Trump literally does not give a shit about the millions of – to him – peasants who are being driven to dispair and abject poverty by his shutdown. That is because he is an aristocrat in all but name who lives entirely in a world where he can afford to purchase the services (and security) he needs. He doesn’t care that Yosemite is drowning in trash. The contractors still clear the trash from the golf course at Mar-El-Largo. He doesn’t care if the museums close, the guy is a pussy grabbing Philistine. He doesn’t care of the EPA, IRS and food inspectors all go home – it is all grist to the mill for a tax cheating, corrupt businessman like him.
He is so unfit for office in every possible way that I am beginning wonder when/if the military chiefs will take him aside and quietly point out his health might benefit from an early retirement…
You have correctly pointed out that POTUS is not in ‘charge’ …
Trump is a product of the system….a system which want’s him (or anyone) to be there…because it makes no meaningful difference … the road maps remain the same…
The military are also gatekeepers, and violent and aggressive as they inherently are designed to be, they are part of the wider system…
So who or what is really in control…Trump or POTUS is not the answer to that question….
The President in particular is very much a figurehead — he wields no real power whatsoever. He is apparently chosen by the government, but the qualities he is required to display are not those of leadership but those of finely judged outrage. For this reason the President is always a controversial choice, always an infuriating but fascinating character. His job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it. On those criteria Zaphod Beeblebrox is one of the most successful Presidents the Galaxy has ever had — he has already spent two of his ten presidential years in prison for fraud.
Is Trump setting up his run in 2020? Cornering the democrats on the wall? I mean he could not get the Mexicans to pay for it, so why does everyone think his dithering means the Democrats will use taxpayers money to. Is that the point, that Trump will go back asking for re-election so he has a real mandate to build the wall?
Seem the wall however large won’t stop them coming..
He has filed for re-election campaigning the day he was sworn in. After all that grifter needs money, and campaigning allows him to fundraiser all that sweet sweet cash that washed up orange bullshitter needs to pay of his debtors.
yeah. wealth needs a psuedo billionaire in the Whitehouse to show how much big monies wealth runs a country. pandering to stupid walls… …oh, oh, and the genius of having a total fruit loop as vice president to keep them from chucking his fat…
Of course the wall “won’t stop them coming”. The reason; Most undocumented immigrants are in the US after overstaying their work visas. Only a very tiny minority crossed the border illegally. Most entered the US legally and then overstayed.
The US economy is reliant on this system of official and unofficial vulnerable migrant labour. And even on so called illegal overstaying. Because this workforce have no citizenship, they are vulnerable, they have few recognised legal rights and so can be exploited mercilessly, and deported at whim by their employers.
It’s a system of official, unofficial immigration.
And the wall will not stop it. Nor is it designed to. The purpose of the wall is to strike fear into people on both sides of it.
I thought it was more like crates of cash handed out to Muslims in the axis of evil to buy their consent… …just done in the lower western states instead…
““In 2020, Biden-style centrism will become a toxic and losing brand of politics in Democratic primaries,” said Waleed Shahid, a left-wing activist.” Partisan leftists don’t want to make common cause with moderates in order to get the numbers up to defeat the right. Being a noble loser is more important.
Biden is 76, and a stale pale male, so you can see why he’s currently the front-runner in the polls. There’s evidence he would be likely to win the presidency by stealing part of the Republican support base of voters: “among the 200 Republicans sitting in the 116th Congress, 90 per cent will be white men. The number of female Republicans in the House has actually fallen, from 23 to 13 this year”.
Personally, if I was a US voter, I wouldn’t vote such an old person into that kind of office out of simple self-interest. The complications of probable bad health and the political issues of transfer if he wound up with death or bad health are very large.
Politically I’m mostly be looking at the who I’d be voting for as vice-president and who the likely Speaker of the house would be after the mid-terms.
The US is run by a gerontocracy due to their inability to handily change rules that were made for a pre-industrial rural society of slave owners with an average life expectancy of something under 40.
Chuck Grassley (chairman of the Senate’s judiciary committee, you know the guys who confirm supreme court judges) is 85.Donald Trump is 72, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell is 76, and the ranking Republican senator, Orrin Hatch, is 84. Nancy Pelosi is 78, while Dianne Feinstein, the ranking member on the Senate judiciary committee, is 85. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, are 77 and 69 respectively, which scarily makes Biden at 76 the middle of that pack of presidential contenders. Hillary Clinton was 69 when she lost, practically a callow youth in that company. The average age of the current congress is 59 (in NZ the average age of parliament is 49, but our PM is just 38 and the leader of the opposition is 42 so both are actually at a vigorous age).
The USA needs to introduce some retirement rules for congress, the senate and the supreme court.
Minor correction, Orrin Hatch is now retired and Chuck Grassley is now president pro tempore of the senate and chairman of the finance committee. Lindsey Graham (baby of the bunch at 63) is now chairman of the judiciary committee
I am a US voter (in California, so my vote is irrelevant), and I would really struggle with voting for someone as old as Sanders or Biden. For the reasons you’ve mentioned, plus the idea that someone making the kind of decisions the prez makes should be likely to live the consequences for a substantial part of their life.
But just to clarify the line of succession thing, that list only comes into play if the prez and veep are taken out in the same event. Otherwise if the prez goes, veep becomes prez and gets to choose a new veep and the only restriction is the new veep must meet the eligibility requirements to be prez. After Agnew cut and ran, Ford became veep because Nixon chose him; Ford was House Minority Leader not Speaker. Similar after Ford became prez, he chose Rockefeller who governor of New York at the time.
Looking at our current situation, the only way Pelosi becomes prez is if the satsuma shitgibbon and Pence are impeached in the same proceeding. But even if Pence turns out to be even deeper in it than the mandarin manutang (very unlikely), you can be sure Turtle McConnell will find some way separate the proceedings in the Senate so that Pence can get sworn in, appoint a palatable new veep and confirm the successor before turfing Pence out.
Thanks for that wonderfully worded clarification, Andre.
I kept thinking there was something not quite right in some of the simplistic/wishful thinking being bandied about. I was also taken aback by Sanctuary’s stark presentation of the ages of the current US leaders. Made me feel quite young!
Actually leftists don’t want to make common cause with so-called “moderates” because:
a) they are not moderate at all – the radical centre they occupy is increasingly just an old fashioned conservative defense of the (neoliberal) status quo with a fair dollop of social liberal thrown in.
b) “Moderate centrism” as a viable political force is now dead. Hillary Clinton should have conclusively demonstrated this – she lost to Donald fucking Trump for Christ’s sake, how much more evidence that her status quo, “centrist” message was electorally toxic do you need? I don’t how long it will take the smug middle class defenders of centrism to get through their thick skulls that centrism is dead, but the sooner the better.
c) “Partisan leftists” are the ONLY ones with an ideological agenda capable of competing with right wing populism, because people want change and pearl clutching socially liberal conservatives calling themselves “moderates” are offering sweet fuck all.
I sympathise somewhat. The idealist in me isn’t dead. Just retired, hurt (as in cricket) during the seventies, yielding to the pragmatist. Who, of course, inevitably must point out that moderate centrism is not in fact dead – as Biden’s front-runner status currently proves.
That’s because HC never had a monopoly on the brand. In fact, she was such a poor exemplar of the brand as to make better options (Sanders) look good in comparison.
Now if you cite Sanders’ brand-identification as socialist, history proves you correct. Both/and. Reading his political biography proves to the reader that he operated as a moderate centrist when in office. It’s the usual difference between what leftists say and what they do. Preaching and praxis. When they differ, they generate alternate identities.
Yeah, word-play. I come to it from a technical perspective: belief combined with action (theory combined with application) produces praxis as lifestyle.
Hey now, I’ve explained how it works. Nobody has protested that it’s too hard for them to understand. Some have even commented in appreciation of the notion. I agree that evidence that humans have become a lot stupider since the Greeks invented it (several millennia back) abounds, but assuming commenters here reflect the current norm seems unfair.
The idealist in me isn’t dead. Just retired, hurt (as in cricket) during the seventies, yielding to the pragmatist. Who, of course, inevitably must point out that moderate centrism is not in fact dead – as Biden’s front-runner status currently proves.
If you’re centrist then you’re not pragmatic. Centrism goes against all practicality.
Well it’s worked for me. Since adopting the stance in ’71, no regrets. Maybe you interpret the label differently. I combine radical centrism as a praxis with pragmatism as a way of finding common ground in current reality…
I find this problem with all people who say that they’re pragmatic these days. They seem to think that pragmatism means doing what’s politically correct rather than what it does mean which is doing what’s practical and conforms with reality.
Due to this delusional belief they keep supporting things that aren’t practical or sustainable and thus proving that they are not pragmatic.
Well I’ve been non-pc since the sixties, when it seemed that all intelligent teenagers were choosing the nonconformist path – so much that it became fashionable to follow the trend. So your description doesn’t apply to me.
What’s more, applying your reasoning to the current reality provides the rational for the coalition to continue with neoliberalism. It works, so it must be practical. I’d rather ditch it in favour of the path to a sustainable society and economy. Too impractical for most politicians still. But, inasmuch as doing so requires pragmatic compromises along the way, making progress towards that goal synthesises idealism & pragmatism.
What’s more, applying your reasoning to the current reality provides the rational for the coalition to continue with neoliberalism. It works, so it must be practical.
Really?
If you’re trying that logic after the failure of the last few decades of neo-liberalism then you’re definitely not capable of being pragmatic.
But, inasmuch as doing so requires pragmatic compromises along the way, making progress towards that goal synthesises idealism & pragmatism.
And it’s that delusion that has the Overton Window going ever further to the right.
When I say it works, I don’t mean works well, or even satisfactorily. I just mean it works sufficiently well that the people in western countries have kept voting to stay with it – in preference to choosing any other option.
And working so well that most political activists have consistently refrained from working together to present voters with a positive alternative. Just because I’ve spent so long trying to develop one doesn’t mean I can’t be pragmatic enough to accept that such an overwhelming consensus throughout all those countries is evidence that most people think neoliberalism works!
Try to explain what you think that delusion is. The one you mentioned. Is it why Bill got so impatient? Why he no longer contributes? I’m impatient by nature too, as I told him, and only considerable age has mellowed that. I’m just as keen to make progress, faster, as anyone else. But, as the coalition is proving to everyone, it can only proceed at the pace that consensus permits. Pragmatic acceptance of this limit is realistic: it is democracy.
I just mean it works sufficiently well that the people in western countries have kept voting to stay with it – in preference to choosing any other option.
Have they or is it that the politicians have kept it in place against the wishes if the populace?
Think about that for a sec.
It was, most definitely, put in place against the wishes of the NZ populace but Labour kept doing it any way. National said that they were going to undo it and got their 1990 landslide victory at which point they then went and entrenched it further.
I was at the Labour meeting in New Lynn a few years back when Andrew Little was leader. He started a sentence ‘We’re going ban foreign ownership…’
At that point he got cheered. When the room quieted again he went on ‘…of owning any more than 5 hectares.’
With that he got ringing silence. The entire room, except the sitting politicians, were disgusted with him.
At the same meeting David said that he couldn’t understand why there were people outside protesting the TPPA. He seemed to think that Labour’s position was clear. Labour, once in power, signed an unchanged TPPA while saying that it had been changed.
So, given this evidence when did the population ever vote for neo-liberalism?
Try to explain what you think that delusion is.
The delusion that if you compromise with the right-wing that they’ll do it right back. They don’t – they just swing further right and demand that the Left compromise again on the new position taking us even further rightwards.
But, as the coalition is proving to everyone, it can only proceed at the pace that consensus permits.
I’d love to know what the consensus is. Wonder what would happen if we had a referendum on many policies.
Wonder how much compromise there’d be with the RWNJs. I’m reasonably certain that it would be far less than what our representatives are doing.
Yeah, okay, that all makes sense. I agree that the politicians have been driven by an elite agenda. That’s why they get invited to the Bilderberger conferences. So the ongoing voter support for neoliberalism is the result.
Pragmatic acceptance of that reality doesn’t mean that those of us who don’t agree ought to stop trying to provide voters with a better option. Just means democracy (the system) is the problem, so politics (the game) has to be played more cleverly.
Which is why I came up with the notion of an alternative political movement. All political groups who organise to leverage the system operate at a higher level of influence than representative democracy. They function as opinion-leaders within the social ecosystem of politics. NGOs, PACs, institutes, unions, some of these lobby groups have been operating since the 19th century, mediating between govt & public. Fabian Society for Labour leverage, right?
As regards the compromise delusion, that happens as you described it, but only in the minds of those who are out-played. Tit for tat is a simple game that kids have learnt for yonks. Surprising when politicos get it wrong, eh? Psychology has to be used to explain why. It’s all about the nexus in which group psychodynamics plays out. The group belief system is effectively analogous to a monoculture in an ecosystem. Bad news. A clever player gets good at mediating the in-crowd/out-crowd interface. Stalin showed how that expertise produces a winner.
Anyway, as I’ve reported here a couple of times previously, the story of tit for tat was told by Robert Axelrod in The Evolution of Cooperation and I’ve mentioned how that became so influential amongst US foreign-policy makers in the eighties that it effectively brought about the end of the Cold War.
It seems to me the growth model is over and in the absence of an alternative the preparations are being made to survive the initial fall-out…after that who knows.
DEATH BEFORE DISHONOUR!, or, “What does she have to fear?”
Kangaroo court is in session….
SQUEALER: For Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, this could be devastating. On a human level, I can emphasise with a person who has locked herself away from normal human contact for days. It’s bound to be depressing holing up in a couple of small rooms in a vain attempt to avoid justice. No wonder she couldn’t even look after her cat properly or, as is alleged, get around to washing herself. In the meantime, the world is sniggering at al-Qunun’s naivety.
STUNNED MULLET: She’s a cunt. “Cleaning out the cat box is a crime against humanity!”
JACKAL: OK this is one of those subjects that gets people going. I’m a lawyer, so let’s look at the allegations. The allegations are: she bleaches her hair, she is a hacker, she neglected an animal, she has poor personal hygiene. So any of these demonstrably proveable as being false? And why should she seek to suppress information provided by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?
BREEN: You think it’s amusing do you, Jackal?
JACKAL: No I don’t. I have always had doubts about Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun and her heroine status. But, as I said, let’s analyse this story. Is it true that she is trying to stop the media from printing stories about her that have been verified by the trustworthy and ethical Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?
BREEN: What doubts were those? And what does it matter if she’s a heroine or not? What evidence are you aware of that supports those ludicrous fantasy charges concocted by the KSA and its media vassals?
JACKAL: I have always had deep concerns about her role in the denigration of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I see nothing principled in her possible involvement in dishonorable conduct while in Thailand.
CapnInsan0: That turgid little worm Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun!
Richard: Shouldn’t she be demanding the release of all records regarding her pet care and personal grooming rather than demanding asylum?
francesca: The kitty litter and personal hygiene bullshit is clearly designed to humiliate and taunt her. You guys make me sick.
SQUEALER: I never knew al-Qunun was a smelly cat abuser until recently. It really matters. It really does. I’m being totally serious. I had no idea about her alleged personal hygiene issues until recently. I do vaguely recall the cat legal case, but I didn’t know she’d been found to have let the animal down. She’s isolated, alone, under pressure and now being laughed at. This cannot be good for her on a human level.
ROSS: If she has been wrongly accused of a vile crime, that would make the accused the victim, surely?
SQUEALER: I’ve served on juries. Did my civic duty to the best of my abilities.
BREEN: Has Jackal expressed his amusement at the plight of Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun yet? And if not, why not?
JACKAL: Because I don’t know who they are?
BREEN: You don’t know who SHE is. It’s one person, so you don’t use the pronoun “they”.
JACKAL: I did not know if the person was a he or she until I googled her name so I chose to use “they”.
SHEEP: “It’s one person, so you don’t use the pronoun ‘they’.” Do you really want to open that can of worms?
RAT: Finally….some sense about this little bitch…..rather then the brown nosing sycophants who think this Saudi weasel is a victim………she needs to stop hiding and be a man.
BREEN: A lot of unimaginative abuse there, mon ami—but nothing to indicate you have the slightest clue about this matter. Could you explain why she’s a “weasel” for wanting asylum?
DOPEY: Here’s the list of that little bitch’s misdemeanours, allegedly. Put your coffee down before reading it. If it’s a spoof, it’s a goody.
JACKAL: Wow …
SHEEP: Well there it is .. “It is false and defamatory to suggest that Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun bleaches her hair.”
ASSORTED ANIMALS: Ha ha ha ha ha!… Silly bitch!…. They wouldn’t be after her if she hadn’t done something!….
Thank you for your fantastic intelligence and eloquence Morrissey, and your skill at demonstrating the utter utter bullshit.
Even though you’re not A PROGRAMMER (I assume)
You’re a delight!!
Thank you Brigid! No, I’m not a programmer—the headmaster has correctly bagged me as a “credulous dimwitted techno illiterate”.
I like to think of myself more as a de-programmer. There is some disturbingly cult-like behaviour manifesting on this normally sane website, and it’s distressing to me. I am encouraged, however, by the presence of people like you and francesca. Just as the occasional sight of, say, Ralph Nader or Daniel Ellsberg on American television shows that there ARE decent, thoughtful people in the U.S., having you here is a sign that civilized and thoughtful people will not be intimidated into staying away.
Yeah, well….
Among lots of other people who were nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize we have had Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Richard Nixon, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.
I think he is in suitable company.
ie Totally unqualified.
The Obama one was possibly a joke as well—but he got it. It was in anticipation of all the wonderful things he was going to do. Hope and change, that sort of thing.
Well you’ve demonstrated one thing.
I needed 2 words when I classed Assange as “Totally unqualified”
You’ve managed to do it in just one.
“Idiot” seems to sum him up nicely.
I see that Mr Shaw is devoting his time to trivia again.
Instead of devoting his time and effort to the only real responsibility he has, he is picking out the new cars for Ministers.
He should be devoting his efforts to getting a new Census held in 2021. The one last year was a total disaster but he sits around twiddling his thumbs and trying to pretend everything is fine and he doesn’t have to worry about the matter.
He, and the Department, have already wasted 10 months when they could have been arranging the new, proper, Census.
Get on with it!
Instead I see that James is looking at new cars to carry him, and his fellow Greens, around in luxury while pretending they are doing good things for the world. As this article says.
“Climate Change Minister James Shaw signalled in September he was looking into increasing the number of electric cars used by ministers as part of a wider policy push to get more people driving EVs.”
Churlish, Alwyn. “In total, 29 per cent of all ministerial vehicles – including Crown and self-drive cars are electric vehicles (EVs). That’s up from 2 per cent this time last year.”
So why not give credit where it’s due? “Climate Change Minister James Shaw signalled in September he was looking into increasing the number of electric cars used by ministers as part of a wider policy push to get more people driving EVs.”
It’s called leading by example, Alwyn. Remember how many years National’s leaders kept on failing at that? And still no sign they’ve learnt from the consequences of their failure.
Firstly he isn’t actually responsible for the purchase of vehicles.
It comes under the overview of Chris Hipkins.
Shaw’s only real responsibility for anything significant as a Minister is Statistics and in particular the Census.
It was totally stuffed up under his watch and he has had his head in the sand ever since. He had 6 months in the job and he should have made damn sure that it was done properly. He didn’t and all his, and his Departments excuses, since and their blaming National are b*s.
James Shaw became Minister of Statistics on 26 Oct 2018 – a total of only 132 days (4 1/2 months) before the 2018 Census was held on 6 March 2018.
By the time he became Minister in Oct 2018, all policies, processes, procedures had been well set in concrete with very little if any ability to change anything.
Planning for the 2018 Census began in 2013 after the last Census that year – when Maurice Willamson was still Minister of Statistics.
First policy decisions on the 2018 Census were made in Feb 2014 by the Cabinet Economic Growth and Infrastructure Committee (EGI).
In May 2014, Nicky Wagner (who took over as Minister of Statistics for five months May – Oct 2014) announced a new internet first model would transform how the 2018 census would be delivered and collected, and would increase the use of administrative data.
Budget 2014 provided an initial $13.1 million of new operating funding in 2014/15 and $547,000 of new capital funds from the Future Investment Fund towards a modernised census to be held in 2018.
In Oct 2014, Craig Foss became Minister of Statistics.
In May 2015, public input into the 2018 Census via an online discussion forum was called for; as well as formal submissions from 18 May to 30 June 2015.
In August 2015, Finance Minister Bill English and Statistics Minister Craig Foss announced a new New Zealand Data Futures Partnership, an independent group made up of members from the private, NGO, academic and public sectors, to champion the safe collection, use and sharing of government and business data. This included the 2018 Census. The members of this group were announced in Oct 2015, with Dame Diane Robertson (outgoing Auckland City Missioner) as Chair.
On 1 July 2016, Foss announced the date for the 2018 Census as Tuesday, 6 March 2018, 613 days (ie 1 year 8 months) away.
“For 2018, Statistics NZ is building new, responsive mobile versions of the census forms, along with tablet and desktop versions, to make it as easy as possible for all Kiwis to access and complete their forms.
“We’re aiming for 70 per cent of forms to be completed online. This is an ambitious goal, doubling the 34 per cent achieved in 2013.
“Collecting census data online means Statistics NZ can produce the census counts and other robust census-related information much, much faster.
Paper forms will still be available for those who prefer them.”
On 1 Dec 2016, Mark Mitchell replaced Foss as Minister of Statistics, but for four months only.
On 24 April 2017, Scott Simpson replaced Mitchell as Minister of Statistics – for six months until 26 October 2017 when the new government was sworn in with James Shaw as Minister of Statistics.
So the vast majority of the decisions, planning and setting in place of the processes and procedures were set in place under National;
— over a period of over four years (2013 – 2017) – and
— under the oversight of five National Ministers of Statistics – Williamson, Wagner, Foss, Mitchell and Simpson;
compared to the four short months/132 days that Shaw was Minister of Statistics before the 2018 Census was held in March 2018.
FYI – the above is a short summary of the Executive Summary to a paper I did for other purposes but which is not a public paper. I have links etc for every one of the above dates etc, but will not post them. If you want to check all of the above, go do your own searches.
Well yes, I have read it. I won’t ask why it was done and who was trying to cover their butt.
However I would like to know answers to the following things.
You quote Foss as announcing
““We’re aiming for 70 per cent of forms to be completed online. This is an ambitious goal, doubling the 34 per cent achieved in 2013.
“Collecting census data online means Statistics NZ can produce the census counts and other robust census-related information much, much faster.
Paper forms will still be available for those who prefer them.”
Only 70% of the information was expected to be captured on-line. This was, I gather, exceeded. Thus when Foss at least released this things seemed to be on track.
The problem was that there were no plans or people put in place to gather the information from the 30% of people who were NOT expected to fill it in on-line.
It was surely possible to know, on the day after Census day, where no returns were provided and to have had people on the ground who would immediately start finding the people concerned.
Why was this not done?
When was the decision made not to have these backup people in place?
Who made that decision and who was told about it?
How many briefings were given to Shaw, and when did they take place?
Was he advised of the risk to the integrity of the Census from the lack of follow-up staff, for the missing returns?
What interest did he actually take in the Census. How much of his time did he spend on the only important thing he was responsible for?
Why did he show so little interest that he skived off overseas to tour the Pacific and was not around on the day? On Census day there was a news repot from Samoa.
“There’s been widespread criticism of the new digital collection system, with many people complaining they never received the code they need to fill in the online form. Mr Shaw spoke with our reporter Mei Heron in Samoa. He says he’s very confident everyone’s data will be collected.”
Why did he say after Census day how well it had gone and how they would be able to fill in the “missing” data.
Why have they not admitted, after another 10 months, that the Census was a shambles, that the data was largely useless and start planning to hold it again, and get back on the normal cycle with the Census being repeated in 2021?
Why are the people responsible not being held accountable?
Why has he not taken responsibility for the fiasco and why has he not resigned?
1. He wasn’t the Minister on, and for about 5 months previously, the Minister?
or
2. It all ran beautifully and it wasn’t stuffed up?
I think that anyone with any sense at all would say it was stuffed up and it was on his watch AND no real attempt has been made to fix the problem and hold a proper Census in 2021.
I’m not suggesting, I’m stating that when you make such poorly conceived political statements as the one I quoted, you reveal yourself as insincere and lacking credibility as a commenter. The cure is simple; stop doing that; present better, credible comments; we know you can.
Just to be clear: You argue that the incoming minister should have identified the extent of any problem, reorganised the entire census process, and hired all the additional personnel within five months, and that failure to do so means that a better organised supplementary census needs to be urgently arranged in the next couple of years?
Why aren’t you calling for it to be next month, or feb2020, if they’re so easy to sort out?
He simply needed to show some interest in the matter.
Getting people to do the follow-up work was what was needed and that doesn’t take years to organise.
So if it was such a debacle and the organisation so easy, why are you wanting to bring the next census forward only two years, instead of three or four? And why aren’t you blaming the ministers who failed to show an interest between Feb ’13 and Nov ’17?
It’s a simple question. If the entire thing needs to be redone and can be completely reorganised in five months, why do you want to wait until 2021 for the next census? Shouldn’t you be complaining that we’re not having a proper census next month?
You’re still acting as a standard Authoritarian Follower and defending the complete ballsup that your leaders caused. And that, really, is all you’re doing.
All the evidence is that it fully rests upon National and so you’re making lots of noise, talking BS, to try and distract from that fact.
Absolute perfect example of the RWNJs and their propensity to avoid taking responsibility for their actions.
I get an error on some pages on The Standard where the page loads, but is completely blank. It’s always happened every now and then but is currently happening on the pages “Russell Brands New Year Revolutions”, “Julian Assange and the Barbara Streisand Effect” and “Drug Testing at Music Festivals” – and also ironically on the Contact page, hence I thought I’d post it here as I can’t find the appropriate email address.
I’m using an iPhone with the latest iOS, and it happens on both Safari and Chrome.
Sorry when I said “every now and then” I meant it doesn’t happen on every article on The Standard but just some of them. Some articles just come up as blank pages. In the past I’ve ignored it as it’s only been the odd article, but now there’s 3 in the last few days. This only happens on The Standard so I’m afraid it’s a site issue, not my phone.
For it to be a site issue it would be happening to everybody. It’s not. It’s only happening to you.
That makes it that the most probable issue is something on your phone interfering with your browsing of The Standard. Perhaps some sort of security software or maybe a virus or trojan.
A site issue doesn’t mean it happens to everybody – it would be pretty obvious if no one could access these posts.
I used to work in web design and maintenance. If it happens to one person chances are it happens to more who don’t report a problem because it’s not worth the effort.
I suggest the site admins log it as a bug to look into; I can confirm it happens with the above pages in mobile view from iOS 12.1.2. When I request desktop view these pages can be accessed as per normal.
Yes. I am having the same problem and same pages on my phone. Android with latest updates. But its OK on my laptop mac book air. Which I’m connecting via my phone hotspot.
Mr Prent doesn’t need a ridiculous goody two-shoes like you to interpret for him.
Now, maybe you can do what Psycho Milt evidently cannot: explain why pointing out the dishonesty and political subservience of the Grauniad makes me a believer in “Soros, the Illuminati or the Lizard People.”
Feel free to post your exposition under this. There’s a good fellow.
Perhaps you could answer PM’s first question, “Who issues these instructions to the Guardian?” Go ahead, astound me by actually answering the question instead of finding some way to wriggle out of it. Better yet, leave me absolutely gobsmacked with an answer that actually makes sense, ie doesn’t rely on some bizarre conspiracy.
So pointing out the dishonesty and the ideological subservience of the Grauniad makes me a fruitcake, does it?
I have no opinion on that.
Your comment made the claim that the Guardian follows instructions about what editorial approaches to take in its coverage. That prompted the fairly obvious, not to mention simple, question: “Who issues the instructions?” I note that you haven’t answered that question.
Unscientific: only 171 in the sample. Political polls use a thousand or thereabouts here to get the standard margin of error, so in the UK with a population fifteen times bigger the sample required is around 15000.
“Our results demonstrate that physically weak males are more reluctant than physically strong males to assert their self-interest”. I suspect their next study will discover that if you drop something, it falls down.
“so in the UK with a population fifteen times bigger the sample required is around 15000”.
Sorry Dennis but because you have a population 15 times as large doesn’t mean that the sample has to be larger to retain the same accuracy.
If you think that 1,000 is enough in New Zealand it will be just as good in the UK.
“The mathematics of probability prove that the size of the population is irrelevant unless the size of the sample exceeds a few percent of the total population you are examining. This means that a sample of 500 people is equally useful in examining the opinions of a state of 15,000,000 as it would a city of 100,000.” https://www.surveysystem.com/sscalc.htm
In neither case is your sample other than tiny compared to the population
Well, I was applying the logic of proportionality. My vague recollection from 1969 suggests you are correct and if polling practice, as defined by accepted convention, is to use around a thousand in the UK, then I take your point. In any case, as you imply, the sample they used was way too small.
I did pass the stats exam at Auckland University that year, but not by much. Mumbo jumbo was my verdict on statistics…
Classic Python humour that challenges the nonsense of modern day identity politics.
The brilliant Rachel Stewart has faced the wrath of the Stans of this world.
I went cold on Rachel Stewart when she demanded that I pledge allegiance to the “gender critical feminist” movement – I am supportive but not gonna join a tribe. I declined and thus she called me a coward. So yeah I can believe racist abuse. She has an anger problem
Yep. I’m not going to get over it in a hurry. First time I’ve copped anything like that since I lived in Oz and that was more generalized kiwi bashing. The odd thing here is that whenever Ed is challenged on an ethical issue involving a hero of his, he runs a mile. I’m not calling him a chicken, but I hope he doesn’t live too close to a Tegel factory 😉
“I’d like to think that part of an editor’s job is to guide their contributors gently towards the light, not run full-tilt together holding hands, into the dark.” – Rachel Stewart (Nov. 2017: Media gorging on racist, sexist views)
He made a snarky contribution and got one back. Perhaps he could amaze us all and actually watch The Life of Brian while doing some self reflection. I wouldn’t ask you to as i know you only watch trailers for movies.
Right-hand batsman, Right-arm medium pace bowler, and Right-wing media commentator, Simon Doull, has pretty much excused himself from having any commentary role in the upcoming Bangladesh cricket tour.
As barmy as Doull is, he’s Iain Galloway, Alan Richards, Richie Benaud and John Arlott compared to Ian “Smithy” Smith, who is without doubt the stupidest person in sports.
I did interview Doull once. He was judge on a pub sponsored ‘worst student flat’ competition. Gave first prize to some morons who smeared excrement all over the house they lived in.
A tad non-pc to use cobblers as a term of abuse, perhaps? I suspect some here would view them as respectable tradesmen. Although I suppose that, being self-employed, they were considered impossible to unionise, and thus middle-class.
Fairly thin on the ground nowadays. However there was one still on Broadway, Newmarket, when I last cruised through a year or two back. And I noticed another in one of the regional towns more recently…
“Right-hand batsman, Right-arm medium pace bowler, and Right-wing media commentator, Simon Doull, has pretty much excused himself from having any commentary role in the upcoming Bangladesh cricket tour.”
LMAO…now thats funny (unless you live in a low lying area of course)
A foot fetishist discredited a Reddit post that falsely claimed to show a nude image of New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Vice reported.
[…]
“I’m a contributor to wikifeet and even I have never seen a second toe like that!” Reddit user jokes_on_you commented on the image. The comment also included a link to an image showing the Congresswoman wearing sandals.
The best Brexit negotiating position would be with Labour via a support base mandate for a out of bounds agenda along with being pro to continuing with the EU.
What would the EU do?
Concessions, that would lead to more positive reform (& thus sustainability) on it’s own part, or internal heightened dis-integration relating to the high profile fall out in handling the British democracy demands.
Emma Brockes, who wrote that piece, was discredited fourteen years ago after she wrote a particularly foolish and ill-advised attack on, of all people, Noam Chomsky.
It’s interesting that she’s still “working” for the Grauniad; it looks like this time at least she’s written something truthful. Still, the fact that she’s still “working” in journalism tells you a lot about the integrity and ethics of the British media.
Another of her colleagues is the notorious Luke Harding, who has neither apologized for his lies against Julian Assange, nor suffered any consequences, as far as we know.
Akcherly, old chum, there is little or no evidence either way on the Manafort story.
Manafort denies it, of course. However, he hasn’t gone out of his way to disprove it, either. Which I would have thought would be a piece of piss (phone GPS, flights, hotels, taxi receipts etc.). If he simply wasn’t in London at the time, again, easy to prove. Of course, he may have been legitimately in the UK at the time, which might cloud the issue. I hear Salisbury is lovely that time of year.
The other thing an expert on the media such as yourself should probably note is that the Guardian story is very, very careful not to make direct accusations (“the Guardian has been told …” etc.), so there are no “lies” in the piece at all. The Guardian’s legal team are no dummies.
True. But London is the most surveilled city in the world. CCTV everywhere. That embassy more watched more than most, too, I guess.
And as I noted, Manafort can easily prove where he was, and wasn’t, at the time of the alleged visit. It’s a little odd that he isn’t actively trying to disprove the claim.
However, it is just an unverified claim, and a bit vague about the details, so maybe he’s decided it’s just best ignored.
Uber driver pleads guilty to killing six people between rides Jason Dalton admitted that he shot eight people at three locations in and around Kalamazoo in 2016
A.P., Jan. 7, 2019
An Uber driver charged with killing six strangers in between picking up passengers pleaded guilty to murder in Michigan on Monday, just before attorneys were set to interview jurors for his trial.
Jason Dalton’s surprise move came more than three years after the shootings, which occurred over the course of a few hours in and around Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Dalton abruptly pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder – over his attorney’s objections – triggering the prospect of a mandatory sentence of life in prison with no chance for parole .
“Yes, I’ve wanted this for quite a while,” Dalton replied when a judge asked if the pleas were voluntary.
The 48-year-old Dalton answered “yes” to a series of questions, admitting that he shot eight people at three locations. After his arrest, police quoted Dalton as saying a “devil figure” on Uber’s app was controlling him on the day of the shootings.
Four women were killed outside a Cracker Barrel restaurant. And a father and his 17-year-old son were fatally shot while looking at a pickup truck at a dealership.
A 14-year-old girl was shot in the head during the restaurant shooting and survived, while an eighth person was injured in a residential area.
Dalton had been deemed competent to stand trial and last week dropped an insanity defense. In court, he didn’t explain why he randomly shot eight people.
Dalton, the father of two children, had worked as an insurance adjuster and had no previous criminal record before the shootings.
Prosecutor Jeff Getting said the motive behind the shootings is a question that “haunts us.”
“Everybody wants to know,” he said during a news conference after the court hearing.
Defense attorney Eusebio Solis said he advised Dalton not to plead guilty. But he told the judge: “There are personal reasons for him. He does not want to put his family through that, or the victims’ families, through the trial. It’s his decision.”
Yep. But people’s words reveal some psycological stuff behind the comment.
I was hoping he would add more fairness to the tax system.
Sounds better. Harder to argue against. Implies something will be improved rather than destroyed.
It’s all good with ECO MAORI Aotearoa is a much better place to live and work this year than it was last year. We had a government that put down tangata whenua O Atoearoa and all minority culture. They did not like helping our Pacific cousin and ran the country like a business for wealth people and businesses first and formost. And that type of policy is what has caused all the problems on Papatuanukue. We have goals to be carbon neutral that will help preserve Tanemahuta and Tangaroa,s creatures that we all have a link to for the Mokopunas Hopefully 2019 will be the start of a big change to the way we treat all humans as equals. Ka kite ano
Kia ora Newshub it’s a puzzle why people do things like sending parcel to the embassy in Australia. I have been informed about the massive seed boom and the effects of pest numbers booming to and that phenomenon takes a big toll on our endangered wildlife. It’s shocking that those cricketers can play with Wahine like toys he deserves what he gets from the law hope the Wahine gets justice. I feel sorry for the lady who’s
4 years old son climb up on the roof of her car while driving. My 4 years old grandson could break out of all his car seats and loved climbing.?????? Its not easy looking after children. Ka kite ano
With an unfair voting system, uneven electorates and an un-elected upper house, the UK's "democracy" is barely worthy of the name. But now the government wants to make it worse:The government has been accused of suppressing voters’ rights with the potential disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of people after plans ...
Back in the 90's and early 2000's, the building industry was building leaky homes which should never have been granted consent. Now it turns out they've been building dodgy office blocks as well:New imaging technology has revealed hundreds of major buildings nationwide have defective or missing concrete or reinforcing steel. ...
Local body election results were released over the weekend, to joy or despair depending on where you live. In Auckland, Phil Goff trounced John Tamihere, who is muttering darkly about running for Parliament again (but which party would want him?) Wellington is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Weta Workshop, except ...
Two years have now gone by since the Friday afternoon when my university-student son and I headed out of our Barcelona flat to a nearby primary school, designated as a polling station for the vote that was to be held the following Sunday: the referendum on Catalonia’s independence from Spain ...
Overruled: The joint decision of Finance Minister, Grant Robertson (Labour) and his Associate Minister, David Parker (Labour) arguably the two most powerful ministers in Jacinda Ardern’s government, to grant OceanaGold the consents which Land Information Minister, Eugenie Sage (Greens) had earlier denied them, offers bitter proof of how hard fighting ...
More than double the number of people who will vote in this year’s local body elections have tried marijuana or urinated somewhere they shouldn’t have. As local elections look set for the lowest turnout in decades, with many regions falling well short of 40%, the Government is exploring a number ...
A Statement on Abortion Law Reform by the Council of Disobedient Women On the eve of bringing an end to antiquated, anti-women abortion laws Green MP Jan Logie intends to write women out of the Bill. With a stroke of the pen, the woke are aiming for total erasure ...
Musings continue apace about “the experienced businessman!” soon to be taking up a National Party MP position. Or to be more accurate, being parachuted into a seat to shut down their former MP Jamie-Lee Ross, who despite his own shortcomings shed at least some more light on the inner workings ...
The Ugandan government wants to murder gay people:Uganda has announced plans to impose the death penalty on homosexuals. The bill, colloquially known as “Kill the Gays” in Uganda, was nullified five years ago on a technicality, but the government said on Thursday it plans to resurrect it within weeks. The ...
Freedom Of Speech? The Säuberung (cleansing by fire) was the work of the German Student Union which, on 10 May 1933, under the watchful eye of the Nazi Reichminister for Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, consigned 25,000 books to the flames in a ritual exorcism of “un-German thought”. According to the logic of the ...
“There can be no such thing as kaupapa Māori political parties or politics in Aotearoa” (Willie Jackson, Labour Party (2017). Māori TV, General/List Election Special) I begin with that claim because at the time, I was confounded at first that it fell out of Willie Jackson’s mouth, and then ...
New Zealand’s media is doing its part in Japan, reassuring those in the path of the storm that they won’t miss any rugby while away from their flooded homes. New Zealand sports reporters stationed in Japan for the Rugby World Cup have had the rare and heartwarming opportunity to inform ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones is the only Cabinet member in favour of putting it all on green. As Finance Minister Grant Robertson finds himself with an enormous $7.5 billion surplus, the Government has begun intense, at times contentious conversations about whether to put the money on red or black at ...
by Susanne Kemp At the start of September close to 100,000 school teachers went on strike in Jordan. They demanded a 50% pay rise. A pay rise actually agreed to by the regime back in 2014. In early October, however, in the face of government repression and threats, the teachers’ ...
Back in 2011, journalist Nicky Hager published Other People's Wars, an expose on NZDF's activities over the previous decade of the "war on terror". NZDF didn't like this, and especially didn't like the fact that it was base don leaks from their own. So, they had the SIS investigate him ...
The Zero Carbon Bill is due back from select committee in two weeks, and will likely pass its final stages in November. So naturally, farmers are planning a hate-march against it. But they're not just demanding lower methane targets so they can keep on destroying the planet; they're also demanding ...
Last year, California burned. This year, to stop it happening again (or rather, to stop themselves from being found liable if it happens again), Pacific Gas and Electric is cutting power to half the state for a week:Schools are closed. Traffic lights down. Tunnels dark. Businesses unopened. Hospitals running on ...
The Best Way: Missing from the on-line voting debate is any reference to the voting system that produces turn-out figures ranging from 77 to 93 percent of registered voters. The voting system used to collect and count the votes cast in our parliamentary elections. The system that involves citizens making ...
Among the great new bunch of political friends we have been making recently is the excellent Australian-based Marxist gender-critical site, Freer Lives. So we asked the comrade who set up that blog to write something for Redline on the blog, himself, his analysis of the rise of gender politics and ...
by Don Franks The Auckland City Mission is struggling with a 40 percent increase in demand for food parcels this year. A total of 23,020 were needed by June. Last month Missioner Chris Farrelly told the Herald the “cupboards are bare” and without an emergency food drive, he can’t see ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women Massey Wellington Student Association had a sit-in today. Imagine a sit-in. On a campus. Against a women’s rights meeting. Did the ’60s really happen or did we fucking dream it? They gathered in the student square, an echo chamber. Sitting on soft pillows ...
For some reasons, my post about the mystery message from inside the Downing Street bunker seemed to catch people's attention. Quite a lot of hits from NZ (unsurprisingly) and the USA (a bit more puzzlingly, but hi there, USAians!!) and 76 views from the Ukraine.I've celebrated my Ukrainian readers in ...
First, almost a score of Labour MPs seem to have sent a letter to the EU basically begging them to accept a deal - any deal - just so Britain can get the Heck on with Brexiting instead of being trapped in limbo:
by Phil Duncan In 2016 the National-led government suspended the Parent Visa Category, through which migrants were able to bring their parents into New Zealand. Since then over 5,700 people have been in immigration limbo, stuck on the visa wait list. Labour is now bringing back the scheme. Well, sort ...
The following was released yesterday (Tues, October 8) by the women’s liberation organisation Speak Up for Women. On 23 September Speak Up For Women announced that we would be holding an event at the Massey University Theaterette in Wellington. The event is called Feminism 2020. The intention of the event ...
The government is currently consulting on plans to improve freshwater quality. So naturally, farmers oppose it:South Taranaki farmers are preparing to fight proposed national freshwater changes that some fear will bankrupt them. The Government's proposed National Environment Standard on Freshwater Management, released in September, rated the Waingongoro River as one ...
Yesterday was the last day for (reliably) posting your vote away in local body elections. Turnouts are mostly much lower than the equivalent time last year (Palmerston North is down 2.3%), and so naturally people are pushing their online-voting snake oil again. Because the online census worked so well, lets ...
This essay, on the political legacy of the eugenics movement, by Kenan Malik was originally published in the Observer on 6 October 2019, under the headline ‘The spirit of eugenics is still with us, as immigrants know to their cost’. Birth control. Intelligence tests. Town planning. Immigration controls. It’s striking how ...
Another year, and the government has announced another enormous government "surplus". And just like last year, its nothing of the sort. When we have people homeless and sick and hungry, when we have schools and hospitals still falling down, when we have underpaid public servants and infrastucture unmaintained or unbuilt, ...
James Forsyth at The Spectator (I know, I know) has tapped one of his contacts inside Number Ten for an insight into the Johnson administration's thinking and strategy.It is fascinating, unsettling and quite, quite mad. Some key points:Negotiations have stalled and the Johnson administration are keen to blame the EU: ...
Fatal Contact: With the arrival of captain James Cook in October 1769, the islands of what would become New Zealand ceased to be the preserve of Polynesian navigators and settlers and became a part of both the world’s map and the world’s history.THE MAORI NATIONALIST assault upon the historical meaning ...
Another round of tactical talks about forming a Government of National Unity have come to nothing with the Liberal Democrats still refusing countenance putting Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street:Opposition talks on Monday made little headway over when to try and vote down Boris Johnson's government and who might succeed him as ...
by Nick Rogers The debate around the meaning of sex and gender made an appearance at this year’s British Labour Party conference in Brighton. Women’s Place UK – an organisation that questions the demand that biological males who self-identify as woman should have access to women’s spaces, to all-women shortlists, ...
Yesterday I went down to Wellington to participate in the Extinction Rebellion protest. Its part of the latest global wave of XR actions, with actions happening all over the world. Some of those protests are massively disruptive: in Canada, XR is blocking major bridges, stopping people from getting to work. ...
The Workshop is a charitable trust for public good. The Workshop undertake research to find ways of communicating that will build support for the solutions that work to solve complex social and environmental problems. See their Report on Talking about Poverty and Welfare Reform below. ...
Being and Being Bought (Spinifex Press, 2013) by Kajsa Ekis Ekman A synopsis and commentary of Chapters 1-2 by Daphna Whitmore Ekman, a Swedish journalist and critic, brings together a Marxist and feminist analysis of prostitution and surrogacy in this groundbreaking book She opens the discussion with a definition of ...
I make no claims to having much legal knowledge, so I defer to those trained in this area.I am very much enjoying this twitter stream from m'learned friend in Edinburgh, deciphering the legal arguments around the Scottish court challenge to Boris Johnson, based on the charmingly obscure principle of Nobile ...
Ivory Folly? The University of Auckland’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stuart McCutcheon, upheld the right of the radical nationalist group, Action Zealandia to exercise their freedom of speech – not matter how distasteful that speech might be. A wiser community of students and scholars would have nodded their agreement and moved on. ...
If you are not convinced terrorist Organisation ‘Extinction Rebellion’ is very, very dangerous – watch this video at one of their recent meetings. Not only is this obviously mentally ill Woman begging the other terrorists to promote killing and “eating” babies and children, if you watch carefully other members nod ...
The Ombudsman has been surveying people about their knowledge of the OIA and the right to information. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that widespread:The Chief Ombudsman says too many New Zealanders were in the dark over their right to access official information. Peter Boshier said an independent survey released yesterday on ...
In the wake of last Friday's climate strike, Peter McKenzie had an article in The Spinoff about protest strategies. The school strike movement is "polite" and cooperates with those in power because that's its kaupapa - its led by schoolkids who understandably don't want to risk arrest. But there's more ...
So, the latest ruminations on the gnews from Westminster (Again, sorry; I'll stop making that pun right now). This follows on from, and likely repeats bits of, my last post, on the suggestion that a Government of National Unity (GNU) should be set up and then oversee a referendum before ...
New Zealand likes to think of itself as not a racist country (despite being founded on the racist dispossession and subjugation of Maori). But for years, we've had a racist refugee policy, which basicly excludes refugees from Africa and the Middle East unless they already have relatives here. Now, the ...
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Appealing To The Past: Action Zealandia, like so many of the organisations springing up on the far-Right, across what they call the “Anglosphere”, is born out of the profound confusion over what a man is supposed to be in the twenty-first century and, more importantly, what he is supposed to do.THE STATUE OF ...
The attempts of anti-democratic transactivists to (often violently) disrupt women’s rights organising is largely ignored by those sections of the left most prone to misogyny and authoritarianism in New Zealand. In Britain, however, scores of trade union and left activists added their names to a letter in July, defending ...
The Justice Committee has reported back on the Criminal Cases Review Commission Bill. The Bill would establish an independent, quasi-judicial body to investigate and review potential miscarriages of justice, and refer them back to the Court of appeal if required. It would be a vital backstop to our judiciary, help ...
by The Spark On September 14, a total of 22 drones and cruise missiles struck two oil installations in Saudi Arabia, the Abqaiq processing facility and the Khurais oil field. Abqaiq is the largest oil production facility in the world. For a few days afterwards, Saudi Aramco, the Saudi national ...
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Below is the start of another excellent article on the Freer Lives blog. Click onto the link at the end of this extract to read the full article. The punch-a-terf, kill-a-terf message pervades social media, always righteously delivered, chin held high. By contrast, the dehumanised “terfs” themselves, that is gender-critical ...
The Reserve Bank is currently planning tighter banking regulation, requiring banks to hold enough local capital to survive a 1-in-200 year financial crisis in order to protect consumers. The big Aussies banks, those foreign leeches who suck $5 billion in profit out of our economy every year, don't like that, ...
Its the usual story: a police officer beats a handcuffed suspect so hard they break one of their own fingers. The IPCA investigates and concludes that the use of force was unlawful. And the police refuse to do anything about it:A man punched repeatedly in the face by a police ...
From time to time we add links to our blogroll. The latest blog we have added is Freer Lives. This is a Marxist gender-critical blog, based in Melbourne, Australia. On it you will find a bunch of excellent articles which use the tools of Marxist analysis to critique the rise ...
Last Friday say the largest protest in a generation, as 170,000 people joined the school strike and marched to demand real action on climate change. The demands of the school strike were simple and clear: declare a climate emergency, set a climate target of net-zero by 2040, impose a total ...
Labour is a rather middle of the road capitalist party and earlier this year we discussed how far from being ‘transformative’, Ardern’s government is. An article published this week in the Guardian, by Bryce Edwards (political scientist and commentator at Victoria University), looks at Ardern’s business as usual performance. Where ...
In the hours since my last interminable wittering about the possibility of a Government of National Unity (GNU) in Britain, there has been a slight maybe development:A Corbyn-led caretaker government could then sit for several months while it enacted and delivered a referendum with the support of smaller parties and ...
Jeremy Clarkson says much like Greta Thunberg, Anne Frank “didn’t like what was going on”, but “she didn’t have a tantrum about it.” Former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has offered praise to historical figure Anne Frank, comparing her favourably to 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg, who he attacked in ...
Press release by Speak Up For Women Lesbians from women’s rights group Speak Up For Women are furious at reports that Rainbow Tick are threatening Massey University with the removal of their ‘tick’ if they let the group’s event go ahead. The group has been under attack from trans ...
By Duncan Garner Before you jump down my throat, nobody cares about the environment more than me. I have a garden, and since my wife and I broke up, I’ve let it grow wildly out of control, so please don’t tell me I’m not doing enough for plants. They’re ten ...
Local government elections are upon us again. It is a fair bet that, when they are over, we will have all the usual complaints that, despite their undoubted importance, the turnout was depressingly low. So, why do local elections attract so little attention and involvement from the general public? I ...
Yesterday the High Court released its decision in Moncrief-Spittle v Regional Facilities Auckland Limited, on the (alleged) decision by the Auckland Council and Mayor Phil Goff to deny use of a public venue to a pair of visiting nazi grifters. Based on the information available back then, I said that ...
Image credit:45 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting a Blog I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. ...
So, more on the possibility of a Government of National Unity (GNU) in Britain.Two things, first. The numbers in parliament make things very difficult. And anyone who is saying X will happen or Y is impossible is spinning. We can not tell and will not know until votes are actually ...
The government is promising tough action against climate change via the Zero Carbon Bill and a strengthened ETS. Meanwhile, the Overseas investment Office is granting foreign coal companies permission to expand coal mining:Coal Action Network Aotearoa has slammed a decision by the Overseas Investment Office to allow Bathurst Coal to ...
Don't You Dare Let Them Down, Jacinda! Many New Zealanders, especially young New Zealanders, continue to believe that change – real change – is possible. Do we have criticisms about the way in which Jacinda’s government has gone about “transforming” New Zealand? Of course we do. But the very fact ...
. . With some historical and present context, it should become readily apparent to Pakeha that the occupation at Ihumātao is not a free-for-all conflict for any and everyone to become involved in. First, some important dates: . 1840 . The year in which the Treaty of Waitingi was signed. ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones is considering reining in on conversions of farmland to forestry, and also issued a warning to foreign-owned forestry companies that make up nearly 75 per cent of the industry. He said too many foreign companies had not provided enough access for domestic processors to get timber. ...
Speaking to Radio NZ, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said the tightening of the parental category visa is a direct result of the Party’s coalition negotiations with the Labour Party. He said the new changes switch the financial onus from the parent moving to New Zealand to the child ...
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Since coming into Government, we’ve worked hard to tackle homelessness and make sure everyone has a warm, dry home. And today, on World Homeless Day, we want to report back and update you on our progress so far. ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has hit back at National Party leader Simon Bridges who criticized the Coalition Government’s approach to crime, and said that the latter isn't credible in his attack on the Government over gang recruitment. "We've got as massive drug problem in this country. It is ...
New Zealand Mānuka honey exporters have welcomed an initiative by the Coalition Government to help secure the term “mānuka honey” to be used exclusively by Kiwi exporters, ensuring that our multimillion-dollar industry is protected. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones had recently announced that a Provincial Growth Funding of $5.7 ...
Political commentator Mike Hosking has labelled New Zealand First leader Winston Peters as “the voice of reason in a government soft on drugs”, for the Party’s stance on drug testing at music festivals. “If common sense is worth a vote, Winston Peters is quids in,” Mr Hosking said. The Labour ...
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau has announced Provincial Growth Funding to ensure work opportunities in Turangi and Whanganui, through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi. A fund of $500,000 will go to Rafting NZ in Turangi for a 16-week river guide training course to train ...
Treasury has shown that the Coalition Government has a $7.5 billion surplus, which is $4 billion higher than what was expected in the 2019 Budget unveiled last May. It is also $2 billion higher than the actual surplus unveiled this time last year, and at a size that has not ...
Official Information Act figures released to NZME show there were 350 assaults on officers in the year to the end of June, 79 more than the year before. The increase in attacks have sparked calls for more legal protection for first responders to be enacted. The assaults included officers being ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
We're making progress on tackling the long-term challenges: from homelessness, to strengthening border security, to bringing banking back New Zealand's small towns. ...
Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones has backed the ambitious plan to move Auckland’s port to Northport, at Whangarei harbour, which he says will be the “King Kong of infrastructure”. The plan is part of the recommendations of a six-person independent working group, which has recommended the Ports of Auckland be ...
A six-member independent working group selected the option of moving Auckland’s port to Northport, in Whangarei, ahead of other options. In what could be New Zealand’s most ambitious infrastructure project yet, a major expansion of the Marsden Point port could happen within 15 years. The project, officially called the “Upper ...
The final Electricity Price Review recommended prohibiting prompt payment discounts but allowing “reasonable” late fees. The findings of this review was welcomed by the Coalition Government, but they hope companies will follow through with its recommendations without regulations needed to be passed. Meridian Energy had already stopped prompt payment discounts, ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF)through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi,will invest nearly $600,000 to ensure work opportunities for locals in Turangia and Whanganui, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “I’m pleased to announce the PGF ...
An export-led economy is one of New Zealand First’s key principles, and our commitment to achieving this is shown by the continuing skyrocketing demand for our beef and sheep meat exports. Beef + Lamb New Zealand's New Season Outlook 2019-20 report forecasts beef, lamb and mutton prices to lift from ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today in Gisborne an investment of $17.27m into bringing “world-leading” food-growing technology and the creation of more than 100 new jobs in the East Coast city. The funding comes from the Provincial Growth Fund, and included a $15 million loan to LeaderBrand, a ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development More than 100 people in Tairāwhiti’s Tolaga Bay will benefit from two employment initiatives supported by the Provincial Growth Fund, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today. “Tolaga Bay is an incredibly tight-knit community, but one in ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is supporting Gisborne business Leaderbrand to produce salad vegetables year round and create more jobs in the Tairāwhiti region, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “Our support for Leaderbrand will help them build large greenhouses ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has praised the promise by New Zealand’s biggest banks not to close any provincial branches while the Coalition Government trials regional banking hubs across the country. The Minister said the announce was the “first sign of hope for regional communities”, many of which have ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader New Zealand First is proud to have delivered an upgrade of the SuperGold Card website and a new smartphone app, which will help unlock the full benefits of the SuperGold Card for 750,000 New Zealand seniors.Party Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters, ...
Delivering a key election campaign promise, New Zealand First is proud to have accomplished a long overdue upgrade of the SuperGold Card today. At an event in Auckland, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters joined Minister for Seniors Hon. Tracey Martin in unveiling the new website and smartphone app which ...
Another busy week, from speaking with world leaders on the world stage about climate change, to equipping our school leavers with everything they need to get ahead in life. ...
New Zealand First MP Shane Jones says Air New Zealand has "an obligation to look after Kiwis", and urged the national carrier not to hike up their prices after Jetstar airline announced their withdrawal from regional flights this week. The Provincial Champion also expressed his disappointment at Jetstar’s decision on ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) will help fund a new dredge for the Port of Greymouth to ensure the regional fishing fleet have a reliable and productive harbour, Parliamentary Undersecretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today “Last year the movements of ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones said he was "immensely disappointed" at the withdrawal of the Jetstar airline from regional routes. He has also warned national carrier Air New Zealand not to capitalise on the Australian budget airline’s decision by “gouging” regional air travellers. "Air New Zealand has historically challenged ...
International credit ratings agency Moody's gave a glowing assessment of New Zealand’s economy in its latest report, which ranks the country’s economic strength as "very high" while saying growth remains "robust". The report says it's expected New Zealand's economy will grow between 2.5 and 3 percent in the next few ...
The Coalition Government is allocating nearly $6 million to a campaign to stop Australian beekeepers marketing their products as "mānuka" honey. This move comes after Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones accused Australian honey producers of trying to steal what was indigenous to New Zealand. "The Aussies are trying to ...
The Provincial Growth Fund has provided $400,000 to Great South to help the agency drive Southland's regional economic development aspirations. The funding will allow Great South, which is Southland's economic development agency, to appoint a portfolio manager and a project support adviser, who will provide project management expertise and support ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister of Forestry The One Billion Trees Fund has just hit two significant milestones that will create more than 7,500 hectares of new forest cover, Forestry Minister Shane Jones says. Speaking at a celebratory dinner at Parliament to mark 100 years of the New Zealand Forestry Service, Minister ...
The Government is moving swiftly to change the law to improve the welfare and pastoral care of students living in university halls of residence and other tertiary hostels. Cabinet has agreed to several changes, including creating a new mandatory Code of Practice that sets out the duty of pastoral care ...
The Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage has launched a new comprehensive trapping guide for community trappers to help them protect our native birds, plants and other wildlife, at Zealandia in Wellington today. ‘A practical guide to trapping’, has been developed by the Department of Conservation (DOC), and was launched during ...
Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter welcomes PHARMAC’s move to improve access to long-acting reversible contraception (LARCs). PHARMAC has today announced it will fund the full cost of Mirena and Jaydess for anyone seeking long term contraception, lifting previous restrictions on access to Mirena. “I welcome women having greater choices ...
The Government has approved the next stage of a major redevelopment of Taranaki Base Hospital, which will deliver new and improved facilities for patients. Health Minister Dr David Clark has announced details of a $300 million dollar project to build a new East Wing at the New Plymouth hospital. It ...
Extra funding will allow Rural Support Trusts to help farming families, says Minister for Rural Communities and Agriculture Damien O’Connor. “I know that rural families are worried about some of the challenges facing them, including the ongoing uncertainty created by the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak. “Those concerns sit alongside ongoing worries ...
Thank you for the opportunity to be here to present certificates to the 16 graduates who have completed a beekeeping course delivered by the Howard League. Let us start by acknowledging Auckland Prison’s Deputy Prison Director Tom Sherlock, and Acting Assistant Regional Commissioner of Corrections Northern Region Scott Walker - ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson leaves this weekend to attend the APEC Finance Ministers meeting in Santiago, Chile. Discussions between APEC Finance Ministers at the meeting will include the effects of the current global economic uncertainty, risks for APEC economies and sustainable development of the region. While at APEC Grant Robertson ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says for Pacific people, language can be a source of strength. It can help ground us and give us confidence. When we speak them, our languages provide us with an immediate and intimate access to our identity and our story - and ...
The Coalition Government has announced an action plan to improve the wellbeing of disabled New Zealanders by addressing inequalities in play, active recreation and sport. The initiative includes training to develop a workforce that understands the needs of children and young people with a range of impairments, advocacy for fit ...
The construction sector is being freed up to allow more homes to be built more quickly as the Government cuts through some of the red tape of the Building Act. “Every New Zealander deserves a warm, dry, safe home and old inefficiencies in the Building Act make building slow and ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has welcomed further details on the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall’s visit to New Zealand next month. Their Royal Highnesses will visit New Zealand from 17-23 November – their third joint visit to New Zealand and first in four years. They arrive in Auckland ...
Minister of State for Trade and Export Growth and Minister of Agriculture, Damien O’Connor, heads to Thailand today to attend the final Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Ministerial meeting, as negotiations enter their final stages. “The RCEP Agreement would anchor New Zealand in a regional agreement that covers 16 countries, ...
Pacific young people living in the Hawke’s Bay, Southland and Otago regions will have access to support services that have proved successful in helping young people find new earning and learning opportunities. “Tupu Aotearoa is about changing Pacific young peoples’ lives. Our young people are talented, they are smart, they ...
Introduction As the Minister for ACC I thank you all for the work that you do supporting New Zealanders in their literally most vulnerable moments. From those who hold people’s lives in their hands, to the people who research technique, technology and trends, your work is highly valued. A special ...
Notes prepared for speeches in Christchurch – Wednesday 9 October 2019 Today’s topic, “trends and opportunities for the New Zealand economy,” is certainly one getting a great deal of commentary at the moment. Looking across the media landscape lately you’ll notice we aren’t the only ones having this discussion. There ...
Minister of Health Dr David Clark and Associate Minister of Health Peeni Henare say this year’s World Mental Health Day theme is a reminder of why the Government’s work on mental health is so important. “This year the World Federation for Mental Health has made suicide prevention the main theme ...
Associate Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Carmel Sepuloni will represent the government at Australia’s Meeting of Cultural Ministers in Adelaide this week. “This year’s meeting is special because New Zealand is expected to become an International Member of the Meeting of Cultural Ministers at this Australian forum,” Carmel Sepuloni said. “The meeting is an opportunity to ...
The Greater Christchurch Claims Resolution Service has resolved 608 insurance and EQC claims in its first year in operation, Minister Megan Woods has announced. The government service, which celebrates its first birthday today, provides a one stop shop to help Cantabrians still battling to get their homes repaired or rebuilt ...
Today’s topic, “trends and opportunities for the New Zealand economy,” is certainly one getting a great deal of commentary at the moment. Looking across the media landscape lately you’ll notice we aren’t the only ones having this discussion. There has been an increasing amount of attention paid to the outlook ...
The Government is acting swiftly to strengthen NZTA’s regulatory role following a review into the Transport Agency, and Ministry of Transport’s performance as its monitor, Transport Minister Phil Twyford said today. An independent review by Martin Jenkins has found NZTA failed to properly regulate the transport sector under the previous ...
The Netherlands and New Zealand have a long-standing and close relationship based on many shared interests and values. We value the rule of law, our democracies, and multilateralism. And we value our environment – at home and globally. Right now there are major global challenges in all of these areas – ...
The Government is putting right a decade’s worth of underpayment to nurses, doctors and other health workers, says Health Minister Dr David Clark. Initial sampling of District Health Boards payroll records has found that around $550-$650 million is owed to DHB staff to comply with the Holidays Act. It’s expected ...
A strong surplus and low debt show the economy is performing well, and means the Government is in a good position to meet the challenges of global economic uncertainty. “The surplus and low levels of debt show the economy is in good shape. This allows the Government to spend more ...
New applications from mining company OceanaGold to purchase land in Waihi for new tailings ponds associated with its gold mines have been approved. Minister of Finance Grant Robertson and Associate Minister of Finance David Parker considered the applications under the Overseas Investment Act. Earlier this year, applications from OceanaGold to ...
New Zealanders in Tūranganui-a-Kiwa / Poverty Bay will witness Māori, Pākehā and Pacific voyaging traditions come together today as the Tuia 250 Voyage flotilla assembles for the first time, Māori Crown Relations: Te Arawhiti Minister Kelvin Davis says. “Tuia 250 is a national commemoration and an opportunity for honest conversations ...
Minister for Trade and Export Growth David Parker leaves tomorrow for Dubai, London and Berlin for a series of meetings to advance New Zealand’s trade interests. In Dubai he will visit New Zealand’s Pavilion at Expo 2020 where construction is underway. There he will meet Minister of State for International Cooperation, Her ...
Confirmation that PHARMAC will fund two new cancer drugs is further evidence of the good progress the Government is making to improve the treatment of New Zealand’s leading cause of death, Health Minister David Clark says. From 1 December PHARMAC will fund alectinib (Alecensa) for ALK positive advanced non-small cell ...
An additional $2.7 million has been announced for the Government Strategy for Women and Girls in Sport and Active Recreation on the first anniversary of the strategy’s launch. Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson gave the opening address to the first Sport NZ Women + Girls Summit in Wellington today, ...
As part of its work to ensure businesses can get the skilled workers they need, the Coalition Government is re-opening and re-setting the Parent Category visa programme, Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. The move will: support skilled migrants who help fill New Zealand’s skills gaps by providing a pathway for ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark has today announced Major General Evan Williams of the New Zealand Defence Force has been selected as the commander of a significant, longstanding peacekeeping mission in the Middle East. In December, Major General Williams takes over as Force Commander for the Multinational Force and Observers ...
A record number of nurses are now working to deliver health services to New Zealanders as the Government’s increased funding and new initiatives rebuild key workforces start to show results, Health Minister Dr David Clark says. • 1458 more DHB nurses since the Government took office • 106 more midwives ...
Farmer and former Nuffield scholar Mel Poulton has been appointed New Zealand’s Special Agricultural Trade Envoy, Minister for Trade and Export Growth, David Parker, and Minister of Agriculture, Damien O’Connor, announced today. The position supports key Government objectives, including raising the value of New Zealand agricultural goods and services. Mel is ...
New Zealand’s Pacific and Māori voyaging heritage is acknowledged and celebrated today as waka of the Tuia 250 voyage flotilla arrive in Tūranga / Gisborne. “Today we celebrate Tangata Whenua, the first people of Aotearoa, and the triumphs of the voyaging tradition that brought our ancestors here from Polynesia 1000 ...
“Fijian Language Week starts on Sunday and the theme reminds us how important it is that we each have something to anchor ourselves to, something that can help us pause and feel in control in a rapidly changing world,” says Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio. “Family, culture, faith, ...
The Government is establishing an Airspace Integration Trials Programme to support the safe testing and development of advanced unmanned aircraft and accelerate their integration into the aviation system, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods announced today. The Government will work with leading, innovative aviation industry partners to test and ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today welcomed the NZ Transport Agency’s decision to fund urgent safety improvements and confirm the designation of the Ōtaki to North of Levin highway. Safety upgrades will be made along 23.4km of the existing state highway, running along SH1 from the end of the Peka Peka ...
New Zealand playing its part in Asia-Pacific and globally are behind changes announced today to the Coalition Government’s three year refugee quota policy, Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. “We are proud to be a welcoming and inclusive nation committed to supporting some of the world’s most vulnerable people to rebuild ...
Creating thriving regions and inclusive local communities is the aim of the Welcoming Communities programme being rolled out across the country, says Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway today. A successful pilot of the scheme ran over the last 2 years led by Immigration New Zealand and involved ten councils across five regions ...
Takahē may be flightless but their population is flying high with the official count reaching 418 after a record breeding season that produced an estimated 65 juveniles, the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage announced today. “The population reaching a high of 418 is great news for takahē which were considered ...
New Zealand is today taking action to reduce the potent global warming hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) gases, Climate Minister James Shaw and Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage announced today. “The global agreement to reduce these potent greenhouse gases is another step in New Zealand’s commitment to reduce global warming. It is estimated ...
Dr Bryce EdwardsThe results of the local government elections appear to show that New Zealanders are generally supportive of a more diverse range of representatives, having voted in greater numbers for candidates from traditionally under-represented groups. The elections have therefore modernised our councils in a small but very significant ...
The Inquiry has today published Minute No 21. This Minute sets out how the Inquiry intends to proceed given that the Attorney-General the Hon David Parker has agreed to extend the Inquiry’s reporting date by three months to 31 March 2020. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grace Skrzypiec, Senior Lecturer, Flinders University Many Australian students don’t know the difference between banter and bullying, with some saying they joke about wishing their friend would “drown” or “die in a car crash”. More than 800 Australian students aged 11-16 took ...
But he did play a crucial role in helping journeyman Andy Foster knock over Justin Lester. Team Gone By Lunchtime size up the local elections, gaze plaintively at the dramas in the NZ First Party, and ask how bad the new poll is for Jacinda Ardern.Annabelle Lee-Mather, Ben Thomas and ...
In the fifth episode of Actually Interesting, The Spinoff’s monthly podcast exploring the effect Artificial Intelligence has on our lives, Russell Brown speaks to Ben Reid, executive director of the AI Forum, about the role of government in embracing and regulating AI.Subscribe to Actually Interesting via iTunes or listen on the player below.To ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Local government Henry Cooke (Stuff): How to lose an election: Over-promise or under-deliver Simon Collins ...
By RNZ Pacific A Solomon Islands province has agreed to lease a large island to a Chinese developer to develop into a special economic zone, weeks after the country opened diplomatic ties with China. But already cracks abound; there has been no official announcement and the provincial premier says the ...
The New Zealand First MP and Minister Shane Jones is still backing the firearms ban, despite being pictured with what appears to be an AR-15 semi-automatic while holidaying in Asia. ...
Everyone needs to be concerned about the draft National Policy Statement on Urban Development that the Ministry for the Environment has released. It is incompatible with the spirit of transparency and inclusiveness. ...
Prodigal Son is a new crime procedural coming hot and fresh to TVNZ 1 on Mondays at 8.30pm.Jean Sergent has a few reasons why you should be watching it. If you like serial killer shows, Michael Sheen, dark drama, Michael Sheen, twisted family dynamics, or Michael Sheen – strap yourself ...
Voters in the 2019 local elections have elected the largest number of new mayors in 30 years, with 26 candidates set to don mayoral chains for the first time later this month. ...
A team of investigators dedicated to stamping out violent extremism online is being set up with the government announcing $17 million in funding over four years. ...
In a major boost to efforts to counter violent extremism on the internet, the Government has promised $17m over four years to the Censorship Compliance Unit. ...
The final dinner party on Married at First Sight NZ brought an ugly misogyny to light. But it was far from the first time sexism reared its head this season, writes Alex Casey.It began with a man being edited out of the show after his domestic violence charges came to ...
The Council of Licenced Firearms Owners (COLFO) is recommending members hold on to potentially illegal shotgun shells containing steel shot until the law banning certain types of ammunition is clarified. ...
New collaborative gifting platform Joyable is looking to shake up how we group-purchase gifts. Co-founders (and sisters) Rochelle Sheldon and Kimberley Crossman explain how their latest venture works. Joyable (not to be confused with the social anxiety-reducing app of the same name) is a somewhat left-field move for co-founder Rochelle ...
The extraordinary battle for the Tron has ended in a way no one quite saw coming, with the city relinquishing its stranglehold on the title of New Zealand’s most embarrassing council. Angela Cuming reports.The Spinoff local election coverage is entirely funded by The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a ...
On the eve of the announcement of the winner of the 2019 Booker prize, Spinoff books editor Catherine Woulfe outs herself as a giant know-nothing. Booker time. Tomorrow morning I will sit there refreshing Twitter like the drinking bird on The Simpsons. A winner will be announced. And I’ll be gripped ...
National's claim that things only went south when Phil Twyford took charge of transport is not supported by us at CEAC and we see that this begun in 2008 as we witnessed the change then while working as a partnership group with NZTA then. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Churchill, Research Fellow in Sociology, University of Melbourne There’s an old maxim: not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. But there are some things we should count, and gender and sexual diversity are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Pollock, Climatologist, Australian Bureau of Meteorology Northern Australia is likely to see fewer cyclones than usual this season, but hot, dry weather will increase the risk of fire and heatwaves across eastern and southern Australia. The Bureau of Meteorology today released ...
We are in The Good Time for avocados. Alex Casey talked to an expert on how to make the most of it. It’s the most wonderful time of the year. A time when a new avocado headline is published somewhere in New Zealandeverysingleday. A time when it is ...
Sexual harassment and assault are an issue in all walks of life, but addressing the problem is particularly difficult when the perpetrator holds public office. Today campaigner Carrie Buckmaster launches a parliamentary petition calling for more transparency on the issue.The ongoing Labour Party scandal around handling of sexual harassment allegations ...
Dunedin’s new mayor Aaron Hawkins is the first official Green Party mayor in NZ and, arguably, the first to represent the city’s student population as much as its older residents. Josie Adams, who guessed he would win, asked him ten questions about his win.The Spinoff local election ...
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare (F&P) has upgraded its full year guidance again after gaining the right to sell its new full face mask in the United States. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Shadow foreign minister Penny Wong says Australia needs to “define the boundaries” of its engagement with China now the relationship between the two countries is in a new phase. Focusing on China policy in a ...
Canon Rugby in Focus: Ireland awaits an All Blacks team that will be well-rested. Perhaps too well-rested. Rested and ready, or a game short and not match fit. Those are the two scenarios that will have All Blacks fans fretting this week ahead of ...
With the government recently announcing a desire to help our cities grow up and out, leading New Zealand IoT expert Kriv Naicker today questioned whether New Zealand is falling behind in the use of smart city technology to help achieve this goal. ...
You famously said climate change was this generation’s nuclear-free moment. But when Extinction Rebellion uses the tactics of the Nuclear Free movement, you say you aren’t impressed. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Regina Jefferies, Affiliate, Andrew and Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW In the past five years, more than 95,000 people who arrived by plane have lodged a claim for asylum in Australia, new statistics show. Labor’s Immigration Spokesperson, Senator Kristina ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karen Waller, PhD candidate, University of Sydney Organs from potential donors once rejected as being unsafe to transplant may not be as risky as once thought, new Australian research shows. Our study, published in the Medical Journal of Australia, suggests organs from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Merrilyn Delporte, PhD Candidate, Queensland University of Technology Australia’s refugee policy has led to a two-track education system. Those processed offshore, and deemed refugees by the time they have arrived in Australia, are entitled to fee support for university. But the almost ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marion Terrill, Transport and Cities Program Director, Grattan Institute Congestion charging should be introduced in Australia’s largest cities, as Grattan Institute’s latest report shows. Our analysis also finds that the people who commute to the Melbourne and Sydney CBDs by driving are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David C. Ribar, Professorial Research Fellow, University of Melbourne Australia, like the United States, makes it hard for people who get benefits to stay on them. It’s not simply a matter of withdrawing benefits as people get jobs and work more hours ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ana Silkatcheva, Doctoral Candidate (Oriental Studies – Islamic Art and Archaeology), University of Oxford; Curatorial Researcher, Nicholson Collection, Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney In 2005, the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) opened Australia’s first permanent galleries of Islamic art. ...
Council's can expected more pressure from their own ranks to tackle climate change with a new crop of young councillors determined to fight it head on. ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Analysis that hits the mark after a big weekend of local elections, new party poll released, and Dunedinites turn out to clean up in honour of killed student.By now, you probably know whether or not you have a new local ...
Would any of the politicians who opposed the marriage equality bill have voted differently if it had passed today? Greta Yeoman asked them.Just over five years ago, New Zealand politicians voted 77-44 to legalise gay marriage, making this country the 13th in the world to do so. Of the 44 ...
We have been on a collision course with freshwater in this country for over a century, writes Dr Jonathan West. Time to make some uncomfortable choices. ...
Teenager Ella Benn has lost part of her left leg, and part of her right lung, to cancer. But with the guidance of a Paralympic legend, she's determined to be a swimming star in her own right. ...
Spark Sport’s six year deal with New Zealand cricket has dealt another blow to Sky TV. The company’s share price has sunk to an all-time low and as Mark Jennings writes, its future existence depends on winning rugby rights. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The ALP has announced an inquiry into the head office of the NSW ALP, after weeks of shocking revelations at the Independent Commission against Corruption about scandals in the handling of donations. The review, announced ...
The new Canterbury Regional Council is set to have a 50-50 gender balance, a younger average age, and people from backgrounds including law, science, farming, insurance and landscape architecture. ...
Aucklanders did not turn out in their droves to vote for incumbent Phil Goff but nor did they embrace the erratic campaigning of challenger John Tamihere. ...
Four of NZ's six largest cities changed mayors on Saturday, three through incumbents being ousted at the local polls. The new crew now need to be the change they promised. ...
Hayden Donnell identifies who did well, and who got massively owned, in the 2019 local elections.The Spinoff local election coverage is entirely funded by The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism, click here.Most of these winners and losers lists fail to capture the nuances ...
Sophie Handford, one of the country's youngest new councillors, hadn't expected to get elected and was at a barn dance when she found out the results. ...
Arms Bill a Legislative Colander: Must Be Rewritten SUNDAY 13 OCTOBER 2019 The Arms Bill has been written so poorly than it must be abandoned and rewritten, according to the Council of Licenced Firearm Owners, COLFO. ...
In one of the biggest surprises of the local elections, Andy Foster has seized the Wellington mayoralty from Justin Lester. In this cheat sheet, we answer some of the big questions about Andy Foster, such as ‘who is Andy Foster?’ The Spinoff local election coverage is entirely funded by The Spinoff ...
Wellington mayoral frontrunner Andy Foster says if he gets into office his backer Sir Peter Jackson won't be influencing what happens within the new council. ...
Fritters are a New Zealand classic and these ones, packed with fresh spring produce, make a perfect light lunch or dinner.Spring is well and truly upon us – my garden has exploded and I take such pleasure in being able to harvest its bounty on a daily basis. We are ...
Anna Knox, who spent four years living in Saudi Arabia, has been waiting for a book like Celestial Bodies – a story that shakes up entrenched ideas of women in the Middle East. Early on in Jokha Alharthi’s Celestial Bodies, Abdullah, son of Sulayman the Merchant, describes his family home in the ...
Madeleine Chapman celebrates the girl truths of Netflix’s hit show about puberty, Big Mouth.Girls are horny too. Girls are angry too. How to have an orgasm. The episode titles of Big Mouth are literal and accurate. Girls are horny too! Girls are angry too! How to have an orgasm!Big Mouth follows ...
Open Mike 08/01/2019 
Two years ago Catalans braved police batons and rubber bullets to vote overwhelmingly for independence in a referendum. Today, Spain jailed nine politicians who organised and supported that referendum process for a combined total of a hundred years for "sedition", after a trial that was little more than a judicial ...1 hour ago
Two years have now gone by since the Friday afternoon when my university-student son and I headed out of our Barcelona flat to a nearby primary school, designated as a polling station for the vote that was to be held the following Sunday: the referendum on Catalonia’s independence from Spain ...3 days ago
Overruled: The joint decision of Finance Minister, Grant Robertson (Labour) and his Associate Minister, David Parker (Labour) arguably the two most powerful ministers in Jacinda Ardern’s government, to grant OceanaGold the consents which Land Information Minister, Eugenie Sage (Greens) had earlier denied them, offers bitter proof of how hard fighting ...3 days ago
More than double the number of people who will vote in this year’s local body elections have tried marijuana or urinated somewhere they shouldn’t have. As local elections look set for the lowest turnout in decades, with many regions falling well short of 40%, the Government is exploring a number ...3 days ago
“There can be no such thing as kaupapa Māori political parties or politics in Aotearoa” (Willie Jackson, Labour Party (2017). Māori TV, General/List Election Special) I begin with that claim because at the time, I was confounded at first that it fell out of Willie Jackson’s mouth, and then ...4 days ago
https://mailchi.mp/7d9133add053/closing-the-gap-october-2019-newsletter ...4 days ago
For some reasons, my post about the mystery message from inside the Downing Street bunker seemed to catch people's attention. Quite a lot of hits from NZ (unsurprisingly) and the USA (a bit more puzzlingly, but hi there, USAians!!) and 76 views from the Ukraine.I've celebrated my Ukrainian readers in ...5 days ago
Local government elections are upon us again. It is a fair bet that, when they are over, we will have all the usual complaints that, despite their undoubted importance, the turnout was depressingly low. So, why do local elections attract so little attention and involvement from the general public? I ...2 weeks ago
Image credit: 45 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting a Blog I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. ... 2 weeks ago
We're managing the Government books responsibly, helping more Kiwis into homes, and supporting New Zealanders with disabilities. ...3 days ago
Forestry Minister Shane Jones is considering reining in on conversions of farmland to forestry, and also issued a warning to foreign-owned forestry companies that make up nearly 75 per cent of the industry. He said too many foreign companies had not provided enough access for domestic processors to get timber. ...3 days ago
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones said he was "immensely disappointed" at the withdrawal of the Jetstar airline from regional routes. He has also warned national carrier Air New Zealand not to capitalise on the Australian budget airline’s decision by “gouging” regional air travellers. "Air New Zealand has historically challenged ...3 weeks ago
The Government is moving swiftly to change the law to improve the welfare and pastoral care of students living in university halls of residence and other tertiary hostels. Cabinet has agreed to several changes, including creating a new mandatory Code of Practice that sets out the duty of pastoral care ...7 hours ago
Is Jacindamania dead and buried? Not quite yet, but the Prime Minister has good cause for concern. ...4 hours ago
The Inquiry has today published Minute No 21. This Minute sets out how the Inquiry intends to proceed given that the Attorney-General the Hon David Parker has agreed to extend the Inquiry’s reporting date by three months to 31 March 2020. ...5 hours ago
The latest One News Colmar Brunton Poll has National in a position to govern with the help of the ACT Party. ...6 hours ago
But he did play a crucial role in helping journeyman Andy Foster knock over Justin Lester. Team Gone By Lunchtime size up the local elections, gaze plaintively at the dramas in the NZ First Party, and ask how bad the new poll is for Jacinda Ardern.Annabelle Lee-Mather, Ben Thomas and ...6 hours ago
Poland could become an even bigger headache for Brussels than Brexit over the coming years. ...8 hours ago
"It's time for men to shut up," a novelist said today at the Man Booker ceremony in London. Well - is it? NZ writers respond. ...8 hours ago
In a major boost to efforts to counter violent extremism on the internet, the Government has promised $17m over four years to the Censorship Compliance Unit. ...8 hours ago
Countdown is reporting a surge in consumer demand for alternative proteins. ...9 hours ago
Move over Bathurst, we're taking your title. Steve Deane has the perfect venue for a motorsport dream. ...12 hours ago
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare (F&P) has upgraded its full year guidance again after gaining the right to sell its new full face mask in the United States. ...13 hours ago
Canon Rugby in Focus: Ireland awaits an All Blacks team that will be well-rested. Perhaps too well-rested. Rested and ready, or a game short and not match fit. Those are the two scenarios that will have All Blacks fans fretting this week ahead of ...15 hours ago
In a deal that will change the sports media landscape New Zealand Rugby is to become a five percent shareholder in Sky. Mark Jennings reports. ...15 hours ago
Imagine sitting with a dozen other students in a classroom in Wellington, waiting for a lecturer in another part of the world to begin the class. ...23 hours ago
A new tranche of data is being collected from cellphone towers and sold - should we be worried? ...23 hours ago
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‘
The thousand year wall?
How long is the Trump wall supposed to stay up?
A thousand years?
Forever?
Is it the beginning of a world wide movement of building impenetrable walls and barriers between peoples and nations?
Is the border between the UK and the Republic of Ireland the site for next one?
Trump literally does not give a shit about the millions of – to him – peasants who are being driven to dispair and abject poverty by his shutdown. That is because he is an aristocrat in all but name who lives entirely in a world where he can afford to purchase the services (and security) he needs. He doesn’t care that Yosemite is drowning in trash. The contractors still clear the trash from the golf course at Mar-El-Largo. He doesn’t care if the museums close, the guy is a pussy grabbing Philistine. He doesn’t care of the EPA, IRS and food inspectors all go home – it is all grist to the mill for a tax cheating, corrupt businessman like him.
He is so unfit for office in every possible way that I am beginning wonder when/if the military chiefs will take him aside and quietly point out his health might benefit from an early retirement…
You have correctly pointed out that POTUS is not in ‘charge’ …
Trump is a product of the system….a system which want’s him (or anyone) to be there…because it makes no meaningful difference … the road maps remain the same…
The military are also gatekeepers, and violent and aggressive as they inherently are designed to be, they are part of the wider system…
So who or what is really in control…Trump or POTUS is not the answer to that question….
Douglas Adams:
Seems to apply to Trump quite well…
Which is rather disturbing.
That is a strong quote, Draco…. Thanks….
Can only imagine what this world of ours could be like, if lies and deceit were not the long standing modus operandi….
It may be a strong quote, but It is from a work of fiction. While I agree that it does have some truth in it. It is not the full story.
Is Trump setting up his run in 2020? Cornering the democrats on the wall? I mean he could not get the Mexicans to pay for it, so why does everyone think his dithering means the Democrats will use taxpayers money to. Is that the point, that Trump will go back asking for re-election so he has a real mandate to build the wall?
Seem the wall however large won’t stop them coming..
He has filed for re-election campaigning the day he was sworn in. After all that grifter needs money, and campaigning allows him to fundraiser all that sweet sweet cash that washed up orange bullshitter needs to pay of his debtors.
yeah. wealth needs a psuedo billionaire in the Whitehouse to show how much big monies wealth runs a country. pandering to stupid walls… …oh, oh, and the genius of having a total fruit loop as vice president to keep them from chucking his fat…
Of course the wall “won’t stop them coming”. The reason; Most undocumented immigrants are in the US after overstaying their work visas. Only a very tiny minority crossed the border illegally. Most entered the US legally and then overstayed.
The US economy is reliant on this system of official and unofficial vulnerable migrant labour. And even on so called illegal overstaying. Because this workforce have no citizenship, they are vulnerable, they have few recognised legal rights and so can be exploited mercilessly, and deported at whim by their employers.
It’s a system of official, unofficial immigration.
And the wall will not stop it. Nor is it designed to. The purpose of the wall is to strike fear into people on both sides of it.
I thought it was more like crates of cash handed out to Muslims in the axis of evil to buy their consent… …just done in the lower western states instead…
No, wait. ..use those migrants to bake us sand into bricks (mobile solar ovens) for a wall… ..problem solved.
This is tragic.
https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/the-government-shutdown-is-far-worse-than-we-even-imagined-24399/
Spam.
Ah, an article by a libertarian about how evil government is.
Indeed this article almost argues for the shutdown to become permanent.
The world needs a new definition; Developed Countries, Undeveloped Countries, Un-developing Countries
““In 2020, Biden-style centrism will become a toxic and losing brand of politics in Democratic primaries,” said Waleed Shahid, a left-wing activist.” Partisan leftists don’t want to make common cause with moderates in order to get the numbers up to defeat the right. Being a noble loser is more important.
“Biden has indicated that he is leaning towards running and will most likely make a decision within the next two weeks, according to Democrats within and beyond his inner circle who have spoken to him recently.” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/joe-biden-2020-presidential-election-beat-trump-democrat-candidates-decides-run-a8715191.html
Biden is 76, and a stale pale male, so you can see why he’s currently the front-runner in the polls. There’s evidence he would be likely to win the presidency by stealing part of the Republican support base of voters: “among the 200 Republicans sitting in the 116th Congress, 90 per cent will be white men. The number of female Republicans in the House has actually fallen, from 23 to 13 this year”.
Personally, if I was a US voter, I wouldn’t vote such an old person into that kind of office out of simple self-interest. The complications of probable bad health and the political issues of transfer if he wound up with death or bad health are very large.
Politically I’m mostly be looking at the who I’d be voting for as vice-president and who the likely Speaker of the house would be after the mid-terms.
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Presidential_line_of_succession
It displays all of the political fragility of the American elected monarchy.
The US is run by a gerontocracy due to their inability to handily change rules that were made for a pre-industrial rural society of slave owners with an average life expectancy of something under 40.
Chuck Grassley (chairman of the Senate’s judiciary committee, you know the guys who confirm supreme court judges) is 85.Donald Trump is 72, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell is 76, and the ranking Republican senator, Orrin Hatch, is 84. Nancy Pelosi is 78, while Dianne Feinstein, the ranking member on the Senate judiciary committee, is 85. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, are 77 and 69 respectively, which scarily makes Biden at 76 the middle of that pack of presidential contenders. Hillary Clinton was 69 when she lost, practically a callow youth in that company. The average age of the current congress is 59 (in NZ the average age of parliament is 49, but our PM is just 38 and the leader of the opposition is 42 so both are actually at a vigorous age).
The USA needs to introduce some retirement rules for congress, the senate and the supreme court.
Minor correction, Orrin Hatch is now retired and Chuck Grassley is now president pro tempore of the senate and chairman of the finance committee. Lindsey Graham (baby of the bunch at 63) is now chairman of the judiciary committee
If you have seen Vice, I would look very hard at the number 2 and his/her connections.
I am a US voter (in California, so my vote is irrelevant), and I would really struggle with voting for someone as old as Sanders or Biden. For the reasons you’ve mentioned, plus the idea that someone making the kind of decisions the prez makes should be likely to live the consequences for a substantial part of their life.
But just to clarify the line of succession thing, that list only comes into play if the prez and veep are taken out in the same event. Otherwise if the prez goes, veep becomes prez and gets to choose a new veep and the only restriction is the new veep must meet the eligibility requirements to be prez. After Agnew cut and ran, Ford became veep because Nixon chose him; Ford was House Minority Leader not Speaker. Similar after Ford became prez, he chose Rockefeller who governor of New York at the time.
Looking at our current situation, the only way Pelosi becomes prez is if the satsuma shitgibbon and Pence are impeached in the same proceeding. But even if Pence turns out to be even deeper in it than the mandarin manutang (very unlikely), you can be sure Turtle McConnell will find some way separate the proceedings in the Senate so that Pence can get sworn in, appoint a palatable new veep and confirm the successor before turfing Pence out.
Thanks for that wonderfully worded clarification, Andre.
I kept thinking there was something not quite right in some of the simplistic/wishful thinking being bandied about. I was also taken aback by Sanctuary’s stark presentation of the ages of the current US leaders. Made me feel quite young!
Actually leftists don’t want to make common cause with so-called “moderates” because:
a) they are not moderate at all – the radical centre they occupy is increasingly just an old fashioned conservative defense of the (neoliberal) status quo with a fair dollop of social liberal thrown in.
b) “Moderate centrism” as a viable political force is now dead. Hillary Clinton should have conclusively demonstrated this – she lost to Donald fucking Trump for Christ’s sake, how much more evidence that her status quo, “centrist” message was electorally toxic do you need? I don’t how long it will take the smug middle class defenders of centrism to get through their thick skulls that centrism is dead, but the sooner the better.
c) “Partisan leftists” are the ONLY ones with an ideological agenda capable of competing with right wing populism, because people want change and pearl clutching socially liberal conservatives calling themselves “moderates” are offering sweet fuck all.
I sympathise somewhat. The idealist in me isn’t dead. Just retired, hurt (as in cricket) during the seventies, yielding to the pragmatist. Who, of course, inevitably must point out that moderate centrism is not in fact dead – as Biden’s front-runner status currently proves.
That’s because HC never had a monopoly on the brand. In fact, she was such a poor exemplar of the brand as to make better options (Sanders) look good in comparison.
Now if you cite Sanders’ brand-identification as socialist, history proves you correct. Both/and. Reading his political biography proves to the reader that he operated as a moderate centrist when in office. It’s the usual difference between what leftists say and what they do. Preaching and praxis. When they differ, they generate alternate identities.
I think you’ll find it’s practice franky. Praxis mayx perfix.
Yeah, word-play. I come to it from a technical perspective: belief combined with action (theory combined with application) produces praxis as lifestyle.
Baffle them with bullshix Dennix, worx every timex.
Hey now, I’ve explained how it works. Nobody has protested that it’s too hard for them to understand. Some have even commented in appreciation of the notion. I agree that evidence that humans have become a lot stupider since the Greeks invented it (several millennia back) abounds, but assuming commenters here reflect the current norm seems unfair.
If you’re centrist then you’re not pragmatic. Centrism goes against all practicality.
Well it’s worked for me. Since adopting the stance in ’71, no regrets. Maybe you interpret the label differently. I combine radical centrism as a praxis with pragmatism as a way of finding common ground in current reality…
Is it possible for there to be a more centrist, more pro-status-quo response than this?
It just fails to work at all.
I find this problem with all people who say that they’re pragmatic these days. They seem to think that pragmatism means doing what’s politically correct rather than what it does mean which is doing what’s practical and conforms with reality.
Due to this delusional belief they keep supporting things that aren’t practical or sustainable and thus proving that they are not pragmatic.
Well I’ve been non-pc since the sixties, when it seemed that all intelligent teenagers were choosing the nonconformist path – so much that it became fashionable to follow the trend. So your description doesn’t apply to me.
What’s more, applying your reasoning to the current reality provides the rational for the coalition to continue with neoliberalism. It works, so it must be practical. I’d rather ditch it in favour of the path to a sustainable society and economy. Too impractical for most politicians still. But, inasmuch as doing so requires pragmatic compromises along the way, making progress towards that goal synthesises idealism & pragmatism.
Really?
If you’re trying that logic after the failure of the last few decades of neo-liberalism then you’re definitely not capable of being pragmatic.
And it’s that delusion that has the Overton Window going ever further to the right.
When I say it works, I don’t mean works well, or even satisfactorily. I just mean it works sufficiently well that the people in western countries have kept voting to stay with it – in preference to choosing any other option.
And working so well that most political activists have consistently refrained from working together to present voters with a positive alternative. Just because I’ve spent so long trying to develop one doesn’t mean I can’t be pragmatic enough to accept that such an overwhelming consensus throughout all those countries is evidence that most people think neoliberalism works!
Try to explain what you think that delusion is. The one you mentioned. Is it why Bill got so impatient? Why he no longer contributes? I’m impatient by nature too, as I told him, and only considerable age has mellowed that. I’m just as keen to make progress, faster, as anyone else. But, as the coalition is proving to everyone, it can only proceed at the pace that consensus permits. Pragmatic acceptance of this limit is realistic: it is democracy.
Have they or is it that the politicians have kept it in place against the wishes if the populace?
Think about that for a sec.
It was, most definitely, put in place against the wishes of the NZ populace but Labour kept doing it any way. National said that they were going to undo it and got their 1990 landslide victory at which point they then went and entrenched it further.
I was at the Labour meeting in New Lynn a few years back when Andrew Little was leader. He started a sentence ‘We’re going ban foreign ownership…’
At that point he got cheered. When the room quieted again he went on ‘…of owning any more than 5 hectares.’
With that he got ringing silence. The entire room, except the sitting politicians, were disgusted with him.
At the same meeting David said that he couldn’t understand why there were people outside protesting the TPPA. He seemed to think that Labour’s position was clear. Labour, once in power, signed an unchanged TPPA while saying that it had been changed.
So, given this evidence when did the population ever vote for neo-liberalism?
The delusion that if you compromise with the right-wing that they’ll do it right back. They don’t – they just swing further right and demand that the Left compromise again on the new position taking us even further rightwards.
I’d love to know what the consensus is. Wonder what would happen if we had a referendum on many policies.
Wonder how much compromise there’d be with the RWNJs. I’m reasonably certain that it would be far less than what our representatives are doing.
Yeah, okay, that all makes sense. I agree that the politicians have been driven by an elite agenda. That’s why they get invited to the Bilderberger conferences. So the ongoing voter support for neoliberalism is the result.
Pragmatic acceptance of that reality doesn’t mean that those of us who don’t agree ought to stop trying to provide voters with a better option. Just means democracy (the system) is the problem, so politics (the game) has to be played more cleverly.
Which is why I came up with the notion of an alternative political movement. All political groups who organise to leverage the system operate at a higher level of influence than representative democracy. They function as opinion-leaders within the social ecosystem of politics. NGOs, PACs, institutes, unions, some of these lobby groups have been operating since the 19th century, mediating between govt & public. Fabian Society for Labour leverage, right?
As regards the compromise delusion, that happens as you described it, but only in the minds of those who are out-played. Tit for tat is a simple game that kids have learnt for yonks. Surprising when politicos get it wrong, eh? Psychology has to be used to explain why. It’s all about the nexus in which group psychodynamics plays out. The group belief system is effectively analogous to a monoculture in an ecosystem. Bad news. A clever player gets good at mediating the in-crowd/out-crowd interface. Stalin showed how that expertise produces a winner.
Anyway, as I’ve reported here a couple of times previously, the story of tit for tat was told by Robert Axelrod in The Evolution of Cooperation and I’ve mentioned how that became so influential amongst US foreign-policy makers in the eighties that it effectively brought about the end of the Cold War.
A wide ranging assessment that covers the multitude of factors and is well worth a read…..and something I suspect has been well canvassed by the RBNZ.
http://fortune.com/longform/economic-expansion-end-is-near/
It seems to me the growth model is over and in the absence of an alternative the preparations are being made to survive the initial fall-out…after that who knows.
DEATH BEFORE DISHONOUR!, or, “What does she have to fear?”
Kangaroo court is in session….
SQUEALER: For Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, this could be devastating. On a human level, I can emphasise with a person who has locked herself away from normal human contact for days. It’s bound to be depressing holing up in a couple of small rooms in a vain attempt to avoid justice. No wonder she couldn’t even look after her cat properly or, as is alleged, get around to washing herself. In the meantime, the world is sniggering at al-Qunun’s naivety.
STUNNED MULLET: She’s a cunt. “Cleaning out the cat box is a crime against humanity!”
JACKAL: OK this is one of those subjects that gets people going. I’m a lawyer, so let’s look at the allegations. The allegations are: she bleaches her hair, she is a hacker, she neglected an animal, she has poor personal hygiene. So any of these demonstrably proveable as being false? And why should she seek to suppress information provided by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?
BREEN: You think it’s amusing do you, Jackal?
JACKAL: No I don’t. I have always had doubts about Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun and her heroine status. But, as I said, let’s analyse this story. Is it true that she is trying to stop the media from printing stories about her that have been verified by the trustworthy and ethical Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?
BREEN: What doubts were those? And what does it matter if she’s a heroine or not? What evidence are you aware of that supports those ludicrous fantasy charges concocted by the KSA and its media vassals?
JACKAL: I have always had deep concerns about her role in the denigration of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I see nothing principled in her possible involvement in dishonorable conduct while in Thailand.
CapnInsan0: That turgid little worm Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun!
Richard: Shouldn’t she be demanding the release of all records regarding her pet care and personal grooming rather than demanding asylum?
francesca: The kitty litter and personal hygiene bullshit is clearly designed to humiliate and taunt her. You guys make me sick.
SQUEALER: I never knew al-Qunun was a smelly cat abuser until recently. It really matters. It really does. I’m being totally serious. I had no idea about her alleged personal hygiene issues until recently. I do vaguely recall the cat legal case, but I didn’t know she’d been found to have let the animal down. She’s isolated, alone, under pressure and now being laughed at. This cannot be good for her on a human level.
ROSS: If she has been wrongly accused of a vile crime, that would make the accused the victim, surely?
SQUEALER: I’ve served on juries. Did my civic duty to the best of my abilities.
BREEN: Has Jackal expressed his amusement at the plight of Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun yet? And if not, why not?
JACKAL: Because I don’t know who they are?
BREEN: You don’t know who SHE is. It’s one person, so you don’t use the pronoun “they”.
JACKAL: I did not know if the person was a he or she until I googled her name so I chose to use “they”.
SHEEP: “It’s one person, so you don’t use the pronoun ‘they’.” Do you really want to open that can of worms?
RAT: Finally….some sense about this little bitch…..rather then the brown nosing sycophants who think this Saudi weasel is a victim………she needs to stop hiding and be a man.
BREEN: A lot of unimaginative abuse there, mon ami—but nothing to indicate you have the slightest clue about this matter. Could you explain why she’s a “weasel” for wanting asylum?
DOPEY: Here’s the list of that little bitch’s misdemeanours, allegedly. Put your coffee down before reading it. If it’s a spoof, it’s a goody.
JACKAL: Wow …
SHEEP: Well there it is .. “It is false and defamatory to suggest that Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun bleaches her hair.”
ASSORTED ANIMALS: Ha ha ha ha ha!… Silly bitch!…. They wouldn’t be after her if she hadn’t done something!….
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/379646/saudi-woman-rahaf-mohammed-al-qunun-leaves-barricaded-hotel-room
Thank you for your fantastic intelligence and eloquence Morrissey, and your skill at demonstrating the utter utter bullshit.
Even though you’re not A PROGRAMMER (I assume)
You’re a delight!!
Thank you Brigid! No, I’m not a programmer—the headmaster has correctly bagged me as a “credulous dimwitted techno illiterate”.
I like to think of myself more as a de-programmer. There is some disturbingly cult-like behaviour manifesting on this normally sane website, and it’s distressing to me. I am encouraged, however, by the presence of people like you and francesca. Just as the occasional sight of, say, Ralph Nader or Daniel Ellsberg on American television shows that there ARE decent, thoughtful people in the U.S., having you here is a sign that civilized and thoughtful people will not be intimidated into staying away.
Please make sure you keep posting.
Julian Assange nominated for Nobel Peace prize by Mairead Maguire an Irish peace activist and all round good woman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mairead_Maguire
https://worldbeyondwar.org/mairead-maguire-nominates-julian-assange-for-nobel-peace-prize/
She’s next in line for the treatment.
Jeez, I wonder if she dyes her hair?
Love your work above
Yeah, well….
Among lots of other people who were nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize we have had Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Richard Nixon, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.
I think he is in suitable company.
ie Totally unqualified.
Well when it comes from you Alwyn, I’m sold!
You’re aware that the Hitler nomination wasn’t serious?
The Obama one was possibly a joke as well—but he got it. It was in anticipation of all the wonderful things he was going to do. Hope and change, that sort of thing.
Idiot.
Well you’ve demonstrated one thing.
I needed 2 words when I classed Assange as “Totally unqualified”
You’ve managed to do it in just one.
“Idiot” seems to sum him up nicely.
Good one, walyn. Gee you’re sharp.
I see that Mr Shaw is devoting his time to trivia again.
Instead of devoting his time and effort to the only real responsibility he has, he is picking out the new cars for Ministers.
He should be devoting his efforts to getting a new Census held in 2021. The one last year was a total disaster but he sits around twiddling his thumbs and trying to pretend everything is fine and he doesn’t have to worry about the matter.
He, and the Department, have already wasted 10 months when they could have been arranging the new, proper, Census.
Get on with it!
Instead I see that James is looking at new cars to carry him, and his fellow Greens, around in luxury while pretending they are doing good things for the world. As this article says.
“Climate Change Minister James Shaw signalled in September he was looking into increasing the number of electric cars used by ministers as part of a wider policy push to get more people driving EVs.”
I expect to hear his views on the sustainability f various leather for the seats shortly.
Give it up James. Get on with the only really important thing you are responsible.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=12177038
Churlish, Alwyn. “In total, 29 per cent of all ministerial vehicles – including Crown and self-drive cars are electric vehicles (EVs). That’s up from 2 per cent this time last year.”
So why not give credit where it’s due? “Climate Change Minister James Shaw signalled in September he was looking into increasing the number of electric cars used by ministers as part of a wider policy push to get more people driving EVs.”
It’s called leading by example, Alwyn. Remember how many years National’s leaders kept on failing at that? And still no sign they’ve learnt from the consequences of their failure.
Firstly he isn’t actually responsible for the purchase of vehicles.
It comes under the overview of Chris Hipkins.
Shaw’s only real responsibility for anything significant as a Minister is Statistics and in particular the Census.
It was totally stuffed up under his watch and he has had his head in the sand ever since. He had 6 months in the job and he should have made damn sure that it was done properly. He didn’t and all his, and his Departments excuses, since and their blaming National are b*s.
What a load of bullshit, alwyn.
James Shaw became Minister of Statistics on 26 Oct 2018 – a total of only 132 days (4 1/2 months) before the 2018 Census was held on 6 March 2018.
By the time he became Minister in Oct 2018, all policies, processes, procedures had been well set in concrete with very little if any ability to change anything.
Planning for the 2018 Census began in 2013 after the last Census that year – when Maurice Willamson was still Minister of Statistics.
First policy decisions on the 2018 Census were made in Feb 2014 by the Cabinet Economic Growth and Infrastructure Committee (EGI).
In May 2014, Nicky Wagner (who took over as Minister of Statistics for five months May – Oct 2014) announced a new internet first model would transform how the 2018 census would be delivered and collected, and would increase the use of administrative data.
Budget 2014 provided an initial $13.1 million of new operating funding in 2014/15 and $547,000 of new capital funds from the Future Investment Fund towards a modernised census to be held in 2018.
In Oct 2014, Craig Foss became Minister of Statistics.
In May 2015, public input into the 2018 Census via an online discussion forum was called for; as well as formal submissions from 18 May to 30 June 2015.
In August 2015, Finance Minister Bill English and Statistics Minister Craig Foss announced a new New Zealand Data Futures Partnership, an independent group made up of members from the private, NGO, academic and public sectors, to champion the safe collection, use and sharing of government and business data. This included the 2018 Census. The members of this group were announced in Oct 2015, with Dame Diane Robertson (outgoing Auckland City Missioner) as Chair.
On 1 July 2016, Foss announced the date for the 2018 Census as Tuesday, 6 March 2018, 613 days (ie 1 year 8 months) away.
“For 2018, Statistics NZ is building new, responsive mobile versions of the census forms, along with tablet and desktop versions, to make it as easy as possible for all Kiwis to access and complete their forms.
“We’re aiming for 70 per cent of forms to be completed online. This is an ambitious goal, doubling the 34 per cent achieved in 2013.
“Collecting census data online means Statistics NZ can produce the census counts and other robust census-related information much, much faster.
Paper forms will still be available for those who prefer them.”
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/foss-welcomes-date-2018-census
On 1 Dec 2016, Mark Mitchell replaced Foss as Minister of Statistics, but for four months only.
On 24 April 2017, Scott Simpson replaced Mitchell as Minister of Statistics – for six months until 26 October 2017 when the new government was sworn in with James Shaw as Minister of Statistics.
So the vast majority of the decisions, planning and setting in place of the processes and procedures were set in place under National;
— over a period of over four years (2013 – 2017) – and
— under the oversight of five National Ministers of Statistics – Williamson, Wagner, Foss, Mitchell and Simpson;
compared to the four short months/132 days that Shaw was Minister of Statistics before the 2018 Census was held in March 2018.
FYI – the above is a short summary of the Executive Summary to a paper I did for other purposes but which is not a public paper. I have links etc for every one of the above dates etc, but will not post them. If you want to check all of the above, go do your own searches.
Thanks Veutovipor, thank you for a detailed explanation. I hope Alwyn does you the courtesy of reading it.
Well yes, I have read it. I won’t ask why it was done and who was trying to cover their butt.
However I would like to know answers to the following things.
You quote Foss as announcing
““We’re aiming for 70 per cent of forms to be completed online. This is an ambitious goal, doubling the 34 per cent achieved in 2013.
“Collecting census data online means Statistics NZ can produce the census counts and other robust census-related information much, much faster.
Paper forms will still be available for those who prefer them.”
Only 70% of the information was expected to be captured on-line. This was, I gather, exceeded. Thus when Foss at least released this things seemed to be on track.
The problem was that there were no plans or people put in place to gather the information from the 30% of people who were NOT expected to fill it in on-line.
It was surely possible to know, on the day after Census day, where no returns were provided and to have had people on the ground who would immediately start finding the people concerned.
Why was this not done?
When was the decision made not to have these backup people in place?
Who made that decision and who was told about it?
How many briefings were given to Shaw, and when did they take place?
Was he advised of the risk to the integrity of the Census from the lack of follow-up staff, for the missing returns?
What interest did he actually take in the Census. How much of his time did he spend on the only important thing he was responsible for?
Why did he show so little interest that he skived off overseas to tour the Pacific and was not around on the day? On Census day there was a news repot from Samoa.
“There’s been widespread criticism of the new digital collection system, with many people complaining they never received the code they need to fill in the online form. Mr Shaw spoke with our reporter Mei Heron in Samoa. He says he’s very confident everyone’s data will be collected.”
Why did he say after Census day how well it had gone and how they would be able to fill in the “missing” data.
Why have they not admitted, after another 10 months, that the Census was a shambles, that the data was largely useless and start planning to hold it again, and get back on the normal cycle with the Census being repeated in 2021?
Why are the people responsible not being held accountable?
Why has he not taken responsibility for the fiasco and why has he not resigned?
I think you’ll find that it comes under his responsibility as Minister for Climate Change.
Unlike RWNJs he can actually balance having multiple responsibilities.
BTW, it was still National that got the census wrong. It’s all their responsibility.
“It was totally stuffed up under his watch”
You lose sympathy and credibility when you make witless claims, Alwyn.
Are you suggesting that either:
1. He wasn’t the Minister on, and for about 5 months previously, the Minister?
or
2. It all ran beautifully and it wasn’t stuffed up?
I think that anyone with any sense at all would say it was stuffed up and it was on his watch AND no real attempt has been made to fix the problem and hold a proper Census in 2021.
ps. Sorry about the format of the comments, and in particular point 1.
Editing seems to have vanished.
Dunno, looks fine to me 😉
I’m not suggesting, I’m stating that when you make such poorly conceived political statements as the one I quoted, you reveal yourself as insincere and lacking credibility as a commenter. The cure is simple; stop doing that; present better, credible comments; we know you can.
Just to be clear: You argue that the incoming minister should have identified the extent of any problem, reorganised the entire census process, and hired all the additional personnel within five months, and that failure to do so means that a better organised supplementary census needs to be urgently arranged in the next couple of years?
Why aren’t you calling for it to be next month, or feb2020, if they’re so easy to sort out?
He simply needed to show some interest in the matter.
Getting people to do the follow-up work was what was needed and that doesn’t take years to organise.
So if it was such a debacle and the organisation so easy, why are you wanting to bring the next census forward only two years, instead of three or four? And why aren’t you blaming the ministers who failed to show an interest between Feb ’13 and Nov ’17?
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Don’t trip over your white cane.
It’s a simple question. If the entire thing needs to be redone and can be completely reorganised in five months, why do you want to wait until 2021 for the next census? Shouldn’t you be complaining that we’re not having a proper census next month?
What a load of BS.
You’re still acting as a standard Authoritarian Follower and defending the complete ballsup that your leaders caused. And that, really, is all you’re doing.
All the evidence is that it fully rests upon National and so you’re making lots of noise, talking BS, to try and distract from that fact.
Absolute perfect example of the RWNJs and their propensity to avoid taking responsibility for their actions.
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Don’t trip over your white cane.
Says the person trying to rewrite history so that it conforms to what he wants to believe while ignoring the truth.
National fucked up.
Deal with or fuck off.
Still flogging that dead horse, Alwyn.
Even National are aware they fucked up the last census.
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Don’t trip over your white cane.
I get an error on some pages on The Standard where the page loads, but is completely blank. It’s always happened every now and then but is currently happening on the pages “Russell Brands New Year Revolutions”, “Julian Assange and the Barbara Streisand Effect” and “Drug Testing at Music Festivals” – and also ironically on the Contact page, hence I thought I’d post it here as I can’t find the appropriate email address.
I’m using an iPhone with the latest iOS, and it happens on both Safari and Chrome.
The fact that it’s always happened intermittently indicates that it’s something else wrong. It’s not the site.
I suggest searching for similar errors reported for your iphone model.
Sorry when I said “every now and then” I meant it doesn’t happen on every article on The Standard but just some of them. Some articles just come up as blank pages. In the past I’ve ignored it as it’s only been the odd article, but now there’s 3 in the last few days. This only happens on The Standard so I’m afraid it’s a site issue, not my phone.
For it to be a site issue it would be happening to everybody. It’s not. It’s only happening to you.
That makes it that the most probable issue is something on your phone interfering with your browsing of The Standard. Perhaps some sort of security software or maybe a virus or trojan.
A site issue doesn’t mean it happens to everybody – it would be pretty obvious if no one could access these posts.
I used to work in web design and maintenance. If it happens to one person chances are it happens to more who don’t report a problem because it’s not worth the effort.
I suggest the site admins log it as a bug to look into; I can confirm it happens with the above pages in mobile view from iOS 12.1.2. When I request desktop view these pages can be accessed as per normal.
I have the same problem Booker described. I’m using an Android Smartphone and Chrome.
Yes. I am having the same problem and same pages on my phone. Android with latest updates. But its OK on my laptop mac book air. Which I’m connecting via my phone hotspot.
Same for me, I get a blank screen on some pages too.
Like this?
No I get thestandard.org.nz showing in the address bar as fully loaded, but nothing at all in the browser window.
I had that happen and occasionally the page wouldn’t show as well. Sometimes the page would disappear altogether while I was reading it.
This issue appeared to be Firefox. It started happening after an update and stopped after another.
Good news, hopefully.
So far it looks like the Grauniad has not been instructed to attack her.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/08/rahaf-al-qunun-saudi-woman-under-un-protection-as-australia-urges-asylum-claim
Who issues these instructions to the Guardian? Is it Soros, the Illuminati or the Lizard People?
So pointing out the dishonesty and the ideological subservience of the Grauniad makes me a fruitcake, does it?
It’s interesting to see how you have no resort other than abuse here.
You think Tom Walker, AKA Jonathan Pie, is a fruitcake too, no doubt. After all, the Grauniad has him in its gunsights.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/dec/13/tv-review-jonathan-pie-american-pie
You got the idea from Te Reo, right?
or maybe LPrent who tore you a capacious new asshole today.
you’ll do better when you wind the tone back a whole bunch.
every editor is telling you the same thing so use your ears and listen hard.
Mr Prent doesn’t need a ridiculous goody two-shoes like you to interpret for him.
Now, maybe you can do what Psycho Milt evidently cannot: explain why pointing out the dishonesty and political subservience of the Grauniad makes me a believer in “Soros, the Illuminati or the Lizard People.”
Feel free to post your exposition under this. There’s a good fellow.
I worry for the gullibility of some of the liberati.
Perhaps you could answer PM’s first question, “Who issues these instructions to the Guardian?” Go ahead, astound me by actually answering the question instead of finding some way to wriggle out of it. Better yet, leave me absolutely gobsmacked with an answer that actually makes sense, ie doesn’t rely on some bizarre conspiracy.
You have no credibility. That’s why you are “Dopey” in this little playlet….
http://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2019/01/death-before-dishonour-or-what-does-she.html
As you don’t appear to have many research skills, I have helped you out.
https://ianjsinclair.wordpress.com/2015/03/03/truly-independent-the-guardian-and-advertising/comment-page-1/
Morrissey is correct to point out the biases shown by the Guardian.
Andre, Joe90, pm and others resort to abuse regularly.
This will offend the liberati.
So pointing out the dishonesty and the ideological subservience of the Grauniad makes me a fruitcake, does it?
I have no opinion on that.
Your comment made the claim that the Guardian follows instructions about what editorial approaches to take in its coverage. That prompted the fairly obvious, not to mention simple, question: “Who issues the instructions?” I note that you haven’t answered that question.
https://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/05/25/study-physically-weak-men-more-likely-to-be-socialist-strong-men-more-likely-to-be-capitalist?utm_content=buffer175aa&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=theblaze
Must be true its on the internet 🙂
Unscientific: only 171 in the sample. Political polls use a thousand or thereabouts here to get the standard margin of error, so in the UK with a population fifteen times bigger the sample required is around 15000.
“Our results demonstrate that physically weak males are more reluctant than physically strong males to assert their self-interest”. I suspect their next study will discover that if you drop something, it falls down.
“so in the UK with a population fifteen times bigger the sample required is around 15000”.
Sorry Dennis but because you have a population 15 times as large doesn’t mean that the sample has to be larger to retain the same accuracy.
If you think that 1,000 is enough in New Zealand it will be just as good in the UK.
“The mathematics of probability prove that the size of the population is irrelevant unless the size of the sample exceeds a few percent of the total population you are examining. This means that a sample of 500 people is equally useful in examining the opinions of a state of 15,000,000 as it would a city of 100,000.”
https://www.surveysystem.com/sscalc.htm
In neither case is your sample other than tiny compared to the population
Well, I was applying the logic of proportionality. My vague recollection from 1969 suggests you are correct and if polling practice, as defined by accepted convention, is to use around a thousand in the UK, then I take your point. In any case, as you imply, the sample they used was way too small.
I did pass the stats exam at Auckland University that year, but not by much. Mumbo jumbo was my verdict on statistics…
George Galloway providing his usual perceptive insight.
This time into the yellow vest protests in France,
As ever he nails it.
https://t.co/8BwCQ8KZ9G?amp=1
Thank you Ed, and here Galloway really does nail it. A wonderful orator.
Solution 4 to prevent catastrophic climate change.
Start in March.
Tax meat heavily.
I am posting every day on climate change with suggested radical actions for government to save our species.
Why?
Because we have 12 years.
And to remind us all this was in the news today.
‘2018 climate continues ‘alarming trend’ – NIWA
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/379692/2018-climate-continues-alarming-trend-niwa
Classic Python humour that challenges the nonsense of modern day identity politics.
The brilliant Rachel Stewart has faced the wrath of the Stans of this world.
That reminds me, are you still cool with Rachel’s racist abuse?
I went cold on Rachel Stewart when she demanded that I pledge allegiance to the “gender critical feminist” movement – I am supportive but not gonna join a tribe. I declined and thus she called me a coward. So yeah I can believe racist abuse. She has an anger problem
Yep. I’m not going to get over it in a hurry. First time I’ve copped anything like that since I lived in Oz and that was more generalized kiwi bashing. The odd thing here is that whenever Ed is challenged on an ethical issue involving a hero of his, he runs a mile. I’m not calling him a chicken, but I hope he doesn’t live too close to a Tegel factory 😉
Well, The Life of Brian challenges the nonsense of modern day idiotic revolutionaries even more so. When you watch it do you mostly laugh at yourself?
“I’d like to think that part of an editor’s job is to guide their contributors gently towards the light, not run full-tilt together holding hands, into the dark.” – Rachel Stewart (Nov. 2017: Media gorging on racist, sexist views)
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11948791
The Caped Crusader and ‘Boy’ Wonder strike again – Holy Venezuela, TRP!
AIEEE!
AIIEEE!
ARRGH!
AWK!
AWKKKKKK!
BAM!
BANG!
BANG-ETH!
BIFF!
BLOOP!
BLURP!
BOFF!
BONK!
CLANK!
CLANK-EST!
CLASH!
CLUNK!
CLUNK-ETH!
CRRAACK!
CRASH!
CRRAACK!
CRUNCH!
CRUNCH-ETH!
EEE-YOW!
FLRBBBBB!
GLIPP!
GLURPP!
KAPOW!
KAYO!
KER-SPLOOSH!
KERPLOP!
KLONK!
KLUNK!
KRUNCH!
OOOFF!
OOOOFF!
OUCH!
OUCH-ETH!
OWWW!
OW-ETH
PAM!
PLOP!
POW!
POWIE!
QUNCKKK!
RAKKK!
RIP!
SLOSH!
SOCK!
SPLATS!
SPLATT!
SPLOOSH!
SWAAP!
SWISH!
SWOOSH!
THUNK!
THWACK!
THWACKE!
THWAPE!
THWAPP!
UGGH!
URKKK!
VRONK!
WHACK!
WHACK-ETH!
WHAM-ETH!
WHAMM!
WHAMMM!
WHAP!
Z-ZWAP!
ZAM!
ZAMM!
ZAMMM!
ZAP!
ZAP-ETH
ZGRUPPP!
ZLONK!
ZLOPP!
ZLOTT!
ZOK!
ZOWIE!
ZWAPP!
ZZWAP!
ZZZZWAP!
ZZZZZWAP!
Have you been taking lessons in stenography from Morrissey DM ?
If so it looks like the student is soon to surpass the teacher.
FLRBBBBB!
Indeed, mullet. Well done, Mr. Kram!
You’ll also notice an entirely coincidental preference for over-emphasised text ..
A cut-and-paste ‘effort’ – twas the Dynamic Duo’s preference.
Ed does not need your snarky contributions.
He made a snarky contribution and got one back. Perhaps he could amaze us all and actually watch The Life of Brian while doing some self reflection. I wouldn’t ask you to as i know you only watch trailers for movies.
Right-hand batsman, Right-arm medium pace bowler, and Right-wing media commentator, Simon Doull, has pretty much excused himself from having any commentary role in the upcoming Bangladesh cricket tour.
Simon Doull dismisses climate change as ‘rubbish’ in ODI cricket commentary
Kevin Norquay – January 8, 2019
The Unfolding Tragedy of Climate Change in Bangladesh
Robert Glennon – Scientific American, April 21, 2017
Cobblers, he should just stick to commentating on the cricket.
I do miss Iain Galloway’s commentary.
The standard of sports commentary has slipped over the past 15 to 20 years.
It hasn’t merely slipped, it’s beyond terrible.
Thank Radio Sport and Bill Francis for that.
As barmy as Doull is, he’s Iain Galloway, Alan Richards, Richie Benaud and John Arlott compared to Ian “Smithy” Smith, who is without doubt the stupidest person in sports.
I did interview Doull once. He was judge on a pub sponsored ‘worst student flat’ competition. Gave first prize to some morons who smeared excrement all over the house they lived in.
Thanks for that, Te Reo. It goes straight into his file.
A tad non-pc to use cobblers as a term of abuse, perhaps? I suspect some here would view them as respectable tradesmen. Although I suppose that, being self-employed, they were considered impossible to unionise, and thus middle-class.
Fairly thin on the ground nowadays. However there was one still on Broadway, Newmarket, when I last cruised through a year or two back. And I noticed another in one of the regional towns more recently…
If you fancy a bit of non PC cop this…
Simon Doull should stick to his knitting.
Simon Doull not the smartest boy on the block, he should just stick to cricket IMHO ?
“Right-hand batsman, Right-arm medium pace bowler, and Right-wing media commentator, Simon Doull, has pretty much excused himself from having any commentary role in the upcoming Bangladesh cricket tour.”
LMAO…now thats funny (unless you live in a low lying area of course)
Never go toe to toe with a foot fetishist.
A foot fetishist discredited a Reddit post that falsely claimed to show a nude image of New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Vice reported.
[…]
“I’m a contributor to wikifeet and even I have never seen a second toe like that!” Reddit user jokes_on_you commented on the image. The comment also included a link to an image showing the Congresswoman wearing sandals.
https://www.newsweek.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-fake-nude-debunked-foot-fetishists-1282672
“Bugger – the grammar police are out.”
—L. Prent, 6:05 pm, 8 January 2016
Julian Assange and the Streisand Effect.
The best Brexit negotiating position would be with Labour via a support base mandate for a out of bounds agenda along with being pro to continuing with the EU.
What would the EU do?
Concessions, that would lead to more positive reform (& thus sustainability) on it’s own part, or internal heightened dis-integration relating to the high profile fall out in handling the British democracy demands.
One reason (not that one needs any more … ) why I won’t be visiting the US of A again any time soon.
How they might treat you if they think your documentation is iffy .
Emma Brockes, who wrote that piece, was discredited fourteen years ago after she wrote a particularly foolish and ill-advised attack on, of all people, Noam Chomsky.
It’s interesting that she’s still “working” for the Grauniad; it looks like this time at least she’s written something truthful. Still, the fact that she’s still “working” in journalism tells you a lot about the integrity and ethics of the British media.
Another of her colleagues is the notorious Luke Harding, who has neither apologized for his lies against Julian Assange, nor suffered any consequences, as far as we know.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/nov/17/theguardian.pressandpublishing
Akcherly, old chum, there is little or no evidence either way on the Manafort story.
Manafort denies it, of course. However, he hasn’t gone out of his way to disprove it, either. Which I would have thought would be a piece of piss (phone GPS, flights, hotels, taxi receipts etc.). If he simply wasn’t in London at the time, again, easy to prove. Of course, he may have been legitimately in the UK at the time, which might cloud the issue. I hear Salisbury is lovely that time of year.
The other thing an expert on the media such as yourself should probably note is that the Guardian story is very, very careful not to make direct accusations (“the Guardian has been told …” etc.), so there are no “lies” in the piece at all. The Guardian’s legal team are no dummies.
Rather difficult to prove a negative don’t you think?
True. But London is the most surveilled city in the world. CCTV everywhere. That embassy more watched more than most, too, I guess.
And as I noted, Manafort can easily prove where he was, and wasn’t, at the time of the alleged visit. It’s a little odd that he isn’t actively trying to disprove the claim.
However, it is just an unverified claim, and a bit vague about the details, so maybe he’s decided it’s just best ignored.
Uber driver pleads guilty to killing six people between rides
Jason Dalton admitted that he shot eight people at three locations in and around Kalamazoo in 2016
A.P., Jan. 7, 2019
An Uber driver charged with killing six strangers in between picking up passengers pleaded guilty to murder in Michigan on Monday, just before attorneys were set to interview jurors for his trial.
Jason Dalton’s surprise move came more than three years after the shootings, which occurred over the course of a few hours in and around Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Dalton abruptly pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder – over his attorney’s objections – triggering the prospect of a mandatory sentence of life in prison with no chance for parole .
“Yes, I’ve wanted this for quite a while,” Dalton replied when a judge asked if the pleas were voluntary.
The 48-year-old Dalton answered “yes” to a series of questions, admitting that he shot eight people at three locations. After his arrest, police quoted Dalton as saying a “devil figure” on Uber’s app was controlling him on the day of the shootings.
Four women were killed outside a Cracker Barrel restaurant. And a father and his 17-year-old son were fatally shot while looking at a pickup truck at a dealership.
A 14-year-old girl was shot in the head during the restaurant shooting and survived, while an eighth person was injured in a residential area.
Dalton had been deemed competent to stand trial and last week dropped an insanity defense. In court, he didn’t explain why he randomly shot eight people.
Dalton, the father of two children, had worked as an insurance adjuster and had no previous criminal record before the shootings.
Prosecutor Jeff Getting said the motive behind the shootings is a question that “haunts us.”
“Everybody wants to know,” he said during a news conference after the court hearing.
Defense attorney Eusebio Solis said he advised Dalton not to plead guilty. But he told the judge: “There are personal reasons for him. He does not want to put his family through that, or the victims’ families, through the trial. It’s his decision.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/07/uber-driver-michigan-kills-six-guilty-plea
Amazing. What is Uber’s vetting process? Do they even have a vetting process?
Yeah pretty disturbing, but how do you vet for this kind of stuff? This guy probably seemed ok until he suddenly wasn’t.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmond_post_office_shooting
The real problem is the access to guns which allows disturbed or maladjusted people a quick and easy way of doing maximum damage.
That certainly doesn’t help but we need to ask what about the society he lives in caused this guy to suddenly go off the rails like this?
Could have just as easily been a taxi driver or a bus driver. I don’t think Uber is the problem here
He said a “devil figure” on Uber’s app was controlling him on the day of the shootings.
I for one believe him.🙀
Economic anxiety…
I think a person who wants to hurt people needs some help.
I pretty sure that she doesn’t mean going round hitting people. Just putting the old taxes back in place.
Yep. But people’s words reveal some psycological stuff behind the comment.
I was hoping he would add more fairness to the tax system.
Sounds better. Harder to argue against. Implies something will be improved rather than destroyed.
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
It’s all good with ECO MAORI Aotearoa is a much better place to live and work this year than it was last year. We had a government that put down tangata whenua O Atoearoa and all minority culture. They did not like helping our Pacific cousin and ran the country like a business for wealth people and businesses first and formost. And that type of policy is what has caused all the problems on Papatuanukue. We have goals to be carbon neutral that will help preserve Tanemahuta and Tangaroa,s creatures that we all have a link to for the Mokopunas Hopefully 2019 will be the start of a big change to the way we treat all humans as equals. Ka kite ano
Kia ora Newshub it’s a puzzle why people do things like sending parcel to the embassy in Australia. I have been informed about the massive seed boom and the effects of pest numbers booming to and that phenomenon takes a big toll on our endangered wildlife. It’s shocking that those cricketers can play with Wahine like toys he deserves what he gets from the law hope the Wahine gets justice. I feel sorry for the lady who’s
4 years old son climb up on the roof of her car while driving. My 4 years old grandson could break out of all his car seats and loved climbing.?????? Its not easy looking after children. Ka kite ano