Redevelopment Company, have not by this stage halted the eviction, an occupation of the surrounding land will be set up to act as a barrier of defense for Niki.
Niki is an elderly tenant who is also suffering from illness.
Niki is making a stand for the elderly, sick, disabled and for all tenants facing discrimination and eviction due to housing reform and profit-driven redevelopment.
We believe that the ‘housing crisis’ is not addressed through evictions, selling state housing and gentrifying communities.
This eviction is part of nationwide reforms that have led to eviction, displacement, increased homelessness, and transiency.
This fight for Niki is a fight for all tenants facing eviction and displacement.
We are making a call out for support for Niki to try and keep her home, and to make a stand against the Government’s housing policy.
A few suggestions are listed below:
Joining the March on 17 January 2017 as well as the proceeding occupation.
Public support for Niki on your Facebook, through a press release etc.
Sending out details about the occupation to your email lists.
Donating resources such as tents, full list available on the facebook page.
Sending donations to the Tāmaki Housing Group 38-9014-0147012-00
Most importantly we ask for your presence during Niki’s occupation of her home.
Ngā mihi nui,
Niki & the Tāmaki Housing Group
Email: nikieviction@gmail.com
Twitter: defend_Niki
Instagram: tamaki_housing
Facebook page: facebook.com/THISHOMEISOCCUPIED
Human beings (en masse) are stupid so perhaps as a species we will indeed cease to exist in the not too distant future. We repeat the same mistakes and patterns time after time.
Consider ….diminishing resources+ resurgent eugenics+ Trump…. and be very afraid.
Just to add a bit of optimism and cheer, a return to wondering about mushroom clouds.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/01/william-perry-nuclear-weapons-proliferation-214604
His hypothesise is incorrect because the Soviet Union doesn’t exist anymore.
Nukes aren’t a first strick option because your soldiers will assassinate you.
That’s a hopeful scenario. Alternatively, you might have surrounded yourself with hawks who have never played the game of nuclear brinkmanship before.
Because it’s not about “Soviets vs Yanks”, it’s about power blocs with nukes and expansionist territorial demands.
Cold War rhetoric isnt worth repeating because it’s so transparent. Every American intervention from Greece in 1947 to Syria today features a mythical Russian threat.
One thing has changed since 1947, the speed at which finance can travel the globe has increased dramatically transforming the great game from chess (Atrittion) to Go. Ask any Go master why they make a move, they reply, because it feels right.
That’s nice.
Does the world burn if they lose?
Wrong game. You’re still playing checkers. Try and upgrade yourself to Connect Four before trying again.
And you can go fish, you fascist troll.
Donald Trump, greatest American president since Reagan, says 20th Jan will be a great show!
Indeed it will, Mr Trump. Indeed it will.
So The United States doesn”t like overseas interference in their elections. Get over it you guys. The UK and New Zealand have been getting it for years, it’s called, CrosbyTextor.
Some of the arguments on TheStandard have been had before.
Two smart home assistants hold a conversation than never sticks to the point and evades any evidence to support outrageous claims. It also includes allegations of lying, assertions of what was said and subsequent denials, and apparently at least one claim to be a god…
It got nasty while I was watching. One of them took offence at a “knock, knock” lead-in and tried Avada kedavra on the other…
Bolivia proving that Socialism works and is profitable.
“Since 2006, Bolivia has been run by socialists every bit as militant as Venezuela’s. The country has experienced a spectacular run of economic growth and poverty reduction with no hint of the chaos that has plagued Venezuela. While inflation spirals toward the 1000 per cent mark in Venezuela, in Bolivia it runs below 4 per cent a year. Shortages of basic consumption goods – rampant in Caracas – are unheard of in La Paz………..
……. Bolivia was running budget surpluses every year between 2006 and 2014. This allowed it to draw down the public sector’s debt, which fell from 83 per cent of GDP in 2003 to just 26 per cent in 2014, even as Bolivia built up its international reserves dramatically, from US$1.7b in 2005 to US$15.1b at the end of the boom in 2014.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11778233
Ok Bolivia is resource rich but compared to Venezuela (and some other countries) The Washington Post is applauding the way Socialism and careful management is working there.
The poster known as Gosman will hate this.