“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.”
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“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
The allure of sport transcends age, culture, and geographical boundaries. It captivates hearts, ignites passions, and provides unparalleled entertainment. Behind the spectacle, however, lies a fascinating world of financial investment and expenditure. Among the vast array of competitive pursuits, one question looms large: which sport carries the hefty title of ...
Introduction Pickleball, a rapidly growing paddle sport, has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions around the world. Its blend of tennis, badminton, and table tennis elements has made it a favorite among players of all ages and skill levels. As the sport’s popularity continues to surge, the question on ...
Abstract: Soccer, the global phenomenon captivating millions worldwide, has a rich history that spans centuries. Its origins trace back to ancient civilizations, but the modern version we know and love emerged through a complex interplay of cultural influences and innovations. This article delves into the fascinating journey of soccer’s evolution, ...
Tinting car windows offers numerous benefits, including enhanced privacy, reduced glare, UV protection, and a more stylish look for your vehicle. However, the cost of window tinting can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article provides a comprehensive guide to help you understand how much you can expect to ...
The pungent smell of gasoline in your car can be an alarming and potentially dangerous problem. Not only is the odor unpleasant, but it can also indicate a serious issue with your vehicle’s fuel system. In this article, we will explore the various reasons why your car may smell like ...
Tree sap can be a sticky, unsightly mess on your car’s exterior. It can be difficult to remove, but with the right techniques and products, you can restore your car to its former glory. Understanding Tree Sap Tree sap is a thick, viscous liquid produced by trees to seal wounds ...
The amount of paint needed to paint a car depends on a number of factors, including the size of the car, the number of coats you plan to apply, and the type of paint you are using. In general, you will need between 1 and 2 gallons of paint for ...
Jump-starting a car is a common task that can be performed even in adverse weather conditions like rain. However, safety precautions and proper techniques are crucial to avoid potential hazards. This comprehensive guide will provide detailed instructions on how to safely jump a car in the rain, ensuring both your ...
Graham Adams writes about the $55m media fund — When Patrick Gower was asked by Mike Hosking last week what he would say to the many Newstalk ZB callers who allege the Labour government bribed media with $55 million of taxpayers’ money via the Public Interest Journalism Fund — and ...
Note: this blog post has been put together over the course of the week I followed the happenings at the conference virtually. Should recordings of the Great Debates and possibly Union Symposia mentioned below, be released sometime after the conference ends, I'll include links to the ones I participated in. ...
The following was my submission made on the “Fast Track Approvals Bill”. This potential law will give three Ministers unchecked powers, un-paralled since the days of Robert Muldoon’s “Think Big” projects.The submission is written a bit tongue-in-cheek. But it’s irreverent because the FTAB is in itself not worthy of respect. ...
One Could Reduce Child Poverty At No Fiscal CostFollowing the Richardson/Shipley 1990 ‘redesign of the welfare state’ – which eliminated the universal Family Benefit and doubled the rate of child poverty – various income supplements for families have been added, the best known being ‘Working for Families’, introduced in 2005. ...
Buzz from the Beehive A few days ago, Point of Order suggested the media must be musing “on why Melissa is mute”. Our article reported that people working in the beleaguered media industry have cause to yearn for a minister as busy as Melissa Lee’s ministerial colleagues and we drew ...
1. What was The Curse of Jim Bolger?a. Winston Peters b. Soon after shaking his hand, world leaders would mysteriously lose office or shuffle off this mortal coilc. Could never shake off the Mother of All Budgetsd. Dandruff2. True or false? The Chairman of a Kiwi export business has asked the ...
Jack Vowles writes – New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. ...
Chris Trotter writes – MELISSA LEE should be deprived of her ministerial warrant. Her handling – or non-handling – of the crisis engulfing the New Zealand news media has been woeful. The fate of New Zealand’s two linear television networks, a question which the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications ...
TL;DR: The podcast above features co-hosts and , along with regular guests Robert Patman on Gaza and AUKUS II, and on climate change.The six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the ...
Policymakers rarely wish to make plain or visible their desire to dismantle environmental policy, least of all to the young. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent ...
I like to keep an eye on what’s happening in places like the UK, the US, and over the ditch with our good mates the Aussies. Let’s call them AUKUS, for want of a better collective term. More on that in a bit.It used to be, not long ago, that ...
TL;DR: The global economy will be one fifth smaller than it would have otherwise been in 2050 as a result of climate damage, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in the journal Nature. (See more detail and analysis below, and ...
New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. The data is from February this ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is understood to be planning a major speech within the next fortnight to clear up the confusion over whether or not New Zealand might join the AUKUS submarine project. So far, there have been conflicting signals from the Government. RNZ reported the Prime Minister yesterday in ...
Life throws curveballs, and sometimes, those curveballs necessitate wiping your iPhone clean and starting anew. Whether you’re facing persistent software glitches, preparing to sell your device, or simply wanting a fresh start, knowing how to factory reset iPhone without a computer is a valuable skill. While using a computer with ...
Gone are the days when communication was limited to landline phones and physical proximity. Today, computers have become powerful tools for connecting with people across the globe through voice and video calls. But with a plethora of applications and methods available, how to call someone on a computer might seem ...
Open access notables Glacial isostatic adjustment reduces past and future Arctic subsea permafrost, Creel et al., Nature Communications:Sea-level rise submerges terrestrial permafrost in the Arctic, turning it into subsea permafrost. Subsea permafrost underlies ~ 1.8 million km2 of Arctic continental shelf, with thicknesses in places exceeding 700 m. Sea-level variations over glacial-interglacial cycles control ...
The operating system (OS) is the heart and soul of a computer, orchestrating every action and interaction between hardware and software. But have you ever wondered where on a computer is the operating system generally stored? The answer lies in the intricate dance between hardware and software components, particularly within ...
Laptops have become essential tools for work, entertainment, and communication, offering portability and functionality. However, with rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns, understanding a laptop’s power consumption is more important than ever. So, how many watts does a laptop use? The answer, unfortunately, isn’t straightforward. It depends on several ...
Screen recording has become an essential tool for various purposes, such as creating tutorials, capturing gameplay footage, recording online meetings, or sharing information with others. Fortunately, Dell laptops offer several built-in and external options for screen recording, catering to different needs and preferences. This guide will explore various methods on ...
A cracked or damaged laptop screen can be a frustrating experience, impacting productivity and enjoyment. Fortunately, laptop screen repair is a common service offered by various repair shops and technicians. However, the cost of fixing a laptop screen can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article delves into the ...
Gaming laptops represent a significant investment for passionate gamers, offering portability and powerful performance for immersive gaming experiences. However, a common concern among potential buyers is their lifespan. Unlike desktop PCs, which allow for easier component upgrades, gaming laptops have inherent limitations due to their compact and integrated design. This ...
The annual inventory report of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing that gross emissions have dropped for the third year in a row, to 78.4 million tons: All-told gross emissions have decreased by over 6 million tons since the Zero Carbon Act was passed in 2019. ...
Experiencing a locked computer can be frustrating, especially when you need access to your files and applications urgently. The methods to unlock your computer will vary depending on the specific situation and the type of lock you encounter. This guide will explore various scenarios and provide step-by-step instructions on how ...
While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor in Honiara Solomon Islands’ incumbent prime minister Manasseh Sogavare has been re-elected in the East Choiseul constituency. It is the opening move in the political chess match to form the country’s next government. Returning officer Christopher Makoni made the declaration late last night after ...
Headline: The moment of friction. – 36th Parallel Assessments In strategic studies “friction” is a term that it is used to describe the moment when military action encounters adversary resistance. “Friction” is one of four (along with an unofficial fifth) “F’s” in military strategy, which includes force (kinetic mass), ...
The Fast-track Bill, if passed, would allow three Ministers, unchallenged and unchecked, to approve the immediate extraction and exhaustion of one-off resources. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne iamharin/Shutterstock For many people, the term “bulk billed” refers to a GP visit they don’t have to pay ...
Emmas Hislop, Sidnam and Wehipeihana discuss what’s in a name. Emma Sidnam: Hello Emmas! Thank you so much for agreeing to do this with me. My first question for you is related to what’s been on my mind for a while. It’s very important. You see we’ve recently had some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Sievers, Research Fellow, Global Wetlands Project, Australia Rivers Institute, Griffith University Chris Brown Humans love the coast. But we love it to death, so much so we’ve destroyed valuable coastal habitat – in the case of some types of habitat, ...
Josh Thomson on the 80s milk ad jingle he can’t stop singing, the beauty of The Simpsons, why Jersey Shore is as good as Shakespeare and more. For someone who spends a lot of time on our screens, popping up in everything from 7 Days to Taskmaster, Educators to Good ...
In apparent defiance of the Biden administration, the Netanyahu government has now initiated missile strikes against Iran. Last Saturday night (Sunday morning in New Zealand) Iran launched more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles against Israeli military targets. With the assistance of US, UK and possibly French forces, ...
Māori representation brings a perspective that encompasses not only the interests of Māori communities but also a broader, holistic approach to environmental stewardship and community well-being, principles deeply embedded in Te Ao Māori (the Māori ...
This week in Auckland, a group of young people took over the microphone at a ministerial press conference, to explain why they oppose the Fast-Track Approvals Bill. One young woman said, ‘We’re here because we love Aotearoa New Zealand. We want to raise our children in an environment that’s thriving, ...
The summer was wonderful. Evie was wonderful, too; finally a teenager, finally worthy of long, hot days. She shaved her legs for the first time and bought cut-off shorts from the op-shop that made them look long. She got a Warehouse singlet so tight on her new shape that her ...
When Thomas James was on his solo camp as part of Outward Bound, the keen outdoorsman didn’t find it too challenging, as others often do. In what might just be the perfect illustration of his character, he saw it as a great opportunity to solve a few problems. “I thought, ...
From the unstable and drippy to the hi-tech and pretty, here’s our ranking of all the tunnels you can drive through in this country. The first tunnel seems to have been built in 2200BC in Babylonia, kicking off a global phenomenon for digging holes in order to get places more ...
Lucinda Bennett on the art of being greedy but resourceful. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. When I picture the market, it is always this time of year. Crisp air, dripping nose, counting coins with cold fingers. Sunlight pale, filtered through specks of dew still ...
Zoë Colling’s favourite piece in the ‘That’s So Last Century’ collection is a lubrication chart for a sewing machine from the ’60s. It’s about the size of a postcard, and carefully maintained. “I like it that this piece of ephemera highlights that manual and technical side of the skill involved ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
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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…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR5hjJzyN1Y
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?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q1ydhgJPTE
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