Bernie Sanders’ critique of Clinton is not that she’s cartoonishly corrupt in the Tammany Hall style, capable of being fully bought with a couple well-compensated speeches, but that she’s a creature of a fundamentally corrupt system, who comfortably operates within that system and accepts it as legitimate. Clinton has had trouble countering that critique because, well, it’s true. It’s not that she’s been bought, it’s that she bought in.
I think that sums it up well. I’d say that it applies a lot to the Labour Party caucus as well.
It is hard to know where to start with our child PM over the last week….
It seems his bullshit and wave, in the absence of self-direction, is merely winding up tighter and faster like a small child before bedtime…. faster and faster, smarter and smarmier, wave and wavier, round and around, and around again ……. fzzzztttt! Pop bang splatter in another soon-to-be moment of yuck and shit…
My goodness DTB…..that is spot on for a truth that circles. Everybody knows it’s there. How fortunate there’s a Bernie Sanders. To articulate what a healthy community is about.
WONDERING WHY MAINSTREAM MEDIA DOESN’T COVER TPP ?
“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum….” Noam Chomsky
The TPP isn’t on that spectrum. That’s because 4 of the 6 corporations which control 90% of US media are known to be lobbying for the TPP.
– COMCAST, “the parent company of NBC and MSNBC, has a team of at least ten lobbyists seeking to influence the TPP on ‘International IP Protection.’” MSNBC recently cancelled The Ed Show ostensibly for running anti-TPP commentary: http://bit.ly/1DLN82j
– TIME WARNER INC., “the parent company of CNN, has at least four lobbyists working to influence the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal. Disclosures show the TW lobbying team has attempted to influence both Congress and the U.S. Trade Representative office on the deal.”
– TWENTY FIRST CENTURY FOX, “a subsidiary of News Corporation, the parent company of Fox News, has a team of three lobbyists working to influence the TPP.”
– DISNEY CORPORATION, “parent company of ABC News and Fusion, is lobbying on the TPP regarding intellectual property enforcement.”
“At least six original signatories have to have successfully ratified the agreement.
Those six signatories, between them, must represent 85 percent of the total GDP of the twelve originals signatories.
That last clause is important. The United States and Japan between them represent just shy of 80 percent of the GDP of the twelve original TPP signatories (specifically, the U.S. represents nearly 62 percent of TPP GDP and Japan accounts for 17 percent). Basically, the TPP can’t come into force if either of these states fail to ratify the agreement in their domestic legislatures because there would be no way for the remaining signatories to fulfill the 85 percent of GDP requirement (even if the United States and all states but Japan ratify, the eleven would stand at 83 percent of GDP).”
I think I read somewhere it needs to have at least Japan or the US to go ahead.
Edit: just saw you post.
Seems a bit ridiculous to be completely reliant on one country.
If the US didn’t sign, I’m sure the other countries would just get back around the table and sort out another deal.
There is going to be a free trade deal of some nature, including the US would be good but if they don’t want to be part of it, it’s their loss.
They will sign for geopolitical reason, to walk away allows China to fill the vacuum, the whole reason the U.S. got involved In the TPPA was to maintain thier relevance iin the Asia pacific
It needs to be ratified by at least 6 countries that add up to more than 85% of the combined GDP of the 12 signatories. Which in practice means Japan and the US both have to ratify before it can come into force.
Of course! Unlike the conformist politicians out there, who think signing a bad deal is good because other’s do so. Current politicians are too scared to stand on their own two feet and say NO to job losses, health increases, copywrite increases, environmental pollution, dishonouring treaty agreements, becoming tenants in our own country, being sued by corporations but not being able to sue corporations in the same bogus courts.
BOO to John Key and the National party!
Signed in a casino behind closed doors shows what a piece of crap it is!
The Herald reports this morning on a tragic motor accident near Te Kowhai with the two drivers dying as a result.
There is a long glowing profile (including a photo of this victim’s wife) on the success and “importance” of this victim.
“He was involved in a head on crash in his BMW with a 17 year old driving a Toyota Corolla.”
The feeling one gets as one reads the article is that it is probably the 17 year old’s fault. Certainly no reference in the article to the loss for his family, friends and community.
The report eventually indicates that the driver of the BMW was overtaking a truck when the accident occurred.
The story on the front page – I saw as walking along the main street this morning.
“NZ now safer for our kids
WHAT UTTER BULLSHIT*
I did not and will not link to the article – anyone with than more half their brain functioning will recognise it for what it is. Johnys in a bit of trouble so we had better publish a “puff piece” showing how good his gov’t is.
What can you expect the Herald is owned by Australians – an Australian fund manager and Rupert Murdoch. see below
APN News & Media Limited is an Australian and New Zealand[1] media company. Divisions include newspaper publishing, online publishing, broadcast radio and outdoor advertising in Australia and New Zealand. APN’s two largest shareholders are the Australian fund manager Allan Gray Australia[2] and Rupert Murdoch’s News Limited.[3] Irish company Independent News & Media and Denis O’Brien’s Baycliffe held an approximately 30% stake in the company before selling it in March 2015.[4]
Yep, saw that, and I’m waiting for our local rag to give out the name of the 17 year old killed by the BMW driver.
This is local.
We live on SH 39…a popular by pass between the North and the South West for trucks and cars. There are no passing lanes, and there are at least 40 bends that are posted 75km/hr.
But we live on that road…and every single time one of my kids heads off into town or to go to work I wonder if this is the day some fwit from Auckland in a beemer is going to take them out while trying to pass a truck. (google BMW accident SH 39)
One day I will film the near misses that happen outside our place on a holiday weekend or during the ski season.
You have to hunt for important stories hidden below nonsense about clickbait on ‘celebrities’,
‘Wall St stocks and oil have slumped again amidst growing talk of recession risk for both the US and the world.
In Friday trading (Saturday NZT), the Dow Jones fell 1.3 per cent, the Standard & Poor’s 500 1.9 per cent and the Nasdaq 3.3 per cent.
That took losses for the week to 3.1 per cent for the S&P 500 and 5.4 per cent for the Nasdaq.
In a world braced for a hard landing in China, the US recovery was meant to be coming to the rescue.
But Wall St’s dismal start to the year has sparked fears that it may have stalled and that the US Federal Reserve may have moved too soon to raise rates.
In New Zealand, the extended period of low dairy prices is the biggest concern. Last week, Fonterra cut its farmer payout forecast to $4.15 from $4.60 per kilo of milk solids. The next day, prices in the global dairy trade auction fell another 7.4 per cent.
ANZ economists responded by cutting their forecast for the payout to $3.95.
The average breakeven for most farmers is estimated at $5.40 per kg.
The Reserve Bank has indicated that it is likely to cut rates further this year if international conditions continue to weaken.
At this point that looks more likely than not.’
‘ANZ is forecasting a longer, deeper trough in dairy prices.
The bank has dropped its forecast price for milk solids this season by 30 cents to $3.95 a kilo.
It now “tentatively” expected a price of $5 a kilo in 2016-17, which is 50c to 75c less than it had previously been predicting.
Farmers would be losing about $1.50kg on their production over the two seasons, it said.’
Hunt – as in find something that is right out there in the open on the front home page?
Gee, don’t you think they would find somewhere a bit more ‘difficult’ than the front page to put it if they really didn’t want people to see it?
Like not publishing it at all for instance….
Yes Paul. One of the rare occasions I was moved to submit a comment there. I can guarantee the bulk of the comments were scathing… so many gaping holes in her arguments one hardly knew which to chose to comment on.
I’ve noted it’s happening more and more frequently on the MSM online outlets. They ask you to “have your say” and then don’t publish any of them. What about an OIA to find out what is going on or are they exempt.
” What about an OIA to find out what is going on or are they exempt.”
You can’t use the OIA. Official Information is only that held by the Government, in most of its many guises.
Our Government doesn’t own the Herald.
And even if it did own the Herald, it would likely be exempt, like Radio NZ.
Even some entities one would expect to be OIA-able are not, like primary health organisations, which get all their money from DHBs and MOH.
Paul (8) – NZH isn’t opening any comments to articles which might touch on FJK and his humiliation this week, through people power, with ordinary Kiwis fighting the signing of the odious TPPA.
Something to be said for digital media isn’t there? Yeah right!
Keep the masses ignorant, keeps them compliant and controllable by the despotic powers that be!
I’ve been around for almost seven decades and I’ve never known msm to be under such tight direct government control as it is now, not even in Muldoon’s time and that’s really saying something!
For some reason the NZH does not let any or hardly comments through during the weekend and I suspect that they have a shortage of Moderators on deck. The comments will appear slowly on Tuesday. The only exception seems to be comments to Sideswipe!
Lake Waikopiro, next to Lake Tutira, has been confirmed as having dangerous levels of cyanobacteria.
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council (HBRC) staff noticed people swimming at Lake Waikopiro this week and decided to take water samples. Results came back yesterday showing potentially toxic cyanobacteria was present above guideline safety levels, although below the levels of the larger Lake Tutira, which was reported in mid-January and remains unsafe.
HBRC has sent samples to the Cawthron Institute in Nelson, and is waiting on results of tests to assess if toxins have been released into the water or not.’
‘Trout dying in Tutira’s toxic water
Dozens of dead fish were found along the shores of Lake Tutira by the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s science monitoring team yesterday.
“We saw potentially over 100 pan-sized trout,” said Vicki Lyon, a water quality and ecology resource technician.
Prior to these latest deaths, the lake’s monitoring buoy recorded surface water temperatures approaching 33C — the warmest water ever recorded in the lake.
Phycocyanin levels, which indicate the presence of cyanobacteria, peaked at around the same time. Cyanobacteria is the toxin that led to the death of 4-year-old labrador Marley after she drank from the Tukituki River last month.’
Impossible.
As Andre says above
‘It needs to be ratified by at least 6 countries that add up to more than 85% of the combined GDP of the 12 signatories. Which in practice means Japan and the US both have to ratify before it can come into force.’
And hypothetically, a ‘TPPA like arrangement.’ would be a forced trade agreement not a free trade agreement, thereby limitIng NZ’s sovereignty and democracy. The only change would be a lesser amount of ISDS claims as the highly litigious US corporations would not be in the game.
the only winner in a TPPA like arrangement are the transnational corporations not any particular country…i.e the US is projecting 10s of thousand job losses
Who knows? It sounds more like a dickhead myth to me polmulgated by idiots in the media (few of whom appear to have looked at the TPPA in any depth) and David Farrar’s focus groups than anything else.
The only place I ever consistently hear that particular view (that all free trade is bad) is here, and even then only from a few people.
At work amongst all of the engineers, I don’t hear it. Generally they export and like free trade deals. But the ones I’ve talked to about it are deeply suspicious of this particular deal (the TPPA) because it doesn’t look like a free trade deal at all. It looks like the opposite.
In the political circles I still move in, most supported the China FTA albeit some pretty reluctantly, and virtually none of the same people support the TPPA.
My parents tend to be deeply suspicious of free trade deals. But they also tend towards admiring NZ First when they aren’t voting Labour. And they remember the aftermath of the depression when the fragile free trade systems collapsed causing untold misery.
I have to date supported all free trade deals from CER through WTO to the bilateral ones of recent decades. But the TPPA has less than a third of it about slightly freeing up trade. The rest is about restraining trade mostly for the benefit of specific interest groups.
It isn’t worth supporting because it looks to me like a PR fool just stuck a ‘Free Trade’ badge on it to make a dud deal full of advantages for interest groups to make it look better. It reminds me of the worst of the corn laws in what it tries to do. Or any pork barrel bill from the US congress.
//——
Tell me amongst the TPPA supporters would you say that the majority support it because of their religious economic beliefs? That anything with a sticker saying it “free trade” is good? Because that is the impression of get of the mindless fools that I have run across.
Many people have looked at the TPPA, found aspects that look to them to be highly flawed and detrimental, and therefore oppose getting into it. I’m one of them.
But when you get an ignorant bigot of a reporter shoving mic in front of you on a hot day while you are walking, it is kind of hard to explain that to the fool disrupting a protest.
One of the key problems I have with free trade (in it’s general sense) is that it forces countries like NZ to be commodities exporters (let’s for sake of argument include tourism in that). In the world of post-carbon, Peak Oil and CC, that’s insane. Yes, we could shift to exporting things that worked within those constraints (and I hope we do), but I think the free trade culture itself promotes profit drive motives above everything else. Which means we should be regulating, and bang, there goes the free bit.
My past (and probable future) employment has been with companies that depend on international trade both for input materials and sale of finished goods. So I’m very much for removing barriers to international trade.
My problem with the TPPA is that the trade aspects of it look like a very thin veneer over the bulk of the agreement, which is mostly an expansion of corporate privilege and power.
Of the 11 countries involved in the TPPA, we already had agreements with
Australia
Brunei
Chile
Malaysia
Singapore
with the TPPA there’s these countries added to the mix
Canada
Japan
Mexico
Peru
Vietnam.
USA
Why would all the other countries we already have free trade agreements want to join up to an arrangement which is more about corporate privilege and power and less about free trade. ?
Why sign up to a deal which is worse than the deal that you’re currently in?
carrot and stick…..the corporates weild more power than national bodies…just as our esteemed(?) leaders say we can’t afford to be the odd one out so do the others…and that fear is played on …the reality is the transnationals need markets , stable and (reasonably) affluent ones at that….its about time the boot was on the other foot, way past time…..and the pricks need to start paying their way
Shows how much power our one multinational company has over our current government when for such tiny gains Fonterra still held MFAT’s balls in its hand.
didn’t do them any good though….they were monstered in the deal and got virtually nothing….Fonterra may be our only international player of any scale but they pale into insignificance compared to the overseas owned corporations
Why sign up to a deal which is worse than the deal that you’re currently in?
If you are in a job and earning okay with future hopes, wouldn’t you think more than twice about saying no to the boss?
Many workers have been forced by their employers to go away on weekend group-building exercises to weld them into a team and had to undertake meaningless activities on numbers of occasions, taking them away from their families, in their own supposedly personal free time. Why accept that deal?
The desire is to weld employees (client countries of the USA) into a conformist lot of yes-men and women. Those who don’t participate can expect to be marked as undesirable. All part of the precarious world where we live freely, under the threat of being left out of whatever. And even being in leaves you out of pocket, or advantage, or resources, or anything that big corporations might decide to denude you of. The Emperor’s Clothes perhaps?
I really don’t like speculating about other people’s motives, particularly on a topic as complex as this.
But in this case it looks to me like maybe the TPPA grew too big, and fear of the risks of being outside of the agreement became the dominant motive for staying in the agreement. Possibly coupled with fear of too much loss of face from pulling out on the part of individuals that had already invested a lot of political capital into the agreement.
a parting thought for you BM…..TPPA is like game of blackjack…the corporations are the dealer…the minimum bet is $1000……NZ has a stake of 2k, the other members increasingly more…..whos going to win?
not at all…but then there is no such animal as a completely free trade deal….it would require both (or all) parties to be equal in every way,
however, there are trade deals where the benefits for both parties outweigh the inevitable costs….TPPA is the complete antithesis of that
‘The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) includes special protections for corporations that offshore American jobs to low-wage countries. The TPP would not only replicate, but actually expand, the North American Free Trade Agreement’s (NAFTA) extraordinary privileges for firms that relocate abroad, and eliminate many of the usual risks that make firms think twice about moving to low-wage countries. The TPP’s offshoring incentives include a guaranteed minimum standard of treatment in the offshore venue and compensation for regulatory costs.
The NAFTA-style offshoring incentives that the TPP would expand have contributed to the net loss of more than 57,000 American manufacturing facilities and nearly 5 million U.S. manufacturing jobs – one out of every four – since NAFTA took effect. The U.S. Department of Labor lists millions of workers as specifically losing their jobs to offshoring and import competition since the Fast-Tracking of NAFTA, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and NAFTA expansion deals – and that is under just one narrow program that excludes many whose job loss is trade-related. Studies estimate that the U.S. economy could have supported 7 million more manufacturing jobs if not for the massive trade deficits that have accrued under current U.S. trade policy.’
(Reply to BM @ 10) There is more than one strand of thought in the USA. The people who oppose the TPPA there seem to have much the same concerns as those who oppose it here. What is of concern about the USA, here, there and elsewhere, are the ambitions of those aligned with the US corporations, the constraints they seek to impose on governments in order to lock in their own dominance, and subterfuge they have employed to do it.
This was a straightforward recount of events by a Hawkes Bay paper.
It is not an opinion piece.
As you appear a slavish supporter of the TPPA, negotiated by trade ministers with the input of 600 international corporations, can you explain why it’s good for NZ?
And remember it’s not a free trade deal.
So think of other reasons.
(subtitle courtesy of McFlock, with thanks)
A good point, Paul. TPPA is not a free trade deal at all, as has been stated many times. In fact, when you look at all the ‘free-trade’ deals this country has been involved in or part of, the benefits have yet to ‘trickle’ down to the man in the street, except for cheap Chinese junk in our hardware shops. Most of the benefits from free trade have been captured by the top 1%, with inequality growing to obscene proportions.
So maybe, just maybe, free-trade deals are not the panacea they are portrayed to be by their promoters. Perhaps we should be looking at ‘Fair’ trade deals.
Are you really saying globalisation and trade over last 50 years has not delivered higher standards of living and taken more people out of poverty than ever before. Show me a closed society that has been successful. Its a fact corporates now deliver by far the majority of our services and goods, it is no longer the state, thus trade is inevitable if you wish the nz economy to thrive Most of the fear about TPPA is fear of change which is understandable , ie we will loose what we have, this is not the case as with other trade deals the TPPA will over deliver on the positive side, companies and individuals will take advantage of it to the advantage of all that is not envisaged in current economic modelling
Tony Veitch (not the partner-bashing 3rd rate broadcaster) 12.1.1.1
Granted, the capitalist system has been successful – up to a point. Now, IMO, the balance has shifted too far in favour of large multi-national enterprises. Inequality is rampant, and poverty and underemployment is growing in New Zealand and worldwide. All the indications are that the corporate system is going to come crashing down – probably this year in an almighty market crash, or dismantled after the US elections (if Bernie wins).
The neoliberal nirvana has almost played out its time. It really is not a question of if but when it all comes tumbling down and, more importantly, what is going to replace it.
Tony Veitch (not the partner-bashing 3rd rate broadcaster) 12.1.1.2
Granted that capitalism has been successful, but only up to a point. IMO, the system is now all out of balance, with too much power being concentrated in the hands of too few. Inequality is rampant and middle class poverty is growing worldwide.
There will be a rebalancing, of that you can be certain. Probably this year, with a market slowdown of massive proportions, or maybe next year (if Bernie becomes president).
Perhaps then this country will be in a position to renegotiate the TPPA to make it a ‘fair’ trade agreement, instead of a corporate welfare agreement.
[r0b: there are a bunch of strange characters in your new name, causing your comments to go to moderation. Please delete and retype your name for your next comment…]
A constant theme on this site is the msm are full of the proverbial. the media push doom and gloom because it sells. Fact China is still growing at 6 pc per year as it recalibrate its economy and is very unlikely to implode, the U.S. is growing and unlikely to see recession, Europe appears to be over the worst of it and while growing slowly is growing Corporates are not necessarily seeing or agreeing with what the media like to portray What stats are you quoting poverty is growing world wide, this is clearly not the case, to the contrary millions of people have been taken out of poverty over the last 20 years, just look at Asia as an example.
Not hard to find information on the shrinking middle-class in USA – http://boingboing.net/2015/12/10/america-shrinking-middle-clas.html
Also, I lived in China for three years about a decade ago – and the disparity in wealth was shocking and extreme. And if you believe the ‘official’ stats on China – well, you’re gullible in the extreme.
[r0b: There are a lot of junk characters (possibly invisible) at the end of your new name. In your next comment please delete and retype your name, or your comments will keep going to moderation]
Thanks Dialey – that is a very good, very clear outline of the issue. It looks to me as if the people showing the most enthusiasm for this deal are the ones who think they will have a part to play in managing the power transfer or trumpeting the propaganda, which I guess is true in most cases of colonisation.
Some background reading for those who look at today’s turbulence in the world, and then think of the centuries of human development, thought and philosphy and wonder if any of it has ever reached our leaders, businesspeople and politicians and their and our parents who trained us in our prejudices and common goals.
Founded during the interwar period, the School consisted of dissidents who were at home neither in the existent capitalist, fascist, nor communist systems that had formed at the time. Many of these theorists believed that traditional theory could not adequately explain the turbulent and unexpected development of capitalist societies in the twentieth century. Critical of both capitalism and Soviet socialism, their writings pointed to the possibility of an alternative path to social development.
I wonder where those people ended up? Not a happy or popular position to adopt in early 20th century Germany. Reminds me of old song Something’s Got to Give.
When an irresistible force such as you
Meets an old immovable object like me
You can bet just as sure as you live
Something’s got to give…
Lyrics Freak
The people express their electoral will by giving the Opposition a massive constitutional majority.
The President then uses the outgoing assembly to load the Supreme Court with Pro-Socialist Judges.
The Supreme Court then dismisses 4 opposition legislators in order to reduce the opposition majority below the constitutional level.
The Supreme Court then appoints a pro-socialist majority to the Electoral C omission, despite Constitution stating that the Assembly should select the appointees, and that they should be non-partisan.
President then subverts the elected Assembly by ruling by decrees.
A question for the apologists here for the Venezuelan Socialists. Do you support these actions?
Lost sheep is simply highlighting that the society and economic system you aspire to has been tried many times and without fail ended up in abject failure and human misery
Yes: social democracy is the most successful political system that has ever been tried. Your flaccid attempts to smear say something about you and nothing whatsoever about your targets.
It’s worthless and tiresome and a perfect expression of everything the National Party represents.
Ropata, I am pointing out that the democratic will of the Venezuelan people is being subverted by their President. He is the one kicking them when they are down.
@OAB. Social Democracy is a very successful system, but we are talking about Venezuela, which has a Socialist system.
Socialism is one of the worst systems ever invented, as Venezuela is demonstrating.
Ropata, OAB, do you support the actions of the Venezuelan President I note above?
When did you stop pashing Augusto Pinochet’s corpse?
You see how this works? Shall we have a “debate” according to your witless point-scoring wank system? You seem to think you can demand answers of people, and I’m here to tell you that Pinochet pashers like you deserve jack shit.
How typical of a Pinochet pasher to hate a system that increases literacy and decreases child mortality. I guess literate healthy people are harder to abduct and torture to death.
Is that red herring rant meant to disguise the fact that, again, you are not willing to make an honest answer to a straightforward question OAB?
It’s very simple. Do you support the actions of the Venezuelan Socialist President?
Yes or no will do. Only take you a couple of seconds. Whats the problem?
It’s very simple: do you support throwing people out of helicopters into the sea? And when did you stop fucking your pet pig?
Is this witless pigfucker argument the best you can do, Pinochet-pasher?
Speaking of cancelling election results, ECAN. Do you support the anti-democratic actions of the NZ Prime Minister? You do, don’t you: so you’re in no position to be looking askance at Venezuela, because you support a government that appoints cronies, cancels elections, and can’t even get literacy and child mortality right. You poxy hypocrite.
Meanwhile, the NZ Left has lots in common with social democrats the world over, and you haven’t got an answer to that other than to support torturers.
You demand answers from people all day every day OAB. What is wrong with answering one or two yourself?
And in this case it would only take one word to confirm you do not support the authoritarian actions of a President subverting the democratic will of the people?
I have to admit, your refusal to so does lead me to suspect you actually support those actions, but are unwilling to be honest about it.
I must admit that that says something about you and nothing whatsoever about me, and if you haven’t worked out my opinion of authoritarians by now you’re inattentive as well as a massive hypocrite.
Oh, and don’t flatter yourself that this means I regard your opinions in this context as remotely credible. You supported Pinochet, after all.
My interest in Venezuela largely stems from my youthful vigorous opposition to Pinochet’s murderous regime.
See. I am happy to confirm my opposition.
Unlike yourself, who cannot bring yourself to confirm your opposition to the current President’s subversion of the democratic will of the Venezuelan people.
I can only conclude you have a double standard. You do not object to authoritarianism when it is imposed in the name of Socialism.
You didn’t explicitly deny your support for Jorge Rafael Videla. I can only conclude that you want to throw your political opponents out of helicopters into the sea.
3 replies OAB? This one is weighing heavily on your conscience obviously.
And/or do you think that if you make enough replies it will hide your refusal to address a straightforward question honestly?
Seriously. I thought the policy on this site was that commenters should be willing to argue a point when reasonably requested to do so?
And I have observed YOU YOURSELF on numerous occasions demanding answers of others and (abusively) berating those you felt were not giving sufficiently open or honest answers to your questions. So on both those standards, what about your refusal to engage with a reasonable question eh?
My question to you was reasonable.
We have previously debated the subject at hand, and you entered this particular discussion voluntarily.
The material I referenced was factual.
It concerns questions that you and others on this site commonly debate (support for authoritarian governments).
I posed the question in a polite spirit of goodwill.
You evidently have plenty of time free to debate.
It is a question you could answer with 5 seconds effort. So on what grounds would you reasonably decline to address the point I raised?
Seriously, if the bar of ‘debate’ here is that commenters can simply ignore any point that challenges their position without justifying their refusal….what on earth is the value of ‘debate’ that occurs here?
If you were genuinely after my views on Venezuela, you’d read them and engage with the points I made
We had that discussion, and you know very well that you made no comment at all regarding the points I raise in 15 above.
Instead, you put words in my mouth and lie about my opinions.
As you refuse to clarify your opinion, I am forced to make assumptions about why that is, and what you might think.
It seems bizarre in the extreme that you complain about being mis-represented, but refuse to clarify your position!
It would just take one word. What possible issue is there with that?
No-one is forcing you to do anything. So the “possible issue” may be that your entire premise is a lie, characterised by sexual congress with porcine mammals.
Have you considered that? I had hoped that holding up a rhetorical mirror to your behaviour might give you a gargantuan clue. Apparently not.
One of your other prejudicial dishonesties was your description of people as “apologists”. You brought blank ammunition, and your powder’s wet.
My current assumption is that your unwillingness to indicate whether or not you support the authoritarian actions of the Venezuelan Government is because you do support them, but you know it would not be a good look at all to admit it.
If this is untrue, then just say ‘NO’.
I will be very happy to be corrected, and I will unreservedly withdraw my incorrect assumption.
If you do not, I will not ask you again. I will simply accept that this is the second time this week you have publicly exposed yourself as holding views you are not willing to admit to openly. Next time you have a problem with someone declining to debate your reasonable points, or accuse someone of a lack of honesty or transparency, I will remind you of this.
BTW, do you really think all that stuff about sex with animals enhances the validity of your arguments, or reflects well on you as a person? Let alone reflects well on this forum as a whole?
Why we can continue to treat Australia as our friend I do not know.
With “friends” like these who would want to be friendly with us?
The way Australia, particularly under the Dutton regime, has treated innocent asylum seekers, especially women and children, is indescribably inhumane and despicable.
Seems cruel but makes me wonder why our fire-fighters bother trying to help them. Have to remember there are many Australians also outraged by the actions of their backward leaders.
Have been wondering lately about what the age group bands are which write into this blog site. It seems to me that there could well be quite a lot of older folk (myself included at 70) who take an active interest in what is happening in our country – it may be me, but in my own experience there are many younger people who just show no interest in politics or current affairs at all – I have one of each, one who couldn’t care less and one who cares a lot. Is it because we probably are retired and have the time to muse and ponder and debate topics or is it just something else altogether. I know we grew up in the turbulent 60’s and were used to protesting and becoming passionate about being able to manage our own affairs – does that make our generation more active and vigilant or is it something else, maybe the preoccupation with iphones, electronic gaming etc which becomes an obsession quite often, shuts younger people off – shutting their ears off from the world. Mostly I see young people eyes glued to their phones walking down the street incommunicado to the world.
Just me wandering off in my own thoughts – but its a real problem for this country if kids are not being taught civics and modern history at school, not having conversations around the table at home about what’s going on in this country and not being able to get balanced debate in the MSM – it definitely will end up a dictatorship and the younger generations will be trapped in a nightmare police state with their eyes shut oblivious before they know it.
I’m 69 and suspect the average age here is fairly high 🙂
I think you’re right; youth is accustomed to immediate feedback and turn-over of ideas via internet and a range of media devices. The slow turning of the wheels of politics, endless discussion, sterile debate and the orchestrated response of MSM all comprise a major switch-off.
Until schools teach social and civic responsibility as mainstream subject the trend will continue. Its astonishing that the dangers facing our planet as well as our country are given no more than sanitised academic treatment.
My kids are both early 30 ‘s and have zero interest in or knowledge of politics.
It is my theory that people under 30 are more interested in the world than those between 30 and 45.
People born from 1967 onwards have no adult knowledge of the world prior to Rogernomics.
People born after 1990 have no adult knowledge of the world before the GFC, when it became apparent the neo-liberal world is not working.
It was heartening to see the large number of young adults involved in the Real Choice action shutting down Auckland from 9am Thurs. The earlier protests, eg in Dec 2012, seemed to have a noticeably lower percentage of youth IMO.
I am greatly encouraged at the growing political awareness of this age group and with the current use of technology, this could grow rapidly and exponentially. The flying dildo coverage went viral. Every young person in NZ will know what and why this happened, and it won’t be through the Herald.
The next step is to get other information through- maybe in a piecemeal fashion- in small byte-sized but riveting chunks. I am confident that this will happen now and that it will be initiated by young activists. The tide is turning.
Thank you all for responding – my two kids were born in the late 1970’s and were too young to experience Roger Douglas’ pain on the country. They haven’t had to take out student loans thanks to us but one kid is very aware of the unfairness around her. The other is a w…….. banker as much as I love her to bits and making huge money and is politically unaware.
I do think TMM’s comment about getting bite sized chunks of riveting information out to these kids so preoccupied with their hand pieces would be excellent. Kids seem to want everything instantly these days and its no thanks to us as we have provided that environment to them, so bite sized would be the right size for them. I personally don’t like bite sized as I like to ingest the whole chunk slowly – but that’s age I suppose.
Education is down the tubes and is deficit in its subject matter but that again is a Government agenda and what governments prefer, people dumbed down, the more ignorant and docile the better for them, but thanks it’s great that one can ponder and discuss thoughts on this blog site.
Most commenters on the Standard tend to be over 50 – I think stats put up by lprent at one stage showed that the most engaged readers (the ones who spend hours here) were older.
Facebook is particularly popular with those aged 30s and 40s (and a lot of discussions there are political), and a number of social media platforms are popular with those under 30.
The under 30s are interesting; the engaged are a minority, unfortunately, but they could be the most well informed and empowered perhaps of any generation at their life stage; they keenly evaluate information, read history, write engagingly, question assumptions, and stand up to authority. I’m pretty sceptical about claims it was ever that much better (but it has certainly been exacerbated by neoliberalism).
Younger people are more likely to work during the day which is less conducive to commenting during the hours that are busiest on the Standard.
but its a real problem for this country if kids are not being taught civics and modern history at school…
They are being taught those things in school. What they’re not seeing is active participation in the political process by their parents and contemporaries. They don’t see the good behaviour and so they don’t emulate it.
Some will be actively put off it by their own social group.
it definitely will end up a dictatorship and the younger generations will be trapped in a nightmare police state with their eyes shut oblivious before they know it.
The thing about police states is that they’ve always collapsed in one way or another. Revolution seems to be quite common.
in my 50s…my adult children are varyingly interested in politics although not in the involved activist sense…what is noticeable is their views tend to be further to the right than my own but that is in some sense unsurprising given the society they have grown up in, (one curious feature is their response to lay offs…they are quite indignant so theres hope for them yet.lol)…and they have never experienced recession in their living memory, so have no reference for when “the market economy” turns….there is no teacher like experience and I suspect they won’t have long to wait
We seem to have developed an almost pathological obsession with political polls. There always is one important election happening somewhere in the world, e.g. the US Presidential Elections, or locally, e.g. the Northland by-election or the Auckland mayoral election, and the 2017 General Election is, for some reason, never far from our minds.
Polls before elections influence voters’ behaviour. Some people like to vote for the anticipated winner. Polls can trigger or influence so-called strategic voting. This is sometimes called the Heisenberg Principle of Uncertainty, which means, in simple terms, that the measurement influences what’s being measured. (BTW this article Grading Teachers by the Test makes good arguments against performance-based incentives in education, one of which is based on the Heisenberg Principle of incentive design)
Polls are particularly popular with MSM and can lead to biased framing of a story or situation (‘headlines’). Usually, only the two largest parties or two main candidates (‘frontrunners’) get invited to the main televised debates; minor parties play second fiddle and small, new ‘protest’ parties get virtually no airtime. All based on polls, of course.
A much-loved ‘theory’ is that many polls are manipulated (‘rigged’). I believe that the reality is more concerning!
In New Zealand politics often resembles a The X Factor contest that is guided if not driven by popularity stakes – this includes the number of viewers watching the spectacle – and heavily influenced by focus group polling and other types of beta-testing and ‘test audiences’.
It is hard to escape the conclusion that New Zealand politicians, and particularly the current Government, make policies, laws, law amendments, and decisions in general that are at least partly (?) based on polls.
This sets up a fascinating feedback loop that goes under many different names and that may give the appearance of malicious manipulation. However, it is no other ‘manipulation’ than teaching to the test where the whole system, students and teachers alike, are focused on a metric that needs to be achieved. This is a special example of Campbell’s law. What all this means is that polls become less valid as an objective measurement of public opinion or ‘the will of the people’ if you like. Here’s another take on this. Obviously, trying to win a popularity contest is not a good strategy for governing a country – it is perverting the political process.
All this leads to a few important questions:
Quiz Question #1: why are most polls within earshot of the actual results?
Quiz Question #2: why do the polls hardly move from the ‘equilibrium’ bar a few fluctuations?
Quiz Question #3: what can be done to change the poll results?
Quiz Question #4: why do we pay so much attention to polls?
Quiz Question #5: how best to measure, represent and act on the will of the people besides that snapshot poll once every three years?
It is hard to escape the conclusion that New Zealand politicians, and particularly the current Government, make policies, laws, law amendments, and decisions in general that are at least partly (?) based on polls.
They will be to some degree but chances are they’re basing them more Focus groups. This will allow them to ask more detailed questions and get feedback from things like body language that can’t be measured in via online or telephone polling.
One thing about focus groups is that they don’t cover the range of the population that polls can cover and so the result is more biased. The other is that the results of the focus group can help massage the message to be more favourable. It can allow advertisers and political parties to direct the response.
Agreed, that’s why I used the word “pervert”, which conveys much of the contempt I hold for the current practices in NZ not to mention DP in all its gory.
Interesting!
Yes I remember the promise of quotas for local content. And interesting that Australia didn’t agree, and one only has to see the huge difference now between Aussie and NZ TV that is partly the result.
I have a feeling that that deal was done in secret so the incoming Labour govt had campaigned on quotas but didn’t know about the details of the agreement.
‘Debt, defaults, and devaluations: why this market crash is like nothing we’ve seen before
A pernicious cycle of collapsing commodities, corporate defaults, and currency wars loom over the global economy. Can anything stop it from unravelling?
A global recession is on the way. This truism of economics holds at any point in which the world is not in the grips of a contraction.
The real question is always when and how deep the upcoming downturn will be.
“The crash will come, but it would be nice if it came two years from now”, Thomas Thygesen, head of economics at SEB told over 200 commodity investors and analysts in London last month.
His audience was rapt with unusual attention. They could be forgiven for thinking the slump had not already arrived.
Commodity prices have crashed by two thirds since their peaks in 2014. Oil has borne the brunt of the sell-off, suffering the worst price collapse in modern history. Brent crude has fallen from $115 a barrel in the summer of 2014, to just $27.70 in mid-January.’
Very informative article regarding financial abuse by Kyle MacDonald particularly with regards to Govt funding of NGO’s and the control of community welfare programmes with respect to workers speaking out about problems within their sphere of expertise.
Today the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, at a ceremony at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma physics in Greifswald in Germany, pressed a button that caused a two-megawatt pulse of microwave radiation to heat hydrogen gas to 80 million degrees for a quarter of a second.
No, she was not setting off some new kind of hydrogen bomb. She was inaguriating the fusion reactor Wendelstein 7-X, the world’s largest stellarator, by generating its first hydrogen plasma.
I missed this John Key said “I had a speech I was going to deliver at Waitangi this morning, which we actually decided to rewrite in the middle of this week this week (sic) which was really quite factual but reasonably straight forward – rebutting basically every single point that had been made by (sic) single person who had been opposed to the TPP.” – there’s still time for this speech, maybe a post on The Standard? (I am assuming he’s saying “rebutting basically every single point that had been made by (b) single person who had been opposed to the TPP
Tomorrow afternoon, if things go really really badly, I may find myself down to one eye. People who used to sneer at me on Twitter will no doubt say So what's changed? Nothing, that's what, you one-eyed lefty.I don’t mean to be dramatic, it’s just a routine bit of cataract ...
A few weeks ago an invitation dropped into my email inbox to attend a joint Treasury/Motu seminar on recent, rather major, changes that had apparently been made to the discount rates used by The Treasury to evaluate proposals from government agencies. It was all news to me, but when ...
All your life is Time magazineI read it tooWhat does it mean?PressureI'm sure you'll have some cosmic rationaleBut here you are with your faithAnd your Peter Pan adviceYou have no scars on your faceAnd you cannot handle pressureSongwriter: Billy Joel.Christopher Luxon is under pressure from all sides. The reviews are ...
After seeing yet-more-months of political debate and policy decisions to ‘go for growth’ by pulling the same old cheap migration and cheap tourism levers without nearly-enough infrastructure, or any attempt to address the same old lack of globally conventional tax incentives for investment, I thought it would be worth issuing ...
The plans for the buildings that will replace the downtown carpark have been publicly notified giving us the first detailed glance at what is proposed for one of the biggest and best development sites in the city centre. The council agreed to sell the site to Precinct Properties for $122 ...
With the Reserve Bank expected today to return the Official Cash Rate to where it was in mid-2022 comes a measure of how much of a psychological impact the rate has. Federated Farmers has published its latest six-monthly farm confidence survey, which shows that profit expectations have fallen and risen ...
Kiwis Disallowed From Waiting Lists Based on Arbitrary MeasuresWellington hospital are now rejecting patients from specialist waiting lists due to BMI (body mass index).This article from Rachel Thomas for The Post says it all (emphasis mine):A group of Porirua GPs are sounding alarm bells after patients with body mass indexes ...
The Prime Minister says he's really comfortable with us not knowing the reoffending rate for his boot camp programme.They asked him for it at yesterday’s press conference, and he said, nah, not telling, have to respect people's privacy.Okay I'll bite. Let's say they release this information to us:The rate of ...
Warning 1: There is a Nazi theme at the end of this article related to the disabled community. Warning 2: This article could be boring!One day, last year, I excitedly opened up a Substack post that was about how to fight back, and the answer at the end was disappointing ...
This may be rhetorical but here goes: did any of you invest in the $Libra memecoin endorsed and backed by Argentine president and darling of the global Right Javier Milei (who admitted to being paid a fee for his promotion of the token)? You know, the one that soared above ...
Last week various of the great and good of New Zealand economics and public policy trooped off to Hamilton (of all places) for the annual Waikato Economics Forum, one of the successful marketing drives of university’s Vice-Chancellor. My interest was in the speeches delivered by the Minister of Finance and ...
The Prime Minister says the Government would be open to sending peacekeepers to Ukraine if a ceasefire was reached. The government has announced a $30 million spend on tourism infrastructure and biodiversity projects, including $11m spent to improve popular visitor sites and further $19m towards biodiversity efforts. A New Zealand-born ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler “But what about when the sun doesn't shine?!” Ah yes, the energy debate’s equivalent of “The Earth is flat!” Every time someone mentions solar or wind power, some self-proclaimed energy expert emerges from the woodwork to drop this supposedly devastating truth bomb: ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission.In this article I look into data on how well the rail network serve New Zealanders, and how many people might be able to travel by train… if we ran more than a ...
Hi,Before we get into Hayden Donnell’s new column about how yes, Donald Trump is definitely the Antichrist, I wanted to touch on something feral that happened in New Zealand last week.Members of Destiny Church pushed and punched their way into an Auckland library, apparently angry it was part of Pride ...
Despite delays, logjams and overcrowding in our emergency departments, funding constraints are limiting the numbers of nurses and doctors being trained. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, February 18 are:A NZ Herald investigation ...
Now that the US has ripped up the Atlantic alliance, Europe is more vulnerable now than at any time since the mid-1930s. Apparently, Europe and Ukraine itself will not have a seat at the table in the talks between US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin that will ...
Olivia and Noah and Hana are going to the library!It is fun to go to the library. It has books and songs and mat time and people who smile at you and say, Hello Olivia, what have you been doing this morning?The library is more fun than the mall. At ...
New World Orders: The challenge facing Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins is how to keep their small and vulnerable nation safe and stable in a world whose economic and political climate the forty-seventh American president is changing so profoundly.IT IS, SURELY, the ultimate Millennial revenge fantasy. Calling senior Baby-Boomer and Gen-X ...
“This might surprise you, Laurie, but I reckon Trump’s putting on a bloody impressive performance.”“GOODNESS ME, HANNAH, just look at all those Valentine’s Day cards!”“Occupational hazard, Laurie, the more beer I serve, the more my customers declare their undying love!”“Crikey! I had no idea business was so good.” Laurie squinted ...
In 2005, Labour repealed the long-standing principle of birthright citizenship in Aotearoa. Why? As with everything else Labour does, it all came down to austerity: "foreign mothers" were supposedly "coming to this country to give birth", and this was "put[ting] pressure on hospitals". Then-Immigration Minister George Hawkins explicitly gave this ...
And I just hope that you can forgive usBut everything must goAnd if you need an explanation, nationThen everything must goSongwriters: James Dean Bradfield / Sean Anthony Moore / Nicholas Allen Jones.Today, I’d like to talk about a couple of things that happened over the weekend:Brian Tamaki’s Library Invasion and ...
New reporting highlights how Brooke van Velden refuses to meet with the CTU but is happy to meet with fringe Australian-based unions. Van Velden is pursuing reckless changes to undermine the personal grievance system against the advice of her own officials. Engineering New Zealand are saying that hundreds of engineers ...
The NZCTU strongly supports the Employment Relations (Employee Remuneration Disclosure) Amendment Bill. This Bill represents a positive step towards addressing serious issues around unlawful disparities in pay by protecting workers’ rights to discuss their pay and conditions. This Bill also provides welcome support for helping tackle the prevalent gender and ...
Years of hard work finally paid off last week as the country’s biggest and most important transport project, the City Rail Link reached a major milestone with the first test train making its way slowly though the tunnels for the first time. This is a fantastic achievement and it is ...
Engineers are pleading for the Government to free up funds to restart stalled projects. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, February 17 are:Engineering New Zealand CEO Richard Templer said yesterday hundreds of ...
It’s one of New Zealand’s great sustaining myths: the spirit of ANZAC, our mates across the ditch, the spirit of Earl’s Court, Antipodeans united against the world. It is also a myth; it is not reality. That much was clear from a series of speakers, including a former Australian Prime ...
Many people have been unsatisfied for years that things have not improved for them, some as individuals, many more however because their families are clearly putting in more work, for less money – and certainly far less purchase on society. This general discontent has grown exponentially since the GFC. ...
A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 9, 2025 thru Sat, February 15, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report shows worsening food poverty and housing shortages mean more than 400,000 people now need welfare support, the highest level since the 1990s. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and ...
You're just too too obscure for meOh you don't really get through to meAnd there's no need for you to talk that wayIs there any less pessimistic things to say?Songwriters: Graeme DownesToday, I thought we’d take a look at some of the most cringe-inducing moments from last week, but don’t ...
Please note: I’ve delayed my “What can we do?” article for this video.The video above shows Destiny Church members assaulting staff and librarians as they pushed through to a room of terrified parents and young children.It was posted to social media last night.But if you read Sinead Boucher’s Stuff, you ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is sea level rise exaggerated? Sea levels are rising at an accelerating rate, not stagnating or decreasing. Warming global temperatures cause land ice ...
Here is a scenario, but first a historical parallel. Hitler and the Nazis could well have accomplished everything that they wanted to do within German borders, including exterminating Jews, so long as they confined their ambitious to Germany itself. After all, the world pretty much sat and watched as the ...
I’ve spent the last couple of days in Hamilton covering Waikato University’s annual NZ Economics Forum, where (arguably) three of the most influential people in our political economy right now laid out their thinking in major speeches about the size and role of Government, their views on for spending, tax ...
Simeon Brown’s Ideology BentSimeon Brown once told Kiwis he tries to represent his deep sense of faith by interacting “with integrity”.“It’s important that there’s Christians in Parliament…and from my perspective, it’s great to be a Christian in Parliament and to bring that perspective to [laws, conversations and policies].”And with ...
Severe geological and financial earthquakes are inevitable. We just don’t know how soon and how they will play out. Are we putting the right effort into preparing for them?Every decade or so the international economy has a major financial crisis. We cannot predict exactly when or exactly how it will ...
Questions1. How did Old Mate Grabaseat describe his soon-to-be-Deputy-PM’s letter to police advocating for Philip Polkinghorne?a.Ill-advisedb.A perfect letterc.A letter that will live in infamyd.He had me at hello2. What did Seymour say in response?a.What’s ill-advised is commenting when you don’t know all the facts and ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff has called on OJI Fibre Solutions to work with the government, unions, and the community before closing the Kinleith Paper Mill. “OJI has today announced 230 job losses in what will be a devastating blow for the community. OJI needs to work with ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff is sounding the alarm about the latest attack on workers from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden, who is ignoring her own officials to pursue reckless changes that would completely undermine the personal grievance system. “Brooke van Velden’s changes will ...
Hi,When I started writing Webworm in 2020, I wrote a lot about the conspiracy theories that were suddenly invading our Twitter timelines and Facebook feeds. Four years ago a reader, John, left this feedback under one of my essays:It’s a never ending labyrinth of lunacy which, as you have pointed ...
And if you said this life ain't good enoughI would give my world to lift you upI could change my life to better suit your moodBecause you're so smoothAnd it's just like the ocean under the moonOh, it's the same as the emotion that I get from youYou got the ...
Aotearoa remains the minority’s birthright, New Zealand the majority’s possession. WAITANGI DAY commentary see-saws manically between the warmly positive and the coldly negative. Many New Zealanders consider this a good thing. They point to the unexamined patriotism of July Fourth and Bastille Day celebrations, and applaud the fact that the ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: and on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump’s administration over Gaza and Ukraine; on the ...
Up until now, the prevailing coalition view of public servants was that there were simply too many of them. But yesterday the new Public Service Commissioner, handpicked by the Luxon Government, said it was not so much numbers but what they did and the value they produced that mattered. Sir ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and ...
In a moment we explore the question: What is Andrew Bayly wanting to tell ACC, and will it involve enjoying a small wine tasting and then telling someone to fuck off? But first, for context, a broader one: What do we look for in a government?Imagine for a moment, you ...
As expected, Donald Trump just threw Ukraine under the bus, demanding that it accept Russia's illegal theft of land, while ruling out any future membership of NATO. Its a colossal betrayal, which effectively legitimises Russia's invasion, while laying the groundwork for the next one. But Trump is apparently fine with ...
A ballot for a single member's bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Employment Relations (Collective Agreements in Triangular Relationships) Amendment Bill (Adrian Rurawhe) The bill would extend union rights to employees in triangular relationships, where they are (nominally) employed by one party, but ...
This is a guest post by George Weeks, reviewing a book called ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin AshtonBook review: ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin Ashton (2015) – and what it means for Auckland. The title of this article might unnerve any Greater Auckland ...
This story was originally published by Capital & Main and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Within just a week, the sheer devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires has pushed to the fore fundamental questions about the impact of the climate crisis that have been ...
In this world, it's just usYou know it's not the same as it wasSongwriters: Harry Edward Styles / Thomas Edward Percy Hull / Tyler Sam JohnsonYesterday, I received a lovely message from Caty, a reader of Nick’s Kōrero, that got me thinking. So I thought I’d share it with you, ...
In past times a person was considered “unserious” or “not a serious” person if they failed to grasp, behave and speak according to the solemnity of the context in which they were located. For example a serious person does not audibly pass gas at Church, or yell “gun” at a ...
Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 13 are:The coalition Government’s early 2024 ‘fiscal emergency’ freeze on funding, planning and building houses, schools, local roads and hospitals helped extend and deepen the economic and jobs recession through calendar ...
For obvious reasons, people feel uneasy when the right to be a citizen is sold off to wealthy foreigners. Even selling the right to residency seems a bit dubious, when so many migrants who are not millionaires get turned away or are made to jump through innumerable hoops – simply ...
A new season of White Lotus is nearly upon us: more murder mystery, more sumptuous surroundings, more rich people behaving badly.Once more we get to identify with the experience of the pampered tourist or perhaps the poorly paid help; there's something in White Lotus for all New Zealanders.And unlike the ...
In 2016, Aotearoa shockingly plunged to fourth place in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Nine years later, and we're back there again: New Zealand has seen a further slip in its global ranking in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). [...] In the latest CPI New Zealand's score ...
1. You’ve started ranking your politicians on how much they respect the rule of law2. You’ve stopped paying attention to those news publications3. You’ve developed a sudden interest in a particular period of history4. More and more people are sounding like your racist, conspiracist uncle.5. Someone just pulled a Nazi ...
Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
“The ACT Party can’t be bothered putting an MP on one of the Justice subcommittees hearing submissions on their own Treaty Principles Bill,” Labour Justice Spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
The Government’s newly announced funding for biodiversity and tourism of $30-million over three years is a small fraction of what is required for conservation in this country. ...
The Government's sudden cancellation of the tertiary education funding increase is a reckless move that risks widespread job losses and service reductions across New Zealand's universities. ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Ngāi Tahu wants to introduce contamination charges to address contamination in Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere, the High Court has been told.In the second week of the two-month case against the Attorney-General over wai māori (freshwater), Dr Elizabeth Brown, the Rangatira of Taumutu, which sits on the lake’s edge, told Justice Melanie ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra ASIO chief Mike Burgess has warned that over the next five years Australia’s security environment will become more dynamic, diverse and degraded, with “more security surprises” in the second half of the decade than in ...
There is certainly plenty of room for better police training for dealing with protest activity that starts with a rights-based approach to ensuring people can fully exercise their human rights. ...
“We are thrilled that this Bill is making its way through the House and looks set to become law,” said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Isaac Gross, Lecturer in Economics, Monash University Gumbariya/Shutterstock The Reserve Bank’s decision to cut interest rates for the first time in four years has triggered a round of celebration. Mortgage holders are cheering the fact their monthly repayments are now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Housing supply in Australia will be a key battleground in the election campaign. With home ownership more and more out of reach for young and not so young Australians, red tape and low productivity are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Korolev, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, UNSW Sydney The United States and Russia agreed to work on a plan to end the war in Ukraine at high-level talks in Saudi Arabia this week. Ukrainian and European representatives were pointedly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karleen Gribble, Adjunct Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University BaLL LunLa/Shutterstock Sleep is the holy grail for new parents. So no wonder many tired parents are looking for something to help their babies sleep. A TikTok trend claims ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ranjana Gupta, Senior Lecturer, Accounting Department, Auckland University of Technology Jirsak/Shutterstock The profit made on every breakfast bowl of weet-bix is tax exempt, giving Sanitarium Health Food Company, owned by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, an advantage over other breakfast food companies. ...
A closer look at some of the homegrown talent currently commanding television screens around the globe. The new season of The White Lotus hit our screens this week, and with it a familiar face in New Zealand actor Morgana O’Reilly. To secure a role in one of the world’s most ...
"This is a crisis of the Government’s own making and the unit is another sign of desperation," said PSA acting national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Francesca Perugia, Senior Lecturer, School of Design and the Built Environment, Curtin University Australia’s housing crisis has created a push for fast-tracked construction. Federal, state and territory governments have set a target of 1.2 million new homes over five years. Increasing housing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ash Watson, Scientia Fellow and Senior Lecturer, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock When we’re uncomfortable we say the “vibe is off”. When we’re having a good time we’re “vibing”. To assess the mood we do a “vibe check”. And when the atmosphere in ...
What’s up with the man from Epsom? The leader of the Act Party has been in plenty of headlines in the last two weeks, ranging from a controversial letter to police on behalf of constituent Philip Polkinghorne (written before David Seymour was a minister) to an attempt to drive ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Stephenson, Deputy Director, Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, Australian National University Newly published research has found clear evidence that openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, and queer+ (LGBTIQ+) Australian politicians were disproportionately targeted with personal abuse on social media at the ...
Gilmore Girls, Schitt’s Creek, even The Vampire Diaries – they’re all set in tight-knit neighbourhoods where everyone knows everyone. So what is it like to actually know your neighbours? My favourite television shows are set in tight-knit neighbourhoods where everyone knows everyone. Characters attend town meetings where they debate local ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yanyan Hong, PhD Candidate in Communication and Media Studies, University of Adelaide IMDB On the surface, Ne Zha 2: The Sea’s Fury (2025), the sequel to the 2019 Chinese blockbuster Nezha: Birth of the Demon Child, is a high-octane, action-packed and ...
Wellington travellers say their buses are so hot they’re often forced to get off early and walk. Shanti Mathias explores the impact of non-functioning air conditioning on public transport. When Bella, a young professional living in Wellington, thinks about taking the bus, her first thought is “Ugh”. The bus might ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Annette Kroen, Research Fellow Planning and Transport, RMIT University The cleanup is underway in northern Queensland following the latest flooding catastrophe to hit the state. More than 7,000 insurance claims have already been lodged, most of them for inundated homes and other ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Subha Parida, Lecturer in Property, University of South Australia Carl Oberg/Shutterstock Houses and fire do not mix. The firestorm which hit Los Angeles in January destroyed nearly 2,000 buildings and forced 130,000 people to evacuate. The 2019–20 Australian megafires destroyed ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Bowman, Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science, University of Tasmania Tasmania has been burning for more than two weeks, with no end in sight. Almost 100,000 hectares of bushland in the northwest has burned to date. This includes the Tarkine rainforest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Martin Loosemore, Professor of Construction Management, University of Technology Sydney This week, the Productivity Commission released its much-awaited report into productivity growth in Australia’s housing construction sector. It wasn’t a glowing appraisal. The commission found physical productivity – the total number ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pascale Lubbe, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Molecular Ecology, University of Otago Royal spoonbills are among several new species that have crossed the Tasman and naturalised in New Zealand. JJ Harrison/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA When people arrived on the shores of Aotearoa ...
Stats NZ’s head is stepping down over the agency’s failure to safeguard census data, and more officials may soon be in the firing line, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. An ‘absolutely unacceptable’ failure Stats NZ chief ...
Health NZ is under greater government scrutiny, with the new health minister setting up a unit he says will "drive greater accountability and performance". ...
Ohhhhh young people; is it really the end of marriage, capitalism, and God?
And would that be so bad?
http://www.salon.com/2016/02/06/this_is_the_end_of_marriage_capitalism_and_god_finally/
Hillary Clinton: “Name one time I changed due to Wall Street money.”
Elizabeth Warren: OK, allow me.
http://usuncut.com/politics/elizabeth-warren-tells-how-wall-street-changed-hillary-clinton/
– See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2016/02/07/the-daily-blog-open-mic-sunday-7th-february-2016/#sthash.Y3SLA2mq.dpuf
Hillary Clinton Has a Henry Kissinger Problem
I think that sums it up well. I’d say that it applies a lot to the Labour Party caucus as well.
It is hard to know where to start with our child PM over the last week….
It seems his bullshit and wave, in the absence of self-direction, is merely winding up tighter and faster like a small child before bedtime…. faster and faster, smarter and smarmier, wave and wavier, round and around, and around again ……. fzzzztttt! Pop bang splatter in another soon-to-be moment of yuck and shit…
Very mature insight there. Like a toddler waking up grumpy and not sure why
My goodness DTB…..that is spot on for a truth that circles. Everybody knows it’s there. How fortunate there’s a Bernie Sanders. To articulate what a healthy community is about.
WONDERING WHY MAINSTREAM MEDIA DOESN’T COVER TPP ?
“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum….” Noam Chomsky
The TPP isn’t on that spectrum. That’s because 4 of the 6 corporations which control 90% of US media are known to be lobbying for the TPP.
– COMCAST, “the parent company of NBC and MSNBC, has a team of at least ten lobbyists seeking to influence the TPP on ‘International IP Protection.’” MSNBC recently cancelled The Ed Show ostensibly for running anti-TPP commentary: http://bit.ly/1DLN82j
– TIME WARNER INC., “the parent company of CNN, has at least four lobbyists working to influence the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal. Disclosures show the TW lobbying team has attempted to influence both Congress and the U.S. Trade Representative office on the deal.”
– TWENTY FIRST CENTURY FOX, “a subsidiary of News Corporation, the parent company of Fox News, has a team of three lobbyists working to influence the TPP.”
– DISNEY CORPORATION, “parent company of ABC News and Fusion, is lobbying on the TPP regarding intellectual property enforcement.”
Media Matters Report:
http://www.republicreport.org/2014/tpp-media-companies/
__________________
These 6 Corporations Control 90% Of The Media In America
http://read.bi/1g44Y8R
__________________
#StopTPP #FlushtheTPP
If the US didn’t sign, but the TPPA still went ahead with the other 11 countries, would you be happy with that arrangement?
It can’t go ahead without the US.
Why not?
for the document to be implemented it requires the ratification of the US and Japan
“At least six original signatories have to have successfully ratified the agreement.
Those six signatories, between them, must represent 85 percent of the total GDP of the twelve originals signatories.
That last clause is important. The United States and Japan between them represent just shy of 80 percent of the GDP of the twelve original TPP signatories (specifically, the U.S. represents nearly 62 percent of TPP GDP and Japan accounts for 17 percent). Basically, the TPP can’t come into force if either of these states fail to ratify the agreement in their domestic legislatures because there would be no way for the remaining signatories to fulfill the 85 percent of GDP requirement (even if the United States and all states but Japan ratify, the eleven would stand at 83 percent of GDP).”
http://thediplomat.com/2015/10/heres-what-needs-to-happen-in-order-for-the-trans-pacific-partnership-to-become-binding/
It that US or Japan, or do both need to sign up?
I think I read somewhere it needs to have at least Japan or the US to go ahead.
Edit: just saw you post.
Seems a bit ridiculous to be completely reliant on one country.
If the US didn’t sign, I’m sure the other countries would just get back around the table and sort out another deal.
There is going to be a free trade deal of some nature, including the US would be good but if they don’t want to be part of it, it’s their loss.
both .see link,
They will sign for geopolitical reason, to walk away allows China to fill the vacuum, the whole reason the U.S. got involved In the TPPA was to maintain thier relevance iin the Asia pacific
It needs to be ratified by at least 6 countries that add up to more than 85% of the combined GDP of the 12 signatories. Which in practice means Japan and the US both have to ratify before it can come into force.
Of course! Unlike the conformist politicians out there, who think signing a bad deal is good because other’s do so. Current politicians are too scared to stand on their own two feet and say NO to job losses, health increases, copywrite increases, environmental pollution, dishonouring treaty agreements, becoming tenants in our own country, being sued by corporations but not being able to sue corporations in the same bogus courts.
BOO to John Key and the National party!
Signed in a casino behind closed doors shows what a piece of crap it is!
A very good article on TPPA by Bill Rosenberg
is a good concise appraisal, but will be dismissed by the proponents due to the authors background
The Herald reports this morning on a tragic motor accident near Te Kowhai with the two drivers dying as a result.
There is a long glowing profile (including a photo of this victim’s wife) on the success and “importance” of this victim.
“He was involved in a head on crash in his BMW with a 17 year old driving a Toyota Corolla.”
The feeling one gets as one reads the article is that it is probably the 17 year old’s fault. Certainly no reference in the article to the loss for his family, friends and community.
The report eventually indicates that the driver of the BMW was overtaking a truck when the accident occurred.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11585960
Dreadful reporting by the Herald
One rather gets the feeling they published it because of who his wife was.
That really is bloody awful reporting as you say.
The item has just been updated, and a little clearer now. Still got to read the whole thing to find out the circumstances though.
Homicides and Car Accidents are far more important than the TPPA?
Homicides and Car Accidents are far more important than the TPPA?
Be fair.
Murder and car accidents are lower in their estimation than Beyonce singing at the Superbowl.
More of the same from granny.
The story on the front page – I saw as walking along the main street this morning.
“NZ now safer for our kids
WHAT UTTER BULLSHIT*
I did not and will not link to the article – anyone with than more half their brain functioning will recognise it for what it is. Johnys in a bit of trouble so we had better publish a “puff piece” showing how good his gov’t is.
I call the article bullshit for very obvious reasons:
a. When for a growing number of children the car is their home
b.A child is admitted to a New Zealand hospital every second day with injuries arising from either assault, neglect or maltreatment,
c. need I go on?
Thank you Herald for spoiling my day.
*my apologies for shouting but that is what I felt like doing at the time I read the headline
What can you expect the Herald is owned by Australians – an Australian fund manager and Rupert Murdoch. see below
APN News & Media Limited is an Australian and New Zealand[1] media company. Divisions include newspaper publishing, online publishing, broadcast radio and outdoor advertising in Australia and New Zealand. APN’s two largest shareholders are the Australian fund manager Allan Gray Australia[2] and Rupert Murdoch’s News Limited.[3] Irish company Independent News & Media and Denis O’Brien’s Baycliffe held an approximately 30% stake in the company before selling it in March 2015.[4]
Yep, saw that, and I’m waiting for our local rag to give out the name of the 17 year old killed by the BMW driver.
This is local.
We live on SH 39…a popular by pass between the North and the South West for trucks and cars. There are no passing lanes, and there are at least 40 bends that are posted 75km/hr.
But we live on that road…and every single time one of my kids heads off into town or to go to work I wonder if this is the day some fwit from Auckland in a beemer is going to take them out while trying to pass a truck. (google BMW accident SH 39)
One day I will film the near misses that happen outside our place on a holiday weekend or during the ski season.
Slow the fuck down for god’s sakes.
Be patient.
Typical worshipping of the rich that we get from conservatives. We saw the same when that business person killed the 15 yo that was tagging his fence.
You have to hunt for important stories hidden below nonsense about clickbait on ‘celebrities’,
‘Wall St stocks and oil have slumped again amidst growing talk of recession risk for both the US and the world.
In Friday trading (Saturday NZT), the Dow Jones fell 1.3 per cent, the Standard & Poor’s 500 1.9 per cent and the Nasdaq 3.3 per cent.
That took losses for the week to 3.1 per cent for the S&P 500 and 5.4 per cent for the Nasdaq.
In a world braced for a hard landing in China, the US recovery was meant to be coming to the rescue.
But Wall St’s dismal start to the year has sparked fears that it may have stalled and that the US Federal Reserve may have moved too soon to raise rates.
In New Zealand, the extended period of low dairy prices is the biggest concern. Last week, Fonterra cut its farmer payout forecast to $4.15 from $4.60 per kilo of milk solids. The next day, prices in the global dairy trade auction fell another 7.4 per cent.
ANZ economists responded by cutting their forecast for the payout to $3.95.
The average breakeven for most farmers is estimated at $5.40 per kg.
The Reserve Bank has indicated that it is likely to cut rates further this year if international conditions continue to weaken.
At this point that looks more likely than not.’
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11585955
‘ANZ is forecasting a longer, deeper trough in dairy prices.
The bank has dropped its forecast price for milk solids this season by 30 cents to $3.95 a kilo.
It now “tentatively” expected a price of $5 a kilo in 2016-17, which is 50c to 75c less than it had previously been predicting.
Farmers would be losing about $1.50kg on their production over the two seasons, it said.’
Tough times ahead.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/76628607/anz-forecasts-more-pain-for-dairy-farmers
You have to hunt for important stories
Hunt – as in find something that is right out there in the open on the front home page?
Gee, don’t you think they would find somewhere a bit more ‘difficult’ than the front page to put it if they really didn’t want people to see it?
Like not publishing it at all for instance….
I was looking online.
I see the NZ Herald are not publishing any of the comments to du Plessis’s disgraceful article. Wonder why?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11585760
Yes Paul. One of the rare occasions I was moved to submit a comment there. I can guarantee the bulk of the comments were scathing… so many gaping holes in her arguments one hardly knew which to chose to comment on.
I’ve noted it’s happening more and more frequently on the MSM online outlets. They ask you to “have your say” and then don’t publish any of them. What about an OIA to find out what is going on or are they exempt.
Maybe the solution is to phone up Garner on his dreadful talk back show.
And ask if he’s read the tpp legal files.
” What about an OIA to find out what is going on or are they exempt.”
You can’t use the OIA. Official Information is only that held by the Government, in most of its many guises.
Our Government doesn’t own the Herald.
I suspect that was the point. The fact that private business can’t be held to account.
Our Government doesn’t own the Herald.
In theory – NO.
In practice – YES
And even if it did own the Herald, it would likely be exempt, like Radio NZ.
Even some entities one would expect to be OIA-able are not, like primary health organisations, which get all their money from DHBs and MOH.
I suggest because mainly personal rants and bile from the same twisted people
Paul (8) – NZH isn’t opening any comments to articles which might touch on FJK and his humiliation this week, through people power, with ordinary Kiwis fighting the signing of the odious TPPA.
Audrey Young’s latest piece for instance is inviting comments, but still not open for debate. That’s from being published on Waitangi Day.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11585424
Something to be said for digital media isn’t there? Yeah right!
Keep the masses ignorant, keeps them compliant and controllable by the despotic powers that be!
I’ve been around for almost seven decades and I’ve never known msm to be under such tight direct government control as it is now, not even in Muldoon’s time and that’s really saying something!
For some reason the NZH does not let any or hardly comments through during the weekend and I suspect that they have a shortage of Moderators on deck. The comments will appear slowly on Tuesday. The only exception seems to be comments to Sideswipe!
Clean Green New Zealand
‘Toxins now found in smaller lake
Lake Waikopiro, next to Lake Tutira, has been confirmed as having dangerous levels of cyanobacteria.
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council (HBRC) staff noticed people swimming at Lake Waikopiro this week and decided to take water samples. Results came back yesterday showing potentially toxic cyanobacteria was present above guideline safety levels, although below the levels of the larger Lake Tutira, which was reported in mid-January and remains unsafe.
HBRC has sent samples to the Cawthron Institute in Nelson, and is waiting on results of tests to assess if toxins have been released into the water or not.’
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503462&objectid=11585905
‘Trout dying in Tutira’s toxic water
Dozens of dead fish were found along the shores of Lake Tutira by the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s science monitoring team yesterday.
“We saw potentially over 100 pan-sized trout,” said Vicki Lyon, a water quality and ecology resource technician.
Prior to these latest deaths, the lake’s monitoring buoy recorded surface water temperatures approaching 33C — the warmest water ever recorded in the lake.
Phycocyanin levels, which indicate the presence of cyanobacteria, peaked at around the same time. Cyanobacteria is the toxin that led to the death of 4-year-old labrador Marley after she drank from the Tukituki River last month.’
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503462&objectid=11582290
I really hope water is going to be big election issue in 2017.
Is it farming or cc/ high temps causing this. ?
Both. Some viscious circles going on too.
Would the left be happy if a TPPA like arrangement went ahead, but the USA wasn’t part of it?
Impossible.
As Andre says above
‘It needs to be ratified by at least 6 countries that add up to more than 85% of the combined GDP of the 12 signatories. Which in practice means Japan and the US both have to ratify before it can come into force.’
And hypothetically, a ‘TPPA like arrangement.’ would be a forced trade agreement not a free trade agreement, thereby limitIng NZ’s sovereignty and democracy. The only change would be a lesser amount of ISDS claims as the highly litigious US corporations would not be in the game.
the only winner in a TPPA like arrangement are the transnational corporations not any particular country…i.e the US is projecting 10s of thousand job losses
So, there should be no free trade deals?
Is that the position of the TPP protesters, all free trade is bad?
You’re asking for a single opinion from a mass movement? Are you a complete nut?
It is like asking National party members what their opinion is about their organisation’s institutional racism. You get all sorts of responses.
Ok, would you say that’s the majority view?
what do you mean by ‘free trade deal’? See how that works? What lynn said.
Who knows? It sounds more like a dickhead myth to me polmulgated by idiots in the media (few of whom appear to have looked at the TPPA in any depth) and David Farrar’s focus groups than anything else.
The only place I ever consistently hear that particular view (that all free trade is bad) is here, and even then only from a few people.
At work amongst all of the engineers, I don’t hear it. Generally they export and like free trade deals. But the ones I’ve talked to about it are deeply suspicious of this particular deal (the TPPA) because it doesn’t look like a free trade deal at all. It looks like the opposite.
In the political circles I still move in, most supported the China FTA albeit some pretty reluctantly, and virtually none of the same people support the TPPA.
My parents tend to be deeply suspicious of free trade deals. But they also tend towards admiring NZ First when they aren’t voting Labour. And they remember the aftermath of the depression when the fragile free trade systems collapsed causing untold misery.
I have to date supported all free trade deals from CER through WTO to the bilateral ones of recent decades. But the TPPA has less than a third of it about slightly freeing up trade. The rest is about restraining trade mostly for the benefit of specific interest groups.
It isn’t worth supporting because it looks to me like a PR fool just stuck a ‘Free Trade’ badge on it to make a dud deal full of advantages for interest groups to make it look better. It reminds me of the worst of the corn laws in what it tries to do. Or any pork barrel bill from the US congress.
//——
Tell me amongst the TPPA supporters would you say that the majority support it because of their religious economic beliefs? That anything with a sticker saying it “free trade” is good? Because that is the impression of get of the mindless fools that I have run across.
Many people have looked at the TPPA, found aspects that look to them to be highly flawed and detrimental, and therefore oppose getting into it. I’m one of them.
But when you get an ignorant bigot of a reporter shoving mic in front of you on a hot day while you are walking, it is kind of hard to explain that to the fool disrupting a protest.
TPPA looks more like an MAI reboot.
One of the key problems I have with free trade (in it’s general sense) is that it forces countries like NZ to be commodities exporters (let’s for sake of argument include tourism in that). In the world of post-carbon, Peak Oil and CC, that’s insane. Yes, we could shift to exporting things that worked within those constraints (and I hope we do), but I think the free trade culture itself promotes profit drive motives above everything else. Which means we should be regulating, and bang, there goes the free bit.
It ain’t a Free Trade Agreement it is completely the opposite – False Advertising by the NACT’s?
The TPP isn’t a free trade deal.
The TPPA is not a free trade deal.
It’s a forced trade deal.
My past (and probable future) employment has been with companies that depend on international trade both for input materials and sale of finished goods. So I’m very much for removing barriers to international trade.
My problem with the TPPA is that the trade aspects of it look like a very thin veneer over the bulk of the agreement, which is mostly an expansion of corporate privilege and power.
I was just looking at our free trade agreements
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_free_trade_agreements
Of the 11 countries involved in the TPPA, we already had agreements with
Australia
Brunei
Chile
Malaysia
Singapore
with the TPPA there’s these countries added to the mix
Canada
Japan
Mexico
Peru
Vietnam.
USA
Why would all the other countries we already have free trade agreements want to join up to an arrangement which is more about corporate privilege and power and less about free trade. ?
Why sign up to a deal which is worse than the deal that you’re currently in?
carrot and stick…..the corporates weild more power than national bodies…just as our esteemed(?) leaders say we can’t afford to be the odd one out so do the others…and that fear is played on …the reality is the transnationals need markets , stable and (reasonably) affluent ones at that….its about time the boot was on the other foot, way past time…..and the pricks need to start paying their way
So, is it just the USA corporates causing all the issues or is this corporate shenanigans across all the countries involved in the TPP.?
think you know the answer to that….take a look at the ISDS cases
Shows how much power our one multinational company has over our current government when for such tiny gains Fonterra still held MFAT’s balls in its hand.
didn’t do them any good though….they were monstered in the deal and got virtually nothing….Fonterra may be our only international player of any scale but they pale into insignificance compared to the overseas owned corporations
totally.
Fonterra are pulling New Zealand down every day.
They simply haven’t learnt how to do more than be driven by the margins of their Asset Management Plans.
I’d like to see a policy platform from an opposition party review its monopoly act.
Why sign up to a deal which is worse than the deal that you’re currently in?
If you are in a job and earning okay with future hopes, wouldn’t you think more than twice about saying no to the boss?
Many workers have been forced by their employers to go away on weekend group-building exercises to weld them into a team and had to undertake meaningless activities on numbers of occasions, taking them away from their families, in their own supposedly personal free time. Why accept that deal?
The desire is to weld employees (client countries of the USA) into a conformist lot of yes-men and women. Those who don’t participate can expect to be marked as undesirable. All part of the precarious world where we live freely, under the threat of being left out of whatever. And even being in leaves you out of pocket, or advantage, or resources, or anything that big corporations might decide to denude you of. The Emperor’s Clothes perhaps?
I really don’t like speculating about other people’s motives, particularly on a topic as complex as this.
But in this case it looks to me like maybe the TPPA grew too big, and fear of the risks of being outside of the agreement became the dominant motive for staying in the agreement. Possibly coupled with fear of too much loss of face from pulling out on the part of individuals that had already invested a lot of political capital into the agreement.
a parting thought for you BM…..TPPA is like game of blackjack…the corporations are the dealer…the minimum bet is $1000……NZ has a stake of 2k, the other members increasingly more…..whos going to win?
not at all…but then there is no such animal as a completely free trade deal….it would require both (or all) parties to be equal in every way,
however, there are trade deals where the benefits for both parties outweigh the inevitable costs….TPPA is the complete antithesis of that
‘The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) includes special protections for corporations that offshore American jobs to low-wage countries. The TPP would not only replicate, but actually expand, the North American Free Trade Agreement’s (NAFTA) extraordinary privileges for firms that relocate abroad, and eliminate many of the usual risks that make firms think twice about moving to low-wage countries. The TPP’s offshoring incentives include a guaranteed minimum standard of treatment in the offshore venue and compensation for regulatory costs.
The NAFTA-style offshoring incentives that the TPP would expand have contributed to the net loss of more than 57,000 American manufacturing facilities and nearly 5 million U.S. manufacturing jobs – one out of every four – since NAFTA took effect. The U.S. Department of Labor lists millions of workers as specifically losing their jobs to offshoring and import competition since the Fast-Tracking of NAFTA, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and NAFTA expansion deals – and that is under just one narrow program that excludes many whose job loss is trade-related. Studies estimate that the U.S. economy could have supported 7 million more manufacturing jobs if not for the massive trade deficits that have accrued under current U.S. trade policy.’
http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=6475
How the Trans-Pacific Partnership Threatens America’s Recent Manufacturing Resurgence
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/10/trans-pacific-partnership-tpp-manufacturing/409591/
See my response here.
(Reply to BM @ 10) There is more than one strand of thought in the USA. The people who oppose the TPPA there seem to have much the same concerns as those who oppose it here. What is of concern about the USA, here, there and elsewhere, are the ambitions of those aligned with the US corporations, the constraints they seek to impose on governments in order to lock in their own dominance, and subterfuge they have employed to do it.
Not me. The whole things bloody stupid and is designed only to make the rich richer. It does nothing for the other 99%.
1000 marched against the TPP in Hastings
Huge turnout in the Bay on a working day.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503462&objectid=11584749
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/video.cfm?c_id=1503462&gal_cid=1503462&gallery_id=157532
More evidence of the Herald suppressing Anti TPPA stories Paul? /sarc
This was a straightforward recount of events by a Hawkes Bay paper.
It is not an opinion piece.
As you appear a slavish supporter of the TPPA, negotiated by trade ministers with the input of 600 international corporations, can you explain why it’s good for NZ?
And remember it’s not a free trade deal.
So think of other reasons.
Maybe we need a post to demonstrate the TPP Is not a free trade deal.
(subtitle courtesy of McFlock, with thanks)
A good point, Paul. TPPA is not a free trade deal at all, as has been stated many times. In fact, when you look at all the ‘free-trade’ deals this country has been involved in or part of, the benefits have yet to ‘trickle’ down to the man in the street, except for cheap Chinese junk in our hardware shops. Most of the benefits from free trade have been captured by the top 1%, with inequality growing to obscene proportions.
So maybe, just maybe, free-trade deals are not the panacea they are portrayed to be by their promoters. Perhaps we should be looking at ‘Fair’ trade deals.
[lprent: 🙂 ]
Are you really saying globalisation and trade over last 50 years has not delivered higher standards of living and taken more people out of poverty than ever before. Show me a closed society that has been successful. Its a fact corporates now deliver by far the majority of our services and goods, it is no longer the state, thus trade is inevitable if you wish the nz economy to thrive Most of the fear about TPPA is fear of change which is understandable , ie we will loose what we have, this is not the case as with other trade deals the TPPA will over deliver on the positive side, companies and individuals will take advantage of it to the advantage of all that is not envisaged in current economic modelling
Granted, the capitalist system has been successful – up to a point. Now, IMO, the balance has shifted too far in favour of large multi-national enterprises. Inequality is rampant, and poverty and underemployment is growing in New Zealand and worldwide. All the indications are that the corporate system is going to come crashing down – probably this year in an almighty market crash, or dismantled after the US elections (if Bernie wins).
The neoliberal nirvana has almost played out its time. It really is not a question of if but when it all comes tumbling down and, more importantly, what is going to replace it.
Granted that capitalism has been successful, but only up to a point. IMO, the system is now all out of balance, with too much power being concentrated in the hands of too few. Inequality is rampant and middle class poverty is growing worldwide.
There will be a rebalancing, of that you can be certain. Probably this year, with a market slowdown of massive proportions, or maybe next year (if Bernie becomes president).
Perhaps then this country will be in a position to renegotiate the TPPA to make it a ‘fair’ trade agreement, instead of a corporate welfare agreement.
[r0b: there are a bunch of strange characters in your new name, causing your comments to go to moderation. Please delete and retype your name for your next comment…]
A constant theme on this site is the msm are full of the proverbial. the media push doom and gloom because it sells. Fact China is still growing at 6 pc per year as it recalibrate its economy and is very unlikely to implode, the U.S. is growing and unlikely to see recession, Europe appears to be over the worst of it and while growing slowly is growing Corporates are not necessarily seeing or agreeing with what the media like to portray What stats are you quoting poverty is growing world wide, this is clearly not the case, to the contrary millions of people have been taken out of poverty over the last 20 years, just look at Asia as an example.
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/01/what-oxfam-wont-tell-you-about-capitalism-and-poverty/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/12/19/its-not-capitalism-that-causes-poverty-its-the-lack-of-it/#2715e4857a0b2c617f301b8b
Not hard to find information on the shrinking middle-class in USA – http://boingboing.net/2015/12/10/america-shrinking-middle-clas.html
Also, I lived in China for three years about a decade ago – and the disparity in wealth was shocking and extreme. And if you believe the ‘official’ stats on China – well, you’re gullible in the extreme.
[r0b: There are a lot of junk characters (possibly invisible) at the end of your new name. In your next comment please delete and retype your name, or your comments will keep going to moderation]
Awesome, love your new handle 🙂 Definitely clarifies things and educates at the same time.
ha ha, good solution Tony.
A colonial gal’s view of TPPA, protests, Te Tiriti, and the media coverage – my latest blog post: http://abrainydeal.me/2016/02/08/tpp-is-the-new-imperialism/
Great write-up, democracy is indeed in the process of colonisation and conquest by corporations, but that is by manufactured consent of the governed
Related cartoon…
Thanks Dialey – that is a very good, very clear outline of the issue. It looks to me as if the people showing the most enthusiasm for this deal are the ones who think they will have a part to play in managing the power transfer or trumpeting the propaganda, which I guess is true in most cases of colonisation.
Some background reading for those who look at today’s turbulence in the world, and then think of the centuries of human development, thought and philosphy and wonder if any of it has ever reached our leaders, businesspeople and politicians and their and our parents who trained us in our prejudices and common goals.
This I thought was interesting. The Frankfurt School Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_School
I wonder where those people ended up? Not a happy or popular position to adopt in early 20th century Germany. Reminds me of old song Something’s Got to Give.
When an irresistible force such as you
Meets an old immovable object like me
You can bet just as sure as you live
Something’s got to give…
Lyrics Freak
Frank Sinatra’s version – some light relief?
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNoEGTZzaAE
The people express their electoral will by giving the Opposition a massive constitutional majority.
The President then uses the outgoing assembly to load the Supreme Court with Pro-Socialist Judges.
The Supreme Court then dismisses 4 opposition legislators in order to reduce the opposition majority below the constitutional level.
The Supreme Court then appoints a pro-socialist majority to the Electoral C omission, despite Constitution stating that the Assembly should select the appointees, and that they should be non-partisan.
President then subverts the elected Assembly by ruling by decrees.
A question for the apologists here for the Venezuelan Socialists. Do you support these actions?
Why do you continue to kick the Venezuelan people while they are down?
Is politics just a game to you?
Lost sheep is simply highlighting that the society and economic system you aspire to has been tried many times and without fail ended up in abject failure and human misery
Norway, you tiresome fuckwit.
Really OAB a monolistic society up to its knees in oil and on europes door step
Can you list the successes and failures
Angry little puppy today
Yes: social democracy is the most successful political system that has ever been tried. Your flaccid attempts to smear say something about you and nothing whatsoever about your targets.
It’s worthless and tiresome and a perfect expression of everything the National Party represents.
Your response is a slogan, not a list 😀
Your allegation is a smear, motivated by hate, which has left you so twisted by bias you can’t even find a list of social democracies.
Another OAB cut and paste when challenged 😀
no your stupidity has been exposed and smacked down yet again, yet you lack the basic comprehension skills to argue the point properly
That’s funny, coming from someone whose fatuous smears are copied directly from Gosman.
Ropata, I am pointing out that the democratic will of the Venezuelan people is being subverted by their President. He is the one kicking them when they are down.
@OAB. Social Democracy is a very successful system, but we are talking about Venezuela, which has a Socialist system.
Socialism is one of the worst systems ever invented, as Venezuela is demonstrating.
Ropata, OAB, do you support the actions of the Venezuelan President I note above?
When did you stop pashing Augusto Pinochet’s corpse?
You see how this works? Shall we have a “debate” according to your witless point-scoring wank system? You seem to think you can demand answers of people, and I’m here to tell you that Pinochet pashers like you deserve jack shit.
How typical of a Pinochet pasher to hate a system that increases literacy and decreases child mortality. I guess literate healthy people are harder to abduct and torture to death.
Is that red herring rant meant to disguise the fact that, again, you are not willing to make an honest answer to a straightforward question OAB?
It’s very simple. Do you support the actions of the Venezuelan Socialist President?
Yes or no will do. Only take you a couple of seconds. Whats the problem?
It’s very simple: do you support throwing people out of helicopters into the sea? And when did you stop fucking your pet pig?
Is this witless pigfucker argument the best you can do, Pinochet-pasher?
Speaking of cancelling election results, ECAN. Do you support the anti-democratic actions of the NZ Prime Minister? You do, don’t you: so you’re in no position to be looking askance at Venezuela, because you support a government that appoints cronies, cancels elections, and can’t even get literacy and child mortality right. You poxy hypocrite.
Meanwhile, the NZ Left has lots in common with social democrats the world over, and you haven’t got an answer to that other than to support torturers.
Is that a yes or is it a no?
Would only take you a couple of seconds to answer honestly. What is the problem?
Oh. Silly me. I guess the answer is honestly. That’s sooooo difficult….
I’ve got nothing to say to a Pinochet pashing, election cancelling torture lover like you.
You demand answers from people all day every day OAB. What is wrong with answering one or two yourself?
And in this case it would only take one word to confirm you do not support the authoritarian actions of a President subverting the democratic will of the people?
I have to admit, your refusal to so does lead me to suspect you actually support those actions, but are unwilling to be honest about it.
I must admit that that says something about you and nothing whatsoever about me, and if you haven’t worked out my opinion of authoritarians by now you’re inattentive as well as a massive hypocrite.
Oh, and don’t flatter yourself that this means I regard your opinions in this context as remotely credible. You supported Pinochet, after all.
My interest in Venezuela largely stems from my youthful vigorous opposition to Pinochet’s murderous regime.
See. I am happy to confirm my opposition.
Unlike yourself, who cannot bring yourself to confirm your opposition to the current President’s subversion of the democratic will of the Venezuelan people.
I can only conclude you have a double standard. You do not object to authoritarianism when it is imposed in the name of Socialism.
You didn’t explicitly deny your support for Jorge Rafael Videla. I can only conclude that you want to throw your political opponents out of helicopters into the sea.
PS: What are you whining about: I told you a debate according to your witless point-scoring wank system was a waste of time.
I mean, do you know that what you’re doing is called a “pigfucker” argument? Or are you ignorant of that too? Nah, you fuck pigs.
…my youthful vigorous opposition to Pinochet’s murderous regime…
Now that’s an interesting admission. What made you switch to Pinochet’s side?
3 replies OAB? This one is weighing heavily on your conscience obviously.
And/or do you think that if you make enough replies it will hide your refusal to address a straightforward question honestly?
Seriously. I thought the policy on this site was that commenters should be willing to argue a point when reasonably requested to do so?
And I have observed YOU YOURSELF on numerous occasions demanding answers of others and (abusively) berating those you felt were not giving sufficiently open or honest answers to your questions.
So on both those standards, what about your refusal to engage with a reasonable question eh?
My question to you was reasonable.
We have previously debated the subject at hand, and you entered this particular discussion voluntarily.
The material I referenced was factual.
It concerns questions that you and others on this site commonly debate (support for authoritarian governments).
I posed the question in a polite spirit of goodwill.
You evidently have plenty of time free to debate.
It is a question you could answer with 5 seconds effort.
So on what grounds would you reasonably decline to address the point I raised?
Seriously, if the bar of ‘debate’ here is that commenters can simply ignore any point that challenges their position without justifying their refusal….what on earth is the value of ‘debate’ that occurs here?
If you can’t honestly acknowledge the basic point about pig-fucker arguments, what use are you?
If you were genuinely after my views on Venezuela, you’d read them and engage with the points I made.
Instead, you put words in my mouth and lie about my opinions. You rancid dishonest shitheel.
Now go fuck your pet pig.
Oh, and by your own admission, you support torture. You used to oppose it, and then you changed sides.
Why was that?
If you were genuinely after my views on Venezuela, you’d read them and engage with the points I made
We had that discussion, and you know very well that you made no comment at all regarding the points I raise in 15 above.
Instead, you put words in my mouth and lie about my opinions.
As you refuse to clarify your opinion, I am forced to make assumptions about why that is, and what you might think.
It seems bizarre in the extreme that you complain about being mis-represented, but refuse to clarify your position!
It would just take one word. What possible issue is there with that?
I am forced to make assumptions…
What possible issue is there with that?
No-one is forcing you to do anything. So the “possible issue” may be that your entire premise is a lie, characterised by sexual congress with porcine mammals.
Have you considered that? I had hoped that holding up a rhetorical mirror to your behaviour might give you a gargantuan clue. Apparently not.
One of your other prejudicial dishonesties was your description of people as “apologists”. You brought blank ammunition, and your powder’s wet.
My current assumption is that your unwillingness to indicate whether or not you support the authoritarian actions of the Venezuelan Government is because you do support them, but you know it would not be a good look at all to admit it.
If this is untrue, then just say ‘NO’.
I will be very happy to be corrected, and I will unreservedly withdraw my incorrect assumption.
If you do not, I will not ask you again. I will simply accept that this is the second time this week you have publicly exposed yourself as holding views you are not willing to admit to openly. Next time you have a problem with someone declining to debate your reasonable points, or accuse someone of a lack of honesty or transparency, I will remind you of this.
BTW, do you really think all that stuff about sex with animals enhances the validity of your arguments, or reflects well on you as a person? Let alone reflects well on this forum as a whole?
National appoints their friends and relations to Boards and important positions all the time
Do you support this?
Why we can continue to treat Australia as our friend I do not know.
With “friends” like these who would want to be friendly with us?
The way Australia, particularly under the Dutton regime, has treated innocent asylum seekers, especially women and children, is indescribably inhumane and despicable.
+1
Seems cruel but makes me wonder why our fire-fighters bother trying to help them. Have to remember there are many Australians also outraged by the actions of their backward leaders.
Have been wondering lately about what the age group bands are which write into this blog site. It seems to me that there could well be quite a lot of older folk (myself included at 70) who take an active interest in what is happening in our country – it may be me, but in my own experience there are many younger people who just show no interest in politics or current affairs at all – I have one of each, one who couldn’t care less and one who cares a lot. Is it because we probably are retired and have the time to muse and ponder and debate topics or is it just something else altogether. I know we grew up in the turbulent 60’s and were used to protesting and becoming passionate about being able to manage our own affairs – does that make our generation more active and vigilant or is it something else, maybe the preoccupation with iphones, electronic gaming etc which becomes an obsession quite often, shuts younger people off – shutting their ears off from the world. Mostly I see young people eyes glued to their phones walking down the street incommunicado to the world.
Just me wandering off in my own thoughts – but its a real problem for this country if kids are not being taught civics and modern history at school, not having conversations around the table at home about what’s going on in this country and not being able to get balanced debate in the MSM – it definitely will end up a dictatorship and the younger generations will be trapped in a nightmare police state with their eyes shut oblivious before they know it.
I’m 69 and suspect the average age here is fairly high 🙂
I think you’re right; youth is accustomed to immediate feedback and turn-over of ideas via internet and a range of media devices. The slow turning of the wheels of politics, endless discussion, sterile debate and the orchestrated response of MSM all comprise a major switch-off.
Until schools teach social and civic responsibility as mainstream subject the trend will continue. Its astonishing that the dangers facing our planet as well as our country are given no more than sanitised academic treatment.
My kids are both early 30 ‘s and have zero interest in or knowledge of politics.
It is my theory that people under 30 are more interested in the world than those between 30 and 45.
People born from 1967 onwards have no adult knowledge of the world prior to Rogernomics.
People born after 1990 have no adult knowledge of the world before the GFC, when it became apparent the neo-liberal world is not working.
It was heartening to see the large number of young adults involved in the Real Choice action shutting down Auckland from 9am Thurs. The earlier protests, eg in Dec 2012, seemed to have a noticeably lower percentage of youth IMO.
I am greatly encouraged at the growing political awareness of this age group and with the current use of technology, this could grow rapidly and exponentially. The flying dildo coverage went viral. Every young person in NZ will know what and why this happened, and it won’t be through the Herald.
The next step is to get other information through- maybe in a piecemeal fashion- in small byte-sized but riveting chunks. I am confident that this will happen now and that it will be initiated by young activists. The tide is turning.
Thank you all for responding – my two kids were born in the late 1970’s and were too young to experience Roger Douglas’ pain on the country. They haven’t had to take out student loans thanks to us but one kid is very aware of the unfairness around her. The other is a w…….. banker as much as I love her to bits and making huge money and is politically unaware.
I do think TMM’s comment about getting bite sized chunks of riveting information out to these kids so preoccupied with their hand pieces would be excellent. Kids seem to want everything instantly these days and its no thanks to us as we have provided that environment to them, so bite sized would be the right size for them. I personally don’t like bite sized as I like to ingest the whole chunk slowly – but that’s age I suppose.
Education is down the tubes and is deficit in its subject matter but that again is a Government agenda and what governments prefer, people dumbed down, the more ignorant and docile the better for them, but thanks it’s great that one can ponder and discuss thoughts on this blog site.
It is the 35- 50 group who are the generation who believe the koolaid about trickle down etc,
I’m 36 and have never believed it – it didn’t work in the 1800s, or any time since!
Yes, the tide is turning.
Far more people now know abut the TPPA and know about the fact our government can be sued by overseas corporations.
Most commenters on the Standard tend to be over 50 – I think stats put up by lprent at one stage showed that the most engaged readers (the ones who spend hours here) were older.
Facebook is particularly popular with those aged 30s and 40s (and a lot of discussions there are political), and a number of social media platforms are popular with those under 30.
The under 30s are interesting; the engaged are a minority, unfortunately, but they could be the most well informed and empowered perhaps of any generation at their life stage; they keenly evaluate information, read history, write engagingly, question assumptions, and stand up to authority. I’m pretty sceptical about claims it was ever that much better (but it has certainly been exacerbated by neoliberalism).
Younger people are more likely to work during the day which is less conducive to commenting during the hours that are busiest on the Standard.
They are being taught those things in school. What they’re not seeing is active participation in the political process by their parents and contemporaries. They don’t see the good behaviour and so they don’t emulate it.
Some will be actively put off it by their own social group.
The thing about police states is that they’ve always collapsed in one way or another. Revolution seems to be quite common.
in my 50s…my adult children are varyingly interested in politics although not in the involved activist sense…what is noticeable is their views tend to be further to the right than my own but that is in some sense unsurprising given the society they have grown up in, (one curious feature is their response to lay offs…they are quite indignant so theres hope for them yet.lol)…and they have never experienced recession in their living memory, so have no reference for when “the market economy” turns….there is no teacher like experience and I suspect they won’t have long to wait
Polls pervert the political process
We seem to have developed an almost pathological obsession with political polls. There always is one important election happening somewhere in the world, e.g. the US Presidential Elections, or locally, e.g. the Northland by-election or the Auckland mayoral election, and the 2017 General Election is, for some reason, never far from our minds.
Polls before elections influence voters’ behaviour. Some people like to vote for the anticipated winner. Polls can trigger or influence so-called strategic voting. This is sometimes called the Heisenberg Principle of Uncertainty, which means, in simple terms, that the measurement influences what’s being measured. (BTW this article Grading Teachers by the Test makes good arguments against performance-based incentives in education, one of which is based on the Heisenberg Principle of incentive design)
Polls are particularly popular with MSM and can lead to biased framing of a story or situation (‘headlines’). Usually, only the two largest parties or two main candidates (‘frontrunners’) get invited to the main televised debates; minor parties play second fiddle and small, new ‘protest’ parties get virtually no airtime. All based on polls, of course.
A much-loved ‘theory’ is that many polls are manipulated (‘rigged’). I believe that the reality is more concerning!
In New Zealand politics often resembles a The X Factor contest that is guided if not driven by popularity stakes – this includes the number of viewers watching the spectacle – and heavily influenced by focus group polling and other types of beta-testing and ‘test audiences’.
It is hard to escape the conclusion that New Zealand politicians, and particularly the current Government, make policies, laws, law amendments, and decisions in general that are at least partly (?) based on polls.
This sets up a fascinating feedback loop that goes under many different names and that may give the appearance of malicious manipulation. However, it is no other ‘manipulation’ than teaching to the test where the whole system, students and teachers alike, are focused on a metric that needs to be achieved. This is a special example of Campbell’s law. What all this means is that polls become less valid as an objective measurement of public opinion or ‘the will of the people’ if you like. Here’s another take on this. Obviously, trying to win a popularity contest is not a good strategy for governing a country – it is perverting the political process.
All this leads to a few important questions:
Quiz Question #1: why are most polls within earshot of the actual results?
Quiz Question #2: why do the polls hardly move from the ‘equilibrium’ bar a few fluctuations?
Quiz Question #3: what can be done to change the poll results?
Quiz Question #4: why do we pay so much attention to polls?
Quiz Question #5: how best to measure, represent and act on the will of the people besides that snapshot poll once every three years?
PS This is a very long (!) but very good (!!) recent read in The New Yorker Politics and the New Machine – What the turn from polls to data science means for democracy.
yep, turning elections into an entertainment spectacle sells more ads on TV
too bad for democracy!
They will be to some degree but chances are they’re basing them more Focus groups. This will allow them to ask more detailed questions and get feedback from things like body language that can’t be measured in via online or telephone polling.
One thing about focus groups is that they don’t cover the range of the population that polls can cover and so the result is more biased. The other is that the results of the focus group can help massage the message to be more favourable. It can allow advertisers and political parties to direct the response.
Advertising truly is psychopathic.
Agreed, that’s why I used the word “pervert”, which conveys much of the contempt I hold for the current practices in NZ not to mention DP in all its gory.
So, what can be done about it?
The Ram’s packed up his shit and the Monkey’’s taking over so a belated Happy Chinese New Year to all.
NZ has been previously affected by Investor State Disputes Settlement.
Interesting!
Yes I remember the promise of quotas for local content. And interesting that Australia didn’t agree, and one only has to see the huge difference now between Aussie and NZ TV that is partly the result.
I have a feeling that that deal was done in secret so the incoming Labour govt had campaigned on quotas but didn’t know about the details of the agreement.
Further evidence of the oncoming crash.
‘Debt, defaults, and devaluations: why this market crash is like nothing we’ve seen before
A pernicious cycle of collapsing commodities, corporate defaults, and currency wars loom over the global economy. Can anything stop it from unravelling?
A global recession is on the way. This truism of economics holds at any point in which the world is not in the grips of a contraction.
The real question is always when and how deep the upcoming downturn will be.
“The crash will come, but it would be nice if it came two years from now”, Thomas Thygesen, head of economics at SEB told over 200 commodity investors and analysts in London last month.
His audience was rapt with unusual attention. They could be forgiven for thinking the slump had not already arrived.
Commodity prices have crashed by two thirds since their peaks in 2014. Oil has borne the brunt of the sell-off, suffering the worst price collapse in modern history. Brent crude has fallen from $115 a barrel in the summer of 2014, to just $27.70 in mid-January.’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/12138466/when-is-the-next-financial-crash-coming-oil-prices-markets-recession.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/12144135/The-world-economy-is-shaky-and-funny-money-wont-fix-it.html
“As shares slide, investors are scrambling to get their hands on safe-haven assets such as German government debt today.
And that has driven the yield, or interest rate, on German bunds into deeper negative territory.”
http://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2016/feb/08/uk-business-confidence-falls-global-recession-fears-markets-business-live
a house of cards
This is the Pharma Terrorist Shkreli at a congressional hearing.
http://www.newyorker.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Borowitz-Shkreli-Congress-1200.jpg
Steven Joyce as an arrogant young man smirking ?
I’ll see you and raise you nine obnoxious Shkreli faces.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/martin-shkreli-faces_us_56b388d7e4b01d80b2456139
heh
Jemaine Clement Verified account
@AJemaineClement
Hey @rooshv @Cernovich
This poll might be the first time you guys win something!
https://twitter.com/AJemaineClement/status/696522819807551488
Very informative article regarding financial abuse by Kyle MacDonald particularly with regards to Govt funding of NGO’s and the control of community welfare programmes with respect to workers speaking out about problems within their sphere of expertise.
The Wendelstein 7-X has been fired up.
Today the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, at a ceremony at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma physics in Greifswald in Germany, pressed a button that caused a two-megawatt pulse of microwave radiation to heat hydrogen gas to 80 million degrees for a quarter of a second.
No, she was not setting off some new kind of hydrogen bomb. She was inaguriating the fusion reactor Wendelstein 7-X, the world’s largest stellarator, by generating its first hydrogen plasma.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/nuclear/wendelstein-7x-really-starts-up
(previously on TS)
http://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-14122015/#comment-1108632
I missed this John Key said “I had a speech I was going to deliver at Waitangi this morning, which we actually decided to rewrite in the middle of this week this week (sic) which was really quite factual but reasonably straight forward – rebutting basically every single point that had been made by (sic) single person who had been opposed to the TPP.” – there’s still time for this speech, maybe a post on The Standard? (I am assuming he’s saying “rebutting basically every single point that had been made by (b) single person who had been opposed to the TPP
Japan’s Top-Economist debunks TPP