“US stock markets continued their wild ride on Friday morning, on course for their worst week since the financial crisis as international stock markets continued to fall, spooked by fears of more rapidly rising interest rates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which lost over 1,000 points on Friday, rose 30 points on Friday morning as the more broadly based S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq also moved into the black only to shortly lose those gains. By noon the Dow was down over 200 points.
On its current course the Dow is set to fall more than 6%, its biggest one-week drop since October 2008.”
“The reality is that markets have been horribly distorted and a hard crash has to occur. The reason Winston was so grim the night he picked Labour as the Government was because he knew this correction was coming.
There are enormous problems with the stability of the global economy that go to the very heart of neoliberalism and when the full impact starts to set in, people are going to start to panic. The danger point will be when people start pulling their Kiwisaver out of the stock exchange and put it straight in the bank, that will begin a run away event on the stock exchange as more and more Kiwis start frantically pulling their depleting accounts out of the market.
There comes a point when panicking becomes perfectly rational.”
We know all this. If you can pick when it happens or even make it happen then you can be rich.otherwise you are just contributing to the general hysteria which helps to spook the market.
We are all just along for the ride.
No posts from you the other day on the market rallying.
You may know this.
A lot of people do not know all this.
Anyway, don’t believe me.
Listen to the former leader of the Bank of England.
“A worldwide debt binge could trigger the next financial crisis, warns former Bank of England governor Lord King.
King said it was essential to tackle the global debt pile, which stands at £166 trillion ($321t), according to the Washington-based Institute of International Finance.
“The areas of weakness in the current system are really focused on the amount of debt that exists, not just in the US and UK but across the world,” King said.
“Debt in the private sector relative to GDP is higher now than it was in 2007, and of course public debt is even higher still.”
Or listen to the International Monetary Fund chief.
” Christine Lagarde also sounded the alarm last month and researchers believe China is a danger.
Or the Council on Foreign Relations.
“Benn Steil and Benjamin Della Rocca of the Council on Foreign Relations said a meltdown is rapidly approaching, saying: “Given our evidence that China is shovelling new loans to companies with the least ability to pay them back, we think China is heading towards a debt crisis.””
The warning signs have been around for a while.
Our levels of debt are unsustainable.
“Global debt ratios have surged by a further 51 percentage points of GDP since the Lehman crisis, reaching a record 327 per cent (IIF data).
This is a new phenomenon in economic history and can be tracked to QE liquidity leakage from the West, which flooded East Asia, Latin America, and other emerging markets, with a huge push from China pursuing its own venture.”
Oab., I realise that I have a view, you will disagree with it.
If I have a view on Syria , you disagree with it.
If I have a view on Climate Change, you disagree with it.
If I have a view on meat eating, you disagree with it.
If I have a view on dairy farming , you disagree with it.
If I have a view on economic crashes , you disagree with it.
If I have a view Ukraine , you disagree with it.
If I have a view on ( fill in the gap) , you disagree with it.
Wrong on all counts Ed. I disagree with your sloppy counterproductive rhetoric though. If you can manage not to tell lies about that it will be nice change.
@OAB: I didn’t take him to be saying that and I don’t think you do either. Back off please, it’s the sort of behaviour that makes The Standard much less fun for some of us.
@GreyArea: I’m struggling to think of another interpretation of his statement that “If I have a view on ( fill in the gap) , you disagree with it.”
It follows a pattern that can also be seen in his comment at 6.1.1, wherein “people who are not ostriches and who have open minds and are capable of critical thinking” will be the ones who watch his video link. I could find a plethora of other examples if I could be bothered.
Ed is given to smearing anyone who criticises his presentation, let alone the content of his comments, in this manner.
Perhaps you should be asking him to “back off”. After all, you might succeed where everyone else has failed 🙄
You don’t need a bbq and a boat to be happy – perhaps that’s your problem.
Surround yourself with good friends and a family that loves you (and you them) and life will be a ton better.
It’s a mistake you make thinkingthat the toys are what makes you happy (don’t get me wrong I love the bbq – and I like the boat, although we don’t use it as much as we should). But sharing them with friends and family is what make the great days and give you a positive outlook on life.
No I am not selective.
If we all either cut down or gave up on meat, we would have a much better chance to mitigate the worst effects of climate change.
You want to make this a party political issue.
It is a planetary issue James.
“Either that or…”
Come on James, you’ve been busted for “pruning” quotes to suit your claims before; didn’t you learn then? People see straight through that deception.
I think credit suisse estimated the total wealth in the world at 250 trillion? It’s ridiculous how dumb we all really are for just accepting the monetary system we’ve been sold and blundering blindly on in an orgy of consumption…
if you think about it, all the debt is 70 trillion more than all the money….. wonder where the money’s gonna come from to pay the extra 70 trillion…. guess it’ll have to be borrowed…somebody’s making a killing…
the entire monetary and financial system will at some stage in the near future crash into complete and total meltdown. (Unless something drastic is done to change things before that happens).
maybe when the worldwide debt number has so many zero’s on the end of it that it takes a couple of hours or even days just to say “well… a thousand millions a billion, a thousand billions a trillion, a thousand trillions a quadrillion……and so on and so on….” , or it’s become such a big number that nobody on earth can come up with a name for it (as an aside, I wonder what the first ‘non illion’ will be???) Anyway that will be the straw that triggers the collapse
Sounds like it will take ages to get to that number, but exponentially increasing numbers have a way of catching up on you real quick…like the flash…
As a further aside, had a laugh with nephew yesterday when he was talking about something called a petabyte! I had to explain to him that when i got my first computer (which wasn’t all that long ago, must have been after 1981 because the computer was a zx81), the word megabyte didn’t even exist as a megabyte was something which hadn’t yet been imagined into existance! (And my 16kb expansion pack was like me being the king of personal computing storage space, even though that amount will never be needed of course…hehehe)
if you think about it, all the debt is 70 trillion more than all the money….. wonder where the money’s gonna come from to pay the extra 70 trillion…. guess it’ll have to be borrowed…somebody’s making a killing…
Yep. The private banks who get to create the money and then charge interest on it.
It’s both an inherently unstable system (when demand for money drops the creation of money stops and the economy goes into recession. It’s what happened in the GFC) and an unsustainable one as well as there’s never enough money to pay off the debt.
(And my 16kb expansion pack was like me being the king of personal computing storage space, even though that amount will never be needed of course…hehehe)
It was actually the megabyte that would never be needed according to Bill Gates. Of course, as soon as a PC came available that had a megabyte he wrote an OS, Windows, that used it all up.
“Under the announced plan, the Fed will allow a portion of the proceeds it receives each month to roll off. The monetary level will start at $10 billion then increase that much quarterly until it reaches $50 billion. Ultimately, economists expect the balance sheet to stabilize between $2 trillion and $3 trillion.”
“We’ve been patient in removing that accommodation”, Mr Powell said during a hearing on Tuesday before the Senate banking committee on his nomination to serve as Fed chair. “I think the patience has served us well. It’s time for us to be normalising interest rates.”
Why are you surprised?
The DJA, the S&P 500 and the NZSX 100 are all back at about the level they were in November last year. That isn’t really a crash, is it?
It has been agreed, by most market commentators for the last year or so that the markets are greatly overpriced. Here is a representative article. The same sentiments have been expressed for a long time. I chose this one, from a few weeks ago, not because it was the first to express the sentiments but merely because it explains what is going on very clearly. https://seekingalpha.com/article/4139502-u-s-stock-market-overbought-overvalued
The problem for investors has been that you have to put your money somewhere and when interest rates have been forced below inflation even an overpriced stock market seems sensible.
It is rather like people buying houses in Auckland. You may have thought for years that the houses were overpriced but you still need somewhere to live and if you don’t buy now you never will.
Try reading Keynes’ General Theory on the subject of irrational investing. The book is 80 years old but the exposition on the subject has never been bettered.
The problem for investors has been that you have to put your money somewhere and when interest rates have been forced below inflation even an overpriced stock market seems sensible.
Technically, we don’t need the bludging investors anyway. If they have excess amounts of money and nothing to do with it then that’s not our problem.
If you are making any attempt to save for you retirement you must, almost by definition, have excess money. If you are going to save it you have to put it somewhere, even if it is only in the bank.
DTB sounds as if he doesn’t have any surplus money and presumably isn’t therefore saving anything for the future.
Oh – this is the fallacy of individual responsibility. A rhetorical trick that goes like this:
1.) Leftie points out a problem in the world (e.g. climate change)
2.) Person no. 2 (usually a RWNJ) then frames a question to uncover any apparent inconsistencies between the stated concern and the behaviour of the left-wing person. e.g. “do you drive a car?”
3.) Left wing person usually does and so gets written off as a ‘hypocrite’
Whereas any rational examination of the inconsistency would conclude that it is due not to personal hypocrisy – but to the coercive power of the economic system in which we live, which locks people into activity they don’t like because it leaves no viable alternatives.
“… but to the coercive power of the economic system in which we live, which locks people into activity they don’t like because it leaves no viable alternatives.”
I predict it will crash tomorrow. And if not, the day after that, or the day after that, or on some other day in the future. If only there was someone who could warn us about it.
The money system is broken. It has been rorted by the rich. What can anyone do?
If you can, repay or lower any debt. Keep some cash on hand. Don’t panic, set up ways to talk to family quickly and cheaply. Offer support to any distressed family members. Loved ones and friends are what life is really about.
Have a plan in place. Always have extra meds on hand. “you are travelling/ may travel shortly” renew first aid and emergency kits and check safety aspects of your home and transport.
Any things you need, try to have extra on hand as supplies could be disrupted in a domino of collapses. Dried milk, long life milk, dried fruits, vegetables, soup bases, tinned goods, especially fish.
Don’t go overboard, but doing these things allows space to absorb larger shocks.
If any or all of these are too expensive or difficult, form a family/friends help group where skills and knowledge can be exchanged in a difficult situation. Talk to family and friends. Our biggest strength is working together, our biggest weakness is procrastination.
patricia bremner
I have been thinking of what should be done if what seems inevitable happens, something that has a scary effect on other countries and they lock down on you, sort of like Palestine suffers as a result of Israel feelings of concern. (Could we suffer similar from our friends in Australia. Always inclined to take the advantage ie preventing us exporting apples etc.) Next tornado? The wet spring meant some horticulturalists lost 50% of their crop. Note: listen to Country Calendar on Sat Mornings to hear real alive working people on the land, so admirable.
Who knows what is likely.
So your suggestions sound good for everyone. Thanks for putting it down for us in a practical way.
By the way – say you have a limited supply of protein and lots of pasta. How much protein to a cup of dried pasta would be sufficient to provide a meal sustaining two people. A cupful of dried pasta usually expands to quite a lot so would stirring in 1 tspn of tinned fish or meat be baseline diet okay, or 2, 3, or what.
And I presume that there would be no refrigeration so how long would the tinned fish, meat last covered? Sitting in cool water covered? It has been pointed out that most people have only enough food for 3 days, so knowing how to spin food out would be good info.
People who tramp and camp a lot would probably know this but most wouldn’t know how to manage for long without a frig.
Also need to have water, vessel for holding water and separate for cooking, boiling fuel so fire and wood or electricity, solar? and conserve water from cooking. Would be useful to have had workshops from survivors after Christchurch earthquake who had to do it hard.
Were these held so we could learn from them?
Greywarshark, Sorry, missed this earlier. Dried smoked fish will keep for a week or more. Tinned fish in oil two to three days in a cool safe( Out of the tin). Tinned fish in spring water (tuna 1.09 at PaknSave) with a cup of pasta would feed two, and dried peas/carrtts could be added/or tinned., fresh fish would keep best made into fritters or patties for buns. 2/3 days.
A cool safe is on the south side of a shrub or home/tent.
A hole deep and wide enough to take a stainless steel bucket. A stick or wooden spoon, cheese cloth (which is sold in tube lengths) One metre of cheese cloth, tie securely one end, insert a dinner plate or large pot lid as a base. Cut a vertical opening !5cm/6″ long. Tie top of the tube to your stick or wooden spoon.b Hang in your bucket.
This can contain, oils/ butter cold meats/fish salad goods.
The outer hole has bricks placed at the base, half filled with water, then the bucket prepared is carefully lowered in. your stick or spoon should be below the rim, and the bucket needs a lid to keep out vermin and insects. a brick weight on top and the whole covered with a damp towel/sugar sack and a board. This works a treat.
We always had two when camping, one for milk butter oils and cheese etc, one for meats smoked fish or bacon/ham treated with fat on the cut end.
We never got sick, loved camping “Food” and helped prepare the safes.
Remember.. when using it……Wash your hands first!!
If you make it cricket pasta that is stored it has a long shelf life and is a complete food with good amounts of fats, minerals and protein. Boil it up forage some greens and you are good to go.
The money system is broken. It has been rorted by the rich. What can anyone do?
The money system is broken and it was specifically set up the way it is so that the rich could rort it. The only thing that can be done is the government changing the monetary system from the interest bearing debt system it is to a non-interest bearing sovereign deficit system.
The government creates the money, spends it into the economy and then taxes the money back out. It would run at a slight deficit all the time to account for growth and development.
Great idea DTB. What chances of getting something goding like that? Or having a narrow countrywide or local region-wide exchange system with some things costed entirely in local $s and some in part local $s?
As an example, if you buy a house using an Islamic loan provide, while you don’t pay interest, you pay a premium over and above the “cost of the house”. It can be done a few ways…but it always ends up similar to using a normal mortgage provider (in terms of the overall cost in interest).
> If you can, repay or lower any debt. Keep some cash on hand. Don’t panic, set up ways to talk to family quickly and cheaply. Offer support to any distressed family members. Loved ones and friends are what life is really about.
> Have a plan in place. Always have extra meds on hand. “you are travelling/ may travel shortly” renew first aid and emergency kits and check safety aspects of your home and transport.
> Any things you need, try to have extra on hand as supplies could be disrupted in a domino of collapses. Dried milk, long life milk, dried fruits, vegetables, soup bases, tinned goods, especially fish.
This is slightly weird advice. It would not have been particularly useful in the GFC or, well, any other financial crisis ever. What scenario are you envisaging?
Hello Antoine, GFC is only one disaster, Cash is King and no debt is best in that scene, but in todays society, we live with debt, it is encouraged.
So we have few controls available when the system fails except those put in place by the Govt. which happened last time. We didn’t suffer as Greece did. Then, you would need the back up of cash on hand, meds foods and family.
Needing to be able to survive for 6 to 10 days has become common in disasters. We are asked to “be prepared”, but most people just feel overwhelmed and put action off.
Ordinary folk don’t have huge amounts invested anywhere. Their biggest investment is family friends and good health, and if they are lucky a home.
So learning how to use a transistor, make a cool safe, purify water, have suitable fall back rations and ways to cook outdoors are skills we have lost by and large.
We have altered the environment to such a degree, we can’t always forage for food either, so knowing porridge oats, dried or canned beans or peas and tinned fish can be excellent easily prepared meals in a disaster helps. They are good things to have and know.
Panic never helps, so having a simple plan, suitable supplies, and knowing you have done what you can to stop the overwhelmed out of control feelings , also talking to other people keeps things in perspective, and our strength in adversity is co-operation. Cheers.
Talking about foraging for food, strength of purpose, strength of body, strength of community I recommend ;
Christopher McDougall
Natural Born Heroes.
It centres on Crete but branches out in so many ways, I found it fascinating.
In a GFC type event, the problem is _investment_ not debt. The risk is that your shares, bonds, investment properties etc will lose their value. The solution is to liquidate your investments into some mix of cash, bank deposits, gold and bricks and mortar.
On the other hand, in a total economic collapse, debt is also not a problem cos theres no banks left to collect your mortgage and if someone does turn up wanting money, you can drive them away with a shotgun.
I hope the news item listed on Scoop under Politics “Decision overturning care ruling welcomed by H.R.C.” Also recommendations made to Ministry of Health. Yay!!! Gives some hope to Rosemary and others. Things are going to change hopefully.
patricia…its a simple copy and paste exercise…the really clever bit is when the link is embedded in the text. Looks nice and tidy and takes up less space. I have failed to do this on TS.
” I have failed to do this on TS.”.
Thank God. I thought that I was the only one that had the problem.
I keep trying but I still can’t get the hang of it.
Mind you it took me ages before I worked out how to do emoji so I suppose there is still hope on mastering the link technique.
“Thank God. I thought that I was the only one that had the problem.”
Take heart. I still am subjected to occasional supervision from the Offspring. They think that one day my ineptitude will bring about complete destruction of the internet. They keep telling me to “Clear your cookies ffs!!!” and I nod agreeably and don’t tell them I have no idea what they are talking about. For some reason, checking out the latest dispicableness from Farrar’s Ferals seems to provoke more of this verbal abuse…
Method: <a href=”long link address”>your choice of link name</a>
Copy and file away for next time. Soon you can do it from memory.
(To do this I had to get help to put it up so it would show how to do it without turning the instructions into an actual link – something to do with an ampersand etc. That is something that usually we don’t need to know.)
Oh goodie chocolate fish – fish – chocolate – favourites. I’m on to a winner.
Just referring to nothing in particular I am reading about David Nobbs
d.2015, who wrote a lot for tv, humour, books with humorous sidelines such as about Reginald Perrin.
I like the summary of Nobb’s character Perrin’s restlessness and dissatisfaction with his prosaic life at Sunshine Desserts.
Caught in a hapless suburban existence, Perrin reflected a contemporary mood with his fervent hope to become more than “just a product of Freudian slips and traumatic experiences and bad education and capricious pointlessness”.
I think we all echo that!
He wrote a Fairly Secret Army. Here is a short clip from that and it’s rather funny halfway through as it starts to sound like some of the TS more diverting discussions.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-5A9Rz6fqk
patricia, I would so like to share your optimism. Incredible though it may seem, Ministry of Health Disability Support Services are simply not structured to allow for change such as is required to sort this.
Their response back in 2012 when they lost in the Appeal court for Atkinson was to do the chicken licken thing and claimed that paying family carers would undermine the entire system…they set up a technical advisory group (all members of which had a financial relationship with the MOH of some kind) and they called for submissions from the plebs and ‘stakeholders’ and they held ‘workshops’ around the country to engage with us. Have Bus patricia, will travel ( ;-)) and Peter and I did all the workshops in the North Island.
All this was a pantomime.
Back in 2010 when the HRRT decision came out to much fanfare and flagwaving the Ministry asked for and finally secured a Suspension Order to allow the discrimination to continue (and disallow any other plaintiffs coming in) until one year after the Appeals process was completed. They needed this time they claimed to get their systems organised to allow paying of family carers..blah, blah, blah. The current system and the way resources were allocated just weren’t set up for paying family for care that had been considered ‘natural support’ during assessments.
Now…go forward (back) to 2012 and their inevitable loss in the Appeal Court…they had one year of the Suspension Order up their sleeve remember…and this sham of policy work and consultation which culminated in the Part4A amendment to the PHDAct and the disgusting Funded Family Care policy which finally addressed the discrimination and provided a mechanism whereby the previously unthinkable could happen and Family Carers Could Be Paid. Completely coincidentally, the Suspension Order they had secured (later found to be illegal) expired the day before the PHDAct(2) made its lightening speed run through the house.
The Chamberlain Case is about how unworkable and generally shit Funded Family Care is.
And now, to sort this out, we are supposed to hop into our time machine and go back and completely revise the NASC processes which should have been done back in 2010 or 2012.
OR…they could have simply examined the 272 cases the 2008 (how’s that time machine going???) HRRT heard about where, oh my god, family were being paid to provide assessed disability support!!!
I did an OIA for info about these 272 (actually 274) cases where family were being paid. These family carers were not under the same restrictions as Chamberlain and others on FFC. If the person had been allocated 50 hours per week, that’s what the family member was paid for. Simple. The sky didn’t fall (as one of the judges in a 2010 High Court hearing remarked) and despite the PHDAct legislation specifically stating these arrangements were to be terminated by the end of May 2014…they continued as they were until the end of March 2016. (I have documentary proof of this, and I also know a couple in exactly the same situation as my partner and I who enjoyed such an arrangement).
No simple fix here…there’s way too much dirty water gone under the bridge.
First thing needed is for Claire Curran to pull finger and have the redacted sections of this revealed.
Now…job for today is to pack all the supplies, meds, and the general paraphernalia of disability back into our Bus before we head away into the blue yonder next week. We will be well prepared for the financial apocalypse you talked about at (2). 😉
Rosemary. Bloody hell!! That is a ball of barbed wire. You have every reason to be distrusful in view of all that!!
However, I now have a group who are bringing every instance of unfairness to the attention of the new government ministers and local MPs. We just act as individuals, drip dripping on the stone.
Have a good trip. We always felt more “in control” when we had the motor home.
I think because you learn to be prepared and how to make do. Regardsxx
Patricia could you give me details of this group?
My daughter and I are trying to get Disability Support services to take a case of fraud seriously concerning payment for my sister’s end of life care, where people who should have been paid weren’t and those who shouldn’t have been were.
They just keep fobbing us off with b/s and not returning calls.
Brigid. You have me interested. “Fraud” is a strong word. I have no doubt there has been seriously dodgy stuff gone on, but you can bet your bottom dollar if the Ministry of Health or a DHB are directly involved in funding care then it will have gone through a Contracted Provider. These CPs often have multi tentacled accounting systems where details can be conveniently lost.
This Contracted Provider may have simply have been an “Host”…takes $$$ from the MOH or DHB and makes payments for services rendered. I have heard of cases (and yes the victims claim ‘fraud’) where a timesheet has been submitted to the Host and the carer paid at a lower hourly rate than the client stipulated, and instead of the balance being put back into the total funding package…it gets ‘lost.’
Some CPs are under a ‘bulk funding’ contract where they have a pool of $$$ not necessarily strictly allocated to specific clients. I can find some more info on this if you like. It’s all about maximising profit.
The Ministry of Health at one stage tried to hide information about a contracted provider by claiming the info was ‘commercially sensitive’. A friend did an OIA request that went to the Ombudsman to overcome that secret squirrel bs. ” It is about taxpayer $$$, cough up!”
No it wasn’t a contractor but I’m not surprised by all you’ve written.
I’m under the impression contractors are funded nicely and workers paid appallingly.
A good rule of thumb (ie: to keep your business afloat) is to pay your employees one-third of what you charge your clients for their time. This is one reason why consultants cost so much more than public servants.
Lots of assumptions, for example that you’ll get 1200 hours of productive time per year (out of a possible 1920). It’s still a lot better than reckons.
Brigid, these are just my friends who go on line to the ministers or visit local MPs here. We are in Rotorua. …In your case….
Q. Who qualifies for payment at end of life? Who would not?
Are there govt. regulations you could read covering that situation online?
Can you afford a lawyer’s letter? Ring round a few, I have found free helpful advice here doing that. Be clear about the situation. Write it out as a clear simple story. (no names in the story is best).
If you write a letter to the Minister with a question, they have to answer.
Write clearly what happened. Speak only of what you can prove.
Ask for clarification on who should be paid and why in such a situation.
It is hard to keep the emotion out, but it is best to be calm. Do not claim fraud until you clearly have a case of broken rules. I’m sorry to hear you have lost your sister with these things unresolved. A sad time for you.
Thanks for your help Rosemary and Patricia.
If we persist I guess we’d get somewhere, but it’s so much of a head f**k.
What is worse is that it was a member of the family that created this mess, as embarrassed as i am to admit I’m related to such vile creatures.
It stems from the thing that sometimes happens when a family suffers a bereavement. A power struggle ensues. Unfortunately.
This morning a very informed and interesting discussion on Kim Hill with English commenter on Brexit and the English in particular, about whom he has described the Europeans thinking as ” lager louts”.
8.09 Nicholas Boyle – Brexit is a collective English breakdown
Professor Nicholas Boyle is Emeritus Schröder Professor of German at the University of Cambridge. He’s been Professor of German Literary and Intellectual History, and he has taught German in Cambridge since he was a student.
He has a particular interest in German literature and thought of the 18th and 19th centuries, and especially in Goethe.
Alwyn, for one who is usually so punctilious, you apparently hear what you want to..
I also taught German. I remember that word – it was Vergangenheitsverwertigung, and, as Kim Hill said (she also learnt German), it means ‘reconciliation with the past’.
Sorry about that.
I was making a cup of coffee when I heard it and clearly wasn’t paying sufficient attention.
I should have checked the recording before I gave the meaning as I obviously got it wrong.
I still think she was very sensible not to attempt to say it.
Fair enough..
Kim Hill once said she majored in German at university (ie, a pretty good level), and German is far more consistent and logical in its spelling than English is.. I suspect Kim would not really have too much trouble if she needed to pronounce it.
Prof Boyle’s analysis is similar to that of Fintan O’Toole of the Irish Times (and Guardian and NYT)
“The country that prides itself on sober moderation has made one of the most impulsive moves ever undertaken in a developed democracy. The stiff upper lips have parted and released a wild and inarticulate cry of rage and triumph.
Make no mistake: this is an English nationalist revolution.”
Prof Boyle explains why the Pro Brexit faction of the Conservative Party are to be knows as “wankers” while their opponents are to be knows as “fuckers”.
“Surely this rhetoric inverts the truth? It is the Europobes who shut themselves away in self-gratifying fantasies, while the remainers know that real life is only possible through interaction with others.”
Did they really publish it?
I would never have expected the FT, such a staid paper, to publish something like that.
Actually, given Boyles definition as you have quoted it, and the purported behaviour of the leave and remain groups, surely Boyle was correct?
Thank you for the link. I think it is wonderful.
It is certainly nothing I would have expected them to publish.
I couldn’t look at it in the FT. They let you look at a few, a very few, articles free and I had reached my limit. Obviously I should just google part of the quote and let Google find me another source.
That’s less to do with democracy than their intention to buy people with public money. Only way they’re likely to get power again, but voters whose MPs turn ought to have some serious sanctions at their disposal.
And there were plenty frankly. Not all waka jumped really – you have to distinguish between those who continued to represent the constituency that supported them and those who sold out for money or other inducements.
The corruption of Alamein Kopu for example should have seen both her, and the person who corrupted her (Shipley) in prison. You wouldn’t have found a voter who supported her supporting her defection.
Rubbish. The only complete and utter idiots in this little exercise were the fools that ranked her in 12th place on the Alliance List.
Can you provide any evidence at all that Shipley had anything at all to do with her resignation from The Alliance? Your own opinion doesn’t count.
Given that she never showed her face again politically your claim of place envy is no better than most of your witless maunderings.
I suppose you expect Shipley to have published accounts of the inducements she used to suborn her – Jenny is pretty stupid, but not quite to the level of publicly incriminating herself.
I’m stating that she suborned her – I understand the inducement was publicly funded things, similar in character to the ‘party leadership’ baubles that were granted to Peter Dunne after his party de facto no longer existed.
What on earth do you mean by “your claim of place envy”?
All I am saying is that she should never have been put in a position where she could possibly become an MP. That was promoting her far beyond her competency level.
Once she got there she was completely out of her depth.
As for “she never showed her face again politically” I could suggest that that happens with every MP who loses their seat. What is Hone up to these days?
As far as you second comment “I understand the inducement was publicly funded things” goes I asked for some evidence. After all I suppose I could propose that the reason that Jim Anderton dropped all his claims to be the real Labour was that he was suborned by inducements like being kept in Cabinet and receiving all the perks of being a Party leader even though he was a one man band.
I could also suggest that the Green Party have lost their backbone because they have been suborned by the perks of being Ministers of the Crown and have dropped all pretensions that they actually cared about the environment.
And there has been absolutely no evidence produced that
“The corruption of Alamein Kopu for example should have seen both her, and the person who corrupted her (Shipley) in prison”.
That is just a wild supposition from Stuart Munro.
I merely followed his style and made up the same story about Labour and the Greens.
I at least had the decency to say “I could also suggest” etc.
I didn’t make it as if it was clearly factual and as a blatant statement of corruption.
Of course I don’t have any evidence. In that respect I am in exactly the same situation as Stuart Munro is. I am willing to admit that fact and he is not.
You could (and probably would) make such claims – but they would only tend to erode the weight of your assertions.
It goes back in fact to what amounts to reasonable party hopping and what does not. The Green departure from the Alliance, for example, appeared to be conscientious, and was scrupulous in not making off with or eroding the franchise they bore on the part of their constituents.
The NZF waka jumpers were not conscientious and were unscrupulous in terms of the franchise – but would likely have argued that they cut a better deal for their constituents – it was arguable, if not particularly persuasive.
Kopu’s defection was neither conscientious nor scrupulous – there is no interpretation other than that she betrayed her constituents, and knowing this she didn’t stick around to defend it.
Come on, Stop waffling.
You claimed that Kopu and Shipley were corrupt and should be in prison.
Then you toned down to claiming that Shipley had suborned Kopu.
Why don’t you either produce some evidence or admit that you simply made the whole thing up and you have no evidence at all for your scurrilous statements?
Be a man. Admit you are lying.
The NZF Waka Jumpers were contacted directly by Shipley and the National Party, whether there were financial strings or benefits attached one will never know ?
@SM
“I consider that the overwhelming probability”.
In other words, and more honestly, you are saying that you haven’t any evidence at all but that you really, really hate Shipley.
What a plonker you are.
As for your question about Kopu?
“I consider that the overwhelming probability” is that she simply got pissed of with the way she was treated by the other MPs in the Alliance.
Did you ever read Pam Corkery’s book about life as an Alliance MP?
As she said
“Politicians are, by and large, far more self-deluding, devious, bloated, insecure, egocentric wankers than I had feared.”
She was talking about Jim Anderton remember, even if it seems to be a very accurate description of you.
Even Alamein finally had enough of that shit.
It really is a waste of time trying to debate with you though.
Logic and reason have no place in your strange little view of the world.
Be a man. You are simply a lying bigot who will smear anyone who isn’t in your little cess-pit. Why not simply admit it?
Ok Alwyn – so we’ve established that you are crude, if rather unimaginative, but nothing more. You have nothing to contribute to the debate on the propriety of waka jumping . This is understandable because you are trolling – taking pains to divert the discussion from the propriety of waka jumping into a pig wallow of personal abuse. I guess that’s your natural element and thus the best you can muster.
You have nevertheless inadvertently outlined some part of Shipley’s modus operandi in terms of suborning waka jumpers.
“Even Alamein finally had enough of that shit” What shit? Being elevated to a list place above her competence but below her ambitions? Doubtless a narrative on just desserts was part of the process – as it was for a more recent defection.
“You are simply a lying bigot who will smear anyone who isn’t in your little cess-pit. ” There speaks a Jungian shadow if ever I saw one.
@SM
The only thing that you have established Stuart is that any connection between you and logic is totally absent.
You seem to be limited to a simple view of your world where the only standard is “Green Good”. Everyone else is evil.
I’ll bet you even supported Meteria’s fraud on the taxpayer.
Irrespective of anything else I propose to simply ignore you in the future. Like so many on the watermelon side of politics you find debate impossible.
And You do not have to be a bigot to have a bad impression or memory of Alamein Kopu… thats how she was presented
I make no comment on her actions …. but the media reporting gave the impression of a Lazy unprincipled politician doing the bare minimum for a salary she did not deserve .
Putting the boot in further, when she left Parliament ….The Herald printed a ‘Maori stole the furniture’ type smear / story
It Insinuated she was a serial thief ….. “the furnishings, including a desk, chair, filing cabinet and rubbish bin, are missing”
Headed: “Missing Kopu office items ‘not a first'”
” ROTORUA – The disappearance of furnishings from one-term MP Alamein Kopu’s Rotorua electorate office is not the first time property belonging to the Parliamentary Service has gone missing while in her care…
The Herald revealed yesterday that police are investigating” ….
The herald story was racist crap … business as usual
I think National cynicaly used the late Alamein … took her vote and attempted harm upon Maori politics with her as a scapegoat …. racists like Wayne Mapp and his drinking buddy Ansell would have loved it.
Shipley is dishonest, disloyal … and seems to be involved in the long time National party love affair with very dodgy business practices …
“Jenny Shipley among Mainzeal directors facing legal action”
“Mainzeal was one of the country’s biggest construction firms before it collapsed in 2013, initially owing unsecured creditors an estimated $138 million.
That amount grew to $151.3m” ..
“In its reports, BDO remarked on the convoluted company structure that Mainzeal was part of and the related party transfers that had occurred.”
“related party transfers” .. is a creative phrase for tax scamming.
**************************
Finally Alwyns serial dishonesty ….
As a troll Alwyns trademark technique … …. was to quote or use John Keys / Nationals lies. lines and spin from the debating chamber…..
I remember Alwyn talking pure shit about the number of house builds National were claiming for Auckland …. as they supposedly solved our housing crisis …
The numbers were lies with national fabricating and exaggerating.,,, counting consents as built houses or something ( It was not me who busted him on the thread but I’m sure others remember )
So Key and national lies were Alwyns lies…. Its probably why he hates Blips list so much … he’s probably lied hundreds of times too.
That’s Keys legacy for you Alwyn … he made you a proven liar….
What happened to the end of this post?
You proclaimed “as I’ll show at the end of this post” and then did no such thing.
Did you accidentally delete something before you put this comment out?
Or, in your incandescent rage did you simply forget to add whatever you thought justified you claim?
Whatever. I suggest you take a break and settle down with a nice cup of tea, as David Lange might have said.
“Give me some motivation”.
Why do you bother if it hurts so much?
I assure you I won’t be hurt if you don’t read what I have to say.
I only propose ideas for intelligent open-minded people who may be able to appreciate new ideas that may not have occurred to them before.
If it is impossible for you to read them with an open mind please don’t bother.
Alwyn …. I searched my mind and came up with an example of you spinning lies …….. it took about me about 3 seconds to recall an example involving numbers which will leave you no wriggle room … it was far less effort than making a cup of tea.
Your recollection is probably more detailed than mine … as you wrote the bullshit fake stats regarding Auckland house builds.
Do you deny it ?.
You may well write interesting stuff …. but your troll method involved quoting Nationals lies … which makes you dishonest.
I’ve trimmed down your little flight of fantasy to the essential truth.
“…. I searched my mind …….. it took about me about 3 seconds…….”
There that is more accurate, isn’t it. Everything you know could be gone through in about 3 seconds.
I note you haven’t put in any link to this supposed story.
Kindly put one in or I will just have to assume that this is another little fantasy from your fetid little imagination.
Put up or apologise.
@reason.
I’m still waiting.
If it actually existed I’m sure you could have found it by now.
Oh well. I suppose it isn’t really your fault if your memory is letting you down.
“Waka jumping (especially by list MPs) is of course anti-democratic. You have it arse about face.”
That is making the assumption that in the majority of cases the MP is leaving for reasons other than having the genuine concerns of the party’s supporter base at heart.
This bill is to give Winston the power to control his MP’s.
If they come up with a judicial review process where departing MPs must justify their stance in terms of public interest it might work out rather well.
Not only, but also https://www.corbettreport.com/whitehelmets/
“Contrary to what its multi-million dollar international PR campaign would have you believe, the “White Helmets” are not a group of volunteer search-and-rescue workers that sprang spontaneously out of the Syrian soil. When you peel back the layers of foreign financing and reveal the foreign intelligence operatives and murky lobbying groups at the heart of the organization, what you find is that the White Helmets are, in fact, a propaganda construct.”
Through your breathless attempt in trying to rationalise the narrow view you have of the world [your comments tell that story], while simultaneously seeking to belittle , Brigid….
You’ve managed to ignore the message about the White Helmets, which Brigid was attempting to convey….
Did it feel good to leap on the link used, and then try to piss all over it…..did it give you another little rush when you realised it attracted other responses to your obvious piss take?
Joe90’s comment is entirely apt. As Michael Shermer says in The Baloney Detection Kit, the source of any claim is a relevant factor in deciding the credibility of the claim.
Watch out for a pattern of fringe thinking that consistently ignores or distorts data.
The controversy surrounding the White Helmets has been thoroughly explored at The Standard. Speaking of “belittling”, I note that Brigid apparently agreed with Ed’s assessment of people who will pass on watching the video he posted: that they are closed minded and are incapable of critical thinking. I further note your attempt to belittle Joe90: “the narrow view you have of the world”. Did it feel good to leap on his comment, and then try to piss all over it? Hoist on your own petard much?
I’m grateful to Joe for pointing out the pattern at the Corbett Report, although I daresay I’d have noticed it myself eventually. Only so many hours in the day.
Not as breathless as the heavy breathing stalker still following around my comments…
Once you’ve touched a nerve, they will then chime in, and keep chiming in….if you continue posting what they don’t agree with [taboo subjects almost a form of kryptonite] or can’t understand….
Expect the responses to take on venom as the abuse ratchets upwards…
In the end, the point is no more that we should uncritically accept every statement made in opposition to the White Helmets than that we should uncritically accept every statement made in their favour.
It takes a long time to get to that which everyone involved in this discussion already knows: the art of warfare is deception. No matter who the white helmets really are, someone is going to tell lies about them. However, I find it difficult to believe that Syrian civilian medics wouldn’t run to the aid of the injured, and organise amongst themselves in doing so. Refusing aid to the wounded is a war crime.
…and you’re arguing from authority. Did you read Psycho Milt’s link? You do read the links people put up, eh. Or do you take the ostrich approach (your words)?
Let’s look at it in terms of set theory.
Assumption: there are two sets of people: White Helmets (WH) and Syrian Civilian Medics (SCM). The ones that are still alive, that is.
In Brigid’s hypothesis (The white helmets are not Syrian civilian medics), the subset of the two is empty.
In mine, the subset of the two has a value greater than zero.
Life won’t become extinct. The worst that would happen would be similar to the Permian Extinction and it only took ten million years for life to recover biodiversity afterwards.
Of course, humans probably wouldn’t be part of the biodiversity afterwards if such an extinction event took place now.
You’re often hostile Stunned Mullet, I think people here would like to have a community of commenters that listen to others and limit their level of abuse.
“The worst that would happen would be similar to the Permian Extinction and it only took ten million years for life to recover biodiversity afterwards.”
Jacinda Ardern and Julie Bishop met informally last night in Auckland. Revealed by Julie Bishop in a tweet at 11pm. She is here for the weekend for the standard six monthly meeting with Winston Peters, her equal as Deputy PM. They are meeting on Waiheke Islalnd today.
The smiling photo made me realise just how small Julie Bishop is. Take away the high heels and she would be even smaller.
[No cattiness, criticism etc intended -or encouraged. Perhaps some (female) envy on my part for her size and trimness !!!!]
PS – Audrey Young must have originally filed her opinion article on Julie Bishop’s visit before knowing of the meeting with our PM as when I read it in the early hours of today, it said that there were no plans for Ardern and Bishop to meet. It has since be updated. A reasonably middle of the road summary of the current NZ/Australia relationship by Young.
The Dystopic Leftist Youth of Reddit and Facebook
A look into the spaces where young people mock the “boring dystopia” that capitalism has built
“This post aided me on my journey to personal wealth and happiness,” reads the hover text on the upvote button. “This post is unprofitable and thus useless,” reads the text on its counterpart.
Welcome to /r/LateStageCapitalism, a Reddit page where even the content rating system is a satire of the constant monetization of our daily lives. It’s one of many online forums where a leftist brand of humor can flourish, composed of anticapitalist memes, caustic jokes about current affairs, and a sprinkling of underreported news stories and research papers.
Read it now. Not sure what I think tbh. I like the bit where the reddit dudes said they are pessimistic but know we can effect change. Not sure that the memes support that but maybe I’m too old.
Not just the nearest woman, but one whose meteoric rise within the Trump administration etc both before and after the inauguration was attributed to her close relationships with Trump – presumably before her relationship with Porter.
A White House speechwriter resigned Friday after his former wife claimed that he was violent and emotionally abusive during their turbulent 2½ -year marriage — allegations that he vehemently denied, saying she was the one who victimized him.
The abrupt departure of David Sorensen, a speechwriter who worked under senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, came as The Washington Post was reporting on a story about abuse claims by his ex-wife, Jessica Corbett. Corbett told The Post that she described his behavior to the FBI last fall as the bureau was conducting a background check of Sorensen.
[…]
She said that during her marriage to Sorensen, he ran a car over her foot, put out a cigarette on her hand, threw her into a wall and grasped her menacingly by her hair while they were alone on their boat in remote waters off Maine’s coast, an incident she said left her fearing for her life.
According to the RBNZ inflation calculator my first Auckland London economy return flight cost $11,581.59, twice the price of a business class flight today.
Remember this is supposedly a 48 year old dyslexic male who left school at fifteen and who has two adult children running their own businesses after having attended $25k/annum Kristin School.
Yes, fair point, but we, the readers, have no way to test the veracity of his claims. And frankly, the successes of his children or his legendary BBQs make not an iota of difference to me; it is Facebook stuff IMO.
Who are you talking to Ed.? I wonder if we can elevate ourselves from biting each other in the playpen. When you think of replying or initiating some brave critique, just suck in some air and go for a wee instead will you.
Hi travel buff’s,
Since you are all talking about transport here I had our NGO send this reminder to the ruling Labour Coalition Government to ratchet up the rail travel (expressly freight) but passenger rail could be added to as it was good in the 1980’s here.
With our family boarding a rail-car from Napier to Wellington and catching the ferry to Picton and hiring a car to go down the west coast to see folks where rail didn’t go that far.
A report by HSBC shows that contrary to the commonplace narrative in the industry, even amidst the glut of unconventional oil and gas, the vast bulk of the world’s oil production has already peaked and is now in decline; while European government scientists show that the value of energy produced by oil has declined by half within just the first 15 years of the 21st century.
The upshot?
Welcome to a new age of permanent economic recession driven by ongoing dependence on dirty, expensive, difficult oil… unless we choose a fundamentally different path;
This evidence of using rail rather than road freight to lower our use of fuel/energy is reported to be from four to eight times more benefit to us all from use of rail as fuel compressions now show rail uses far less fuel to carry one tonne one km than road freight does.
The truck freight industry now uses between 28% to 36% of all NZ diesel supplies.
Use of rail will use less than 6% of our total diesel supplies.
This is found in studies according to all available fuel use studies of rail verses road freight fuel uses when comparing moving each one tonne per one km.
“Freight Railroads and Fuel Efficiency Go Hand in Hand Freight railroads are the environmentally friendly way to move freight: ✓ In 2016, U.S. freight railroads moved a ton of freight an average of 468 miles per gallon of fuel — up from 235 miles in 1980 (see Figure 1). That’s a 99 percent improvement. ✓ On average, railroads are four times more fuel efficient than trucks, according to an independent study for the Federal Railroad Administration. ✓ Greenhouse gas emissions are directly related to fuel consumption. That means moving freight by rail instead of truck lowers greenhouse gas emissions by 75 percent.”
The recently new labour Government discovered (formerly hidden) rail report (see above) “The value of rail in new Zealand” that was commissioned by our own “State Owned Enterprise” (SOE) ‘Kiwi rail’ a publicly owned crown state asset was said to be “for the NZ Transport agency” has now proven that this “fundamentally different path” of using rail is now needed to be incorporated urgently now that we are nearing the end of cheap oil. Rail using electric locomotives also should be used to further our less dependency on road freight and using fossil fuels that are destroying our climate, health wellbeing and economy as well as our individual wealth.
Dear PM Jacinda Ardern please place us on the right “fundamental different path” using rail freight for saving our environmental future, and help to reverse our climate change.
‘lets do this’
Your early response is appreciated please.
Warmest regards,
But sharing them with friends and family is what make the great days and give you a positive outlook on life.
How many times have we heard these kinds of platitudes? Sharing is caring and compassion is a sure way to achieve happiness, etc. Yet, a majority of people, 44.5±3.1%, go berserkers when you mention inequality and distributive taxes. They go nuts at the idea that their hard-earned money goes to support the ‘lifestyle’ of the lazy, the bludgers, the “pretty damned hopeless”, etc.
They scream the strongest ‘argument’ that pops up in their narrow selfish minds:
It’s legalised theft!
It is clear that the sharing and caring does not extend far and social interactions and attitudes can be summarised as follows:
1) Like knows like
2) Like only shares with and cares for like
3) Unlike is dislike
4) Intense dislike is hate
Welcome to human society.
Another beersy and a sossie, John? Yes thanks, mate.
Agreed. Most selfish bastards limit their generosity to very close family and friends, then congratulate themselves on how much they enjoy ‘sharing’ it, oblivious to how they are actually denying that generosity to most of humankind.
Come on James, I challenge you to make a symbolic donation of $1 (or more if you so wish) and show us up for the obvious hypocrites we are! I’ll make a mental note that I must donate to each & every cause I sympathise with and, in fact, to all charities because they all serve a good and noble cause. In other words, if the shoe fits …
And then we can argue about whether you just created a false equivalence or not.
Sharing and caring. I like the one about the elderly brother who charged his elderly sister for petrol for driving her to visit their other elderly sister. And I think he had bought the car using moneys he was holding in trust for her on an Enduring Power of Attorney. People can rationalise self-centred greed given half a chance.
I think airbnb is a minor player in the diminishing number of rentals available.
The critics in your link let long-term rentals and run motels, of course they’re anti airbnb. They’re happy to beat it up, not because of any proven commercial threat but because it’s a soft target. ‘Airbnb bastards have got your home!’
Our visitor numbers have gone up by a million this year. Tourism dollars are sweet. They spend big, pay GST and require little in return.
There are lots of holiday houses around me, empty for most of the year. Hosting international visitors at these properties denies no Kiwi a home. Rather than a curse, I see these owners contributing to NZ.
We need to get better at how we do it but I see it as a benefit rather than a cancer.
Home ownership rates are dropping, this is a fact, so it’s not that the rental stock is being bought by first time buyers.
Whole property airbnb listings in Auckland doubled in the last year and rental stock listed on Trademe halved.
Did you even read the article? It says:
In other countries where affordable housing is scarce, short-term rentals listed as an entire place are capped in a bid to bring them back into the rental stock – London has moved to cap it at 90 days per year, and it’s 60 days in Amsterdam.
According to the BBC, London boroughs have warned that short-term lets are pushing up longer-term rental prices in the UK capital, and reducing housing availability in London as many properties stay empty for long periods of the year.
These countries appear to be recognising the very same problem you are dismissing. Why is that?
Have you read any of the other articles in the media recently about amateur landlords being ‘sick of tenants’, and about those who are going to list on airbnb because of ‘the cost of providing a warm, dry home to renters’, and because ‘I can double my money’?
I haven’t seen any posts from him since last year, he suffered an MI last year so I hope he’s still around, I know what it’s like, I suffered one 15 yrs ago, statistically, there is only a 50% survival rate.
I remember Farrar attacking a tourist family who lost $17k from an airbnb scam. They made the mistake of paying third party. Farrar reckoned it was impossible to be scammed if you went through the airbnb process.
Well, it seems not:
A hen’s party of 20 women was almost left without a venue after a scam on Airbnb involving a house that didn’t exist.
Auckland woman Renee Carroll only realised she had been scammed an hour before guests were due to arrive for the weekend of celebrations on February 3.
The house – a sunny and inviting four-bedroom villa – was booked and paid for through the legitimate Airbnb site
“Carroll immediately called Airbnb staff who questioned if she was “at the right house” before offering alternative accommodation and then a full refund.”
Alternative accomodation or a full refund – gee scammed hard.
Rosemary McDonald
For feisty foodie – and about other things. Good to exchange info and advice, individualism will have to be lessened as times get tougher if we want a decent society, and sharing when possible is the way to go.
Well we’ve been busy looking after the mokos 9 of them on the farm my Wairua feels good here just over the road is a local Tapu sight ECO MAORI feels the good Wairua here. I show my mokos to the Tepuna buried there I hope they are proud of us Ka pai.
I see some people are making fun of ECO
for caring about all the mokos of Papatuanukue and using mokos all the time.
Here is my reasons the children of Papatuanukue don’t have the Mana to make choices that can change there lives for good or bad the grown-up do this on behalf of the mokos because of this fact
I advocate for all the children of Papatuanukue in my view one is not a adult till 20 and most men are not men till they turn 40 most ladies are adults at 18. Its is funny that they hide behind the smallest person be careful as if I want to I could decimate your ratings. Eco Maori doesn’t like affecting others in a negative way Ana to kai. Ka kite ano
“The taxpayers of Miami and Tampa should not have to facilitate bigotry and anti-Semitism, and I look forward to the Miami Sports and Exhibition Authority and the Tampa Sports Authority complying with the law and cancelling these concerts.“
If this gets upheld- her US career is toast – 20 states have the same laws (and growing)
“He said about $5bn is invested in Vix ETPs (exchange traded products) betting on stable markets, “but what people should be afraid of is a disorderly unwind of the much larger $1.5-2tn [invested] in financial engineering strategies that are leveraged to low volatility.
Cole said the collapse in Vix ETPs was analogous to the quant hedge fund meltdown of 2007, which preceded the 2008 financial crisis. “I do think another crisis of that magnitude will occur in the next few years.”
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
It’s the deadliest fictional town in the country, but which death has been the most bonkers? Alex Casey looks back at 10 seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries to find out. Warning: The following ranking story contains famous New Zealand actors appearing to be dead (not alive). The Spinoff has been ...
Water cremation is the biggest thing to happen to the death industry in the last 100 years. Alex Casey meets the people trying to bring it to Aotearoa. Through a set of mirrored doors down the industrial end of Christchurch’s St Asaph Street, death is getting a new lease on ...
Opinion: New Health NZ commissioner Lester Levy is authorised to assume operational leadership – chief executive Margie Apa is effectively relegated to his operational deputy The post All-powerful Levy is feudal baron of a $28b fiefdom appeared first on Newsroom. ...
The stock market continues to fall……
“US stock markets continued their wild ride on Friday morning, on course for their worst week since the financial crisis as international stock markets continued to fall, spooked by fears of more rapidly rising interest rates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which lost over 1,000 points on Friday, rose 30 points on Friday morning as the more broadly based S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq also moved into the black only to shortly lose those gains. By noon the Dow was down over 200 points.
On its current course the Dow is set to fall more than 6%, its biggest one-week drop since October 2008.”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/feb/09/us-stocks-heading-for-worst-week-since-financial-crisis-as-wild-ride-continues
I quote Martin ‘Bomber’ Bradbury.
“The reality is that markets have been horribly distorted and a hard crash has to occur. The reason Winston was so grim the night he picked Labour as the Government was because he knew this correction was coming.
There are enormous problems with the stability of the global economy that go to the very heart of neoliberalism and when the full impact starts to set in, people are going to start to panic. The danger point will be when people start pulling their Kiwisaver out of the stock exchange and put it straight in the bank, that will begin a run away event on the stock exchange as more and more Kiwis start frantically pulling their depleting accounts out of the market.
There comes a point when panicking becomes perfectly rational.”
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/02/09/another-dow-jones-1033-point-meltdown-dont-panic-do-panic-the-conflicting-messages-being-fed-to-the-nz-public/
We know all this. If you can pick when it happens or even make it happen then you can be rich.otherwise you are just contributing to the general hysteria which helps to spook the market.
We are all just along for the ride.
No posts from you the other day on the market rallying.
You may know this.
A lot of people do not know all this.
Anyway, don’t believe me.
Listen to the former leader of the Bank of England.
“A worldwide debt binge could trigger the next financial crisis, warns former Bank of England governor Lord King.
King said it was essential to tackle the global debt pile, which stands at £166 trillion ($321t), according to the Washington-based Institute of International Finance.
“The areas of weakness in the current system are really focused on the amount of debt that exists, not just in the US and UK but across the world,” King said.
“Debt in the private sector relative to GDP is higher now than it was in 2007, and of course public debt is even higher still.”
Or listen to the International Monetary Fund chief.
” Christine Lagarde also sounded the alarm last month and researchers believe China is a danger.
Or the Council on Foreign Relations.
“Benn Steil and Benjamin Della Rocca of the Council on Foreign Relations said a meltdown is rapidly approaching, saying: “Given our evidence that China is shovelling new loans to companies with the least ability to pay them back, we think China is heading towards a debt crisis.””
The warning signs have been around for a while.
Our levels of debt are unsustainable.
“Global debt ratios have surged by a further 51 percentage points of GDP since the Lehman crisis, reaching a record 327 per cent (IIF data).
This is a new phenomenon in economic history and can be tracked to QE liquidity leakage from the West, which flooded East Asia, Latin America, and other emerging markets, with a huge push from China pursuing its own venture.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/world/100831022/it-is-frankly-scary-world-financial-system-as-stretched-as-before-2008-crash
And he’s off again..
I call his first comments here on OM each morning the Chicken Little Ed Hour.
If you think it’s bad now, just wait until the stopped clock’s time comes around again. He’ll be insufferable.
Oab., I realise that I have a view, you will disagree with it.
If I have a view on Syria , you disagree with it.
If I have a view on Climate Change, you disagree with it.
If I have a view on meat eating, you disagree with it.
If I have a view on dairy farming , you disagree with it.
If I have a view on economic crashes , you disagree with it.
If I have a view Ukraine , you disagree with it.
If I have a view on ( fill in the gap) , you disagree with it.
This is Open Mike.
Are you against free speech?
And please desist from the bully boy abuse.
Wrong on all counts Ed. I disagree with your sloppy counterproductive rhetoric though. If you can manage not to tell lies about that it will be nice change.
[Cut out the gratuitous abuse] – Bill
What do you agree with me on?
After the gratuitous abuse in your first reply I think I’ll pass.
What gratuitous abuse exactly?
@Grey Area: the implication that I am so closed minded and bereft of imagination that I base my opinions on what Ed reckons.
@OAB: I didn’t take him to be saying that and I don’t think you do either. Back off please, it’s the sort of behaviour that makes The Standard much less fun for some of us.
@GreyArea: I’m struggling to think of another interpretation of his statement that “If I have a view on ( fill in the gap) , you disagree with it.”
It follows a pattern that can also be seen in his comment at 6.1.1, wherein “people who are not ostriches and who have open minds and are capable of critical thinking” will be the ones who watch his video link. I could find a plethora of other examples if I could be bothered.
Ed is given to smearing anyone who criticises his presentation, let alone the content of his comments, in this manner.
Perhaps you should be asking him to “back off”. After all, you might succeed where everyone else has failed 🙄
That was unkind.
Have you ever seen him/her post anything positive in the world? It must be hard living under a cloud of such negativity.
That’s because I don’t have a barbecue and a boat.
You don’t need a bbq and a boat to be happy – perhaps that’s your problem.
Surround yourself with good friends and a family that loves you (and you them) and life will be a ton better.
It’s a mistake you make thinkingthat the toys are what makes you happy (don’t get me wrong I love the bbq – and I like the boat, although we don’t use it as much as we should). But sharing them with friends and family is what make the great days and give you a positive outlook on life.
Keep ignoring issues like child poverty James.
Because that would be negative….
And yet here you are on a left blog site, James..
Deliberately agitating and seeking reaction from other commentators to satisfy…what exactly…[i don’t care by the way, that’s for you]…
And you have the gall to suggest Ed is negative…
There is little to nothing positive about your contribution, James…
You’re an agitator on an anonymous blog site…
No, it’s not abuse either..
My lovely sock puppet !
James is paid to be here.
Either that or he is a real tragic character, trolling away on a left wing blog site for kicks.
And the persona he has created is totally fake.
It’s a stereotype of what ‘James’ thinks a real Kiwi bloke looks like.
Btw missed your howls of outrage (outrage I tell you) over Jacinda cooking a bbq with meat on it the other day.
Or do you have selective outrage ?
Ed can’t do all the vegan heavy lifting. Maybe you could help him if you put your tongs down for a bit.
No I am not selective.
If we all either cut down or gave up on meat, we would have a much better chance to mitigate the worst effects of climate change.
You want to make this a party political issue.
It is a planetary issue James.
”If we all either cut down or gave up on meat, we would have a much better chance to mitigate the worst effects of climate change.”
Thta’s a pretty bold assertion Ed and while it may very well be correct, has anyone done a peer reviewed study which you can point to ?
@Stunned Mullet, see IPCC reports for that citation.
James;
I hoped you helped put on the barbecue for the ‘hapless national’ party “retreat” I couldn’t imagine they would not invite you to there own barbecue.
Why?
Don’t you want to hear the real news.
Perhaps you should read this if you want to be deluded and distracted.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/
Don’t believe me.
I for one dont.
Just replying to your statements above:
“James is paid to be here.
And the persona he has created is totally fake.
It’s a stereotype of what ‘James’ thinks a real Kiwi bloke looks like.”
Any evidence to back up your accusations?
Or are you still fucking goats and beating your wife? (being an example of making accusations that cannot be backed up).
When I was corrected on one of your post where I called you a liar – I withdrew and apologised.
So – I guess I back to calling you a liar – because that is what you are.
Not only a troll.
Also ( given that diatribe) the real James is quite an unpleasant and aggressive person.
Your reaction shows up a lot about you.
+1
And your lies tell more about you.
“Either that or…”
Come on James, you’ve been busted for “pruning” quotes to suit your claims before; didn’t you learn then? People see straight through that deception.
I’m over his petty and puerile comments.
And I’m over your lies.
Says the troll with the created persona….
Says ed the liar.
Thank you Ed.
I think credit suisse estimated the total wealth in the world at 250 trillion? It’s ridiculous how dumb we all really are for just accepting the monetary system we’ve been sold and blundering blindly on in an orgy of consumption…
if you think about it, all the debt is 70 trillion more than all the money….. wonder where the money’s gonna come from to pay the extra 70 trillion…. guess it’ll have to be borrowed…somebody’s making a killing…
the entire monetary and financial system will at some stage in the near future crash into complete and total meltdown. (Unless something drastic is done to change things before that happens).
maybe when the worldwide debt number has so many zero’s on the end of it that it takes a couple of hours or even days just to say “well… a thousand millions a billion, a thousand billions a trillion, a thousand trillions a quadrillion……and so on and so on….” , or it’s become such a big number that nobody on earth can come up with a name for it (as an aside, I wonder what the first ‘non illion’ will be???) Anyway that will be the straw that triggers the collapse
Sounds like it will take ages to get to that number, but exponentially increasing numbers have a way of catching up on you real quick…like the flash…
As a further aside, had a laugh with nephew yesterday when he was talking about something called a petabyte! I had to explain to him that when i got my first computer (which wasn’t all that long ago, must have been after 1981 because the computer was a zx81), the word megabyte didn’t even exist as a megabyte was something which hadn’t yet been imagined into existance! (And my 16kb expansion pack was like me being the king of personal computing storage space, even though that amount will never be needed of course…hehehe)
Ahh the good old days…
Yep. The private banks who get to create the money and then charge interest on it.
It’s both an inherently unstable system (when demand for money drops the creation of money stops and the economy goes into recession. It’s what happened in the GFC) and an unsustainable one as well as there’s never enough money to pay off the debt.
It was actually the megabyte that would never be needed according to Bill Gates. Of course, as soon as a PC came available that had a megabyte he wrote an OS, Windows, that used it all up.
you forgot to add…
“Under the announced plan, the Fed will allow a portion of the proceeds it receives each month to roll off. The monetary level will start at $10 billion then increase that much quarterly until it reaches $50 billion. Ultimately, economists expect the balance sheet to stabilize between $2 trillion and $3 trillion.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/19/fed-economist-no-evidence-qe-works-as-balance-sheet-unwind-starts.html
and…
“We’ve been patient in removing that accommodation”, Mr Powell said during a hearing on Tuesday before the Senate banking committee on his nomination to serve as Fed chair. “I think the patience has served us well. It’s time for us to be normalising interest rates.”
https://www.ft.com/content/95b4f10d-8134-30f7-9b53-9f190a2c687e
“Ultimately, economists expect the balance sheet to stabilize between $2 trillion and $3 trillion.”
When they say economists, I wonder if they mean all economists, or just a certain group of them, or maybe just two or three?
Regardless, I wouldn’t bet much on them being right.
except however that is the plan outlined by the Fed….and as they are running the programme I guess they will need to know the target.
Currently sits at around 4.5 trillion and windback is timed to approx 3 years
Why are you surprised?
The DJA, the S&P 500 and the NZSX 100 are all back at about the level they were in November last year. That isn’t really a crash, is it?
It has been agreed, by most market commentators for the last year or so that the markets are greatly overpriced. Here is a representative article. The same sentiments have been expressed for a long time. I chose this one, from a few weeks ago, not because it was the first to express the sentiments but merely because it explains what is going on very clearly.
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4139502-u-s-stock-market-overbought-overvalued
The problem for investors has been that you have to put your money somewhere and when interest rates have been forced below inflation even an overpriced stock market seems sensible.
It is rather like people buying houses in Auckland. You may have thought for years that the houses were overpriced but you still need somewhere to live and if you don’t buy now you never will.
Try reading Keynes’ General Theory on the subject of irrational investing. The book is 80 years old but the exposition on the subject has never been bettered.
I am not surprised.
I have been warning people about our levels of debt for ages.
Technically, we don’t need the bludging investors anyway. If they have excess amounts of money and nothing to do with it then that’s not our problem.
I take it you do not have a KiwiSaver account then?
Or any other form of saving for your declining years.
What’s that question have to do with the conversation, Alwyn
Investments are not necessary, except in a rotton to the core debt system..
Interest is a mirage, a phantom to protect the mirage through blinding the simple and the uninformed…
I offer you 0.75% interest, but will inflate the monetary supply by 1.25% and charge you 3.75 above the cash rate…
So to pay back what is owed you might need to go an steal from another person…or invent an instrument which will do it indirectly…
Declining years…being stolen from people since… [pick a date]..
If you are making any attempt to save for you retirement you must, almost by definition, have excess money. If you are going to save it you have to put it somewhere, even if it is only in the bank.
DTB sounds as if he doesn’t have any surplus money and presumably isn’t therefore saving anything for the future.
Hint: It’s impossible to save anything for the future. That’s just reality.
Oh – this is the fallacy of individual responsibility. A rhetorical trick that goes like this:
1.) Leftie points out a problem in the world (e.g. climate change)
2.) Person no. 2 (usually a RWNJ) then frames a question to uncover any apparent inconsistencies between the stated concern and the behaviour of the left-wing person. e.g. “do you drive a car?”
3.) Left wing person usually does and so gets written off as a ‘hypocrite’
Whereas any rational examination of the inconsistency would conclude that it is due not to personal hypocrisy – but to the coercive power of the economic system in which we live, which locks people into activity they don’t like because it leaves no viable alternatives.
“… but to the coercive power of the economic system in which we live, which locks people into activity they don’t like because it leaves no viable alternatives.”
This.
+111
Backing a Ponzi Scheme doesn’t make it work.
But the stockmarket (US) was actually up today?
I predict it will crash tomorrow. And if not, the day after that, or the day after that, or on some other day in the future. If only there was someone who could warn us about it.
How much to subscribe to your market prediction signals OAB?
Or has someone else here already cornered that market 🙂
Only people who have an open mind and are capable of critical thinking will heed my words 🙂
I love paradoxes 😉
The money system is broken. It has been rorted by the rich. What can anyone do?
If you can, repay or lower any debt. Keep some cash on hand. Don’t panic, set up ways to talk to family quickly and cheaply. Offer support to any distressed family members. Loved ones and friends are what life is really about.
Have a plan in place. Always have extra meds on hand. “you are travelling/ may travel shortly” renew first aid and emergency kits and check safety aspects of your home and transport.
Any things you need, try to have extra on hand as supplies could be disrupted in a domino of collapses. Dried milk, long life milk, dried fruits, vegetables, soup bases, tinned goods, especially fish.
Don’t go overboard, but doing these things allows space to absorb larger shocks.
If any or all of these are too expensive or difficult, form a family/friends help group where skills and knowledge can be exchanged in a difficult situation. Talk to family and friends. Our biggest strength is working together, our biggest weakness is procrastination.
patricia bremner
I have been thinking of what should be done if what seems inevitable happens, something that has a scary effect on other countries and they lock down on you, sort of like Palestine suffers as a result of Israel feelings of concern. (Could we suffer similar from our friends in Australia. Always inclined to take the advantage ie preventing us exporting apples etc.) Next tornado? The wet spring meant some horticulturalists lost 50% of their crop. Note: listen to Country Calendar on Sat Mornings to hear real alive working people on the land, so admirable.
Who knows what is likely.
So your suggestions sound good for everyone. Thanks for putting it down for us in a practical way.
By the way – say you have a limited supply of protein and lots of pasta. How much protein to a cup of dried pasta would be sufficient to provide a meal sustaining two people. A cupful of dried pasta usually expands to quite a lot so would stirring in 1 tspn of tinned fish or meat be baseline diet okay, or 2, 3, or what.
And I presume that there would be no refrigeration so how long would the tinned fish, meat last covered? Sitting in cool water covered? It has been pointed out that most people have only enough food for 3 days, so knowing how to spin food out would be good info.
People who tramp and camp a lot would probably know this but most wouldn’t know how to manage for long without a frig.
Also need to have water, vessel for holding water and separate for cooking, boiling fuel so fire and wood or electricity, solar? and conserve water from cooking. Would be useful to have had workshops from survivors after Christchurch earthquake who had to do it hard.
Were these held so we could learn from them?
Greywarshark, Sorry, missed this earlier. Dried smoked fish will keep for a week or more. Tinned fish in oil two to three days in a cool safe( Out of the tin). Tinned fish in spring water (tuna 1.09 at PaknSave) with a cup of pasta would feed two, and dried peas/carrtts could be added/or tinned., fresh fish would keep best made into fritters or patties for buns. 2/3 days.
A cool safe is on the south side of a shrub or home/tent.
A hole deep and wide enough to take a stainless steel bucket. A stick or wooden spoon, cheese cloth (which is sold in tube lengths) One metre of cheese cloth, tie securely one end, insert a dinner plate or large pot lid as a base. Cut a vertical opening !5cm/6″ long. Tie top of the tube to your stick or wooden spoon.b Hang in your bucket.
This can contain, oils/ butter cold meats/fish salad goods.
The outer hole has bricks placed at the base, half filled with water, then the bucket prepared is carefully lowered in. your stick or spoon should be below the rim, and the bucket needs a lid to keep out vermin and insects. a brick weight on top and the whole covered with a damp towel/sugar sack and a board. This works a treat.
We always had two when camping, one for milk butter oils and cheese etc, one for meats smoked fish or bacon/ham treated with fat on the cut end.
We never got sick, loved camping “Food” and helped prepare the safes.
Remember.. when using it……Wash your hands first!!
Thanks Patricia I will run that off as a handy guide and need to practice it to get the way of it.
If you make it cricket pasta that is stored it has a long shelf life and is a complete food with good amounts of fats, minerals and protein. Boil it up forage some greens and you are good to go.
The money system is broken and it was specifically set up the way it is so that the rich could rort it. The only thing that can be done is the government changing the monetary system from the interest bearing debt system it is to a non-interest bearing sovereign deficit system.
The government creates the money, spends it into the economy and then taxes the money back out. It would run at a slight deficit all the time to account for growth and development.
Great idea DTB. What chances of getting something goding like that? Or having a narrow countrywide or local region-wide exchange system with some things costed entirely in local $s and some in part local $s?
Is this similar to the Muslim way of loans?
No.
As an example, if you buy a house using an Islamic loan provide, while you don’t pay interest, you pay a premium over and above the “cost of the house”. It can be done a few ways…but it always ends up similar to using a normal mortgage provider (in terms of the overall cost in interest).
@patricia
> If you can, repay or lower any debt. Keep some cash on hand. Don’t panic, set up ways to talk to family quickly and cheaply. Offer support to any distressed family members. Loved ones and friends are what life is really about.
> Have a plan in place. Always have extra meds on hand. “you are travelling/ may travel shortly” renew first aid and emergency kits and check safety aspects of your home and transport.
> Any things you need, try to have extra on hand as supplies could be disrupted in a domino of collapses. Dried milk, long life milk, dried fruits, vegetables, soup bases, tinned goods, especially fish.
This is slightly weird advice. It would not have been particularly useful in the GFC or, well, any other financial crisis ever. What scenario are you envisaging?
A.
Hello Antoine, GFC is only one disaster, Cash is King and no debt is best in that scene, but in todays society, we live with debt, it is encouraged.
So we have few controls available when the system fails except those put in place by the Govt. which happened last time. We didn’t suffer as Greece did. Then, you would need the back up of cash on hand, meds foods and family.
Needing to be able to survive for 6 to 10 days has become common in disasters. We are asked to “be prepared”, but most people just feel overwhelmed and put action off.
Ordinary folk don’t have huge amounts invested anywhere. Their biggest investment is family friends and good health, and if they are lucky a home.
So learning how to use a transistor, make a cool safe, purify water, have suitable fall back rations and ways to cook outdoors are skills we have lost by and large.
We have altered the environment to such a degree, we can’t always forage for food either, so knowing porridge oats, dried or canned beans or peas and tinned fish can be excellent easily prepared meals in a disaster helps. They are good things to have and know.
Panic never helps, so having a simple plan, suitable supplies, and knowing you have done what you can to stop the overwhelmed out of control feelings , also talking to other people keeps things in perspective, and our strength in adversity is co-operation. Cheers.
Talking about foraging for food, strength of purpose, strength of body, strength of community I recommend ;
Christopher McDougall
Natural Born Heroes.
It centres on Crete but branches out in so many ways, I found it fascinating.
Thanks, will do.
Agree….if you can, lower debt and forget the treats and trinkets AND family and friends working together.
I dont see the big problem with debt in a crisis.
In a GFC type event, the problem is _investment_ not debt. The risk is that your shares, bonds, investment properties etc will lose their value. The solution is to liquidate your investments into some mix of cash, bank deposits, gold and bricks and mortar.
On the other hand, in a total economic collapse, debt is also not a problem cos theres no banks left to collect your mortgage and if someone does turn up wanting money, you can drive them away with a shotgun.
A.
I hope the news item listed on Scoop under Politics “Decision overturning care ruling welcomed by H.R.C.” Also recommendations made to Ministry of Health. Yay!!! Gives some hope to Rosemary and others. Things are going to change hopefully.
Link?
This one?
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1802/S00080/decision-overturning-care-ruling-welcomed-by-hrc.htm
Thank you, I will have to learn how to do that.
patricia…its a simple copy and paste exercise…the really clever bit is when the link is embedded in the text. Looks nice and tidy and takes up less space. I have failed to do this on TS.
” I have failed to do this on TS.”.
Thank God. I thought that I was the only one that had the problem.
I keep trying but I still can’t get the hang of it.
Mind you it took me ages before I worked out how to do emoji so I suppose there is still hope on mastering the link technique.
“Thank God. I thought that I was the only one that had the problem.”
Take heart. I still am subjected to occasional supervision from the Offspring. They think that one day my ineptitude will bring about complete destruction of the internet. They keep telling me to “Clear your cookies ffs!!!” and I nod agreeably and don’t tell them I have no idea what they are talking about. For some reason, checking out the latest dispicableness from Farrar’s Ferals seems to provoke more of this verbal abuse…
One day I’ll be old enough to sign up for a http://www.seniornet.co.nz/ course. 🙂
Getting link pinned under a chosen word or name.
Method: <a href=”long link address”>your choice of link name</a>
Copy and file away for next time. Soon you can do it from memory.
(To do this I had to get help to put it up so it would show how to do it without turning the instructions into an actual link – something to do with an ampersand etc. That is something that usually we don’t need to know.)
If this works, a cyber choc fish for you greywarshark. 🙂
Seniornet
Enjoy the choc fish!
Make that two chocolate fish xx
Oh goodie chocolate fish – fish – chocolate – favourites. I’m on to a winner.
Just referring to nothing in particular I am reading about David Nobbs
d.2015, who wrote a lot for tv, humour, books with humorous sidelines such as about Reginald Perrin.
I like the summary of Nobb’s character Perrin’s restlessness and dissatisfaction with his prosaic life at Sunshine Desserts.
I think we all echo that!
He wrote a Fairly Secret Army. Here is a short clip from that and it’s rather funny halfway through as it starts to sound like some of the TS more diverting discussions.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-5A9Rz6fqk
patricia, I would so like to share your optimism. Incredible though it may seem, Ministry of Health Disability Support Services are simply not structured to allow for change such as is required to sort this.
Their response back in 2012 when they lost in the Appeal court for Atkinson was to do the chicken licken thing and claimed that paying family carers would undermine the entire system…they set up a technical advisory group (all members of which had a financial relationship with the MOH of some kind) and they called for submissions from the plebs and ‘stakeholders’ and they held ‘workshops’ around the country to engage with us. Have Bus patricia, will travel ( ;-)) and Peter and I did all the workshops in the North Island.
All this was a pantomime.
Back in 2010 when the HRRT decision came out to much fanfare and flagwaving the Ministry asked for and finally secured a Suspension Order to allow the discrimination to continue (and disallow any other plaintiffs coming in) until one year after the Appeals process was completed. They needed this time they claimed to get their systems organised to allow paying of family carers..blah, blah, blah. The current system and the way resources were allocated just weren’t set up for paying family for care that had been considered ‘natural support’ during assessments.
Now…go forward (back) to 2012 and their inevitable loss in the Appeal Court…they had one year of the Suspension Order up their sleeve remember…and this sham of policy work and consultation which culminated in the Part4A amendment to the PHDAct and the disgusting Funded Family Care policy which finally addressed the discrimination and provided a mechanism whereby the previously unthinkable could happen and Family Carers Could Be Paid. Completely coincidentally, the Suspension Order they had secured (later found to be illegal) expired the day before the PHDAct(2) made its lightening speed run through the house.
The Chamberlain Case is about how unworkable and generally shit Funded Family Care is.
And now, to sort this out, we are supposed to hop into our time machine and go back and completely revise the NASC processes which should have been done back in 2010 or 2012.
OR…they could have simply examined the 272 cases the 2008 (how’s that time machine going???) HRRT heard about where, oh my god, family were being paid to provide assessed disability support!!!
I did an OIA for info about these 272 (actually 274) cases where family were being paid. These family carers were not under the same restrictions as Chamberlain and others on FFC. If the person had been allocated 50 hours per week, that’s what the family member was paid for. Simple. The sky didn’t fall (as one of the judges in a 2010 High Court hearing remarked) and despite the PHDAct legislation specifically stating these arrangements were to be terminated by the end of May 2014…they continued as they were until the end of March 2016. (I have documentary proof of this, and I also know a couple in exactly the same situation as my partner and I who enjoyed such an arrangement).
No simple fix here…there’s way too much dirty water gone under the bridge.
First thing needed is for Claire Curran to pull finger and have the redacted sections of this revealed.
http://www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/informationreleases/ris/pdfs/ris-moh-fcc-may13.pdf
Now…job for today is to pack all the supplies, meds, and the general paraphernalia of disability back into our Bus before we head away into the blue yonder next week. We will be well prepared for the financial apocalypse you talked about at (2). 😉
Rosemary. Bloody hell!! That is a ball of barbed wire. You have every reason to be distrusful in view of all that!!
However, I now have a group who are bringing every instance of unfairness to the attention of the new government ministers and local MPs. We just act as individuals, drip dripping on the stone.
Have a good trip. We always felt more “in control” when we had the motor home.
I think because you learn to be prepared and how to make do. Regardsxx
Patricia could you give me details of this group?
My daughter and I are trying to get Disability Support services to take a case of fraud seriously concerning payment for my sister’s end of life care, where people who should have been paid weren’t and those who shouldn’t have been were.
They just keep fobbing us off with b/s and not returning calls.
They aren’t interested. They don’t care.
Brigid. You have me interested. “Fraud” is a strong word. I have no doubt there has been seriously dodgy stuff gone on, but you can bet your bottom dollar if the Ministry of Health or a DHB are directly involved in funding care then it will have gone through a Contracted Provider. These CPs often have multi tentacled accounting systems where details can be conveniently lost.
This Contracted Provider may have simply have been an “Host”…takes $$$ from the MOH or DHB and makes payments for services rendered. I have heard of cases (and yes the victims claim ‘fraud’) where a timesheet has been submitted to the Host and the carer paid at a lower hourly rate than the client stipulated, and instead of the balance being put back into the total funding package…it gets ‘lost.’
Some CPs are under a ‘bulk funding’ contract where they have a pool of $$$ not necessarily strictly allocated to specific clients. I can find some more info on this if you like. It’s all about maximising profit.
The Ministry of Health at one stage tried to hide information about a contracted provider by claiming the info was ‘commercially sensitive’. A friend did an OIA request that went to the Ombudsman to overcome that secret squirrel bs. ” It is about taxpayer $$$, cough up!”
Good luck.
No it wasn’t a contractor but I’m not surprised by all you’ve written.
I’m under the impression contractors are funded nicely and workers paid appallingly.
A good rule of thumb (ie: to keep your business afloat) is to pay your employees one-third of what you charge your clients for their time. This is one reason why consultants cost so much more than public servants.
One third sounds too low
To whom?
From my experience I am used to seeing a rather higher %. No doubt it varies between industries etc
It’s a rule of thumb, not an edict.
Lots of assumptions, for example that you’ll get 1200 hours of productive time per year (out of a possible 1920). It’s still a lot better than reckons.
Brigid, these are just my friends who go on line to the ministers or visit local MPs here. We are in Rotorua. …In your case….
Q. Who qualifies for payment at end of life? Who would not?
Are there govt. regulations you could read covering that situation online?
Can you afford a lawyer’s letter? Ring round a few, I have found free helpful advice here doing that. Be clear about the situation. Write it out as a clear simple story. (no names in the story is best).
If you write a letter to the Minister with a question, they have to answer.
Write clearly what happened. Speak only of what you can prove.
Ask for clarification on who should be paid and why in such a situation.
It is hard to keep the emotion out, but it is best to be calm. Do not claim fraud until you clearly have a case of broken rules. I’m sorry to hear you have lost your sister with these things unresolved. A sad time for you.
I see Rosemary has more inside knowledge of situations like this. xx
Thanks for your help Rosemary and Patricia.
If we persist I guess we’d get somewhere, but it’s so much of a head f**k.
What is worse is that it was a member of the family that created this mess, as embarrassed as i am to admit I’m related to such vile creatures.
It stems from the thing that sometimes happens when a family suffers a bereavement. A power struggle ensues. Unfortunately.
Thanks, both of you. It sure helps.
Glad talking helped. Yes it is hard to find relatives skewing the system.
This morning a very informed and interesting discussion on Kim Hill with English commenter on Brexit and the English in particular, about whom he has described the Europeans thinking as ” lager louts”.
8.09 Nicholas Boyle – Brexit is a collective English breakdown
Professor Nicholas Boyle is Emeritus Schröder Professor of German at the University of Cambridge. He’s been Professor of German Literary and Intellectual History, and he has taught German in Cambridge since he was a student.
He has a particular interest in German literature and thought of the 18th and 19th centuries, and especially in Goethe.
Boyle has latterly weighed in on the Brexit issue in a range of publications, questioning the results of the EU referendum. In January he wrote a piece for the Irish Times, describing Brexit as a “collective English mental breakdown”.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018631465/nicholas-boyle-brexit-is-a-collective-english-breakdown
HeHe don’t mention the war around that guy…
I loved the bit where Kim commented that there was a German word to describe the Federal Government system in Germany.
She then asked, in what seemed to be a very coy manner whether he was willing to say the word.
He immediately rattled of about 20 syllables. I can see why Kim wasn’t game to attempt it.
It was a very interesting interview though. Well worth listening to.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018631465/nicholas-boyle-brexit-is-a-collective-english-breakdown
Alwyn, for one who is usually so punctilious, you apparently hear what you want to..
I also taught German. I remember that word – it was Vergangenheitsverwertigung, and, as Kim Hill said (she also learnt German), it means ‘reconciliation with the past’.
‘The Federal Govt system in Germany’ ??
Sorry about that.
I was making a cup of coffee when I heard it and clearly wasn’t paying sufficient attention.
I should have checked the recording before I gave the meaning as I obviously got it wrong.
I still think she was very sensible not to attempt to say it.
Fair enough..
Kim Hill once said she majored in German at university (ie, a pretty good level), and German is far more consistent and logical in its spelling than English is.. I suspect Kim would not really have too much trouble if she needed to pronounce it.
Prof Boyle’s analysis is similar to that of Fintan O’Toole of the Irish Times (and Guardian and NYT)
“The country that prides itself on sober moderation has made one of the most impulsive moves ever undertaken in a developed democracy. The stiff upper lips have parted and released a wild and inarticulate cry of rage and triumph.
Make no mistake: this is an English nationalist revolution.”
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/fintan-o-toole-brexit-is-an-english-nationalist-revolution
The most read FT letter in a decade.
Prof Boyle explains why the Pro Brexit faction of the Conservative Party are to be knows as “wankers” while their opponents are to be knows as “fuckers”.
“Surely this rhetoric inverts the truth? It is the Europobes who shut themselves away in self-gratifying fantasies, while the remainers know that real life is only possible through interaction with others.”
Did they really publish it?
I would never have expected the FT, such a staid paper, to publish something like that.
Actually, given Boyles definition as you have quoted it, and the purported behaviour of the leave and remain groups, surely Boyle was correct?
https://www.indy100.com/article/funny-letter-financial-times-brexit-theresa-may-lionel-barber-7826411
here it is
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/brexit-is-a-collective-english-mental-breakdown-1.3356258
Here is Boyle’s IT article.
Brexit is a collective English mental breakdown
English people living on dreams of empire never learned to see others as equals
Tue, Jan 16, 2018
Thank you for the link. I think it is wonderful.
It is certainly nothing I would have expected them to publish.
I couldn’t look at it in the FT. They let you look at a few, a very few, articles free and I had reached my limit. Obviously I should just google part of the quote and let Google find me another source.
All I can say is,
Democracy is one thing the Tories hate. Especially when there is a dollar to be made.
I am waiting to see what National Light will do about this, at this stage, it looks like Fuck All.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/101194040/eight-years-on-and-canterburys-environment-still-has-no-democracy
‘Democracy is one thing the Tories hate.’
Bit ironic that they’re the only party likely to vote against the ‘waka jumping’ bill.
I am hoping the Greens find their spine when it comes up for its second reading.
Shouldn’t you be having this conversation over at Kiwiblog?
Why not here?
Why don’t you pop off and have a chat to one of your sock puppets Ed ?
They haven’t lost it. It will be discussed in select committee (where it should be) and then they’ll decide whether to support it further or not.
I would hope if they suck Winston salty balls on this issue that they at least get some quid pro quo…Kermadec’s sanctuary perhaps ?
That’s less to do with democracy than their intention to buy people with public money. Only way they’re likely to get power again, but voters whose MPs turn ought to have some serious sanctions at their disposal.
🙄 Not many bought and paid for amongst this list.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waka-jumping#List_of_waka-jumpers
One would have been too many.
And there were plenty frankly. Not all waka jumped really – you have to distinguish between those who continued to represent the constituency that supported them and those who sold out for money or other inducements.
The corruption of Alamein Kopu for example should have seen both her, and the person who corrupted her (Shipley) in prison. You wouldn’t have found a voter who supported her supporting her defection.
Rubbish. The only complete and utter idiots in this little exercise were the fools that ranked her in 12th place on the Alliance List.
Can you provide any evidence at all that Shipley had anything at all to do with her resignation from The Alliance? Your own opinion doesn’t count.
Given that she never showed her face again politically your claim of place envy is no better than most of your witless maunderings.
I suppose you expect Shipley to have published accounts of the inducements she used to suborn her – Jenny is pretty stupid, but not quite to the level of publicly incriminating herself.
So you are stating on a public blog that Shipley bribed Kopu …I’m intrigued do tell.
I’m stating that she suborned her – I understand the inducement was publicly funded things, similar in character to the ‘party leadership’ baubles that were granted to Peter Dunne after his party de facto no longer existed.
What on earth do you mean by “your claim of place envy”?
All I am saying is that she should never have been put in a position where she could possibly become an MP. That was promoting her far beyond her competency level.
Once she got there she was completely out of her depth.
As for “she never showed her face again politically” I could suggest that that happens with every MP who loses their seat. What is Hone up to these days?
As far as you second comment “I understand the inducement was publicly funded things” goes I asked for some evidence. After all I suppose I could propose that the reason that Jim Anderton dropped all his claims to be the real Labour was that he was suborned by inducements like being kept in Cabinet and receiving all the perks of being a Party leader even though he was a one man band.
I could also suggest that the Green Party have lost their backbone because they have been suborned by the perks of being Ministers of the Crown and have dropped all pretensions that they actually cared about the environment.
Alwyn, one thing doesn’t cause the other. There is no evidence of the Greens “dropping all pretensions” That is your construct.
And there has been absolutely no evidence produced that
“The corruption of Alamein Kopu for example should have seen both her, and the person who corrupted her (Shipley) in prison”.
That is just a wild supposition from Stuart Munro.
I merely followed his style and made up the same story about Labour and the Greens.
I at least had the decency to say “I could also suggest” etc.
I didn’t make it as if it was clearly factual and as a blatant statement of corruption.
Of course I don’t have any evidence. In that respect I am in exactly the same situation as Stuart Munro is. I am willing to admit that fact and he is not.
You could (and probably would) make such claims – but they would only tend to erode the weight of your assertions.
It goes back in fact to what amounts to reasonable party hopping and what does not. The Green departure from the Alliance, for example, appeared to be conscientious, and was scrupulous in not making off with or eroding the franchise they bore on the part of their constituents.
The NZF waka jumpers were not conscientious and were unscrupulous in terms of the franchise – but would likely have argued that they cut a better deal for their constituents – it was arguable, if not particularly persuasive.
Kopu’s defection was neither conscientious nor scrupulous – there is no interpretation other than that she betrayed her constituents, and knowing this she didn’t stick around to defend it.
Come on, Stop waffling.
You claimed that Kopu and Shipley were corrupt and should be in prison.
Then you toned down to claiming that Shipley had suborned Kopu.
Why don’t you either produce some evidence or admit that you simply made the whole thing up and you have no evidence at all for your scurrilous statements?
Be a man. Admit you are lying.
Alwyn – I consider that the overwhelming probability is that Shipley bribed her.
Certainly there is nothing in Shipley’s character that would have prevented it. There’s not much that baggage would stick at.
But I do not possess evidence beyond the circumstantial or I promise you I’d’ve had them in jail long long ago.
But since you’re talking big – how do you explain the turning of Alamein Kopu? Brownian Motion?
Be a man: answer an honest question for once in your trivial life.
The NZF Waka Jumpers were contacted directly by Shipley and the National Party, whether there were financial strings or benefits attached one will never know ?
@SM
“I consider that the overwhelming probability”.
In other words, and more honestly, you are saying that you haven’t any evidence at all but that you really, really hate Shipley.
What a plonker you are.
As for your question about Kopu?
“I consider that the overwhelming probability” is that she simply got pissed of with the way she was treated by the other MPs in the Alliance.
Did you ever read Pam Corkery’s book about life as an Alliance MP?
As she said
“Politicians are, by and large, far more self-deluding, devious, bloated, insecure, egocentric wankers than I had feared.”
She was talking about Jim Anderton remember, even if it seems to be a very accurate description of you.
Even Alamein finally had enough of that shit.
It really is a waste of time trying to debate with you though.
Logic and reason have no place in your strange little view of the world.
Be a man. You are simply a lying bigot who will smear anyone who isn’t in your little cess-pit. Why not simply admit it?
Because “being a man” is such a great standard for y’all to adhere to?
Have you tried “being a decent human being”?
A.
Ok Alwyn – so we’ve established that you are crude, if rather unimaginative, but nothing more. You have nothing to contribute to the debate on the propriety of waka jumping . This is understandable because you are trolling – taking pains to divert the discussion from the propriety of waka jumping into a pig wallow of personal abuse. I guess that’s your natural element and thus the best you can muster.
You have nevertheless inadvertently outlined some part of Shipley’s modus operandi in terms of suborning waka jumpers.
“Even Alamein finally had enough of that shit” What shit? Being elevated to a list place above her competence but below her ambitions? Doubtless a narrative on just desserts was part of the process – as it was for a more recent defection.
“You are simply a lying bigot who will smear anyone who isn’t in your little cess-pit. ” There speaks a Jungian shadow if ever I saw one.
@SM
The only thing that you have established Stuart is that any connection between you and logic is totally absent.
You seem to be limited to a simple view of your world where the only standard is “Green Good”. Everyone else is evil.
I’ll bet you even supported Meteria’s fraud on the taxpayer.
Irrespective of anything else I propose to simply ignore you in the future. Like so many on the watermelon side of politics you find debate impossible.
Good – your biased and ill-natured nonsense will not be missed.
Your the bull-shitter Alwyn
A liar … as I’ll show at the end of this post.
And You do not have to be a bigot to have a bad impression or memory of Alamein Kopu… thats how she was presented
I make no comment on her actions …. but the media reporting gave the impression of a Lazy unprincipled politician doing the bare minimum for a salary she did not deserve .
Putting the boot in further, when she left Parliament ….The Herald printed a ‘Maori stole the furniture’ type smear / story
It Insinuated she was a serial thief ….. “the furnishings, including a desk, chair, filing cabinet and rubbish bin, are missing”
Headed: “Missing Kopu office items ‘not a first'”
” ROTORUA – The disappearance of furnishings from one-term MP Alamein Kopu’s Rotorua electorate office is not the first time property belonging to the Parliamentary Service has gone missing while in her care…
The Herald revealed yesterday that police are investigating” ….
The herald story was racist crap … business as usual
I think National cynicaly used the late Alamein … took her vote and attempted harm upon Maori politics with her as a scapegoat …. racists like Wayne Mapp and his drinking buddy Ansell would have loved it.
Shipley is dishonest, disloyal … and seems to be involved in the long time National party love affair with very dodgy business practices …
“Jenny Shipley among Mainzeal directors facing legal action”
“Mainzeal was one of the country’s biggest construction firms before it collapsed in 2013, initially owing unsecured creditors an estimated $138 million.
That amount grew to $151.3m” ..
“In its reports, BDO remarked on the convoluted company structure that Mainzeal was part of and the related party transfers that had occurred.”
“related party transfers” .. is a creative phrase for tax scamming.
**************************
Finally Alwyns serial dishonesty ….
As a troll Alwyns trademark technique … …. was to quote or use John Keys / Nationals lies. lines and spin from the debating chamber…..
I remember Alwyn talking pure shit about the number of house builds National were claiming for Auckland …. as they supposedly solved our housing crisis …
The numbers were lies with national fabricating and exaggerating.,,, counting consents as built houses or something ( It was not me who busted him on the thread but I’m sure others remember )
So Key and national lies were Alwyns lies…. Its probably why he hates Blips list so much … he’s probably lied hundreds of times too.
That’s Keys legacy for you Alwyn … he made you a proven liar….
Spot some other dodgy MPs .. http://www.insolvencywatch.co.nz/failed-finance-companies-26-january-2012/
What happened to the end of this post?
You proclaimed “as I’ll show at the end of this post” and then did no such thing.
Did you accidentally delete something before you put this comment out?
Or, in your incandescent rage did you simply forget to add whatever you thought justified you claim?
Whatever. I suggest you take a break and settle down with a nice cup of tea, as David Lange might have said.
….. I try not to waste to much time on trolls Alwyn … unless there is a reward or pay-off
Do you deny your a liar ????: …. lets have a wager if you do .
The loser stops posting here for six months ….
Give me some motivation to pick through your shit.
“Give me some motivation”.
Why do you bother if it hurts so much?
I assure you I won’t be hurt if you don’t read what I have to say.
I only propose ideas for intelligent open-minded people who may be able to appreciate new ideas that may not have occurred to them before.
If it is impossible for you to read them with an open mind please don’t bother.
Alwyn …. I searched my mind and came up with an example of you spinning lies …….. it took about me about 3 seconds to recall an example involving numbers which will leave you no wriggle room … it was far less effort than making a cup of tea.
Your recollection is probably more detailed than mine … as you wrote the bullshit fake stats regarding Auckland house builds.
Do you deny it ?.
You may well write interesting stuff …. but your troll method involved quoting Nationals lies … which makes you dishonest.
Why should your dishonesty get a free pass
Now you could admit it and apologize ….
I’ve trimmed down your little flight of fantasy to the essential truth.
“…. I searched my mind …….. it took about me about 3 seconds…….”
There that is more accurate, isn’t it. Everything you know could be gone through in about 3 seconds.
I note you haven’t put in any link to this supposed story.
Kindly put one in or I will just have to assume that this is another little fantasy from your fetid little imagination.
Put up or apologise.
@reason.
I’m still waiting.
If it actually existed I’m sure you could have found it by now.
Oh well. I suppose it isn’t really your fault if your memory is letting you down.
Waka jumping (especially by list MPs) is of course anti-democratic. You have it arse about face.
“Waka jumping (especially by list MPs) is of course anti-democratic. You have it arse about face.”
That is making the assumption that in the majority of cases the MP is leaving for reasons other than having the genuine concerns of the party’s supporter base at heart.
This bill is to give Winston the power to control his MP’s.
If they come up with a judicial review process where departing MPs must justify their stance in terms of public interest it might work out rather well.
A brave journalist telling the truth about Syria and North Korea. A true heroine of our times.
It’s a wet day.
if you have 40 minutes, watch…
Ed those who don’t want to know about the Proxy Syrian War wont watch this.
Appreciate that.
This is for people who are not ostriches and who have open minds and are capable of critical thinking.
Not only, but also
https://www.corbettreport.com/whitehelmets/
“Contrary to what its multi-million dollar international PR campaign would have you believe, the “White Helmets” are not a group of volunteer search-and-rescue workers that sprang spontaneously out of the Syrian soil. When you peel back the layers of foreign financing and reveal the foreign intelligence operatives and murky lobbying groups at the heart of the organization, what you find is that the White Helmets are, in fact, a propaganda construct.”
Lots of also….
/
https://www.corbettreport.com/?s=illuminati
https://www.corbettreport.com/?s=chemtrails
https://www.corbettreport.com/?s=NWO
https://www.corbettreport.com/?s=sandy+hook
I can’t tell if that’s an example of open-mindedness and critical thinking or not 😉
It’s so open-minded the breeze whistles on the way through.
Woke anti-imperialist blogger works tirelessly exposing Deep State-CIA-NATO-Zionist plotters.
Through your breathless attempt in trying to rationalise the narrow view you have of the world [your comments tell that story], while simultaneously seeking to belittle , Brigid….
You’ve managed to ignore the message about the White Helmets, which Brigid was attempting to convey….
Did it feel good to leap on the link used, and then try to piss all over it…..did it give you another little rush when you realised it attracted other responses to your obvious piss take?
Some many imperialists and neocons like Andre and joe90 on this site.
They follow the mantra of Blair and Clinton.
Oh look, gratuitous abuse.
Plus some fine sockpuppetry, surely that’s worth additional points.
I would doubt that’s what they believe, Ed..
There is a readiness to insult in various ways, so try not to fall into the same patterns….
I don’t bother engaging with some these days, which has likely been picked up as a ‘free hit’ to saying [whatever] being played out…
End of the day, Ed….the twisting of words, insults ultimately ensures the ‘safe environment’ will remain unlikely….
Don’t feed into further preventing that possibility, however unlikely it may seem….insults and such only propgate negativity….
Call it out, but deliver the message in a neutral manner if you can…
Let’s see if you can take your own advice rather than authoring any more patronising attempts to belittle people.
I think you will struggle to break that pattern of yours, although I could be projecting.
Joe90’s comment is entirely apt. As Michael Shermer says in The Baloney Detection Kit, the source of any claim is a relevant factor in deciding the credibility of the claim.
The controversy surrounding the White Helmets has been thoroughly explored at The Standard. Speaking of “belittling”, I note that Brigid apparently agreed with Ed’s assessment of people who will pass on watching the video he posted: that they are closed minded and are incapable of critical thinking. I further note your attempt to belittle Joe90: “the narrow view you have of the world”. Did it feel good to leap on his comment, and then try to piss all over it? Hoist on your own petard much?
I’m grateful to Joe for pointing out the pattern at the Corbett Report, although I daresay I’d have noticed it myself eventually. Only so many hours in the day.
joe90s ‘breathless attempt’
Hilarious. I can just see it too.
Not as breathless as the heavy breathing stalker still following around my comments…
Once you’ve touched a nerve, they will then chime in, and keep chiming in….if you continue posting what they don’t agree with [taboo subjects almost a form of kryptonite] or can’t understand….
Expect the responses to take on venom as the abuse ratchets upwards…
Rise above it, should you become ‘a target’…
…deliver the message in a neutral manner if you can…
…heavy breathing stalker…
QED.
As I assume you didn’t read the link I put up, I trust that you gained enough information from the paragraph I quoted.
That’s good.
I’m not sure if the links you’ve supplied are worth reading though..
From the very end of your linked article:
It takes a long time to get to that which everyone involved in this discussion already knows: the art of warfare is deception. No matter who the white helmets really are, someone is going to tell lies about them. However, I find it difficult to believe that Syrian civilian medics wouldn’t run to the aid of the injured, and organise amongst themselves in doing so. Refusing aid to the wounded is a war crime.
The white helmets are not Syrian civilian medics.
Please do more research on them. Refer to Vanessa Beeley’s articles.
And Patrick Cockbun, John Pilger and Eva Bartlett.
Read William of Occam and Carl Sagan.
Specifically, read The Fine Art of Baloney Detection on RationalWiki.
Pay particular attention to the following two points:
In science, there are no authorities. At most, there are experts.
And:
Every step in an argument must be logically sound; a single weak link can doom the entire chain.
Good thing I didn’t say they were then eh.
I note you failed to comprehend the conclusion of your own source.
You are aware of who these people are.
Brilliant independent journalists.
…and you’re arguing from authority. Did you read Psycho Milt’s link? You do read the links people put up, eh. Or do you take the ostrich approach (your words)?
Let’s look at it in terms of set theory.
Assumption: there are two sets of people: White Helmets (WH) and Syrian Civilian Medics (SCM). The ones that are still alive, that is.
In Brigid’s hypothesis (The white helmets are not Syrian civilian medics), the subset of the two is empty.
In mine, the subset of the two has a value greater than zero.
Brigid: {WH} ∩ {SCM} = Ø
Me: {WH} ∩ {SCM} > Ø
I hope the wounded are getting medical attention.
Cyclone Gita.
Another reminder that we urgently need to change the whole industrial capitalist system.
Or see life on the planet become extinct.
I like the way Bomber is naming these cyclones after the culprits of climate change.
This one he is calling Cyclone Gerry.
The last one was Cyclone Fonterra.
I suggest we call the 10th cyclone Cyclone James.
For services to denial of the crisis.
Life won’t become extinct. The worst that would happen would be similar to the Permian Extinction and it only took ten million years for life to recover biodiversity afterwards.
Of course, humans probably wouldn’t be part of the biodiversity afterwards if such an extinction event took place now.
Human extinction is probably a fair price to pay for a cessation of posts by Ed on the inter webs.
You should be at Kiwiblog you troll.
I know you are but what am I ?
Stunned mullet, I’m sick of you trying to get a bite, it’s bloody tiresome.
So grow up and scroll past ed’s comments if you don’t like them, stop acting like a two year old.
Adam if you dislike my comments so intensely why don’t you scroll past whilst sucking your alternate thumb ?
I’m with Adam. I’m sick of your abusive comments. It is really tiresome.
I didn’t realize sockpuppets could become sick or tired.
You’re often hostile Stunned Mullet, I think people here would like to have a community of commenters that listen to others and limit their level of abuse.
If you wesorry about that
I meant the 6th mass extinction will happen.
“The worst that would happen would be similar to the Permian Extinction and it only took ten million years for life to recover biodiversity afterwards.”
lol, that’s alright then.
Always nice to have something named after you . I have a sheep in my paddock called ed.
Trolling again.
No I really do. It makes me laugh.
But what tends to appear just behind your Ed? 👿
And your remark about “Cyclone James”, and your pretence of knowing James’ motives and circumstances are what exactly? A good example of flamebait?
Well, well, well …
Jacinda Ardern and Julie Bishop met informally last night in Auckland. Revealed by Julie Bishop in a tweet at 11pm. She is here for the weekend for the standard six monthly meeting with Winston Peters, her equal as Deputy PM. They are meeting on Waiheke Islalnd today.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11991572
The smiling photo made me realise just how small Julie Bishop is. Take away the high heels and she would be even smaller.
[No cattiness, criticism etc intended -or encouraged. Perhaps some (female) envy on my part for her size and trimness !!!!]
PS – Audrey Young must have originally filed her opinion article on Julie Bishop’s visit before knowing of the meeting with our PM as when I read it in the early hours of today, it said that there were no plans for Ardern and Bishop to meet. It has since be updated. A reasonably middle of the road summary of the current NZ/Australia relationship by Young.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11991310
https://medium.com/s/darkish-web/the-dystopic-leftist-youth-of-reddit-and-facebook-cbe4e35dfd6f
The Dystopic Leftist Youth of Reddit and Facebook
A look into the spaces where young people mock the “boring dystopia” that capitalism has built
“This post aided me on my journey to personal wealth and happiness,” reads the hover text on the upvote button. “This post is unprofitable and thus useless,” reads the text on its counterpart.
Welcome to /r/LateStageCapitalism, a Reddit page where even the content rating system is a satire of the constant monetization of our daily lives. It’s one of many online forums where a leftist brand of humor can flourish, composed of anticapitalist memes, caustic jokes about current affairs, and a sprinkling of underreported news stories and research papers.
holy fuck, Medium are charging for access now?
lol, irony.
Yep. Did you manage to access that article though? If it’s paywalled, I might just “appropriate” it.
Three articles and then you have to use a different browser or pay.
I was sufficiently shocked by the 3 free posts/mth thing that I didn’t read the article.
Read it now. Not sure what I think tbh. I like the bit where the reddit dudes said they are pessimistic but know we can effect change. Not sure that the memes support that but maybe I’m too old.
Get 3 free goes!! LOL
It gets better. tRump defends a man with a history of domestic violence, and blames the nearest woman .
.
https://shareblue.com/trump-throws-female-aide-hope-hicks-under-the-bus-to-cover-for-john-kelly-in-latest-scandal/
Not just the nearest woman, but one whose meteoric rise within the Trump administration etc both before and after the inauguration was attributed to her close relationships with Trump – presumably before her relationship with Porter.
Only the best people.
/
A White House speechwriter resigned Friday after his former wife claimed that he was violent and emotionally abusive during their turbulent 2½ -year marriage — allegations that he vehemently denied, saying she was the one who victimized him.
The abrupt departure of David Sorensen, a speechwriter who worked under senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, came as The Washington Post was reporting on a story about abuse claims by his ex-wife, Jessica Corbett. Corbett told The Post that she described his behavior to the FBI last fall as the bureau was conducting a background check of Sorensen.
[…]
She said that during her marriage to Sorensen, he ran a car over her foot, put out a cigarette on her hand, threw her into a wall and grasped her menacingly by her hair while they were alone on their boat in remote waters off Maine’s coast, an incident she said left her fearing for her life.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/second-white-house-official-departs-amids-abuse-allegations-which-he-denies/2018/02/09/72ba47e6-0d0d-11e8-8b0d-891602206fb7_story.html?utm_term=.397ae7b7889b
Only half an hour to Auckland airport. Only half an our before the trauma that is collecting luggage and braving customs and immigration.
I do this boring travelling crap for exports. I fail to understand why anyone would do it for pleasure? Selective amnesia perhaps?.
Once air travel was glamorous.
Now it is an endurance test.
Not if you fly business class.
According to the RBNZ inflation calculator my first Auckland London economy return flight cost $11,581.59, twice the price of a business class flight today.
Bragging again about your wealth.
Repulsive.
Go to Kiwiblog and share the company of fellow selfish gits.
James does not fly business class…
If he did he would realise it makes no difference when passing through security…
It was an ambiguous wind up Ed….serving to show another example of James the left blog site agitator…
I never said it did you moron.
I was pointing out that it’s no an endurance test when you fly with the lie flat beds etc.
James does not fly business class……It was an ambiguous wind up Ed
In a hurry are you, James…
48 year old man should have higher levels of comprehension…
I’ll leave aside the juvenile response mechanism…..which actually was an insult…..in case you go off half cocked wildly projecting in my direction……
You seem to think you know a lot about me – which is funny.
You are an idiot.
You need to control your anger.
Not angry – laughing at people who are liars.
Work fights. Plenty of them.
Nice Freudian slip there, James 😉
Remember this is supposedly a 48 year old dyslexic male who left school at fifteen and who has two adult children running their own businesses after having attended $25k/annum Kristin School.
Oh, I see. I thought it aptly fitted his pugilistic style of commenting here on TS.
They are the claims of James himself. I’ll leave readers to judge the veracity of those claims, and by extension any other claims he might make.
Yes, fair point, but we, the readers, have no way to test the veracity of his claims. And frankly, the successes of his children or his legendary BBQs make not an iota of difference to me; it is Facebook stuff IMO.
James is virtue-signalling again.
Who are you talking to Ed.? I wonder if we can elevate ourselves from biting each other in the playpen. When you think of replying or initiating some brave critique, just suck in some air and go for a wee instead will you.
Good grief james
That really is pathetic
It’s true tho.
Can’t you afford First Class?
Sucks to be you.
Not really – at least I know there isnt first class on Air New Zealand flights anymore.
I prefer 1st class and it’s great that there’s internet access on flights now.
Yep! Soon you’ll be able to take your barbies as hand luggage, and have an on-flight fry-up.
Let’s hope.
Don’t find business class much better.
Not as cost effective these days. We used to get it for the long haul. These days we get premium economy.
At least I can mostly get the net when flying. And I load up a lot of Netflix, music from spotify, and books from my library.
oops looks like we landed…
How come you have to go overseas? i.e. are you doing hardware as well as coding? Or is it larger project management that needs face to face meetings?
Hi travel buff’s,
Since you are all talking about transport here I had our NGO send this reminder to the ruling Labour Coalition Government to ratchet up the rail travel (expressly freight) but passenger rail could be added to as it was good in the 1980’s here.
With our family boarding a rail-car from Napier to Wellington and catching the ferry to Picton and hiring a car to go down the west coast to see folks where rail didn’t go that far.
Wished we could do that also today. – Cheers.
Letter to Government.
10th February 2018.
Dear ministers;
https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/brace-for-the-financial-crash-of-2018-b2f81f85686b
A report by HSBC shows that contrary to the commonplace narrative in the industry, even amidst the glut of unconventional oil and gas, the vast bulk of the world’s oil production has already peaked and is now in decline; while European government scientists show that the value of energy produced by oil has declined by half within just the first 15 years of the 21st century.
The upshot?
Welcome to a new age of permanent economic recession driven by ongoing dependence on dirty, expensive, difficult oil… unless we choose a fundamentally different path;
One such “fundamentally different path” can easily just be using rail freight rather than road truck freight. https://www.aar.org/BackgroundPapers/Environmental%20Benefits%20of%20Moving%20Freight%20by%20Rail.pdf
This evidence of using rail rather than road freight to lower our use of fuel/energy is reported to be from four to eight times more benefit to us all from use of rail as fuel compressions now show rail uses far less fuel to carry one tonne one km than road freight does.
The truck freight industry now uses between 28% to 36% of all NZ diesel supplies.
Use of rail will use less than 6% of our total diesel supplies.
This is found in studies according to all available fuel use studies of rail verses road freight fuel uses when comparing moving each one tonne per one km.
https://www.aar.org/BackgroundPapers/Environmental%20Benefits%20of%20Moving%20Freight%20by%20Rail.pdf
“Freight Railroads and Fuel Efficiency Go Hand in Hand Freight railroads are the environmentally friendly way to move freight: ✓ In 2016, U.S. freight railroads moved a ton of freight an average of 468 miles per gallon of fuel — up from 235 miles in 1980 (see Figure 1). That’s a 99 percent improvement. ✓ On average, railroads are four times more fuel efficient than trucks, according to an independent study for the Federal Railroad Administration. ✓ Greenhouse gas emissions are directly related to fuel consumption. That means moving freight by rail instead of truck lowers greenhouse gas emissions by 75 percent.”
http://www.kiwirail.co.nz/uploads/Publications/The%20Value%20of%20the%20Rail%20in%20New%20Zealand.pdf
The recently new labour Government discovered (formerly hidden) rail report (see above) “The value of rail in new Zealand” that was commissioned by our own “State Owned Enterprise” (SOE) ‘Kiwi rail’ a publicly owned crown state asset was said to be “for the NZ Transport agency” has now proven that this “fundamentally different path” of using rail is now needed to be incorporated urgently now that we are nearing the end of cheap oil. Rail using electric locomotives also should be used to further our less dependency on road freight and using fossil fuels that are destroying our climate, health wellbeing and economy as well as our individual wealth.
Dear PM Jacinda Ardern please place us on the right “fundamental different path” using rail freight for saving our environmental future, and help to reverse our climate change.
‘lets do this’
Your early response is appreciated please.
Warmest regards,
How many times have we heard these kinds of platitudes? Sharing is caring and compassion is a sure way to achieve happiness, etc. Yet, a majority of people, 44.5±3.1%, go berserkers when you mention inequality and distributive taxes. They go nuts at the idea that their hard-earned money goes to support the ‘lifestyle’ of the lazy, the bludgers, the “pretty damned hopeless”, etc.
They scream the strongest ‘argument’ that pops up in their narrow selfish minds:
It is clear that the sharing and caring does not extend far and social interactions and attitudes can be summarised as follows:
1) Like knows like
2) Like only shares with and cares for like
3) Unlike is dislike
4) Intense dislike is hate
Welcome to human society.
Another beersy and a sossie, John? Yes thanks, mate.
Agreed. Most selfish bastards limit their generosity to very close family and friends, then congratulate themselves on how much they enjoy ‘sharing’ it, oblivious to how they are actually denying that generosity to most of humankind.
Yes – it was fantastic to see the response to Eco Maoris give-a-little page from people who comment on here – not a single donation.
Come on James, I challenge you to make a symbolic donation of $1 (or more if you so wish) and show us up for the obvious hypocrites we are! I’ll make a mental note that I must donate to each & every cause I sympathise with and, in fact, to all charities because they all serve a good and noble cause. In other words, if the shoe fits …
And then we can argue about whether you just created a false equivalence or not.
I wouldn’t donate to him as I think he’s – well, not right.
I’d wait until after the givealittle page is “pending moderation” if I were you.
‘fantastic to see… not a single donation.’ – James
Fascinating; RWNJs can ‘do schadenfreude’ too.
🙂
Sharing and caring. I like the one about the elderly brother who charged his elderly sister for petrol for driving her to visit their other elderly sister. And I think he had bought the car using moneys he was holding in trust for her on an Enduring Power of Attorney. People can rationalise self-centred greed given half a chance.
The drums are beating for airbnb. Great to see this cancer getting some coverage in the media.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/101326010/new-zealands-rental-squeeze-something-in-the-airbnb
But some of the drums are bringing good news for them:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2017-11-14/airbnb-is-said-to-reach-net-revenue-of-1-billion-last-quarter
I think airbnb is a minor player in the diminishing number of rentals available.
The critics in your link let long-term rentals and run motels, of course they’re anti airbnb. They’re happy to beat it up, not because of any proven commercial threat but because it’s a soft target. ‘Airbnb bastards have got your home!’
Our visitor numbers have gone up by a million this year. Tourism dollars are sweet. They spend big, pay GST and require little in return.
There are lots of holiday houses around me, empty for most of the year. Hosting international visitors at these properties denies no Kiwi a home. Rather than a curse, I see these owners contributing to NZ.
We need to get better at how we do it but I see it as a benefit rather than a cancer.
Who is the major player then?
Home ownership rates are dropping, this is a fact, so it’s not that the rental stock is being bought by first time buyers.
Whole property airbnb listings in Auckland doubled in the last year and rental stock listed on Trademe halved.
Did you even read the article? It says:
These countries appear to be recognising the very same problem you are dismissing. Why is that?
Have you read any of the other articles in the media recently about amateur landlords being ‘sick of tenants’, and about those who are going to list on airbnb because of ‘the cost of providing a warm, dry home to renters’, and because ‘I can double my money’?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/101061077/taupo-rental-market-tight-but-exairbnb-homes-joining-market-might-offer-hope
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/101259878/from-290-a-week-to-4000-a-month–boost-from-joining-airbnb
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/101215231/landlords-fear-and-loathing-of-the-new-zealand-rental-market
It’s their house, they can do whatever the fuck they want.
What would make the biggest difference is if this amateur hour government engaged their brains and thought about cause and effect.
They’re they’re ones making the situation worse with their ideological stupidity.
The government should start by thinking airbnb’s cause and effect.
It’s their house, they can do whatever the fuck they want.
Nah, we dumped that lot in September, when they lost the election. It ain’t your House any more.
Good one dingus, this government ain’t going to do shit.
As slow as these ass hats are I think it will soon dawn upon on them that they’re actually making the situation worse.
Backtrack number 156789 is on its way.
New book about the Democratic Party
Written in honor of Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats’ brave struggle against the Trump gang….
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51IFNch-HiL._SL300_.jpg
Interesting piece in The Intercept about intelligence agency mind games and the chaos created by Trump-Russia issues within those agencies.
https://theintercept.com/2018/02/09/donald-trump-russia-election-nsa/
Not a single piece of evidence. The Democrats’ “leaders” are wasting their time and everyone else’s.
I fail to see how your comment relates to the linked article.
Did you actually read it, or did the “Trump-Russia” in my comment just activate your *no evidence, blame the Democrats* kneejerk reflex?
Just a question for the regulars………
Has anyone heard from Marty Mars?
I haven’t seen any posts from him since last year, he suffered an MI last year so I hope he’s still around, I know what it’s like, I suffered one 15 yrs ago, statistically, there is only a 50% survival rate.
So far as I can tell, this comment in response to North’s remarks is the last one he made here, three weeks ago:
I hope he’s well.
He took some time out, temporary I hope.
I think he got tired of being targeted by a condescending and spiteful marker-pen, much like this kind of thing.
Cheers OAB, thanks for that, I hope he is too.
Pie, anyone?
Those with a command of our language that I admire have started doing it and I can bite my tongue no longer.
Nothing can be ‘quite unique’.
Nothing can be ‘really unique’.
Nothing can be ‘so unique’
Something is unique or it isn’t.
Draco is not quite unique. There can be only one.
Quite.
What prompted that?
If “Nothing can be ‘quite unique’.
Nothing can be ‘really unique’.
Nothing can be ‘so unique’”
and “Something is unique or it isn’t.”
Does than then imply that if something isn’t unique it is nothing?
And if something is nothing then nothing can be unique?
And if nothing can be unique then something can’t be unique…unless it is nothing…which would mean it’s not something…..
#@%# !!!
🙂
🙂
Orange balloon animal.
Larious
I do so love a bit of pie for dessert.
What I didn’t know about was the march in London to demand the Gummint protect the beloved but beleaguered NHS.
That was kept quiet.
I struggle to imagine a day when we Kiwis take to the streets in a mass protest against the privatisation of our Public Health and Disability system.
The only one I can think of was the Compass crap food protest
(greywarshark for fromatting tutor of the year)
I remember Farrar attacking a tourist family who lost $17k from an airbnb scam. They made the mistake of paying third party. Farrar reckoned it was impossible to be scammed if you went through the airbnb process.
Well, it seems not:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11991210
“Carroll immediately called Airbnb staff who questioned if she was “at the right house” before offering alternative accommodation and then a full refund.”
Alternative accomodation or a full refund – gee scammed hard.
Air bnb provide a great service
Long shift for you today.
Do you get overtime?
Rosemary McDonald
For feisty foodie – and about other things. Good to exchange info and advice, individualism will have to be lessened as times get tougher if we want a decent society, and sharing when possible is the way to go.
Well we’ve been busy looking after the mokos 9 of them on the farm my Wairua feels good here just over the road is a local Tapu sight ECO MAORI feels the good Wairua here. I show my mokos to the Tepuna buried there I hope they are proud of us Ka pai.
I see some people are making fun of ECO
for caring about all the mokos of Papatuanukue and using mokos all the time.
Here is my reasons the children of Papatuanukue don’t have the Mana to make choices that can change there lives for good or bad the grown-up do this on behalf of the mokos because of this fact
I advocate for all the children of Papatuanukue in my view one is not a adult till 20 and most men are not men till they turn 40 most ladies are adults at 18. Its is funny that they hide behind the smallest person be careful as if I want to I could decimate your ratings. Eco Maori doesn’t like affecting others in a negative way Ana to kai. Ka kite ano
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11991993
Law makers move to cancel Lorde concerts.
“The taxpayers of Miami and Tampa should not have to facilitate bigotry and anti-Semitism, and I look forward to the Miami Sports and Exhibition Authority and the Tampa Sports Authority complying with the law and cancelling these concerts.“
If this gets upheld- her US career is toast – 20 states have the same laws (and growing)
Good thing Lorde, Justine Sachs, and Nadia Abu-Shanab have never acknowledged supporting the BDS movement.
Israel gets good value for the money it spends buying and influencing U.s.a politics … doesn’t it James ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N294FMDok98
https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/aipac-the-israeli-lobby/
Israel would just lock up Lorde if she was a Palestinian … and maybe shoot her cousin
https://theintercept.com/2017/12/20/israel-tackles-existential-threat-posed-16-year-old-palestinian-girl/
Here’s a bit of history for anyone who still thinks Lorde is wrong to have taken a stand against apartheid.
It must be really embarrassing to the Lorde-haters that they’ve chosen what posterity will consider the wrong and losing side.
“He said about $5bn is invested in Vix ETPs (exchange traded products) betting on stable markets, “but what people should be afraid of is a disorderly unwind of the much larger $1.5-2tn [invested] in financial engineering strategies that are leveraged to low volatility.
Cole said the collapse in Vix ETPs was analogous to the quant hedge fund meltdown of 2007, which preceded the 2008 financial crisis. “I do think another crisis of that magnitude will occur in the next few years.”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/feb/09/how-artemis-hit-bulls-eye-by-betting-on-stock-market-collapse