…….pacing ourselves at the pace of our competitors, and being relentlessly honest about the economic implications of the transition.
If Generation Zero has issues with these principles, I’d love to hear what they are – because from my perspective that is the exact kind of level-headed, pragmatic and measured approach that New Zealand would expect from National.
……Generation Zero is trying to paint climate change as a partisan issue, with the Labour and Green Party in one corner, and National in the other. We are seeking to move climate change beyond partisan politics to provide stability to this issue……
Tod Muller and the National Party need to be put to the test.
When National was the government, Kennedy Graham on behalf of the Green Party organised an all Party conference on climate change in parliament, which the National party and ACT deliberately and actively boycotted. Not one National MP or representative turned up.
I challenge James Shaw to call such a conference again.
Yeah I was wearing my heart on my sleeve there. You can find convenient quotes and stats for most anything if you enter the right search terms. It’s not science but it can sure sound like it to the uninformed.
“an all Party conference on climate change in parliament, which the National party and ACT deliberately and actively boycotted. Not one National MP or representative turned up.”.
You seem to have an interesting interpretation of “boycotting”.
The National Party MPs seem to have taken an active interest in the subject and there were quite a lot of them involved in the exercise.
” In October 2015, Graham formed a cross-party group, GLOBE-NZ, working on climate change. GLOBE-NZ is a national chapter of GLOBE-International, and has 35 MP’s as members drawn from all seven political parties represented in the 51st Parliament. As chairman of the national chapter, Graham contracted a London-based consultancy, Vivid Economics, to prepare a report on “transformational pathways to carbon neutrality for New Zealand”. The report, Net Zero in New Zealand: Scenarios to achieve domestic emission reduction the second half of the century, was launched in the New Zealand Parliament in March 2017. The initiative is regarded as a major step forward in clarifying inter-party discourse and debate on New Zealand’s national climate change policy” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_Graham
Among the committee, listed here https://www.parliament.nz/en/get-involved/features/mps-collaborate-across-party-lines-in-response-to-climate-change/
I can see at least 9 who were in the National Party.
Bishop, McIndoe, Scott, McKelvie, Mitchell, Muller, Simpson, Smith and Barclay were all National I believe.
It is certainly a bit hard to argue that they all boycotted the group isn’t it?
In the debate on the report https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansDeb_20170413_20170413_12
Smith and Simpson both spoke as well as Seymour from ACT and Paula Bennett.
What on earth do you mean by your “boycott” comment?
But first what you are talking about Alwyn is a lot of back room committees.
Where National party participation usually acts as a brake, and where they can manipulate and backpedal out of the public eye.
What I was specifically talking about was the public all party conference on climate change that was organised by Kennedy Graham in the Old Legislative Chamber in Parliament.
At this public event. National made it very clear that they would not attend and they didn’t
It is all very well, Alwyn for the Nats to be involved in all sorts of alphabet soup of acronym back room groups, but taking a public stand with the other parliamentary parties? This was a step too far for the National Party MPs. An action which exposed the National Party as deeply sectarian and viciously opposed to any genuine bipartisanship on climate change.
Have National changed. I doubt it. But I could be wrong, that is why I think that the climate change minister needs to repeat Kennedy Graham’s initiative and call an all up party conference on climate change in parliament.
Let’s see if National MPs and reps boycott or attend such a public event.
My guess is that National will again choose to boycott.
This will be the acid test of the sincerity of the National Party’s bipartisanship when it comes to climate change, by which they will be measured against all other parliamentary parties.
It shows he has a flair for writing propaganda. Spin that seems plausible on the face of it. However, to see how it plays to the gallery, read the comments. I got the impression it was more than a 50/50 split, it was more against the Nats.
I give the guy credit for trying to reposition them as part of the solution. It will reassure those in his support base who think National should move with the times. His support for James Shaw’s approach validates it – but we must reserve judgment until the result of the process can be appraised.
I think he would make a better leader for the bluegreens than Nick Smith. I wonder if they think so. Lack of leadership is their primary problem! There are 27 in that photo, and that’s just the Bluegreen Executive: https://bluegreens.national.org.nz/about_bluegreens
“The Bluegreens approach is underpinned by five principles that we are now applying in Government to the broad range of environmental challenges facing New Zealand:
Resource use must be based on sustainability
Economic growth and improving the environment can and must go hand in hand
Good science is essential to quality environmental decision making
People respond best to change when engaged and given incentives
New Zealanders have a unique birthright to access and enjoy our special places
Our Bluegreens caucus has grown from the two founding members in 1998 to the current diverse team.”
The economic growth principle is the flaw in their thinking – the other four principles are valid. This all reminds us that the Values Party schism casts an extremely long shadow, and the Green political movement in Aotearoa is still as divided as ever. But I’m confident the bridge James has built will reduce that divide as time passes.
Not likely, Tamati! Conservative Greens have voted National since the seventies. The effect that has had is to keep the Green vote down – about half what it would be otherwise. It’s because the environmental activists of Aotearoa have constituted a strong movement since they stopped the Manapouri dam – almost half a century ago, but many prioritised short-term success so they decided to work with govt rather than against it. Pragmatists.
As regards Nat marketing, it never seems very clever. Just a rear-guard action to try and limit progress. Residual colonialism, basically. Notice you never see the brand in public apart from their website. Such subtlety is by design. The idea is to retain control of their half of the movement. I often describe it as `keep the dog in the kennel’. Anyone who thinks their dog doesn’t need a regular run is a moron, right?
Nick Smith is definitely not Blue-Green he is an environmental terrorist like Trump, Key, Bridges, Brownlee etc pro Oil & Mining Corporates set out to destroy what is left of the environment IMHO.
Yes, Todd Muller does have a flair for writing propaganda.
Going on about bi-partisanship and consensus, and then saying in the next breath, that immediately on a change of government National will repeal the moratorium on issuing new oil and gas exploration permits.
What’s bi-partisan, about that?
Nothing.
Muller also talks about kicking action on climate change down the road twenty or thirty years.
Which is what draws him to attack Generation Zero, who want to do something about climate change in the here and now.
One Ring to rule them all,
One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all,
And in the darkness bind them.
This is the only sort of consensus that Todd Muller is interested in.
Gen Zero should stop needlessly picking at scabs and start picking their fights better.
Shaw, Upton, Parker and Muller are near to cross-parliamentary support for legislation that binds for generations. They have been working on it for over a year already,
The bases of both Greens and National will likely go nuts at the compromises when its made public.
It’s going to be up to these actual political party reps to bind policy enough to take climate change away from perpetual electoral cycles. No more arguments, just get to work.
It certainly didn’t hurt New Zealand that Key and Obama got on so well did it?
I’m sure that Ardern and Trump would hit it off very well. After all they do have so much in common.
Morrissey they don’t particularly like you over at Kiwiblog, not many likes, you are not Redneck Enough. I had the same problem about 10 years ago, I ended up suffering from a PTSD post traumatic stress disorder and had to leave with my tail between my legs.
You mean not bigoted enough. Most of the truly vile crap we are bombarded with comes not from working people—i.e. rednecks—but white-collar thugs like Mike Hosking, Don Brash, John Ansell, Sir Robert Jones. None of them would know a shovel from a jackhammer.
I had the same problem about 10 years ago, I ended up suffering from a PTSD post traumatic stress disorder and had to leave with my tail between my legs.
Yikes! I’d better monitor my own health. Someone on Kiwiblog maliciously supplied me with the name of a psychiatrist this morning; maybe I should get in contact.
New campaign for a 21th century trade agenda
Monday, 7 January 2019, 9:34 am
Press Release: Professor Jane Kelsey
7 January 2019
For immediate release
Launch of JusTrade.nz heralds a new campaign for a 21th century trade agenda
The website JusTrade.nz, launched today, heralds a new forward-looking campaign for a progressive 21st century trade agenda.
The JusTrade project builds on a two-day hui in late October that debated what an alternative and progressive trade strategy for Aotearoa New Zealand should look like. The live-streaming attracted over 17,000 page views. The website carries videos and transcriptions of all ten panels.
Hui convenor, University of Auckland law professor Jane Kelsey, says ‘for too long we’ve been told there is no alternative to the current model, epitomised in the recently adopted Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.’
‘Today, the global trade regime faces an existential crisis. Mega-negotiations are being abandoned, delayed or pared down, and the World Trade Organization is fractured and paralysed.’
And ‘Critique is no longer enough. If anything is to really change, we need to step away from the existing framework and take a first-principles approach to rethinking what will work for the 21st century.’
Ha! I’ll believe that when I see it! The quote is absolutely correct, but can anyone remember when the left actually practiced what they preached? So I’m calling their bluff: let’s see those principles, pronto!
Of course, it they actually existed, they’d be up front in the press release, wouldn’t they? And if Kelsey has spent the past decade mulling them over (as well as protesting their lack), you’d think she’d have been able to identify at least one!
Let’s give her the benefit of the doubt, and assume she has some in mind but wants to organise a consensus around them. The press release suggests a process will now occur to produce a consensual, principled, output. Let’s hope for the best.
Otherwise it’s just typical leftist sham: all show, no substance, like Sue Bradford’s left-wing think-tank – another decade-long brainstorming exercise with no result.
Interesting article on NZ population growth, immigration still happening big time, no wonder housing prices still high and in short supply here in NZ, demand is out stripping supply.
Still don’t know why timber is so expensive here in NZ ?
I do love the Statistics Department Mr Dunstan’s optimism when he said
“the population estimates would be revised once the final Census results were out.”.
We won’t see any realistic results from that Census in any of our lifetimes.
oh, snap – I thought you just wanted to shit on a Green minister. But maybe your objective is to argue that the population denominators are meaningless, so you can pretend that nothing improves under this government – the bad numbers might go down and the good numbers up, but unless you can put together an accurate rate we cannot know if there’s been any real change.
Which explains why you wanted an interim census in 2021, when you think a census can be sorted out and completed in five months. You get three years of saying the government has no demonstrable improvements before the next election.
Yes he talked about it during his show MOATS this week.
Such an inspiration.
[Ed. I had a long think overnight about your behaviour on this site. This morning I went back to check previous moderation notes and it is clear you have been repeatedly warned and occasionally banned for spamming, abuse and wasting moderator timeover the last 12 months. Yet, nothing changes. Yesterday, you indicated that you see your role as being to protect TS from “Blairite bullies”. This is not a service The Standard requires. In addition, you made two comments that suggested re-education and forced labour was a legitimate response to people who had views different to yours on climate change. This is an absolutely abhorrent position on a human level and, is, in effect, intimidation directed at other TS commenters. TS has clear policy on comments that discourage others from contributing to the site. Permanent ban. TRP]
I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Based on past history, I fully expect another commenter to pop up soon using a short male name as a handle, a predilection for posting videos from that convergence point of moonbat far-lefties and alt-right wingnuts, a fetish for veganism and conspiracy theories, and a hectoring tone that alienates everyone that’s not fully bought into the exact same viewpoint.
Every time you whine that someone isn’t saying or doing or paying attention to something you think they should be. Such as your whine at comment 2 today.
I agree. (Francesca 9.1.2)
Ed (and Morrissey) make this forum an interesting place and worth visiting. They are gentle but sharp in their comments and rarely lower themselves to the level of their detractors.
@ TRP, I have tried finding Ed’s comments were you accuse him of “intimidation directed at other TS commenters.” but couldn’t find anything , could you please put up a link to these comments please.
And the mod comment was that it was in effect intimidation of other commenters. We might know that Ed is a full of shit blowhard, but others might think he doesn’t just mean it, he’s trying to bring it about. And if the offence is too minor to be detected by other people, they might become more circumspect about commenting for fear of the EdEds knocking on their door.
Can’t see how that is intimidating other commenters myself – he’s talking about well known cricketers who probably have never commented on here. There are a couple of other regular commenters who use much more intimidating language toward others on a regular basis…
I thought this comment from Joe in the same thread (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-09-01-2018-2/#comment-1569753), which you didn’t pick up on? calling another commenter a “vile prick” was an actual example of intimidating other commenters. But hey he is on the right side of the law so to speak.
I’ve just spent a couple of days with a man who thinks this was his 84th Christmas. But being the sole survivour of an extended family of Kulaks sent to a forced labour camp, he’s guessing.
So yeah, in my world anyone who advocates for reeducation and forced labour is indeed a vile prick.
Are serious? please say that you are, because if that is what warrants a permanent ban, then The Standard has some real fundamental problems around moderation and it’s application.
permaban was the mod’s decision based on that incident being a continuation of behaviour about which ed had been repeatedly warned. Amnesties periodically occur, anyway.
My opinion of the reasonableness of the decision is irrelevant – it’s not my site. But you and Maui seem to be having difficulty what the moderator wrote, whereas it seems pretty plain to me. So I’m simply trying to explain my understanding of what occurred.
There can be insults against individuals allowed, although pointless abuse is against site policy. But outright intimidation and calls for violence are well against site policy.
@McFlock “But outright intimidation and calls for violence are well against site policy.”
Give me a break…that is just plain outright bullshit, there is just no equivalence from what Ed said and to your statement or TRP’s “and, is, in effect, intimidation directed at other TS commenters” for that matter.
If they continue to wilfully lie about climate change after a brief education course, then they should be sent to Bangladesh to build sea walls.
My italics.
The use of the normative in tandem with the passive indicates a desire for it to happen and a lack of ability to refuse the proposal (and therefore use of force to extract the seawall-constructing labour).
Come on man, that is quite obviously just someone getting passionate in a debate, and then saying some shit, so fucking what, if that is all it takes to make someone feel intimidated, then I would say it is them who has the problem (probably stemming from some deep rooted unresolved trauma that needs professional psychological help) , and not Ed… maybe some people should either harden up a bit, or go and sort out their shit and come back when they can stand up to a robust debate..this isn’t playcentre.
The last thing wanted on a political forum is for everyone to have to tip toe around like they are walking on broken glass, for fear of triggering off someones neurosis.
You have read lprent’s reply to you at 9.1.3.2, haven’t you?
Coz that lays out pretty clearly the problem is ongoing behaviour issues. TRP’s moderation note makes the same point. Focusing on just the last straw is ignoring the mountain of crap that overloaded the camel to begin with.
I can/t see why you should be so protective of ed Adrian. You have written more about him and his rights than he would have written in dozen of his comments.
What makes this blog strong is people like you thinking and writing about politics, exchanging information and we all end up knowing more. Ed was like a seagull that flies over and drops one on the words you are reading.
Ed tended to dominate the site with summaries about his obsessions. And having USA or world conflicts as the first thing on the blog each morning was stultifying for the blog; finding Ed dominating prime position so often was a bore. He does come up with some good points, but usually about things other than NZ, and can’t control his takeover tendencies of the blog.
Ed was low on NZ stuff, and high on telling us about his likes and dislikes and making our minds up for us. He has been a sort of Likes/Dislikes system and has given us evidence of why we have decided rightly, that they aren’t wanted on this blog.
permaban was the mod’s decision based on that incident being a continuation of behaviour about which ed had been repeatedly warned. Amnesties periodically occur, anyway.
What a load of old cobblers. Ed’s comment deemed “intimidatory” by some (mostly by those who feel a need to harass and snark at his every comment) had absolutely nothing to do with his previous behaviour. He was banned previously for posting multiple videos without descriptions. Before that I think he was banned for not clearly defining when he was quoting someone else. He came back and learned from both of those bannings and modified his behaviour.
Yeah pointless abuse, there’s a dime a dozen of that, have you heard of BM? Yet Ed gets sent packing for saying two people who don’t exist on this site should work overseas. Fuckn hell.
Ed, stop being a disingenuous little twerp. You know as well as any of us that you were talking about people being forced to go to a far away place and there being forced to labour because of their ideas.
Forced… yeah forced. My god, and I thought he said ‘should’! in order to do something constructive. Mind you I have never, ever known Ed to make throw away comments..
‘Little twerp’ oh yes that is not intimidating other commenters… That won’t discourage the commentariat at all I’m sure… Perhaps you want to really intimidate and offend by suggesting a NZ First style boot camp for non-existent persons.
They wouldn’t be that hard for me to find. Bearing in mind the state of the search after the wordpress 5 update at present it’d be hard for others to do a search for Ed’s comments (getting around to fixing search in these “dog days”)..
Most of them are probably rhetorical claptrap and more based on idiotic and simply dumb labels about groups of other people (like ‘Blairites’ and a pile of other labels) rather than the reality of what people are actually saying.
But they are exclusionary, repeated, and often seem to be designed to avoid actually thinking and expressing his own opinions, and certainly he seldom explains his ideas in any depth so that others can pick holes in those ideas. Which is what the site is for.
If we wanted meaningless and unthinking waffle using labels, then we could just tune into Mike Hoskings or talkback radio.
The second problem is that Ed (both as Ed and as his other handles over the last decade) just keeps doing the kinds of behaviors that he gets moderated and warned for. He changes behaviour for a short time, then reverts. I have a kitten that has a massively faster behavioral change response than Ed has.
For instance I actually have a personal moderator watch running at present for his first comment behaviors on OpenMIke for instance after my last warning about that. I think that most of the active moderators past and present have similar exasperated watches for Ed. All of which suck effort out of us. I don’t even bother reading his comments in any depth these days. I just scan them for (bad) behaviour – just like I do for any other troll.
The point is that this site is there for robust debate. Ed doesn’t provide much (if any). We keep having to try to reform his behaviour. That is a lot of extra work. It is a behavioral problem because it just wastes everyone’s time.
BTW: Perhaps you’d like to point to any comment where Ed actually made a significiant contribution to the debate in what he wrote himself. That could be more a better way of arguing about a ban…
Thank you! Sweet Jesus it’s been an effort to point out that Ed just regurgitates and positulates in his unctuous way that supporting people is the same as having an opinion and adding to the debate.
was TRP looking in the mirror when he wrote out his ban spiel …. the sort of spiel which discourages others from contributing to the site….. no one feels intimidated by Ed ….
bully boy mods on the other hand are a different matter
To me …. TRP will always be the moderator who stands by and allows abuse of people who disclose they were victims of sexual abuse.
“As everyone knows, most diplomats in US embassies are actually CIA agents. They have made the ultimate sacrifice of their brains, and should be venerated, regardless of whether the culprits are Russians or crickets. Fortunately, they can be retired and given jobs as analysts at NBC where their brain damage will be considered a career asset. Unfortunately, there is a limit to how many analysts NBC can hire, so the rest can be given jobs in the State Department.
The fact this incident couldn’t be pinned on the Russians is just another example of their deviousness. The Russians were probably aware of the crickets’ activities and did nothing to stop them, which is essentially as bad as if they’d done it themselves. So they clearly have a moral responsibility for the brain damage.”
Thanks for that francesca, love reading Greenwalds reporting, he is always on the mark and always manages to slip in a couple of pointed lines that make me laugh.
I sent links to both the DM videos to RNZ this morning, suggesting that maybe this year they could help play a more considered role in their coverage of world news and especially US politics.
Christ – is she still around? I thought she might have trotted off back to the Punjab to be waited on hand and foot. It’s been a while since she deigned to touch base with Kathryn Ryan
Oh yeah, forgot this piece that talks about the absolutely bizarre place that many ‘liberals’ and so called ‘progressives’ have got themselves in lionizing the CIA and FBI for fucks sake…and again quite a bit of this bizarro behavior is seen right here on The Standard…
William Arkin On Homeland Security’s Creeping Fascism and Why the CIA & FBI Won’t Save Us From Trump
He didn’t mention the deep state though, did he? So, like any typical msm frontperson, his analysis is shallow. He’s right about the creeping fascism, even if HS staff don’t wear brown shirts or jackboots, but he fails to join the dots.
Still, he was articulate, made a good point about American imperialism (“I think we’ve bombed nine countries in the past year”) and fingered Trump as someone who wouldn’t even know how to find the dept of Homeland Security. As an insider, this invalidation of the `Trump is fascist’ thesis popular with some commentators here is definitely helpful to the simple-minded.
I noticed a passing reference to American military involvement in Honduras. Given that all the Hondurans travelling through Mexico so they can enter the USA and become victims of Homeland Security prefer that fate to the one they left behind, I’m wondering what the hell the US miltary is actually doing there. Anyone know?
Thanks francesca. A good report by The Conversation, of which part is worth reproducing here as essential context for the migration:
“the election of Manuel Zelaya, a liberal reformist, as president in 2006. He led on progressive measures such as raising the minimum wage. He also tried to organize a plebiscite to allow for a constituent assembly to replace the country’s constitution, which had been written during a military government. However, these efforts incurred the ire of the country’s oligarchy, leading to his overthrow by the military in June 2009.”
“The 2009 coup, more than any other development, explains the increase in Honduran migration across the southern U.S. border in the last few years. The Obama administration has played an important role in these developments. Although it officially decried Zelaya’s ouster, it equivocated on whether or not it constituted a coup, which would have required the U.S. to stop sending most aid to the country.” When is a coup not a coup? When expediency requires denial.
“Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in particular, sent conflicting messages, and worked to ensure that Zelaya did not return to power. This was contrary to the wishes of the Organization of American States, the leading hemispheric political forum composed of the 35 member-countries of the Americas, including the Caribbean. Several months after the coup, Clinton supported a highly questionable election aimed at legitimating the post-coup government.”
So the Democrats worked hard to create the political conditions the migrants are fleeing from. Helping the fascists is democratic behaviour, apparently, or at least they must believe so. You can see why they get hysterical in their attempt to depict Trump as fascist. The pot must always claim that the kettle is blacker. Is there anyone left who thinks Democrats are good people?
@Dennis Frank, well said.
“You can see why they get hysterical in their attempt to depict Trump as fascist. The pot must always claim that the kettle is blacker. Is there anyone left who thinks Democrats are good people?”
The recent (Nov 2017) elections were also mired in most probable fraud. The opposition was winning when suddenly the count was suspended.
When it resumed, Hernandez was winning
@mickysavage, are you saying that you believe that the CIA detest all Trump stands for?…wow.
I know they don’t like his less interventionist and more inward world outlook, but apart from that what other of Trumps policies do they ‘detest’?
Maybe your time would be better spent opposing what should be the antidote to this terrible Trump/Right Wing slide, namely the idiots that run the Democratic party and who plainly, would rather see Trump in power than any shift to the Left, exactly the same ideology that pervades parts of UK Labour (and Labour NZ, but I guess you already know that)..they are the reason we have Trump and Co…they have effectively taken away the traditional Left wing safety valve that people turn to when they are hurting, and replaced it with Liberalism, a debunked ideology that has no credibility left whatsoever.
Personally I choose to ignore Trump and concentrate on working ( if only in a small way) toward a real Left wing alternative..that is the kryptonite that will destroy this man made orange monster.
And where has socialism worked, especially in countries of significant population and diversity Shite even China worked that out I also think the US working class have worked that out especially with so many basket case left wing experiences on thier doorstep Contary to your view the new crazynkeft of Democrat party will see TruMo do another term, they are gold for the attack adds and Trumps mocking style
Depending on the definition of socialism you’re talking about:
Scandinavia and much of northern and western Europe, Vietnam, Chile under Allende, several central American nations before other nations funded insurgencies against democratically elected governments, Cuba until it’s closest and largest trading partner launched a multi-decade boycott of anyone who does business with them.
Can you identify a common factor that challenged or ended a variety of socialist governments?
Is a bewildered person likely to be able to answer a question that several generations of socialists have been unable to answer in any country? Worth a try though. Lateral thinking is what we need.
I see the dude from the Tooting Popular Front has identified why Corbyn wants Brexit. Apparently he has had past success campaigning for re-nationalisation. EU rules forbid it.
Serious street cred for a socialist. I can see why he doesn’t want to remind the public about this, nor other Labour MPs! But it alerts us to the likely title of Labour’s next election campaign: Back to the Future.
Yes, he does make a good point: “To his credit, Corbyn has (so far) refused to be baited into making Labour the media story in the run up to the parliamentary vote, which is due on either January 14 or 15. In his recent statements on Brexit, Corbyn has adroitly kept the focus on what May can and should be doing, not on what Labour might do, or should do, sometime in future. The time for Labour to show its hand will come later, after May has finally run out of options. A controversial statement on Brexit by Corbyn at this point would be the answer to May’s prayers.”
“if Corbyn backed May and her deal in the mid January parliamentary vote, Labour would be finished. The young who have flocked to Corbyn would desert him in droves. [The poll] indicates Labour’s share of the vote would slump another eight points – from 34 per cent to 26 per cent – if its MPs join with the Tories to support the prime minister’s Brexit deal. This would be even worse than the 28 per cent share secured by Labour under Michael Foot”. Gah!!
” DER SPIEGEL: And now you want to go back to the future?
Corbyn: What we’ve been saying on both sides of the Atlantic is about redistribution of wealth and power. Bernie Sanders has quite a good line. He says: “America can afford anything except the inequality it’s got.”
DER SPIEGEL: You will turn 70 next year. Are you planning to stand in the next general election?
Corbyn: I’m very young. I’m very healthy. I run. I’m a vegetarian. I eat porridge every morning. I don’t smoke. I don’t drink. I don’t do anything bad. I am sorry if that makes me sound boring.”
There is nowhere “capitalism” has worked, without a healthy dose of socialism.
In fact all the “capitalist” experiments are disaster zones. Honduras being but one example. Argentina has never recovered fully from their Neo-liberal experiment. Recovery from ours will take decades, if ever.
Weird that media, and even commentators on here, ignore the, many, right wing capitalist disasters. Russia, The US rust belt, Puerto Rico, Honduras, etc You know, the places people really are fleeing from.
Sorry that doesn’t make sense to me, if you agree that the lack of alternative provided by a captured Democratic Party is largely responsible for the likes of Trump, then surely logic dictates that the solution to the problem of Trump is real progressive change within the Democratic party?
And yes I would regard you as a class sell out if you allowed yourself to be baited into supporting a non progressive Democratic Party through fear of Trump.
This whole one step forward, two steps backwards for workers the poor and disenfranchised that seems to be locked into operating manual of the centre left has got to end now, not tomorrow.
Nicely demonstrating how the perfect is the enemy of the good.
Let’s say you had a single vote in November 2016. You couldn’t make the dems suddenly turn to socialism. It’s Clinton vs Trump. Realistically, it would be one of those two. That’s it. workers should do this, dems should do that, repugs should do the other – you have zero control over that, other than one vote. Do you vote for Clinton and against Trump? For Trump and against Clinton? One is worse than the other. Throwing away your vote on a third party does nothing to stop the worst candidate winning. What do you do? Because that’s reality.
No, the reality is that the third way liberals who have co opted most Left leaning parties in the west have been using your bullshit argument for nearly thirty years now..ie cynically using fear to direct your vote.
The fact is that workers and the poor are suffering anyway, so why should or would they give a fuck about your ridiculous analogy?
The strangest thing to me is that smart guys like you and mickysavage still believe the same fucking lies that you were feed last time, and the time before that and the time before that.
Can’t you see that you have been suckered in to game where the results are ALWAYS the same.
The enemy of good is being bullied around like a pawn out of fear and not being guided by your moral and ethical internal compass, and calling bullshit on this liberal centrist ideology that has plainly run it’s course, and is now continuing only as a destructive force that survives solely by exploiting and destroying both humans and the planet in it’s insane search of endless growth.
It’s not an analogy. It actually happened. People had a choice between dolt45 and Clinton.
The workers who aren’t being paid because of the shutdown are suffering more than they would have. The people relying on the downstream effects of those workers’ incomes are suffering more than they would have. The would-be auto workers not hired because of the higher cost of steel to build the cars are suffering. The people worried their healthcare would be stripped away again were suffering.
Even if you go the other way and think more people would have suffered under Clinton, the point remains that one was better than the other in terms of the suffering of workers and poor people. The odds of them being exactly as bad as the other are cosmic.
So you can vote for the lesser evil, vote for the greater evil, or do nothing to stop the greater evil winning.
Just stop and think. What would you do with your ballot paper?
Stein = do nothing to stop the greater evil winning.
Sure, here you can vote green. Hell, I’ve voted Green for exactly that reason. But November 2016 POTUS election, Green/third party/write-in was a wasted vote. One viable candidate is less bad than the other. Which one do you vote for?
The reason I’m pushing it is that all it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. And pretending that two evils are identical or equivalent is one way to get good people to do nothing.
Shitting on “third way liberals” might make you feel righteous, but the only reason the third way was grabbed as a strategy was because the traditional left way got well and truly fucked in the ballot booth.
It is not a matter of me feeling righteous, it is a matter of no doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result…
btw how is Trump any worse than Bush II
Or for that matter how is Trump worse than Clinton on foreign policy, as that is all that really concerns us right?
lol so you’ve gone from concern for workers and the poor to “all that really concerns us”. So much international worker collaboration.
But it’s not about expecting anything different, or even whether dolt45 is better than Clinton or the other way around. It’s about minimising the obvious harm. One is better than the other, even though both are bad.
If the position we are in at the ballot is the same as the last time we were there, then the rational thing to do is to do the same thing as before (choose the least worst) and then try to change the situation we face at the next ballot.
“Of two evils choose neither” -Charles Spurgeon, is often misused in the realm of social media to discourage Christians from voting in political elections (either entirely or certain candidates). But Spurgeon is being taken out of context.
Worse still, this claimed fuller quote often attributed to him, was not Spurgeon at all, but Michael Marcavage “Of two evils, choose neither,” he said, “Christians must turn from the endless cycle of voting for the lesser of evils and expecting an unrighteous act to produce a righteous result. From a communist to a cultist, choosing the lesser of two evils is still evil, and never should we do evil that good may come”. – Michael Marcavage.
A flooded new stadium (due to climate change) which will then morph into a marine reserve, with tourists permitted to dive & view the locals for an exorbitant fee. Presumably, by then, it will have become known as Goff’s Folly.
Individual-1 might indeed be immune from prosecution while he continues to hold his current job. And the people tasked with overseeing him and that hold the power to terminate his employment may be disinclined to even think about fulfilling their responsibilities and duties. That doesn’t mean his business empire is safe from a RICO prosecution and seizure.
E-Ferries for the Waitemata Harbour in Auckland would also be a good idea for the Manukau Harbour, imagine we could catch an E-Ferry from Waiuku to Onehunga Wharf, not a silly idea IMHO.
“Hybrid regimes are nations where consequential irregularities exist in elections regularly preventing them from being fair and free. These nations commonly have governments that apply pressure on political opponents, non independent judiciaries, and have widespread corruption, harassment and pressure placed on the media, anemic rule of law, and more pronounced faults than flawed democracies in the realms of underdeveloped political culture, low levels of participation in politics, and issues in the functioning of governance.”
So what has been happening there recently? “In January 2017, President Juan Orlando Hernández announced that the Special Commission for Police Reform Restructuring will extend its mandate until 2018. As of May, nearly 4,000 of the more than 9,000 police officers evaluated by the commission had been removed, including many for alleged involvement in corruption or criminal acts. However, none of the police officers expelled upon orders of the commission has been convicted to date for alleged involvement in criminal activities including human rights abuses.”
The Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR) “described Honduras in August 2016 as one of the “most hostile and dangerous countries for human rights defenders” in the Americas.”
“Twenty-five journalists were murdered between 2014 and 2016 according to the human rights ombudsman, CONADEH, which also revealed in its 2016 report that 91 percent of killings of journalists since 2001 remain unpunished. Most recently, journalist Carlos William Flores was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen on a motorcycle in Cortes, near the Guatemalan border. Flores directed a television program, “Sin Pelos en la Lengua,” which was critical of major agribusiness enterprises linked to deforestation in the area.”
“To date, eight men have been charged with the murder in March 2016 of environmental and indigenous rights activist Berta Cáceres, including an army major and the former environment manager of Desarrollo Energético S.A. (DESA), the company behind the Agua Zarca dam project that Cáceres was campaigning against at the time of her death.”
“At the behest of the Mission to Support the Fight against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (MACCIH), Congress passed the Law on Clean Politics, which came into force in March 2017. The law created a framework to prevent organized crime from contributing to political campaigns and to hold parties and candidates accountable for financing their campaigns illegally. In July 2017, the MACCIH announced that it would investigate the funding and government concession granted to DESA for the Agua Zarca Dam project for possible corruption and money laundering.”
“For fiscal year 2017, the US Congress allotted US$95.3 million in bilateral aid to Honduras. Members of Congress reintroduced the “Berta Caceres Human Rights in Honduras Act” (H.R. 1299) on March 2, 2017. The bill would suspend US funding for the country’s police and military operations until the Honduras government prosecutes and convicts those who ordered and carried out the murder of Cáceres, in addition to other killings and attacks against other activists; investigate and prosecute members of military and police forces who have allegedly violated human rights; withdraw the military from domestic policing; establish effective protections for human rights defenders; and strengthen rule of law.”
“In May 2016, after prosecutors filed murder charges against an employee of DESA, the Dutch development bank, FMO, and the Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation, Finnfund, announced they would suspend payments of their loans to the Agua Zarca Dam. In June 2017, both funders told the Guardian that they would withdraw completely from the Agua Zarca project. The third and largest investor in the project, the Central American Bank of Economic Integration (CABEI), also announced that it would no longer fund the project.”
Sorry for so much block quoting, but I’m hoping the moderator will agree that it provides a balanced view, in which the shit that has been going down is producing some appropriate high-level responses that seem good news. The struggle for law and order is clearly ongoing, however. Savagery and victimisation remain normal.
If I earn the average NZ wage (50K) and save 100% of that… I only have to work for two million two hundred and forty thousand years to catch up to Bezos.
Alternately, if two million two hundred and forty thousand average earners saved everything for a year we could collectively make a Bezos.
But if there were more than one Bezos in the market would value decline? Currently you can get 2.08 Zuckerbergs for a Bezos but that might change.
We could put GE to good use and clone Thiel as 44.8 Thiels make a Bezos. Nobody would care as nobody is buying Thiel, they’re all just gawkers.
While nobody outside the entertainment industry has been able to determine the value of a Trump he is made up of at least some Thiels, a smattering of Zuckerbergs, and a smearing of Bezos.
Think it was on RNZ this morning or yesterday I heard he again passed Gates to become world #1. A puzzle, that, given that Forbes reckons it happened March 2018. https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/#1b05be35251c
It’s tough at the top: 121 dropped off the list “including all 10 Saudi Arabians.” Buffett at #3, Zuckerberg @5, Carlos Slim down to 7, Koch brothers 8&9, Ellison 10. Elon Musk #54, Rupert Murdoch #94. #148 is Graeme Hart. #190 George Soros. Trump also ran, #259. #388 Richard Branson.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that RNZ reported it had happened again. Forbes only ever rates them annually and I’m unaware of any other such rating of the wealthiest people that may have been their source. If they mentioned a source on the report, I missed that, and can’t find the report on their website…
There was an early 1980s TV series called Brass, with Timothy West and Barbara Ewing. I remember one lovely scene where West, as the landowning industrialist, was talking about how he could donate a hundred pounds to the poor in the town, and they would only get a few pence each. But if they each gave him a few pence, he would be substantially better off, and that’s why capitalism is better than socialism. Very funny show.
Another bit had a worker stuck two steps up a ladder on a very tall factory chimney he’d had to clean – he’d dealt with the fear of falling by saying it was mostly safe and “it were only ‘t last foot that killed thee”. When he came down again, he couldn’t overcome the mortal fear of descending that last foot 🙂
““it were only ‘t last foot that killed thee”
Yes McFlock. I remember that line well as the bloke confidently clambered down the ladder then froze with one rung to go. Very funny and a great metaphor for life and I use it to reassure my wife when she is boarding a plane. She is not amused.
Fuck. No. Just no. This is why we have health&safety.
Reminds me of stories from the foundries granddad worked in in the North, with men jumping from crucible to crucible to sweep the slag off. Apparently one guy fell in.
While Putin and his oligarch cronies have been busy stealing $Billions from the Russian people and squirreled it away in London banks, French villas, Miami condominiums and super yachts, 25% of Russians have yet to have access to an indoor toilet.
According to a new report by Russia’s state statistical agency, Rosstat, 35 million Russians live in houses or apartments without indoor toilets, 47 million do not have hot water, 29 million don’t have any running water inside their residences, and 22 million do not have central heating (ehorussia.com/new/node/17679).
In fact, only 62.7 percent of the Russian population has the usual accoutrements of modern existence – water in the house, plumbing, heating and gas or electric ranges, Rosstat says, a fact that must seem incredible to those who visit only Moscow or St. Petersburg but a fact of life for those who lives beyond the ring roads of the capitals.
Mozz and Ed won’t like this Joe, Putin Is a paragon of purity don’t you know, now those evil brits and yanks whole different story, just ask George “Purr” Galloway
Mind you, home ownership in Russia is around 84% and trending up , whereas the same in NZ is 64.58% and trending down
Rural areas of Russia surely could do with a few improvements, just as our housing
(leaky homes because of lax regulations, poverty in Northland, people living in garages and cars, slum landlordism)aint anything to crow about
Cue the knee jerk required whataboutism response
I lived with out electricity for 25 years, bucketed in water and longed for a flush toilet.
Ah, those days
Still haven’t got one, composting instead 2000 tiger worms do the job , outside on the veranda(in a separate room of course)
Free housing privatization began in Russia in 1992. Then they were allowed to issue ownership of apartments, rooms in dormitories and other residential premises located in the municipal, federal and departmental housing stock.
Pelin Ünker is one of more than 160 journalists and media workers imprisoned by Erdogan’s regime.
🔖 Yes, we‘re not scared, as journalists. But it doesn’t mean that we're so brave. How a doctor is supposed to look after a patient, journalists are obliged to look out for public interest.
I would like to thank everyone who provide support. Journalism is not a crime. 🎈
Turkish journalist Pelin Ünker has been sentenced to jail over the Paradise Papers investigation after being found to have defamed her nation’s former prime minister and two of his sons.
An Istanbul court sentenced the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ member to imprisonment for 13 months for “defamation and insult.”
Ünker, who reported that former prime minister Binali Yildirim and his sons owned companies in Malta in the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet, was also fined $US1615.
Prime minister from May 2016 to July 2018, Yildirim became speaker of Turkey’s Grand National Assembly after the post of Prime Minister was abolished.
Serious Fraud Office.
In the past As at 30 January 2015 the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) had prosecuted company officers such as directors and accountants involved in eleven finance companies, securing convictions against twenty people for a range of offences against the Crimes Act and Securities Act.,,,
Between May 2006 and the end of 2012 there were sixty-seven finance company collapses in New Zealand; including companies entering into liquidation, receivership or moratoria.[1] An inquiry by the New Zealand Parliament estimated losses at over $3 billion that affected between 150,000 and 200,000 depositors.[2]
The most high-profile collapses were South Canterbury Finance, Hanover Finance and Bridgecorp Holdings. The collapse radically reduced the size and importance of the non-bank finance sector in New Zealand.
According to the Reserve Bank, at the height of financial expansion prior to the 2007 crisis, non-bank lenders had assets of about $25 billion and made up 8 percent of lending by financial institutions. By late 2013 the size of the finance sector was half its previous size and accounted for only 3 percent of institutional lending.[3] In the years following the beginning of the collapses, sweeping legislative and regulatory changes were made, aimed at improving oversight and regulation of the finance industry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finance_company_collapses,_2006%E2%80%932012_(New_Zealand)
So NZ private business companies are well controlled now? Now – government funding is being investigated. https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/summerreport/audio/2018678014/sfo-warns-billions-of-public-funds-potentially-misused The chief executive of the financial crime investigation agency, Julie Read, said she expected up to 5 percent of government funding to be obtained or used fraudulently.
In the 2017 financial year, that would have been worth nearly $5 billion, from the Crown’s total expenditure of $99.8b….
Citing the Auckland Transport case, where former employees were convicted for accepting more than $1 million worth of bribes in 2016, Ms Read said some organisations overlooked checks and balances when receiving or allocating
funds.
Kate Newton , Senior Journalist, In Depth
@katenewtonnz kate.newton@radionz.co.nz
Axed over the Christmas break, told to be out by lunchtime after 50 years’ loyalty – this is redundancy in New Zealand, where there’s no mandatory notice period or compensation payments and little support for those searching for new work.
The laws aren’t formed for ordinary humans. Once you realise that politicians and civil servants aren’t working for us but a ‘higher power’ it cleanses the mind of all confusion. Everything then can be ironical and we realise we are having a mind melt when we start expecting normal.
“The U.S. has accused Kaspersky Lab of working with Russian spies. But sources say the company exposed a massive breach that U.S. authorities missed.
The 2016 arrest of a former National Security Agency contractor charged with a massive theft of classified data began with an unlikely source: a tip from a Russian cybersecurity firm that the U.S. government has called a threat to the country.”
Good story, eh? One for LP to do an expert evaluation of, I reckon. So much for the Democrat’s favourite spin-line: Russian hackers are the enemy. Evaporated!
“A Google search on the Twitter handle found someone using the same Hal999999999 username on a personal ad seeking female sex partners. The anonymous ad, on a site for people interested in bondage and sado-masochism, included a real picture of Martin and identified him as a 6-foot-4-inch 50-year-old male living in Annapolis, Md. A different search led them to a LinkedIn profile for Hal Martin, described as a researcher in Annapolis Junction and “technical advisor and investigator on offensive cyber issues.”
Seems safe to predict that this dude won’t go down as the cleverest spy in history. A strong contender for the title of dumbest. Bring back Blackadder.
So much for the Democrat’s favourite spin-line: Russian hackers are the enemy. Evaporated!
Huh? How does that follow?
Computer security companies, regardless where they are, are pretty much on the other side of the fence. Sure they tend to hire quite a lot of hackers – but usually after they want to or are forced to stop hacking for themselves, criminal gangs or intelligence services. For security companies, not hacking is the basis of their business. They just know a lot about ways that people can hack systems. They also usually have quite intrusive employment policies and employee contracts about what employees are allowed to do. Among other reasons that is so that they don’t have the security forces or hacker groups trying to penetrate their organisations. It is also why they have some pretty scary firewalls.
Kaspersky and the few other computer security research groups outside of the US are most notable because they aren’t as constrained by the legal gags that the US maintains on their resident security research groups. So they tend to report more of the day zero exploits that the US and other western security forces use. Just like you find that the US groups are pretty good at reporting on security holes in use by the Russian, Chinese, and North Korean hacker groups both government and ‘free lance’.
But having kasperky or any other security company helping to control exploits doesn’t mean fuck all about what the blackhat hackers from any of those places get up to. After all who in the hell would want more exploitable hacks available on the open market. It is bad for business.
“Huh? How does that follow?” I was just being flippant. It was a reference to the anti-Russian paranoia prevalent in Democrat attack-dog tactics nowadays. You know, how they try to revive Cold War thinking in order to position themselves as the responsible establishment party.
Because his focus was on the technical side? It’s his forté. But if he was too busy to read it fully & consider the implications, I hope he gets around to it later.
I’ve used Kaspersky on windows systems since some time in the 90s. Never had any issues with them and they’re a damn sight less less of a load on the systems than the other systems I’ve used. These days I use only use them for Android because I don’t use Windows for my personal systems any more – too much effort and there are better alternatives.
But like any bit of software that relies on network access for analysis and updates it is a security risk, exactly as is indicated in that article. I just don’t think that they are a particularly high one for me. Certainly I have never detected them doing anything dodgy when I have tested it.
Well, what’s your feeling about the implications of the exposé? As regards the general theory that the Russian regime is using hackers to subvert US democracy in general rather than just trying to ensure HC didn’t get elected, for instance? Do you think this company is being used by Putin? Perhaps just one or more employees, rather than management?
Sorry, think I confused myself there. Could they have done it to try to create the false impression that they operate independently of their govt, to create plausible deniability for Putin?
I see Lime scooters have had their license extended.
I have mixed thoughts on this.
We do need to get people out of their cars.
But are lime scooters the solution?
In “1996, when parliament was thrown into a post-election paralysis Winston Peters and NZ First, holding the balance of power, negotiated the first MMP government. “We had to go to work to be paid. But we weren’t allowed to do any work constitutionally, right?” Hooton says “right?” a lot, as a kind a rhetorical punctuation mark.”
“So it was great for the first couple of weeks you got to work about 10, office morning tea, out for a boozy lunch, back to the office at four to check out, right? But it got a bit much so I booked a one-way ticket to Mumbai. I backpacked through India and China and Mongolia and Sri Lanka for about a year and then ran out of money and went back for a year in Wellington to work for Lockwood, who [had become] trade minister.”
“His month in Mongolia came to a fruition of sorts more than two decades later. After a series of return visits, including to advise on the formation of the Mongolian Green Party and “to look at a mad idea to set up a sheep farm to supply the Saudi market”, he ended up appointed as Mongolia’s honorary consul in New Zealand.”
Yep. But No Collusion!
Here is a timeline of Manafort’s involvement – as we know so far:
Consider the timeline of some key events below.
It shows that the email hacks paralleled Manafort’s increased responsibility on the campaign.
But even as Russia’s operation to release dirt on Hillary was proceeding (and Russians were reaching out to George Papadopoulos to dangle emails as well), Michael Cohen was negotiating a Trump Tower deal, via Felix Sater, which was premised on a meeting between him — and then later, Trump — and Vladimir Putin. On June 9 — the same day that Don Jr told Aras Agalarov’s representatives that the Trumps would revisit sanctions if Trump was elected — Cohen even started to book his travel for that meeting. He canceled those plans, however, on the same day Russia’s role in hacking the DNC became public.
But two key figures in the operation did meet at the St. Petersburg Forum: Deripaska and Millian. And Millian would pick up the Trump Tower deal after the RNC Convention, laundering it, at that point, through a junior staffer who had proven to be a useful go-between for the Russians.
We don’t know whether Deripaska, whom Steele was pitching as a viable partner to counter Russian organized crime, was a source for Steele’s dossier. We do know that Manafort is the one who pushed Trump to discredit the Russian investigation by attacking the dossier.
Timeline
January 12, 2016: Steele writes Bruce Ohr to say Oleg Deripaska may obtain a visa for later that year
January 20: Michael Cohen speaks with Dmitry Peskov’s personal assistant for 20 minutes about Trump Tower deal
January 21: Putin’s office contacts Felix Sater about Trump Tower deal
February 21: Steele sends Ohr Orbis reporting claiming Deripaska was not a tool of the Kremlin
February 29: Manafort drafts proposal to work for “free” for Trump
March 19: GRU hacks John Podesta
March 29: After the intervention of Roger Stone and Tom Barrack, Manafort joins the Trump campaign, initially only as Convention Chair
April: Manafort asks Kilimnik,”How do we use to get whole?”
April 18: GRU hacks into DNC via DCCC
April 26: George Papadopoulos learns Russians are offering election assistance in form of leaked emails
April 27: In first foreign policy speech Papadopoulos includes signal to Russians to meet
May 4: Cohen tells Sater he’ll do a trip to Russia before the Convention; Trump will do one after
May 5: Sater passes on Peskov invite to Cohen to attend St. Petersburg Forum to meet Putin or Medvedev
May 19: Manafort formally named campaign chair
May 21: Manafort forwards request for Trump meeting to Rick Gates, warning against sending a signal
June 3: Rob Golstone starts arranging meeting with Don Jr.
June 7: Manafort meets with Trump and Trump announces he’ll have an announcement about Hillary
June 8: GRU releases first emails via dcleaks
June 9: Trump Tower meeting presents dirt for sanctions relief; Cohen makes plans for trip to St. Petersburg Forum
June 14: WaPo reveals Russia hacked DNC; Cohen cancels plan for St. Petersburg trip
June 15: Guccifer 2.0 created
June 16-19: St. Petersburg forum (Putin does attend)
June 20: First Steele report, allegedly relying on Millian as one source
July 7: Manafort tells Kilimnik he’s willing to provide Deripaska private briefings; Ohr call with Steele about Deripaska
Week of July 15: Trump campaign prevents change making platform more belligerent to Ukraine
July 21: Sater visits Trump Tower
July 22: George Papadopoulos asks Ivan Timofeev to help prep for a meeting with Sergei Millian; Millian would eventually pitch Papadopoulos on Trump Tower Moscow deal
August 3: Manafort and Kilimnik meet in New York
August 17: Manafort fired from campaign
August: Manafort and Tom Barrack take boat trip, meet Kilimnik
October 18: Steele and Ohr discuss dispute between Ukraine and RUSAL
January 11 or 12, 2017: Manafort contacts Reince Priebus to tell him how to use the Steele dossier to discredit Russian investigation (remember, Manafort insists he didn’t lie about meeting with Trump officials, because those meetings happened before inauguration)
January 27: Papadopoulos agrees to meet FBI without a lawyer, in part in hopes of sustaining possibility of a job with Trump Admin and possibly a deal with Millian
January or February 2017: Manafort meets Kilimnik in Madrid.
George, a Hawaiian tree snail—and the last known member of the species Achatinella apexfulva—died on New Year’s Day. He was 14, which is quite old for a snail of his kind.
George was born in a captive breeding facility at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa in the early 2000s, and soon after, the rest of his kin died. That’s when he got his name—after Lonesome George, the Pinta Island tortoise who was also the last of his kind.
For over a decade, researchers searched in vain for another member of the species for George to mate with, to no avail. (Though these snails are hermaphrodites, two adults must mate to produce offspring, and researchers refer to George as a “he.”)
[…]
About a decade ago, it was commonly believed that over 90 percent of Hawaii’s snail species were gone. Researchers have re-discovered dozens of species that they thought were extinct, however, and found several new species.
The snails that remain in Hawaii are in serious trouble, though. Most are only found on a single ridge or valley, and in recent years, declines have accelerated as introduced predators have started invading their last refuges.
“We’ve had populations that have been monitored for over a decade, and they seemed stable… then, within the past two years they’ve completely disappeared,” says Sischo. “We’ve all broken down and cried in the field.”
These snails are likely to go extinct within months or a few years, Sischo says, unless they’re protected in the wild or brought into the lab.
Here you go shonkys & his main man steven joyce turned a state department into a decitfull orgianization . These people use websites to bait promises a deal thats to good to be true rope people into breaking the LAW set them up and nab them for a crime that was instigated by the state next minute BUSTED The person setting up broke desprate people do not care they are stuffing up a inercint sole life why because they will get a bonus for every person they nab .
Government to question MBIE over fake persona training
4:54 pm on 9 January 2019
The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is being summoned to the Beehive for a ‘please explain’ over a training course in using fake online personas to gather intelligence
MBIE signed a contract with Wellington based consultancy ZX Security in December 2017 that has been published on the Ministry’s website and outlines the details of the social media training course.
“The service provider will deliver an advanced social media training course to Ministry using false personas on social media for verification and investigation purposes,” the contract says.
Ministry staff have received training on how to spot a fake profile, maintain multiple identities using “techniques for creating a backstop (history) for your online personas”, and send and receive anonymous text messages and emails.
The contract also offered optional training modules, including automated harvesting, image metadata analysis, and creating a dossier.
To date, no MBIE staff had done the extra modules.
“During this workshop the attendees will use the skills gained during the course to create a detailed dossier on a group or individual,” the contract says. Ka kite ano links below. P.S The sandflys do that all the time baiting poor people
Oceans
Warming oceans likely to raise sea levels 30cm by end of century – study
Seawater temperature is rising faster than predicted, which is likely to worsen extreme weather events around the world
The world’s oceans are warming at a faster rate than previously estimated, new research has found, raising fresh concerns over the rapid progress of climate change.
Warming oceans take up more space, a process known as thermal expansion, which the study says is likely to raise sea levels by about 30cm by the end of the century, on top of the rise in sea levels from melting ice and glaciers. Warmer oceans are also a major factor in increasing the severity of storms, hurricanes and extreme rainfall.
Rising sea levels will claim homes around English coast, report warns
Read more
Oceans store heat so effectively that it would take decades for them to cool down, even in the unlikely scenario that greenhouse gas emissions were halted urgently.
The report, published on Thursday in the journal Science, found that the warming of the oceans was accelerating and was matching the predictions of climate change models, which have shown global temperature rises are likely to lead to extreme weather across the world
The new Science paper analysed four studies published between 2014 and 2017, which corrected for discrepancies between different types of ocean temperature measurements and gaps in measurements.
Satellite monitoring, buoys and ships are all used to gather data on the effect of climate change on the oceans. In the past decade, a network of 4,000 buoys known as Argo has provided an unprecedented data set on the temperature, salinity and acidification of oceans.
By taking the four studies, with different methodologies, into consideration the authors of the new analysis were able to build a fuller picture than was previously possible, with calculations extrapolated back to the 1970s. Ka kite ano links below.
P.S we can not wait for the POLLIES to do the correct thing we must make changes for the better future for the grandchildren
The whole world can see he has cheated his way into the White House he did not even belevie he won on the night of Amercian President election his mouth was that wide open one could have driven a bus through it.
Washington (CNN)As special counsel Robert Mueller wraps up his Russia probe, investigators have focused on conflicting public statements by President Donald Trump and his team that could be seen as an effort to influence witnesses and obstruct justice, according to people familiar with the investigation.
The line of questioning adds to indications that Mueller views false or misleading statements to the press or to the public as obstruction of justice. That could set up a potential flashpoint with the White House and the Trump legal team should that become part of any final report from the Mueller investigation.
Mueller hasn’t addressed the issue publicly, but prosecutors have dropped hints that they view public statements as possibly key in influencing witnesses.
Court filings from the plea of Michael Cohen, the President’s former personal lawyer, included allegations related to false public statements — not usually considered illegal since they aren’t made directly to investigators. A December sentencing memo filed by Mueller’s office notes that Cohen’s lies were amplified in public statements, “including to other potential witnesses.” The memo said this was done partly “in the hopes of limiting the investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election — an issue of heightened national interest.”
That includes the President’s role in crafting the misleading Air Force One statement in the summer of 2017 on the now infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians attended by Donald Trump Jr., the President’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Another episode centers on Trump’s attempt to have his then-White House counsel Don McGahn disavow articles reporting that McGahn threatened to quit over Trump’s pressure to fire Mueller, according to one source familiar with the matter. McGahn refused to publicly say that the stories were false, which prompted more anger from the President.
The President publicly has said he wouldn’t fire Mueller and hadn’t thought about it, which other witnesses have told Mueller’s investigators isn’t true. Ana to kai Ka kite ano links below.
Kia ora Newshub it’s not on those people throwing a kitten out of a moving car window. The USA government department shut down is trump game
I’m a organ donner I say it’s a good thing. Ikea store will bring more competition to the Aotearoa retail market.
Its cool people are donating a lot more second hand goods this year that’s the Kiwi spirit give to the needy.
A warming Tangaroas is hard on the wild sea creature and caged fish can not find cooler water and they can easily die. That’s a cool set of glasses for the blind people helping them navigate surrounding with voice and computer tech Emma the new tech is booming Ka pai.
Sir Ernest Shackleton picked up supplies from Dunedin Aotearoa the old wooden beer being restored in Antarctic is cool Ka kite ano.
Generation Zero is trying to change the climate in a corner with the Labor Party and the Green Party and, on the other hand, the national one. We want to move towards climate change outside the biased policy to provide stability in this …
Todd Muller and the National Party have to be examined.
When the national government was, Kennedy Graham on behalf of the Green Party organized a conference of all parties on climate change in parliament, which boycotted the Jatiya Party and the law deliberately and actively. Not a single member of parliament or representative.
Tā’i, hyām̐, āmāra jagatē, yē kē’u punarbibēcanāra ēbaṁ jōrapūrbaka śramakē samarthana karē, sēṭi āsalē ēkaṭi durbala pañcāśa.
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314/5000
I’ve spent a few days just a man who believes that this is his 84th Christmas. But he was sent to labor camp because he was the only survivor of an extended family of kulak, he was guessing.
So, yes, in my world, anyone who supports reconsideration and forced labor, is actually a weak fifty.
The Treasury forecasts suggest the economy is doing better than expected after the Covid Shock. John Kenneth Galbraith was wont to say that economic forecasting was designed to make astrology look good. Unfair, but it raises the question of the purpose of economic forecasts. Certainly the public may treat them ...
Q: Will the COVID-19 vaccines prevent the transmission of the coronavirus and bring about community immunity (aka herd immunity)? A: Jury not in yet but vaccines do not have to be perfect to thwart the spread of infection. While vaccines induce protection against illness, they do not always stop actual ...
Joe Biden seems to be everything that Donald Trump was not – decent, straightforward, considerate of others, mindful of his responsibilities – but none of that means that he has an easy path ahead of him. The pandemic still rages, American standing in the world is grievously low, and the ...
Keana VirmaniFrom healthcare robots to data privacy, to sea level rise and Antarctica under the ice: in the four years since its establishment, the Aotearoa New Zealand Science Journalism Fund has supported over 30 projects.Rebecca Priestley, receiving the PM Science Communication Prize (Photo by Mark Tantrum) Associate Professor ...
Nothing more from me today - I'm off to Wellington, to participate in the city's annual roleplaying convention (which has also eaten my time for the whole week, limiting blogging despite there being interesting things happening). Normal bloggage will resume Tuesday. ...
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weaponscame into force today, making the development, possession, use or threat of use of nuclear weapons illegal in international law. Every nuclear-armed state is now a criminal regime. The corporations and scientists who design, build and maintain their illegal weapons are now ...
"Come The Revolution!" The key objective of Bernard Hickey’s revolutionary solution to the housing crisis is a 50 percent reduction in the price of the average family home. This will be achieved by the introduction of Capital Gains, Land, and Wealth taxes, and by the opening up of currently RMA-protected ...
by Daphna Whitmore Twitter and Facebook shutting down Trump’s accounts after his supporters stormed Capitol Hill is old news now but the debates continue over whether the actions against Trump are a good thing or not. Those in favour of banning Trump say Twitter and Facebook are private companies and ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Democrats now control the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives for the first time in a decade, albeit with razor thin Congressional majorities. The last time, in the 111th Congress (2009-2011), House Democrats passed a carbon cap and trade bill, but it died ...
Session thirty-three was highly abbreviated, via having to move house in a short space of time. Oh well. The party decided to ignore the tree-monster and continue the attack on the Giant Troll. Tarsin – flying on a giant summoned bat – dumped some high-grade oil over the ...
Last night I stayed up till 3am just to see then-President Donald Trump leave the White House, get on a plane, and fly off to Florida, hopefully never to return. And when I woke up this morning, America was different. Not perfect, because it never was. Probably not even good, ...
Watching today’s inauguration of Joe Biden as the United States’ 46th president, there’s not a lot in common with the inauguration of Donald Trump just four destructive years ago. Where Trump warned of carnage, Biden dared to hope for unity and decency. But the one place they converge is that ...
Dan FalkBritons who switched on their TVs to “Good Morning Britain” on the morning of Sept. 15, 2020, were greeted by news not from our own troubled world, but from neighboring Venus. Piers Morgan, one of the hosts, was talking about a major science story that had surfaced the ...
Sara LutermanGrowing up autistic in a non-autistic world can be very isolating. We are often strange and out of sync with peers, despite our best efforts. Autistic adults have, until very recently, been largely absent from media and the public sphere. Finding role models is difficult. Finding useful advice ...
Doug JohnsonThe alien-like blooms and putrid stench of Amorphophallus titanum, better known as the corpse flower, draw big crowds and media coverage to botanical gardens each year. In 2015, for instance, around 75,000 people visited the Chicago Botanic Garden to see one of their corpse flowers bloom. More than ...
Getting to Browser Tab Zero so I can reboot the computer is awfully hard when the one open tab is a Table of Contents for the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, and every issue has more stuff I want to read. A few highlights: Gugler et al demonstrating ...
Timothy Ford, University of Massachusetts Lowell and Charles M. Schweik, University of Massachusetts AmherstTo mitigate health inequities and promote social justice, coronavirus vaccines need to get to underserved populations and hard-to-reach communities. There are few places in the U.S. that are unreachable by road, but other factors – many ...
Israel chose to pay a bit over the odds for the Pfizer vaccine to get earlier access. Here’s The Times of Israel from 16 November. American government will be charged $39 for each two-shot dose, and the European bloc even less, but Jerusalem said to agree to pay $56. Israel ...
Orla is a gender critical Marxist in Ireland. She gave a presentation on 15 January 2021 on the connection between postmodern/transgender identity politics and the current attacks on democratic and free speech rights. Orla has been active previously in the Irish Socialist Workers Party and the People Before Profit electoral ...
. . America: The Empire Strikes Back (at itself) Further to my comments in the first part of 2020: The History That Was, the following should be considered regarding the current state of the US. They most likely will be by future historians pondering the critical decades of ...
Nathaniel ScharpingIn March, as the Covid-19 pandemic began to shut down major cities in the U.S., researchers were thinking about blood. In particular, they were worried about the U.S. blood supply — the millions of donations every year that help keep hospital patients alive when they need a transfusion. ...
Sarah L Caddy, University of CambridgeVaccines are a marvel of medicine. Few interventions can claim to have saved as many lives. But it may surprise you to know that not all vaccines provide the same level of protection. Some vaccines stop you getting symptomatic disease, but others stop you ...
Back in 2016, the Portuguese government announced plans to stop burning coal by 2030. But progress has come much quicker, and they're now scheduled to close their last coal plant by the end of this year: The Sines coal plant in Portugal went offline at midnight yesterday evening (14 ...
The Sincerest Form Of Flattery: As anybody with the intestinal fortitude to brave the commentary threads of local news-sites, large and small, will attest, the number of Trump-supporting New Zealanders is really quite astounding. IT’S SO DIFFICULT to resist the temptation to be smug. From the distant perspective of New Zealand, ...
RNZ reports on continued arbitrariness on decisions at the border. British comedian Russell Howard is about to tour New Zealand and other acts allowed in through managed isolation this summer include drag queen RuPaul and musicians at Northern Bass in Mangawhai and the Bay Dreams festival. The vice-president of the ...
As families around the world mourn more than two million people dead from Covid-19, the Plan B academics and their PR industry collaborator continue to argue that the New Zealand government should stop focusing on our managed isolation and quarantine system and instead protect the elderly so that they can ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 10, 2021 through Sat, Jan 16, 2021Editor's ChoiceNASA says 2020 tied for hottest year on record — here’s what you can do to helpPhoto by Michael Held on Unsplash ...
Health authorities in Norway are reporting some concerns about deaths in frail elderly after receiving their COVID-19 vaccine. Is this causally related to the vaccine? Probably not but here are the things to consider. According to the news there have been 23 deaths in Norway shortly after vaccine administration and ...
Happy New Year! No, experts are not concerned that “…one of New Zealand’s COIVD-1( vaccines will fail to protect the country” Here is why. But first I wish to issue an expletive about this journalism (First in Australia and then in NZ). It exhibits utter failure to actually truly consult ...
All nations have shadows; some acknowledge them. For others they shape their image in uncomfortable ways.The staunch Labour supporter was in despair at what her Rogernomics Government was doing. But she finished ‘at least, we got rid of Muldoon’, a response which tells us that then, and today, one’s views ...
Grigori GuitchountsIn November, Springer Nature, one of the world’s largest publishers of scientific journals, made an attention-grabbing announcement: More than 30 of its most prestigious journals, including the flagship Nature, will now allow authors to pay a fee of US$11,390 to make their papers freely available for anyone to read ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gary Yohe, Henry Jacoby, Richard Richels, and Benjamin Santer Imagine a major climate change law passing the U.S. Congress unanimously? Don’t bother. It turns out that you don’t need to imagine it. Get this: The Global Change Research Act of 1990 was passed ...
“They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”WHO CAN FORGET the penultimate scene of the 1956 movie classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The wild-eyed doctor, stumbling down the highway, trying desperately to warn his fellow citizens: “They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”Ostensibly science-fiction, the movie ...
TheOneRing.Net has got its paws on the official synopsis of the upcoming Amazon Tolkien TV series. It’s a development that brings to mind the line about Sauron deliberately releasing Gollum from the dungeons of Barad-dûr. Amazon knew exactly what they were doing here, in terms of drumming up publicity: ...
Since Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953, US presidents have joined an informal club intended to provide support - and occasionally rivalry - between those few who have been ‘leaders of the free world’. Donald Trump, elected on a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ and a constant mocker of his predecessors, ...
For over a decade commentators have noted the rise of a new brand of explicitly ideological politics throughout the world. By this they usually refer to the re-emergence of national populism and avowedly illiberal approaches to governance throughout the “advanced” democratic community, but they also extend the thought to the ...
The US House of Representatives has just impeached Donald Trump, giving him the dubious honour of being the only US President to be impeached twice. Ten Republicans voted for impeachement, making it the most bipartisan impeachment ever. The question now is whether the Senate will rise to the occasion, and ...
Kieren Mitchell; Alice Mouton, Université de Liège; Angela Perri, Durham University, and Laurent Frantz, Ludwig Maximilian University of MunichThanks to the hit television series Game of Thrones, the dire wolf has gained a near-mythical status. But it was a real animal that roamed the Americas for at least 250,000 ...
Tide of tidal data rises Having cast our own fate to include rising sea level, there's a degree of urgency in learning the history of mean sea level in any given spot, beyond idle curiosity. Sea level rise (SLR) isn't equal from one place to another and even at a particular ...
Well, some of those chickens sure came home bigly, didn’t they… and proceeded to shit all over the nice carpet in the Capitol. What we were seeing here are societal forces that have long had difficulty trying to reconcile people to the “idea” of America and the reality of ...
In the wake of Donald Trump's incitement of an assault on the US capitol, Twitter finally enforced its terms of service and suspended his account. They've since followed that up with action against prominent QAnon accounts and Trumpers, including in New Zealand. I'm not unhappy with this: Trump regularly violated ...
Peter S. Ross, University of British ColumbiaThe Arctic has long proven to be a barometer of the health of our planet. This remote part of the world faces unprecedented environmental assaults, as climate change and industrial chemicals threaten a way of life for Inuit and other Indigenous and northern ...
Susan St John makes the case for taxing a deemed rate of return on excessive real estate holdings (after a family home exemption), to redirect scarce housing resources to where they are needed most. Read the full article here ...
I’m less than convinced by arguments that platforms like Twitter should be subject to common carrier regulation preventing them from being able to decide who to keep on as clients of their free services, and who they would not like to serve. It’s much easier to create competition for the ...
The hypocritical actions of political leaders throughout the global Covid pandemic have damaged public faith in institutions and governance. Liam Hehir chronicles the way in which contemporary politicians have let down the public, and explains how real leadership means walking the talk. During the Blitz, when German bombs were ...
Over the years, we've published many rebuttals, blog posts and graphics which came about due to direct interactions with the scientists actually carrying out the underlying research or being knowledgable about a topic in general. We'll highlight some of these interactions in this blog post. We'll start with two memorable ...
Yesterday we had the unseemly sight of a landleech threatening to keep his houses empty in response to better tenancy laws. Meanwhile in Catalonia they have a solution for that: nationalisation: Barcelona is deploying a new weapon in its quest to increase the city’s available rental housing: the power ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters, PhD The 2020 global wildfire season brought extreme fire activity to the western U.S., Australia, the Arctic, and Brazil, making it the fifth most expensive year for wildfire losses on record. The year began with an unprecedented fire event ...
NOTE: This is an excerpt from a digital story – read the full story here.Tess TuxfordKo te Kauri Ko Au, Ko te Au ko Kauri I am the kauri, the kauri is me Te Roroa proverb In Waipoua Forest, at the top of the North Island, New ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Coming attraction: IPCC's upcoming major climate assessmentLook for more emphasis on 'solutions,' efforts by cities, climate equity ... and outlook for emissions cuts in ...
Ringing A Clear Historical Bell: The extraordinary images captured in and around the US Capitol Building on 6 January 2021 mirror some of the worst images of America's past.THERE IS A SCENE in the 1982 movie Missing which has remained with me for nearly 40 years. Directed by the Greek-French ...
To impact or not to impeach? I understand why some of those who are justifiably aghast at Trump’s behaviour over recent days might still counsel against impeaching him for a second time. To impeach him, they argue, would run the risk of making him a martyr in the eyes of ...
The Capitol Building, Washington DC, Wednesday, 6 January 2021. Oh come, my little one, come.The day is almost done.Be at my side, behold the sightOf evening on the land.The life, my love, is hardAnd heavy is my heart.How should I live if you should leaveAnd we should be apart?Come, let me ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 3, 2021 through Sat, Jan 9, 2021Editor's ChoiceAfter the Insurrection: Accountability, Reform, and the Science of Democracy The poisonous lies and enablers of sedition--including Senator Hawley, pictured ...
This article, guest authored by Prof. Angela Gallego-Sala & Dr. Julie Loisel, was originally published on the Carbon Brief website on Dec 21, 2020. It is reposted below in its entirety. Click here to access the original article and comments. Peatlands Peatlands are ecosystems unlike any other. Perpetually saturated, their ...
The assault on the US Capitol and constitutional crisis that it has caused was telegraphed, predictable and yet unexpected and confusing. There are several subplots involved: whether the occupation of the Michigan State House in May was a trial run for the attacks on Congress; whether people involved in the ...
On Christmas Eve, child number 1 spotted a crack in a window. It’s a double-glazed window, and inspection showed that the small, horizontal crack was in the outermost pane. It was perpendicular to the frame, about three-quarters of the way up one side. The origins are a mystery. It MIGHT ...
Anne-Marie Broudehoux, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Will the COVID-19 pandemic prompt a shift to healthier cities that focus on wellness rather than functional and economic concerns? This is a hypothesis that seems to be supported by several researchers around the world. In many ways, containment and physical distancing ...
Does the US need to strike a grand bargain with like-minded countries to pool their efforts? What does this tell us about today’s global politics? Perhaps the most remarkable editorial of last year was the cover leader of the London Economist on 19 November 2020. Shortly after Joe Biden was ...
Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato and Valmaine Toki, University of WaikatoAotearoa New Zealand likes to think it punches above its weight internationally, but there is one area where we are conspicuously falling behind — the number of sites recognised by the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Globally, there are 1,121 ...
A growing public housing waiting list and continued increase of house prices must be urgently addressed by Government, Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson said today. ...
[Opening comments, welcome and thank you to Auckland University etc] It is a great pleasure to be here this afternoon to celebrate such an historic occasion - the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This is a moment many feared would never come, but ...
The Government is providing $3 million in one-off seed funding to help disabled people around New Zealand stay connected and access support in their communities, Minister for Disability Issues, Carmel Sepuloni announced today. The funding will allow disability service providers to develop digital and community-based solutions over the next two ...
Border workers in quarantine facilities will be offered voluntary daily COVID-19 saliva tests in addition to their regular weekly testing, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. This additional option will be rolled out at the Jet Park Quarantine facility in Auckland starting on Monday 25 January, and then to ...
The next steps in the Government’s ambitious firearms reform programme to include a three-month buy-back have been announced by Police Minister Poto Williams today. “The last buy-back and amnesty was unprecedented for New Zealand and was successful in collecting 60,297 firearms, modifying a further 5,630 firearms, and collecting 299,837 prohibited ...
The Government has released its Public Housing Plan 2021-2024 which outlines the intention of where 8,000 additional public and transitional housing places announced in Budget 2020, will go. “The Government is committed to continuing its public house build programme at pace and scale. The extra 8,000 homes – 6000 public ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has congratulated President Joe Biden on his inauguration as the 46th President of the United States of America. “I look forward to building a close relationship with President Biden and working with him on issues that matter to both our countries,” Jacinda Ardern said. “New Zealand ...
A major investment to tackle wilding pines in Mt Richmond will create jobs and help protect the area’s unique ecosystems, Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor says. The Mt Richmond Forest Park has unique ecosystems developed on mineral-rich geology, including taonga plant species found nowhere else in the country. “These special plant ...
To further protect New Zealand from COVID-19, the Government is extending pre-departure testing to all passengers to New Zealand except from Australia, Antarctica and most Pacific Islands, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “The change will come into force for all flights arriving in New Zealand after 11:59pm (NZT) on Monday ...
Bay Conservation Cadets launched with first intake Supported with $3.5 million grant Part of $1.245b Jobs for Nature programme to accelerate recover from Covid Cadets will learn skills to protect and enhance environment Environment Minister David Parker today welcomed the first intake of cadets at the launch of the Bay ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan. “The Battle at Te Ruapekapeka Pā, which took ...
Babies born with tongue-tie will be assessed and treated consistently under new guidelines released by the Ministry of Health, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Around 5% to 10% of babies are born with a tongue-tie, or ankyloglossia, in New Zealand each year. At least half can ...
The prisoner disorder event at Waikeria Prison is over, with all remaining prisoners now safely and securely detained, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says. The majority of those involved in the event are members of the Mongols and Comancheros. Five of the men are deportees from Australia, with three subject to ...
Travellers from the United Kingdom or the United States bound for New Zealand will be required to get a negative test result for COVID-19 before departing, and work is underway to extend the requirement to other long haul flights to New Zealand, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today. “The new PCR test requirement, foreshadowed last ...
Seventy-five years after the US detonated the first nuclear tests in the Pacific, New Zealand pledges its support to Joe Biden's first tentative step towards disarmament. Today, the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons comes into effect, making it illegal for New Zealand and the 50 other ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Terry, Professor of Psychology, University of Southern Queensland The challenge of bringing the world’s best tennis players and support staff, about 1,200 people in all, from COVID-ravaged parts of the world to our almost pandemic-free shores was always going to be ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Geoffrey Browne, Research Fellow in International Urban Development, University of Melbourne The Victorian government has committed to removing 75 road/rail level crossings across Melbourne by 2025. That’s the fastest rate of removal in the city’s history. The scale of the investment — ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW In an age of hyperpartisan politics, the Biden presidency offers a welcome centrism that might help bridge the divides. But it is also Biden’s economic centrism that offers a chance to cut through what has become ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Stevens, Lecturer in History, University of Waikato In a year of surprises, one of the more pleasant was the recent runaway viral popularity of 19th century sea shanties on TikTok. A collaborative global response to pandemic isolation, it saw singers and ...
The sudden departure of Graine Moss from her Chief Executive role at Oranga Tamariki is a vital first step in a sequence of changes that must take place at the Ministry according to a group of wahine Māori leaders. Dame Naida Glavish, Dame Tariana Turia, ...
A new poem from Dunedin poet Jenny Powell.Her uncle’s eyeShe introduced us to her uncle’s eye floating in a jar.Lost in an accident, he hadn’t wanted to lose it again. He left it to her in his will.We must have looked shocked. ‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘I turn him to ...
The chief executive of Oranga Tamariki is quitting, leaving behind an agency she’s admitted suffers from structural racism. Justin Giovannetti looks at the future of Oranga Tamariki.Grainne Moss’s tenure as head of Oranga Tamariki has been untenable since November when the government’s senior Māori minister wouldn’t express any confidence in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Sainsbury, Senior Lecturer Composition, Australian National University Despite having different cultural backgrounds and experiences — Indigenous composers with an Indigenous mentor, and a pianist descended from Anglo-colonial history — it is nevertheless possible to create a project that can serve as ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Plank, Professor in Applied Mathematics, University of Canterbury With new, more infectious variants of COVID-19 detected around the world, and at New Zealand’s border, the risk of further level 3 or 4 lockdowns is increased if those viruses get into the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Hogg, Lecturer in Psychology, Charles Sturt University Horse racing is an ethical hotbed in Australia. The Melbourne Cup alone has seen seven horses die after racing since 2013, and animal cruelty protesters have become a common feature at carnivals. The latest ...
Right now, our most fiery national debate is over whether New Zealanders were nice to the singer Amanda Palmer in a café. Desperate to restore peace in our nation, Hayden Donnell went in search of the truth.Joe Biden had barely finished calling for unity when Amanda Palmer posted a tweet ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut (Pushkin Press, $37)Maths, cyanide, suicide, gardening; ye ...
Wellington artist Estère isn’t just breaking boundaries, she’s dissecting them. Maddi Rowe spoke to her about her new album, Archetypes.“That’s the story of pelicans, they’ll stab themselves in the heart to feed their young.”Despite the somewhat dark subject matter, Estère Dalton’s eyes sparkle with fascination. We’ve met to discuss Archetypes, ...
Cycling advocates are welcoming new advice from the Transport Agency on safe cycling. "Cyclists hate it when drivers pass too close. That's scary and dangerous," said Patrick Morgan from Cycling Action Network. "So it's encouraging to see ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tilman Ruff, Honorary Principal Fellow, School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne Today, many around the world will celebrate the first multilateral nuclear disarmament treaty to enter into force in 50 years. The UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear ...
The Public Service Association welcomes the creation of a Chief Executive role to lead the public service’s pay equity work, and the appointment of Grainne Moss to this position. "Unions and public service employers are currently working ...
The Council of Trade Unions is warning that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) figures out today illustrate that the cost of living is increasing disproportionately for those on lower incomes; resulting in the poor getting poorer. CTU Economist Craig ...
Why are there so many offensive comments on the New Zealand Police Facebook page and are they breaking the law? Janaye Henry investigates. New Zealand Police Facebook pages – there are a number of them, for different regional police districts around the country – are an interesting place to spend ...
Our guide to stopping procrastinating and actually (finally) getting on top of investing. Because there’s a good chance that if you’re reading this, you don’t know a single thing about it.In part one, we covered some of the basic things you need to know about investing – why do it? ...
Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft acknowledges the huge effort and commitment of departing Oranga Tamariki Chief Executive Grainne Moss and says her decision to resign today was principled. “The issues facing Oranga Tamariki are beyond individual ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Two Large Waves versus One Tsunami. Chart by Keith Rankin. Two Large Waves versus One Tsunami. Chart by Keith Rankin. With Covid19, Italy shows the classic European pattern, with its early outbreak, substantial recovery thanks to lockdowns and other public health measures, and resurgence thanks to complacency ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gabrielle Appleby, Professor, UNSW Law School, UNSW This year has already seen significant progress in the government’s commitment to establish a body – a “Voice” – that would allow Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to have a say when the government ...
Northland farmer Derek Robinson was sentenced earlier today by the District Court in Whangarei for two offences of ill-treating animals at rodeo events. Mr Robinson was found guilty in November last year, following a defended hearing. The charges ...
Under fire Oranga Tamariki chief executive Grainne Moss has announced she will resign, effective February 28, Marc Daalder reports After four and a half years at the helm of child protection agency Oranga Tamariki, chief executive Grainne Moss has announced she will be leaving the position at the end of ...
The Department of Internal Affairs and New Zealand Police acknowledge the sentencing of 36-year-old Aaron Joseph Hutton on charges relating to the possession of child sexual exploitation material, and entering into a dealing involving the sexual exploitation ...
Ngā Tāngata Microfinance (NTM) is calling for tougher penalties for those caught promoting pyramid schemes. Such business models are illegal under the Fair Trading Act 1986. This call comes after the Commerce Commission issued a ‘stop now’ notice ...
British High Commissioner to New Zealand Laura Clarke is calling on young women aged 17 to 25 to apply for the annual ‘Be British High Commissioner for the Day’ competition. The winner will have the opportunity to become an ‘honorary High Commissioner’, ...
The Māori Party is welcoming the resignation of Oranga Tamariki chief executive Grainne Moss after sustained pressure from leading figures within the Māori Party. This resignation is the result of the continued strong pressure of the Māori Party ...
In a historic corner of Dunedin, startup culture is thriving. Catherine McGregor visited the city’s Warehouse Precinct to meet the people driving the movement. When Jason and Kate Lindsey bought the four storey building now known as Petridish, it was an absolute wreck. Once home to a thriving hat and textiles ...
Summer reissue: The Fold’s very first guest is back to tell Duncan Greive how she pulled off the media deal of the year.The chaotic couple of weeks which finally saw the end of the Stuff-NZME saga were riveting and strange, replete with stock exchange announcements, legal challenges and finally the ...
Chris Liddell has dropped his candidacy to become director-general of the Paris-based OECD. Without support from the Ardern government and vilified in the media as somehow being involved in the encouragement by Donald Trump of the Washington riots, he plainly saw he had little chance of crowning his stellar career ...
Tara Ward hands out her first impression roses as she dives deep into the sea of single men vying to win The Bachelorette NZ’s heart. While the world burns in a searing fireball of unpredictability, we can take comfort in the fact that some things never change. The heart still yearns, ...
People from all around New Zealand will be converging on the super-secret Waihopai satellite interception spybase, in Marlborough, on Saturday January 30th. ...
In its Thursday editorial the NZ Herald speaks an important truth: “Investment important to stay on track”. This won’t have startled its more literate readers but in its text it notes the strong result in the latest Global Dairy Trade auction, which prompted Westpac to raise its forecast for dairy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Craig Mark, Professor, Faculty of International Studies, Kyoritsu Women’s University With the spread of COVID-19 steadily worsening in Japan since the onset of winter — daily records for infections and deaths continue to be broken — the fate of the Tokyo Summer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Taylor, Early Career Research Leader, Emerging Viruses, Inflammation and Therapeutics Group, Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University All eyes are on COVID-19 vaccines, with Australia’s first expected to be approved for use shortly. But their development in record time, without compromising ...
Yesterday’s government announcement on new state housing is a pathetic response to the biggest housing crisis in New Zealand since the 1940s. At a time when the country needs an industrial-scale state house building programme, the government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Obadiah Mulder, PhD Candidate in Computational Biology, University of Southern California Australia is in the midst of tropical cyclone season. As we write, a cyclone is forming off Western Australia’s Pilbara coast, and earlier in the week Queenslanders were bracing for a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lynette Vernon, School of Education – VC Research Fellow, Edith Cowan University When the holidays end, barring a fresh outbreak of COVID-19, teenagers across Australia will head back to school. Some will bounce out of bed well before the alarm goes off, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW In an age of hyperpartisan politics, the Biden presidency offers a welcome centrism that might help bridge the divides. But it is also Biden’s economic centrism that offers a chance to cut through what has become ...
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Just when you thought the embarrassingly servile ‘Fast Follower’ doctrine had departed the country along with John Key.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/109826913/new-zealand-needs-a-government-that-isnt-blinded-by-green-ideology-nats
Tod Muller and the National Party need to be put to the test.
When National was the government, Kennedy Graham on behalf of the Green Party organised an all Party conference on climate change in parliament, which the National party and ACT deliberately and actively boycotted. Not one National MP or representative turned up.
I challenge James Shaw to call such a conference again.
Let’s see if National turn up this time.
National and scientific understanding are two mutually exclusive things IMHO ?
Just look at ECAN and the state of Canterbury’s Rivers ?
Absolutely.
National are only interested in selected science, typically out of context. They are rotten to the core but will say anything to get your vote.
“…National are only interested in selected science…”
To be fair there are a great deal of left-wing/environmentalists who do the same.
Like the Greens supporting the use of 1080 ?
Yeah I was wearing my heart on my sleeve there. You can find convenient quotes and stats for most anything if you enter the right search terms. It’s not science but it can sure sound like it to the uninformed.
“an all Party conference on climate change in parliament, which the National party and ACT deliberately and actively boycotted. Not one National MP or representative turned up.”.
You seem to have an interesting interpretation of “boycotting”.
The National Party MPs seem to have taken an active interest in the subject and there were quite a lot of them involved in the exercise.
” In October 2015, Graham formed a cross-party group, GLOBE-NZ, working on climate change. GLOBE-NZ is a national chapter of GLOBE-International, and has 35 MP’s as members drawn from all seven political parties represented in the 51st Parliament. As chairman of the national chapter, Graham contracted a London-based consultancy, Vivid Economics, to prepare a report on “transformational pathways to carbon neutrality for New Zealand”. The report, Net Zero in New Zealand: Scenarios to achieve domestic emission reduction the second half of the century, was launched in the New Zealand Parliament in March 2017. The initiative is regarded as a major step forward in clarifying inter-party discourse and debate on New Zealand’s national climate change policy”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_Graham
Among the committee, listed here
https://www.parliament.nz/en/get-involved/features/mps-collaborate-across-party-lines-in-response-to-climate-change/
I can see at least 9 who were in the National Party.
Bishop, McIndoe, Scott, McKelvie, Mitchell, Muller, Simpson, Smith and Barclay were all National I believe.
It is certainly a bit hard to argue that they all boycotted the group isn’t it?
In the debate on the report
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansDeb_20170413_20170413_12
Smith and Simpson both spoke as well as Seymour from ACT and Paula Bennett.
What on earth do you mean by your “boycott” comment?
I will tell you what I am talking about.
But first what you are talking about Alwyn is a lot of back room committees.
Where National party participation usually acts as a brake, and where they can manipulate and backpedal out of the public eye.
What I was specifically talking about was the public all party conference on climate change that was organised by Kennedy Graham in the Old Legislative Chamber in Parliament.
At this public event. National made it very clear that they would not attend and they didn’t
It is all very well, Alwyn for the Nats to be involved in all sorts of alphabet soup of acronym back room groups, but taking a public stand with the other parliamentary parties? This was a step too far for the National Party MPs. An action which exposed the National Party as deeply sectarian and viciously opposed to any genuine bipartisanship on climate change.
Have National changed. I doubt it. But I could be wrong, that is why I think that the climate change minister needs to repeat Kennedy Graham’s initiative and call an all up party conference on climate change in parliament.
Let’s see if National MPs and reps boycott or attend such a public event.
My guess is that National will again choose to boycott.
This will be the acid test of the sincerity of the National Party’s bipartisanship when it comes to climate change, by which they will be measured against all other parliamentary parties.
It shows he has a flair for writing propaganda. Spin that seems plausible on the face of it. However, to see how it plays to the gallery, read the comments. I got the impression it was more than a 50/50 split, it was more against the Nats.
I give the guy credit for trying to reposition them as part of the solution. It will reassure those in his support base who think National should move with the times. His support for James Shaw’s approach validates it – but we must reserve judgment until the result of the process can be appraised.
I think he would make a better leader for the bluegreens than Nick Smith. I wonder if they think so. Lack of leadership is their primary problem! There are 27 in that photo, and that’s just the Bluegreen Executive: https://bluegreens.national.org.nz/about_bluegreens
“The Bluegreens approach is underpinned by five principles that we are now applying in Government to the broad range of environmental challenges facing New Zealand:
Resource use must be based on sustainability
Economic growth and improving the environment can and must go hand in hand
Good science is essential to quality environmental decision making
People respond best to change when engaged and given incentives
New Zealanders have a unique birthright to access and enjoy our special places
Our Bluegreens caucus has grown from the two founding members in 1998 to the current diverse team.”
The economic growth principle is the flaw in their thinking – the other four principles are valid. This all reminds us that the Values Party schism casts an extremely long shadow, and the Green political movement in Aotearoa is still as divided as ever. But I’m confident the bridge James has built will reduce that divide as time passes.
If National are going to start marketing themselves as Blue-Green they could eat into the Green Party Vote ?
They’re actually Blue-Mean.
And it’s going to be a struggle to overcome the perception of their water policy…
https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/96461304/statue-of-environment-minister-with-his-pants-down-delivered-to-canterbury-regional-council
Not likely, Tamati! Conservative Greens have voted National since the seventies. The effect that has had is to keep the Green vote down – about half what it would be otherwise. It’s because the environmental activists of Aotearoa have constituted a strong movement since they stopped the Manapouri dam – almost half a century ago, but many prioritised short-term success so they decided to work with govt rather than against it. Pragmatists.
As regards Nat marketing, it never seems very clever. Just a rear-guard action to try and limit progress. Residual colonialism, basically. Notice you never see the brand in public apart from their website. Such subtlety is by design. The idea is to retain control of their half of the movement. I often describe it as `keep the dog in the kennel’. Anyone who thinks their dog doesn’t need a regular run is a moron, right?
Of course. How much we won’t know.
Start?!?
Nick Smith is definitely not Blue-Green he is an environmental terrorist like Trump, Key, Bridges, Brownlee etc pro Oil & Mining Corporates set out to destroy what is left of the environment IMHO.
Yes, Todd Muller does have a flair for writing propaganda.
Going on about bi-partisanship and consensus, and then saying in the next breath, that immediately on a change of government National will repeal the moratorium on issuing new oil and gas exploration permits.
What’s bi-partisan, about that?
Nothing.
Muller also talks about kicking action on climate change down the road twenty or thirty years.
Which is what draws him to attack Generation Zero, who want to do something about climate change in the here and now.
One Ring to rule them all,
One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all,
And in the darkness bind them.
This is the only sort of consensus that Todd Muller is interested in.
He is a Trumpster ?
Bolsonaro in Brazil is going to start clearing more rain forest in Brazil, Muller should get together with Trump and Bolsonaro.
Gen Zero should stop needlessly picking at scabs and start picking their fights better.
Shaw, Upton, Parker and Muller are near to cross-parliamentary support for legislation that binds for generations. They have been working on it for over a year already,
The bases of both Greens and National will likely go nuts at the compromises when its made public.
It’s going to be up to these actual political party reps to bind policy enough to take climate change away from perpetual electoral cycles. No more arguments, just get to work.
Why doesn’t 60 Minutes ever interrogate Netanyahu
based on Human Rights Watch/Amnesty reports?
http://normanfinkelstein.com/2019/01/08/why-doesnt-60-minutes-ever-interrogate-netanyahu-based-on-human-rights-watch-amnesty-reports/
Holding Israel to account is just not done.
And then people wonder why we’re in such trouble.
A fun new angle on decolonisation from Singaporean comic Jinx Jeo – from 2min mark: https://youtu.be/hN6gX9X4vWE
Would YOU play golf with a reprobate?
It doesn’t seem to be a problem for Barack Obama or John Key. Or for Larry David….
Like +100%
Jacinda should take up golf and go and play with Trump in Florida like Key did with Obama.
It certainly didn’t hurt New Zealand that Key and Obama got on so well did it?
I’m sure that Ardern and Trump would hit it off very well. After all they do have so much in common.
My latest drama, entitled Why the f*** are we in Afghanistan?,
is not currently garnering rave reviews over on Kiwiblog.
https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2019/01/general_debate_10_january_2019.html/comment-page-1#comment-2398815
Admire your courage going to Kiwiblog each morning Like +100%
So bold.
I just use it for headlines and emphasis, Sacha. I’m very aware of the aesthetics of my posts.
Awareness of ridiculous content is sadly lacking, however.
Dopey, haven’t you got a witch-hunt to join somewhere?
Look at moi !
That’s the one – you hit the nail on the head imo. Nothing more and nothing less than ‘look at moi’.
Ya got me, Sacha—and ya got me GOOD!
It is called marketing.
In that thread I think Harvey Wilson summed you up well Mozz
I’ve dispatched poor old Harv as humanely as possible.
https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2019/01/general_debate_10_january_2019.html/comment-page-1#comment-2399008
The I is strong in you mozz, your posts are not that important and seem to be more about showing how smart you think you are, get over yourself
They seem to irritate you, though, my bewildered friend. That’s good—it probably means you’re thinking about things.
Bewildered is exactly that.
Morrissey they don’t particularly like you over at Kiwiblog, not many likes, you are not Redneck Enough. I had the same problem about 10 years ago, I ended up suffering from a PTSD post traumatic stress disorder and had to leave with my tail between my legs.
Bewildered is exactly that.
Possibly the most appropriate nickname on this mostly excellent forum.
Morrissey they don’t particularly like you over at Kiwiblog, not many likes,
Oh I get my fair share. I got a whole bunch just this morning:
https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2019/01/general_debate_10_january_2019.html/comment-page-1#comment-2398858
….you are not Redneck Enough.
You mean not bigoted enough. Most of the truly vile crap we are bombarded with comes not from working people—i.e. rednecks—but white-collar thugs like Mike Hosking, Don Brash, John Ansell, Sir Robert Jones. None of them would know a shovel from a jackhammer.
I had the same problem about 10 years ago, I ended up suffering from a PTSD post traumatic stress disorder and had to leave with my tail between my legs.
Yikes! I’d better monitor my own health. Someone on Kiwiblog maliciously supplied me with the name of a psychiatrist this morning; maybe I should get in contact.
Not irritation, mild amusement at best 👍
Fabulous! As the late great Danny Watson would say: You have a good one, Bewildered.
Brilliant well structured and thought out. Like +100%
Top-end adolescent-grade malice: the Barbecued Brutus cuts off emergency funds to California’s wildfire areas.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-fema-aid-california-wildfires_us_5c360ff5e4b0dbd06602784d
We give our full support for Jane Kelsey on this publicly inspired,movement to curb greedy globalists influence to rort the worlds poor yet again.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1901/S00006/new-campaign-for-a-21th-century-trade-agenda.htm
New campaign for a 21th century trade agenda
Monday, 7 January 2019, 9:34 am
Press Release: Professor Jane Kelsey
7 January 2019
For immediate release
Launch of JusTrade.nz heralds a new campaign for a 21th century trade agenda
The website JusTrade.nz, launched today, heralds a new forward-looking campaign for a progressive 21st century trade agenda.
The JusTrade project builds on a two-day hui in late October that debated what an alternative and progressive trade strategy for Aotearoa New Zealand should look like. The live-streaming attracted over 17,000 page views. The website carries videos and transcriptions of all ten panels.
Hui convenor, University of Auckland law professor Jane Kelsey, says ‘for too long we’ve been told there is no alternative to the current model, epitomised in the recently adopted Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.’
‘Today, the global trade regime faces an existential crisis. Mega-negotiations are being abandoned, delayed or pared down, and the World Trade Organization is fractured and paralysed.’
And ‘Critique is no longer enough. If anything is to really change, we need to step away from the existing framework and take a first-principles approach to rethinking what will work for the 21st century.’
Ha! I’ll believe that when I see it! The quote is absolutely correct, but can anyone remember when the left actually practiced what they preached? So I’m calling their bluff: let’s see those principles, pronto!
Of course, it they actually existed, they’d be up front in the press release, wouldn’t they? And if Kelsey has spent the past decade mulling them over (as well as protesting their lack), you’d think she’d have been able to identify at least one!
Let’s give her the benefit of the doubt, and assume she has some in mind but wants to organise a consensus around them. The press release suggests a process will now occur to produce a consensual, principled, output. Let’s hope for the best.
Otherwise it’s just typical leftist sham: all show, no substance, like Sue Bradford’s left-wing think-tank – another decade-long brainstorming exercise with no result.
Interesting article on NZ population growth, immigration still happening big time, no wonder housing prices still high and in short supply here in NZ, demand is out stripping supply.
Still don’t know why timber is so expensive here in NZ ?
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/new-zealands-population-fast-approaching-5-million.html?variant=tb_v_1
Let’s do this Jacinda and Winnie on immigration, big time fraud or plain old bs
Still not sure what happening on this Immigration Issue still bringing heaps into NZ while not looking after our own people ?
Would imagine it is Labour and Winston just saying one thing in opposition and then not carrying through in govt.
There has been a lot of that
I do love the Statistics Department Mr Dunstan’s optimism when he said
“the population estimates would be revised once the final Census results were out.”.
We won’t see any realistic results from that Census in any of our lifetimes.
oh, snap – I thought you just wanted to shit on a Green minister. But maybe your objective is to argue that the population denominators are meaningless, so you can pretend that nothing improves under this government – the bad numbers might go down and the good numbers up, but unless you can put together an accurate rate we cannot know if there’s been any real change.
Which explains why you wanted an interim census in 2021, when you think a census can be sorted out and completed in five months. You get three years of saying the government has no demonstrable improvements before the next election.
It’s so expensive because the owners are selling it raw to China.
Another case of the profit drive bringing about the worst possible outcome.
Galloway goes vegan with surprise ending! Seems we have another convert.
Yes he talked about it during his show MOATS this week.
Such an inspiration.
[Ed. I had a long think overnight about your behaviour on this site. This morning I went back to check previous moderation notes and it is clear you have been repeatedly warned and occasionally banned for spamming, abuse and wasting moderator timeover the last 12 months. Yet, nothing changes. Yesterday, you indicated that you see your role as being to protect TS from “Blairite bullies”. This is not a service The Standard requires. In addition, you made two comments that suggested re-education and forced labour was a legitimate response to people who had views different to yours on climate change. This is an absolutely abhorrent position on a human level and, is, in effect, intimidation directed at other TS commenters. TS has clear policy on comments that discourage others from contributing to the site. Permanent ban. TRP]
Indeed Ed, that’s where I found out about it.
“But we’ve got thousands of people watching this” that line made me chuckle.
Liked how he bumps into a fan in the shop at the end too, It must happen to him a lot.
so much for robust debate
I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Based on past history, I fully expect another commenter to pop up soon using a short male name as a handle, a predilection for posting videos from that convergence point of moonbat far-lefties and alt-right wingnuts, a fetish for veganism and conspiracy theories, and a hectoring tone that alienates everyone that’s not fully bought into the exact same viewpoint.
And a predilection for using more than one identicon (and thus different email addresses) and testing new ones out late at night.
Bring back Ed, he is hilarious and know one barring Mozz and a couple of other likely travelers takes him seriously
Christ, he’s only been banned a few hours. Surely the “Bring Back Ed” campaign is a bit…early?
And where were you bastards during any of my seven bans from this site?
The site is less with out you Mozz 😊
Where were we? Why, weeping into our beers, natch!
His zombie will be back soon enough. Meanwhile the mozzie provides plenty of lolz amongst the whining.
“Whining”? Could you direct us to one instance of this writer, i.e., moi, whining?
Wining on the other hand….
Every time you whine that someone isn’t saying or doing or paying attention to something you think they should be. Such as your whine at comment 2 today.
If someone is not complacent like you, ergo he/she is a whiner.
Got it.
I agree. (Francesca 9.1.2)
Ed (and Morrissey) make this forum an interesting place and worth visiting. They are gentle but sharp in their comments and rarely lower themselves to the level of their detractors.
@ TRP, I have tried finding Ed’s comments were you accuse him of “intimidation directed at other TS commenters.” but couldn’t find anything , could you please put up a link to these comments please.
here’s one.
And the mod comment was that it was in effect intimidation of other commenters. We might know that Ed is a full of shit blowhard, but others might think he doesn’t just mean it, he’s trying to bring it about. And if the offence is too minor to be detected by other people, they might become more circumspect about commenting for fear of the EdEds knocking on their door.
Can’t see how that is intimidating other commenters myself – he’s talking about well known cricketers who probably have never commented on here. There are a couple of other regular commenters who use much more intimidating language toward others on a regular basis…
I thought this comment from Joe in the same thread (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-09-01-2018-2/#comment-1569753), which you didn’t pick up on? calling another commenter a “vile prick” was an actual example of intimidating other commenters. But hey he is on the right side of the law so to speak.
Calling someone a vile prick does not imply that you want to torture them and then send them to a forced labour camp.
edit: But that’s just my interpretation of a moderator’s decision. Seems reasonable to me, though.
@mauī, great point, don’t tell there is some sort of ‘class war’ going on here?
I’ve just spent a couple of days with a man who thinks this was his 84th Christmas. But being the sole survivour of an extended family of Kulaks sent to a forced labour camp, he’s guessing.
So yeah, in my world anyone who advocates for reeducation and forced labour is indeed a vile prick.
Are serious? please say that you are, because if that is what warrants a permanent ban, then The Standard has some real fundamental problems around moderation and it’s application.
permaban was the mod’s decision based on that incident being a continuation of behaviour about which ed had been repeatedly warned. Amnesties periodically occur, anyway.
My opinion of the reasonableness of the decision is irrelevant – it’s not my site. But you and Maui seem to be having difficulty what the moderator wrote, whereas it seems pretty plain to me. So I’m simply trying to explain my understanding of what occurred.
There can be insults against individuals allowed, although pointless abuse is against site policy. But outright intimidation and calls for violence are well against site policy.
@McFlock “But outright intimidation and calls for violence are well against site policy.”
Give me a break…that is just plain outright bullshit, there is just no equivalence from what Ed said and to your statement or TRP’s “and, is, in effect, intimidation directed at other TS commenters” for that matter.
My italics.
The use of the normative in tandem with the passive indicates a desire for it to happen and a lack of ability to refuse the proposal (and therefore use of force to extract the seawall-constructing labour).
Come on man, that is quite obviously just someone getting passionate in a debate, and then saying some shit, so fucking what, if that is all it takes to make someone feel intimidated, then I would say it is them who has the problem (probably stemming from some deep rooted unresolved trauma that needs professional psychological help) , and not Ed… maybe some people should either harden up a bit, or go and sort out their shit and come back when they can stand up to a robust debate..this isn’t playcentre.
The last thing wanted on a political forum is for everyone to have to tip toe around like they are walking on broken glass, for fear of triggering off someones neurosis.
You have read lprent’s reply to you at 9.1.3.2, haven’t you?
Coz that lays out pretty clearly the problem is ongoing behaviour issues. TRP’s moderation note makes the same point. Focusing on just the last straw is ignoring the mountain of crap that overloaded the camel to begin with.
OK Adrian, I’ve explained my perspective. What do you think Ed was banned for, specifically?
I can/t see why you should be so protective of ed Adrian. You have written more about him and his rights than he would have written in dozen of his comments.
What makes this blog strong is people like you thinking and writing about politics, exchanging information and we all end up knowing more. Ed was like a seagull that flies over and drops one on the words you are reading.
Ed tended to dominate the site with summaries about his obsessions. And having USA or world conflicts as the first thing on the blog each morning was stultifying for the blog; finding Ed dominating prime position so often was a bore. He does come up with some good points, but usually about things other than NZ, and can’t control his takeover tendencies of the blog.
Ed was low on NZ stuff, and high on telling us about his likes and dislikes and making our minds up for us. He has been a sort of Likes/Dislikes system and has given us evidence of why we have decided rightly, that they aren’t wanted on this blog.
What a load of old cobblers. Ed’s comment deemed “intimidatory” by some (mostly by those who feel a need to harass and snark at his every comment) had absolutely nothing to do with his previous behaviour. He was banned previously for posting multiple videos without descriptions. Before that I think he was banned for not clearly defining when he was quoting someone else. He came back and learned from both of those bannings and modified his behaviour.
Yeah pointless abuse, there’s a dime a dozen of that, have you heard of BM? Yet Ed gets sent packing for saying two people who don’t exist on this site should work overseas. Fuckn hell.
should work overseas
Ed, stop being a disingenuous little twerp. You know as well as any of us that you were talking about people being forced to go to a far away place and there being forced to labour because of their ideas.
Forced… yeah forced. My god, and I thought he said ‘should’! in order to do something constructive. Mind you I have never, ever known Ed to make throw away comments..
‘Little twerp’ oh yes that is not intimidating other commenters… That won’t discourage the commentariat at all I’m sure… Perhaps you want to really intimidate and offend by suggesting a NZ First style boot camp for non-existent persons.
Ed, stop being a disingenuous little twerp.
You said:
If they continue to wilfully lie about climate change after a brief education course, then they should be sent…
They wouldn’t be that hard for me to find. Bearing in mind the state of the search after the wordpress 5 update at present it’d be hard for others to do a search for Ed’s comments (getting around to fixing search in these “dog days”)..
Most of them are probably rhetorical claptrap and more based on idiotic and simply dumb labels about groups of other people (like ‘Blairites’ and a pile of other labels) rather than the reality of what people are actually saying.
But they are exclusionary, repeated, and often seem to be designed to avoid actually thinking and expressing his own opinions, and certainly he seldom explains his ideas in any depth so that others can pick holes in those ideas. Which is what the site is for.
If we wanted meaningless and unthinking waffle using labels, then we could just tune into Mike Hoskings or talkback radio.
The second problem is that Ed (both as Ed and as his other handles over the last decade) just keeps doing the kinds of behaviors that he gets moderated and warned for. He changes behaviour for a short time, then reverts. I have a kitten that has a massively faster behavioral change response than Ed has.
For instance I actually have a personal moderator watch running at present for his first comment behaviors on OpenMIke for instance after my last warning about that. I think that most of the active moderators past and present have similar exasperated watches for Ed. All of which suck effort out of us. I don’t even bother reading his comments in any depth these days. I just scan them for (bad) behaviour – just like I do for any other troll.
The point is that this site is there for robust debate. Ed doesn’t provide much (if any). We keep having to try to reform his behaviour. That is a lot of extra work. It is a behavioral problem because it just wastes everyone’s time.
BTW: Perhaps you’d like to point to any comment where Ed actually made a significiant contribution to the debate in what he wrote himself. That could be more a better way of arguing about a ban…
Thank you! Sweet Jesus it’s been an effort to point out that Ed just regurgitates and positulates in his unctuous way that supporting people is the same as having an opinion and adding to the debate.
was TRP looking in the mirror when he wrote out his ban spiel …. the sort of spiel which discourages others from contributing to the site….. no one feels intimidated by Ed ….
bully boy mods on the other hand are a different matter
To me …. TRP will always be the moderator who stands by and allows abuse of people who disclose they were victims of sexual abuse.
Shame on you TRP ………..
Ok, I’ll bite. What are you on about?
Longtime Reporter Leaves NBC Saying Media Is “Trump Circus” That Encourages Perpetual War.
I think few contributors on this site would do well to maybe listen to this interview.
Big money in War and Social Unrest for the Corporate’s and the One Percenter’s 1%.
Great interview Adrian
Thanks for that
Have a look at this NBC newsreader presenting very convincingly and “sincerely” a total fraud
https://theintercept.com/2019/01/07/nbc-and-msnbc-blamed-russia-for-using-sophisticated-microwaves-to-cause-brain-injuries-in-u-s-diplomats-in-cuba-the-culprits-were-likely-crickets/
Greenwald supplies the missing info
Arkin’s a hero
And a very apt comment below the Greenwald piece
“As everyone knows, most diplomats in US embassies are actually CIA agents. They have made the ultimate sacrifice of their brains, and should be venerated, regardless of whether the culprits are Russians or crickets. Fortunately, they can be retired and given jobs as analysts at NBC where their brain damage will be considered a career asset. Unfortunately, there is a limit to how many analysts NBC can hire, so the rest can be given jobs in the State Department.
The fact this incident couldn’t be pinned on the Russians is just another example of their deviousness. The Russians were probably aware of the crickets’ activities and did nothing to stop them, which is essentially as bad as if they’d done it themselves. So they clearly have a moral responsibility for the brain damage.”
Thanks for that francesca, love reading Greenwalds reporting, he is always on the mark and always manages to slip in a couple of pointed lines that make me laugh.
I sent links to both the DM videos to RNZ this morning, suggesting that maybe this year they could help play a more considered role in their coverage of world news and especially US politics.
I don’t expect to hear back from them.
Why pay attention to the likes of Glenn Greenwald when you’ve got really great “foreign correspondents” like Dame Ann Leslie….
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/matthew-paris-on-stabbings-in-london.html
….and Jack Hitt?
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/02/bradley-manning-show-trial-begins-in.html
Christ – is she still around? I thought she might have trotted off back to the Punjab to be waited on hand and foot. It’s been a while since she deigned to touch base with Kathryn Ryan
I like this piece from The Breen Report – first link by Morrissey above.
Matthew Paris on the stabbings in London; How much do they pay this fellow for these witterings? (May 23, 2013)
If only Morrissey could get paid a bundle for his witterings, he could be in Paris talking about Paris, and mingling amongst higher calibre witterers.
Oh yeah, forgot this piece that talks about the absolutely bizarre place that many ‘liberals’ and so called ‘progressives’ have got themselves in lionizing the CIA and FBI for fucks sake…and again quite a bit of this bizarro behavior is seen right here on The Standard…
William Arkin On Homeland Security’s Creeping Fascism and Why the CIA & FBI Won’t Save Us From Trump
He didn’t mention the deep state though, did he? So, like any typical msm frontperson, his analysis is shallow. He’s right about the creeping fascism, even if HS staff don’t wear brown shirts or jackboots, but he fails to join the dots.
Still, he was articulate, made a good point about American imperialism (“I think we’ve bombed nine countries in the past year”) and fingered Trump as someone who wouldn’t even know how to find the dept of Homeland Security. As an insider, this invalidation of the `Trump is fascist’ thesis popular with some commentators here is definitely helpful to the simple-minded.
I noticed a passing reference to American military involvement in Honduras. Given that all the Hondurans travelling through Mexico so they can enter the USA and become victims of Homeland Security prefer that fate to the one they left behind, I’m wondering what the hell the US miltary is actually doing there. Anyone know?
Training the Honduras security services
http://theconversation.com/how-us-policy-in-honduras-set-the-stage-for-todays-migration-65935
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/07/crisis-of-honduras-democracy-has-roots-in-us-tacit-support-for-2009-coup
Thanks francesca. A good report by The Conversation, of which part is worth reproducing here as essential context for the migration:
“the election of Manuel Zelaya, a liberal reformist, as president in 2006. He led on progressive measures such as raising the minimum wage. He also tried to organize a plebiscite to allow for a constituent assembly to replace the country’s constitution, which had been written during a military government. However, these efforts incurred the ire of the country’s oligarchy, leading to his overthrow by the military in June 2009.”
“The 2009 coup, more than any other development, explains the increase in Honduran migration across the southern U.S. border in the last few years. The Obama administration has played an important role in these developments. Although it officially decried Zelaya’s ouster, it equivocated on whether or not it constituted a coup, which would have required the U.S. to stop sending most aid to the country.” When is a coup not a coup? When expediency requires denial.
“Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in particular, sent conflicting messages, and worked to ensure that Zelaya did not return to power. This was contrary to the wishes of the Organization of American States, the leading hemispheric political forum composed of the 35 member-countries of the Americas, including the Caribbean. Several months after the coup, Clinton supported a highly questionable election aimed at legitimating the post-coup government.”
So the Democrats worked hard to create the political conditions the migrants are fleeing from. Helping the fascists is democratic behaviour, apparently, or at least they must believe so. You can see why they get hysterical in their attempt to depict Trump as fascist. The pot must always claim that the kettle is blacker. Is there anyone left who thinks Democrats are good people?
@Dennis Frank, well said.
“You can see why they get hysterical in their attempt to depict Trump as fascist. The pot must always claim that the kettle is blacker. Is there anyone left who thinks Democrats are good people?”
That line is a keeper..
Is there anyone left who thinks Democrats are good people?
There’s a bloke called “Andre” who buys wholesale every thing the Clintonistas say. And a depressing number of others, as well.
The recent (Nov 2017) elections were also mired in most probable fraud. The opposition was winning when suddenly the count was suspended.
When it resumed, Hernandez was winning
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/18/honduras-election-president-juan-orlando-hernandez-declared-winner-amid-unrest
Interesting.
Wonder how many people have died in Honduras over the last hundred plus years because of the actions of US capitalists.
Sh, sh.
Not allowed to mention Honduras, only Venezuela.
But. Ignore Venezuala’s long history of plutocracy and right wing corruption.
And the fact most refugees at present fleeing South America is from the purist capitalist disaster, Honduras.
Lionising the CIA? For opposing Trump and detesting all he stands for?
Strange equivalence.
@mickysavage, are you saying that you believe that the CIA detest all Trump stands for?…wow.
I know they don’t like his less interventionist and more inward world outlook, but apart from that what other of Trumps policies do they ‘detest’?
Maybe your time would be better spent opposing what should be the antidote to this terrible Trump/Right Wing slide, namely the idiots that run the Democratic party and who plainly, would rather see Trump in power than any shift to the Left, exactly the same ideology that pervades parts of UK Labour (and Labour NZ, but I guess you already know that)..they are the reason we have Trump and Co…they have effectively taken away the traditional Left wing safety valve that people turn to when they are hurting, and replaced it with Liberalism, a debunked ideology that has no credibility left whatsoever.
Personally I choose to ignore Trump and concentrate on working ( if only in a small way) toward a real Left wing alternative..that is the kryptonite that will destroy this man made orange monster.
And where has socialism worked, especially in countries of significant population and diversity Shite even China worked that out I also think the US working class have worked that out especially with so many basket case left wing experiences on thier doorstep Contary to your view the new crazynkeft of Democrat party will see TruMo do another term, they are gold for the attack adds and Trumps mocking style
Depending on the definition of socialism you’re talking about:
Scandinavia and much of northern and western Europe, Vietnam, Chile under Allende, several central American nations before other nations funded insurgencies against democratically elected governments, Cuba until it’s closest and largest trading partner launched a multi-decade boycott of anyone who does business with them.
Can you identify a common factor that challenged or ended a variety of socialist governments?
Is a bewildered person likely to be able to answer a question that several generations of socialists have been unable to answer in any country? Worth a try though. Lateral thinking is what we need.
I see the dude from the Tooting Popular Front has identified why Corbyn wants Brexit. Apparently he has had past success campaigning for re-nationalisation. EU rules forbid it.
Serious street cred for a socialist. I can see why he doesn’t want to remind the public about this, nor other Labour MPs! But it alerts us to the likely title of Labour’s next election campaign: Back to the Future.
Brussels didn’t complain when half the Banks in Britain were nationalised during the GFC.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/3187946/Financial-crisis-Banks-nationalised-by-Government.html
Gordon Campbell has a rational explanation for Corbyn’s position on Brexit…albeit a slightly cynical one
http://werewolf.co.nz/2019/01/gordon-campbell-on-the-reactionary-politics-of-fear/
Yes, he does make a good point: “To his credit, Corbyn has (so far) refused to be baited into making Labour the media story in the run up to the parliamentary vote, which is due on either January 14 or 15. In his recent statements on Brexit, Corbyn has adroitly kept the focus on what May can and should be doing, not on what Labour might do, or should do, sometime in future. The time for Labour to show its hand will come later, after May has finally run out of options. A controversial statement on Brexit by Corbyn at this point would be the answer to May’s prayers.”
“if Corbyn backed May and her deal in the mid January parliamentary vote, Labour would be finished. The young who have flocked to Corbyn would desert him in droves. [The poll] indicates Labour’s share of the vote would slump another eight points – from 34 per cent to 26 per cent – if its MPs join with the Tories to support the prime minister’s Brexit deal. This would be even worse than the 28 per cent share secured by Labour under Michael Foot”. Gah!!
” DER SPIEGEL: And now you want to go back to the future?
Corbyn: What we’ve been saying on both sides of the Atlantic is about redistribution of wealth and power. Bernie Sanders has quite a good line. He says: “America can afford anything except the inequality it’s got.”
DER SPIEGEL: You will turn 70 next year. Are you planning to stand in the next general election?
Corbyn: I’m very young. I’m very healthy. I run. I’m a vegetarian. I eat porridge every morning. I don’t smoke. I don’t drink. I don’t do anything bad. I am sorry if that makes me sound boring.”
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/interview-with-labour-leader-corbyn-we-can-t-stop-brexit-a-1237594.html
@Bewildered…Wrong.
Socialism has worked perfectly well in “New Deal” USA. 50’s and 60’s New Zealand, almost all the Northern European countries. Costa Rico.
https://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Americas/Costa-Rica-OVERVIEW-OF-ECONOMY.html
There is nowhere “capitalism” has worked, without a healthy dose of socialism.
In fact all the “capitalist” experiments are disaster zones. Honduras being but one example. Argentina has never recovered fully from their Neo-liberal experiment. Recovery from ours will take decades, if ever.
Weird that media, and even commentators on here, ignore the, many, right wing capitalist disasters. Russia, The US rust belt, Puerto Rico, Honduras, etc You know, the places people really are fleeing from.
Note the worst standard of living and lowest performing economies in the USA are States that have had red (republican) Governments for the longest time. It is actually worse to be poor in Arkansas, than India’s poorest State.
A good basis for comparison, as US States are otherwise very similar.
https://blogs.cfainstitute.org/investor/2018/03/13/red-states-blue-states-two-economies-one-nation/
Greece, notably, was one of the last countries in Europe, to get rid of a right wing Fascist Government.
I regard Trump as being even worse than the democrats. If that makes me a class sell out then indeed I am a class sellout.
Sorry that doesn’t make sense to me, if you agree that the lack of alternative provided by a captured Democratic Party is largely responsible for the likes of Trump, then surely logic dictates that the solution to the problem of Trump is real progressive change within the Democratic party?
And yes I would regard you as a class sell out if you allowed yourself to be baited into supporting a non progressive Democratic Party through fear of Trump.
This whole one step forward, two steps backwards for workers the poor and disenfranchised that seems to be locked into operating manual of the centre left has got to end now, not tomorrow.
Nicely demonstrating how the perfect is the enemy of the good.
Let’s say you had a single vote in November 2016. You couldn’t make the dems suddenly turn to socialism. It’s Clinton vs Trump. Realistically, it would be one of those two. That’s it. workers should do this, dems should do that, repugs should do the other – you have zero control over that, other than one vote. Do you vote for Clinton and against Trump? For Trump and against Clinton? One is worse than the other. Throwing away your vote on a third party does nothing to stop the worst candidate winning. What do you do? Because that’s reality.
No, the reality is that the third way liberals who have co opted most Left leaning parties in the west have been using your bullshit argument for nearly thirty years now..ie cynically using fear to direct your vote.
The fact is that workers and the poor are suffering anyway, so why should or would they give a fuck about your ridiculous analogy?
The strangest thing to me is that smart guys like you and mickysavage still believe the same fucking lies that you were feed last time, and the time before that and the time before that.
Can’t you see that you have been suckered in to game where the results are ALWAYS the same.
The enemy of good is being bullied around like a pawn out of fear and not being guided by your moral and ethical internal compass, and calling bullshit on this liberal centrist ideology that has plainly run it’s course, and is now continuing only as a destructive force that survives solely by exploiting and destroying both humans and the planet in it’s insane search of endless growth.
It’s not an analogy. It actually happened. People had a choice between dolt45 and Clinton.
The workers who aren’t being paid because of the shutdown are suffering more than they would have. The people relying on the downstream effects of those workers’ incomes are suffering more than they would have. The would-be auto workers not hired because of the higher cost of steel to build the cars are suffering. The people worried their healthcare would be stripped away again were suffering.
Even if you go the other way and think more people would have suffered under Clinton, the point remains that one was better than the other in terms of the suffering of workers and poor people. The odds of them being exactly as bad as the other are cosmic.
So you can vote for the lesser evil, vote for the greater evil, or do nothing to stop the greater evil winning.
Just stop and think. What would you do with your ballot paper?
Vote Greens.
Stein = do nothing to stop the greater evil winning.
Sure, here you can vote green. Hell, I’ve voted Green for exactly that reason. But November 2016 POTUS election, Green/third party/write-in was a wasted vote. One viable candidate is less bad than the other. Which one do you vote for?
The reason I’m pushing it is that all it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. And pretending that two evils are identical or equivalent is one way to get good people to do nothing.
Shitting on “third way liberals” might make you feel righteous, but the only reason the third way was grabbed as a strategy was because the traditional left way got well and truly fucked in the ballot booth.
It is not a matter of me feeling righteous, it is a matter of no doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result…
btw how is Trump any worse than Bush II
Or for that matter how is Trump worse than Clinton on foreign policy, as that is all that really concerns us right?
lol so you’ve gone from concern for workers and the poor to “all that really concerns us”. So much international worker collaboration.
But it’s not about expecting anything different, or even whether dolt45 is better than Clinton or the other way around. It’s about minimising the obvious harm. One is better than the other, even though both are bad.
If the position we are in at the ballot is the same as the last time we were there, then the rational thing to do is to do the same thing as before (choose the least worst) and then try to change the situation we face at the next ballot.
“Of two evils choose neither” -Charles Spurgeon, is often misused in the realm of social media to discourage Christians from voting in political elections (either entirely or certain candidates). But Spurgeon is being taken out of context.
Worse still, this claimed fuller quote often attributed to him, was not Spurgeon at all, but Michael Marcavage “Of two evils, choose neither,” he said, “Christians must turn from the endless cycle of voting for the lesser of evils and expecting an unrighteous act to produce a righteous result. From a communist to a cultist, choosing the lesser of two evils is still evil, and never should we do evil that good may come”. – Michael Marcavage.
https://gfmanchester.com/misusing-spurgeons-two-evils-quote
Interesting – hadn’t read that before.
Eden Park Auckland just about Bankrupt and Phil Goff wants to build an Underwater Stadium on Auckland’s Waterfront what next ?
A flooded new stadium (due to climate change) which will then morph into a marine reserve, with tourists permitted to dive & view the locals for an exorbitant fee. Presumably, by then, it will have become known as Goff’s Folly.
Upgrade it to an Open Air Kelly Tarlton’s perhaps with Orca’s & Dolphins.
and politicians in wetsuits
a buffalo with an aqualung
Gfoffoloffle will invite central govt to come to the partee.
Individual-1 might indeed be immune from prosecution while he continues to hold his current job. And the people tasked with overseeing him and that hold the power to terminate his employment may be disinclined to even think about fulfilling their responsibilities and duties. That doesn’t mean his business empire is safe from a RICO prosecution and seizure.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/01/trump-organization-rico-racketeering-mueller.html?via=homepage_taps_top
E-Ferries for the Waitemata Harbour in Auckland would also be a good idea for the Manukau Harbour, imagine we could catch an E-Ferry from Waiuku to Onehunga Wharf, not a silly idea IMHO.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12180197
Aotearoa is #4 on the Democracy Index. Honduras is #82, just below Fiji, and just above Ukraine. It’s defined as hybrid. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index#Classification_definitions
“Hybrid regimes are nations where consequential irregularities exist in elections regularly preventing them from being fair and free. These nations commonly have governments that apply pressure on political opponents, non independent judiciaries, and have widespread corruption, harassment and pressure placed on the media, anemic rule of law, and more pronounced faults than flawed democracies in the realms of underdeveloped political culture, low levels of participation in politics, and issues in the functioning of governance.”
So what has been happening there recently? “In January 2017, President Juan Orlando Hernández announced that the Special Commission for Police Reform Restructuring will extend its mandate until 2018. As of May, nearly 4,000 of the more than 9,000 police officers evaluated by the commission had been removed, including many for alleged involvement in corruption or criminal acts. However, none of the police officers expelled upon orders of the commission has been convicted to date for alleged involvement in criminal activities including human rights abuses.”
The Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR) “described Honduras in August 2016 as one of the “most hostile and dangerous countries for human rights defenders” in the Americas.”
“Twenty-five journalists were murdered between 2014 and 2016 according to the human rights ombudsman, CONADEH, which also revealed in its 2016 report that 91 percent of killings of journalists since 2001 remain unpunished. Most recently, journalist Carlos William Flores was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen on a motorcycle in Cortes, near the Guatemalan border. Flores directed a television program, “Sin Pelos en la Lengua,” which was critical of major agribusiness enterprises linked to deforestation in the area.”
“To date, eight men have been charged with the murder in March 2016 of environmental and indigenous rights activist Berta Cáceres, including an army major and the former environment manager of Desarrollo Energético S.A. (DESA), the company behind the Agua Zarca dam project that Cáceres was campaigning against at the time of her death.”
“At the behest of the Mission to Support the Fight against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (MACCIH), Congress passed the Law on Clean Politics, which came into force in March 2017. The law created a framework to prevent organized crime from contributing to political campaigns and to hold parties and candidates accountable for financing their campaigns illegally. In July 2017, the MACCIH announced that it would investigate the funding and government concession granted to DESA for the Agua Zarca Dam project for possible corruption and money laundering.”
“For fiscal year 2017, the US Congress allotted US$95.3 million in bilateral aid to Honduras. Members of Congress reintroduced the “Berta Caceres Human Rights in Honduras Act” (H.R. 1299) on March 2, 2017. The bill would suspend US funding for the country’s police and military operations until the Honduras government prosecutes and convicts those who ordered and carried out the murder of Cáceres, in addition to other killings and attacks against other activists; investigate and prosecute members of military and police forces who have allegedly violated human rights; withdraw the military from domestic policing; establish effective protections for human rights defenders; and strengthen rule of law.”
“In May 2016, after prosecutors filed murder charges against an employee of DESA, the Dutch development bank, FMO, and the Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation, Finnfund, announced they would suspend payments of their loans to the Agua Zarca Dam. In June 2017, both funders told the Guardian that they would withdraw completely from the Agua Zarca project. The third and largest investor in the project, the Central American Bank of Economic Integration (CABEI), also announced that it would no longer fund the project.”
Sorry for so much block quoting, but I’m hoping the moderator will agree that it provides a balanced view, in which the shit that has been going down is producing some appropriate high-level responses that seem good news. The struggle for law and order is clearly ongoing, however. Savagery and victimisation remain normal.
If I earn the average NZ wage (50K) and save 100% of that… I only have to work for two million two hundred and forty thousand years to catch up to Bezos.
Alternately, if two million two hundred and forty thousand average earners saved everything for a year we could collectively make a Bezos.
But if there were more than one Bezos in the market would value decline? Currently you can get 2.08 Zuckerbergs for a Bezos but that might change.
We could put GE to good use and clone Thiel as 44.8 Thiels make a Bezos. Nobody would care as nobody is buying Thiel, they’re all just gawkers.
While nobody outside the entertainment industry has been able to determine the value of a Trump he is made up of at least some Thiels, a smattering of Zuckerbergs, and a smearing of Bezos.
“Amazon’s chief Jeff Bezos is the first person with a net worth surpassing $150 billion in the 3 decades that Forbes has tracked the richest Americans.” https://www.forbes.com/profile/jeff-bezos/#43e261831b23
Think it was on RNZ this morning or yesterday I heard he again passed Gates to become world #1. A puzzle, that, given that Forbes reckons it happened March 2018. https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/#1b05be35251c
It’s tough at the top: 121 dropped off the list “including all 10 Saudi Arabians.” Buffett at #3, Zuckerberg @5, Carlos Slim down to 7, Koch brothers 8&9, Ellison 10. Elon Musk #54, Rupert Murdoch #94. #148 is Graeme Hart. #190 George Soros. Trump also ran, #259. #388 Richard Branson.
“he again passed Gates to become world #1. A puzzle, that, given that Forbes reckons it happened March 2018”
Easy – up then down then up again.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that RNZ reported it had happened again. Forbes only ever rates them annually and I’m unaware of any other such rating of the wealthiest people that may have been their source. If they mentioned a source on the report, I missed that, and can’t find the report on their website…
I didn’t mean to be flippant. Not sure which other rankings they draw on.
There was an early 1980s TV series called Brass, with Timothy West and Barbara Ewing. I remember one lovely scene where West, as the landowning industrialist, was talking about how he could donate a hundred pounds to the poor in the town, and they would only get a few pence each. But if they each gave him a few pence, he would be substantially better off, and that’s why capitalism is better than socialism. Very funny show.
Another bit had a worker stuck two steps up a ladder on a very tall factory chimney he’d had to clean – he’d dealt with the fear of falling by saying it was mostly safe and “it were only ‘t last foot that killed thee”. When he came down again, he couldn’t overcome the mortal fear of descending that last foot 🙂
Nice. That is funny. Never saw the show so I check you tube for clips.
first one I find he’s asking after a horse
‘He killed another stable boy this morning.
Oh that’s lucky, they’re due their wages this afternoon’
““it were only ‘t last foot that killed thee”
Yes McFlock. I remember that line well as the bloke confidently clambered down the ladder then froze with one rung to go. Very funny and a great metaphor for life and I use it to reassure my wife when she is boarding a plane. She is not amused.
Meet Fred Dibnah.
Fuck. No. Just no. This is why we have health&safety.
Reminds me of stories from the foundries granddad worked in in the North, with men jumping from crucible to crucible to sweep the slag off. Apparently one guy fell in.
He does an awesome set of short films on chimney stack demolition as well.
The man had balls of steel.
Love the drinking and climbing episode.
I’ve been tempted to use them in health and safety inductions.
I love that he’ll sit on a bosun’s chair at top of chimney, but he was worried about not being able to swim if he fell in the small lake.
Climbing those huge ladders with a smoke dangling out his mouth. This guys like a real life Barry Crump character except, y’know, not a kiwi.
Amazing.
thanks joe.
utterly compelling.
Very clear picture of the rotten perspective. WeTheBeeple
Makes it plain how out of kilter and horrible it all is.
While Putin and his oligarch cronies have been busy stealing $Billions from the Russian people and squirreled it away in London banks, French villas, Miami condominiums and super yachts, 25% of Russians have yet to have access to an indoor toilet.
According to a new report by Russia’s state statistical agency, Rosstat, 35 million Russians live in houses or apartments without indoor toilets, 47 million do not have hot water, 29 million don’t have any running water inside their residences, and 22 million do not have central heating (ehorussia.com/new/node/17679).
In fact, only 62.7 percent of the Russian population has the usual accoutrements of modern existence – water in the house, plumbing, heating and gas or electric ranges, Rosstat says, a fact that must seem incredible to those who visit only Moscow or St. Petersburg but a fact of life for those who lives beyond the ring roads of the capitals.
http://russialist.org/one-russian-in-four-lacks-an-indoor-toilet-one-of-many-signs-there-are-now-four-distinct-russias/
Mozz and Ed won’t like this Joe, Putin Is a paragon of purity don’t you know, now those evil brits and yanks whole different story, just ask George “Purr” Galloway
Mind you, home ownership in Russia is around 84% and trending up , whereas the same in NZ is 64.58% and trending down
Rural areas of Russia surely could do with a few improvements, just as our housing
(leaky homes because of lax regulations, poverty in Northland, people living in garages and cars, slum landlordism)aint anything to crow about
Cue the knee jerk required whataboutism response
I lived with out electricity for 25 years, bucketed in water and longed for a flush toilet.
Ah, those days
Still haven’t got one, composting instead 2000 tiger worms do the job , outside on the veranda(in a separate room of course)
Free houses.
Free housing privatization began in Russia in 1992. Then they were allowed to issue ownership of apartments, rooms in dormitories and other residential premises located in the municipal, federal and departmental housing stock.
https://lenta.ru/news/2016/02/29/privatization/
Interesting that home ownership is 85% but indoor dunnies are only 75%. In NZ, you’d expect renters to be the ones squatting outdoors in the winter.
Rural areas traditionally have outhouses
Dealing with their own shit so to speak
Many apartments of the old Soviet style would have shared toilets
Why only renters?
I know heaps of home owners with long drops
and outhouses
I actually prefer an outside toilet
It’s a country thing
I’ve lived in the country.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-09/linkedin-co-founder-who-bankrolled-russian-bot-false-flag-also-funded-left-wing
Don’t give in to the hatred….J90
Pelin Ünker is one of more than 160 journalists and media workers imprisoned by Erdogan’s regime.
Turkish journalist Pelin Ünker has been sentenced to jail over the Paradise Papers investigation after being found to have defamed her nation’s former prime minister and two of his sons.
An Istanbul court sentenced the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ member to imprisonment for 13 months for “defamation and insult.”
Ünker, who reported that former prime minister Binali Yildirim and his sons owned companies in Malta in the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet, was also fined $US1615.
Prime minister from May 2016 to July 2018, Yildirim became speaker of Turkey’s Grand National Assembly after the post of Prime Minister was abolished.
https://www.icij.org/investigations/paradise-papers/turkish-journalist-sentenced-to-prison-over-paradise-papers-investigation/
https://expressioninterrupted.com/census/
Kick em out of Nato
Serious Fraud Office.
In the past
As at 30 January 2015 the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) had prosecuted company officers such as directors and accountants involved in eleven finance companies, securing convictions against twenty people for a range of offences against the Crimes Act and Securities Act.,,,
Between May 2006 and the end of 2012 there were sixty-seven finance company collapses in New Zealand; including companies entering into liquidation, receivership or moratoria.[1] An inquiry by the New Zealand Parliament estimated losses at over $3 billion that affected between 150,000 and 200,000 depositors.[2]
The most high-profile collapses were South Canterbury Finance, Hanover Finance and Bridgecorp Holdings. The collapse radically reduced the size and importance of the non-bank finance sector in New Zealand.
According to the Reserve Bank, at the height of financial expansion prior to the 2007 crisis, non-bank lenders had assets of about $25 billion and made up 8 percent of lending by financial institutions. By late 2013 the size of the finance sector was half its previous size and accounted for only 3 percent of institutional lending.[3] In the years following the beginning of the collapses, sweeping legislative and regulatory changes were made, aimed at improving oversight and regulation of the finance industry.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finance_company_collapses,_2006%E2%80%932012_(New_Zealand)
So NZ private business companies are well controlled now? Now – government funding is being investigated.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/summerreport/audio/2018678014/sfo-warns-billions-of-public-funds-potentially-misused
The chief executive of the financial crime investigation agency, Julie Read, said she expected up to 5 percent of government funding to be obtained or used fraudulently.
In the 2017 financial year, that would have been worth nearly $5 billion, from the Crown’s total expenditure of $99.8b….
Citing the Auckland Transport case, where former employees were convicted for accepting more than $1 million worth of bribes in 2016, Ms Read said some organisations overlooked checks and balances when receiving or allocating
funds.
September 2018 is the date for this investigative report. Has anything changed yet?
New Zealand In Depth
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/in-depth/365540/why-being-made-redundant-in-nz-is-so-tough
Why being made redundant in NZ is so tough
3:54 pm on 3 September 2018
Kate Newton , Senior Journalist, In Depth
@katenewtonnz kate.newton@radionz.co.nz
Axed over the Christmas break, told to be out by lunchtime after 50 years’ loyalty – this is redundancy in New Zealand, where there’s no mandatory notice period or compensation payments and little support for those searching for new work.
“where there’s no mandatory notice period or compensation payments and little support for those searching for new work.”
Thats because, according to the business.govt.nz site….”Although redundancy is about roles, not people, people are affected.“.
In other words its ‘the role’ that is redundant, and ‘roles’ don’t have rights, meantime the effect on an actual human is simply the byproduct.
Bastards.
The laws aren’t formed for ordinary humans. Once you realise that politicians and civil servants aren’t working for us but a ‘higher power’ it cleanses the mind of all confusion. Everything then can be ironical and we realise we are having a mind melt when we start expecting normal.
“The U.S. has accused Kaspersky Lab of working with Russian spies. But sources say the company exposed a massive breach that U.S. authorities missed.
The 2016 arrest of a former National Security Agency contractor charged with a massive theft of classified data began with an unlikely source: a tip from a Russian cybersecurity firm that the U.S. government has called a threat to the country.”
So guess what the FBI knee jerk action was.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/09/russia-kaspersky-lab-nsa-cybersecurity-1089131
Good story, eh? One for LP to do an expert evaluation of, I reckon. So much for the Democrat’s favourite spin-line: Russian hackers are the enemy. Evaporated!
“A Google search on the Twitter handle found someone using the same Hal999999999 username on a personal ad seeking female sex partners. The anonymous ad, on a site for people interested in bondage and sado-masochism, included a real picture of Martin and identified him as a 6-foot-4-inch 50-year-old male living in Annapolis, Md. A different search led them to a LinkedIn profile for Hal Martin, described as a researcher in Annapolis Junction and “technical advisor and investigator on offensive cyber issues.”
Seems safe to predict that this dude won’t go down as the cleverest spy in history. A strong contender for the title of dumbest. Bring back Blackadder.
Huh? How does that follow?
Computer security companies, regardless where they are, are pretty much on the other side of the fence. Sure they tend to hire quite a lot of hackers – but usually after they want to or are forced to stop hacking for themselves, criminal gangs or intelligence services. For security companies, not hacking is the basis of their business. They just know a lot about ways that people can hack systems. They also usually have quite intrusive employment policies and employee contracts about what employees are allowed to do. Among other reasons that is so that they don’t have the security forces or hacker groups trying to penetrate their organisations. It is also why they have some pretty scary firewalls.
Kaspersky and the few other computer security research groups outside of the US are most notable because they aren’t as constrained by the legal gags that the US maintains on their resident security research groups. So they tend to report more of the day zero exploits that the US and other western security forces use. Just like you find that the US groups are pretty good at reporting on security holes in use by the Russian, Chinese, and North Korean hacker groups both government and ‘free lance’.
But having kasperky or any other security company helping to control exploits doesn’t mean fuck all about what the blackhat hackers from any of those places get up to. After all who in the hell would want more exploitable hacks available on the open market. It is bad for business.
“Huh? How does that follow?” I was just being flippant. It was a reference to the anti-Russian paranoia prevalent in Democrat attack-dog tactics nowadays. You know, how they try to revive Cold War thinking in order to position themselves as the responsible establishment party.
Ah yes but you actually read the article.
I suspect IPrent did not.
Because his focus was on the technical side? It’s his forté. But if he was too busy to read it fully & consider the implications, I hope he gets around to it later.
I’ve used Kaspersky on windows systems since some time in the 90s. Never had any issues with them and they’re a damn sight less less of a load on the systems than the other systems I’ve used. These days I use only use them for Android because I don’t use Windows for my personal systems any more – too much effort and there are better alternatives.
But like any bit of software that relies on network access for analysis and updates it is a security risk, exactly as is indicated in that article. I just don’t think that they are a particularly high one for me. Certainly I have never detected them doing anything dodgy when I have tested it.
Well, what’s your feeling about the implications of the exposé? As regards the general theory that the Russian regime is using hackers to subvert US democracy in general rather than just trying to ensure HC didn’t get elected, for instance? Do you think this company is being used by Putin? Perhaps just one or more employees, rather than management?
Sorry, think I confused myself there. Could they have done it to try to create the false impression that they operate independently of their govt, to create plausible deniability for Putin?
I see Lime scooters have had their license extended.
I have mixed thoughts on this.
We do need to get people out of their cars.
But are lime scooters the solution?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12188128
Just a part of it.
Interesting news coming out from India.
150 million go on 2 day General Strike.
Spinoff features i/v with all-round renaissance man: “He’s a lot of things: a commentator, political PR guy, Twitter scrapper, dad, recovering alcoholic – even Mongolian ambassador. But Matthew Hooton’s main focus at the moment is chalking up a philosophy Master’s in London.” https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/10-01-2019/im-completely-squeaky-clean-an-interview-with-matthew-hooton/
In “1996, when parliament was thrown into a post-election paralysis Winston Peters and NZ First, holding the balance of power, negotiated the first MMP government. “We had to go to work to be paid. But we weren’t allowed to do any work constitutionally, right?” Hooton says “right?” a lot, as a kind a rhetorical punctuation mark.”
“So it was great for the first couple of weeks you got to work about 10, office morning tea, out for a boozy lunch, back to the office at four to check out, right? But it got a bit much so I booked a one-way ticket to Mumbai. I backpacked through India and China and Mongolia and Sri Lanka for about a year and then ran out of money and went back for a year in Wellington to work for Lockwood, who [had become] trade minister.”
“His month in Mongolia came to a fruition of sorts more than two decades later. After a series of return visits, including to advise on the formation of the Mongolian Green Party and “to look at a mad idea to set up a sheep farm to supply the Saudi market”, he ended up appointed as Mongolia’s honorary consul in New Zealand.”
Thread.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1082998527792476160.html
Yep. But No Collusion!
Here is a timeline of Manafort’s involvement – as we know so far:
One of the big questions about Trump’s wall is how effective it will be. This guy from the construction industry identifies the potential issues:
NYT gets it wrong again
Turns out it wasn’t Deri-close-to-the-Kremlin -paska after all that Manafort wanted to send the polling data to
https://www.rt.com/usa/448427-manafort-russia-collusion-polling/
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/new-york-times-corrects-report-on-which-oligarchs-paul-manafort-wanted-to-give-polling-data
Humans, huh.
/
The world’s loneliest snail is no more.
George, a Hawaiian tree snail—and the last known member of the species Achatinella apexfulva—died on New Year’s Day. He was 14, which is quite old for a snail of his kind.
George was born in a captive breeding facility at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa in the early 2000s, and soon after, the rest of his kin died. That’s when he got his name—after Lonesome George, the Pinta Island tortoise who was also the last of his kind.
For over a decade, researchers searched in vain for another member of the species for George to mate with, to no avail. (Though these snails are hermaphrodites, two adults must mate to produce offspring, and researchers refer to George as a “he.”)
[…]
About a decade ago, it was commonly believed that over 90 percent of Hawaii’s snail species were gone. Researchers have re-discovered dozens of species that they thought were extinct, however, and found several new species.
The snails that remain in Hawaii are in serious trouble, though. Most are only found on a single ridge or valley, and in recent years, declines have accelerated as introduced predators have started invading their last refuges.
“We’ve had populations that have been monitored for over a decade, and they seemed stable… then, within the past two years they’ve completely disappeared,” says Sischo. “We’ve all broken down and cried in the field.”
These snails are likely to go extinct within months or a few years, Sischo says, unless they’re protected in the wild or brought into the lab.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/01/george-the-lonely-snail-dies-in-hawaii-extinction/
destroy the wilderness and loose the wildlife
Here you go shonkys & his main man steven joyce turned a state department into a decitfull orgianization . These people use websites to bait promises a deal thats to good to be true rope people into breaking the LAW set them up and nab them for a crime that was instigated by the state next minute BUSTED The person setting up broke desprate people do not care they are stuffing up a inercint sole life why because they will get a bonus for every person they nab .
Government to question MBIE over fake persona training
4:54 pm on 9 January 2019
The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is being summoned to the Beehive for a ‘please explain’ over a training course in using fake online personas to gather intelligence
MBIE signed a contract with Wellington based consultancy ZX Security in December 2017 that has been published on the Ministry’s website and outlines the details of the social media training course.
“The service provider will deliver an advanced social media training course to Ministry using false personas on social media for verification and investigation purposes,” the contract says.
Ministry staff have received training on how to spot a fake profile, maintain multiple identities using “techniques for creating a backstop (history) for your online personas”, and send and receive anonymous text messages and emails.
The contract also offered optional training modules, including automated harvesting, image metadata analysis, and creating a dossier.
To date, no MBIE staff had done the extra modules.
“During this workshop the attendees will use the skills gained during the course to create a detailed dossier on a group or individual,” the contract says. Ka kite ano links below. P.S The sandflys do that all the time baiting poor people
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/379727/government-to-question-mbie-over-fake-persona-training
Oceans
Warming oceans likely to raise sea levels 30cm by end of century – study
Seawater temperature is rising faster than predicted, which is likely to worsen extreme weather events around the world
The world’s oceans are warming at a faster rate than previously estimated, new research has found, raising fresh concerns over the rapid progress of climate change.
Warming oceans take up more space, a process known as thermal expansion, which the study says is likely to raise sea levels by about 30cm by the end of the century, on top of the rise in sea levels from melting ice and glaciers. Warmer oceans are also a major factor in increasing the severity of storms, hurricanes and extreme rainfall.
Rising sea levels will claim homes around English coast, report warns
Read more
Oceans store heat so effectively that it would take decades for them to cool down, even in the unlikely scenario that greenhouse gas emissions were halted urgently.
The report, published on Thursday in the journal Science, found that the warming of the oceans was accelerating and was matching the predictions of climate change models, which have shown global temperature rises are likely to lead to extreme weather across the world
The new Science paper analysed four studies published between 2014 and 2017, which corrected for discrepancies between different types of ocean temperature measurements and gaps in measurements.
Satellite monitoring, buoys and ships are all used to gather data on the effect of climate change on the oceans. In the past decade, a network of 4,000 buoys known as Argo has provided an unprecedented data set on the temperature, salinity and acidification of oceans.
By taking the four studies, with different methodologies, into consideration the authors of the new analysis were able to build a fuller picture than was previously possible, with calculations extrapolated back to the 1970s. Ka kite ano links below.
P.S we can not wait for the POLLIES to do the correct thing we must make changes for the better future for the grandchildren
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/10/warming-oceans-likely-to-raise-sea-levels-30cm-by-end-of-century-study
The whole world can see he has cheated his way into the White House he did not even belevie he won on the night of Amercian President election his mouth was that wide open one could have driven a bus through it.
Washington (CNN)As special counsel Robert Mueller wraps up his Russia probe, investigators have focused on conflicting public statements by President Donald Trump and his team that could be seen as an effort to influence witnesses and obstruct justice, according to people familiar with the investigation.
The line of questioning adds to indications that Mueller views false or misleading statements to the press or to the public as obstruction of justice. That could set up a potential flashpoint with the White House and the Trump legal team should that become part of any final report from the Mueller investigation.
Mueller hasn’t addressed the issue publicly, but prosecutors have dropped hints that they view public statements as possibly key in influencing witnesses.
Court filings from the plea of Michael Cohen, the President’s former personal lawyer, included allegations related to false public statements — not usually considered illegal since they aren’t made directly to investigators. A December sentencing memo filed by Mueller’s office notes that Cohen’s lies were amplified in public statements, “including to other potential witnesses.” The memo said this was done partly “in the hopes of limiting the investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election — an issue of heightened national interest.”
That includes the President’s role in crafting the misleading Air Force One statement in the summer of 2017 on the now infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians attended by Donald Trump Jr., the President’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Another episode centers on Trump’s attempt to have his then-White House counsel Don McGahn disavow articles reporting that McGahn threatened to quit over Trump’s pressure to fire Mueller, according to one source familiar with the matter. McGahn refused to publicly say that the stories were false, which prompted more anger from the President.
The President publicly has said he wouldn’t fire Mueller and hadn’t thought about it, which other witnesses have told Mueller’s investigators isn’t true. Ana to kai Ka kite ano links below.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/10/politics/robert-mueller-trump-obstruction-battle/index.html
Kia ora Newshub it’s not on those people throwing a kitten out of a moving car window. The USA government department shut down is trump game
I’m a organ donner I say it’s a good thing. Ikea store will bring more competition to the Aotearoa retail market.
Its cool people are donating a lot more second hand goods this year that’s the Kiwi spirit give to the needy.
A warming Tangaroas is hard on the wild sea creature and caged fish can not find cooler water and they can easily die. That’s a cool set of glasses for the blind people helping them navigate surrounding with voice and computer tech Emma the new tech is booming Ka pai.
Sir Ernest Shackleton picked up supplies from Dunedin Aotearoa the old wooden beer being restored in Antarctic is cool Ka kite ano.
Generation Zero is trying to change the climate in a corner with the Labor Party and the Green Party and, on the other hand, the national one. We want to move towards climate change outside the biased policy to provide stability in this …
Todd Muller and the National Party have to be examined.
When the national government was, Kennedy Graham on behalf of the Green Party organized a conference of all parties on climate change in parliament, which boycotted the Jatiya Party and the law deliberately and actively. Not a single member of parliament or representative.
Āmi mātra kaẏēka dina atibāhita karēchi ēmana ēkajana mānuṣa yini biśbāsa karēna yē ēṭi tāra 84 tama krisamāsa. Kintu kulākēra ēkaṭi bardhita paribārēra ēkamātra bēm̐cē thākāra kāraṇē tini śrama śibirē pāṭhiẏēchilēna, tini anumāna karachēna.
Tā’i, hyām̐, āmāra jagatē, yē kē’u punarbibēcanāra ēbaṁ jōrapūrbaka śramakē samarthana karē, sēṭi āsalē ēkaṭi durbala pañcāśa.
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314/5000
I’ve spent a few days just a man who believes that this is his 84th Christmas. But he was sent to labor camp because he was the only survivor of an extended family of kulak, he was guessing.
So, yes, in my world, anyone who supports reconsideration and forced labor, is actually a weak fifty.