Ever wondered why some of your good friends and comrades seems to lose all rational thought and any capacity for critical thinking since Trump was elected?
If so then watch this maybe not all your questions will be answered, but at least maybe some will be.
Starts out by mischaracterizing Mueller's report – Mueller was quite careful not to 'deliver a verdict', leaving a number of issues to be resolved by Congress. His findings certainly did not exculpate Russia – they merely failed to establish conclusively that the abundant Russian meddling was state backed.
If your critical thinking is giving Putin a free pass, it probably isn't critical at all.
I don't think anyone is arguing that the Russians didn't do a little meddling, but it is also common knowledge now that that was very insignificant, we all know that this is what many major governments seem to do..it is also common knowledge that the USA is by far and away the worst offender…so whats your point?
"giving Putin a free pass" seriously? man you Russia conspiratory people just keep on moving the goal posts don't you…it's over, finished, finito, no collusion, no Russian bogeymen, we are only left with a Democratic party unable to deal with the fact that it’s ideology has been rejected, and they lost the most winnable election in living memory.
A bunch more successful prosecutions from Russian electoral interference than Watergate.
Trump isn't out of the woods legally yet either, but, as with Al Capone, it's the taxes that get you in the end.
Democrats are doing just fine electorally, and on track to do even better. They are dong better in fact than most of the centre-left parties in the world except ours.
The only ones in the US Democratic Party who are disappointed are the hard left, but disappointment is inherent to their very nature.
@Ad, It says a lot about you that would consider just wanting fair wages, health care, and getting educated without a mountain of debt to be 'hard left'.
The Democrats are doing fine, really, and what centrist Dem do you think they have who will beat Trump?..and please don't say Biden, cos then I really will know that you are living in fantasy land.
Firstly you obviously implied who the ‘hard left’ are in the Democratic party so don’t play all cute on it now, there are not really that many options.
Secondly I asked first so how about you answer first then I will be glad to give you my opinion.
You are the one proposing America's Democrats in denial from your first post. So go ahead and defend that position yourself.
You don't like Biden despite him being the clear favorite. I will form an opinion on who I prefer based on how they perform in the primaries. A lot of my opinion will ride on whether the Democratic candidate can actually beat Trump. There are not many of those.
@Ad, " A lot of my opinion will ride on whether the Democratic candidate can actually beat Trump. There are not many of those."
Well at least we can agree on something, which suits me fine because I would suggest that none of the centrist 'establishment' candidates the Dems are hoping will be their saviour will have a chance of beating Trump, which only leaves Progressives, and really only one of them can hope to pull off the win, and I think we all know who that is…
Of course that would mean that the Democratic party machine would need to fall in behind that candidate, and that is not a given at this point…it hardly needs to be said, that their are many establishment Dems who would rather lose to Trump than win with a real Progressive.
Norm Kirk achieved very little and lasted two years.
Bill Rowling simply lost.
Both were darlings of the hard left.
For the record I prefer Helen Clark to Jacinda Ardern, Bill Rowling, Norm Kirk, or Nordmeyer. Because Clark has a track record of delivery over the long term, which has lasted very well.
Yep her free trade deals really did wonders for small business and manufacturing in New Zealand…but hey, at least everyone ended up with flatscreen tv's and houses full of shit plastic toys for their kids, and crap clothes made by kids in slave conditions that none of us are meant to give a shit about, yes siree that is a real Labour leader right there.
Of course it dosn't surprise me at all that you would find her brutal free market ideology so very appealing.
i don’t believe she is polling even in the margin of error so a pointless follow Looks like Biden has got this by default as the rest of the pack try to out left loon each other
@Bewildered ‘Biden has got this by default as the rest of the pack try to out left loon each other'…oh you mean loony as in demanding fair pay, access to health care to all, curtailing US bloody interventions and bullying around the world, and by extension cutting the obscene amounts spent on useless weapons and warfare, stopping corporations and the super wealthy buying political favour….you mean those loons who would try and aim high instead of grovelling for the crumbs that you seem happy to eat (or for other people to eat) off the floor, you mean those loons?
BTW, if you really think Biden has got it in the bag, then you are going to be seriously disappointed…never happen, he represents everything most US citizens are sick and disgusted by, that bump in the polls he has now got is the highest he will ever get, only downward for him now going forward, just like that other corporatist Dem, the hated H.Clinton who started high and then tanked all the way in.
BTW Tulsi Gabbard has just been endorsed by Joe Rogan, probably one of the most popular figures on You Tube and
Ron Paul, so it will be interesting to see what that does to her numbers.
Thanks francesca, that is a very good interview, quite timely too after yesterdays little back and forth with some other Standard commenters, that degenerated quite quickly into ad hominem slurs I thought, while (as usual and of course) never once actually addressing the original core topic.
At the risk of upsetting the August Brainful Greywarshark Troll, I am suggesting to normal people that the Entrapment Technique in Parliament is itself a very risky thing.
National to a man and a woman, have taken to the idea that any Minister of the Crown can be entrapped easily, and his "crime" can be forwarded to Granny Herald, and Lisa Owen, instantly. Gotcha!
It uses a "LIE to Catch a non LIAR".
So The Right Honourable, Professor, Doctor, Nick Smith brought into Parliament a Lady who sadly had lost a child in a Motor Accident. Dr Smith and the Lady were of the opinion that it was not the driver of the vehicle that killed her son, but the drugs the driver had taken.
The Police had not known that the Driver who killed the Lady's son was on the road.
Apparently, the people of Nelson expect every driver who steps into any vehicle to be immediately Breath and Drug tested. All the way there, and all the way back.
Now, Dr Smith knows Nelson is very special. I am not privvy to what Smith knows. The Lady Dr Smith brought into Parliament was speaking out without being asked. During which time The Minister of Police was asked if he recalled saying that the Government would look into Drug Driving. The Minister said he could not recall saying that.
Then Dr Smith implied that Minister of Police was not speaking the Truth. However, The same Minister tried to assist a national member of Parliament to manage Submitting a Bill about Drug Driving, and spent some time with him. If that is not Truth – what is ?
But the national member told the Minister of Police to sod off.
How come Dr Smith knew about what bits of paper The Police Minister had forgotten, and what he didn't have? Does Dr Smith have night time access to the Government's Chambers ?
Dr Smith and the Lady wrang their Knuckles out. The Speaker thought it was very distasteful – which it was. The Dr kept raving that the Government had done nothing about Drug Driving.
The stangeness of this whole incident that led to Dr Smith's punishment is: That the Stupid Member for Nelson has had 29 years in Parliament to stop Drug Driving in Aoteroa and has not lifted a finger ! He has made a fool of himself and of the bereaved Lady and of Nelson
But neither Lisa Owen – or the sick Aurty Herald will know about that !
Today on our own publicly owned media – we had to be shamed again by the Australians about our "lack luster efforts to tackle climate change, when UK has already enshrined in their law that climate change is a crisis – said Peter Garrett (of midnight oil fame) on TV one while interviewed by John Campbell breakfast show..
Right, so in your bizarre magical kingdom, anyone who has ever travelled via commercial airliner can never, ever say anything about climate change… ever.
Ho hum. It is winter (despite record high temperatures, but who's cares?) so if I buy an actual paper paper….at least it'll do to light the fire.
The headline shrieks…
Radical, promising, and totally unaffordable: Government's $24m disability experiment !!! and goes on to say that…
In a radical experiment, disabled people are choosing who cares for them and how they want to live. But as Government has found out, the ambitious programme is totally unaffordable.
Yes, be interested to see who is feeding journos that angle. The pilots are probably verifying how much of the cost has previously been borne by the family and others around each person, is all.
WEAG mentions in passing the need to update the scant research about the extra costs of being disabled in NZ to go with the extensive work they drew on about the overall population.
I was about to send them an email to ask just that…
The article (having risked life and petrol bowser squeezing my Bus into a tiny gap at the petrol station to buy the damn herald) says little other than folks have actually moved to Mid Central to take advantage of the System Transformation/Enabling Good Lives scheme that is being trialed there after the two previous trials in Canterbury and Waikato.
Our friends from the New Zealand Disability Support Network are not happy….the article describes NZDSN as 'advocates', but does not make it clear that they are advocates for those who receive funding from the government for providing disability support services. A pity, because that would have given an otherwise flimsy story some teeth. Every single dollar that the eligible disabled person has choice and control over how it is spent is potentially another dollar that fails to go through the NZDSN's members' bank accounts. Many of whom pay no tax on that income because they are registered charities…
I'm pretty sure the 24million over two years (not even a flag referendum) is operating costs for the trial rather than increases in cost of providing supports.
Saw a copy. Article reflects lack of knowledge about disability support funding in general. And yes, conflating providers with advocates. Grrr.
Main problem for the family they hang the story from is their local assessment agency capping support eligibility at only 20 hours per week for a youg man whose family say requires 24×7 support – not how provision is contracted after that.
He concludes that pre-colonial Melanesian and Papuan society sustained a political utopia that has somehow been erased by the Auckland Museum. That's impressive museological work from 7 curators.
He could at least cite some evidence, any evidence at all. He's just looking for a source of righteousness ………. it just isn't there.
If your politics are not focused on climate change adaptation first and foremost, then you are part of the problem.
It seems to me that just focussing on climate change eliminates people and their vulnerabilities and needs completely from empathetic consideration for the human race. If Bradbury is finding fault with identity politics' narrow concerns, the answer is to widen concern to everyone who is struggling to keep their heads up in the rush of change monetising everything and replacing humanity with technology. Keep thinking about people with kindness linked to what is practical, to what is needed by each group in society, and attention will shift to the young, and their future which will require a turn of alarge degree in people's moral compass.
I can manage to think with kindness about people who are taking a fundamentally irrational stance on the meaning of the words 'woman' and 'man,' but can not find any kindness in me for the ones trying to get people sacked for failing to share the delusion. Those guys can go fuck themselves.
Grizzly, grumpy, itchy, spotty kids. Nothing that lashings of TLC, calamine lotion, soda bic baths and mummy milos won't fix.
My youngest is in her mid twenties and somehow she and her bros survived the pox…just as well as there was no vaccine then. If I recall correctly they shared the mumps as well. Good times.
And if you read the article rather than just the headlines you'd know that the fellow and his family knew there was a chance of him getting the pox and are ok with it.
You really are a malicious pro-diseaser, aren't you. I'm actually disgusted.
Plague Boy could be infecting other people that for whatever sound medical reasons cannot be safely vaccinated. Those unfortunates are reliant on vaccination rates in the general population being high enough to get herd immunity for their protection. Plague Boy is deliberately choosing to put those people at totally unnecessary risk. If any of those who cannot be vaccinated gets infected by Plague Boy, I hope they sue Plague Boy's ass off.
There's a whole big list of medical reasons why a few unfortunate people shouldn't get the chickenpox vaccine. Plague Boy could be spreading his disease to anyone he comes into contact with in the general population, not just at his school. Including mums with their infants too young to be vaccinated.
Chickenpox is transmitted by persons suffering an active infection. The vaccine is from 85% (single dose) to 98% (double dose) effective in preventing active infection. If the vaccine prevents someone from getting an active infection, it's prevented them from spreading the disease.
That herd immunity is an actual thing is demonstrated by the way measles outbreaks are extremely rare in populations that are highly vaccinated against measles (double dose 97% effective), but mumps outbreaks still happen even in highly vaccinated populations (88% effective double dose).
Some don't support vaccination, and for the life of me I don't understand why. It's an ever-improving medical therapy much older than any of us. Vaccinations against diseases that are rarely fatal may be an apparent waste of time and money, but that opinion won’t deter me from getting my annual flu jab next Monday.
"In 2011, the WHO estimated that there were about 158,000 deaths caused by measles. This is down from 630,000 deaths in 1990. In developed countries, death occurs in 1 to 2 cases out of every 1,000 (0.1% – 0.2%). Death from measles was reported in approximately 0.2% of the cases in the United States from 1985 through 1992. In populations with high levels of malnutrition and a lack of adequate healthcare, mortality can be as high as 10%. Increased immunization has led to an estimated 78% drop in measles deaths among UN member states."
Some don't support vaccination, and for the life of me I don't understand why.
Millions, and rapidly growing numbers, including medical professionals don't support all vaccines…and with a burgeoning medical science archive of evidence why they should not…
Higher numbers than that again do not support forced vaccinations…
If you don't understand why, then you are not at all well read or informed on the subject…wiki-p link tells me that you are not..
But your comments in general are some of the better reading on this site…in my opinion…
It's an ever-improving medical therapy much older than any of us
No, it is not older than the evolution of our species … so you're not thinking logically with that statement, are you…
No, it is not an ever improving medical therapy. In fact the vaccine industry including the regulators have been actively preventing the improvement of vaccines…in a myriad of ways…
Not least by removing all liability from the manufacturers in 1986.
Closely followed by the DHHS breaking federal law by failing to ensure that biannual vaccine safety and improvement reports were filed. Sixteen times that federal law was broken by the regulators themselves…
I've posted ample (searchable) material over recent months highlighting some of the core issues with vaccine science and the vaccine industry as a whole…
Believing ‘we’ can out-smart nature is pure folly..and it is showing in the increasing illness and disease rates globally…
It's an ever-improving medical therapy much older than any of us
No, it is not older than the evolution of our species … so you're not thinking logically with that statement, are you…
No, it is not an ever improving medical therapy. In fact the vaccine industry including the regulators have been actively preventing the improvement of vaccines…in a myriad of ways…
My statement was factual (did you read it carefully?) – vaccination therapies have been used for hundreds of years. Medical therapies have extended human life spans, but no-one is that old.
Researchers are currently working towards developing new or more effective vaccines against the zika virus, against specific cancers, against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and any number of other ‘diseases’. Surely an effective vaccine against M. tuberculosis would be useful addition to the ensemble of medical therapies.
I acknowledge that immune systems are (hyper)variable (that's an in joke), and not fully understood. But our partial understanding has enabled highly effective public health initiatives – I for one would not want to see those gains lost.
For example, vaccination programmes led to the global eradication of smallpox in 1977, so no-one is vaccinated against smallpox these days (Wyeth stopped making the vaccine in the early 1980s). I imagine that smallpox would thrive in our present-day high-density cities – what benefits do you imagine might accrue from reintroducing this disease?
Settle Andre…you're going to blow your foo foo valve!
Goodness gracious me…chickenpox is not the plague. It has a death rate of one in 60000 cases. With good care, one in sixty thousand children who get chickenpox will recover completely.
Not being vaccinated against a disease that until very recently had no vaccine is not a crime.
How is there anything malicious in what I wrote?
Nah, don't answer that, you'll just use it as an excuse to level more vitriol.
A death rate of one in 60000 from something that's completely preventable is absolutely unacceptable. But you seem to think it's something to joke about, even embrace. That is malicious.
Now, I happen to think that adults should have sufficient right to bodily autonomy that they should be able to refuse vaccination if they so wish. And I'll take a Darwinian view of any subsequent suffering or death they suffer. But they should also be held fully accountable for the consequences of their decision. Just like people are held accountable for other idiot negligence they indulge in that causes harm to others.
But when it comes to kids, I don't view kids as their parents' property to do with as they please. Parents have an obligation to make decisions for the best interests of the child, not to impose whatever personal idiocies they may have on the child. A child that becomes ill with a vaccine-preventable disease and wasn't vaccinated but could have been has just suffered horrific child abuse, and the parents should be held accountable for that.
Except people with contraindications don't have the option of getting vaccinated, even if all vaccines were 100% permanently effective.
Anyway, answers:
1: No, that's a goal to work towards.
2: The immune system probably wasn't designed and is merely the evolved product of our ancestors' survival and reproduction over aeons. But if it was designed, then the same designer made ebola and is a complete bastard, so I care not for their intentions.
Final question McFlock….what then will our immune system do when it does not have to initiate an immune response naturally because vaccination has taken over that role?
If it doesn't have to "initiate an immune response naturally" (I assume that means reacting to viruses etc it encounters in the course of our daily lives), then it's not encountering those germy-jims, is it.
If "naturally" means that its first encounter with the bug is from an interaction in our normal daily life, and it hits a live, fully armed and operational battlestation germ, then we get sick, and hope that between our immune system and medicine it doesn't really fuck us up.
But if we get vaccinated for everything, then at highest efficacy we don't notice a "natural" immune response, because our immune systems have an effective counter to that particular germ. We'd never get a cold, or the flu, or ebola. Heck, no infectious diseases ever, if we vaccinated against all viruses and bacteria. No gangrene, no tetanus, no staph.
Causes of death would almost entirely be injury and debilitation.
I'm explicitly stating there are rapidly increasing numbers of young human beings in the developed nations, who are becoming ill, diseased and mentally damaged by a number of environmental factors, which undeniably includes vaccines…
Manufacturers, trial data, vaccine program deployment data and legal decisions explicitly state that vaccine cause illness, disease and death…
So you're shying away from claiming that the rising yadda yadda is due vaccines to any substantive level.
You're just saying "this increases", "this occasionally causes that" (an arguable position, depending on how broad "this" is), and following it up with… nothing explicit.
You've already conceded once to me today, McFlock…you're a very long way behind, overall..
When you've read and understood the subjects and materiala I've pointed you to…and to a sufficient level…perhaps we could have this conversation again…
If the manufacturers, trial data, vaccine program data, legal rulings data and vaers data are not explicit enough for you…
Then you're being intentially disingenuous…which of course you are…
A difference between yourself and some of the bigots and misogynists who comment on this subject…in my opinion…
Is that you're likely to be clued up enough to get a grasp of some of the gaping flaws in vaccine industry science…
If vaccines were responsible to any decent fraction of the rise in allergies etc, basically not just the drug companies and FDA but every single regulatory agency, collective health purchaser (insurance company, MoH, general practise corporation) and medical surveillance body (down to all individual researchers) would have to be in on the cover-up, around the entire globe. Frequently to their own detriment.
Do you not understand how top down centralised structures function , McFlock ?
Especially an entire industry with zero…zero liability…that's zero, McFlock…
Zero liability with decades of malpractice, fraudulant, corrupted activities…tens of billions in settlements…and regulatory agencies that are racked with conflicts and were captured decades ago…
The CDC is the vaccine industry …so is the FDA….congress is brought by the vaccine industry lobbyists…and DOJ defends vaccine manufacturers against the same people their products damage, injure and kill…
Individual researchers…yeah sure…those whose very career is paid for by vaccine manufacturers…who perform research inside of strictly controlled, narrow confines paid for by the manufactures…
Whose research is reviewed by captured peers and published in pharma medical journals… which were outed years ago by their former editors saying the data is mostly <em>untrustworthy …</em>
Where researchers who break ranks are crucified by the pharma advertising dependent and compliant media..
Where independent researchers are denied access to trial data…
So yes…there are undeniably cover-ups going on… including at the present time…numerous court cases around the world .. even their own employees are taking manufacturers to court…for fraudulant trial methodologies and outright statistical fraud…among others…
I'm explicitly stating there are rapidly increasing numbers of young human beings in the developed nations, who are becoming ill, diseased and mentally damaged by a number of environmental factors, which undeniably includes vaccines…
"Environmental factors" undeniably includes everything that exists in your environment. It "includes" vaccines to the extent that it "includes" approximately infinity other things.
Thank goodness we have experts like you operating on a higher level than the rest of humanity. Save us from this global conspiracy of millions of people! /sarc
Sarcasm is low grade wit..it's late though.. so I get it…
And I've explained some of my perspective as to how top down industry can easily corner entire markets including research data…which is precisely what is happening…
Like I said…I reckon you actually grasp just enough that even the self confessed dickhead that you are…can see it..
Bit shocking…yeah I get that too…but denying it doesn't stop it… or alter the documented truth of whats going on…a simple concept…
Millions upon millions around the world…some not even at your level…getting it…and growing by the day..
You can say "top down" all you want, but the fact is that if vaccines were responsible for what you claim, there is no way to keep it under wraps. As each vaccine is introduced in each country and region, you'd have to disguise (somehow) the resulting step-change in immune conditions as it occurs. You'd have to control every researcher directly, not just ones involved with vaccine development but case studies and cohort studies run by physicians who want to identify causes of the uptick in the cases they get. "Top down" control requires instructions and memos – there would be literally millions of copies of these floating around, but all gept secret because… conspiracy.
There have been some vaccines and other treatments that had inflated efficacy or disguised adverse reactions. But a global conspiracy to coverup a major problem with the concept of vaccination itself? That's a fucking big call to make on the basis of "higher level" thinking and a few individual cases almost exclusively from the yanks.
You're ignoring the size and dominance of the pharma/vaccine industry…
And you're ignoring the zero liability…
It's far simpler than you believe..and of course there is conspiracy…but you reckon you're smarter than falling for missing it…eh..
Except it's happening in front of your closed eyes…
instructions and memos…
Simpler than that…just a good corporate take over of regulatory agencies and a repeat of tabacco science once 100% liability was removed…
Leading to removal of incentive to improve safety or quality…
Leading to increased incentive to perform poorer quality research and trials…while producing more and more vaccines…
Then get your colleagues at the FDA to approve the new low grade products.. and your colleagues at the CDC to schedule them and buy billions of dollars worth annually..and the DOJ to fight the damages on your behalf…
All taxpayer funded of course…
So to your point..it's not global…it is the opposite..it's all local…don't be fooled…and then exported around the world…rinse and repeat…
Because…central authority…which you're a long time advocate of…
Despite admitting there has been serious problems…still ongoing and worsening…
So all the cohort studies in NZ are covering up massively reduced levels of immune disorders in their unvaxed people because of big pharma?
Everyone working for those studies are defending big pharma by falsifying results?
The adverse events reporting systems that show adverse events for medications do not show the same level of events for vaccines because big pharma would rather vaccinate than sell opioids or NSAIDs?
You would need to provide examples of studies to which you refer…
That said, the studies (assuming you mean vaccine related) are 100% of the time initiated with faulty entry point criteria…
Which results in 100% faulty and fraudulent exit point criteria and statistics…
Why…because every FDA approved and licenced vaccine was approved using highly unscientific methodologies…
Of the current CDC schedule , therefore those vaccines on the NZ schedule…every single type/brand post licensure trial data is flawed…because the of the pre-licensure trials fraud…
No need to falsify…the data was already false to begin with…
I've explained it with examples previously…more than once…
VAERS data is underreported by a factor of 10 – 100 possibly more so…regardless of the type…pharma drugs or vaccines…the data is deeply misleading…
I've evidenced that also…
As for pharma…any globally dominant industry…will seek to cover all bases to ensure the greatest levels of profit and stakeholder returns…
Whatever it has to sell within the product catalogue…will be sold…no matter what…
Fully endorsed by the regulators and health authorities…
I mean not just vaccine trials and studies, but longitutinal cohort trials such as the Dunedin Study. These pick a starting cohort, gather information about them, and follow participants for decades. Between them, hundreds of thousands of kids have been followed from birth, vaccination status logged along with every other social and medical criteria imaginable. Hundreds of publications from each study, cross-comparing different factors and utcomes in participants' lives. Every single one of those studies would need to have been compromised by "big pharma", too, just to avoid the alleged contribution of vaccination to allergies. And yet many of those studies get zero funding from pharma and are careers in themselves for the researchers, so how does big pharma compromise them?
Even if all vaccine adverse event reporting systems around the world underreported adverse events by 90% (and how does US big pharma compromise Russia's or China's medical reporting systems?), that would still leave a difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated kids in the general population. So every single allergy researcher who observes that difference needs to be compromised by big pharma to shut them up.
I really don't think you understand just how large your alleged conspiracy would have to be, spanning multiple disciplines across the entire globe, regardless of self-interest or geopolitical enmity. All with barely any "leaks", if any. For 70 years or more. No deathbed confessions, whistleblowers dumping to wikileaks, memos sent to journalists by accident, civil servants failing to redact OIA requests, nothing.
All just for vaccines, but not for any of the other drugs big pharma is distributing. When they couldn't even disguise oxy's harm for a decade.
Link to the Dunedin Study ..I've no idea what it is youre referring to…so I can review it..
Either way makes no difference as all and any studies are subject to the same controls and limitations placed on them by authorities…
Just quickly to the rest of your comment because you and I have covered the same ground before.
I’m not talking about Russia or China…
Unvaccinated and partially vaccinated human beings are everywhere…
Expected, unexpected, specific, non specific, reactivation, protein sensitization…etc
Leaks are global, whistleblowers become walking targets, confessions including alive people, high up insiders. Zimmerman et al
FOIA everywhere Ive been linking to the details repeatedly here..but folks dont;like Kennedy / Bigtree et al…
Pharma drugs are subject to far more stringent regulation…and companies can be sued for damage…same companies cant be sued for biologicals damage…vaccines NVICP…
Harm is global and not hidden. Its coming out and can't be stopped…hence censorship and force are being used…
But that's the point: you're not talking about other treatments, and you're not talking about Russia and China.
Why would vaccines be the only treatment big pharma decide to cover up any adverse events from on a global scale? Surely something addictive would be a better product for them to implement a decades long coverup over?
Why don't Russian and Chinese authorities say shit like "we would vaccinate, but it's too dangerous, you guys are crazy"?
You'r arguing that researchers not directly tied to the pharmaceutical industry are covering up a demonstrable association between vaccination and immune disorders in NZ, USA, Britain, Africa, Asia…
I get the theory that a vaccine researcher might be cherry-picked or influenced to not make their career or employer obsolete, but so many unconnected researchers? Come on.
His only notable skill is in the use of ellipsis, with some secondary merit in outlandish conclusions drawn from a general misunderstanding of just about everything, certainly his only knowledge of things scientific and medical is dubious sites on the interwebs and I fear he learnt nothing from the good teachers at Rosmini all those years ago.
Immune systems don't wear out and they don't break. Like other biological systems, continually use them and they get stronger.
For quite a few years, my social circle included a lot of wildlife researchers and aid workers. They were continually getting jabs for whatever was a risk wherever they were going next. They also suffered the least from flu and colds and whatever other lurgies were going around at the time. Didn't stop a few of them coming down with real nasties they couldn't get vaccinated against, tho. Malaria was kinda common.
The problems with allergies and asthma and auto-immune diseases that are becoming more common are more plausibly linked to our modern obsession with cleanliness. That our immune systems don't get enough external challenges to keep them busy, and they turn on us instead. Read up about the "hygiene hypothesis".
The human immune system did not evolve by injecting chemicals directly into the human body…
Short circuiting and bypassing the precicely evolved systems which you believe can be strengthened through a bypass of medical and chemical injections…
No. They can't. They become weekend and the system becomes damaged..
Which is why your home country has the highest number of vaccinations in any schedule… and the sickest cohort populations in the OECD…
You don't respect anecdotes..so stop repeatedly using them yourself…
The final part of your comment is a likely contributer…I do agree with that..
I would rather have a polio vaccine & a "weakend immune system", than suffer polio itself. I knew a lady that years ago caught polio with a young friend in pre-vaccine times. The young boy died from the polio & she eventually recovered but had years of bouts of excrutiating pain. You seem to paint a picture of natural immunity as a wonder of nature to behold, but it is a lack of understanding of the history of diseases that your ignorance shows.
"The human immune system did not evolve by injecting chemicals directly into the human body…" All natural biological molecules (simple or complex) are chemicals.
Replace "injecting" with 'introducing' and you're describing selection pressures which did indeed ‘guide’ the evolution of the human immune system.
For example, the innate immune system (non-specific, no 'memory') has evolved to detect certain chemical structures (PAMPs, pathogen-associated molecular patterns) and initiate responses to kill/destroy those pathogens.
The adaptive immune system mediates a stronger, specific immune response – individual pathogens are "remembered" courtesy of (chemical) antigens unique to the pathogen. Vaccines must contain antigens (chemicals) that are either derived from or mimic natural antigens (chemicals/molecules – often proteins) of the target pathogen – how else could a vaccine prime the immune system to recognise that pathogen?
Free hit if you like, One Two – I'll not reply as we would probably end up talking at cross-purposes.
I'll not respond as we would probably end up talking at cross purposes.
Given the comment about replacing injecting with introducing, it seems you're already at cross purposes… and potentially seeking to play word games with what is a clear differential regarding human evolutionary timeframes and modern medicines vaccine era…
As for your comment about all natural biological molecules are chemicals…yes quite…except vaccines are an industrialized factory manufactured chemical process including distribution and storage logistics…
Little of nothing to compare against the [how ever many] millenia of human evolutionary development…or introduction…
Vaccines are primarily about injecting laboratory and factory modified, contaminated compounds (many of which are unidentifiable) into human beings therefore bypassing the entirety of human immune and biological evolution…skin..mouth…nose..et al…
"Vaccines are primarily about injecting laboratory and factory modified, contaminated compounds (many of which are unidentifiable) into human beings therefore bypassing the entirety of human immune and biological evolution…skin..mouth…nose..et al…"
No, the role of pathogen-derived vaccine antigens is to activate/prime the human immune system against that specific pathogen – vaccines absolutely do not bypass the immune system. They do, however, largely bypass/avoid the symptoms of the disease.
If vaccine antigens “bypassed” the immune system, then they would be completely ineffective, whereas we know that vaccines can be highly effective, to the point of eradicating a deadly disease such as smallpox.
To be frank, with the incidence of antibiotic resistance on the rise, our immune systems are going to need all the help they can get.
Why are you ignoring the vaccine primary delivery mechanism of intramuscular needle injection?
Injection bypasses the innate structure of the immune systems lines of defence…or do you not understand the construct of the immune system…seems that you don’t…
Vaccine theory suggests a priming effect…
However… measuring a temporary increase in anti-body production does not confer immunity…and it never will when compared to life long full cell immunity from contracting a version wild virus…
Wild versions of virus which are mutating and becoming problematic in cohorts not previously observed..
Similar to antibiotics…vaccine overuse is leading to more failure and waning…while causing other illness and disease…
In short…we've screwed with nature…and we will be screwed back multi fold…as can be seen around the developed world…
Sick and disease ridden kids everywhere you go…
Undeniable…and vaccines are a contributing factor.
I’m no expert, but I have a fair grasp of the theory of how immune systems function at the molecular level; do you? I mean, you get how pathogen molecules interact with proteins and cells of the immune system, not just the macroscopic stuff, right?
You would rather innoculate yourself with a microscopic pathogen, than be vaccinated (protected) against that pathogen by injecting pathogen-derived antigens. Your choice – not mine. If you don't think vaccination is worth whatever risk you perceive, then don't get vaccinated. I'll continue to advocate for the vaccination of me and mine, regardless.
On balance, innoculation entails more risk than vaccination, so I'll stick with vaccination. Best of luck innoculating yourself with this year's influenza strains.
Now your lack of understanding is really showing up…masked by the inoculate vs vaccinate angle…that's ok..I'm with you…
Not only are you apparantly missing fundamentals of the constituent parts of the whole human immune system…but you're missing vaccine ingredient functions as well…
…pathogen derived antigens…
You understand thats not what causes the reaction …surely?
As for your final paragraph…as I've explained many times to others…risk is impossible to assess…the fraudulant pre licensure trials methodology ensure it…
And citing the flu vaccine…one of the most toxic…lowest efficacy rated vaccines of all…
I assume you were signalling your decision to have it?
We're on the same page with choice…I'm just armed with more and seemingly a better level of information when I make one…
"I assume you were signalling your decision to have it?"
I more than signalled it in my comment at 7:56 pm, but that's OK.
For the record, I did my post-doc in the Biochemistry Department at Cambridge University. No immunology expert (and I've never worked in a commercial lab, or received research funding from any corporate), but I am familiar with pathogens, antigens, antibodies, immune cell types, etc. I'm most comfortable with the innate immune response, and defensins in particular.
I admire the passion and energy of your anti-vax advocacy. There's no way I can match it – but (like you), I know what I know. Unlike you, perhaps, I know that I could be wrong.
P.S. I have commented previously on this site about the use of aluminium-based adjuvants in vaccine formulations (with references), and am aware that vaccines contain components other than the primary antigens. Those components are there for good reasons, and yes, some of them do come with risks. Pharmaceutical companies are aware of these risk and, believe it or not, many scientists and technicians are working to minimise those risks.
Apologies for using "anti-vax"; sincerely did not think this would offend you.
My admiration for the passion and energy of your advocacy (will not attempt to put a label on your 'cause') is genuine – it's your choice to believe that, or not.
Was a bit miffed at the “claimed background” jibe, but no offense taken.
You didn't actually link to the published article, just a report on the article. Fact. Vaccination rate dips, measles comes back. Fact.
As for how far ahead you are… was Louis Plageur the first person to "plageurize" theories from nature? And do nature submit articles on its theory to Nature, or does it self-publish?
But they weren't ok with the education people in Kentucky objecting to him potentially infecting other people with his "it's ok coz god provides" fuckwittery. so they sued. and lost. thank god.
Which is where the anti-vax argument really falls down. Everyone apparently should respect anti-vax's wishes to not be immunised but woe betide society if it's wishes are to have nothing to do with you because your wishes lead to death and suffering.
For the record…I am not anti vaccinations, I am pro informed consent and pro education and I also believe that vaccines will not prevent all the ills of the world.
Wouldn't it be nice if there was equal condemnation of parents who fail to provide warm dry housing for their children and fail to provide fresh and healthy food for their children?
In the New Zealand context we have third world rates of rheumatic heart disease and ever rising rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes.
But if we condemned the parents of those children we'd have to ask awkward questions about how on earth we've gone from being just about first in the world for producing healthy kids to where we are now.
And it has nothing to do with poor parenting.
But, however…just continue to deride parents who hesitate to vaccinate their children because they have genuine and well founded concerns… because that's easy.
Sigh. And this is why a conversation about vaccine hesitancy belongs on a political blog.
I am not going to link again to studies and media articles about instances where state funded vaccinations have caused actual harm and death of mostly children and the said state has either minimised these events or actually hidden them. Or continued using the faulty batch of vaccine until the drug company decides to withdraw it. Or the state uses the vaccine despite it's well known risks because it's cheaper. And then switches to damage control when kids die.
But some of us remember the kids who were harmed, and some of us have spoken with their mothers…who until the day they die will never forgive themselves for allowing their child to have that vaccine. And before you say it…no, not autism. And before you say 'prove it was the vaccine', do your own research into the early MMR and pertussis vaccines.
Politicians…a bit like our insurance companies who order clients to never admit fault or liability.
marty mars is being ironic I think, when he says let's get the history right – because much of the concern is about whether Cook’s uniform is portrayed correctly!
Me thinking about history:
My certainty is that the money should be spent on developing (along with Maori input) a curriculum that teaches our history, a working understanding of our civil and civic matters, what has made us what we are today – all the striving for better conditions and understanding, much of it forgotten along with the people who put such matters to the fore in their lives, forsaking idle gossip and personal enjoyment and even time with families.
Instead they put their time, talents and skills to organise, go to meetings, keep pushing for something to be done by a responsible and civilised nation to rectify some wrong or poor practice.
I want people to remember the NZ dream, and what we achieved – honour it, continue it! Let's use this Captain Cook anniversary to kit up our minds and our determination to carry on our achievements. Or are the leaders and powerful of our country of a mind to shut down NZ, is it finished now, and these expensive commemorations are to say goodbye to that time – dreamthat has run its course, now defunct and all we can do is accept and wave it goodbye.
It's time for kia kaha and being as strong as Maori who have fought to retain the good things from their culture and a life for themselves despite the depredations of capitalist colonialism which bring some good, and then take out extensive payment for those advantages till the receivers are beggared. Historian James Belich showed us our tottering steps to greatness:
The task of the pakeha was to 'smooth the pillow of the dying race'. … James Belich observes that the dying race theme 'persisted to 1930, a generation after census evidence showed conclusively that Maori were on the increase'. http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-StaMaor-t1-body-d4.html
Just as the people in power did not recognise the situation as to the Maori strength and achievement in front of them, and proceeded with fatuous sentimentality to dismiss the vibrancy of the Maori people as they wished to expropriate their resources, so today's powerful have agendas that warp their vision about NZ and its reality.
Let's learn about what we are and where we are and how we are going into the future. Turn that commemoration money into memory cells that we use to go forward and build a resilient country, a coping country, one that is self-sufficient and exports goods and good ideas that we have proved to be of value. Not the good ideas of neo lib that Roger Douglas and his ilk took to the world.
Behind the exhibition is indigenous rights advocate Tina Ngata of Ngāti Porou. She says, “[It's] an indigenous voice, an independent voice, related to his arrival, related to the mistreatment of the indigenous people of the Pacific. It's an indigenous voice about Crown and government funding to celebrate what he did to us."
The Tuia 250 commemorations by The Ministry of Culture and Heritage (MCH) will mark 250 years since the arrival of British captain James Cook and the Endeavour in Aotearoa.
Tina Ngata says, “For us, it's a specific concern around the re-entrenching of colonial fictions within the minds and hearts of our future generations, it impedes indigenous truth, there's still a lot of colonial mistruth being perpetuated through these events.”
What do you think then of my idea of starting a thorough-going curriculum of cultural and historical education for school children , as important as maths and science for secondary school kids. It would come into the sphere of having a broad education, not narrow concentrating on science as means for getting business growth.
It would draw on information that Maori have, bring people-centred matters to the fore, look at conflicting cultural ideas, talk about problem solving and attempting to find acceptable solutions that wold help in working through cultural differences.
We are so used to the huge complaints about the "failure" of Kiwibuild.
It is a bit strange that the Media is echoing the complaints but it seems unwarranted to me. So it takes longer to get underway. Come back in 10 years with a figure be it 5,000 or 50,000 or 100,000 houses. So what? The current Government is pushing hard to get housing built. The last Government did zilch yet escapes censure. Politics. Bah!
The preachiness and condemnation by the Opposition about everything Labour is so deeply hypocritical. You know that all the people who vote National will be absorbing it like blotting paper showing their deeply dysfunctional mentality, that they are incapable of establishing their real position in the world without using a GPS, and their sad dependence on the Great Man theory ie some Shining Leader who will always arise to assist them, and further their interests.
They look for a government that will aid them so they can avoid paying anything but a modicum of tax which leaves them in a satisfying net positive position, receiving more from the state than they have invested. Good business they consider, similar to Trump Trump did-not-pay-income-taxes-for-eight-years-according-to-new-report Trump is their present Shining Leader in the absence of some charismatic capital accretor here in NZ
Police are initiating a useful service for NZrs with non-urgent matters that will connect nationwide. You still call 111 for immediate need and urgency.
Nice that Phil made an attempt. Perhaps he can get the Best Effort award. The trouble is he didn't state he was just going to try. He stated he was going to deliver or he would resign.
Removing the sanction on single parents this week is just the start. We will continue to push for a full overhaul of our social support system – MaramaDavidson
Very good. That was said last week. So what has she done this week to progress that "push"?
Had a look at the Greens website and her Twitter account and there was nothing touted.
Your position as far left activist (further left than Marama Davidson apparently!) doesn't fit with your position in favour of spending hundreds of millions on a four lane highway between Otaki and Levin.
Labour deferred it, thus spending on it now will cost less than spending on it further down the road
Moreover, think of the bigger picture – i.e. housing. Housing in Levin is far cheaper than housing in Wellington, thus people need the better access making the cheaper home via the shorten travel time a more viable reality.
Not your job maybe, but you're an eager volunteer at every opportunity to criticise Labour or the Greens.
As I've explained, I don't create the opportunity/let downs and there is good reason to hold them to account.
At least Marama owned (on the Hui) only 3 recommendations being taken on wasn't a good start. But she needs to better detail what she is doing about pushing for more.
I give credit to Ardern as pm and leader of my former beloved labour party for March 15 because that was exactly wanted from a leader I live a few hundreds of meters away from the mosque in linwood and she was a beacon of light but let's be real socially the only thing jacinda has delivered is a baby and free hugs.
On mental health, welfare and housing this govt quite frankly cold hearted and slightly less vicious than national.
Why couldn't this govt raise disability and get rid of the solo mother sanction this year? Why do we have to wait 5-10 years for disabled people to get treated with some humanity.they don't need hugs they need cash to be able to get out and about.
When the pm quoted key the other night and said "work is the only way out of poverty" it made me sick labour and national always act like everyone on welfare is unemployed but some like my brother can't work… Ever … I guess he should just die because neither the labour nor national party's value his existence.
Winters here and we've had quite enough of hugs and empathy thanks t, but we need immediate action there's more homeless people , More begging more suicide in my area than ever before and I'm sorry we don't have ten years to wait for incrementalism.
So much for let's do this. If Savage or Kirk were around today I doubt they'd vote for any of the party's in parliament.
At this stage jacinda appears to be another Trudeau. Internationally celebrated but became less and less popular domestically for not keeping his promises and now is headed for certain defeat. For all our sakes I hope I'm wrong.
Start addressing poverty or piss off back to opposition.
'Housing Minister Phil Twyford will no longer guarantee that KiwiBuild will be made up of 100,000 affordable homes, but won't say whether that target has been scrapped either.
The Government's flagship housing policy is being "recalibrated" after an admission this year that it was unlikely to meet its first target of 1000 affordable homes built by July 1 2019. Just 80 have been built so far.'
I'd bring something up about planting some trees but that seems to have fallen by the wayside…
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
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This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
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Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
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New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
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“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
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Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
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How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
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This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti. Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has hosted members of the Green Party Caucus at Tuurangawaewae Marae in Ngaaruawahia. The audience follows the King’s Hui-aa-Motu on 20 January, where more than 10,000 people gathered to discuss national ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Rachael Potter, Research Associate and Lecturer in Work and Organisational Psychology, University of South Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Pregnant women and workers with children are often unfairly treated by their bosses and colleagues, despite laws to protect against workplace discrimination ...
Reacting to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s refusal to rule out introducing new taxes at the budget, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said: “Today’s refusal to rule out new taxes suggests the Government is nothing more ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne Aila Images/Shutterstock Aged-care workers will receive a significant pay increase after the Fair Work Commission ruled they ...
He’s bringing ‘Sophie’ back, yeah. Goodshirt’s ‘Sophie’ music video is one of the most instantly recognisable New Zealand music videos of all time. Featuring a woman listening to the song on headphones while her entire house is burgled behind her, the video won the New Zealand music award for Best ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University A year ago, the AUKUS agreement was formally announced between Australian and UK Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese and Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden. The agreement mapped out the “optimal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreas Helwig, Associate Professor, Electro-Mechanical Engineering, University of Southern Queensland SmartS/Shutterstock Steam locomotives clattering along railway tracks. Paddle steamers churning down the Murray. Dreadnought battleships powered by steam engines. Many of us think the age of steam has ended. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carrie Leonetti, Associate Professor of Law, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Victims who experience family violence in Aotearoa New Zealand are treated differently, depending on which part of the justice system they turn to for help. But a new member’s bill ...
America in denial: Gabor Maté on the psychology of Russiagate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR07OtEhKPE
Ever wondered why some of your good friends and comrades seems to lose all rational thought and any capacity for critical thinking since Trump was elected?
If so then watch this maybe not all your questions will be answered, but at least maybe some will be.
Starts out by mischaracterizing Mueller's report – Mueller was quite careful not to 'deliver a verdict', leaving a number of issues to be resolved by Congress. His findings certainly did not exculpate Russia – they merely failed to establish conclusively that the abundant Russian meddling was state backed.
If your critical thinking is giving Putin a free pass, it probably isn't critical at all.
I don't think anyone is arguing that the Russians didn't do a little meddling, but it is also common knowledge now that that was very insignificant, we all know that this is what many major governments seem to do..it is also common knowledge that the USA is by far and away the worst offender…so whats your point?
"giving Putin a free pass" seriously? man you Russia conspiratory people just keep on moving the goal posts don't you…it's over, finished, finito, no collusion, no Russian bogeymen, we are only left with a Democratic party unable to deal with the fact that it’s ideology has been rejected, and they lost the most winnable election in living memory.
A bunch more successful prosecutions from Russian electoral interference than Watergate.
Trump isn't out of the woods legally yet either, but, as with Al Capone, it's the taxes that get you in the end.
Democrats are doing just fine electorally, and on track to do even better. They are dong better in fact than most of the centre-left parties in the world except ours.
The only ones in the US Democratic Party who are disappointed are the hard left, but disappointment is inherent to their very nature.
@Ad, It says a lot about you that would consider just wanting fair wages, health care, and getting educated without a mountain of debt to be 'hard left'.
The Democrats are doing fine, really, and what centrist Dem do you think they have who will beat Trump?..and please don't say Biden, cos then I really will know that you are living in fantasy land.
You can define 'hard left' on your own time.
You can also tell us who you want win the Democratic nomination and why.
Firstly you obviously implied who the ‘hard left’ are in the Democratic party so don’t play all cute on it now, there are not really that many options.
Secondly I asked first so how about you answer first then I will be glad to give you my opinion.
You are the one proposing America's Democrats in denial from your first post. So go ahead and defend that position yourself.
You don't like Biden despite him being the clear favorite. I will form an opinion on who I prefer based on how they perform in the primaries. A lot of my opinion will ride on whether the Democratic candidate can actually beat Trump. There are not many of those.
@Ad, " A lot of my opinion will ride on whether the Democratic candidate can actually beat Trump. There are not many of those."
Well at least we can agree on something, which suits me fine because I would suggest that none of the centrist 'establishment' candidates the Dems are hoping will be their saviour will have a chance of beating Trump, which only leaves Progressives, and really only one of them can hope to pull off the win, and I think we all know who that is…
Of course that would mean that the Democratic party machine would need to fall in behind that candidate, and that is not a given at this point…it hardly needs to be said, that their are many establishment Dems who would rather lose to Trump than win with a real Progressive.
Fools like Ad would have dismissed Norm Kirk and Bill Rowling as "hard left."
Yeah I know, but it is slightly amusing to me to get these 'liberals' to actually say it out loud, usually they just don't respond though.
Norm Kirk achieved very little and lasted two years.
Bill Rowling simply lost.
Both were darlings of the hard left.
For the record I prefer Helen Clark to Jacinda Ardern, Bill Rowling, Norm Kirk, or Nordmeyer. Because Clark has a track record of delivery over the long term, which has lasted very well.
Yep her free trade deals really did wonders for small business and manufacturing in New Zealand…but hey, at least everyone ended up with flatscreen tv's and houses full of shit plastic toys for their kids, and crap clothes made by kids in slave conditions that none of us are meant to give a shit about, yes siree that is a real Labour leader right there.
Of course it dosn't surprise me at all that you would find her brutal free market ideology so very appealing.
You are mischaracterizing the report. The verdict was no collusion was found, even though it was written as if collusion was everywhere.
Tulsi Gabbard's views … in her own words..
https://theintercept.com/2019/05/09/watch-interview-with-democratic-congresswoman-and-2020-presidential-candidate-tulsi-gabbard/
i don’t believe she is polling even in the margin of error so a pointless follow Looks like Biden has got this by default as the rest of the pack try to out left loon each other
@Bewildered ‘Biden has got this by default as the rest of the pack try to out left loon each other'…oh you mean loony as in demanding fair pay, access to health care to all, curtailing US bloody interventions and bullying around the world, and by extension cutting the obscene amounts spent on useless weapons and warfare, stopping corporations and the super wealthy buying political favour….you mean those loons who would try and aim high instead of grovelling for the crumbs that you seem happy to eat (or for other people to eat) off the floor, you mean those loons?
BTW, if you really think Biden has got it in the bag, then you are going to be seriously disappointed…never happen, he represents everything most US citizens are sick and disgusted by, that bump in the polls he has now got is the highest he will ever get, only downward for him now going forward, just like that other corporatist Dem, the hated H.Clinton who started high and then tanked all the way in.
BTW Tulsi Gabbard has just been endorsed by Joe Rogan, probably one of the most popular figures on You Tube and
Ron Paul, so it will be interesting to see what that does to her numbers.
The Democratic nomination really is a competition. So far even the mayor of a small Indiana town is relegating her to the dust.
Gabbard has lost already, and is of zero consequence to US politics at all.
Thanks francesca, that is a very good interview, quite timely too after yesterdays little back and forth with some other Standard commenters, that degenerated quite quickly into ad hominem slurs I thought, while (as usual and of course) never once actually addressing the original core topic.
Entrapment
At the risk of upsetting the August Brainful Greywarshark Troll, I am suggesting to normal people that the Entrapment Technique in Parliament is itself a very risky thing.
National to a man and a woman, have taken to the idea that any Minister of the Crown can be entrapped easily, and his "crime" can be forwarded to Granny Herald, and Lisa Owen, instantly. Gotcha!
It uses a "LIE to Catch a non LIAR".
So The Right Honourable, Professor, Doctor, Nick Smith brought into Parliament a Lady who sadly had lost a child in a Motor Accident. Dr Smith and the Lady were of the opinion that it was not the driver of the vehicle that killed her son, but the drugs the driver had taken.
The Police had not known that the Driver who killed the Lady's son was on the road.
Apparently, the people of Nelson expect every driver who steps into any vehicle to be immediately Breath and Drug tested. All the way there, and all the way back.
Now, Dr Smith knows Nelson is very special. I am not privvy to what Smith knows. The Lady Dr Smith brought into Parliament was speaking out without being asked. During which time The Minister of Police was asked if he recalled saying that the Government would look into Drug Driving. The Minister said he could not recall saying that.
Then Dr Smith implied that Minister of Police was not speaking the Truth. However, The same Minister tried to assist a national member of Parliament to manage Submitting a Bill about Drug Driving, and spent some time with him. If that is not Truth – what is ?
But the national member told the Minister of Police to sod off.
How come Dr Smith knew about what bits of paper The Police Minister had forgotten, and what he didn't have? Does Dr Smith have night time access to the Government's Chambers ?
Dr Smith and the Lady wrang their Knuckles out. The Speaker thought it was very distasteful – which it was. The Dr kept raving that the Government had done nothing about Drug Driving.
The stangeness of this whole incident that led to Dr Smith's punishment is: That the Stupid Member for Nelson has had 29 years in Parliament to stop Drug Driving in Aoteroa and has not lifted a finger ! He has made a fool of himself and of the bereaved Lady and of Nelson
But neither Lisa Owen – or the sick Aurty Herald will know about that !
Today on our own publicly owned media – we had to be shamed again by the Australians about our "lack luster efforts to tackle climate change, when UK has already enshrined in their law that climate change is a crisis – said Peter Garrett (of midnight oil fame) on TV one while interviewed by John Campbell breakfast show..
NZ is slipping beneath the sea.
peter garret? the frontman to the world touring midnight oil. I bet he didn't travel by train or sail boat.
But he's a celebrity so I guess we should be ashamed by his condemnation
https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha
Right, so in your bizarre magical kingdom, anyone who has ever travelled via commercial airliner can never, ever say anything about climate change… ever.
Good to know.
classic overreach in your argument.
Celebrities like bono and peter garret made a bucket burning carbon now moralise. It’s pathetic
Yeah, they did. But I'm fairly sure we can do something about climate change without reverting back to tall ships and wagon trains.
I Agree. It’s just a bit rich when Bono, Clooney et al thinks it’s just for others to do as they say and not as they do.
Fair point there Tuppence Shrewsbury,
They used to say “Lead by example”
Grrr….frustrated at long last I am by the Herald paywall….https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12229332
Ho hum. It is winter (despite record high temperatures, but who's cares?) so if I buy an actual paper paper….at least it'll do to light the fire.
The headline shrieks…
Radical, promising, and totally unaffordable: Government's $24m disability experiment !!! and goes on to say that…
In a radical experiment, disabled people are choosing who cares for them and how they want to live. But as Government has found out, the ambitious programme is totally unaffordable.
Non ACC disabled people being bulk funded for their assessed supports so they can choose their own carers (within boundaries) and timetable their own supports is nothing new, so I guess what they're on about is this..https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/news-items/transformed-disability-support-system-begin-midcentral
…off to buy a paper.
Yes, be interested to see who is feeding journos that angle. The pilots are probably verifying how much of the cost has previously been borne by the family and others around each person, is all.
WEAG mentions in passing the need to update the scant research about the extra costs of being disabled in NZ to go with the extensive work they drew on about the overall population.
If only we could pay by the story..
….pay by the story..
I was about to send them an email to ask just that…
The article (having risked life and petrol bowser squeezing my Bus into a tiny gap at the petrol station to buy the damn herald) says little other than folks have actually moved to Mid Central to take advantage of the System Transformation/Enabling Good Lives scheme that is being trialed there after the two previous trials in Canterbury and Waikato.
Our friends from the New Zealand Disability Support Network are not happy….the article describes NZDSN as 'advocates', but does not make it clear that they are advocates for those who receive funding from the government for providing disability support services. A pity, because that would have given an otherwise flimsy story some teeth. Every single dollar that the eligible disabled person has choice and control over how it is spent is potentially another dollar that fails to go through the NZDSN's members' bank accounts. Many of whom pay no tax on that income because they are registered charities…
I'm pretty sure the 24million over two years (not even a flag referendum) is operating costs for the trial rather than increases in cost of providing supports.
Later I'll dig out the EGL/EIF evaluation.
Saw a copy. Article reflects lack of knowledge about disability support funding in general. And yes, conflating providers with advocates. Grrr.
Main problem for the family they hang the story from is their local assessment agency capping support eligibility at only 20 hours per week for a youg man whose family say requires 24×7 support – not how provision is contracted after that.
24 mill? That's like a metre of road in auckland isn't it?
Depends how tall the disabled people are that we pave it with.
White supremacism at Auckland museum?
http://eyecontactsite.com/2019/05/auckland-museums-lost-civilisation
Thoughtful read – I rate Scott very highly indeed and nearly always agree with him.
Ditto. He writes beautifully and excels at demolishing conventional pieties.
He concludes that pre-colonial Melanesian and Papuan society sustained a political utopia that has somehow been erased by the Auckland Museum. That's impressive museological work from 7 curators.
He could at least cite some evidence, any evidence at all. He's just looking for a source of righteousness ………. it just isn't there.
Congratulations JA on becoming Australia's most trusted politician.
😀
Last time she was in England, someone wrote to the BBC asking them to ask her … would she stay and be their PM.
The note was read out by the BBC interviewer.
Fairly low bar…
Interesting on Rachel Stewart.
https://nzagainstthecurrent.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-perscution-of-rachel-stewart.html
and TDB
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/05/07/twitter-watch-the-lynching-of-rachel-stewart/ The last para:
It seems to me that just focussing on climate change eliminates people and their vulnerabilities and needs completely from empathetic consideration for the human race. If Bradbury is finding fault with identity politics' narrow concerns, the answer is to widen concern to everyone who is struggling to keep their heads up in the rush of change monetising everything and replacing humanity with technology. Keep thinking about people with kindness linked to what is practical, to what is needed by each group in society, and attention will shift to the young, and their future which will require a turn of alarge degree in people's moral compass.
I can manage to think with kindness about people who are taking a fundamentally irrational stance on the meaning of the words 'woman' and 'man,' but can not find any kindness in me for the ones trying to get people sacked for failing to share the delusion. Those guys can go fuck themselves.
That sounds fair and a more practical suggestion than that of the people you state.
what's the word…
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48205523
schadenfreude?
Two possible conclusions:
1. God doesn't exist, therefore religion-based anti-vaxx beliefs are superfluous.
2. God does exist, but just passed a fairly damning verdict on his follower's anti-vaxx beliefs.
There is a remote third possibility, my personal favourite
That all the other kids who were vaccinated gave the non-vaccinated kid the chicken pox. Which is a catch 22 for all anti-vaxxers
Or, the kid got chickenpox.
Grizzly, grumpy, itchy, spotty kids. Nothing that lashings of TLC, calamine lotion, soda bic baths and mummy milos won't fix.
My youngest is in her mid twenties and somehow she and her bros survived the pox…just as well as there was no vaccine then. If I recall correctly they shared the mumps as well. Good times.
And if you read the article rather than just the headlines you'd know that the fellow and his family knew there was a chance of him getting the pox and are ok with it.
They're also ok with infecting other people.
Wikipedia says chicken pox killed 6,400 people in 2015. So not everyone survives with "mummy milos". 🙄
I also had a colleague a couple of years ago who had shingles attacks. Not something to wave off like you did, apparently.
They're also ok with infecting other people.
But, but the other people have all been Good and have had the vaccine and are safe from Plague Boy's pox.
Serious questions McFlock.
1.Do you see it as a failing of Medical Science that not all infectious diseases can be vaccinated against yet?
2. What do you think god/nature/evolution intended when she/she/it designed the human immune system?
You really are a malicious pro-diseaser, aren't you. I'm actually disgusted.
Plague Boy could be infecting other people that for whatever sound medical reasons cannot be safely vaccinated. Those unfortunates are reliant on vaccination rates in the general population being high enough to get herd immunity for their protection. Plague Boy is deliberately choosing to put those people at totally unnecessary risk. If any of those who cannot be vaccinated gets infected by Plague Boy, I hope they sue Plague Boy's ass off.
Stop the name calling Andre, and the faux disgust…your comment is full of holes as a result of your inadequate levels of understanding on the subject…
1. The varacella vaccine does not prevent transmission of CP at either one or two doses
2. herd immunity is an unproven maths formula as it relates to manufactured vaccine immunity..
3. Your entire comment fails due to points 1,2
As for the ‘medical reasons’… name them and provide details of the demographics at the school…and ill expose that myth as well…
Stop the name calling.
There's a whole big list of medical reasons why a few unfortunate people shouldn't get the chickenpox vaccine. Plague Boy could be spreading his disease to anyone he comes into contact with in the general population, not just at his school. Including mums with their infants too young to be vaccinated.
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/varicella/hcp-contraindications.htm
Chickenpox is transmitted by persons suffering an active infection. The vaccine is from 85% (single dose) to 98% (double dose) effective in preventing active infection. If the vaccine prevents someone from getting an active infection, it's prevented them from spreading the disease.
https://www.cdc.gov/chickenpox/about/transmission.html
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/varicella/hcp-effective-duration.htm
That herd immunity is an actual thing is demonstrated by the way measles outbreaks are extremely rare in populations that are highly vaccinated against measles (double dose 97% effective), but mumps outbreaks still happen even in highly vaccinated populations (88% effective double dose).
Leaving aside your failure to provide demographics at the school illustrating numbers of children with the big list of medical reasons…
Germs are everywhere eh…everywhere…microbes, bacterium, viruses…
But sure…forget all about those…and forget about the so called efficacy rates you linked to…
None of the FDA approved CDC scheduled vaccines were tested against an inert placebo control group using the actual gold standard…
One was…but the results were merged with the toxic control groups thus covering up the fraud by committing research fraud…
In case you can't follow that bouncing ball from the starting point of the fraud…
Double doses triple doses etc…all an open admission of vaccine failures…
Fraudulent methodologies and protocols devised by corrupted industry and endorsed by captured regulatory agencies…
When all else has failed. Mandate through force.
Vaccine Industry . Vaccine Science.
Some don't support vaccination, and for the life of me I don't understand why. It's an ever-improving medical therapy much older than any of us. Vaccinations against diseases that are rarely fatal may be an apparent waste of time and money, but that opinion won’t deter me from getting my annual flu jab next Monday.
The smallpox vaccination program was a success.
https://ourworldindata.org/smallpox
I do admire efforts to develop and deploy vaccines against other diseases. Maybe you can have too much of a good thing, but we’re not there yet.
Some don't support vaccination, and for the life of me I don't understand why.
Millions, and rapidly growing numbers, including medical professionals don't support all vaccines…and with a burgeoning medical science archive of evidence why they should not…
Higher numbers than that again do not support forced vaccinations…
If you don't understand why, then you are not at all well read or informed on the subject…wiki-p link tells me that you are not..
But your comments in general are some of the better reading on this site…in my opinion…
It's an ever-improving medical therapy much older than any of us
Not least by removing all liability from the manufacturers in 1986.
Closely followed by the DHHS breaking federal law by failing to ensure that biannual vaccine safety and improvement reports were filed. Sixteen times that federal law was broken by the regulators themselves…
I've posted ample (searchable) material over recent months highlighting some of the core issues with vaccine science and the vaccine industry as a whole…
Believing ‘we’ can out-smart nature is pure folly..and it is showing in the increasing illness and disease rates globally…
My statement was factual (did you read it carefully?) – vaccination therapies have been used for hundreds of years. Medical therapies have extended human life spans, but no-one is that old.
Researchers are currently working towards developing new or more effective vaccines against the zika virus, against specific cancers, against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and any number of other ‘diseases’. Surely an effective vaccine against M. tuberculosis would be useful addition to the ensemble of medical therapies.
I acknowledge that immune systems are (hyper)variable (that's an in joke), and not fully understood. But our partial understanding has enabled highly effective public health initiatives – I for one would not want to see those gains lost.
For example, vaccination programmes led to the global eradication of smallpox in 1977, so no-one is vaccinated against smallpox these days (Wyeth stopped making the vaccine in the early 1980s). I imagine that smallpox would thrive in our present-day high-density cities – what benefits do you imagine might accrue from reintroducing this disease?
Settle Andre…you're going to blow your foo foo valve!
Goodness gracious me…chickenpox is not the plague. It has a death rate of one in 60000 cases. With good care, one in sixty thousand children who get chickenpox will recover completely.
Not being vaccinated against a disease that until very recently had no vaccine is not a crime.
How is there anything malicious in what I wrote?
Nah, don't answer that, you'll just use it as an excuse to level more vitriol.
A death rate of one in 60000 from something that's completely preventable is absolutely unacceptable. But you seem to think it's something to joke about, even embrace. That is malicious.
Now, I happen to think that adults should have sufficient right to bodily autonomy that they should be able to refuse vaccination if they so wish. And I'll take a Darwinian view of any subsequent suffering or death they suffer. But they should also be held fully accountable for the consequences of their decision. Just like people are held accountable for other idiot negligence they indulge in that causes harm to others.
But when it comes to kids, I don't view kids as their parents' property to do with as they please. Parents have an obligation to make decisions for the best interests of the child, not to impose whatever personal idiocies they may have on the child. A child that becomes ill with a vaccine-preventable disease and wasn't vaccinated but could have been has just suffered horrific child abuse, and the parents should be held accountable for that.
Stop spewing logical fallacies, Andre…
I've previously addressed every falsehood you write on this subject…
You're still repeating mysogenistic and bigoted falsehoods..
And you need to stop.
Except people with contraindications don't have the option of getting vaccinated, even if all vaccines were 100% permanently effective.
Anyway, answers:
1: No, that's a goal to work towards.
2: The immune system probably wasn't designed and is merely the evolved product of our ancestors' survival and reproduction over aeons. But if it was designed, then the same designer made ebola and is a complete bastard, so I care not for their intentions.
Final question McFlock….what then will our immune system do when it does not have to initiate an immune response naturally because vaccination has taken over that role?
If it doesn't have to "initiate an immune response naturally" (I assume that means reacting to viruses etc it encounters in the course of our daily lives), then it's not encountering those germy-jims, is it.
If "naturally" means that its first encounter with the bug is from an interaction in our normal daily life, and it hits a live, fully armed and operational
battlestationgerm, then we get sick, and hope that between our immune system and medicine it doesn't really fuck us up.But if we get vaccinated for everything, then at highest efficacy we don't notice a "natural" immune response, because our immune systems have an effective counter to that particular germ. We'd never get a cold, or the flu, or ebola. Heck, no infectious diseases ever, if we vaccinated against all viruses and bacteria. No gangrene, no tetanus, no staph.
Causes of death would almost entirely be injury and debilitation.
Rosemary, another question is…
How many artificial activations can an individual immune system tolerate…before it breaks…
Clues and evidence are in the rapidly expanding statistics of illness, allergies and auto immune diseases in young human beings…
Modern medicine doesn’t have the answers…and the vaccine industry doesn’t want the answers to be found…
Be explicit: are you claiming that vaccines cause people to have allergies and related conditions (e.g. asthma)?
Explicit.
I'm explicitly stating there are rapidly increasing numbers of young human beings in the developed nations, who are becoming ill, diseased and mentally damaged by a number of environmental factors, which undeniably includes vaccines…
Manufacturers, trial data, vaccine program deployment data and legal decisions explicitly state that vaccine cause illness, disease and death…
The VAERS data sets explicitly show the same.
lol
So you're shying away from claiming that the rising yadda yadda is due vaccines to any substantive level.
You're just saying "this increases", "this occasionally causes that" (an arguable position, depending on how broad "this" is), and following it up with… nothing explicit.
You've already conceded once to me today, McFlock…you're a very long way behind, overall..
When you've read and understood the subjects and materiala I've pointed you to…and to a sufficient level…perhaps we could have this conversation again…
If the manufacturers, trial data, vaccine program data, legal rulings data and vaers data are not explicit enough for you…
Then you're being intentially disingenuous…which of course you are…
A difference between yourself and some of the bigots and misogynists who comment on this subject…in my opinion…
Is that you're likely to be clued up enough to get a grasp of some of the gaping flaws in vaccine industry science…
Or perhaps not.
Have a good weekend.
If vaccines were responsible to any decent fraction of the rise in allergies etc, basically not just the drug companies and FDA but every single regulatory agency, collective health purchaser (insurance company, MoH, general practise corporation) and medical surveillance body (down to all individual researchers) would have to be in on the cover-up, around the entire globe. Frequently to their own detriment.
Is that your claim?
Do you not understand how top down centralised structures function , McFlock ?
Especially an entire industry with zero…zero liability…that's zero, McFlock…
Zero liability with decades of malpractice, fraudulant, corrupted activities…tens of billions in settlements…and regulatory agencies that are racked with conflicts and were captured decades ago…
The CDC is the vaccine industry …so is the FDA….congress is brought by the vaccine industry lobbyists…and DOJ defends vaccine manufacturers against the same people their products damage, injure and kill…
Individual researchers…yeah sure…those whose very career is paid for by vaccine manufacturers…who perform research inside of strictly controlled, narrow confines paid for by the manufactures…
Whose research is reviewed by captured peers and published in pharma medical journals… which were outed years ago by their former editors saying the data is mostly <em>untrustworthy …</em>
Where researchers who break ranks are crucified by the pharma advertising dependent and compliant media..
Where independent researchers are denied access to trial data…
So yes…there are undeniably cover-ups going on… including at the present time…numerous court cases around the world .. even their own employees are taking manufacturers to court…for fraudulant trial methodologies and outright statistical fraud…among others…
It is all there..unless you don't want to see it…
I'm explicitly stating there are rapidly increasing numbers of young human beings in the developed nations, who are becoming ill, diseased and mentally damaged by a number of environmental factors, which undeniably includes vaccines…
"Environmental factors" undeniably includes everything that exists in your environment. It "includes" vaccines to the extent that it "includes" approximately infinity other things.
Thank goodness we have experts like you operating on a higher level than the rest of humanity. Save us from this global conspiracy of millions of people! /sarc
Sarcasm is low grade wit..it's late though.. so I get it…
And I've explained some of my perspective as to how top down industry can easily corner entire markets including research data…which is precisely what is happening…
Like I said…I reckon you actually grasp just enough that even the self confessed dickhead that you are…can see it..
Bit shocking…yeah I get that too…but denying it doesn't stop it… or alter the documented truth of whats going on…a simple concept…
Millions upon millions around the world…some not even at your level…getting it…and growing by the day..
Unstoppable.
dude, it's not shocking, it's farcical.
You can say "top down" all you want, but the fact is that if vaccines were responsible for what you claim, there is no way to keep it under wraps. As each vaccine is introduced in each country and region, you'd have to disguise (somehow) the resulting step-change in immune conditions as it occurs. You'd have to control every researcher directly, not just ones involved with vaccine development but case studies and cohort studies run by physicians who want to identify causes of the uptick in the cases they get. "Top down" control requires instructions and memos – there would be literally millions of copies of these floating around, but all gept secret because… conspiracy.
There have been some vaccines and other treatments that had inflated efficacy or disguised adverse reactions. But a global conspiracy to coverup a major problem with the concept of vaccination itself? That's a fucking big call to make on the basis of "higher level" thinking and a few individual cases almost exclusively from the yanks.
You're ignoring the size and dominance of the pharma/vaccine industry…
And you're ignoring the zero liability…
It's far simpler than you believe..and of course there is conspiracy…but you reckon you're smarter than falling for missing it…eh..
Except it's happening in front of your closed eyes…
Simpler than that…just a good corporate take over of regulatory agencies and a repeat of tabacco science once 100% liability was removed…
Leading to removal of incentive to improve safety or quality…
Leading to increased incentive to perform poorer quality research and trials…while producing more and more vaccines…
Then get your colleagues at the FDA to approve the new low grade products.. and your colleagues at the CDC to schedule them and buy billions of dollars worth annually..and the DOJ to fight the damages on your behalf…
All taxpayer funded of course…
So to your point..it's not global…it is the opposite..it's all local…don't be fooled…and then exported around the world…rinse and repeat…
Because…central authority…which you're a long time advocate of…
Despite admitting there has been serious problems…still ongoing and worsening…
Delusional… is what that is…
So all the cohort studies in NZ are covering up massively reduced levels of immune disorders in their unvaxed people because of big pharma?
Everyone working for those studies are defending big pharma by falsifying results?
The adverse events reporting systems that show adverse events for medications do not show the same level of events for vaccines because big pharma would rather vaccinate than sell opioids or NSAIDs?
Think about it. I’m off to bed.
You would need to provide examples of studies to which you refer…
That said, the studies (assuming you mean vaccine related) are 100% of the time initiated with faulty entry point criteria…
Which results in 100% faulty and fraudulent exit point criteria and statistics…
Why…because every FDA approved and licenced vaccine was approved using highly unscientific methodologies…
Of the current CDC schedule , therefore those vaccines on the NZ schedule…every single type/brand post licensure trial data is flawed…because the of the pre-licensure trials fraud…
No need to falsify…the data was already false to begin with…
I've explained it with examples previously…more than once…
VAERS data is underreported by a factor of 10 – 100 possibly more so…regardless of the type…pharma drugs or vaccines…the data is deeply misleading…
I've evidenced that also…
As for pharma…any globally dominant industry…will seek to cover all bases to ensure the greatest levels of profit and stakeholder returns…
Whatever it has to sell within the product catalogue…will be sold…no matter what…
Fully endorsed by the regulators and health authorities…
I mean not just vaccine trials and studies, but longitutinal cohort trials such as the Dunedin Study. These pick a starting cohort, gather information about them, and follow participants for decades. Between them, hundreds of thousands of kids have been followed from birth, vaccination status logged along with every other social and medical criteria imaginable. Hundreds of publications from each study, cross-comparing different factors and utcomes in participants' lives. Every single one of those studies would need to have been compromised by "big pharma", too, just to avoid the alleged contribution of vaccination to allergies. And yet many of those studies get zero funding from pharma and are careers in themselves for the researchers, so how does big pharma compromise them?
Even if all vaccine adverse event reporting systems around the world underreported adverse events by 90% (and how does US big pharma compromise Russia's or China's medical reporting systems?), that would still leave a difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated kids in the general population. So every single allergy researcher who observes that difference needs to be compromised by big pharma to shut them up.
I really don't think you understand just how large your alleged conspiracy would have to be, spanning multiple disciplines across the entire globe, regardless of self-interest or geopolitical enmity. All with barely any "leaks", if any. For 70 years or more. No deathbed confessions, whistleblowers dumping to wikileaks, memos sent to journalists by accident, civil servants failing to redact OIA requests, nothing.
All just for vaccines, but not for any of the other drugs big pharma is distributing. When they couldn't even disguise oxy's harm for a decade.
I’m only talking vaccines…
Link to the Dunedin Study ..I've no idea what it is youre referring to…so I can review it..
Either way makes no difference as all and any studies are subject to the same controls and limitations placed on them by authorities…
Just quickly to the rest of your comment because you and I have covered the same ground before.
I’m not talking about Russia or China…
Unvaccinated and partially vaccinated human beings are everywhere…
Expected, unexpected, specific, non specific, reactivation, protein sensitization…etc
Leaks are global, whistleblowers become walking targets, confessions including alive people, high up insiders. Zimmerman et al
FOIA everywhere Ive been linking to the details repeatedly here..but folks dont;like Kennedy / Bigtree et al…
Pharma drugs are subject to far more stringent regulation…and companies can be sued for damage…same companies cant be sued for biologicals damage…vaccines NVICP…
Harm is global and not hidden. Its coming out and can't be stopped…hence censorship and force are being used…
You’re showing a respectful interest…thats cool…
Ill be posting more…just not in this convo…
But that's the point: you're not talking about other treatments, and you're not talking about Russia and China.
Why would vaccines be the only treatment big pharma decide to cover up any adverse events from on a global scale? Surely something addictive would be a better product for them to implement a decades long coverup over?
Why don't Russian and Chinese authorities say shit like "we would vaccinate, but it's too dangerous, you guys are crazy"?
I'm not talking about just the Dunedin study – Any long term cohort study could pick up the discrepancy, if it existed.
You'r arguing that researchers not directly tied to the pharmaceutical industry are covering up a demonstrable association between vaccination and immune disorders in NZ, USA, Britain, Africa, Asia…
I get the theory that a vaccine researcher might be cherry-picked or influenced to not make their career or employer obsolete, but so many unconnected researchers? Come on.
<i>Link to the Dunedin Study ..I've no idea what it is youre referring to…</i>
Seriously? You study this stuff and you're unfamiliar with the best-known longitudinal study in the country?
You chaps do know you're debating with Phil Ure ?
His only notable skill is in the use of ellipsis, with some secondary merit in outlandish conclusions drawn from a general misunderstanding of just about everything, certainly his only knowledge of things scientific and medical is dubious sites on the interwebs and I fear he learnt nothing from the good teachers at Rosmini all those years ago.
Immune systems don't wear out and they don't break. Like other biological systems, continually use them and they get stronger.
For quite a few years, my social circle included a lot of wildlife researchers and aid workers. They were continually getting jabs for whatever was a risk wherever they were going next. They also suffered the least from flu and colds and whatever other lurgies were going around at the time. Didn't stop a few of them coming down with real nasties they couldn't get vaccinated against, tho. Malaria was kinda common.
The problems with allergies and asthma and auto-immune diseases that are becoming more common are more plausibly linked to our modern obsession with cleanliness. That our immune systems don't get enough external challenges to keep them busy, and they turn on us instead. Read up about the "hygiene hypothesis".
The human immune system did not evolve by injecting chemicals directly into the human body…
Short circuiting and bypassing the precicely evolved systems which you believe can be strengthened through a bypass of medical and chemical injections…
No. They can't. They become weekend and the system becomes damaged..
Which is why your home country has the highest number of vaccinations in any schedule… and the sickest cohort populations in the OECD…
You don't respect anecdotes..so stop repeatedly using them yourself…
The final part of your comment is a likely contributer…I do agree with that..
‘No. They can’t. They become weekend and the system becomes damaged..’
More errant nonsense from philu.
That would be your most useless contribution to recent discussions…
A really pathetic and defeated comment…
You seem to have trouble recalling the fact I've told you who I'm not…
And you need to stop doing that…and probably see a professional about your reading and recall issues…
Are you a drinker?
Weekends on this site get noticeably more abusive and incoherent from a number of regulars…drink will be playing a key role in that…
One Two
I would rather have a polio vaccine & a "weakend immune system", than suffer polio itself. I knew a lady that years ago caught polio with a young friend in pre-vaccine times. The young boy died from the polio & she eventually recovered but had years of bouts of excrutiating pain. You seem to paint a picture of natural immunity as a wonder of nature to behold, but it is a lack of understanding of the history of diseases that your ignorance shows.
'That would be your most useless contribution to recent discussions…'
Not reading your own leavings then……..eh ?
Are you a drinker?
Yes indeed….just had a lovely cup of tea…..jolly lovely…..eh
"The human immune system did not evolve by injecting chemicals directly into the human body…" All natural biological molecules (simple or complex) are chemicals.
Replace "injecting" with 'introducing' and you're describing selection pressures which did indeed ‘guide’ the evolution of the human immune system.
For example, the innate immune system (non-specific, no 'memory') has evolved to detect certain chemical structures (PAMPs, pathogen-associated molecular patterns) and initiate responses to kill/destroy those pathogens.
The adaptive immune system mediates a stronger, specific immune response – individual pathogens are "remembered" courtesy of (chemical) antigens unique to the pathogen. Vaccines must contain antigens (chemicals) that are either derived from or mimic natural antigens (chemicals/molecules – often proteins) of the target pathogen – how else could a vaccine prime the immune system to recognise that pathogen?
Free hit if you like, One Two – I'll not reply as we would probably end up talking at cross-purposes.
No thanks. Thats not what I'm about…
Given the comment about replacing injecting with introducing, it seems you're already at cross purposes… and potentially seeking to play word games with what is a clear differential regarding human evolutionary timeframes and modern medicines vaccine era…
As for your comment about all natural biological molecules are chemicals…yes quite…except vaccines are an industrialized factory manufactured chemical process including distribution and storage logistics…
Little of nothing to compare against the [how ever many] millenia of human evolutionary development…or introduction…
Vaccines are primarily about injecting laboratory and factory modified, contaminated compounds (many of which are unidentifiable) into human beings therefore bypassing the entirety of human immune and biological evolution…skin..mouth…nose..et al…
Have a good weekend…
I believe I will have a good weekend – thank you.
No, the role of pathogen-derived vaccine antigens is to activate/prime the human immune system against that specific pathogen – vaccines absolutely do not bypass the immune system. They do, however, largely bypass/avoid the symptoms of the disease.
If vaccine antigens “bypassed” the immune system, then they would be completely ineffective, whereas we know that vaccines can be highly effective, to the point of eradicating a deadly disease such as smallpox.
To be frank, with the incidence of antibiotic resistance on the rise, our immune systems are going to need all the help they can get.
Why are you ignoring the vaccine primary delivery mechanism of intramuscular needle injection?
Injection bypasses the innate structure of the immune systems lines of defence…or do you not understand the construct of the immune system…seems that you don’t…
Vaccine theory suggests a priming effect…
However… measuring a temporary increase in anti-body production does not confer immunity…and it never will when compared to life long full cell immunity from contracting a version wild virus…
Wild versions of virus which are mutating and becoming problematic in cohorts not previously observed..
Similar to antibiotics…vaccine overuse is leading to more failure and waning…while causing other illness and disease…
In short…we've screwed with nature…and we will be screwed back multi fold…as can be seen around the developed world…
Sick and disease ridden kids everywhere you go…
Undeniable…and vaccines are a contributing factor.
I’m no expert, but I have a fair grasp of the theory of how immune systems function at the molecular level; do you? I mean, you get how pathogen molecules interact with proteins and cells of the immune system, not just the macroscopic stuff, right?
You would rather innoculate yourself with a microscopic pathogen, than be vaccinated (protected) against that pathogen by injecting pathogen-derived antigens. Your choice – not mine. If you don't think vaccination is worth whatever risk you perceive, then don't get vaccinated. I'll continue to advocate for the vaccination of me and mine, regardless.
On balance, innoculation entails more risk than vaccination, so I'll stick with vaccination. Best of luck innoculating yourself with this year's influenza strains.
Now your lack of understanding is really showing up…masked by the inoculate vs vaccinate angle…that's ok..I'm with you…
Not only are you apparantly missing fundamentals of the constituent parts of the whole human immune system…but you're missing vaccine ingredient functions as well…
You understand thats not what causes the reaction …surely?
As for your final paragraph…as I've explained many times to others…risk is impossible to assess…the fraudulant pre licensure trials methodology ensure it…
And citing the flu vaccine…one of the most toxic…lowest efficacy rated vaccines of all…
I assume you were signalling your decision to have it?
We're on the same page with choice…I'm just armed with more and seemingly a better level of information when I make one…
Good luck with your choices…
"I assume you were signalling your decision to have it?"
I more than signalled it in my comment at 7:56 pm, but that's OK.
For the record, I did my post-doc in the Biochemistry Department at Cambridge University. No immunology expert (and I've never worked in a commercial lab, or received research funding from any corporate), but I am familiar with pathogens, antigens, antibodies, immune cell types, etc. I'm most comfortable with the innate immune response, and defensins in particular.
I admire the passion and energy of your anti-vax advocacy. There's no way I can match it – but (like you), I know what I know. Unlike you, perhaps, I know that I could be wrong.
P.S. I have commented previously on this site about the use of aluminium-based adjuvants in vaccine formulations (with references), and am aware that vaccines contain components other than the primary antigens. Those components are there for good reasons, and yes, some of them do come with risks. Pharmaceutical companies are aware of these risk and, believe it or not, many scientists and technicians are working to minimise those risks.
Now give me my vaccination!
And despite your claimed background you exhibit, repeated and multiple misunderstandings..
As you said earlier… you can call it cross purposes…it's ok..
Molecular level is a component of the whole…you've been ignoring the external layers and entry point defenses..
I'd say it must be deliberate given the exchanges you were not going to continue on with…eh…but kept coming back…
Use of the derogatory smear , anti-vax belies your claimed background and signals a total misread of my comments…
Use of the term puts you inline with the other misogynistic bigots on this site. And like them…you should not use that terminology…
It is insulting, abusive and contrived.
But you're ok Drowsy…no need to self promote..leaves you open to critique when you get it wrong…which you have done…
Can’t disappear it now though. It’s on the record.
Apologies for using "anti-vax"; sincerely did not think this would offend you.
My admiration for the passion and energy of your advocacy (will not attempt to put a label on your 'cause') is genuine – it's your choice to believe that, or not.
Was a bit miffed at the “claimed background” jibe, but no offense taken.
Shutting down the computer now!
I'm not offended…but it is an offensive and belittling term which is deliberately divisive and misleading in many ways…
As I said…your comments are good reading here..I'll keep reading them if you keep posting..not just this subject..
Appreciate the engagement..
Enjoy the weekend…
The CP vaccine is causing an increase in shingles
Chickenpox vaccination does increase shingles cases, but mainly in young adults
The shingles vaccine is a huge growth business for GSK
Fair call, although it is based on the same “unproven maths formula” you complain about regarding herd immunity, lol.
But read the actual published article more closely. It might surprise you.
complain.
No. Thats you spinning having conceded to my comment…ungracefully…but you did concede…
Good for you.
Pointing put that vaccine induced herd immunity has no basis outside of mathematical theory is, factual.
Facts are not complaints.
Not only is the maths theory…just that… it was plageurized theory from nature..
I've previously read every article I link to, which is why I don't need to scramble search…
It is why I'm far ahead of you guys on the subject..and why I don't need wiki-p..
Wiki-p is for those who don't understand the issues and need to scramble search…
It is a low grade resource…
You didn't actually link to the published article, just a report on the article. Fact. Vaccination rate dips, measles comes back. Fact.
As for how far ahead you are… was Louis Plageur the first person to "plageurize" theories from nature? And do nature submit articles on its theory to Nature, or does it self-publish?
But they weren't ok with the education people in Kentucky objecting to him potentially infecting other people with his "it's ok coz god provides" fuckwittery. so they sued. and lost. thank god.
Which is where the anti-vax argument really falls down. Everyone apparently should respect anti-vax's wishes to not be immunised but woe betide society if it's wishes are to have nothing to do with you because your wishes lead to death and suffering.
Forgive me Tuppence Shrewsbury if I am of an age where a kid having chickenpox is quite normal.
Yes, it is inconveniencing and more that a little uncomfortable but it is/was, until very recently, a normal childhood illness.
A death rate of one in sixty thousand….according to Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chickenpox ….is not really significant.
For the record…I am not anti vaccinations, I am pro informed consent and pro education and I also believe that vaccines will not prevent all the ills of the world.
Wouldn't it be nice if there was equal condemnation of parents who fail to provide warm dry housing for their children and fail to provide fresh and healthy food for their children?
In the New Zealand context we have third world rates of rheumatic heart disease and ever rising rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes.
But if we condemned the parents of those children we'd have to ask awkward questions about how on earth we've gone from being just about first in the world for producing healthy kids to where we are now.
And it has nothing to do with poor parenting.
But, however…just continue to deride parents who hesitate to vaccinate their children because they have genuine and well founded concerns… because that's easy.
genuine does not equal well-founded
Sigh. And this is why a conversation about vaccine hesitancy belongs on a political blog.
I am not going to link again to studies and media articles about instances where state funded vaccinations have caused actual harm and death of mostly children and the said state has either minimised these events or actually hidden them. Or continued using the faulty batch of vaccine until the drug company decides to withdraw it. Or the state uses the vaccine despite it's well known risks because it's cheaper. And then switches to damage control when kids die.
But some of us remember the kids who were harmed, and some of us have spoken with their mothers…who until the day they die will never forgive themselves for allowing their child to have that vaccine. And before you say it…no, not autism. And before you say 'prove it was the vaccine', do your own research into the early MMR and pertussis vaccines.
Politicians…a bit like our insurance companies who order clients to never admit fault or liability.
Vaccination is as much a part of citizenship as paying taxes and following the road code.
Ad…elaborate on that one…
At face value the reasoning appears flawed…
Share your thoughts?
A recent comment from marty mars on the commemoration of Captain Cook got me thinking – link below. (lprent Thanks for search function – so good.)
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-04-05-2019/#comment-1613313 Note: It’s #14.
marty mars is being ironic I think, when he says let's get the history right – because much of the concern is about whether Cook’s uniform is portrayed correctly!
Me thinking about history:
I am getting sick of expensive architecture to commemorate the past ie $16 million on WW1 and now Captain Cook – $20 million being suggested. https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/388808/20m-captain-cook-commemoration-ignores-maori-pain-critics
My certainty is that the money should be spent on developing (along with Maori input) a curriculum that teaches our history, a working understanding of our civil and civic matters, what has made us what we are today – all the striving for better conditions and understanding, much of it forgotten along with the people who put such matters to the fore in their lives, forsaking idle gossip and personal enjoyment and even time with families.
Instead they put their time, talents and skills to organise, go to meetings, keep pushing for something to be done by a responsible and civilised nation to rectify some wrong or poor practice.
I want people to remember the NZ dream, and what we achieved – honour it, continue it! Let's use this Captain Cook anniversary to kit up our minds and our determination to carry on our achievements. Or are the leaders and powerful of our country of a mind to shut down NZ, is it finished now, and these expensive commemorations are to say goodbye to that time – dreamthat has run its course, now defunct and all we can do is accept and wave it goodbye.
It's time for kia kaha and being as strong as Maori who have fought to retain the good things from their culture and a life for themselves despite the depredations of capitalist colonialism which bring some good, and then take out extensive payment for those advantages till the receivers are beggared. Historian James Belich showed us our tottering steps to greatness:
Just as the people in power did not recognise the situation as to the Maori strength and achievement in front of them, and proceeded with fatuous sentimentality to dismiss the vibrancy of the Maori people as they wished to expropriate their resources, so today's powerful have agendas that warp their vision about NZ and its reality.
Let's learn about what we are and where we are and how we are going into the future. Turn that commemoration money into memory cells that we use to go forward and build a resilient country, a coping country, one that is self-sufficient and exports goods and good ideas that we have proved to be of value. Not the good ideas of neo lib that Roger Douglas and his ilk took to the world.
No I wasn't being ironic. I agree with Tina
What do you think then of my idea of starting a thorough-going curriculum of cultural and historical education for school children , as important as maths and science for secondary school kids. It would come into the sphere of having a broad education, not narrow concentrating on science as means for getting business growth.
It would draw on information that Maori have, bring people-centred matters to the fore, look at conflicting cultural ideas, talk about problem solving and attempting to find acceptable solutions that wold help in working through cultural differences.
We are so used to the huge complaints about the "failure" of Kiwibuild.
It is a bit strange that the Media is echoing the complaints but it seems unwarranted to me. So it takes longer to get underway. Come back in 10 years with a figure be it 5,000 or 50,000 or 100,000 houses. So what? The current Government is pushing hard to get housing built. The last Government did zilch yet escapes censure. Politics. Bah!
The preachiness and condemnation by the Opposition about everything Labour is so deeply hypocritical. You know that all the people who vote National will be absorbing it like blotting paper showing their deeply dysfunctional mentality, that they are incapable of establishing their real position in the world without using a GPS, and their sad dependence on the Great Man theory ie some Shining Leader who will always arise to assist them, and further their interests.
They look for a government that will aid them so they can avoid paying anything but a modicum of tax which leaves them in a satisfying net positive position, receiving more from the state than they have invested. Good business they consider, similar to Trump Trump did-not-pay-income-taxes-for-eight-years-according-to-new-report Trump is their present Shining Leader in the absence of some charismatic capital accretor here in NZ
Police are initiating a useful service for NZrs with non-urgent matters that will connect nationwide. You still call 111 for immediate need and urgency.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1905/S00144/police-announces-non-emergency-number-its-105.htm
We can believe that it is under way now and has been since 10.05 am today 10th of May.
Word play from Radionz end of week comedy 11.45 am.
Scene – being hit in the ankle by Lime Scooter.
Result: Apologetic – Apoplectic.
Phil Twyford does not come out of this report looking very good at all
https://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018694354
You are a clever chap Gosman. Please provide context for me. What was the target for the previous 9 years of the National Government?
What was the target and how many were built?
If the answer is many thousands then I bow to their cleverness. If the answer is nil then the hypocrisy is mind boggling but predictable.
Where is the hypocrisy? No National minister staked their career on a policy to build 100,000 houses over 10 years.
No. They just claimed there was a crisis in 2008, and did nothing about it for 9 years.
Can't be blamed for not achieving enough if you never even try!
Agreed. Their inaction was inexcusable.
So phil might not meet targets he at least made and attempted to hit. Still better than inexcusable inaction.
Nice that Phil made an attempt. Perhaps he can get the Best Effort award. The trouble is he didn't state he was just going to try. He stated he was going to deliver or he would resign.
Well, if you say he said it, it must be true. Goneburger by August.
Still got 8 years to get there.
He'd be better off if he looked after Transport, or Housing, not both.
Both Ministries and both agencies would appreciate the specific devotion, rather than the persistent over-promise-under-deliver within both of them.
The hypocrisy Gosman is that Nats did nothing for 9 years and they/you demand action of Labour after 18 months. I heard you shouting at those kids.
You yelled, “You bloody little shits stop your f……..g swearing or I’ll tan your arses, you little bastards!”
Can we do this here, too.
https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1126514189365854208
What is the point of Marama Davidson being in Parliament?
https://nzagainstthecurrent.blogspot.com/2019/05/why-is-marama-davidson-in-parliament.html
Very good. That was said last week. So what has she done this week to progress that "push"?
Had a look at the Greens website and her Twitter account and there was nothing touted.
Your position as far left activist (further left than Marama Davidson apparently!) doesn't fit with your position in favour of spending hundreds of millions on a four lane highway between Otaki and Levin.
Would the real Chairman please stand up?
Labour deferred it, thus spending on it now will cost less than spending on it further down the road
Moreover, think of the bigger picture – i.e. housing. Housing in Levin is far cheaper than housing in Wellington, thus people need the better access making the cheaper home via the shorten travel time a more viable reality.
You're a walking contradiction from the Pete George school.
But as you can see, there is no contradiction in that left stance.
There's more than just a whiff of Pete George about The Chairman.
There's a train
One each way Monday to Friday only. Far from being sufficient.
Well, it seems I've spoken out more about welfare reform (in the public domain) in the last week than Marama has. And it's not my job.
Not your job maybe, but you're an eager volunteer at every opportunity to criticise Labour or the Greens.
Never encourage them, no. Just criticise.
Especially this May, the first month of a Green year.
Pot referendum, carbon Bill.
As I've explained, I don't create the opportunity/let downs and there is good reason to hold them to account.
At least Marama owned (on the Hui) only 3 recommendations being taken on wasn't a good start. But she needs to better detail what she is doing about pushing for more.
Jacinda Ardern has written an opinion piece for Magic Talk.
Jacinda Ardern: Delivering on our priorities for 18 months.
https://www.magic.co.nz/home/news/2019/05/jacinda-ardern–delivering-on-our-priorities-for-18-months.html
I give credit to Ardern as pm and leader of my former beloved labour party for March 15 because that was exactly wanted from a leader I live a few hundreds of meters away from the mosque in linwood and she was a beacon of light but let's be real socially the only thing jacinda has delivered is a baby and free hugs.
On mental health, welfare and housing this govt quite frankly cold hearted and slightly less vicious than national.
Why couldn't this govt raise disability and get rid of the solo mother sanction this year? Why do we have to wait 5-10 years for disabled people to get treated with some humanity.they don't need hugs they need cash to be able to get out and about.
When the pm quoted key the other night and said "work is the only way out of poverty" it made me sick labour and national always act like everyone on welfare is unemployed but some like my brother can't work… Ever … I guess he should just die because neither the labour nor national party's value his existence.
Winters here and we've had quite enough of hugs and empathy thanks t, but we need immediate action there's more homeless people , More begging more suicide in my area than ever before and I'm sorry we don't have ten years to wait for incrementalism.
So much for let's do this. If Savage or Kirk were around today I doubt they'd vote for any of the party's in parliament.
At this stage jacinda appears to be another Trudeau. Internationally celebrated but became less and less popular domestically for not keeping his promises and now is headed for certain defeat. For all our sakes I hope I'm wrong.
Start addressing poverty or piss off back to opposition.
This^^^
I have a couple of suggestions for her priorities, being that I'm very helpful and all
heres one: https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2019/04/child_poverty_measures_released.html
'Child poverty under National dropped on seven of the nine measures, stayed static for one, and increased for one.
Child poverty in Labour’s first year increased on seven of the nine measures and dropped on only two of them.'
She also might want to look at that or maybe this: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/112565769/kiwibuild-government-no-longer-guaranteeing-100000-homes
'Housing Minister Phil Twyford will no longer guarantee that KiwiBuild will be made up of 100,000 affordable homes, but won't say whether that target has been scrapped either.
The Government's flagship housing policy is being "recalibrated" after an admission this year that it was unlikely to meet its first target of 1000 affordable homes built by July 1 2019. Just 80 have been built so far.'
I'd bring something up about planting some trees but that seems to have fallen by the wayside…
Stupidity, thy name is Maddow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTGlagIOgcE