People can sleep in on Sundays. There is no requirement to be here. This is a voluntary participation.
Quite why I am here is a question. I have code for work that isn't coming out and a partially written post.
But my partner is about to do a international zoom next to me – and one sided conversations about writing are so tedious.
I'm replaying Dungeon Siege 1 on steam on Ubuntu 20.04 when I have a spare half-hour. I think I might take a half hour with headphones and do some small group tactics rather than working.
Or just old age. I find I like some old games on newer machines. DS1 came out in 2002. Running it on wine in on a 16 core linux server with 64GB RAM and a AMD RX480 video may seem like overkill. Especially in 2560×1200 video mode (the original only went up to 1280px). But it is a pleasant change.
Also way more stable on linux than playing it on windows XP.
There seems to be a lot of talk about the use of face masks of late, hence I thought (being a Sunday an all) some here may want to have a look at this clip below.
[lprent: You have provided no explanation about why you think it is worth anyone expending time to watch this.
If you can’t be bothered to expend time to write a few sentences or paragraphs explaining why you think that others should give up their time, then you’re not expressing your opinion – you’re merely astro-turfing without putting your own skin in the game.
Most people who read on this site won’t watch link spam without a explanation. All you will get are barbed comments about how much of a dickhead you are being. I don’t consider that fosters ‘robust debate’ – perhaps you’d like to disagree? To do so, you’re going to have to carefully explain your opinion and the reasons why you think we should put up with this kind of gutless crap behaviour.
But in the meantime I’d strongly suggest that you don’t waste moderator this way ever again. Weka gave you a pretty clear direction about it yesterday. Your choice and I going to insist that you make it immediately. ]
Not living in NZ, I haven't had cause to look at the MoH website with respect to that, but conflicting/changing guidelines on CoVid 19 from people in authority are certainly not restricted to ministries of health, nor to NZ.
Altering guidelines according to latest best-available information is a good thing.
And I have no issue with the Misery of Health changing their guidelines. What I did, and still do have a problem with is them failing to adopt a precautionary approach from Day 1 when it came to the use of PPE for front line health workers. Despite some experts recommending this.
What I did, and still do have a problem with is the Mystery assuming(despite no evidence) that Te Virus could only be transmitted by people with symptoms. Quite possibly a significant error considering 40% of infected people are asymptomatic. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/08/08/asymptomatic-coronavirus-covid/
I have no problem with the asymptomatic Covid 19 infected free -ranging, such is the way of communities acquiring natural herd immunity. What I do have a problem with is the unnecessary risk that was taken with the health and lives of our most vulnerable by our Government choosing to follow the 'experts' who most supported the reality of our own dismal pandemic preparedness. https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/nz-35th-pandemic-preparedness
What they could have, should have done early on was to be honest and transparent with us and admit stocks of kit were dangerously low. Admit that they had no idea whether asymptomatic people could pass on infection and advise all front line health workers to take all possible precautions until the science had been done. We would have made our own fucking masks. Oh, that's right. Some of us did.
But they didn't. Did they? There have been deaths of vulnerable people and there have been cases of front line workers becoming infected. I know the precautions I took, and still take, and I know the same applied to others in the disability community. We are a resilient bunch, we've had to be, and without actually having made an OIA request for the data I suspect that many disabled people requiring care turned in number to their family bubbles. Which is why we're now being paid…somewhat ironic after a twenty year battle… to have a virus get us over the line.
We will remember though. Again, the Ministry of Health abandoned those at the coalface with near callous disregard and again they claim to have been acting according to 'best advice.'
They were caught short. They had failed to prepare for the inevitable. They denied. They obfuscated. They behaved exactly how those of us who have been unfortunate enough to have to have dealt with them expected.
Pisses me off somewhat that some folks sing their praises.
The advice I've seen from the ministry over this period has always been couched in terms of "available evidence" or "no significant evidence", and prioritisation of resources.
As for singing their praises, 100+ days of zero community transmission is pretty much the best result in the world so far. If the MoH were a sports team, they'd have a goddamned parade down Queen St. And deserve it.
Would you prefer we discuss the video exposing Labour that is doing the rounds on youtube?
We went through this yesterday. I don't want to get into bold mode, so let me spell it out. If *you want to post videos at the top of OM, you will need to explain what the video is about. If you don't I will consider it spam and remove it.
If *you want to make claims about serious or controversial things (eg yesterday it was covid treatments, today it's exposing Labour), then you have to link to something useful to the debate. I explained what useful means yesterday.
You've been here long enough to get how things work here, and when I spend my Saturday taking the time to explain things and then see them ignored on Sunday it irritates me. The closer we get to the election the more likely I am to just ban people who have form.
You're good a provoking discussion here, I'd just like to see you make it more constructive and less flamey. Links and explanations would go a long way.
You Tube? Are you serious? I'm sure anything verifiable & of importance &interest would make into media somewhere. I've recently had a conversation getting their "information" from Youtube & Facebook they were seriously on another planet
…actual evidence-based information from actual experts…
Dontcha actually mean today's actual evidence-based information from today's actual experts?
Because, like, not so long ago we were told 'you don't need masks, or only if you have the symptoms of The Virus (because, like, only those with symptoms are infectious) or only if you have to get close to someone who has symptoms of the virus, and disabled people and their home based carers don't need masks..' et bleeding cetera…
And then there was the 'wearing masks is DANGEROUS, because, like, non -scientists are too thick to don and doff them properly, and the latest…'we only said "NO MASKS!!!" because (despite claims to the contrary from the wonderfully efficient Ministry of Health) there were not enough of them in the country for everyone who needed them.
Actual experts respond to new information and changing circumstances with updated recommendations and strategies. Misinformation artists choose their position and cherry-pick, misrepresent, and distort information to try to support their predetermined position.
One of the changed circumstances that led to the change to recommend wearing masks was better understanding and weight on the way masks reduce the likelihood an infected mask-wearer will spread their infection to others. This is particularly important given Covid's long period of pre-symptomatic infectiousness.
The reasons for the previous recommendation that masks weren't recommended remain valid. But they were based on the relative ineffectiveness of masks in protecting an individual from being infected by others, particularly when not correctly used. But now the strong collective benefit of everyone wearing masks is weighted much more heavily than the lack of personal individual benefit.
" Home care workers and other healthcare professionals have been crying out for access to protective gear – but the Ministry of Health boss says there are plenty in reserve.
And all this time they're holding the line that asymptomatic people won't be infectious so unless they're a confirmed or suspected case you don't need the kit…even if you are in close contact with vulnerable people…the sick, the disabled, the immune compromised.
…when not only were masks not being supplied, nurses wearing self-funded masks were ordered to remove them so as 'not to create panic.'
If The Virus is as deadly as we are told…and were told from practically Day 1…why was the Precautionary Principle not applied and have everyone treated as potential carriers?
Basically you sign up with your email and a password, then upload an image from your confuser or the web. It gets you to crop your image as part of the upload process and then it deals with downsizing it for the avatar.
It's not complex. No more so than attaching a photo to an email. The instructions on the Gravatar site are ok-ish.
The email address needs to be the one you use for commenting here, and it needs to be a live email address you can still get into since it sends a confirmation email you need for finishing the sign-up.
I think Andre is saying that experts are characterised by their methodology, not by their actual stance/opinion at any given point in time. And moreover, it's a methodology that to execute properly requires a fair bit of prior slog in just learning things about that knowledge domain. Propagandists operate quite differently. It's an important point.
Hmm…what stood out to me (a front line, hands-on disability support provider) was that the 'experts' taking the stance that PPE was not needed unless Infection was confirmed or suspected (during the time that only symptomatic people could pass on Te Virus) were not actually the people at risk of catching the disease or worse…passing the disease onto a vulnerable person in their care.
These 'experts' might have been doing the 'hard slog', theoretically, but they were not at the actual coalface. Worse, they often treated those at the actual coalface like so much disposable shit.
Perhaps I missed the public apology to made by The Ministry, the DHBs and Uncle Ashley to those who fronted the battle and whose calls for practical support in the form of PPE and clear guidelines based on a precautionary approach were met with dismissal, denial and confusion.
My rule of thumb is that experts can be wrong from time to time and still be experts. But they cease to be experts when they don't follow their professed methodology. I have seen the latter from some in the medical profession in my experience with disability services.
One of the changed circumstances that led to the change to recommend wearing masks was better understanding and weight…
Are you suggesting that the likelihood a mask would reduce the risk that an infected wearer could spread the infection to others was only recently discovered?
And what exactly was the evidence that increased the weight that led to the change in stance being taken?
The piece below talks about some of the epidemiological studies done this year since the start of the pandemic, as well as droplet and flow emission studies. It also touches on some of the cultural factors.
I for one appreciate your public spiritedness and eagerness to share crucial information. Do you have views on the efficacy of prayer in the fighting of viral infection?
Yes. But remember the Lincoln Project are Republicans. And they know that intellectually, and in policy terms, Joe Biden is an empty vessel waiting to be filled. I imagine they will be right in the queue ready to do that filling via positions in his administration.
Biden's team have cooperated very closely with the Sanders team and adopted a number of their positions.
Biden has outsourced some policy formation to the Sanders' team – our own Labour party has done this even more strongly from the Greens.
And you shouldn't expect a Biden victory to mean a cabinet full of Democrats. He will be seeking to isolate the extremes of Trump's Senate support, by including moderate Republicans.
The depth of the decay and disorder in Washington from the Trump regime will require a Biden team to focus on a few core areas for the first year. Spreading too thin is a recipe for major embarassment. Biden needs a very steady course in 2021 (should he win), in order that he sets up a smooth transition to the VP for the second term.
We'll see. Or at least I hope we will. It seems that Biden will be open to influence, but to an extent that is constrained by what his donors will permit.
Absolutely – I've been following the Lincoln project crowd and Biden. I would disagree with them on many things and am no fan of either, but I agree with them on the efficacy of the orange loon.
You have provided no explanation about why you think it is worth anyone expending time to watch this.
But I did. As I stated, there has been a lot of talk about the use of face masks of late. And the clip is about the use of face masks.
Whether people want to watch it is up to them. It's no big deal to me if they don't.
It seems those that don't want to watch it, yet want to come on here and make barbed comments are the problem your attention should be focused on opposed to the person that put up a relevant and interesting clip. Don't you think?
[6 month ban. For wasting moderator time after multiple warnings and basically ignoring what we are saying, also previous bans. You’re probably lucky I haven’t gone and looked up your ban history. The big thing for me here is that despite all your years here you still think you get to dictate how the site should operate instead of taking guidance from the mods including one of the people that owns the site. – weka]
It's quite common in social media for people to post links to things they think may be of interest to others. I do it a lot to provide a variety of information and to promote discussion on various things.
You can obviously demand what you like here, but it seems odd to me, unless perhaps you don't like the content at the link.
O see that others have posted links with little or no comment without reprimand.
it's been a longstanding premise here to not spam the site. Not a hard guideline to follow. If you want to post youtubes at the top of OM esp, then introduce the vid. Likewise other content. You will notice that it's the people that post spam a lot and ignore what people are saying about it that get moderator attention.
and you know, I have no idea what the content of the video is. Seriously, none. We went through this yesterday and with some prompting TC provided some useful links that explained things (introduce the vid, back up claims of fact). If he'd done that today he wouldn't be on a six month ban now. In other words, it's zero to do with the content.
Posts of possible interest to others and conservation starters are spam?
"irrelevant or unsolicited messages sent over the Internet, typically to a large number of users, for the purposes of advertising, phishing, spreading malware"
no, on this site, videos with no explanation of what they are about are spam when posted regularly by the same person who has been asked to provide explanations.
Posts of possible interest to others and conservation starters are spam?
See the comment just below yours @ 2.6.2
That's something you could have easily put in a sentence or two if you wanted to start an informative discussion.
Trolling is probably a better description than spam: not behaving in ways that match intent to have an actual discussion. Destructive to any conversation space. Brings out the worst in others.
No Pete, I cannot, and you should know this. So, please stop making BS assertions about Moderation and particularly my Moderation here. FYI, Moderation is rarely about contents, rather lack of content/opinion and behaviour are the most common triggers.
Right now, there's already around 30 comments in the thread and no-one's the wiser as to whether video dude argues for masks being a good thing or a hoax, nor any of the reasons why.
That's something you could have easily put in a sentence or two if you wanted to start an informative discussion. And may have given people a reason to actually watch the video. Maybe.
God you’re a self involved, pompous, arrogant dick LPrent. Why are you such a wanker all the time? A little self reflection might do you some good.
[lprent: I do that all of the time. It is part of doing the work of a moderator. And I’d get hell at the back end from the other moderators if I do it in such a way that made their lives harder.
But from your comment, I have no idea what exactly you’re getting wound up about unless it is The Chairman ignoring previous warnings.
However I don’t really need a fool incoherently trying to advise me of my responsibilities and especially when they manage to
Not tell me what they are indignant about.
Not saying why they are indignant about it.
Not say what course of action that they’d prefer instead.
And therefore are clearly only interested in simple abuse rather than any real desire to change anything.
And are clearly just too damn lazy to do the work to change anything.
Perhaps you should reflect on the fact that you read like a complete self-entitled dimwit who couldn’t put together anything apart from a spluttering and completely meaningless indignation. Perhaps you should model yourself on Pete George. I might disagree with his indignation, but at least he is capable of framing an objection that is coherent. Clearly you’ve never been personally reflective enough to even achieve that. ]
[lprent: As I implied above – you really are a stupid lazy and bumbling idiot – you somehow neglected to make the effort to deal with any of the points that I listed. I’m presuming that you’re just trying for the troll equivalent of death by cop. But so far all you’re managing to do is to look as stupid as the machines that service you. ]
I’m just amazed at what little insight LPrent into himself. And I’m fine with copping a ban. I have great insight into my failings and success. LPrent struts around with such and unearned self importance – throwing his belief into his own masterful intellect as if he were the first person in the world to get an MBA.
Ok, then. But rather than being fine with a ban you seem hell-bent on one.
It is churlish and ignorant for you to claim LPrent has 'unearned' anything regarding this forum. As far as I can tell he funds and operates the entire show for our benefit with little or no recompense for time and hardware.
For a long time I have thought you are a complete and utter toss-pot. You apparently agree.
Well, he does run this site quite successfully and has done so for years and it comes with certain bragging rights that only small troll egos cannot handle. I’ve a little more insight in what goes on behind the scenes and I’m impressed and grateful for his efforts.
Many people read this site for free and those who like to comment or even write Guest Posts get support from Lprent and other volunteers. Yet there are a few who seem to think that because this is a free platform they have a natural right to whinge and whine about how things are done here and criticise the people who (help) run this site with indemnity. Their attitude is wrong at so many levels and it is extremely frustrating having to listen to and deal with those misguided self-entitled and ungrateful small minds.
John, I’m sure you’re a decent kind of bloke, but if you cannot stand this site and/or its SYSOP, I’d suggest you leave and don’t come back.
I’m a very decent person. But I can’t stand arrogance of which LPrent is dripping it. He injects his “expertise” into nearly every post and comment. “Oh, I code”, “something something my MBA”, “earth science degree”. Well done you’ve succeeded…. like many many other people.
then the constant use of the term “dick heads”. Jesus man, get the fuck over yourself. I know I’m a nobody but I’ve carved a happy life for myself and wanks like Prent hey no truck from me. I can’t believe no one else sees it
Perhaps it's more a case of seeing merit in not pissing on the shoes of one of the people, actually the person most responsible for providing this playground that the rest of us get to use for free.
Of the thousands of comments and Posts, you tend to focus on Lprent’s knowing full well that it winds you up and it shows. Please get a grip and if you cannot get over it, please leave; you’re spoiling it for others and only thinking about your own feelings and even asking (for) others to ‘see it’. Please stop it now and please don’t do this ever again, thank you.
If you're concerned about language, then I am sure that I can find a few other languages to say the same thing in – octal perhaps. But frankly if you don't like the way that I express myself, then perhaps you should look at the way that you use it. A couple of your comments further up for instance.
Most people on the site simply don't care that much. They're interested in debate rather than paragraph punctuation.
I, like most people here, talk about things we have experience with, that includes family, work experience, education, dealings with WINZ, the material read, and sometimes things that we research. Most will usually state how confident they are with whatever they're saying and provide a reason for that or a link or a source.
I realise that you don't do that kind of typically just make bald assertions of usually challenged 'fact'. I can understand that the comparison between makes you uncomfortable. But I really don't care.
Personally I'm writing for the people whose opinion I actually care about – those who can tell me that I'm wrong, why they think that, and where they got that piece of shit idea from. This is robust debate – ideas get challenged. Assertions get destroyed. And long held beliefs may need a bit of quiet adjustment.
Robust debate is what the site was started for. It is in the first paragraph of our policy. Defending that basic principle for the site is the most common reason for moderation. If you want to have something different, then I suggest that you follow the advise in the last part of the About. Find another site or start your own
But you've been bitching about the same thing for most of a decade under one name or another. Perhaps you should get off the fence again and try it.
So, John Selway – the fellow who claims he's decent – has been commenting here for years under different names? That's enough to ring alarm bells for me. If you're a decent person you don't use different names. You stick with the same name and people can get to know you and choose to trust you or otherwise.
And I might add it is only the trolls, trouble makers and the really stupid who feel the lash of the lprent tongue. He's remarkably kind to the rest of us. 😎
It's cute you think what you do is 'robust debate'.
You don't debate, you use this forum as your fiefdom to show how much better than everyone you think you are.
People with different opinions or politics to you are dick heads (jesus man, get a better insult – it's always dick heads), you like to feel better and more important than other people and have no problem making sure everyone knows what an amazingly smart and well educated person you are compared to everyone else.
Cooke has an agenda. He asked a loaded question during the stand up. Jacinda said she knew where that was going and answered briefly. He was plainly miffed.
“There is only one logical conclusion given where we are now: we have no alternative but to commit to more radical political action. To get as many people as possible involved in campaigning activities just as often as possible. To bring such pressure to bear on our political systems, while we still have time, to shift from today’s wholly inadequate incrementalism to full-on emergency response. The case for civil disobedience is now overwhelming.”
This local body politician is and I've emailed the article to my fellow regional councillors. Yesterday, I did a video-interview on the topic of climate change that will be broadcast somewhere later this year. Some of the questions were around the issue of conservative thinking and the response from the agricultural sector.
It astounds me that although there is quite some amount of coverage via media, public speaking events, academic research/statements the apparent impact on public opinion when it comes time for political action is just not there. Labour (or any broadly supported political party) will not move on meaningful action on CC policy until such time as they see their support disappearing to the likes of the Greens.
Agreed. They will cherry-pick suitable policies and massage and water them down to make them more palatable for the not-so-radical middle. In doing this, they will remove the vital oxygen and lifeline from other minor parties. Labour is just window dressing CC because of: Covid now, something else next. In the near future, we’re likely to experience more natural disasters and pandemics and they’re going to become more and more costly to our society and economy. Short-termism kills in the long-term, just look at smoking, poor diet, or alcohol and other substance abuse: a slow wearing and grinding down of one’s health and immune system till the body (and mind) can no longer cope and shit hits the fan, literally.
The real shame is seeing way too many politicians and party officials across the spectrum prepared to squander decades of future funding right now propping up yesterdays' priorities in the face of increasing threats (the 2022 global financial crash, 2023 foot and mouth outbreak, 2024 drought, Covid-25, the 2027 algal bloom..) – rather than on the fundamental changes to reduce the harm of climate change and severe economic and social dislocation.
Representing cowardly voters and lobbyists can't be a satisfying career. Yet here we are.
It astounds me that although there is quite some amount of coverage via media, public speaking events, academic research/statements the apparent impact on public opinion when it comes time for political action is just not there.
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
Why do you think that politicians, from both National and Labour, are always going on about jobs?
People don't have the time or energy to get riled up about the damage the present system is causing and they're dependent upon the system continuing to 'work'.
Even when politicians do go on about transformation they're not talking about changing the system. They're there to keep the same failed system in place for the rich.
A 1 News Colmar Brunton poll has Jones on just 15 per cent support, with National's Matt King, the incumbent, on 46 per cent and Labour candidate Willow Jean-Prime on 31 per cent.
503 eligible Northland electorate voters on the general roll were polled by landline (402) or from Colmar Brunton’s online panel (101). The purpose of including the online sample was to target demographic groups who are less likely to have access to a landline.
The maximum sampling error is approximately ±4.3%-points at the 95% confidence level. Results higher and lower than 50% have a smaller sampling error. The data has been weighted to align with Stats NZ population counts for age, gender, ethnic identification in Northland.
So a Stuff political journalist thinks voters deserve a contest of ideas.
Well, a Stuff journalist thinks the people deserve something substantial to challenge their minds and promote considered discussion?
Excuse me? This is 2020, this is New Zealand. They've moved us on to other ways of operating. We don't do that any more. They want to turn on the 'serious' tap when they took out all the plumbing for it years ago.
That's pretty scary. I assume this is a civil case and to issue a no notice warrant ( instead of discovery?) or in the case of reputation concerns – external evidence – I would have though the potential financial losses would have to be pretty high and pretty certain because reputation damage loss relies on external spread so can be otherwise proved.
To go further and run it over a dwelling which may contain other people who may be absolutely unrelated to the issue in question is appalling. I see the court appointed a lawyer so at some level they were not happy but still – at that level it's treating it more like a criminal offence. Would be interesting to hear from a few lawyers on this.
I mean could you see say whaleoil or kiwi blog or here being issued with a no notice warrant.
I mean could you see say whaleoil or kiwi blog or here being issued with a no notice warrant.
It has been requested for here at least once (by Dermot aka Dimwit Nottingham in 2015) on what was technically a criminal charge. He’d run a private prosecution against APN NZ, ODT, Pete George and me. His claim was that ODT had reprinted, and that PG and myself had quoted from a court report article by the NZ Herald. He claimed that the original NZH article had caused contempt of court by violating the court orders on identity suppression (they hadn’t in my view).
The judge turned down the search warrant request and I only found that it’d be requested with a published judicial decision made against Dimwit complaining about the judge turning it down amongst other matters.
Needless to say, Dimwit lost the case because he managed a number of days in court as a private prosecution without establishing that APN NZ owned the NZ Herald (they didn’t directly – it is directly owned by NZME). He also managed to somehow not establish that I had anything to do with this site. I subsequently helped bankrupt him for unpaid court ordered costs from both the original trial and the appeal.
However since 2009, this site has always encrypted the entirety of the site including its logs and backups. While I could eventually be forced to divulge access in a criminal trial, I’d really need to establish in a court that I’d actually need to as well – since it’d also open up access to other confidential information.
I'd have thought judges would be pretty careful about issuing warrants without notice when it may be no more than civilian vigilantism. It also is likely to involve the party being ambushed having to pay legal fees which can multiply at the rate of … without any opportunity to answer in a less expensive situation or to get their costs and damages. It would be really interesting to see the judicial reasoning- otherwise they are facilitating some pretty extreme bullying
Deceiving graph. Mask-wearing counties (n=15) have cases drop from ca. 20 to 16 cases per 100,000 and in non-mask-wearing counties (n=90) cases stay around 9 per 100,000.
“The no mask counties are flat,” Norman said. “There’s no activities that are going on — masks or otherwise — that account for or causing any improvement.”
Incognito, any chance you could edit the image ref so that the second y-axis scale on the right for the blue line shows up?
It's also worth noting the mask-mandate counties are the high-population counties, so the higher population density could well account for the higher initial infection rate:
“The 15 counties that have mask mandates represent two-thirds of the population of the state of Kansas,” he said. “So yes, there’s 90 counties that account for the no mask mandate that reflect the other one-third.”
I’ve adjusted the image size; it did show up fine in the back-end, you see, and I rarely visit the front-end.
I think the graph is tantalising but without knowing anything about confounding factors, I would not take it at face value. It reminds me of early comparisons between lock-down and non-lock-down regions/states/countries. The non-lock-down places looked they were doing quite well but this was largely because people were self-isolating at home. Mask-wearing may be an easy metric but it is likely to be a surrogate of a whole raft of behavioural differences and changes. That said, Dr Norman might genuinely believe that data.
Urban V rural; the denser the population, the higher the transmission rate.
“The 15 counties that have mask mandates represent two-thirds of the population of the state of Kansas,” he said. “So yes, there’s 90 counties that account for the no mask mandate that reflect the other one-third.”
It shouldn’t take much convincing that the slope of the red line represents an improvement of the per capita COVID-19 cases over a four-week period, Norman said.
“The no mask counties are flat,” Norman said. “There’s no activities that are going on — masks or otherwise — that account for or causing any improvement.”
The 90 counties representing the blue line could see a dramatic downward slope in their case numbers if they required masks, Norman said.
An excellent episode of The Listening Post last night.
Murdoch's misinformation: COVID-19, China and climate change
Manipulation via murdoch's media outlets in Aussie (Sky News etc) and the USA (FOX etc).
But what's really interesting is Richard Gizbert's interview with Malcolm Turnball. The ex Aussie PM is now condemning the Murdoch's, even though malcolm was happy to rise to power on the coat tails of murdochs narratives. True to form turnball attempts to turn it around at the end and blame the murdochs control on Labour
Opinions drive media sales far more than facts. Murdoch's so called news outlets should be labeled as opinion outlets.
Victoria’s Chief Medical Officer has reported today that the state’s Reproduction Rate of the virus has dropped below 1 for the first time since June, signs that the lockdown and mask wearing is working.
I have been wonderin', especially after seeing plum in the mouth Bolger on Q +A, just when are they going to dig up the bones of (another plum in the mouth) Holyoake, wire them together and put him on TV to lend a hand to the National cause.
“I'm definitely aware that people don't like me. But I don't care about being liked. I just want to be respected.
“Life is all about priorities… a lot of the areas that I choose to involve myself in I'm a disrupter. And at the end of the day, are people going to find me hard or not like what I say? Are they going to be oppositional to what I think?
“Well, I'm very clear about the things I believe in, I'm principled. I'm not very political, to be honest.”
I wonder why you chose not to quote her abuse story? Inasmuch as it reflects negatively on Labour's credibility, it is more relevant to the election campaign.
He burst into my room… he'd heard me on the radio, talking about marriage, equality, my role, and the fact that the party had endorsed it. For me, who the f… do you think you are, said I haven't got any authority, don't know my place. It’s quite layered, a senior male MP, and that is what he chose to do.
As the chair of Labour's rainbow caucus… that was my responsibility. We'd said this was a priority for us. It was my actual job.”
She took her complaint straight to the top. “My reaction was that I formally went to the leadership. I said that was unacceptable, I don't have to put up with us. I want it noted.
“Nothing happened.” She now believes Parliament should appoint an independent commissioner to investigate bullying and harassment complaints against MPs, going against the grain of many of her colleagues.
“There needs to be some accountability. We have to have something that protects those who don't have the power over those who do. Let’s put it to the vote, like we do legislation.”
Goff would have been the leader when it happened. Perhaps the Labour patriarchs were in a post-Helen resurgent phase? Anyway, the moral of the story is that senior Labour male parliamentarians swearing at junior Labour female parliamentarians was okay nine years ago.
I found her comment about not being 'political' more revealing about why she may have run into trouble with her career choice. Someone else was bound to find allegations of abuse more appealing and here we are.
Fair enough. Must be a generational perspective – it would never have occurred to me to use political in the narrow sense she apparently used it.
I see her stance as admirable, moral and political in the wider sense. Someone who acts politically on the basis of principle is actually the ideal politician!
This Jacinda worship is getting a bit childish, scary and ridiculous. I doubt whoever was in charge would really have responded differently, likewise who ever wins I doubt Covid strategy will be much different going forward, hence an election on Covid only does nz a disservice
Soimun was going to cut taxes and have a bonfire of regulations as the response. Don't you remember that?
Since then we've had all kinds of stories about opening the border sooner and quicker for students and other various and sundries. So yeah, nah, National have persuaded me their Covid strategy would be quite different to the current strategy.
What one does and says in opposition and what one does in power are 2 different things. Labour are surly an example of that over the last 3 years Ignoring who would have done Covid better, I hope this election is not just a contest and swinging purses at 20 paces on Covid
What one does and says in opposition and what one does in power are 2 different things.
Well, yeah, but the usual pattern of that is to promise really difficult stuff that most people want, and then actually do at best half-assed renditions of something not quite what was promised that hardly anyone is happy with.
The Nats went straight into promising half-assed renditions of obvious fuckups that hardly anyone wants right from the get-go.
Jacinda worship gives power to Jacinda and if Labour wins the election her power will continue until something in the media that worshipers believe undermines it. As for what she will do with the power apart from controlling caucus and drugging the populace with kindness and compassion who knows ? I hope I live to see the corruption her power is leading to, as in the days of Muldoon and Lange. And the sequel.
The National Party would have implemented limited restrictions instead of a full lockdown. They would have put business and wealth creation above everything else. Yes those things are important, but not at the expense of sickness and death. If National had power when Covid-19 hit, NZ would now be like Melbourne or worse. National were pushing for travel bubbles and the return of international students months ago and that would have been a total disaster. Looking to the future, I simply don't trust the National Party to manage the borders and keep NZ safe from Covid-19.
The Labour-led government has worked through the complex issues of managed isolation and reacted quickly to address problems. Now is not the time to give that crucial responsibility to an inexperienced National/ACT government. The majority of voters understand this.
The MOH and WHO give advice and recommendations, but the government makes the decisions and implements the heath response. Our PM and government made the correct decisions, protected people from Covid-19 and saved lives. They continue to do so. I trust Jacinda Ardern to keep us safe.
I mean, the proportion of world leadership that went hard at it from the get-go is close to fuckall, so good on you for assuming that NZ had not one but two main political parties prepared to do the hard yards early on and go for elimination.
It was stated National policy to bring in international students and open a bubble to Australia, months ago. National called for level 4 to be less strict, to move to level 3 earlier, and level 2 earlier. All well documented. It was even – crazy, but it's true – the view of National's current front bench that we should be out panic buying (see David Bennett). So … if we’re going to pretend they would have done the same, let's not rewrite history so soon, give it a year or two before we play that game.
Yup. But I like Red's optimism that they was only politicking, and that if the nats had been in government the NZ covid response would have been as good as what we actually did. No shortcuts on lockdown, no loosening of the borders, none of that.
Blimey, might have to vote Green this time. There's some great stuff in here targeting what I believe is the most fixable part of the intergenerational inequality spiral. It will reduce crime and increase NZ’s productivity.
deliver enough affordable rental homes to clear the social housing waiting list within five years
stimulate a sustainable non-profit rental sector by offering Crown financial guarantees for community providers to build new rental properties
remove funding and regulatory barriers to encourage community housing projects
expand the current Progressive Home Ownership and Warmer Kiwi Homes programmes
make renting fairer through regulating property managers, and introducing a rental Warrant of Fitness
overhaul the building code.
You'd never see Twyford doing this sort of work for low-income and vulnerable communities.
The goal is to clear the social housing list – currently about 18,000 – within five years.
The party wants to create a non-profit rental sector by offering Crown guarantees for Community Housing Providers, including iwi, to build new properties which can be rented out long-term.
That would include $250 million in seed funding for "newly built community non-profit rental homes".
…
The waiting list for social housing is at a record high, and in response, the Greens want government agencies to gear up and for Kāinga Ora's borrowing limit to be increased from $7.1 billion to $12b over the next five years "to allow it to scale up the Crown build programme to 5000 new homes a year".
"This funding will be available to support Kāinga Ora to build homes directly, and to contract building to community housing providers."
Oh I'd say that's going on as well, along with careful positioning statements by the PM so as not to scare off the Nat voters who have come across seeking stability and continuity.
If co-ordinated, Labour and the Greens are together wanting to span the space between full left and the dreaded centre or swing vote. A truely broad church of appeal.
If deliberate this marks a very sophisticated and powerful collaboration and use of the MMP environment.
The core of getting a persistent re-electable vote in NZ is to occupy the centre. Centre-left or centre-right. It means that you have in a MMP environment, enough mass in the house to push policies through. It is hard to do that if you're (say) the Alliance or Act. All that happens is that the people voting against you.
But National is pretty clearly moving further right and away from the centre and was all the way through the Key years. That was why they allowed social issues with low investment like housing and immigration related issues of infrastructure to pile up using the GFC as an excuse.
However it has become more explicit now with Bridges, Collins, and shortly Luxton. More of a property owners party as the actual number of property owners diminish and housing becomes more affordable. The number of economic 'liberals' identifiable in the party are diminishing as their MPs resign and the conservative side are steadily gaining influence.
But Labour get creamed when they start trying to do anything that is too different or too experimental. More radical change has to come from the coalition parties who can cop the blame if it all turns to custard. The Centre party will concentrate on pushing through policy that deals with extant problems like finishing the CRL, fixing the court system, shifting immigration policies, fixing hospitals, and paying for super.
I suspect that if we lose NZF (populist and centrist) then that will become the pattern.
Yes yes yes yes, that is exactly what is happening, Labour = "extreme centrist" (according to the media, ha!!) & Greens get to be "left", ironically it's only the anti Greens who so far have seen this, everyone else is hassling Labour for being 'meh', the RW are voting Labour to oust Greens, & Green supporters (Like me!) are quite happy with it all. I've never seen Labour as Left, I've said before, they are the only 'centrist' party.
I actually want the Green Party to stay in parliament, albeit without any real influence. My reasoning more so for democracy, just as the rwnj need some where to go and deserve representation as do the lwnj to keep them off the streets. One day however I would like to see a new real Green Party ( not watermelons) unhindered by square dancing and SJWs go into coalition with a national government as mused by county Jim is his latest book
Quite what value single issue parties are to government I will never understand. You and the other blue-greens seem to want a green party having absolutely no position on anything other than the environment.
Not at all, our beef is the high jacking of the green label to mean you must be a socialist and overly woke This does more harm than good as it keeps the green agenda at the margins
Not that I've been that close to the Green party since the start but I can't remember them without a social conscience alongside their environmental conscience. They say the two are not separable.
Also, you said 'woke' which immediately raises alarm bells with me as to your agenda.
That’s the issue the argument that to have social conscience you must be a socialist and similarly to be green you must be socialist as though it is some self evident truth or axiom
Greens will never hook up with the Nats, forget about it. Labour are more likely to. For the Greens to hook up with Nats, they'd have to get their supporters support, & basically be a patsy party like what happened to MP & ACT. Nats still don't get MMP, & long may that continue. (Look at Bergen, their Green Party leader became PM, with the equivelants of Labour & National (the 2 biggest parties) negotiating portfolios (the RW take finance, the LW social stuff, & all co operate). Hard work of course! But maybe we will mature in time. & fuck your 'woke' bullshit, look where it's got Shane Jones, hyuck!!!
"Not that I've been that close to the Green party since the start"
Well I have and red is correct IMHO. What the greens attempt to ram thru as social justice is along way away from just and is not founded on environmental wisdom. They have poisoned the brand and we all are paying the price of not having a coherent voice for the environment.
I do not see a way forward for the Greens at this time
There is a non-left "green" party to vote for. They got a whole heap of publicity when they were launched. Their leader was all over the media. Remember?
The only problem is that absolutely nobody wants to vote for them. They register zero in the polls. Not 1%. Absolute zero.
They are in the centre , National and Labour, but can’t say they are green The Green Party should be ashamed of itself they have appropriated the word green with a hard left agenda, a big no no in this day and age. As a result green issue are pushed to the margin
[Fixed another typo in your e-mail address. Please be more careful next time, thanks]
"Hard Left", ha!!! Extreme Centre, eye roll. The RW may have a social conscience, they just don't wanna pay for it. Whereas the LW (hard or soft), want to socialise the cost, because we all pay in the long run. Nothing wrong with a bit of Morris Dancing or photos with unicorns, BFD.
That is completely false. National MPs have been rushing to call themselves "Blue-Green", and they signed up to the zero carbon bill. Now, they are nowhere near green enough for me personally, but that's beside the point: they claim to be green.
I don't think I'd describe the Greens as hard anything, except perhaps hardworking – certainly not hard Left – perhaps Te Papa must run a sample gulag exhibit so that the ignorant may learn to distinguish truth from rhetorical excess.
I actually want the Green Party to stay in parliament, albeit without any real influence.
While I want the Greens in parliament with power hence being a member.
My reasoning more so for democracy
No, its a denial of democracy. Having people without power is, ipso facto, preventing those people being able to engage in the democratic process.
One day however I would like to see a new real Green Party
No you don't. You want a Green Party that does as its told.
We have a real green Party – one that's willing to stand on its principles. And a party that stands on its principles will never go into coalition with National because they have none.
I look forward to a party of the right that is worthy of a coalition with the Greens. Maybe liberal remnants of the Nats after they shed the rural rump.
During the early morning of Saturday 8th August 2020, two political billboards for your political party, New Conservative were illegally attached on our properties roadside fence.
The fence is more than two metres inside our surveyed boundary.
Landowner permission to display your election signage was not requested.
You or your agents not only erected your party’s billboards illegally on our private property, you/they interfered with and then actually relocated existing signage on our fence to maximise your party billboards visibility and field of vision.
We are taking legal action against the New Conservative Party on the following counts:
New Conservative Party trespassed onto our property.
New Conservative Party illegally attached two political billboards onto our fence.
New Conservative Party by illegally attaching two political billboards onto our fence have insinuated by association that we are supportive of your Party’s philosophy.
New Conservative Party by illegally attaching two political billboards onto our fence have embarrassed, tarnished and diminished our reputation and standing in our community.
Your promotional material states that the New Conservative Party believes in personal responsibility, limited government, free markets, individual liberty, traditional family values and a strong national identity.
By trespassing, erecting obnoxious political billboards, interfering and rearranging existing signage, insinuating our beliefs are similar to your party’s and embarrassing and blemishing our standing and reputation in our community hardly adheres to your claimed beliefs.
In the last 24 hour period since the New Conservative Party illegally attached the two political billboards onto our fence, we have had numerous people who have aggressively enquired about our political and moral beliefs.
We have a full range of photographic evidence which we will be supplying our legal council.
We are taking legal action and will be suing New Conservative accordingly.
170-174 Stafford Drive
Ruby Bay, Mapua
Nelson 7005
[lprent: I’m letting this comment through despite our usual policy on open contact via the page. At least it doesn’t have any email addresses of phone numbers in it. If someone knows the the New Conservatives, I’d suggest letting them know this ASAP because the Electoral Commission will appreciate this about as much as the fence owners do. ]
Your promotional material states that the New Conservative Party believes in personal responsibility, limited government, free markets, individual liberty, traditional family values and a strong national identity.
And the reason why conservatives like those things is because what they really don't like are rules that hold them to account, rules that prevent them doing whatever they like no matter how much damage it does to anything or anyone else.
And the proof of that lies in their illegal and immoral actions as stated above.
Newshub is reporting that Brownlee claims the Nats are on ‘about’ 40%. Nothing to back the claim up of course. He also says he doesn’t trust polls anymore and then goes on to say that TVNZ’s poll in Northland is really bad news for NZFirst. You couldn’t make it up!
Evidently Gerry only looks at the local news and ignores the news from the outside of NZ. How else could you explain this…
As New Zealand marks 100 days without community transmission of Covid-19, National Party deputy leader Gerry Brownlee says the Government’s warning of an approaching second wave is “very puzzling”.
There are about 3 other statements he made just in that one article (several of which appeared to be repeats) that tend to indicate that he knows nothing about Auckland politics and has a possible symptoms of a disease of age.
He certainly repeated Judith’s assertion that Ngaro will beat Twyford in Te Atatu. But along with that came a tacit admission that they are unlikely to get enough of a party vote to get their 30th ranked candidate into parliament?
From time to time the Atlantic has rather good long form articles – this one's on policing in America – though the observation on incremental change is not without merit. Where change is needed, it is often urgent for somebody.
I been seeing little bits of this story popping up, protests in Labanon, call for early elections, pissed off people sick of inept leadership, a developing story I'd imagine
I ran across a recent essay from The Brothers Krynn, which attempts to map common horror monsters onto the Seven Deadly Sins: https://canadianculturecorner.substack.com/p/horror-monsters-and-vice My interest, however, is not in the meat of the piece, but rather the opening paragraph: It is an interesting fact that in recent decades, Vampires have ...
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
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There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
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This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
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Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
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The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
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 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
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Dennis!!??
Where are you?
a fair question
People can sleep in on Sundays. There is no requirement to be here. This is a voluntary participation.
Quite why I am here is a question. I have code for work that isn't coming out and a partially written post.
But my partner is about to do a international zoom next to me – and one sided conversations about writing are so tedious.
I'm replaying Dungeon Siege 1 on steam on Ubuntu 20.04 when I have a spare half-hour. I think I might take a half hour with headphones and do some small group tactics rather than working.
Rust never sleeps 🙂
Or just old age. I find I like some old games on newer machines. DS1 came out in 2002. Running it on wine in on a 16 core linux server with 64GB RAM and a AMD RX480 video may seem like overkill. Especially in 2560×1200 video mode (the original only went up to 1280px). But it is a pleasant change.
Also way more stable on linux than playing it on windows XP.
Having a life beyond this blog.
There seems to be a lot of talk about the use of face masks of late, hence I thought (being a Sunday an all) some here may want to have a look at this clip below.
https://youtu.be/XFnUGSr3fw0
[lprent: You have provided no explanation about why you think it is worth anyone expending time to watch this.
If you can’t be bothered to expend time to write a few sentences or paragraphs explaining why you think that others should give up their time, then you’re not expressing your opinion – you’re merely astro-turfing without putting your own skin in the game.
Most people who read on this site won’t watch link spam without a explanation. All you will get are barbed comments about how much of a dickhead you are being. I don’t consider that fosters ‘robust debate’ – perhaps you’d like to disagree? To do so, you’re going to have to carefully explain your opinion and the reasons why you think we should put up with this kind of gutless crap behaviour.
But in the meantime I’d strongly suggest that you don’t waste moderator this way ever again. Weka gave you a pretty clear direction about it yesterday. Your choice and I going to insist that you make it immediately. ]
The Chair's here instead, touting for a dodgy-looking guy in a mask.
And a showy
godgold cross around his neck. Not gonna watch.*sigh* More random blathering from random dude posted by another random dude on da webz.
For those that prefer to get factual evidence-based information from actual experts that takes a lot less than 25 minutes to get across:
https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-health-advice-general-public/covid-19-use-masks-community
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/cloth-face-cover-guidance.html
Thanks Andre – those Ministry of Health guidelines are excellent – succinct and clear.
…those Ministry of Health guidelines are excellent – succinct and clear.
No.
If you've been following the MOH Guidelines since this shit kicked off, they have been anything but.
But of course…previous versions of The Guidelines disappear from their site so it makes it difficult to call them out on their inconsistencies.
But…if it makes y'all feel cumfy-cosy and well looked after by the Misery..all good.
Not living in NZ, I haven't had cause to look at the MoH website with respect to that, but conflicting/changing guidelines on CoVid 19 from people in authority are certainly not restricted to ministries of health, nor to NZ.
Altering guidelines according to latest best-available information is a good thing.
Altering guidelines according to latest best-available information is a good thing.
And I have no issue with the Misery of Health changing their guidelines. What I did, and still do have a problem with is them failing to adopt a precautionary approach from Day 1 when it came to the use of PPE for front line health workers. Despite some experts recommending this.
What I did, and still do have a problem with is the Mystery assuming(despite no evidence) that Te Virus could only be transmitted by people with symptoms. Quite possibly a significant error considering 40% of infected people are asymptomatic. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/08/08/asymptomatic-coronavirus-covid/
I have no problem with the asymptomatic Covid 19 infected free -ranging, such is the way of communities acquiring natural herd immunity. What I do have a problem with is the unnecessary risk that was taken with the health and lives of our most vulnerable by our Government choosing to follow the 'experts' who most supported the reality of our own dismal pandemic preparedness. https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/nz-35th-pandemic-preparedness
What they could have, should have done early on was to be honest and transparent with us and admit stocks of kit were dangerously low. Admit that they had no idea whether asymptomatic people could pass on infection and advise all front line health workers to take all possible precautions until the science had been done. We would have made our own fucking masks. Oh, that's right. Some of us did.
But they didn't. Did they? There have been deaths of vulnerable people and there have been cases of front line workers becoming infected. I know the precautions I took, and still take, and I know the same applied to others in the disability community. We are a resilient bunch, we've had to be, and without actually having made an OIA request for the data I suspect that many disabled people requiring care turned in number to their family bubbles. Which is why we're now being paid…somewhat ironic after a twenty year battle… to have a virus get us over the line.
We will remember though. Again, the Ministry of Health abandoned those at the coalface with near callous disregard and again they claim to have been acting according to 'best advice.'
They were caught short. They had failed to prepare for the inevitable. They denied. They obfuscated. They behaved exactly how those of us who have been unfortunate enough to have to have dealt with them expected.
Pisses me off somewhat that some folks sing their praises.
The advice I've seen from the ministry over this period has always been couched in terms of "available evidence" or "no significant evidence", and prioritisation of resources.
As for singing their praises, 100+ days of zero community transmission is pretty much the best result in the world so far. If the MoH were a sports team, they'd have a goddamned parade down Queen St. And deserve it.
Would you prefer we discuss the video exposing Labour that is doing the rounds on youtube?
Go on then.
Cool.
I think it brings into question why one would support them. What do you think?
Where's the video (which I won't watch)?
We went through this yesterday. I don't want to get into bold mode, so let me spell it out. If *you want to post videos at the top of OM, you will need to explain what the video is about. If you don't I will consider it spam and remove it.
If *you want to make claims about serious or controversial things (eg yesterday it was covid treatments, today it's exposing Labour), then you have to link to something useful to the debate. I explained what useful means yesterday.
You've been here long enough to get how things work here, and when I spend my Saturday taking the time to explain things and then see them ignored on Sunday it irritates me. The closer we get to the election the more likely I am to just ban people who have form.
You're good a provoking discussion here, I'd just like to see you make it more constructive and less flamey. Links and explanations would go a long way.
You Tube? Are you serious? I'm sure anything verifiable & of importance &interest would make into media somewhere. I've recently had a conversation getting their "information" from Youtube & Facebook they were seriously on another planet
Pinnng! Pwang!
https://twitter.com/HaggardHawks/status/1291711116448604160
…actual evidence-based information from actual experts…
Dontcha actually mean today's actual evidence-based information from today's actual experts?
Because, like, not so long ago we were told 'you don't need masks, or only if you have the symptoms of The Virus (because, like, only those with symptoms are infectious) or only if you have to get close to someone who has symptoms of the virus, and disabled people and their home based carers don't need masks..' et bleeding cetera…
And then there was the 'wearing masks is DANGEROUS, because, like, non -scientists are too thick to don and doff them properly, and the latest…'we only said "NO MASKS!!!" because (despite claims to the contrary from the wonderfully efficient Ministry of Health) there were not enough of them in the country for everyone who needed them.
A little white lie…no harm done. Right?
So hard for we mere mortals to keep up.
Good points. Thanks Rosemary.
Actual experts respond to new information and changing circumstances with updated recommendations and strategies. Misinformation artists choose their position and cherry-pick, misrepresent, and distort information to try to support their predetermined position.
One of the changed circumstances that led to the change to recommend wearing masks was better understanding and weight on the way masks reduce the likelihood an infected mask-wearer will spread their infection to others. This is particularly important given Covid's long period of pre-symptomatic infectiousness.
The reasons for the previous recommendation that masks weren't recommended remain valid. But they were based on the relative ineffectiveness of masks in protecting an individual from being infected by others, particularly when not correctly used. But now the strong collective benefit of everyone wearing masks is weighted much more heavily than the lack of personal individual benefit.
So. "Actual Experts" are those who have the Andre Tick of Approval and "Misinformation artists" don't.
Have I got that right?
SSDD
SSDD
Indeed.
Remember this… from March 27? https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2020/03/27/1103341/protective-gear-guidelines-released-amidst-supply-concerns
" Home care workers and other healthcare professionals have been crying out for access to protective gear – but the Ministry of Health boss says there are plenty in reserve.
And this…https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/413206/covid-19-41-million-additional-face-masks-coming-for-frontline-health-workers
" There is plenty of PPE available in New Zealand "
and this….https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120981315/coronavirus-new-national-ppe-distribution-system-introduced-after-faults-and-shortages
ad fucking nauseum?
And all this time they're holding the line that asymptomatic people won't be infectious so unless they're a confirmed or suspected case you don't need the kit…even if you are in close contact with vulnerable people…the sick, the disabled, the immune compromised.
The petition the nurses ran…https://www.change.org/p/ministry-of-health-make-sure-all-staff-in-hospital-have-face-masks?recruiter=68551421&recruited_by_id=8a50ea80-6976-432c-bdea-90e51e7f9dee&share_bandit_exp=message-21065010-en-GB&share_bandit_var=v2
…when not only were masks not being supplied, nurses wearing self-funded masks were ordered to remove them so as 'not to create panic.'
If The Virus is as deadly as we are told…and were told from practically Day 1…why was the Precautionary Principle not applied and have everyone treated as potential carriers?
SSDD
2020/08/09 at 10:46 am
what does SSDD mean
Slang Umm… defined here.
https://www.slang.org/ssdd-meaning-definition/
Thanks
Google is your friend.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=ssdd
If you're still struggling to choose between the answers given, well, it's not the single-sided, double-density one.
Cool cat. How did you accomplish the insertion? I couldn't see instructions for that onsite here when I looked a while back.
Instructions at https://thestandard.org.nz/faq/gravatar/#GravatarSignup
Basically you sign up with your email and a password, then upload an image from your confuser or the web. It gets you to crop your image as part of the upload process and then it deals with downsizing it for the avatar.
And it is even retroactive – it changes it everywhere on the site, including all of your old comments.
Try the old Andre at page 10
Thanks for the tip. I'll have to mull it over awhile due to the complexity involved – and do some tech learning to get the result.
Powerful design for that tech, LP, time travel automatised! 🙂
It's not complex. No more so than attaching a photo to an email. The instructions on the Gravatar site are ok-ish.
The email address needs to be the one you use for commenting here, and it needs to be a live email address you can still get into since it sends a confirmation email you need for finishing the sign-up.
Comes with wordpress. It is trying to do it the other (timestamped) way that gets hard.
I think Andre is saying that experts are characterised by their methodology, not by their actual stance/opinion at any given point in time. And moreover, it's a methodology that to execute properly requires a fair bit of prior slog in just learning things about that knowledge domain. Propagandists operate quite differently. It's an important point.
Hmm…what stood out to me (a front line, hands-on disability support provider) was that the 'experts' taking the stance that PPE was not needed unless Infection was confirmed or suspected (during the time that only symptomatic people could pass on Te Virus) were not actually the people at risk of catching the disease or worse…passing the disease onto a vulnerable person in their care.
These 'experts' might have been doing the 'hard slog', theoretically, but they were not at the actual coalface. Worse, they often treated those at the actual coalface like so much disposable shit.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/416590/nurses-infected-with-covid-19-union-calls-for-external-investigation-after-review-s-findings
Perhaps I missed the public apology to made by The Ministry, the DHBs and Uncle Ashley to those who fronted the battle and whose calls for practical support in the form of PPE and clear guidelines based on a precautionary approach were met with dismissal, denial and confusion.
From the 'experts'.
https://www.nzma.org.nz/journal-articles/covid-19-the-frontline-a-gp-perspective
My rule of thumb is that experts can be wrong from time to time and still be experts. But they cease to be experts when they don't follow their professed methodology. I have seen the latter from some in the medical profession in my experience with disability services.
Not just medicos either; much disability policy and delivery does not meet professional standards or logic.
Are you suggesting that the likelihood a mask would reduce the risk that an infected wearer could spread the infection to others was only recently discovered?
And what exactly was the evidence that increased the weight that led to the change in stance being taken?
The piece below talks about some of the epidemiological studies done this year since the start of the pandemic, as well as droplet and flow emission studies. It also touches on some of the cultural factors.
https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2020/06/417906/still-confused-about-masks-heres-science-behind-how-face-masks-prevent
I for one appreciate your public spiritedness and eagerness to share crucial information. Do you have views on the efficacy of prayer in the fighting of viral infection?
Or any on the correct pronunciation of the modern-day name for Old Siam?
Actually I think you'll find that's Old Thiam.
Sounds like somewhere a senile orange pig might go to grab a …
Gabby, I think you're being a bit neglectful of the potential efficacy of thoughts as well as prayers.
Thoughts and prayers, Andre, thoughts and prayers…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TGhgzZ8JG8
That is a stunningly powerful ad!!
Yes. But remember the Lincoln Project are Republicans. And they know that intellectually, and in policy terms, Joe Biden is an empty vessel waiting to be filled. I imagine they will be right in the queue ready to do that filling via positions in his administration.
Biden's team have cooperated very closely with the Sanders team and adopted a number of their positions.
Biden has outsourced some policy formation to the Sanders' team – our own Labour party has done this even more strongly from the Greens.
And you shouldn't expect a Biden victory to mean a cabinet full of Democrats. He will be seeking to isolate the extremes of Trump's Senate support, by including moderate Republicans.
You get that sense easily here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GzdrNsSLBU
The depth of the decay and disorder in Washington from the Trump regime will require a Biden team to focus on a few core areas for the first year. Spreading too thin is a recipe for major embarassment. Biden needs a very steady course in 2021 (should he win), in order that he sets up a smooth transition to the VP for the second term.
We'll see. Or at least I hope we will. It seems that Biden will be open to influence, but to an extent that is constrained by what his donors will permit.
Absolutely – I've been following the Lincoln project crowd and Biden. I would disagree with them on many things and am no fan of either, but I agree with them on the efficacy of the orange loon.
I prefer The Mask of Zorro.
Please check my note on your comment about your behaviour.
But I did. As I stated, there has been a lot of talk about the use of face masks of late. And the clip is about the use of face masks.
Whether people want to watch it is up to them. It's no big deal to me if they don't.
It seems those that don't want to watch it, yet want to come on here and make barbed comments are the problem your attention should be focused on opposed to the person that put up a relevant and interesting clip. Don't you think?
[6 month ban. For wasting moderator time after multiple warnings and basically ignoring what we are saying, also previous bans. You’re probably lucky I haven’t gone and looked up your ban history. The big thing for me here is that despite all your years here you still think you get to dictate how the site should operate instead of taking guidance from the mods including one of the people that owns the site. – weka]
FFS! Your opinion is this: ‘I post this 25-min video because in my opinion some people might be interested in watching it’.
In other words, you have no interest in debate and/or other opinions. In my opinion, that’s describes the behaviour of a cowardly astroturfing troll.
So, here we are again, ‘discussing’ the same old same old behaviour of you here and you have now attracted the attention of three Moderators 🙁
I think I have a solution for this 🙂
It's quite common in social media for people to post links to things they think may be of interest to others. I do it a lot to provide a variety of information and to promote discussion on various things.
You can obviously demand what you like here, but it seems odd to me, unless perhaps you don't like the content at the link.
O see that others have posted links with little or no comment without reprimand.
it's been a longstanding premise here to not spam the site. Not a hard guideline to follow. If you want to post youtubes at the top of OM esp, then introduce the vid. Likewise other content. You will notice that it's the people that post spam a lot and ignore what people are saying about it that get moderator attention.
and you know, I have no idea what the content of the video is. Seriously, none. We went through this yesterday and with some prompting TC provided some useful links that explained things (introduce the vid, back up claims of fact). If he'd done that today he wouldn't be on a six month ban now. In other words, it's zero to do with the content.
Posts of possible interest to others and conservation starters are spam?
"irrelevant or unsolicited messages sent over the Internet, typically to a large number of users, for the purposes of advertising, phishing, spreading malware"
– https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/spam
no, on this site, videos with no explanation of what they are about are spam when posted regularly by the same person who has been asked to provide explanations.
See the comment just below yours @ 2.6.2
Trolling is probably a better description than spam: not behaving in ways that match intent to have an actual discussion. Destructive to any conversation space. Brings out the worst in others.
Pete flies in, like an enraged hen, feathers flying, scaly legs akimbo, to defend The Chairman!
No Pete, I cannot, and you should know this. So, please stop making BS assertions about Moderation and particularly my Moderation here. FYI, Moderation is rarely about contents, rather lack of content/opinion and behaviour are the most common triggers.
Right now, there's already around 30 comments in the thread and no-one's the wiser as to whether video dude argues for masks being a good thing or a hoax, nor any of the reasons why.
That's something you could have easily put in a sentence or two if you wanted to start an informative discussion. And may have given people a reason to actually watch the video. Maybe.
quite.
God you’re a self involved, pompous, arrogant dick LPrent. Why are you such a wanker all the time? A little self reflection might do you some good.
[lprent: I do that all of the time. It is part of doing the work of a moderator. And I’d get hell at the back end from the other moderators if I do it in such a way that made their lives harder.
But from your comment, I have no idea what exactly you’re getting wound up about unless it is The Chairman ignoring previous warnings.
However I don’t really need a fool incoherently trying to advise me of my responsibilities and especially when they manage to
Perhaps you should reflect on the fact that you read like a complete self-entitled dimwit who couldn’t put together anything apart from a spluttering and completely meaningless indignation. Perhaps you should model yourself on Pete George. I might disagree with his indignation, but at least he is capable of framing an objection that is coherent. Clearly you’ve never been personally reflective enough to even achieve that. ]
Heh. A cock to the end you are
[lprent: As I implied above – you really are a stupid lazy and bumbling idiot – you somehow neglected to make the effort to deal with any of the points that I listed. I’m presuming that you’re just trying for the troll equivalent of death by cop. But so far all you’re managing to do is to look as stupid as the machines that service you. ]
You’re so utterly up your own ass. Tell us again about your MBA, earth sciences degree And how great you are at coding.
Just a pompous old git dripping with self importance.
John, you seem desperate for a holiday, but are being left hanging.
Can't be comfortable.
I’m just amazed at what little insight LPrent into himself. And I’m fine with copping a ban. I have great insight into my failings and success. LPrent struts around with such and unearned self importance – throwing his belief into his own masterful intellect as if he were the first person in the world to get an MBA.
its really pathetic
Ok, then. But rather than being fine with a ban you seem hell-bent on one.
It is churlish and ignorant for you to claim LPrent has 'unearned' anything regarding this forum. As far as I can tell he funds and operates the entire show for our benefit with little or no recompense for time and hardware.
For a long time I have thought you are a complete and utter toss-pot. You apparently agree.
Well, he does run this site quite successfully and has done so for years and it comes with certain bragging rights that only small troll egos cannot handle. I’ve a little more insight in what goes on behind the scenes and I’m impressed and grateful for his efforts.
Many people read this site for free and those who like to comment or even write Guest Posts get support from Lprent and other volunteers. Yet there are a few who seem to think that because this is a free platform they have a natural right to whinge and whine about how things are done here and criticise the people who (help) run this site with indemnity. Their attitude is wrong at so many levels and it is extremely frustrating having to listen to and deal with those misguided self-entitled and ungrateful small minds.
John, I’m sure you’re a decent kind of bloke, but if you cannot stand this site and/or its SYSOP, I’d suggest you leave and don’t come back.
I’m a very decent person. But I can’t stand arrogance of which LPrent is dripping it. He injects his “expertise” into nearly every post and comment. “Oh, I code”, “something something my MBA”, “earth science degree”. Well done you’ve succeeded…. like many many other people.
then the constant use of the term “dick heads”. Jesus man, get the fuck over yourself. I know I’m a nobody but I’ve carved a happy life for myself and wanks like Prent hey no truck from me. I can’t believe no one else sees it
I can’t believe no one else sees it
Perhaps it's more a case of seeing merit in not pissing on the shoes of one of the people, actually the person most responsible for providing this playground that the rest of us get to use for free.
Of the thousands of comments and Posts, you tend to focus on Lprent’s knowing full well that it winds you up and it shows. Please get a grip and if you cannot get over it, please leave; you’re spoiling it for others and only thinking about your own feelings and even asking (for) others to ‘see it’. Please stop it now and please don’t do this ever again, thank you.
If you're concerned about language, then I am sure that I can find a few other languages to say the same thing in – octal perhaps. But frankly if you don't like the way that I express myself, then perhaps you should look at the way that you use it. A couple of your comments further up for instance.
Most people on the site simply don't care that much. They're interested in debate rather than paragraph punctuation.
I, like most people here, talk about things we have experience with, that includes family, work experience, education, dealings with WINZ, the material read, and sometimes things that we research. Most will usually state how confident they are with whatever they're saying and provide a reason for that or a link or a source.
I realise that you don't do that kind of typically just make bald assertions of usually challenged 'fact'. I can understand that the comparison between makes you uncomfortable. But I really don't care.
Personally I'm writing for the people whose opinion I actually care about – those who can tell me that I'm wrong, why they think that, and where they got that piece of shit idea from. This is robust debate – ideas get challenged. Assertions get destroyed. And long held beliefs may need a bit of quiet adjustment.
Robust debate is what the site was started for. It is in the first paragraph of our policy. Defending that basic principle for the site is the most common reason for moderation. If you want to have something different, then I suggest that you follow the advise in the last part of the About. Find another site or start your own
But you've been bitching about the same thing for most of a decade under one name or another. Perhaps you should get off the fence again and try it.
Ok, I'm going to put my spoke in too.
So, John Selway – the fellow who claims he's decent – has been commenting here for years under different names? That's enough to ring alarm bells for me. If you're a decent person you don't use different names. You stick with the same name and people can get to know you and choose to trust you or otherwise.
And I might add it is only the trolls, trouble makers and the really stupid who feel the lash of the lprent tongue. He's remarkably kind to the rest of us. 😎
It's cute you think what you do is 'robust debate'.
You don't debate, you use this forum as your fiefdom to show how much better than everyone you think you are.
People with different opinions or politics to you are dick heads (jesus man, get a better insult – it's always dick heads), you like to feel better and more important than other people and have no problem making sure everyone knows what an amazingly smart and well educated person you are compared to everyone else.
Fuck sake man, get some perspective.
I think John needs self-isolation more than anything.
Or has had a bit much, and wants to receive a virtual spanking just for the variation in sensation.
Not for the first time a politic journo assumes that what they want is what we all want.
“At some point we could all use a little less triangulation and bit more of an ideological clash.“
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300077606/election-2020-labour-launch-an-extremely-centrist-campaign
Cooke has an agenda. He asked a loaded question during the stand up. Jacinda said she knew where that was going and answered briefly. He was plainly miffed.
“There is only one logical conclusion given where we are now: we have no alternative but to commit to more radical political action. To get as many people as possible involved in campaigning activities just as often as possible. To bring such pressure to bear on our political systems, while we still have time, to shift from today’s wholly inadequate incrementalism to full-on emergency response. The case for civil disobedience is now overwhelming.”
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/oram-how-we-can-confront-the-climate-crisis
Is anyone listening?…..it appears that perhaps 5 or 6% of kiwis may have half an ear attuned.
This local body politician is and I've emailed the article to my fellow regional councillors. Yesterday, I did a video-interview on the topic of climate change that will be broadcast somewhere later this year. Some of the questions were around the issue of conservative thinking and the response from the agricultural sector.
It astounds me that although there is quite some amount of coverage via media, public speaking events, academic research/statements the apparent impact on public opinion when it comes time for political action is just not there. Labour (or any broadly supported political party) will not move on meaningful action on CC policy until such time as they see their support disappearing to the likes of the Greens.
Homo Sapiens my arse.
Agreed. They will cherry-pick suitable policies and massage and water them down to make them more palatable for the not-so-radical middle. In doing this, they will remove the vital oxygen and lifeline from other minor parties. Labour is just window dressing CC because of: Covid now, something else next. In the near future, we’re likely to experience more natural disasters and pandemics and they’re going to become more and more costly to our society and economy. Short-termism kills in the long-term, just look at smoking, poor diet, or alcohol and other substance abuse: a slow wearing and grinding down of one’s health and immune system till the body (and mind) can no longer cope and shit hits the fan, literally.
The real shame is seeing way too many politicians and party officials across the spectrum prepared to squander decades of future funding right now propping up yesterdays' priorities in the face of increasing threats (the 2022 global financial crash, 2023 foot and mouth outbreak, 2024 drought, Covid-25, the 2027 algal bloom..) – rather than on the fundamental changes to reduce the harm of climate change and severe economic and social dislocation.
Representing cowardly voters and lobbyists can't be a satisfying career. Yet here we are.
I’d call it the Watercare mentality.
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
Upton Sinclair
Why do you think that politicians, from both National and Labour, are always going on about jobs?
People don't have the time or energy to get riled up about the damage the present system is causing and they're dependent upon the system continuing to 'work'.
Even when politicians do go on about transformation they're not talking about changing the system. They're there to keep the same failed system in place for the rich.
Oops NZF
Jones on 15%!!!
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12354862
A 1 News Colmar Brunton poll has Jones on just 15 per cent support, with National's Matt King, the incumbent, on 46 per cent and Labour candidate Willow Jean-Prime on 31 per cent.
And Peters wants the elderly to get out and work
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300077570/your-country-needs-you–winston-peters-pitch-to-baby-boomers-and-older-kiwis
That sounds like a winner!!!
Massive vote splitting:
King 46% National 35%
Prime 31% Labour 41%
You could assume this will be repeated in safe blue seats all over the country.
I thought I heard the figure on Q&A that approx 400 people were called on a landline.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/q-poll-sees-nz-first-s-shane-jones-in-third-place-crucial-northland-seat
So a Stuff political journalist thinks voters deserve a contest of ideas.
Well, a Stuff journalist thinks the people deserve something substantial to challenge their minds and promote considered discussion?
Excuse me? This is 2020, this is New Zealand. They've moved us on to other ways of operating. We don't do that any more. They want to turn on the 'serious' tap when they took out all the plumbing for it years ago.
Nice analogy. The media made politics about personality over policy. Bit late for them to be crying foul now.
this guy
https://twitter.com/DineshDSouza/status/1291944128184557568
What I love is that the repugs are acting like the shitgibbon habitually uses Australian-English pronunciations, rather than Jersey Thuggese.
So very "christian". When will charitable status be removed from these rabid sects? https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300063194/former-exclusive-brethren-members-hit-with-dawn-raids-legal-suits-after-speaking-out-against-the-secretive-christian-sect
Considering the reports of their abuse of others we should probably be jailing them.
That's pretty scary. I assume this is a civil case and to issue a no notice warrant ( instead of discovery?) or in the case of reputation concerns – external evidence – I would have though the potential financial losses would have to be pretty high and pretty certain because reputation damage loss relies on external spread so can be otherwise proved.
To go further and run it over a dwelling which may contain other people who may be absolutely unrelated to the issue in question is appalling. I see the court appointed a lawyer so at some level they were not happy but still – at that level it's treating it more like a criminal offence. Would be interesting to hear from a few lawyers on this.
I mean could you see say whaleoil or kiwi blog or here being issued with a no notice warrant.
It has been requested for here at least once (by Dermot aka Dimwit Nottingham in 2015) on what was technically a criminal charge. He’d run a private prosecution against APN NZ, ODT, Pete George and me. His claim was that ODT had reprinted, and that PG and myself had quoted from a court report article by the NZ Herald. He claimed that the original NZH article had caused contempt of court by violating the court orders on identity suppression (they hadn’t in my view).
The judge turned down the search warrant request and I only found that it’d be requested with a published judicial decision made against Dimwit complaining about the judge turning it down amongst other matters.
Needless to say, Dimwit lost the case because he managed a number of days in court as a private prosecution without establishing that APN NZ owned the NZ Herald (they didn’t directly – it is directly owned by NZME). He also managed to somehow not establish that I had anything to do with this site. I subsequently helped bankrupt him for unpaid court ordered costs from both the original trial and the appeal.
However since 2009, this site has always encrypted the entirety of the site including its logs and backups. While I could eventually be forced to divulge access in a criminal trial, I’d really need to establish in a court that I’d actually need to as well – since it’d also open up access to other confidential information.
Not good for you.
I'd have thought judges would be pretty careful about issuing warrants without notice when it may be no more than civilian vigilantism. It also is likely to involve the party being ambushed having to pay legal fees which can multiply at the rate of … without any opportunity to answer in a less expensive situation or to get their costs and damages. It would be really interesting to see the judicial reasoning- otherwise they are facilitating some pretty extreme bullying
Mask V No Mask.
The 15 counties where masks are mandatory have had new infections drop by 40%; the 90 counties where masks are optional had no fall.
https://www.ottawaherald.com/news/20200805/norman-kansas-has-become-natural-experiment-in-mask-mandate-battle
That is a telling graph.
Deceiving graph. Mask-wearing counties (n=15) have cases drop from ca. 20 to 16 cases per 100,000 and in non-mask-wearing counties (n=90) cases stay around 9 per 100,000.
Incognito, any chance you could edit the image ref so that the second y-axis scale on the right for the blue line shows up?
It's also worth noting the mask-mandate counties are the high-population counties, so the higher population density could well account for the higher initial infection rate:
I’ve adjusted the image size; it did show up fine in the back-end, you see, and I rarely visit the front-end.
I think the graph is tantalising but without knowing anything about confounding factors, I would not take it at face value. It reminds me of early comparisons between lock-down and non-lock-down regions/states/countries. The non-lock-down places looked they were doing quite well but this was largely because people were self-isolating at home. Mask-wearing may be an easy metric but it is likely to be a surrogate of a whole raft of behavioural differences and changes. That said, Dr Norman might genuinely believe that data.
Thank you.
Yeah, taken alone that data is just a whisper of a hint. But it is still something that's useful to help fill in a bigger picture.
Urban V rural; the denser the population, the higher the transmission rate.
An excellent episode of The Listening Post last night.
Manipulation via murdoch's media outlets in Aussie (Sky News etc) and the USA (FOX etc).
But what's really interesting is Richard Gizbert's interview with Malcolm Turnball. The ex Aussie PM is now condemning the Murdoch's, even though malcolm was happy to rise to power on the coat tails of murdochs narratives. True to form turnball attempts to turn it around at the end and blame the murdochs control on Labour
Opinions drive media sales far more than facts. Murdoch's so called news outlets should be labeled as opinion outlets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCxXP3R4uM8
Victoria’s Chief Medical Officer has reported today that the state’s Reproduction Rate of the virus has dropped below 1 for the first time since June, signs that the lockdown and mask wearing is working.
I have been wonderin', especially after seeing plum in the mouth Bolger on Q +A, just when are they going to dig up the bones of (another plum in the mouth) Holyoake, wire them together and put him on TV to lend a hand to the National cause.
Burying themselves in plums?
At least Bolger wasn’t insisting on opening the borders. He seemed to disagree with Key and co.
Louisa Wall profiled by Andrea Vance: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122339382/why-labour-mp-louisa-wall-refuses-to-know-her-place
None of Louisa Wall's beliefs match any of mine so I won't be voting for her or, I suspect, any Party that has her in their fold.
Good to know.
I wonder why you chose not to quote her abuse story? Inasmuch as it reflects negatively on Labour's credibility, it is more relevant to the election campaign.
Goff would have been the leader when it happened. Perhaps the Labour patriarchs were in a post-Helen resurgent phase? Anyway, the moral of the story is that senior Labour male parliamentarians swearing at junior Labour female parliamentarians was okay nine years ago.
I found her comment about not being 'political' more revealing about why she may have run into trouble with her career choice. Someone else was bound to find allegations of abuse more appealing and here we are.
Fair enough. Must be a generational perspective – it would never have occurred to me to use political in the narrow sense she apparently used it.
I see her stance as admirable, moral and political in the wider sense. Someone who acts politically on the basis of principle is actually the ideal politician!
Anti-Netanyahu/corruption protests in Israel.
https://twitter.com/talschneider/status/1292160178775891969
Israelis despise Yair Netanyahu.
https://twitter.com/gbenaharon/status/1289647505605455872
This Jacinda worship is getting a bit childish, scary and ridiculous. I doubt whoever was in charge would really have responded differently, likewise who ever wins I doubt Covid strategy will be much different going forward, hence an election on Covid only does nz a disservice
Soimun was going to cut taxes and have a bonfire of regulations as the response. Don't you remember that?
Since then we've had all kinds of stories about opening the border sooner and quicker for students and other various and sundries. So yeah, nah, National have persuaded me their Covid strategy would be quite different to the current strategy.
What one does and says in opposition and what one does in power are 2 different things. Labour are surly an example of that over the last 3 years Ignoring who would have done Covid better, I hope this election is not just a contest and swinging purses at 20 paces on Covid
What one does and says in opposition and what one does in power are 2 different things.
Well, yeah, but the usual pattern of that is to promise really difficult stuff that most people want, and then actually do at best half-assed renditions of something not quite what was promised that hardly anyone is happy with.
The Nats went straight into promising half-assed renditions of obvious fuckups that hardly anyone wants right from the get-go.
surly is right!! Surely!!
Jacinda worship gives power to Jacinda and if Labour wins the election her power will continue until something in the media that worshipers believe undermines it. As for what she will do with the power apart from controlling caucus and drugging the populace with kindness and compassion who knows ? I hope I live to see the corruption her power is leading to, as in the days of Muldoon and Lange. And the sequel.
The National Party would have implemented limited restrictions instead of a full lockdown. They would have put business and wealth creation above everything else. Yes those things are important, but not at the expense of sickness and death. If National had power when Covid-19 hit, NZ would now be like Melbourne or worse. National were pushing for travel bubbles and the return of international students months ago and that would have been a total disaster. Looking to the future, I simply don't trust the National Party to manage the borders and keep NZ safe from Covid-19.
The Labour-led government has worked through the complex issues of managed isolation and reacted quickly to address problems. Now is not the time to give that crucial responsibility to an inexperienced National/ACT government. The majority of voters understand this.
The MOH and WHO give advice and recommendations, but the government makes the decisions and implements the heath response. Our PM and government made the correct decisions, protected people from Covid-19 and saved lives. They continue to do so. I trust Jacinda Ardern to keep us safe.
1000%
I mean, the proportion of world leadership that went hard at it from the get-go is close to fuckall, so good on you for assuming that NZ had not one but two main political parties prepared to do the hard yards early on and go for elimination.
We need more optimists in the world.
It was stated National policy to bring in international students and open a bubble to Australia, months ago. National called for level 4 to be less strict, to move to level 3 earlier, and level 2 earlier. All well documented. It was even – crazy, but it's true – the view of National's current front bench that we should be out panic buying (see David Bennett). So … if we’re going to pretend they would have done the same, let's not rewrite history so soon, give it a year or two before we play that game.
Yup. But I like Red's optimism that they was only politicking, and that if the nats had been in government the NZ covid response would have been as good as what we actually did. No shortcuts on lockdown, no loosening of the borders, none of that.
lol the world needs naive dreamers sometimes 🙂
Try Trump's USA. Bridges?
You don’t mention Bloomfield’s admiration group?
The wonderful, wonderful Elizabeth Ardern.
Blimey, might have to vote Green this time. There's some great stuff in here targeting what I believe is the most fixable part of the intergenerational inequality spiral. It will reduce crime and increase NZ’s productivity.
You'd never see Twyford doing this sort of work for low-income and vulnerable communities.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/08/nz-election-2020-green-party-reveals-homes-for-all-plan.html
Impressive stuff. Well thought out and totally achievable.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/423110/green-party-plans-to-clear-record-high-social-housing-list-in-five-years
Do you think Labour are deliberately allowing the Greens to fill this policy space?
Both for the benefit of the Greens vote, and because any housing policy by Labour runs the risk of being laughed at?
Don't know but that does make sense. Also keeps Lab focused on middle-class priorities for their new Nat voters; easier to communicate in campaign.
it's certainly a more attractive theory than Labour deciding to run centrist policy of its own sake.
Oh I'd say that's going on as well, along with careful positioning statements by the PM so as not to scare off the Nat voters who have come across seeking stability and continuity.
they seem contradictory, Labour wanting a centrist position because they value it, Labour wanting the Greens to pull NZ left.
It is a low risk strategy for Labour.
It doesn't seem accidental to me.
If co-ordinated, Labour and the Greens are together wanting to span the space between full left and the dreaded centre or swing vote. A truely broad church of appeal.
If deliberate this marks a very sophisticated and powerful collaboration and use of the MMP environment.
Don't forget James Shaw and Jacinda Ardern have a personal friendship that goes back a long way. They will be talking privately.
I'd say that you're right overall.
The core of getting a persistent re-electable vote in NZ is to occupy the centre. Centre-left or centre-right. It means that you have in a MMP environment, enough mass in the house to push policies through. It is hard to do that if you're (say) the Alliance or Act. All that happens is that the people voting against you.
But National is pretty clearly moving further right and away from the centre and was all the way through the Key years. That was why they allowed social issues with low investment like housing and immigration related issues of infrastructure to pile up using the GFC as an excuse.
However it has become more explicit now with Bridges, Collins, and shortly Luxton. More of a property owners party as the actual number of property owners diminish and housing becomes more affordable. The number of economic 'liberals' identifiable in the party are diminishing as their MPs resign and the conservative side are steadily gaining influence.
But Labour get creamed when they start trying to do anything that is too different or too experimental. More radical change has to come from the coalition parties who can cop the blame if it all turns to custard. The Centre party will concentrate on pushing through policy that deals with extant problems like finishing the CRL, fixing the court system, shifting immigration policies, fixing hospitals, and paying for super.
I suspect that if we lose NZF (populist and centrist) then that will become the pattern.
Yes yes yes yes, that is exactly what is happening, Labour = "extreme centrist" (according to the media, ha!!) & Greens get to be "left", ironically it's only the anti Greens who so far have seen this, everyone else is hassling Labour for being 'meh', the RW are voting Labour to oust Greens, & Green supporters (Like me!) are quite happy with it all. I've never seen Labour as Left, I've said before, they are the only 'centrist' party.
I actually want the Green Party to stay in parliament, albeit without any real influence. My reasoning more so for democracy, just as the rwnj need some where to go and deserve representation as do the lwnj to keep them off the streets. One day however I would like to see a new real Green Party ( not watermelons) unhindered by square dancing and SJWs go into coalition with a national government as mused by county Jim is his latest book
how insulting, it was Morris Dancing no Square Dancing.
I stand corrected Weka and apologise to the square dancing community and the Green Party 😊
[Fixed typo in e-mail address]
The Greens and "square"?
You must be new to politics, Red!
Its hip to be square as the song goes Robert
[Fixed typo in e-mail address]
Quite what value single issue parties are to government I will never understand. You and the other blue-greens seem to want a green party having absolutely no position on anything other than the environment.
Not at all, our beef is the high jacking of the green label to mean you must be a socialist and overly woke This does more harm than good as it keeps the green agenda at the margins
Not that I've been that close to the Green party since the start but I can't remember them without a social conscience alongside their environmental conscience. They say the two are not separable.
Also, you said 'woke' which immediately raises alarm bells with me as to your agenda.
That’s the issue the argument that to have social conscience you must be a socialist and similarly to be green you must be socialist as though it is some self evident truth or axiom
Greens will never hook up with the Nats, forget about it. Labour are more likely to. For the Greens to hook up with Nats, they'd have to get their supporters support, & basically be a patsy party like what happened to MP & ACT. Nats still don't get MMP, & long may that continue. (Look at Bergen, their Green Party leader became PM, with the equivelants of Labour & National (the 2 biggest parties) negotiating portfolios (the RW take finance, the LW social stuff, & all co operate). Hard work of course! But maybe we will mature in time. & fuck your 'woke' bullshit, look where it's got Shane Jones, hyuck!!!
"Not that I've been that close to the Green party since the start"
Well I have and red is correct IMHO. What the greens attempt to ram thru as social justice is along way away from just and is not founded on environmental wisdom. They have poisoned the brand and we all are paying the price of not having a coherent voice for the environment.
I do not see a way forward for the Greens at this time
That's fine xanthe, social issues are not a priority for you, but they are for the Green Party and have been for some time.
They are a stronger voice in parliament because of this.
You view social issues as "poison". I have to say that is a real shame and it makes me wonder what this forum offers you if that is truely the case.
dont be a wanker mutts
No where do i say or imply that social issues are not a priority to me!
Social issues are in fact very important to me. I am deeply offended when i see them leveraged in ignorance in a polarizing manner for political gain.
Anyone who goes into this area needs to do so in a careful, informed manner.
Your bullying response to me founded on misrepresentation fairly sums up where the greens went off the rails.
There is a non-left "green" party to vote for. They got a whole heap of publicity when they were launched. Their leader was all over the media. Remember?
The only problem is that absolutely nobody wants to vote for them. They register zero in the polls. Not 1%. Absolute zero.
So where are these mystery "green" voters?
They are in the centre , National and Labour, but can’t say they are green The Green Party should be ashamed of itself they have appropriated the word green with a hard left agenda, a big no no in this day and age. As a result green issue are pushed to the margin
[Fixed another typo in your e-mail address. Please be more careful next time, thanks]
[Fixed another typo in your e-mail address. Please be more careful next time, thanks]
"Hard Left", ha!!! Extreme Centre, eye roll. The RW may have a social conscience, they just don't wanna pay for it. Whereas the LW (hard or soft), want to socialise the cost, because we all pay in the long run. Nothing wrong with a bit of Morris Dancing or photos with unicorns, BFD.
That is completely false. National MPs have been rushing to call themselves "Blue-Green", and they signed up to the zero carbon bill. Now, they are nowhere near green enough for me personally, but that's beside the point: they claim to be green.
https://www.politik.co.nz/2019/11/11/how-bridges-letthe-blue-greens-redefine-national/
I don't think I'd describe the Greens as hard anything, except perhaps hardworking – certainly not hard Left – perhaps Te Papa must run a sample gulag exhibit so that the ignorant may learn to distinguish truth from rhetorical excess.
People are part of the environment. It is your idiotic reductionist thinking that is the problem here.
Nah, Red is just angling for another long/permanent ban; it didn’t take long at all.
While I want the Greens in parliament with power hence being a member.
No, its a denial of democracy. Having people without power is, ipso facto, preventing those people being able to engage in the democratic process.
No you don't. You want a Green Party that does as its told.
We have a real green Party – one that's willing to stand on its principles. And a party that stands on its principles will never go into coalition with National because they have none.
I look forward to a party of the right that is worthy of a coalition with the Greens. Maybe liberal remnants of the Nats after they shed the rural rump.
With solar panels, perhaps?
To
Leighton Baker, New Conservative Leader
© New Conservative, Authorised by Kevin Stitt, 35 Lenore Rd, Mangere
During the early morning of Saturday 8th August 2020, two political billboards for your political party, New Conservative were illegally attached on our properties roadside fence.
The fence is more than two metres inside our surveyed boundary.
Landowner permission to display your election signage was not requested.
You or your agents not only erected your party’s billboards illegally on our private property, you/they interfered with and then actually relocated existing signage on our fence to maximise your party billboards visibility and field of vision.
We are taking legal action against the New Conservative Party on the following counts:
New Conservative Party trespassed onto our property.
New Conservative Party illegally attached two political billboards onto our fence.
New Conservative Party by illegally attaching two political billboards onto our fence have insinuated by association that we are supportive of your Party’s philosophy.
New Conservative Party by illegally attaching two political billboards onto our fence have embarrassed, tarnished and diminished our reputation and standing in our community.
Your promotional material states that the New Conservative Party believes in personal responsibility, limited government, free markets, individual liberty, traditional family values and a strong national identity.
By trespassing, erecting obnoxious political billboards, interfering and rearranging existing signage, insinuating our beliefs are similar to your party’s and embarrassing and blemishing our standing and reputation in our community hardly adheres to your claimed beliefs.
In the last 24 hour period since the New Conservative Party illegally attached the two political billboards onto our fence, we have had numerous people who have aggressively enquired about our political and moral beliefs.
We have a full range of photographic evidence which we will be supplying our legal council.
We are taking legal action and will be suing New Conservative accordingly.
170-174 Stafford Drive
Ruby Bay, Mapua
Nelson 7005
[lprent: I’m letting this comment through despite our usual policy on open contact via the page. At least it doesn’t have any email addresses of phone numbers in it. If someone knows the the New Conservatives, I’d suggest letting them know this ASAP because the Electoral Commission will appreciate this about as much as the fence owners do. ]
I am on the fence on this one
The NCs billboards ask a question, then answer, "No Thanks". I'm looking for a way to easily change it to read:
New conservative, ain't that an oxymoron
And the reason why conservatives like those things is because what they really don't like are rules that hold them to account, rules that prevent them doing whatever they like no matter how much damage it does to anything or anyone else.
And the proof of that lies in their illegal and immoral actions as stated above.
test
https://image.spreadshirtmedia.com/image-server/v1/compositions/T949A5PA1998PT25X7Y0D1012778558S27/views/3,width=500,height=500,appearanceId=5,backgroundColor=000000/nonplussed-black-cat-filing-nails-full-color-mug.jpg
An image for Judith Collins with a message about kinder messages?
the cat is way too cool for Collins.
Newshub is reporting that Brownlee claims the Nats are on ‘about’ 40%. Nothing to back the claim up of course. He also says he doesn’t trust polls anymore and then goes on to say that TVNZ’s poll in Northland is really bad news for NZFirst. You couldn’t make it up!
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/08/nz-election-2020-gerry-brownlee-claims-national-is-on-about-40-percent.html
Gerry spreads himself like lard across the bread political.
He started using "about" with that level of error as a teenage boy because he thought the six inch ruler was way too long.
Gerry’s got his tinfoil hat on again…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12354991
… well if the unthinkable happened and the Nats got back in I guess it wouldn't be long before we'd need those masks …
Evidently Gerry only looks at the local news and ignores the news from the outside of NZ. How else could you explain this…
There are about 3 other statements he made just in that one article (several of which appeared to be repeats) that tend to indicate that he knows nothing about Auckland politics and has a possible symptoms of a disease of age.
He certainly repeated Judith’s assertion that Ngaro will beat Twyford in Te Atatu. But along with that came a tacit admission that they are unlikely to get enough of a party vote to get their 30th ranked candidate into parliament?
From time to time the Atlantic has rather good long form articles – this one's on policing in America – though the observation on incremental change is not without merit. Where change is needed, it is often urgent for somebody.
I been seeing little bits of this story popping up, protests in Labanon, call for early elections, pissed off people sick of inept leadership, a developing story I'd imagine
http://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2020/08/hundreds-protesters-injured-anger-simmers-beirut-live-200808234355971.html
Public and shared transport is the future. So glad this money isn’t going to More Lanes™️
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12355143