Expect to see more of this tactic through the 2020 election. Voting in the USA is such a pain-in-the-ass time-suck that it's awfully tempting to not bother when you're unenthusiastic about the candidate at the top of the ticket. Which then flows on to reduced support for other candidates further down the ballot such as the Senate, House and locl government.
and wikileakjs exposed her as a revolting war criminal drenched in blood …
you can read about Blumfeild and her spreading false viagra and mass rape claims about Gaddafis fictional ' black mercenerys.
And her results from that are all over the internet …
You can read about the black men ending up on meathooks, lynched or slave traded … you can read about black libyan women kidnapped, sex trafficked or murdered.
But I bet you already knew that Andre … Your demo gal
She went … she murdered …. she destroyed …. tee hee hee
Actually You should go to Israel with no regrets Wayne …
Waynes a real zionist .. he may not be full uber ,,, but he's definatly no under- Palastinian either
The link is about how outright lying to smear a murder victim was used as a successful political ploy. And about how convergence moonbats and second-option bias idiots happily took the smear and amplified it. And how they probably have learned nothing from the experience so will probably do so again.
edit: (“they” that have learned nothing being the convergence moonbats and second-option bias idiots: the perps will have learned that it works quite well and are probably full of ideas how to do it better next time)
Clinton lost the most winnable election in post war US history to a fucking moronic imbecile, and even after cheating! Clinton stood for everything shit in the Democratic party and US politics in general that is why she lost, and now Obama's legacy is Trump…thanks liberalism, job well done.
My memory of the polls taken at the time is that would have lost. Basically too far left. Ironically he would do better this time since the Dems have shifted a bit. But he won’t be the candidate.
… and then there's the comprehension-challenged that can't respond to the actual content of an article, instead diverting to well-worn simplistic slogans they've been repeating for years. Maybe someone needs to read it to them as an audio or video clip.
Maybe some people need to really understand that the way to win elections going forward isn't by forcing the same old bullshit down peoples throats. I mean, come on seriously, do you really think that Seth story had any effect on the US elections?
I think there's basically a Pavlov's dog response from some people to any mention of the word "Clinton." Must be a pain in the arse for people who actually come from Clinton, not being able to say their home town's name without Morrissey going on about his Hillary videos for the 40,396th time.
And she cites the very same full of shit Isikoff ,who broke the Steele dossier news then later recanted from the most lurid allegations, having unleashed
a murky fake story on the gullible that never had legs.
They'll definitely repeat the tactic, but Clinton was uniquely vulnerable – repugs had literally spent decades inventing lies and scandals (to the degree that the ones WJC should have faced became lost in all the repug bullshit).
Seth Rich wasn't the first death repugs lied about for political gain. Before him there was Vince Foster.
So whomever gets the nomination probably won't have a track record of a generation being conditioned to believe something is corrupt about them. Especially if Biden doesn't get it.
I do think FOX CNN and the rest of the media industrial complex is to blame for spreading the conspiracy theory/theories. Y'know I also think Seths supervisor was being a little too proud to be a Hillary supporter, making Seth work late knowing he'd have to walk through one of the more dangerous areas of Washington well known for armed hold ups, homelessness and poverty.
Looks like you've hit the limits of your intelligence. What exactly did I make up?
why don't you cry to one of the moderators to help you find an argument and win a debate, McTrash.
[Thanks for drawing my attention although this willy-waving contest was hard to miss so early in OM. I wish you two were having a debate but as it stands you are just having a fight in the sandpit throwing sand in each other’s eyes. There are no winners, only losers (plural) and these are mainly everybody else who has to scroll past this pathetic exchange. In the interest of TS, I think I should send you two away on a wee holiday so that the rest of the TS community can enjoy this space. The only two questions for me are when and for how long? Incognito]
Links to online conspiracy theories is not an excuse for wrong doing. It's not clear from what you said exactly what claims you are making but it is entirely about intentional behaviour.
Seth was on punish duties at work for some FOX news conspiracy theory. I think his work supervisor was being over zealous and if I'm not mistaken Seths parents are suing FOX. Now that I'v restated my position do you have a counter argument?
Every link I've found so far claims he was walking home from a bar. None claimed that part of his work duties involved being at a sports bar until it shut on a saturday night/sunday morning.
Therefore your unsubstantiated rumours about his work are irrelevant to his death.
Therefore you're just repeating lies and innuendo about a murder in order to sully people you oppose politically.
Therefore you are a piece of shit.
And your still failed to explain just what you found "unclear" about "He was walking home from a bar in the wee small hours of a Sunday morning."
I was implying that the conspiracy theories was coming from CNN and FOX news. The only one talking about online conspiracy theories was you. That's why I said something. It's got nothing to do with some sort of imaginary outrage in your own mind. It's was all produced by Fox News not some imaginary republican smear campaign. Clinton smeared herself, get over it. This bullshit is fucking years old and you're still crying about it.
Y'know I also think Seths supervisor was being a little too proud to be a Hillary supporter, making Seth work late knowing he'd have to walk through one of the more dangerous areas of Washington well known for armed hold ups, homelessness and poverty.
as an example of the sort of lies that were spread, rather than meaning to imply that you actually believed it?
You're just geared for it aren't ya. You just have to signal how virtuous and outrage you can be don't you. You're so fucken ideological you can't even see the trees from the forest.
Y'know it happened in the middle of Clintons Presidential campaign. DNC staffers don't get weekends during presidential campaigns. Y'know I looked at all this stuff years ago, it should be like accepted truth by now. But you just keep denying that Trump won fair and square.
nope. Not rather. Just not caring very much about your hurt feelings. Why on earth would I go through any effort for a low iq specimen to try and unfuck your own confusion. Why should I when I'm having so much fun with your emotions.
If my regarding you as a stupid piece of shit who spreads contemptible lies (and then lies about his lies) is a source of joy to you, then you have succeeded beyond your wildest dreams.
No, McTrash. It's not about me, and it's not about you either.
Seth was working late, he stopped at a local bar, got drunk and got murdered on his way home. Theres no conspiracies here, no hidden agenda. There's no hidden outrage. Trump didn't steal anything. It was a media beat up.
Yknow so what if Seth leaked something, it was just an accident.
No McTrash. There was no lies. That's just in your own head. From what I remember Kim Dotcom was willing to testify for the Muller investigation that Seth did hand Wikileaks something. Their only one in denial is you, McTrash. That Seth was Mudrered probably has nothing to do with anything you're on about.
What you remember rarely overlaps with what you provide evidence for and that itself rarely overlaps with reality. KDC has similarly been caught out once or twice. So you talking about what KDC promised is like someone claiming that their spirit guide told them that unicorns claim to fart rainbows.
I love the way you're on first name terms with the guy whose murder you're shamelessly exploiting for your own deranged purposes. That's probably meant to be a distraction from the fact that you haven't backed up a single one of your claims. Any of them.
Nope. It's not about love because I'm not going to provide you with anything. If you want to be more cooperative you're going to have to learn to be civil. Or I could just rubbish you all the time.
You can't even accept simple truths. DNC staffers don't get weekends off during presedintial races. There was no conspiracy theory to begin with. You just wanted to signal how virtuous you are. So go right ahead.
You assert these things as "facts", but they're just assumptions you make to support your desire to use a robbery gone wrong as a weapon against the dems.
And, in my experience, people who use the term "virtue signalling" do so only to avoid explicitly declaring that they have no concept of empathy or humanity. It is the penultimate refuge of the unregenerate scoundrel.
Clinton certainly had had decades of smears targeted directly at her – hell, the curtains in the White House had barely been changed in '93 before the bumper stickers and graffitti appeared saying "Impeach Clinton. And her husband".
Then while Vince Foster conspiracy theories were certainly a thing, what I saw of it was confined to definite Repug circles. While I was certainly acquainted with a few people with convergence moonbat tendencies, they didn't buy into the Vince Foster thing.
I'm not sure about the "uniquely vulnerable" bit, though. Kerry got successfully swiftboated. If Shrub hadn't made himself so fkn unpopular, it's possible the shit about that Kenyan, Barack Hussein Obama, might have got more traction. It's a worry that neither Sanders, Warren or Harris have ever before gone up against an opponent that simply doesn't have a bottom for how low he will go. Let's face it, elections are pretty cruisy, genteel things for liberals in Vermont, Massachusetts and California.
Thanks to the link provided by KJT, I'm posting an insight into the Greek leftist self-immolation that has played out over the past four years:
"The moment I walked into the office of Alexis Tsipras, he told me he had decided to fold, to ignore the people’s No, and to side with New Democracy in order to pass through parliament the bills by which Greece would, again, surrender to the troika. After I failed to dissuade him, I resigned as minister of finance. A few hours later, Mr Tsipras convened a meeting with the acting leader of New Democracy, and the leaders of the other pro-troika parties, whose votes he needed in parliament to pass the third bailout. It was at that moment that New Democracy was retrieved from history’s dustbin and placed on a track leading, with mathematical precision, to election victory."
"Since that night, Greece’s parliament has been the stage for a four-year long tragicomedy: Syriza MPs passed austerity and fire-sale bills with which they disagreed, while, on the other side, New Democracy MPs voted them down — in spite of agreeing with them. How my former colleagues convinced themselves that this would end in anything other than a devastating defeat for Syriza is beyond my comprehension."
What gets me about this reveal by one of the key players is that the top leftist unilaterally decided to betray the people: it was not a collective decision of the government. That strikes me as extremely weird. Imagine any PM of ours making a decision on behalf of our government, and it being implemented without consulting the cabinet. It's possible that the author of the New Statesman reveal simply chose not to mention that the decision to betray the people was subsequently ratified by the government.
If so, I assume he doesn't want to acknowledge that his resignation was an admission of defeat – instead of fighting the battle with his colleagues against his leader. Perhaps he is ashamed of his cowardice. Perhaps he is signalling the reader that he believes consensus is too irrelevant to mention. Leftist politics has traditionally operated in defiance of the consensus principle, which is why splitting has always been endemic on the left. He may have thought the notion too sophisticated for his colleagues to comprehend.
I suspect it did go through a collective decision making process, but of course someone has to start it all. That would be the PM.
In any event Syriza has had 10 years, which is pretty decent amount of time in government. Inevitably they were eventually going to lose to the right. It is the nature of democracy.
More like the nature of those who control the purse strings. Wayne. And that is most definitely not the Greek government.
Tsipras certainly did not help his cause with a lot of the decisions his government made, so they should really have stepped aside. But once again, power for powers sake.
Varoufakis was the only one with any conscience out of all of them.
Much more likely the Greek people just got tired of having the same government for 10 without things getting much better. They certainly weren’t going to go more left. Varoufakis was in the contest but got nowhere.
So it is logical the Greeks were going to shift to the major conservative party.
Just as New Zealand will at some point go back to National. It won’t be as a result of international capital or international media, more as a result that people will feel safe with National (as indeed they do at present with Labour).
That was a strange affair. We later discovered that Lange had been subjected to some bizarre behaviour during that period both in NZ and when he was on a visit to the USA.
The one that comes to mind was the 'bogus' alarm sent to his Office (and presumably Foreign affairs) about a "missile attack” heading for the USA. They expected them to arrive in 20 mins. Lange sat in his office helpless because what can one do in 20 mins. It came and went and nothing happened. A further message arrived that it was just a flock of birds mistaken for a missile attack. I can’t recall hearing whether any other allied nation received the message.
When you look at what goes on in the US today, it doesn't take much to figure out the game they were playing. Whatever, it might have had a bearing on Lange's decision making. He took that secret to the grave with him.
It hardly matters wether Varoufakis was or wasn't a "coward" the fact remains that the Syriza party under the leadership of Alexis Tsipras acted completely against the very mandate that they were voted in for by the people, Tsipras will now be a name of ignominy for those on the Left in Greece for ever, as is Lange is to those who support an actual strong progressive and proudly Left wing labour in NZ.
Although I have some misgiving's about Varoufakis's credibility on a few issues myself, I followed the debacle of Syriza closely at the time of it's election through to it's rather quick and unsightly capitulation to the radical austerity ideology being foisted upon it from abroad. Through that time of watching interviews with many of Varoufakis's detractors,from within and without Syriza, I don't remember anyone saying or implying that he would have made any difference to keeping the party on track had he remained, though that being said, you could well be right, I don't profess to be an expert on the subject….maybe he is just an ashamed coward trying to cover his tracks ( I have never thought that of him myself, slightly dodgy maybe)..who knows.
" Imagine any PM of ours making a decision on behalf of our government " Muldoon at the height of his powers comes to mind, who at times (I have read) had a cabinet that would pretty much bend to any of his whims or fancies.
Roger Douglas it also seemed at times, held our government in a state trance, most willing and enabling to install his nefarious ideological madness..with only a couple of notable exceptions, sort of like in Greece.
Parachuting in the generic manager from offshore into senior positions when they do not yet understand (or have experienced) NZ society and culture always seems to end in tears, and it usually just goes on to serve the neo-lib' agenda.
My partner and I had to attend a meeting with three mangers from the Waikato DHB after we had made a complaint.
All three either simply stared blankly, or deftly deflected our issues by implying we were somehow in the wrong. Even with written evidence of the agency's failings and with an advocate from the Health and Disability Commission in tow we not only got nowhere close to resolving the issues but the situation was made much worse.
All three of these managers were English, of about the same age and were fairly recent arrivals.
Not long after Peter and I shouted ourselves to the movies to see I, Daniel Blake.
Yep. The thing that gets me is that it's NOT that they're English, or even from somewhere else. It's that they are parachuted in without any understanding of NZ kulcha and society, and they can't be expected to know or understand it. They're recruited as though they're almost God-like in their expertise – often that expertise is most relevant to where they've come from. They then begin to produce and frame policy based on that.
Tariana Turia said something that struck me on Q+A the other night – that Maori appear to have lost faith in themselves. SO too have others. (The more I hear about OT, AND having been a part of TPK in the past, the more I understand what I see as public service and politician 'capture' by it all)
What we're doing is simply perpetuating and fast tracking all that 'periphery to core' concept (Immanual W), and increasingly becoming more and more culturally insecure. One sees it in everyday life (whether its the way some recent arrival has 'shown us' the way to paint our various emergency service vehicles – the pastel yellow and green ambulances, fire appliances and pleece), to the way we're handling our immigration policy and lack of action (until recently) over worker exploitation of brown people. Really quite pathetic in many ways.
The thing I like most about The Great Big Whurl is its diversity and ongoing cultural mixes. What we're doing is just continuing to roll over and succumb to our various colonial masters whether its the Old Country, the USA (and what fuckups both those are proving to be), or the emerging ones..
I feel a @ Wayne coming on soon – probably with accusations of naivety. But no worries – I see him as a relic from the 50s, 60s and 70s.
Anyway, I'm more interested at the mo' in seeing contributors' responses
Is it a lack of confidence in our Kulcha and the collective Kiwi inferiority complex or is it a calculated effort to import these managers who are kind of related to some of us but come from a country that is much further down the track of instituting state sanctioned bullying of the vulnerable an marginalised?
When we sat across the table from Pom 1, Pom 2 and Pom 3 we were struck how, well, not quite us they were. And they were a team. They all spoke the same language of bureaucracy and seemed not to see us as totally of the same species.
(For the record. I came to New Zealand as a child in the early 1970s. Though living south of the border in the UK, we were culturally Scots. I saw those parachuted in managers as complete foreigners. )
Well there's another example by the way: "They all spoke the same language of bureaucracy ……….. " (going forward, of course), and apparently it's all "Best Practice", "on the back of" their various external experiences.
"Ultimately……………….", etc.
They'd make good used car salesmen some of them.
Gtg for the mo'
EDIT: before I do, it’s increasingly evident that over the past decade or so, the Peter Principle, or variations on that theme are alive and well
I saw your link re generic and imported managers on TDB and read it – agree with what was said. Between getting imported managers probably with impressive degrees (to the lower echelons of NZ) and those who have climbed to the higher levels from within NZ, where the air is sweeter and refined, and you have the key to your own washroom, we seem to be being fleeced by these confident chiefs who are looking to feather their own nests, like shining cuckoos who have rolled the greywarblers over the edge.
I had noticed that item about the new UK manager from Brum? And spent a fascinating time reading the back history of Chch Council and Marryatt, Parker et al. It didn't build confidence in Chch's advancement, going forward.
"Many corporations and State or private enterprises run despite management, not because of them. In fact the constant parade of new brooms trying to make a name for themselves, with rapid changes and cost cutting, cause competent staff to resign and demoralise the rest"
That should be framed and put on the desk of every human resource well-paid yoik so it faces them. Get it off-screen where it can be screened out and onto something physical and lasting and in-zone so to speak.
Most offenders, like myself, have trauma and mental health issues that are often unaddressed in a society that spends far too little on preventative and protective factors. Mental illness, trauma, adversity, homelessness — these all correlate with offending, yet we keep cutting vital services and housing that could help address these issues.
This inside story confirms what I've long said, that probably 80% or so of people in our prisons need not have been there. If this govt's focus on mental health starts to turn this horrible stat around it will become a landmark achievement.
With crime there is no magic wand that untangles the complex knots of personal accountability and social dysfunction from which it is woven. Tackle one end of the problem while ignoring the other, the knot only tightens.
Our present system has not progressed it's fundamental tenents in centuries, yet it routinely fails victims, families and even offenders alike. If mental health was a stigmatised concern, forever marginalised … crime remains firmly at the bottom of our priorities. Yet the manifest failure remains intolerable.
We need to examine the roots of the system, recasting the problem with redemption as the ultimate goal. We need to see crime in terms of a chain of events, starting with personal temperament, family stability, the socialisation of the child, the building of conscience and shame, an understanding of how brain injury derails behaviour, instilling the courage to take opportunities, dealing resiliently with failures, and most critically finding a place to stand as part of a healthy community. Each one points of these is a stack of books in it's own right.
Yet we need a framework that stops the 'soft on crime' narrative dead; we cannot erase or minimise personal accountability, because without it there can be no forgiveness, no reconciliation and no redemption.
"We need to examine the roots of the system," I completely agree, the system of free market liberalism has proved itself not to work well for most humans.Funny thing is humans,as it turns out, need more in their lives than a system that demands a never ending need for more ( of what no one can define exactly) a system based on combativity with your fellow citizens to get ahead or even maintain, a system that relentlessly commodifies absolutely everything, the steam off your shit if it could…suicide is at critical levels, my friend cut a neighbors 14 year old son down from the rafters in the garage two weeks ago, I walk to work and their are homeless people huddled in groups on the streets to keep warm, all the motels in town are always full, not with out of town visitors, with homeless people..it;s fucked up that's for sure..and badly
And while all this is going on, we now import cheap labour to build our roads, build our building, pick our fruit, maintain our power networks,farm our land, something is very very broken in this model, and it doesn't take an economist to figure that out, infact that is probably the last person you want on the job!..it seems that the only human emotion that liberal economists seem to understand and cater too is greed, one of the very worse human traits and motivators..
So yes I agree we need to examine this broken system and then radically change our course.
If we on the progressive Left in NZ can't get our shit together and offer a viable alternative soon (as Sanders and Corbyn) then you can be sure that the Right will, and when people are hurting, they will reject and punish the status quo, and turn to whom ever has the strongest message, are we going to wait for a nutter like Collins to take the initiative, we must act….and I have to say that sorry, but I just don't believe that Ardern or her brand of centrist pragmatism is that type of transformative leader or brand of political ideology the Left need for this looming moment in NZ history.
Edit:
It's not greed alone, Adrian that drives economists, it's their employers' greed, whom economists serve by achieving better results from efficiencies. All economists aren't the same, but some are more equal than others; those economists who believe in efficiency before all, adopt the morals and principles that drove Ayn Rand to the top of the RW hit parade.
It's more efficient to bring in overseas people for high-skilled jobs as their education has been paid for where they came from. I am thinking of Phillipine workers because they are desperate to maintain a life, and been brought up, no doubt, under the aegis of the Catholic religion and taught the precepts of obedience and to supplicate to God and Mary for help in their travails. One of our commenters who employed them was fulsome in his praise of them and their characters and work standards (which was opposite to the workers he could obtain in NZ.) That is no doubt why my phone call was directed to someone in Manila, Philippines about why my paper wasn’t delivered to my home in New Zealand.
Maori have been thrown into unemployment by the efficiency drive of the money-mad, those who have destroyed our domestic economy so they can increase their wealth through exporting. When you export but don't import the country has an imbalance of trade. It was a nice efficient solution to sell to other countries, and bring in their products made more cheaply than we could for ourselves. Ergo, a neat efficient system for the wealthy, the wannabees, and the c-ooff. Not for those who were happy to work and have a life and who would expect that these things would be enhanced by their government, not destroyed.
Maori believed in gods and had precepts too but it was respect for their community and working together on their land and water, which underpinned their humanity and being. They didn't have money, and they didn't have alcohol. They were combative, but were held together by loyalty and aroha to their whanau and hapu. They adopted Christianity often, but found that pakeha didn't practice what they preached. Their culture was eroded, with the remnants determinedly and fiercely held so as to preserve a worthy way of life which enabled all, without turning communist which too easily sets into state authoritarianism.
The Maori story is the story of most of NZs eventually. As the money-mad advance on their crazed, obsessive way we will all be pushed, or thrown, aside. The rising suicide numbers are a feature of this situation. The government and elites concern about people, suicide, violence, baby deaths is a feature of an addled tainted society that wants to look satisfactory to an indiscriminate glance, but actually wants to exclude and ignore the reality of the shambles that the system has manufactured for itself.
We need to recycle our caring, human citizenship. There will be no room for individual graves soon for the numbers that fall from disease and suicide, and un-natural disasters, though at present we are buried with ritual niceties. Land will be limited; it will not be efficient to have large areas set aside for burials, even cremations will have to wait for a monthly ceremony for the ashes to be interred in a common grave.
We who are not individuals of wealth or note will be disregarded more and more. Unless we stand for people-caring-community that adopts respect and practicality as keystones of systems, and freedom of thought and to be heard, our society will continue to deteriorate. Lastly is the need to control the money-mad and their desire for growth and consumer society for their profit and their sickness of eternally wanting and being never satisfied.
We agree on the causes of social dysfunction, but struggle with what to do about it. After the litany of Marxist catastrophies from the last century I find it tiresome that various ill-defined forms of Marxism still seem to hold a default monopoly on left wing thinking.
To give Marx is very real due, there was much that he said about our present system that was useful. He was really the first to detail why competitive market economies would create a small minority of spectacular winners and a vast lumpen of losers. This is a deep problem that all societies have struggled with; the more prosperity a society generates the more it tends to be unequally distributed. It's called the Matthew Effect and pre-dates capitalism by … forever.
Marx proposed essentially that the losers in this competition should simply rise up by sheer force of numbers, overthrow the winners, and then replace the system with one that was not competitive but co-operative. For reasons of conciseness I won't expand on why this doesn't work; Marx's analysis was essentially materialistic and the authoritarian regimes needed to impose this constraint on the human spirit were intolerable.
Modern socialists, like this centrist govt, therefore position themselves as a balancing countervailing force to the inequality problem all social systems generate, without too much challenge to them. Yet still far too many people … like your friends … experience the heart stopping grief of a world going terrible wrong for them in ways that all to often were entirely avoidable. In my view each one of these speaks in a deep way to the failure of the left to advocate effectively for the vulnerable, the dispossessed and all those trapped by poverty of expectations.
I'm by no means the only leftie to sense, however dimly, the need to rebuild the left wing argument on a fresh basis; one that doesn't seem so intent on tearing down the successful, so intent on repeating past mistakes … but one that pays real attention to the poor we profess to care about. Because until we know how to change for the better the life of even just one person we care for, how can we possibly claim to know how to change the world?
Because that's perhaps the deeper point of the article I linked to above; it's about one young person, horribly derailed by life, yet one other person persisted with her, and slowly and patiently over many years turned her life around. There was no magic wand moment; their victory was gentle and incremental.
Most ideas don't come with hermetic boundaries, there is often a quite fluid interchange going on. There is no big red box labelled "Marxism" into which we can stuff a bunch of ideas, lock the lid and throw away the key.
In most modern economies we run a mix of private credit creation, quite tightly controlled by government Reserve Banks. Almost anyone expert in this area would argue the present system is excessively tilted in favour of private credit creation and from a global perspective there is lot we can do to further optimise how the system works.
The problem is that strictly government controlled credit creation has a terrible track record of being hijacked for venal and destructive political purposes. Until we've learned how to solve that problem, it's going to be a case of the devil we know I'm afraid.
To me it's not about tearing down the successful at all. It's tearing down the corruption, the non-contribution, the war-mongering, the false-narratives – of the 'successful.' The bleeding of the planet and its people for profit. The corporate hand-outs. The two sets of rules. The minimal jail sentences for heinous crimes. The victimisation of the vulnerable. The myopia concerning real costs of these planet destroying scum in suits.
These are no 'happened-to-do-wells.' They are fucking dirt. Either our rules apply to them, or they can fuck right off and hide under a rock cos the public have had a gutsful.
They deserve every pitchfork wielding lunatic hammering at their doors. Then some.
But somehow it’s the left’s failure… Nonsense. it’s the right’s acquiescence and obeisance to scummy humans all because they have money.
Edit
…one that doesn't seem so intent on tearing down the successful, so intent on repeating past mistakes … but one that pays real attention to the poor we profess to care about. Because until we know how to change for the better the life of even just one person we care for, how can we possibly claim to know how to change the world?
Oh we have to start somewhere – and it is essential that we start with our over-blown ideas of ourselves. One that pays real attention to the poor we profess to care about. And remember that there, for the grace of God, go I….and try and shine with some reflection of that God, that goodness, because we are on a different level to that poor person because they didn't have what we did.
Sometimes they can find that different life quite satisfying though, everyone doesn't have to be the same. But the hard thing is to put some effort into helping others who have missed out, and even more important is making sure that when they are babies, toddlers and terrible-three-year-olds, they get the same good start we had. Let them have firm, regular childhoods with decent food, clothes and some coaching in how to defend themselves against bullying, the most important bit of education they can get. Learn to present themselves with humour and understand others motivations, the E-Q rather than the I-Q – I reckon the first raises the second.
And not dividing the world into Superior, deserving Me, and Receivers of Charity and Good Works them because they are lesser. Look for the soul in people, the honesty in their words and minds, and there is the goodness – start with giving a busker a gold or silver coin, keep a supply with you so you can. Bring satisfaction into their lives, and keep doing that plus a brief thumbs up, that's great, look them in the eye, acknowledge them as people, they are doing something for the world and themselves, that would be a good start.
We are connected by our sameness, even as we diverge in our lives, our interests. Understand yourself, be humble a bit – not too much, and then you can connect for a few seconds at least, with someone and know a bit about where they are coming from, what life is like for them.
I used that saying 'There but for the Grace of God go I', in a routine on homelessness in a performance this week.
At one point: 'you can't hate on the homeless, that's not hate, it's fear. But you know who really does hate the homeless?
Winter.'
Some miniature peacock comes up after the show. "I hate the homeless, I think they've already got too much money"… thought he was hilarious. I told him he didn't know what the fuck he was talking about and dressed him down in front of his wife and friends.
People who take pleasure in the misfortune of others, who think humor is about punching down – less than worthless no matter how much gold is dripping off them.
To me it's not about tearing down the successful at all.
And then the rest of your comment is an exercise in contradicting this claim.
The problem this approach has is that if cannot distinguish between the 'happen to do well's' with those who through 'a combination of talent, hard work and some good luck have done well'. Both exist, no-one is proposing that any system us flawed and limited humans can create will be perfect, we will always produce a mix of good, bad and very ugly. At root the evil is not wealth in itself, nor 'success' in whatever dimension you care to define it, but in who we are. And money merely makes us more of who we are.
Kicking down doors and impaling the rich on pitchforks changes nothing if they're replaced with people no better. Except the new people in charge have just bonfired their moral authority which usually turns out for the worse.
Nonsense. It's rather easy to determine who avoids taxes, who denigrates minorities etc.
Listing the ills of the world perpetrated by rich people very clearly shows how and why the mess.
Two sets of rules is unacceptable but clear as day.
This is not the angry mobs doing. The angry mob is the rich's doing.
I'd rather the corruption is dealt with, corporate power over people is stripped. But they wedge their own laws in, their own media and narrative, they police everyone but themselves. Cruel indifference.
Then they whine when they find a riot in their yard.
Hypocritical bullshit. Wake up and smell the cheapass instant coffee.
Listing the ills of the world perpetrated by rich people
Yet nowhere do you attempt to list the manifold benefits very successful people bring to the world.
All people are a complex mix; it isn't as simple as you think to unravel the good and the bad we all do. Everyone is flawed in some dimension, we can all be cast onto pitchforks for some reason.
Your complaint is real, I have no quibble with that. What if the answer to it was quite different to the one you have reached for. What if we all became better people? Like all of us, and we all started to sincerely think of ways to help each other?
We can put in place all the rules and authoritarian processes you could dream of, and more. But none of it will help unless we simply require of ourselves to turn away from resentment, anger and vengeance, and look to fixing our own lives.
And that I think is all RedLogix has to say. It's been more than a decade now, and I want to thank you all for being so generous with your time and energy.
I regard you as one of the more astute, principled & clear-sighted participants here, RL. And I greatly appreciated your moral support regarding the situation my Parents have found themselves in.
From time to time, you've been the victim of a pretty nasty & self-righteous mob mentality that tends to be closely associated with the ID Politics faction … so I know it hasn't always been a bed of roses for you … but you've consistently displayed a great deal of dignity & patience under fire.
I'll be very sorry if this is your last ever comment here.
I am 100% behind this comment. I’d like to think that RedLogix tends to make excellent, well-considered, well-explained, and concise arguments about very complex, sensitive, and personal issues that affect us all to a more or lesser degree. The more heat was put on him, the better his arguments, which is one reason why I never stepped in as moderator. He may not have swayed the usual ‘lynch mob’ but for each commenter there are many silent readers of TS. Those people can read the arguments and form their own opinions. We don’t know what impact it has on the silent majority but I’d like to think that, on balance, it has been positive. I thank RedLogix for his resilience and perseverance, which may have come at a personal cost to him.
A profound point. I've often commented on evil here – usually in an attempt to rectify the delusional thinking produced by postmodern denial that it exist – so I agree it's in human nature & money empowers it.
The satanic focus of christian fundamentalists ought to be replaced by Jungian theory. Too bad psychologists seem collectively unable to learn Jung's lessons. If evil is conceived as an archetype lurking in the collective unconscious, activated in some lives by subconscious prompts, and personified by a few people who seem captive to it sufficiently for it to displace other normal dimensions of human nature such as empathy and the moral compass, then we make sense of it. That's better than collective evasion of the topic, or denial.
The whole idea that we can help those at the bottom, without giving up something ourselves, has proven to be a fallacy. "A rising tide" does not lift all boats", which is what you are actually getting at.
The right wing, apart from their foolish followers, know that memes like the above, "economic growth, and "trickle down" are totally false, but they serve, to bamboozle the thick.
The "successful" do have to contribute more to the common pot, so everyone can have a share. If you add it up we would not have to contribute much, on top marginal tax rates, to lift everyone out of poverty. Even less if we tax finance and Queen Street capital gains tax farmers, dead in the water, unfortunately!
On Jan. 2, 2018, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta released a statement commemorating the beginning of Human Trafficking Awareness Month, recommitting his department’s mission to “ending practices that harm individuals, families, and communities.”
“We must act to end exploitation and abusive labor practices at home and abroad,” the statement said.
Absent from that statement was the fact he had already tried to cut a program by nearly 80 percent inside the Department of Labor dedicated to combating human trafficking, along with child and forced labor, internationally. And two months later, he would return to Congress to advocate for a second budget to cut the program just as deeply.
Just a touch of good news this morning: Congratulations to Kane Williamson and the cricket team for their semi-final win over India overnight.
An against the odds win against the best cricket nation. A match that had tension, excitement and spectacular cricket skills: Boult's manipulating Kohli into LBW, Santner restricting the run rate, Guptill's run out and Williamson's canny captaincy.
Bring on either Australia or England for another late night on Sunday.
After the previous night's abandonment due to the mizzle….we were not going to repeat yet another night with the trannie barely audibly broadcasting the play. Prevents that deep sleep that has the necessary restorative benefits. However, when by 11pm the odds had gone for a Kiwi win from 2% to 78%, the trannie got another sub audible run, and I managed to properly wake in time to catch the last four overs.
India are the best cricket team at the tournament, bad luck India however
Black Caps have been best value ambassadors of cricket matches in the tournament and also well deserved their place in the final.
Use to be our NZ staple with the rugby but great to have it back with the cricket, great advertisements for the full naunces and complexities of the sport while bringing the singular sum of the NZ game to the party.
I would put the value of this run at a world cup, similarities & up there with what the AB team of the time represented & bought to the South African rugby wc in representing NZ's sporting interests to add in the mix, giving top shelve value.
The Apartheid state of Israel has devolved into the biggest and most murderous right wing hate movement in the world.
Even 48% of usa Jews thought Israel was not interested in peace …. a remarkably well informed percentage …. given the bias and anti Palestinian reporting … from usa main media
Two weeks ago, the British for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) adopted the academic boycott of Israeli universities over their complicity in planning, implementing and justifying Israel’s grave human rights violations.
Cricket is a tool of the elite. First Class, Lords, Tea, Drinks… Though it is no surprise yourself and the broken down horse prefer this so called "Gentleman's game".
Hmmm, very racist and stereotyping of you I know and have many Maori and Polynesian friends and colleagues who enjoyed the cricket and are talking about it today Maybe get out of your cellar and off your keyboard and into the sunlight What do these 3 things have in common Maui, The Grinch and Scrooge 😊
Not angry at all Maui I am not one of the perpetual offended that’s why I gave you a emoji to help your one brain cell to comprehend You make no sense at all re self reflection on context about being happy a nz team made a World Cup final You simply mirror my point I put to you. I can only surmise your a moron or severely dim so I will go easy on you Now a happy fk off and wriggle back to your place of malcontent 😊😊😊😊👍
Staggering arrogance. Sneering Bewildered is not offended ? Why sneer then? Call someone a moron, typing 'your a moron' in the act? It should be "you're" you semi-literate dimwit. It is you who are in the place of dimness. I don't need to tell you to wriggle off to anywhere: you could hardly wriggle any lower than the position you have already reached by your own efforts.
Relying on a few top performers, not really believing in the team or its ethics, inadequate preparation, lack of familiarity with different wickets, pitch preparation favouritism, home crowds and ‘impressionable’ umpires, compliant media……. yep, a bit like politics.
Now watch the inadequate players hive off into commentary, radio and TV 'journalism' and into business sinecures where a bit of a name helps impress the punters, maybe an Honour or even a job in politics!
So the content matters less than the fact of the leak. Someone – maybe a civil servant, maybe a minister – seems to be after the ambassador, Kim Darroch. The contents were leaked to Isabel Oakeshott, the journalist who acts as the de-facto communications office of Aaron Banks, Nigel Farage's donor. The Brexit party leader quickly popped up to demand Darroch be sacked. And their Leave.EU outfit then stepped up to launch its campaign to make sure Farage replaced him. Incredible timing.
Darroch is facing the usual fate of the non-believers, those have not achieved full Brexit transcendance and therefore must be ejected from their position before they can keep asking critical questions.
But the story also shows something else: When you scratch at the surface of this movement for total British sovereignty, you quite often find servility to the US lying underneath.
Oh look, the Italian far-right has a new sugar daddy.
The six men — three Russians, three Italians — gathered beneath the spectacular painted glass ceiling in the hotel lobby last October had their eyes on history too. Their nominal purpose was an oil deal; their real goal was to undermine liberal democracies and shape a new, nationalist Europe aligned with Moscow.
[…]
BuzzFeed News has obtained an explosive audio recording of the Metropol meeting in which a close aide of Europe’s most powerful far-right leader — Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini — and the other five men can be heard negotiating the terms of a deal to covertly channel tens of millions of dollars of Russian oil money to Salvini’s Lega party.
The recording reveals the elaborate lengths the two sides were willing to go to conceal the fact that the true beneficiary of the deal would be Salvini’s party — a breach of Italian electoral law, which bans political parties from accepting large foreign donations — despite the comfort with which he and Europe’s other far-right leaders publicly parade their pro-Kremlin political sympathies.
Using mercury for gold extraction is illegal pretty much everywhere, and all legal and legitimate miners deplore it's use deeply. It's a failure of government to enforce their own laws which let this appalling shit still happen.
Interesting that RL is concerned about the technical aspects of the Yanomami story. The main point is that they are being invaded by thousands of men who are forcing the people from their lands, injuring and killing the people and spoiling their land.
The Yanomami are the largest relatively isolated tribe in South America. They live in the rainforests and mountains of northern Brazil and southern Venezuela. Davi Kopenawa, Yanomami leader and shaman surrounded by children, Demini, Brazil.
Clinton lost because the media made Trump much more entertaining, interesting, and yes loathsome. Trump was running for decades, household name, jerk in your fired, etc. Trump will win because stupidity isn't exposed by the media, it's consent manufacture all Trumps way.
Another example of trickle down opportunities and creative solutions and projects that are never allowed to occur.
In Christchurch on red-zoned land some young guys got together and shovelled humps and hollows and made a bike circle track for themselves. It has been destroyed on the basis that it was a 'hazard'.
Christchurch again – damn the spending fitting the ideas of hide-bound officials and conservatives. They are thinking of spending $15 million on a memorial to the fallen at the mosque (and ultimately lax administration at the borders and low-lifes and guns in NZ). Trickling down in small drops of awhi and mercy that is strained and measured.
What would be good is if they put that same money into a small building that is attractive and runs Humanities programs on culture, ours and others, philosophies and why we need religions and precepts of behaviour etc. Humanities helps us to understand our own and others human persona. It could be in the grounds of Canterbury University and be an adjunct of whatever humanities programs they have there.
And for general public experience and memorial, there could be a series of flag poles with all the flags of the countries from where the fallen in Christchurch, both at the mosque and in the earthquakes. Every day at say between midday and 5 minutes after, one of the flags would be put at half-mast, and the previous day's flag would be hoisted again. Make a thing of it like Ypres in Belgium – they have been doing this since the Wars.It would be a moving memorial, literally, as the colourful flags hung or lifted in the breeze, not passive solid forms.
At present in Christchurch they are mulling over designs for a memorial bridge that they have had for years. One being considered was particularly artistic – a bridge in the clouds caused by a fine spray of water as you climbed up steps no doubt. Just what you would want, to be damped down, as you crossed a stream to keep dry. One sounded great – I liked the sound of it – it was a golden bridge made out of brass I think. But practicality here – I also have read recently of a murdered man who was a scrap metal dealer, and often dealing with people who were on the criminal fringe. No doubt in time if it was possible, bits of the bridge would have been removed and sold with consequences to strength. safety and appearance. So practicality has definitely to be considered, but also give people the opportunity to look for more than expensive monuments to disasters. Beauty would be also in how it remembers the past and enhances and improves the future.
And I am thinking again about trickle down. The Kiwibuild idea as the only one going under the 1st Labour Coalition shows up their limitations – their distance from ordinary people of lower income. I have noticed amongst the successful middle class that they think they have life sussed and know all there is to know, and can make better decisions for the strugglers than they can. Then the m-class do that, without asking what the strugglers would prefer out of what is available, instead of giving them time to have a brainstorm session, go wild with ideas. Then think how each one could be practically done, or possibly one or two done as a trial.
The building houses program might have come up with a communal suburb of mixed colour tiny houses, some of which could be connected by a closed in walkway to enable extended families to live close together. Then the young people could be trained to work on these along with reliable (non-leaky-homes) builders. That would have been trickle-up.
Let's give people more opportunities, incentives and rewards to come up with ideas, group together for viable projects and facilitate doing while they are being. Not have everything planned by the big-people who live in 'It's too difficult, never-never land', because they are stunted by their own limitations of conformity – it ends up paralysis by analysis!
In Christchurch on red-zoned land some young guys got together and shovelled humps and hollows and made a bike circle track for themselves. It has been destroyed on the basis that it was a 'hazard'.
Bluddy disgraceful. Too hard to mow? Too hard to spray weeds? No resource consent? Enterprising lads should have been given a medal or better, they should have been left alone to get on with it!
I've just been reading an excoriating opinion piece on Christchurch which the writer says has been dysfunctional since 1989 amalgamation. It is written by a dyed-in-the-wool RW money-maker, but will have some truth and probably sheds light on how the faulty buildings there got signed off.
The opinion was that good people had left and the remaining administration ran it to the beat of their own drum.
It was published today at 5.30am and at 7 pm there were 191 comments which have now been closed so people felt strongly about it. Our lives are being narrowed, our ability to branch out and explore with open spaces limited by the dreaded health and safety issue.
Real – Under this logic there should be a warning sign at every entrance on the the roading network warning of the danger on the roads.
Timid, no rights – people" are the Government. My kids are doing something similar but are starting with a petition and then going to the council rather than just assuming they can do what they please.
Real life danger and boldness – And they wonder why kids are sitting at home playing computer games. Seems it's the only safe thing to do these days. In the 1950s in England boys like my brother and his friends were playing on bombed sites and clambering over piles of rubble! Here's an idea – why don't councils provide safe courses for boys to ride their mountain bikes then? They may have the odd scrape when they fall off now and again but that will always happen. If they're worried about a crumbling cliff then put up fencing and a warning sign to keep away from cliff edge. Too hard? I commend those boys for using their imagination and doing what boys have always done.
Whingers who don't like children being active and creative –
I’m not surprised, the same thing happened to my son ( then 12) and his friends built a cycle track on an unused riverside area on council land which was waste land that no one used, they spent hours making a few jumps.
On this occasion the neighbours complained to the police who confiscated their spades
It seemed that comments under women's names were likely to be about getting permission, complying with rules, not about whether those rules were necessary or OTT. Femmes are too compliant methinks, need to stand and object to being overloaded with nos, let's have a more permissive society.
Apart from the fact that some funds should be diverted to family members that are struggling – I thought that both mosques have propertites nearby that can be made a purchase offer on, and have islamic designed gardens installed that integrated them with the mosques themselves.
The gardens could be open to the public whenever the mosques wanted to, and could be designed in such a way to provide a level of security. The gardens should be given to the ownership of the islamic community, but a volunteer group of gardeners could continue newly built community relationships to be sustained and strengthened into the future.
Any memorial should prioritise the healing for the islamic community, rather than the boundaries of the secular supporters.
Yes I agree. My idea I guess. was to extend the mental boundaries by doing some philosophy and look at the different ways that we build our idea of our world that we tend to have and hold tight to with some carrying this to extremes.
I imagine that was the silent thought passing through some people's skulls.
'I wonder if Roger would like to put forward a design? We can talk it over when we meet for our …dinner party or at the box when we have a drink after the sports occasion.'?
This follows on from a pilot that funded five important building Standards and a handbook in 2017.
The standards presently range in cost from $5.50 to $550.
Building and Construction Minister Jenny Salesa said these standards helped ensure New Zealand buildings and homes were safe and well-constructed.
"They will help building professionals and homeowners with methods for designing and constructing timber framing in buildings and selecting appropriately treated timber used in building work.
"They will also help engineers with earthquake loads on buildings."
Ms Salesa said the government was dismantling road blocks in the building sector.
"I have listened to the building and construction sector, and professional groups who access these standards regularly, and to New Zealand's homeowners.
I am against putting fees up for ordinary people as a disincentive to some so that they change their ways. I didn't like tip fees being raised to discourage people from throwing things out, which Environment Minister Sage has done.
Now she is reported as insisting that the SI West Coast pay for the rubbish tip spread, while they say rightly they have a small tax base and low population. Which is true. They have been doing what many Councils have done with rubbish. Her response to their plight:
"The Westland District Council said it couldn't cope and it was calling down a short-term loan to pay for some of the costs involved. That shows a degree of problems with financial management I think, with that particular council," she said.
There is a place for disincentives, but after a while they can cease to be effective, for instance as with tax on cigarettes. Now they are desirable goods for theft. Too hard and high, makes poor people's life harder. Punish those naughty people! Hit them till it hurts. You can't do that to children but who cares for the adults who are vulnerable?
Seriously one of New Zealand's laziest local governments: have prepared zero for climate change other than build another sliver on a seawall, inspired their population to continually leave, diversified their economy about zero, and can't even build a road.
This isn't a tax on cigarettes.
This is doing one of the most basic job in local government: rubbish collection. And they swear they don't have enough money for even that. Hey Coasters: boot this lot out!
I agree Willie this is true institutional racism is a true phenomenon and a fact .
Good on France for a tax on big technology companies.
judy if your lot stopped the raid on the poor peoples money cutting benefits making it a miserable experience applying for a benefit shorting the housing market a tax system that cost the poor common people more lowering paye tax a rising gst poverty is a major driver of family Violence .
I say a gas guzzling vehicle tax is NEEDED to get people into clean energy efficient electric cars and out of cars into public transportation and the money used to subsidize clean energy cars.
The big point is the rangatahi are the ones that will have to live with the bad effects of climate change Eco Maori say it is there right to protect their future Humanity is so short sighted with the blinds that the billionaire oil barons put on us by manipulating the media paying for false studies all to line there pocket with more money than anyone NEEDS.
Ryan why not talk about the people who have the biggest carbon footprint the billionaire private planes heaps of excessive waste of carbon being burned to keep up their lavish lifestyle.
Good on Sharndre for creating a huge educational company education is needed so that the billionaire can not FOOL us with their LIES.
Whanau more extreme weather caused by our climate warning because of the greed of a few wealthy people. Times are going to change.
Warning of more severe weather after storm kills seven in Greece
Two children among dead after series of incidents in Halkidiki region, with dozens injured
Greece: 20-minute storm kills six tourists in Halkidiki – video report
Greek meteorologists have warned that more harsh weather could be on the way after seven people died and dozens were injured when a freak storm ripped through beachfronts in a popular tourist region in the north of the country.
Panic-stricken holidaymakers were caught on camera fleeing as the 20–minute late-night storm uprooted trees, overturned cars and caused mudslides in waterfront resorts
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The investigation of two of the five parties in Parliament for fraud around their election donations has pushed the issue of party funding back into the spotlight. And while there are obvious things we can do to tighten up the donations regime - a much lower declaration threshold, realtime disclosure ...
While the south of New Zealand has been struggling with too much rain in recent days, here in the north we are so very short of it (though Saturday’s forecast looks promising). Basically, we have had almost none since Christmas.As someone who relies on rain to wash the car, ...
Former National Party MP Jami-Lee RossIt comes as no surprise that Jami-Lee Ross has been named as one of the defendants in the X2 $100,000 National Party donations case currently before the courts. Click bait journalists who were chaffing at the bit to discredit the former senior whip had already ...
Stand Clear! Winston Peters is encouraging voters to think of RNZ as belonging to “The Media Party”. He wants them to see it as a politically partisan institution with its own, vicious attack-dogs in the electoral fight. If he succeeds, it will be, and probably should be, the end of ...
"You're going to need a longer runway" Gratton et al explore the ongoing effects of upward-creeping temperatures on aviation in Greece in the period since 1955 at a range of airports in that country. For longer runways impacts are measurable but with little impact on operations. For airports with shorter runways, ...
In mid-December the Israeli secret police, the Shin Beit, revealed it had arrested dozens of Palestinian left-wing activists, including members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), in the previous few months. Among those arrested was one of the central leaders of the PFLP, Khalida Jarrar. As ...
Former National Party chief whip Jami-Lee Ross is one of the four people charged over National's multiple fraudulent donations. How unsurprising. Meanwhile, just days ago National leader Simon Bridges was trying to pretend the charges were nothing to do with his party. Yeah, right. When your chief whip effectively publicly ...
If you've been watching FYI for a while, you'll have noticed that the police have a bad habit of demanding ID from requesters. They have apparently been repeatedly told to stop doing this by the Ombudsman, but we all know what law enforcement thinks of the law, so thye keep ...
Collateral Damage: For the Green Phoenix to be reborn, the funeral pyre so patiently assembled by its identity politicians over the course of many fractious years – but with growing intensity over the past three – first has to be ignited. The terrible probability, of course, is that, in setting ...
If you follow politics in New Zealand you've likely noticed that the right wing have been going on and on about the Coalition Government failing to reduce poverty. In fact they’ve been incessantly claiming, in the absence of any conclusive data, that poverty has been getting worse.Yesterday, NewstalkZB reported:Mike Hosking: ...
The Herald reported over the weekend that an Auckland business owner is being targeted with asset forfeiture laws over a workplace death:A workplace fatality has seen police use a law usually associated with drugs and organised crime to seize millions of dollars in assets from a business owner because of ...
Just days after talking about how people feel "squeezed" and promising tax and service cuts as a "solution", National is talking about cancelling a rise in the minimum wage if elected: National is considering scrapping the Government's planned minimum wage increase if it wins this year's election, the party's finance ...
Nobody thinks about the next century anymore. That at least is Sci-Fi writer William Gibson’s observation (in this BBC 4 short interview, starting at 1:43:50 ). He calls it “Futures Fatigue”, but isn’t judgemental about it. Gibson notes that in the 20th century speculation about the 21st (and beyond) was common. Now ...
A Labour government desperate for the numbers crawls into bed with Winston Peters. Winston ignores the law and secretly takes money under the table from someone. When it is exposed just months out from an election, he is investigated by the Serious Fraud Office. That's what happened back in 2008. ...
So the Serious Fraud Office has another secret $100,050 National Party donation before the Courts in a major scandal that looks set to quash any chances Simon Bridges had of winning the 2020 election.Yesterday, Newsroom reported:The Serious Fraud Office prosecution of four people over donations to the National Party involves ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Iceberg twice the size of Washington, D.C., breaks off Pine Island glacier in Antarctica Story Highlights: The Pine Island ...
Prof Philippa Howden-ChapmanHousing policy is building up to be the key election issue again. In this blog I reflect on the importance of the role of the New Zealand Government in improving access to affordable housing. I look at what the Government has been doing to increase quality public housing ...
Writing on The Spinoff, Danyl Mclauchlan argues that we have a vacuum in our political system, in that there is no longer an anti-establishment party anymore:I think there’s a vacuum in our political system. There are obvious problems with the status quo but no real critics offering reform. It’s a ...
Stuff today has a piece about the government discovering it has been oversubsidising polluters for a decade under the Emissions Trading scheme:The Government is pledging to urgently fix an issue within the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), after it emerged some polluters are likely being over-compensated with taxpayer-funded carbon credits. [...] ...
The Marlborough District Council, tired of public scrutiny, wants to increase the amount it charges for LGOIMA requests:The cost of requesting official information from Marlborough's government agency could almost double after a jump in "fishing expeditions". Charges could be raised from $60 to $100 an hour for information supplied by ...
When Winston Peters was caught money laundering donations and stalking journalists, the Greens were conspicuous by their silence. It was another example of how getting along with their government partners was eroding their values and their own reputation. It was obviously unsustainable, and so now James Shaw has finally spoken ...
I am among the most pro-free speech people I know. I don’t doubt there are others more strident than me, but I’m certainly up there. And my support for freedom of expression isn’t limited to opposition to government-imposed restrictions. It extends to a belief that employers should have limited powers ...
With over 69,000 confirmed cases and 1,600 deaths, here’s your round-up of the latest coronavirus news. New disease and virus have now officially been named On the 11th February, the WHO Director General announced a new name for the disease: COVID-19 which is short for coronavirus disease 2019. The naming ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Feb 9, 2020 through Sat, Feb 15, 2020 Editor's Pick ANALYSIS-Climate change opens up 'frontier' farmland, but at what cost to the planet?Climate change could expand farmland globally by ...
After cross-examination Jones knew he would lose the defamation case he took against film maker Renae Maihi. That’s why he threw in the towel. The weight of evidence was clearly against the old tycoon with the defense presenting fifty articles to confirm Jones’ racist views.Being unable to harass somebody into ...
Sprung! Former NZ First president, Lester Gray, chats with RNZ's Guyon Espiner in the carpark of a Tauranga shopping centre.(Photo supplied anonymously to NZ First and The BFD.)IT’S CLEAR THAT an important aspect of Jacinda Ardern’s political success is her willingness to seek – and take – advice. This ...
Ruth Cunningham, Charlotte Paul, Andrew MoorePublic health responses to infectious diseases such as COVID-19 require us to draw on our common humanity and be explicit about our values. Recognising this will help us make good decisions in difficult situations so that, for example, the need to impose restrictive measures ...
The Helen Clark Foundation has released its report on the housing crisis, and found that house-hoarders are to blame for it:Property investors are to blame for New Zealand's high house prices, a new research paper published by the Helen Clark Foundation says. [...] McArthur said previous attempts to address housing ...
The Abortion Legislation Committee has reported back on the Abortion Legislation Bill and recommended that it be passed with some amendments. Unfortunately, the latter include even more hoops to jump through for those seeking abortions after 20 weeks, including a time-wasting requirement to consult a second doctor. No-one casually seeks ...
Brexit is likely to be a disaster for the UK (how sad, never mind). But now that they're out of the EU, the latter has finaly taken the opportunity to blacklist one of their key tax havens:The Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory, is to be put on an EU ...
Fletcher Tabuteau MP, New Zealand First Deputy Leader A total delivery of 2,000 new Police Officers has been achieved. New Zealand First Deputy Leader, Fletcher Tabuteau attended the latest police graduation of Recruit Wing 335 in Porirua today. Mr Tabuteau said, “Increasing police numbers and boosting their resources was one of ...
Taupō District mayor David Trewavas has welcomed today’s announcement from regional economic development minister Shane Jones outlining $5.87m of funding for the re-development of the Taupō Airport. The bulk of the investment ($5 million) will come from the Provincial Growth Fund, while the rest will be from the New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has defended multi-million dollar provincial growth fund money for Northland water storage. The New Zealand First leader, along with Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones, were recently in Dargaville to announce up to $12.745 million PGF funding top-up for water storage initiatives in the ...
One of our most immediate priorities upon forming Government was to get people out of sleeping in cars, garages, or on the street and into safe and warm housing. Since then, we've made major progress towards breaking the cycle of homelessness, including expanding Housing First, building more state houses, and ...
Kids learn better with a full stomach. That's why we launched our Lunches in Schools programme, which is already providing free and healthy school lunches to thousands of children so they can focus on what's important - learning. ...
Mark Patterson MP, New Zealand First List MP based in Clutha-Southland This afternoon to a crowd of over 100 people in Mataura -- Mark Patterson, New Zealand First List MP based in Clutha-Southland launched a parliamentary petition regarding the aluminium dross issue in Mataura, Southland. The petition asks that the ...
Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development New Zealand First Deputy Leader and Spokesperson for Finance, Fletcher Tabuteau has welcomed Statistics New Zealand’s latest report as a timely reminder of the value that this Coalition Government brings to every day New Zealanders: “This Coalition Government has meant a ...
Today New Zealand First made a pledge to campaign at the election to fund St John Ambulance the 90 per cent it has asked for. Government funding would allow St. John’s to achieve fully funded status. Leader of New Zealand First, Rt Hon Winston Peters publicly declared his determination to deliver ...
Darroch Ball MP, Spokesperson for Law and Order Newly released Police data shows once again the number of fleeing drivers have continued to skyrocket with a record 512 incidents occurring in December – almost tripling the number of incidents occurring just ten years ago, says New Zealand First Law and ...
While the Provincial Growth Fund has provided $2 million to set up temporary water supplies in Kaikohe and Kaitaia, Regional Economic Minister Shane Jones said he is greatly concerned that there are “issues” in implementing the projects. The Minister said the immediate solution was to pipe water from a bore ...
Mark Patterson MP, New Zealand First List MP for Clutha-Southland NZ First is calling on Rio Tinto to accept its responsibilities to the Southland community and enable the immediate removal of the toxic Aluminium Dross from the Mataura Paper Mill site. New Zealand First List MP for Clutha-Southland, Mark Patterson ...
The Coalition Government has announced that a further $500,000 will be given to help residents in Southland and Otago to speed up recovery efforts from the floods. It follows prior government assistance of $200,000 earlier this month where the Southland Mayoral Relief Fund received $100,000 to support communities impacted by ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones was on RNZ’s Morning Report talking about the recent droughts in the Northland region and what the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is doing to alleviate its impact. The PGF recently announced a funding of $2 million for temporary water supplies to Kaikohe and Kaitaia, ...
Speaking to The Country’s Jamie Mackay, New Zealand First MP and Cabinet Minister Shane Jones talks water storage, plant-based meat imitation, and superstar Hollywood director James Cameron. While water storage may have its critics, Minister Jones defended the scheme by saying: “unless we invest and continue to invest” in this ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones is accusing northern iwi leaders of selling out Māori by voting for ideologically-driven court cases rather than practical steps to increase water supply. “I just think that iwi leaders who think that water issues are going to be solved by perpetually fighting in the ...
A dairy owner in St Kilda, Dunedin was delighted to hear that an attempted robbery of his establishment was foiled by a government-funded security system. Sean Lee was delighted at how well the anti-theft smoke system worked. When a knife-wielding man entered the store, the shop assistant immediately pressed a ...
Customs says it stopped more than three tonnes of illegal drugs coming into New Zealand last year. This includes 1,180kg of methamphetamine, 329kg of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine precursors, which could have been converted into 246kg of methamphetamine, 739kg and 6469 pills of MDMA or Ecstasy and 60kg of cocaine. Offshore, ...
Hon. Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development Up to $2 million will be allocated from the Provincial Growth Fund to set up temporary water supplies in Kaikohe and Kaitaia where drought is biting hard, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. Drought conditions in Northland have led to ...
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Law and Order New Zealand First welcomes the deployment of an Eagle Police helicopter in Christchurch in what is a step towards fulfilling its long-standing goal to increase the use of police helicopters for the front line, particularly in addressing the scourge of fleeing drivers. Christchurch leads ...
It may have been the first sitting week of 2020, but our Government is already in full-swing - managing a strong economy, investing in infrastructure, and working to break the cycle of homelessness. Read below for all that, and more... ...
In a heated debate in Parliament, National's Deputy Leader Paula Bennett claimed that “nearly 1600 patched gang members have been added” since the Coalition Government took power. To illustrate her point, she altered a chart used by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to show her government’s progress in housing to instead ...
Speech by the Rt Hon Winston Peters at Parliament’s Opening 2020 "We all need insurance" This year New Zealanders are going to have a clear choice to make That choice is between: Optimism versus pessimism; More progress versus back to the future; Investment versus divestment; Unity versus division. New Zealand ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has slammed the Board of Auckland Airport following the airport's runway closing twice within two weeks due to maintenance. Around 2,000 passengers were affected by last week’s runway closures, according to 1NEWS. Another maintenance closure on January 24 saw two international flights and three domestic flights ...
A milestone has been reached with the graduation of more than 2,000 new Police officers since the Coalition Government took office in October 2017. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the graduation today of Wing 335 marks a surge of 2,023 new officers, and coincides with some significant breakthroughs against organised ...
Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media Minister, Kris Faafoi, and the Minister of Education, Chris Hipkins, have welcomed a new cyber security qualification as a step towards countering cyber threats and keeping New Zealanders safe. Attending the launch of the new Level 6 Diploma of Cyber Security at Auckland’s Unitec Institute ...
Government Ministers today celebrated 20 years of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park/ Ko te Pataka kai o Tikapa Moana/ Te Moananui a Toi, and recognise there is much to celebrate and so much more to do to give nature a helping hand. Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage said “New Zealanders care deeply about nature.I want to ...
Prepared remarks on coronavirus by Finance Minister Grant Robertson to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and Massey University. Good morning ladies and gentlemen, The topic of this speech is the Budget 2020 priorities. But, given the considerable interest that I imagine is in the room about COVID-19 coronavirus, I do ...
E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā iwi, e ngā rau rangatira ma. Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa. Ni sa bula vinaka. Namaste Thank you Shamima, Hon. Minister Vuniwaqa, community leaders and Women’s Crisis Centre staff for your warm welcome. It’s an honour and privilege to officially ...
The Government has released a comprehensive response to ensuring New Zealanders get a fairer deal at the petrol pump. This follows the Commerce Commission fuel market study which found motorists were paying more than they should for petrol and includes: Fuel Market Bill drafting, to pass mid-year Industry consultation in ...
E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā iwi, e ngā rau rangatira ma Tēnā koutou katoa Ni sa bula vinaka As-salaam alaikum It is a privilege to be here today. Thank you for welcoming us to your house of prayer. Thank you for your warmth. Thank you for greeting ...
Taupō Airport is to be upgraded and expanded through a $5.9 million Government funding boost, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. “Taupō Airport is the gateway to the Central North Island. It is essential for both keeping local people and businesses connected, but also to bring more people ...
The Minister of Housing Megan Woods has confirmed the Government is working with Rotorua Lakes District Council and Te Arawa for the second place-based assessment to better understand the housing and urban issues affecting the city. “Every New Zealander has a right to a warm, safe and secure place to ...
19 new community homes (in addition to 14 opened in December) delivered in Takanini, Auckland 500 people housed by CORT Housing Trust by end of March 2,290 new public housing homes delivered in Auckland (November 2017 – December 2019). Another nineteen new public housing homes are being delivered in Auckland, ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Minister for Trade and Export Growth David Parker met today with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to discuss ways to strengthen ties between New Zealand and India. “India is a priority relationship for New Zealand. We share common democratic traditions, growing two-way trade, extensive people-to-people links, ...
Speech to the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) Delhi, India Wednesday 26 February 2020 [CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY] The Indo-Pacific: from principles to partnerships Distinguished guests, good afternoon and thank you for your invitation. It is good to be here at a time where New Zealand needs less of an introduction than ...
Tihei mauri ora Te Whare e tu nei Te Papa e takoto Tēnā korua No reira tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa Ni sa bula Vinaka It is a real pleasure to be here today, and to have the honour of addressing you all. If you’ll indulge me I’m ...
Improved air quality to support better health and environmental wellbeing is the focus of proposed amendments to air quality regulations, says the Associate Minister for the Environment, Hon Nanaia Mahuta. “Although our air quality is good in most places, during winter certain places have spikes in air pollution, mainly from ...
The remote eastern Bay of Plenty community of Raukokere will receive a Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) investment of $10.6 million for a water storage facility, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones says. “This is great news for the rural community. The landowner, Te Whānau a Maruhaeremuri Hapū Trust, will use ...
The Lake Ōkaro lakebed has transferred to Te Arawa Lakes Trust, Minister for Māori Crown Relations: Te Arawhiti Kelvin Davis announced today. Kelvin Davis joined Te Arawa at Te Papaiōuru Marae in Rotorua to celebrate the reinstatement of Te Arawa Lakes Trust as a key decision maker over the bed ...
New legislation is being proposed which aims to reduce the stress and financial hardship caused by late payments to small businesses. The Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash is considering stricter rules around payment practices between businesses. “Late payments from large organisations to smaller suppliers can be crippling for these ...
A new partnership programme between the New Zealand Police and Fiji Police will focus on combatting transnational organised crime and enhancing investigative skills, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on the first day of her visit to Fiji. The programme will see: · New Zealand Institute of Environmental Science and Research ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Prime Minister Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama met today in Suva, and renewed their commitment to continue to strengthen Fiji-New Zealand relations on a foundation of shared values and equal partnership. The Prime Ministers acknowledged the kinship between Fijians and New Zealanders, one that has endured over ...
A $19.9 million investment from the Provincial Growth Fund will help develop essential infrastructure for an industrial hub in the Bay of Plenty town of Kawerau, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones says. “The funding will go to three projects to further develop the Putauaki Trust Industrial Hub, an industrial ...
The Provincial Growth Fund is investing $8.3 million on a roading package for Mahia that will lead to greater and wider economic benefits for the region and beyond, Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced at an event in Mahia today. The $8.3 million announced consists of: $7 ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has welcomed new reporting showing the Coalition Government is on track to meet its child poverty targets, with 18,400 children lifted out of poverty as a result of the Families Package. Stats NZ has released the first set of comprehensive child poverty statistics since the Government ...
Associate Minister of Transport Julie Anne Genter today announced that Bikes in Schools facilities have been rolled out to 20,000 more kiwi kids under this Government. She made the announcement at the opening of a new bike track at Henderson North School in Auckland. “Bikes in Schools facilities give kids ...
Benefit settings rise in line with wages as of 1 April Main benefits will increase by over 3 percent, instead of 1.66 percent, on 1 April with the Government’s decision to annually adjust benefit rates to increases in the average wage. The Minister for Social Development, Carmel Sepuloni, said ...
Strengthening New Zealand’s political and business ties with India will be the focus of Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters’ and Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker’s visit to India this week. The Ministers are co-leading a high level business delegation to India to support increased people and economic engagement ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio continues to champion for greater Pacific participation in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers with the announcement of the Toloa Awards, with 8 recipients of the Toloa Community Fund and 13 Toloa Tertiary Scholarships. “The Toloa Programme encourages more Pacific peoples ...
Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage has extended the date for people to have their say on proposed changes to improve management of whitebait across New Zealand. Submissions were due to close on 2 March 2020 but will now remain open until 9am on Monday 16 March 2020. “I have ...
The endangered toroa/Antipodean albatross has new international protection for its 100,000km annual migration, thanks to collaborative efforts led by New Zealand, Australia and Chile. Today, 130 countries agreed to strictly protect Antipodean albatross at the Conference of Parties on the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild ...
No sales to under-18-year-olds No advertising and sponsorship of vaping products and e-cigarettes No vaping or smokeless tobacco in smokefree areas Regulates vaping product safety comprehensively, - including devices, flavours and ingredients Ensure vaping products are available for those who want to quit smoking Vaping regulation that balances ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little will travel to Berlin tomorrow to represent New Zealand at a high-level summit on nuclear disarmament. This year, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) celebrates 50 years since it entered into force. “New Zealand’s proud record and leadership on nuclear disarmament is unwavering, so it’s important we are present ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will visit two of New Zealand’s most important Pacific partners, Fiji and Australia, next week. The visit to Fiji will be the first by a New Zealand Prime Minister in four years and comes during the 50th anniversary of Fijian independence and diplomatic relations between our ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little and New Zealand First MP Darroch Ball, have today announced the appointment of the Chief Commissioner of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the location, and the membership of the Establishment Advisory Group. Colin Carruthers QC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of the CCRC for an ...
Māori Development Minister Hon Nanaia Mahuta and Agriculture Minister Hon Damien O’Connor co-announced the first horticultural finalists for the Ahuwhenua Trophy celebrating excellence in the Māori agricultural sector. The three finalists are Ngai Tukairangi Trust from Mt Maunganui, Otama Marere Trust from Tauranga, and Hineora Orchard Te Kaha 15B Ahuwhenua ...
A new kete of resources to strengthen support for students with dyslexia will provide extra tools for the new Learning Support Coordinators (LSCs) as they start in schools, Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin announced today. The Minister launched the kete in Wellington this morning, at the first of three induction ...
The Government continues to make progress on a fairer and more secure rental market for renters and landlords with the First Reading of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill and its referral to the Social Services and Community Select Committee. “Now is the opportunity for landlords, tenants and others who want ...
Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Hon James Marape will visit New Zealand from 21-25 February, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. “New Zealand and Papua New Guinea have a warm and friendly relationship. I look forward to welcoming Prime Minister Marape here and strengthening the relationship between our two countries,” ...
Thousands of children have begun receiving a free lunch on every day of the school week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. The Government’s free and healthy school lunch programme is under way for 7,000 students at 31 schools in Hawke’s Bay / Tairāwhiti and Bay of Plenty / Waiariki, extending ...
The Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni today announced a new approach that continues to broaden the Government’s social sector focus from a narrow, investment approach to one centred on people and wellbeing. Minister Sepuloni said redefining the previous approach to social investment by combining science, data and lived experience ...
The Government is strengthening the Protected Disclosures Act to provide better protection for whistle blowers, Minister of State Services Chris Hipkins said today. “The Protected Disclosures Act is meant to encourage people to speak up about serious wrongdoing in the workplace and protect them from losing their jobs or being ...
Nǐn hǎo (Hello in Mandarin). Xīn Nián Kuài Lè (Happy New Year in Mandarin) Néi Hóu (Hello in Cantonese). Sun Nin Fai Lok (Happy New Year in Cantonese) Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa. Thank you for your invitation to attend this celebration today. I would like to acknowledge ...
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list and described by Steve Braunias.Fiction 1 The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox (Victoria University Press, $35) ReadingRoom broke the storydetailing how Knox’s novel was fought over by US publishers in a ...
Sky Sport News presenters Kate King and Goran Paladin deliver the latest news of Kiwi sporting women at home and around the globe. *WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE* Hurdler Portia Bing has reinvented herself in a bid to make the Tokyo Olympics and take another step towards putting last year's disqualification at ...
Embarrassingly for the Department of Conservation, a scheduled ministerial announcement last year was postponed. David Williams reports A much-delayed project to better protect the Mackenzie Basin’s stunning landscapes and bolster biodiversity has a new boss. In the 2018 Budget, Conservation and Lands Minister Eugenie Sage announced $2.6 million to find ...
Trying to reduce drownings - and bring on a new generation of surfers - the Wave Warriors teach kids from low-decile schools water safety wrapped in a surf lesson. Eight-year-old Athena Talavai is less than half the height of the surfboard she’s expected to stand on, and probably only a quarter of the weight. She ...
The decision to give Ihumātao the highest heritage listing available sends a strong signal to the Government and Auckland Council, write Dr Frances Hancock and Nicola Short Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (HNZPT) has upgraded the heritage listing of the Ōtuataua Stonefields Reserve and included adjacent and long-contested land at ...
If Simon Bridges manages to pull off an election victory, his next headache will be choosing his Cabinet from a somewhat uninspiring line-up, writes Peter Dunne Every election year there is a call to use the election as a chance to refresh Parliament and get rid of at least some ...
An anonymous Department of Conservation staff member, who wishes to be known only as the Carefree Vigilante, provides a handy guide to dealing with menstruation, and menstrual products, in the wild.This post was first published on the Department of Conservation blog.I’ve got six or seven rational fears and about 900 ...
There is a surge of cases of the virus outside China. Australia says it expects Covid-19 to turn into a global pandemic. We cannot afford to panic in New Zealand. But we must prepare, writes Dr Siouxsie Wiles.It’s now clear to me that the new coronavirus responsible for Covid-19 is ...
The Serious Fraud Office is once again investigating a headline-generating case. But is it prosecuting the right crimes - or just the winnable ones? Compared with previous famous finance company collapses involving hundreds of millions of dollars the numbers are small; sitting MP Jami-Lee Ross and three Auckland businessmen face SFO charges ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The government would be looking for the private sector to put in four or five times as much as it invests in research and development of particular technologies to reduce emissions, Energy Minister Angus Taylor ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Two issues are currently presenting the Morrison government with fast-moving targets. One is the fallout from the coronavirus, where the picture has been altering on a near-daily basis. The other is very different – the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The federal government has activated its emergency response plan to deal with a spread of the coronavirus locally, in anticipation of it becoming a “pandemic”. It is also considering limited assistance for those hardest hit ...
In an apparent change of tune, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern expects to raise the topic of climate change with Australian counterpart Scott Morrison tomorrow. ...
The Government says it wants to protect small businesses from getting shafted by big companies who don’t or won’t pay their bills on time. The move can’t come too soon. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Muecke, Clinical senior lecturer in Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Adelaide Humans are physiologically hardwired to love and seek out sweet things. It’s an ancient survival mechanism that evolved to prepare our bodies for periods of fasting when food supplies ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marilyn McMahon, Deputy Dean, School of Law, Deakin University The NSW government has just introduced a bill that will, among other significant reforms, make it easier for a jury to be informed about the prior convictions of a person on trial for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marilyn McMahon, Deputy Dean, School of Law, Deakin University The NSW government has just introduced a bill that will, among other significant reforms, make it easier for a jury to be informed about the prior convictions of a person on trial for ...
By RNZ Pacific Jacinda Ardern has paid tribute to the three Fijians who died in last year’s Christchurch mosque shootings. Ardern spoke today at Lautoka Mosque as part of her trip to Fiji to remember Imam Hafiz Musa Patel, Ashraf Ali Razak and Ashraf Ali, who died almost a ...
The Real Pod reassembles to dissect the cultured fourth week of The Bachelorette NZ with special thanks to Nando’s.This week on The Bachelorette NZ, a burrito bust-up ends in anaphylaxis, Steve chows down on some one-ply, and the Buenos Aires hostel goes full Lord of the Flies. It’s become abundantly ...
Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand, the Catholic Bishops' agency for justice, peace and development, is concerned that the latestchild poverty numbers show that there has been anincrease in material hardship,with 4100 more children living in ...
Dr Bryce Edwards.Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni described this year’s annual benefit increases of 3 per cent as “significant”, and “a way of sharing the wealth”. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern also heralded them as the biggest increase to benefits in nine years, if National’s 2015 one-off adjustments are excluded. ...
Is it the kind of headline that will win votes at the general election? “Rock-star reception in Fijian village” followed by a sub-head “Rapturous greeting for Ardern during visit to launch $3m sanitation project”. The reporter (veteran Barry Soper, Newstalk ZB’s political editor) poses the rhetorical question: “Is there any ...
The New Zealand First Foundation received $100,000 in just one week from two rich-listers, whose donations remained secret because the individual payments fell below the disclosure threshold. ...
BusinessNZ says legislation requiring more transparent petrol pricing will probably be well-received, but there are concerns about the market study that prompted it. The Government has announced it is drafting a Fuel Market Bill to introduce requirements ...
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 talks to Andrea Watson, Sparrows CEO and founder, and Simon Yarrow, who leads Callaghan Innovation’s ...
LGNZ say a new report from the Deep South National Science Challenge is a reminder for central government policy makers to step up the pace on progressing a national strategy on climate change adaption. LGNZ is the peak body representing New Zealand’s ...
Art schools are seen by many as beacons of liberalism. But is this the reality? Former Māori student Anna McAllister recounts her fraught journey through an Auckland art school.In high school, the only subjects I was remotely good at were the practical arts. I stayed in the art block during ...
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Open mike 11/07/2019 
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Amanda Marcotte takes a look the Seth Rich saga and how that all tied in to the campaign to smear Clinton and suppress Dem-leaning votes.
https://www.salon.com/2019/07/10/how-the-seth-rich-conspiracy-theory-put-trump-in-the-white-house/
Expect to see more of this tactic through the 2020 election. Voting in the USA is such a pain-in-the-ass time-suck that it's awfully tempting to not bother when you're unenthusiastic about the candidate at the top of the ticket. Which then flows on to reduced support for other candidates further down the ballot such as the Senate, House and locl government.
and wikileakjs exposed her as a revolting war criminal drenched in blood …
you can read about Blumfeild and her spreading false viagra and mass rape claims about Gaddafis fictional ' black mercenerys.
And her results from that are all over the internet …
You can read about the black men ending up on meathooks, lynched or slave traded … you can read about black libyan women kidnapped, sex trafficked or murdered.
But I bet you already knew that Andre … Your demo gal
She went … she murdered …. she destroyed …. tee hee hee
Actually You should go to Israel with no regrets Wayne …
Waynes a real zionist .. he may not be full uber ,,, but he's definatly no under- Palastinian either
She's a lovely person. Just like her wonderful husband.
"Amanda Marcotte takes a look the Seth Rich saga and how that all tied in to the campaign to smear Clinton and suppress Dem-leaning votes."
The link contributes precisely zero to our understanding of what happened to Seth Rich
The link is about how outright lying to smear a murder victim was used as a successful political ploy. And about how convergence moonbats and second-option bias idiots happily took the smear and amplified it. And how they probably have learned nothing from the experience so will probably do so again.
edit: (“they” that have learned nothing being the convergence moonbats and second-option bias idiots: the perps will have learned that it works quite well and are probably full of ideas how to do it better next time)
Agreed!…. You have learned nothing from the experience so will probably do so again.
She lost. Her campaign managers shafted the far more popular, and electable, Bernie Sanders.
You need to move on, buddy. You're almost as sad as an MSNBC talking head.
Clinton lost the most winnable election in post war US history to a fucking moronic imbecile, and even after cheating! Clinton stood for everything shit in the Democratic party and US politics in general that is why she lost, and now Obama's legacy is Trump…thanks liberalism, job well done.
True. Sanders probably would have won, Warren probably would have won (they at least would have visited more states) yet they selected Clinton…
My memory of the polls taken at the time is that would have lost. Basically too far left. Ironically he would do better this time since the Dems have shifted a bit. But he won’t be the candidate.
In my view it will be Harris.
… and then there's the comprehension-challenged that can't respond to the actual content of an article, instead diverting to well-worn simplistic slogans they've been repeating for years. Maybe someone needs to read it to them as an audio or video clip.
This meets Einstein's definition of insanity
Yeah, he wasn't a fan of quantum physics lol
Maybe some people need to really understand that the way to win elections going forward isn't by forcing the same old bullshit down peoples throats. I mean, come on seriously, do you really think that Seth story had any effect on the US elections?
Talk about clutching at straws.
I think there's basically a Pavlov's dog response from some people to any mention of the word "Clinton." Must be a pain in the arse for people who actually come from Clinton, not being able to say their home town's name without Morrissey going on about his Hillary videos for the 40,396th time.
And she cites the very same full of shit Isikoff ,who broke the Steele dossier news then later recanted from the most lurid allegations, having unleashed
a murky fake story on the gullible that never had legs.
This might be a tough one to grasp, but most people don't assess the merits of an article based on your opinions of one of the people involved.
Given that the article simply repeats dogma what else is there?
They'll definitely repeat the tactic, but Clinton was uniquely vulnerable – repugs had literally spent decades inventing lies and scandals (to the degree that the ones WJC should have faced became lost in all the repug bullshit).
Seth Rich wasn't the first death repugs lied about for political gain. Before him there was Vince Foster.
So whomever gets the nomination probably won't have a track record of a generation being conditioned to believe something is corrupt about them. Especially if Biden doesn't get it.
I do think FOX CNN and the rest of the media industrial complex is to blame for spreading the conspiracy theory/theories. Y'know I also think Seths supervisor was being a little too proud to be a Hillary supporter, making Seth work late knowing he'd have to walk through one of the more dangerous areas of Washington well known for armed hold ups, homelessness and poverty.
Case in point. Anything to blame the dems, even if it involves making shit up. You're a real piece of crap, sam.
Looks like you've hit the limits of your intelligence. What exactly did I make up?
why don't you cry to one of the moderators to help you find an argument and win a debate, McTrash.
[Thanks for drawing my attention although this willy-waving contest was hard to miss so early in OM. I wish you two were having a debate but as it stands you are just having a fight in the sandpit throwing sand in each other’s eyes. There are no winners, only losers (plural) and these are mainly everybody else who has to scroll past this pathetic exchange. In the interest of TS, I think I should send you two away on a wee holiday so that the rest of the TS community can enjoy this space. The only two questions for me are when and for how long? Incognito]
That bit. Complete invention on your part.
Are you aware that Seth died of gunshot wounds walking home from work?
You are, once again, incapable of reading links and demonstrably wrong. He was walking home from a bar in the wee small hours of a Sunday morning.
Links to online conspiracy theories is not an excuse for wrong doing. It's not clear from what you said exactly what claims you are making but it is entirely about intentional behaviour.
It’s not clear from what you said exactly what claims you are making
"He was walking home from a bar in the wee small hours of a Sunday morning."
What part of that do you have difficulty understanding?
Seth was on punish duties at work for some FOX news conspiracy theory. I think his work supervisor was being over zealous and if I'm not mistaken Seths parents are suing FOX. Now that I'v restated my position do you have a counter argument?
Says you.
Every link I've found so far claims he was walking home from a bar. None claimed that part of his work duties involved being at a sports bar until it shut on a saturday night/sunday morning.
Therefore your unsubstantiated rumours about his work are irrelevant to his death.
Therefore you're just repeating lies and innuendo about a murder in order to sully people you oppose politically.
Therefore you are a piece of shit.
And your still failed to explain just what you found "unclear" about "He was walking home from a bar in the wee small hours of a Sunday morning."
I was implying that the conspiracy theories was coming from CNN and FOX news. The only one talking about online conspiracy theories was you. That's why I said something. It's got nothing to do with some sort of imaginary outrage in your own mind. It's was all produced by Fox News not some imaginary republican smear campaign. Clinton smeared herself, get over it. This bullshit is fucking years old and you're still crying about it.
So, just to be clear, you wrote:
as an example of the sort of lies that were spread, rather than meaning to imply that you actually believed it?
You're just geared for it aren't ya. You just have to signal how virtuous and outrage you can be don't you. You're so fucken ideological you can't even see the trees from the forest.
Y'know it happened in the middle of Clintons Presidential campaign. DNC staffers don't get weekends during presidential campaigns. Y'know I looked at all this stuff years ago, it should be like accepted truth by now. But you just keep denying that Trump won fair and square.
So rather than simply clarify whether you were making shit up, you go off on another tangent. Again.
Blessed be the Way of Sam.
nope. Not rather. Just not caring very much about your hurt feelings. Why on earth would I go through any effort for a low iq specimen to try and unfuck your own confusion. Why should I when I'm having so much fun with your emotions.
If my regarding you as a stupid piece of shit who spreads contemptible lies (and then lies about his lies) is a source of joy to you, then you have succeeded beyond your wildest dreams.
No, McTrash. It's not about me, and it's not about you either.
Seth was working late, he stopped at a local bar, got drunk and got murdered on his way home. Theres no conspiracies here, no hidden agenda. There's no hidden outrage. Trump didn't steal anything. It was a media beat up.
Yknow so what if Seth leaked something, it was just an accident.
More lies and innuendo from a transparent scumbucket.
No McTrash. There was no lies. That's just in your own head. From what I remember Kim Dotcom was willing to testify for the Muller investigation that Seth did hand Wikileaks something. Their only one in denial is you, McTrash. That Seth was Mudrered probably has nothing to do with anything you're on about.
KDC offered another moment of truth, huh?
What you remember rarely overlaps with what you provide evidence for and that itself rarely overlaps with reality. KDC has similarly been caught out once or twice. So you talking about what KDC promised is like someone claiming that their spirit guide told them that unicorns claim to fart rainbows.
Prove what exactly? Seth is dead. You need to move on.
I love the way you're on first name terms with the guy whose murder you're shamelessly exploiting for your own deranged purposes. That's probably meant to be a distraction from the fact that you haven't backed up a single one of your claims. Any of them.
Nope. It's not about love because I'm not going to provide you with anything. If you want to be more cooperative you're going to have to learn to be civil. Or I could just rubbish you all the time.
Blessed indeed is the Way of Sam.
Nope. It's not about me my boy,
"It" keeps changing as you shift the goalposts, dear boy.
Nope. The goal post didn't change.
And yet someone went from walking home after working late because of their demanding supervisor to simply walking home from a bar.
Do campaign staffers get the weekends off where you are from?
lol see.
You just pull shit out of your arse and wear it as a crown.
You can't even accept simple truths. DNC staffers don't get weekends off during presedintial races. There was no conspiracy theory to begin with. You just wanted to signal how virtuous you are. So go right ahead.
But he wasn't at work in a bar, was he.
You assert these things as "facts", but they're just assumptions you make to support your desire to use a robbery gone wrong as a weapon against the dems.
And, in my experience, people who use the term "virtue signalling" do so only to avoid explicitly declaring that they have no concept of empathy or humanity. It is the penultimate refuge of the unregenerate scoundrel.
nope. Nothing to do with assumptions, empathy or the Democratic Party at this point.
See my Moderation note @ 3:37 PM under Sam’s comment.
Just saw this. Fair enough.
Thank you.
Hello Incognito
Good morning, Sam.
See my Moderation note @ 3:37 PM.
Clinton certainly had had decades of smears targeted directly at her – hell, the curtains in the White House had barely been changed in '93 before the bumper stickers and graffitti appeared saying "Impeach Clinton. And her husband".
Then while Vince Foster conspiracy theories were certainly a thing, what I saw of it was confined to definite Repug circles. While I was certainly acquainted with a few people with convergence moonbat tendencies, they didn't buy into the Vince Foster thing.
I'm not sure about the "uniquely vulnerable" bit, though. Kerry got successfully swiftboated. If Shrub hadn't made himself so fkn unpopular, it's possible the shit about that Kenyan, Barack Hussein Obama, might have got more traction. It's a worry that neither Sanders, Warren or Harris have ever before gone up against an opponent that simply doesn't have a bottom for how low he will go. Let's face it, elections are pretty cruisy, genteel things for liberals in Vermont, Massachusetts and California.
Fair call.
Thanks to the link provided by KJT, I'm posting an insight into the Greek leftist self-immolation that has played out over the past four years:
"The moment I walked into the office of Alexis Tsipras, he told me he had decided to fold, to ignore the people’s No, and to side with New Democracy in order to pass through parliament the bills by which Greece would, again, surrender to the troika. After I failed to dissuade him, I resigned as minister of finance. A few hours later, Mr Tsipras convened a meeting with the acting leader of New Democracy, and the leaders of the other pro-troika parties, whose votes he needed in parliament to pass the third bailout. It was at that moment that New Democracy was retrieved from history’s dustbin and placed on a track leading, with mathematical precision, to election victory."
"Since that night, Greece’s parliament has been the stage for a four-year long tragicomedy: Syriza MPs passed austerity and fire-sale bills with which they disagreed, while, on the other side, New Democracy MPs voted them down — in spite of agreeing with them. How my former colleagues convinced themselves that this would end in anything other than a devastating defeat for Syriza is beyond my comprehension."
https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2019/07/09/how-syrizas-capitulations-allowed-the-greek-right-to-escape-the-dustbin-of-history-the-new-statesman/
What gets me about this reveal by one of the key players is that the top leftist unilaterally decided to betray the people: it was not a collective decision of the government. That strikes me as extremely weird. Imagine any PM of ours making a decision on behalf of our government, and it being implemented without consulting the cabinet. It's possible that the author of the New Statesman reveal simply chose not to mention that the decision to betray the people was subsequently ratified by the government.
If so, I assume he doesn't want to acknowledge that his resignation was an admission of defeat – instead of fighting the battle with his colleagues against his leader. Perhaps he is ashamed of his cowardice. Perhaps he is signalling the reader that he believes consensus is too irrelevant to mention. Leftist politics has traditionally operated in defiance of the consensus principle, which is why splitting has always been endemic on the left. He may have thought the notion too sophisticated for his colleagues to comprehend.
I suspect it did go through a collective decision making process, but of course someone has to start it all. That would be the PM.
In any event Syriza has had 10 years, which is pretty decent amount of time in government. Inevitably they were eventually going to lose to the right. It is the nature of democracy.
More like the nature of those who control the purse strings. Wayne. And that is most definitely not the Greek government.
Tsipras certainly did not help his cause with a lot of the decisions his government made, so they should really have stepped aside. But once again, power for powers sake.
Varoufakis was the only one with any conscience out of all of them.
Much more likely the Greek people just got tired of having the same government for 10 without things getting much better. They certainly weren’t going to go more left. Varoufakis was in the contest but got nowhere.
So it is logical the Greeks were going to shift to the major conservative party.
Just as New Zealand will at some point go back to National. It won’t be as a result of international capital or international media, more as a result that people will feel safe with National (as indeed they do at present with Labour).
David Lange banning the USS Buchanan visit?
You could be right. And of course pulling the plug on Roger Douglas is likewise a viable example…
David Lange banning the USS Buchanan visit?
That was a strange affair. We later discovered that Lange had been subjected to some bizarre behaviour during that period both in NZ and when he was on a visit to the USA.
The one that comes to mind was the 'bogus' alarm sent to his Office (and presumably Foreign affairs) about a "missile attack” heading for the USA. They expected them to arrive in 20 mins. Lange sat in his office helpless because what can one do in 20 mins. It came and went and nothing happened. A further message arrived that it was just a flock of birds mistaken for a missile attack. I can’t recall hearing whether any other allied nation received the message.
When you look at what goes on in the US today, it doesn't take much to figure out the game they were playing. Whatever, it might have had a bearing on Lange's decision making. He took that secret to the grave with him.
It hardly matters wether Varoufakis was or wasn't a "coward" the fact remains that the Syriza party under the leadership of Alexis Tsipras acted completely against the very mandate that they were voted in for by the people, Tsipras will now be a name of ignominy for those on the Left in Greece for ever, as is Lange is to those who support an actual strong progressive and proudly Left wing labour in NZ.
Although I have some misgiving's about Varoufakis's credibility on a few issues myself, I followed the debacle of Syriza closely at the time of it's election through to it's rather quick and unsightly capitulation to the radical austerity ideology being foisted upon it from abroad. Through that time of watching interviews with many of Varoufakis's detractors,from within and without Syriza, I don't remember anyone saying or implying that he would have made any difference to keeping the party on track had he remained, though that being said, you could well be right, I don't profess to be an expert on the subject….maybe he is just an ashamed coward trying to cover his tracks ( I have never thought that of him myself, slightly dodgy maybe)..who knows.
" Imagine any PM of ours making a decision on behalf of our government " Muldoon at the height of his powers comes to mind, who at times (I have read) had a cabinet that would pretty much bend to any of his whims or fancies.
Roger Douglas it also seemed at times, held our government in a state trance, most willing and enabling to install his nefarious ideological madness..with only a couple of notable exceptions, sort of like in Greece.
Sorry to keep banging on about the state of our public service, but Easton nails it:
https://www.pundit.co.nz/content/how-important-is-local-knowledge
Parachuting in the generic manager from offshore into senior positions when they do not yet understand (or have experienced) NZ society and culture always seems to end in tears, and it usually just goes on to serve the neo-lib' agenda.
My partner and I had to attend a meeting with three mangers from the Waikato DHB after we had made a complaint.
All three either simply stared blankly, or deftly deflected our issues by implying we were somehow in the wrong. Even with written evidence of the agency's failings and with an advocate from the Health and Disability Commission in tow we not only got nowhere close to resolving the issues but the situation was made much worse.
All three of these managers were English, of about the same age and were fairly recent arrivals.
Not long after Peter and I shouted ourselves to the movies to see I, Daniel Blake.
IOM: Insight to thought processes
Hi Rosemary…
Well over 100 pages of a meeting held almost 20 years ago.
The thinking , process , pressure and influence behind the meeting may resemble some of your experiences with MOH etc.
Top down.
Yep. The thing that gets me is that it's NOT that they're English, or even from somewhere else. It's that they are parachuted in without any understanding of NZ kulcha and society, and they can't be expected to know or understand it. They're recruited as though they're almost God-like in their expertise – often that expertise is most relevant to where they've come from. They then begin to produce and frame policy based on that.
Tariana Turia said something that struck me on Q+A the other night – that Maori appear to have lost faith in themselves. SO too have others. (The more I hear about OT, AND having been a part of TPK in the past, the more I understand what I see as public service and politician 'capture' by it all)
What we're doing is simply perpetuating and fast tracking all that 'periphery to core' concept (Immanual W), and increasingly becoming more and more culturally insecure. One sees it in everyday life (whether its the way some recent arrival has 'shown us' the way to paint our various emergency service vehicles – the pastel yellow and green ambulances, fire appliances and pleece), to the way we're handling our immigration policy and lack of action (until recently) over worker exploitation of brown people. Really quite pathetic in many ways.
The thing I like most about The Great Big Whurl is its diversity and ongoing cultural mixes. What we're doing is just continuing to roll over and succumb to our various colonial masters whether its the Old Country, the USA (and what fuckups both those are proving to be), or the emerging ones..
I feel a @ Wayne coming on soon – probably with accusations of naivety. But no worries – I see him as a relic from the 50s, 60s and 70s.
Anyway, I'm more interested at the mo' in seeing contributors' responses
/endrave
.
Is it a lack of confidence in our Kulcha and the collective Kiwi inferiority complex or is it a calculated effort to import these managers who are kind of related to some of us but come from a country that is much further down the track of instituting state sanctioned bullying of the vulnerable an marginalised?
When we sat across the table from Pom 1, Pom 2 and Pom 3 we were struck how, well, not quite us they were. And they were a team. They all spoke the same language of bureaucracy and seemed not to see us as totally of the same species.
(For the record. I came to New Zealand as a child in the early 1970s. Though living south of the border in the UK, we were culturally Scots. I saw those parachuted in managers as complete foreigners. )
Probably a bit of both?
Well there's another example by the way: "They all spoke the same language of bureaucracy ……….. " (going forward, of course), and apparently it's all "Best Practice", "on the back of" their various external experiences.
"Ultimately……………….", etc.
They'd make good used car salesmen some of them.
Gtg for the mo'
EDIT: before I do, it’s increasingly evident that over the past decade or so, the Peter Principle, or variations on that theme are alive and well
OwT
I saw your link re generic and imported managers on TDB and read it – agree with what was said. Between getting imported managers probably with impressive degrees (to the lower echelons of NZ) and those who have climbed to the higher levels from within NZ, where the air is sweeter and refined, and you have the key to your own washroom, we seem to be being fleeced by these confident chiefs who are looking to feather their own nests, like shining cuckoos who have rolled the greywarblers over the edge.
I had noticed that item about the new UK manager from Brum? And spent a fascinating time reading the back history of Chch Council and Marryatt, Parker et al. It didn't build confidence in Chch's advancement, going forward.
https://kjt-kt.blogspot.com/2011/04/kia-ora-corporatism-and-neo-liberalism.html
"Many corporations and State or private enterprises run despite management, not because of them. In fact the constant parade of new brooms trying to make a name for themselves, with rapid changes and cost cutting, cause competent staff to resign and demoralise the rest"
kjt
That should be framed and put on the desk of every human resource well-paid yoik so it faces them. Get it off-screen where it can be screened out and onto something physical and lasting and in-zone so to speak.
By the way Rosemary – here we go again:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/114147627/birmingham-chief-to-take-up-reins-at-christchurch-city-council
Funnily enough, my son and family just landed in Birmingham less than 24 hours ago. Already the feedback is streaming back/
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-10/tax-cuts-could-starve-social-services-increase-crime/11293336
This inside story confirms what I've long said, that probably 80% or so of people in our prisons need not have been there. If this govt's focus on mental health starts to turn this horrible stat around it will become a landmark achievement.
With crime there is no magic wand that untangles the complex knots of personal accountability and social dysfunction from which it is woven. Tackle one end of the problem while ignoring the other, the knot only tightens.
Our present system has not progressed it's fundamental tenents in centuries, yet it routinely fails victims, families and even offenders alike. If mental health was a stigmatised concern, forever marginalised … crime remains firmly at the bottom of our priorities. Yet the manifest failure remains intolerable.
We need to examine the roots of the system, recasting the problem with redemption as the ultimate goal. We need to see crime in terms of a chain of events, starting with personal temperament, family stability, the socialisation of the child, the building of conscience and shame, an understanding of how brain injury derails behaviour, instilling the courage to take opportunities, dealing resiliently with failures, and most critically finding a place to stand as part of a healthy community. Each one points of these is a stack of books in it's own right.
Yet we need a framework that stops the 'soft on crime' narrative dead; we cannot erase or minimise personal accountability, because without it there can be no forgiveness, no reconciliation and no redemption.
"We need to examine the roots of the system," I completely agree, the system of free market liberalism has proved itself not to work well for most humans.Funny thing is humans,as it turns out, need more in their lives than a system that demands a never ending need for more ( of what no one can define exactly) a system based on combativity with your fellow citizens to get ahead or even maintain, a system that relentlessly commodifies absolutely everything, the steam off your shit if it could…suicide is at critical levels, my friend cut a neighbors 14 year old son down from the rafters in the garage two weeks ago, I walk to work and their are homeless people huddled in groups on the streets to keep warm, all the motels in town are always full, not with out of town visitors, with homeless people..it;s fucked up that's for sure..and badly
And while all this is going on, we now import cheap labour to build our roads, build our building, pick our fruit, maintain our power networks,farm our land, something is very very broken in this model, and it doesn't take an economist to figure that out, infact that is probably the last person you want on the job!..it seems that the only human emotion that liberal economists seem to understand and cater too is greed, one of the very worse human traits and motivators..
So yes I agree we need to examine this broken system and then radically change our course.
If we on the progressive Left in NZ can't get our shit together and offer a viable alternative soon (as Sanders and Corbyn) then you can be sure that the Right will, and when people are hurting, they will reject and punish the status quo, and turn to whom ever has the strongest message, are we going to wait for a nutter like Collins to take the initiative, we must act….and I have to say that sorry, but I just don't believe that Ardern or her brand of centrist pragmatism is that type of transformative leader or brand of political ideology the Left need for this looming moment in NZ history.
Turn Labour Left!
Edit:
It's not greed alone, Adrian that drives economists, it's their employers' greed, whom economists serve by achieving better results from efficiencies. All economists aren't the same, but some are more equal than others; those economists who believe in efficiency before all, adopt the morals and principles that drove Ayn Rand to the top of the RW hit parade.
Aldous Huxley commented to Orwell this: 'the nightmare of Nineteen Eighty-Four is destined to modulate into the nightmare of a world having more resemblance to that which I imagined in Brave New World. The change will be brought about as a result of a felt need for increased efficiency. ' https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/01/huxley-to-orwell-my-dystopia-is-better-than-yours/508769/
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/aldous_huxley_391055
It's more efficient to bring in overseas people for high-skilled jobs as their education has been paid for where they came from. I am thinking of Phillipine workers because they are desperate to maintain a life, and been brought up, no doubt, under the aegis of the Catholic religion and taught the precepts of obedience and to supplicate to God and Mary for help in their travails. One of our commenters who employed them was fulsome in his praise of them and their characters and work standards (which was opposite to the workers he could obtain in NZ.) That is no doubt why my phone call was directed to someone in Manila, Philippines about why my paper wasn’t delivered to my home in New Zealand.
Maori have been thrown into unemployment by the efficiency drive of the money-mad, those who have destroyed our domestic economy so they can increase their wealth through exporting. When you export but don't import the country has an imbalance of trade. It was a nice efficient solution to sell to other countries, and bring in their products made more cheaply than we could for ourselves. Ergo, a neat efficient system for the wealthy, the wannabees, and the c-ooff. Not for those who were happy to work and have a life and who would expect that these things would be enhanced by their government, not destroyed.
Maori believed in gods and had precepts too but it was respect for their community and working together on their land and water, which underpinned their humanity and being. They didn't have money, and they didn't have alcohol. They were combative, but were held together by loyalty and aroha to their whanau and hapu. They adopted Christianity often, but found that pakeha didn't practice what they preached. Their culture was eroded, with the remnants determinedly and fiercely held so as to preserve a worthy way of life which enabled all, without turning communist which too easily sets into state authoritarianism.
The Maori story is the story of most of NZs eventually. As the money-mad advance on their crazed, obsessive way we will all be pushed, or thrown, aside. The rising suicide numbers are a feature of this situation. The government and elites concern about people, suicide, violence, baby deaths is a feature of an addled tainted society that wants to look satisfactory to an indiscriminate glance, but actually wants to exclude and ignore the reality of the shambles that the system has manufactured for itself.
We need to recycle our caring, human citizenship. There will be no room for individual graves soon for the numbers that fall from disease and suicide, and un-natural disasters, though at present we are buried with ritual niceties. Land will be limited; it will not be efficient to have large areas set aside for burials, even cremations will have to wait for a monthly ceremony for the ashes to be interred in a common grave.
We who are not individuals of wealth or note will be disregarded more and more. Unless we stand for people-caring-community that adopts respect and practicality as keystones of systems, and freedom of thought and to be heard, our society will continue to deteriorate. Lastly is the need to control the money-mad and their desire for growth and consumer society for their profit and their sickness of eternally wanting and being never satisfied.
We agree on the causes of social dysfunction, but struggle with what to do about it. After the litany of Marxist catastrophies from the last century I find it tiresome that various ill-defined forms of Marxism still seem to hold a default monopoly on left wing thinking.
To give Marx is very real due, there was much that he said about our present system that was useful. He was really the first to detail why competitive market economies would create a small minority of spectacular winners and a vast lumpen of losers. This is a deep problem that all societies have struggled with; the more prosperity a society generates the more it tends to be unequally distributed. It's called the Matthew Effect and pre-dates capitalism by … forever.
Marx proposed essentially that the losers in this competition should simply rise up by sheer force of numbers, overthrow the winners, and then replace the system with one that was not competitive but co-operative. For reasons of conciseness I won't expand on why this doesn't work; Marx's analysis was essentially materialistic and the authoritarian regimes needed to impose this constraint on the human spirit were intolerable.
Modern socialists, like this centrist govt, therefore position themselves as a balancing countervailing force to the inequality problem all social systems generate, without too much challenge to them. Yet still far too many people … like your friends … experience the heart stopping grief of a world going terrible wrong for them in ways that all to often were entirely avoidable. In my view each one of these speaks in a deep way to the failure of the left to advocate effectively for the vulnerable, the dispossessed and all those trapped by poverty of expectations.
I'm by no means the only leftie to sense, however dimly, the need to rebuild the left wing argument on a fresh basis; one that doesn't seem so intent on tearing down the successful, so intent on repeating past mistakes … but one that pays real attention to the poor we profess to care about. Because until we know how to change for the better the life of even just one person we care for, how can we possibly claim to know how to change the world?
Because that's perhaps the deeper point of the article I linked to above; it's about one young person, horribly derailed by life, yet one other person persisted with her, and slowly and patiently over many years turned her life around. There was no magic wand moment; their victory was gentle and incremental.
Hey Red would you say sovereign Govts being in control of a nations money supply,as opposed to private central bankers(Fed)constitutes…Marxism?
Most ideas don't come with hermetic boundaries, there is often a quite fluid interchange going on. There is no big red box labelled "Marxism" into which we can stuff a bunch of ideas, lock the lid and throw away the key.
In most modern economies we run a mix of private credit creation, quite tightly controlled by government Reserve Banks. Almost anyone expert in this area would argue the present system is excessively tilted in favour of private credit creation and from a global perspective there is lot we can do to further optimise how the system works.
The problem is that strictly government controlled credit creation has a terrible track record of being hijacked for venal and destructive political purposes. Until we've learned how to solve that problem, it's going to be a case of the devil we know I'm afraid.
No big red box of 'Marxism',just as there is no big blue box of 'Capitalism,I venture.
'after the litany of Marxist catastrophies from the last century'
'after the litany of Capitalist catastrophies from the last century'.
As for the 'devil we know',why would that devil relinquish control,given his ubiquitous influence and dedication to the status quo?
To me it's not about tearing down the successful at all. It's tearing down the corruption, the non-contribution, the war-mongering, the false-narratives – of the 'successful.' The bleeding of the planet and its people for profit. The corporate hand-outs. The two sets of rules. The minimal jail sentences for heinous crimes. The victimisation of the vulnerable. The myopia concerning real costs of these planet destroying scum in suits.
These are no 'happened-to-do-wells.' They are fucking dirt. Either our rules apply to them, or they can fuck right off and hide under a rock cos the public have had a gutsful.
They deserve every pitchfork wielding lunatic hammering at their doors. Then some.
But somehow it’s the left’s failure… Nonsense. it’s the right’s acquiescence and obeisance to scummy humans all because they have money.
Edit
…one that doesn't seem so intent on tearing down the successful, so intent on repeating past mistakes … but one that pays real attention to the poor we profess to care about. Because until we know how to change for the better the life of even just one person we care for, how can we possibly claim to know how to change the world?
Oh we have to start somewhere – and it is essential that we start with our over-blown ideas of ourselves. One that pays real attention to the poor we profess to care about. And remember that there, for the grace of God, go I….and try and shine with some reflection of that God, that goodness, because we are on a different level to that poor person because they didn't have what we did.
Sometimes they can find that different life quite satisfying though, everyone doesn't have to be the same. But the hard thing is to put some effort into helping others who have missed out, and even more important is making sure that when they are babies, toddlers and terrible-three-year-olds, they get the same good start we had. Let them have firm, regular childhoods with decent food, clothes and some coaching in how to defend themselves against bullying, the most important bit of education they can get. Learn to present themselves with humour and understand others motivations, the E-Q rather than the I-Q – I reckon the first raises the second.
And not dividing the world into Superior, deserving Me, and Receivers of Charity and Good Works them because they are lesser. Look for the soul in people, the honesty in their words and minds, and there is the goodness – start with giving a busker a gold or silver coin, keep a supply with you so you can. Bring satisfaction into their lives, and keep doing that plus a brief thumbs up, that's great, look them in the eye, acknowledge them as people, they are doing something for the world and themselves, that would be a good start.
We are connected by our sameness, even as we diverge in our lives, our interests. Understand yourself, be humble a bit – not too much, and then you can connect for a few seconds at least, with someone and know a bit about where they are coming from, what life is like for them.
I used that saying 'There but for the Grace of God go I', in a routine on homelessness in a performance this week.
At one point: 'you can't hate on the homeless, that's not hate, it's fear. But you know who really does hate the homeless?
Winter.'
Some miniature peacock comes up after the show. "I hate the homeless, I think they've already got too much money"… thought he was hilarious. I told him he didn't know what the fuck he was talking about and dressed him down in front of his wife and friends.
People who take pleasure in the misfortune of others, who think humor is about punching down – less than worthless no matter how much gold is dripping off them.
To me it's not about tearing down the successful at all.
And then the rest of your comment is an exercise in contradicting this claim.
The problem this approach has is that if cannot distinguish between the 'happen to do well's' with those who through 'a combination of talent, hard work and some good luck have done well'. Both exist, no-one is proposing that any system us flawed and limited humans can create will be perfect, we will always produce a mix of good, bad and very ugly. At root the evil is not wealth in itself, nor 'success' in whatever dimension you care to define it, but in who we are. And money merely makes us more of who we are.
Kicking down doors and impaling the rich on pitchforks changes nothing if they're replaced with people no better. Except the new people in charge have just bonfired their moral authority which usually turns out for the worse.
Nonsense. It's rather easy to determine who avoids taxes, who denigrates minorities etc.
Listing the ills of the world perpetrated by rich people very clearly shows how and why the mess.
Two sets of rules is unacceptable but clear as day.
This is not the angry mobs doing. The angry mob is the rich's doing.
I'd rather the corruption is dealt with, corporate power over people is stripped. But they wedge their own laws in, their own media and narrative, they police everyone but themselves. Cruel indifference.
Then they whine when they find a riot in their yard.
Hypocritical bullshit. Wake up and smell the cheapass instant coffee.
Listing the ills of the world perpetrated by rich people
Yet nowhere do you attempt to list the manifold benefits very successful people bring to the world.
All people are a complex mix; it isn't as simple as you think to unravel the good and the bad we all do. Everyone is flawed in some dimension, we can all be cast onto pitchforks for some reason.
Your complaint is real, I have no quibble with that. What if the answer to it was quite different to the one you have reached for. What if we all became better people? Like all of us, and we all started to sincerely think of ways to help each other?
We can put in place all the rules and authoritarian processes you could dream of, and more. But none of it will help unless we simply require of ourselves to turn away from resentment, anger and vengeance, and look to fixing our own lives.
And that I think is all RedLogix has to say. It's been more than a decade now, and I want to thank you all for being so generous with your time and energy.
"Successful people", in the form of those who bring the greatest benefits to the world, are rarely, wealthy!
I regard you as one of the more astute, principled & clear-sighted participants here, RL. And I greatly appreciated your moral support regarding the situation my Parents have found themselves in.
From time to time, you've been the victim of a pretty nasty & self-righteous mob mentality that tends to be closely associated with the ID Politics faction … so I know it hasn't always been a bed of roses for you … but you've consistently displayed a great deal of dignity & patience under fire.
I'll be very sorry if this is your last ever comment here.
I am 100% behind this comment. I’d like to think that RedLogix tends to make excellent, well-considered, well-explained, and concise arguments about very complex, sensitive, and personal issues that affect us all to a more or lesser degree. The more heat was put on him, the better his arguments, which is one reason why I never stepped in as moderator. He may not have swayed the usual ‘lynch mob’ but for each commenter there are many silent readers of TS. Those people can read the arguments and form their own opinions. We don’t know what impact it has on the silent majority but I’d like to think that, on balance, it has been positive. I thank RedLogix for his resilience and perseverance, which may have come at a personal cost to him.
A profound point. I've often commented on evil here – usually in an attempt to rectify the delusional thinking produced by postmodern denial that it exist – so I agree it's in human nature & money empowers it.
The satanic focus of christian fundamentalists ought to be replaced by Jungian theory. Too bad psychologists seem collectively unable to learn Jung's lessons. If evil is conceived as an archetype lurking in the collective unconscious, activated in some lives by subconscious prompts, and personified by a few people who seem captive to it sufficiently for it to displace other normal dimensions of human nature such as empathy and the moral compass, then we make sense of it. That's better than collective evasion of the topic, or denial.
The whole idea that we can help those at the bottom, without giving up something ourselves, has proven to be a fallacy. "A rising tide" does not lift all boats", which is what you are actually getting at.
The right wing, apart from their foolish followers, know that memes like the above, "economic growth, and "trickle down" are totally false, but they serve, to bamboozle the thick.
The "successful" do have to contribute more to the common pot, so everyone can have a share. If you add it up we would not have to contribute much, on top marginal tax rates, to lift everyone out of poverty. Even less if we tax finance and Queen Street capital gains tax farmers, dead in the water, unfortunately!
In an unfair system, the "successful" achieve that level at the expense of others, usually more by luck rather than merit.
https://cuthulan.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/bankers-cost-each-one-of-us-8-40-for-every-1-they-produce-so-do-politions/
Bunga bunga!
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/07/women-sent-mar-a-lago-vip-calendar-girl-party-trump-epstein.html?via=homepage_taps_top
The British Ambassador's words "It will end in disgrace" may well prove both prescient and accurate.
It might end up quite an extensive A to Z of disgrace.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/07/jeffrey-epstein-bill-clinton-donald-trump-alan-dershowitz.html?via=homepage_recirc_engaged
They just can't help themselves.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/07/10/trump-national-doral-resort-shadow-cabaret-strip-club-golf-tournament/1698231001/
From James Patterson
The plot sickens…
On Jan. 2, 2018, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta released a statement commemorating the beginning of Human Trafficking Awareness Month, recommitting his department’s mission to “ending practices that harm individuals, families, and communities.”
“We must act to end exploitation and abusive labor practices at home and abroad,” the statement said.
Absent from that statement was the fact he had already tried to cut a program by nearly 80 percent inside the Department of Labor dedicated to combating human trafficking, along with child and forced labor, internationally. And two months later, he would return to Congress to advocate for a second budget to cut the program just as deeply.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/labor-secretary-alex-acosta-who-cut-deal-with-epstein-tried-to-slash-anti-trafficking-budget
Just a touch of good news this morning: Congratulations to Kane Williamson and the cricket team for their semi-final win over India overnight.
An against the odds win against the best cricket nation. A match that had tension, excitement and spectacular cricket skills: Boult's manipulating Kohli into LBW, Santner restricting the run rate, Guptill's run out and Williamson's canny captaincy.
Bring on either Australia or England for another late night on Sunday.
I'm in Melbourne, so slightly friendlier time zone. Stayed up and watched until the final ball – fantastic effort by the boys. Go the Black caps!
After the previous night's abandonment due to the mizzle….we were not going to repeat yet another night with the trannie barely audibly broadcasting the play. Prevents that deep sleep that has the necessary restorative benefits. However, when by 11pm the odds had gone for a Kiwi win from 2% to 78%, the trannie got another sub audible run, and I managed to properly wake in time to catch the last four overs.
We have just watched the highlights….
Ockies getting beaten like they stole something would cap off the week nicely. Shame bothe sides can't lose though.
India are the best cricket team at the tournament, bad luck India however
Black Caps have been best value ambassadors of cricket matches in the tournament and also well deserved their place in the final.
Use to be our NZ staple with the rugby but great to have it back with the cricket, great advertisements for the full naunces and complexities of the sport while bringing the singular sum of the NZ game to the party.
I would put the value of this run at a world cup, similarities & up there with what the AB team of the time represented & bought to the South African rugby wc in representing NZ's sporting interests to add in the mix, giving top shelve value.
The Apartheid state of Israel has devolved into the biggest and most murderous right wing hate movement in the world.
Even 48% of usa Jews thought Israel was not interested in peace …. a remarkably well informed percentage …. given the bias and anti Palestinian reporting … from usa main media
https://bdsmovement.net/news/bds-14-hope-face-israeli-apartheid
How long until the demands that they be investigated for antisemitism.
Outstanding victory for nz in the cricket last night
Sport not really important barring it’s one of the few things that tends to unite us as a country where so many forces seek to divide
Yep, a unifying force. The only ones bewildered were the Indians who have yet to figure it out.
A pitch with a bit in it for the bowlers sorts out the flat track whackers and those with issues of technique. A bit like politics, really………
Yep Indian cricket team all froth not a lot of substance, lack of depth, did not deliver on hype, a bit like politics……😊👍
Cricket is a tool of the elite. First Class, Lords, Tea, Drinks… Though it is no surprise yourself and the broken down horse prefer this so called "Gentleman's game".
Sigh! What a miserable existence it must be inside your head
Watched the game with your polynesian and Māori brothers and sisters did you? Was it that kind of unifying experience for you….
Hmmm, very racist and stereotyping of you I know and have many Maori and Polynesian friends and colleagues who enjoyed the cricket and are talking about it today Maybe get out of your cellar and off your keyboard and into the sunlight What do these 3 things have in common Maui, The Grinch and Scrooge 😊
" I know and have many Maori and Polynesian friends and colleagues who enjoyed the cricket"
lol, let me guess… they are also raving right wingers and like what ACT has to say. Truly believable BS.
Hey Maui with respect fk off to the miserable joyless cesspit you love to paddle in😊
Time to look outside yourself bewildred.. this isn't all about you. Perhaps some self reflection is in order? You sound angry…
Not angry at all Maui I am not one of the perpetual offended that’s why I gave you a emoji to help your one brain cell to comprehend You make no sense at all re self reflection on context about being happy a nz team made a World Cup final You simply mirror my point I put to you. I can only surmise your a moron or severely dim so I will go easy on you Now a happy fk off and wriggle back to your place of malcontent 😊😊😊😊👍
Staggering arrogance. Sneering Bewildered is not offended ? Why sneer then? Call someone a moron, typing 'your a moron' in the act? It should be "you're" you semi-literate dimwit. It is you who are in the place of dimness. I don't need to tell you to wriggle off to anywhere: you could hardly wriggle any lower than the position you have already reached by your own efforts.
Ka pai Maui
The cricketers I know will be tickled to know that they're elite.
But hey, pissing one someone else's fun is what bleating malcontents do.
/
The best and cleanest way to defeat anyone is to play them at their own game and win.
You would do you your cause way more good by putting on pads than spitting in the faces of sportspeople.
Relying on a few top performers, not really believing in the team or its ethics, inadequate preparation, lack of familiarity with different wickets, pitch preparation favouritism, home crowds and ‘impressionable’ umpires, compliant media……. yep, a bit like politics.
Now watch the inadequate players hive off into commentary, radio and TV 'journalism' and into business sinecures where a bit of a name helps impress the punters, maybe an Honour or even a job in politics!
Great game. Losing team could source a ‘player’ from China – “one’s worth two“, etc.
Sure, until the next time they thrash us beewee.
Loss me Gabbs, by the way can I have your permission to take your beewee as my new handle It’s a lot easier to type with my fat thumbs
Kim Darroch, UK ambassador to US resigns, proving the adage 'the truth hurts.' Well, telling the truth hurts.
Conveniently, Farage is the main beneficiary.
So the content matters less than the fact of the leak. Someone – maybe a civil servant, maybe a minister – seems to be after the ambassador, Kim Darroch. The contents were leaked to Isabel Oakeshott, the journalist who acts as the de-facto communications office of Aaron Banks, Nigel Farage's donor. The Brexit party leader quickly popped up to demand Darroch be sacked. And their Leave.EU outfit then stepped up to launch its campaign to make sure Farage replaced him. Incredible timing.
Darroch is facing the usual fate of the non-believers, those have not achieved full Brexit transcendance and therefore must be ejected from their position before they can keep asking critical questions.
But the story also shows something else: When you scratch at the surface of this movement for total British sovereignty, you quite often find servility to the US lying underneath.
https://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2019/07/08/trump-ambassador-revelations-brexiters-reveal-the-trump-love
Oh look, the Italian far-right has a new sugar daddy.
The six men — three Russians, three Italians — gathered beneath the spectacular painted glass ceiling in the hotel lobby last October had their eyes on history too. Their nominal purpose was an oil deal; their real goal was to undermine liberal democracies and shape a new, nationalist Europe aligned with Moscow.
[…]
BuzzFeed News has obtained an explosive audio recording of the Metropol meeting in which a close aide of Europe’s most powerful far-right leader — Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini — and the other five men can be heard negotiating the terms of a deal to covertly channel tens of millions of dollars of Russian oil money to Salvini’s Lega party.
The recording reveals the elaborate lengths the two sides were willing to go to conceal the fact that the true beneficiary of the deal would be Salvini’s party — a breach of Italian electoral law, which bans political parties from accepting large foreign donations — despite the comfort with which he and Europe’s other far-right leaders publicly parade their pro-Kremlin political sympathies.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/albertonardelli/salvini-russia-oil-deal-secret-recording
Not Russians, surely not. Morpissey! Defend the poor Russian oligarch kleptocrat victims of vicious smears!
March of the greedy continues.
https://www.survivalinternational.org/news/12158
Images of the damage caused by mercury.
https://lavozdeldespertar.com/?p=7609
Using mercury for gold extraction is illegal pretty much everywhere, and all legal and legitimate miners deplore it's use deeply. It's a failure of government to enforce their own laws which let this appalling shit still happen.
"For the love of money is the root of all evil" – Timothy 6:10
It's greed that drives this & so much more apalling shit. Governments, and governance organisations aren't immune.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/03/12/guest-blog-bryan-bruce-thousands-protest-water-bottling-in-christchurch/
Interesting that RL is concerned about the technical aspects of the Yanomami story. The main point is that they are being invaded by thousands of men who are forcing the people from their lands, injuring and killing the people and spoiling their land.
The Yanomami are the largest relatively isolated tribe in South America. They live in the rainforests and mountains of northern Brazil and southern Venezuela. Davi Kopenawa, Yanomami leader and shaman surrounded by children, Demini, Brazil.
Yanomami – Survival International
Clinton lost because the media made Trump much more entertaining, interesting, and yes loathsome. Trump was running for decades, household name, jerk in your fired, etc. Trump will win because stupidity isn't exposed by the media, it's consent manufacture all Trumps way.
Another example of trickle down opportunities and creative solutions and projects that are never allowed to occur.
In Christchurch on red-zoned land some young guys got together and shovelled humps and hollows and made a bike circle track for themselves. It has been destroyed on the basis that it was a 'hazard'.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/114139882/levelling-boys-bike-park-sad-testament-to-public-administration
Christchurch again – damn the spending fitting the ideas of hide-bound officials and conservatives. They are thinking of spending $15 million on a memorial to the fallen at the mosque (and ultimately lax administration at the borders and low-lifes and guns in NZ). Trickling down in small drops of awhi and mercy that is strained and measured.
What would be good is if they put that same money into a small building that is attractive and runs Humanities programs on culture, ours and others, philosophies and why we need religions and precepts of behaviour etc. Humanities helps us to understand our own and others human persona. It could be in the grounds of Canterbury University and be an adjunct of whatever humanities programs they have there.
And for general public experience and memorial, there could be a series of flag poles with all the flags of the countries from where the fallen in Christchurch, both at the mosque and in the earthquakes. Every day at say between midday and 5 minutes after, one of the flags would be put at half-mast, and the previous day's flag would be hoisted again. Make a thing of it like Ypres in Belgium – they have been doing this since the Wars.It would be a moving memorial, literally, as the colourful flags hung or lifted in the breeze, not passive solid forms.
At present in Christchurch they are mulling over designs for a memorial bridge that they have had for years. One being considered was particularly artistic – a bridge in the clouds caused by a fine spray of water as you climbed up steps no doubt. Just what you would want, to be damped down, as you crossed a stream to keep dry. One sounded great – I liked the sound of it – it was a golden bridge made out of brass I think. But practicality here – I also have read recently of a murdered man who was a scrap metal dealer, and often dealing with people who were on the criminal fringe. No doubt in time if it was possible, bits of the bridge would have been removed and sold with consequences to strength. safety and appearance. So practicality has definitely to be considered, but also give people the opportunity to look for more than expensive monuments to disasters. Beauty would be also in how it remembers the past and enhances and improves the future.
And I am thinking again about trickle down. The Kiwibuild idea as the only one going under the 1st Labour Coalition shows up their limitations – their distance from ordinary people of lower income. I have noticed amongst the successful middle class that they think they have life sussed and know all there is to know, and can make better decisions for the strugglers than they can. Then the m-class do that, without asking what the strugglers would prefer out of what is available, instead of giving them time to have a brainstorm session, go wild with ideas. Then think how each one could be practically done, or possibly one or two done as a trial.
The building houses program might have come up with a communal suburb of mixed colour tiny houses, some of which could be connected by a closed in walkway to enable extended families to live close together. Then the young people could be trained to work on these along with reliable (non-leaky-homes) builders. That would have been trickle-up.
Let's give people more opportunities, incentives and rewards to come up with ideas, group together for viable projects and facilitate doing while they are being. Not have everything planned by the big-people who live in 'It's too difficult, never-never land', because they are stunted by their own limitations of conformity – it ends up paralysis by analysis!
Bluddy disgraceful. Too hard to mow? Too hard to spray weeds? No resource consent? Enterprising lads should have been given a medal or better, they should have been left alone to get on with it!
I've just been reading an excoriating opinion piece on Christchurch which the writer says has been dysfunctional since 1989 amalgamation. It is written by a dyed-in-the-wool RW money-maker, but will have some truth and probably sheds light on how the faulty buildings there got signed off.
The opinion was that good people had left and the remaining administration ran it to the beat of their own drum.
It was published today at 5.30am and at 7 pm there were 191 comments which have now been closed so people felt strongly about it. Our lives are being narrowed, our ability to branch out and explore with open spaces limited by the dreaded health and safety issue.
I’m not surprised, the same thing happened to my son ( then 12) and his friends built a cycle track on an unused riverside area on council land which was waste land that no one used, they spent hours making a few jumps.
On this occasion the neighbours complained to the police who confiscated their spades
It seemed that comments under women's names were likely to be about getting permission, complying with rules, not about whether those rules were necessary or OTT. Femmes are too compliant methinks, need to stand and object to being overloaded with nos, let's have a more permissive society.
15 million for a memorial?
Apart from the fact that some funds should be diverted to family members that are struggling – I thought that both mosques have propertites nearby that can be made a purchase offer on, and have islamic designed gardens installed that integrated them with the mosques themselves.
The gardens could be open to the public whenever the mosques wanted to, and could be designed in such a way to provide a level of security. The gardens should be given to the ownership of the islamic community, but a volunteer group of gardeners could continue newly built community relationships to be sustained and strengthened into the future.
Any memorial should prioritise the healing for the islamic community, rather than the boundaries of the secular supporters.
Yes I agree. My idea I guess. was to extend the mental boundaries by doing some philosophy and look at the different ways that we build our idea of our world that we tend to have and hold tight to with some carrying this to extremes.
Why waste 15 mill on the murdered families when you can dole it out to architects, designers, consultants and associated ticket clippers.
I imagine that was the silent thought passing through some people's skulls.
'I wonder if Roger would like to put forward a design? We can talk it over when we meet for our …dinner party or at the box when we have a drink after the sports occasion.'?
Good news for how to make better housing. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/394155/building-standards-now-available-online-for-free
This follows on from a pilot that funded five important building Standards and a handbook in 2017.
The standards presently range in cost from $5.50 to $550.
Building and Construction Minister Jenny Salesa said these standards helped ensure New Zealand buildings and homes were safe and well-constructed.
"They will help building professionals and homeowners with methods for designing and constructing timber framing in buildings and selecting appropriately treated timber used in building work.
"They will also help engineers with earthquake loads on buildings."
Ms Salesa said the government was dismantling road blocks in the building sector.
"I have listened to the building and construction sector, and professional groups who access these standards regularly, and to New Zealand's homeowners.
I am against putting fees up for ordinary people as a disincentive to some so that they change their ways. I didn't like tip fees being raised to discourage people from throwing things out, which Environment Minister Sage has done.
Now she is reported as insisting that the SI West Coast pay for the rubbish tip spread, while they say rightly they have a small tax base and low population. Which is true. They have been doing what many Councils have done with rubbish. Her response to their plight:
"The Westland District Council said it couldn't cope and it was calling down a short-term loan to pay for some of the costs involved. That shows a degree of problems with financial management I think, with that particular council," she said.
There is a place for disincentives, but after a while they can cease to be effective, for instance as with tax on cigarettes. Now they are desirable goods for theft. Too hard and high, makes poor people's life harder. Punish those naughty people! Hit them till it hurts. You can't do that to children but who cares for the adults who are vulnerable?
Ain't nothing worth stealing out of that trash.
Sage should kick them harder.
Bad enough they need bailing out by NZDF.
Ad I hope that you don't get into local or central government with an approach like that.
Seriously one of New Zealand's laziest local governments: have prepared zero for climate change other than build another sliver on a seawall, inspired their population to continually leave, diversified their economy about zero, and can't even build a road.
This isn't a tax on cigarettes.
This is doing one of the most basic job in local government: rubbish collection. And they swear they don't have enough money for even that. Hey Coasters: boot this lot out!
Bolton, Pompeo and Pence meet with Hong Kong democracy activist Jimmy Lai.
That's an extended finger like the Chinese Premier meeting with Julian Assange or Bernie Sanders.
Excellent signal Mr Trump.
Has he got a hotel in Hongkong yet.
Kia ora The Am Show.
Ryan it looks like you have shifted to the right.
I agree Willie this is true institutional racism is a true phenomenon and a fact .
Good on France for a tax on big technology companies.
judy if your lot stopped the raid on the poor peoples money cutting benefits making it a miserable experience applying for a benefit shorting the housing market a tax system that cost the poor common people more lowering paye tax a rising gst poverty is a major driver of family Violence .
I say a gas guzzling vehicle tax is NEEDED to get people into clean energy efficient electric cars and out of cars into public transportation and the money used to subsidize clean energy cars.
The big point is the rangatahi are the ones that will have to live with the bad effects of climate change Eco Maori say it is there right to protect their future Humanity is so short sighted with the blinds that the billionaire oil barons put on us by manipulating the media paying for false studies all to line there pocket with more money than anyone NEEDS.
Ryan why not talk about the people who have the biggest carbon footprint the billionaire private planes heaps of excessive waste of carbon being burned to keep up their lavish lifestyle.
Good on Sharndre for creating a huge educational company education is needed so that the billionaire can not FOOL us with their LIES.
Ka kite ano
Whanau more extreme weather caused by our climate warning because of the greed of a few wealthy people. Times are going to change.
Warning of more severe weather after storm kills seven in Greece
Two children among dead after series of incidents in Halkidiki region, with dozens injured
Greece: 20-minute storm kills six tourists in Halkidiki – video report
Greek meteorologists have warned that more harsh weather could be on the way after seven people died and dozens were injured when a freak storm ripped through beachfronts in a popular tourist region in the north of the country.
Panic-stricken holidaymakers were caught on camera fleeing as the 20–minute late-night storm uprooted trees, overturned cars and caused mudslides in waterfront resorts
Ka kite ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/11/six-tourists-killed-fierce-storms-northern-greece-halkidiki
Some Eco Maori music for the minute.