Credit to Bernie for shifting the terms of debate on healthcare. But I've got my doubts that Medicare for all would have been enough to tip it to Bernie even had the pandemic happened a year earlier.
First, there's Bernie's approach to the topic. Half of Americans get their healthcare through employer subsidised insurance. It's a fact of human nature that people value keeping what they have more than taking a risk on getting something better. Given the degree of governmental malfunction in areas of governmental monopoly in the US, being forced into a government health health plan looks like a big risk.
Second, paying for M4A is a gnarly topic. Bernie didn't have a clear message on how workers would be better off financially. Most people just heard their taxes would go up to pay for it. Furthermore, relieving companies of their burden of subsidising their employee health insurance programs amounts to a massive windfall to the companies.
Third, the other candidates would have adjusted their messaging, so Bernie's stance would not have remained as large a differentiation as it was.
edit: then there’s this piece for a broader look at why Bernie fell short.
There is the practical matter that if he gets over 1/4 of the delegates (including superdelegates), he can force a vote at the convention on any policy platform proposals he wants to push. That means he would need around 1200. He's got about 900 now, with about 1600 still to be voted on, so it will be tight for clearing that hurdle.
The global death toll is horrendous, including the high NUMBER of deaths in the US. However, so far, the US does not have the highest death rate pre 1 million of their population. Their’s is 44. Many European countries and the UK have higher death rates so far.
The US and the UK are catching up Carolyn, though doubt if they will get near Spain and Italy which has a death rate of 292/m. Odd you missed it from your list.
Yes. I did say this is the current stats. My list wasn't comprehensive – just a selection to show some of the spread. Spain is the highest at the moment.
If the US gets a similar death rate to the current death rates in Italy and Spain, then they will have around 100K deaths. But they're still suffering high ongoing deaths in Italy etc.
Compared to Italy and Spain, the US has a younger population and a culture that is somewhat less up close and personal in terms of physical space. But the US went a lot later and softer on physical distancing and isolation, helping the contagion spread.
It's a horrifying but fascinating experiment to watch as it plays out in real time.
Thanks for that Carolyn, was wondering what that stat's were like re population. Much appreciated.
Andre, they were talking of 100,000 -200,000 expected deaths in the US last week at one of trumps pressers. Agree re horrifying but fascinating however twisted that sounds.
The stats don't tell everything. You probably know that we Kiwis have greater personal space than people in densely concentrated urban areas.
The last time I visited a big European city, I took two weeks to get used to the density of buildings and the number of people always close to me.. So different from my major-city NZ abode.
NZ has an advantage in that respect – the virus will naturally spread faster in those areas of greater population density.
And, condescending post of the day so far award goes to…it never failed to amaze, the number of spineless centrists and closet righties masquerading as leftists, disparaging the Sanders Campaign on The Standard. Not even luke warm support for Medicare for all and $15 min wage etc.
Bernie put up a great campaign–his analysis and policy were spot on–as subsequent tragic events have illustrated what happens with for profit healthcare and millions living week to week on low wages…
His strength–not running with the herd–was ultimately his weakness too. But he has certainly laid the platform for “the next Bernie”.
The big question is whether Trump's popularity bump holds for 4 weeks, 8 weeks or 10. That's the danger. Nothing either Biden or Sanders could have done about that,.
Or a coup installing Trump as dictator for the duration of the"temporary" emergency. Depends if his allies can convince enough of the USAn military and bureaucracy that he is a useful idiot.
But then, some people may actually take their oaths of office seriously. Maybe?
Florida has been a bit of a disaster with Covid 19…Trump in a bit of trouble there too though close…the average of the last two Florida polls has Biden 3.2% ahead of Trump.
The Sanders campaign no doubt made some tactical mistakes – I've said before that the branding of 'revolution' and "democratic socialism" was unsuited to that particular political market. The policy prescriptions (on the whole) were well received by a majority – and a rhetoric of returning to the sensible centre after 40 years of extremism, a return to proven solutions from America's own past and to core American values, would have been a better approach.
That said, history takes no prisoners as 'Pepe' Mujica remarked"And now I am the president. And tomorrow, like everyone, I will just be a pile of worms". The grace, historical awareness and humility of Sanders withdrawal speech yesterday, as is so often the case with defeated candidates, gives us a sense of what has been lost.
Bernie was out of the race when he failed to counter Warren's scurrilous lie about him being a sexist, and when he claimed, bizarrely, that that doddering old fool from Delaware could beat Trump.
All white males over a certain age are by definition misogynist. There was nothing Bernie could have said to 'defend' himself. Indeed the mere attempt at doing so would have only confirmed his guilt.
Defending the literacy programme of Castro was excellent for left sympathizers, but it lost him Florida. You can win neither a nomination nor a presidency without Florida.
But the Cuban literacy programme was, and is, excellent. As is the Cuban health system. Bernie lost not because he told the truth and angered a few elderly extreme right ideologues, but because the Democratic Party machine was determined not to let his "insurgent", i.e. authentically popular and truly democratic, campaign triumph. They'd rather have Trump than Bernie, that is clear.
And then of course there's the very serious question of Bernie's failure to stick up for himself in the face of a campaign of belittlement and abuse; very similar to Corbyn's failure.
Sanders was indeed correct about the Cuban literacy programs being a good thing. In a very narrow sense.
But arguing that statement is technically correct when you are trying to win an election in Florida is grossly negligent political malpractice, given the importance of the Cuban-American vote. The malpractice is further aggravated by the foregone opportunity to draw a contrast with the current nepotistic kakistocracy's habit of using the presidency to promote their personal private business interests in foreign countries.
The Democratic Party has a long and dishonorable history of compromising, indeed abandoning, basic commitments to human rights in order to get the votes of certain sectors. Before the Cuban right wing, the Florida constituency it bent over backwards to placate was the Ku Klux Klan.
What does that have to do with the dumbfuckery involved in Sanders blowing a perfect opportunity to go after Don Drumpfeone's corrupt foreign entanglements, just so he could show off the moral superiority of his progressive purity?
Thereby blowing any chance he may have had of winning the biggest swing state, for no conceivable gain anywhere else.
Stating an uncontestable truth is not to make a show of "purity", it's simply stating a fact. Telling a lie in order to curry favour with the extreme Cuban right wing would not make him a whit more electable, it would make him another Hillary Clinton.
But, anyway, they’re going to select someone who’s prepared to say anything, and does.
One of the most basic political skills needed to successfully run for a position as basic as a student council is how to use a question as an entry to talk about a subject that's favourable ground. There's no need to lie, he simply needed to make his answer about something that isn't awkward ground, while still "addressing the subject" in an innocuous way.
Sanders failed that basic test that's frankly at high-school politics level. And cost himself what could have been a significant prize in a completely unforced error.
Well said, sir. Yes, Mr Sanders could certainly have spoken more adroitly.
However, in the end, his opposition was the billionaire-backed DNC, and they were going to win their pyrhhic victory no matter what. I do not look forward with any relish to the gruesome spectacle of Biden being savaged and humiliated by Trump.
I just hope that this year we are spared the unedifying sight of unhinged Democratic Party supporters gnashing their teeth and melting down like this….
The World Trade Organisation makes it very clear why this impending global recession will be far worse than the 2008-9 GFC:
"The economic shock of the COVID-19 pandemic inevitably invites comparisons to the global financial crisis of 2008-09. These crises are similar in certain respects but very different in others. As in 2008-09, governments have again intervened with monetary and fiscal policy to counter the downturn and provide temporary income support to businesses and households.
But restrictions on movement and social distancing to slow the spread of the disease mean that labour supply, transport and travel are today directly affected in ways they were not during the financial crisis. Whole sectors of national economies have been shut down, including hotels, restaurants, non-essential retail trade, tourism and significant shares of manufacturing."
"A strong rebound is more likely if businesses and consumers view the pandemic as a temporary, one-time shock. In this case, spending on investment goods and consumer durables could resume at close to previous levels once the crisis abates. On the other hand, if the outbreak is prolonged and/or recurring uncertainty becomes pervasive, households and business are likely to spend more cautiously.
Under both scenarios, all regions will suffer double-digit declines in exports and imports in 2020…"
Ha! Radio NZ just had a piece on the news with National’s Campaign Chair Paula Bennett saying that the government must delay the election – “NZers won’t cope” she said.
Any guesses what National’s polling must be telling them?
I don’t know what she meant. Whatever it is it will be bullshit though, a delaying tactic to allow National time to get their dirty politics machinery back on track.
Interestingly I’ve been getting some of those National Party Border Closure petition posts on my Facebook in the last 24 hours. Given the party political nature of these posts you’d expect the comments to be mostly supportive. But they’re not really. National is getting chastised by their own supporters for electioneering at this time.
What's more, the deputy Oppn leader doesn't even understand the law:
"With New Zealand now in full lockdown for at least another two weeks and businesses and livelihoods in disarray, the opposition said an election in September just seemed too much.
National's deputy leader and campaign chair Paula Bennett said the government and opposition needed to discuss in the weeks ahead whether 19 September was a realistic date." (italics added)
Of course, the PM doesn't need to discuss the election date with National at all. PMs never do that with the opposition. Ardern could call an election tomorrow (if she lost her mind). September 19 is an intention, but has no meaning in law.You aren't relevant, Paula.
They would certainly need to discuss an extension of the term, which would need approval from Parliament. But there is no reason to do that when an election could be held as late as December, if the PM so decides.
"With New Zealand now in full lockdown for at least another two weeks and businesses and livelihoods in disarray, the opposition said an election in September just seemed too much."
I will be interested to see how that goes down. Can't see any kind of rationale there. The only challenge is how to vote in ways that don't spread coronavirus. Other than that, NZers are resilient enough to manage voting in five months time. It's not like it's next week. Daft (but haven't listened for the context).
If there was any kind of rationale, Bennett would be saying:
"Forget about going to watch sport in September. Forget about going to concerts and all those events that require more public interaction and health concerns than going to one location and putting paper in a ballot box."
That would be logical, and incredibly unpopular, so …
Actually, I'm not assuming we will be able to do public gatherings by September, and that the govt may have to make arrangements around that to ensure voting can happen.
Paula's not a deep thinker, but it should occur to her that the lockdown will be over well before Sept … unless things go badly wrong and we have a second wave – a rise in cases and back to Level 4.
If that happens, the government's support will take a hit. National would change their tune.
It depends what you mean by lockdown. I can't see the entire country being still at level 4 for the duration. But level 1 certainly, which prohibits mass gatherings (eg political rallies, demonstrations, or fundraising concerts). And some parts of the country may be level 2 or higher (over 70s encouraged to stay at home and as yet unspecified size smaller gatherings only).
But a virtual lockdown may linger on in people's heads. Being permitted to return to social proximity does not mean that we will overnight overcome the fear and distancing conditioning we will have spent months soaking up.
A society is an ongoing process not a fixed object.
I predict we will have stamped out but will still be quarantining and inbound travelers a measure that will start this week . (It better start this week)
The USA will be carnges Europe will be winning slowly . 3rf world countries dont know.
How will we know if we have stamped out Corona? Given that the antibody tests are far more likely to give a false negative (insufficient viral load at time,or sampling error), than a false positive (samples getting mixed up, testing equipment inadequately sterilized). Let alone the possibility of animal reservoirs (really hoping that we've avoided that nightmare scenario).
If any of the 10% or more people diagnosed with Covid who test as false negatives then proceed to infect others, we will be back in an exponential growth phase again very quickly.
Antibodies are a host response and made by the host and will stay in the host’s circulation (or not) long after the virus has gone from the host. Equipment sterilisation is to remove viable bugs and spores, not antibodies (although these should also be removed in the whole cleaning & sterilisation process).
Whoops! I meant that the current SARS-COV-2 RNA testing. Overly hopeful to announce the existence of an antibody test that would be able to tell who has previously been infected!
Sterilisation itself should get rid of contamination from previous tests, but only if done correctly. People get tired and mistakes get made, but my point was that a false negative is currently more likely than a false positive.
Almost all the materials used for the PCR-based test are disposable.
Yes, people do make mistakes and tired people make more mistakes but the decontamination & sterilisation processes are almost fully automated and done according to SOPs that stand the test of time, so to speak.
Yup, likelihood of false negative is much higher than false positive.
Yes ForgetNow, , and Jacinda will listen to the scientists.
You are right about the possible problem of animal transmission.
We have never eradicated bovine TB in possums, and spend billions testing and poisoning. Governments deal with Foot and Mouth by culling and burning all affected animals… that was a British nightmare at one stage.
We are learning more about this virus, some helpful, some terrifying.
I have never in my 78 years felt as I do now. Friends and family truly at risk and many learning how tenuous the threads of the "safety net" really are. Learning to value our humans and pets, and creating our own safety net, all the time being aware of the hidden mainly silent suffering of those whose lives have been damaged or at least impacted by this virus.
I am a survivor of the 1946/7 polio epidemic which closed schools and had 34 victims in a village of 326. I was six and did not have close contact with my parents while in the Waikato Crippled Children's Hospital for nearly six months. I saw them twice through the distorting glass of the hospital door.
This has made me feel for those in quarantine or hospital separated from loved ones. It is terrible and remains a fear for life. Also not being able to say goodbye takes comfort away from the bereaved.
Awful though this has been for some, most of us have been spared that through the decisions of a switched on Leader and cabinet, who have put well being at the centre of Government Policy.
Let us hope that they manage the swell of unemployed, streamline the mechanics of welfare, revamp training and retraining and build the support net needed 'till we weather this. May the goodwill last.
@wags: Can this thing lie dormant? Or if we have 4 weeks with no new cases is most likely it's gone.
My bigger concern is how long this lurgee can be infectious in asymptomatic/low symptom carriers. It could only need a chain of two or three asymptomatic carriers to go past that four weeks and then initiate a whole new infectious breakout.
National's deputy leader and campaign chair Paula Bennett said the government and opposition needed to discuss in the weeks ahead whether 19 September was a realistic date."
It's interesting how someone projects their own wants and needs onto someone else. She means the opposition wants to discuss. The government certainly does not need to. It sets the election date. It's about Paula's, and National's, desires. She really means, "I want to change the date." Needs and wants- too easily confused.
Listeners this morning were inflicted with another P.R. piece for Israel—this time a once-over-lightly piece about Passover/Easter in Jerusalem with one Barry Guy, who usually does the sports news, having a breezy chat with Liat Collins of the extreme right wing Jerusalem Post. He asked not one awkward question, of course.
Liat Collins has been used by the dupes at RNZ National before…..
Lin, why is this ignoramus allowed to post inflammatory nonsense?
[lprent: Because we mainly and almost entirely moderate on behaviour. Ideological differences can be aired provided that they don’t descend into hate speech and bigotry. And we’re pretty good at detecting undeclared pattern of behaviours and dealing with them. The same thing applies to paddington, as it does to you. ]
The data is taken from the Washington Post. These are simple facts. If you want to self promote your own blog, go for gold. But as I have posted earlier, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is a complex mixture of historical, religious and cultural factors where there is no good guy/bad guy scenario. No matter how you try to paint it otherwise.
Nope – I’d describe them as being self-serving propaganda and simply not worth the media they are printed on.
Those figures are what are reported by the Israeli forces. Since the occupation troops are a pack of layabout draftees who have been known to lie every time they fuck up – I personally give them no credibility when they are reporting their live round kills.
Anyone who has spent time living on the west bank (and I know a few who have) knows the Israeli draftees are useless lazy young badly trained fuckwits with guns. They routinely block the checkpoints so that they can have a siesta. They like to provoke the palestinians going through checkpoints or when they are on patrol. And in my estimation at least half of their kills and injuries are directly due to their behaviour.
They are an occupying force of incompetent garritroopers. Which is why they also don’t let in outside observers to evaluate their reporting of the justification of their troops. It is also why the Israelis don’t even let their own courts look at the behaviour of their troops.
I can’t read the WP article – but I’d take a bet that they haven’t referenced a single Palestinian report.
So I’d say that your authoritative source could be described only as complete trash. About as credible as the lack of active Russian troop involvement in Eastern Ukraine – which is the classic example of fake PR.
Hi lprent. Thanks for your response. I'm not going to push this, because my point was not to defend Israeli activity but to try to communicate to Morrisey that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is far more complicated than his rather simplistic commentary. From my own observation, this is a conflict between intractible parties whose focus on ancient historical and religious grievances is (close to) psycopathic.
Of course I could have just as easily argued the other way.
But on the balance, I think that the Palestinians have had the raw end of the stick both from the Israeli state (who in my view have no historical rights to Palestine – unless they wish to argue with the Romans) and from the Europeans of Europe and the US, who they could easily argue owe them for their complicity and actions in a recent genocide.
It sure as hell doesn't give the Israeli government any right to attempt genocide or ethnic cleansing on their fellow citizens of the land of Palestine.
Those absurd and dubious "statistics"—Palestinians are not just shot by IDF marksmen, they are always killed appropriately, as in "killed carrying out attacks against Israelis", "clashes", and "attempted stabbings"—are direct from the Israeli authorities, and are nearly always contested by human rights groups and witnesses of the killings. The Washington Post is notoriously biased on this issue, amongst many others.
It's a discussion of Passover. In Jerusalem. With an extreme right commentator who shamelessly defends Israeli actions and routinely pours opprobrium on the victims of Israel’s regime of repression.
There is every reason to object to that, but poor Barry Guy had not a clue.
None of which is in the piece. So listeners were not "inflicted" (your word) with anything.
Except an accurate description of a traditional Jewish festival, and that would not annoy any reasonable person. (Of course some might be triggered by it, but we despise those people, don't we?).
On Jessie Mulligan today a lovely intelligent Jewish restaurant lady was talking about the fact that because NZ Jews cannot meet some were going to have "Zoom Passover"….love that.
My problem is with credulous RNZ hosts being bamboozled by nasty zealots like Liat Collins. At the end of her four minute chat this morning, she told the the hapless Barry Guy; "It's kind of mindbending, I don't think there's EVER been anything like this." He didn't get the brutal irony of what she was saying.
Yesterday Mark Sommers QC, the extremely erudite and bookish second counsel for Julian Assange in his extradition hearing, trembled with anger in court. Magistrate Vanessa Baraitser had just made a ruling that the names of Julian Assange’s partner and young children could be published, which she stated was in the interests of “open justice”. His partner had submitted a letter in support of his Covid 19 related bail application (which Baraitser had summarily dismissed) to state he had a family to live with in London. Baraitser said that it was therefore in the interests of open justice that the family’s names be made public, and said that the defence had not convincingly shown this would cause any threat to their security or well-being. It was at this point Sommers barely kept control. He leapt to his feet and gave notice of an appeal to the High Court, asking for a 14 day stay. Baraitser granted four days, until 4pm on Friday.
I am in lockdown in Edinburgh, but received three separate eye witness reports. They are unanimous that yet again Baraitser entered the court carrying pre-written judgements before hearing oral argument; pre-written judgements she gave no appearance of amending.
There have been two Covid-19 deaths in Belmarsh prison so far. For obvious reasons the disease is ripping through the jail like wildfire. The Department of Justice is admitting to one death…
You laugh at the suffering of Julian Assange. I have no doubt that you would also have laughed at the suffering of other dissenters and journalists imprisoned by repressive and anti-democratic regimes.
You sneer at the suffering of a political dissenter in Great Britain and callously repeat state-sponsored lies about him. Ergo, you would probably have sneered at the suffering of political dissenters in other brutal regimes and you would have callously repeated state-sponsored lies about them. That’s a reasonable inference, assuming that your behaviour in this case is not bizarrely inconsistent with your normal behaviour.
Your comments on logic are as credible and as thorough as your disparagement of Julian Assange.
You can be sure that I'm not the only one who sees you have little or no credibility. Your lame "Mr Angry from Cheam" quip shows you have little or no SOH, either.
No the UK and US govts with the complete endorsement of vast numbers of total plonkers brainwashed by propaganda is what has put Assange in danger of his life
What do you mean when you put the word "torture" in scare quotes? Are you pretending that he is not being tortured? Is that another of your jokes?
I urge other Standard readers to bear in mind The Al1en's sneering contempt for Assange and compare his behaviour to that of the United Nations' Rapporteur on Torture….
I'm not making an argument, I'm replying to your continued usage of logical fallacies, which is easy to do as you're well practiced and predictable with it.
The actual guts of the matter are:
Good job he's in solitary. – Turns out he's not being isolation 'tortured' anymore.
The convicted bail jumper didn't get bail. – No answer.
Excerpts from a February 2020 report on the propaganda war against Assange. UN special rapporteur on torture Melzer "admits that he was himself initially taken in by the propaganda campaign."
"Four democratic countries joined forces – the U.S., Ecuador, Sweden and the UK – to leverage their power to portray one man as a monster so that he could later be burned at the stake without any outcry. The case is a huge scandal and represents the failure of Western rule of law. If Julian Assange is convicted, it will be a death sentence for freedom of the press."
"There is only a single explanation for everything – for the refusal to grant diplomatic assurances, for the refusal to question him in London: They wanted to apprehend him so they could extradite him to the U.S. The number of breaches of law that accumulated in Sweden within just a few weeks during the preliminary criminal investigation is simply grotesque."
You are probably wasting your time on these subservient citizens here Morrissey, they are obviously just a bunch of wannta be camp guards only waiting for the opportunity to prove their worth to their masters, quite disgusting and vile.
btw, Kenneth Williams used to refer to the regular voice he used in the Hancock shows as 'the Snide'. Doesn't remind me of anyone here at the Standard, of course.
Someone here needs to do a decent response to Trotter.
Hey Mr Trotter try this out:
1. New Zealand now has the most effective democratic socialist government in the entire fucking world Mr Trotter. Best led, best communicated, best response through the public health system, best deployment of policing and social enforcement. And it's not me saying it.
So fuck off with your "thoughts" on democratic socialism. We already have it.
2. This government has just embarked on the largest Keynsean expansion since the Depression, and is going to keep expanding through the May 8th 2020 budget, and through the campaign manifesto, and through the 2021 budget.
The state is going into tens of billions of debt on new projects, is propping up every single waged person with a business who asks for it, and we are now a month away from even more largesse in the budget.
So fuck off with your "… but not yet!"
3. There is a gobsmacking irony of a blogger begging for a lifeline for a physical print of the Listener, when his own personal blog is now the only place the Trotter's own writing is published anywhere. Trotter's own practise of publishing online from many years ago is the clearest evidence that he knew this day was coming and planned for the demise of printed commentary years ago.
If Trotter wanted to he could amass his analogue leftie comrades and buy the Listener masthead from the receivers. But that's won't happen because he's all mouth and no trousers.
And while we are at it, the government is already well underway to strengthen broadcasting under Fa'afoi's plan for RNZ and TVNZ. They are well and truly doing their part already.
So fuck off with your defence of The Listener.
4. Trotter needs to get it out of his head that the government reaction to this recession is going to look the same as the Labour response to the 1930s Depression. That he can't step out of his tragedian pyre and lead something practical in society other than perpetually interviewing his typewriter and adding poorly paralleled historical anecdote, shows how deeply stale his imagination really is.
5. This government is holding the whole of the political order, the whole of society, and the whole of the economy, together right now, through sheer will and debt. They are about to get us through the virus crisis in better health shape than any other developed nation on earth. Overseas commentators are already noticing.
So we can afford to give them a smidgen of a break as we await coherence on the plan to revive our economy.
"If Trotter wanted to he could amass his analogue leftie comrades and buy the Listener masthead from the receivers. But that's won't happen because he's all mouth and no trousers."
Funny you should suggest that, I was wondering why he hadnt proposed the staff purchasing it for the dollar (potential liabilities aside) and running it as a collective (or co operative)…the existing staff would be the best placed to judge its future viability an could potentially secure both their ongoing employment and maintain an independent voice but havnt seen anyone involved propose such.
He now seems to think that he can return here from his self-imposed exile with a blatant troll comment.
Sam is wrong about that.
Banned for a year so that we can all recover from the pandemic and prepare for the election without having to endure his inane troll comments that create more work for Moderators – Incognito]
It [The Listener] still had 30,00 subscribers apparently.
Subscribers really isn't that useful as a measure of utility. Certainly not a measure of how much it is valued by the public for whom it is purportedly doing good.
Consider this site as an alternative ‘risk free rate’ for taxpayers and look at the usage – which is our only measure of subscribers.
According to google analytics this site has had ~23k unique visitors in the last 30 days in ~89k sessions. This excludes almost all of the bots and because it is google has a fairly accurate idea about who is a person even when they jump machines (as I do all of the time)`.
~57k of those sessions were from users who entered the site with more than 15 times over 30 days – ie reading on average about every two days or better on average. ~31k sessions were from users who read the site more than 201 times over that 30 days.About ~26k of the sessions were from users who entered less than 5 times or less.
Average session duration is 6:32 and average pages per session is 3.84. Once you start figuring out the probable times that some people on here, then there is clearly a *lot* of utility.
The last 30 days was up about 1/6th above our recent median. Session times and page counts are slightly elevated.
That was done with a far more amateur level level of writing, no subscription to the site, we don't inflict advertising, and the commenters provide as much writing value as the authors.
Arguably even with all of the low rent comments and the provocative authors, that is a shit load of writing on here. I'd expect that it is of far more volume than The Listener.
The Listener really has to argue on the basis of the quality of its writing.
Quality – who knows? I personally haven't read one in some time – but it hasn't improved much beyond the mostly 'I reckons' writing that we do in blogs, or is common in the daily media, or even around reddit.
Sure there were always nuggets in the mix of waffle. But they weren't worth effort of finding the paper copy, paying for it, and reading it without the opportunity to comment. I certainly wouldn't want to pay for it as taxpayer even when I last read it.
It provided me with no value. If I want to subsidize writers then personally I'd prefer to pay for this ad-free venue – which is mostly what happens. I think that it is of more benefit to many of the people here.
I wouldn't mind being able to subsidizing journalists more. All they have to do is to have it all easily online, largely dump the advertising, separate the opinionists away from the journalism (the former is ideal as a filtered pay per read), and let me subscribe just to the journalism.
Problem is that is very hard to get in NZ media outside of a few mail feeds.
The writing here might be rough as (especially when I write), but in terms of the value that you pay for it is extremely valuable.
For me, I'm happy to spend money for reading material that is better than what we have here. But I didn't feel any sense of value in any of the Baur stable of magazines to outweigh the cost. A different editorial policy may have produced a better material. But they basically needed to change their business model even more – and showed no real signs of doing that.
Can't see a reasons to subsidize them more than any other business as there are others around that market place. The wage subsidy should have been enough to keep them viable if they’d had a business model that would work in the future – which they didn’t. That looks to have been the conclusion of Bauer.
I love it when I read a truly good piece written by a true professional. It’s the same with music, art, or science. When I need to dig too deep and too hard to find that rare gem, it’s not worth my money and even less so my time – actually, I have to work for my money so it all comes down to my time, which I don’t have as much of as I’d like 🙁
Indeed, a good editor is like a good conductor: worth their weight in gold; they can work miracles and turn things into gold but equally, they can fuck up things and turn things to custard.
My assessment of Fa’afoi is based on his hopeless performance when that rogue RNZ board suddenly announced that they planned to liquidate RNZ Concert. Fa'afoi, after guffawing that he did not listen to classical music, then went on to regurgitate their talking points. He clearly had no idea, and was blindsided by Jim Mather and his cronies.
Edit – this got shunted down the list while I was writing it.
I am replying to Ad at 8.2
As a reader of the Listener since the 1970s, I am not entirely convinced by you, Ad.
1) If our system is best in the world, the standard is not very high. Other countries with far greater population density (meaning far more infections) seem to have done better. And you may be counting chickens that have not yet hatched.
2) Partly true, but only in its infancy, and I hope that the Govt has the courage to continue in this vein. Especially if the Righties start criticising this policy, as they will.
3) That is not irony – I see it more as Trotter lamenting the Listener's earlier role. I also remember the Listener and the Auckland Star being the only printed vehicles of real criticism of the disastrous Vietnam War.. There is a lot to be lamented since the Listener got swallowed by the right-wing marketers.
4) Maybe Trotter still has a vision of real social reform, whereas you don't. Or you don't show it very often. Blairite?
5) Fully agree, but one out of five is far from convinced.
I suspect that Trotter is afraid that after we have succeeded in starting to look for coherence on the plan to revive our economy, it will be too late to do any serious social reform.
Ad – do you want any serious social reform?
I am struggling to understand why you are so hostile to Trotter.
I can't see that Chris has 'melted down' with this statement though:
"According to Andrew Little’s former Chief-of-Staff, Neale Jones:
“I cannot think of a worse time to implement a UBI than in the middle of this economic crisis. Some of us are doing fine. Others need unprecedented government support just to stay afloat. UBI would spread that support thinner, or quickly spend 10s of billions we may need later."
Meaning Neale has no grasp at all of Keynesian economics. No understanding of the crucial importance of keeping up the level of aggregate demand. No historical grasp of the crucial role spending plays in lifting a nation out of an economic slump. Nor does he understand the practical and moral efficiency of universal, as opposed to means-tested, state support. The massively positive effect of telling every Kiwi: ‘You are important in your own right, not because you’re in need of charity but because you are a citizen of New Zealand.’ Everyone keeps telling us that “we’re all in this together” – a UBI would prove it."
" How did dreary pragmatism become Labour’s default-setting? A full explanation would require a book-length answer. Suffice to say that once a party embraces the fundamental tenets of neoliberalism, anything other than orthodox and cautious policy responses will be treated as the political equivalent of upending a can of petrol over your head and striking a match."
It seems to me that someone (the janitor – it's always the janitor) changed Labour's label to 'socialist' while everyone was at morning tea and no one has the courage to change it back, while the majority of them has no courage either to enact real socialism.
I wonder if Jacinda is banging her head against her desk at the 'dreary pragmatism' that pervades the party. I wonder.
Although perhaps it is the fact that since the 1980s Labour has become a centrist party with neo liberal leanings and that's all there is to it.
Collective is implicitly shared agreement. When it is mandated by those for whom it is convenient it just becomes coercion.
Problem is that I fail to see a point in subsiding a stable of publications that with massive cost-cutting producing what looked like a inaccessible mediocre product and barely managing to hold a subscriber base or a profit level is worth trying to save.
In an economic sense you could easily argue that their mere presence in the marketplace was actually constraining innovation in a failing area. They were holding on to audiences and thereby preventing development of a more viable economic model. As a government, you’d be better off using resources to provide technical infrastructure for writers to try to find a more useful model to build a viable and accessible product in. There are examples around like Newsroom, Spinoff, Evening Report, and even Scoop as well as the online mass media.
Because in the end, unless they figured out a different way to operate, then all of those magazines had been on a ventilator ready to die of technical obsolescence in the market for about a decade. Removing their Bauer DNR wouldn’t have made them last for many more years even if there wasn’t a pandemic at the same time.
no i dont imagine they do…and it would be interesting to be a fly on the wall should the staff ever attempt it….I could imagine it wouldnt go smoothly.
Trotter doesn't understand economics, or pretends not to. Buying these magazines for a dollar sounds cheap until the losses start to mount. I think he is emotionally attached to the titles and can't bear to see them go.
If there is a profitable market for a right-wing (but pretending not to be) glossy like the Listener, a new magazine will be set-up by somebody using their own money.
It's not the government's job to invest in/take over the media-accusations of manipulation for political ends would follow like night follows day.
Speaking to relatives in Aussie last night , one of whom works for a large retailer (who shall remain unnamed) and the relating of how the social distancing and 'lockdown' is being handled there is an object lesson in why we are correct to minimise the number of retailers that are able to trade.
The complete disregard for the guidelines from both the company and the general public makes a mockery of the process.
Couldn't believe it at pak n save today, waiting in the queue at the checkout, using the marked lines as a distancing guide, and people were pushing their trolleys between the gaps left behind me, completely ruining the purpose of having the lines in the first place. I told a floor supervisor that I realised it's not up to her to police it, but that particular part of the system was broken.
Didn't help that the customer in front of me took out a wad of notes and proceeded to lick his fingers, twice, whilst thumbing through them, and then again before touching the eftpos card he part paid with. Had to warn the checkout kid before she touched this idiot's cash, and patiently waited until she had decontaminated it and the terminal before I could check out, contemplating survival of the fittest v stupid by association.
and pales in comparison in both scale and actions related to me about Victoria last night….Im very pleased our Gov appears to be holding the line as staunchly as it is in the face of considerable pressure
Generally I've been impressed with the supermarkets down here, but then I've been able to time my runs really well, to have shopped at the slowest of times. Today, I had to risk the one day closed hoarders, so maybe the mentality of customers and staff were a bit less focused than of late, especially with the drop off in new cases. Let's hope complacency doesn't creep in and ruin all the good work thus far.
I thought you generally made sure you were better informed RedLogix. 'A' has reeled off an out of date hit-job and stupidly highlighted China which is not on the Council. Besides, the representatives on the Council are not appointed to represent their countries or any political viewpoint, unlike the Cato Institute or Quartz.
Two weeks till Business as Usual reconvenes, woohoo!
Government sanctioned "mental illness" will be forgotten, and Cognitive Dissonance in all things will be the name of the game. Project your fears onto anyone weaker than you and aim to take it all!
Hot Tip: don't get caught on the line when the starter pistol fires, not unless you are ready to slash your way through anyone you meet.
I'm feeling lucky to be the recipient of good fortune in several ways. These are: NZ's isolation, a generally competent government that aims to serve the interests of all its citizens not just some, and enough social cohesion to voluntarily observe a lock-down with high levels of compliance. (There are a few peripheral sociopaths like Mike Hosking but that is to be expected)
Therefore I'm not really faced with the fear and rage that clearly prompted this piece from the fabulously civilised RJ Eskow a couple of weeks ago – No – I will not die for this damned economy. He used the word 'damned' advisedly – not as a mere expletive, but in the Biblical sense "this damned economy…and we, the damned who live within it." What we need to emerge from this crisis is an economy that does not damn so many – the odds are we will get one which damns more.
FFS! David Seymour is asking, at the Epidemic committee, why employers including sole traders in receipt of wage subsidies get named publicly, but sole parents etc in receipt of benefits are not publicly named! At about 1hr 15 minutes into the committee today.
I think Sepuloni also said there is a box to tick asking if employer agrees to be named publicly when applying for a subsidy.
The Government is extending expired or expiring licenses and Warrants of Fitness to enable essential travel.
Transport Minister Phil Twyford said all driver licences, WoFs, CoFs, and some vehicle certifications, that expired on or after January 1, 2020 would now be valid for up to six months from April 10, 2020.
You can order a rego online, doesn't need to be at a Post Shop. Post is still being delivered as far as I can tell. I was just curious if that part of NZTA was still operational or not.
It also looks like there is some vehicle WOF renewals for essential business vehicles.
Where can I go to renew my WoF/CoF if I am providing an essential service and it is expiring during Alert Level 4?Back to top
You can renew your WoF/CoF at several vehicle inspection sites around the country (see links below) or check with your local provider if they are available on an appointment only basis.
Please note that at all locations, there are requirements you need to follow for an essential vehicle inspection to be carried out
I don’t work for an essential service, my vehicle WoF/CoF is due for renewal and I need to get groceries. Can I keep using my vehicle since testing stations and garages are shut?Back to top
To help smooth the transition back to compliance, if your WoF/CoF expired on or after 1 January 2020, it is temporarily extended.
The Stuff article I linked to in my previous comment says:
It'll still be up to drivers to keep their vehicles safe and I urge owners to follow the NZ Transport Agency's advice and regularly self-check their vehicle." The Government was allowing for essential repairs, like sorting out punctured tyres or damaged windscreens. Previously only essential service workers' vehicles could access repairs and certification services. Other people are only able to get critical repairs done for the purpose of accessing essential services. "If anything looks out of order, please go get it fixed as soon as you can," Twyford said.
Seems the ICs applied the precautionary principle as well….
"As a result, many insurers added exclusions to standard commercial policies for losses caused by viruses or bacteria. Now, the added policy language will potentially allow insurance companies to avoid hundreds of billions of dollars in business-interruption claims because of the covid-19 pandemic."
Insurers in the US respond to cv with refunds and discounts.
With less traffic on the road, there have been fewer accidents and fewer car insurance claims. And the prospect of paying claims is what auto insurance base their rates on. Several car insurance companies have now stepped up to offer their customers refunds. More will likely follow.
Some have been published on media for not hearing the result of their tests for many days afterwards. The explanation includes the fact that results are fed back to whoever authorised the test such as the doctor.
If the test is positive the victim is informed straight away and followup action taken.
If the result is negative then the lesser urgency will be in the hands of the doctor to inform. Maybe too busy but must be anxious wait for the victim though the longer the wait the more likely all is well.
Heh, just like when you get tested for STDs, if you all clear you usually don't get notified (check your online hub thing), only if you positive will they be in touch (& not a call you want, obviously).
So closing down flights from China didn’t save thousands of lives.
Coronavirus in New York came mainly from Europe, studies show.
New research indicates that the coronavirus began to circulate in the New York area by mid-February, weeks before the first confirmed case, and that it was brought to the region mainly by travelers from Europe, not Asia.
“The majority is clearly European,” said Harm van Bakel, a geneticist at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who co-wrote a study awaiting peer review.
A separate team at N.Y.U. Grossman School of Medicine came to strikingly similar conclusions, despite studying a different group of cases. Both teams analyzed genomes from coronaviruses taken from New Yorkers starting in mid-March.
There could have been hundreds more cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand already if a lockdown had not gone ahead, new modelling shows.
Instead, the country now has a high chance of eliminating the virus, the research says – but only if the level 4 restrictions are extended.
Te Pūnaha Matatini, a cluster of researchers from Landcare Research and the Universities of Auckland and Canterbury, has been working for more than a month on modelling the spread of the virus here.
The total number of active Covid-19 cases in New Zealand has stalled over the past four days, hovering between 920 and 930 cases.
Additionally, the Ministry of Health reported 29 new cases of Covid-19 today – the lowest number of new cases over a 24-hour period in a fortnight.
The paper published by Te Pūnaha Matatini today showed that had the government not gone into a level four lockdown, the number of new cases each day would exceed 150 by now, rising to 350 a day by the middle of next week.
"Coronavirus: Greenkeepers granted exemption for maintenance work after Easter"
And about bloody time. Golf Greens and Bowling Greens can be destroyed and take years to recreate if they aren't very carefully maintained. Why did it need Grant Robertson to do the bloody obvious. You don't need to allow people to play but a green keeper can work in isolation and preserve the painstakingly cared for lawns.
They are far more fragile and harder to repair than most Council owned parks and sports grounds. Mowing of those seems to have been allowed throughout.
The membership of the average golf club is quite typical of the whole New Zealand population. And New Zealand is one of the cheapest places to play golf in the world. A full playing membership at Inglewood, which is a pretty little course near New Plymouth is only about $500/year. The Waitara Golf Club, also near New Plymouth is even cheaper at $350/year.
Royal Wellington and Royal Auckland and Grange excluded of course.
Tut tut, alwyn. I sail, and my yearly sub is only $120. I probably spend less on my boat (which I bought with trailer for $2,500 in 1987) than you spend on clubs and lost golf balls (sorry to be rude.)
Your altruistic concern for the well-being of golfing greens is rather amusing.
But there we are. I get mad when stupid but well-meaning people plant trees near the lake I sail on, and ruin the wind after the tree has grown.
$2,500! For a boat? It sounds as if you bought one of Paul Allen's cast offs.
I am, I admit, an unusual golfer (or should I say a former golfer). I played for about 48 years and only ever owned two sets of clubs. I bought the first set in the late 60's for the grand sum of $100. The second set was purchased in about 1996 for rather more, but I would still be under the cost of your boat. Golf balls are quite cheap. You can get perfectly suitable golf balls for about $2.00 each.
Most people I know spent rather more. Almost every golfer lives with the dream that if they buy the latest driver they will be able to hit their drives out to about the 280 metre mark. I was always a realist. I might have admired the skills of Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods but I was never under the illusion that I could play like them.
Aye, and I am foolishly still trying to sail a teenager's one-man racing skiff, because when I get a few good rides, it beats being on every big expensive lead-swinging keelboat that ever sailed.
As a matter of interest, what were your average subs for belonging to a club?
I sailed a P class when I was very young. In my 20's we bought a Javelin. That was great fun, although we always thought we should fly the letter flag "D" when we were out. For those who don't sail it means "Keep clear of me; I am maneuvering with difficulty".
I had to give up playing 5 years ago so my knowledge of subs is a bit out of date..
When I was a child I had a dose of a much nastier virus than Cofid 19. It appeared I had fully recovered from it but it turns out you never do. About half the people like me get problems many years later and my walking was affected so I gave up playing. I believe a full playing membership at the last club I belonged to is about $1250/year. You can play all day, every day of the year for that. That would be typical of city clubs I should say.
I was thinking more of you bringing petty nitpicking shit here. The government was made aware there was a problem and rightly assessed that a green keeper can probably work alone safely.
My patience has run out with pathetic moaning morons .
Have any golf courses or bowling greens been destroyed thus far? If not, what's the problem? Lots of people are waiting to get their privileges back, it takes time for processes to be worked through.
Lol. I still like to lie on my lawn, and I can see the potential of permaculture cricket pitches and rugby fields. But holy shit, there's a reason there are no organic golf courses. I'm guessing bowling greens might be similar?
I understood that Singapore was initialy relying on phone apps and the internet to do a lot of the tracing work and they found out a bit too late that it wasn't very successful, as Dr Bloomfield said a few days ago a phone can't do the job that a thorough face to face ( at 2 metres I presume ) interview can. Just exactly how many crimes would be solved with a little chat on line or a few texts. Sweet fuck all.
I think Singapore tried to move too quickly and were reliant on the phone technology. Furthermore being an island about the size of Lake Taupo and with over 5m people isolating is far more difficult. I'm not sure just what restrictions they have in place wrt new arrivals, but a large proportion of their workforce in terms of amah, and construction workers are from the Philippines, India, and Malaysia.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) will only allow the entry / return of work pass holders, including their dependents, for those providing essential services, such as in healthcare and transport.
yep – and I see that a good proportion of the new cases are in those worker dormitories. Mind you a lot of the wealthy families have live in house maids etc _ I can't see them giving up their amahs so easily
Well this is interesting. Overseas buyer’s interest in the Pacifica apartment building is up 200% because of favourable reaction to the government’s Covid-19 response. Both expats and foreign buyers (this development has an exemption for foreign buyers) have registered an interest.
It appears that there is some appetite to change the paradigm….Kate Raworth style
"The port of Amsterdam is the world’s single largest importer of cocoa beans, mostly from west Africa, where the labour is often highly exploitative.
As an independent private company it could reject such products and take the economic hit, but at the same time almost one in five households in Amsterdam qualify for social benefits due to low incomes and savings.
Van Doorninck says the port is looking at how it moves on from dependence on fossil fuels as part of the city’s new vision, and she expects that to naturally evolve into a wider debate over other pressing dilemmas brought to the forefront by the doughnut model.
“It gives space to talk about whether you want to be the place where products are being stored that are produced by child labour or by other forms of labour exploitation,” she says."
WASHINGTON — Although President Donald Trump has directed states and hospitals to secure what supplies they can, the federal government is quietly seizing orders, leaving medical providers across the country in the dark about where the material is going and how they can get what they need to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
Hospital and clinic officials in seven states described the seizures in interviews over the past week. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is not publicly reporting the acquisitions, despite the outlay of millions of dollars of taxpayer money, nor has the administration detailed how it decides which supplies to seize and where to reroute them.
Officials who've had materials seized also say they've received no guidance from the government about how or if they will get access to the supplies they ordered. That has stoked concerns about how public funds are being spent and whether the Trump administration is fairly distributing scarce medical supplies
It's based on unpublished data, so has to be taken with a chunk of salt. But, if; the IL6 cytokine is predominantly involved in SARS-COV-2 pneumonia, then an IL6 receptor blocker being of use in preventing that, does make a certain amount of sense on the face of it.
After all, it doesn't really matter if people are infected with the Crow, just so long as you can stop them suffocating on their own body!
Except that the more replications of a virus, the more chances for mutations. DNA is more stable than RNA.
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
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As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
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Bernie Sanders is out of the race.
If this pandemic had happened a year earlier, the need for nationwide healthcare reform would have been his saving.
It's a cruel fate this 2020 election.
Credit to Bernie for shifting the terms of debate on healthcare. But I've got my doubts that Medicare for all would have been enough to tip it to Bernie even had the pandemic happened a year earlier.
First, there's Bernie's approach to the topic. Half of Americans get their healthcare through employer subsidised insurance. It's a fact of human nature that people value keeping what they have more than taking a risk on getting something better. Given the degree of governmental malfunction in areas of governmental monopoly in the US, being forced into a government health health plan looks like a big risk.
Second, paying for M4A is a gnarly topic. Bernie didn't have a clear message on how workers would be better off financially. Most people just heard their taxes would go up to pay for it. Furthermore, relieving companies of their burden of subsidising their employee health insurance programs amounts to a massive windfall to the companies.
Third, the other candidates would have adjusted their messaging, so Bernie's stance would not have remained as large a differentiation as it was.
edit: then there’s this piece for a broader look at why Bernie fell short.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-campaign-retrospective-2020-democratic-primary_n_5e837ecfc5b603fbdf4a8782
Andre I just threw that line about healthcare in to be kind to the Bernie supporters.
Be nice to them today and don't bayonet the wounded.
Sorrreeee.![blush blush](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/embarrassed_smile.png)
🙂
🙂
Gutted for the USA, beginning to think they have been cursed, the death toll coming out of there is horrendous. Those poor people.
At least Bernie is staying on the ballot, even if he has pulled out of the presidential race.
There is the practical matter that if he gets over 1/4 of the delegates (including superdelegates), he can force a vote at the convention on any policy platform proposals he wants to push. That means he would need around 1200. He's got about 900 now, with about 1600 still to be voted on, so it will be tight for clearing that hurdle.
Wow, that's interesting, wonder how it will play out in the end.
The global death toll is horrendous, including the high NUMBER of deaths in the US. However, so far, the US does not have the highest death rate pre 1 million of their population. Their’s is 44. Many European countries and the UK have higher death rates so far.
US: 44
UK: 105
France: 167
Netherlands: 131
Belgium: 193
Spain: 316
Switzerland: 103
Sweden: 68
Ireland: 48
The US and the UK are catching up Carolyn, though doubt if they will get near Spain and Italy which has a death rate of 292/m. Odd you missed it from your list.
Yes. I did say this is the current stats. My list wasn't comprehensive – just a selection to show some of the spread. Spain is the highest at the moment.
I linked to the full list in my opening sentence.
If the US gets a similar death rate to the current death rates in Italy and Spain, then they will have around 100K deaths. But they're still suffering high ongoing deaths in Italy etc.
Compared to Italy and Spain, the US has a younger population and a culture that is somewhat less up close and personal in terms of physical space. But the US went a lot later and softer on physical distancing and isolation, helping the contagion spread.
It's a horrifying but fascinating experiment to watch as it plays out in real time.
Thanks for that Carolyn, was wondering what that stat's were like re population. Much appreciated.
Andre, they were talking of 100,000 -200,000 expected deaths in the US last week at one of trumps pressers. Agree re horrifying but fascinating however twisted that sounds.
The stats don't tell everything. You probably know that we Kiwis have greater personal space than people in densely concentrated urban areas.
The last time I visited a big European city, I took two weeks to get used to the density of buildings and the number of people always close to me.. So different from my major-city NZ abode.
NZ has an advantage in that respect – the virus will naturally spread faster in those areas of greater population density.
And, condescending post of the day so far award goes to…it never failed to amaze, the number of spineless centrists and closet righties masquerading as leftists, disparaging the Sanders Campaign on The Standard. Not even luke warm support for Medicare for all and $15 min wage etc.
Bernie put up a great campaign–his analysis and policy were spot on–as subsequent tragic events have illustrated what happens with for profit healthcare and millions living week to week on low wages…
His strength–not running with the herd–was ultimately his weakness too. But he has certainly laid the platform for “the next Bernie”.
Sanders and Warren have already shunted Biden leftwards on many policy areas.
Everyone will be looking to see what Biden's revised healthcare plan looks like.
Straight out of the blocks the big progressive activist groups have told Biden what they are wanting out of him
https://nextgenamerica.org/Biden-letter/
The big question is whether Trump's popularity bump holds for 4 weeks, 8 weeks or 10. That's the danger. Nothing either Biden or Sanders could have done about that,.
Realclearpolitics has Biden 49.7 Trump 43.4 on 7 April.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_biden-6247.html
Trump is history.
Well I'm just unwilling to hope yet.
Thanks for the poll, it's slightly cheering.
Presumably it all comes down to which way Florida goes, again.
Or a coup installing Trump as dictator for the duration of the"temporary" emergency. Depends if his allies can convince enough of the USAn military and bureaucracy that he is a useful idiot.
But then, some people may actually take their oaths of office seriously. Maybe?
I don't think the military are Genrl Bonespur's number 1 fans.
Florida has been a bit of a disaster with Covid 19…Trump in a bit of trouble there too though close…the average of the last two Florida polls has Biden 3.2% ahead of Trump.
Did he sell it to employers as saving them a buttload of money?
The Sanders campaign no doubt made some tactical mistakes – I've said before that the branding of 'revolution' and "democratic socialism" was unsuited to that particular political market. The policy prescriptions (on the whole) were well received by a majority – and a rhetoric of returning to the sensible centre after 40 years of extremism, a return to proven solutions from America's own past and to core American values, would have been a better approach.
That said, history takes no prisoners as 'Pepe' Mujica remarked"And now I am the president. And tomorrow, like everyone, I will just be a pile of worms". The grace, historical awareness and humility of Sanders withdrawal speech yesterday, as is so often the case with defeated candidates, gives us a sense of what has been lost.
Bernie was out of the race when he failed to counter Warren's scurrilous lie about him being a sexist, and when he claimed, bizarrely, that that doddering old fool from Delaware could beat Trump.
All white males over a certain age are by definition misogynist. There was nothing Bernie could have said to 'defend' himself. Indeed the mere attempt at doing so would have only confirmed his guilt.
All white males over a certain age are by definition misogynist.
What perfect balderdash that statement is.
Well yes.![devil devil](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/devil_smile.png)
It has the ring of truth about it…
Defending the literacy programme of Castro was excellent for left sympathizers, but it lost him Florida. You can win neither a nomination nor a presidency without Florida.
But the Cuban literacy programme was, and is, excellent. As is the Cuban health system. Bernie lost not because he told the truth and angered a few elderly extreme right ideologues, but because the Democratic Party machine was determined not to let his "insurgent", i.e. authentically popular and truly democratic, campaign triumph. They'd rather have Trump than Bernie, that is clear.
And then of course there's the very serious question of Bernie's failure to stick up for himself in the face of a campaign of belittlement and abuse; very similar to Corbyn's failure.
Sanders was indeed correct about the Cuban literacy programs being a good thing. In a very narrow sense.
But arguing that statement is technically correct when you are trying to win an election in Florida is grossly negligent political malpractice, given the importance of the Cuban-American vote. The malpractice is further aggravated by the foregone opportunity to draw a contrast with the current nepotistic kakistocracy's habit of using the presidency to promote their personal private business interests in foreign countries.
The Democratic Party has a long and dishonorable history of compromising, indeed abandoning, basic commitments to human rights in order to get the votes of certain sectors. Before the Cuban right wing, the Florida constituency it bent over backwards to placate was the Ku Klux Klan.
What does that have to do with the dumbfuckery involved in Sanders blowing a perfect opportunity to go after Don Drumpfeone's corrupt foreign entanglements, just so he could show off the moral superiority of his progressive purity?
Thereby blowing any chance he may have had of winning the biggest swing state, for no conceivable gain anywhere else.
Stating an uncontestable truth is not to make a show of "purity", it's simply stating a fact. Telling a lie in order to curry favour with the extreme Cuban right wing would not make him a whit more electable, it would make him another Hillary Clinton.
But, anyway, they’re going to select someone who’s prepared to say anything, and does.
One of the most basic political skills needed to successfully run for a position as basic as a student council is how to use a question as an entry to talk about a subject that's favourable ground. There's no need to lie, he simply needed to make his answer about something that isn't awkward ground, while still "addressing the subject" in an innocuous way.
Sanders failed that basic test that's frankly at high-school politics level. And cost himself what could have been a significant prize in a completely unforced error.
Well said, sir. Yes, Mr Sanders could certainly have spoken more adroitly.
However, in the end, his opposition was the billionaire-backed DNC, and they were going to win their pyrhhic victory no matter what. I do not look forward with any relish to the gruesome spectacle of Biden being savaged and humiliated by Trump.
I just hope that this year we are spared the unedifying sight of unhinged Democratic Party supporters gnashing their teeth and melting down like this….
The World Trade Organisation makes it very clear why this impending global recession will be far worse than the 2008-9 GFC:
"The economic shock of the COVID-19 pandemic inevitably invites comparisons to the global financial crisis of 2008-09. These crises are similar in certain respects but very different in others. As in 2008-09, governments have again intervened with monetary and fiscal policy to counter the downturn and provide temporary income support to businesses and households.
But restrictions on movement and social distancing to slow the spread of the disease mean that labour supply, transport and travel are today directly affected in ways they were not during the financial crisis. Whole sectors of national economies have been shut down, including hotels, restaurants, non-essential retail trade, tourism and significant shares of manufacturing."
"A strong rebound is more likely if businesses and consumers view the pandemic as a temporary, one-time shock. In this case, spending on investment goods and consumer durables could resume at close to previous levels once the crisis abates. On the other hand, if the outbreak is prolonged and/or recurring uncertainty becomes pervasive, households and business are likely to spend more cautiously.
Under both scenarios, all regions will suffer double-digit declines in exports and imports in 2020…"
https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/pres20_e/pr855_e.htm
This to me show how distinct the New Zealand response to the health crisis of the virus is to the economic response to the shutdown.
I have a suspicion we will be as different a country coming out of this one as we were before and after the Great Depression.
Ha! Radio NZ just had a piece on the news with National’s Campaign Chair Paula Bennett saying that the government must delay the election – “NZers won’t cope” she said.
Any guesses what National’s polling must be telling them?
Lol.
What does she mean "can't cope"?
I don’t know what she meant. Whatever it is it will be bullshit though, a delaying tactic to allow National time to get their dirty politics machinery back on track.
She means that National knows they don't have a shit Show of getting back into power this year.
So. They need extra time for a manipulative propaganda offensive.
She means NZ "can't cope" with anything other than a National government.
Yesterday colmar brunton put out a poll saying 90% of people trust the government's handling of covid
Interestingly I’ve been getting some of those National Party Border Closure petition posts on my Facebook in the last 24 hours. Given the party political nature of these posts you’d expect the comments to be mostly supportive. But they’re not really. National is getting chastised by their own supporters for electioneering at this time.
My good she popped up on my fb this morning.
My eyes my eyes .
Swinging voters likely on board then and why not when you look at Bridges arrogance.
I thought Scott must have misheard (hey, it's early) but no …
RNZ news report
What's more, the deputy Oppn leader doesn't even understand the law:
"With New Zealand now in full lockdown for at least another two weeks and businesses and livelihoods in disarray, the opposition said an election in September just seemed too much.
National's deputy leader and campaign chair Paula Bennett said the government and opposition needed to discuss in the weeks ahead whether 19 September was a realistic date." (italics added)
Of course, the PM doesn't need to discuss the election date with National at all. PMs never do that with the opposition. Ardern could call an election tomorrow (if she lost her mind). September 19 is an intention, but has no meaning in law.You aren't relevant, Paula.
They would certainly need to discuss an extension of the term, which would need approval from Parliament. But there is no reason to do that when an election could be held as late as December, if the PM so decides.
Wondered how long before they'd bring that up.
Shows where the real concern is…..getting decimated. Bridges would’ve floored them.
"With New Zealand now in full lockdown for at least another two weeks and businesses and livelihoods in disarray, the opposition said an election in September just seemed too much."
I will be interested to see how that goes down. Can't see any kind of rationale there. The only challenge is how to vote in ways that don't spread coronavirus. Other than that, NZers are resilient enough to manage voting in five months time. It's not like it's next week. Daft (but haven't listened for the context).
If there was any kind of rationale, Bennett would be saying:
"Forget about going to watch sport in September. Forget about going to concerts and all those events that require more public interaction and health concerns than going to one location and putting paper in a ballot box."
That would be logical, and incredibly unpopular, so …
Actually, I'm not assuming we will be able to do public gatherings by September, and that the govt may have to make arrangements around that to ensure voting can happen.
Assuming the lockdown is over by Sept!!!
Paula's not a deep thinker, but it should occur to her that the lockdown will be over well before Sept … unless things go badly wrong and we have a second wave – a rise in cases and back to Level 4.
If that happens, the government's support will take a hit. National would change their tune.
We wont be in lock down in September. It just wouldn't be possible.
It would destroy nz financially.
People wouldn't handle it or accept it .
Bw very likely you are right
BUT can you predict especially what will happen with the virus, AND what will happen overseas eg USA, Europe.
It depends what you mean by lockdown. I can't see the entire country being still at level 4 for the duration. But level 1 certainly, which prohibits mass gatherings (eg political rallies, demonstrations, or fundraising concerts). And some parts of the country may be level 2 or higher (over 70s encouraged to stay at home and as yet unspecified size smaller gatherings only).
But a virtual lockdown may linger on in people's heads. Being permitted to return to social proximity does not mean that we will overnight overcome the fear and distancing conditioning we will have spent months soaking up.
A society is an ongoing process not a fixed object.
I predict we will have stamped out but will still be quarantining and inbound travelers a measure that will start this week . (It better start this week)
The USA will be carnges Europe will be winning slowly . 3rf world countries dont know.
How will we know if we have stamped out Corona? Given that the antibody tests are far more likely to give a false negative (insufficient viral load at time,or sampling error), than a false positive (samples getting mixed up, testing equipment inadequately sterilized). Let alone the possibility of animal reservoirs (really hoping that we've avoided that nightmare scenario).
If any of the 10% or more people diagnosed with Covid who test as false negatives then proceed to infect others, we will be back in an exponential growth phase again very quickly.
Antibodies are a host response and made by the host and will stay in the host’s circulation (or not) long after the virus has gone from the host. Equipment sterilisation is to remove viable bugs and spores, not antibodies (although these should also be removed in the whole cleaning & sterilisation process).
Whoops! I meant that the current SARS-COV-2 RNA testing. Overly hopeful to announce the existence of an antibody test that would be able to tell who has previously been infected!
Sterilisation itself should get rid of contamination from previous tests, but only if done correctly. People get tired and mistakes get made, but my point was that a false negative is currently more likely than a false positive.
Almost all the materials used for the PCR-based test are disposable.
Yes, people do make mistakes and tired people make more mistakes but the decontamination & sterilisation processes are almost fully automated and done according to SOPs that stand the test of time, so to speak.
Yup, likelihood of false negative is much higher than false positive.
Yes ForgetNow, , and Jacinda will listen to the scientists.
You are right about the possible problem of animal transmission.
We have never eradicated bovine TB in possums, and spend billions testing and poisoning. Governments deal with Foot and Mouth by culling and burning all affected animals… that was a British nightmare at one stage.
We are learning more about this virus, some helpful, some terrifying.
I have never in my 78 years felt as I do now. Friends and family truly at risk and many learning how tenuous the threads of the "safety net" really are. Learning to value our humans and pets, and creating our own safety net, all the time being aware of the hidden mainly silent suffering of those whose lives have been damaged or at least impacted by this virus.
I am a survivor of the 1946/7 polio epidemic which closed schools and had 34 victims in a village of 326. I was six and did not have close contact with my parents while in the Waikato Crippled Children's Hospital for nearly six months. I saw them twice through the distorting glass of the hospital door.
This has made me feel for those in quarantine or hospital separated from loved ones. It is terrible and remains a fear for life. Also not being able to say goodbye takes comfort away from the bereaved.
Awful though this has been for some, most of us have been spared that through the decisions of a switched on Leader and cabinet, who have put well being at the centre of Government Policy.
Let us hope that they manage the swell of unemployed, streamline the mechanics of welfare, revamp training and retraining and build the support net needed 'till we weather this. May the goodwill last.
Can this thing lie dormant? Or if we have 4 weeks with no new cases is most likely it's gone.
bwaghorn, "quarantining"Starting midnight tonight 9/4/20
@wags: Can this thing lie dormant? Or if we have 4 weeks with no new cases is most likely it's gone.
My bigger concern is how long this lurgee can be infectious in asymptomatic/low symptom carriers. It could only need a chain of two or three asymptomatic carriers to go past that four weeks and then initiate a whole new infectious breakout.
Not only that. Lockdown would have been a proven failure by September.
Nope, we should still be able to vote even from lock down.
And the other aspect is that some big businesses are struggling to survive for 4 week and need tax payers support
Do they not have ANY planning for major problems?
National's deputy leader and campaign chair Paula Bennett said the government and opposition needed to discuss in the weeks ahead whether 19 September was a realistic date."
It's interesting how someone projects their own wants and needs onto someone else. She means the opposition wants to discuss. The government certainly does not need to. It sets the election date. It's about Paula's, and National's, desires. She really means, "I want to change the date." Needs and wants- too easily confused.
Who can't cope paula? Maybe she's run out of oregano?
She needs a haircut and a real job.
But I haven't got a brother Bob? 🙁
He ain't heavy …
They'll be glad of a day out by September.
A puff piece on Passover in Jerusalem
RNZ National, Thursday 9 April 2020, 8:50 a.m.
Listeners this morning were inflicted with another P.R. piece for Israel—this time a once-over-lightly piece about Passover/Easter in Jerusalem with one Barry Guy, who usually does the sports news, having a breezy chat with Liat Collins of the extreme right wing Jerusalem Post. He asked not one awkward question, of course.
Liat Collins has been used by the dupes at RNZ National before…..
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/another-israeli-propagandist-takes.html
You're on that again? Ok, I can argue this either way, because there are madmen on both sides. But just for you:
Attacked by Palestinians on Israeli's since October 1st:
Stabbings = 84
Attempted Stabbings = 57
Car Attacks = 31
Shootings = 20
Bombings = 4
Death Toll:
Palestinians killed carrying out attacks against Israelis = 149
Palestinians shot by Israeli forces during clashes = 59
Israelis killed in attacks by Palestinians = 35
Citizens of other countries killed = 5
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/world/israel-palestine-deaths/
MEMO: Editors/Moderators of The Standard
Lin, why is this ignoramus allowed to post inflammatory nonsense?
[lprent: Because we mainly and almost entirely moderate on behaviour. Ideological differences can be aired provided that they don’t descend into hate speech and bigotry. And we’re pretty good at detecting undeclared pattern of behaviours and dealing with them. The same thing applies to paddington, as it does to you. ]
The data is taken from the Washington Post. These are simple facts. If you want to self promote your own blog, go for gold. But as I have posted earlier, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is a complex mixture of historical, religious and cultural factors where there is no good guy/bad guy scenario. No matter how you try to paint it otherwise.
Nope – I’d describe them as being self-serving propaganda and simply not worth the media they are printed on.
Those figures are what are reported by the Israeli forces. Since the occupation troops are a pack of layabout draftees who have been known to lie every time they fuck up – I personally give them no credibility when they are reporting their live round kills.
Anyone who has spent time living on the west bank (and I know a few who have) knows the Israeli draftees are useless lazy young badly trained fuckwits with guns. They routinely block the checkpoints so that they can have a siesta. They like to provoke the palestinians going through checkpoints or when they are on patrol. And in my estimation at least half of their kills and injuries are directly due to their behaviour.
They are an occupying force of incompetent garritroopers. Which is why they also don’t let in outside observers to evaluate their reporting of the justification of their troops. It is also why the Israelis don’t even let their own courts look at the behaviour of their troops.
I can’t read the WP article – but I’d take a bet that they haven’t referenced a single Palestinian report.
So I’d say that your authoritative source could be described only as complete trash. About as credible as the lack of active Russian troop involvement in Eastern Ukraine – which is the classic example of fake PR.
Thanks, Lin. Here's some reading for our friend Paddington….
https://mondoweiss.net/2019/01/newspapers-palestinians-headlines/
Hi lprent. Thanks for your response. I'm not going to push this, because my point was not to defend Israeli activity but to try to communicate to Morrisey that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is far more complicated than his rather simplistic commentary. From my own observation, this is a conflict between intractible parties whose focus on ancient historical and religious grievances is (close to) psycopathic.
Of course I could have just as easily argued the other way.
But on the balance, I think that the Palestinians have had the raw end of the stick both from the Israeli state (who in my view have no historical rights to Palestine – unless they wish to argue with the Romans) and from the Europeans of Europe and the US, who they could easily argue owe them for their complicity and actions in a recent genocide.
It sure as hell doesn't give the Israeli government any right to attempt genocide or ethnic cleansing on their fellow citizens of the land of Palestine.
The data is [sic] taken from the Washington Post.
Those absurd and dubious "statistics"—Palestinians are not just shot by IDF marksmen, they are always killed appropriately, as in "killed carrying out attacks against Israelis", "clashes", and "attempted stabbings"—are direct from the Israeli authorities, and are nearly always contested by human rights groups and witnesses of the killings. The Washington Post is notoriously biased on this issue, amongst many others.
It's a discussion of Passover. At Passover.
There is no possible reason to object to that.
It's a discussion of Passover. In Jerusalem. With an extreme right commentator who shamelessly defends Israeli actions and routinely pours opprobrium on the victims of Israel’s regime of repression.
There is every reason to object to that, but poor Barry Guy had not a clue.
None of which is in the piece. So listeners were not "inflicted" (your word) with anything.
Except an accurate description of a traditional Jewish festival, and that would not annoy any reasonable person. (Of course some might be triggered by it, but we despise those people, don't we?).
????
This person is either disoriented or utterly cynical.
On Jessie Mulligan today a lovely intelligent Jewish restaurant lady was talking about the fact that because NZ Jews cannot meet some were going to have "Zoom Passover"….love that.
Yes, she was cool. If I lived in Auckland, I would be joining a queue to book in.
Zoom powered Passover Seder.
Jeez Morry, what's your problem with passover?
?????
My problem is with credulous RNZ hosts being bamboozled by nasty zealots like Liat Collins. At the end of her four minute chat this morning, she told the the hapless Barry Guy; "It's kind of mindbending, I don't think there's EVER been anything like this." He didn't get the brutal irony of what she was saying.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018742132/coronavirus-jerusalem-marks-easter-with-restricted-movement
Here is the news, the sad new about the lockdown.
We have 'gotten' nasty in 14 days with online bitching. Exactly that.
Mike Hosking said it; " … and nasty, and my word we have gotten nasty in 14 days with online bitching."
He is upset because in 14 days we have got nasty and bitchy? 14 days? Is it 14 years he's been like that?
Lmao !!!!!! Bruised ego hosking after kiwi's slayed him on social media for being an egg.
Maybe he could start a support group 🙂
Start a Give A Little for Mike's ego I say! I'll put in the first cent (or do they allow half-cent donations?)
Next MikieHoskings will be calling for kindness….
seriously though, can’t we get rid of him. Please
twenty years. He was bitchy and nasty while on morning TV in 1998 with his then lover, now wife.
The guy and his now missus were never anything else but nasty and bitchy.
He’s gone behind the paywall on the Herald. Maybe they no longer think he’s quite the crowd-puller they thought?
Mike's so formulaic that it's easy to imagine what his reckons are based on the headline.
Wonder if he writes his own columns these days or just uses the Mike Hosking Bot?
What kind of 'puller' was that?
Did the wind change on Horeskin and he got his own back?
Ah, such a subtle shrinking violet you are, Gabby. (Please don't stop.)
From the Independent Media Institute:
Truth and Propaganda About Coronavirus
"In the early weeks when the virus emerged in Wuhan, the Chinese government neither suppressed evidence nor did their warning systems fail"
Beyond Words
by CRAIG MURRAY, 8 April 2020
Yesterday Mark Sommers QC, the extremely erudite and bookish second counsel for Julian Assange in his extradition hearing, trembled with anger in court. Magistrate Vanessa Baraitser had just made a ruling that the names of Julian Assange’s partner and young children could be published, which she stated was in the interests of “open justice”. His partner had submitted a letter in support of his Covid 19 related bail application (which Baraitser had summarily dismissed) to state he had a family to live with in London. Baraitser said that it was therefore in the interests of open justice that the family’s names be made public, and said that the defence had not convincingly shown this would cause any threat to their security or well-being. It was at this point Sommers barely kept control. He leapt to his feet and gave notice of an appeal to the High Court, asking for a 14 day stay. Baraitser granted four days, until 4pm on Friday.
I am in lockdown in Edinburgh, but received three separate eye witness reports. They are unanimous that yet again Baraitser entered the court carrying pre-written judgements before hearing oral argument; pre-written judgements she gave no appearance of amending.
There have been two Covid-19 deaths in Belmarsh prison so far. For obvious reasons the disease is ripping through the jail like wildfire. The Department of Justice is admitting to one death…
Read more….
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/04/beyond-words/
Good job he's in solitary confinement, then, and not general population.
People like you sneered at the people locked away in Stalin's and Mao's crackdowns on dissenters.
Will you laugh if he dies?
Only people like you could associate assange with the victims of Mao and Stalin.
Only people like you would laugh at the victims of Mao and Stalin.
Except I don't.
You laugh at the suffering of Julian Assange. I have no doubt that you would also have laughed at the suffering of other dissenters and journalists imprisoned by repressive and anti-democratic regimes.
Or is this contempt for Assange just a one-off?
Logical fallacies
I think you used every single fallacy in this chart during this exchange.
You sneer at the suffering of a political dissenter in Great Britain and callously repeat state-sponsored lies about him. Ergo, you would probably have sneered at the suffering of political dissenters in other brutal regimes and you would have callously repeated state-sponsored lies about them. That’s a reasonable inference, assuming that your behaviour in this case is not bizarrely inconsistent with your normal behaviour.
Your comments on logic are as credible and as thorough as your disparagement of Julian Assange.
Losing credibility in your eyes is a right of passage on the standard and should be taken as a compliment rather than a curse.
Being shamed by Mr Angry from Cheam isn't as bad as you may believe it to be.
But that aside, do carry on with how outrageous it is that a convicted bail jumper didn’t get bail.
You can be sure that I'm not the only one who sees you have little or no credibility. Your lame "Mr Angry from Cheam" quip shows you have little or no SOH, either.
Moz, a few people here agree with you. A few people here agree with The Al1en. That's how a forum works.
I would suggest you get over yourself, but that would be futility exemplified.
You could be right there, McFlock.![yes yes](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/thumbs_up.png)
![heart heart](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/heart.png)
Except he's not
That ended some weeks if not months ago
So the campaign to end the isolation 'torture' has put him in more danger. Well done.
No the UK and US govts with the complete endorsement of vast numbers of total plonkers brainwashed by propaganda is what has put Assange in danger of his life
So the covid excuse to get out of jail was just a ruse. Looks like the magistrate called it.
What do you mean when you put the word "torture" in scare quotes? Are you pretending that he is not being tortured? Is that another of your jokes?
I urge other Standard readers to bear in mind The Al1en's sneering contempt for Assange and compare his behaviour to that of the United Nations' Rapporteur on Torture….
https://www.republik.ch/2020/01/31/nils-melzer-about-wikileaks-founder-julian-assange
The Standard readers are free to bear in mind whatever they want about me, be that my alleged sneering contempt, or whatever else takes their fancy.
It's all good.
No, it's not "all good." Your sneering contempt for this suffering dissident is not "alleged", it's there for posterity.
You've condemned yourself, and your flippant words now can't make it go away.
Yep, it's still all good, as am I.
You're gasping. It's embarrassing.
Logical fallacies
Bingo. lol
You keep saying that, but you have no ability to develop an argument. Why don't you cut your losses and go read a book or something?
I'm not making an argument, I'm replying to your continued usage of logical fallacies, which is easy to do as you're well practiced and predictable with it.
The actual guts of the matter are:
Good job he's in solitary. – Turns out he's not being isolation 'tortured' anymore.
The convicted bail jumper didn't get bail. – No answer.
Excerpts from a February 2020 report on the propaganda war against Assange. UN special rapporteur on torture Melzer "admits that he was himself initially taken in by the propaganda campaign."
You are probably wasting your time on these subservient citizens here Morrissey, they are obviously just a bunch of wannta be camp guards only waiting for the opportunity to prove their worth to their masters, quite disgusting and vile.
Thanks for those kind words, Adrian. Much appreciated.
They're not "kind words", Moz. Far from it, actually.
I'm devastated that your normally astute and utterly reliable analysis of the written word has deserted you on this occasion.
I blame The Al1en for making you angry 😉
ps, Cheam is a very pleasant London suburb, particularly the Eastern portion around the railway cutting.
Hancock's half hour. lol
Stop messing about!
btw, Kenneth Williams used to refer to the regular voice he used in the Hancock shows as 'the Snide'. Doesn't remind me of anyone here at the Standard, of course.
“He's right you know”
How the hell did I miss that reference?!!??!?
Al1en & te reo 1-0 Breen.
It's only half time, Morrissey. I expect you'll give yourself a good talking to in the changing sheds and come out fighting in the second half.
No, you two have got me beat, my friend. Unless I can find a Craig Joubert type to bribe, I haven't got a show.
We've had python and Tony Hancock, so next time we should try Frankie Howard.
Plenty of time for homework, Lurcio.
… next time we should try Frankie Howard. [sic]
Frankie Howerd.
There you go, back in the game, though pointing out a spelling mistake is the football equivalent of getting a corner kick against the run of play.
Mr Trotter having something of a meltdown?
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2020/04/lord-give-us-democratic-socialism-but.html
Yes it's a beauty isn't it? I think he's in mourning lol
or one of the stages of grief
Someone here needs to do a decent response to Trotter.
Hey Mr Trotter try this out:
1. New Zealand now has the most effective democratic socialist government in the entire fucking world Mr Trotter. Best led, best communicated, best response through the public health system, best deployment of policing and social enforcement. And it's not me saying it.
So fuck off with your "thoughts" on democratic socialism. We already have it.
2. This government has just embarked on the largest Keynsean expansion since the Depression, and is going to keep expanding through the May 8th 2020 budget, and through the campaign manifesto, and through the 2021 budget.
The state is going into tens of billions of debt on new projects, is propping up every single waged person with a business who asks for it, and we are now a month away from even more largesse in the budget.
So fuck off with your "… but not yet!"
3. There is a gobsmacking irony of a blogger begging for a lifeline for a physical print of the Listener, when his own personal blog is now the only place the Trotter's own writing is published anywhere. Trotter's own practise of publishing online from many years ago is the clearest evidence that he knew this day was coming and planned for the demise of printed commentary years ago.
If Trotter wanted to he could amass his analogue leftie comrades and buy the Listener masthead from the receivers. But that's won't happen because he's all mouth and no trousers.
And while we are at it, the government is already well underway to strengthen broadcasting under Fa'afoi's plan for RNZ and TVNZ. They are well and truly doing their part already.
So fuck off with your defence of The Listener.
4. Trotter needs to get it out of his head that the government reaction to this recession is going to look the same as the Labour response to the 1930s Depression. That he can't step out of his tragedian pyre and lead something practical in society other than perpetually interviewing his typewriter and adding poorly paralleled historical anecdote, shows how deeply stale his imagination really is.
5. This government is holding the whole of the political order, the whole of society, and the whole of the economy, together right now, through sheer will and debt. They are about to get us through the virus crisis in better health shape than any other developed nation on earth. Overseas commentators are already noticing.
So we can afford to give them a smidgen of a break as we await coherence on the plan to revive our economy.
"If Trotter wanted to he could amass his analogue leftie comrades and buy the Listener masthead from the receivers. But that's won't happen because he's all mouth and no trousers."
Funny you should suggest that, I was wondering why he hadnt proposed the staff purchasing it for the dollar (potential liabilities aside) and running it as a collective (or co operative)…the existing staff would be the best placed to judge its future viability an could potentially secure both their ongoing employment and maintain an independent voice but havnt seen anyone involved propose such.
It still had 30,00 subscribers apparently.
[lprent: 32,000 from memory. ]
If the staff and management dont see a future path to sustainability why would anyone else
thats why command dosnt suit you
[On 26 July 2019, Sam wrote these memorable words:
Link: https://thestandard.org.nz/protect-ihumatao/#comment-1640435.
He now seems to think that he can return here from his self-imposed exile with a blatant troll comment.
Sam is wrong about that.
Banned for a year so that we can all recover from the pandemic and prepare for the election without having to endure his inane troll comments that create more work for Moderators – Incognito]
good grief…its Sam , youre still alive!
See my Moderation note @ 1:42 PM.
does us all a favour. Never come back.
FYI, I’m not on the pay-roll; we’re all volunteers here.
Subscribers really isn't that useful as a measure of utility. Certainly not a measure of how much it is valued by the public for whom it is purportedly doing good.
Consider this site as an alternative ‘risk free rate’ for taxpayers and look at the usage – which is our only measure of subscribers.
According to google analytics this site has had ~23k unique visitors in the last 30 days in ~89k sessions. This excludes almost all of the bots and because it is google has a fairly accurate idea about who is a person even when they jump machines (as I do all of the time)`.
~57k of those sessions were from users who entered the site with more than 15 times over 30 days – ie reading on average about every two days or better on average. ~31k sessions were from users who read the site more than 201 times over that 30 days.About ~26k of the sessions were from users who entered less than 5 times or less.
Average session duration is 6:32 and average pages per session is 3.84. Once you start figuring out the probable times that some people on here, then there is clearly a *lot* of utility.
The last 30 days was up about 1/6th above our recent median. Session times and page counts are slightly elevated.
That was done with a far more amateur level level of writing, no subscription to the site, we don't inflict advertising, and the commenters provide as much writing value as the authors.
Arguably even with all of the low rent comments and the provocative authors, that is a shit load of writing on here. I'd expect that it is of far more volume than The Listener.
The Listener really has to argue on the basis of the quality of its writing.
Quality – who knows? I personally haven't read one in some time – but it hasn't improved much beyond the mostly 'I reckons' writing that we do in blogs, or is common in the daily media, or even around reddit.
Sure there were always nuggets in the mix of waffle. But they weren't worth effort of finding the paper copy, paying for it, and reading it without the opportunity to comment. I certainly wouldn't want to pay for it as taxpayer even when I last read it.
It provided me with no value. If I want to subsidize writers then personally I'd prefer to pay for this ad-free venue – which is mostly what happens. I think that it is of more benefit to many of the people here.
I wouldn't mind being able to subsidizing journalists more. All they have to do is to have it all easily online, largely dump the advertising, separate the opinionists away from the journalism (the former is ideal as a filtered pay per read), and let me subscribe just to the journalism.
Problem is that is very hard to get in NZ media outside of a few mail feeds.
My summary: we’re doing ok but there’s always room for improvement here on TS 😉
And IMHO the Listener was not.
The writing here might be rough as (especially when I write), but in terms of the value that you pay for it is extremely valuable.
For me, I'm happy to spend money for reading material that is better than what we have here. But I didn't feel any sense of value in any of the Baur stable of magazines to outweigh the cost. A different editorial policy may have produced a better material. But they basically needed to change their business model even more – and showed no real signs of doing that.
Can't see a reasons to subsidize them more than any other business as there are others around that market place. The wage subsidy should have been enough to keep them viable if they’d had a business model that would work in the future – which they didn’t. That looks to have been the conclusion of Bauer.
I love it when I read a truly good piece written by a true professional. It’s the same with music, art, or science. When I need to dig too deep and too hard to find that rare gem, it’s not worth my money and even less so my time – actually, I have to work for my money so it all comes down to my time, which I don’t have as much of as I’d like 🙁
Indeed, a good editor is like a good conductor: worth their weight in gold; they can work miracles and turn things into gold but equally, they can fuck up things and turn things to custard.
Good reply to the insufferable Trotter—except for the confidence expressed in Chris Fa'afoi. He's an incompetent minister, if ever there was one.
Morrisey, reasons for your attack on Chris Fafoi?
My assessment of Fa’afoi is based on his hopeless performance when that rogue RNZ board suddenly announced that they planned to liquidate RNZ Concert. Fa'afoi, after guffawing that he did not listen to classical music, then went on to regurgitate their talking points. He clearly had no idea, and was blindsided by Jim Mather and his cronies.
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2020/03/integrating-seamlessly-with-lowest.html
Edit – this got shunted down the list while I was writing it.
I am replying to Ad at 8.2
As a reader of the Listener since the 1970s, I am not entirely convinced by you, Ad.
1) If our system is best in the world, the standard is not very high. Other countries with far greater population density (meaning far more infections) seem to have done better. And you may be counting chickens that have not yet hatched.
2) Partly true, but only in its infancy, and I hope that the Govt has the courage to continue in this vein. Especially if the Righties start criticising this policy, as they will.
3) That is not irony – I see it more as Trotter lamenting the Listener's earlier role. I also remember the Listener and the Auckland Star being the only printed vehicles of real criticism of the disastrous Vietnam War.. There is a lot to be lamented since the Listener got swallowed by the right-wing marketers.
4) Maybe Trotter still has a vision of real social reform, whereas you don't. Or you don't show it very often. Blairite?
5) Fully agree, but one out of five is far from convinced.
I suspect that Trotter is afraid that after we have succeeded in starting to look for coherence on the plan to revive our economy, it will be too late to do any serious social reform.
Ad – do you want any serious social reform?
I am struggling to understand why you are so hostile to Trotter.
I second every single word of your comment, Ad
I can't see that Chris has 'melted down' with this statement though:
"According to Andrew Little’s former Chief-of-Staff, Neale Jones:
“I cannot think of a worse time to implement a UBI than in the middle of this economic crisis. Some of us are doing fine. Others need unprecedented government support just to stay afloat. UBI would spread that support thinner, or quickly spend 10s of billions we may need later."
Meaning Neale has no grasp at all of Keynesian economics. No understanding of the crucial importance of keeping up the level of aggregate demand. No historical grasp of the crucial role spending plays in lifting a nation out of an economic slump. Nor does he understand the practical and moral efficiency of universal, as opposed to means-tested, state support. The massively positive effect of telling every Kiwi: ‘You are important in your own right, not because you’re in need of charity but because you are a citizen of New Zealand.’ Everyone keeps telling us that “we’re all in this together” – a UBI would prove it."
" How did dreary pragmatism become Labour’s default-setting? A full explanation would require a book-length answer. Suffice to say that once a party embraces the fundamental tenets of neoliberalism, anything other than orthodox and cautious policy responses will be treated as the political equivalent of upending a can of petrol over your head and striking a match."
It seems to me that someone (the janitor – it's always the janitor) changed Labour's label to 'socialist' while everyone was at morning tea and no one has the courage to change it back, while the majority of them has no courage either to enact real socialism.
I wonder if Jacinda is banging her head against her desk at the 'dreary pragmatism' that pervades the party. I wonder.
Although perhaps it is the fact that since the 1980s Labour has become a centrist party with neo liberal leanings and that's all there is to it.
Oh well.
isnt a collective real socialism?
Collective is implicitly shared agreement. When it is mandated by those for whom it is convenient it just becomes coercion.
Problem is that I fail to see a point in subsiding a stable of publications that with massive cost-cutting producing what looked like a inaccessible mediocre product and barely managing to hold a subscriber base or a profit level is worth trying to save.
In an economic sense you could easily argue that their mere presence in the marketplace was actually constraining innovation in a failing area. They were holding on to audiences and thereby preventing development of a more viable economic model. As a government, you’d be better off using resources to provide technical infrastructure for writers to try to find a more useful model to build a viable and accessible product in. There are examples around like Newsroom, Spinoff, Evening Report, and even Scoop as well as the online mass media.
Because in the end, unless they figured out a different way to operate, then all of those magazines had been on a ventilator ready to die of technical obsolescence in the market for about a decade. Removing their Bauer DNR wouldn’t have made them last for many more years even if there wasn’t a pandemic at the same time.
dont disagree with that but my point was Mr Trotter was bemoaning a lack of socialism and ignored the most socialist response
Yeah – there are number of fully or semi cooperatives already in that space (as I pointed to). They just don't pay much.
no i dont imagine they do…and it would be interesting to be a fly on the wall should the staff ever attempt it….I could imagine it wouldnt go smoothly.
Trotter doesn't understand economics, or pretends not to. Buying these magazines for a dollar sounds cheap until the losses start to mount. I think he is emotionally attached to the titles and can't bear to see them go.
If there is a profitable market for a right-wing (but pretending not to be) glossy like the Listener, a new magazine will be set-up by somebody using their own money.
It's not the government's job to invest in/take over the media-accusations of manipulation for political ends would follow like night follows day.
Speaking to relatives in Aussie last night , one of whom works for a large retailer (who shall remain unnamed) and the relating of how the social distancing and 'lockdown' is being handled there is an object lesson in why we are correct to minimise the number of retailers that are able to trade.
The complete disregard for the guidelines from both the company and the general public makes a mockery of the process.
Couldn't believe it at pak n save today, waiting in the queue at the checkout, using the marked lines as a distancing guide, and people were pushing their trolleys between the gaps left behind me, completely ruining the purpose of having the lines in the first place. I told a floor supervisor that I realised it's not up to her to police it, but that particular part of the system was broken.
Didn't help that the customer in front of me took out a wad of notes and proceeded to lick his fingers, twice, whilst thumbing through them, and then again before touching the eftpos card he part paid with. Had to warn the checkout kid before she touched this idiot's cash, and patiently waited until she had decontaminated it and the terminal before I could check out, contemplating survival of the fittest v stupid by association.
and pales in comparison in both scale and actions related to me about Victoria last night….Im very pleased our Gov appears to be holding the line as staunchly as it is in the face of considerable pressure
Generally I've been impressed with the supermarkets down here, but then I've been able to time my runs really well, to have shopped at the slowest of times. Today, I had to risk the one day closed hoarders, so maybe the mentality of customers and staff were a bit less focused than of late, especially with the drop off in new cases. Let's hope complacency doesn't creep in and ruin all the good work thus far.
+1
UN Council for Human Rights – China now on the council.
Unbelievable.
Countries with a seat on the council get to oversee and appoint representatives who in turn investigate + report on human rights abuses.
Other council members with this influence include Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Egypt, Nigeria, Venezula, Lybia…more here https://qz.com/1418293/what-countries-are-on-the-un-human-rights-council/
A den of thieves put in charge of the bank. This is the problem when you select for 'equitable representation' than competency.
I thought you generally made sure you were better informed RedLogix. 'A' has reeled off an out of date hit-job and stupidly highlighted China which is not on the Council. Besides, the representatives on the Council are not appointed to represent their countries or any political viewpoint, unlike the Cato Institute or Quartz.
Fair cop.
Two weeks till Business as Usual reconvenes, woohoo!
Government sanctioned "mental illness" will be forgotten, and Cognitive Dissonance in all things will be the name of the game. Project your fears onto anyone weaker than you and aim to take it all!
Hot Tip: don't get caught on the line when the starter pistol fires, not unless you are ready to slash your way through anyone you meet.
Totally – I'm devising a method to gouge the newly-unemployed. Awesome eh? Can't wait.
Domestic tourism = landlords and AirBnB are rubbing their hands with glee. Shame that many campsites have turned into mini- wannabe-Omahas.
I'm feeling lucky to be the recipient of good fortune in several ways. These are: NZ's isolation, a generally competent government that aims to serve the interests of all its citizens not just some, and enough social cohesion to voluntarily observe a lock-down with high levels of compliance. (There are a few peripheral sociopaths like Mike Hosking but that is to be expected)
Therefore I'm not really faced with the fear and rage that clearly prompted this piece from the fabulously civilised RJ Eskow a couple of weeks ago – No – I will not die for this damned economy. He used the word 'damned' advisedly – not as a mere expletive, but in the Biblical sense "this damned economy…and we, the damned who live within it." What we need to emerge from this crisis is an economy that does not damn so many – the odds are we will get one which damns more.
FFS! David Seymour is asking, at the Epidemic committee, why employers including sole traders in receipt of wage subsidies get named publicly, but sole parents etc in receipt of benefits are not publicly named! At about 1hr 15 minutes into the committee today.
I think Sepuloni also said there is a box to tick asking if employer agrees to be named publicly when applying for a subsidy.
The crisis is an opportunity for people to surface any sadistic fantasies they have been harbouring for years.
Seemore Coq doesn't require a crisis.
Why does Seymour get to be on the committee? How does this happen when you only get 1% of the vote?
He represents the only other party in Opposition.
We had some debate about this early on in level 4.
It has now been announced that WOF's, regos and licenses that expired after Jan 1st have been extended for essential travel.
so someone with an expired rego or wof can use their car to drive to the supermarket?
Has NZTA shut down?
No, their regulatory team just have more pressing things to attend to.
so we can still get a rego online and via NZPost?
Are NZPost places still open?
I wouldn't expect quick service, and as the Minister has pointed out, it's unnecessary.
You can order a rego online, doesn't need to be at a Post Shop. Post is still being delivered as far as I can tell. I was just curious if that part of NZTA was still operational or not.
in order to get a rego you need a wof.
in order to get a wof you need to go to a testing station.
so essentially to me it means if you can get a rego because your wof is still valid, go online, get it.
if you need a wof first, don't worry, you can still drive without getting a huge ticket.
Yes, regos still being issued:
Cheers.
Looks like it means private vehicles used by essential workers, or general members of the public using their cars to access essential services.
It also looks like there is some vehicle WOF renewals for essential business vehicles.
See also at ATA.
The Stuff article I linked to in my previous comment says:
Wimbledon and the precautionary principle.
https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/status/1247933676874334208
Seems the ICs applied the precautionary principle as well….
"As a result, many insurers added exclusions to standard commercial policies for losses caused by viruses or bacteria. Now, the added policy language will potentially allow insurance companies to avoid hundreds of billions of dollars in business-interruption claims because of the covid-19 pandemic."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/02/insurers-knew-damage-viral-pandemic-could-wreak-businesses-so-they-excluded-coverage/
i wonder how well insurers are doing out of the lockdown,say fewer home burglaries,vehicle accidents etc.
true….imagine claims are very quiet…though they will be spending some time explaining the out clauses in business interruption policies I expect.
Insurers in the US respond to cv with refunds and discounts.
With less traffic on the road, there have been fewer accidents and fewer car insurance claims. And the prospect of paying claims is what auto insurance base their rates on. Several car insurance companies have now stepped up to offer their customers refunds. More will likely follow.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/advisor/2020/04/06/car-insurance-companies-start-offering-refunds-because-few-are-driving/#309b43c84350
I suspect these would be mutual insurers.
You know the world is in turmoil when insurance companies start giving money away
Over the past couple of weeks various voices have said "Let's be Sweden"!
Latest: Sweden 696 deaths. New Zealand 1.
That wouldn't deter 'various voices', but how's the Swedish stock exchange doing?
What'ye expect?
Now 793-1
Fuck, I love NZ.
Ministry of health tweet on exercise in isolation. Informative and funny.
I love that walking stick. A bit of fun poked at our walking fraternity and sorority. Prepared for anything…..
so good.
Some have been published on media for not hearing the result of their tests for many days afterwards. The explanation includes the fact that results are fed back to whoever authorised the test such as the doctor.
If the test is positive the victim is informed straight away and followup action taken.
If the result is negative then the lesser urgency will be in the hands of the doctor to inform. Maybe too busy but must be anxious wait for the victim though the longer the wait the more likely all is well.
Heh, just like when you get tested for STDs, if you all clear you usually don't get notified (check your online hub thing), only if you positive will they be in touch (& not a call you want, obviously).
So closing down flights from China didn’t save thousands of lives.
Coronavirus in New York came mainly from Europe, studies show.
New research indicates that the coronavirus began to circulate in the New York area by mid-February, weeks before the first confirmed case, and that it was brought to the region mainly by travelers from Europe, not Asia.
“The majority is clearly European,” said Harm van Bakel, a geneticist at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who co-wrote a study awaiting peer review.
A separate team at N.Y.U. Grossman School of Medicine came to strikingly similar conclusions, despite studying a different group of cases. Both teams analyzed genomes from coronaviruses taken from New Yorkers starting in mid-March.
http://archive.li/Ek2U9 (nyt)
Latest graph of modelling for CV19 shows just what NZ has avoided:
Science, huh.
https://twitter.com/AshleyBurkeCBC/status/1247925285565145090
"Coronavirus: Greenkeepers granted exemption for maintenance work after Easter"
And about bloody time. Golf Greens and Bowling Greens can be destroyed and take years to recreate if they aren't very carefully maintained. Why did it need Grant Robertson to do the bloody obvious. You don't need to allow people to play but a green keeper can work in isolation and preserve the painstakingly cared for lawns.
They are far more fragile and harder to repair than most Council owned parks and sports grounds. Mowing of those seems to have been allowed throughout.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/golf/120948493/coronavirus-greenkeepers-fume-as-jacinda-ardern-defends-delay-in-exemption-request
You know the government is doing a great job when rich rightwing fuckwits can only find golf greens to attack them about.
Your KDS is showing. He plays golf doesn't he?
The membership of the average golf club is quite typical of the whole New Zealand population. And New Zealand is one of the cheapest places to play golf in the world. A full playing membership at Inglewood, which is a pretty little course near New Plymouth is only about $500/year. The Waitara Golf Club, also near New Plymouth is even cheaper at $350/year.
Royal Wellington and Royal Auckland and Grange excluded of course.
Do't be such a bigoted little prat.
Tut tut, alwyn. I sail, and my yearly sub is only $120. I probably spend less on my boat (which I bought with trailer for $2,500 in 1987) than you spend on clubs and lost golf balls (sorry to be rude.)
Your altruistic concern for the well-being of golfing greens is rather amusing.
But there we are. I get mad when stupid but well-meaning people plant trees near the lake I sail on, and ruin the wind after the tree has grown.
$2,500! For a boat? It sounds as if you bought one of Paul Allen's cast offs.
I am, I admit, an unusual golfer (or should I say a former golfer). I played for about 48 years and only ever owned two sets of clubs. I bought the first set in the late 60's for the grand sum of $100. The second set was purchased in about 1996 for rather more, but I would still be under the cost of your boat. Golf balls are quite cheap. You can get perfectly suitable golf balls for about $2.00 each.
https://www.golfwarehouse.nz/collections/golf-balls/products/srixonad333whitegolfballsv8-4dozen
Most people I know spent rather more. Almost every golfer lives with the dream that if they buy the latest driver they will be able to hit their drives out to about the 280 metre mark. I was always a realist. I might have admired the skills of Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods but I was never under the illusion that I could play like them.
Aye, and I am foolishly still trying to sail a teenager's one-man racing skiff, because when I get a few good rides, it beats being on every big expensive lead-swinging keelboat that ever sailed.
As a matter of interest, what were your average subs for belonging to a club?
I sailed a P class when I was very young. In my 20's we bought a Javelin. That was great fun, although we always thought we should fly the letter flag "D" when we were out. For those who don't sail it means "Keep clear of me; I am maneuvering with difficulty".
I had to give up playing 5 years ago so my knowledge of subs is a bit out of date..
When I was a child I had a dose of a much nastier virus than Cofid 19. It appeared I had fully recovered from it but it turns out you never do. About half the people like me get problems many years later and my walking was affected so I gave up playing. I believe a full playing membership at the last club I belonged to is about $1250/year. You can play all day, every day of the year for that. That would be typical of city clubs I should say.
I was thinking more of you bringing petty nitpicking shit here. The government was made aware there was a problem and rightly assessed that a green keeper can probably work alone safely.
My patience has run out with pathetic moaning morons .
Self loathing must be a terrible affliction. My sympathy for your suffering.
Aren't poor people allowed to play golf? Far canal.
Have any golf courses or bowling greens been destroyed thus far? If not, what's the problem? Lots of people are waiting to get their privileges back, it takes time for processes to be worked through.
Golf courses, bowling greens, rugby fields and other expanses of manicured lawn are ring-worm patches on the body of Mother Earth![smiley smiley](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png)
Lol. I still like to lie on my lawn, and I can see the potential of permaculture cricket pitches and rugby fields. But holy shit, there's a reason there are no organic golf courses. I'm guessing bowling greens might be similar?
Thirty seconds in tRump says that he wants the US economy to collapse.
https://twitter.com/gaslitnation/status/1237785570815938560
'Murica
https://twitter.com/mbaram/status/1247597527987339269
He's jist plannin' to shoot some cans.
Mexicans. Puerto Ricans. Jamaicans …
Ginning up the poors.
https://twitter.com/KeriLeighMerrit/status/1030516134485925888.
Americans? Not sure if he can!
Undoubtedly he'd be delighted to if they're African ones.
Anglicans
Nope – none there!
The Episcopal Church, USA, is the official organization of the Anglican Communion in the United States.
If Singapore can't keep this under control then I doubt we'll be ending lockdown anytime soon.
https://twitter.com/ChorzempaMartin/status/1247893963639386117
ulp
I understood that Singapore was initialy relying on phone apps and the internet to do a lot of the tracing work and they found out a bit too late that it wasn't very successful, as Dr Bloomfield said a few days ago a phone can't do the job that a thorough face to face ( at 2 metres I presume ) interview can. Just exactly how many crimes would be solved with a little chat on line or a few texts. Sweet fuck all.
I think Singapore tried to move too quickly and were reliant on the phone technology. Furthermore being an island about the size of Lake Taupo and with over 5m people isolating is far more difficult. I'm not sure just what restrictions they have in place wrt new arrivals, but a large proportion of their workforce in terms of amah, and construction workers are from the Philippines, India, and Malaysia.
The place is as tight as a drum and aside from Malaysians, guest workers are required to live in licensed foreign worker dormitories. They've issued new guidelines for residents including guest workers, and shut the door on most returnees.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) will only allow the entry / return of work pass holders, including their dependents, for those providing essential services, such as in healthcare and transport.
https://www.gov.sg/article/covid-19-travel-restrictions-for-foreign-visitors-entering-singapore
yep – and I see that a good proportion of the new cases are in those worker dormitories. Mind you a lot of the wealthy families have live in house maids etc _ I can't see them giving up their amahs so easily
Well this is interesting. Overseas buyer’s interest in the Pacifica apartment building is up 200% because of favourable reaction to the government’s Covid-19 response. Both expats and foreign buyers (this development has an exemption for foreign buyers) have registered an interest.
https://www.oneroof.co.nz/news/37795
It appears that there is some appetite to change the paradigm….Kate Raworth style
"The port of Amsterdam is the world’s single largest importer of cocoa beans, mostly from west Africa, where the labour is often highly exploitative.
As an independent private company it could reject such products and take the economic hit, but at the same time almost one in five households in Amsterdam qualify for social benefits due to low incomes and savings.
Van Doorninck says the port is looking at how it moves on from dependence on fossil fuels as part of the city’s new vision, and she expects that to naturally evolve into a wider debate over other pressing dilemmas brought to the forefront by the doughnut model.
“It gives space to talk about whether you want to be the place where products are being stored that are produced by child labour or by other forms of labour exploitation,” she says."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/08/amsterdam-doughnut-model-mend-post-coronavirus-economy
This is outright malice.
https://twitter.com/npratc/status/1247988083376549888
WASHINGTON — Although President Donald Trump has directed states and hospitals to secure what supplies they can, the federal government is quietly seizing orders, leaving medical providers across the country in the dark about where the material is going and how they can get what they need to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
Hospital and clinic officials in seven states described the seizures in interviews over the past week. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is not publicly reporting the acquisitions, despite the outlay of millions of dollars of taxpayer money, nor has the administration detailed how it decides which supplies to seize and where to reroute them.
Officials who've had materials seized also say they've received no guidance from the government about how or if they will get access to the supplies they ordered. That has stoked concerns about how public funds are being spent and whether the Trump administration is fairly distributing scarce medical supplies
https://www.adn.com/nation-world/2020/04/08/hospitals-across-us-say-feds-are-seizing-masks-and-other-coronavirus-supplies-without-a-word/
Feds are chucking in the towel and repugs are lemmings
https://twitter.com/weijia/status/1248062198922051584
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1248060581107679243
This looks like good news (haven't typed that phrase in a while!):
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanrhe/article/PIIS2665-9913(20)30092-8/fulltext
It's based on unpublished data, so has to be taken with a chunk of salt. But, if; the IL6 cytokine is predominantly involved in SARS-COV-2 pneumonia, then an IL6 receptor blocker being of use in preventing that, does make a certain amount of sense on the face of it.
After all, it doesn't really matter if people are infected with the Crow, just so long as you can stop them suffocating on their own body!
Except that the more replications of a virus, the more chances for mutations. DNA is more stable than RNA.