Simon Power is at it again, engaging in US type defense counsel bashing. He insists on Law Society reform to deal with unidentified lawyers who are supposedly rorting the system but Power and the Government have the very simple and effective tool of tearing up the contract the Legal Services Agency has with any errant lawyer. No reform is necessary if what he says is true.
Been bashing and lawyer bashing for political advantage, how predictable.
One further comment, no mention of the Roy Morgan poll in the Herald or Stuff as far as I can see. How surprising …
This sounds a little familiar. It won’t surprise many of us that research by California-based Oakland Institute shows that the foriegn land grabs in Africa do not benefit the countries that US unis and other interests are investing in:
Researchers say foreign investors are profiting from “land grabs” that often fail to deliver the promised benefits of jobs and economic development, and can lead to environmental and social problems in the poorest countries in the world.
Harvard is one of the US unis named as being major participants in these African landgrabs, and Harvard also already has endowment investments in NZ land:
Potential bidders reported to have shown an interest include Chinese dairy giant Bright Dairy, which last year invested $82 million in struggling South Island milk processor Synlait; a pastoral fund owned by Australian investment bank Macquarie Group; British private equity firm Terra Firma; US private equity firm Carlyle Group; and the Harvard Endowment Fund, which already owns a swag of forests and farmland in this country.
Basic English seems to be a problem for our leaders.
First Key and now Barnett – (captains of industry some would say).
A small point but why do these people murder the language.
…”There’s lots of things happening … There’s plenty of differing views…”
Perhaps Delorus Umbridge could apply some of her standards and advise her mates.
They’re not alone though – I’ve noticed it a lot with MBAs during public interviews.
I just about spat my porridge across the breakfast table this morning on reading Minister of Fisheries Phil Heatley’s plans for paua takes post-election.
He said that in order to counter poaching the rules would be changed to make that poaching legal. Then voila! No more poaching and the government gets a return.
Seriously. That is what he said.
Now lets apply that reasoning to say, speeding, tax evasion, … um …. (insert any crime).
It is the most shallow and poor drivel just about ever. What a fuckwit.
He said that in order to counter poaching the rules would be changed to make that poaching legal. Then voila! No more poaching and the government gets a return.
He’s pretty on the money about the dirty tricks being used in this beat up. But I suspect nobody in the parliamentary press gallery is going to rat out Bennett as an abuser of power because they’d rather have a stream of pre-written ‘news’ stories from her PR team that can be cut and pasted under their own bye-lines in a minute or two. A bloody sight easier doing that than actually doing journalism.
ak – I like logie97’s latest inventive name Petulant Bean, I thought of Paua Bennie but can’t think of a good caption for it, so it’s a bit lacking. It seems that name-calling is all one can do with her, she has no shame, and is a favoured MP doing exactly what the NACTs want and making squids in pay doing something that she apparently enjoys.
The RW love a female who puts on jackboots and whips the lower orders. Margaret Thatcher, for instance and Ruth Richardson was being questioned as over the top in a 1991 newspaper sheet I have. Jim Bolger had to defend giving her the position of Finance Minister. Incidentally it is interesting to see the similar state of political matters seen for 1991 repeated in 2011.
In 1991 SWMinister Jenny Shipley could not rule out office closures after departmental review. Kindergartens face funding crisis, Wellington doctors declare crisis, Treasury approves its own pay rise, Government wins oil field fight (Ngaere land issue in Taranaki), a television poll showed 55% against benefit cuts, the Prime Minister Jim Bolger ‘failed to spell out government growth strategies but instead continued to focus on cutting the deficit’. Welfare system under attack -meeting of 300 people discussing the Employment Contracts Bill.
The National Party announced for 1990 general election that to vote for them would give –
1 Real Growth 2 More Jobs 3 Better Pay, NZ Banks face tighter lending limits after DFC collapse Dr Don Brash, Reserve Bank governor states. Australian Wool Corporation hopes to raise hundreds of millions with bonds which would be government guaranteed, Fruit giant Chiquita Brands goes to NZ government over NZ Kiwifruit Marketing Board refusal to allow it to sell 20 million trays on world markets and wants second-exporter status.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. If you don’t know the meaning of that you coulf have learned French at night school if Anne Tolley wasn’t hostile to anyone learning more than she knows.
ak – I like logie97′s latest inventive name Petulant Bean,
Point of order, that was mine! I posted it in the middle of the night one insomniac weekend… it’s from an anagram generator I had discovered… I am young enough and neuro-typical enough to be a bit off-piste that he started using it, even in a post in which he attacked me, without acknowledging that it my name for Bennett in the first place!
Good on ya Vicky32 – as you grow up you will learn that “immitation is the highest form of flattery”. In future every time Petulant Bean is used (and as you quite rightly observed was apt), I will ensure that I acknowledge you as the originator if that relaxes you. As for your other comment that I attacked you – I should be interested in the link where I “attacked you”. But then you quote ak when it would appear to be “prism” who is making reference so your accuracy and recall are somewhat questionable.
In the meantime, feel free to use Joky Hen and Professor Delorus Umbridge as often as you like – perhaps then we can make them part of the vernacular and everyone will know who we are referring to.
Good on ya Vicky32 – as you grow up you will learn that “immitation is the highest form of flattery”. In future every time Petulant Bean is used (and as you quite rightly observed was apt), I will ensure that I acknowledge you as the originator if that relaxes you.
Please, don’t be so childish! Acknowledgement the first time you took credit for it, would have been nice, but then if 97 is your birthdate, then I suppose you can’t help the ‘childish’ bit… 🙂
As for your other comment that I attacked you – I should be interested in the link where I “attacked you”.
I am not hunting for a link.. you can find it as well as I can. It was when you accused me of supporting Bennett in her use of of the “toolkt’ when all I wanted to say is that I knew Ian and Mary Grant, and they weren’t the fascistic fundies everyone was claiming them to be.
In the meantime, feel free to use Joky Hen and Professor Delorus Umbridge as often as you like – perhaps then we can make them part of the vernacular and everyone will know who we are referring to.
The first would appear to be John Key, the second, who? Tolley? If you’re the originator of those, congrats, but as to the 2nd, I rather think J K Rowling might have something to say…
Got to love you Vicky32. But for your information I have never entered into any correspondence on this site regarding the Petulant Bean and the Grant’s toolkit.
Clearly, my dear, your insomnia has affected your memory badly.
I have never ever claimed naming rights for any or all of these alternative names for these politicians – just think they are apt and enjoy using them. Congratulations once again on finding the Petulant Bean.
As for Delores Umbridge – she attempted at Hogwarts what Tolley is attempting here. (Read the Order of the Phoenix).
As for Delores Umbridge – she attempted at Hogwarts what Tolley is attempting here. (Read the Order of the Phoenix).
Er – that would be re-read for the nth time, which is why I said if you were laying claim to the name, Rowling might have something to say. Please, just leave it alone, you’ve made your point, and now you’re being – dare I say it, petulant? 😀
BTW, I am not your ‘dear’, don’t be a sarcastic patronising berk. Thanks in advance.
Glad you’re a Potter Fan. No room for berks in that community.
Trust we can now direct our efforts collectively to keep the Petulant Bean, Joky Hen and Professor Umbridge honest.
and the poor Lisa Blakie’s convicted murderer Taylor.
Rob Pope resigned when he realised the public has cottoned onto his deadly and evil ways and the politicians didn’t want a bar of him. He is one of NZ’s most crooked cops imo.
Page 1 New Zealand Journal of History, 33,2 (1999)
The Devil You Know: NEW ZEALAND’S RECOGNITION POLICY TOWARDSCAMBODIA
FROM 1978-1990 [1]
by ANTHONY SMITH
THIS ARTICLE looks at New Zealand’s policy of recognition towards Cambodia (or Kampuchea [2]) between 1978 and 1990. New Zealand policymakers had to make the difficult decision as to which political entity to recognize, if any at all, after the Vietnamese invaded and installed a puppet government in Kampuchea in 1978. The Vietnamese army’s removal of the genocidal Khmer Rouge, or Democratic Kampuchea (DK), led by Pol Pot, provoked mixed reactions from the international community. There was universal relief at Pol Pot’s removal, but the Association of South East AsianNations (ASEAN), China and the United States expressed the concern that a Soviet-sponsored Vietnam was attempting to achieve sub-regional hegemony.These nations all
supported the anti-Vietnamese resistance forces.Controversially, New Zealand also opted to give diplomatic recognition to the ousted Khmer Rouge regime-in-exile as the legitimate representatives of the Cambodian people.
What emerges about New Zealand foreign-policy decision-making over this issue is that it contained a great deal of ambivalence. ……
I’m told that TV one’s Sunday program is leading with a damning report on safety standards at Pike River which is going to raise the possibility that some miners survived the initial blast but were left to die by the company.
Exellent. This is the exact direction many of us have been hollering about for some time. Others keep saying shut up and let the Royal Commission of Inquiry do it all – to which I say get stuffed. There is absolutely no requirement whatsoever to so shut up. Lives have been lost here and I have contended since dot that it is human and corporate and govt culpability. It was not an accident. It was gross negligence at several levels. Heads must roll.
Local councils that amalgamate into a larger body can exert more influence on central government but are unlikely to make any cost savings or lower rates, according to a trans-Tasman report out this week.
That bits actually fairly obvious when you think about it. All the work still needs to be done which is why Auckland is having to get in contractors now – the ATA went and fired over a thousand people and left Auckland without the people needed to do the jobs that they were doing.
There were few robust examples of such savings being achieved, yet many in central government and some in local government “still cling to the belief that substantial savings can and should be made”.
Yep, politicians, especially the ones on the right of the political spectrum, seem to make decisions that affect all of us on their beliefs rather than on the facts. This really needs to change as it hurting us.
Concerns about loss of democracy resulting from less representation were “muted”, suggesting the issue was being managed well or that it was not a major factor for communities, the report says.
So, does “managed” mean that it’s been kept out of the public eye because the MSM are ignoring it because if they actually reported it people would begin to question the governance?
But getting rid of people and/or making them re-apply for their old jobs can be used to drive down the cost of wages in the long term ie, employing more people to do the jobs that were axed, but offering them a lower salary.
This weekend is Bilderberg weekend.
For those of you who have never heard about this illustrious group: the Bilderberg group named after the hotel were the first meeting was held with our the Dutch/German Nazi prince Bernhard (the father of the current Dutch queen) in attendance consists of the most powerful Money men, Corporate CEO’s combined with Political leaders such as Hillary Clinton and New Zealand’s own Globalist and current Ambassador to the US Michael Moore who was an invite to the meeting in 2000 (Just in case you’re wondering who John Key’s handlers are.)
Here is the one and only (And yes, he does rant a bit) Alex Jones reporting on it.
For those of you who still think that Alex Jones only represents the fringe; the man gets about 24 million listeners a month and is the fastest growing info talk show in the world.
I don’t think Jones represents the fringe, Ev, though his personal politics (libertarian) are obviously of appeal only to a minority. That’s the same in NZ where ACT, the LibertariaNZ and the various offshoots thankfully struggle to get support from more than a handful of Kiwi voters.
However, rabid right wingers such as Jones and Beck have a huge following in the States for their various media outlets because their shows bash easy targets and appeal to ignorance, fear and bigotry. There’s no substance, of course, just innuendo, exaggeration and froth, but it sells well to people who know they are being ripped off, but don’t know who by.
As long as the likes of Jones say it’s the gummint, the illuminati, the New World Order, or whatever the fantasy of the day is, the real truth will alway remain hidden from his audience. And that truth is that it’s capitalism’s fault. But, as capitalism is making Jones rich, he’s not going to rock that particular boat, eh?
Interesting! So for clarity what is right wing in your view? Or more precise what is rabid right wing? Do they hate blacks, women, Arabs, peaceniks and other scary leftists for example? Is a clan member rabidly right wing? Is an Obama hater guaranteed right wing?
I am honestly curious as four years ago I would have agreed with you for more than 100 % but now I look at it totally different.
So for the sake of civilised debate (promise) give me your ideas about what defines rabid right wing.
Anything that supports the exploitation of the many by the few is right wing in my estimation. I look at things from a marxist perspective, so my default position is to support things that benefit the majority.
Jones is a libertarian, which is a subset of the right. Broadly speaking, I see communists, socialists and social democrats as the left. Liberals (including our Green party) I see as being inclined to the left, but also capable of going to the right if it suits their temporary interests. The right I see as mainly made up of the petit bourgious, the monarchists and, of course, the established capitalists.
Oddly, the right really only represent the interests of a small minority and it always amazes me that they manage to keep a reletive political balance despite this fact. Having most of the money must help!
Shit, I wrote this whole thingy already and now I have to start again in order to respond properly to your comment.
Again four years ago I would have concurred totally with your but things have changed for me to a point that none of what I used to take for granted as my reality is there any more so bear with me. OK?
Coming from Europe and believe it or not from a socialist/Communist background it took me a while to come to the conclusion that while the socialist ideal of sharing was a grand one it just did not happen that way. Not in the East block at any rate.
I have come to the conclusion that any “ism” including the current US state of Capitalism is a totalitarian system.
I don’t think there is a “system” that will solve all our problems and that no matter what the balance between individual needs and those of the community at large will sometimes conflict and that it will always be a tight rope act to prevent disintegration of society as we find out which is more important at what time. I’ve once found this nice schematic of this and it was the mature individual or component of the group which makes this possible. i.e. Childish narcissistic, me me me is one side of the equation and the overbearing parental attitude of rules and sharing and group thinking is the other side. The mature individual or the mature individuals in a group will try to balance their own needs and those of others making it acceptable to live in that group as an individual.
So I don’t have a problem with liberals flicking from right to left or whatever their self interest dictates because if they are mature individuals they will take others needs into account. That is one part of my response.
Now how about this pertains to Alex Jones whom I regard to be hugely different from the likes of Glenn Beck and other shock jocks in the right wing spectrum.
For instance of all the radio hosts in the US he is the only one who will interview someone like Cynthia McKinney. She is a high profile black female politician who once served in the senate and who is currently the leader of the Green party and presidential candidate for this party and who is currently living in Tripoli Libya to endure with the local population the incessant bombardments perpetrated by the NATO and US.
Alex Jones is the only radio host who from day one called the wars started after 911 illegal and criminal and who calls out the “good ole boys” for believing the propaganda and dehumanisation of Muslims.
He hosts Black and Hispanic political activists and rappers and allows them plenty of air time.
He called George Bush a war criminal as much as he calls Obama a war criminal (And seeing as he has expanded the drone attacks on Pakistan, started the war in Libya which even you must see is not the humanitarian action they claimed it to be and expanded the military action in Afghanistan when he won the election on a promise to pull out).
You argued that Alex Jones is getting rich of his program but I leave you with this to ponder.
First of all the ads he runs are not the high end corporate big money spinners. In fact he attacks those with a vengeance.
He puts all his films, radio shows and documentaries on your tube in low res for all to see for free.
Rather than claiming copy right and limited viewing he actively encourages people to copy and spread his material around for free and as a member I can give my password to his site to 5 other people without any repercussion.
Alex Jones believes in the Capitalism free trade system but claims that the US is not a free trade system but corporatism/fascism with the big corporations monopolising their money spinners and while I don’t agree with some of his political points of view I do agree with him on that but his generosity with regards to the fruits of his labour tells me he belongs in may ways to that mature part of the population I like to relate to and that makes him in many ways OK with me.
What am I doing wrong. My comments end up in moderation?
[lprent: Nothing that I can see from the filters. Just random from the anti-spam would be my guess (I haven’t released them so I’m not sure which comments you’re referring to). It will eventually correct itself. ]
I ended up in moderation the other night, no ant-spam issue as I was logged in, so what gives? Have I been declared a RWNJ cause I’m black? “religious’? 😀 (Before QoT nuts off at me, I’ll remind him/her of Ali G)…
[lprent: Nope. The anti spam checking operates on ALL comments except for editors and above. Login just means that the system will not ask you for a antispam word. ]
Mind you, the TV versions of Bruno and Borat were funny. And Borat (the movie) was funny for a while, until you realize just what a disgusting individual Baron Cohen is. He really is Borat.
There are many smart British comedians—Jack Dee, Steve Coogan, Ricky Gervais, and scores more. But Sasha Baron Cohen, like Madonna, gets there not through talent but an implacable work ethic.
Really, I agree. Baron Cohen is desperately unfunny, and a rather nasty individual… What happens is that things I am about to say remind me of other things, and sometimes I just burble! 😀
Don’t feel bad about quoting or referencing him, Vicky. He is funny, on one level. You weren’t burbling; I just saw the opportunity to have a blast at someone I despise.
The Following story emerged after completion of Baron Cohen’s film Bruno:
“A Palestinian grocer from Bethlehem filed suit against comedian Sacha Baron Cohen on Monday for the sum total of $115 million in libel damages over his film Bruno…..According to the Daily Mail, the Palestinian, Ayman Abu Aita, who is also a Christian peace activist, said that Baron’s depiction of him as a Lebanese Islamic Terrorist in his recently-released and controversial movie has ruined his life…..He has also filed suit against NBC, Universal Studios and famed American talk show host David Letterman for being part of the film which tricked him into meeting Cohen under the false pretext that Cohen was a German producing a film about the Palestinian cause…..Abu Aita told the Daily Mail that since the film was released to cinemas this summer, he has received several death threats despite the fact that he is a firm opponent of terrorists…..During the scene, Abu Aita was depicted as a leader of the Al-Aqsa Brigades, according to the film’s caption which referred to him as ‘Terrorist Group Leader, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.’
But more than this, when promoting the film on Letterman, Baron Cohen stuck rigidly to the fiction that Abu Aita was indeed a Lebanese Terrorist tracked down by the CIA and that the filming had taken place at “a secret location”. Subsequently, journalists discovered that Baron Cohen’s “interview” with Abu Aita had, in fact, taken place directly across from an Israeli military compound (in Occupied Palestinian territory).
Baron Cohen was a very active member of Zionist Youth Organisations in the UK during his teenage years.
Figured out the problem with the auto-moderation. When akismet is unable to get an answer to a query about a comment from the main server immediately, it pops the comment into moderation and waits a while before retrying it.
A present we’re seeing about a 10 fold increase in spam comment attempts in the past few days, and it looks like many many other sites are having the same attack going on. So the main akismet server is obviously failingto handle every comment in a timely fashion, but does so soon afterwards. Explains why I never saw any of these moderated messages.
The battle in the net appears to be starting to subside from our spam comment rate – got up nearly a thousand per day and is now about 700. Normal service is resuming. The war will continue…
I really don’t want to get into a scrap about this, I’ll just say that up front, and there is much of what he says that is appealing to people from all over the spectrum (or rather, to radicals on various fringes of the spectrum). But trying to put him in a non-US context is a mistake.
He opposes many things that various leftists oppose. As you outline. Going back before GWB he opposed Clinton and Bush the elder. He was right into the whole Ruby Ridge and Branch Davidian stories in the nineties, and consequently with the black helicopters, militias/posse comitatus/sovereign citizen movement.
All I’m saying by that, is that just as he will interview Cynthia McKinney, he’s interviewed all sorts of people who were deep in to the whole ZOG NWO scene, (where the US govt is ZOG, Zionist Occupied Government), As a taste of how that stuff was going, Jones maintained that one of the space shuttles that exploded was an inside job. I forget the details, but it was to do with there being an Israeli on board. The space shuttle explosion was a false flag operation somehow aimed at sparking a war to benefit Israel.
But what I’m getting at with all this at is that to view Jones in his context, you are right to ignore left right divisions as they are more broadly understood. He has to be understood in a USian context.
Right throughout US history the big division hasn’t been Capital vs Labour, or any of the other left/right fights that we see elsewhere. Right from the beginning the fight has been between the federalists and the anti-federalists. Jones is with the latter, and that’s where all his stuff starts to makes sense. Viewing him through any other lense he becomes incoherent.
I agree. I listen to him with a great many reservations and indeed from the point of view that he is very much a US based entity.
I think though that it is interesting to listen to him and his attempts at shining light on the secretive meetings of the ultra powerful and whether you believe all the things he says or not that is up to the individual.
There is one thing I don’t agree with you in this and that is his “anti Zionist” stance as he is very careful to avoid this controversy. In fact among the more extreme his avoidance of the subject has let ot speculations as to whether he could be a “Zionist” agent. LOL.
In fact he only recently spoke about Israel and his opinion on the matter. He is an equal opportunity anti war activist though. His opinion with regards to Libya, Syria, Yemen and Israel is simple; Why are we not bombing the shit out of Israel which has ignored every single UN resolution since ’67 while we have no compunction about doing the same with Libya to name one country? In his opinion we should not be involved in wars with any of the country’s the US is currently bombing. Not Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen or Pakistan but if we are we should be even in our response to all countries killing peacefully demonstrating. That includes Israel, Bahrein and other countries serving the interest of the US currenly getting a free pass for their torture, abuse and indiscriminate killing.
I tend to agree.
His opinion with regards to Libya, Syria, Yemen and Israel is simple; Why are we not bombing the shit out of Israel which has ignored every single UN resolution since ’67 while we have no compunction about doing the same with Libya to name one country? In his opinion we should not be involved in wars with any of the country’s the US is currently bombing.
Well sure. But that rhetorical question is an interesting one if that’s the way he framed it. One answer to why the US federal government isn’t bombing Israel is ZOG.
And he was always careful about his interviews with militia types even in the nineties, he’d always ‘just be giving them a platform to speak’, because the federal government silences it’s critics; he doesn’t endorse, he’s just fightin for these folks civil liberties.
But the theme is almost always that the federal government is the enemy of the people. That’s why the wars are bad. It’s the damnable federal government usurping power and using fear to control the populace and maintain it’s tyrannical rule.
People who hinted that maybe a domestic war against the federal government wouldn’t get the ‘war criminal’ treatment.
What’s his current line on state level government civil violations? He always used to be pretty quiet on that score.
On immigration, (‘illegals’) for example, they were a threat to state governments and the federal government ignored the problem deliberately, probably hoping for internal grassroots reaction that they could use as a pretext to steal everyone’s guns and lock folks up in FEMA camps.
The moderation happened to me too. I thought maybe I used a bad word like, er, liberal.
My take on Jones is that he is a traditional Republican, as opposed to the Reagan generation that lead the GOP now. He leans to the armed rebellion end of right wing politics, who believe the Government is a conspiracy against the People. Jones is not a dry righty, totally focussed on the bottom line, so I’m pleased to hear that he gives a bit back, but with the numbers you suggest (24 million listeners a month) he can afford to. I’d imagine the Tshirt sales alone would be huge, eh.
The thing with American politics is that there are a hell of a lot of very specific beliefs that enjoy levels of support at a state, regional or national level that never get beyond single digit support, federally. These groupings coalesce in either the democrat or republican parties.
Jones represents a particular strain of thought that is shared by maybe only 1% of Americans, but shares enough similarities with other fringe beliefs to generate that 24 million listenership and also a voice within the republican party.
I agree that the US is not best practice when it comes to free trade, by the way. Pork barrel politics, special interest lobbying and the pandering to farming interests has always meant that the US talks the talk, but has never walked the walk when it comes to genuine free trade.
Genuine free trade has never been promulgated by any of the major western powers.
In fact, its highly likely that true “free trade” only exists as an academic theory which was then used by commercial powers to humiliate the sovereignty of foreign countries and their markets.
I’ve once found this nice schematic of this and it was the mature individual or component of the group which makes this possible. i.e. Childish narcissistic, me me me is one side of the equation and the overbearing parental attitude of rules and sharing and group thinking is the other side. The mature individual or the mature individuals in a group will try to balance their own needs and those of others making it acceptable to live in that group as an individual.
That sounds like transactional analysis with a scheme of dividing behaviour into three – it arises from the parent, the adult or the child state. I think it is an excellent shorthand for getting a fast understanding of one’s and others’ mindsets.
Yes it seriously amazes me that Farrar is taken seriously by others. He chooses the subject of the day most likely to fire up his cretins (like something taniwha, something Clark, something sexist) and lets them go. It is like the most disgusting and ignorant of talkback radio writ large.
I have a bash over there sometimes but it always immediately degenerates into a stinking shithole screamfest.
It is worse that The Penguin gets comfort from Jim Mora as a panelist on Afternoons on national radio. Mora bills his guest as a leading blogger and mentions the name of the notorious blog as well. Just perhaps, Mora never reads beyond the Penguin’s posts – Farrar, however, is responsible for what he allows to be appended to his blog.
Why do you call those fools “rednecks”? That implies they work hard in the sun like honest farmers and labourers. I wonder how much manual work the likes of Farrar, Slater, Hooton, Leighton Smith, and Paul Holmes actually do.
What lies behind this trans-Atlantic policy paralysis? I’m increasingly convinced that it’s a response to interest-group pressure. Consciously or not, policy makers are catering almost exclusively to the interests of rentiers — those who derive lots of income from assets, who lent large sums of money in the past, often unwisely, but are now being protected from loss at everyone else’s expense.
Sounds a lot like what’s happening in NZ as well. The rich are protected (SCF, AMI, farmers subsidies via the ETS) from their bad decisions and everyone else pays for them. Especially the small businesses.
On the back of the National Government ordering that the entire Christchurch unemployed population not be included in recent welfare statistics, comes another blatant attempt by National to trick the public into believing unemployment rates have fallen. The difference between the cons is that one completely disregards a large sector of unemployed and the other ensures that more people are not eligible or do not reapply for their benefits because of harsh new criteria imposed by WINZ.
What’s the new hoop jumping UB’s have to do to reapply?
If the reapplying thing is merely policy (that’s not in statute) then it should be challengeable. 5,000 is a very large number of people to not have an income all of a sudden. I’d like to see an analysis of that number.
An analysis of that number? In a recent article it was reported that only 1400 out of the some 5000 removed from the unemployment benefit said they had found work, with over 1000 no longer eligible according to the harsh rules leaving 2600 unaccounted for. Or perhaps you mean an analysis to see what has actually happened to the 2600? Like how many have committed suicide and left for Australia for instance. I’d be interested in seeing those figures as it would be proper way to glean the effectiveness of the policy change.
According to the WINZ website:
When you re-apply, you’ll also need to complete a Comprehensive Work Assessment.
Work obligations include things like:
attending scheduled job interviews
actively looking for a job
taking a suitable job that’s offered to you
attending work experience, training or workshops that Work and Income think would be helpful.
The first time you don’t meet your work obligations, your main benefit will be reduced by 50%. You’ll continue to receive any supplementary assistance that you’re entitled to.
The second time you don’t comply, your benefit and supplementary assistance will be suspended.
The third time you don’t comply all your benefits will be cancelled.
Failing to complete the 52 week reapplication process If a client reapplies before their expiry date but does not complete the reapplication process on or before the expiry date, their benefit will stop.
If a client reapplies after their expiry date and does not have an exceptional circumstance for not reapplying on or before the expiry date, their benefit must be manually cancelled from the expiry date.
Note if a client does not complete the reapplication process within 20 working days after the expiry date the benefit will automatically be cancelled.
Client still wants to apply for benefit
Clients who fail to complete the 52 week reapplication process but want to continue to receive a benefit must be advised to reapply for a benefit as a new applicant. The client will be subject to the normal commencement date rules, including initial stand-downs.
Note if the client advises they want to reapply you can use their reapplication form as their application.
If a client does not want to reapply for a benefit, they should be advised to apply as a non-beneficiary for supplementary assistance (such as Accommodation Supplement).
For more information:
One thing I would like to note is that this is the Policy that WINZ is meant to follow. It is likely that Paula Bennett has instructed WINZ employees to utilize any means to remove people from the unemployment benefit. It is the application of the new rules that is ultimately the problem. Because beneficiaries are not being informed about their rights, they are being taken advantage of, which is not acceptable in a democracy.
Jackal
“Or perhaps you mean an analysis to see what has actually happened to the 2600? Like how many have committed suicide and left for Australia for instance. I’d be interested in seeing those figures as it would be proper way to glean the effectiveness of the policy change.”
I too wondered what had happened to the 2600. Does anyone apart from us care?
The government certainly appears not to care by publishing the fact as a ‘win’.
What has happened to humanity under neoliberal ideology. Oh I remember, from the merry 80s and 90s -we have been economically quantified and there is no such thing as society which – makes it easier to forget people exist and think only of that lovely money. Why on earth do they still call Ms.Bennett’s department Social Development-from these shocking facts it should be called the Society Nihilation department. Such a name would really cheer the Right Wing exploiters of humanity up.
How could John Key say National’s ways were closer to Destiny Church. Destiny Curch is meant to be Christian and Christ spoke against most of what National enforces.”Love thy neighbour as thyself,”said he.John key needs to get a Bible.
Just heard on the news that apparently the outpatient departments in New Zealand hospitals are not geared to cope with drunken idiots. WTF. When was a festival of sport a license to be drunk and disorderly?
The worst of this is that we have a Prime Minister who has countenanced “Party Central” (in other words unbridled piss up time). Now take away the involvement of international rugby, and what would the reaction be to a mob of drunken louts roaming the streets.
Try to imagine foreigners in such places as France, Greece, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong et cetera, being drunk and disorderly in the streets – doesn’t bear thinking about.
But given the inevitability of this, who is going to have to stump up for the cost of this behaviour and treatment? I bet it won’t be the RFU – they are already staring down the barrel of massive debt.
We could have strategically placed billboards at every international terminal advising rugby fans that there will be a zero tolerance of abuse of alcohol. That may be an approach…
F#ck the World Cup, if it is going to mean streams of urine in our gutters…
Watching the second round of Nkii kaye vs Jacinda Ardern on Citizen A with Bomber on Stratos. This time, Jacinda & Bomber are not letting Nikki get away with so much interuptions…. although she did that just now. Kaye has claimed poverty grew under the 9 years of the Clark government…. is that correct?
This time Kaye has ditched the repetitive “Let me be clear” and is instead repeating “The reality is” or “the point is”.
Yes! Poverty did increase under the last Labour Government. Another indicator was the comparison with Australia (GDP, Cost of living ect), which also worsened under Labour. However the gap between rich and poor has increased at twice that rate under National with a similar doubling of the disparity with Australia compared to New Zealand under a John Key led Government. Labour is just the lesser of two evils in my opinion. Perhaps they’ve changed but we wont know until they’re able to form a Government. Where is Phil Goff anyway?
Was a good debate. Just wish Bomber the egotist would get the damn audio sorted.
When you look at the levels of benefits compared to the average weekly wage, the last Labour Govt did little to bring them back to pre-Ruthanasia ratios.
Of course, under Labour, unemployment and youth unemployment were far far lower and so this affected fewer people. What Labour didn’t get is that on the downslope of the economic cycle, it would end up affecting a hell of a lot of people.
So what they did instead of increasing benefit levels to livable ratios, was to increase the minimum wage and to focus on tax breaks to couples with children (what about everyone else in this country?!).
Problem is of course that income tax breaks and increases in the minimum wage only mean something if you have work.
Best laugh of the day: a comment on the NZ Herald to Farrar’s weekly column:
“David – my advice would be to take your own advice, except the only difference would be that I for one would prefer you didn’t come back in a couple of years. Actually I would prefer that you never came back at all.
While you are at it – take John Key with you. I would recommend Gerry Brownlee as well but I sincerely doubt you can afford the cost of the excess baggage.”
by Daphna Whitmore Twitter and Facebook shutting down Trump’s accounts after his supporters stormed Capitol Hill is old news now but the debates continue over whether the actions against Trump are a good thing or not. Those in favour of banning Trump say Twitter and Facebook are private companies and ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Democrats now control the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives for the first time in a decade, albeit with razor thin Congressional majorities. The last time, in the 111th Congress (2009-2011), House Democrats passed a carbon cap and trade bill, but it died ...
Session thirty-three was highly abbreviated, via having to move house in a short space of time. Oh well. The party decided to ignore the tree-monster and continue the attack on the Giant Troll. Tarsin – flying on a giant summoned bat – dumped some high-grade oil over the ...
Last night I stayed up till 3am just to see then-President Donald Trump leave the White House, get on a plane, and fly off to Florida, hopefully never to return. And when I woke up this morning, America was different. Not perfect, because it never was. Probably not even good, ...
Watching today’s inauguration of Joe Biden as the United States’ 46th president, there’s not a lot in common with the inauguration of Donald Trump just four destructive years ago. Where Trump warned of carnage, Biden dared to hope for unity and decency. But the one place they converge is that ...
Dan FalkBritons who switched on their TVs to “Good Morning Britain” on the morning of Sept. 15, 2020, were greeted by news not from our own troubled world, but from neighboring Venus. Piers Morgan, one of the hosts, was talking about a major science story that had surfaced the ...
Sara LutermanGrowing up autistic in a non-autistic world can be very isolating. We are often strange and out of sync with peers, despite our best efforts. Autistic adults have, until very recently, been largely absent from media and the public sphere. Finding role models is difficult. Finding useful advice ...
Doug JohnsonThe alien-like blooms and putrid stench of Amorphophallus titanum, better known as the corpse flower, draw big crowds and media coverage to botanical gardens each year. In 2015, for instance, around 75,000 people visited the Chicago Botanic Garden to see one of their corpse flowers bloom. More than ...
Getting to Browser Tab Zero so I can reboot the computer is awfully hard when the one open tab is a Table of Contents for the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, and every issue has more stuff I want to read. A few highlights: Gugler et al demonstrating ...
Timothy Ford, University of Massachusetts Lowell and Charles M. Schweik, University of Massachusetts AmherstTo mitigate health inequities and promote social justice, coronavirus vaccines need to get to underserved populations and hard-to-reach communities. There are few places in the U.S. that are unreachable by road, but other factors – many ...
Israel chose to pay a bit over the odds for the Pfizer vaccine to get earlier access. Here’s The Times of Israel from 16 November. American government will be charged $39 for each two-shot dose, and the European bloc even less, but Jerusalem said to agree to pay $56. Israel ...
Orla is a gender critical Marxist in Ireland. She gave a presentation on 15 January 2021 on the connection between postmodern/transgender identity politics and the current attacks on democratic and free speech rights. Orla has been active previously in the Irish Socialist Workers Party and the People Before Profit electoral ...
. . America: The Empire Strikes Back (at itself) Further to my comments in the first part of 2020: The History That Was, the following should be considered regarding the current state of the US. They most likely will be by future historians pondering the critical decades of ...
Nathaniel ScharpingIn March, as the Covid-19 pandemic began to shut down major cities in the U.S., researchers were thinking about blood. In particular, they were worried about the U.S. blood supply — the millions of donations every year that help keep hospital patients alive when they need a transfusion. ...
Sarah L Caddy, University of CambridgeVaccines are a marvel of medicine. Few interventions can claim to have saved as many lives. But it may surprise you to know that not all vaccines provide the same level of protection. Some vaccines stop you getting symptomatic disease, but others stop you ...
Back in 2016, the Portuguese government announced plans to stop burning coal by 2030. But progress has come much quicker, and they're now scheduled to close their last coal plant by the end of this year: The Sines coal plant in Portugal went offline at midnight yesterday evening (14 ...
The Sincerest Form Of Flattery: As anybody with the intestinal fortitude to brave the commentary threads of local news-sites, large and small, will attest, the number of Trump-supporting New Zealanders is really quite astounding. IT’S SO DIFFICULT to resist the temptation to be smug. From the distant perspective of New Zealand, ...
RNZ reports on continued arbitrariness on decisions at the border. British comedian Russell Howard is about to tour New Zealand and other acts allowed in through managed isolation this summer include drag queen RuPaul and musicians at Northern Bass in Mangawhai and the Bay Dreams festival. The vice-president of the ...
As families around the world mourn more than two million people dead from Covid-19, the Plan B academics and their PR industry collaborator continue to argue that the New Zealand government should stop focusing on our managed isolation and quarantine system and instead protect the elderly so that they can ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 10, 2021 through Sat, Jan 16, 2021Editor's ChoiceNASA says 2020 tied for hottest year on record — here’s what you can do to helpPhoto by Michael Held on Unsplash ...
Health authorities in Norway are reporting some concerns about deaths in frail elderly after receiving their COVID-19 vaccine. Is this causally related to the vaccine? Probably not but here are the things to consider. According to the news there have been 23 deaths in Norway shortly after vaccine administration and ...
Happy New Year! No, experts are not concerned that “…one of New Zealand’s COIVD-1( vaccines will fail to protect the country” Here is why. But first I wish to issue an expletive about this journalism (First in Australia and then in NZ). It exhibits utter failure to actually truly consult ...
All nations have shadows; some acknowledge them. For others they shape their image in uncomfortable ways.The staunch Labour supporter was in despair at what her Rogernomics Government was doing. But she finished ‘at least, we got rid of Muldoon’, a response which tells us that then, and today, one’s views ...
Grigori GuitchountsIn November, Springer Nature, one of the world’s largest publishers of scientific journals, made an attention-grabbing announcement: More than 30 of its most prestigious journals, including the flagship Nature, will now allow authors to pay a fee of US$11,390 to make their papers freely available for anyone to read ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gary Yohe, Henry Jacoby, Richard Richels, and Benjamin Santer Imagine a major climate change law passing the U.S. Congress unanimously? Don’t bother. It turns out that you don’t need to imagine it. Get this: The Global Change Research Act of 1990 was passed ...
“They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”WHO CAN FORGET the penultimate scene of the 1956 movie classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The wild-eyed doctor, stumbling down the highway, trying desperately to warn his fellow citizens: “They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”Ostensibly science-fiction, the movie ...
TheOneRing.Net has got its paws on the official synopsis of the upcoming Amazon Tolkien TV series. It’s a development that brings to mind the line about Sauron deliberately releasing Gollum from the dungeons of Barad-dûr. Amazon knew exactly what they were doing here, in terms of drumming up publicity: ...
Since Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953, US presidents have joined an informal club intended to provide support - and occasionally rivalry - between those few who have been ‘leaders of the free world’. Donald Trump, elected on a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ and a constant mocker of his predecessors, ...
For over a decade commentators have noted the rise of a new brand of explicitly ideological politics throughout the world. By this they usually refer to the re-emergence of national populism and avowedly illiberal approaches to governance throughout the “advanced” democratic community, but they also extend the thought to the ...
The US House of Representatives has just impeached Donald Trump, giving him the dubious honour of being the only US President to be impeached twice. Ten Republicans voted for impeachement, making it the most bipartisan impeachment ever. The question now is whether the Senate will rise to the occasion, and ...
Kieren Mitchell; Alice Mouton, Université de Liège; Angela Perri, Durham University, and Laurent Frantz, Ludwig Maximilian University of MunichThanks to the hit television series Game of Thrones, the dire wolf has gained a near-mythical status. But it was a real animal that roamed the Americas for at least 250,000 ...
Tide of tidal data rises Having cast our own fate to include rising sea level, there's a degree of urgency in learning the history of mean sea level in any given spot, beyond idle curiosity. Sea level rise (SLR) isn't equal from one place to another and even at a particular ...
Well, some of those chickens sure came home bigly, didn’t they… and proceeded to shit all over the nice carpet in the Capitol. What we were seeing here are societal forces that have long had difficulty trying to reconcile people to the “idea” of America and the reality of ...
In the wake of Donald Trump's incitement of an assault on the US capitol, Twitter finally enforced its terms of service and suspended his account. They've since followed that up with action against prominent QAnon accounts and Trumpers, including in New Zealand. I'm not unhappy with this: Trump regularly violated ...
Peter S. Ross, University of British ColumbiaThe Arctic has long proven to be a barometer of the health of our planet. This remote part of the world faces unprecedented environmental assaults, as climate change and industrial chemicals threaten a way of life for Inuit and other Indigenous and northern ...
Susan St John makes the case for taxing a deemed rate of return on excessive real estate holdings (after a family home exemption), to redirect scarce housing resources to where they are needed most. Read the full article here ...
I’m less than convinced by arguments that platforms like Twitter should be subject to common carrier regulation preventing them from being able to decide who to keep on as clients of their free services, and who they would not like to serve. It’s much easier to create competition for the ...
The hypocritical actions of political leaders throughout the global Covid pandemic have damaged public faith in institutions and governance. Liam Hehir chronicles the way in which contemporary politicians have let down the public, and explains how real leadership means walking the talk. During the Blitz, when German bombs were ...
Over the years, we've published many rebuttals, blog posts and graphics which came about due to direct interactions with the scientists actually carrying out the underlying research or being knowledgable about a topic in general. We'll highlight some of these interactions in this blog post. We'll start with two memorable ...
Yesterday we had the unseemly sight of a landleech threatening to keep his houses empty in response to better tenancy laws. Meanwhile in Catalonia they have a solution for that: nationalisation: Barcelona is deploying a new weapon in its quest to increase the city’s available rental housing: the power ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters, PhD The 2020 global wildfire season brought extreme fire activity to the western U.S., Australia, the Arctic, and Brazil, making it the fifth most expensive year for wildfire losses on record. The year began with an unprecedented fire event ...
NOTE: This is an excerpt from a digital story – read the full story here.Tess TuxfordKo te Kauri Ko Au, Ko te Au ko Kauri I am the kauri, the kauri is me Te Roroa proverb In Waipoua Forest, at the top of the North Island, New ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Coming attraction: IPCC's upcoming major climate assessmentLook for more emphasis on 'solutions,' efforts by cities, climate equity ... and outlook for emissions cuts in ...
Ringing A Clear Historical Bell: The extraordinary images captured in and around the US Capitol Building on 6 January 2021 mirror some of the worst images of America's past.THERE IS A SCENE in the 1982 movie Missing which has remained with me for nearly 40 years. Directed by the Greek-French ...
To impact or not to impeach? I understand why some of those who are justifiably aghast at Trump’s behaviour over recent days might still counsel against impeaching him for a second time. To impeach him, they argue, would run the risk of making him a martyr in the eyes of ...
The Capitol Building, Washington DC, Wednesday, 6 January 2021. Oh come, my little one, come.The day is almost done.Be at my side, behold the sightOf evening on the land.The life, my love, is hardAnd heavy is my heart.How should I live if you should leaveAnd we should be apart?Come, let me ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 3, 2021 through Sat, Jan 9, 2021Editor's ChoiceAfter the Insurrection: Accountability, Reform, and the Science of Democracy The poisonous lies and enablers of sedition--including Senator Hawley, pictured ...
This article, guest authored by Prof. Angela Gallego-Sala & Dr. Julie Loisel, was originally published on the Carbon Brief website on Dec 21, 2020. It is reposted below in its entirety. Click here to access the original article and comments. Peatlands Peatlands are ecosystems unlike any other. Perpetually saturated, their ...
The assault on the US Capitol and constitutional crisis that it has caused was telegraphed, predictable and yet unexpected and confusing. There are several subplots involved: whether the occupation of the Michigan State House in May was a trial run for the attacks on Congress; whether people involved in the ...
On Christmas Eve, child number 1 spotted a crack in a window. It’s a double-glazed window, and inspection showed that the small, horizontal crack was in the outermost pane. It was perpendicular to the frame, about three-quarters of the way up one side. The origins are a mystery. It MIGHT ...
Anne-Marie Broudehoux, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Will the COVID-19 pandemic prompt a shift to healthier cities that focus on wellness rather than functional and economic concerns? This is a hypothesis that seems to be supported by several researchers around the world. In many ways, containment and physical distancing ...
Does the US need to strike a grand bargain with like-minded countries to pool their efforts? What does this tell us about today’s global politics? Perhaps the most remarkable editorial of last year was the cover leader of the London Economist on 19 November 2020. Shortly after Joe Biden was ...
Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato and Valmaine Toki, University of WaikatoAotearoa New Zealand likes to think it punches above its weight internationally, but there is one area where we are conspicuously falling behind — the number of sites recognised by the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Globally, there are 1,121 ...
An event organised by the Auckland PhilippinesSolidarity group Have a three-course lunch at Nanam Eatery with us! Help support the organic farming of our Lumad communities through the Mindanao Community School Agricultural Foundation. Each ticket is $50. Food will be served on shared plates. To purchase, please email phsolidarity@gmail.com or ...
"Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here." Prisons are places of unceasing emotional and physical violence, unrelieved despair and unforgivable human waste.IT WAS NATIONAL’S Bill English who accurately described New Zealand’s prisons as “fiscal and moral failures”. On the same subject, Labour’s Dr Martyn Findlay memorably suggested that no prison ...
This is a re-post from Inside Climate News by Ilana Cohen. Inside Climate News is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. Whether or not people accept the science on Covid-19 and climate change, both global crises will have lasting impacts on health and ...
. . American Burlesque As I write this (Wednesday evening, 6 January), the US Presidential election is all but resolved, confirming Joe Biden as the next President of the (Dis-)United State of America. Trump’s turbulent political career has lasted just four years – one of the few single-term US presidents ...
The session started off so well. Annalax – suitably chastised – spent a pleasant morning with his new girlfriend (he would say paramour, of course, but for our purposes, girlfriend is easier*). He told her about Waking World Drow, and their worship of Her Ladyship. And he started ...
In a recent column I wrote for local newspapers, I ventured to suggest that Donald Trump – in addition to being a liar and a cheat, and sexist and racist – was a fascist in the making and would probably try, if he were to lose the election, to defy ...
A growing public housing waiting list and continued increase of house prices must be urgently addressed by Government, Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson said today. ...
The Government has released its Public Housing Plan 2021-2024 which outlines the intention of where 8,000 additional public and transitional housing places announced in Budget 2020, will go. “The Government is committed to continuing its public house build programme at pace and scale. The extra 8,000 homes – 6000 public ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has congratulated President Joe Biden on his inauguration as the 46th President of the United States of America. “I look forward to building a close relationship with President Biden and working with him on issues that matter to both our countries,” Jacinda Ardern said. “New Zealand ...
A major investment to tackle wilding pines in Mt Richmond will create jobs and help protect the area’s unique ecosystems, Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor says. The Mt Richmond Forest Park has unique ecosystems developed on mineral-rich geology, including taonga plant species found nowhere else in the country. “These special plant ...
To further protect New Zealand from COVID-19, the Government is extending pre-departure testing to all passengers to New Zealand except from Australia, Antarctica and most Pacific Islands, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “The change will come into force for all flights arriving in New Zealand after 11:59pm (NZT) on Monday ...
Bay Conservation Cadets launched with first intake Supported with $3.5 million grant Part of $1.245b Jobs for Nature programme to accelerate recover from Covid Cadets will learn skills to protect and enhance environment Environment Minister David Parker today welcomed the first intake of cadets at the launch of the Bay ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan. “The Battle at Te Ruapekapeka Pā, which took ...
Babies born with tongue-tie will be assessed and treated consistently under new guidelines released by the Ministry of Health, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Around 5% to 10% of babies are born with a tongue-tie, or ankyloglossia, in New Zealand each year. At least half can ...
The prisoner disorder event at Waikeria Prison is over, with all remaining prisoners now safely and securely detained, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says. The majority of those involved in the event are members of the Mongols and Comancheros. Five of the men are deportees from Australia, with three subject to ...
Travellers from the United Kingdom or the United States bound for New Zealand will be required to get a negative test result for COVID-19 before departing, and work is underway to extend the requirement to other long haul flights to New Zealand, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today. “The new PCR test requirement, foreshadowed last ...
With criticism from National piling on over the property market, the prime minister has detailed when the government will make housing announcements. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marco Rizzi, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Western Australia Some Australians could be receiving a COVID-19 vaccine within weeks. Amid the continued spread of the virus and emergence of highly contagious variants, the federal government has accelerated the start of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Euan Ritchie, Professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life & Environmental Sciences, Deakin University Australia’s Threatened Species Strategy — a five-year plan for protecting our imperilled species and ecosystems — fizzled to an end last year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Lecturer, General Dentist & PhD Candidate, The University of Queensland Baby teeth, or milk teeth, act like lighthouses to guide the adult ones to their correct destination. A baby tooth will become wobbly and fall out because the adult tooth ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he’s joined by Simon Coley, co-founder of All Good and Karma Drinks.Bananas are one of the ...
Tackling topics such as rugby and body image, Stuff’s latest podcast shines a much-needed light on Aotearoa’s complex relationship with masculinity, writes Trevor McKewen, author of the book Real Men Wear Black.I wasn’t sure what to think when two episodes of the new local podcast He’ll Be Right landed in ...
The Rainforest Alliance reveals that 68%* of Kiwis say the COVID-19 pandemic has made them more conscious about environmental and social sustainability issues. Seventy two percent* state that they have been trying to make more sustainable purchasing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tama Leaver, Professor of Internet Studies, Curtin University The inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, has raised concerns that Australia’s proposed News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code could fundamentally break the internet as we know it. His concerns ...
ANALYSIS:By Scott Lucas, University of Birmingham Politics doesn’t have to be a raging fire destroying everything in its path Two weeks after the storming of the US Capitol by the followers of his predecessor, in the middle of an out-of-control pandemic that has killed more than 400,000 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Cantrell, Lecturer, Creative Writing & English Literature, University of Southern Queensland Described as “the world’s greatest storyteller”, Roald Dahl is frequently ranked as the best children’s author of all time by teachers, authors and librarians. However, the new film adaptation of ...
Peak housing body, Community Housing Aotearoa (CHA) welcomes the updated Public Housing Plan announced today by Minister Woods, and the commitment by this Government to fix New Zealand’s housing crisis. The 8,000 additional homes are a significant ...
Having recently walked much of the South Island stretch of Te Araroa, Kirsten O’Regan reflects on the magnificent landscapes and interesting characters she encountered along the way.On our 36th day of walking, we climb through the fire-blackened hills above Ohau, stopping to examine heat-disfigured trail markers. Fresh green shoots have ...
Miss Torta in central Auckland is putting the spotlight on a snack that’s commonplace in Mexico, but until now relatively unknown in New Zealand.You’ve heard of a torta, but what is it, exactly? Well, depending on the cuisine it can mean a flatbread, cake, tart, sweet pie, savoury pie or ...
Two of three ministerial statements from the Beehive have been released in the name of the PM over the past two days. The more important, insofar as it involves political action that will affect the wellbeing of significant numbers of Kiwis, was the release of the government’s Public Housing Plan ...
Jacinda Ardern has reminded Labour MPs "ongoing vigilance" will be required in 2021 to avoid another Covid outbreak, admitting she held her breath over the summer break. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zareh Ghazarian, Senior Lecturer, School of Social Sciences, Monash University Despite many young Australians having a deep interest in political issues, most teenagers have a limited understanding about their nation’s democratic system. Results from the 2019 National Assessment Program – Civics and ...
Pinged $65 for overstaying 10 minutes in a parking block? Put away your hard-earned cash and read this first.Hopefully, by now, I’ve already established myself at The Spinoff as the resident tightarse, determined to avoid all unfair and unnecessary punishments (see: oversize baggage charges). Today, I’m focusing my attention on ...
Nuclear weapons states and their allies risk reputational ruin if they flout a new UN Treaty, Carolina Panico argues The United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will come into force this month, on January 22, 2021, turning nuclear weapons into illegal objects. It is an achievement that ...
How does one turn into a rabid extremist over the description of a children’s bike? Emily Writes looks at Facebook comments so you don’t have to.You’ve been there, I know it. You’re scrolling along, trying to avoid QAnon conspiracy theories and Trump apocalypse memes when a story catches your eye. ...
Joe Biden is now the President of the United States and many people across America and throughout the world will consequently be breathing more easily. But while the erratic, unpredictable and irresponsible years of the Trump Presidency may be over, ...
Tough border testing for New Zealand honey imports to Japan is re-igniting the conversation about the use of the weed killer glypohsate in New Zealand. ...
The Taxpayers Union should be aware of the law and of the history of ACC. The ACC is a legal system introduced in 1974 to replace the common law right of accident victims to sue for damages for personal injury sustained as a result of negligence ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne Terrorism, political extremism, Donald Trump, social media and the phenomenon of “cancel culture” are confronting journalists with a range of agonising free-speech dilemmas to which there are no easy answers. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nial Wheate, Associate Professor of the Sydney Pharmacy School, University of Sydney You’ve just come from your monthly GP appointment with a new script for your ongoing medical condition. But your local pharmacy is out of stock of your usual medicine. Your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deanna D’Alessandro, Professor & ARC Future Fellow, University of Sydney On Wednesday this week, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was measured at at 415 parts per million (ppm). The level is the highest in human history, and is growing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Renwick, Professor, Physical Geography (climate science), Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington It might be summer in New Zealand but we’re in for some wild weather this week with forecasts of heavy wind and rain, and a plunge in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zareh Ghazarian, Senior Lecturer, School of Social Sciences, Monash University Despite many young Australians having a deep interest in political issues, most teenagers have a limited understanding about their nation’s democratic system. Results from the 2019 National Assessment Program – Civics and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle O’Shea, Senior Lecturer, School of Business, Western Sydney University Last week, the McIver’s Ladies Baths in Sydney came under fire for their (since removed) policy stating “only transgender women who’ve undergone a gender reassignment surgery are allowed entry”. The policy was ...
There are good grounds for optimism after the guardrails of American democracy held firm through to Joe Biden's inauguration today as President, writes Stephen Hoadley Pessimism abounds about the perilous condition of American democracy. Commentators and headline writers proffer memes such as ‘broken and divided nation’, ‘the threat from within’. ...
*This article was originally appeared on RNZ and is republished with permission. Donald Trump will forever be remembered as the president who was impeached twice - and for his rhetoric that struck a chord so deep in America that it will take years to dissipate. Donald Trump leaves Washington with the lowest approval ...
A new plan shows how and where the Government will build 8,000 new state housing places it funded in Budget 2020, Marc Daalder reports Jacinda Ardern has kicked off the political year with a major announcement, promising hundreds of new state housing places in regional centres across the country. With ...
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Simon Power is at it again, engaging in US type defense counsel bashing. He insists on Law Society reform to deal with unidentified lawyers who are supposedly rorting the system but Power and the Government have the very simple and effective tool of tearing up the contract the Legal Services Agency has with any errant lawyer. No reform is necessary if what he says is true.
Been bashing and lawyer bashing for political advantage, how predictable.
One further comment, no mention of the Roy Morgan poll in the Herald or Stuff as far as I can see. How surprising …
This sounds a little familiar. It won’t surprise many of us that research by California-based Oakland Institute shows that the foriegn land grabs in Africa do not benefit the countries that US unis and other interests are investing in:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/08/us-universities-africa-land-grab
Harvard is one of the US unis named as being major participants in these African landgrabs, and Harvard also already has endowment investments in NZ land:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/markets/news/article.cfm?c_id=62&objectid=10728265
Basic English seems to be a problem for our leaders.
First Key and now Barnett – (captains of industry some would say).
A small point but why do these people murder the language.
…”There’s lots of things happening … There’s plenty of differing views…”
Perhaps Delorus Umbridge could apply some of her standards and advise her mates.
They’re not alone though – I’ve noticed it a lot with MBAs during public interviews.
They use sloppy meaningless language as it suits their purposes of obfuscation and distraction perfectly.
i.e. it is usually deliberate.
Apart from that NAT MP who had no idea about internet copy protection, that was simple thickness.
I just about spat my porridge across the breakfast table this morning on reading Minister of Fisheries Phil Heatley’s plans for paua takes post-election.
He said that in order to counter poaching the rules would be changed to make that poaching legal. Then voila! No more poaching and the government gets a return.
Seriously. That is what he said.
Now lets apply that reasoning to say, speeding, tax evasion, … um …. (insert any crime).
It is the most shallow and poor drivel just about ever. What a fuckwit.
My giddy aunt! You’d think it was satire…
Pagani claims Bennett has been at it again.
Deliberately leaking private details of a beneficiary for political gain (SBW’s punchbag) – just before announcing a crackdown on the weak.
Disgusting if true. Well worth following up.
John’s site here.
He’s pretty on the money about the dirty tricks being used in this beat up. But I suspect nobody in the parliamentary press gallery is going to rat out Bennett as an abuser of power because they’d rather have a stream of pre-written ‘news’ stories from her PR team that can be cut and pasted under their own bye-lines in a minute or two. A bloody sight easier doing that than actually doing journalism.
ak – I like logie97’s latest inventive name Petulant Bean, I thought of Paua Bennie but can’t think of a good caption for it, so it’s a bit lacking. It seems that name-calling is all one can do with her, she has no shame, and is a favoured MP doing exactly what the NACTs want and making squids in pay doing something that she apparently enjoys.
The RW love a female who puts on jackboots and whips the lower orders. Margaret Thatcher, for instance and Ruth Richardson was being questioned as over the top in a 1991 newspaper sheet I have. Jim Bolger had to defend giving her the position of Finance Minister. Incidentally it is interesting to see the similar state of political matters seen for 1991 repeated in 2011.
In 1991 SWMinister Jenny Shipley could not rule out office closures after departmental review. Kindergartens face funding crisis, Wellington doctors declare crisis, Treasury approves its own pay rise, Government wins oil field fight (Ngaere land issue in Taranaki), a television poll showed 55% against benefit cuts, the Prime Minister Jim Bolger ‘failed to spell out government growth strategies but instead continued to focus on cutting the deficit’. Welfare system under attack -meeting of 300 people discussing the Employment Contracts Bill.
The National Party announced for 1990 general election that to vote for them would give –
1 Real Growth 2 More Jobs 3 Better Pay, NZ Banks face tighter lending limits after DFC collapse Dr Don Brash, Reserve Bank governor states. Australian Wool Corporation hopes to raise hundreds of millions with bonds which would be government guaranteed, Fruit giant Chiquita Brands goes to NZ government over NZ Kiwifruit Marketing Board refusal to allow it to sell 20 million trays on world markets and wants second-exporter status.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. If you don’t know the meaning of that you coulf have learned French at night school if Anne Tolley wasn’t hostile to anyone learning more than she knows.
One big difference is that in 1991 kiwis took the the streets and protested.
Point of order, that was mine! I posted it in the middle of the night one insomniac weekend… it’s from an anagram generator I had discovered… I am young enough and neuro-typical enough to be a bit off-piste that he started using it, even in a post in which he attacked me, without acknowledging that it my name for Bennett in the first place!
Good on ya Vicky32 – as you grow up you will learn that “immitation is the highest form of flattery”. In future every time Petulant Bean is used (and as you quite rightly observed was apt), I will ensure that I acknowledge you as the originator if that relaxes you. As for your other comment that I attacked you – I should be interested in the link where I “attacked you”. But then you quote ak when it would appear to be “prism” who is making reference so your accuracy and recall are somewhat questionable.
In the meantime, feel free to use Joky Hen and Professor Delorus Umbridge as often as you like – perhaps then we can make them part of the vernacular and everyone will know who we are referring to.
Please, don’t be so childish! Acknowledgement the first time you took credit for it, would have been nice, but then if 97 is your birthdate, then I suppose you can’t help the ‘childish’ bit… 🙂
I am not hunting for a link.. you can find it as well as I can. It was when you accused me of supporting Bennett in her use of of the “toolkt’ when all I wanted to say is that I knew Ian and Mary Grant, and they weren’t the fascistic fundies everyone was claiming them to be.
The first would appear to be John Key, the second, who? Tolley? If you’re the originator of those, congrats, but as to the 2nd, I rather think J K Rowling might have something to say…
Got to love you Vicky32. But for your information I have never entered into any correspondence on this site regarding the Petulant Bean and the Grant’s toolkit.
Clearly, my dear, your insomnia has affected your memory badly.
I have never ever claimed naming rights for any or all of these alternative names for these politicians – just think they are apt and enjoy using them. Congratulations once again on finding the Petulant Bean.
As for Delores Umbridge – she attempted at Hogwarts what Tolley is attempting here. (Read the Order of the Phoenix).
Er – that would be re-read for the nth time, which is why I said if you were laying claim to the name, Rowling might have something to say. Please, just leave it alone, you’ve made your point, and now you’re being – dare I say it, petulant? 😀
BTW, I am not your ‘dear’, don’t be a sarcastic patronising berk. Thanks in advance.
Glad you’re a Potter Fan. No room for berks in that community.
Trust we can now direct our efforts collectively to keep the Petulant Bean, Joky Hen and Professor Umbridge honest.
There are lots of things bothering me:
What a cheek – letting Rob Pope retire before doing something about the Scott Watson debacle
How come Treasury can produce a fantasy document like the Budget and NOT be called to task? Like you’d want that one on your cv
What happened to the Pansy Wong investigation? How come her husband could spend $75,000 in domestic travel and not have that investigated.
…letting Rob Pope retire before doing something about the Scott Watson debacle
Pope was also involved in the persecution and jailing of Peter Ellis.
and the poor Lisa Blakie’s convicted murderer Taylor.
Rob Pope resigned when he realised the public has cottoned onto his deadly and evil ways and the politicians didn’t want a bar of him. He is one of NZ’s most crooked cops imo.
New Zealand governments supported the Khmer Rouge from 1978 to 1990
http://www.nzjh.auckland.ac.nz/docs/1999/NZJH_33_2_05.pdf.
Page 1
New Zealand Journal of History, 33,2 (1999)
The Devil You Know: NEW ZEALAND’S RECOGNITION POLICY TOWARDSCAMBODIA
FROM 1978-1990 [1]
by ANTHONY SMITH
THIS ARTICLE looks at New Zealand’s policy of recognition towards Cambodia (or Kampuchea [2]) between 1978 and 1990. New Zealand policymakers had to make the difficult decision as to which political entity to recognize, if any at all, after the Vietnamese invaded and installed a puppet government in Kampuchea in 1978. The Vietnamese army’s removal of the genocidal Khmer Rouge, or Democratic Kampuchea (DK), led by Pol Pot, provoked mixed reactions from the international community. There was universal relief at Pol Pot’s removal, but the Association of South East AsianNations (ASEAN), China and the United States expressed the concern that a Soviet-sponsored Vietnam was attempting to achieve sub-regional hegemony.These nations all
supported the anti-Vietnamese resistance forces.Controversially, New Zealand also opted to give diplomatic recognition to the ousted Khmer Rouge regime-in-exile as the legitimate representatives of the Cambodian people.
What emerges about New Zealand foreign-policy decision-making over this issue is that it contained a great deal of ambivalence. ……
Read the rest of this apologetic and biased, but revealing article HERE…
http://www.nzjh.auckland.ac.nz/docs/1999/NZJH_33_2_05.pdf
I’m told that TV one’s Sunday program is leading with a damning report on safety standards at Pike River which is going to raise the possibility that some miners survived the initial blast but were left to die by the company.
Could be interesting viewing.
Exellent. This is the exact direction many of us have been hollering about for some time. Others keep saying shut up and let the Royal Commission of Inquiry do it all – to which I say get stuffed. There is absolutely no requirement whatsoever to so shut up. Lives have been lost here and I have contended since dot that it is human and corporate and govt culpability. It was not an accident. It was gross negligence at several levels. Heads must roll.
The powers that be will be scrambling right now to get the show pulled. Just wait and see.
Bigger councils ‘stronger but not cheaper ‘
That bits actually fairly obvious when you think about it. All the work still needs to be done which is why Auckland is having to get in contractors now – the ATA went and fired over a thousand people and left Auckland without the people needed to do the jobs that they were doing.
Yep, politicians, especially the ones on the right of the political spectrum, seem to make decisions that affect all of us on their beliefs rather than on the facts. This really needs to change as it hurting us.
So, does “managed” mean that it’s been kept out of the public eye because the MSM are ignoring it because if they actually reported it people would begin to question the governance?
But getting rid of people and/or making them re-apply for their old jobs can be used to drive down the cost of wages in the long term ie, employing more people to do the jobs that were axed, but offering them a lower salary.
This weekend is Bilderberg weekend.
For those of you who have never heard about this illustrious group: the Bilderberg group named after the hotel were the first meeting was held with our the Dutch/German Nazi prince Bernhard (the father of the current Dutch queen) in attendance consists of the most powerful Money men, Corporate CEO’s combined with Political leaders such as Hillary Clinton and New Zealand’s own Globalist and current Ambassador to the US Michael Moore who was an invite to the meeting in 2000 (Just in case you’re wondering who John Key’s handlers are.)
Here is the one and only (And yes, he does rant a bit) Alex Jones reporting on it.
For those of you who still think that Alex Jones only represents the fringe; the man gets about 24 million listeners a month and is the fastest growing info talk show in the world.
I don’t think Jones represents the fringe, Ev, though his personal politics (libertarian) are obviously of appeal only to a minority. That’s the same in NZ where ACT, the LibertariaNZ and the various offshoots thankfully struggle to get support from more than a handful of Kiwi voters.
However, rabid right wingers such as Jones and Beck have a huge following in the States for their various media outlets because their shows bash easy targets and appeal to ignorance, fear and bigotry. There’s no substance, of course, just innuendo, exaggeration and froth, but it sells well to people who know they are being ripped off, but don’t know who by.
As long as the likes of Jones say it’s the gummint, the illuminati, the New World Order, or whatever the fantasy of the day is, the real truth will alway remain hidden from his audience. And that truth is that it’s capitalism’s fault. But, as capitalism is making Jones rich, he’s not going to rock that particular boat, eh?
Interesting! So for clarity what is right wing in your view? Or more precise what is rabid right wing? Do they hate blacks, women, Arabs, peaceniks and other scary leftists for example? Is a clan member rabidly right wing? Is an Obama hater guaranteed right wing?
I am honestly curious as four years ago I would have agreed with you for more than 100 % but now I look at it totally different.
So for the sake of civilised debate (promise) give me your ideas about what defines rabid right wing.
Anything that supports the exploitation of the many by the few is right wing in my estimation. I look at things from a marxist perspective, so my default position is to support things that benefit the majority.
Jones is a libertarian, which is a subset of the right. Broadly speaking, I see communists, socialists and social democrats as the left. Liberals (including our Green party) I see as being inclined to the left, but also capable of going to the right if it suits their temporary interests. The right I see as mainly made up of the petit bourgious, the monarchists and, of course, the established capitalists.
Oddly, the right really only represent the interests of a small minority and it always amazes me that they manage to keep a reletive political balance despite this fact. Having most of the money must help!
Shit, I wrote this whole thingy already and now I have to start again in order to respond properly to your comment.
Again four years ago I would have concurred totally with your but things have changed for me to a point that none of what I used to take for granted as my reality is there any more so bear with me. OK?
Coming from Europe and believe it or not from a socialist/Communist background it took me a while to come to the conclusion that while the socialist ideal of sharing was a grand one it just did not happen that way. Not in the East block at any rate.
I have come to the conclusion that any “ism” including the current US state of Capitalism is a totalitarian system.
I don’t think there is a “system” that will solve all our problems and that no matter what the balance between individual needs and those of the community at large will sometimes conflict and that it will always be a tight rope act to prevent disintegration of society as we find out which is more important at what time. I’ve once found this nice schematic of this and it was the mature individual or component of the group which makes this possible. i.e. Childish narcissistic, me me me is one side of the equation and the overbearing parental attitude of rules and sharing and group thinking is the other side. The mature individual or the mature individuals in a group will try to balance their own needs and those of others making it acceptable to live in that group as an individual.
So I don’t have a problem with liberals flicking from right to left or whatever their self interest dictates because if they are mature individuals they will take others needs into account. That is one part of my response.
Now how about this pertains to Alex Jones whom I regard to be hugely different from the likes of Glenn Beck and other shock jocks in the right wing spectrum.
For instance of all the radio hosts in the US he is the only one who will interview someone like Cynthia McKinney. She is a high profile black female politician who once served in the senate and who is currently the leader of the Green party and presidential candidate for this party and who is currently living in Tripoli Libya to endure with the local population the incessant bombardments perpetrated by the NATO and US.
Alex Jones is the only radio host who from day one called the wars started after 911 illegal and criminal and who calls out the “good ole boys” for believing the propaganda and dehumanisation of Muslims.
He hosts Black and Hispanic political activists and rappers and allows them plenty of air time.
He called George Bush a war criminal as much as he calls Obama a war criminal (And seeing as he has expanded the drone attacks on Pakistan, started the war in Libya which even you must see is not the humanitarian action they claimed it to be and expanded the military action in Afghanistan when he won the election on a promise to pull out).
You argued that Alex Jones is getting rich of his program but I leave you with this to ponder.
First of all the ads he runs are not the high end corporate big money spinners. In fact he attacks those with a vengeance.
He puts all his films, radio shows and documentaries on your tube in low res for all to see for free.
Rather than claiming copy right and limited viewing he actively encourages people to copy and spread his material around for free and as a member I can give my password to his site to 5 other people without any repercussion.
Alex Jones believes in the Capitalism free trade system but claims that the US is not a free trade system but corporatism/fascism with the big corporations monopolising their money spinners and while I don’t agree with some of his political points of view I do agree with him on that but his generosity with regards to the fruits of his labour tells me he belongs in may ways to that mature part of the population I like to relate to and that makes him in many ways OK with me.
What am I doing wrong. My comments end up in moderation?
[lprent: Nothing that I can see from the filters. Just random from the anti-spam would be my guess (I haven’t released them so I’m not sure which comments you’re referring to). It will eventually correct itself. ]
No worries
I ended up in moderation the other night, no ant-spam issue as I was logged in, so what gives? Have I been declared a RWNJ cause I’m black? “religious’? 😀 (Before QoT nuts off at me, I’ll remind him/her of Ali G)…
[lprent: Nope. The anti spam checking operates on ALL comments except for editors and above. Login just means that the system will not ask you for a antispam word. ]
Ali G? Unfunny, unfunny, unfunny.
Almost as dismally unfunny as Bruno.
Mind you, the TV versions of Bruno and Borat were funny. And Borat (the movie) was funny for a while, until you realize just what a disgusting individual Baron Cohen is. He really is Borat.
There are many smart British comedians—Jack Dee, Steve Coogan, Ricky Gervais, and scores more. But Sasha Baron Cohen, like Madonna, gets there not through talent but an implacable work ethic.
Really, I agree. Baron Cohen is desperately unfunny, and a rather nasty individual… What happens is that things I am about to say remind me of other things, and sometimes I just burble! 😀
Don’t feel bad about quoting or referencing him, Vicky. He is funny, on one level. You weren’t burbling; I just saw the opportunity to have a blast at someone I despise.
I’ll tell you what, the guy’s a Fucking Creep.
The Following story emerged after completion of Baron Cohen’s film Bruno:
“A Palestinian grocer from Bethlehem filed suit against comedian Sacha Baron Cohen on Monday for the sum total of $115 million in libel damages over his film Bruno…..According to the Daily Mail, the Palestinian, Ayman Abu Aita, who is also a Christian peace activist, said that Baron’s depiction of him as a Lebanese Islamic Terrorist in his recently-released and controversial movie has ruined his life…..He has also filed suit against NBC, Universal Studios and famed American talk show host David Letterman for being part of the film which tricked him into meeting Cohen under the false pretext that Cohen was a German producing a film about the Palestinian cause…..Abu Aita told the Daily Mail that since the film was released to cinemas this summer, he has received several death threats despite the fact that he is a firm opponent of terrorists…..During the scene, Abu Aita was depicted as a leader of the Al-Aqsa Brigades, according to the film’s caption which referred to him as ‘Terrorist Group Leader, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.’
But more than this, when promoting the film on Letterman, Baron Cohen stuck rigidly to the fiction that Abu Aita was indeed a Lebanese Terrorist tracked down by the CIA and that the filming had taken place at “a secret location”. Subsequently, journalists discovered that Baron Cohen’s “interview” with Abu Aita had, in fact, taken place directly across from an Israeli military compound (in Occupied Palestinian territory).
Baron Cohen was a very active member of Zionist Youth Organisations in the UK during his teenage years.
I saw that interview with the official government jester Letterman, and transcribed it. Would you like to see it?
I hadn’t heard that (about Baron Cohen). But it simply confirms my opinion… What a creep!
Figured out the problem with the auto-moderation. When akismet is unable to get an answer to a query about a comment from the main server immediately, it pops the comment into moderation and waits a while before retrying it.
A present we’re seeing about a 10 fold increase in spam comment attempts in the past few days, and it looks like many many other sites are having the same attack going on. So the main akismet server is obviously failingto handle every comment in a timely fashion, but does so soon afterwards. Explains why I never saw any of these moderated messages.
The battle in the net appears to be starting to subside from our spam comment rate – got up nearly a thousand per day and is now about 700. Normal service is resuming. The war will continue…
I really don’t want to get into a scrap about this, I’ll just say that up front, and there is much of what he says that is appealing to people from all over the spectrum (or rather, to radicals on various fringes of the spectrum). But trying to put him in a non-US context is a mistake.
He opposes many things that various leftists oppose. As you outline. Going back before GWB he opposed Clinton and Bush the elder. He was right into the whole Ruby Ridge and Branch Davidian stories in the nineties, and consequently with the black helicopters, militias/posse comitatus/sovereign citizen movement.
All I’m saying by that, is that just as he will interview Cynthia McKinney, he’s interviewed all sorts of people who were deep in to the whole ZOG NWO scene, (where the US govt is ZOG, Zionist Occupied Government), As a taste of how that stuff was going, Jones maintained that one of the space shuttles that exploded was an inside job. I forget the details, but it was to do with there being an Israeli on board. The space shuttle explosion was a false flag operation somehow aimed at sparking a war to benefit Israel.
there are echos of it in this thread:
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=201697.0
But what I’m getting at with all this at is that to view Jones in his context, you are right to ignore left right divisions as they are more broadly understood. He has to be understood in a USian context.
Right throughout US history the big division hasn’t been Capital vs Labour, or any of the other left/right fights that we see elsewhere. Right from the beginning the fight has been between the federalists and the anti-federalists. Jones is with the latter, and that’s where all his stuff starts to makes sense. Viewing him through any other lense he becomes incoherent.
Thanks, Pascal’s bookie for your contribution.
I agree. I listen to him with a great many reservations and indeed from the point of view that he is very much a US based entity.
I think though that it is interesting to listen to him and his attempts at shining light on the secretive meetings of the ultra powerful and whether you believe all the things he says or not that is up to the individual.
There is one thing I don’t agree with you in this and that is his “anti Zionist” stance as he is very careful to avoid this controversy. In fact among the more extreme his avoidance of the subject has let ot speculations as to whether he could be a “Zionist” agent. LOL.
In fact he only recently spoke about Israel and his opinion on the matter. He is an equal opportunity anti war activist though. His opinion with regards to Libya, Syria, Yemen and Israel is simple; Why are we not bombing the shit out of Israel which has ignored every single UN resolution since ’67 while we have no compunction about doing the same with Libya to name one country? In his opinion we should not be involved in wars with any of the country’s the US is currently bombing. Not Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen or Pakistan but if we are we should be even in our response to all countries killing peacefully demonstrating. That includes Israel, Bahrein and other countries serving the interest of the US currenly getting a free pass for their torture, abuse and indiscriminate killing.
I tend to agree.
His opinion with regards to Libya, Syria, Yemen and Israel is simple; Why are we not bombing the shit out of Israel which has ignored every single UN resolution since ’67 while we have no compunction about doing the same with Libya to name one country? In his opinion we should not be involved in wars with any of the country’s the US is currently bombing.
Well sure. But that rhetorical question is an interesting one if that’s the way he framed it. One answer to why the US federal government isn’t bombing Israel is ZOG.
And he was always careful about his interviews with militia types even in the nineties, he’d always ‘just be giving them a platform to speak’, because the federal government silences it’s critics; he doesn’t endorse, he’s just fightin for these folks civil liberties.
But the theme is almost always that the federal government is the enemy of the people. That’s why the wars are bad. It’s the damnable federal government usurping power and using fear to control the populace and maintain it’s tyrannical rule.
People who hinted that maybe a domestic war against the federal government wouldn’t get the ‘war criminal’ treatment.
What’s his current line on state level government civil violations? He always used to be pretty quiet on that score.
On immigration, (‘illegals’) for example, they were a threat to state governments and the federal government ignored the problem deliberately, probably hoping for internal grassroots reaction that they could use as a pretext to steal everyone’s guns and lock folks up in FEMA camps.
The moderation happened to me too. I thought maybe I used a bad word like, er, liberal.
My take on Jones is that he is a traditional Republican, as opposed to the Reagan generation that lead the GOP now. He leans to the armed rebellion end of right wing politics, who believe the Government is a conspiracy against the People. Jones is not a dry righty, totally focussed on the bottom line, so I’m pleased to hear that he gives a bit back, but with the numbers you suggest (24 million listeners a month) he can afford to. I’d imagine the Tshirt sales alone would be huge, eh.
The thing with American politics is that there are a hell of a lot of very specific beliefs that enjoy levels of support at a state, regional or national level that never get beyond single digit support, federally. These groupings coalesce in either the democrat or republican parties.
Jones represents a particular strain of thought that is shared by maybe only 1% of Americans, but shares enough similarities with other fringe beliefs to generate that 24 million listenership and also a voice within the republican party.
I agree that the US is not best practice when it comes to free trade, by the way. Pork barrel politics, special interest lobbying and the pandering to farming interests has always meant that the US talks the talk, but has never walked the walk when it comes to genuine free trade.
Genuine free trade has never been promulgated by any of the major western powers.
In fact, its highly likely that true “free trade” only exists as an academic theory which was then used by commercial powers to humiliate the sovereignty of foreign countries and their markets.
Love all the comments. Will be back tomorrow. Knackered now.
travelrev –
That sounds like transactional analysis with a scheme of dividing behaviour into three – it arises from the parent, the adult or the child state. I think it is an excellent shorthand for getting a fast understanding of one’s and others’ mindsets.
Lance a festering racist boil on the red neck of kkkiwiblog and watch all the pus filled motherfuckers reveal their true colours.
priceless
Yep. Read a few of the comments on Darren Hughes. Sick people over there. Wonder if David Farrar enjoys the spleens?
Yes it seriously amazes me that Farrar is taken seriously by others. He chooses the subject of the day most likely to fire up his cretins (like something taniwha, something Clark, something sexist) and lets them go. It is like the most disgusting and ignorant of talkback radio writ large.
I have a bash over there sometimes but it always immediately degenerates into a stinking shithole screamfest.
Shouldn’t be allowed…
I’m thankful you have to register for comments and that I’m so damn lazy about such things.
Allow it to the fullest i say.
What better way to show them the error of their ways than to hold a mirror up in public for all to see 🙂
They still won’t see the error of their ways – but everyone else will.
It is worse that The Penguin gets comfort from Jim Mora as a panelist on Afternoons on national radio. Mora bills his guest as a leading blogger and mentions the name of the notorious blog as well. Just perhaps, Mora never reads beyond the Penguin’s posts – Farrar, however, is responsible for what he allows to be appended to his blog.
…the red neck of kkkiwiblog
Why do you call those fools “rednecks”? That implies they work hard in the sun like honest farmers and labourers. I wonder how much manual work the likes of Farrar, Slater, Hooton, Leighton Smith, and Paul Holmes actually do.
I guess you call them “peasants” too?
Rule by the Rentiers
Sounds a lot like what’s happening in NZ as well. The rich are protected (SCF, AMI, farmers subsidies via the ETS) from their bad decisions and everyone else pays for them. Especially the small businesses.
Fudging Welfare Figures
On the back of the National Government ordering that the entire Christchurch unemployed population not be included in recent welfare statistics, comes another blatant attempt by National to trick the public into believing unemployment rates have fallen. The difference between the cons is that one completely disregards a large sector of unemployed and the other ensures that more people are not eligible or do not reapply for their benefits because of harsh new criteria imposed by WINZ.
What’s the new hoop jumping UB’s have to do to reapply?
If the reapplying thing is merely policy (that’s not in statute) then it should be challengeable. 5,000 is a very large number of people to not have an income all of a sudden. I’d like to see an analysis of that number.
An analysis of that number? In a recent article it was reported that only 1400 out of the some 5000 removed from the unemployment benefit said they had found work, with over 1000 no longer eligible according to the harsh rules leaving 2600 unaccounted for. Or perhaps you mean an analysis to see what has actually happened to the 2600? Like how many have committed suicide and left for Australia for instance. I’d be interested in seeing those figures as it would be proper way to glean the effectiveness of the policy change.
According to the WINZ website:
When you re-apply, you’ll also need to complete a Comprehensive Work Assessment.
Work obligations include things like:
attending scheduled job interviews
actively looking for a job
taking a suitable job that’s offered to you
attending work experience, training or workshops that Work and Income think would be helpful.
The first time you don’t meet your work obligations, your main benefit will be reduced by 50%. You’ll continue to receive any supplementary assistance that you’re entitled to.
The second time you don’t comply, your benefit and supplementary assistance will be suspended.
The third time you don’t comply all your benefits will be cancelled.
Failing to complete the 52 week reapplication process
If a client reapplies before their expiry date but does not complete the reapplication process on or before the expiry date, their benefit will stop.
If a client reapplies after their expiry date and does not have an exceptional circumstance for not reapplying on or before the expiry date, their benefit must be manually cancelled from the expiry date.
Note if a client does not complete the reapplication process within 20 working days after the expiry date the benefit will automatically be cancelled.
Client still wants to apply for benefit
Clients who fail to complete the 52 week reapplication process but want to continue to receive a benefit must be advised to reapply for a benefit as a new applicant. The client will be subject to the normal commencement date rules, including initial stand-downs.
Note if the client advises they want to reapply you can use their reapplication form as their application.
If a client does not want to reapply for a benefit, they should be advised to apply as a non-beneficiary for supplementary assistance (such as Accommodation Supplement).
For more information:
One thing I would like to note is that this is the Policy that WINZ is meant to follow. It is likely that Paula Bennett has instructed WINZ employees to utilize any means to remove people from the unemployment benefit. It is the application of the new rules that is ultimately the problem. Because beneficiaries are not being informed about their rights, they are being taken advantage of, which is not acceptable in a democracy.
Here’s a run down of the WINZ sanctions:
Jackal
“Or perhaps you mean an analysis to see what has actually happened to the 2600? Like how many have committed suicide and left for Australia for instance. I’d be interested in seeing those figures as it would be proper way to glean the effectiveness of the policy change.”
I too wondered what had happened to the 2600. Does anyone apart from us care?
The government certainly appears not to care by publishing the fact as a ‘win’.
What has happened to humanity under neoliberal ideology. Oh I remember, from the merry 80s and 90s -we have been economically quantified and there is no such thing as society which – makes it easier to forget people exist and think only of that lovely money. Why on earth do they still call Ms.Bennett’s department Social Development-from these shocking facts it should be called the Society Nihilation department. Such a name would really cheer the Right Wing exploiters of humanity up.
How could John Key say National’s ways were closer to Destiny Church. Destiny Curch is meant to be Christian and Christ spoke against most of what National enforces.”Love thy neighbour as thyself,”said he.John key needs to get a Bible.
Federal Reserve, European Central Bank willing to destroy Greek sovereignty and Greek workers to prop up large Investment Banks
Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert are on to it .
Watch and weep peeps
CV,
I’ll raise you Keiser’s GIABO 154 – interesting take on copyright and how ridiculous the time period is:
🙂
More videos to watch.
Just heard on the news that apparently the outpatient departments in New Zealand hospitals are not geared to cope with drunken idiots. WTF. When was a festival of sport a license to be drunk and disorderly?
The worst of this is that we have a Prime Minister who has countenanced “Party Central” (in other words unbridled piss up time). Now take away the involvement of international rugby, and what would the reaction be to a mob of drunken louts roaming the streets.
Try to imagine foreigners in such places as France, Greece, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong et cetera, being drunk and disorderly in the streets – doesn’t bear thinking about.
But given the inevitability of this, who is going to have to stump up for the cost of this behaviour and treatment? I bet it won’t be the RFU – they are already staring down the barrel of massive debt.
We could have strategically placed billboards at every international terminal advising rugby fans that there will be a zero tolerance of abuse of alcohol. That may be an approach…
F#ck the World Cup, if it is going to mean streams of urine in our gutters…
Watching the second round of Nkii kaye vs Jacinda Ardern on Citizen A with Bomber on Stratos. This time, Jacinda & Bomber are not letting Nikki get away with so much interuptions…. although she did that just now. Kaye has claimed poverty grew under the 9 years of the Clark government…. is that correct?
This time Kaye has ditched the repetitive “Let me be clear” and is instead repeating “The reality is” or “the point is”.
Yes! Poverty did increase under the last Labour Government. Another indicator was the comparison with Australia (GDP, Cost of living ect), which also worsened under Labour. However the gap between rich and poor has increased at twice that rate under National with a similar doubling of the disparity with Australia compared to New Zealand under a John Key led Government. Labour is just the lesser of two evils in my opinion. Perhaps they’ve changed but we wont know until they’re able to form a Government. Where is Phil Goff anyway?
Was a good debate. Just wish Bomber the egotist would get the damn audio sorted.
When you look at the levels of benefits compared to the average weekly wage, the last Labour Govt did little to bring them back to pre-Ruthanasia ratios.
Of course, under Labour, unemployment and youth unemployment were far far lower and so this affected fewer people. What Labour didn’t get is that on the downslope of the economic cycle, it would end up affecting a hell of a lot of people.
So what they did instead of increasing benefit levels to livable ratios, was to increase the minimum wage and to focus on tax breaks to couples with children (what about everyone else in this country?!).
Problem is of course that income tax breaks and increases in the minimum wage only mean something if you have work.
Best laugh of the day: a comment on the NZ Herald to Farrar’s weekly column: