In the Swiss Alps in 2005, Prince Charles was caught by TV microphones muttering to his young sons William and Harry: "These bloody people. I can't bear that man. I mean, he's so awful, he really is." The subject of his ire was the plummy-voiced professional toady Nicholas Witchell, who ispaid a king's ransom to fill the sinecure post of "BBC Royal and Diplomatic Correspondent." Unfortunately for Prince Charles and the rest of us, Witchell is still there, sixteen years later, still turning out BBC-quality journalism and commentary.
BBC News, 9 April 2021
HUW EDWARDS: Do you think the Queen will miss him?
Various Windsors remain the highest paid beneficiaries in the UK, I celebrated Margaret Thatcher’s demise, but this reactionary just outlived his era really.
I am not from the Commonwealth but Queen Elisabeth deserves our condolences and Prince Phillip our respect. He has not had an easy life when looking back to his childhood and has shown how to be strong through adversity. As everybody, he has had his faults, but there is no reason to disrespect and dishonor a person not even 24 hour after his dead. A character flaw.
In an act of sychophancy, not our character for him, John Key ordered the New Zealand flag on the Auckland Harbour Bridge to be lowered to half mast on the death of Saudi feudal tyrant Abdullah, father of the current awful Saudi hereditry autocrat known as MBS, infamous for ordering the heartless butchery of expat. Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi who entered the Saudi embassy in Turkey seeking to get a permit of annulment so he could marry his partner.
Everybody has to live their lives in the times and surrounds they are in.
Prince Phillip has been "a child of his time" as is the current generation and any other is and will be. He has contributed greatly to the stability of the Monarchy in Britain and the Commonwealth. Geopolitically this was and is still important as peace is not made by spitting in someone's face but by building bridges. Not a task to do in 10 minutes but perhaps 70 years of service.
This man was almost 100 years old, he has seen war, he had to fight and he had to take a side and conviction.
Those who are now so disrespectful, I wonder what they have done to ease the hunger, homelessness, inequality, loss of dignity for the old, providing education for all, preventing failure of the health system, corruption of democratic institutions etc… today or any other day. Not with words but deeds.
I just witness the death of common decency in this forum, to pay respect to a remarkable figure in our living history.
That was not a ‘critique’, it was an unoriginal rip-off of something that we have read many times in the press, mainly the British press. These are not even you own words. For example, where is your critical analysis showing that Nicholas Witchell is corrupt? Why this is even relevant to the death of DoE is a mystery to me.
The wording of that brief but (one hopes) trenchant critique was composed entirely by this writer, i.e., moi.
Funny that! When I Google ‘your’ words they look remarkable similar to writings by others in the British press!?
There was no trenchant critique! There was no analysis! There was just the usual Morrissey white noise & grey dust.
The point of my post was to point out an example of the servile and fawning British media coverage of Prince Philip and his ghastly descendants.
This is a point: .
Your ‘post’ was less than that; it was pointless.
My comment was a critique not of the Duke (R.I.P.)
Hmmm, maybe it was a critique of DoE …
Fair comment. I was, as you have kindly pointed out on many other occasions, careless in my choice of words. I should have left off with "parasitic."
Ok, come on then, argue your point. For example, why is it parasitic and not symbiotic? Put some thought and analysis in it, if you can. I doubt you will though, as it is too much of an intellectual effort to and for you 😉
I pointed out that Witchell's "job" is nothing more than a sinecure, and that he is a toady. I challenge you to seriously dispute either of those points.
There was no analysis!
I provided an example—an extremely up-to-date example—of his vacuousness. Of course, it's only fair to note that he was no worse on this occasion than his fellow state propagandist Huw Edwards.
For example, why is it parasitic and not symbiotic? Put some thought and analysis in it, if you can.
Now that is rigorous editing. Thanks for that. I'll up my game in future.
[Big deep sigh.
I pointed out that Witchell’s “job” is nothing more than a sinecure, and that he is a toady. I challenge you to seriously dispute either of those points.
At best, this is calling out. However, your insipient name-calling and lazy and negative labelling of others is not anywhere near critical analysis.
I provided an example—an extremely up-to-date example—of his vacuousness. Of course, it’s only fair to note that he was no worse on this occasion than his fellow state propagandist Huw Edwards.
Where is your analysis? All you do is copy & paste, the odd link to a YT clip, and some inane drivel you call your “oeuvre”. That ain’t analysis.
Now that is rigorous editing. Thanks for that. I’ll up my game in future.
You’ve been giving these pseudo-funny replies for years and you never up your game. I conclude it is not going to happen because you cannot or don’t want to up your game. Your comments in OM today (11 April) just emphasise and confirm this conclusion.
You seem to lack the intellectual nous to do any analytical thinking, critical analysis, or in-depth commentary. Instead, you bask in the halo of your intellectual heroes while disparaging others who are way above your league of dilettantes.
Please start up your own blog again and bore the shit out of people there, thanks – Incognito]
I have always liked reading his stuff and I have heard many others on The Standard express that same enjoyment, haven't you heard the saying "different stroke for different folks"? judging by your relentless harassment of anyone who does not fit within your very particular sense of taste or political slant, it would seem not.
[It feels like you’re trying to run interference with moderation, but you wouldn’t do that, would you?
Your comment is pointless because it doesn’t address anything in Moderation note to Morrissey or the many notes before that.
If you want a free entertainment channel then I’d suggest that you try other sites that are more geared towards your needs.
This site’s kaupapa is robust debate, not a popularity contest for most ‘enjoyable’ commenter.
Anybody who keeps posting vacuous comments here claiming to be critical of this or that without providing any original thought, analysis, or view can indeed expect some pushback from other commenters and when it reaches a certain critical point, from Moderators.
For example, claiming that one has written a comment that “was composed entirely” by the commenter when it is obviously a lie (HT to Google) is not something I personally enjoy. However, if you love this sort of shit then we have to agree to disagree.
As far as “relentless harassment” goes, are you referring to your own crusade against everybody you consider non-Left or not-Left-enough here and elsewhere? Including naming and trying to shame other commenters of this site? Including a TS Author? Personal attack, after attack, after attack. It got so bad I had to resort to Pre-Mod tools to prevent the worst of your personal insults without stifling the fragile debate here or what’s left of it.
According to you, if one has not spoken out against something or somebody, one cannot claim the be a Leftie. The Leftie badge has to be earned by attacking the right people, of course. Failing to do so loses one points. In fact, it earns one RW points!? No matter if one is a card-carrying Leftie, if they say the wrong thing here, or fail to say the right thing, according to the Adrian Thornton Doctrine, then they automatically become card-carrying RWs. Your stale slogan is also highly symptomatic of your stale mind process.
You know how tedious your comments and personal attacks have become here? You seem to have no idea or just don’t give a shit.
Please go tilt at other windmills somewhere else, e.g. at KB – Incognito]
Considering that the government is not going to do much about this, i hope people who still have some cash to spare will give to some charities over winter, cause its going to be a hard winter for many, and above all for kids.
More preschoolers are turning up to school hungry and in ill-fitting clothes – and some aren't showing up at all.
Two children's charities say they have waitlists to respond to cries for help in the Bay of Plenty, but are struggling to keep up with demand.
Older kids are having a hard time too, with families unable to afford the basics as housing costs soar and difficult decisions need to be made that sometimes see children bear the brunt.
There are 18 early childhood centres in the Bay of Plenty on the waitlist for KidsCan's under 5's programmes, three times more than the waitlist at the same time last year.
The centres waiting are in Rotorua, Tauranga, Whakatāne, Ōpōtiki and Te Puke.
Due to rising economic hardship, the charity now supports 15 early learning centres in the region, seven of which are new this year.
and just in case, these hungry kids don't get fed in school as they are Pre-schoolers.
Hours after Kelly gave birth by emergency c-section, she was ordered to get up and change her own maternity pad.
She’d just had invasive abdominal surgery, was bleeding, and could not stand up. But Kelly, 37, says a harried Wellington Hospital nurse pointed her to a stack of pads, and told her she’d need to change them herself every four hours. “I was so shocked, I just didn’t know what to do,” she says. “For the next 12 hours I had no help and I just wanted to go home, but I couldn’t move.”
The morning after she gave birth to her first baby, Palmerston North mum Julie [not her real name] was told her discharge papers were ready. “I was terrified,” the 22-year-old says. “I didn’t even know how to look after my baby.”
Her hospital notes mentioned her previous suicide attempts, and her struggles with depression and anxiety. “I don’t know if they weren’t told, or if they just didn’t read anything.”
Struggling with a diagnosis of a high-risk pregnancy, Lower Hutt mum Kirsten Van Newtown couldn’t get an urgent obstetric appointment and was instructed to simply call an ambulance if she started haemorrhaging.
Kirsten van Newtown was told to call an ambulance if she started bleeding.
“It got to the point where I was just like ‘I’m going to go to the hospital, and camp out.’ It’s not good enough, women die because of this.”
yep, caring is a small part of the budget – well it is, but if no one gets to read the plans and if no one knows where the money is …..what should that be called? Incompetence, or callous negligent malevolence?
A Maternity Action Plan was written in late 2018, to be attached to the paper.
This document received $35m of funding in last year’s Budget, with $8.75m to be spent on its implementation in the year to May 2021.
Dr John Tait: “There are now major problems, and hospitals are struggling.”
MONIQUE FORD/STUFF
Dr John Tait: “There are now major problems, and hospitals are struggling.”
But no-one outside of the ministry has seen it. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Review Committee (PMMRC), and the New Zealand College of Midwives
are among those questioning where the money has gone, and when the plan will be made public.
Salty and angry yes, indeed, at the failures of this government to do the right thing.
Btw, did you know that hter is currently a 6 month old baby here in NZ, that at two month become a domestic violence survivor? I spoke about this child a few weeks ago. Now that child was left temporarily blind and totally deaf by its sperm donor, and it was born wiht a cleft palate. A poor little urching if ever there was one. This child was on a 4 month waiting list to have a test done to see if somehow hearing could be restored via a cochlar implant and hte first steps of surgey was to be done in regards to the cleft palate.
Well guess what Sacha, that baby now is again on a 4 month waiting list for cleft palate surgery, never mind the deafness.
Her forstermum is at pains to feed the little urchins as the feeding tube was removed cause surgery – never mind that it did not happen.
If you are not angry by right now then well bully you.
But i would really leave the mysoginist words of 'depressed women, angry women, bitter woem n etc in the past and go on with the 2021.
I am salty. I am so salty that a liter of milk could not possible make me palatable.
This government is useless. I hope everyone enjoyed the Americas Cup tho. Cause we do have priorities and our hungry homeless and uncared children is not one of them.
Little Lucca Topp is only three but has already had four open-heart operations.
But a fifth surgery to address his rare condition has been delayed four times because of a lack of suitable beds at Auckland’s Starship Hospital, leaving him having seizures, going blue and regularly tired from a lack of oxygen.
Adding to the anguish of his parents Gabrielle and Mike Topp, his little brother Rocco almost died when he was born eight weeks ago, having to be resuscitated twice after his C-section birth was delayed by a week because of another bed shortage.
Are you OK Sacha? Your comment could be seen as a form of passive aggressive gaslighting of Sabine for her eminently sane and rational response to the crap going on out there. Keep it up Sabine and don’t lose the passion
Excuse me? To me, this was a genuine commenter reaching out to another in good faith and with good intentions and you come here and piss all over it!? It does seem like Sabine took it the way it was intended.
What's with this [Genter's Cabinet paper titled ‘Maternity System Transformation’, designed to highlight the problems facing maternity services and chart a path forward]:
But the cabinet paper hit a brick wall. After going out to other ministers and a raft of Government departments for consultation, it was shelved in early 2020.
Genter still doesn’t know why. She told Stuff she could not understand why Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's office was not receptive to it, and why Ardern did not discuss it at Cabinet. The issues in it were well-documented, she says.
“There was never a logical explanation … I honestly couldn’t tell you why, the whole thing was one of the most bizarre things I went through as a minister. I didn’t understand what the problem was.”
New Zealand's K-shaped Covid recovery: the well-off have bounced back by remote working and increasing their savings, while those on low incomes have faced increased job instability and rising rental prices. We're seeing people living in two different worlds in New Zealand, and Covid has only exacerbated this trend.
There is a Budget approaching on May 20. This is the Government's chance to have a transformational impact on generations of New Zealanders. I hope they take it.
– Bernie Smith is the CEO of the Monte Cecilia Housing Trust
In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, to contribute something to solving overpopulation. – Prince Philip, 1988
"The next phase in Biden’s plan is to spend a further $2tn on rebuilding America’s crumbling infrastructure. This will be funded by reversing some of Donald Trump’s cut to corporate tax rates, which will be opposed by Republicans in Congress but not by the IMF. When asked about the projected increase this week, the fund’s economic counsellor, Gita Gopinath, said Trump’s corporate tax cut had not done much to boost investment. Moreover, Gopinath was positively enthusiastic about the idea of a global minimum corporate tax rate, something the US has traditionally been wary of but which it now supports."
interesting to see the gender voter numbers. nats are now trying very hard to turn crusher into cushla, but female voters arent fooled.nats will be very wary about replacing collins with yet another old white guy. its time for maureen pugh to step up!! the south will rise again!(yeah right)
A 73-year long marriage is probably not something to be sniffed at – even if it is between 3rd cousins. But you have to feel sorry for the UK public – now enduring North Korean levels of media-saturating public hagiography. While none of the 100,000+ unnecessary Covid deaths received similar coverage. I guess it’s what feudalism felt like.
On that basis Sanctuary you must have a scathing commentary to share with us about Raul Castro "inheriting" his position as First Secretary of Cuba from big bro Fidel ??
"My feeling is that there’s a secret story of family rallying round to save homes, and that the banks know this."
Oh yes they know. They can turn young people into lifelong debt serfs and dispossess their parents as well. It's accumulation by dispossession – a far easier way to get rich than producing useful goods and services. As Piketty noted , we are back in Jane Austen's world where the size of your inheritance really matters.
No sooner had he interviewed the PM on his show, Mike declared that he didn’t want her back on his show thereby creating the first Schrodinger’s radio interviewee who is both present and not present while simultaneously bailing, running and waffling.
To summarise, Mike did, didn’t, does, doesn’t, will and won’t want to have the PM on his radio show.
He also accused the New Zealand media of being asleep at the wheel in failing to tackle the PM over the handling of MIQ facilities. This accusation triggered a unique media atmospheric event known as a brm (Barry reproaches Mike).
At least I know that Claire’s question isn’t linked to the question as to why NZ Bachelor winner Annie Theis isn’t pursuing a romance with Moses Mackay. That wasn’t behind the NZ Herald paywall. I wish it had been.
How can we stop this feckless behaviour that we know will destroy our land and water?
Ōwhiro Bay resident Jade Lorier was among those out collecting the waste from streets and front lawns, and said it was blowing into streams, drains and out to sea.
Photo: Supplied / Jade Lorier
Polystyrene is not biodegradable.
"I'm really worried about the health of our stream. We've got native eels, as well as fish, I'm worried about the wildlife in the marine reserve," Lorier said. "We're trying to protect and restore this area, and this is just an absolute nightmare for the south coast.
"I'd like this person to be held responsible, it's an environmental disaster. I'm furious."
The incident has led to an outcry on local Facebook groups for action against ongoing pollution blown from three nearby landfills on Happy Valley Road, and from unsecured loads being driven to them.
Lawyer Adam Holloway was among those cleaning up the polystyrene and said there was "constant fresh rubbish" being blown onto the street and the coastline. "It's disheartening," he said.
"I'm sure we didn't get them all, and next time it rains whatever is left over will flow into the gutters, and from there into the stream, and from the stream into the marine reserve."
He's among those who have called for councillors and staff to front up to a meeting to tell residents what powers they have to act,…
The sad truth is that a significant fraction of plastic waste is not recyclable. Until volumes of it are more responsible, we need safe ways to dispose of it. Maybe a use for some power plants moving away from coal in the short term.
twenty yrs ago, I worked on construction sites in sydney(just before olympics). even then ,all trucks HAD to have covered loads, and all uncovered(grass stripped off,back to topsoil) sites HAD to have catchment systems in place to stop dirt,rubbish runoff into stormwater drains. the fines levied for non compliance were eye watering, and WERE enforced. had a visit from lidcomb council(between parramatta and city central) official because neighbouring building had a layer of dust from out site. either we paid to have warehouse and 50 workers cars waterblasted or a ten thousand dollar a day fine until it was done, and we still had to pay up for cleaning. no ifs, no buts. $50,000 later ,our boss let us know what he thought of our attempts to stop dust, runoff etc…
Gosh. But I guess this is just part of the externalities of having a smart modern political and economic system doing groundbreaking building high-in-the-sky apartments!
Things can't be perfect in any system and you do get action, things get done, not like with the dozy government putting stupid, time-wasting regulations in place with dozy, nit-picking inspectors demanding expensive, time-wasting this and that so they can be seen to do something to earn their excessive salaries.
I bet the above was a common chant some decades back, from those with big ideas to get big bulges in their wallets and elsewhere because they were just such great movers and shakers.
"Currently, they spend increasing amounts on housing support – things like rent subsidies, grants, and emergency housing – which as a result saw the bill total nearly $1 billion between last September and December, up nearly $30 million on the previous quarter."
Every second cent of that payout by government is an admission that the system isn't working and yet they will pay out because it fits within the twisted economic system that they want to remain true to, and perhaps are now forced to by big business which threatens to impose sanctions on the country and government if they are deprived in any way. That is depraved, and Treasury economists were so when they induced Douglas and the Gang to usher in the swingeing management methods that would make us the darlings of the financial world, the wee experiment in an isolated laboratory with us as the hapless animals.
Cheers Grey – it intrigues me that recent NZ governments of all colours have done so little to address inequality and/or poverty. And in a wealthy country too.
NZ could be more progressive on poverty – a leader even, imho.
I got into looking up Wisconsin Works which we followed – just suited our screwed up lords and ladies in parliament. Ruthless and the others must despise whole swathes of people.
Anyway here is an interesting The Atlantic piece (they always seem to do really good long journalism that I have seen). It is all about how Wisconsin wants to grind the supposed rough edges off people, and then they let them smoothly slip through their fingers into a little round hole. With Metiria Turei's sterling efforts in mind it seems that we are as hollow in our commitment and appreciation of giving people the help and skills they need to be self-reliant in WW as is their stated aim.
By the way Red Logix I should say thanks for that vid. I haven't seen them before, (I see there are more) and it is so well done, amazing and shocking to see the scenario.
Perceptions around safety will and do play a role. Safety comes first, also, and perhaps especially so, in anything related to our health and medical interventions.
As always, an informed and educated population will make better decisions. As always, the mainstream media play a role in this. Emerging stories about blood clots possibly linked to Covid vaccines will worry people, especially those who have diabetes and who are, coincidentally, more likely to suffer complications from the disease when they get it.
New Zealand has purchased 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, enough for everyone in NZ (and given refusers in NZ, there will be some to share around with our Pacific neighbours).
So far I have only heard of blood clots being a possible concern in relation to AstraZeneca/Oxford and the Janssen/J&J, not Pfizer
The side effects I've heard of so far for the Pfizer vaccine are allergic reactions (roughly 11 incidences of anaphylaxis per million doses), believed to be related to the polyethylene glycol used as a stabiliser, and swollen lymph nodes that may show on mammograms. As far as I can tell, these reactions have all been temporary with no permanent effects detected. I would certainly expect NZers with a history of allergic reactions to be offered an alternative vaccine to the Pfizer if they don't want to risk anaphylaxis.
There are other possible side effects linked to the Pfizer vaccine that also seem to involve blood clotting. However, they seem to have attracted much less attention in/from the media. I’m not in a position to speculate. Nevertheless, even if/when these links are causative ones, the benefits of these vaccines outweigh the risks by a huge factor.
Well so far no mass death have occurred in the US or the UK who both have rolled out both vaccines. And in the US they have managed to vaccine up to 4 million a day.
? And this is another time i don't understand your english? Get of the grass? Are you insinuating that i am breaking the law by ingesting an illegal substance? If you did, i would appreciate that you don't. thanks.
As for the deep state, i leave these theories to the usual suspects of whom there are already quite a few on this page. I peddle in facts rather then assumptions.
Fact is that plenty million people on this planet have had various different vaccines now, from the US, Russia, China, etc and so far we have yet to hear of mass dying or mass injuries.
So yeah, NZ bring on the vaccine, before the unspeakable happens because again we be full of 'She'll be right, mate' until she is not.
"get off the grass" is kiwi slang, scornfully rejecting an idea put forward. In this specific instance, there appear to be multiple levels to it, with a hefty dig at conspiracy theorists (I don’t see a dig at you, Sabine).
It was common in the 80s, but I can't recall hearing it much since returning from the US in '99.
Ooh, that brings back memories. I have indeed been told to "get off the grass" by Paul Callaghan. Several times, IIRC.
My first encounter with his communication style was at a first year physics lab, and I was struggling with getting some optics stuff working correctly. He asked how I was going, and I said "My head hurts", and he said "Good. That's supposed to happen".
Just had my first vaccination today in the medical centre in my small (750 pop) town in the top of the South Island. There were a couple of hundred people vaccinated today – it was a well oiled machine! Second vaccination appointment made as well for 3 weeks time, plus given a card with dates, batch number etc.
Nope. People in the SI having to wait for others would be contentious. Similarly, people in Group 3 having to wait until vaccination of Groups 1 and 2 has been fully completed would be contentious. Sliding and overlapping is the most practical way to roll out the vaccine to the whole nation in a timely fashion.
Ash Sarkar is marvellous, a positive treasure and a rising star of a left movement that will replace the British Labour party with something else within 20 years unless that party can somehow rid itself of focus group driven professional politics and ultra centrism.
4/06/1996 — Address to the Fifth Annual Hayek Memorial Lecture … Roger (now Sir Roger) Douglas, Minister of Finance in the Labour … As for the tax reforms, the flattening and lowering of income-tax rates … The extent of the reforms in New Zealand was so great that it is difficult to describe them in short compass.
.
Do not try to advance a step at a time. Define your objectives clearly and move towards them in quantum leaps. … Once the programme begins to be implemented, do not stop until you have completed it. The fire of opponents is much less accurate if they have to shoot at a rapidly moving target.
Roger Douglas, former New Zealand Minister of Finance, in Douglas 1993: 67
.
IN A NEW WORLD, NEW THINKING IS REQUIRED – Krieger … https://sites.krieger.jhu.edu › iae › files › 2021/01 PDF
Why the Prioritization of Resources is Crucial to New Zealand's Economic … Roger Douglas[deleted; please no e-mail addresses in comments as this will attract bots], as Minister of Finance in New Zealand, won an … He has done a considerable amount of work internationally, for The World Bank … Director of their PhD Program, where he was awarded Best Teacher Prizes.
Sorry – these high fliers love their links, also didn't know about bots and emails – can't get some PDFs I don't seem set up to get them. So just took the heading and summary off google.
Another Poot critic offs himself in mysterious circumstances and the oligarch's booty continues to pour into the UK. Number 10's carpets must be sodden.
The prominent Kremlin critic Nikolai Glushkov was strangled at his home in south-west London by an unknown assailant who wrapped a dog lead around his neck in a crude attempt to “simulate” the appearance of suicide, an inquest heard
[…]
A postmortem, however, found signs Glushkov had been murdered. These included fractures to his larynx and hyoid bones, as well as superficial injuries to his face. A paramedic who came to the scene, Dominic Beil, said he immediately called the police because he felt the scene was suspicious.
Beil said that in suicide cases the ladder was typically kicked over but in this case remained upright. He said he found Glushkova sobbing in the kitchen. Glushkov was dressed in a green polo shirt and tracksuit bottoms and was clearly dead, he said.
The inquest was told Glushkov’s murderer had ambushed him from behind and had rapidly subdued his victim. There were no signs of “prolonged grappling”. Glushkov had taken mild sedatives and a glass of alcohol but this had not played a role in what a coroner ruled on Friday was an “unlawful killing”.
The article was written by the respected and thoroughly professional Luke Harding, I see. So we can believe everything in it. Is he any relation to the unfortunate fellow humiliating himself in the following classic clip?
Reminding people that Luke Harding is possibly the most discredited journalist in the western world—more discredited even than Jonathan Freedland, Jayson Blair and Judith Miller combined—is hardly "ad hom." I did not attack his appearance or his accent or anything like that; my judgement of him is based on the fact that he has been exposed irrefutably as a liar and a conspiracy theorist.
You have said precisely nothing that makes sense. I see you used the word "epistemic"; I suggest you get in touch with Kim Hill, who blithely announced a couple of weeks ago that she had "no idea what the word epistemological means."
Exactly. That's why I'm not interested in Luke Harding's appearance, or mannerisms, or hobbies, or his family. I care about the fact he has chosen to brazenly, and repeatedly, lie for the state.
I guess that means I'm discussing events rather than "ideas." Darn it, I'm not a "great mind" then, according to Mrs Roosevelt.
Just as well ER is dead because she’d have died a slow and painful death reading your boring comments; Vogon poetry is like a Thai massage compared to your commentary.
I did neither. I asked him to clarify his baffling post.
Ad =//= Kim Hill so WTF?
By sheer happenstance, the two of them happened to use the same big word. To give Ad his due, I suspect he actually understands what it means, unlike Ms. Hill.
His "quoted writing"? Harding is discredited. He did that to himself. I provided one of the most devastatingly embarrassing interviews in history, which you are quite able to click on and watch. I recommend you do just that.
"A postmortem, however, found signs Glushkov had been murdered. These included fractures to his larynx and hyoid bones, as well as superficial injuries to his face. A paramedic who came to the scene, Dominic Beil, said he immediately called the police because he felt the scene was suspicious."
Reporting facts that run counter to the narrative promoted by the kooks, cranks, tankies, second option bias fantasists, and other misinformation artists you have outsourced your opinion-forming to is not the same thing as 'discredited'.
I have read all of Luke Harding's books, and a great deal of his "reportage." Do I read a wide variety of sources? Yes. Do I evaluate what they write and say? Yes. I have not "outsourced" my opinions to anyone.
Your farrago of epithets directed at journalists of the calibre of Aaron Maté, Jeremy Scahill, Glenn Greenwald and John Pilger is not as colorful as your daily serves at Trump over the last four years, but it is equally rigorous.
Of course this lot cannot explain why most of the journalists mentioned, although regularly invited on Liberal MSM pre Trump, were/ still are completely shut down as soon as they easily dismantled the obvious fraud of Russiagate?…now you would think that any person using even just the tiniest itsy weeniest bit of their critical thinking capacity, would have, after a few months of the Russiagate story, started to wonder why there was NEVER any counter narrative? NEVER any pushback at all from anyone, anywhere ever, even from those very journalists that not that very long ago were the most revered journalist on the Left…but no, this lot would rather believe every word the MI6, CIA spoon feeds them, via the liberal media machine..why ask questions?, why ask for proof?, why test the narrative in open debate?..who needs it, right!!
As I mentioned last week ( https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-02-04-2021/#comment-1786400 ) it turns out that commenters on TS such as Andre’, Ad, Joe 90 etc have an incredibly similar world geo political view as the conservative UK foreign office..yes it seems just like the UK Conservative Party, our friends here on this very site just cannot get enough of regime change wars, sanctions, shutting down whistle blowers etc…yep, just like their friends in the UK Conservative Party, this lot are just a bunch of postmodern Imperialists nothing more or less.
I often wonder if they even realize how right-wing they have become themselves?, or whether they have just slipped there so slowly over time, that it has just become natural for them to think (not think) this way…whatever the reason it is quite a sad thing to witness this uncoupling of so many good comrades first to the centre and now to the actual right.
Though that being said, I always thought free market liberalism was just a gateway drug to the right…and so it has come to pass.
Another long rant from you that is essentially an ad hom. Not all people think like you, express themselves like you, and necessarily like the same stuff as you do. In fact, they may disagree with you, says things in ways that you dislike and/or disapprove of, and like stuff that you dislike and/or disapprove of. You cannot get your head around this fact and therefore you lash out and accuse them of being the ‘enemy’, because things are B & W in Adrian land; this is called projecting.
You’re rapidly becoming as boring and nonsensical as Morrissey as well as hypercritical, ultra-negative, and sometimes even outright aggressive towards other commenters 🙁
Morrissey exposed nothing! He simply provided a link to a 29-min long YT clip made by somebody else and as usual without anything intelligent added that could pass as analysis. Typical Morrissey style.
You seem to be cut from the same cloth; saying it does not make it so.
No, I did not watch the YT clip, for the simple reason that there was nothing enticing me to do so. In fact, it was the opposite, thanks to Mossie’s trenchant commentary.
Morrissey did not expose anything by linking to that YT clip. If anything, the people in and/or who made the YT clip may have exposed something, who knows?
Feel free to watch it and critique it, but I’m not holding my breath 🙄
In your opinion, of course. Which you formulated completely independently, of course.
So, this is your MO: find a YT clip or some writing that you vehemently disagree with (because of mysterious reasons that only a psychologist might understand) and then use it to have a swipe at the messenger/author. Then you claim (!) that it was trenchant critique and analysis of the content while in fact it was an attack on the messenger/author all along.
You clearly have no will to see where Morrissey might be coming from, by viewing and perhaps trying to understand the YT clip, and using that new information to make an assessment of the original post.
[As you know, it is expected on this site that when commenters link to a YT clip, especially a longer one, they provide an explanation why people should watch it. It is also expected that they provide some analysis and opinion of their own, you know, an original contribution, e.g. to start off constructive robust debate. Repeatedly failing to do so is considered a form of spamming, sometimes trolling, and will attract Moderators’ attention.
Why do you keep ignoring this and why are you doubling down on this? You’re now wasting Moderator time – Incognito]
Was there no context at all? He just dumped it on you, out of the blue?
Do you suggest I should ban Andre for wasting your time? I hate it when people deliberately waste my time; they’re usually trolls or spammers, the vermin of the blogosphere.
No. I'm saying posting YT videos is not a capital offence. I just ignore them like I ignored Andre's NZIER document.
[Another smart arse commenter telling us how to do and not do things here?
No. I’m saying posting YT videos is not a capital offence.
Please don’t bother re-writing the site’s Policy, as posting YT videos never has been a capital offence here. You’re disinformed.
Do you have anything useful to add or are you just trying to waste Moderator time as well? It seems to be the topic du jour. However, a piece of string is only as long its breaking point and a bubble pops when you pierce it one too many times – Incognito]
Here's a list of people supposed impartial political observer, Dr Bryce Edwards, quotes in his latest cut 'n' paste effort about the National Party leadership trysts:
Claire Trevett – National Party embedded journalist.
Richard Prebble – Former ACT MP and far right wing activist.
Tova O'Brien – Neutral, but only by dint of being about Tova and Tova alone.
David Farrar, twice – Sheesh. Farrar seems more quoted by Dr Bryce than any other.
Dan Satherley – Hardly noticed him before. Must be good.
Audrey Young – Noted right wing journalist with long National Party affiliations.
Heather Duplicity-Allen , also twice – Increasingly hard right wing shock jock.
Matthew Hooton – Oh, my, God.
Andrea Vance – See Tova O'Brien.
Luke Malpass – Australian right wing journalist.
Seven out of ten sources from the right and far right, and three relatively neutral. As a footnote, in the satire section, Dr Bryce entertained the only two entries which might be considered left wing voices.
So much for balanced media, and so much for balanced media critics.
Bryce Edwards is quoting experienced political reporters who have the qualifications and experience to be quoted.
Farrar and Hooten are some of the right's most trenchant critics, both roundly rejected by National's cliques.
Edwards himself is raising questions that plenty of other observers have been raising. Indeed National has changed its leaders three times in a year for the same reasons.
I don't think you read my comment. Bryce Edwards pretends to be an impartial observer yet he quotes no qualified person writing from the left's perspective.
Such a person might have explained that National's leadership issues run way deeper that the personalities involved. The core of the rot is in the Party itself, its moribund and corrupt leadership and membership alike.
There was a progressive thread to his writing, back in the day, but he was monstered by the other political writers at the Herald after a few well-researched columns.
Since that time he's produced drivel – compromised hack-work – and his progressive credibility, such as it was, is at zero.
(Beirut) – Syrian authorities are unlawfully confiscating the homes and lands of Syrians who fled Syrian-Russian military attacks in Idlib and Hama governorates, Human Rights Watch said today.
A pro-government militia and the government-controlled “Peasants’ Unions” were involved in seizing and auctioning these lands to government supporters.
“Peasants’ Unions are supposed to help protect farmers’ rights, but have become one more tool in the Syrian government’s systematic repression of its own people,” said Sara Kayyali, Syria researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Aid organizations should ensure that Peasants’ Unions are not providing assistance for farming on stolen land.”
They're more than a front, they're a tool. Ken Roth’s support for the extreme right coup in Bolivia and his contempt for the democratically elected government is akin to backing Franco over the Republican government in the 1930s.
Hi Stuart Munro if you are around. There is an historic account for a Stuart Young. an entrepreneur with Ron Davis in something called Interlock – clever chap. He lived in Breaker Bay from a boy, he knew on the fateful Wahine day on April 10, 1968 that there was trouble. The weather was worse than ever before.
It says about it 'At 6.30 am that day, Stuart and Jenny saw the Wahine in Chaffers Passage, on the Breaker Bay side of the reef, facing the houses (a sight witnessed by many in the bay but never accepted by the official court of inquiry). It was clear she was in serious trouble and Stuart immediately phoned the police.'
Why would the Court reject the witnesses' evidence? Why would the position of the boat be so important; if it was facing the houses then it would have been prow towards them and trying to beach wouldn't it?
Incidentally Young and Davis set up a business to be emulated today. They had to fight protective battles for their patents in Uk and Japan. The company patented all over the world so that they kept ahead of global competitors through invention and smart marketing. They operated a profit-sharing bonus system and a medical insurance scheme, arranged free influenza vaccinations for anyone who wanted them and offered opportunities for staff to train and retrain at all levels and employees were encouraged to make decisions and to raise any matter they wanted and be honest with each other; everyone was on first-name terms. Wow.
Why would the Court reject the witnesses' evidence?
Official positions, like those of MSA, the harbour master, and the officers of the vessels traditionally had a level of privilege that is hard to imagine now that video of such occurrences is in play to debunk the most egregious political distortions of such systems. The thirty million MSA spend on helicopter flights during the wreck of the Rena, for example, implied that they were not so much seamen, as troughers. Were they seamen they’d have done more work by boat.
Why would the position of the boat be so important; if it was facing the houses then it would have been prow towards them and trying to beach wouldn't it?
Without a full knowledge of events one cannot judge whether the ship's heading was appropriate or not – it might have steered into the wind to minimize leeway, or, as you say, to try to beach, or to avoid a hazard like Barret's Reef which they had misunderstood the position of. The wind may also have blown the bow around, off the desired course, and they might have been struggling to get back on track.
I used to have a pocket watch from the Wahine, that I found diving on Barret's Reef.
Thanks Stuart interesting and your first part possibly would refer also to the Mikhail Lermontov tragedy of one of Russia's premier ships being piloted by a Marlborough leading mariner to a watery grave. Was it political,, was it sabotage? Will we ever know and why pilot Jamieson got off lightly.
I was also wondering if the Wahine couldn't be said to have been steered towards land or the insurance might have placed personal blame on the Captain rather than the consideration of an Act of God causing the damage, or whatever cover was to be provided.
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Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
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, ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
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You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
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Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
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Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
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With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
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Until this month, Auckland swimmer Hazel Ouwehand had never met a qualifying time in an Olympic event for a New Zealand team, even as a junior. Now she’s very likely off to the Paris Olympics after swimming well under the qualifying standard in the 100m butterfly twice – both in ...
While Anzac Day has experienced a resurgence in recent years, our other day of remembrance has slowly faded from view.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Original illustrations by Hope McConnell.First published in 2022.The high school’s head girl and ...
Australian and New Zealand volunteers fought together in the Waikato War, yet still its place in the Anzac tradition is unacknowledged by our defence forces or Returned Services Association.First published in 2018.When I was a boy cub I attended Anzac Day services in the South Auckland suburb of ...
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Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Thursday 25 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Asia Pacific Report Students and activist staff at Australia’s University of Sydney (USyd) have set up a Gaza solidarity encampment in support of Palestinians and similar student-led protests in the United States. The camp was pitched as mass graves, crippled hospitals, thousands of civilian deaths and the near-total destruction of ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University Just when we think the price of rentals could not get any worse, this week’s Rental Affordability Snapshot by Anglicare has revealed low-income Australians are facing a housing crisis like ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
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RNZ News Melissa Lee has been ousted from New Zealand’s coalition cabinet and stripped of the Media portfolio, and Penny Simmonds has lost the Disability Issues portfolio in a reshuffle. Climate Change and Revenue Minister Simon Watts will take Lee’s spot in cabinet. Simmonds was a minister outside of cabinet. ...
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Analysis: Melissa Lee has lost the media portfolio and her spot in Cabinet after multiple failed attempts to find solutions for a media industry in crisis. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister announced Lee would be losing her spot in Cabinet along with her media and communications ministerial portfolio. The job ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kelly Saunders, PhD Candidate, University of Canberra There has been much analysis and praise of Justice Michael Lee’s recent judgement in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Channel Ten. Many people were openly relieved to read Lee’s “forensic” and “nuanced” application of law ...
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The Fairer Future coalition of anti-poverty groups say Whaikaha must be properly funded going forward, and that to argue that poor financial management of the new Ministry is a red herring by the Prime Minister. ...
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Asia Pacific Report The West Papuan resistance OPM leader has condemned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden, accusing their countries of “six decades of treachery” over Papuan independence. The open letter was released today by OPM chairman Jeffrey P Bomanak on the eve of ANZAC Day ...
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With its clear mandate for police use, political nuances, and nuanced public trust, Denmark's insights provide valuable considerations for Australia and New Zealand. ...
Image for the week
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/109548012/emma-cook-cartoons
The Duke is Dead, Long Live Nicholas Witchell
In the Swiss Alps in 2005, Prince Charles was caught by TV microphones muttering to his young sons William and Harry: "These bloody people. I can't bear that man. I mean, he's so awful, he really is." The subject of his ire was the plummy-voiced professional toady Nicholas Witchell, who is paid a king's ransom to fill the sinecure post of "BBC Royal and Diplomatic Correspondent." Unfortunately for Prince Charles and the rest of us, Witchell is still there, sixteen years later, still turning out BBC-quality journalism and commentary.
Various Windsors remain the highest paid beneficiaries in the UK, I celebrated Margaret Thatcher’s demise, but this reactionary just outlived his era really.
Bring on the republic of Aotearoa NZ
less is more
I for one find your contribution tasteless.
I am not from the Commonwealth but Queen Elisabeth deserves our condolences and Prince Phillip our respect. He has not had an easy life when looking back to his childhood and has shown how to be strong through adversity. As everybody, he has had his faults, but there is no reason to disrespect and dishonor a person not even 24 hour after his dead. A character flaw.
In an act of sychophancy, not our character for him, John Key ordered the New Zealand flag on the Auckland Harbour Bridge to be lowered to half mast on the death of Saudi feudal tyrant Abdullah, father of the current awful Saudi hereditry autocrat known as MBS, infamous for ordering the heartless butchery of expat. Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi who entered the Saudi embassy in Turkey seeking to get a permit of annulment so he could marry his partner.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/editorial-half-mast-flag-for-saudi-king-over-the-top/QCIF2SJ2GFHZAXSTTS36NTFZDQ/
I wonder if this act of symbolic forelock tugging to feudal monarchs will be continued on the death of the heir to the Greek Monarcho Fascists?
https://redflag.org.au/article/prince-philip-good-riddance-racist-elitist-fool
I think your reference is a bit a far drawn.
Everybody has to live their lives in the times and surrounds they are in.
Prince Phillip has been "a child of his time" as is the current generation and any other is and will be. He has contributed greatly to the stability of the Monarchy in Britain and the Commonwealth. Geopolitically this was and is still important as peace is not made by spitting in someone's face but by building bridges. Not a task to do in 10 minutes but perhaps 70 years of service.
This man was almost 100 years old, he has seen war, he had to fight and he had to take a side and conviction.
Those who are now so disrespectful, I wonder what they have done to ease the hunger, homelessness, inequality, loss of dignity for the old, providing education for all, preventing failure of the health system, corruption of democratic institutions etc… today or any other day. Not with words but deeds.
I just witness the death of common decency in this forum, to pay respect to a remarkable figure in our living history.
My comment was a critique not of the Duke (R.I.P.) but of the corrupt and parasitic Nicholas Witchell.
That was not a ‘critique’, it was an unoriginal rip-off of something that we have read many times in the press, mainly the British press. These are not even you own words. For example, where is your critical analysis showing that Nicholas Witchell is corrupt? Why this is even relevant to the death of DoE is a mystery to me.
That was not a ‘critique’, it was an unoriginal rip-off of something that we have read many times in the press…
The wording of that brief but (one hopes) trenchant critique was composed entirely by this writer, i.e., moi.
mainly the British press.
The point of my post was to point out an example of the servile and fawning British media coverage of Prince Philip and his ghastly descendants.
…where is your critical analysis showing that Nicholas Witchell is corrupt?
Fair comment. I was, as you have kindly pointed out on many other occasions, careless in my choice of words. I should have left off with "parasitic."
Funny that! When I Google ‘your’ words they look remarkable similar to writings by others in the British press!?
There was no trenchant critique! There was no analysis! There was just the usual Morrissey white noise & grey dust.
This is a point: .
Your ‘post’ was less than that; it was pointless.
Hmmm, maybe it was a critique of DoE …
Ok, come on then, argue your point. For example, why is it parasitic and not symbiotic? Put some thought and analysis in it, if you can. I doubt you will though, as it is too much of an intellectual effort to and for you 😉
There was no trenchant critique!
I pointed out that Witchell's "job" is nothing more than a sinecure, and that he is a toady. I challenge you to seriously dispute either of those points.
There was no analysis!
I provided an example—an extremely up-to-date example—of his vacuousness. Of course, it's only fair to note that he was no worse on this occasion than his fellow state propagandist Huw Edwards.
For example, why is it parasitic and not symbiotic? Put some thought and analysis in it, if you can.
Now that is rigorous editing. Thanks for that. I'll up my game in future.
[Big deep sigh.
At best, this is calling out. However, your insipient name-calling and lazy and negative labelling of others is not anywhere near critical analysis.
Where is your analysis? All you do is copy & paste, the odd link to a YT clip, and some inane drivel you call your “oeuvre”. That ain’t analysis.
You’ve been giving these pseudo-funny replies for years and you never up your game. I conclude it is not going to happen because you cannot or don’t want to up your game. Your comments in OM today (11 April) just emphasise and confirm this conclusion.
You seem to lack the intellectual nous to do any analytical thinking, critical analysis, or in-depth commentary. Instead, you bask in the halo of your intellectual heroes while disparaging others who are way above your league of dilettantes.
Please start up your own blog again and bore the shit out of people there, thanks – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 7:06 pm.
I have always liked reading his stuff and I have heard many others on The Standard express that same enjoyment, haven't you heard the saying "different stroke for different folks"? judging by your relentless harassment of anyone who does not fit within your very particular sense of taste or political slant, it would seem not.
[It feels like you’re trying to run interference with moderation, but you wouldn’t do that, would you?
Your comment is pointless because it doesn’t address anything in Moderation note to Morrissey or the many notes before that.
If you want a free entertainment channel then I’d suggest that you try other sites that are more geared towards your needs.
This site’s kaupapa is robust debate, not a popularity contest for most ‘enjoyable’ commenter.
Anybody who keeps posting vacuous comments here claiming to be critical of this or that without providing any original thought, analysis, or view can indeed expect some pushback from other commenters and when it reaches a certain critical point, from Moderators.
For example, claiming that one has written a comment that “was composed entirely” by the commenter when it is obviously a lie (HT to Google) is not something I personally enjoy. However, if you love this sort of shit then we have to agree to disagree.
As far as “relentless harassment” goes, are you referring to your own crusade against everybody you consider non-Left or not-Left-enough here and elsewhere? Including naming and trying to shame other commenters of this site? Including a TS Author? Personal attack, after attack, after attack. It got so bad I had to resort to Pre-Mod tools to prevent the worst of your personal insults without stifling the fragile debate here or what’s left of it.
According to you, if one has not spoken out against something or somebody, one cannot claim the be a Leftie. The Leftie badge has to be earned by attacking the right people, of course. Failing to do so loses one points. In fact, it earns one RW points!? No matter if one is a card-carrying Leftie, if they say the wrong thing here, or fail to say the right thing, according to the Adrian Thornton Doctrine, then they automatically become card-carrying RWs. Your stale slogan is also highly symptomatic of your stale mind process.
You know how tedious your comments and personal attacks have become here? You seem to have no idea or just don’t give a shit.
Please go tilt at other windmills somewhere else, e.g. at KB – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 3:43 pm.
NZ a country with lots of hungry people.
Considering that the government is not going to do much about this, i hope people who still have some cash to spare will give to some charities over winter, cause its going to be a hard winter for many, and above all for kids.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/charities-struggle-to-match-demand-to-feed-children-going-without-food-and-other-basic-needs/237B25TQ4UXLWDAIQXFELLOB6A/
and just in case, these hungry kids don't get fed in school as they are Pre-schoolers.
Never mind the preschoolers, we don't care about the newborn, or the mum.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/300272895/a-woman-was-asked-to-change-her-own-pad-hours-after-surgery-wheres-the-35m-maternity-plan
yep, caring is a small part of the budget – well it is, but if no one gets to read the plans and if no one knows where the money is …..what should that be called? Incompetence, or callous negligent malevolence?
Sabine are you OK? Your comments have seemed kind of depressed and angry lately.
Salty and angry yes, indeed, at the failures of this government to do the right thing.
Btw, did you know that hter is currently a 6 month old baby here in NZ, that at two month become a domestic violence survivor? I spoke about this child a few weeks ago. Now that child was left temporarily blind and totally deaf by its sperm donor, and it was born wiht a cleft palate. A poor little urching if ever there was one. This child was on a 4 month waiting list to have a test done to see if somehow hearing could be restored via a cochlar implant and hte first steps of surgey was to be done in regards to the cleft palate.
Well guess what Sacha, that baby now is again on a 4 month waiting list for cleft palate surgery, never mind the deafness.
Her forstermum is at pains to feed the little urchins as the feeding tube was removed cause surgery – never mind that it did not happen.
If you are not angry by right now then well bully you.
But i would really leave the mysoginist words of 'depressed women, angry women, bitter woem n etc in the past and go on with the 2021.
I am salty. I am so salty that a liter of milk could not possible make me palatable.
This government is useless. I hope everyone enjoyed the Americas Cup tho. Cause we do have priorities and our hungry homeless and uncared children is not one of them.
Other then that i am OK.
Here Sacha,
another tiny toddlered reason to be angry.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/124788092/anguish-as-intensive-care-bed-shortages-force-toddlers-vital-heart-surgery-to-be-cancelled-four-times
Are you OK Sacha? Your comment could be seen as a form of passive aggressive gaslighting of Sabine for her eminently sane and rational response to the crap going on out there. Keep it up Sabine and don’t lose the passion
Gaslighting? Puhleese.
Excuse me? To me, this was a genuine commenter reaching out to another in good faith and with good intentions and you come here and piss all over it!? It does seem like Sabine took it the way it was intended.
Glad Stuff covered this (again).
What's with this [Genter's Cabinet paper titled ‘Maternity System Transformation’, designed to highlight the problems facing maternity services and chart a path forward]:
– Bernie Smith is the CEO of the Monte Cecilia Housing Trust
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/bernie-smith-budget-a-chance-to-address-insufficient-income-support/VHYTXK6W6XIPNS4CQCWKDZMZHE/
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/jun/21/quotes-by-prince-philip
.
I would like to get a tattoo of myself, only bigger
.
Is the 'Washington consensus' being rewritten?
"The next phase in Biden’s plan is to spend a further $2tn on rebuilding America’s crumbling infrastructure. This will be funded by reversing some of Donald Trump’s cut to corporate tax rates, which will be opposed by Republicans in Congress but not by the IMF. When asked about the projected increase this week, the fund’s economic counsellor, Gita Gopinath, said Trump’s corporate tax cut had not done much to boost investment. Moreover, Gopinath was positively enthusiastic about the idea of a global minimum corporate tax rate, something the US has traditionally been wary of but which it now supports."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/08/economic-orthodoxies-covid-crisis-states-taxes-budgets
The usual poll caveats, but doesn’t this point to Judith being in real trouble?
http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/8679-nz-national-voting-intention-march-2021-202104090133
Simon, the two Chris’s, Nicola, are all circling.
interesting to see the gender voter numbers. nats are now trying very hard to turn crusher into cushla, but female voters arent fooled.nats will be very wary about replacing collins with yet another old white guy. its time for maureen pugh to step up!! the south will rise again!(yeah right)
Got to feel sorry for the Queen, imagine losing your husband and favourite cousin on the same day.
A 73-year long marriage is probably not something to be sniffed at – even if it is between 3rd cousins. But you have to feel sorry for the UK public – now enduring North Korean levels of media-saturating public hagiography. While none of the 100,000+ unnecessary Covid deaths received similar coverage. I guess it’s what feudalism felt like.
Would you have a gaffe of some sort ready for the Maori King when he passes away? It is disrespectful in any language.
Probably. You can’t be a socialist and also pick and mix your approved aristocracies. I dislike inherited privilege regardless of location or colour.
On that basis Sanctuary you must have a scathing commentary to share with us about Raul Castro "inheriting" his position as First Secretary of Cuba from big bro Fidel ??
A bit unnecessary Sanctuary. Yes, they had a great, great grandmother in common. Far enough removed not to be a problem.
Yeah, but that bunch of German sausage suckers hardly count for much in my book.
Hear hear Sanctuary. So, Phil the Greek is dead. One less beneficiary for the poor of England to subsidise!
– Rob Stock
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/124785651/parents-are-silent-coborrowers-on-their-childrens-megamortgages
"My feeling is that there’s a secret story of family rallying round to save homes, and that the banks know this."
Oh yes they know. They can turn young people into lifelong debt serfs and dispossess their parents as well. It's accumulation by dispossession – a far easier way to get rich than producing useful goods and services. As Piketty noted , we are back in Jane Austen's world where the size of your inheritance really matters.
And Jane Austin's era finished with two global conflicts and major and bloody peoples' revolutions. Something to look forward to.
Some commenters here would prefer to concentrate on how Jane Austin's era made people wealthy…
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/yesterdaze-bailing-running-and-waffling-at-the-wheel
good stuff Sacha….and accurate
funny and accurate.
Brilliant.
Found one of these Cooks Petrels on a busy road as described and from looking at Facebook this is more common than you think. And after some time was able to fly off, lovely bird reading about it.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=3827745847306623&id=104318996316012
How can we stop this feckless behaviour that we know will destroy our land and water?
Ōwhiro Bay resident Jade Lorier was among those out collecting the waste from streets and front lawns, and said it was blowing into streams, drains and out to sea.
Photo: Supplied / Jade Lorier
Polystyrene is not biodegradable.
"I'm really worried about the health of our stream. We've got native eels, as well as fish, I'm worried about the wildlife in the marine reserve," Lorier said. "We're trying to protect and restore this area, and this is just an absolute nightmare for the south coast.
"I'd like this person to be held responsible, it's an environmental disaster. I'm furious."
The incident has led to an outcry on local Facebook groups for action against ongoing pollution blown from three nearby landfills on Happy Valley Road, and from unsecured loads being driven to them.
Lawyer Adam Holloway was among those cleaning up the polystyrene and said there was "constant fresh rubbish" being blown onto the street and the coastline. "It's disheartening," he said.
"I'm sure we didn't get them all, and next time it rains whatever is left over will flow into the gutters, and from there into the stream, and from the stream into the marine reserve."
He's among those who have called for councillors and staff to front up to a meeting to tell residents what powers they have to act,…
The sad truth is that a significant fraction of plastic waste is not recyclable. Until volumes of it are more responsible, we need safe ways to dispose of it. Maybe a use for some power plants moving away from coal in the short term.
twenty yrs ago, I worked on construction sites in sydney(just before olympics). even then ,all trucks HAD to have covered loads, and all uncovered(grass stripped off,back to topsoil) sites HAD to have catchment systems in place to stop dirt,rubbish runoff into stormwater drains. the fines levied for non compliance were eye watering, and WERE enforced. had a visit from lidcomb council(between parramatta and city central) official because neighbouring building had a layer of dust from out site. either we paid to have warehouse and 50 workers cars waterblasted or a ten thousand dollar a day fine until it was done, and we still had to pay up for cleaning. no ifs, no buts. $50,000 later ,our boss let us know what he thought of our attempts to stop dust, runoff etc…
Sounds draconian. What would they have done about CTV building I wonder – doesn't sound as if they would suck their thumb like we did?
you have to remember that aus is the 51st state of u.s. and lawsuits are a way of life.
You may be surprised….or perhaps not…they havnt dealt with it much better than us.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-24/mascot-towers-apartment-owners-still-living-in-limbo/12911968
Gosh. But I guess this is just part of the externalities of having a smart modern political and economic system doing groundbreaking building high-in-the-sky apartments!
Things can't be perfect in any system and you do get action, things get done, not like with the dozy government putting stupid, time-wasting regulations in place with dozy, nit-picking inspectors demanding expensive, time-wasting this and that so they can be seen to do something to earn their excessive salaries.
I bet the above was a common chant some decades back, from those with big ideas to get big bulges in their wallets and elsewhere because they were just such great movers and shakers.
"Currently, they spend increasing amounts on housing support – things like rent subsidies, grants, and emergency housing – which as a result saw the bill total nearly $1 billion between last September and December, up nearly $30 million on the previous quarter."
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/government-spending-almost-1-billion-every-three-months-housing-support?fbclid=IwAR0TANSXvyiVyaY-sZ6O7G2Iat95GYbiG6yHX6sA8M4Rv-OsHHp_MrS9Ado
$4 billion a year…and climbing….thats a lot of dosh that could (and should) be spent elsewhere.
Every second cent of that payout by government is an admission that the system isn't working and yet they will pay out because it fits within the twisted economic system that they want to remain true to, and perhaps are now forced to by big business which threatens to impose sanctions on the country and government if they are deprived in any way. That is depraved, and Treasury economists were so when they induced Douglas and the Gang to usher in the swingeing management methods that would make us the darlings of the financial world, the wee experiment in an isolated laboratory with us as the hapless animals.
This was the effect on people. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/91005330/towns-full-of-weeping-women-rogernomics-30-years-later
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/03/new-zealand-neoliberalism-inequality-welfare-state-tax-haven/
New Zealand’s Neoliberal Drift By Branko Marcetic
Douglas was said to have made a lot of money lecturing and explaining how to manipulate the democracy – note Tony Blair the same.
Tony – https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/celebritymoney/article-2167655/Former-PM-Tony-Blair-alleged-earned-80million-2007.html
'$300,000 a speech!' Are the newshounds making up figures as they go? https://www.cityam.com/forget-politicians-salaries-its-afterwards-they-make-big-bucks/
I'm smiling because I'm free.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJYaXy5mmA8
But then 'Freedom's just another word, for nothing left to lose'. Me and Bobby McG
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTHRg_iSWzM
"When your belly's empty you swallow anything they shove down your throat." – qft
https://justzilch.org.nz/
https://www.kfst.org.nz/post/food-grants-and-the-law-benefit-law-and-your-rights-with-msd
https://nzccss.org.nz/work/poverty/facts-about-poverty/
Thanks for those interesting links Drowsy M. Kram. I have only looked at half of them and found interesting lines of thought.
Cheers Grey – it intrigues me that recent NZ governments of all colours have done so little to address inequality and/or poverty. And in a wealthy country too.
NZ could be more progressive on poverty – a leader even, imho.
I got into looking up Wisconsin Works which we followed – just suited our screwed up lords and ladies in parliament. Ruthless and the others must despise whole swathes of people.
Anyway here is an interesting The Atlantic piece (they always seem to do really good long journalism that I have seen). It is all about how Wisconsin wants to grind the supposed rough edges off people, and then they let them smoothly slip through their fingers into a little round hole. With Metiria Turei's sterling efforts in mind it seems that we are as hollow in our commitment and appreciation of giving people the help and skills they need to be self-reliant in WW as is their stated aim.
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/07/life-after-welfare/490586/
By the way Red Logix I should say thanks for that vid. I haven't seen them before, (I see there are more) and it is so well done, amazing and shocking to see the scenario.
There are a number of reasons for the relatively slow start of the vaccine rollout in NZ.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018790937/new-tara-covid-19-vaccination-clinic-operating-at-20-capacity
Perceptions around safety will and do play a role. Safety comes first, also, and perhaps especially so, in anything related to our health and medical interventions.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/440087/covid-19-vaccine-is-safe-minister-for-pacific-peoples
As always, an informed and educated population will make better decisions. As always, the mainstream media play a role in this. Emerging stories about blood clots possibly linked to Covid vaccines will worry people, especially those who have diabetes and who are, coincidentally, more likely to suffer complications from the disease when they get it.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2021/04/coronavirus-blood-clot-concerns-hit-johnson-johnson-s-covid-19-vaccine.html
New Zealand has purchased 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, enough for everyone in NZ (and given refusers in NZ, there will be some to share around with our Pacific neighbours).
So far I have only heard of blood clots being a possible concern in relation to AstraZeneca/Oxford and the Janssen/J&J, not Pfizer
The side effects I've heard of so far for the Pfizer vaccine are allergic reactions (roughly 11 incidences of anaphylaxis per million doses), believed to be related to the polyethylene glycol used as a stabiliser, and swollen lymph nodes that may show on mammograms. As far as I can tell, these reactions have all been temporary with no permanent effects detected. I would certainly expect NZers with a history of allergic reactions to be offered an alternative vaccine to the Pfizer if they don't want to risk anaphylaxis.
There are other possible side effects linked to the Pfizer vaccine that also seem to involve blood clotting. However, they seem to have attracted much less attention in/from the media. I’m not in a position to speculate. Nevertheless, even if/when these links are causative ones, the benefits of these vaccines outweigh the risks by a huge factor.
Well so far no mass death have occurred in the US or the UK who both have rolled out both vaccines. And in the US they have managed to vaccine up to 4 million a day.
In unrelated news, 5G signal strength is getting stronger all across the US.
https://twitter.com/vancityreynolds/status/1377251952304750593
Get off the grass! We all know that Deep State buries bad news.
? And this is another time i don't understand your english? Get of the grass? Are you insinuating that i am breaking the law by ingesting an illegal substance? If you did, i would appreciate that you don't. thanks.
As for the deep state, i leave these theories to the usual suspects of whom there are already quite a few on this page. I peddle in facts rather then assumptions.
Fact is that plenty million people on this planet have had various different vaccines now, from the US, Russia, China, etc and so far we have yet to hear of mass dying or mass injuries.
So yeah, NZ bring on the vaccine, before the unspeakable happens because again we be full of 'She'll be right, mate' until she is not.
"get off the grass" is kiwi slang, scornfully rejecting an idea put forward. In this specific instance, there appear to be multiple levels to it, with a hefty dig at conspiracy theorists (I don’t see a dig at you, Sabine).
It was common in the 80s, but I can't recall hearing it much since returning from the US in '99.
It is also the title of a book by Shaun Hendy and Paul Callaghan.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/unlimited/innovation/9041281/Extract-Get-off-the-Grass
Ooh, that brings back memories. I have indeed been told to "get off the grass" by Paul Callaghan. Several times, IIRC.
My first encounter with his communication style was at a first year physics lab, and I was struggling with getting some optics stuff working correctly. He asked how I was going, and I said "My head hurts", and he said "Good. That's supposed to happen".
It was a subtle joke. Sorry for the confusion.
Just had my first vaccination today in the medical centre in my small (750 pop) town in the top of the South Island. There were a couple of hundred people vaccinated today – it was a well oiled machine! Second vaccination appointment made as well for 3 weeks time, plus given a card with dates, batch number etc.
Good to hear that. It raises the question whether so-called demographic differences play a big role. If so, Government and MoH have work to do.
To vaccinate anyone in a small town in the South Island before people in South Auckland is contentious.
Nope. People in the SI having to wait for others would be contentious. Similarly, people in Group 3 having to wait until vaccination of Groups 1 and 2 has been fully completed would be contentious. Sliding and overlapping is the most practical way to roll out the vaccine to the whole nation in a timely fashion.
Marvelous.
diversity bunting
https://twitter.com/DoubleDownNews/status/1380451648083013632
https://twitter.com/AyoCaesar
Thanks for sharing joe.
Ash Sarkar is marvellous, a positive treasure and a rising star of a left movement that will replace the British Labour party with something else within 20 years unless that party can somehow rid itself of focus group driven professional politics and ultra centrism.
Yeah, you must be doing something right if Spiked Online, Harry's Place, Guido Fawkes, UnHerd etc are all in their utter hatred of you.
Or you could be doing something wrong.
NZ and economics. Is economics just another word for nothing left to lose? A recap of Roger the Dodger.
New Zealand's remarkable reforms – Reserve Bank of New …
https://www.rbnz.govt.nz › speeches › speech1996-06-04
4/06/1996 — Address to the Fifth Annual Hayek Memorial Lecture … Roger (now Sir Roger) Douglas, Minister of Finance in the Labour … As for the tax reforms, the flattening and lowering of income-tax rates … The extent of the reforms in New Zealand was so great that it is difficult to describe them in short compass.
.
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057%2F9780230524439_3 Making Thatcher Look Timid: the Rise and Fall of the New Zealand Model
Roger Douglas, former New Zealand Minister of Finance, in Douglas 1993: 67
.
And a link to one that shows you can fool the people most of the time when you show them apparently clear graphs that illustrate the matter that you want to pin down. (Cartoonists gull this by turning graphs on the wall up or down depending who they are conversing with.) https://croakingcassandra.com/2017/06/08/roger-douglas-the-economy-and-an-option-for-reform/
.
IN A NEW WORLD, NEW THINKING IS REQUIRED – Krieger …
https://sites.krieger.jhu.edu › iae › files › 2021/01 PDF
Why the Prioritization of Resources is Crucial to New Zealand's Economic … Roger Douglas [deleted; please no e-mail addresses in comments as this will attract bots], as Minister of Finance in New Zealand, won an … He has done a considerable amount of work internationally, for The World Bank … Director of their PhD Program, where he was awarded Best Teacher Prizes.
[Too many links probably triggered Auto-Mod]
Sorry – these high fliers love their links, also didn't know about bots and emails – can't get some PDFs I don't seem set up to get them. So just took the heading and summary off google.
Another Poot critic offs himself in mysterious circumstances and the oligarch's booty continues to pour into the UK. Number 10's carpets must be sodden.
The prominent Kremlin critic Nikolai Glushkov was strangled at his home in south-west London by an unknown assailant who wrapped a dog lead around his neck in a crude attempt to “simulate” the appearance of suicide, an inquest heard
[…]
A postmortem, however, found signs Glushkov had been murdered. These included fractures to his larynx and hyoid bones, as well as superficial injuries to his face. A paramedic who came to the scene, Dominic Beil, said he immediately called the police because he felt the scene was suspicious.
Beil said that in suicide cases the ladder was typically kicked over but in this case remained upright. He said he found Glushkova sobbing in the kitchen. Glushkov was dressed in a green polo shirt and tracksuit bottoms and was clearly dead, he said.
The inquest was told Glushkov’s murderer had ambushed him from behind and had rapidly subdued his victim. There were no signs of “prolonged grappling”. Glushkov had taken mild sedatives and a glass of alcohol but this had not played a role in what a coroner ruled on Friday was an “unlawful killing”.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/apr/09/murder-kremlin-critic-london-made-look-like-suicide-nikolai-glushkov
The article was written by the respected and thoroughly professional Luke Harding, I see. So we can believe everything in it. Is he any relation to the unfortunate fellow humiliating himself in the following classic clip?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ikf1uZli4g&t=13s
ad hom, ad nauseum
Reminding people that Luke Harding is possibly the most discredited journalist in the western world—more discredited even than Jonathan Freedland, Jayson Blair and Judith Miller combined—is hardly "ad hom." I did not attack his appearance or his accent or anything like that; my judgement of him is based on the fact that he has been exposed irrefutably as a liar and a conspiracy theorist.
It would only be a bother if you could discredit yourself any further.
But you can't. You are simply observed repeatedly bouncing like a rabbit from one epistemic disaster to the next.
You have said precisely nothing that makes sense. I see you used the word "epistemic"; I suggest you get in touch with Kim Hill, who blithely announced a couple of weeks ago that she had "no idea what the word epistemological means."
Exactly. That's why I'm not interested in Luke Harding's appearance, or mannerisms, or hobbies, or his family. I care about the fact he has chosen to brazenly, and repeatedly, lie for the state.
I guess that means I'm discussing events rather than "ideas." Darn it, I'm not a "great mind" then, according to Mrs Roosevelt.
Just as well ER is dead because she’d have died a slow and painful death reading your boring comments; Vogon poetry is like a Thai massage compared to your commentary.
Again, deflecting and diverting. Ad =//= Kim Hill so WTF?
Again, deflecting and diverting.
I did neither. I asked him to clarify his baffling post.
Ad =//= Kim Hill so WTF?
By sheer happenstance, the two of them happened to use the same big word. To give Ad his due, I suspect he actually understands what it means, unlike Ms. Hill.
As always, you aim for the person and don’t address anything in and of the content.
Your intellectual pomposity and arrogance is on full display here but, as such, it does not contribute anything to constructive debate. SSDD.
Immediately attacking the person rather than anything in their quoted writing. Nuf said.
His "quoted writing"? Harding is discredited. He did that to himself. I provided one of the most devastatingly embarrassing interviews in history, which you are quite able to click on and watch. I recommend you do just that.
Reporting facts that run counter to the narrative promoted by the kooks, cranks, tankies, second option bias fantasists, and other misinformation artists you have outsourced your opinion-forming to is not the same thing as 'discredited'.
I have read all of Luke Harding's books, and a great deal of his "reportage." Do I read a wide variety of sources? Yes. Do I evaluate what they write and say? Yes. I have not "outsourced" my opinions to anyone.
Your farrago of epithets directed at journalists of the calibre of Aaron Maté, Jeremy Scahill, Glenn Greenwald and John Pilger is not as colorful as your daily serves at Trump over the last four years, but it is equally rigorous.
Of course this lot cannot explain why most of the journalists mentioned, although regularly invited on Liberal MSM pre Trump, were/ still are completely shut down as soon as they easily dismantled the obvious fraud of Russiagate?…now you would think that any person using even just the tiniest itsy weeniest bit of their critical thinking capacity, would have, after a few months of the Russiagate story, started to wonder why there was NEVER any counter narrative? NEVER any pushback at all from anyone, anywhere ever, even from those very journalists that not that very long ago were the most revered journalist on the Left…but no, this lot would rather believe every word the MI6, CIA spoon feeds them, via the liberal media machine..why ask questions?, why ask for proof?, why test the narrative in open debate?..who needs it, right!!
As I mentioned last week ( https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-02-04-2021/#comment-1786400 ) it turns out that commenters on TS such as Andre’, Ad, Joe 90 etc have an incredibly similar world geo political view as the conservative UK foreign office..yes it seems just like the UK Conservative Party, our friends here on this very site just cannot get enough of regime change wars, sanctions, shutting down whistle blowers etc…yep, just like their friends in the UK Conservative Party, this lot are just a bunch of postmodern Imperialists nothing more or less.
I often wonder if they even realize how right-wing they have become themselves?, or whether they have just slipped there so slowly over time, that it has just become natural for them to think (not think) this way…whatever the reason it is quite a sad thing to witness this uncoupling of so many good comrades first to the centre and now to the actual right.
Though that being said, I always thought free market liberalism was just a gateway drug to the right…and so it has come to pass.
Another long rant from you that is essentially an ad hom. Not all people think like you, express themselves like you, and necessarily like the same stuff as you do. In fact, they may disagree with you, says things in ways that you dislike and/or disapprove of, and like stuff that you dislike and/or disapprove of. You cannot get your head around this fact and therefore you lash out and accuse them of being the ‘enemy’, because things are B & W in Adrian land; this is called projecting.
You’re rapidly becoming as boring and nonsensical as Morrissey as well as hypercritical, ultra-negative, and sometimes even outright aggressive towards other commenters 🙁
Luke (the spook) Harding is a fraud, which Morrissey exposed by providing evidence. You and Ad are the ones ad homming.
Morrissey exposed nothing! He simply provided a link to a 29-min long YT clip made by somebody else and as usual without anything intelligent added that could pass as analysis. Typical Morrissey style.
You seem to be cut from the same cloth; saying it does not make it so.
🙄 You never watched the video did you… therefore you have no clue what Morrissey might or might not have exposed.
He erroneously claimed it was a "YT" video. Like you, mauī, I doubt that he watched it.
The link to your embedded video: https://youtu.be/9Ikf1uZli4g
Is it not a youtube video?
Yes it is. Sorry, Incognito, I thought you meant it was a "Young Turks" video.
The mistake is mine, and I apologize.
Judge Judy sums up this writer, i.e. moi, perfectly….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W02dIP0ro60
Thank God for that! We don’t have to litigate what is and what isn’t a YT clip! FFS!
Shame that you had to spoil it again with another YT clip that is wasting more time and bandwidth here.
No, I did not watch the YT clip, for the simple reason that there was nothing enticing me to do so. In fact, it was the opposite, thanks to Mossie’s trenchant commentary.
Morrissey did not expose anything by linking to that YT clip. If anything, the people in and/or who made the YT clip may have exposed something, who knows?
Feel free to watch it and critique it, but I’m not holding my breath 🙄
It was hardly an attack.. Linking to someone's previous coverage of Russia while they cover another Russia topic is perhaps highly relevant?
The Morrissey ‘analysis’:
It was an attack on the messenger, plain and clear.
It was a reminder to everyone that the "messenger" is a discredited propagandist.
In your opinion, of course. Which you formulated completely independently, of course.
So, this is your MO: find a YT clip or some writing that you vehemently disagree with (because of mysterious reasons that only a psychologist might understand) and then use it to have a swipe at the messenger/author. Then you claim (!) that it was trenchant critique and analysis of the content while in fact it was an attack on the messenger/author all along.
This is a mindboggingly stupid way of debating 🙄
You clearly have no will to see where Morrissey might be coming from, by viewing and perhaps trying to understand the YT clip, and using that new information to make an assessment of the original post.
[As you know, it is expected on this site that when commenters link to a YT clip, especially a longer one, they provide an explanation why people should watch it. It is also expected that they provide some analysis and opinion of their own, you know, an original contribution, e.g. to start off constructive robust debate. Repeatedly failing to do so is considered a form of spamming, sometimes trolling, and will attract Moderators’ attention.
Why do you keep ignoring this and why are you doubling down on this? You’re now wasting Moderator time – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 8:37 pm.
Hi Incognito.
Just tonight Andre dumped a 52 page NZIER pdf document on me as evidence of argument without any dissection or analysis.
Just saying.
That’s terrible, I hope you didn’t get hurt.
Was there no context at all? He just dumped it on you, out of the blue?
Do you suggest I should ban Andre for wasting your time? I hate it when people deliberately waste my time; they’re usually trolls or spammers, the vermin of the blogosphere.
Just saying.
No. I'm saying posting YT videos is not a capital offence. I just ignore them like I ignored Andre's NZIER document.
[Another smart arse commenter telling us how to do and not do things here?
Please don’t bother re-writing the site’s Policy, as posting YT videos never has been a capital offence here. You’re disinformed.
Do you have anything useful to add or are you just trying to waste Moderator time as well? It seems to be the topic du jour. However, a piece of string is only as long its breaking point and a bubble pops when you pierce it one too many times – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 9:33 pm.
My how time flies.
https://twitter.com/ColleenBeattie_/status/1380229880055541766
https://thestandard.org.nz/i-thank-margaret-thatcher/
Here's a list of people supposed impartial political observer, Dr Bryce Edwards, quotes in his latest cut 'n' paste effort about the National Party leadership trysts:
Claire Trevett – National Party embedded journalist.
Richard Prebble – Former ACT MP and far right wing activist.
Tova O'Brien – Neutral, but only by dint of being about Tova and Tova alone.
David Farrar, twice – Sheesh. Farrar seems more quoted by Dr Bryce than any other.
Dan Satherley – Hardly noticed him before. Must be good.
Audrey Young – Noted right wing journalist with long National Party affiliations.
Heather Duplicity-Allen , also twice – Increasingly hard right wing shock jock.
Matthew Hooton – Oh, my, God.
Andrea Vance – See Tova O'Brien.
Luke Malpass – Australian right wing journalist.
Seven out of ten sources from the right and far right, and three relatively neutral. As a footnote, in the satire section, Dr Bryce entertained the only two entries which might be considered left wing voices.
So much for balanced media, and so much for balanced media critics.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/440202/national-party-leadership-does-luxon-have-what-it-takes
Bryce Edwards is quoting experienced political reporters who have the qualifications and experience to be quoted.
Farrar and Hooten are some of the right's most trenchant critics, both roundly rejected by National's cliques.
Edwards himself is raising questions that plenty of other observers have been raising. Indeed National has changed its leaders three times in a year for the same reasons.
I don't think you read my comment. Bryce Edwards pretends to be an impartial observer yet he quotes no qualified person writing from the left's perspective.
Such a person might have explained that National's leadership issues run way deeper that the personalities involved. The core of the rot is in the Party itself, its moribund and corrupt leadership and membership alike.
He's a curious case, and came in for a bit of stick from LPrent a while back.
There was a progressive thread to his writing, back in the day, but he was monstered by the other political writers at the Herald after a few well-researched columns.
Since that time he's produced drivel – compromised hack-work – and his progressive credibility, such as it was, is at zero.
Muttonbird and Stuart M – I notice that BE seems strangely not-left, and so it might be a case of BCE.
Farrar a Nat critic? Where a tongue bath is a telling off, perhaps.
Assad's criming continues.
(Beirut) – Syrian authorities are unlawfully confiscating the homes and lands of Syrians who fled Syrian-Russian military attacks in Idlib and Hama governorates, Human Rights Watch said today.
A pro-government militia and the government-controlled “Peasants’ Unions” were involved in seizing and auctioning these lands to government supporters.
“Peasants’ Unions are supposed to help protect farmers’ rights, but have become one more tool in the Syrian government’s systematic repression of its own people,” said Sara Kayyali, Syria researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Aid organizations should ensure that Peasants’ Unions are not providing assistance for farming on stolen land.”
https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/04/08/syria-government-stealing-opponents-land
Unlawful according to who’s law?
And how do we know the land wasn't stolen from peasants in the first place? Perhaps Human Rights Watch could clear that up.
Israel have been doing far worse for decades now and no-one gives a shit, so meh.
TBF, lots on the left only seem to give a rats about Palestinian Arabs when they're victims of Israel.
On what evidence do you base that statement?
Perhaps Human Rights Watch could clear that up.
It's extremely depressing to have to say this, but that's unlikely.
https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1197471498665103360
I don't know much about HRW but sometimes they do seem a front for Western capitalist expansion.
They're more than a front, they're a tool. Ken Roth’s support for the extreme right coup in Bolivia and his contempt for the democratically elected government is akin to backing Franco over the Republican government in the 1930s.
Hi Stuart Munro if you are around. There is an historic account for a Stuart Young. an entrepreneur with Ron Davis in something called Interlock – clever chap. He lived in Breaker Bay from a boy, he knew on the fateful Wahine day on April 10, 1968 that there was trouble. The weather was worse than ever before.
It says about it 'At 6.30 am that day, Stuart and Jenny saw the Wahine in Chaffers Passage, on the Breaker Bay side of the reef, facing the houses (a sight witnessed by many in the bay but never accepted by the official court of inquiry). It was clear she was in serious trouble and Stuart immediately phoned the police.'
Why would the Court reject the witnesses' evidence? Why would the position of the boat be so important; if it was facing the houses then it would have been prow towards them and trying to beach wouldn't it?
Incidentally Young and Davis set up a business to be emulated today. They had to fight protective battles for their patents in Uk and Japan. The company patented all over the world so that they kept ahead of global competitors through invention and smart marketing. They operated a profit-sharing bonus system and a medical insurance scheme, arranged free influenza vaccinations for anyone who wanted them and offered opportunities for staff to train and retrain at all levels and employees were encouraged to make decisions and to raise any matter they wanted and be honest with each other; everyone was on first-name terms. Wow.
Apr.10/21 https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/124779833/obituary–entrepreneur-stuart-young-first-to-raise-the-alarm-about-the-ferry-wahine
Why would the Court reject the witnesses' evidence?
Official positions, like those of MSA, the harbour master, and the officers of the vessels traditionally had a level of privilege that is hard to imagine now that video of such occurrences is in play to debunk the most egregious political distortions of such systems. The thirty million MSA spend on helicopter flights during the wreck of the Rena, for example, implied that they were not so much seamen, as troughers. Were they seamen they’d have done more work by boat.
Why would the position of the boat be so important; if it was facing the houses then it would have been prow towards them and trying to beach wouldn't it?
Without a full knowledge of events one cannot judge whether the ship's heading was appropriate or not – it might have steered into the wind to minimize leeway, or, as you say, to try to beach, or to avoid a hazard like Barret's Reef which they had misunderstood the position of. The wind may also have blown the bow around, off the desired course, and they might have been struggling to get back on track.
I used to have a pocket watch from the Wahine, that I found diving on Barret's Reef.
Thanks Stuart interesting and your first part possibly would refer also to the Mikhail Lermontov tragedy of one of Russia's premier ships being piloted by a Marlborough leading mariner to a watery grave. Was it political,, was it sabotage? Will we ever know and why pilot Jamieson got off lightly.
I was also wondering if the Wahine couldn't be said to have been steered towards land or the insurance might have placed personal blame on the Captain rather than the consideration of an Act of God causing the damage, or whatever cover was to be provided.
I knew someone who investigated Lermentov. No proof, but an abiding sense that 'something wasn't right' was one observation. The Geo story covers it fairly well: The last cruise of Mikhail Lermontov | New Zealand Geographic (nzgeo.com)
There is a fairly full description of the wreck here.
https://youtu.be/qQfetkoGrpU