The Snowden affair has revealed even more about Europe than about the United States.
Certainly, the facts of NSA spying are significant. But many people suspected that something of the sort was going on. The refusal of France, Italy and Portugal to allow the private aircraft of the President of Bolivia to cross their airspace on the mere suspicion that Edward Snowden might be aboard is rather more astonishing.
Together, these revelations confirm the completion of the transformation of the “Western democracies” into something else, an entity that as yet has no recognized name.
The outrage against the Bolivian President confirmed that this trans-Atlantic entity has absolutely no respect for international law, even though its leaders will make use of it when it suits them. But respect it, allow it to impede their actions in any way? Certainly not.
And this disrespect for the law is linked to a more basic institutional change: the destruction of effective democracy at the national level. This has been done by the power of money in the United States, where candidates are comparable to race horses owned by billionaires. In Europe, it has been done by the European Union, whose bureaucracy has gradually taken over the critical economic functions of independent states, leaving national governments to concoct huge controversies around private matters, such as marriage, while public policy is dictated from the EU Commission in Brussels.
But behind that Commission, and behind the US electoral game, lies the identical anonymous power that dictates its desires to this trans-Atlantic entity: financial capital.
This power is scheduled to be formally extended in the near future by…
interesting teasers at Conterpunch;
-‘The New Japan, militaristic, aggressive and nostalgic for the old empire’ (there are similar aspirations within sections of China).
-‘Kuala Lumpur- rising Islamist movement’. Interesting, just over the sea.
No one got kidnapped – a country has every right to refuse passage through their airspace. Austria stepped up, bit the bullet, and sorted – but then had he taken a passenger jet rather than squandering Bolivian tax-payers money on a private plane, he probably wouldn’t have found himself in that situation in the first place.
So the next time Airforce One gets diverted from its flight path because flight permissions get withdrawn, forced to land elsewhere and foreign officials from a third country arrive on the scene demanding to search the plane…?
Maybe if it was Iranian, Russian or Chinese airspace, but otherwise boo hoo the dispensation of power in the world is assymetrical. Quelle surprise. Why don’t you have a we cry about tthe fact than many Middle Eastern countries won’t let El Al fly through their airspace and North Korea won’t let anyone fly through their airspace.
The name which people associate with labels, such as Godwin!
As the technology dictatorship strengthens, and the self delusional cling to any sense of understanding, they can relate to, so the fables and fabrications will accelerate!
How so few, can control so many: Technology, and lies!
not sure what you are referencing muzza, but I noted this from Coro the other day (always topical 😉 ) – “if I didn’t fight back, it wasn’t rape”. – Carla. says it all really. Kinda like, Norris ‘the Sartre, and Rita, the de Beauvoir” of The Street. – Norris Cole. 😀
“…and yet be so ineffective and incompetent as to leave the world in the state it’s in?”
This depends from what perspective you are assessing the situation, One Anonymous Knucklehead.
One could see the way things are being organized currently as extremely effective and competent.
How masses of people’s interests are being so categorically ignored, and for those of us in the Western world, to have more and more rights and freedoms that we have been enjoying (so much so that sadly, we have taken them for granted it appears), rights and freedoms being categorically decreased – lost, and while this utter degeneration is occurring, it is being managed in such a way that hardly anyone is speaking out, in fact whole swathes of each community are cheering
…and thus, the few who are causing and benefitting from the chaos that is our current corrupt state of affairs can continue in the luxury that they have been accustomed without being held to account for the increased misery and undermining of our civil society.
The only reason this is continuing is because not enough people are stepping up and saying NO! People are slow to believe it could ever get as bad as those who are warning them are saying it is.
And what of the individuals who do speak out?
….Illustrating how bad things have really got; now those benefitting from the utter corruption of what was a pretty well organized society, can now openly squeal from the rooftops “Traitor” about a person speaking out truthfully on yet another absolute violation of our trust (trust, in actuality, being the cornerstone of our ‘civilized society’).
wtf??
It is utterly absurd that this is being allowed to continue.
This state of affairs could be seen as involving pretty effective and competent manipulative techniques when analysed from the perspective of those small-minded inhumane dunderheads whom are benefitting from the state of corruption we are experiencing.
So effective, are the techniques, BL, they have have people believing that their mind is their own, including the thoughts generated, and the resultant decision/actions!
The techniques are transparent, but require inner understanding, otherwise the blinkers, stay in place!
People have always had the power, they still do, but the techniques have distracted the people, and kept them busy little slaves!
Meanwhile, human kind races towards its own extinction, with the transhumanists, on the levers of control!
It’s nothing to do with me, I am merely an observer!
@BL – Trust, yup, the trust has been handed over to agents of the *elite*, whose intentions/desires can be seen sprayed around inside/outside NZ.
So far in the mess are we, that people still believe (trust) the current system will provide the solution, which of course it won’t/can’t, and has been actively killing, and is actively killing them, and their future, in front of the eyes!
He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.”
the first link was a bit of a re# Pop, yet the second one was interesting (although, essentially summation). Just goes to show, it is important to be mindfully intentional in online forums, one just never knows which is honey-cured and which, is smoked.
Well I do find it faintly curious that someone who donated to Ron Paul’s presidential campaign and seemingly had no problem at all doing what he was doing under George W Bush, suddenly develops a conscience when a Democrat, specifically a black Democrat, enters the White House and then specifically takes a job in order to steal intelligence in order to undermine that presidency, including sensitive intelligence relating to US national security which he has boasted about from the safety of *China* and *Russia*. I hope he doesn’t get shot in the balls.
Together, these revelations confirm the completion of the transformation of the “Western democracies” into something else, an entity that as yet has no recognized name.
Well, it used to be called the British Empire but two things happened:
1.) Britain collapsed
2.) Empire went out of fashion
This resulted in Britain handing the reigns of the empire to the US and the US steadfastly saying that it isn’t an empire even though it is.
The empire didn’t go away, it just changed hands and went underground.
“Together, these revelations confirm the completion of the transformation of the “Western democracies” into something else, an entity that as yet has no recognized name.”
Well Mosquito, your fellow connoisseurs of tinfoil millinery have been calling it the “New World Order” for decades – surely that will do?
hogwash, n.1. Worthless, false, or ridiculous speech or writing; nonsense. 2. Garbage fed to hogs; swill. hypocrisy, n.1. the practice of professing standards, beliefs, etc., contrary to one’s real character or actual behaviour, esp the pretence of virtue and piety 2. an act or instance of this
What’s your take on Obama?
Is it just that he learned to love the treats and trinkets of power?
Has someone (or the Presidential machinery) got something over him?
Or was he just always an Uncle Tom?
Apart from the first year of his Presidency, his party has not had the majority in either congress or the senate. That means the Republicans have stymied most of his initial proposals, though the healthcare reform did scrape through.
Plus, according to some, he’s been busy raping leftists, smashing the fingers of musicians before killing them and executing large numbers of his fellow citizens in boats converted to torture centres. With all that, and golf, he hasn’t had the time to do anything good.
Apart from the first year of his Presidency, his party has not had the majority in either congress or the senate. That means the Republicans have stymied most of his initial proposals, though the healthcare reform did scrape through.
The most powerful bully pulpit in the world, and he has done virtually nothing worthwhile. Blame the Republicans. Your enthusiastic repetition of government spin still has the power to astonish, even after a couple of years of witnessing it.
Plus, according to some, he’s been busy raping leftists, smashing the fingers of musicians before killing them and executing large numbers of his fellow citizens in boats converted to torture centres.
I think you’re trying (unwisely) to be funny here but, for the record, nobody has suggested Obama has personally raped, killed or tortured anyone—He’s Obama the Hypocrite, not Ivan the Terrible.
With all that, and golf, he hasn’t had the time to do anything good.
As I said, you are out of your depth. I am refraining from dealing to you because of that; if I were you, which thank the Lord I am not, I would now withdraw discretely and lick my wounds.
I am, of course, assuming that you possess a lick of common sense.
Tim, I think it’s a bit of all of those. But the problem is that Obama is simply a product of that vast, notoriously corrupt Chicago Democratic machine. As Norman Finkelstein said so memorably, he is pretty much the same as Bill Clinton.
By the way, I am sure you noticed, like I did, that every time Obama said something particularly hypocritical, he prefaced it with an extended “ahhhhhh” or “errrrrr”. That’s a not entirely unwitting acknowledgement that he is less than sincere in what he is saying.
Yep, the options weren’t necessarily intended to be mutually exclusive.
Btw, dear ole Chris Laidlaw seems to be ‘taken’ with you – that’s 2 in 2 weeks ? or maybe 2 in 3.
Better be careful – next thing it’ll be ammo for all RNZ’s detractors :p
Don’t forget he won the Nobel Peace Prize after bring peace and hope to the Middle East and ending all war and conflicts around the globe….oh wait…..something wrong with this statement….
The immediate White House spin on the ostensibly farcical awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Obama was that it was an “aspirational” award, to award the president for all the good work for peace he was going to do in the future.
If only they had given the Nobel Peace Prize to the German Führer in 1935, or to the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union around the same time….
While I also think it was a bit naff to award it so early on in his presidency, the citation says it was “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” That’s not specific to the middle east.
Moz, any chance of a a cite to back up your claim that the White house said it was “aspirational”? I suspect you’re making shit up again.
Moz, any chance of a a cite to back up your claim that the White house said it was “aspirational”?
That very word was used repeatedly by “liberal” apologists for Obama. They almost always uncritically repeat everything they are handed by the likes of Jay Carney. Kind of like some people who haunt the blogs in this country….
I suspect you’re making shit up again.
You know, you keep saying that, but you have no evidence to back it up. You only make yourself look desperate by doing that.
I recommend you tune in to National Radio right now: there’s a Clintonista speaking about war crimes trials. He’s just praised the commitment to human rights of …..(wait for it)…. Madeleine Albright. Sounds like a good source of more talking points for you, my friend.
“Unable to back it up”? I gave you the provenance of the propaganda spin that you yourself no doubt have repeatedly used.
Goodo. Making shit up again it is then.
I’m making nothing up, and you know it.
I am interested to observe your bad manners and your mode of personal attack; given that you are (according to you, anyway) an active member of the Labour Party, that sort of behaviour is a very worrying indicator of the intellectual and moral tone of that organization. I am assuming, of course, that you act in real life in a roughly comparable way to the way you act online.
The problem with overstating the good case against US foreign policy is that it distorts discussion of substantive issues. For example, think about the way Tea Party memes cripple Republican political debate, render their best candidates unelectable.
The Left is a fact-based political movement, Morrissey, and you are our Tea Party.
Evidence, Moz. C’mon, you’ve been googling furiously for an hour now, surely you must have found something that might make your claim seem less like a lie?
SCENE: The King’s Arms, Newton. A group of Standardistas are sitting around, exchanging opinions. Everybody’s getting a bit pissed, and a bit aggro….
TIM: As dear ole Laidlaw was suggesting this morning, perhaps the farcical Nobel Prize committee could redeem themselves by awarding Snowden one.
POPULUXE1: If only to prove what a shallow crock it all is?
MORRISSEY: No, it was awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to that arch-racist Theodore Roosevelt that started the rot, more than a century ago. People of conscience sneered at it at that time; they would have been astonished to see just how depraved the whole ghastly charade would get in the years to come. Perhaps most farcically of all, they gave it to Woodrow Wilson, that cadaverous scourge of Central America. And Lester Pearson. And—
TE REO PUTAKE: Cite, Moz? Or do I have to say you’re making shit up again?
MORRISSEY:[ploughing on regardless] Of course, not all the recipients were undeserving. Bertha von Suttner, for instance. And Albert Schweitzer. And Martin Luther King in 1964. And Desmond Tutu. And Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams. So it’s not ALL bad.
POPULUXE1:[grins sardonically, shrugs, and throws up hands, palms upward] But hey, they gave one to Henry Kissinger.
MORRISSEY Incredibly, my academic friend, that’s correct. That was the one that prompted Kurt Vonnegut to declare that satire was not possible any more.
TE REO PUTAKE: Yep, Kurt Vonnegut. Right on!
MORRISSEY:[icily] Just like Victor Jara, right? How you love those dissenting voices! Right?
TE REO PUTAKE:[Turns purple, and snarls in low voice] You’re a dimwit and an arsehole Morrissey. Grow up.
MORRISSEY Kissinger was by no means the last of the monsters to get one. There was Menachem Begin a decade later. And Elie Weasel…..
Various experts in their field have weighed in about how we should cope and be mitigating to deal with the new normal.
“The wisest thing to do for New Zealand was to was “plan accordingly”.
David Wratt Niwa chief scientist.
“The longer we delay, the more our options become limited,”
Chris Cameron Principal Climate Change Adviser for Wellington City Council.
The long-term cost needed to be measured against the short-term needs of the community,
Andrew Stitt Policy and Planning Manager at Wellington City Council
“Good farmers will adjust to conditions and adjust their business accordingly,”
Bruce Wills President of Federated Farmers
However, what all these experts aren’t saying is…..
This is not the new normal.
The new normal will be much worse. Beyond our capacity to mitigate.
We are only at the very beginning on the way to a new normal.
If we don’t cut back our CO2 emissions, drastically and immediately, the new normal is forecast to be somewhere north of 6 degrees C.
Prepare, if you can, to have your houses smashed in, and or flooded regularly and repeatedly. Prepare to see agriculture devastated. Prepare to see vital infrastructure and industry wrecked on a regular basis, beyond the ability to rebuild.
And still, this will not be the new normal.
You want to talk about mitigation or adapting to the new normal, then learn how to hunt food with a sharpened stick.
While I think it’s probably not this generation of Kiwis that will be reduced hunting with sharpened sticks, Jenny, your apocolyptic vision of the future can’t be far away for large parts of the third world. I predict substantial wars over the flows of rivers within our lifetime, as upstream countries dam or divert water to use domestically, regardless of the effect on downstream neighbours.
““Pouwhenua”—got it from a Maori brother who used to play for the All Blacks before the war. Bad motherfuckers, the Maori. That battle at One Tree Hill, five hundred of them versus half of reanimated Auckland. The pouwhenua’s a tough weapon to use, even if this one’s steel instead of wood. But that’s the other perk of being a soldier of fortune. Who can get a rush anymore from pulling a trigger? It’s gotta be hard, dangerous, and the more Gs you gotta take on, the better. Of course, sooner or later there’s not gonna be any of them left. And when that happens…”
Jenny, as long as there is a financial cost referenced in any such articles, you can be assured that there is no intention to implement solutions for the benefits of all!
The so called, new normal, is a crock designed to deflect, seems to be working!
hogwash, n.1. Worthless, false, or ridiculous speech or writing; nonsense. 2. Garbage fed to hogs; swill. hypocrisy, n.1. the practice of professing standards, beliefs, etc., contrary to one’s real character or actual behaviour, esp the pretence of virtue and piety 2. an act or instance of this
Hall of Hogwash….
No. 1 Barack Obama: “people standing up for what’s right….aaaahhhh, the yearning for justice and dignity…”
Sorry Corin I forgot to say we also have me later on and after all the GCSB law was Labour’s in the first place and really, should this be a political issue at all place ?
Visitor from Hawke’s Bay – ShonKey Python is very popular with the public.
Useless cow/s !
Faarrrk, get the pretty pink Big Gay Out picnic table on Ryall.
Occasionally I read the opinion pieces in the Herald, and since I don’t have too much energy to waste on writing in the comments, often utilise the ‘Like’ feature to provide support to those I agree with.
Seems to have happened a few times over the last couple of weeks. I don’t believe the Herald is IT-savvy enough to manipulate alternative views, but it is interesting how it happens on topical articles.
War crimes in Zambia bad; war crimes in Palestine: no problem
Radio NZ National, Sunday 7 July 2013
After listening in mounting horror and disbelief to a particularly nasty piece of slime called David Scheffer speaking, unchallenged, for more than half an hour, praising (amongst other howlers) the monstrous Madeleine Albright’s commitment to human rights, I was compelled to flick off the following hurried communication to the interviewer, Chris Laidlaw….
Dear Chris,
War crimes in Zambia bad; war crimes in Palestine: no problem
David Scheffer said: “Should we let someone wanted for war crimes in Zambia into the United States? Of course not!” Such verbal indignation might be more impressive if the United States did not routinely admit people who commit war crimes in the Occupied West Bank and in Gaza.
I note also that David Scheffer did not once mention the crimes of Israel in the Occupied West Bank, Gaza or on international waters.
Yours in concern at the free platform given to glib Clintonistas, Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
UPDATE!
It’s just been read out, albeit with a slightly undermining “Yeeeesss, you can’t please everyone.”
The massive financialization of the global economy over the last three decades has given the ruling elite a monopoly over the money supply, as well as land and resources. Thus for George’s land tax to be fully effective, it would also be necessary to restore public control over money creation.
George’s goal in writing Progress and Poverty is to explain, in economic terms, why material progress (i.e. economic development) is always accompanied by poverty and increasing inequality. Employing Adam Smith’s classical definitions of labor, capitol, wages and interest and Ricardo’s Law of Rent, he argues that development must always produce poverty and inequality so long as a privileged elite holds an exclusive monopoly on the ownership of land and basic resources.
Sounds remarkably like the way I’ve been thinking. Under the present system as more and more wealth is produced we get more and more poverty as more of the commons is privatised. Will have to read it.
EDIT: No, on second thoughts, not what I’m looking at as it is still is based around ever increasing use of resources.
Interesting concept, though, that the problem is private ownership of land rather than capitalism – actually, don’t they go together?
It’s actually the private ownership of the resources that the land represents. In NZ most of those resources are still owned by the state and not the land owners. And, yes, the two do go together.
The problem today seems to be more the fact that the money is in the control of the capitalists which allows them to then accumulate ever more control of those resources. Control of the resources then allows control of the populace.
Still worth a read but he’s going to be wrong like most of the economists of the last 200 odd years but should add a couple of ideas.
Here’s what Kate Pickett says on “Enough is Enough”
“Their vision of a steady state Economy and their practical focus on how to achieve it is a significant roadmap. Offering the way to a better quality of life and sustainable future for all of us and the planet”
It’s a recent acquisition at my local library and a cracking read. Pester yours to obtain a copy -$20 online. I know you will enjoy it.
Yes his Chapter 9 is way off beam! He says he is interested in facts. Well here is one he does not consider. We live on a finite Planet.
Like most economists, he has no understanding of exponential growth. I think he bases his argument on “decoupling” – producing more economic output with fewer material and energy inputs. So here is another fact he might like to consider – between 1980 and 2007 the material intensity of the global economy – the amount of biomass, minerals, and fossil fuels required to produce a dollar of GDP decreased by 33%. Worth celebrating, if it wasn’t for the fact that world GDP grew by 141%. The gains made in efficiency are wiped out by increased consumption. (sustainable europe research institute – and world bank figures)
Today is apparently the 97th birthday of the New Zealand Labour Party, rumor has it that a spinning noise has been heard emanating from cemetarys all over the country…
Suad Allie
Democracy Advisor,
Regulaory and ByLaw Committee
Auckland Council
Dear Suad,
Request for ‘Speaking Rights’ at ‘Public Forum’ at the Auckland Council Regulatory and Bylaws Committee meeting 10 July 2013, 1.30pm, Council Chamber, Auckland Town Hall, on the proposed By Law change to effectively outlaw ‘begging’.
I note that the ‘TERMS OF REFERENCE’ for the Regulatory and Bylaws Committee, include:
“Review Local Board proposed bylaws and recommend to Governing Body”, and relevant legislation noted, ‘includes but is not limited to
Local Government Act 2002;
Resource Management Act 1991;
Sale of Liquor Act 1989; and
All Bylaws’
As one of two successful Appellants in the recent Occupy Auckland vs Auckland Council Appeal, I am very concerned that the RULE OF LAW, is followed in a proper way, regarding proposed changes, as outlined by Auckland Councillor Dr Cathy Casey, and reported in the NZ Herald on 4 July 2013:
“A person must not use a public place to: beg or ask for money, food, or other items for personal use or solicit donations in a manner that may intimidate or cause a nuisance to any person.”
definition of nuisance “includes any person, animal, thing or circumstance causing unreasonable interference with the peace, comfort or convenience of another person”.
MY SUBJECT MATTER:
1) That this proposed By Law violates the Local Government Act 2002,
155Determination whether bylaw made under this Act is appropriate
(1AA)This section applies to a bylaw only if it is made under this Act.
(1)A local authority must, before commencing the process for making a bylaw, determine whether a bylaw is the most appropriate way of addressing the perceived problem.
(2)If a local authority has determined that a bylaw is the most appropriate way of addressing the perceived problem, it must, before making the bylaw, determine whether the proposed bylaw—
(a)is the most appropriate form of bylaw; and
(b)gives rise to any implications under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990.
(3)No bylaw may be made which is inconsistent with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, notwithstanding section 4 of that Act.
_____________________________________
The Bill of Rights Act 1990 potential violations, in my considered opinion, include, but are not limited to:
(1)Everyone has the right to freedom from discrimination on the grounds of discrimination in the Human Rights Act 1993.
21Prohibited grounds of discrimination
(1)For the purposes of this Act, the prohibited grounds of discrimination are—
(j)political opinion, which includes the lack of a particular political opinion or any political opinion:
(k)employment status, which means—
(i)being unemployed; or
Those collecting signatures for petitions, or collecting for charities/ causes/ issues? Protestors – for any reason on any issue?
If you don’t know your rights – you haven’t got any.
If you don’t defend the rights you have – you lose them.
3) Civil Liberties /Human Rights lawyer Michael Bott, has provided the following comprehensive research on this issue, from which I intend to draw references:
4) From whom are Auckland Council receiving legal advice on this matter?
The same Auckland Council General Counsel Wendy Brandon, who has already proven, particularly over the Occupy Auckland vs Auckland Council Appeal, in my considered opinion, that she is arguably neither competent nor professional, in her understanding or application of the relevant Local Government and Human Rights legislation that pertains in such matters, and has already helped cost Auckland citizens and ratepayers some hundreds of thousands of dollars in unnecessary legal expenses?
Proof that Auckland Council General Counsel Wendy Brandon has not been truthful over the amount spent by Auckland Council on legal costs for Occupy Auckland proceedings:
5) Please be advised that as an Auckland Mayoral candidate, I hereby give you formal notice that if this Regulatory and ByLaw Committee of Auckland Council, does NOT follow the clearly outlined ‘RULE OF LAW’ that applies in this situation, and recklessly and precipitiously passes any By Law which does attempt to violate the lawful rights of arguably the ‘poorest of the poor’ – then I too will ‘beg’ in Queen St, in defence of these above-mentioned human rights, and encourage as many others as possible to join me.
That’s bad. Although I’m always curious when people who are otherwise well informed and adept at negotiating power systems get banned from somewhere like wikipedia and don’t say why or how it came about.
Salafi el Nour object to ElBaradei’s appt, the Freedom and Justice Party (MB) “ready for martyrdom”
-Abdullah Shehatah, now, Ansar el Shariah are cracking into it.
Documents released by Treasury confirm the Government is dampening demand for tertiary education to balance the books, says Labour’s Tertiary Education spokesperson Megan Woods.
“The documents note that ‘even if pressures are scaled back and more aggressive savings options are taken, the savings generated in Budget 2013 in 2015/16 and 2016/17, would not be sufficient to address the funding gap from Budget 2012 occurring in 2015-2016’.
National’s promised surplus just isn’t materialising and so they have to cut even more essential services to try and get one and they’ll still fail.
You beat me to it! I was going to save it for the morning, thought it’d make a great first post of the day. Mind you, I’m not convinced the resident illuminati spotters and HAARPists here would recognise themselves reflected in Kathryn Gilkison’s words.
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Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of Wollongong Fifty years ago, Australian feminist Anne Summers denounced “the ideology of sexism” governing over so many women’s lives. Unfortunately, sexism is as lethal today as it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jose Antonio Lara-Hernandez, Senior Researcher in Architecture, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images The COVID-19 pandemic and the hybrid work patterns it fostered have changed the way we think about office space, and central business districts in general. While fears ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dale Boccabella, Associate Professor of Taxation Law, UNSW Sydney There’s a good reason your local volunteer-run netball club doesn’t pay tax. In Australia, various nonprofit organisations are exempt from paying income tax, including those that do charitable work, such as churches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marina Deller, Casual Academic, Creative Writing and English Literature, Flinders University NetflixComedy is opening up spaces for silences to be broken and trauma stories to be told. In 2018, Hannah Gadsby started a revolution with Nanette, asking audiences to rethink ...
The workplace can be a minefield of bad comms and passive aggression. Kinksters can help you navigate it. A friend and colleague recently gave me a compliment I loved. They told me I’d always been good at emotional communication and making people feel comfortable. “But I feel like it’s really ...
Even if some students are now just texting on their laptops. Stewart Sowman-Lund writes in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Councils from Horowhenua, Kāpiti, Wairarapa, the Hutt Valley, Porirua and Wellington City will meet this Friday to work together on a plan for a Greater Wellington region water deal. ...
Renowned musician, advocate, and proud born and raised daughter of Tauranga, Ria Hall, is announcing her candidacy for Mayor of Tauranga and Pāpāmoa Ward for the upcoming election on July 20th. ...
The new Aotearoa histories curriculum is rich with potential. There’s still work to be done, but the education minister’s criticisms about ‘balance’ miss the mark, argues primary school teacher Jessie Moss. In 2015, Ōtorohanga College students presented to parliament a petition signed by more than 10,000 people calling for a ...
For too long our so-called national bird has maintained its stranglehold on the economy of regional New Zealand. Thanks to the fast track legislation, we will have our revenge. Theories abound on what ails New Zealand’s economy. National leader Chris Luxon has posited that we’re negative, wet, whiny, and inward-looking; ...
Late one afternoon in March 1860 a man in a thin green velveteen jacket and a wide-awake hat arrived on foot at a sheep station named Glenmark, about 65 kilometres north of Christchurch. The man was in his mid-fifties but he looked older. Several people who met him that day ...
If building one of Auckland’s possible waterfront stadiums was funded privately, it would need to hold a sold-out Ed Sherran concert every weekday for 25 years. That’s Rob Hamlin’s finding – he’s a senior marketing lecturer at the University of Otago. “It’s not going to happen; forget about it,” he ...
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http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/07/05/the-servility-of-the-satellites/
The Servility of the Satellites
by DIANA JOHNSTONE, in Paris.
The Snowden affair has revealed even more about Europe than about the United States.
Certainly, the facts of NSA spying are significant. But many people suspected that something of the sort was going on. The refusal of France, Italy and Portugal to allow the private aircraft of the President of Bolivia to cross their airspace on the mere suspicion that Edward Snowden might be aboard is rather more astonishing.
Together, these revelations confirm the completion of the transformation of the “Western democracies” into something else, an entity that as yet has no recognized name.
The outrage against the Bolivian President confirmed that this trans-Atlantic entity has absolutely no respect for international law, even though its leaders will make use of it when it suits them. But respect it, allow it to impede their actions in any way? Certainly not.
And this disrespect for the law is linked to a more basic institutional change: the destruction of effective democracy at the national level. This has been done by the power of money in the United States, where candidates are comparable to race horses owned by billionaires. In Europe, it has been done by the European Union, whose bureaucracy has gradually taken over the critical economic functions of independent states, leaving national governments to concoct huge controversies around private matters, such as marriage, while public policy is dictated from the EU Commission in Brussels.
But behind that Commission, and behind the US electoral game, lies the identical anonymous power that dictates its desires to this trans-Atlantic entity: financial capital.
This power is scheduled to be formally extended in the near future by…
Read more….
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/07/05/the-servility-of-the-satellites/
Which “International law” would that be? The one that says sovereign nations have no rights to control their own airspace?
Come on, be specific: which “international law”. Put up or shut up.
Again, you are out of your depth. You are now starting to make a spectacle of yourself.
Got nothing? Say goodbye to “got nothing” misery with all new ad hominem drivel.
You are clearly, sadly, way out of your intellectual depth. Nothing ad hominem about it, my floundering friend.
Then why can’t you answer the question? Which international law has been broken?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flyover_rights#First_freedom
It can get very convoluted and tricky hen it comes to rights of flyovers. However, preemptive commitments as those mentioned are very suspect.
The Chicago Convention on International Air Aviation, articles one, five, six and sixteen.
The fact that the treatment of President Morales plane was despicable does not mean it was illegal.
Argh, man made constructs, legal, illegal, live by them, and all will be a-ok!
Nah, it’s taking us all in the wrong direction, rapidly!
Permission vs reason, legal vs lawful, enslavement vs liberty.
Like counterpunch says: “awareness of the scope of this power is the first step toward liberation”.
interesting teasers at Conterpunch;
-‘The New Japan, militaristic, aggressive and nostalgic for the old empire’ (there are similar aspirations within sections of China).
-‘Kuala Lumpur- rising Islamist movement’. Interesting, just over the sea.
Indonesia in Aceh and Papua ( I have GRAVE concerns about what is going in Papua and why our government isn’t more concerned)
The international law of gravity perhaps?
😀
@ OAK So diplomatic immunity is to be seen to mean nothing and kidnapping as just fine?
No one got kidnapped – a country has every right to refuse passage through their airspace. Austria stepped up, bit the bullet, and sorted – but then had he taken a passenger jet rather than squandering Bolivian tax-payers money on a private plane, he probably wouldn’t have found himself in that situation in the first place.
So the next time Airforce One gets diverted from its flight path because flight permissions get withdrawn, forced to land elsewhere and foreign officials from a third country arrive on the scene demanding to search the plane…?
Maybe if it was Iranian, Russian or Chinese airspace, but otherwise boo hoo the dispensation of power in the world is assymetrical. Quelle surprise. Why don’t you have a we cry about tthe fact than many Middle Eastern countries won’t let El Al fly through their airspace and North Korea won’t let anyone fly through their airspace.
Yes, Bill, that’s exactly what I said, isn’t it? That’s what despicable means, after all.
It’s got a name Mozza, the same it’s always been.
The name which people associate with labels, such as Godwin!
As the technology dictatorship strengthens, and the self delusional cling to any sense of understanding, they can relate to, so the fables and fabrications will accelerate!
How so few, can control so many: Technology, and lies!
…and yet be so ineffective and incompetent as to leave the world in the state it’s in?
Or perhaps these simplistic models don’t come close to an understanding of the state of affairs.
Bloke, I agree with your comment, but it doesn’t change the landscape, re: few, controlling many!
Apart from the fact that the “control” is ineffective and incompetent to the extent that it isn’t worthy of the name.
“He put me in hospital me because I made him angry – that was deliberate! I’m the one in control here!”
not sure what you are referencing muzza, but I noted this from Coro the other day (always topical 😉 ) – “if I didn’t fight back, it wasn’t rape”. – Carla. says it all really. Kinda like, Norris ‘the Sartre, and Rita, the de Beauvoir” of The Street. – Norris Cole. 😀
Hi RT.
My response was to a comment from Morrisey, the first of this OM.
I don’t watch tv, so have no idea what you’re referring to, and OAK, seems to have blown another valve.
Peace
“…and yet be so ineffective and incompetent as to leave the world in the state it’s in?”
This depends from what perspective you are assessing the situation, One Anonymous Knucklehead.
One could see the way things are being organized currently as extremely effective and competent.
How masses of people’s interests are being so categorically ignored, and for those of us in the Western world, to have more and more rights and freedoms that we have been enjoying (so much so that sadly, we have taken them for granted it appears), rights and freedoms being categorically decreased – lost, and while this utter degeneration is occurring, it is being managed in such a way that hardly anyone is speaking out, in fact whole swathes of each community are cheering
…and thus, the few who are causing and benefitting from the chaos that is our current corrupt state of affairs can continue in the luxury that they have been accustomed without being held to account for the increased misery and undermining of our civil society.
The only reason this is continuing is because not enough people are stepping up and saying NO! People are slow to believe it could ever get as bad as those who are warning them are saying it is.
And what of the individuals who do speak out?
….Illustrating how bad things have really got; now those benefitting from the utter corruption of what was a pretty well organized society, can now openly squeal from the rooftops “Traitor” about a person speaking out truthfully on yet another absolute violation of our trust (trust, in actuality, being the cornerstone of our ‘civilized society’).
wtf??
It is utterly absurd that this is being allowed to continue.
This state of affairs could be seen as involving pretty effective and competent manipulative techniques when analysed from the perspective of those small-minded inhumane dunderheads whom are benefitting from the state of corruption we are experiencing.
So effective, are the techniques, BL, they have have people believing that their mind is their own, including the thoughts generated, and the resultant decision/actions!
The techniques are transparent, but require inner understanding, otherwise the blinkers, stay in place!
People have always had the power, they still do, but the techniques have distracted the people, and kept them busy little slaves!
Meanwhile, human kind races towards its own extinction, with the transhumanists, on the levers of control!
another little experiment of yours, muzz?
McFlock, we have had this conversation, before.
It’s nothing to do with me, I am merely an observer!
@BL – Trust, yup, the trust has been handed over to agents of the *elite*, whose intentions/desires can be seen sprayed around inside/outside NZ.
So far in the mess are we, that people still believe (trust) the current system will provide the solution, which of course it won’t/can’t, and has been actively killing, and is actively killing them, and their future, in front of the eyes!
He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.”
― George Orwell, 1984
@ Muzza,
Yes, I agree.
It is very sad and I hope that more people start to question what they place their trust in.
Trust is a very important quality and it is being thoroughly abused.
I hope that people start waking up to this fact.
Nah, they just don’t want to have to deal with the schmuck (O Narcissism! O Dunning-Kruger)
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/06/10/nsa-whistleblower-is-revealed-flees-to-china-as-news-of-doj-investigation-announced/
And my personal favourite:
“SNOWDEN: HOLY SHIThttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/washington/11iran.html?_r=1&hp
SNOWDEN: WTF NYTIMES
SNOWDEN: Are they TRYING to start a war? Jesus christ they’re like wikileaks
User19: they’re just reporting, dude.
SNOWDEN: They’re reporting classified shit
User19: shrugs
User19: meh
SNOWDEN: moreover, who the fuck are the anonymous sources telling them this?
SNOWDEN: those people should be shot in the balls.”
lol
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/07/06/have-we-all-been-fooled-by-edward-snowden/#ixzz2YJWPi778
the first link was a bit of a re# Pop, yet the second one was interesting (although, essentially summation). Just goes to show, it is important to be mindfully intentional in online forums, one just never knows which is honey-cured and which, is smoked.
Well I do find it faintly curious that someone who donated to Ron Paul’s presidential campaign and seemingly had no problem at all doing what he was doing under George W Bush, suddenly develops a conscience when a Democrat, specifically a black Democrat, enters the White House and then specifically takes a job in order to steal intelligence in order to undermine that presidency, including sensitive intelligence relating to US national security which he has boasted about from the safety of *China* and *Russia*. I hope he doesn’t get shot in the balls.
Well, it used to be called the British Empire but two things happened:
1.) Britain collapsed
2.) Empire went out of fashion
This resulted in Britain handing the reigns of the empire to the US and the US steadfastly saying that it isn’t an empire even though it is.
The empire didn’t go away, it just changed hands and went underground.
“Together, these revelations confirm the completion of the transformation of the “Western democracies” into something else, an entity that as yet has no recognized name.”
Well Mosquito, your fellow connoisseurs of tinfoil millinery have been calling it the “New World Order” for decades – surely that will do?
Tinfoil milliners and U.S. presidents, for decades.
But Draco’s right, ‘Empire’ is the word. No new terminology needed.
The Hall of Hogwash
Exhibit No. 1: BARACK OBAMA
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“Madiba’s moral courage, this country’s historic transition to a free and democratic nation, ahhhhh, has been a personal inspiration to me, it has been, ahhhhh, an inspiration to the world….people standing up for what’s right….aaaahhhh, the yearning for justice and dignity…”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
—-President Obama, speaking on the Soweto campus of Johannesburg University, 29 June, 2013
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2013/jun/29/obamas-south-africa-mandelas-video
hogwash, n. 1. Worthless, false, or ridiculous speech or writing; nonsense.
2. Garbage fed to hogs; swill.
hypocrisy, n. 1. the practice of professing standards, beliefs, etc., contrary to one’s real character or actual behaviour, esp the pretence of virtue and piety
2. an act or instance of this
What’s your take on Obama?
Is it just that he learned to love the treats and trinkets of power?
Has someone (or the Presidential machinery) got something over him?
Or was he just always an Uncle Tom?
(Hope and Change – Yes We Can) My arse!
Apart from the first year of his Presidency, his party has not had the majority in either congress or the senate. That means the Republicans have stymied most of his initial proposals, though the healthcare reform did scrape through.
Plus, according to some, he’s been busy raping leftists, smashing the fingers of musicians before killing them and executing large numbers of his fellow citizens in boats converted to torture centres. With all that, and golf, he hasn’t had the time to do anything good.
Well I’d swallow that maybe …. except when it comes to Guantanamo. He is, after all ‘Commander in Chief’.
(gtg for now – back later)
Apart from the first year of his Presidency, his party has not had the majority in either congress or the senate. That means the Republicans have stymied most of his initial proposals, though the healthcare reform did scrape through.
The most powerful bully pulpit in the world, and he has done virtually nothing worthwhile. Blame the Republicans. Your enthusiastic repetition of government spin still has the power to astonish, even after a couple of years of witnessing it.
Plus, according to some, he’s been busy raping leftists, smashing the fingers of musicians before killing them and executing large numbers of his fellow citizens in boats converted to torture centres.
I think you’re trying (unwisely) to be funny here but, for the record, nobody has suggested Obama has personally raped, killed or tortured anyone—He’s Obama the Hypocrite, not Ivan the Terrible.
With all that, and golf, he hasn’t had the time to do anything good.
Obama has been wasting his time not so much with golf, but with ghastly publicity stunts like this….
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2013/jun/29/obamas-south-africa-mandelas-video
“The most powerful”.
Only if you ignore reality and think in facile soundbites. Perhaps you think high office is some sort of magic wand.
No, its an illusion!
Not merely an illusion, Muzza.
Um yeah, that whole democracy thing, checks and balances etc and the abuse thereof. You seem to be confusing the guy with Louis XIV.
cracks the odd joke and shimmies from time-to-time.
You forgot his covert assistance in helping the greys abduct innocent leftists for a bit of anal probing and cattle mutilation. Also the weather.
His “take”? 😆
You spelled delusional bias wrong.
His “take”? You spelled delusional bias wrong.
You’re out of your depth, my friend.
Bias isn’t that hard to recognise, fool.
As I said, you are out of your depth. I am refraining from dealing to you because of that; if I were you, which thank the Lord I am not, I would now withdraw discretely and lick my wounds.
I am, of course, assuming that you possess a lick of common sense.
🙄
Bring it on: you aren’t “refraining”, you’re incapable.
Bring it on…
I don’t think so. At least my friend and adversary Te Reo Putake has shown a capacity to argue his corner. You lack that basic skill, I’m afraid.
Shoot the messenger, that always works when you’ve got nothing else.
“Shoot the messenger”? In case you haven’t noticed, that’s what Obama and his tender-hearted ambassadors are doing.
I’m not shooting you, I’ve let you live.
For now.
A towering pinnacle of vacuity. Yawn.
Tim, I think it’s a bit of all of those. But the problem is that Obama is simply a product of that vast, notoriously corrupt Chicago Democratic machine. As Norman Finkelstein said so memorably, he is pretty much the same as Bill Clinton.
By the way, I am sure you noticed, like I did, that every time Obama said something particularly hypocritical, he prefaced it with an extended “ahhhhhh” or “errrrrr”. That’s a not entirely unwitting acknowledgement that he is less than sincere in what he is saying.
Yep, the options weren’t necessarily intended to be mutually exclusive.
Btw, dear ole Chris Laidlaw seems to be ‘taken’ with you – that’s 2 in 2 weeks ? or maybe 2 in 3.
Better be careful – next thing it’ll be ammo for all RNZ’s detractors :p
Don’t forget he won the Nobel Peace Prize after bring peace and hope to the Middle East and ending all war and conflicts around the globe….oh wait…..something wrong with this statement….
The immediate White House spin on the ostensibly farcical awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Obama was that it was an “aspirational” award, to award the president for all the good work for peace he was going to do in the future.
If only they had given the Nobel Peace Prize to the German Führer in 1935, or to the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union around the same time….
Something wrong with the statement alright, because that’s not what he won it for according to the Nobel people. Wikipedia explains it pretty well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Nobel_Peace_Prize
While I also think it was a bit naff to award it so early on in his presidency, the citation says it was “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” That’s not specific to the middle east.
Moz, any chance of a a cite to back up your claim that the White house said it was “aspirational”? I suspect you’re making shit up again.
Moz, any chance of a a cite to back up your claim that the White house said it was “aspirational”?
That very word was used repeatedly by “liberal” apologists for Obama. They almost always uncritically repeat everything they are handed by the likes of Jay Carney. Kind of like some people who haunt the blogs in this country….
I suspect you’re making shit up again.
You know, you keep saying that, but you have no evidence to back it up. You only make yourself look desperate by doing that.
I recommend you tune in to National Radio right now: there’s a Clintonista speaking about war crimes trials. He’s just praised the commitment to human rights of …..(wait for it)…. Madeleine Albright. Sounds like a good source of more talking points for you, my friend.
So, unable to back up your claim? Goodo. Making shit up again it is then.
So, unable to back up your claim?
“Unable to back it up”? I gave you the provenance of the propaganda spin that you yourself no doubt have repeatedly used.
Goodo. Making shit up again it is then.
I’m making nothing up, and you know it.
I am interested to observe your bad manners and your mode of personal attack; given that you are (according to you, anyway) an active member of the Labour Party, that sort of behaviour is a very worrying indicator of the intellectual and moral tone of that organization. I am assuming, of course, that you act in real life in a roughly comparable way to the way you act online.
Why, because that’s what you do? Uh huh.
The problem with overstating the good case against US foreign policy is that it distorts discussion of substantive issues. For example, think about the way Tea Party memes cripple Republican political debate, render their best candidates unelectable.
The Left is a fact-based political movement, Morrissey, and you are our Tea Party.
The Left is a fact-based political movement, Morrissey, and you are our Tea Party.
And you are the brains of the operation, I take it?
Do you? How fascinatizzzzzzzzzzzzz
oh madeira
Evidence, Moz. C’mon, you’ve been googling furiously for an hour now, surely you must have found something that might make your claim seem less like a lie?
Mozza is correct, thats what it was sold as!
http://swampland.time.com/2009/10/09/an-aspirational-nobel-prize-for-obama/
The award, was a transparent signal, of control!
Edit: Voice and Bloke double team. Moz you lucky boy to have attracted the attentions of the sites guard poodles!
Swampland isn’t the White House, Muzza. I asked Moz to back up his spurious claim and he can’t, because its not actually true.
“Spurious claim”? You still persist with your desperate allegations, even as you are corrected by other posters.
But then it’s important to remember you are a Shearer-booster. So we have a gauge on your judgement and your credibility.
Face it, Moz, you made the quote up and you’ve been called on it. There’s no shame in saying so, but there is nothing but shame in holding to the lie.
What, like having your pants pulled down by Shearer!
But hey, they even gave one to Henry Kissinger
…and I’ve never been able to take them seriously ever since.
As dear ole Laidlaw was suggesting this morning, perhaps they could redeem themselves by awarding Snowden one
If only to prove what a shallow crock it all is?
Already proven.
Links frazzled felix (this end anyways)
Nope, works as intended.
SCENE: The King’s Arms, Newton. A group of Standardistas are sitting around, exchanging opinions. Everybody’s getting a bit pissed, and a bit aggro….
TIM: As dear ole Laidlaw was suggesting this morning, perhaps the farcical Nobel Prize committee could redeem themselves by awarding Snowden one.
POPULUXE1: If only to prove what a shallow crock it all is?
MORRISSEY: No, it was awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to that arch-racist Theodore Roosevelt that started the rot, more than a century ago. People of conscience sneered at it at that time; they would have been astonished to see just how depraved the whole ghastly charade would get in the years to come. Perhaps most farcically of all, they gave it to Woodrow Wilson, that cadaverous scourge of Central America. And Lester Pearson. And—
TE REO PUTAKE: Cite, Moz? Or do I have to say you’re making shit up again?
MORRISSEY: [ploughing on regardless] Of course, not all the recipients were undeserving. Bertha von Suttner, for instance. And Albert Schweitzer. And Martin Luther King in 1964. And Desmond Tutu. And Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams. So it’s not ALL bad.
POPULUXE1: [grins sardonically, shrugs, and throws up hands, palms upward] But hey, they gave one to Henry Kissinger.
MORRISSEY Incredibly, my academic friend, that’s correct. That was the one that prompted Kurt Vonnegut to declare that satire was not possible any more.
TE REO PUTAKE: Yep, Kurt Vonnegut. Right on!
MORRISSEY: [icily] Just like Victor Jara, right? How you love those dissenting voices! Right?
TE REO PUTAKE: [Turns purple, and snarls in low voice] You’re a dimwit and an arsehole Morrissey. Grow up.
MORRISSEY Kissinger was by no means the last of the monsters to get one. There was Menachem Begin a decade later. And Elie Weasel…..
…drones on interminably into the early morning…..
Yasser Arafat….
“Yasser Arafat….”
was a freedom fighter. Unlike any of the others listed by our friend Morrissey during that rather fraught five minutes in the King’s Arms.
Stuff has just published an article about the new normal.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8888033/Volatile-weather-the-new-normal
Various experts in their field have weighed in about how we should cope and be mitigating to deal with the new normal.
However, what all these experts aren’t saying is…..
This is not the new normal.
The new normal will be much worse. Beyond our capacity to mitigate.
We are only at the very beginning on the way to a new normal.
If we don’t cut back our CO2 emissions, drastically and immediately, the new normal is forecast to be somewhere north of 6 degrees C.
Prepare, if you can, to have your houses smashed in, and or flooded regularly and repeatedly. Prepare to see agriculture devastated. Prepare to see vital infrastructure and industry wrecked on a regular basis, beyond the ability to rebuild.
And still, this will not be the new normal.
You want to talk about mitigation or adapting to the new normal, then learn how to hunt food with a sharpened stick.
While I think it’s probably not this generation of Kiwis that will be reduced hunting with sharpened sticks, Jenny, your apocolyptic vision of the future can’t be far away for large parts of the third world. I predict substantial wars over the flows of rivers within our lifetime, as upstream countries dam or divert water to use domestically, regardless of the effect on downstream neighbours.
The zombie apocalypse might get us first
““Pouwhenua”—got it from a Maori brother who used to play for the All Blacks before the war. Bad motherfuckers, the Maori. That battle at One Tree Hill, five hundred of them versus half of reanimated Auckland. The pouwhenua’s a tough weapon to use, even if this one’s steel instead of wood. But that’s the other perk of being a soldier of fortune. Who can get a rush anymore from pulling a trigger? It’s gotta be hard, dangerous, and the more Gs you gotta take on, the better. Of course, sooner or later there’s not gonna be any of them left. And when that happens…”
– World War Z (the book, not the movie)
oh my, oh the insurance premiums! Maybe Monsieur Proudhon’s assertion was with the best intentions towards all.
Jenny, as long as there is a financial cost referenced in any such articles, you can be assured that there is no intention to implement solutions for the benefits of all!
The so called, new normal, is a crock designed to deflect, seems to be working!
Qeue and Adore………90 seconds in.
It’s official.
The public is tired of Sir Kim Dotcom.
The public sides with ShonKey Python.
End of story.
Thank you Corin.
We have Farrar later on.
That will seal it.
Thank you Susan.
That is why I refer to it as “A party political broadcast on behalf of the National Party.” I refuse to watch the shit.
Oh dear Q+A are so short of panelists they have David Bloody Farrar.
Time for Russel Norman
The Hall of Hogwash
Exhibit No. 2: DAVID CAMERON
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“We never support, in countries, the intervention by the military.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
—-U.K. prime minister David Cameron, speaking about the Egyptian crisis.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b036c3r1
hogwash, n. 1. Worthless, false, or ridiculous speech or writing; nonsense.
2. Garbage fed to hogs; swill.
hypocrisy, n. 1. the practice of professing standards, beliefs, etc., contrary to one’s real character or actual behaviour, esp the pretence of virtue and piety
2. an act or instance of this
Hall of Hogwash….
No. 1 Barack Obama: “people standing up for what’s right….aaaahhhh, the yearning for justice and dignity…”
Sorry Corin I forgot to say we also have me later on and after all the GCSB law was Labour’s in the first place and really, should this be a political issue at all place ?
Visitor from Hawke’s Bay – ShonKey Python is very popular with the public.
Useless cow/s !
Faarrrk, get the pretty pink Big Gay Out picnic table on Ryall.
Occasionally I read the opinion pieces in the Herald, and since I don’t have too much energy to waste on writing in the comments, often utilise the ‘Like’ feature to provide support to those I agree with.
On Rodney Hide’s piece today GSCB used as a stick to bash Government my Likes are not being recorded.
Seems to have happened a few times over the last couple of weeks. I don’t believe the Herald is IT-savvy enough to manipulate alternative views, but it is interesting how it happens on topical articles.
War crimes in Zambia bad; war crimes in Palestine: no problem
Radio NZ National, Sunday 7 July 2013
After listening in mounting horror and disbelief to a particularly nasty piece of slime called David Scheffer speaking, unchallenged, for more than half an hour, praising (amongst other howlers) the monstrous Madeleine Albright’s commitment to human rights, I was compelled to flick off the following hurried communication to the interviewer, Chris Laidlaw….
Dear Chris,
War crimes in Zambia bad; war crimes in Palestine: no problem
David Scheffer said: “Should we let someone wanted for war crimes in Zambia into the United States? Of course not!” Such verbal indignation might be more impressive if the United States did not routinely admit people who commit war crimes in the Occupied West Bank and in Gaza.
I note also that David Scheffer did not once mention the crimes of Israel in the Occupied West Bank, Gaza or on international waters.
Yours in concern at the free platform given to glib Clintonistas,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
UPDATE!
It’s just been read out, albeit with a slightly undermining “Yeeeesss, you can’t please everyone.”
RESULT!!!!
Se 2.1.3.1 above.
Go for 3 out of 3 (or maybe it’s 3 out of 4).
Thanks for that, Tim. I might have to publish some of my correspondence with Messrs Laidlaw, Mora, Crump and Miss Hill some time in the near future.
” I might have to publish some of my correspondence with Messrs Laidlaw, Mora, Crump and Miss Hill some time in the near future.”
Why don’t you republish some of the correspondence you engaged in with Leighton Smith and Michael Laws. That was pretty funny, I thought.
What if Marx Got It Wrong?
Sounds remarkably like the way I’ve been thinking. Under the present system as more and more wealth is produced we get more and more poverty as more of the commons is privatised. Will have to read it.
EDIT: No, on second thoughts, not what I’m looking at as it is still is based around ever increasing use of resources.
Here’s a link to the book.
Enough is enough.
http://steadystate.org/discover/enough-is-enough/
have you read it draco?
Its a real gem.
No I haven’t. Will have to see if it’s at the library.
EDIT: Nope, it isn’t.
Interesting concept, though, that the problem is private ownership of land rather than capitalism – actually, don’t they go together?
George’s book may be worth a look.
It’s actually the private ownership of the resources that the land represents. In NZ most of those resources are still owned by the state and not the land owners. And, yes, the two do go together.
The problem today seems to be more the fact that the money is in the control of the capitalists which allows them to then accumulate ever more control of those resources. Control of the resources then allows control of the populace.
Still worth a read but he’s going to be wrong like most of the economists of the last 200 odd years but should add a couple of ideas.
Here’s what Kate Pickett says on “Enough is Enough”
“Their vision of a steady state Economy and their practical focus on how to achieve it is a significant roadmap. Offering the way to a better quality of life and sustainable future for all of us and the planet”
It’s a recent acquisition at my local library and a cracking read. Pester yours to obtain a copy -$20 online. I know you will enjoy it.
Yes his Chapter 9 is way off beam! He says he is interested in facts. Well here is one he does not consider. We live on a finite Planet.
Like most economists, he has no understanding of exponential growth. I think he bases his argument on “decoupling” – producing more economic output with fewer material and energy inputs. So here is another fact he might like to consider – between 1980 and 2007 the material intensity of the global economy – the amount of biomass, minerals, and fossil fuels required to produce a dollar of GDP decreased by 33%. Worth celebrating, if it wasn’t for the fact that world GDP grew by 141%. The gains made in efficiency are wiped out by increased consumption. (sustainable europe research institute – and world bank figures)
Today is apparently the 97th birthday of the New Zealand Labour Party, rumor has it that a spinning noise has been heard emanating from cemetarys all over the country…
I thought it was more of a ‘rolling’ kind of noise – not unlike jaffas rolling down the uncarpeted floorboards of a Roxy Cinema.
…. probably should have ‘capitalised’ J – for Jaffa
FYI
‘Open Letter’
Suad Allie
Democracy Advisor,
Regulaory and ByLaw Committee
Auckland Council
Dear Suad,
Request for ‘Speaking Rights’ at ‘Public Forum’ at the Auckland Council Regulatory and Bylaws Committee meeting 10 July 2013, 1.30pm, Council Chamber, Auckland Town Hall, on the proposed By Law change to effectively outlaw ‘begging’.
I note that the ‘TERMS OF REFERENCE’ for the Regulatory and Bylaws Committee, include:
“Review Local Board proposed bylaws and recommend to Governing Body”, and relevant legislation noted, ‘includes but is not limited to
Local Government Act 2002;
Resource Management Act 1991;
Sale of Liquor Act 1989; and
All Bylaws’
As one of two successful Appellants in the recent Occupy Auckland vs Auckland Council Appeal, I am very concerned that the RULE OF LAW, is followed in a proper way, regarding proposed changes, as outlined by Auckland Councillor Dr Cathy Casey, and reported in the NZ Herald on 4 July 2013:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10894576
“A person must not use a public place to: beg or ask for money, food, or other items for personal use or solicit donations in a manner that may intimidate or cause a nuisance to any person.”
definition of nuisance “includes any person, animal, thing or circumstance causing unreasonable interference with the peace, comfort or convenience of another person”.
MY SUBJECT MATTER:
1) That this proposed By Law violates the Local Government Act 2002,
s. 155 (3)
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2002/0084/latest/DLM173401.html
155Determination whether bylaw made under this Act is appropriate
(1AA)This section applies to a bylaw only if it is made under this Act.
(1)A local authority must, before commencing the process for making a bylaw, determine whether a bylaw is the most appropriate way of addressing the perceived problem.
(2)If a local authority has determined that a bylaw is the most appropriate way of addressing the perceived problem, it must, before making the bylaw, determine whether the proposed bylaw—
(a)is the most appropriate form of bylaw; and
(b)gives rise to any implications under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990.
(3)No bylaw may be made which is inconsistent with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, notwithstanding section 4 of that Act.
_____________________________________
The Bill of Rights Act 1990 potential violations, in my considered opinion, include, but are not limited to:
8 Right not to be deprived of life
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1990/0109/latest/DLM225506.html
14 Freedom of expression
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1990/0109/latest/DLM225513.html
16 Freedom of peaceful assembly
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1990/0109/latest/DLM225515.html
19 Freedom from discrimination
(1)Everyone has the right to freedom from discrimination on the grounds of discrimination in the Human Rights Act 1993.
21Prohibited grounds of discrimination
(1)For the purposes of this Act, the prohibited grounds of discrimination are—
(j)political opinion, which includes the lack of a particular political opinion or any political opinion:
(k)employment status, which means—
(i)being unemployed; or
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1990/0109/latest/DLM225519.html
2) What also really concerns me is WHO IS NEXT?
Those collecting signatures for petitions, or collecting for charities/ causes/ issues? Protestors – for any reason on any issue?
If you don’t know your rights – you haven’t got any.
If you don’t defend the rights you have – you lose them.
3) Civil Liberties /Human Rights lawyer Michael Bott, has provided the following comprehensive research on this issue, from which I intend to draw references:
http://michaelbott.blogspot.co.nz/2013/07/local-bodies-freedom-of-expression.html?showComment=1373152206053#c3326932363914523767
4) From whom are Auckland Council receiving legal advice on this matter?
The same Auckland Council General Counsel Wendy Brandon, who has already proven, particularly over the Occupy Auckland vs Auckland Council Appeal, in my considered opinion, that she is arguably neither competent nor professional, in her understanding or application of the relevant Local Government and Human Rights legislation that pertains in such matters, and has already helped cost Auckland citizens and ratepayers some hundreds of thousands of dollars in unnecessary legal expenses?
FYI:
Decision of High Court Judge Ellis – Occupy Auckland wins our Appeal:
http://www.occupyaucklandvsaucklandcouncilappeal.org.nz/?p=113
Proof that Auckland Council General Counsel Wendy Brandon has not been truthful over the amount spent by Auckland Council on legal costs for Occupy Auckland proceedings:
http://www.occupyaucklandvsaucklandcouncilappeal.org.nz/?p=130
5) Please be advised that as an Auckland Mayoral candidate, I hereby give you formal notice that if this Regulatory and ByLaw Committee of Auckland Council, does NOT follow the clearly outlined ‘RULE OF LAW’ that applies in this situation, and recklessly and precipitiously passes any By Law which does attempt to violate the lawful rights of arguably the ‘poorest of the poor’ – then I too will ‘beg’ in Queen St, in defence of these above-mentioned human rights, and encourage as many others as possible to join me.
Yours sincerely,
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption/anti-privatisation’ campaigner
2013 Auckland mayoral candidate
Turns out that I can read TS from a hut on a beach in Samoa. The cell coverage is pretty extensive. The roaming data is freaking expensive however…
roam wasn’t built in a tropical bay. How them coconuts hanging.
Low and radiating…
Is Judith Collins using her staff to censor Wikipedia articles?
http://brookingblog.com/2013/07/06/judith-collins-staff-editing-wikipedia-articles-on-justice-issues-in-nz/
Sigh
That’s bad. Although I’m always curious when people who are otherwise well informed and adept at negotiating power systems get banned from somewhere like wikipedia and don’t say why or how it came about.
Perhaps he doesn’t know and is still trying to find out.
Yup, the digital world…
Anything you want it to be/say…just a few clicks away!
Odds on a nact talking point something like this?.
http://humanism.org.uk/2013/07/04/church-of-england-academy-chains-to-take-control-of-former-community-schools/
Church of England…”quite conceivably become the largest sponsor and provider of secondary education in the country”.
Gotta fill those pews with ewes. 😎
Absolutely ovine..
acquiescently theirs..
Egypt:
http://www.trust.org/item/20130706074317-o8n7e/?source=search
Salafi el Nour object to ElBaradei’s appt, the Freedom and Justice Party (MB) “ready for martyrdom”
-Abdullah Shehatah, now, Ansar el Shariah are cracking into it.
China, and their infant market
http://www.trust.org/item/20130707023852-ke6rf/?source=search
and, and,
Black Sabbath top British album charts, again, after 43 years.
http://www.trust.org/item/20130616180000-4ki73/?source=search
Education under huge pressure to cut costs
National’s promised surplus just isn’t materialising and so they have to cut even more essential services to try and get one and they’ll still fail.
Some contemplative material for a few here: the effects of turning a real tragedy into a blog-hobby.
You beat me to it! I was going to save it for the morning, thought it’d make a great first post of the day. Mind you, I’m not convinced the resident illuminati spotters and HAARPists here would recognise themselves reflected in Kathryn Gilkison’s words.
to be fair, it’s probably worth a mention tomorrow morning, too 🙂
Depends on how you want the morning to go on Open Mike 😉