The thing about TERFs and their SWERF cousins is that they are essentially the 5th column for the Christian right. Family Fist has backed the local SWERF/TERF community for quite some time
Google: “Feminists with critical views have been referred to as “TERFs” (short for trans-exclusionary radical feminist). They generally object to the acronym and have called it a slur or even hate speech.”
Understandable. Lotsa folk hate being put in pigeon-holes, eh? But that one doesn’t quite capture the new form of hypocrisy that’s being invented in minority culture wars.
“That group of feminists that claims that trans women aren’t really women, as biological determinism is only a fallacy when it’s used against them, not when they use it against others.” https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=TERF
“In a 1959 interview on BBC TV’s Showtime, Chico Marx was asked how his brother Groucho got his name. Referring to the times when marijuana was legal and the Marx Brothers were a Vaudeville act (around 1920), he replied, “We used to wear a little bag around our neck, called a Grouch bag. In this bag we would keep our pennies, some marbles, a couple of pieces of candy, a little marijuana, whatever we could get…(laughter from the audience)… “
Careful Dennis Frank
Women have had to put up with a lot of shit over the centuries right up to this second. The style changes but there are forces at work to reduce women’s standing in the community all the time. So they are not very happy that men have managed to undermine any sisterhood that exists, and wear the ‘feminine’ as if it was a decoration, or a passport.
Till now they have had a feeling of sanctuary if they have gone into the women’s toilets, but the bloody men have found a way to insert themselves into that little nook. Now it can be like Little Red Riding Hood going into Grandmama’s house and finding something with more bristles than Gran, and more everything than Gran including bigger teeth. It is very unsettling. Their anger is quite understandable. Men actually don’t want women hanging round their toilets either; in theory it may raise some feverish excitement, but in reality they should bloody stay out of this male enclave.
Tory MP George Freeman, who last year organised the Big Tent Ideas festival in Britain (“mercilessly lampooned last summer as the “Tory Glastonbury” – a paddock of largely male Conservative supporters in red chinos”), has lurched to the radical center for this year’s design: “I have made it non-party political so that MPs, peers and others from the centre left can also get involved”. He offers a sensible rationale: “for a generation under 40 the traditional party conference is as dead as a dodo”.
I think Breiveik should be executed on the grounds of incontrovertible evidence of brutal behaviour towards others that includes the following (murdering and worst of 9 other behaviours) which result in withdrawing human respect for him and his right to life.
James and his RW fundie friends no doubt blame Norway Labour for that – not enough security to stop a RW madman bombing parliament as a distraction and then proceeding to murder 75 teenagers.
They’ll always protect their own – in this case Anders Breivik.
True that, have to purge those fuckers right after the party purge, this is sounding better and better all the time, have to come up with a term other than ‘purge’ though, something a bit more benign ….don’t want to scare the public.
The Murdoch Times cynically describes the Blairite right as “moderates”. I don’t see anything funny about that. We will now be hearing RNZ National and our television autocue readers routinely describing Yenta Hodge and her discredited cronies as “moderates.”
Hopefully most people understand that without 1080 possums will annihilate native bush- trees, plants, birds, et cetera. 1080 protesters have no viable plan for possum controll because without 1080 there isn’t one.
Crap barfly theres plenty of alternatives to the use of 1080 and imo based on a lifetime of hunting them a moderate population of possums has zero effect on either flora or fauna .
Hunting them in bad terrain yeah sure mate – I have a bridge to sell you.
Being paid for skins I used to lay bait lines the catch was marginal economically but the area I was hunting in showed tons of damage from possums. – So that was a “controlled” area possum trapping won’t take out enough of them to reduce their damage to an acceptable level IMO.
ordinarily trapping is by far the most lethal long term barfly and possums dont really like “bad terrain ” they prefer more open bush and thats where they,ll build the biggest populations .I hunt with two good dogs an a rifle these days its far less cruel and even more effective than trapping .
How can you know weston. You haven’t lived long enough to know what the flora was like before the possums multiplied. Love the fur but shooters and trappers, hunters, are notorious for putting their own interests before
the forests which are vitally important now in this part of our life-cycle.
There are enormous amounts of difficult to access areas bad terrain for a start. As well how the heck does someone work to clear an area a couple of hours walk in? you try carrying 40-50 possum skins for any distance – I tell you they get bloody heavy!!
Sure greywarshark if possums are in big numbers thats a problem just as theres a problem if any animal is in too bigger numbers for its resources but human animals are ones that historically have done the most damage to our forests .By a country mile !!!
But, but, fluoroacetate is produced by plants. It’s natural pest control. Because it’s natural it’s gotta be good, right?
“Fluoroacetate containing plants grow worldwide and cause sudden death in livestock. The southern continents of Africa, Australia and South America are the common locations of these plants. All of the plants containing fluoroacetate belong to the families Fabaceae, Rubiaceae, Bignoniaceae, Malpighiaceae and Dichapetalaceae [11].”
TVNZ ran a story on this in last night’s news: ” There’s a mind-boggling amount of trash in the world’s oceans, with much of it collected in five regions known as gyres. On September 8, a group called The Ocean Cleanup plans to deploy a plastic-cleanup system to the largest of those gyres, known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The system was designed by Boyan Slat, a 24-year-old Dutch innovator.” https://www.businessinsider.com.au/boyan-slat-ocean-cleanup-launch-into-pacific-on-september-8-2018-7?r=US&IR=T
Thomas Paine The Rights of Man – clickbait for political junkies. This a story of challenge, told humorously. Education that takes the pain out of learning.
Another thought – from a helpful bystander.
This puts the Paine back in learning.
read the article on merkin richardson in todays Sunday Magazine. richardson claims he was tired of the Blackcaps but the truth is they had had enough of him.
A global crisis is unfolding. The rapid expansion of development projects on indigenous lands without their consent is driving a drastic increase in violence and legal harassment against Indigenous Peoples.
I’ve been alerted to hundreds of cases of “criminalization” from nearly every corner of the world. These attacks—whether physical or legal—are an attempt to silence Indigenous Peoples voicing their opposition to projects that threaten their livelihoods and cultures.
My new report finds a pattern of abuse, with the private sector often colluding with governments to force Indigenous Peoples from their lands by whatever means necessary to make way for infrastructure, agriculture, mining, and extractive projects.
According to Front Line Defenders, 67 percent of the 312 human rights defenders murdered in 2017 were defending their lands, the environment, or indigenous rights, nearly always in the context of private sector projects. Around 80 percent of killings took place in just four countries: Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and the Philippines.
[…]
At the same time that justice systems are wielded as weapons against Indigenous Peoples defending their rights, there is widespread impunity for those who commit violence against Indigenous Peoples.
At the root of this global crisis is systematic racism and the failure of governments to recognize and respect indigenous land rights. Indigenous Peoples and local communities customarily own more than 50 percent of the world’s land but only have legally recognized rights to 10 percent. This enables governments to declare them “illegal” on the lands they have lived on and protected for generations.
Greed of the 10% under the control of the 1%. Western people don’t seem to realise that the Holocaust was just a practice run. Cambodia is not good to look at, and Burma or Myanmar (or more correctly Theirinmar) are in the news.
Boat people have nowhere to go so remember that the west has trumpeted itself as ‘good clean democracy’ and full of Christian values, for years and find different sorts of sharks in Australian waters. The African movement fleeing over water caused by what? Disagreements over oil and perhaps land where corporates want to grow lettuce for the rich markets out of season or something?
West Papua occasionally mentioned, they have a copper hole there, the land passed round countries like ‘pass the parcel’, the people treated shamefully.
What Joe90 has put up is just an indication of the cold, anti-human behaviour of the top people. Roger Douglas and his buddies were just the start. Now we have people in poverty in shacks, people on the streets, corruption and mismanagement and management worship encouraging generic behaviour, which is machine-like so humans and machines can be integrated smoothly.
Certainly not in Whakatipu. Even though we’ve had frosts every morning for a week we haven’t needed to light a fire, it’s that warm through the day. And kowhais in full flower on a sunny face above Shotover Delta.
Her Auckland show was ruined by old men using the question-and-answer session to give their opinions, one attendee said….
Hmmmm
A very slanted report based around a single negative comment from one attendee, about the question and answer session at the end. But total silence about what was actually said by Manning in the main part of her address. It is telling that no Newshub reporter wanted to put their name to this piece of yellow journalism.
I also attended this event. And, I can tell you, it was great.
What shone through for me was Manning’s great humanitarianism.
Like Edward Snowden, or the Iraqi reporter, Muntadhar Al-Zaidi, who threw a shoe at George Bush. Chelsea Manning is one of the great iconic heroes of our time.
But it is quite clear that Manning is deeply hated and feared by the establishment, or those with something to hide.
And with good reason;
Because, there is a Manning, or a Snowden somewhere inside the DGSB or SIS.
Chelsea Manning like Eward Snowden is a polymath.
They are the geniuses the military and the secret services trust to hold all the strings.
As a child at school Manning could do complicated math in her head. She recalled her teachers, accusing her of cheating, and demanding that she show them her workings. She told them she couldn’t see the point. She said it was easier to do it in my head.
“Later”, she said, “in the army, I learnt the necessity of showing your workings. It is all about process.”
When she joined the US army as a data analyst, it was all still done on paper.
She said, “Literally a felt tip pen, and a big sheet of paper”.
This was someone who as a teenager had cut her teeth working in an IT start up.
When a militarised computer data analyst system was finally introduced. They handed it all over to Manning.
Manning made a joke.
Saying, “Uh Oh! I knew right then, that I would get into trouble.”
In her role she saw and knew everything.
All the Army’s secrets.
As well as being a math and IT genius Manning also had a didactic memory.
The detail of the data she had on Iraq was incredible. She knew by name every family in Baghdad, their street address, their profession, their hobbies, whether they might be sympathetic to the resistance to the US occupation, or not.
As she was being moved from place to place, passing wrecked houses, she knew exactly who had lived in that house, in that street. And also how they had died and who killed them.
The whole information technology system is reliant on these talented individuals.
This is its greatest weakness.
Chelsea Manning was a good soldier, and is still a good soldier.
She said that America is terrible right now. But despite that she is determined to remain, and has dedicated her life to political activism to make things better.
As a soldier Manning recounted how she worked 14 hour days straight for weeks without weekends. And said that is just what you do.
Someone from the audience asked her; “Do you feel that your life is in danger”
“The detail of the data she had on Iraq was incredible. She knew by name every family in Baghdad, their street address, their profession, their hobbies, whether they might be sympathetic to the resistance to the US occupation, or not.
As she was being moved from place to place, passing wrecked houses, she knew exactly who had lived in that house, in that street. And also how they had died and who killed them.
Someone from the audience asked her; “Do you feel that your life is in danger”
I’m interested in the opportunity Claire Curran’s resignation might provide others and the government.
A lot of talent came in at the last election, but has to wait it’s turn.
My worry is that too many of the current lot will get settled in and the new lot won’t get promoted. Curran’s push helps free up at least one place.
Who do people see possibly ready for an opportunity.
I’m particularly interested in possible new women cabinet ministers.
Deborah Russell; Kiri Allan; Ginny Anderson?
Ultimately it will be 2020 when Labour gets 45% of the vote that will really a big shift in faces, but in the meantime, who do people think the government would benefit from giving an opportunity to?
In some businesses and organisations staff will be circulated throughout the business departments learning stuff on the way and preventing boredom. It may be a way to take people off a repetitive job and give them a real idea of how such work fits into the matrix of the organisation.
Do the MPs have aides from the List who can become skilled political thinkers and organisers? And then have a chance to caretake a seat that is won by the Opposition, or to stand for a seat themselves.
How leftist entitlement works in Britain: “you get elected candidate for the Labour Party in a safe Labour seat and its assumed its a job for life, for 40 or 50 years,” says Steve Howell, who worked as Labour’s deputy director of political strategy and communications during the 2017 election, and tells the story of it in his book, Game Changer.”
“He has brought into the party hundreds of thousands of new supporters. In a general election that caught the party somewhat by surprise, he nevertheless managed to win 13 million votes, and gain seats when annihilation was predicted by all. He has also transformed the party into a vast social movement unlike any that has been seen in British politics before.”
Career electorate MPs aren’t leftist entitlement, they span all countries with electorate representatives of political parties.
The number of people looking to become active in local party branches is a tiny proportion of the population, and can become small fiefdoms. The candidate in a safe electorate doesn’t need to persuade the electorate, just the candidate selection committee of their party. And if they win, any party member wanting to take a tilt at the electorate needs to prove they’re better than an already successful candidate.
In a safe seat, you really need to fuck up hard to lose the job – either piss off the electorate committee (or take it for granted for too long), or otherwise “bug” people, lol.
Yes, fair point. In case you didn’t get around to checking it out, here’s another interesting bit: “What Momentum has correctly identified is that people who want to be involved in politics don’t necessarily want to be involved in the minutiae of local party organisation, the procedural stuff. And also, people don’t necessarily find that their local party is the place for them. “Manchester Momentum puts on a disco every month,” Ms Parker says. “Bristol Momentum meetings have campaign stalls from every kind of campaign group right across the city. You do not get that from a local Labour Party meeting. We are a bridge to something beyond the party.
It’s about innovation.”
Minister of Housing Phil Twyford announces 10,000 houses to be built in Mt Roskill on existing HNZ land, with no additional funding required from the government.
The Nats would sort this out wouldn’t they BM. Don’t build more houses, just build more motorway overpasses. The dirty poor people can sleep under them and Auckland gets more cars and trucks on the roads. It’s a win win in National’s eyes.
In the same areas as those people that Labour has imported mmmmm https://www.labour.org.nz/immigration
Without these changes there would be up to 10,000 more houses needed and up to 20,000 more vehicles on our roads annually. https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/annual-net-migration-down-7400-from-peak-in-2017
So with a drop of ONLY 7,400 on last year, only had 13,00 more cars on the road and additional need of 7,000 houses !!!
Thanks for the successful implementation of last year’s election policy. And we are being told that nz requires additional immigrates to make up for a shortage in the workforce.
You total arse hat you know full well that national had a whole new dimension of importing unskilled workers – you know this you useless prick and chose to lie about you vile filthy piece of distended rectum
(credit to Red Dwarf)
BM doesn’t genuinely believe what he wrtes. His/Her comments are designed to be provocative and disagreeable, even when they are clearly irrational and nonsensical. There is a description for this behavior in the DSM-5, which may be helful for BM to understand his/her behavior. (Just some friendly advice).
Moving essay on history, settlers, genocide, epigenetics, and crickets.
I grew up both knowing and not knowing the pain of my heritage; I was raised to consider myself white, and learned about Native Americans in school. I remember stumbling across nameless familiarities that I could not explain, resonances that did not touch my classmates. In those moments, I recognized my kinship and my history, though I had been told it was not mine. My training as a biologist assures me that there are no memories hidden in my DNA. And yet I feel them.
“A loosely-defined network of Russian state actors, state-controlled media, and armies of social media bots and trolls is said to work in unison to spread and amplify multiple narratives and conspiracies around cases like the Skripal poisoning. The goal is no longer to deny or disprove an official version of events, it is to flood the zone with so many competing versions that nothing seems to make sense.
“What is really striking is that you no longer see the Russian machine pushing a single message, it pushes dozens of messages,” said Ben Nimmo, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who studies Russian disinformation. “The idea is to confuse people.”
Other theories circulating on Wednesday included a claim that the suspects were British actors, stars of a (non-existent) KGB Spy series broadcast on British television in the 2000s. Another suggested the attempted assassination in Salisbury, and the deaths of other Russian nationals in Britain, were part of an MI6 plot. “Why do all these horrible events only happen in Britain?” asked Andrei Klimov, a Russian member of parliament, on state TV.”
It’s becoming clearer that the mass detentions in Xinjiang are one half of the campaign, while the other is a no-stone-unturned push to investigate overseas Uighurs for potential extremist links. Here’s what our reporting has found (1/x)https://t.co/bxzb7rDqlUpic.twitter.com/fVnT6RAp5p— Eva Dou (@evadou) September 1, 2018
Uighurs in a number of countries report their passport renewal requests have been denied by Chinese consulates over the past year. They are issued one-time travel documents back to China, with three-month validity. This is what it looks like pic.twitter.com/3lomZzslaB— Eva Dou (@evadou) September 1, 2018
Misdirection is correct…but I’m not providing the misdirection…
How will you know what I know if I go into it, Marty ? … Do you understand even basic networking/security models in a commercial sense?
What about at ‘intelligence’ levels ?
Read the snowden releases from a few years ago about the technologies that had were made public…
Keep in mind the nations with the most powerful military and intelligence agencies ‘have tech’…that very few humam beings would have any idea existed…myself included…
Without a certain level…you can’t even begin to imagine…
Disinformation, multiple lies, half truths, innuendo, pretend caring. And then into the deeper dirty tricks, and then deeper…
the toolbox is full of this shit, and the toolbox is used extensively – in fact disproving anything is a fools game – just create murk, and mud and blood too truth be told.
the tools to do this range from hu mans to everything else
now as we are on a public space – say whatever you want or don’t – the space is yours for a moment…
NZ’s Jacinda should be involved with this, for any number of good reasons (which means by default is perhaps totally lost by a good portion of the local myopic ruling classes that are pre-eminently political.)
A rare and extreme tsunami ripped across an Alaska fjord three years ago after 180 million tons of mountain rock fell into the water, driving a devastating wave that stripped shorelines of trees and reached heights over 600 feet, a large team of scientists documented Thursday.
The October 2015 cataclysm in Taan Fiord in Southeast Alaska appears to have been the fourth highest tsunami recorded in the past century, and its origins – tied to the retreat of a glacier – suggest it’s the kind of event we may see more of due to a warming climate.
The new study even bluntly calls it a “a hazard occasioned by climate change.”
“More such landslides are likely to occur as mountain glaciers continue to shrink and alpine permafrost thaws,” the authors, led by geologist Bretwood Higman of Ground Truth Trekking, write in Nature Scientific Reports.
It seems that Israel is doing the same thing we are. Overcrowding the country beyond its capacities apparently on purpose. Who started that then?
They are encouraging Jewish immigrants who face a housing shortage, low wages, and a fairly lacklustre economy. Professional people can’t even afford apartments and simply working doesn’t rate. Like us they have become techno-snobs and professionally obsessed and physical work is passe’. Like the USA standard tv joke ‘My son the doctor’ I guess.
Currently around 2.7 million people suffer from dementia in Japan, but that number is set to rise to around 7.3 million by 2025. Japan has the world’s oldest population, with one in four people over 65.
Euthanasia: THE best way to deal to an aging population. Unquestionably.
One question though: who will do the killing? Doctors are bound by the Hippocratic Oath, so will it be the Army? A special Police death squad? Perhaps we could bring back the hangman, not employed in this country since 1957….
News reports seem to have it that it’s normally done by underpaid age-caregivers, at least in some countries. Could be my suspicious mind reading too much into that. As for me, if I was incapacitated by pain I’d take an exit pill for sure. Mind you, if I had Alzheimers as well, I’d keep forgetting to…
In a 30-minute speech, Putin diluted the government’s plans, saying the national retirement age for women should be increased from 55 to 60, instead of 63, as previously proposed. “In our country, there is a special, gentle attitude to women,” he said.
The national retirement age for men, however, would still rise by five years, from 60 to 65.
The president also said laws should be introduced to make it an offence for employers to fire workers who are approaching pension age, as well as to clamp down on age discrimination in the workplace.
Putin said he had always been against the “painful” changes to the pension system and reminded Russians that he had pledged in 2005 that there would be no alteration to the age at which Russians can retire and claim a state pension while he was president. But he said “serious demographic problems” meant there was no alternative to the increase, which would represent the first adjustment to national retirement ages established under Joseph Stalin.
[…]
Putin said a failure to adopt the pension changes would lead to a rise in poverty and catastrophic consequences for the economy, which would leave the government unable to guarantee national security.
Barking Yenta Dame Margaret (Hodge) Tells Packed News Conference: “I Obey My … Uh … I mean… Israel’s Leader: I’m leaving for the Philippines.” The Guardian, 5 September 2018
At a packed news conference, Barking Yenta Margaret Hodge praised Prime Minister Netanyahu’s embrace of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte.
She then shocked reporters: “I’m auto-deporting to the Philippines.”
A reporter asked if she felt safe going there after Duterte said “As long as there are many beautiful women, there will be more rape cases.”
Acknowledging that she would probably be a prime target (disrespectful guffaws could be heard in the room), the Barking Yenta continued.
“You see, Duterte visited Yad Vashem, and my family are Holocaust survivors.”
But as a hush swept over the crowd, a reporter challenged her….
US to add 1500 troops to their occupation of Germany.
While Germany build 9 nuclear weaponed submarines for militant nationalist gangsters in Israel.
It does me sorrow for the refugees having to pretend they want to integrate. One Iraqi was killed for his cigarettes on the German streets of Chemnitz; causing the lefties to fall-out-of-bed. Where were the lefties and Die Toten Hosen playing as German geo-politics helped take the lives of one million Iraqis?
Good evening Newshub Yaa the start of Maori language week
I say that people should learn maori language. Why they will learn the facts about OUR history and learn the wrongs that have been forced on to maori. The reason why over half our schools don’t even have any maori curriculum is these old men don’t want the mokopunas to have a positive view of maori there are many thing that our maori tipunas have done that the rest of Papatuanuku Admire .These people would prefer that the MYTH stays with mokopunas reality of . You maori sold your land for (blankets and guns) in reality our land was taken through deceit full tactics that our society frown’s on that bad behavior at the minuet .
World suicide day that’s cool this need’s to be highlighted as a major problem in our society .
Nanain Mahuta you handled Duncan really well Mana Wahine .
Is that your problem Duncan farting or is it what comes out the whatu think of what Eco can do if I had no morels or manners .
Ka kite ano Mark the reason our sports stadiam are not full is the people have no money to pay for the tickets thats it
This is our reality in Aotearoa not just Australia the measures of our prosperity should just have house holds income performance and we should be getting house hold’s confidence as a Gauge of our country’s economic forecast . The power has been taken from the house hold and given to big banks and big business employers . Its the people the people that drive a economy policys should be made to give that Mana back to the people link below .
Ka kite ano
Australia new Prime minister is a human caused climate change Green house warming denier he deserves what he gets he carryed a lump of coal into there Parliament and backed the coal industry over his offsprings & mokopunas future Kia kaha to the protesters link is below ka kite ano
This is how shonky changed the legal frame work from serving te tangata to serving the best interest of the cheats in state services he made legal aid near impossible for the common man to get a fair trial thats a breach of Human rights ka kite ano link is below.
Eco Maori will see if the state systems work,s I have tryed again to get any lawyer rang 5 and againt the NZ Police have interfered .I will send a complanit to the Ombudsmen and see what happeneds link is below ka kite ano.
Good evening Newshub Looks like Greg O Conner has a very low IQ typical.
Ka pai to Whanganui conical for doing the correct thing including the H in its spelling of Whanganui .
I back the banning of 1080 poison this a dumb method of pest control by DOC .
I still have some links for the facts on round up you see the manufactures do the study on there poison so all the facts are skewered to suit the company’s profits who cares about the harm caused to Papatuanuku her creates or humanity.
Well come Rain Bow Warrior lll thanks for the tou toka of OUR carbon free future of Aotearoa.
The Kakapo Sir Roko he looks quite cheeky little bird he went off grid for 2 years I will go off Grid Asap .
With Sweden election results swing to the Far Right show me that they are using the internet to change people’s opinions to suit there snicking into power the left needs to start a campaign on the internet to counter there ——-.
Ka kite ano
Good evening The Crowd Goes Wild James and Wairangi Discrimination is rife look at how the Wahines Rugby team were treated by there host not very respectful.
Its was a good game by the Warriors Its a pity that there Australian host have no morels or manners .In the Aotearoa tangata whenua Papatuanuku we treat OUR guest with the utmost respect .
The Wahine Warriors had a win
Ka kite ano P.S Wai you mite have to put on a te reo teachers potai
The old bastard left his ties and his suitA brown box, mothballs and bowling shoesAnd his opinion so you'd never have to choosePretty soon, you'll be an old bastard tooYou get smaller as the world gets bigThe more you know you know you don't know shit"The whiz man" will never ...
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.The Numbers2024 could easily have been National’s “Annus Horribilis” and 2025 shows no signs of a reprieve for our Landlord PM Chris Luxon and his inept Finance Minister Nikki “Noboats” Willis.Several polls last year ...
This Friday afternoon, Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka announced an overhaul of the Waitangi Tribunal.The government has effectively cleared house - appointing 8 new members - and combined with October’s appointment of former ACT leader Richard Prebble, that’s 9 appointees.[I am not certain, but can only presume, Prebble went in ...
The state of the current economy may be similar to when National left office in 2017.In December, a couple of days after the Treasury released its 2024 Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update (HEYFU24), Statistics New Zealand reported its estimate for volume GDP for the previous September 24 quarter. Instead ...
So what becomes of you, my love?When they have finally stripped you ofThe handbags and the gladragsThat your poor old granddadHad to sweat to buy you, babySongwriter: Mike D'aboIn yesterday’s newsletter, I expressed sadness at seeing Golriz Ghahraman back on the front pages for shoplifting. As someone who is no ...
It’s Friday and time for another roundup of things that caught our attention this week. This post, like all our work, is brought to you by a largely volunteer crew and made possible by generous donations from our readers and fans. If you’d like to support our work, you can join ...
Note: This Webworm discusses sexual assault and rape. Please read with care.Hi,A few weeks ago I reported on how one of New Zealand’s richest men, Nick Mowbray (he and his brother own Zuru and are worth an estimated $20 billion), had taken to sharing posts by a British man called ...
The final Atlas Network playbook puzzle piece is here, and it slipped in to Aotearoa New Zealand with little fan fare or attention. The implications are stark.Today, writes Dr Bex, the submission for the Crimes (Countering Foreign Interference) Amendment Bill closes: 11:59pm January 16, 2025.As usual, the language of the ...
Excitement in the seaside village! Look what might be coming! 400 million dollars worth of investment! In the very beating heart of the village! Are we excited and eager to see this happen, what with every last bank branch gone and shops sitting forlornly quiet awaiting a customer?Yes please, apply ...
Much discussion has been held over the Regulatory Standards Bill (RSB), the latest in a series of rightwing attempts to enshrine into law pro-market precepts such as the primacy of private property ownership. Underneath the good governance and economic efficiency gobbledegook language of the Bill is an interest to strip ...
We are concerned that the Amendment Bill, as proposed, could impair the operations and legitimate interests of the NZ Trade Union movement. It is also likely to negatively impact the ability of other civil society actors to conduct their affairs without the threat of criminal sanctions. We ask that ...
I can't take itHow could I fake it?How could I fake it?And I can't take itHow could I fake it?How could I fake it?Song: The Lonely Biscuits.“A bit nippy”, I thought when I woke this morning, and then, soon after that, I wondered whether hell had frozen over. Dear friends, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Asheville, North Carolina, was once widely considered a climate haven thanks to its elevated, inland location and cooler temperatures than much of the Southeast. Then came the catastrophic floods of Hurricane Helene in September 2024. It was a stark reminder that nowhere is safe from ...
Early reports indicate that the temporary Israel/Hamas ceasefire deal (due to take effect on Sunday) will allow for the gradual release of groups of Israeli hostages, the release of an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails (likely only a fraction of the total incarcerated population), and the withdrawal ...
My daily news diet is not what it once was.It was the TV news that lost me first. Too infantilising, too breathless, too frustrating.The Herald was next. You could look past the reactionary framing while it was being a decent newspaper of record, but once Shayne Currie began unleashing all ...
Hit the road Jack and don't you come backNo more, no more, no more, no moreHit the road Jack and don't you come back no moreWhat you say?Songwriters: Percy MayfieldMorena,I keep many of my posts, like this one, paywall-free so that everyone can read them.However, please consider supporting me as ...
This might be the longest delay between reading (or in this case re-reading) a work, and actually writing a review of it I have ever managed. Indeed, when I last read these books in December 2022, I was not planning on writing anything about them… but as A Phuulish Fellow ...
Kia Ora,I try to keep most my posts without a paywall for public interest journalism purposes. However, if you can afford to, please consider supporting me as a paid subscriber and/or supporting over at Ko-Fi. That will help me to continue, and to keep spending time on the work. Embarrassingly, ...
There was a time when Google was the best thing in my world. I was an early adopter of their AdWords program and boy did I like what it did for my business. It put rocket fuel in it, is what it did. For every dollar I spent, those ads ...
A while back I was engaged in an unpleasant exchange with a leader of the most well-known NZ anti-vax group and several like-minded trolls. I had responded to a racist meme on social media in which a rightwing podcaster in the US interviewed one of the leaders of the Proud ...
Hi,If you’ve been reading Webworm for a while, you’ll be familiar with Anna Wilding. Between 2020 and 2021 I looked at how the New Zealander had managed to weasel her way into countless news stories over the years, often with very little proof any of it had actually happened. When ...
It's a long white cloud for you, baby; staying together alwaysSummertime in AotearoaWhere the sunshine kisses the water, we will find it alwaysSummertime in AotearoaYeah, it′s SummertimeIt's SummertimeWriters: Codi Wehi Ngatai, Moresby Kainuku, Pipiwharauroa Campbell, Taulutoa Michael Schuster, Rebekah Jane Brady, Te Naawe Jordan Muturangi Tupe, Thomas Edward Scrase.Many of ...
Last year, 292 people died unnecessarily on our roads. That is the lowest result in over a decade and only the fourth time in the last 70 years we’ve seen fewer than 300 deaths in a calendar year. Yet, while it is 292 people too many, with each death being ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters and Bob HensonFlames from the Palisades Fire burn a building at Sunset Boulevard amid a powerful windstorm on January 8, 2025 in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The fast-moving wildfire had destroyed thousands of structures and ...
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.The Regulatory Standards Bill, as I understand it, seeks to bind parliament to a specific range of law-making.For example, it seems to ensure primacy of individual rights over that of community, environment, te Tiriti ...
Happy New Year!I had a lovely break, thanks very much for asking: friends, family, sunshine, books, podcasts, refreshing swims, barbecues, bike rides. So good to step away from the firehose for a while, to have less Trump and Seymour in your day. Who needs the Luxons in their risible PJs ...
Patrick Reynolds is deputy chair of the Auckland City Centre Advisory Panel and a director of Greater Auckland In 2003, after much argument, including the election of a Mayor in 2001 who ran on stopping it, Britomart train station in downtown Auckland opened. A mere 1km twin track terminating branch ...
For the first time in a decade, a New Zealand Prime Minister is heading to the Middle East. The trip is more than just a courtesy call. New Zealand PMs frequently change planes in Dubai en route to destinations elsewhere. But Christopher Luxon’s visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, January 5, 2025 thru Sat, January 11, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
The decade between 1952 and the early 1960s was the peak period for the style of music we now call doo wop, after which it got dissolved into soul music, girl groups, and within pop music in general. Basically, doo wop was a form of small group harmonising with a ...
The future teaches you to be aloneThe present to be afraid and coldSo if I can shoot rabbits, then I can shoot fascists…And if you tolerate thisThen your children will be nextSongwriters: James Dean Bradfield / Sean Anthony Moore / Nicholas Allen Jones.Do you remember at school, studying the rise ...
When National won the New Zealand election in 2023, one of the first to congratulate Luxon was tech-billionaire and entrepreneur extraordinaire Elon Musk.And last year, after Luxon posted a video about a trip to Malaysia, Musk came forward again to heap praise on Christopher:So it was perhaps par for the ...
Hi,Today’s Webworm features a new short film from documentary maker Giorgio Angelini. It’s about Luigi Mangione — but it’s also, really, about everything in America right now.Bear with me.Shortly after I sent out my last missive from the fires on Wednesday, one broke out a little too close to home ...
So soon just after you've goneMy senses sharpenBut it always takes so damn longBefore I feel how much my eyes have darkenedFear hangs in a plane of gun smokeDrifting in our roomSo easy to disturb, with a thought, with a whisperWith a careless memorySongwriters: Andy Taylor / John Taylor / ...
Can we trust the Trump cabinet to act in the public interest?Nine of Trump’s closest advisers are billionaires. Their total net worth is in excess of $US375b (providing there is not a share-market crash). In contrast, the total net worth of Trump’s first Cabinet was about $6b. (Joe Biden’s Cabinet ...
Welcome back to our weekly roundup. We hope you had a good break (if you had one). Here’s a few of the stories that caught our attention over the last few weeks. This holiday period on Greater Auckland Since our last roundup we’ve: Taken a look back at ...
Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partnerSometimes I feel like my only friendIs the city I live in, The City of AngelsLonely as I am together we crySong: Anthony Kiedis, Chad Smith, Flea, John Frusciante.A home is engulfed in flames during the Eaton fire in the Altadena area. ...
Open access notablesLarge emissions of CO2 and CH4 due to active-layer warming in Arctic tundra, Torn et al., Nature Communications:Climate warming may accelerate decomposition of Arctic soil carbon, but few controlled experiments have manipulated the entire active layer. To determine surface-atmosphere fluxes of carbon dioxide and ...
It's election year for Wellington City Council and for the Regional Council. What have the progressive councillors achieved over the last couple of years. What were the blocks and failures? What's with the targeting of the mayor and city council by the Post and by central government? Why does the ...
Over the holidays, there was a rising tide of calls for people to submit on National's repulsive, white supremacist Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill, along with a wave of advice and examples of what to say. And it looks like people rose to the occasion, with over 300,000 ...
The lie is my expenseThe scope of my desireThe Party blessed me with its futureAnd I protect it with fireI am the Nina The Pinta The Santa MariaThe noose and the rapistAnd the fields overseerThe agents of orangeThe priests of HiroshimaThe cost of my desire…Sleep now in the fireSongwriters: Brad ...
This is a re-post from the Climate BrinkGlobal surface temperatures have risen around 1.3C since the preindustrial (1850-1900) period as a result of human activity.1 However, this aggregate number masks a lot of underlying factors that contribute to global surface temperature changes over time.These include CO2, which is the primary ...
There are times when movement around us seems to slow down. And the faster things get, the slower it all appears.And so it is with the whirlwind of early year political activity.They are harbingers for what is to come:Video: Wayne Wright Jnr, funder of Sean Plunket, talk growing power and ...
Hi,Right now the power is out, so I’m just relying on the laptop battery and tethering to my phone’s 5G which is dropping in and out. We’ll see how we go.First up — I’m fine. I can’t see any flames out the window. I live in the greater Hollywood area ...
2024 was a tough year for working Kiwis. But together we’ve been able to fight back for a just and fair New Zealand and in 2025 we need to keep standing up for what’s right and having our voices heard. That starts with our Mood of the Workforce Survey. It’s your ...
Time is never time at allYou can never ever leaveWithout leaving a piece of youthAnd our lives are forever changedWe will never be the sameThe more you change, the less you feelSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan.Babinden - Baba’s DayToday, January 8th, 2025, is Babinden, “The Day of the baba” or “The ...
..I/We wish to make the following comments:I oppose the Treaty Principles Bill."5. Act binds the CrownThis Act binds the Crown."How does this Act "bind the Crown" when Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which the Act refers to, has been violated by the Crown on numerous occassions, resulting in massive loss of ...
Everything is good and brownI'm here againWith a sunshine smile upon my faceMy friends are close at handAnd all my inhibitions have disappeared without a traceI'm glad, oh, that I found oohSomebody who I can rely onSongwriter: Jay KayGood morning, all you lovely people. Today, I’ve got nothing except a ...
Welcome to 2025. After wrapping up 2024, here’s a look at some of the things we can expect to see this year along with a few predictions. Council and Elections Elections One of the biggest things this year will be local body elections in October. Will Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Canadians can take a while to get angry – but when they finally do, watch out. Canada has been falling out of love with Justin Trudeau for years, and his exit has to be the least surprising news event of the New Year. On recent polling, Trudeau’s Liberal party has ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Much like 2023, many climate and energy records were broken in 2024. It was Earth’s hottest year on record by a wide margin, breaking the previous record that was set just last year by an even larger margin. Human-caused climate-warming pollution and ...
Submissions on National's racist, white supremacist Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill are due tomorrow! So today, after a good long holiday from all that bullshit, I finally got my shit together to submit on it. As I noted here, people should write their own submissions in their own ...
Ooh, baby (ooh, baby)It's making me crazy (it's making me crazy)Every time I look around (look around)Every time I look around (every time I look around)Every time I look aroundIt's in my faceSongwriters: Alan Leo Jansson / Paul Lawrence L. Fuemana.Today, I’ll be talking about rich, middle-aged men who’ve made ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 29, 2024 thru Sat, January 4, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Hi,The thing that stood out at me while shopping for Christmas presents in New Zealand was how hard it was to avoid Zuru products. Toy manufacturer Zuru is a bit like Netflix, in that it has so much data on what people want they can flood the market with so ...
And when a child is born into this worldIt has no conceptOf the tone of skin it's living inAnd there's a million voicesAnd there's a million voicesTo tell you what you should be thinkingSong by Neneh Cherry and Youssou N'Dour.The moment you see that face, you can hear her voice; ...
While we may not always have quality political leadership, a couple of recently published autobiographies indicate sometimes we strike it lucky. When ranking our prime ministers, retired professor of history Erik Olssen commented that ‘neither Holland nor Nash was especially effective as prime minister – even his private secretary thought ...
Baby, be the class clownI'll be the beauty queen in tearsIt's a new art form, showin' people how little we care (yeah)We're so happy, even when we're smilin' out of fearLet's go down to the tennis court and talk it up like, yeah (yeah)Songwriters: Joel Little / Ella Yelich O ...
Open access notables Why Misinformation Must Not Be Ignored, Ecker et al., American Psychologist:Recent academic debate has seen the emergence of the claim that misinformation is not a significant societal problem. We argue that the arguments used to support this minimizing position are flawed, particularly if interpreted (e.g., by policymakers or the public) as suggesting ...
What I’ve Been Doing: I buried a close family member.What I’ve Been Watching: Andor, Jack Reacher, Xmas movies.What I’ve Been Reflecting On: The Usefulness of Writing and the Worthiness of Doing So — especially as things become more transparent on their own.I also hate competing on any day, and if ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by John Wihbey. A version of this article first appeared on Yale Climate Connections on Nov. 11, 2008. (Image credits: The White House, Jonathan Cutrer / CC BY 2.0; President Jimmy Carter, Trikosko/Library of Congress; Solar dedication, Bill Fitz-Patrick / Jimmy Carter Library; Solar ...
Morena folks,We’re having a good break, recharging the batteries. Hope you’re enjoying the holiday period. I’m not feeling terribly inspired by much at the moment, I’m afraid—not from a writing point of view, anyway.So, today, we’re travelling back in time. You’ll have to imagine the wavy lines and sci-fi sound ...
Completed reads for 2024: Oration on the Dignity of Man, by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola A Platonic Discourse Upon Love, by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola Of Being and Unity, by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola The Life of Pico della Mirandola, by Giovanni Francesco Pico Three Letters Written by Pico ...
Welcome to 2025, Aotearoa. Well… what can one really say? 2024 was a story of a bad beginning, an infernal middle and an indescribably farcical end. But to chart a course for a real future, it does pay to know where we’ve been… so we know where we need ...
Welcome to the official half-way point of the 2020s. Anyway, as per my New Years tradition, here’s where A Phuulish Fellow’s blog traffic came from in 2024: United States United Kingdom New Zealand Canada Sweden Australia Germany Spain Brazil Finland The top four are the same as 2023, ...
Completed reads for December: Be A Wolf!, by Brian Strickland The Magic Flute [libretto], by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Emanuel Schikaneder The Invisible Eye, by Erckmann-Chatrian The Owl’s Ear, by Erckmann-Chatrian The Waters of Death, by Erckmann-Chatrian The Spider, by Hanns Heinz Ewers Who Knows?, by Guy de Maupassant ...
Well, it’s the last day of the year, so it’s time for a quick wrap-up of the most important things that happened in 2024 for urbanism and transport in our city. A huge thank you to everyone who has visited the blog and supported us in our mission to make ...
Leave your office, run past your funeralLeave your home, car, leave your pulpitJoin us in the streets where weJoin us in the streets where weDon't belong, don't belongHere under the starsThrowing light…Song: Jeffery BuckleyToday, I’ll discuss the standout politicians of the last 12 months. Each party will receive three awards, ...
Hi,A lot’s happened this year in the world of Webworm, and as 2024 comes to an end I thought I’d look back at a few of the things that popped. Maybe you missed them, or you might want to revisit some of these essay and podcast episodes over your break ...
Hi,I wanted to share this piece by film editor Dan Kircher about what cinema has been up to in 2024.Dan edited my documentary Mister Organ, as well as this year’s excellent crowd-pleasing Bookworm.Dan adores movies. He gets the language of cinema, he knows what he loves, and writes accordingly. And ...
The Green Party has welcomed the provisional ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, and reiterated its call for New Zealand to push for an end to the unlawful occupation of Palestine. ...
The Green Party welcomes the extension of the deadline for Treaty Principles Bill submissions but continues to call on the Government to abandon the Bill. ...
Complaints about disruptive behaviour now handled in around 13 days (down from around 60 days a year ago) 553 Section 55A notices issued by Kāinga Ora since July 2024, up from 41 issued during the same period in the previous year. Of that 553, first notices made up around 83 ...
The time it takes to process building determinations has improved significantly over the last year which means fewer delays in homes being built, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “New Zealand has a persistent shortage of houses. Making it easier and quicker for new homes to be built will ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden is pleased to announce the annual list of New Zealand’s most popular baby names for 2024. “For the second consecutive year, Noah has claimed the top spot for boys with 250 babies sharing the name, while Isla has returned to the most popular ...
Work is set to get underway on a new bus station at Westgate this week. A contract has been awarded to HEB Construction to start a package of enabling works to get the site ready in advance of main construction beginning in mid-2025, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“A new Westgate ...
Minister for Children and for Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence Karen Chhour is encouraging people to use the resources available to them to get help, and to report instances of family and sexual violence amongst their friends, families, and loved ones who are in need. “The death of a ...
Uia te pō, rangahaua te pō, whakamāramatia mai he aha tō tango, he aha tō kāwhaki? Whitirere ki te ao, tirotiro kau au, kei hea taku rātā whakamarumaru i te au o te pakanga mo te mana motuhake? Au te pō, ngū te pō, ue hā! E te kahurangi māreikura, ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says people with diabetes and other painful conditions will benefit from a significant new qualification to boost training in foot care. “It sounds simple, but quality and regular foot and nail care is vital in preventing potentially serious complications from diabetes, like blisters or sores, which can take a long time to heal ...
Associate Health Minister with responsibility for Pharmac David Seymour is pleased to see Pharmac continue to increase availability of medicines for Kiwis with the government’s largest ever investment in Pharmac. “Pharmac operates independently, but it must work within the budget constraints set by the government,” says Mr Seymour. “When this government assumed ...
Mā mua ka kite a muri, mā muri ka ora e mua - Those who lead give sight to those who follow, those who follow give life to those who lead. Māori recipients in the New Year 2025 Honours list show comprehensive dedication to improving communities across the motu that ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden is wishing all New Zealanders a great holiday season as Kiwis prepare for gatherings with friends and families to see in the New Year. It is a great time of year to remind everyone to stay fire safe over the summer. “I know ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liam Byrne, Honorary Fellow, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Should a US president by judged by what they achieved, or by what they failed to do? Joe Biden’s administration is over. Though we have an extensive ...
COMMENTARY:By Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson and Junior S. Ami With just over a year left in her tenure as Prime Minister of Samoa, Fiame Naomi Mata’afa faces a political upheaval threatening a peaceful end to her term. Ironically, the rule of law — the very principle that elevated her to ...
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was. A year ago I met a lovely older gentleman at a Christmas party who owned racehorses. He wasn’t “in the business”, as he said, he just enjoyed horses and so owned a couple as a hobby. After a dozen questions from me ...
The Pacific profiles series shines a light on Pacific people in Aotearoa doing interesting and important work in their communities, as nominated by members of the public. Today, Grace Colcord, Shea Wātene and Devyn Baileh, co-founders of Brown Town.All photos by Geoffery Matautia.Brown Town is an Ōtautahi community ...
The actor and comedian takes us through her life in television, from early Shortland Street rejection to the enduring power of the Gilmore Girls. Browse local telly offerings and you’ll likely encounter Kura Forrester soon enough. Whether you know her best as loveable Lily in Double Parked or Puku the ...
Making rēwana is about more than just a recipe – it’s a journey of patience, care and persistence.A subtle smell is filling our living room as my son crawls around playing with his nana. It has the familiar scent of freshly baked bread, with a slight hint of sweetness. ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp');Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions.The post Newsroom daily quiz, Saturday 18 January appeared first on Newsroom. ...
From dubious health claims to too-good-to-be-true deals to bizarre clickbait confessions from famous people, scam ads are filling Facebook feeds, sucking users in and ripping them off. So why won’t Meta do anything about it? I’ve had a Facebook account since 2006, when it first became available to the ...
A year out from leaving the bear pit that is the pinnacle of our democracy, I have returned to something familiar. A working life in litigation, mainly in employment law, has brought me full circle, refreshed old skills and exposed me to some realities and values which have stunned me.But ...
2025 is the Year of the Snake, so it should be another productive year for the David Seymours of the world by which I mean of course people with an enigmatic and introspective nature. Those born in previous Snake years – 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001 – will flourish in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney The acclaimed American filmmaker David Lynch has died at the age of 78. While a cause of death has yet to be publicly announced, Lynch, a lifelong tobacco enthusiast, revealed ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Monika Ferguson, Senior Lecturer in Mental Health, University of South Australia People presenting at emergency with mental health concerns are experiencing the longest wait times in Australia for admission to a ward, according to a new report from the Australasian College of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Blazevich, Professor of Biomechanics, Edith Cowan University We’re nearing the halfway point of this year’s Australian Open and players like the United States’ Reilly Opelka (ranked 170th in the world ) and France’s Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard (ranked 30th) captured plenty of ...
Asia Pacific Report Four researchers and authors from the Asia-Pacific region have provided diverse perspectives on the media in a new global book on intercultural communication. The Sage Handbook of Intercultural Communication published this week offers a global, interdisciplinary, and contextual approach to understanding the complexities of intercultural communication in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Benjamin T. Jones, Senior Lecturer in History, CQUniversity Australia In his farewell address, outgoing US President Joe Biden warned “an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy”. The comment suggests ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hrvoje Tkalčić, Professor, Head of Geophysics, Director of Warramunga Array, Australian National University A map showing the ‘Martian dichotomy’: the southern highlands are in yellows and oranges, the northern lowlands in blues and greens.NASA / JPL / USGS Mars is home ...
A new poem by Niamh Hollis-Locke.Field-notes: Midsummer, 9pm, walking barefoot in the reserve after a storm, the sky still light, the city strung out across backs of the hills Dunes of last week’s cut grass washed downslope against the bracken, drifts of pale wet stems rotting into one ...
The poll, conducted between 9-13 January, shows National down 4.6 points to 29.6%, while Labour have risen 4.0 points from last month, overtaking them with30.9%. ...
As the world farewells visionary director David Lynch, we return to this 2017 piece by Angela Cuming about escaping into the haunting world of Twin Peaks. I was only 10 years old when Twin Peaks – and the real world – found me.Once a week, in the dark, I ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marc C-Scott, Associate Professor of Screen Media | Deputy Associate Dean of Learning & Teaching, Victoria University Screenshot/YouTube The 2025 Australian Open (AO) broadcast may seem similar to previous years if you’re watching on the television. However, if you’re watching online ...
By Anish Chand in Suva A Fiji community human rights coalition has called on Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka to halt his “reckless expansion” of government and refocus on addressing Fiji’s pressing challenges. The NGO Coalition on Human Rights (NGOCHR) said it was outraged by the abrupt and arbitrary reshuffling of ...
A selection of the best shows, movies, podcasts and playlists that kept us entertained over the holidays. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here.Leo (Netflix) My partner and I watched exactly one thing on the TV in our Japan accommodation while ...
Toby Manhire tells you everything you need to know ahead of season two of Severance.After an agonising wait – nearly three years between waffles, thanks to US actor and writer strikes and, some say, creative squabbles – Severance returns today, Friday January 17. For my money the first season ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a 32-year-old mother of a one-year-old shares her approach to spending and saving. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Female. Age: 32. Ethnicity: East Asian – NZ ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Talia Fell, PhD Candidate, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland The Los Angeles wildfires are causing the devastating loss of people’s homes. From A-list celebrities such as Paris Hilton to an Australian family living in LA, thousands ...
The outgoing and incoming presidents have both claimed credit for the historic deal, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund for The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Finally, some good fucking news. The Friday Poem is back! Last year, The Spinoff leveled with its audience about the financial reality it faced and called for support from its audience. Some tough decisions were made at the time including cuts to our commissioning budget and the discontinuation of The ...
The soon-to-be deputy PM has already had a crucial win behind the scenes. First published in Henry Cooke’s politics newsletter, Museum Street. Margaret Thatcher used to love prime minister’s questions. If you’re not familiar, the UK parliamentary system has a weekly procedure where the prime minister is subject to at least ...
“Trans exclusionary radical feminists, they’re called TERFs, and they’re telling us we’re not who we say we are. It’s a real threat to our existence.”
Quite a revealing interview with Chelsea Manning, by Simon Wilson: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12121279
TERF’s?….we must be running out of pidgeonholes by now ,surely?
The thing about TERFs and their SWERF cousins is that they are essentially the 5th column for the Christian right. Family Fist has backed the local SWERF/TERF community for quite some time
What has to happen to someone to make them so nasty?
Chelsea in contrast sounds fascinating.
Google: “Feminists with critical views have been referred to as “TERFs” (short for trans-exclusionary radical feminist). They generally object to the acronym and have called it a slur or even hate speech.”
Understandable. Lotsa folk hate being put in pigeon-holes, eh? But that one doesn’t quite capture the new form of hypocrisy that’s being invented in minority culture wars.
“That group of feminists that claims that trans women aren’t really women, as biological determinism is only a fallacy when it’s used against them, not when they use it against others.” https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=TERF
“I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member”
Groucho Marx
“In a 1959 interview on BBC TV’s Showtime, Chico Marx was asked how his brother Groucho got his name. Referring to the times when marijuana was legal and the Marx Brothers were a Vaudeville act (around 1920), he replied, “We used to wear a little bag around our neck, called a Grouch bag. In this bag we would keep our pennies, some marbles, a couple of pieces of candy, a little marijuana, whatever we could get…(laughter from the audience)… “
Careful Dennis Frank
Women have had to put up with a lot of shit over the centuries right up to this second. The style changes but there are forces at work to reduce women’s standing in the community all the time. So they are not very happy that men have managed to undermine any sisterhood that exists, and wear the ‘feminine’ as if it was a decoration, or a passport.
Till now they have had a feeling of sanctuary if they have gone into the women’s toilets, but the bloody men have found a way to insert themselves into that little nook. Now it can be like Little Red Riding Hood going into Grandmama’s house and finding something with more bristles than Gran, and more everything than Gran including bigger teeth. It is very unsettling. Their anger is quite understandable. Men actually don’t want women hanging round their toilets either; in theory it may raise some feverish excitement, but in reality they should bloody stay out of this male enclave.
However, taking this matter further than you may want to go.
https://www.quora.com/Would-guys-use-an-open-urinal-in-a-public-unisex-restroom
Nah, I’d rather let Chelsea speak for herself. I find the culture war in the minorities an interesting part of identity politics.
Political festivals could be a viable way to recombine fun & politics, a social alchemy not seen in Aotearoa since Shadbolt almost 50 years ago. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/sep/08/you-can-have-a-voice-political-festivals-on-rise-uk
Tory MP George Freeman, who last year organised the Big Tent Ideas festival in Britain (“mercilessly lampooned last summer as the “Tory Glastonbury” – a paddock of largely male Conservative supporters in red chinos”), has lurched to the radical center for this year’s design: “I have made it non-party political so that MPs, peers and others from the centre left can also get involved”. He offers a sensible rationale: “for a generation under 40 the traditional party conference is as dead as a dodo”.
Hell we saw the tragic outcome of the labour youth camp – can you imagine the damage of an entire festival???
I doubt you will be getting an invite anyway. So it’s a win/win.
I’m sure you can.
I think Breiveik should be executed on the grounds of incontrovertible evidence of brutal behaviour towards others that includes the following (murdering and worst of 9 other behaviours) which result in withdrawing human respect for him and his right to life.
James and his RW fundie friends no doubt blame Norway Labour for that – not enough security to stop a RW madman bombing parliament as a distraction and then proceeding to murder 75 teenagers.
They’ll always protect their own – in this case Anders Breivik.
Just don’t invite James he will slaughter and roast a sentient beast and proceed to gorge himself with his mates.
Put his dog on the spit and watch him squeal then.
Labour UK start the long awaited purge of the liberal Blairite cancer from the party…
“Purge of the Labour moderates: Jeremy Corbyn’s allies ‘draw up hitlist of 50 MPs’ as hard-Left Momentum campaigners tighten grip on the party’
Yeh, sounds good..
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5293373/Purge-Labour-moderates.html
“Labour’s new masters prepare to purge the moderates”
Loving it…
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/labours-new-masters-prepare-to-purge-the-moderates-32sfkjskw
“Labour’s review of candidates is not a purge: it’s what’s known as democracy”
That doesn’t sound like so much fun…
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/28/labour-review-candidates-not-purge-democracy-momentum
“Labour’s leading pro-Israel MP loses vote of no confidence as latest purge is broadcast by banned Iranian TV station”
That’s better, more hysterical, that’s more like it…
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/09/07/labour-mp-joan-ryan-blasts-trots-stalinists-losing-confidence/
I just hope I live long enough to witness our very own purge… ah we live in hope…someday.
The media is to be reformed as well.
True that, have to purge those fuckers right after the party purge, this is sounding better and better all the time, have to come up with a term other than ‘purge’ though, something a bit more benign ….don’t want to scare the public.
what, so you can get 15% of the vote at the next election?
Careful there pal…might have you send you off for some ‘reeducation’.
The Murdoch Times cynically describes the Blairite right as “moderates”. I don’t see anything funny about that. We will now be hearing RNZ National and our television autocue readers routinely describing Yenta Hodge and her discredited cronies as “moderates.”
Not much coverage of 1080 Protests in the MSM, I guess all the reporters and journalists are pro 1080 and know where their bread is buttered ?
Hopefully most people understand that without 1080 possums will annihilate native bush- trees, plants, birds, et cetera. 1080 protesters have no viable plan for possum controll because without 1080 there isn’t one.
Yes Barfly, that is the problem.. they talked of possum control through pheromones, but I haven’t seen any other news on that front.
Crap barfly theres plenty of alternatives to the use of 1080 and imo based on a lifetime of hunting them a moderate population of possums has zero effect on either flora or fauna .
Hunting them in bad terrain yeah sure mate – I have a bridge to sell you.
Being paid for skins I used to lay bait lines the catch was marginal economically but the area I was hunting in showed tons of damage from possums. – So that was a “controlled” area possum trapping won’t take out enough of them to reduce their damage to an acceptable level IMO.
ordinarily trapping is by far the most lethal long term barfly and possums dont really like “bad terrain ” they prefer more open bush and thats where they,ll build the biggest populations .I hunt with two good dogs an a rifle these days its far less cruel and even more effective than trapping .
my nephew owned a good late model ute from pelts and plucked fur before he was 18.
long weekends staying in huts and bivouac.
really character and resilience building.
cant have youngsters doing that.
I don’t believe you – based on my personal experience
How can you know weston. You haven’t lived long enough to know what the flora was like before the possums multiplied. Love the fur but shooters and trappers, hunters, are notorious for putting their own interests before
the forests which are vitally important now in this part of our life-cycle.
There are enormous amounts of difficult to access areas bad terrain for a start. As well how the heck does someone work to clear an area a couple of hours walk in? you try carrying 40-50 possum skins for any distance – I tell you they get bloody heavy!!
+ 1 Yep I have rellies who still are possum trappers – hard, hard work.
Sure greywarshark if possums are in big numbers thats a problem just as theres a problem if any animal is in too bigger numbers for its resources but human animals are ones that historically have done the most damage to our forests .By a country mile !!!
Barfly ,,,” no viable plan for possum controll because without 1080 there isn’t one.”
There is …. Look on TDB site – read through the comments following yesterdays 1080 article
Maybe not much coverage of the protests, but this just popped up on the RNZ News website –
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/366035/court-delays-1080-drop-in-the-hunua-ranges
There are also links to other recent RNZ articles on 1080 to the right of the article.
I’ve seen plenty about it.
1080 or native species, I’ll take the birds every time, thanks.
Sadly it’s 1080 or possums – which will kill more native birds?
But, but, fluoroacetate is produced by plants. It’s natural pest control. Because it’s natural it’s gotta be good, right?
“Fluoroacetate containing plants grow worldwide and cause sudden death in livestock. The southern continents of Africa, Australia and South America are the common locations of these plants. All of the plants containing fluoroacetate belong to the families Fabaceae, Rubiaceae, Bignoniaceae, Malpighiaceae and Dichapetalaceae [11].”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5485738/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_fluoroacetate
bills post on the tale of two protests was interesting didnt u think Ngungukai ?
Would suggest they’re much wiser …
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/92620150/national-portrait-1080-author-dave-hansford
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1809/S00050/maori-environmentalists-and-activists-release-1080-statement.htm
TVNZ ran a story on this in last night’s news: ” There’s a mind-boggling amount of trash in the world’s oceans, with much of it collected in five regions known as gyres. On September 8, a group called The Ocean Cleanup plans to deploy a plastic-cleanup system to the largest of those gyres, known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The system was designed by Boyan Slat, a 24-year-old Dutch innovator.”
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/boyan-slat-ocean-cleanup-launch-into-pacific-on-september-8-2018-7?r=US&IR=T
The operation has a website providing this excellent backgrounder: https://www.theoceancleanup.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch/
And watch the launch live here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkC0h1CcHJs
Great news. Bright innovation from the young.
Thomas Paine The Rights of Man – clickbait for political junkies. This a story of challenge, told humorously. Education that takes the pain out of learning.
Another thought – from a helpful bystander.
This puts the Paine back in learning.
Nice one
” “There was nothing wrong with him, he’d just been stuck in an apartment, with no friends around and he’d been vegetating basically.
“He was an amazing guy who just had such a wealth of knowledge .. all he needed was some male company, some people who he could share his time with. ”
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/health/105961039/the-shed-that-saved-clarrie-merrick
Yup great story that one – quite encouraging
read the article on merkin richardson in todays Sunday Magazine. richardson claims he was tired of the Blackcaps but the truth is they had had enough of him.
Misanthropy running hot today.
A global crisis is unfolding. The rapid expansion of development projects on indigenous lands without their consent is driving a drastic increase in violence and legal harassment against Indigenous Peoples.
I’ve been alerted to hundreds of cases of “criminalization” from nearly every corner of the world. These attacks—whether physical or legal—are an attempt to silence Indigenous Peoples voicing their opposition to projects that threaten their livelihoods and cultures.
My new report finds a pattern of abuse, with the private sector often colluding with governments to force Indigenous Peoples from their lands by whatever means necessary to make way for infrastructure, agriculture, mining, and extractive projects.
According to Front Line Defenders, 67 percent of the 312 human rights defenders murdered in 2017 were defending their lands, the environment, or indigenous rights, nearly always in the context of private sector projects. Around 80 percent of killings took place in just four countries: Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and the Philippines.
[…]
At the same time that justice systems are wielded as weapons against Indigenous Peoples defending their rights, there is widespread impunity for those who commit violence against Indigenous Peoples.
At the root of this global crisis is systematic racism and the failure of governments to recognize and respect indigenous land rights. Indigenous Peoples and local communities customarily own more than 50 percent of the world’s land but only have legally recognized rights to 10 percent. This enables governments to declare them “illegal” on the lands they have lived on and protected for generations.
https://www.theyshouldhaveknownbetter.com/
Greed of the 10% under the control of the 1%. Western people don’t seem to realise that the Holocaust was just a practice run. Cambodia is not good to look at, and Burma or Myanmar (or more correctly Theirinmar) are in the news.
Boat people have nowhere to go so remember that the west has trumpeted itself as ‘good clean democracy’ and full of Christian values, for years and find different sorts of sharks in Australian waters. The African movement fleeing over water caused by what? Disagreements over oil and perhaps land where corporates want to grow lettuce for the rich markets out of season or something?
West Papua occasionally mentioned, they have a copper hole there, the land passed round countries like ‘pass the parcel’, the people treated shamefully.
What Joe90 has put up is just an indication of the cold, anti-human behaviour of the top people. Roger Douglas and his buddies were just the start. Now we have people in poverty in shacks, people on the streets, corruption and mismanagement and management worship encouraging generic behaviour, which is machine-like so humans and machines can be integrated smoothly.
Good God this is a cold spring.
With Auckland-north excepted, look like we’ll be most of the way through September before any improvement.
https://www.windy.com/-Temperature-temp?temp,2018-09-18-06,-36.867,174.767,5
Spring will be starting after the Spring Equinox on Sunday the 23rd of September. So in two more weeks.
It’s still winter.
Acting in accord with nature rather than convention, rather a green nonconformist kind of behaviour eh? Nicely authoritative too. I like it.
Sounds like you don’t garden then.
Certainly not in Whakatipu. Even though we’ve had frosts every morning for a week we haven’t needed to light a fire, it’s that warm through the day. And kowhais in full flower on a sunny face above Shotover Delta.
‘
‘An Evening with Chelsea Manning’ leaves audience frustrated
Newshub Staff
Hmmmm
A very slanted report based around a single negative comment from one attendee, about the question and answer session at the end. But total silence about what was actually said by Manning in the main part of her address. It is telling that no Newshub reporter wanted to put their name to this piece of yellow journalism.
I also attended this event. And, I can tell you, it was great.
What shone through for me was Manning’s great humanitarianism.
Like Edward Snowden, or the Iraqi reporter, Muntadhar Al-Zaidi, who threw a shoe at George Bush. Chelsea Manning is one of the great iconic heroes of our time.
But it is quite clear that Manning is deeply hated and feared by the establishment, or those with something to hide.
And with good reason;
Because, there is a Manning, or a Snowden somewhere inside the DGSB or SIS.
Chelsea Manning like Eward Snowden is a polymath.
They are the geniuses the military and the secret services trust to hold all the strings.
As a child at school Manning could do complicated math in her head. She recalled her teachers, accusing her of cheating, and demanding that she show them her workings. She told them she couldn’t see the point. She said it was easier to do it in my head.
“Later”, she said, “in the army, I learnt the necessity of showing your workings. It is all about process.”
When she joined the US army as a data analyst, it was all still done on paper.
She said, “Literally a felt tip pen, and a big sheet of paper”.
This was someone who as a teenager had cut her teeth working in an IT start up.
When a militarised computer data analyst system was finally introduced. They handed it all over to Manning.
Manning made a joke.
Saying, “Uh Oh! I knew right then, that I would get into trouble.”
In her role she saw and knew everything.
All the Army’s secrets.
As well as being a math and IT genius Manning also had a didactic memory.
The detail of the data she had on Iraq was incredible. She knew by name every family in Baghdad, their street address, their profession, their hobbies, whether they might be sympathetic to the resistance to the US occupation, or not.
As she was being moved from place to place, passing wrecked houses, she knew exactly who had lived in that house, in that street. And also how they had died and who killed them.
The whole information technology system is reliant on these talented individuals.
This is its greatest weakness.
Chelsea Manning was a good soldier, and is still a good soldier.
She said that America is terrible right now. But despite that she is determined to remain, and has dedicated her life to political activism to make things better.
As a soldier Manning recounted how she worked 14 hour days straight for weeks without weekends. And said that is just what you do.
Someone from the audience asked her; “Do you feel that your life is in danger”
“All our lives are in danger” she replied
Thank You Jenny.
“The detail of the data she had on Iraq was incredible. She knew by name every family in Baghdad, their street address, their profession, their hobbies, whether they might be sympathetic to the resistance to the US occupation, or not.
As she was being moved from place to place, passing wrecked houses, she knew exactly who had lived in that house, in that street. And also how they had died and who killed them.
Someone from the audience asked her; “Do you feel that your life is in danger”
“All our lives are in danger” she replied.” …..
I’m interested in the opportunity Claire Curran’s resignation might provide others and the government.
A lot of talent came in at the last election, but has to wait it’s turn.
My worry is that too many of the current lot will get settled in and the new lot won’t get promoted. Curran’s push helps free up at least one place.
Who do people see possibly ready for an opportunity.
I’m particularly interested in possible new women cabinet ministers.
Deborah Russell; Kiri Allan; Ginny Anderson?
Ultimately it will be 2020 when Labour gets 45% of the vote that will really a big shift in faces, but in the meantime, who do people think the government would benefit from giving an opportunity to?
In some businesses and organisations staff will be circulated throughout the business departments learning stuff on the way and preventing boredom. It may be a way to take people off a repetitive job and give them a real idea of how such work fits into the matrix of the organisation.
Do the MPs have aides from the List who can become skilled political thinkers and organisers? And then have a chance to caretake a seat that is won by the Opposition, or to stand for a seat themselves.
How leftist entitlement works in Britain: “you get elected candidate for the Labour Party in a safe Labour seat and its assumed its a job for life, for 40 or 50 years,” says Steve Howell, who worked as Labour’s deputy director of political strategy and communications during the 2017 election, and tells the story of it in his book, Game Changer.”
Taken from a very good review of the Corbyn insurgency, three years after the grass-roots revolt began. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-corbyn-labour-party-leadership-antisemitism-election-momentum-a8528811.html
“He has brought into the party hundreds of thousands of new supporters. In a general election that caught the party somewhat by surprise, he nevertheless managed to win 13 million votes, and gain seats when annihilation was predicted by all. He has also transformed the party into a vast social movement unlike any that has been seen in British politics before.”
Career electorate MPs aren’t leftist entitlement, they span all countries with electorate representatives of political parties.
The number of people looking to become active in local party branches is a tiny proportion of the population, and can become small fiefdoms. The candidate in a safe electorate doesn’t need to persuade the electorate, just the candidate selection committee of their party. And if they win, any party member wanting to take a tilt at the electorate needs to prove they’re better than an already successful candidate.
In a safe seat, you really need to fuck up hard to lose the job – either piss off the electorate committee (or take it for granted for too long), or otherwise “bug” people, lol.
Yes, fair point. In case you didn’t get around to checking it out, here’s another interesting bit: “What Momentum has correctly identified is that people who want to be involved in politics don’t necessarily want to be involved in the minutiae of local party organisation, the procedural stuff. And also, people don’t necessarily find that their local party is the place for them. “Manchester Momentum puts on a disco every month,” Ms Parker says. “Bristol Momentum meetings have campaign stalls from every kind of campaign group right across the city. You do not get that from a local Labour Party meeting. We are a bridge to something beyond the party.
It’s about innovation.”
Minister of Housing Phil Twyford announces 10,000 houses to be built in Mt Roskill on existing HNZ land, with no additional funding required from the government.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1809/S00113/thousands-of-new-homes-in-mt-roskill-redevelopment.htm
This government would get along fine if it kept Ardern, Peters and Twyford and just told everyone else to go home.
This is Labour land, what do the locals think about shoving another 10,000 homes into their community?
Has Labour canvased the locals? what’s the feedback?
Personally, if it was me I’d be pretty fucked off having my community trashed and years and years of disruption and annoyance.
Watch National heavily target Mt Roskill in 2020.
Where do you house the bloody people that the Nats IMPORTED?
Yeah, they are going to love it. BM is so out of touch he thinks everyone in Mt Roskill is a NIMBY like him.
The Nats would sort this out wouldn’t they BM. Don’t build more houses, just build more motorway overpasses. The dirty poor people can sleep under them and Auckland gets more cars and trucks on the roads. It’s a win win in National’s eyes.
Same place all the bloody people that the Labour IMPORTED
In the same areas as those people that Labour has imported mmmmm
https://www.labour.org.nz/immigration
Without these changes there would be up to 10,000 more houses needed and up to 20,000 more vehicles on our roads annually.
https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/annual-net-migration-down-7400-from-peak-in-2017
So with a drop of ONLY 7,400 on last year, only had 13,00 more cars on the road and additional need of 7,000 houses !!!
Thanks for the successful implementation of last year’s election policy. And we are being told that nz requires additional immigrates to make up for a shortage in the workforce.
I was meaning 1999-2008.
You total arse hat you know full well that national had a whole new dimension of importing unskilled workers – you know this you useless prick and chose to lie about you vile filthy piece of distended rectum
(credit to Red Dwarf)
BM doesn’t genuinely believe what he wrtes. His/Her comments are designed to be provocative and disagreeable, even when they are clearly irrational and nonsensical. There is a description for this behavior in the DSM-5, which may be helful for BM to understand his/her behavior. (Just some friendly advice).
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/91921252/net-migration-gain-near-72000-as-arrivals-continue-to-climb
Check out the graph.
It’s only the last year or two where it all went a bit crazy and most of that was expats returning from OZ.
Moving essay on history, settlers, genocide, epigenetics, and crickets.
I grew up both knowing and not knowing the pain of my heritage; I was raised to consider myself white, and learned about Native Americans in school. I remember stumbling across nameless familiarities that I could not explain, resonances that did not touch my classmates. In those moments, I recognized my kinship and my history, though I had been told it was not mine. My training as a biologist assures me that there are no memories hidden in my DNA. And yet I feel them.
http://carte-blanche.org/hiyoge-owisisi-tanga-ita-cricket-egg-stories/
how it is done
“A loosely-defined network of Russian state actors, state-controlled media, and armies of social media bots and trolls is said to work in unison to spread and amplify multiple narratives and conspiracies around cases like the Skripal poisoning. The goal is no longer to deny or disprove an official version of events, it is to flood the zone with so many competing versions that nothing seems to make sense.
“What is really striking is that you no longer see the Russian machine pushing a single message, it pushes dozens of messages,” said Ben Nimmo, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who studies Russian disinformation. “The idea is to confuse people.”
Other theories circulating on Wednesday included a claim that the suspects were British actors, stars of a (non-existent) KGB Spy series broadcast on British television in the 2000s. Another suggested the attempted assassination in Salisbury, and the deaths of other Russian nationals in Britain, were part of an MI6 plot. “Why do all these horrible events only happen in Britain?” asked Andrei Klimov, a Russian member of parliament, on state TV.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45454142
It’s almost like the Chekists had a plan.
https://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/34-years-ago-a-kgb-defector-described-america-today
The camps, the camps,
https://twitter.com/MaxAbrahms/status/1038578895803559942
Pretty damned sinister goings on.
(thread)
https://twitter.com/evadou/status/1035687850598002688
Yes it’s stunning how much damage a single propaganda tv station and the 13 trolls from the troll factory can do.
Vlad is happy with you.
That is only one possible strategy, of ‘many’…
Another, is to direct attention away from the actual provocateurs…
Requires an understanding of highly technical environments and techniques to begin to understand how that is possible…
The most ‘powerful’ cyber nations are…
The most ‘powerful’ media nations/corporations are…
Look…over there…
that is just a misdirection
from what?
to whom?
answer those and then we will really see what you know, you know.
Misdirection is correct…but I’m not providing the misdirection…
How will you know what I know if I go into it, Marty ? … Do you understand even basic networking/security models in a commercial sense?
What about at ‘intelligence’ levels ?
Read the snowden releases from a few years ago about the technologies that had were made public…
Keep in mind the nations with the most powerful military and intelligence agencies ‘have tech’…that very few humam beings would have any idea existed…myself included…
Without a certain level…you can’t even begin to imagine…
How will you know that I know what you know? These unanswerable questions are not necessary.
If you think this is a ‘networking/security’ issue or anything at all to do with ‘security’ then best we just don’t carry on this conversation.
If you had comprehended my comment, you would have understood I don’t think any such thing, Marty ?
We need a starting point of reference…I made a suggestion…
Yes it is about technology…it is also about manipulation of the political and media platforms…
You’ve stated ‘how it’s done’…then gave a bbc opinion piece in support…
I call BS on that… perhaps you believe ‘how it’s done’…
Do you?
Could there be other possibilities in your mind?
yes I stated that and put a link up and a quote.
Disinformation, multiple lies, half truths, innuendo, pretend caring. And then into the deeper dirty tricks, and then deeper…
the toolbox is full of this shit, and the toolbox is used extensively – in fact disproving anything is a fools game – just create murk, and mud and blood too truth be told.
the tools to do this range from hu mans to everything else
now as we are on a public space – say whatever you want or don’t – the space is yours for a moment…
Reads to me like we’re on a similar page with this one, Marty…
sounds good…
Classy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ua7MyGLotI
NZ’s Jacinda should be involved with this, for any number of good reasons (which means by default is perhaps totally lost by a good portion of the local myopic ruling classes that are pre-eminently political.)
The planet’s out to get us.
A rare and extreme tsunami ripped across an Alaska fjord three years ago after 180 million tons of mountain rock fell into the water, driving a devastating wave that stripped shorelines of trees and reached heights over 600 feet, a large team of scientists documented Thursday.
The October 2015 cataclysm in Taan Fiord in Southeast Alaska appears to have been the fourth highest tsunami recorded in the past century, and its origins – tied to the retreat of a glacier – suggest it’s the kind of event we may see more of due to a warming climate.
The new study even bluntly calls it a “a hazard occasioned by climate change.”
“More such landslides are likely to occur as mountain glaciers continue to shrink and alpine permafrost thaws,” the authors, led by geologist Bretwood Higman of Ground Truth Trekking, write in Nature Scientific Reports.
https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/science/2018/09/07/one-of-biggest-tsunamis-ever-recorded-was-set-off-in-alaska-by-a-melting-glacier/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/sure-you-can-make-it-in-israel-if-your-parents-help-say-economists/
It seems that Israel is doing the same thing we are. Overcrowding the country beyond its capacities apparently on purpose. Who started that then?
They are encouraging Jewish immigrants who face a housing shortage, low wages, and a fairly lacklustre economy. Professional people can’t even afford apartments and simply working doesn’t rate. Like us they have become techno-snobs and professionally obsessed and physical work is passe’. Like the USA standard tv joke ‘My son the doctor’ I guess.
Can I have my euthanasia Bill now please, or in the near future? Is anyone listening to reason out there?
https://www.newsweek.com/japan-ageing-dementia-caregivers-shortage-621431
Currently around 2.7 million people suffer from dementia in Japan, but that number is set to rise to around 7.3 million by 2025. Japan has the world’s oldest population, with one in four people over 65.
Euthanasia: THE best way to deal to an aging population. Unquestionably.
One question though: who will do the killing? Doctors are bound by the Hippocratic Oath, so will it be the Army? A special Police death squad? Perhaps we could bring back the hangman, not employed in this country since 1957….
News reports seem to have it that it’s normally done by underpaid age-caregivers, at least in some countries. Could be my suspicious mind reading too much into that. As for me, if I was incapacitated by pain I’d take an exit pill for sure. Mind you, if I had Alzheimers as well, I’d keep forgetting to…
Your forgetfulness might be helpfully allowed for franky.
You’d be fresh out of luck, chuck.
Every permutation of assisted dying legislation I’ve seen requires the prospective exiter to be of sound mind.
Better hope for a magic anti- bewildered pill.
“Assisted dying”. That means killing someone.
All so very progressive…
Problem
Reaction
Solution
Rinse and repeat until the ‘progessives/liberala’ beg for the solution to be implemented…as it was already planned to be…
Putin doubles down on his slippery, neo-lib TINA schickt.
In a 30-minute speech, Putin diluted the government’s plans, saying the national retirement age for women should be increased from 55 to 60, instead of 63, as previously proposed. “In our country, there is a special, gentle attitude to women,” he said.
The national retirement age for men, however, would still rise by five years, from 60 to 65.
The president also said laws should be introduced to make it an offence for employers to fire workers who are approaching pension age, as well as to clamp down on age discrimination in the workplace.
Putin said he had always been against the “painful” changes to the pension system and reminded Russians that he had pledged in 2005 that there would be no alteration to the age at which Russians can retire and claim a state pension while he was president. But he said “serious demographic problems” meant there was no alternative to the increase, which would represent the first adjustment to national retirement ages established under Joseph Stalin.
[…]
Putin said a failure to adopt the pension changes would lead to a rise in poverty and catastrophic consequences for the economy, which would leave the government unable to guarantee national security.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/29/vladimir-putin-russia-pension-reforms-retirement
Barking Yenta Dame Margaret (Hodge) Tells Packed News Conference: “I Obey My … Uh … I mean… Israel’s Leader: I’m leaving for the Philippines.”
The Guardian, 5 September 2018
At a packed news conference, Barking Yenta Margaret Hodge praised Prime Minister Netanyahu’s embrace of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte.
She then shocked reporters: “I’m auto-deporting to the Philippines.”
A reporter asked if she felt safe going there after Duterte said “As long as there are many beautiful women, there will be more rape cases.”
Acknowledging that she would probably be a prime target (disrespectful guffaws could be heard in the room), the Barking Yenta continued.
“You see, Duterte visited Yad Vashem, and my family are Holocaust survivors.”
But as a hush swept over the crowd, a reporter challenged her….
Read more….
http://normanfinkelstein.com/2018/09/06/barking-yenta-dame-margaret-hodge-tells-packed-news-conference-i-obey-my-uh-i-mean-israels-leader-im-leaving-for-the-philippines/
US to add 1500 troops to their occupation of Germany.
While Germany build 9 nuclear weaponed submarines for militant nationalist gangsters in Israel.
It does me sorrow for the refugees having to pretend they want to integrate. One Iraqi was killed for his cigarettes on the German streets of Chemnitz; causing the lefties to fall-out-of-bed. Where were the lefties and Die Toten Hosen playing as German geo-politics helped take the lives of one million Iraqis?
https://www.rt.com/newsline/437910-us-military-soldiers-germany/
https://www.rt.com/news/429547-netanyahu-questioned-submarine-affair/
Good luck trying to find that news in the Frankfurt censored press.
Good to see RWNJs being more honest about their beliefs:
https://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2018/09/sunday-nightcap-290/
Good evening Newshub Yaa the start of Maori language week
I say that people should learn maori language. Why they will learn the facts about OUR history and learn the wrongs that have been forced on to maori. The reason why over half our schools don’t even have any maori curriculum is these old men don’t want the mokopunas to have a positive view of maori there are many thing that our maori tipunas have done that the rest of Papatuanuku Admire .These people would prefer that the MYTH stays with mokopunas reality of . You maori sold your land for (blankets and guns) in reality our land was taken through deceit full tactics that our society frown’s on that bad behavior at the minuet .
World suicide day that’s cool this need’s to be highlighted as a major problem in our society .
Nanain Mahuta you handled Duncan really well Mana Wahine .
Is that your problem Duncan farting or is it what comes out the whatu think of what Eco can do if I had no morels or manners .
Ka kite ano Mark the reason our sports stadiam are not full is the people have no money to pay for the tickets thats it
This is our reality in Aotearoa not just Australia the measures of our prosperity should just have house holds income performance and we should be getting house hold’s confidence as a Gauge of our country’s economic forecast . The power has been taken from the house hold and given to big banks and big business employers . Its the people the people that drive a economy policys should be made to give that Mana back to the people link below .
Ka kite ano
https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2018/sep/09/big-banks-and-employers-do-what-they-like-because-they-can
Australia new Prime minister is a human caused climate change Green house warming denier he deserves what he gets he carryed a lump of coal into there Parliament and backed the coal industry over his offsprings & mokopunas future Kia kaha to the protesters link is below ka kite ano
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2018/sep/10/scott-morrison-bill-shorten-coalition-labor-dutton-politics-live
This is how shonky changed the legal frame work from serving te tangata to serving the best interest of the cheats in state services he made legal aid near impossible for the common man to get a fair trial thats a breach of Human rights ka kite ano link is below.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503438&objectid=11706555 P.S I went to make a complaint to the police department and what do you know you have to go down load a form and then email it in The un justice system serves the wealthy to rob the poor common person Boycott The ANZ BANK
Eco Maori will see if the state systems work,s I have tryed again to get any lawyer rang 5 and againt the NZ Police have interfered .I will send a complanit to the Ombudsmen and see what happeneds link is below ka kite ano.
http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/resources-and-publications/case-notes/official-information-case-notes
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/366005/ombudsman-tackling-increase-in-complaints-about-oia-requests
Good evening Newshub Looks like Greg O Conner has a very low IQ typical.
Ka pai to Whanganui conical for doing the correct thing including the H in its spelling of Whanganui .
I back the banning of 1080 poison this a dumb method of pest control by DOC .
I still have some links for the facts on round up you see the manufactures do the study on there poison so all the facts are skewered to suit the company’s profits who cares about the harm caused to Papatuanuku her creates or humanity.
Well come Rain Bow Warrior lll thanks for the tou toka of OUR carbon free future of Aotearoa.
The Kakapo Sir Roko he looks quite cheeky little bird he went off grid for 2 years I will go off Grid Asap .
With Sweden election results swing to the Far Right show me that they are using the internet to change people’s opinions to suit there snicking into power the left needs to start a campaign on the internet to counter there ——-.
Ka kite ano
Good evening The Crowd Goes Wild James and Wairangi Discrimination is rife look at how the Wahines Rugby team were treated by there host not very respectful.
Its was a good game by the Warriors Its a pity that there Australian host have no morels or manners .In the Aotearoa tangata whenua Papatuanuku we treat OUR guest with the utmost respect .
The Wahine Warriors had a win
Ka kite ano P.S Wai you mite have to put on a te reo teachers potai